Norway’s prime minister tells country to ‘guard freedom’ at memorial service
August 21, 2011 No Comment
Candlelit ceremony in Oslo marks end of month of mourning for the 77 victims of the 22 July killings Norway’s prime minister urged his people to look after each other and be vigilant about intolerance as the country concluded a month-long mourning period with a candlelit memorial service to the 77 people killed by the rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik. Speaking at an arena in Oslo, Jens Stoltenberg said: “We need you. No matter where you live, no matter which god you worship, each and every one of us can take responsibility and can guard freedom.” Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian, has admitted carrying out the 22 July killings – first detonating a car bomb that killed eight people outside government offices in Oslo, then shooting dead 69 others at a youth camp on the island of Utøya, about 25 miles away. The prime minister, who received standing ovations from the 6,700 people in the audience during his speech, said: “Together we are an unbreakable chain of care, democracy and safety – that is our protection against violence. “Today time stops in order to remember those who died. We do it as one nation. Every candle has warmed, every thought has comforted, every rose has given hope. We are a small country, but we are a large people.” Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanne Sundfør opened the memorial service with a heartfelt performance of a classic Norwegian song, My Little Country, which has taken on special significance since the terror attacks and left many in the audience quietly wiping away tears. Addressing the gathering, Norway’s King Harald said he felt for each person in the country, but that he was certain Norway would surmount its pain. “I firmly believe that we will uphold our ability to live freely and securely in our country,” he said. Later, the Norwegian rap group Karpe Diem performed a song about tolerance. “I am a Muslim, Chirag is a Hindu and our friends they are also different, but we have never felt as Norwegian and we have not felt as much togetherness before as we do now, after 22 July,” rapper Magdi Ytreeide Abdelmaguid said before performing the song. As the names of each one of the 77 victims were read out loud, some broke out in loud sobs while others sat in silence. Elsewhere in the city, flags flew at half mast as people laid flowers and children blew soap bubbles outside the cathedral. Norway Anders Behring Breivik Europe guardian.co.uk
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Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal’s eight-year sentence has put further strain on relations between Iran and Washington The lawyer for two Americans convicted of spying in Iran has said he will appeal against their eight-year sentences. The verdict shocked their families, who hoped to see them freed after more than two years already spent in Evin, Tehran’s most notorious prison. Shane Bauer, 28, and Josh Fattal, 29, were arrested in 2009 on the border with Iraq, where they said they were hiking. They were found guilty of illegal entry and espionage at their closed trial , which ended on 31 July. The verdict is likely to further strain Iran’s already poor relations with Washington. “We have 20 days to appeal and I will try my best to use all legal means to annul the sentence,” lawyer Masoud Shafiee told Reuters. “It was my belief, and still is, that they are innocent and I have not seen any evidence that shows they are guilty.” “Josh and Shane were informed about the verdict yesterday,” Shafiee said on Sunday, adding that he had not seen them in person. The two years they had already served would count towards their eight-year sentences, he said. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, expressed deep disappointment at the sentences: “We continue to call and work for their immediate release – it is time for them to return home and be reunited with their families.” Bauer and Fattal’s families said in a statement: “We appeal to the authorities in Iran to show compassion and allow them to return home to our families without delay.” Bauer’s girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, 32, was also arrested but was released on $500,000 bail in September and returned home to California, where she has been campaigning for their freedom. Confirming a leaked report of the sentence, the Tehran prosecutor-general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, told a news conference that no verdict had been passed on Shourd, who did not return to Iran to stand trial. Iran Middle East United States Hillary Clinton guardian.co.uk
