There’s one more tongue wagging about whether Carla Bruni is pregnant : father-in-law Pal Sarkozy. The octogenarian papa of French president Nicolas Sarkozy says that the pair are definitely expecting, reports the AP. “Neither wants to know the gender beforehand, but I’m certain it will be a girl, and beautiful like…
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Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil group, seeks Arctic alliance with BP rival after collapse of deal with British company The Russian oil and gas group Rosneft is ready to ditch BP and look elsewhere for an alliance with a foreign competitor following the collapse of the two companies’ proposed alliance. The Rosneft-BP deal, announced in January, would have paved the way for joint exploration of parts of the Arctic where there may be 60bn barrels of oil in an area the size of the North Sea. Its collapse is a severe blow for the British firm’s chief executive, Bob Dudley. Dudley’s move was viewed as a way for BP to ensure long term growth and revive its reputation after the explosion on its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico last year, leading to the worst oil spill in US history. The disaster off the coast of Louisiana has cost BP more than $41bn (£25bn) and has forced it to sell assets to raise $24bn. The Russian deal, which also involved a $16bn share swap between BP and Rosneft, is in tatters after Dudley failed to overcome legal opposition from AAR, a consortium of Russian billionaires that is the British company’s existing partner in the country. Rosneft refused to extend a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the dispute to be settled. Sources close to the Moscow-based company said it was seeking an Arctic alliance with one of BP’s rivals, which include Shell, US companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, and Total of France. One of BP’s City shareholders said: “The collapse of BP’s pact with Rosneft will be a serious disappointment for Dudley as it was the only deal on the table that offered the prospect of future production on a grand scale.” Despite the breakdown of the alliance between BP and Rosneft, as well as the ending of negotiations with AAR, all three parties held out hope that an agreement could still be reached. “Talks will continue in the days ahead, and it’s possible that something can be salvaged,” said one source. A senior oil executive said: “Don’t exaggerate what has happened, I’m not sure this is the end of the story.” Rosneft’s deputy chairman Andrey Kostin was reported as saying he thought there may be scope for an accord after meetings scheduled in the days ahead. But most analysts said the agreement that had been envisaged in January appeared “dead in the water”. BP said it had tried to break the deadlock but that “a solution has not been found at this time, although talks continue”. The oligarchs behind AAR had blocked the Rosneft/BP alliance in the courts on the basis that it breached a shareholder agreement that provided for TNK-BP, the name of AAR’s joint venture with BP, to have pre-emption rights on any business opportunities in Russia. The various parties had reached an agreement that would have allowed BP and Rosneft to buy out AAR’s oligarchs, led by Mikhail Fridman, for $32bn. But Rosneft was reluctant to sign a binding agreement. For its part, AAR balked at signing an agreement to sell to BP and Rosneft unless the sale was also underpinned by a three-way oil and gas exploration alliance. A source close to the talks said: “These were complex negotiations and in the end, there wasn’t enough time to clinch an agreement.” Without a deal Rosneft decided to pull out of the pact with BP and look for new partners. Sources close to Rosneft accused the oligarchs of making “unacceptable demands”. But Fridman struck a conciliatory tone: “AAR sees significant benefit to developing co-operation with Rosneft within the framework of the TNK-BP shareholder agreement.” It is thought the AAR partners are keen to get Arctic exposure since the joint venture with BP has limited growth prospects owing to a mainly mature onshore portfolio. The failure to shore up the deal to explore the Arctic’s oil-rich Kara Sea is an embarrassing setback for Dudley. His idea was to cement BP’s move forward from the Gulf spill and show it no longer needed to rely so heavily on the United States, where it is still barred from drilling in the Gulf. Dudley, who took over from gaffe-prone Tony Hayward, had proclaimed the deal “historic” and “groundbreaking”. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Russia Europe Richard Wachman guardian.co.uk
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Yemeni Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Suhaib al-Makki, said to have worked directly under al-Qaida leadership Pakistani security forces arrested a senior al-Qaida operative in Karachi on Tuesday, signalling the first major move against Osama bin Laden’s network inside Pakistan since his death on 2 May. Security agencies in the port city of Karachi apprehended Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Suhaib al-Makki, a Yemeni said to have worked directly under the al-Qaida leadership along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The army described the arrest as a “major development in unravelling the al-Qaida network operating in the region” – triggering speculation it may signal the start of a wider heave against Bin Laden’s top lieutenants. However, Makki’s seniority in al-Qaida was not immediately known. In the past both the US and Pakistan have retrospectively attributed seniority to previously unknown al-Qaida militants. Since Bin