PS3/Xbox 360; £39.99; cert 18+; Team Bondi/Rockstar Ever since it first worked out how to assemble pixels so that they resembled something more recognisable than aliens, the games industry has dreamed of creating one thing above all else – a game that is indistinguishable from a film, except that you can control the lead character. With LA Noire, it just might, finally, have found the embodiment of that particular holy grail. From start to finish, LA Noire feels like a film – LA Confidential, in fact, along with any similarly hard-boiled example of film noir adapted from stories by the likes of Chandler and Hammett. Set in a gloriously convincing depiction of Los Angeles in 1947 (which is much more attractive than today’s LA), it casts you as Cole Phelps, returning war hero turned cop. Instantly, you plunge deeply and satisfyingly into his working life, solving a vast number of cases as he becomes the LAPD’s poster-boy, first in Homicide, then in Vice. And your immersion in Phelps’ affairs ratchets up even further when he is hung out to dry by his dubious superiors. There have been plenty of games with cinematic pretensions in the past, so what is it that enables LA Noire to make a transcendental leap? Inevitably, technology is involved: the new MotionScan system used to capture actors’ performances simply produces more convincing facial animation than we have ever seen in a game. Couple that with the obsessive attention to detail for which Rockstar’s existing games such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption are famed, and the end result rings true to a greater extent than anything that has gone before. The familiar need to suspend disbelief has been all but eliminated. Real-life gameplay LA Noire’s gameplay capitalises cleverly on this breakthrough technology. Essentially, it sees you playing through Phelps’s working life, doing what you imagine a real-life LAPD detective would have done in 1947. Thus, you have to drive to crime scenes, root around for clues and examine bodies, then follow the resulting leads. It’s when you question suspects and witnesses that things get interesting. You have to analyse facial responses and bodily tics like a poker-player seeking tells, then choose one of three tones to adopt for each question. These are marked Truth, Doubt and Lying, but Sympathetic, Dubious and Accusatory would perhaps be more rigorous. If you accuse a suspect of lying, you must back that up by producing evidence (all accessed, along with along with your records of each case and details of suspects from your standard cop’s notebook). If you don’t adopt the correct tone, the character you’re quizzing will, at the very least, take longer to give you the crucial information you seek. As you rise through the ranks, you earn Intuition points, which can be cashed in to eliminate one wrong question-tone (or reveal the location of all the clues at a location). Luckily, LA Noire is pretty forgiving, so if your body language-assessment skills aren’t up to CSI standards, you should still get the right result in the end, although you risk a chewing-out from your boss for shoddy police work, which is genuinely mortifying. Beautiful pacing The game’s pacing and narrative arc impress as much as its believability. The bog-standard detective work, fun though it is, is punctuated judiciously by action sequences including car chases, pursuing suspects on foot, climbing around inaccessible areas, puzzle-solving and, of course, shoot-outs. Between cases, you either get a flashback to Phelps’ war experiences in Japan or a glimpse into his off-duty life; both those elements end up feeding back into the overarching storyline. The oeuvres of Shelley and even anarchist author Piotr Kropotkin are fed into the mix. Newspapers that you find when hunting for clues trigger yet another backstory (this time involving ongoing LA skullduggery), which yet again intersects with the main storyline in the game’s later stages. A fascinating snapshot of an America struggling to readjust to everyday life in the aftermath of the second world war emerges, reinforced by the attitudes of your fellow cops (many of whom would be ejected from the Sweeney for political incorrectness, although Phelps’s keen sense of morality keeps them sufficiently in check to appease modern moral arbiters seeking outrage). Since you’re at the centre of proceedings, participating in and dictating the action, the overall effect is powerfully immersive. Cleverly, Rockstar has ensured that LA Noire is a thoroughly inclusive game, too. The control system is sufficiently simplified that even the most determined non-gamers shouldn’t find it intimidating. Indeed, the more hardcore gamers may carp that it isn’t sufficiently action-packed or precise. The one criticism that could be levelled at the game is that the shooting system has been over-simplified so that it feels clunky compared to thelikes of Grand Theft Auto. Depth and meatiness LA Noire largely does away with the free-roaming that enhanced the appeal of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. As you drive around, you do occasionally hear of street crimes to which you can respond, and there are hidden