Chris Wallace to Pawlenty: Your economic plan won’t work without tax increases
June 12, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty struggled to come up with an answer Sunday after a Fox News host pointed out that the five percent growth required by his economic plan has only historically come after tax increases. In a speech at the University of Chicago Tuesday, Pawlenty revealed an economic plan that gives big tax cuts to wealthy Americans and corporations while requiring growth that is historically unlikely. “You say you can pay for the tax cuts because the economy is going to grow by five percent over the next decade,” Fox News’ Chris Wallace noted. “Governor, question: Since the United States began measuring GDP — basically the growth of the economy — in 1929, when have we ever had 10 consecutive years of five percent growth as you project in your plan?” “Well, this is an aspiration,” Pawlenty explained. “It’s a big goal and it’s a stretch goal… I don’t buy into the declinist view and attitude of President Obama that we are going to settle for anemic growth or average growth or America is going to be a laggard. We are going to lead the world economically and all other respects.” He continued: “We have achieved five percent growth twice in recent history of this country. Once under Reagan, once under Clinton. Now, was it sustained for 10 years in those circumstances? No.” “Is it declinist to doubt the five percent number or is it just realist to doubt the five percent number?” Wallace asked. “You talk about the fact that for a few years in the 80s and a few years in the 90s that we did have average 5 percent growth — or close to it, it was 4 point something. But the fact is, the difference is, in both of those occasions that was coming directly out of a recession, not after a year, a year into a weak recovery. And actually, in both of those cases, it came after a tax increase, not a tax cut.” “But Chris, as I said, this is an aspirational goal… of course the conservatives like the plan, President Obama and the liberals don’t. That’s predictable,” Pawlenty said. “That’s not quite fair,” Wallace interrupted. “There are a lot of conservative who doubt the number. And if you don’t get your five percent growth — which you now say is just aspirational — then it means an even bigger deficit.” The Washington Post ‘s Glenn Kessler noted that while both Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had years of near five percent growth, their average over eight years was only about 3.5 percent. “The last president to achieve consistent growth above 5 percent was John F. Kennedy a half-century ago, when the baby-boom generation was on the verge of entering the workforce,” Kessler wrote. “Now, that generation is heading into retirement, leaving fewer workers to carry the burden.” “This plan isn’t optimistic,” The Washington Post ‘s Ezra Klein wrote Tuesday . “It isn’t a bit vague. It’s a joke.” “I don’t know which is worse: The thought that Pawlenty knows that and went forward with this pandering, fantasy-based proposal anyway, or the thought that he doesn’t know it, and he really thinks this could work.”
Continue reading …Bedouin children hope their West Bank school will be spared Israel’s bulldozers
June 12, 2011 No Comment
Pupils who scramble through drainage pipe to attend school wonder if their tyre and mud building will still be there next term Each morning, they scrabble through a drainage pipe under a busy main road slicing through the unforgiving landscape between Jerusalem and Jericho, where hard-baked stony hills roll down to the Dead Sea. At the end of the school day, they clamber back down to the drainage pipe to pass beneath the thundering traffic on their way home. But, after today, the last school day in the academic year, the pupils of Khan al-Ahmar primary in the West Bank cannot be certain their school will still be standing come September. Head teacher Hanan Awad fears that if the building is left empty, bulldozers will rumble up the hill from the main road to tear down the illegal two-year-old structure built out of old car tyres and mud. So she and her team of nine women teachers are planning a programme of children’s summer activities to keep the building occupied. To take part, around a third of the school’s rollcall of 80, who live on the other side of the road, will have to crawl through the pipe, as they do every day simply to get to class. The road is the principal reason why the school was built. Route 1, a major Israeli