As the Dec. 31 US troop withdrawal deadline looms, Iraq is looking to purchase as many as 36 US fighter jets and other air-defense systems. The purchase, which will cost billions, could help cement ties between Iraq and the US and, Washington hopes, keep Iran at bay. The move comes…
Continue reading …Two Brooklyn performance artists were arrested last night after staging a dangerous stunt 300 feet above traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge. Aerialist Seanna Sharpe, aided by Savage Skinner, scaled a bridge tower and performed acrobatic flips and stunts for 15 minutes, suspended from the bridge with 90 feet of silk…
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Analysts said the deep discounts on offer in the high street last month reflected the squeeze on real incomes The City was last night ruling out an increase in interest rates until next year after latest cost of living figures showed Britain’s struggling retailers were forced to cut prices aggressively last month. Speculation that borrowing costs will need to be raised to tackle price pressures was dampened after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the government’s preferred measure of inflation dropped unexpectedly from 4.5% to 4.2% in a month. On a day of widespread financial market unease, triggered by the deepening crisis in the eurozone, the prospect of the Bank of England pegging interest rates at 0.5% well into 2012 left sterling under pressure on the foreign exchanges. Analysts said the deep discounts on offer in the high street last month reflected the squeeze on real incomes caused by a combination of rising inflation and modest pay awards. Prices of clothes, shoes, computer games and toys saw particularly large cuts as retailers sought to woo cautious consumers. Although retailers have been buffeted by higher energy prices and the rising cost of imports, Graham Turner of GFC economics said they were unable to pass on the higher prices to their customers. “Once again, there was clear evidence of consumer resistance to cost increases, a product of the biggest decline in real employee compensation since 1977,” Turner said. Recently announced increases in domestic energy tariffs are likely to send inflation as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) higher over the next few months, but yesterday’s data strengthened the hand of those members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee who have been arguing against a rise in borrowing costs. Led by the Bank’s governor, Mervyn King, a majority on the MPC believes that the surge in inflation to more than double the government’s 2% target will prove temporary and that tightening policy would risk damaging an already weak economy. Separate ONS figures for UK trade showed a widening gap between imports and exports in May, the latest month for which data is available. News that the trade deficit widened from £7.6bn to £8.5bn dented ministerial hopes that the squeeze on consumer and public spending will be offset by stronger export performance. The City is now nervously awaiting the release of growth figures for the second quarter of 2011, due at the end of this month, and has started to mull the possibility that the Bank will inject a fresh dose of electronic money into the economy by buying bonds from banks. The Bank boosted the money supply by £200bn during the recession in an attempt to boost growth but has not added to its quantitative easing programme since early 2010. Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics said yesterday’s figures added “support to the growing view that UK monetary policy is more likely to be loosened than tightened over the next year or so”. The ONS said prices fell by 0.1% last month, the first drop in June for eight years. Games, toys and hobbies were 5.7% cheaper than in June 2010 while audio-visual equipment showed an 11.5% annual drop. The ONS said rising supermarket bills limited the fall in headline inflation last month, but so-called core inflation – which excludes food and energy prices – dropped from 3.3% to 2.8%. Other measures of inflation also fell last month. The retail prices index – used in the bulk of pay negotiations – dipped from 5.2% to 5%, while the CPI excluding the impact of indirect taxes such as VAT came down from 3% to 2.7%. Angela Eagle MP, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “It is worrying that inflation is still more than double the government’s target rate. “Rising world commodity prices are partly to blame. But things have been made much worse in Britain by George Osborne’s big rise in VAT, which is due to his decision last year to cut the deficit too far and too fast. “Families and pensioners who are already being squeezed hard by the Tory VAT rise and cuts to tax credits now face the prospect of huge rises in their gas and electricity bills too.” Simon Rose at Save our Savers said: “The slight improvement in this month’s inflation figures will bring little comfort to savers. It is scandalous that the Interest rates Economics Retail industry Bank of England Economic