vehicles and LA landmarks that completists can collect and visit, but the overwhelming focus is on the main story. So it’s a good job that, bucking the modern trend for short single-player games, LA Noire is satisfyingly meaty. Rockstar reckons it’s roughly equivalent in length to two seasons of a TV series, a claim that feels roughly accurate. Perhaps, then, it would be more accurate to argue that LA Noire more closely approximates a television show than a film – it beats any film hands down in terms of the sheer amount of entertainment on offer, which of course is an advantage games have always had over films. It has all the period charm of Boardwalk Empire or Mad Men – indeed, the role of Phelps is played by Mad Men’s Aaron Staton and other digitised Mad Men actors crop up sporadically – and it seasons the gameplay with a healthy dash of CSI. In the past, games with such overwhelming ambitions have floundered on odd, usually peripheral, aspects that jarred – such as unrealistic animation (and especially facial animation), clunky dialogue, poor virtual camerawork or facile characterisation. LA Noire is the first game to lack any such element which naggingly reminds you that you’re playing a video game, rather than strolling through a film or TV series. That’s why it marks a breakthrough for games as a whole – and we can’t wait to see what Rockstar does with LA Noire’s technology in its other blockbuster franchises. • Game reviewed on PlayStation 3 Rating: 5/5 Games PS3 PlayStation Sony Xbox Microsoft Steve Boxer guardian.co.uk
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The al-Qaida leader’s in-laws describe him as a sincere husband and her as a brave woman who was not a fundamentalist The family of Osama bin Laden’s youngest wife have broken their silence to describe how the 29-year-old Yemeni, currently in the custody of security services in Pakistan, refused the chance to leave her husband, saying instead she was determined be “martyred” alongside him. The relatives of Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, who became the al-Qaida leader’s fifth wife in late 1999, spoke of a “sincere” husband – though one who apparently exaggerated tales of his own bravado for the sake of his in-laws. Sadah, who Pakistani officials say was wounded in the calf during the operation that killed her husband, was among at least a dozen women and children detained by Pakistani security officials after the raid on the Abbottabad compound where Bin Laden had been living for several years. It is believed the American special forces team that carried out the operation was forced to abandon plans to evacuate survivors after losing of one of their four helicopters because of a technical problem. Among those detained are two other women who have also been identified as wives of Bin Laden by Pakistani officials. However, this is unconfirmed. If true both would be Saudi nationals. The children appear to be a mixture of Bin Laden’s own and his grandchildren. They include Sadah’s daughter, Safiya, who was born shortly before the 9/11 attacks. Pakistani officials have repeated that all those detained will be repatriated to their countries of origin. Sadah’s family spoke to a reporter from the Associated Press news agency in their two-storey traditional home in Ibb, an agricultural town in the mountains about 100 miles south of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. They said they saw Sadah, who was 17 when she was married, only once after her wedding, in 2000. Communication was largely limited to messages delivered by couriers. The family said Sadah was a simple but determined and “courageous” young woman who was religiously conservative but not fundamentalist and who may have seen marriage with Bin Laden, a hero for some in the Islamic world and the son of a major construction magnate, as a means of social mobility. Sadah, whose father is a minor civil servant, always told her friends and family that she wanted to “go down in history”, according to her cousin Waleed Hashem Abdel-Fatah al-Sadah. A cleric based in Kabul called Rasheed Mohammed Saeed, who had radical Islamist contacts, relayed the demand for marriage with Bin Laden. Sadah’s uncle Hashem recalled telling her he knew Bin Laden was from a “devout and respectable family” in Saudi Arabia, though he was unaware that the militant leader “was wanted by the Americans” for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. “The choice is yours,” the uncle said he told her. “It’s your future.” The answer was unequivocal: “This is destiny from God, and I accept it.” Weeks after the proposal, a dowry of $5,000 was wired by Bin Laden. After two wedding parties, including one in a Sana’a hotel, Sadah left Yemen. Accompanied by the intermediary, she travelled via Dubai and Pakistan to meet her bridegroom for the first time. When the family learned through a courier that she had given birth to a daughter, a group of relatives travelled via Pakistan to Afghanistan, where they spent a month. On the final day of the visit, a cousin recalled Bin Laden telling the young mother that she could stay with him in Afghanistan or return home with her family. “I want to be martyred