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At the Bournemouth Air Festival people queued to sign a book of condolence and lay floral tributes to Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging In an outpouring of public grief at the Bournemouth Air Festival on Sunday, thousands of people queued to sign books of condolence and lay floral tributes to Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, who crashed into a field minutes after performing with the Red Arrows on Saturday in front of an estimated 300,000 spectators. The festival’s final day of events went ahead as planned but a display by the Red Arrows was cancelled after the squadron’s first fatal crash in 33 years. Aviation enthusiasts and people living close to where the Royal Air Force plane came down paid tribute to the 33-year old pilot from Rutland for avoiding houses and crashing in a field on the edge of Bournemouth at 1.50pm on Saturday. Debbie Simpson, 46, had brought her family to pay their respects at Bournemouth Town Hall, partly because they had watched Saturday’s display but also because the Red Arrow crashed 150 yards from their home in the village of Throop. “It is a shock it happened so close to home and I think he is a hero. It makes me proud to be British that we have the Red Arrows,” she said. “I don’t think he had a thought for his own safety. He grounded his plane to avoid what could have been carnage.” The view was echoed by the leader of Bournemouth borough council, Peter Charon. “The fact nobody else was injured is testimony to his bravery,” he said. Tributes of flowers, inflatable Red Arrow planes, candles and teddy bears spread across the town hall lawn as a stream of more than 1,500 people made their way to sign first two, then four and finally six books of condolence, set up by the local council in honour of “Red 4″, as the pilot was known. Some sobbed behind sunglasses in bright south coast sunshine where the Red Arrows were billed the star turn at an air show suffused with military and patriotic pride. “RIP – You filled our skies with colour and our hearts with joy and excitement . Thank you!! Xxxxx” read one card. “Red Arrows=the pride of Britain. We all feel we have lost a dear friend and son,” said another. “Such a sad and tragic accident,” began one note. “You are such a hero for flying your plane away from shops and houses and sacrificing your own life. The town of Bournemouth is in shock.” The RAF suspended all Red Arrow displays using BAE Systems Hawk T1 aircraft until a full service inquiry “can give positive indications as to the air worthiness of the platform”. “It is too early to speculate on the cause of the accident,” said group captain Simon Blake. “It is too early to speculate on the future of the RAF aerobatic team for the remainder of the season. Clearly safety is paramount in our thoughts.” Earlier this month, a Red Arrow pilot was had to perform an emergency landing at Blackpool after a bird strike. Flt Lt Egging’s aircraft came down in a field near the village of Throop and ploughed to a standstill with its nose in the river Stour. It was about 150 yards from cottages, locals said. He was thrown from the plane and was found dead in the water. On Saturday, the pilot’s widow, Dr Emma Egging, had told of her pride in her husband having watched the display. “Jon was everything to those that knew him and he was the best friend and husband I could ever have wished for,” she said. “Watching him today, I was the proudest I have ever been. I loved everything about him and he will be missed.” Defence secretary, Liam Fox said he was “a gifted aviator, selected for one of the most demanding flying jobs in the RAF”. Among members of the public moved to express their grief was Barbara Lees, 64 from Fordingbridge in Hampshire. She laid “a red rose for the Red Arrow” at Bournemouth Town Hall and said her sense of loss was keen because the 300,000 spectators had heard the pilots’ voices over the public address system after they had completed a trick. “I feel awful, devastated and I am doing this today because we feel that we knew them,” she said. “They had just put on such wonderful show for us that for this to happen was horrid.” After the half hour display finished, a helicopter made a display followed by the Breitling wing walkers and then there was a break and it dawned on the spectators that something had happened, she said. As the afternoon progressed the news came through that Egging had died. On Sunday,down on the beachfront, the air show went on at what Cllr Charon said was “the express wish of the RAF”. After a tribute to the dead pilot over the public address system and a one minute silence, thousands watched the Battle of Britain memorial flight including a Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricanes. The Red Arrows 4pm slot was filled with a display by a Vulcan Bomber and an RAF Tornado. But everywhere amid the holiday atmosphere, candy floss and bouncy castles, the talk was of the crash. Stuart Donovan, 56, the owner of a model aircraft stand was down to his last model Red Arrow and was all out of inflatable replicas. “I’m sold out,” he said. “I think it is because of the crash. People have responded so quickly. Earlier, I saw a man walking along wearing a T-shirt with the pilot’s face printed on the front and ‘Red 4′ on the back.” Military Plane crashes Robert Booth guardian.co.uk
