President and other senior officials added to list of those banned from travelling to EU and subject to asset freezes The European Union has imposed sanctions on the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and other senior officials, raising pressure on his government to end weeks of violence against protesters. EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels on Monday to expand restrictions against Syria by adding Assad and around a dozen other senior members of the government to a list of those banned from travelling to the EU and subject to asset freezes. “Technically, the legal act has been accepted,” one EU diplomat said, adding EU foreign ministers would still discuss the move – which was signposted last week – at the meeting. Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said it was necessary to move against Syria’s top leaders. “If someone represses his own people like that, responds to peaceful demonstrations with force, this can’t be left unanswered by the European Union,” he said. Syrian security forces killed six people in the city of Homs on Saturday during a funeral for those killed in the latest crackdown on protesters demonstrating against Assad’s rule, witnesses said. Human rights groups estimate that more than 700 civilians have been killed by security forces as they attempt to suppress nearly two months of popular protests that have spread from southern Syria to towns across the country. Syrian authorities have blamed most of the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers, who they say have killed more than 120 members of the security forces. The Dutch foreign minister, Uri Rosenthal, said it was important to maintain pressure to ensure fundamental change in Syria. He said imposing sanctions on Assad and his entourage was “a clear signal that we will not condone his policy of violence and repression”. “He has to make the choice now,” he said. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, said extending sanctions to Assad was the right thing to do. “The repression in Syria continues and it is important to see the right to peaceful protest and the release of political prisoners and taking the path of reform, not repression,” he said. The United States extended sanctions to Assad and six senior officials on Wednesday in an escalation of pressure on his government to halt its crackdown. Bashar Al-Assad Syria European Union Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Protest guardian.co.uk
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President and other senior officials added to list of those banned from travelling to EU and subject to asset freezes The European Union has imposed sanctions on the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and other senior officials, raising pressure on his government to end weeks of violence against protesters. EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels on Monday to expand restrictions against Syria by adding Assad and around a dozen other senior members of the government to a list of those banned from travelling to the EU and subject to asset freezes. “Technically, the legal act has been accepted,” one EU diplomat said, adding EU foreign ministers would still discuss the move – which was signposted last week – at the meeting. Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said it was necessary to move against Syria’s top leaders. “If someone represses his own people like that, responds to peaceful demonstrations with force, this can’t be left unanswered by the European Union,” he said. Syrian security forces killed six people in the city of Homs on Saturday during a funeral for those killed in the latest crackdown on protesters demonstrating against Assad’s rule, witnesses said. Human rights groups estimate that more than 700 civilians have been killed by security forces as they attempt to suppress nearly two months of popular protests that have spread from southern Syria to towns across the country. Syrian authorities have blamed most of the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers, who they say have killed more than 120 members of the security forces. The Dutch foreign minister, Uri Rosenthal, said it was important to maintain pressure to ensure fundamental change in Syria. He said imposing sanctions on Assad and his entourage was “a clear signal that we will not condone his policy of violence and repression”. “He has to make the choice now,” he said. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, said extending sanctions to Assad was the right thing to do. “The repression in Syria continues and it is important to see the right to peaceful protest and the release of political prisoners and taking the path of reform, not repression,” he said. The United States extended sanctions to Assad and six senior officials on Wednesday in an escalation of pressure on his government to halt its crackdown. Bashar Al-Assad Syria European Union Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Protest guardian.co.uk
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Join Andrew Sparrow for coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen 11.34am: David Cameron is delivering his “big society” speech now. By some counts, it is the fourth time he has tried to launch the idea. If you want to know why he’s having problems generating public enthusiasm for the idea, read these comments from two commentators broadly sympathetic to Cameron. Lord Ashcroft recently published Project Blueprint, a report based on detailed polling of Conservative voters and potential Conservative supporters (pdf). He suggested that, in campaigning terms, the “big society” is a non-starter. However commendable the idea of encouraging personal responsibility and relinquishing state control, the Big Society, the theme that is intermittently claimed as the government’s guiding philosophy, shows no sign of resonating with voters. The very few who mentioned it during the course of our research usually did so in tones of bemusement. Most people still do not understand what it is supposed to mean, or find the concept too nebulous to get to grips with. They do not connect it with any of the government’s more concrete policies, whether they support them or not. And David Brooks, the American columnist whose new book, The Social Animal, is widely admired in government circles, said much the same thing in an interview with the Sunday Times (paywall). Politically the big society is a damp squib; it’s a hard sell for the Tory base. They like things which are hard and vigorous; the big society is a bit soft and squishy and a bit upper middle class. It doesn’t have much to say to your immigrant or aspiring working-class person who doesn’t get home till 10pm, who has no time to volunteer. 