Tallinn police evacuate and cordon off building as news website reports shooter may have taken hostage There has been a shooting inside the Estonian defence ministry in central Tallinn, officials said. Spokesman Peeter Kuimet said there had been an “incident involving guns” inside the ministry and that police are on the scene. The government said all employees have evacuated the building and police have cordoned off the surrounding area. The Postimees, a leading daily paper and website in Estonia, is reporting the shooter may have taken a hostage inside the ministry. The Delfi news website reported from the scene that there had been shots approximately 20 minutes apart and that two people jumped through a window and ran away after the second shot. Hannes Kont, the director of press at the fefence ministry, told the Associated Press that the minister, Mart Laar, was not in the building when the shooting started. Estonia Europe guardian.co.uk
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Recovery will be longer and harder than we had hoped, chancellor tells recalled session of parliament The chancellor has used his emergency statement to parliament to say that recent events in the global economy had “vindicated” the government’s deficit reduction programme. He put in a bullish performance after the Bank of England downgraded its UK growth forecasts for the fifth time this year. George Osborne made the second of two emergency government statements after nine days of economic upheaval and one day after the Bank of England governor, Sir Mervyn King, warned of more economic “turbulence” ahead, saying “headwinds were becoming stronger by the day”. In his statement, Osborne acknowledged this squall of bad economic news, saying the FTSE had fared badly in the past month. “The huge overhang of debt means the recovery will be longer and harder than we had hoped,” he said. “This is the most dangerous time for the global economy since 2008, and we should be clear about that.” But he sought to turn events to his advantage, telling parliament Britain had become a “safe haven” for stock markets in recent days, with the unpredictability of stocks making an investment in UK bonds more attractive. Referring to recent market turbulence, he said: “The market for our government bonds has benefited.” The chancellor showed that Britain had now become a better credit risk than Germany according to the present market assessment. This was because of Britain’s deficit reduction package, which had reassured international markets the government had finances under control, and because bond traders were not angling to downgrade Britain’s sovereign credit worthiness. That bond yields were down was a “huge vote of confidence” in the UK, Osborne said. He spoke of “the reckless folly of those who said we were cutting too far and too fast”. “[It] vindicates the decision to get ahead of the curve, while other countries have remained paralysed. Ours is an unwavering commitment and we will not abandon Britain to the financial whirlpool.” Responding in the commons chamber, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said Osborne’s optimistic interpretation of bond yields going down had a worrying precedent. He pointed out that Japan’s bond yields fell before they went through a decade of stagnation, a fall which, he suggested, showed that international investors did not expect much future growth. The chancellor returned from his holiday in California, and the prime minister returned from Tuscany, to address MPs’ concerns about rioting as well as the world economy. The Bank of England cut its growth forecast for the year 2011 from 1.8% to 1.5%. UK manufacturing figures were also worse than expected: output fell by 0.4% in June. On Wednesday, the FTSE 100 fell 3% and it was rumoured on Thursday morning, hours ahead of the chancellor’s address, that France could see a credit downgrade similar to that announced by Standard & Poor’s in America, whose ratings downgrade triggered the latest share fall. In an attempt to avert such a downgrade, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he would be announcing plans to reduce his country’s budget deficit within the week. Osborne said 500,000 private sector jobs had been created in the British economy during the last 12 months. He also mounted a trenchant defence of the government’s deficit reduction plan, saying that without it Britain might also risk having its credit worthiness downgraded, as America’s had been last week . He said the Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority were in agreement that British banks were sufficiently capitalised to deal with any second credit crunch on the continent. Balls warned Osborne that events could push the world economy into a repeat of the 1930s depression and said his constituents wondered whether the chancellor was either “deeply complacent or in deep denial about the state the UK economy is in”. Britain’s growth had been “stagnant” over the last nine months. Osborne had previously suggested in an article for the Daily Telegraph that fresh measures would be brought in in the autumn to attempt anew to galvanise the British economy, writing “we will take further action this autumn. Indeed this crisis provides an opportunity to make some difficult trade-offs in favour of growth that might get parked in the ‘too difficult’ box in calmer times.” Among elements already in place, Osborne pointed to lower corporation tax rates, less regulation for small