policy Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Trouble erupts after Orange Order parade passes Ardoyne shops, then spreads across city There has been a serious outbreak of violence in north Belfast with police firing dozens of baton rounds and using water cannon in clashes with nationalist youths. The trouble erupted within minutes of an Orange Order parade passing by the Ardoyne shops shortly after 7pm. The disorder has now spread across the city, with a hijacking in the nationalist Market area of the inner city and crowds gathering on the Oldpark Road. Although the police were able to pin back rioters and keep them away from loyalists in the contentious parade, disorder broke out shortly afterwards on the Crumlin Road. Two different sets of protesters attacked riot police at two entry points into the republican Ardoyne district. Police officers were pelted with bricks, rocks, bottles and petrol bombs as well as fireworks. One group of rioters have set a hijacked car on fire at the junction of Crumlin Road and Woodvale Road, not far from where a smaller group of loyalists are still standing in Twaddell Avenue. Part of the road is now covered in black acrid smoke while the PSNI continue to fire water cannon at those engaged in the riot. The streets around the district are studded with shattered glass and smashed up bits of masonry. Earlier, 24 police officers were injured as Northern Ireland reaches the climax of the Ulster loyalist marching season. The majority of those hurt were caught up in riots in Greater Belfast that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nationalist youths threw missiles, petrol bombs and at one stage drove a hijacked bus at police lines. The Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective were denied the right to gather on Crumlin Road – the return route of the Orange parade – on Tuesday night. The PSNI feared the residents would mount a sit down protest on the road to block the Orangemen’s path home. As loyalists marched through Belfast city centre the republican residents began to protest along Berwick Road against the Orange parade passing by their district. When the Orangemen and two loyalist bands passed by, a number of nationalist women sang the Soldier’s Song (the Irish national anthem) and hurled abuse at the marchers. Speaking from the platform, Dee Fennell – a spokesman for the residents group – initially called on the crowd to disperse peacefully. When a large number of those gathered at the protest started laughing Fennell said they would “show the Orange Order, the Parades Commission and the PSNI what they thought of their parade”. Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Féin assembly member for the area and former IRA Old Bailey bomber, said he was concerned at the rising tension in this corner of north Belfast. “We have a situation where we have two parades at one time,” he said. While Kelly and Sinn Féin oppose the loyalist march they have appealed for peaceful protests against the parade. He condemned those nationalist youths behind the violence of the last 24 hours but also blamed the Orange Order for failing to reach a compromise with Catholic residents along contentious parade routes. Northern Ireland Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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President Barack Obama is awarding the Medal of Honor to an Afghanistan war veteran, Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Arthur Petry, for courageous actions during combat in Afghanistan in May, 2008. He lost a hand attempting to throw an enemy grenade back. (July 12)
Continue reading …Moammar Gadhafi indeed wants out of Libya—so say his emissaries, so says France. “Emissaries are telling us Gadhafi is ready to go, let’s talk about it,” said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, according to Reuters . “The question is no longer about whether Gadhafi goes, but when and how.” He…
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A California politician is proposing that his state split in half as a way to address political and logistical issues – marking yet another instance someone has proposed this idea in the Golden State. Although on a national scale, the idea of splitting up a state may seem novel, similar proposals has been made in
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Youths attempt to block path of Ardoyne parade as police count cost of rioting As Northern Ireland reached the climax of the Ulster loyalist marching season on Tuesday, police reported that 24 officers had been injured in violence surrounding the parades and new rioting flared in north Belfast. Most of the police casualties were caught up in riots in Greater Belfast. In trouble that flared into the early hours of Tuesday morning, nationalist youths threw missiles including petrol bombs and, at one stage, drove a hijacked bus at police lines. Violence erupted again in the republican area of Ardoyne in north Belfast on Tuesday evening with riot police confronting nationalist youths just before a controversial Orange Order march was due to pass by the district. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) deployed two water cannon vehicles in order to quell disturbances and prevent republican demonstrators blocking Crumlin Road, the main route home for the Protestant Orangemen and their supporters. Bricks, bottles and fireworks thrown at police lines. The Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective were denied the right to gather on the Crumlin Road because police feared they would mount a sit-down protest. As loyalists marched through Belfast city centre, the republican residents amassed along Berwick Road to protest against the Orange parade passing by their district. Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Féin assembly member for the area, said he was concerned at the rising tension in north Belfast. “We have a situation where we have two parades at one time,” he said as he appealed for locals to keep protests against the parade peaceful. Kelly condemned nationalist youths behind the violence of the previous 24 hours – “some of them would have been involved in torturing the community throughout the year,” he said – but he also blamed the Orange Order for failing to reach a compromise with Catholic residents along contentious parade routes. Dozens of PSNI Land Rovers were deployed along the Crumlin Road to deal with any violence. On the same spot last year, about 80 PSNI officers were injured during three days of rioting that followed protests against the loyalist parade. A small number of republican dissidents opposed to the peace process gathered in Ardoyne, an area that is home to a unit of the anti-ceasefire republican organisation Óghlaigh na hÉireann. The first leg of the parade passed off relatively peacefully on Tuesday morning. Amid driving rain and the drone of a police helicopter overhead, the Orangemen and two loyalist bands were accompanied by two rows of protesters shortly before 8.30am. As marchers reached the Protestant Twaddell Avenue, they were given a heroes’ reception by local loyalists. The loyalists marched behind a banner accusing local republicans of imposing “cultural apartheid” due to their continued opposition to the Orange Order march. In the early hours of Tuesday, plastic bullets were fired and water cannon was deployed to deal with a mob of up to 200 youths in the Broadway area in the west of Belfast. The rioters attacked police lines separating the area from the loyalist Village district close to the M1 motorway. Baton rounds were fired during disturbances in the Oldpark area of north Belfast close to the so-called peaceline separating nationalist and loyalist communities. A bus was hijacked on the Falls Road with the driver dragged from the vehicle and passengers ordered off it. It was then driven at police lines on the Donegall Road, but crashed a short distance away. A van was also set alight on the Donegall Road. Northern Ireland Northern Irish politics UK security and terrorism Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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David Cameron backs Labour motion urging Murdoch to withdraw £8bn takeover bid in wake of phone-hacking scandal Rupert Murdoch will face the humiliation of the Commons issuing a unanimous all-party call for his scandal-ridden News Corporation to withdraw its £8bn bid for BSkyB, the great commercial prize he has been pursuing to cement his dominance of the British media landscape. In an extraordinary volte face David Cameron will disown the media tycoon by leading his party through the lobbies to urge him to drop the bid. Murdoch can defy parliament and press ahead with the bid, prompting a Competition Commission inquiry, but he risks finding himself ostracised by a political class that once scrambled to bend to his wishes. In the latest of a series of strategic coups that has left Downing Street looking flat-footed, the Labour leader Ed Miliband tabled a Commons motion for debate this afternoon urging News Corporation to withdraw the bid “in the public interest”. With the Liberal Democrats certain to back Labour’s simple motion, the prime minister took the rare and possibly legally questionable step to row in behind the opposition, even though only the day before Downing Street insisted he and the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, must remain impartial on the takeover. Miliband will lead the debate and will argue that the bid has to be withdrawn at least until police and judicial investigations into phone hacking and police bribery at News International have been completed. That could be 2014. Cameron’s spokesman said it was for News Corp to decide how to respond to the vote, but added “we would always expect people to take seriously what parliament says”. A spokesman for the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said the vote represents “an extraordinary unified statement of the will of the people. It is unimaginable that any public corporation or public figure will want to ignore such a strong statement by the legislature of this country”. Clegg first called for Murdoch to withdraw the bid on Monday, when Cameron had also said he thought