11.21am: Lord Prescott has won the right to a judcial review of the Metropolitan police’s handling of the phone hacking affair. 10.48am: If you’re only going to read one Ed Miliband speech today, read the one that he delivered to the Progress conference at the weekend. The Promise of Britain one – which isn’t on the Labour website yet, but which should be there later – doesn’t have the same breadth as the Progress one. But it’s still got a big, clear message and it lays down a challenge to David Cameron. Here are the main points. • Miliband says that “for the first time for more than a century, the next generation will struggle to do better than the last”. He claims that this is “one of those unspoken truths that people know about – but somehow politicians seem to refuse to discuss”. • He says that this means the young will become “the jilted generation”. Some people have called us the Jam generation because of the music we grew up with. But our generation is on course to totally fail in meeting our duty to the next: to uphold the promise of Britain from which we all benefited, which we all took for granted. The current representatives of the Jam generation are on course to create a jilted generation. As examples of the problems facing the “jilted generation”, he mentions youth unemployment, higher tuition fees, longer working hours – Britain is the only country in Europe with longer working hours than 25 years ago, he says – global warming and rising house prices. • He suggests that become a father has strengthened his determination to address this problem. I suppose every father says this, but becoming a parent really does change the way you think about life. The love you feel overwhelms you. Like most fathers I was unprepared for that. It broadens your perspective … As a parent, like all parents, I judge myself on the opportunities my children will have – and the happiness that can provide. • He accuses the government of having no plans to address this issue. The Tories are just obsessed with deficit reduction, he says. I am not just criticising their deficit strategy, I’m criticising them for having a pessimistic, austere vision for the country. They have no ambition, no national mission. • He says that as prime minister he would concentrate on improving opportunities for the next generation. This is what he means by “the promise of Britain”. He has used the phrase before, to refer to the idea that progress will enable children to have better opportunities than their parents, and in his speech he makes defending “the promise of Britain” the key aim of Labour policy. When people ask me what our task will be, inheriting from this Conservative-led government the kind of country it is creating, my first answer, our first challenge, our greatest task, must be to take head on the decline in opportunities for the next generation. As examples of his commitment to this, he says that he has already proposed using a bank bonus tax to fund jobs for young people, an alternative approach to tuition fees, action to tackle the long hours culture at work and a home building programme. Labour’s policy review is looking at ways of stopping “the inexorable rise in the average age of home ownership”. • He says he will expect young people to contribute to Britain too. The promise of Britain is not just about the promise we make to [young people], but the promise they must make to themselves and our country to be good citizens. 10.40am: I’m not sure we’ll be seeing much of either Ed Miliband or David Cameron on BBC News or Sky this morning. President Obama in Ireland is hogging all the attention. Never mind. I’ve got their speeches. Summary of the Miliband speech coming up soon. 10.25am: Ed Miliband will be giving his speech at the Royal Festival Hall in about five minutes. It’s called “the Promise of Britain” and the text has just landed in my inbox. David Cameron will be setting out his own version of the promise of Britain within an hour. I’ll summarise both speeches, cover anything Miliband and Cameron have to say if they speak to reporters and compare the arguments they are both making about the challenges facing Britain. 10.06am: It looks as if Lord Prescott may have won his phone hacking judicial review application. