Disruption to transport and power as large areas of Scotland, northern England, Wales and Ireland are hit by storm The tail-end of Hurricane Katia lashed parts of Britain and Ireland with gusts of wind more than 80mph on Monday, causing disruption to rail services and forcing the closure of a stage of the Tour of Britain cycle race . Several motorway bridges were restricted as gusts topped 80mph across Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, parts of Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Much of Scotland was drenched along with the gales, but elsewhere conditions were largely dry. The hurricane’s power is not yet spent and the Met Office is maintaining an amber alert across central and southern Scotland until Tuesday when winds are expected to ease. A much bigger area remains on yellow – be aware – status, extending north to the highlands and south to mid-Wales and central Lincolnshire. The conditions were so windy Britain’s energy network operator National Grid considered shutting a number of wind power farms overnight, as strong winds threatened to overload the system with electricity at times when demand is low. “If we’ve got constraints and too much generation we’ll go back in there,” said a spokesman. “Nothing is decided yet but if it stays this windy we may have to look at it.” The grid operator had to shut down 750 megawatts of wind power capacity on Saturday night and 300MW on Sunday night as the network became congested. As the second stage of the Tour of Britain was abandoned, riders were diverted to an exhibition lap around Kendal, Cumbria. They will reconvene on Tuesday morning for the third stage of the cycle race in Stoke-on-Trent. A spokesman for the event said: “We had to take the decision based on advice we had from the police and highways that it would be unsafe to run today’s stage. “The high points of the route and particularly Blackpool seafront were considered unsafe. But there are thousands of people here in Kendal and we wanted to give them something to see.” In County Durham strong winds blew off a bakery firm’s roof, which collapsed on to 15 cars. A row of five almost-finished industrial units in Langley Moor, Durham, came down “as if it had been subject to a controlled explosion”, said Sean Kelly, the operations manager at Bako Northern. He added: “It was extremely lucky for us. All our drivers were out and there were no contractors or visitors.” Coastal flooding alerts by the Environment Agency in Anglesey and between Bridlington and Barmston on the Yorkshire coast proved unnecessary, but around 13,000 homes in the Irish Republic were left without electricity after gales brought down power lines. In Scotland, extra staff were on standby to restore links in the most vulnerable areas. Ferries from both the Republic and Northern Ireland were cancelled and train and bus services disrupted across the island as gusts reached 80mph near the western coast. The Harry Blaney bridge across Mulroy Bay in Donegal was closed along with schools on Arranmore island, just off the coast, and flights to Dublin from Donegal were grounded. Scottish weather stations recorded gusts topping 70mph on the Cairngorms and the Nevis range, near Fort William, where skilifts and gondolas were closed as a precaution. ScotRail reported disruption to trains between Glasgow, Largs and Ardrossan while Caledonian MacBrayne ferries between Oban, Arran, Islay and Cumbrae stayed in port. The Met Office said winds would ease slowly throughout Tuesday, with rain continuing in western Scotland but conditions bright elsewhere. Billy Payne, forecaster for MeteoGroup, said there would be significant amounts of rainfall during the next few days, but heavy rain would be confined to the north and west of Scotland. “The brunt of the wind will go through central and southern Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and North Wales,” he said. “Gusts are 60 to 70mph in some places, possibly higher, especially in exposed places in parts of western Scotland, like the islands and hilly areas. “It will be quite windy in the south too with gusts of 40-50mph. There will be quite a lot of rain, perhaps heavy outbreaks over the next couple of days. “The heavy rain will be mostly confined to the north and west of Scotland today and tomorrow. There is a risk of some flooding in north-west Scotland with the high rainfall totals.” Weather Scotland Ireland Wales Martin Wainwright Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jordan supercasino secret deal was personally approved by prime minister
September 12, 2011 No Comment
Exclusive: Documents reveal Ma’arouf al-Bakhit gave green light to contract for Dead Sea Casino, despite public denials See Jordanian PM’s letter about the Dead Sea Casino deal Jordan’s prime minister personally authorised a secret contract to build an extra-legal supercasino complex, despite publicly denying responsibility for it, documents seen by the Guardian reveal. The multimillion-dollar Dead Sea casino deal is now frozen and has been the focus of anti-corruption street protests and parliamentary crises. It has been controversial both because gambling is illegal in Jordan and because the government faces a $1.4bn (£890m) penalty if the 50-year contract is cancelled. Ma’arouf al-Bakhit, the prime minister implicated in what has become known as “Casinogate”, was reappointed by Jordan’s King Abdullah in February to introduce constitutional reforms, after an eruption of popular