Fighting broke out over false rumours that a Christian woman was being prevented from converting to Islam Egypt’s transitional government moved quickly to defuse tensions after Muslim-Christian clashes in Cairo left 12 dead and cast a cloud over hopes for peaceful post-revolutionary change. Angry demonstrations erupted in the capital after a Coptic church in the Imbaba neighbourhood was burned down on Saturday night. Military police separated opposing camps at one protest reminiscent of the dramatic events that overthrew the regime in February. Fighting broke out over rumours, which turned out to be false, that a Christian woman was being held inside a church and prevented from converting to Islam. Essam Sharaf, prime minister of the military-backed government, postponed a visit to the Gulf to convene an emergency cabinet session, and announced compensation payments for the dead and nearly 200 injured as well as strict implementation of tough new laws banning gatherings outside places of worship. The government, sensitive to mounting alarm about deteriorating security since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in February, also rushed to announce that all 190 people arrested would be tried in military courts. The justice minister, Abdel-Aziz al-Gindi, pledged to “strike with an iron hand all those who seek to tamper with the nation’s security”. Imbaba, a poor neighbourhood in the north-west of Cairo, was quiet but tense as night fell. The main al-Wahda street was blocked by armoured cars and patrolling soldiers – trusted far more than the police, who were discredited during the revolution. Witness described how several hundred Muslims massed outside St Mina church demanding the woman be surrendered. Gunfire was heard and stones and petrol bombs were thrown before the army and emergency services were able to bring the situation under control. A second church was burned down. Copts, who marched last night to the state TV station, called for national unity but blocked roads and raised tensions. Egyptian media described the Imbaba attackers as Salafis – fundamentalist Muslims who want the imposition of sharia law. The Salafis, often with links to Saudi Arabia, are seen as having become more visible because internal security is less repressive now than before the revolution. It is also widely believed that elements of the Mubarak regime are encouraging them. “It’s the previous regime that is responsible for this,” one distraught resident told reporters. “We demand that the higher military council punish all those responsible for this crime,” said George Ishaq, a pro-democracy activist. “This is a crime – not sectarian strife.” The incident was condemned by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main Islamist grouping. “We should crack down on that violence and not let those people ruin what we achieved in the January revolution,” said a spokesman, Essam el-Erian. “The Imbaba incident clearly shows that there are some people who are still working behind the scenes to ignite sectarian strife in Egypt.” Erian echoed popular feeling in suggesting that attacks may have been encouraged by members of the now disbanded National Democratic Party, which ruled Egypt during the Mubarak era. Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog and a presidential hopeful, called for “urgent measures … to combat religious extremism and intolerance before Egypt slides into the dark ages”. Salafis demonstrated in front of the US embassy in Cairo last week after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Last month 13 people died in similar Muslim-Coptic clashes in another Cairo neighbourhood. Copts make up about 10% of Egypt’s 80 million people. Over the weekend, democracy activists held a conference to discuss the future of the revolution in advance of landmark parliamentary elections planned for September. The Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the event, saying that the priority was to change the constitution for the post-Mubarak era. Egypt Middle East Islam Religion Christianity Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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The title is Manchester United’s in all but name. A further point against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park or Blackpool at home will make them champions of England for the 19th time, so eclipsing Liverpool’s record. It is, however, Chelsea who are the contemporary rivals and it will gladden Old Trafford that Carlo Ancelotti’s team is to be trophy-less after taking the Double last season. Chelsea awakened some interest when trimming United’s 2-0 lead, but there was no concerted challenge against a much superior side. The opposition had harmed them immediately. With 37 seconds gone, Park Ji-sung sent Javier Hernández through for the opener. The visitors’ durability had vanished and United struck again after 23 minutes. Ryan Giggs took a short corner, had the ball returned to him and sent in a deep cross that was headed in by a loosely marked Nemanja Vidic. The acrimony associated with this fixture came later, with the referee Howard Webb showing tolerance when, for instance, declining to show a yellow card to the Chelsea centre-half David Luiz, who was substituted at the interval after looking vulnerable under pressure. It was a raw sort of day, with Wayne Rooney alleged to have gesticulated at visiting fans, but Chelsea felt the sting of this occasion most of all. The pursuit of United had been in vain. Any question about the outcome virtually ended with the Vidic goal, although Frank Lampard did score after Branislav Ivanovic had knocked a cross by the substitute Ramires into his path with 68 minutes gone. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side can now begin to focus on a Champions League final against Barcelona. While that will be a challenge of a higher order, United are entitled to pause and relish their work on the domestic scene. Their points total will be 82 at most, but United have exercised as much control as circumstances demanded. Edwin van der Sar did make good saves, but it never looked likely that Chelsea would completely repair the grave damage done at the outset. The form of Ancelotti’s squad had been outstanding of late, but that was still a prolonged and unavailing effort to compensate for previous lapses. Ultimately, the superiority of United has been demonstrated. The lead could well have been greater, but an unmarked Hernández headed high from Antonio Valencia’s cross in the 86th minute. Premier League Manchester United Chelsea Kevin McCarra guardian.co.uk