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who is one of the people seeking a judicial review alongside Prescott, has just put this on Twitter. Some good news coming in a few minutes. #metgate 10.03am: The banks have missed their Project Merlin lending targets. According to the BBC, figures from the Bank of England show the “big five’”loaned £16.8bn compared with a de facto target of £19bn. 9.33am: And Ed Miliband has been doing breakfast TV too. He was on BBC Breakfast. Here are the highlights. Again, I’m using quotes from PoliticsHome. • Miliband said that if he became prime minister his “central mission” would be to ensure that the next generation has better opportunities than the last. He calls this the British promise. The central mission of my government will be to ensure that we get the next generation to have better chances than the last, because that is under threat in this country and unless we make that the focus – unless we make that the mission of the government – I fear the situation will get worse. • He said that he was wrong when he said the Labour fightback would start in Scotland. He said Labour failed in Scotland because “we didn’t set out a clear enough sense of a national mission”. (This is exactly the argument set out by Douglas Alexander recently in an interview with Progressonline.) • Miliband said he was looking forward to his wedding on Friday. I think we’d always planned to get married and this feels like the right time for us. And I always said that I’m not going to get married for political pressure, I’m going to get married at the right time for me, and it feels like the right time for us. • But he also said that he did not have quite the same faith in marriage as David Cameron. I’m pro-commitment but I think that, unlike David Cameron, I’m not going to say that those families that aren’t married are automatically less stable than those families that are. Marriage is a good institution – it’s right for me and Justine but the thing that really matters to people is stable families and they come in different forms. 9.07am: David Cameron was on ITV’s Daybreak this morning. Being a Today man, I missed it, but PoliticsHome were monitoring. Here are the main points. • Cameron said the current law on privacy was “unsustainable”. It is rather unsustainable, this situation, where newspapers can’t print something that everyone else is clearly talking about. But there’s a difficulty here because the law is the law and the judges must interpret what the law is … It’s not fair on the newspapers if all the social media can report this and the newspapers can’t and so the law and the practice has got to catch up with how people consume media today. Cameron said he wanted parliament to have “a proper look at this”. But there was not “simple answer”, he said. • He said he accepted that some people did not understand his “big society” concept. That was because it was “not simply one thing”, he said. It involved devolving power and encouraging more volunteering and giving. • He said that he had given interview training to young people as part of his own contribution to the “big society”. Downing Street was linked with a charity called Street League and everyone at Number 10 was contributing some time. They do a lot of football training, which I’m not very good at, but they also do interview training and so I helped a bit with that and gave some interview practice to a couple of young people who are going for a job. It was fascinating. • He said that he had a genuine partnership with Nick Clegg. Clegg was doing an “excellent job”, he said. “This is not a sort of Conservative government with a sort of small Lib Dem annex,” he said. “It’s a partnership government. That’s the only way you can make a coalition work. You’ve got to trust each other.” • He said that he had a ‘try out” yesterday for the barbecue being held in the Downing Street garden for President Obama. “We’ve got a wet weather plan,” Cameron said. 8.48am: We’ve got two big speeches today. In a speech to the Progress annual conference on Saturday, Ed Miliband said David Cameron and the Conservatives were just offering Britain “a shrivelled, pessimistic, austere view of the future”. Cameron will seek to counter that today with a speech on the “big society”, his vision for the future that he presents as anything but pessimistic. Miliband will be setting out his own manifesto for the future in a speech at the Royal Festival Hall. It will be one of those relatively rare occasions when the leaders of Britain’s two largest parties go head to head over policy and vision. Those are the highlights – but there’s plenty of other politics around too. Here’s the agenda for the day: 9.30am : The Bank of England publishes figures showing whether the banks are meeting their Project Merlin lending obligations. 10am : Lord Hanningfield’s expenses trial continues. The Tory peer is expected to give evidence today. He denies fiddling his expenses. 10.30am : Ed Miliband delivers a speech at the Royal Festival Hall. He will warn about the prospects facing today’s young, a “jilted generation” because they will have to wait too long until they can afford to buy a home. 10.30am : Lord Prescott and others find out if they have won the right to a judicial review of the Metropolitan police’s handling of the phone hacking affair. Around 11am : David Cameron delivers his speech on the “big society”. As Nicholas Watt reports, he will describe the project as the project as being more than a “fluffy add-on” to the government’s agenda. He will also promote some of the ideas set out in the white paper on giving being published today. 1.30pm : Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, delivers a speech in London on Scotland’s constitutional future. He will also take questions from journalists. 3.30pm : Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland secretary, publishes the report into allegations of police collusion in the murder of Rosemary Nelson. As usual, I’ll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one at about 4pm. Ed Miliband David Cameron Labour Conservatives John Prescott House of Commons Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk
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Prescott, Chris Bryant, Brian Paddick and journalist Brendan Montague asked high court judge for judicial review Lord Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, on Monday won his latest bid to mount a legal challenge over the Metropolitan police’s handling of the News of the World phone-hacking case. He and three others – Labour MP Chris Bryant, former Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick and journalist Brendan Montague – had asked a high court judge to give them the go-ahead for a judicial review. Mr Justice Foskett gave a ruling allowing their cases to go to a full hearing. The four, who believe they were victims of phone hacking, claim there were human rights breaches in the police handling of their cases. Three others including the former media, culture and sport secretary, Tessa Jowell, asked the court to be recognised as interested parties. Prescott and the other claimants put their case at a previous high court hearing earlier this month . A written submission by the claimants’ solicitors, Bindman and Co, said last autumn the police had told the high court they had given all of the claimants a complete summary of all of the relevant evidence in their possession. Yet it had now emerged that not one of the claimants had been given an accurate or complete account of the material which police held. The effect of this had been to protect News International from expense and embarrassment: “We share the disquiet of the public about the police’s motivation for playing down the scale of unlawful behaviour and the way in which News International has, as a result, been shielded.” The interception of Prescott’s messages, the court was told, was achieved by targeting the phone of his then chief of staff, Joan Hammell. Glenn Mulcaire had emailed an editorial executive at the News of the World on 28 April 2006 referring to 45 messages left on her phone by Prescott and providing detailed instructions about how to continue accessing Hammell’s phone. This was at a time when Prescott’s private life was under tabloid scrutiny. That email had finally been disclosed by the News of the World on 26 January this year. The submission concludes: “The Metropolitan police misled the claimants and the wider public by stating that there was only ‘a handful’ of victims; and that, where there was evidence of hacking, victims were told. “When those who thought they might have been victims contacted the police for fuller information, many were wrongly told that there was no evidence of hacking. “It has now emerged that, contrary to the picture painted by the police, that telephone interception was extremely widespread.” The police argued in court that, although there had been some failures, Operation Weeting, the fresh Scotland Yard phone-hacking investigation launched in January, had provided an adequate remedy and there was no case for a judicial review. James Lewis QC, for the Met, acknowledged “some operational shortcomings” and that some victims had not been told there was clear evidence of their messages being intercepted. He said the evidence in relation to these claimants had not been clear until very recently. Lewis said that, having seized 10,000 pages of notes from Mulcaire, the original inquiry in 2006 failed to enter the material on to a computer system or to search and index it. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World News International John Prescott Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk
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Ash from Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano expected to affect Heathrow by the end of the week Airlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow by the end of the week. Europe’s air traffic control organisation, Eurocontrol, told airlines and airports on Monday that particles from the Grimsvotn volcano could reach Scotland by 1am on Tuesday and southern England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction. An aviation industry source said if the volcano continues to erupt at same intensity ash cloud could reach the west of the UK on Thursday or Friday, but the Met Office has low confidence in the forecast because of a prevailing low pressure system. However, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajokull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions last year. Under previous guidelines, aeroplanes were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they have a safety case demonstrating that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash. A CAA spokesman said most major airlines already have safety cases for medium-density ash clouds. “We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajokull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.” BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from National Air Traffic Services (Nats) this morning. “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said. Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low; medium; and high. Once Nats assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove that they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per ten cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per ten cubic metres of air. Anything above 4g is deemed high density. The Grimsvotn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash smoke and steam 12 miles (19km) into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had in April last year, when flights were cancelled over the UK and much of Europe for several days. “At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and how much we can’t really define at the moment.” Chivers said the weather situation is set to be different to last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously. She added: “If it moves in the way that we’re currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well.” While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe. Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said that the amount of ash reaching the UK “is likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption”, and said the last two times Grimsvotn erupted it did not affect UK air travel. “In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers.” The April eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, in south-east Iceland, caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six-days stranding tens of thousands of people and was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day. Eurocontrol said in a statement: “There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation.” Iceland Natural disasters and extreme weather Europe Dan Milmo Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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Tornadoes in Missouri kill at least 30 people in one small city, leading governor to call state of emergency Tornadoes have torn through parts of the US midwest, killing at least 30 people in the Missouri city of Joplin and causing extensive property damage. The deaths came from a powerful tornado that plowed through the south-west Missouri city of some 50,000 people late on Sunday afternoon. “At this point we know we are up into the 30 range,” the Newton County coroner, Mark Bridges, told Reuters when asked about the deaths. “We have heard up into the over-100 [range], but … I don’t think anyone has a good count right now,” he said of the casualties. He also said that 11 bodies had been recovered from one location. The storms continued to build on the violent weather this spring in the US, which saw more than 330 deaths last month as tornadoes hit seven states. That included 238 deaths in Alabama on 27 April as twisters battered Tuscaloosa and other urban areas. The Missouri governor, Jay Nixon, said earlier on CNN that an unknown number of people had died in his state: “We don’t have any numbers, but we have had confirmation that there have been deaths.” He declared a state of emergency and announced he was ordering Missouri national guard troops be deployed to help state troopers and other agencies respond to storms that he said “have caused extensive damage across Missouri”. Whole neighbourhoods as well as a hospital in Joplin were badly damaged, according to authorities and local television footage. “It’s done quite a bit of damage,” a police officer in Joplin told Reuters. “It hit quite a few parts of town.” A Missouri highway patrol dispatcher, Charles Bradley, said the extent of the damage is still unknown as a variety of state and local agencies send help to the area. “There is a hospital that was majorly damaged,” Bradley said of Joplin. “It’s kind of like Tuscaloosa again.” Denise Bayless, 57, who lives north of the city, told Reuters that many buildings on Main Street were levelled and the city’s only high school was burning. She and her husband were at church when their adult son called to say the tornado was hitting his house, and the couple got in their car to drive to his aid. “We just had to weave in and out of debris. Power lines were down everywhere, and you could smell gas. It was scary,” she said. Carla Tabares and her husband, Tony, were in the Outback steakhouse in Joplin when the tornado hit. They had just run through rain into the restaurant and sat down to order when a waitress told them a tornado was headed their way. “It was really awful, really scary,” said Tabares. She and her husband squeezed into the restaurant’s cooler with several families and children in the dark, hearing the howling winds outside. When they emerged, the building was largely unscathed but several other nearby restaurants and businesses suffered severe damage. “I’m just thankful we got out alive and I really feel sorry for the people who didn’t,” said Tabares. Another tornado ripped through the north Minneapolis and some suburbs on Sunday, tearing roofs off dozens of homes and garages, killing one person and injuring at least 30 others, authorities said. The twister struck on Sunday afternoon and plowed across a 3-5 mile (5-8 km) area in a northeasterly direction, an assistant city fire chief, Cherie Penn, said. Storms knocked out electricity to about 22,000 homes and businesses in the area, but power was restored to several thousand customers within hours, according to a spokeswoman for the utilities provider Xcel Energy. Tornadoes overnight on Saturday in north-east Kansas killed one person and damaged some 200 structures. A state of emergency was declared for 16 counties, state officials said. United States Missouri Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
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Barack Obama kicks off a six-day European trip today in Ireland. The US president will meet Mary McAleese, his Irish counterpart, before travelling to his ancestral home of Moneygall. Follow live updates here 10.03am: “But what’s being said on Twitter?” I hear you cry: . 9.54am: Last week Andrew Marr , this week Jedward . Did Obama wrong someone in a previous life? Still he’s reportedly meeting Brian O’Driscoll as well , so every cloud. Speaking of clouds, Obama’s helicopter is just coming in to land at Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland, under a big load of them. 9.47am: Our Ireland correspondent, Henry McDonald, will be tracking the US president’s movements today. Henry writes that the Irish government has wisely “advised members of the public who want to see President Obama in the flesh not to bring any weapons to Dublin’s College Green this evening”. Umbrellas (presumably and especially ones from Cold War Bulgaria) flags, banners, sharp objects and bags or backpacks are all banned from a secured area between Dame Street and the gates of Trinity College from 2pm on today. The advice to carry “no weapons” appears this morning in a government advertisement published in today’s Irish papers. Meanwhile among those celebrities who will make appearances on various platforms around the President are sports stars like Brian O’Driscoll, fresh from Leinster’s Heineken Cup triumph in Cardiff at the weekend; actors including Gabriel Byrne and Daniel Day Lewis and a host of pop and traditional music stars including the infamous X-Factor twosome Jedward. Meantime welcome to the Irish weather Mr President! Irish state weather organisation Met Eireann reports it will be wet, windy and stormy today. 