Stock exchange plunges 12% after he wins close race against daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori Ollanta Humala gained a narrow but undisputed victory in Peru’s election, it was confirmed on Monday , provoking rapture, dread and uncertainty over whether the former soldier would rule as a leftwing moderate or radical. With almost all votes from Sunday’s poll counted, Humala had won 7,182,788 and his rival Keiko Fujimori 6,807,933, translating into 51.3% and 48.7% respectively after a bitter campaign that polarised the country. Humala, 48, told cheering supporters in central Lima that a “great transformation” would share out Peru’s wealth more equally while respecting democratic norms and market capitalism. “It’s not possible to say that the country is progressing when 12 million people are living in extreme poverty without electricity or running water. The task will be difficult but we will work … to unite the Peruvian people without any type of discrimination.” Celebrations erupted in indigenous Andean communities where extreme poverty has persisted despite a commodities-fuelled economic boom. Humala, 48, promised new anti-poverty programmes partly funded from a tax on windfall mining profits. The election result exposed a sharp rural-urban divide, with many coastal towns and cities, including the capital, narrowly favouring Fujimori and her promise to keep foreign investment flowing into Peru. Big business and media groups backed the 36-year-old senator despite the fact that her father, Alberto, is in jail for corruption and human rights abuses committed while he was president in the 1990s. Humala, who led an unsuccessful coup against Fujimori in 2000, pulled ahead in the final days of the campaign after reminding voters of forced sterilisations and rampant corruption during Fujimori’s rule. His victory sent the stock exchange plunging 12%, prompting temporary suspension of trading and fears of capital flight. Investors fear the former lieutenant colonel may follow radical economic policies of his one-time mentor, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. Humala renounced Chávez during the campaign, swapped red T-shirts for dark suits and promised to rule like a Lula-style social democrat. But doubts remain. “We believe there is still a significant amount of uncertainty regarding who is the ‘real’ Humala,” said a research note from RBC Capital Markets. Humala and Fujimori are reviled by many Peruvians as dangerous demagogues but centrist rivals cancelled each other in the first round in April, putting the two populists from opposite ends of the political spectrum into the runoff. Bill Richardson, a former New Mexico governor who was in Lima as an Organisation of American States election observer, called Humala “a nationalist and an enigma with evolving views and a pragmatic streak”. He added: “I think he’s educable and the business community should give him a chance.” Analysts will watch closely to see who he names to his cabinet, especially the finance minister, and whether he seeks ties to the Chávez-led Alba trade group. Peru Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Zambian troops should have had ‘more visibility’ during fighting over Abyei, top military adviser finds The UN has admitted peacekeepers were wrong to stay in barracks during recent fighting between northern and southern Sudan that left scores of people dead and caused tens of thousands to flee. General Babacar Gaye, the UN peacekeeping department’s top military adviser, found that “we could have and should have had more visibility to deter any violence against civilians,” a spokesman said. The fighting and continued tensions over the fertile, oil-rich Abyei region have raised fears of renewed civil war a month before southern Sudan secedes from the north. UN diplomats reportedly criticised the peacekeepers from Zambia for failing to carry out their mandate to patrol and protect civilians last month. “They locked themselves up for a couple of days,” one was quoted as saying by Reuters. “They were then instructed to come out of their barracks and start patrolling, but they had already lost a crucial 48 hours.” One senior diplomat described their performance as pathetic, Reuters reported. The failings were confirmed when Gaye visited the unit. Michel Bonnardeaux, public affairs officer for the UN department of peacekeeping operations, said: “The military adviser went to Sudan to meet the force commander and troops on the ground. “He found that we could have and should have had more visibility to deter any violence against civilians and the destruction of property. He has given the appropriate guidance to the force commander and troops to be more proactive and visible.” The UN Missions in Sudan (Unmis) troops were themselves under fire at their base, Bonnardeaux added. “In terms of the physical protection of civilians, it must be recognised that most civilians left the area before the peak of the crisis and that Unmis troops and civilians were themselves in imminent danger as the Unmis compound itself was hit.” Zambian peacekeepers in Abyei have been criticised before. In 2008, they refused to allow civilians caught in crossfire between northern and southern Sudanese soldiers into their compound. The UN security council last week strongly condemned the north’s invasion of the Abyei region and takeover of Abyei town, which was precipitated by a 19 May attack on northern and UN troops by southern soldiers. It called on