with you and I won’t leave as long as you’re alive,” he recalled her saying. When Bin Laden told her he was “subject at any moment to death”, Sadah told him curtly: “I’ve made my decision.” The woman’s cousin recalled her describing Bin Laden as a “noble” man who treated her well. “‘It’s true that my life is one of moving between caves in Afghanistan, but despite the bitterness of this life … I’m comfortable with Osama,” she told her father. Sadah’s uncle said Bin Laden complained about Arab leaders and said he had been the focus of several “assassination” attempts by Arab and US intelligence services. The al-Qaida leader appears to have exaggerated his anecdotes for the benefit of his in-laws, telling them that a mosque in which he was delivering a sermon was struck by a cruise missile. “I was injured … and a lot of people were killed,” Bin Laden reportedly said. “But I was spared from death because God wished it.” There is no other record of such an incident. When in August 1998 the US fired cruise missiles at four militant training camps in Afghanistan in retaliation for the bombings of American embassies in east Africa, Bin Laden was many miles away. The cousin said Bin Laden told the family during their visit to Afghanistan “of a big event that will occur in the world”. Later, when the cousin and Sadah’s father heard the news of the 9/11 attacks, the father had now doubt who was behind them. “Osama bin Laden did it,” he said. For the moment, the future of Sadah and the other women in Pakistani custody is unclear. American intelligence services are keen to interview those detained in the raid in the belief that they could provide crucial intelligence about the workings of al-Qaida, the recent activities of Bin Laden and his personal life, and whether they had received support from Pakistani authorities. “It is fairly unlikely that Bin Laden would be sharing operational details with his wives. That isn’t his way or his culture. But there are other things they should know about, such as the whereabouts of other relatives,” one recently retired US intelligence official told the Guardian. One key topic, the former official said, would be the exact conditions of the large numbers of Bin Laden’s close family who have been detained in Iran since they fled Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the fall of the Taliban regime. Osama bin Laden al-Qaida Global terrorism Jason Burke guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …[ **My Terror Gap Segment on The Big Picture w/ Thom Hartmann begins at 6:47 of this video ] Like most other New Yorkers (where I grew up), Americans, and sentient beings, I am elated that Osama bin Laden will no longer be able to ply his trade. It’s been a long process, but the man who turned that beautiful September day back in 2001 into a nightmare for me, as I was watching from Delancey Street, and the rest of the world whether watching from the streets or on their television set, has finally been truly held accountable for his actions. But now is not the time to simply celebrate and forget that there are many more out there like him. They may lack his funding or charisma, but they do not lack his ambition. This is why it was ironic that the same week we finally got our man, we learned that 90% of those on the Terror Watch List who have tried since 2005 have successfully purchased guns (to say nothing of explosives, which they also have legal access to). This is a serious gap in our law that needs to be addressed. To quote from a report by Senator Frank Lautenberg : In June 2009, Sen. Lautenberg and Congressmen John Conyers (D-MI) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) released a new GAO report finding that, from February 2004 to February 2009, there were 963 cases in which a known or suspected terrorist attempted to buy a gun. In 90 percent of those cases — a total of 865 times — they were cleared to proceed with that purchase. One of those cases involved the purchase of explosives. According to the report, which the lawmakers requested in July 2008, only 10 percent of the time were terrorist suspects denied weapons because of disqualifying factors, such as a felony conviction or illegal immigrant status. Being on the Terrorist Watch List is currently not a disqualifying factor for buying firearms. In response to this report, Sen. Lautenberg has introduced legislation to close the “terror gap” in the nation’s gun laws by giving the Attorney General authority to stop the sale of guns or explosives to terrorists. Under current federal law, there is no legal way to stop someone on the Terrorist Watch List from buying guns and explosives. We should push for Senator Lautenberg’s legislation to be passed now . It has had bipartisan support in the past, including the strong backing of former President George W. Bush. If you don’t think we should get on this forthwith, just remember, there are those who will want to take revenge for bin Laden’s killing. And there are those who will continue to plan attacks on the United States because it is such a tempting target. They may not have the capabilities to pull off a large scale attack like the one on 9/11. But by allowing them to