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Activists claim clean-up operation is under way to hide evidence of president Bashar al-Assad’s clampdown from diplomatic mission President Bashar al-Assad prepared to address his people as a UN team arrived in Damascus to assess humanitarian needs after five months of turmoil. Assad’s television interview, his fourth address during the growing revolt against his rule, will address “the current situation in Syria, the reform process and … implications of the US and western pressures on Syria politically and economically”, the state media agency Sana reported. Last week the US and leaders of the EU, including the UK, France and Germany, called for Assad to step aside amid an escalating military offensive since 31 July. Activists said a clean-up operation was under way in places including the port city of Latakia as the UN delegation arrived in the country. But gunfire and arrests continued to be reported and a further 20 people, including five soldiers, died across the country on Saturday, activists said. Assad has reportedly told the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs that it can travel to any part of the country it wishes, including Latakia, which was besieged by land and sea during a major security operation last week. Before the planned visit to Latakia, a western diplomat said reports had been received of a large-scale clean-up of the al-Ramel Palestinian refugee camp in the city, which was heavily targeted. “Reports of a clean-up square perfectly with the version of events which the regime is denying,” the diplomat said. “But any attempts to whitewash and destroy evidence can only backfire on this isolated regime. “The evidence in the form of personal testimonies of what happened in Latakia is overwhelming and undeniable. Assad can run but he can’t hide from the arm of international law which is closing in on him.” Residents of Hama and Homs reported similar clean-ups by government officials after rampages through the cities by security forces in recent months. As protesters waited for Assad’s address, they said that nothing the embattled president announced would pull people off the streets. Despite international pressure, the violent crackdown has continued with more that 350 people said to have been killed this month – adding to a death toll of around 2,000. The country’s third city, Homs, was heavily targeted at the weekend with dozens of people killed and many more arrested, activists said. A Homs resident said shooting had been heard inside a hospital and a prison. Residents, who fear a full-scale assault may be imminent, portrayed Homs as a city bracing itself for renewed destruction. “There are snipers on all the buildings. The tanks aren’t in the centre, but around the edges. There is a general strike and all the shops are closed. The situation is terrible – even after Assad says there aren’t tanks and after Obama tells him to step aside,” a resident told the Guardian. International calls for Assad to leave have sharply intensified scrutiny of his regime and its sustained crackdown against demonstrators, which it continues to cast as a fight against terrorists. The hardened western stance is set to greatly increase the stakes for Assad, who now faces pariah status among leaders whose attention he had previously coveted. It has also for the first time raised the possibility of a Libyan-style military intervention, something that had not previously been considered despite five months of violence in which an estimated 2,500 people have died and which have all but shut down the Syrian economy. A Guardian poll published at the weekend revealed that 80% of respondents supported some sort of military intervention in Syria. But there is no western appetite for military action in the densely populated, ethnically diverse country of 22 million and the vast majority of Syrians reject the idea. A state-owned Syrian newspaper described the calls by Barack Obama, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and David Cameron as the “face of the conspiracy” it claims is being waged against it. There are fears that western demands could embolden Assad, giving him little option but to fight as he struggles to retain control of the hardline police state his family has ruled as a personal fiefdom for more than four decades. His traditional international support base remains resolute. Iranian support for the Assad regime is a key factor in calculations and Russia has said it does not support