Sudanese forces to “ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning, and illegal resettlement” in Abyei and asked both the north and the south to withdraw their troops from the area. A confidential UN human rights report obtained by Associated Press warned that the Sudanese army’s invasion of Abyei could lead to ethnic cleansing if the residents who fled were not able to return. More than 30,000 Ngok Dinkas, a black tribe that associates itself with Sudan’s south, fled Abyei when northern troops and ethnic Misseriya Arab cattle herders aligned with the north moved in and looted homes. The UN report estimated that 15-20% of the homes in Abyei were burned in what it called “deliberate destruction” and a violation of international humanitarian law. A south Sudan official said nearly 100 civilians had been killed in recent weeks in the Abyei region. UN troops have previously been accused of failing to protect civilians in the Balkans and Rwanda and, more recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations Sudan Africa David Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Zambian troops should have had ‘more visibility’ during fighting over Abyei, top military adviser finds The UN has admitted peacekeepers were wrong to stay in barracks during recent fighting between northern and southern Sudan that left scores of people dead and caused tens of thousands to flee. General Babacar Gaye, the UN peacekeeping department’s top military adviser, found that “we could have and should have had more visibility to deter any violence against civilians,” a spokesman said. The fighting and continued tensions over the fertile, oil-rich Abyei region have raised fears of renewed civil war a month before southern Sudan secedes from the north. UN diplomats reportedly criticised the peacekeepers from Zambia for failing to carry out their mandate to patrol and protect civilians last month. “They locked themselves up for a couple of days,” one was quoted as saying by Reuters. “They were then instructed to come out of their barracks and start patrolling, but they had already lost a crucial 48 hours.” One senior diplomat described their performance as pathetic, Reuters reported. The failings were confirmed when Gaye visited the unit. Michel Bonnardeaux, public affairs officer for the UN department of peacekeeping operations, said: “The military adviser went to Sudan to meet the force commander and troops on the ground. “He found that we could have and should have had more visibility to deter any violence against civilians and the destruction of property. He has given the appropriate guidance to the force commander and troops to be more proactive and visible.” The UN Missions in Sudan (Unmis) troops were themselves under fire at their base, Bonnardeaux added. “In terms of the physical protection of civilians, it must be recognised that most civilians left the area before the peak of the crisis and that Unmis troops and civilians were themselves in imminent danger as the Unmis compound itself was hit.” Zambian peacekeepers in Abyei have been criticised before. In 2008, they refused to allow civilians caught in crossfire between northern and southern Sudanese soldiers into their compound. The UN security council last week strongly condemned the north’s invasion of the Abyei region and takeover of Abyei town, which was precipitated by a 19 May attack on northern and UN troops by southern soldiers. It called on Sudanese forces to “ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning, and illegal resettlement” in Abyei and asked both the north and the south to withdraw their troops from the area. A confidential UN human rights report obtained by Associated Press warned that the Sudanese army’s invasion of Abyei could lead to ethnic cleansing if the residents who fled were not able to return. More than 30,000 Ngok Dinkas, a black tribe that associates itself with Sudan’s south, fled Abyei when northern troops and ethnic Misseriya Arab cattle herders aligned with the north moved in and looted homes. The UN report estimated that 15-20% of the homes in Abyei were burned in what it called “deliberate destruction” and a violation of international humanitarian law. A south Sudan official said nearly 100 civilians had been killed in recent weeks in the Abyei region. UN troops have previously been accused of failing to protect civilians in the Balkans and Rwanda and, more recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations Sudan Africa David Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Click here to view this media It appears that the Fox News graphic department doesn’t know what their own employees look like. During a segment reporting that Sarah Palin was undecided on whether or not to jump into the 2012 presidential race, the news channel showed a photo of Tina Fey imitating the former Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008. In 2009, Fox News management sent out a memo to employees saying that on-screen errors would no longer be tolerated. “Effective immediately, there is zero tolerance for on-screen errors,” the memo said. “Mistakes by any member of the show team that end up on air may result in immediate disciplinary action against those who played significant roles in the ‘mistake chain,’ and those who supervise them. That may include warning letters to personnel files, suspensions, and other possible actions up to and including termination, and this will all obviously play a role in performance reviews.”