Laden’s death the US has put pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants believed to be sheltering in Pakistan, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Senator John Kerry, visiting Islamabad for the Obama administration, on Monday presented a list of demands to the Pakistani government – but refused to say what they were. US officials are frantically sorting through a treasure trove of intelligence captured from Bin Laden’s house including hundreds of computer disks. It was not immediately clear whether Makki’s arrest came from Pakistani or US intelligence. The arrest offered a glimmer of hope in another gloomy day for Pakistan-American relations. Earlier there was an exchange of fire between Nato and Pakistani forces along the Afghan border that injured two Pakistani soldiers. Two Nato helicopters opened fire on a Pakistani military post in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, after coming under fire. Pakistan’s army condemned the incident as a “violation of Pakistan air space”. Nato said the helicopters scrambled after a Nato base came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border. al-Qaida Osama bin Laden Pakistan Yemen Global terrorism Afghanistan US foreign policy Middle East Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Hundreds of prostitutes and pimps rallied Tuesday near a red-light district in Seoul to protest a police crackdown on brothels, with some unsuccessfully attempting to set themselves on fire. (May 17)
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Justice secretary says he will consider legislation, but admits there may be quicker, less controversial ways of tackling issue A privacy law could provide judges with clearer guidance when deciding whether to grant gagging orders, the justice secretary has told the Commons. In the clearest signal yet that the government is considering legislation to resolve the controversy over superinjunctions and anonymised court orders, Ken Clarke appeared to accept the necessity of drafting a bill. But, he cautioned, the difficulty of deciding in individual cases where freedom of speech justifies publication means there will never be a simple, legal solution. Referring to the recent spate of gagging orders taken about by Premier League footballers, Clarke said he did not “necessarily need to know about the sex life of each of the players” every time he watched a match. At Commons question time, the Clarke was asked by his Labour counterpart, Sadiq Khan, to provide “clarity and guidance” to British judges. There have been complaints that the judiciary is introducing a privacy law without reference to parliament through their interpretation of the European convention on human rights in granting injunctions. The names of some of those said to have obtained privacy injunctions have this month been posted on Twitter and other social networking sites in defiance of court contempt orders. “We will consider these matters,” Clarke told MPs, “and indeed it is probably right to say that parliament passing a privacy act might well be the best way of resolving it. “But I think we need to get somewhat nearer to a consensus and one needs to know exactly how you’re trying to strike this balance before something is submitted to the judgment of parliament. “It may well be that we don’t have to wait for a long controversial process like that, we can find some other way of tackling it. We are considering this issue and we’ll come back in due course.” Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, said there was growing “public disquiet about the use of the anonymity injunction and the superinjunction – both its abuse or alleged abuse – but also the circumvention by use of, for example, Twitter. The current situation is not satisfactory.” On Friday, Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls, will issue a report by a committee of legal experts on the use injunctions. It is expected to recommend procedural changes but not call for fresh legislation. “The government is going to have to study it,” Clarke said, “and decide whether or not there is a case for intervening. “There’ll never be unanimity on all these judgments, precisely because it is so difficult to balance the competing parts of the convention on human rights [freedom of speech and a right to privacy] and the competing interests involved.” “There have been cases where we certainly need to know, where people are disposing of waste material that they’re dumping off the coast of Africa, which is easy in one direction. “On the other, every time I watch a football team I don’t think I necessarily need to know about the sex life of each of the players.” Clarke’s comments suggest there may have been second thoughts in cabinet over the need for a privacy law. Earlier this month the prime minister, David Cameron, told Radio 4′s Today programme : “By all means let’s debate it, but I think there is still more to be done through the Press Complaints Commission.” John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, had earlier in Tuesday’s Commons debate warned that the courts were not doing enough to protect the freedom of the press. He asked Clarke: “Are you concerned that the very large number of injunctions that appear to be granted on a routine basis might suggest that the courts are paying insufficient regard to section 12 of the Human Rights Act, which was supposed to protect press freedom? “Given this and the huge speculation on the internet about the identities of those who have obtained injunctions, do you feel that the time is approaching when parliament might need to revisit this area?” Clarke said it was unclear whether the number of