purchase Jared Loughner’s Glock with an assault clip, or (God help us) explosives, we are asking for trouble. Hopefully most of remember what happened in Mumbai, India. It only took guns, some explosives, a few cell phones, and a hijacked fishing vessel to terrorize an entire city and commit mass murder at train stations, luxury hotels and in the streets. Could it happen here? The Washington Post’s David Ignatius makes a compelling (and chilling) case that it can and will: Technology is improving for detecting radiological devices that might arrive at seaports. But defenses are thin against bioterrorism and are almost nonexistent against seaborne attackers of the sort who terrorized Mumbai. What would happen if roving gunmen infiltrated U.S. cities and started shooting? Most U.S. police departments aren’t well prepared to deal with such “active shooters,” as they’re called. Police are trained to cordon off an area that’s under attack and then call in a paramilitary SWAT team to root out the gunmen. But what if the attackers keep moving and shooting? The response can be haphazard, as was clear in such disparate incidents as the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks in the Washington area and last year’s massacre at Virginia Tech. “Mumbai is a worst-case ‘active shooter’ problem,” says a former CIA officer who helped organize a DHS pilot program on the subject last summer for police chiefs. “It had multiple shooters, multiple locations, mobile threats, willingness to fight the first responders and follow-on SWAT/commando units, well-equipped and well-trained operatives, and a willingness to die. Police department commanders in America should be scratching their heads and praying.” We can never render a threat such as this nonexistent. But by making it harder for those on the Terrorist Watch List than simply walking into a gun store or show and asking for a .50 caliber rifle, that can take out an airplane, or the latest cool explosive, we are increasing our chances of preventing the next bin Laden from targeting innocent Americans. Update: Today (Thursday) there was a sudden vote on an amendment in the Judiciary Committee to close the Terror Gap. Predictably, all 21 Republicans–tough talkers on terrorism are they–decided that the financial interests of NRA arms dealers are more important than the lives of the American people. Full Disclosure: I consult for Mayors Against Illegal Guns , which–to protect American citizens–has made this legislation a priority Twitter? Follow me if you will: @cliffschecter
Continue reading …From The Colbert Report: Newt Gingrich finally announces that he will be making an announcement, and Donald Trump decides to run in his mind. I’m waiting to see how long it takes Newt to crash and burn as well.
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enlarge Credit: US Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour just gave small government a whole new meaning. Small, as in mean and cold-hearted. While Barbour bows and scrapes to the Conservative God of the Almighty Dollar, people are bracing to lose everything in what could be the worst flooding in history. So what do you suppose Governor Barbour did to protect the people of his state? Do you think he took any measures to help them, or to shore up their homes, or provide emergency shelter? Here’s what he did : As the water rose, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour moved furniture out of his lake house outside Vicksburg on family land that was inundated during the 1927 flood. A week ago, he urged residents to flee low-lying areas, saying that the state wouldn’t assist the evacuations and that people should help one another secure their property and get out. Widespread flooding was expected along the Yazoo River, a tributary that is backed up because of the bloated Mississippi. Rolling Fork, home of the bluesman Muddy Waters, was also in danger of getting inundated. That’s right. He told them they were on their own, to just do whatever they could. Well, that, and he did remember to apply for federal assistance . After all, the federal government is great when conservatives don’t want any responsibility for anything. Those folks most affected by flooding aren’t people Barbour cares all that much about, I guess. While some farms in the cotton-, rice- and corn-growing Delta are prosperous, there is also grinding poverty. Nine of the 11 counties that touch the Mississippi River in Mississippi have poverty rates at least double the national average of 13.5 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. All those good folks in Mississippi can take comfort in the fact that conservative lawmakers nationwide are praying for them . They’re not doing anything to help them, but they’re praying for them. All hail the Very Earnest Conservatives.