the call for Assad to leave. Another one-time ally, Turkey, was on Sunday hosting a meeting of Syrian opposition groups who are attempting to elect a national council, as it too struggles to deal with the increasingly grave situation across its volatile border. The body is attempting to position itself as an alternative leadership, in the same way that the National Transitional Council did in the weeks after Colonel Gaddafi was ousted from eastern Libya. That body eventually won international recognition. However, Syria’s nascent opposition has struggled to gain momentum. “The opposition is starting to realise that they cannot all be chiefs and that they have to live up to the expectations of the international community,” veteran opposition figure Khaled Haj Saleh told Reuters. The UN last week said it had identified 50 Syrian regime figures who may have committed crimes against humanity. In another sign of mounting international anger, the EU is considering placing a ban on Syrian oil exports, which account for 25% of the its economy. With industry at a standstill, no tourism, and cash reserves rapidly dwindling, such a move would likely prove difficult for Assad’s regime to withstand in the long run. • Nour Ali is a pseudonym for a journalist based in Damascus. Syria Middle East Bashar Al-Assad Arab and Middle East unrest Nour Ali Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Former White House spokesman Bill Burton called out Karl Rove Sunday for lecturing about President Barack Obama’s economic record when former President George W. Bush squandered a record budget surplus. “[Republicans] won the House and since that time they have done nothing to produce jobs and put nothing forward to partner with the president to create jobs and move this economy in the right direction,” Burton explained to Fox News’ Brett Baier. “Karl, At the GOP debate in Iowa, I asked all the candidates the question, whether would accept this deal in which Democrats agreed to $10 in real spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases,” Baier told Rove. “And every single hand on the stage went up, saying they would walk away from that deal, opposing any tax increases… When Democrats complain about idealogical rigidity in the moderate republican party do they have a point? ” “Bret, with all due respect, that was a lousy question for a debate,” Rove charged. “Let’s set the record straight. There is rigidity in the political system and it starts with the president of the United States… I love it. The Republicans passed a budget, the Democrats in the Senate haven’t. The Republicans have passed a slew of job creating measures, and the Democrats in the Senate haven’t. And the president now sits here and lectures us about how we need to take action. What is his action? He has yet to put pen to paper and issue a jobs plan or a deficit reduction plan in the last nine months. So, please don’t talk to me about ideological rigidity. It comes from the White House.” “I appreciate that you have an opinion on this, Karl,” Burton shot back. “But as someone who was a leader in the White House that turned a record surplus into a deficit, that got us involved in a war that we never should have been in, and turned the floor of the New York stock exchange into a casino, I don’t think the American people are quite ready to hear a lecture from you on good governance.” “What the president needs in Washington are partners who will work with him to make progress in this country, not just people like Eric Cantor and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, who would much rather see the economy do poorly so that they can score political points than see America succeed,” he added. “Bill, with all due respect, do not question the motivations and integrity of the people on the other side,” Rove said. “I don’t think all due respect means what you think it means,” Burton pointed out. Transcript below the fold. BAIER: Hey, Karl, at the GOP debate in Iowa, I asked all the candidates the question, whether they would accept this deal in which Democrats agreed to $10 in real spending cuts for $1 in tax increases. Every single hand on the stage went up, saying they would walk away from that deal, opposing any tax increases. Now, I was expecting some of them to push back and to ask for time for a nuanced answer. They didn’t. There was no push back. So, when Democrats complain about ideological rigidity or stubbornness in the modern Republican Party, do they have a point? ROVE: Well, look, first, with due respect to your question, that was a question that had a predictable answer to it, and that kind of a thing when you’re asking people to raise their hand and not offering them a chance to get a nuance answer, you’re going to get raising hands. Let me go back to what Bill said — BAIER: Wait a second. Hold on. I mean, we gave them the opportunity, Karl. You