injunctions was increasing. The Ministry of Justice has said it is researching the frequency of their use. “As far as I’m aware, there have been two superinjunctions since the John Terry case but the word ‘superinjunction’ gets used very widely,” the justice secretary said. (“Superinjunction”, used correctly, refers only to those few cases where it has been illegal even to report the existence of a court order). However, Clarke said he recognised that there was mounting concern about their use. “I believe in the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech in this country, even when sometimes it’s exercised provocatively, as it’s supposed to be in a free country. But I also think there are areas of privacy where an individual is entitled to have it protected.” The Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who represents Birmingham Yardley, said some injunctions prevented people from passing information to the police or other regulators. He asked: “Do you believe that the law should be changed so that regulators should always have information?” Clarke replied: “That’s one of the arguments that no doubt the judge who decides whether to grant the injunction or not has in mind.” But in his judgment on a privacy case involved the Big Brother star Imogen Thomas and an anonymous footballer published on Monday, the judge, Mr Justice Eady, made it clear that legislation might not make much difference. “One can rarely arrive at the answer in any given case merely by reference to generalities,” he declared. “It must all depend upon the particular facts of the case. “It follows too that there can be no automatic priority accorded to freedom of speech. The relative importance of the competing values must be weighed by reference to the individual set of circumstances confronting the court.” •
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The UK announces the most ambitious targets on greenhouse gases of any developed country, after a week of cabinet rifts The UK is to put in place the most ambitious targets on greenhouse gases of any developed country, by halving carbon dioxide emissions by 2025, after a tumultuous week of cabinet rifts on the issue. Agreeing the targets took weeks of wrangling among ministers, but late on Tuesday afternoon the energy and climate secretary, Chris Huhne, announced to parliament that the “carbon budget” – a 50% emissions cut averaged across the years 2023 to 2027, compared with 1990 levels – would be enshrined in law. Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s climate change chief, hailed the outcome as “very encouraging” and “an example” to other countries, which she said showed that countries could pursue economic growth while cutting emissions. “This is a recognition that to be very ambitious on public spending [cuts] does not mean you can’t be ambitious on climate change targets,” she told the Guardian. David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, the government advisory body that proposed the target, said: “This is going to deliver higher [economic] growth for the UK. It could well give us lower electricity prices in the future than our competitors.” But some businesses reacted angrily to the news, arguing that going further than other countries in cutting carbon would damage the competitiveness of British Industry. Terry Scuoler, chief executive of EEF, the industry body for the UK’s manufacturing sector, said: “This is a bad decision for manufacturing.” Huhne – currently at the centre of claims he persuaded someone else to take speeding penalty points on his behalf – said the government would produce plans later in the year laying out ways to compensate energy-hungry businesses for any competitive disadvantage. The policies necessary to meet the new carbon targets will be set out in October. Fears that ministers would reject the Committee on Climate Change’s proposals for pollution limits in the fourth “carbon budget” had prompted an outcry from environmentalist groups . The carbon budget runs from 2023 to 2027, part of efforts to meet legally binding emissions cuts of 80% by 2050, and will put the UK on target for 60% cuts by 2030. There will be a review of the budget in 2014, under a compromise A letter leaked last week appeared to expose a row between ministers. The business secretary, Vince Cable, apparently argued for less ambitious reductions in the 2020s because the targets could limit economic growth. After the letter emerged, a coalition of environmental bodies issued a warning to the prime minister David Cameron that he risked seriously undermining his pledge to lead the “greenest government ever” if he did not back the targets. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, also seized on the evidence of internal disagreement, writing to Cameron to warn that failing to agree the budget would send “a terrible signal” to business and the rest of the world. But over the weekend Cameron was reported to have stepped in to resolve the fraught battle within the cabinet , with a decision to support the targets. Cameron said today: “In the past twelve months, we have pursued an ambitious green agenda and today, we are announcing the next, historic step. By making this commitment, we will position the UK a leading player in the global low-carbon economy, creating significant new industries and jobs.” Matthew Spencer, director of the Green Alliance, said: “The prime minister has shown real leadership. In the end, No 10 accepted that good economic analysis from the committee on climate change trumped scare mongering from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The review is an attempt to help Cable save face, but as the