protest inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Bakhit, who was also prime minister when the casino contract was signed in 2007, narrowly survived parliamentary impeachment over the scandal in June, while the tourism minister at the time, Osama Dabbas, was successfully impeached for his role in overseeing the deal and now faces trial. Bakhit told MPs in June that he had not been told of the terms of the casino agreement or the penalties the government faced if the contract was broken. But confidential Jordanian state papers from 2007 — which were not shown to MPs at the time of the parliamentary hearings — reveal that the cabinet voted to accept the highly profitable agreement. In a letter sent to the tourism minister on 10 September 2007 and signed by Bakhit , the prime minister said that the cabinet had “decided to accept the agreement” to develop a casino complex by the Dead Sea as a legitimate “touristic activity” and told Dabbas to sign it with the London-based developer Oasis. Other correspondence between the two ministers in August and September 2007 shows Bakhit both saw the tenders in advance and the subsequent contract — a copy of which has also been passed to the Guardian and included a confidentiality clause to prevent public discussion of its contents. Soon afterwards, the development was suspended for fear of boosting support for the Islamic opposition. A recently released 2008 Wikileaks cable includes a report from the then US ambassador to Jordan, David Hale, on the earlier stages of the Dead Sea Casino scandal and cites the figure of $1.4bn as the contract cancellation penalty, as well as attempts by the Jordanian government to offer Oasis — which is seeking damages — alternative development land as compensation. Parliament’s refusal this summer to impeach Bakhit, who himself referred the scandal to Jordan’s anti-corruption commission when he was reappointed prime minister this year, provoked protests in Amman and elsewhere. Demonstrators called for the dissolution of the “parliament of shame” — regarded as having scapegoated the former tourism minister to protect Bakhit and other senior politicians — and for “the casino government” to go. The Jordanian regime is a linchpin of western and conservative Arab influence in the Middle East. Western governments and Saudi Arabia have sharply increased aid to Jordan since the toppling of the Egyptian and Tunisian dictators in the spring. Secret Jordanian state correspondence seen by the Guardian also shows that licences for two earlier casino developments were issued in December 2003 by a previous government led by prime minister Faisal al-Fayez (and negotiated under his predecessor, Aki Abu al-Ragheb in April of that year): one to be built in Aqaba on the Red Sea and the other near the Sheikh Hussein bridge over the Jordan river, linking Jordan to northern Israel. Like the Dead Sea project, the 2003 contract runs for 50 years. The licence for the casinos — which have also yet to be built — was issued to Ayla Corporation, a company owned by Khaled al-Masri, a well-connected businessman also involved in the 2007 Dead Sea bid. Fayez is now the speaker of the Jordanian parliament and in June played a central role in the investigation of the casino scandal and impeachment hearings, allowing Bakhit to speak in his own defence but barring the former tourism minister Dabbas from doing so. Several MPs walked out and submitted their resignations in protest. Jordan Middle East Seumas Milne guardian.co.uk
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Ted Weschler, who paid $5.2m in two auctions for the chance to dine with Buffett, taken on at Berkshire Hathaway group It may be the most expensive job application ever – but it seems to have paid off. Ted Weschler, a hedge fund manager, paid $5.2m to win two charity auctions to have dinner with investment guru Warren Buffett. Now Buffett has offered him a job. Weschler, 50, the managing partner of Virginia-based Peninsula Capital Advisors, will join another recent Buffett appointee, hedge fund manager Todd Combs, 40, to help manage Buffett’s $66bn Berkshire Hathaway investment fund as its 81-year-old founder contemplates retirement, the company announced on Sunday. “After Mr Buffett no longer serves as CEO, Todd and Ted – possibly aided by one additional manager – will have responsibility for the entire equity and debt portfolio of Berkshire, subject to overall direction by the then-CEO and board of directors,” Berkshire said in a statement. “With Todd and Ted on board, Berkshire is well-positioned for successor investment management at the time Mr Buffett is no longer CEO,” it added. In 2010, Weschler paid $2.6m for the chance to dine with Buffett. He came back for more this year, securing a second dinner with another $2.6m bid. On both occasions the pair dined at Piccolo’s, a casual dining joint in Buffett’s home town of Omaha, Nebraska, according to Fortune magazine’s Carol Loomis, a long-time friend of Buffett. The money from the charity auction went to Glide, a San Francisco homeless charity. The appointments come after scandal threw Buffett’s succession plans awry. Until early this year David Sokol, one of Buffett’s top aides, was seen as the leading candidate to take over at Berkshire. But in January it emerged that Sokol held shares in Lubrizol Corp, a chemicals firm that Sokol recommended Berkshire should buy. Buffett said the holding was “inexplicable and inexcusable” and broke Berkshire’s