artery, connects Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and the settlements along its spine. Dozens of tiny Bedouin encampments also perch on the rocky hills. Until 2009, young children from Khan al-Amar risked their lives walking or hitch-hiking the 22km to schools in Jericho. Israeli authorities do not permit buses and shared taxis to stop on the roadside. Five children have died after being hit by cars in the past few years. The only vehicle access to Khan al-Amar is through a gap in the roadside barrier, scheduled to be closed in the future. After some parents withdrew their younger children from school rather than risk the perilous journey, the Bedouin villagers decided to build their own establishment. An Italian architect, Valerio Marazzi, suggested an innovative construction using discarded car tyres and mud. The Bedouin men and volunteers collected around 2,000 tyres from West Bank rubbish dumps and built the school in a month. It serves five small communities, two across the highway. The Israeli Civil Administration, which governs 62% of the West Bank, swiftly issued a demolition order as the school, along with other village structures, had been built without a permit – which is practically impossible to obtain. Legal challenges to the order stayed its execution until the end of the last school year, but since then the threat of demolition has hung over the school and the community. Eight-year-old Nisreen, dressed in her blue-and-white striped uniform and missing a front tooth, is well aware that the school’s days may be numbered. “I know it might be demolished by the Israelis,” she says, shyly adding that she likes reading best. “I want to stay here.” The school is just a few metres walk from her family’s home, built out of wooden crates, tarpaulin, wire and string. Nisreen’s older brother leaves at 6am to get to school in Jericho, returning at 5pm after a long, hot uphill journey. The inhabitants of the five encampments straddled across Route 1 are members of the Jahalin Bedouin community. Originally from the Negev, in southern Israel, they fled to the West Bank during the 1948 war. Their makeshift homes have no running water, sanitation or electricity. They have no regular access to health care. Nisreen’s father, Eid Hamis Swelem Jahalin, who has a degree in accountancy from the West Bank’s Birzeit university, worked as a driver and labourer in the nearby Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim for 20 years until the settlers barred Bedouin workers. Now most of the men in the encampment are unemployed. The traditional herding grounds for their goats and sheep have been swallowed up by the settlement, and they claim the settlers and their security guards dig up crops they plant in the arid ground. Hamis shows a picture on a mobile phone of his wife lying on the ground being kicked by a man, taken last Monday. It is the most recent example of a string of attacks by settlers on the Bedouin villagers, he claims. The Israeli authorities want the Bedouin to move to a designated area dominated by Jerusalem municipal rubbish dumps. All 257 families in the five villages have been issued with demolition orders for their homes. “All the village, not just the school, is unauthorised,” said Lt Col Ofer Mey-Tal of the Israeli Civil Administration. “These people don’t own the land, they just took it. So the village itself is a problem, and the solution is for it to move.” He said the authorities would not demolish the school over the summer, or at any time before the village was relocated. “We’re not going to destroy the school. We like the school, but it’s not authorised.” The Bedouin villagers are resisting relocation. “I was born here, I’ve spent most of my life here, and I want to stay here,” Hamis says. Back in the tyre and mud school, Hanan Awad is hoping the summer holidays will pass without the appearance of the bulldozers. She is proud of the school. “It’s unique,” she says. “We are not thinking about demolition,” she insists. “If we keep thinking about it, we won’t be able to get on with our jobs.” The teachers try not to discuss politics or the threat of demolition in class, she adds. Despite their difficult living conditions and bleak economic prospects “the children are happy. They just want to learn”. Palestinian territories Middle East Israel Primary schools Schools Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Airlines including Qantas and Virgin Australia suspend flights as ash cloud spreads, threatening to damage engines Airlines in Australia and New Zealand