Continue reading …
Speaking to the media outside the upstate New York prison where he had spent the last 20 months, former New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress thanked God and said it was a ‘beautiful day’ to be reunited with his family. (June 6)
Continue reading …
Speaking to the media outside the upstate New York prison where he had spent the last 20 months, former New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress thanked God and said it was a ‘beautiful day’ to be reunited with his family. (June 6)
Continue reading …
Copper theft from railway lines is so rife the rail operator has had to take on new staff, as well as pay compensation for delays The theft of copper cables from Britain’s railways is reaching epidemic proportions, costing the operator Network Rail millions of pounds as it takes on extra staff to catch the criminals and pays out compensation to train companies for delays on the system. Copper theft from railway lines jumped by 67% to 3,116 incidents in the year to April as metal prices have soared and Britain’s stumbling recovery from recession has continued to push impoverished groups into crime, according to the British Transport Police. But Network Rail maintenance staff working in the worst-hit areas – which are centred around the former steel city of Sheffield – say the number of incidents has spiked even higher in the past three weeks, prompting the company to introduce a new night shift for beleaguered staff. “In the past few weeks it has definitely got worse. Around here, it went from being a minor occurrence to around two or three incidents a week in 2009 and now it’s got to 10 or 12 incidents a week,” said Steve White, the Network Rail engineer in charge of signalling and telecommunications in the Sheffield area. His Blast Lane Depot, situated in the city’s former industrial heartland, introduced a new 10pm to 6am shift three weeks ago because cable theft had become so rife that staff were being contacted as many as seven or eight times a night, White said. Most Network Rail depots around the country have introduced some form of “24/7″ cover. “It’s pretty soul destroying because fixing theft damage is becoming my new day job, so we have much less time to deal with routine faults. And it can only get worse. If someone is desperate and determined they will find a way – copper is likely to keep rising and the austerity measures aren’t helping,” said White. Most of the thefts are carried out by casual criminals, stealing small amounts of copper and selling it on to scrap metal dealers to fund drug or alcohol habits, according to the British Transport Police. “The knock-on effect of these thefts across the network is huge. Everybody is effected, right down to the human resources department which has to deal with increased levels of stress,” White said. The damage is also taking its financial toll, costing Network Rail about £43m in compensation and repair charges in the past three years, as thousands of incidents forced nearly 1 million minutes of delays. One incident on 15 April, near the Nottinghamshire town of Newark, cost Network Rail £620,758 in compensation payments to train and freight operators, after a cut to a line-side cable forced 34 cancellations and 8,074 minutes of delays. Economic hardship has been blamed for the rise in thefts but the soaring price of copper has made it more lucrative to steal. Copper has tripled to about $9,000 (£5,486) a tonne in under three years as fast-growing emerging markets such as China demand increasing quantities of the metal, which is used in wiring, to service its construction boom. The price is also being driven up by financial speculators who have poured tens of billions of dollars into metals as an investment, in the hope of making a profit. The number of copper thefts is closely aligned to its price, meaning that an increase in speculation by pension funds and other investors at one end is likely to filter through to an increase in train service disruptions at the other. Network Rail Commodities Transport Crime Travel & leisure Tom Bawden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
New College of the Humanities, whose students will pay £18,000 a year, offering courses available at University of London at half the price A new private university college founded by the philosopher AC Grayling and staffed by celebrity professors will teach exactly the same syllabuses as the University of London, which charges half the price, it has emerged. Students of the New College of the Humanities will pay £18,000 a year to take courses in history, English literature and philosophy that are already on offer at Birkbeck, Goldsmiths and Royal Holloway for £9,000 or less. Academics complained that syllabuses listed on the New College website appeared to have been copied from the University of London’s own web pages in a move some said amounted to plagiarism. Grayling launched his venture with the claim that it would help save humanities education from government cuts by bringing together teachers including Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson and Stephen Pinker. “Every university is worried about students plagiarising essays,” said Justin Champion, a senior historian at Royal Holloway college, who spotted that the titles of modules he wrote were reproduced on the New College website. “Here we have a whole degree programme being plagiarised. I personally feel quite insulted because I wrote quite a