code of ethics. Berkshire said in February there were four potential candidates to replace Buffett, without naming them. The company owns more than 70 subsidiaries, including insurance firms and clothing manufacturer Fruit of the Loom, while its investment portfolios owns chunks of businesses including American Express, Coca-Cola and Tesco. Warren Buffett Hedge funds United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Parents: When shopping for a new book to read to your kids, be sure to avoid the recent children's book written by famously trashy, foul-mouthed celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. “The Boy with Pink Hair” is a cute, uplifting children's book and a slick piece of gay rights propaganda. The self-declared “Queen of All Media,” (more than 3.8 million Twitter followers and perezhilton.com, of the most visited websites in the world) jumped into the spotlight in 2009, when he famously called Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean a “dumb b***h” possessing “half a brain” for her statement that she believes marriage “should be between a man and a woman.” Now, Hilton is on a book tour, hawking his “story of a boy whose difference makes a difference.” On the outset, this cute fairytale is a about a boy with pink hair who grows up with loving parents, pursues his favorite hobbies, encounters a bully, and overcomes his insecurities to save the day. “He was born that way – the Boy with Pink Hair.” That's the first line of the children's book, and it sets the tone for a story littered with adult phrases referring to the cultural battle over homosexuality. Gay rights activist use the exact phrase “born that way” when defending homosexuality. Not surprisingly, Lady Gaga, whose recent chart-topping gay anthem was titled “Born This Way,” reviewed the book, praising it as “beautiful … a journey of self-acceptance” a phrase which appears on the book's back cover. Elsewhere, he dreams of “a school where everyone had different colored hair. All together, it looked like a rainbow.” Gays, of course, have appropriated the rainbow as a symbol. The Boy with Pink Hair's loving parents are accepting of his girly locks, and encourage his love of cooking by building him a tree house equipped with a kitchen. “They encouraged his hobby and didn't pester him to play games that he didn't like.” This is reminiscent of recent stories on network news in which parents have debated whether or not to encourage children into particular gender identity roles. As the story progresses, readers learn that the Boy with Pink Hair saves the day at his elementary school by leading his classmates in cooking a pink-themed meal for the parent-teacher lunch, which had become ruined when the cafeteria stove broke. The boy concludes that his mother was right in that he could make a difference with his difference – but the difference wasn't his hair, it was that he “followed his own special dream and was happy to be just who he was .” It's a happy-go-lucky story with a nice ending, and its effective gay propaganda, attempting to make kids pre-disposed to embrace homosexuality before they can understand what it is, or even know it exists. Hilton ends the book, “One boy, with shockingly bright, beautiful pink hair made the world a little happier and a little more pink. And that's a great thing!” The gayer the better, kids! An adult conversation about sexuality has no place in an innocent “children's” book, but Hilton sees no qualms with it.
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Click here to view this media Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld isn’t letting go of his talking points that support the U.S. invasion of Iraq following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Exactly 10 years after those attacks, Rumsfeld suggested to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Sunday that Iraq had been “hospitable” to al Qaeda before the U.S. invaded the country. “There’s no question that al Qaeda and Zarqawi and people were in Iraq,” Rumsfeld argued. “They aggregated there.” “If we hadn’t invaded, they wouldn’t have been there,” Zakaria pointed out. “We don’t know that,” Rumsfeld insisted. “You don’t know that. I don’t know that.” “But they went in to fight us. So since we weren’t there, why would they have gone into Iraq?” Zakaria countered. “Why have they gone into Yemen and Somalia?” Rumsfeld asked. “Why do al Qaeda go anywhere? They go where it’s hospitable.” “Right, and Iraq hadn’t been hospitable,” Zakaria said. A Department of Defense Inspector General report declassified in 2007 debunked claims that Pentagon official Douglas Feith had made in order to bolster the Bush administration’s case for war, that there was a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. “The Feith office alternative intelligence assessments concluded that Iraq and al Qaeda were cooperating and had a ‘mature, symbiotic’ relationship, a view that was not supported by the available intelligence, and was contrary to the consensus view of the Intelligence Community,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said in a statement. In fact, George Piro, the former FBI agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein, confirmed to CBS News that the Iraqi dictator had viewed Osama bin Laden as a threat. In 2008, President George W. Bush admitted to ABC’s Martha Raddatz that al Qaeda had not been Iraq before the invasion. “Yeah, that’s right,” Bush agreed. “So what?”