suspended flights on Sunday as an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in southern Chile spread, threatening to damage engines. Australia’s national carrier, Qantas, said all of its flights in and out of the Melbourne would be grounded. It also cancelled 22 flights to and from New Zealand and Tasmania, as well as eight flights within New Zealand’s south island, as the dust cloud from Chile’s erupting Cordon Caulle volcano spread across the atmosphere. About 8,000 people would be affected by the cancellations, a Qantas spokeswoman said. Virgin Australia suspended 34 domestic flights and one international one from Melbourne. “We have been closely monitoring the situation all day,” Virgin’s Sean Donohue said in a statement. “Safety is always our number one priority.” Australian budget carrier Jetstar said it cancelled domestic flights to New Zealand’s south island airports. National carrier Air New Zealand did not cancel or delay any flights but has adjusted flight routes and altitudes to ensure aircraft remain clear of any ash, company spokeswoman Tracy Mills said. The drifting clouds of fine grit can severely damage airplane engines. New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority said the ash plumes could affect cruising levels for both jet and turboprop aircraft at between 20,000 and 35,000 feet (6,000 and 10,600 metres). The agency said the ash was likely to disrupt flights for the next week. The volcano in Chile began erupting on 4 June. Flights in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil were grounded for days following the eruption. The flight warnings and disruptions come 14 months after air traffic was grounded across Europe after the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Air transport Chile Australia New Zealand Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Amy Holmes: ‘Media Needs to Go to Rehab With Weiner and Get Over Obsession With Palin’
June 12, 2011 No Comment
Amy Holmes of America's Radio News Network made a fabulous observation Sunday concerning the New York Times and the Washington Post asking readers to go through Sarah Palin's email messages to assist them in finding dirt on the former governor. Appearing on CNN's “Reliable Sources,” Holmes marvelously concluded, “The media it seemed to me it was like they were putting out an 'America’s Most Wanted' tipline to try to find something to try to nail Sarah Palin…I think the media needs to go to rehab with Anthony Weiner and get over their obsession with this woman” (video follows with transcript and commentary): HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: But because so many journalists went to Alaska – CNN sent somebody, MSNBC sent Mike Isikoff – they almost were invested in having to do stories to justify the initial expense. AMY HOLMES, AMERICA’S RADIO NEWS NETWORK: Right, I think that's true. Someone described it as if they were, you know, trying to record the moon landing with all of this. It's just totally ridiculous. I think it was as disgraceful as it was ludicrous. And no, the media does not do this to other politicians like President Obama with this feeding frenzy and sending everybody everywhere to try to get the media try to get the public involved. DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST: If he released private emails, I’d even go into the office for that. HOLMES: These were not private emails. This was a FOIA request for government emails. HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Right, these were state government… HOLMES: Right. This is absurd. She’s not even… KURTZ: But why disgraceful? HOLMES: …she's not an elected politician. She is not sitting in office. She hasn't even yet, if she's going to, thrown her hat into the ring to run for President of the United States or the United States Senate from Arizona. KURTZ: Why was this a disgraceful exercise by the media? HOLMES: The media it seemed to me it was like they were putting out an “America’s Most Wanted” tipline to try to find something to try to nail Sarah Palin. All we found out from this is that she wanted a tanning bed. This is ridiculous, and I think the media needs to go to rehab with Anthony Weiner and get over their obsession with this woman. KURTZ: Alright, you've got your marching orders. Find a clinic for yourselves. Kurtz should be advised that if he wants suggestions for clinics or which media members should be admitted, we would be more than happy to assist his research efforts. We've even got videos to back up our recommendations.