EU will not have decided a trajectory by 2014 its very unlikely that it will change anything. Cable should now celebrate the fact that the UK can now become the lead location for investors in low carbon infrastructure and technology, and maximise advantage for UK business.” Keith Allott, WWF-UK’s head of climate change, said: “No other country has set legally binding emission-reduction targets going into the 2020s, and so with this decision the UK is demonstrating genuine leadership on climate change. The Climate Change Act remains a groundbreaking piece of legislation that, with support, will underpin the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy.” But he said the Committee on Climate Change had made clear that the proposed fourth carbon budget was the “absolute minimum” necessary. He added: “The unwillingness of government to accept this recommendation suggests that some Whitehall departments are more committed to action than others.” Katja Hall, director of policy at the CBI, which represents UK business, said: “We support a 50% emissions reduction target by 2025, but we won’t achieve this unless the government gets the short-term policies right. With the green economy potentially bringing in £200bn of investment into the UK’s energy sector alone, we need policies that will foster growth by decarbonising our energy supply, increase energy efficiency and support the competitiveness of our manufacturing base. Ultimately, it is the success of measures such as the green investment bank, electricity market reform and the green deal that will decide whether we meet ambitious emissions targets.” Carbon emissions Green politics Chris Huhne Climate change Fiona Harvey Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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Queen Elizabeth began a historic four-day trip to Ireland Tuesday. The long-planned visit was the first time a British monarch had ever set foot in the Republic. (May 17)
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The Coast Guard said it closed the Mississippi River at the port in Natchez, Miss., because barge traffic could increase pressure on the levees. Heavy flooding from Mississippi tributaries has displaced more than 4000 in the state. (May 17)
Continue reading …Schwarzenegger’s Womanizing Should Have Ended His Political Career 8 Years Ago
May 17, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media In the “I am so not surprised” category, news this morning from the LA Times that Arnold Schwarzenegger has fathered a lust child with one of the household staff. No, it doesn’t surprise me. But it does aggravate me, because when the predecessors to the Tea Party Express were orchestrating Gray Davis’ recall and Arnie’s ascension, his womanizing ways were well-known to anyone living in this state, yet he managed to snow stupid voters into thinking he was some kind of ‘family values’ guy. The Washington Post reported “allegations” that he was a groper back in 2003 , yet that’s as far as it went. He denied it repeatedly, and the sheepish press gave him a great big pass. Schwarzenegger’s campaign initially scoffed at the charges, which were made by six women quoted in a lengthy story in today’s Los Angeles Times. But even as Republican leaders were denouncing the account as a smear tactic planted by Democratic allies of embattled California Gov. Gray Davis, the actor issued a dramatic apology at a campaign event this morning, saying he had “behaved badly sometimes.” The six women told the newspaper that Schwarzenegger had grabbed their breasts or made other unwelcome, lewd advances on movie sets and other venues between 1975 and 2000. “Did he rape me? No,” one woman said. “Did he humiliate me? You bet he did.” The accusations engulfed Schwarzenegger’s campaign during what has appeared to be its finest hours. Polls this week have indicated that a majority of voters favor recalling Davis in next Tuesday’s election and that the actor is leading the field of candidates vying to replace him. On Wednesday, sounding confident of victory, Schwarzenegger even outlined plans for his first 100 days in office. Of course, as soon as the LA Times printed the allegations from six — SIX — women, attention turned to the Times instead of the issue at hand, thanks to Arnie’s handlers. The Times , Schwarzenegger and his supporters charged, had colluded with Governor Davis — a notoriously negative campaigner — in a “puke campaign” to undercut his frontrunner status late in the race. This charge was taken up by commentators in the press, many of them conservative, who excoriated the paper — which had strongly opposed the recall election on its editorial pages — for practicing “agenda journalism,” in the words of one, and harboring, along with the rest of the “elite media” an “overwhelming bias” towards Democrats. Six women came forward. Not one, not two. Six. And the conservative media managed to turn the whole thing around on them and extol Arnie’s virtues while condemning those who chose to tell the truth. As the duly-elected “family values” Republican governor, he railed against single moms in an interview with Salon, vetoed two gay marriage bills in the name of those selfsame Catholic family values, and cut Medicaid benefits for the poor, particularly in areas that hurt the disabled and children of poor parents. If there’s a lesson in all of this beyond the obvious lurid details, it’s this: When six women come forward with similar allegations, they should be taken seriously, even if the conservative media pitches a fit. It’s long past time to start ignoring their whining in favor of the real people who are harmed by actions of arrogant politicians.