know, so I mean — ROVE: With all due respect — Bret, with all due respect, that was lousy question for a debate. And if you wanted a better answer, ask that question to candidates individually. BURTON: These guys wanted to be president of the United States. They can’t talk to Bret Baier about what their vision is, or how to deal with the economy? ROVE: Let’s set the record — let’s set the record straight about what Bill said earlier about rigidity. Yes, there’s rigidity in our political system and it starts with the president of the United States. Republicans had ideas to try and make stimulus bill better. And in a meeting in the White House, maybe Bill was even in the room. President Obama dismissed Eric Cantors’ suggestions about how to make the bill better by saying, “I won.” This president had a Democrat Congress, I repeat, by overwhelming margin for two years and got everything he wanted. Now, what have the Republicans done this year? The Republicans have insisted that — the president set up political battle. He had the votes in November and December of last year to get his, quote, “clean debt” ceiling. But instead, he said he wanted the Republicans to, quote, “have ownership” in the deficit. So, he waited until there is a Republican House and then tried to jam them, insisting on a clean debt ceiling. The Republicans said we want to have deficit reduction before we vote for an increase in the debt ceiling. They got it. The president applauded that bill and signed it. So, you know, I love it. The Republicans passed a budget. The Democrats in the Senate haven’t. The Republicans have passed a slew of job creating measures and the Democrats in the Senate haven’t. And the president now sits here and lectures us about how we need to take action. Well, what is his action? He has yet put pen to paper and issue a jobs plan or a deficit reduction plan in the last nine months. BURTON: You know, Karl –ROVE: So, please, don’t talk (ph) to me about ideological rigidity. It came from your White House. (CROSSTALK) BURTON: — but as someone who is a leader in the White House that turned a record surplus into a deficit that got us involved in a war that we never shouldn’t have been in and turned the floor of the New York Stock Exchange into a casino, I don’t think the American people are quite ready to hear a lecture from you on good governance.
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PM’s claim of moral decline is ‘highfalutin wail’, says ex-Labour leader who blames riots on minority of alienated young David Cameron has reaffirmed his belief that the riots were symptomatic of moral decline in Britain as Tony Blair dismissed this argument as a “highfalutin wail” that ignored the true cause of the problem. In a relatively rare intervention in the world of domestic policy, Blair said that there was no problem with moral standards in society generally. The riots, he said, were primarily caused by a minority of disaffected and alienated young people who were outside the social mainstream and who constituted “an absolutely specific problem that requires deeply specific solutions”. Cameron and Blair set out their rival analyses in articles in Sunday newspapers. They clashed as Scotland Yard revealed that 3,296 offences were committed during the rioting in London, leading to 1,875 arrests and 1,073 people being charged. More than 1,000 of those offences involved looting. In an article for the Sunday Express, Cameron said that the riots illustrated the need to “reclaim” society. “The greed and thuggery we saw during the riots did not come out of nowhere,” he said. “There are deep problems in our society that have been growing for a long time: a decline in responsibility, a rise in selfishness, a growing sense that individual rights come before anything else.” But Blair, in an article in the Observer , said that to make this argument was to “trash our own reputation abroad”. Although he famously warned about moral decline after the murder of James Bulger, when he was shadow home secretary, Blair said he now realised that that 1993 speech was “good politics but bad policy”. “Britain, as a whole, is not in the grip of some general ‘moral decline’,” Blair wrote. Young people now were generally more respectable, more responsible and more hard-working than they were when he was young, he said. Instead, the rioting was mainly caused by “the group of young, alienated, disaffected youth who are outside the social mainstream and who live in a culture at odds with any canons of proper behaviour”. Blair said that his government developed specific policies to deal with these people and that they required intervention “literally family by family and at an early stage, even before any criminality had occurred”. Ministers agree with Blair about the importance of early intervention – Cameron said last week that he wanted to