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Somalia’s president congratulates troops who killed al-Qaida terrorist responsible for African embassy bombings Kenyans and Somalis are celebrating the death of al-Qaida mastermind who planned East Africa’s deadliest terror attack in recent history and had eluded capture for 13 years, and Somalia’s president has congratulated the troops who killed him. The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed – a man who topped the FBI’s most wanted list for planning the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania – was the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month. Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed congratulated government soldiers for killing Mohammed on Tuesday at a Mogadishu security checkpoint. “His aim was to commit violence in and outside the country,” Ahmed said, showing reporters documents and pictures he said government troops recovered from Mohammed. Ahmed did not let reporters check the documents, but he held up photos he said were of Mohammed’s family and operational maps for the militants in Mogadishu. Ahmed also held up a condolence letter he said Mohammed sent after bin Laden’s death. He didn’t say who it was addressed to, but said Mohammed co-authored the letter with a known Islamist leader in Somalia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also honoured the victims of the bombings during a visit to the American compound in Tanzania. She put flowers on a large rock just inside the main gate of the embassy, said a silent prayer and spoke with three Tanzanian employees who were at the embassy when it was bombed. The attacks in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans died. One of the survivors, Douglas Sidialo, was blinded by the bombing in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi. “God the creator has delivered Fazul Abdullah Mohammed to his destiny the same way he delivered Bin Laden to his destiny,” he said. “When you kill by the sword, bullets and bombs you die through a similar tragedy.” Sidialo, who said he once wanted to skin Bin Laden alive, said Sunday he has “moved on” and now would have preferred to see Mohammed captured alive and asked to account for his decisions. “Any death is not a cause of celebration,” he said. Thousands were wounded when a pickup truck rigged as a bomb exploded outside the four-story U.S. Embassy building. Within minutes, another bomb shattered the U.S. mission in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. “Killing terrorists only breeds more terrorists. We must find a lasting solution to this menace,” said Sidialo. Global terrorism Somalia Africa Kenya Tanzania guardian.co.uk
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Only question is whether prime minister will win enough votes to secure a mandate to rewrite the country’s constitution Voters in Turkey look set to make Recep Tayyip Erdogan the most successful prime minister in the history of the country’s multi-party system after an election that could open the door for fundamental changes to the constitution. Erdogan’s centre-right Justice and Development party (AKP) has goverened since a landslide victory in 2002, and all indicators are that it will win easily again after Sunday’s vote. “The sole question is if the AKP will win with a margin sufficiently large enough to secure them a constitutional majority, ” Gencer Ozcan, professor for international relations at Bilgi University, told the Guardian. According to Turkey’s current constitution, a party needs to win at least 10% of the national vote before it can enter the country’s 550-seat parliament. Only two of the 15 parties standing for election are expected to achieve that, with pollsters suggesting that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will get up to 30% of the votes. The rightwing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) might yet be stopped from reaching the threshold, after a sex tape scandal caused the resignation of 10 senior party members. Some 28 independent candidates, who are not bound to the 10% hurdle, are also expected to be voted into office. The AKP has vowed to change the constitution, which has remained largely unchanged since it was implemented in 1982 in the aftermath of a military coup two years earlier. If the MHP fails to get 10% of the vote, the AKP has a real chance to secure a supermajority, which would allow Erdogan to rewrite the country’s constitution without having to consult the rest of parliament. “In one way or another, Erdogan wants to implement a presidential system,” Ozcan said. “This is the main goal of a new constitution. This is the first time that the prime minister handpicked all AKP candidates, assuring absolute loyalty within his own party. In previous terms, there was a form of balance of power within the AKP, but this is now over.” Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian stance has raised concerns in Turkey and abroad, and government critics accuse him of wanting to “Putinise” the country in an effort to remain in charge beyond 2015, when he would be barred from serving as prime minister again. “He strongly dislikes any kind of checks and balances,”Ozcan said. Four years ago the debate centred on whether Erdogan wanted to turn Turkey into an Islamic state , with the military threatening to overthrow the government. “The only reason that I give my vote to the CHP today is to push the AKP out of power,” said Seyhan Namli, as he went to the polls in the Cihangir neighbourhood of Istanbul. “I am not afraid of an Islamisation of Turkey at all,” she said. “But the AKP disregards the poor, the disenfranchised. They do politics only to fill their own pockets.” Even were they to win a constitutional majority in parliament, the AKP will face a rocky third term. Analysts predict a dangerously overheating economy, and Turkey’s “zero-problem” foreign policy is being challenged by regional uprisings such as that in neighbouring Syria , long an ally of AKP-ruled Turkey. Journalist Oral Çalislar told the Guardian: “Prime Minister Erdogan has already indicated that after the elections, the honeymoon with Syria will be over. Turkey will take a much harder stance, and side with the EU to solve the Syrian problem.” The handling of Turkey’s large Kurdish minority will also be a key issue. In a ballot station in the predominantly Kurdish area of Dolapdere, Süleyman Demir expressed his dissatisfaction with the AKP. “We don’t expect anything from the government anymore”, he said. “Erdogan has made his view on Kurdish rights only too clear over the past weeks.” During the election campaign Erdogan adopted a harsher and more nationalistic tone which, critics say, has alienated many Kurds. “There is no comparison anymore to the Erdogan of 2002 and 2005. He has turned his stance by 180 degrees,” said 34-year-old Demir. He, like many other Kurds, voted for one of the independent candidates backed by the Kurdish BDP. “We don’t want any canals, bridges or airports,” he said in reference to Erdogan’s regeneration schemes . “We don’t need any ‘crazy projects’. All we want is peace, and an end to the bloodshed in the south-east.” Turkey Middle East Europe guardian.co.uk
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Experts suspect source of targeted attack to be nation state as reports suggest IMF systems have been under attack for months The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is investigating a serious cyber-attack in which some of its systems were compromised and used to access internal data. Security experts said that the source seemed to be a “nation state” aiming to gain a “digital insider presence” on the network of the IMF, the inter-governmental group that oversees the global financial system and brings together 187 member countries. Tom Kellerman, a cybersecurity expert who has worked for both the IMF and was in charge of cyberintelligence in the World Bank’s treasury team, said the intrusion could have yielded a treasure trove of non-public economic data used by the IMF to promote exchange rate stability, support balanced international trade and provide resources to remedy members’ balance-of-payments crises. “It was a targeted attack,” said Kellerman, who serves on the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance. The attack will increase concerns over low-level cyberwarfare waged by governments for economic and industrial espionage purposes, which have grown in recent weeks with announcements by the chancellor, George Osborne, of cyber-attacks on the Treasury and by defence secretary Liam Fox of a “sustained attack” on the Ministry of Defence . Earlier this year it was revealed that computers at France’s finance ministry had been hacked and were silently redirecting data to websites in China, apparently in an effort to steal documents relating to February’s G20 summit. The code used in the IMF incident was developed specifically for the attack on the institution, said Kellerman, now chief technology officer at cyberconsultancy AirPatrol. The World Bank said it had cut its network connection with the IMF out of caution, even though the information shared over the link was “non-sensitive”. The IMF insists that it remains “fully functional” while the FBI investigates the attack. An internal memo issued on 8 June from the IMF’s chief information officer, Jonathan Palmer, told staff that suspicious file transfers had been detected and that an investigation had shown a desktop computer “had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems”. Significantly, he said that he had “no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes”. That points to a cyber-attack which sought to gain deeper access to the organisation’s computers. The New York Times cited computer experts as saying that the IMF’s systems had been under attack for several months. Such attacks have grown in number and seriousness over the past two years. At the end of 2009, Google discovered that it had come under attack from hackers inside China who sought high-level access to its systems and targeted dissidents’ email accounts. Senior figures inside the search engine company are convinced the attack was orchestrated by the Chinese government. A number of other financial and military organisations came under attack at around the same time, and last month Google said that it had again detected “phishing” attacks aimed at capturing login details for US government officials emanating from China. The Chinese government denied involvement — though it had not been directly accused. “The attack was clearly designed to infiltrate the IMF with the intention of gaining sensitive ‘insider privileged information’,” cybersecurity specialist Mohan Koo, the managing director of Dtex Systems (UK) said, adding that the recent spate of attacks on large global organisations was worrying because they were targeted, well