lot of the syllabus. If the University of London didn’t exist and public money hadn’t been used to draw up these syllabuses, they wouldn’t have been able to do this, or they would have had to invest a lot of money.” The New College philosophy syllabus includes: “Logic, epistemology, Greek philosophy: Plato and the pre-Socratics, ethics: Historical perspectives, modern philosophy: Descartes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume”. The University of London course details use exactly the same wording. The syllabus for the literature and history degrees is also identical. Grayling has said that New College students would receive University of London degrees, but the university has since made clear there is “no formal agreement between the University of London and the NCH concerning academic matters”. However, it said it was “legitimate for NCH, as an entirely independent institution, to provide tuition to students of University of London international programmes, as other institutions in London and around the world do”. On Monday, David Latchman, master of Birkbeck, announced that Grayling had resigned from its teaching staff, adding in an email to staff: “Birkbeck has no links with New College and no agreement to provide New College with access to any of its facilities.” Amanda Vickery, a TV historian and history professor at Royal Holloway, was one of the first to spot similarities between the syllabuses. She posted on Twitter : “New College of Humanities seems to have ripped off London Univ’s international programme in history,” adding: “Perplexed to see my own course ‘Experience, Culture & Identity: Women’s lives in England 1688-1850′ at NCH.” Colin Jones, president of the Royal Historic Society and a professor at Queen Mary college, said: “Despite a light scattering of international stardust, this seems to be a somewhat cynical repackaging operation.” Grayling strongly denied the charge, and said teaching at the college would be more extensive, with “value added” by courses in logic, scientific literacy and applied ethics, as well as professional skills. “It is a complete misunderstanding,” he said. “We offer University of London international programme degrees, so that is the syllabus we are preparing the students for. It is reductive to describe it as repackaging … There is a quarter more content, contact with some rather distinguished people, and preparation for professional life.” Amid a growing backlash from students and lecturers, Dawkins sought to clarify his role, saying on his website: “This is the brainchild of AC Grayling, not me … Professor Grayling invited me to join the professoriate and give some lectures.” He said “the financial inducement was attractive” and indicated he would use the fees to fund his charitable foundation. London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, backed Grayling’s idea, saying “it fully deserves to succeed and to be imitated”. It prompted him, Johnson added, to recall his own idea of founding “Reject’s College, Oxbridge”, which would be “aimed squarely at the wrathful parents – many of them Oxbridge graduates – who simply could not understand how their own offspring could rack up three A-stars and grade 8 bassoon, and yet find themselves turned down”. Higher education Birkbeck, University of London Humanities Royal Holloway, University of London University of London Robert Booth guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Journalists taken to see ‘bomb victim’ in Libyan hospital find out child was hurt in road accident The Libyan government’s attempts to show how Nato bombing is harming civilians backfired when a hospital worker revealed that a seven-month-old “air strike victim” had been injured in a car crash. Foreign journalists in Tripoli were taken by bus to a hospital on Sunday night to see the seven-month-old girl, Nasib, who lay unconscious. Media handlers claimed she had been hurt when a bomb exploded in a field near her house on the eastern edge of the capital a few hours earlier. But a member of the medical staff slipped a note written in English on hospital stationery to a reporter, which was seen by Reuters, that said: “This is a case of road traffic accident. This is the truth.” Journalists’ suspicions had already been raised during an earlier visit to the bombsite in the suburb of Tajura where the girl was said to have been injured. Talking to journalists, Mohamed Elounsi, the son of the owner of the field, described how a black and white dog and a dozen or so chickens and pigeons had been killed in the evening strike, but said nobody had been injured. Elounsi said: “I lost my birds, one dog and my cows nearly died.” Shockwaves from the blast destroyed a room in one house and shattered numerous windows, he said. “My message to Obama is, ‘Why do you send this [bomb] to my father’s farm.’” Residents gathered around the crater, measuring two metres by one metre, chanting pro-Muammar Gaddafi slogans. Initially, none of them mentioned any civilian casualties and there seemed little real anger. It was only shortly before the bus departed that one neighbour said his four-year-daughter suffered cuts when a glass door shattered. At the hospital, Gaddafi’s aides directed the media to Nasib, whose bandaged foot was hooked up to medical equipment. A man introduced as her uncle said she had been injured in the Tajura missile strike. A second man, presented as a neighbour and a member of the health ministry, ranted against Nato