use intervention to turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families by 2015 – but Chris Grayling, the employment minister, claimed that Blair was wrong to say that the moral crisis did not affect society as a whole. “Take, for example, the issue of discipline in schools and the classroom,” Grayling said. “There has clearly been a breakdown in the last generation of discipline in the classroom. Teachers say today that their job is more crowd control than teaching. That obviously has a disproportionate effect on a hard core that come from difficult backgrounds for whom there is a risk that they will go off the rails when they get older.” In his article, Cameron said that as a result of the riots he had decided to roll out his national citizen service scheme, which will involve 16-year-old volunteers from different backgrounds working together on community projects, more widely than originally planned. “Before the riots we were already looking to roll this out across the country, with up to 30,000 teenagers taking part next year, but after the riots, I feel our ambitions weren’t big enough,” he said. “I want the national citizen service to be available to every teenager after GCSEs. I want them to learn that they can make a difference in their communities and that real fulfilment comes not from trashing things or being selfish but by building things and working with others.” Downing Street was unable to give any details of what this would mean in practice. About 11,000 teenagers are taking part in a national citizen service pilot this summer, and more will follow in 2012, but aides acknowledged that making it available to every 16-year-old would be hugely expensive. Cameron also used his article to restate his belief that the “misrepresentation of human rights” had contributed to moral decline by undermining personal responsibility. “We will fight to ensure people understand the real scope of these rights and do not use them as cover for rules or excuses that fly in the face of common sense,” Cameron said. His comments prompted Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, to say that he would oppose any attempt to water down Britain’s commitment to human rights. “The European convention on human rights was one of the most important contributions which Britain made to postwar Europe,” Campbell said. “It should lie right at the very heart of our constitutional circumstances. I do not want in any sense Britain’s commitment to the whole notion of human rights to be watered down.” UK riots David Cameron Tony Blair Crime Youth justice Police Metropolitan police Social exclusion Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk
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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Kris Humphries has officially caught up with Kim Kardashian. The basketball pro and the reality star are husband and wife. Kardashian, 30, and Humphries, 26, tied the knot Saturday night in the exclusive Montecito area near Santa Barbara, Calif., Kardashian publicist Jill Fritzo told People magazine and E! The ceremony will be televised as a two-part special on E! in October. It is the first marriage for Humphries, who last played for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, and the second for Kardashian, star of E!’s “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” She was married to music producer Damon Thomas from 2000 to 2004. People and E! reported Kardashian wore an ivory gown designed by Vera Wang. Her stepfather, Bruce Jenner, walked her down the aisle in front of 440 guests, including Demi Lovato, Mario Lopez, Eva Longoria, Sugar Ray Leonard, Alan Thicke and Lindsay Lohan. Kardashian’s gown had a tulle skirt, basque waist and Chantilly lace, and was matched with a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, the media outlets reported. The bride planned to wear two other Wang dresses before the night and the party were over. Her sisters and TV co-stars Kourtney Kardashian, 32, and Khloe Kardashian, 27, served as co-maids of honor. The groom wore a white peak lapel tuxedo jacket, black tuxedo pants and, a white shirt and a white bow tie, all designed by Ermenegildo Zegna. Kardashian and Humphries began dating late last year and announced their engagement in May. He proposed on bended knee with a 20.5-carat ring by spelling out “Will you marry me?” in rose petals. Since the couple’s engagement, the pending nuptials have provided constant fodder for the media and the Kardashians, who posted updates about the wedding on their blogs and websites. The waves of hype that preceded the ceremony didn’t seem to faze the bride. Earlier this week, Kardashian said she was “totally calm” about the much-hyped ceremony. “I think that freak-out moment kind of already passed,” she said at a party Wednesday to launch her new clothing line at Sears.