Continue reading …NBC’s Brian Williams About 9/11: ‘People Forget the Crazy Pressure to Put a Flag on Your Lapel’
September 12, 2011 No Comment
There have been some idiotic things said by liberal media members surrounding the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams added to the list Monday. Appearing on MSNBC's “Morning Joe,” Williams said, “People forget the crazy pressure to put a flag on your lapel and without it you couldn’t be a patriot. You certainly couldn’t love your country” (video follows with transcript and commentary): BRIAN WILLIAMS, “NBC NIGHTLY NEWS” ANCHOR: Having listened to a lot of discussions on the war in Iraq in a lot of gatherings, I’ve settled on the word “elective.” It was an elective war on the part of George W. Bush because none of those pilots were Iraqi, because none of the people in those planes were Iraqi, and because as a wounded nation we gave a president in effect a blank check. People forget what a crazy time it was. People forget that when I left that morning, I paused at the intersection knowing my kids were both in the same school and I didn’t know if there would be another day in America. People forget the crazy pressure to put a flag on your lapel and without it you couldn’t be a patriot. You certainly couldn’t love your country. So that same pressure made for some, some judgments and some permission granted by the American people to their chief executive. Crazy pressure to put a flag on your lapel? In a time of war, one would think you wouldn't need to be pressured to do such a thing. Americans have for centuries shown support for those that have died in a recent battle as well as those still serving their nation. Anyone feeling pressured to do it, especially someone so in the limelight as a national television anchor, mustn't understand the way his fellow citizens feel. Media members like to talk about how unified we were after the attacks, and how wonderful it would be for such unity to return. “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer did so on his program Sunday. When we look at pictures of Congress singing “God Bless America” on the steps of the Capitol the evening of 9/11, we remember just how much we were one nation that day. Part of that unity is displaying the flag, and Americans should have instinctually felt a desire to do so. To ten years after claim that people were being pressured to show their patriotism and love of country following the largest attack on this nation's mainland is pretty despicable even for a liberal media member. The disgust he should have expressed the morning after the tenth anniversary of this tragedy was for those Americans who believed they were pressured to act in a patriotic fashion and didn't instinctively feel the need to do so following the death of so many of their fellow citizens.
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Man helped from Travellers’ site brands Leighton Buzzard arrests ‘rubbish’ as nine men refuse to help investigation One of the men labelled by police as a modern-day slave at a Travellers’ site in Bedfordshire has accused officers of heavy-handed tactics and described the the arrest of five people on slavery charges as “complete rubbish”. Police continue to question four men and are looking for two further suspects. One heavily pregnant woman, who is expected to give birth imminently, has been released on bail. No charges have yet been brought. Nine of the 24 men allegedly used as slaves have refused to help police with their inquiries. DCI Sean O’Neil, from the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire major crimes unit, said: “Those people who we continue to help are appreciative of the support that is on offer, but it will take some time to work through with them what has happened.” He said he was confident the operation, which is dubbed Operation Netwing, had broken up a criminal network. “The new legislation has allowed the investigation more scope and takes into account emotional rather than physical harm. I am confident that while the investigation is in its early stages this is a family-run ‘business’ and is an organised crime group that has been broken up by the Netwing operation,” he said. One of the men taken by police, who did not want to be named, said he had been living in a caravan on a Traveller plot on the Greenacre caravan park near Leighton Buzzard for several years, working as a paver and was being paid. “I think it’s all a load of rubbish and they just hate Travellers,” said the man, who is in his 50s. “Plenty of men who were here wanted to be here and they were getting paid. The police coming in heavy-handed like this is just wrong.” More than 200 police officers raided the site in the early hours of Sunday, aided by a helicopter and dog patrols. Armed officers were also present. Four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of slavery offences, while 24 men were taken to a medical centre. Police said the men had been kept as virtual slaves in appalling conditions, forced to work long hours doing physically demanding jobs without pay. However, the man told the Guardian he had worked for 15 years with one Traveller family who had provided him with work and accommodation when he had nowhere else to go. After refusing to answer police questions he made his way back to the site. He said: “The police told me I couldn’t come back but I told them it was my home and if I wanted to go back I
Continue reading …Escort agency boss linked to George Osborne makes phone-hacking claims
September 12, 2011 No Comment