firms, welfare reform, planning changes and lower taxes for entrepreneurs. In the piece, Osborne defended the government’s cuts programme because of the market confidence it has afforded. He wrote: “In the latest phase of financial turbulence, the interest rates on our government debt have fallen as market participants hail UK assets as a safe haven. The alternative of more spending and yet more borrowing is now frankly ludicrous and places those who advocate it on the outer fringes of the international debate.” On Wednesday King said: “There are a number of headwinds to world and domestic growth, not least the private and public debt overhang. And these headwinds are becoming stronger by the day.” Economic growth (GDP) Bank of England Economics Inflation Interest rates Banking Global recession Global economy Financial crisis George Osborne Liberal-Conservative coalition Bonds Mervyn King Ed Balls House of Commons European debt crisis Stock markets Market turmoil Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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“I don't know what's worse,” Tina Brown's selection of the wild-eyed Michele Bachmann cover photo for Newsweek or her “bold-faced lie” defending the choice, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity on his program last night. “There's not a person in the face of this Earth that looks at that picture and says, 'she looks more presidential,' which is what Tina Brown” insisted on the August 10 edition of MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” [video follows page break; MP3 audio is available here ]
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• Roadside bomb kills five foreign troops in southern Afghanistan • At least 50 foreign troops have died this month A roadside bomb killed five foreign troops in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, Nato has said, less than a week after the coalition suffered its worst single loss in 10 years of war when Taliban insurgents shot down a helicopter. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) gave no other details regarding Thursday’s incident or the nationality of the troops killed. At least 50 foreign troops have been killed so far in August. Another foreign soldier was also killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Isaf said. Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties during the first six months of 2011. Overnight, Taliban insurgents also attacked a police checkpoint in southern Helmand province, killing five Afghan police officers, Helmand police chief Abdul Hakim Angar said. No further details of the incident were available. The spike in casualties – almost 390 foreign troops have been killed so far this year, compared with a record 711 in 2010 – comes at a time of growing unease about the increasingly unpopular and costly war. Afghan security forces have been hit even harder than foreign troops. A total of 1,292 Afghan police and 821 Afghan soldiers were killed last year, said the Afghan government. But it is civilians who have borne the brunt of the war. UN figures show a record 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in conflict-related incidents in the first six months of 2011. Last month foreign troops began the first phase of a gradual process to hand security control to Afghan soldiers and police. That process is due to end with the last foreign combat troops leaving at the end of 2014, but some US lawmakers are questioning whether that timetable is fast enough. A Chinook troop-carrying helicopter crashed five days ago in central Afghanistan after it was likely hit by a rocket fired by the Taliban, killing 30 US troops, seven Afghan troops and one Afghan civilian interpreter. Isaf said on Wednesday that it had killed the Taliban militants responsible for shooting down the helicopter. Nato Afghanistan Military guardian.co.uk
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‘I would like to bring attention to the people I’ve written about,’ says working-class writer of role, which commences in October Pulitzer prize winner Philip Levine , known for his detailed and personal verse about the working class, has been appointed the US’s new poet laureate. The Library of Congress announced on Wednesday that the 83-year-old Levine will succeed fellow Pulitzer winner WS Merwin this autumn. The laureate, who receives $35,000 (£22,000) and is known officially as the poet laureate consultant in poetry, serves from October through May. Richard Wilbur, Joseph Brodsky and Robert Pinsky are among the previous appointees. “I’m a fairly irreverent person and at first I thought: ‘This is not you. You’re an old union man,’” Levine said. “But I knew if I didn’t do this, I would kick myself. I thought: ‘This is you. You can speak to a larger public than has been waiting for you in recent years.’” Levine has received virtually every literary honour, but he is the least rarefied of poets. A Detroit native who as a young man worked in automobile plants, he has for decades chronicled, celebrated and worried about blue-collar life. Levine’s awards include the Pulitzer in 1995 for The Simple Truth and the National Book award in 1991 for What Work Is. “Philip Levine is one of America’s great narrative poets,” librarian of congress James H Billington said in a statement. “His plainspoken lyricism has, for half a century, championed the art of telling ‘the simple truth’ about working in a Detroit auto factory, as he has, and about the hard work