9.42am: He’s out! Holding hands with Michelle as they walk down the steps. Michelle’s hair is being blown about all over the place. The president is in a dark blue suit, with blue tie and what appears to be a pink shirt. Michelle is in a light dress with dark suit jacket. They meet Ireland’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore at the bottom of the steps, before trotting across the tarmac to a waiting helicopter. They will shortly be heading for central Dublin to meet Mary McAleese and Enda Kenny. 9.37am: Obama’s plane is stationary on the Dublin tarmac, the steps being wheeled towards the open door. It’s raining and blowing a gale – which should add to the authenticity of the president’s visit. Just waiting for the man himself to disembark now. 9.32am: Air Force One is down. Obama is in Ireland. Let the fun begin… 9.30am: Ireland’s burgeoning reputation for booking big-name acts continues to grow. Last week the country welcomed the Queen , who wowed supporters with her ability to wear green, make small talk and resist the lure of Guinness. This week the country has arguably gone one better, attracting US President Barack Obama, who will meet President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Obama will arrive in Dublin for his 24-hour trip, which will include a 45 minute visit to Moneygall, County Offaly, said to be home to some of his ancestors. The village has been decked out with US flags ahead of Obama’s arrival – make him feel at home, etc – and he will reportedly meet some of his distant relatives during his stay. First Lady Michelle Obama has made the trip too, and tonight the pair will return to Dublin, where Obama will deliver his set-piece speech in front of a crowd of 25,000 people in College Green. Tomorrow, Obama’s six-day European jaunt continues with visits to England, France and Poland, but today all the talk is of his presence in the Emerald Isle. Will he support Ireland’s drive to improve the terms of the IMF/European Central Bank multi-billion euro bail out? Will he get on with his long lost relatives? Will he drink a pint of Guinness? Find answers to those questions/some of those questions here. Barack Obama Ireland United States Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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Irene Rosenfeld’s failure to attend hearings into the Cadbury takeover verged on ‘contempt for the House of Commons’, says MPs’ report Kraft came close to showing contempt for the House of Commons in refusing to put forward chief executive Irene Rosenfeld to answer questions about its acquisition of Cadbury, MPs said on Monday. A report from the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee lifts the lid on the correspondence between the American food group and the committee. Rosenfeld declined invitations to answer questions on the £11.5bn deal on two separate occasions – during the last parliament in early 2010 and again, more recently, as part of the select committee’s review of the takeover . “Irene Rosenfeld, the chief executive officer and chairman of Kraft, refused to give evidence despite repeated requests from us that she should appear. Neither that refusal to attend, nor the manner of it, reflected well on Kraft, nor did Kraft’s persistence in failing to acknowledge the seriousness of the Takeover Panel criticism – criticism which, by its gravity, would alone have merited Ms Rosenfeld’s appearance before us, as a committee of public scrutiny. That sorry episode overshadowed what could have been a positive discussion on the future of Cadbury under Kraft’s ownership. In its correspondence with the committee, Kraft in our view steered close to a contempt of the House. We trust that that will not be repeated,” the committee’s report said. Kraft was criticised by the Takeover Panel for suggesting it would keep open Cadbury’s Somerdale plant near Bristol – and then backtracking a week after the takeover. The committee’s report quotes correspondence from Kraft questioning the MPs’ insistence on calling Rosenfeld as a witness. Marc Firestone, executive vice president of Kraft, wrote to the committee in February of this year: “Given our understanding that the committee’s purpose is to inquire into relevant facts, the repeated demands for Ms Rosenfeld to appear in person are regrettable. Based on the experience of last year’s hearing and recent comments by some committee members, there seems to be a desire to have a ‘star witness’ towards whom ill-founded allegations and insults can be made, with little or no attempt to discuss the facts and look rationally into the evidence. Indeed, a review of the transcript from last year’s hearing shows that it went far beyond spirited debate to a remarkable level of rancour.” The MPs said this was a “total misrepresentation” of their reasons for inviting Rosenfeld, adding: “The description of the committee’s ‘motive’ for inviting Ms Rosenfeld in our view fell short of an explicit contempt of the House, but not by much. The manner and tone of the letter was unacceptable and showed a distinct lack of judgment by Mr Firestone.” The committee concluded that Rosenfeld’s “repeated refusal to appear before a committee of Parliament demonstrates a regrettably dismissive attitude to a national parliament – an attitude which we trust Kraft will rapidly take action to shed.” The report does detail “encouraging” progress from Kraft in other areas. “It would appear from the evidence given to us that Kraft is currently honouring the undertakings given to our predecessor committee and is committed to investment in Cadbury. We were especially encouraged by continued investment in Bournville and recruitment into research. Given the particular responsibility Kraft has to Cadbury employees following the Somerdale episode, we trust that this approach to investment will continue. It would also assist considerably in rehabilitating