Natalie Rowe tells Australia’s ABC News she was targeted by News of the World Natalie Rowe, the former escort agency boss who claimed to be friends with chancellor George Obsorne, has told an Australian broadcaster that her phone was hacked by the News of the World. She told ABC News that Scotland Yard has told her that her mobile phone number and other details appeared on notebooks seized from the home of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was employed by the paper. Rowe, who ran an agency called Black Beauties in the 1990s, sold a story about the friendship with Osborne to the Sunday Mirror in 2005. She claimed at the time that she and Osborne had taken cocaine together. Obsorne has always denied this. Rowe told the ABC’s PM programme that she was “surprised” to see the same story appear in the News of the World on the same day. The paper was edited by Andy Coulson at the time. At the time the stories appeared Osborne issued a statement of denial: “The allegations are completely untrue and dredging up a photo from when I was 22 years old is pretty desperate stuff. This is merely part of an absurd smear campaign to divert attention from the issues that matter in this leadership contest and I am confident that people will not be distracted by this rubbish.” Both titles published an old picture of Rowe and Osborne together, arm in arm, with a white powder, which they alleged was cocaine, in the foreground. When the stories were published six years ago, Obsorne’s office dismissed them as a slur and said Rowe was a casual acquaintance whom the future chancellor barely knew. Speaking to ABC, Rowe repeated her claims about Obsorne taking illegal drugs. Rowe said: “George Osborne did take cocaine on that night.” Rowe’s solictor Mark Lewis has also given an interview to ABC. Noting that Coulson was editor of the News of the World, Lewis said: “I think that’s worth remembering because of the future relationship that we have between the Conservative party, the prime minister and Andy Coulson”. It has since emerged that David Cameron hired Coulson as the Conservative party’s communications director on Osborne’s advice. •
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Click here to view this media Well this is just stupid and pointless. That Major League Baseball had former Yankees’ manager Joe Torre deliver this wrong-headed move rather than commissioner Bud Selig is so typical of them. The clip above is edited from 9/11 Baseball Remembers , with the first games in New York following the events of 9/11/2001. No doubt MLB lawyers will be calling in a few moments. NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball denied the New York Mets’ request to wear baseball caps Sunday night honoring New York emergency service departments for their game against the Chicago Cubs on the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president for baseball operations, told The Associated Press in a phone interview the decision was made to keep policy consistent throughout baseball. “Certainly it’s not a lack of respect,” Torre said. “We just felt all the major leagues are honoring the same way with the American flag on the uniform and the cap. This is a unanimity thing.” The Mets wanted to wear caps honoring police, firefighters and other first responders like the ones they wore on Sept. 21, 2001, in the first professional sporting event in New York after the World Trade Center collapsed 10 days earlier. And they spoke with Torre on several occasions over the course of the last month. Keith Olbermann is pissed off about it. Those bloodless MLB individuals have been down this path before. Ten years ago, Bud Selig’s initially ruled the Mets and Yankees could not wear the caps during games. The Mets ignored the threat, and MLB decided to give them a pass for a game or two, and then the Mets kept wearing them, and MLB wisely backed off their nonsensical decision. Tonight’s ruling reminded everybody that at the moment of the nation’s greatest grief, MLB’s money-making instinct was unhindered by the blood and destruction and fear. At least in 2001 the sport was smart enough to shut up. Not this year. MLB first blocked the Washington Nationals from wearing military caps in tribute after a disaster in Afghanistan last month. Then came this decision, complete with in the kind of stupidity that would make a megalomaniac proud: they blamed it on MLB Vice President Joe Torre, the native New Yorker who wore these caps at the end of the 2001 season. So if it hadn’t been shameful already, pinning it on Torre made it doubly shameful.
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One worker is said to have died in a blast at Marcoule nuclear waste processing plant in southern France One person has been reported killed and four injured in an explosion at a nuclear waste processing plant in France. An oven reportedly exploded at the Marcoule nuclear site near Nimes in the south of France. The site produces MOX fuel, which recycles plutonium from nuclear weapons, and is partly used by the French nuclear power giant Areva. Part of the process involves firing superheated pellets of plutonium and uranium in an oven to reduce them in size to make them easier to store. The local newspaper Midi Libre reported that one person had been killed and four others injured, including one seriously, in the explosion at 11.45am (10.45 BST). The papers said the body of one male worker at the plant had been “found carbonised”, but it added that there was no evidence that the explosion had “caused any radioactive leak”. A spokesman for the French atomic energy authority told journalists: “For the moment, there is nothing coming out.” The French nuclear safety authority said in a statement that the explosion had taken place in an oven used to melt metallic waste of a “weak and very weak” level of radioactivity. Cécile Duflot, secretary general of the political party Europe Ecology, called for “real time” and “transparent” information on the incident on Twitter. Fire officers said a safety cordon had been thrown around the plant. The explosion happened in the Centraco centre used by the firm Socodei, a sister company of the French electricity giant EDF. The Marcoule site is located in Languedoc-Roussillon, in southern France near the Mediterranean. France Nuclear power Europe Energy guardian.co.uk
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