we do to make sense of our lives.” In “Drum”, Levine writes of a hardware shop and of the men who “sweep, wash up, punch out, collect outside for a final smoke”. In “Coming Close”, he presents a “quiet woman” standing for hours before a polishing wheel. But who is she, really? Levine asks. “You must come closer to find out”: You must hang your tie and jacket in one of the lockers in favor of a black smock, you must be prepared to spend shift after shift hauling off the metal trays of stock bowing first, knees bent for a purchase then lifting with a gasp, the first word tenderness between the two of you The laureate has few official duties and poets have used the job to pursue a range of personal projects, from Billy Collins’s Poetry 180, which encourages the reading of verse in high school, to Robert Hass’s Watershed conference on nature writing. “I don’t want to overextend myself, but at the same time I would like to use the ‘bully pulpit’, as they call it, to bring attention to some of my concerns,” Levine says. “There’s a great deal of American poetry that’s hardly known and that should be known. As a poet who didn’t get published for a long time, I know what it’s like not to be read. The other thing I’d like to do is reach out to readers. I would like to bring attention to the kind of people I’ve written about.” US poet laureate Poetry Awards and prizes United States guardian.co.uk
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Total of £90m spread among 16 NHS trusts to help them keep on track, says spending watchdog A number of England’s NHS trusts needed bailouts and loans to help balance their books last year, according to a new auditors’ report. Spending watchdog the Audit Commission said that while most trusts were able to balance their books, some needed help. Some £90m was distributed among 16 NHS trusts to help them keep on track, while cash was also shifted from underspending primary care trusts (PCTs) to those that had overspent. The commission said the health service delivered a good financial performance in 2010-11, but trusts will face challenges as they try to make savings demanded by the government as part of its efficiency drive. Of 276 NHS organisations in England audited for Thursday’s report , nine (six in the south-east) were in deficit. This means that overall, the NHS, excluding foundation trusts, was able to deliver a surplus of £1.5bn, the same as the previous year. Nevertheless, almost one in four (24%) NHS trusts and 12% of PCTs received qualified value-for-money conclusions from auditors, meaning there were concerns about issues such as weaknesses in financial management and planning, or trusts needing financial support. The NHS has been asked to save £20bn by 2015 – an average of £5bn, or about 5% of budget every year. In 2010-11, PCTs, NHS trusts and foundation trusts saved £4.3bn, through measures such as increased productivity, limits on pay, and cuts to staffing. But the Audit Commission warned that progress in the future could be more difficult, as some of this year’s efficiencies were one-off savings, and no increased funding will come from central government. “Organisations that have, up to now, managed their finances well will find financial pressure increasing,” the study said. “They will need to continue to deliver high-quality services, without the funding growth of the recent past.” The experts behind the study said savings targets for the current financial year are more ambitious. Andy McKeon, managing director for health at the Audit Commission, said: “It is impressive that the NHS overall performed so well financially last year, even if some organisations struggled. “But there is no room for complacency. Tighter funding, and the need to continue to improve services and implement reforms, will make the next three years much tougher. “NHS organisations will need to make a determined effort to find further recurrent savings while continuing to deliver high quality services.” NHS Confederation deputy director of policy, Jo Webber, said of today’s report: “These figures show that many NHS leaders have got their organisations on a strong footing to achieve the £20bn savings required of them. But they are worried that this could be the calm before the storm. “Many of our members have told us they are expecting the financial situation facing their organisations to be the worst they have ever experienced.” She said the “real test” will be over the next 18 months. A Department of Health spokesman said: “The NHS has performed well in the face of a tough economic climate. But we know the NHS is facing even greater pressures, not least from rising demand and costs. “That is why we need to modernise the NHS – improving choice for patients to drive up the quality of care and improve patient experience. “We are also investing an extra £12.5bn in the NHS to improve the quality of services and safeguard the NHS for future generations.” NHS Health guardian.co.uk