and shouted “God, Muammar, Libya, and that’s all”. This man, who gave his name as Emad, was mysteriously present once more when journalists were taken to another suburb at 1am on Monday. This time, a “bomb” had landed in a back garden at about midnight “while the family were having lunch”, according to a man presented as a spokesman for the family. The two metre-long bomb had fallen from the sky, he said, implying it came from a Nato jet. It had not exploded, however, and appeared less like an example of cutting-edge warfare than a remnant of the cold war. Closer inspection showed there was Russian writing on the bomb. That fact was put to Emad, who had since admitted he was a member of Gaddafi’s media team, while still insisting he was also a neighbour of the seven-month-old girl. Emad’s story of the midnight bomb suddenly changed: Nato must have struck a nearby military compound, triggering an explosion that caused this missile – a piece of Gaddafi’s own arsenal – to shoot off into a nearby garden. On Monday, during a visit to complex of state buildings that were bombed overnight, deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim denied that the regime was deliberately trying to mislead the media. “We want to be as credible as much as possible. If there was a mistake it was not from the government.” He suggested that civilians angered by Nato’s campaign might have been to blame. The government says that 700 civilians have died in bombing raids, but have offered little evidence to support the claim. The majority of the airstrikes in Tripoli appear to have been so precise that life in the city has carried on largely as normal, with people out on the streets well into the night, when most of the bombing takes place. Kaim’s comments were the first by a senior government official on any topic since last Wednesday. He strongly criticised the bombing of the government buildings, which included the offices of the foreign affairs parliamentary committee and the attorney general, saying they had no link to the military. He also said that Gaddafi, who has not appeared in public or on television for a week, was in “very good” health, and in direct contact with the government. Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Nato Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
The FBI and US secret service have used the threat of prison to create an army of informers among online criminals The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established. Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community. In some cases, popular illegal forums used by cyber criminals as marketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been run by hacker turncoats acting as FBI moles. In others, undercover FBI agents posing as “carders” – hackers specialising in ID theft – have themselves taken over the management of crime forums, using the intelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars. So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. “Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation,” Corley told the Guardian. “It makes for very tense relationships,” said John Young, who runs Cryptome, a website depository for secret documents along the lines of WikiLeaks. “There are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shopped by people they thought they trusted.” The best-known example of the phenomenon is Adrian Lamo, a convicted hacker who turned informant on Bradley Manning, who is suspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks. Manning had entered into a prolonged instant messaging conversation with Lamo, whom he trusted and asked for advice. Lamo repaid that trust by promptly handing over the 23-year-old intelligence specialist to the military authorities. Manning has now been in custody for more than a year. For acting as he did, Lamo has earned himself the sobriquet of Judas and the “world’s most hated hacker”, though he has insisted that he acted out of concern for those he believed could be harmed or even killed by the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of US diplomatic cables. “Obviously it’s been much worse for him but it’s certainly been no picnic for me,” Lamo has said. “He followed his conscience, and I followed mine.” The latest challenge for the FBI in terms of domestic US breaches are the anarchistic co-operatives of “hacktivists” that have launched several high-profile cyber-attacks in recent months designed to make a statement. In the most recent case a group calling itself Lulz Security launched an audacious raid on the FBI’s own linked organisation InfraGard. The raid, which was a blatant two fingers up at the agency, was said to have been a response to news that the Pentagon was poised to declare foreign cyber-attacks an act of war. Lulz Security shares qualities with the hacktivist group Anonymous that has launched attacks against companies including Visa and MasterCard as a protest against their decision to block donations to WikiLeaks. While Lulz Security is so recent a phenomenon that the FBI has yet to get a handle on it, Anonymous is already under pressure from the agency. There were raids on 40 addresses in the US and five in the UK in January, and a grand jury has been hearing evidence against the group in California at the start of a possible federal prosecution. Kevin Poulsen, senior editor at Wired magazine, believes the collective is classically vulnerable to infiltration and disruption.
Continue reading …