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European interior ministers agree to ‘radical revision’ of Schengen amid fears of a flood of migrants from north Africa European nations moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent when a majority of EU governments agreed the need to reinstate national passport controls amid fears of a flood of immigrants fleeing the upheaval in north Africa. In a serious blow to one of the cornerstones of a united, integrated Europe, EU interior ministers embarked on a radical revision of the passport-free travel regime known as the Schengen system to allow the 26 participating governments to restore border controls. They also agreed to combat immigration by pressing for “readmission accords” with countries in the Middle East and north Africa to send refugees back to where they came from. The policy shift was pushed by France and Italy, who have been feuding and panicking in recent weeks over a small influx of refugees from Tunisia. But 15 of the 22 EU states which had signed up to Schengen supported the move, with only four resisting, according to officials and diplomats present. The issue will be discussed at a summit of EU prime ministers and presidents next month. But the “reforms” of the Schengen system also need to go through the European parliament, where there is likely to be strong resistance to empowering national governments to reinstate controls. The border-free region embraces more than 400m people in 22 EU countries, as well as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. It extends from Portugal to Russia’s borders on the Baltic, and from Reykjavik to Turkey’s border with Greece. The move to curb freedom of travel came as the extreme nationalist right, which is increasingly influencing policy across Europe, chalked up a notable victory in Denmark, which announced it would unilaterally re-erect controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden. The centre-right minority government in Copenhagen capitulated to the fiercely anti-immigrant nationalists of the Danish People’s party to secure parliamentary backing for long-term budget, welfare and retirement policies. “I have worked hard for this,” said Pia Kjaersgaard, the far-right leader. Despite the ‘fortress Europe’ mood gripping EU leaders, the Danish decision stunned many because it was taken just hours before an emergency EU meeting devoted to immigration and the Schengen regime. The German government complained that the open border should not be “sacrificed for domestic political reasons”. The European commission said it would scrutinise the decision to see if it complied with the Schengen rules. There were calls in the European parliament for Denmark to be kicked out of the Schengen regime. But the Danish government promised that border and customs checks would not extend to passport controls, and that this remained compliant with Schengen. Denmark already has the tightest anti-immigration laws in Europe. The government there said a permanent return to national controls was aimed at combating cross-border crime. The sudden shift in Denmark, as well as the new curbs on freedom of movement, highlighted how a resurgent Europhobic far right across the EU is translating success at the ballot box into policy victories. Italy’s anti-immigrant campaign is headed by the interior minister Robert Maroni, of the xenophobic Northern League in the Berlusconi coalition. The campaign in France is seen as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy to dilute the growing appeal of Marine Le Pen, the new leader of the extreme Front National. The minority centre-right coalition in the Netherlands, as in Denmark, is propped up by tacit support from the Muslim-baiting Freedom party led by Geert Wilders. The robust nationalism, most recently evident in Finland, is fuelling demands for the repatriation of powers from Brussels, a trend likely to be welcomed by David Cameron and the Tories. “The problem is all about trust. How do we get out of this without bringing down the system?” said one EU ambassador. “The challenges get bigger every day and the question is whether all this can be kept under control.” The policy shift has also been triggered by acute nervousness about the impact of the Arab spring. “There are hundreds of thousands on the shores of north Africa. Something extraordinary could happen any day,” said a senior EU diplomat. “If Gaddafi uses this weapon, he can create a lot of problems for Europe.” The Guardian revealed this week that the Gaddafi regime is allowing thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants on to overcrowded, unseaworthy ships in an apparently calculated attempt to use migration to pressure Nato and the EU countries against backing Libya’s rebels. While a consensus has emerged among EU governments on rowing back on Schengen, the European commission maintained that national passport and border controls could only be reintroduced “as a last resort”, temporarily in extreme circumstances. The commission’s emphasis paves the way for a power struggle in the weeks and months ahead over who should police the Schengen rules and decide whether and why a country may suspend the open-borders regime. At Thursday’s meeting, Germany insisted the powers had to rest with national governments and that the European commission would be bypassed. It was supported by France, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Cecilia Malmstrom, the commissioner for home affairs – who calls the borders-free zone a “beautiful achievement” – argued