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Umar Patek, accused of making devices that killed 202 people in 2002, was found in town Osama Bin Laden was hiding in An Indonesian militant who allegedly made the explosives used in the 2002 Bali bombings was escorted home under tight security on Thursday, more than six months after he was captured in north-west Pakistan. Umar Patek had a $1m (£620,000) bounty on his head when authorities caught up with him in January in Abbottabad, the same town where Osama bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid four months later. Indonesia’s anti-terrorism chief, Ansyaad Mbai, told AP it did not appear to be a coincidence that they were in the same place. “It’s further evidence of the link between the south-east Asian terror network and al-Qaida,” he added, hours before the 41-year-old boarded an Indonesian plane sent to reyreive him from a Pakistani air force base. Patek touched down outside Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, on Thursday morning and was taken straight to a police detention center in the Java town of Kelapa Dua where he will await trial, he said. No date has been announced. Indonesian officials say Patek has confessed to playing a key role in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists, including 88 Australians. He also admitted to making the bombs used in a string of Christmas Eve attacks on churches in 2000 that claimed 19 lives, they say. But because tough anti-terror laws passed after the Bali blasts cannot be applied retroactively, he is likely to be charged with illegal possession of explosives, Mbai said. Even though that charge also carries a maximum penalty of death, there are concerns he might get off easy. Indonesia, the nation with the most Muslims in the world, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks blamed on Patek’s regional militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah, but none as deadly as the Bali blasts. A highly praised anti-terrorism campaign in the country of 240 million has seen hundreds of suspects arrested and convicted in recent years, but Patek is one of the biggest to have been captured alive. His arrest in Abbottabad raised questions over whether he was there to meet bin Laden, something that would challenge theories that the al-Qaida chief was cut off from his followers. US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue, have said it appeared to be a coincidence. But Mbai countered that Wednesday. Several other militants from Asia and Europe to the Middle East also were arrested in the same region of north-west Pakistan at the time of Patek’s arrest, he said. They had gathered there in hopes of meeting bin Laden, but it was not clear if they’d succeeded or were planning a new terror strike. “Patek was very valuable for the US.,” Mbai said. “He helped lead authorities to bin Laden.” Bali Indonesia Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
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Huge US study published in the Lancet finds risk of heart disease linked to smoking is 25% higher for women Smoking is more likely to give women heart disease than men, a study has found. Toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke may have a more potent effect on women due to biological differences, scientists believe. US researchers analysed pooled data on around 4 million individuals from 86 studies. After adjusting for other risk factors, they found the increased risk of heart disease linked to smoking was 25% higher for women. The longer a woman smoked, the greater her heart disease risk was compared with that of a man who had smoked for the same length of time. A woman’s extra risk increased by 2% for every additional year she had been smoking. The findings are published on Thursday in an online edition of The Lancet medical journal. Authors Dr Rachel Huxley, from the University of Minnesota, and Dr Mark Woodward, from Johns Hopkins University, of Maryland, wrote: “Women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men. “This occurrence could explain why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts. “Physicians and health professionals should be encouraged to increase their efforts at promotion of smoking cessation in all individuals. “Present trends in female smoking, and this report, suggest that inclusion of a female perspective in tobacco-control policies is crucial.” In the UK, 21% of women and 22% of men smoke cigarettes. Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “It’s alarming to see such a large study confirm that women are so much more at risk of heart disease from smoking than men. “Despite women generally smoking fewer cigarettes a day than men, women appear to be substantially more at risk of getting heart disease. Biologically, women seem more susceptible to the dangers of smoking and passive smoking. “There is free support widely available on the NHS to help both men and women quit but more effort needs to be made to encourage women not to smoke in the first place – particularly the many young women who take up this addictive and harmful habit every day. “This is very timely research as tobacco companies are increasingly targeting women with slim brands and slick packaging.” Smoking Health Women Medical research guardian.co.uk