organised and well executed, not opportunistic. “Perhaps most frightening of all is the fact that these type of attacks could quite easily be directed towards critical national infrastructure (CNI) organisations, for example energy and water, where the impact of such a breach would have severe, immediate and potentially life-threatening consequences for everyday citizens.” Rich Mills, a World Bank spokesman, said: “The World Bank Group, like any other large organisation, is increasingly aware of potential threats to the security of our information system and we are constantly working to improve our defences.” News of the hack came at a sensitive time for the world lender of last resort, as it seeks to replace its former managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quit last month after being charged with the attempted rape of a hotel maid. The French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, remains the frontrunner to replace him. Stanley Fischer, the governor of the Bank of Israel and a former IMF deputy chief, has emerged as a late candidate, and Mexico’s central bank chief, Agustin Carstens, is also a contender. Jeff Moss, a self-described computer hacker and member of the Department of Homeland Security advisory committee, said the IMF intrusion could inspire attacks on other large institutions. “If they can’t catch them, I’m afraid it might embolden others to try,” said Moss, who is chief security officer for ICANN, the internet registry system. Security experts said it would be difficult for investigators to prove which nation was behind the attack. “Even developing nations are able to leverage the Internet in order to change their standing and ability to influence,” said Jeffrey Carr, author of the book Inside Cyber Warfare. “It’s something they never could have done before without gold or without military might,” Carr said. The CIA director, Leon Panetta, told the US Congress on 9 June that the country faced the “real possibility” of a crippling internet-based attack on power systems, the electricity grid, security, financial and governmental systems. Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s top supplier by sales and the biggest information technology provider to the US government, disclosed two weeks ago that it had thwarted a “significant” cyber-attack. It said it had become a “frequent target of adversaries around the world”. Access to the website of Spain’s national police force was blocked for over an hour late on Saturday in a reprisal attack by the Anonymous hackers group, El Mundo said on its website. IMF Economics Global economy Hacking Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Co-ordination committees documenting anti-government protests report besieged town attacked from south and east Syrian army tanks rolled into the besieged town of Jisr al-Shughour from two sides on Sunday, accompanied by machine gun fire and loud explosions. Local co-ordination committees, which have been documenting anti-government protests, reported that the town was attacked from the south and east by troops in about 200 vehicles, including tanks. Blasts could be heard as helicopters clattered overhead. The foreign secretary, William Hague, reacted to the attack by calling on the UN security council to proceed with a resolution condemning violence by Syrian troops against their own people. However, in a Sky News interview, he said the likelihood of securing a resolution were on a “knife-edge” because of opposition from neighbouring Lebanon. Hague also ruled out military action, saying there was “no prospect” of the UN authorising air raids. The advance on Jisr al-Shughour was announced just over a week ago as vengeance for what the Syrian government claimed was the killing of 120 members of the military by “armed men”. Activists said the victims were members of the security forces who were shot by regime loyalists after they refused to fire on protesters. The town has now been sealed off by around 15,000 troops. Syrian forces told an Associated Press reporter – who, despite a general ban on foreign journalists entering the country, was invited to travel with them as they entered Jisr al-Shughour – that troops were there to arrest “gunmen” in the largely evacuated town. Jisr al-Shughour, in the north-west of Syria, is normally home to about 40,000 people, but thousands of inhabitants have crossed into Turkey in recent days, taking sanctuary in refugee camps. Many of those who remained behind fled on Sunday if they were able to do so. One of the remaining residents – 39-year-old Hikmat, who was present when the Syrian army rolled in – reported seeing troops firing indiscriminately. He finally fled after being shot in the foot by government troops. The region, near Turkey’s border, has a history of hostility towards the Damascus regime and is posing the biggest challenge yet to President Bashar Assad’s struggle to crush the anti-government revolt. Reports emerged of government troops firing live rounds at large crowds who had gathered last Sunday in a large public garden in the centre of Jisr al-Shughour to mark the funeral of a man killed by security forces the previous day. Abu Tahar, a 29-year-old ambulance driver being treated for gunshot wounds to his back at a hospital in Antakya, Turkey, said he was shot after arriving at the garden to help the wounded, and reported that bullets “were raining from everywhere”. Members of his family, who he has contacted by telephone since being evacuated, have confirmed that large numbers of security forces who had abandoned their posts in the hours following the massacre in the garden were shot at by soldiers loyal to the regime. The Syria-based human rights activist Mustafa Osso said the army was conducting military operations in three areas in the Idlib province, including the towns of Maaret al-Numan, Jisr al-Shughour, and the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya, a mountain that includes several villages. He reported that advancing troops were using heavy weaponry against hundreds of army defectors from the area, and said this was “the biggest and most dangerous wave of defections” since an uprising against Assad’s regime began in mid-March. Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad William Hague Foreign policy Turkey Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
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Arizona congresswoman suffered serious head injuries in January shooting in which six people died and 13 were injured The first photographs of US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head in Tucson in January have been published. The imagesappeared on Gifford’s Facebook page on Sunday. The Republican congresswoman for Arizonahas spent nearly five months in a Houston rehabilitation centre, following the mass shooting on 8 January in which six people were killed and 13 were injured. The only previous time she had appeared in the public since the shooting was on 27 April, when she took a flight to Florida to see her husband, the astronaut Mark Kelly, launched into space. Grainy footage, taken from afar, showed Giffords slowly but purposefully walking up the aircraft’s stairs. Last month, as Kelly was orbiting Earth, doctors operated on Giffords’ skull, finally freeing her from wearing a cumbersome protective helmet that her staff members said she hated. Giffords has made remarkable progress, asking for her favourite foods, singing her favourite songs and learning again how to walk and talk, although she struggles to string sentences together. In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Giffords’ chief-of-staff Pia Carusone said Giffords’ limited speaking ability means she relies primarily on facial expressions and hand gestures to communicate. “She is borrowing upon other ways of communicating. Her words are back more and more now, but she’s still using facial expressions as a way to express. Pointing. Gesturing,” Carusone said. “Add it all together and she’s able to express the basics of what she wants or needs. But, when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that’s where she’s had the trouble.” Carusone also said that if Giffords’ recovery were to plateau now “it would not be nearly the quality of life she had before”. “All that we can hope for is that she won’t plateau today and that she’ll keep going and that when she does plateau, it will be at a place far away from here,” she said. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the shooting and is being held in a Missouri jail. A judge declared him incompetent to stand trial, but prosecutors still hope he will eventually be declared fit to answer the charges against him. Gabrielle Giffords United States US politics Republicans Arizona Arizona shooting Gun crime guardian.co.uk
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Defence Environment and Safety Board warns that austerity will ‘undoubtedly place a severe strain on systems’ An official Ministry of Defence report has warned that cutbacks threaten to compromise safety at the UK’s leading military sites and on its aircraft, submarines and ships. The Defence Environment and Safety Board is the senior panel that reports to ministers about all aspects of safety across the MoD estate, including nuclear weapons sites. Its 2010 report, just published , concludes that, while the outcome of the government’s ongoing defence reform review is unclear, “the need to reduce costs and the severe reduction in personnel numbers will undoubtedly place a severe strain on safety systems”. It finds there has been “little evidence of improvement” in safety levels since last year and notes the number of safety-related deaths of MoD personnel more than doubled over the year, rising from 7 to 15. In addition, four Crown Improvement Notices, requiring urgent action to tackle safety shortcomings, were issued last year, compared with none in 2009. The report warns: “It will become increasingly difficult to maintain that the defence nuclear programmes are being managed with due regard for the protection of the workforce, the public and the environment”, noting the principal threats to safety in the medium term “are the adequacy of resources… and the maintenance of a sustainable cadre of suitably competent staff”. “A private company would never be able to get away with such a poor safety performance as that shown by the Ministry of Defence,” said Peter Burt, of the Nuclear Information Service, which is opposed to nuclear weapons. The report also says much of the military’s fuels storage infrastructure must be classed as high risk, because it “is beyond its designated life” and “falls below current legislative requirements in key areas”. Defence policy Public sector cuts Nuclear weapons Public services policy Public finance Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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