that the powers should be vested in Brussels. Sandor Pinder, the Hungarian interior minister, who chaired the meeting, warned that individual countries should not be allowed to act alone in deciding to restore border controls. “That could trigger a chain reaction and shatter confidence,” he said. Europe European Union Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Immigration and asylum Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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Kate McCann’s open letter in the Sun asking David Cameron to step in prompted PM to contact Scotland Yard Scotland Yard has been ordered to review the disappearance of Madeleine McCann after the child’s mother appealed to the prime minister for help. The Guardian understands that shortly after Kate McCann published an open letter in the Sun newspaper asking David Cameron to step in, Downing Street contacted the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. It was made clear that the Met should review the abduction of three year old Madeleine, who went missing four years ago from her parents’ apartment in a holiday complex of Praia da Luz, Portugal. Yard detectives will be working alongside the Portuguese police on the review of all the evidence in the case. But they will have to negotiate delicately around the primacy of the inquiry which remains with the Portuguese detectives. A statement from the Home Office announced the intervention of Yard detectives in the disappearance and made clear the government, not the Yard, would be paying. “The government hopes that the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] can bring a new perspective to the case and the Home Office will be providing the necessary financial support,” the statement said. A spokesman for the Home Office added: “The government’s primary concern has always been, and remains, the safe return of Madeleine. “Although she disappeared in Portugal and the Portuguese retain the lead responsibility in the case, law enforcement agencies here have continued to follow up leads and pass information to the Portuguese authorities as appropriate. “The prime minister and the home secretary have today agreed with Sir Paul Stephenson that the Metropolitan Police will bring its particular expertise to this case. “Clearly the detail of what that will entail will be a matter of operational judgment and it would not be appropriate to discuss at this stage.” Any inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine is fraught with difficulties. Met detectives will fly to Portugal to work with detectives there and carry out a review of all the paperwork. But with the passage of time the chances of success are vastly reduced. The scene of the crime was never sealed off by the Portuguese detectives and vital evidence is likely to have been contaminated or gone missing as a result of the failure to secure the scene. The Met now face a huge challenge to find something within the paperwork that has been overlooked or misinterpreted. But they have no forensic evidence and no body to help their investigations. Until today the Met were not going to be involved in any review. There had been a suggestion that Scotland Yard would be asked to look at the case by the McCann family in a request timed with the publication this week of Kate McCann’s book. But the Guardian understands that the likelihood of the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Mayor of London approving expenditure on the case was very slim. After Kate McCann published an open letter asking Cameron to carry out a transparent and thorough review of all the evidence held by all police agencies in the case, higher authorities in the form of the prime minister and the home secretary intervened, and crucially made clear the Home Office would pay for the investigation. Yard detectives will fly out to Portugal but it is understood that this is not imminent. Madeleine disappeared from her parents’ apartment while they were eating dinner with friends in a restaurant less than 100m away in the complex. The couple said they made regular checks on the child and her siblings but when Kate McCann went to check later in the evening she found her daughter missing, and the soft toy she used as a comforter in her bed. One witness later described seeing a man carrying a child in his arms in the road next to the apartment. The Portuguese police inquiry was heavily criticised by the family who themselves became official suspects in the disappearance of their daughter. They were transformed overnight from grieving parents to official suspects and vitriolic internet campaigns are still run against them. Kate McCann has spoken in detail for the first time about losing her daughter in her new book Madeleine, published this week. On what would have been their daughter’s eighth birthday they posed for pictures to keep the publicity about her disappearance going. Madeleine McCann Metropolitan police Police Crime Kate McCann Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Kate McCann’s open letter in the Sun asking David Cameron to step in prompted PM to contact Scotland Yard Scotland Yard has been ordered to review the