Rupert Murdoch’s priority should be to sort out malpractices exposed in his company rather than trying to clinch what could eventually a takeover costing roughly $15bn. First indications suggested that the News Corp chairman will ignore the vote in parliament, and will turn down an invitation to give evidence to the culture select committee next Tuesday. In London, BSkyB’s shares fell another 3% to 692p because investors fear Murdoch’s bid could be delayed indefinitely or scrapped altogether. News Corp, which owns 39% of BSkyB, is determined to keep the lucrative bid alive and on Monday withdrew its proposal to spin off Sky News as a financially and editorially independent unit. The move effectively forced Hunt to refer the bid to the Competition Commission. The switch in tactics gave Murdoch the chance to capture BSkyB before a police investigation or judicial inquiry had been completed. A competition commission inquiry can only last six months, with a possible three-month extension, before a recommendation must be referred to Hunt. Hunt will abstain in the vote in an effort to preserve his political impartiality over the bid. Privately Downing Street is frustrated at the way Miliband has shaped the political agenda in the past week, and Cameron will try to regain the initiative by setting out the terms of reference of two inquiries into the crisis. Cameron is likely to announce the judge-led inquiry will go wider than previously thought, looking at the police investigation into phone hacking, and other malpractice throughout the newspaper industry, relations between press and politicians, the inadequacy of the original police investigation and wider issues of corporate governance. Cameron and Clegg met Miliband in the Commons on Tuesday evening to discuss the terms of reference of the judicial inquiry. Afterwards, Labour said Cameron had acknowledged that the main judge-led inquiry, with witnesses giving evidence under oath, will have to be given a wide remit. A second inquiry into media ethics is likely to be seen as a subsidiary narrow inquiry. Cameron also held discussions with John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture select committee, and Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee. Vaz’s committee criticised John Yates, the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, on Tuesday for his handling of the investigation into phone hacking. Cameron is also expected to announce plans to strengthen transparency rules over meetings between ministers and media figures, including for the first time private social meetings. Until now ministers have declined to publish details of meetings with senior media figures, save those that are defined as business meetings. Ministers are also looking at new rules designed to oversee the future employment of former senior police officers. Andy Hayman, the Met’s assistant commissioner in charge of the investigation into News International in 2005-6, subsequently ended up in News International employment. The judicial inquiry is likely to look at why the last Labour government failed to launch an inquiry into phone hacking at News International. Supporters of Gordon Brown are furious that the cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell objected to Brown’s private urging for a judicial inquiry in 2010. Labour backbencher Chris Bryant tabled a question asking Cameron “to publish the advice provided by the then cabinet secretary in early 2010 to the then prime minister on the case for a statutory public inquiry into the phone hacking scandal.” The debate will see an intense political battle between the Conservatives and Labour over which party did least to distance themselves from the Murdoch group. The Lib Dems will relish reminding the public they shunned Murdoch, with its three most senior figures outside government writing to Murdoch to accuse him of tainted journalism. The party’s deputy leader, Simon Hughes, writes: “People working for your company have sought to cover up the many wrongs which it has committed. Your company has been accused of lying to the Press Complaints Commission, by its chair. “Only yesterday the police accused News International of trying to undermine the ongoing police investigation into the affair. News International is simply no longer respected in this country. “Given the history of the last six or more years, it should be of little surprise to you that many people in this country have no desire to have any more of our media fall into your hands, tainted as News International is by a history of completely unacceptable journalistic practices.” Rupert Murdoch News International BSkyB News Corporation Television industry BSkyB House of Commons David Cameron Ed Miliband Mergers and acquisitions Media business Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Investigators from the Orange County, Florida Sheriff’s Office say they thought they had a solid criminal case against Casey Anthony. They discussed their work a week after she was acquitted of killing her daughter Caylee. (July 12)
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