Tornadoes have torn through parts of the US midwest, killing at least 89 people in the Missouri city of Joplin and causing extensive property damage
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Tornadoes have torn through parts of the US midwest, killing at least 89 people in the Missouri city of Joplin and causing extensive property damage
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Green party beats CDU for first time in state elections after coming second to Social Democrats in Bremen Angela Merkel has been dealt another blow after support for her Christian Democratic Union party plunged once again – this time at regional elections in Bremen. For the first time in state elections, the Green party won more votes than the CDU, capturing almost 23% of the vote on Sunday, according to an exit poll from German state television ARD. The Green surge, if confirmed by final results, means the party will continue to rule in coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), who have been in charge of the north German city for 66 years. While the Greens’ victory in the smallest of Germany’s 16 states will not directly affect the chancellor’s hold on the federal government, it is another symbolic black eye for Merkel and her party. In Baden-Württemberg’s state election in March, the Christian Democrats were voted out of power for the first time in five decades . The anti-nuclear Greens became the strongest party there amid concerns over Germany’s atomic future following the Fukushima plant accident in Japan. The win will mean that Germany will have its first Green governor. The success in Bremen has led some Greens to admit they are now on the hunt for a candidate for chancellor to go head-to-head with Merkel at national elections in 2013 should their trajectory continue upwards. Some are even tipping the popular former foreign minister Joschka Fischer for a comeback. According to German magazine Focus, a third of Germans would still vote for Fischer. Merkel’s junior partner in the federal government, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), look to have been kicked out of Bremen’s bürgerschaft , the state legislature, after failing to meet the minimum 5% threshold. Provisional results suggest the FDP won 2.5% of the vote – a headache for Merkel as well as its new national leader, Philipp Rösler. The Left party won 6.4% of the Bremen vote, down from just over 8% in 2007, the poll said. The Greens’ rise was also echoed in a new national poll that saw their support at 23%, closely trailing the SDP’s 26%. The poll commissioned by ARD television and released on Sunday showed the CDU at 33%, and the FDP at 4%. Merkel’s conservatives won Germany’s last general election in 2009 with 33.8% of the vote and joined forces with the FDP, which had then secured a 14.6% share. About 1,000 people were surveyed for the poll that had a margin of error of up to 3.1%. Sunday’s vote in Bremen marked the first time in German history that people between 16 and 18 were allowed to vote for their state legislature. Despite that effort to boost the vote, ARD estimated a turnout of 54%, down from 57% four years earlier. Germany Angela Merkel Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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Penny Johnson says surgeon played God with her life after experimental facelift left her with nerve damage A woman who sued a plastic surgeon who “played God” with her life has been awarded more than £6m in damages. Penny Johnson, 49, claimed Le Roux Fourie carried out experimental surgery during a facelift in August 2003 that caused nerve damage to the right side of her face and led to her financial and IT consultancy business going into administration. At a trial in February at the high court in London she asked Justice Owen to award her a proportion of the £54m she says was her potential loss, as a 50% shareholder, when her company, Bishop Cavanagh, failed in 2009. During the hearing, Johnson, of Godstone, Surrey, said: “My face is constantly contracting, I don’t sleep and I have a permanent buzzing around my eye, which can be so intense that I can’t think about anything.” The judge gave his ruling in the case on Monday and awarded her £6,190,884.92. Alain Choo Choy QC, defending, accepted liability but put the potential business loss at £9m. He did not accept the surgery had been experimental. The claim that Bishop Cavanagh lost out on a series of lucrative contracts was unrealistic and deluded, he said. He accepted that her injuries restricted her ability to work but the business had failed for unrelated commercial and economic reasons. The court was told that during her absence the company was run by her husband, Peter, with whom she now owns another business, BC Direct. The bulk of the award relates to lost earnings, both past and future. In his ruling, the judge said Johnson had been a confident, happy and outstandingly successful woman with a full and rewarding family and social life. But the negligent surgery had serious consequences – both physical and psychological – and resulted in a prolonged adjustment disorder with features of anxiety and depression. As he observed during the trial, the facial twitching she suffered was “virtually constant”. He said it was clear her injuries from the facelift and the replacement of breast implants, which was carried out at the same time, had harmed her relationship with her husband. “Their marriage has survived, but the claimant said in evidence that she is no longer a wife to her husband. He says that she is now a completely different person and that their marriage is not what it used to be.” He awarded £80,000 for the facial disfigurement, the asymmetry and pain caused by the breast surgery and the psychological consequences of the injuries. Assessing Johnson’s claim for loss of earnings, the judge said her projections were the product of her intense disappointment at the “devastating” consequences to the business. “She has understandably become preoccupied by what might have been, which has affected her judgment as to what could and would in reality have been achieved,” he added. As to her residual earning capacity, the judge said Johnson functioned intellectually at a high level and continued to have the potential to deploy her outstanding abilities at work. But account had to be taken of the uncertain prognosis for her psychiatric symptoms. He said: “Unless she makes a full recovery … recovers some vestige of her former self-confidence, the prospect of engagement in business activities that involve face-to-face contact with others is limited.” Plastic surgery Health & wellbeing Health guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: David Brewster/Minneapolis StarTribune Tornados striking urban areas are even worse, because homes are packed more tightly together. This system caused some real damage yesterday in Minneapolis : A huge storm system spawned at least three tornado touchdowns as it moved northeast across the Twin Cities metro area Sunday afternoon, killing one person in particularly hard-hit north Minneapolis and critically injuring two others among 29 needing medical attention. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Chief Tim Dolan said early Sunday night that a large section of north Minneapolis — roughy 4 square miles — was being put under a curfew to help emergency personnel move around and to combat potential looting of damaged homes and businesses. Rybak and City Council Member Barbara Johnson got an aerial view from a helicopter. The mayor described the damage as “widespread and significant.” City officials said at least 100 homes were damaged, some of them totaled . The same system hit a hospital in Joplin, Missouri: Damage was widespread across the south side of Joplin. John Campbell, operations director for the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed fatalities have been reported, but he did not yet have an exact number or specifics. Phone communications in and out of the city of about 50,000 people about 160 miles south of Kansas City were largely cut off. Jasper County Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said the St. John’s Regional Medical Center on the city’s south side took a “direct hit.” Witnesses said windows were blown out on the top floors of the hospital.