Continue reading …‘The Tree Of Life’: Reviews Of Terrence Malick’s New Film Starring Brad Pitt
May 17, 2011 No Comment
It’s not often that Hollywood gets to review a Terrence Malick film, so when the opportunity arises, most everyone will be shouting their opinions from the rooftops. The intense scrutiny and madhouse press scramble is a juxtaposition with its filmmaker, the enigmatic Malick, for whom “The Tree of Life,” is his fifth directorial feature released in an over forty year career. In “Tree of Life,” his first film since 2005′s star-studded “The New World,” Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain star in what is, at least in part and at its most reduced, the story of a man whose parents’ polar-opposite personalities and techniques lead to a confused and troubled adulthood. Pitt plays the hard-scrabble father and Chastain the generous and free spirited mother, with Penn their eventual progeny. There’s much more to the film, however, and after its debut screening at the Cannes Film Festival, critics were eager to give their take — especially in the wake of the fact that some in the audience actually booed. Here’s a sampling of what a number of notable film voices have said about “The Tree of Life,” which opens to the general public on May 27th. Below the reviews, see a clip provided exclusive to The Huffington Post. The Hollywood Reporter: Brandishing an ambition it’s likely no film, including this one, could entirely fulfill, The Tree of Life is nonetheless a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amidst its narrative imprecisions. … Critical passions, pro and con, along with Brad Pitt in one of his finest performances, will stir specialized audiences to attention… Variety: Few American filmmakers are as alive to the splendor of the natural world as Terrence Malick, but even by his standards, “The Tree of Life” represents something extraordinary. The iconoclastic director’s long-awaited fifth feature is in many ways his simplest yet most challenging work, a transfixing odyssey through time and memory that melds a young boy’s 1950s upbringing with a magisterial rumination on the Earth’s origins. Entertainment Weekly: It can be daunting to describe Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” but scattered audience members at its first screening in Cannes needed only one syllable: boo. The many supporters of the movie pushed back with counter-applause, but it was a shocking way for the movie to debut. “The Tree of Life” is an elegiac litany of images and memory-like scenes more than a traditional narrative,. In brief, it’s the origin of time and infinity through the lens of one troubled, 1950s-era Texas family. It stars Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, though they share copious screen time with evolving galaxies, nebulae, and surreal, symbolic representations of the world beyond. The Guardian: Terrence Malick’s mad and magnificent film descends slowly, like some sort of prototypical spaceship: it’s a cosmic-interior epic of vainglorious proportions, a rebuke to realism, a disavowal of irony and comedy, a meditation on memory, and a gasp of horror and awe at the mysterious inevitability of loving, and losing those we love. Movieline: The “Tree of Life” is a gargantuan work of pretension and cleverly concealed self-absorption, featuring some absolutely gorgeous photography (courtesy of Emmanuel Lubezski, who also shot The New World). Malick does care about craftsmanship: He’s clearly poured thought and care into the images and the editing, and the sections of the film in which characters are actually allowed to interact — instead of just issuing forth in ponderous voice-overs as images of cosmic tadpoles and Ansel Adams-style calendar shots fill the screen — manage some degree of dramatic intensity. But through much of “The Tree of Life,” Malick, characteristically, doesn’t seem to care much for people at all. Film School Rejects: One of the problems for “The Tree of Life” is that it is too knowingly obtuse: the obvious idea of the film is that the we share in the O’Brien’s quest to unravel meaning in their lives through an evaluation of themselves, their relationships and their relation to nature and the grander canvas of the universe, but without a sufficient guiding influence, it becomes far too easy to simply drift along through the images Malick has so painstakingly compiled without being able to relate to or engage with his premise. For the majority of “The Tree of Life,” Malick is less a film-maker than a magpie of spectacular images, which are in themselves very impressive (and will no doubt form the basis of all the positive reviews it gets), but they are so disjointed and alien. Add to that the fact that these scenes are revealed in a almost picture-book form, where vignette follows vignette without a tether to the underlying story and it is nigh impossible to discern whether Malick is seeking to define the O’Briens (and human existence) in terms of their relation to these optical wonders or is simply attempting to create something consciously atypical to jar his audience into a response. As more reviews pour in, this page will be updated. WATCH: HPUtil.render_video(517063817)
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