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Former News of the World executive arrested by appointment on Wednesday over phone hacking allegations Greg Miskiw, the former News of the World newsdesk executive arrested on Wednesday , has been released on bail. Miskiw, 61, was arrested by appointment at a central London police station as part of the Scotland Yard investigation into phone hacking at the News International tabloid. The former assistant editor (news) was on Thursday released on bail until October. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “At approximately midday on Wednesday August 10, a 61-year-old man was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers from Operation Weeting. “He was arrested on suspicion of unlawful interception of communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977. “He has subsequently been released on bail to a date in October pending further inquiries.” Miskiw, who worked under the former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks and her successor Andy Coulson, became the 12th person to be arrested by Operation Weeting officers. Miskiw held a senior editorial role at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid until 2005, when he joined a news agency in Manchester before moving to Florida. He told reporters last month that he was returning to the UK to meet police officers. His arrest came just a week after that of Stuart Kuttner , the long-serving News of the World managing editor who was also later released on bail. Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday vowed to do ” whatever is necessary ” to prevent a repeat of the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed his UK publishing empire when News International’s parent company News Corporation unveiled its annual results in New York. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News International Rupert Murdoch News Corporation Media business Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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Pyongyang, accused of opening fire near disputed maritime line, blames skirmish on South’s ‘overreaction’ to construction noise North Korea has called South Korea’s claim of an artillery exchange between the rcountries “preposterous”, saying the South mistook construction noise for artillery when it accused Pyongyang of opening fire near the rivals’ disputed maritime line. North Korea said in a statement that the South overreacted to “normal blasting” from a North Korean construction project “aimed at improving the standard of people’s living”. South Korean defence officials say marines returned fire on Wednesday after North Korea launched artillery shells into the same waters that saw a deadly artillery exchange between the countries last November. “It was preposterous in the age of science when latest detecting and intelligence means are available that they mistook the blasting for shelling,” an unnamed North Korean representative to inter-Korean military talks said in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency. “It was a tragicomedy that they indiscriminately reacted to what happened with counter-shelling even without confirming the truth about the case in the sensitive waters.” South Korean defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said three North Korean shells originally fired near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea prompted the South to fire back three shells. Another ministry official, who refused to be named because of office policy, said North Korea fired more rounds later in the day and that South Korea responded. All the shells landed in the water, South Korea said, and there were no reports of casualties. South Korean forces have been on high alert in the area since last November when a North Korean artillery attack killed four people, including two marines, on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island. Wednesday’s artillery exchange took place nearby, South Korea said. It follows a recent easing of animosity between the Koreas and comes ahead of joint US-South Korean military drills set for next week. Last month, a senior North Korean diplomat met with US officials in New York to negotiate ways to restart long-stalled international talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its aspirations concerning nuclear weapons. The meeting came after the Koreas’ nuclear envoys held cordial talks during a regional security forum in Indonesia. In its statement on Thursday, the North repeated its call for the cancellation of the US-South Korean drills and said South Korea was deliberately trying to ruin “the atmosphere of dialogue in the Korean peninsula”. On Wednesday, the US urged North Korea to exercise restraint and take steps to allow the six-nation disarmament talks to resume. “This incident is now over, and we now need to move back to the main business at hand,” state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington. North Korea’s shelling took place unexpectedly, South Korean officials said, and neither side was conducting firing drills at the time. Violence often erupts in the contested slice of sea. Three deadly naval clashes since 1999 have claimed dozens of lives. Kim said one North Korean artillery shell is believed to have fallen south of the maritime line. The maritime line separating the countries was drawn by the US-led UN Command without Pyongyang’s consent at the close of the 1950-53 Korean war, which ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically in a state of war. North Korea routinely argues that the line should run further south. Baek Seung-joo, a military analyst at the state-run Korea Institute for Defence Analyses in South Korea, said the North appears to be rattling its sabres ahead of the annual US-South Korean military exercises. On Monday a North Korean military spokesman released an open letter that called the joint exercises “hideous provocations”. He warned that Pyongyang had access to a “nuclear deterrent powerful enough to protect” itself. It has conducted two nuclear tests since 2006. North Korea South Korea guardian.co.uk
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