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At least 89 people killed in Joplin after twister damages up to 30% of city A tornado that ripped through the Missouri city of Joplin has killed at least 89 people, with the death toll set to rise as rescuers continue their work, authorities said. The city manager, Mark Rohr, announced the death toll at a pre-dawn news conference outside the ruins of a hospital that took a direct hit from Sunday’s storm. Rohr said the twister cut a path through the centre of the city nearly six miles long and more than half a mile wide. Much of the city’s south side was flattened, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to rubble. An unknown number of people were injured in the storm, and officials said patients were taken to any nearby hospitals that could take them. A door-to-door search of the damaged area, to begin on Monday morning, was expected to be hindered by fallen power lines, jagged debris and a series of gas leaks that caused fires around the city overnight. “We will recover and come back stronger than we are today,” Rohr pledged. Fire chief, Mitch Randles, estimated the tornado had damaged 25% to 30% of the city, which is home to about 50,000 people around 160 miles south of Kansas City. “It cut the city in half,” Randles said. St John’s regional medical centre appeared to take a direct hit. The staff had just moments to move patients into hallways before the storm struck the multistorey building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless. In the car park, a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart. Triage centres and shelters were set up around Joplin, while emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to the city to help lift debris and clear the way for search and rescue operations. The Missouri governor, Jay Nixon, declared a state of emergency. Barack Obama sent condolences to the families of those who died in storms in Joplin and across the midwest. Jeff Lehr, a reporter for the Joplin Globe, said he was upstairs in his home when the storm hit but was able to get to a basement closet. “There was a loud huffing noise, my windows started popping. I had to get downstairs, glass was flying. I opened a closet and pulled myself into it,” he told the Associated Press. “Then you could hear everything go. It tore the roof off my house, everybody’s house. I came outside and there was nothing left.” In Minneapolis, Minnesota, at least one person was killed and 30 others hurt by a separate tornado. At least 100 homes were damaged, and a joint city-county team was set to begin assessing emergency housing needs. Missouri Natural disasters and extreme weather United States guardian.co.uk
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Poll: You’ve made your nominations in 10 categories for our review of the 2010-11 Premier League season. Now it’s time to vote
Continue reading …Poll: You’ve made your nominations in 10 categories for our review of the 2010-11 Premier League season. Now it’s time to vote
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Cartagena accord will allow return of exiled president and re-entry of Honduras to Organisation of American States The ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya has signed an accord with his successor that will allow him return to his homeland and the country’s re-entry into the Organisation of American States. Zelaya and President Porfirio Lobo met in Cartagena, Colombia, on Sunday to sign the agreement that was worked out by presidents Juan Manuel Santos, of Colombia, and Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela. The goal is to end the political crisis caused by the June 2009 coup that sent Zelaya into exile and caused the OAS to suspend Honduras as a member. The agreement “strengthens the American system … and there is peace and freedom in a brotherly country like Honduras”, Santos said. Earlier he said via Twitter that the agreement “implies the return of Zelaya to Honduras and its return to the OAS”. Chávez promised to make sure the accord’s terms were respected. “We will be monitoring very closely that the agreement is fulfilled because we know there will be forces inside and outside Honduras who are going to try to boycott the accord,” he said from Caracas, Venezuela. The deal calls for an end to the persecution of Zelaya, and his supporters, and his safe return to Honduras; reiterates that Honduras’s constitution guarantees the right to seek a national plebiscite on reforming fundamental laws; requires respect for human rights and the investigation of possible violations; and calls for a guarantee that Zelaya supporters can participate in Honduras’s political life and in 2014 elections as a political party. “I am pleased to come to sign a reconciliation agreement for the democracy of the Honduran people … Do not be afraid of democracy,” said Zelaya, who was ousted after he ignored a court order to cancel a referendum asking if Honduras should change its constitution. His opponents accused him of wanting to get around a provision limiting presidents to a single term; a charge he denied. Lobo called the signing “a very important day for Honduras”, saying the accord was “for the millions of Hondurans who choose to live in peace and harmony”. He urged his countrymen to recognise that Zelaya’s return would be good for the country. “Return to Honduras without any fear because you will be treated with the respect due a former president,” Lobo told Zelaya. Santos attended the signing of the “Cartagena accord” and Chávez, who is recovering from a knee injury, was represented by the Venezuelan foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro. Zelaya attended even though a spokesman for Lobo had said the former leader would not be in Cartagena, but rather sign the agreement later at a forum in Managua, Nicaragua, with the presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. A Honduran government statement said that with the accord, Lobo had fulfilled the electoral mandate given to him to “achieve national reconciliation and unity”. Zelaya, who has been living in exile in the Dominican Republic, said last week that he plans to return to Honduras on 28 May. After Zelaya was overthrown by the military, international sanctions and months of negotiations led by the US and the OAS failed to persuade an interim government to restore him to power. Honduras went ahead with November 2009 elections that had been scheduled before the coup and Lobo was voted into office . The US and other countries restored ties shortly after Lobo took power in January 2010. But Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua and Ecuador opposed restoring Honduras to the OAS unless Zelaya could return from exile without facing the threat of prison. Honduran courts recently dropped corruption charges and arrest warrants pending against Zelaya, paving the way for the country’s restoration as an OAS member. The OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, issued a statement saying the accord “opens the way to return Honduras to the hemispheric organisation”. He said it would be presented to the OAS’s permanent council on Monday. Honduras’s return to the OAS is expected to be made official during the organisation’s general assembly in El Salvador from 5-7 June. Honduras Colombia guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Cartagena accord will allow return of exiled president and re-entry of Honduras to Organisation of American States The ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya has signed an accord with his successor that will allow him return to his homeland and the country’s re-entry into the Organisation of American States. Zelaya and President Porfirio Lobo met in Cartagena, Colombia, on Sunday to sign the agreement that was worked out by presidents Juan Manuel Santos, of Colombia, and Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela. The goal is to end the political crisis caused by the June 2009 coup that sent Zelaya into exile and caused the OAS to suspend Honduras as a member. The agreement “strengthens the American system … and there is peace and freedom in a brotherly country like Honduras”, Santos said. Earlier he said via Twitter that the agreement “implies the return of Zelaya to Honduras and its return to the OAS”. Chávez promised to make sure the accord’s terms were respected. “We will be monitoring very closely that the agreement is fulfilled because we know there will be forces inside and outside Honduras who are going to try to boycott the accord,” he said from Caracas, Venezuela. The deal calls for an end to the persecution of Zelaya, and his supporters, and his safe return to Honduras; reiterates that Honduras’s constitution guarantees the right to seek a national plebiscite on reforming fundamental laws; requires respect for human rights and the investigation of possible violations; and calls for a guarantee that Zelaya supporters can participate in Honduras’s political life and in 2014 elections as a political party. “I am pleased to come to sign a reconciliation agreement for the democracy of the Honduran people … Do not be afraid of democracy,” said Zelaya, who was ousted after he ignored a court order to cancel a referendum asking if Honduras should change its constitution. His opponents accused him of wanting to get around a provision limiting presidents to a single term; a charge he denied. Lobo called the signing “a very important day for Honduras”, saying the accord was “for the millions of Hondurans who choose to live in peace and harmony”. He urged his countrymen to recognise that Zelaya’s return would be good for the country. “Return to Honduras without any fear because you will be treated with the respect due a former president,” Lobo told Zelaya. Santos attended the signing of the “Cartagena accord” and Chávez, who is recovering from a knee injury, was represented by the Venezuelan foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro. Zelaya attended even though a spokesman for Lobo had said the former leader would not be in Cartagena, but rather sign the agreement later at a forum in Managua, Nicaragua, with the presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. A Honduran government statement said that with the accord, Lobo had fulfilled the electoral mandate given to him to “achieve national reconciliation and unity”. Zelaya, who has been living in exile in the Dominican Republic, said last week that he plans to return to Honduras on 28 May. After Zelaya was overthrown by the military, international sanctions and months of negotiations led by the US and the OAS failed to persuade an interim government to restore him to power. Honduras went ahead with November 2009 elections that had been scheduled before the coup and Lobo was voted into office . The US and other countries restored ties shortly after Lobo took power in January 2010. But Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua and Ecuador opposed restoring Honduras to the OAS unless Zelaya could return from exile without facing the threat of prison. Honduran courts recently dropped corruption charges and arrest warrants pending against Zelaya, paving the way for the country’s restoration as an OAS member. The OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, issued a statement saying the accord “opens the way to return Honduras to the hemispheric organisation”. He said it would be presented to the OAS’s permanent council on Monday. Honduras’s return to the OAS is expected to be made official during the organisation’s general assembly in El Salvador from 5-7 June. Honduras Colombia guardian.co.uk
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