disappearance of Madeleine McCann after the child’s mother appealed to the prime minister for help. The Guardian understands that shortly after Kate McCann published an open letter in the Sun newspaper asking David Cameron to step in, Downing Street contacted the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. It was made clear that the Met should review the abduction of three year old Madeleine, who went missing four years ago from her parents’ apartment in a holiday complex of Praia da Luz, Portugal. Yard detectives will be working alongside the Portuguese police on the review of all the evidence in the case. But they will have to negotiate delicately around the primacy of the inquiry which remains with the Portuguese detectives. A statement from the Home Office announced the intervention of Yard detectives in the disappearance and made clear the government, not the Yard, would be paying. “The government hopes that the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] can bring a new perspective to the case and the Home Office will be providing the necessary financial support,” the statement said. A spokesman for the Home Office added: “The government’s primary concern has always been, and remains, the safe return of Madeleine. “Although she disappeared in Portugal and the Portuguese retain the lead responsibility in the case, law enforcement agencies here have continued to follow up leads and pass information to the Portuguese authorities as appropriate. “The prime minister and the home secretary have today agreed with Sir Paul Stephenson that the Metropolitan Police will bring its particular expertise to this case. “Clearly the detail of what that will entail will be a matter of operational judgment and it would not be appropriate to discuss at this stage.” Any inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine is fraught with difficulties. Met detectives will fly to Portugal to work with detectives there and carry out a review of all the paperwork. But with the passage of time the chances of success are vastly reduced. The scene of the crime was never sealed off by the Portuguese detectives and vital evidence is likely to have been contaminated or gone missing as a result of the failure to secure the scene. The Met now face a huge challenge to find something within the paperwork that has been overlooked or misinterpreted. But they have no forensic evidence and no body to help their investigations. Until today the Met were not going to be involved in any review. There had been a suggestion that Scotland Yard would be asked to look at the case by the McCann family in a request timed with the publication this week of Kate McCann’s book. But the Guardian understands that the likelihood of the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Mayor of London approving expenditure on the case was very slim. After Kate McCann published an open letter asking Cameron to carry out a transparent and thorough review of all the evidence held by all police agencies in the case, higher authorities in the form of the prime minister and the home secretary intervened, and crucially made clear the Home Office would pay for the investigation. Yard detectives will fly out to Portugal but it is understood that this is not imminent. Madeleine disappeared from her parents’ apartment while they were eating dinner with friends in a restaurant less than 100m away in the complex. The couple said they made regular checks on the child and her siblings but when Kate McCann went to check later in the evening she found her daughter missing, and the soft toy she used as a comforter in her bed. One witness later described seeing a man carrying a child in his arms in the road next to the apartment. The Portuguese police inquiry was heavily criticised by the family who themselves became official suspects in the disappearance of their daughter. They were transformed overnight from grieving parents to official suspects and vitriolic internet campaigns are still run against them. Kate McCann has spoken in detail for the first time about losing her daughter in her new book Madeleine, published this week. On what would have been their daughter’s eighth birthday they posed for pictures to keep the publicity about her disappearance going. Madeleine McCann Metropolitan police Police Crime Kate McCann Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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Kate McCann’s open letter in the Sun asking David Cameron to step in prompted PM to contact Scotland Yard Scotland Yard has been ordered to review the disappearance of Madeleine McCann after the child’s mother appealed to the prime minister for help. The Guardian understands that shortly after Kate McCann published an open letter in the Sun newspaper asking David Cameron to step in, Downing Street contacted the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. It was made clear that the Met should review the abduction of three year old Madeleine, who went missing four years ago from her parents’ apartment in a holiday complex of Praia da Luz, Portugal. Yard detectives will be working alongside the Portuguese police on the review of all the