Continue reading …Bernie Sanders: Obama Should Create A Program To Put Millions Back To Work and Challenge GOP To Support It
August 21, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media You tell ‘em, Bernie! Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to more than 3,000 enthusiastic union leaders from across North America in Las Vegas on Wednesday at the convention of the United Steelworkers of America. Bernie focused on the need to create millions of good-paying jobs and to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Earlier in the week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi addressed the convention. President Barack Obama spoke to the membership via video. At a time when more than 16 percent of American workers — 25 million Americans — are either unemployed or underemployed, Bernie called for a bold effort to create millions of jobs by rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, transforming our energy system and rewriting our trade policy so that American products — not jobs — are our number one export. “These are tough times in our country and a pivotal moment in our history. It’s important for us not just to be on the defensive. We have got to be on the offensive,” Bernie said in his speech. “We have got to bring forth a vision that speaks to what America is all about. And that is jobs that pay people a decent wage, jobs that are created in the United States of America, not in China.” Hours after delivering his convention speech, Bernie spoke with Ed Schultz on MSNBC about the jobs crisis facing the country. “I think the American people are beginning to catch on,” Bernie said. “The president cannot keep trying to compromise with people who do not want to compromise. What he needs to do is come out with a bold job-creating program to put millions of people back to work, and challenge the Republicans to support it.”
Continue reading …Syrian forces storm Homs as Assad defies international calls to step down
August 21, 2011 No Comment
Residents of Syria’s third city report gunfire in a prison and hospital, and fear a full-scale assault as tanks mass outside Syrian forces have stormed the country’s third city, Homs, a day after at least 34 people were killed in earlier raids, as the troubled country’s president defied calls by Barack Obama and European leaders to end the violence and resign. Reinforcements were en route to the embattled city and residents there described a “terrible” night, with shooting resounding through empty streets and tanks again on the outskirts of town. One Homs resident told the Guardian that shooting had been heard inside a hospital and a prison in the early hours of Saturday. Residents fear a full-scale assault may be imminent. International calls for the president, Bashar al-Assad, to leave have sharply intensified scrutiny of his regime and its sustained crackdown against demonstrators, which it continues to cast as a fight against terrorists. The hardened western stance is set to greatly increase the stakes for Assad, who now faces pariah status among leaders whose attention he had previously coveted. It has also for the first time raised the possibility of a Libyan-style military intervention, something which had not previously been considered despite five months of violence in which an estimated 2,500 people have died and which have all but shut down the Syrian economy. A Guardian poll published on Saturday revealed that 82.4% of respondents supported some sort of military intervention in Syria. A state-owned Syrian newspaper described the calls by the US president – as well as the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and British prime minister, David Cameron – as the “face of the conspiracy” that it claims is being waged against it. Assad has yet to respond to the western statements, which were delivered on Thursday. However, there are fears that the demands could embolden him, giving him little option but to fight as he struggles to retain control of the hardline police state his family has ruled as a personal fiefdom for more than four decades. His traditional international support base remains resolute. Iranian support for the Assad regime makes it a key factor in calculations and Russia has said it does not support the call for Assad to leave. Another one-time ally, Turkey, was on Sunday hosting a meeting of Syrian opposition groups who are attempting to elect a national council, as it too struggles to deal with the increasingly grave situation across its volatile border. The new body is attempting to position itself as an alternative leadership, in the same way that the National Transitional Council did in the weeks after Colonel Gaddafi was ousted from eastern Libya. That body eventually won international recognition. However, Syria’s nascent opposition has struggled to gain momentum. A high-level United Nations team was due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday to assess the humanitarian situation across the country. Assad has reportedly told the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs that it can travel to any part of the country it wishes, including Latakia, which was besieged by land and sea during a major security operation earlier in the week. Before the planned visit to Latakia, a western diplomat said reports had been received of a large-scale clean-up of the al-Ramel Palestinian refugee camp in the city, which was heavily targeted. “Reports of a clean-up square perfectly with the