Kraft’s reputation if the savings planned from integration synergies were used to support further investment for growth and accommodate the results of that growth in terms of recruitment needs.” The committee also remains concerned that some marketing functions have been transferred away from the UK to Zurich. Trade union Unite said that it welcomed the scrutiny of Kraft, “in particular the recommendation that the UK urgently needs a new takeover regime. The committee also says a repeat of Kraft’s behaviour over Cadbury’s Somerdale plant – which it promised to reprieve from closure then subsequently reneged on this once it had purchased the confectionary firm – must be guarded against by ensuring that promises made during bids are made binding. “So concerned has Unite been about Kraft’s failure to disclose basic information since the takeover that it is now seeking to use international agreements to ensure it informs the union about its plans. Unite says Kraft must come clean on plans for the next five-year period at least to reassure the workforce of its commitment to the UK.” Kraft Food & drink industry Cadbury Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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Up to 20 insurgents assaulted the base from several sides, blowing up sensitive aircraft including a US-manufactured surveillance plane Pakistani commandos continued to battle with heavily armed militants at a naval airbase in Karachi early on Monday after ten hours of fighting triggered by a Taliban assault to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden. Blasts rang out after dawn as the military stepped up its counter-attack on insurgents inside the PNS Mehran base, just off one of the Karachi’s busiest roads. Late Sunday night up to 20 insurgents assaulted the base from several sides, blowing up sensitive aircraft including a US-manufactured surveillance plane and killing at least five people. Television images showed flames and a plume of thick smoke billowing from the base as aircraft took fire, while bursts of gunfire and explosions rang out across the city, frightening residents. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. “It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful,” Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. The daring assault was a fresh embarrassment for the Pakistani military, three weeks after US Navy Seals travelling on five helicopters breached the country’s air defences to carry out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Taliban have not attacked such a sensitive facility since the February 2009 Taliban assault on army headquarters in Rawalpindi. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said the militants attacked from the rear of the base at around 10.30 on Sunday night. The headed immediately for the aircraft hangers, where they destroyed two planes and a helicopter including an American Orion P-3C maritime surveillance plane, which Pakistan had received just last year. A jet fuel tanker also exploded. “They were carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and hand grenades. They hit the aircraft with an RPG,” Navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali said. Pakistani Special Services Group (SSG) commandos were dispatched to the base, supported by helicopters, triggering intense exchanges of gunfire that rang out across the city. Fighting continued through the night with a fresh round of explosions in the early morning – eight in the space of thirty minutes – as commandos reportedly flung grenades tried to storm a hanger where the Taliban were holed up. Four people were killed including three firefighters and one naval officer. Reports were unclear but up to five militants are thought to have been killed. There were unconfirmed reports that a foreigner, possibly a Chinese national, had been taken hostage. The US embassy said no Americans were present. “We have been able to confine them to one building and an operation is underway either to kill or capture them,” said Malik. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack as a “cowardly act of terror”. Ehsanullah, the Taliban spokesman, said the attackers had plentiful stocks of ammunition and food. “They can fight and survive for three days,” he said. Pakistan Taliban Osama bin Laden Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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The Rapture Didn’t Happen (330:05/21/11) Pejazzle ‘Adult Baby’ Living Off Social Security gawker – May 22, 2011 | Submit Digital Gawker Revenue Up Almost 35 Percent – Mediabistro.com: 2011-05-17T18:55:33Z – Raise your hand if you want yet another post covering the redesign of Gawker . And no, that middle finger doesn’t count. Okay, well even though no one wants to … gawker | Daily Tweet News Founded in 2003, Gawker is the flagship blog for Nick Denton’s Gawker Media. Gawker has created other blogs, including Defamer, covering Los Angeles, and Valleywag covering Silicon Valley. Since folding those other blogs into Gawker .com … World News Lobbey: Gawker Latest News About:Yahoo Blogs’ Traffic Knock HuffPost And Gawker Out Of The Water: The good news for rivals Yahoo AOL: email, Brian Robinson, senior director of network strategy for Yahoo, the media and ideas, traffic grew by Yahoo … Gawker's New Mobile Site Is Here [Good News] Gawker Gawker’s New Mobile Internet site Is Right here gawker # goodnews Gawker unveiled a snappy new model of its cellular web site yesterday. You are going. World News Lobbey: Gawker Latest News About:Twitter Based Ad Firm 140 Proof Hires Ex- Gawker Exec Cascio to Head Sales: How Twitter is trying to create traction with his tweets contributed to retailers, other businesses have in recent years to build a business on … SlothropReads says: Tree of Life Win at Cannes (via @ Gawker ) http://t.co/J1gvmrW
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