evidence in the case. But they will have to negotiate delicately around the primacy of the inquiry which remains with the Portuguese detectives. A statement from the Home Office announced the intervention of Yard detectives in the disappearance and made clear the government, not the Yard, would be paying. “The government hopes that the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] can bring a new perspective to the case and the Home Office will be providing the necessary financial support,” the statement said. A spokesman for the Home Office added: “The government’s primary concern has always been, and remains, the safe return of Madeleine. “Although she disappeared in Portugal and the Portuguese retain the lead responsibility in the case, law enforcement agencies here have continued to follow up leads and pass information to the Portuguese authorities as appropriate. “The prime minister and the home secretary have today agreed with Sir Paul Stephenson that the Metropolitan Police will bring its particular expertise to this case. “Clearly the detail of what that will entail will be a matter of operational judgment and it would not be appropriate to discuss at this stage.” Any inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine is fraught with difficulties. Met detectives will fly to Portugal to work with detectives there and carry out a review of all the paperwork. But with the passage of time the chances of success are vastly reduced. The scene of the crime was never sealed off by the Portuguese detectives and vital evidence is likely to have been contaminated or gone missing as a result of the failure to secure the scene. The Met now face a huge challenge to find something within the paperwork that has been overlooked or misinterpreted. But they have no forensic evidence and no body to help their investigations. Until today the Met were not going to be involved in any review. There had been a suggestion that Scotland Yard would be asked to look at the case by the McCann family in a request timed with the publication this week of Kate McCann’s book. But the Guardian understands that the likelihood of the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Mayor of London approving expenditure on the case was very slim. After Kate McCann published an open letter asking Cameron to carry out a transparent and thorough review of all the evidence held by all police agencies in the case, higher authorities in the form of the prime minister and the home secretary intervened, and crucially made clear the Home Office would pay for the investigation. Yard detectives will fly out to Portugal but it is understood that this is not imminent. Madeleine disappeared from her parents’ apartment while they were eating dinner with friends in a restaurant less than 100m away in the complex. The couple said they made regular checks on the child and her siblings but when Kate McCann went to check later in the evening she found her daughter missing, and the soft toy she used as a comforter in her bed. One witness later described seeing a man carrying a child in his arms in the road next to the apartment. The Portuguese police inquiry was heavily criticised by the family who themselves became official suspects in the disappearance of their daughter. They were transformed overnight from grieving parents to official suspects and vitriolic internet campaigns are still run against them. Kate McCann has spoken in detail for the first time about losing her daughter in her new book Madeleine, published this week. On what would have been their daughter’s eighth birthday they posed for pictures to keep the publicity about her disappearance going. Madeleine McCann Metropolitan police Police Crime Kate McCann Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Professors At Catholic Colleges Tell John Boehner: Your Budget Fails To Uphold Church Moral Teachings
May 12, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Despite the efforts of the past two popes to purge the church’s ranks of liberals, there are still Catholics who believe in the teachings of social justice and they’re calling out John Boehner on his faux Catholicism: House Speaker John A. Boehner, a Republican who grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family in Ohio, is scheduled to give the commencement address this Saturday at the Catholic University of America in Washington, a prestigious venue in church circles for its affiliation with the nation’s bishops. But now Mr. Boehner is coming in for a dose of the same kind of harsh criticism previously leveled at some Democrats — including President Obama — who have been honored by Catholic universities: the accusation that his policies violate basic teachings of the Catholic church. More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleges have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and therefore he has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching. “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” the letter says. “From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor . Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”
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