version of events which the regime is denying,” the diplomat said. “But any attempts to whitewash and destroy evidence can only backfire on this isolated regime. “The evidence in the form of personal testimonies of what happened in Latakia is overwhelming and undeniable. Assad can run but he can’t hide from the arm of international law which is closing in on him.” Residents of Hama and Homs reported similar clean-ups by government officials after rampages through both cities by security forces in recent months. In Homs, the resident who spoke to the Guardian portrayed a city bracing itself for renewed destruction. “There are snipers on all the buildings. The tanks aren’t in the centre, but around the edges. There is a general strike and all the shops are closed, nobody is opening. The situation is terrible – even after Assad says there aren’t tanks and after Obama tells him to step aside.” The UN last week said it had identified 50 Syrian regime figures who may have committed crimes against humanity. In another sign of mounting international anger, the EU is considering placing a ban on Syrian oil exports, which account for 25% of the country’s economy. With industry at a standstill, no tourism, and cash reserves rapidly dwindling, such a move would likely prove difficult for Assad’s regime to withstand. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Middle East Martin Chulov Nour Ali guardian.co.uk
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Wife and colleagues pay tribute to Jon Egging as witness says pilot was found with parachute open but not in ejection seat A witness has spoken of the moment rescuers searching for a crashed Red Arrows jet found the pilot’s body in a river. Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging’s Hawk T1 aircraft came down near Bournemouth airport in Dorset on Saturday, after a display over the town’s seafront. The pilot was discovered with his parachute open, but he apparently was not in his ejection seat. John Dugdale said he had not heard the crash but was soon at the scene when a rescue helicopter starting hovering above. “Somebody ran past me saying: ‘One of the reds has gone down.’ I ran over and there was a small group of people and you could see part of the wreckage of the aircraft on the riverbank,” he said. “At least one of the group had entered the water and was looking in the river for the pilot. One then shouted out he could see a parachute and then he shouted out he had got him [the pilot] and someone said: ‘Is he dead?’ and the man in the water replied: ‘Yes.’ “There were a lot of bushes on the bank and he was found just away from me in a bend of the river. I did not see him.” Dugdale said he thought the ejection seat was found away from the body. “Soon there were emergency services everywhere and the helicopter landed and we began to be cleared away. I went straight back home because it was extremely upsetting.” Tributes have been paid to Egging, who is said to have guided the plane away from houses and people before it crashed into a field and came to a standstill with its nose in the river Stour near the village of Throop. His wife, Emma, said she had been “the proudest I’ve ever been” after watching the display over Bournemouth before the crash. “Jon was everything to those that knew him, and he was the best friend and husband I could ever have wished for,” she said. “There was nothing bad about Jon. He loved his job and was an exemplary pilot. Watching him today, I was the proudest I’ve ever been. I loved everything about him, and he will be missed.” Colleagues described the 33-year-old pilot as a “true team player” and “gifted aviator”. Group Captain Simon Blake, commandant of the RAF’s central flying school, said: “Throughout his winter training and the display season to date, his professionalism, skill and humility have shone through. In such a close-knit team, this tragedy will be keenly felt by his fellow team members, the Reds, and all of the engineering and support staff, the Blues.” He told the BBC the MoD had grounded the Hawk team Mk 1 “temporarily until its safety can be assured”. “As for the rest of the season, it is too early to speculate as to when the Red Arrows will be back on the public circuit, but suffice to say in the short term they will not be able to perform in public.” An MoD spokesman said: “A full service inquiry into the details of the crash has been initiated. It would be inappropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident at this time.” One witness said the plane skidded for several hundred metres along the riverbank after it crashed. Mark Grogan said: “I heard a sound like a car backfiring. Within five minutes the helicopters arrived, there were at least five helicopters including the police and two from the coastguard.” Nicholas Gore, 22, who was walking close to the river when he saw all nine Red Arrows overhead, said: “There were quite a few people watching and we saw them go over but one seemed quite low. They then disappeared behind trees and I heard a crack – not an explosion, just a crack – and we got further down and I saw the plane with its red tail in the air and its nose in the river.” Wayne Kent, 30, the assistant manager at the nearby Broadway Pub, said some of his customers had seen the incident, and that the pilot guided the plane away from houses in the village and from people walking near the riverbank. Plane crashes Military guardian.co.uk
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