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Chretien rescued after seven weeks surviving on trail mix and creek water – but search for her husband, Albert, continues A Canadian woman whose van got stuck in canyon territory in Nevada has been found alive after surviving for seven weeks on water and tiny amounts of trail mix. Rita Chretien, 56, is being treated in hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho after she was discovered by hunters taking advantage of the first good weather in Nevada following an extreme winter. She had lost 30 pounds in weight but is likely to make a full recovery. The search now turns to her husband, Albert, 59, who she last saw on 22 March. After their vehicle got stuck in the mud, he set off on his own on foot armed with only a GPS unit in an attempt to find help, and has not been seen since. The couple set off from their home in Penticton, British Columbia, close to the US border, on 19 March and drove south en route to a trade fair in Las Vegas. Their son, Raymond, who has spoken to his mother, told the Oregonian newspaper that they decided to take a scenic route along back roads. But their 2000 Chevrolet Astro van got stuck in mud on a logging road in north-east Nevada. The remote area has no mobile phone coverage. “I don’t believe they were prepared for winter weather. They don’t go camping,” Raymond said. Left on her own in the van, Rita survived on water from a nearby creek, and trail mix which she ate sparingly over the 49 days before she was discovered. She was severely malnourished when she was found by hunters on all-terrain vehicles and was unable to keep down the food they gave her. When she first talked to her son she said she was sorry for the worry she had put the family through. “She felt extremely bad for us all. She was extremely apologetic,” Raymond said. When the couple first went missing, a search was launched in Oregon with the help of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but it was hampered by heavy snow and the rugged terrain, and was called off two weeks ago. Raymond said the family was amazed to hear of his mother’s survival. “We’re stunned. We haven’t fully digested it. This is a miracle.” Rescue efforts are being stepped up for Albert, for whom hope is slim. Raymond said his mother was not optimistic about finding her husband: “He didn’t have shelter. It’s her belief that he didn’t make it.” Canada Nevada United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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Practice used to ‘check marital status’ of Asian migrants more widely administered than first thought, Home Office files show Ministers are facing demands for an official apology to at least 80 Asian women who were subjected to “virginity tests” by immigration staff when they tried to come to Britain in the late 1970s. The demands follow the disclosure of confidential Home Office files that show that intimate examinations – used to “check the marital status” of Indian and Pakistani women coming to Britain to marry – were on a far wider scale than was previously known. The practice was banned in February 1979 after the Guardian exclusively reported that a 35-year-old Indian woman teacher was examined by a male doctor when she arrived at Heathrow to test whether she was a genuine wife-to-be who had not borne children and was still a virgin. The Home Office initially denied that any internal examination had taken place. The woman told the Guardian’s then social services correspondent, Melanie Phillips, that she only signed a form consenting to a “gynaecological examination, that may be vaginal if necessary” because she was frightened she would otherwise be sent back to India. “A man doctor came in. I asked to be seen by a lady doctor but they said ‘no’,” she told Phillips. “He was wearing rubber gloves and took some medicine out of a tube and put it on some cotton and inserted it into me. He said he was deciding whether I was pregnant now or had been pregnant before. I said that he could see that without doing anything to me, but he said there was no need to get shy. “I have been feeling very bad mentally ever since. I was very embarrassed and upset. I had never had a gynaecological examination before.” The recently released Home Office files report the doctor’s version of the examination: “Penetration of about half an inch made it apparent that she had an intact hymen and no other internal examination was made … The only time she was bare chested was for the X-ray examination… The doctor told the immigration officer verbally that the lady had not had children and she was then given conditional leave to enter for three months as a fiancee.” But the file also reveals that after the incident became public the Home Office offered the woman £500 to ensure she did not sue. The payment, offered through her solicitors, was to be “in recognition of the distress she had been caused” but she also had to agree “not to initiate any proceedings against the Home Office”. It was stressed that the payment was not “compensation”, which would have implied that immigration staff had acted improperly, and the then home secretary, Merlyn Rees, while expressing his “deep regret” carefully, did not make an official apology to her. In the face of an immediate storm of protest from the Indian government and elsewhere over such a “humiliating and obscene” practice, the then Labour government confirmed that the incident had taken place but insisted there had only been two other cases in the previous seven years. But the internal Home Office files dug out of the National Archives in London by two Australian legal academics and seen by the Guardian, show that the practice was far more widespread, especially at British high commission offices in India and Pakistan. Despite denials by ministers, including in a personal message from James Callaghan to the then Indian prime minister, the papers show that British entry clearance officers in what was then called Bombay, New Delhi and Islamabad all “sought medical opinion on the marital status of some female applicants”. In private, senior Foreign Office officials reported 73 cases in New Delhi and a further nine in Bombay over the previous three years. The Australian academics, Marinella Marmo and Evan Smith of Flinders University law school, Adelaide, said the use of gynaecological examinations on migrant women from the Indian subcontinent in the 1970s was one of the gravest abuses of discretionary powers in British immigration history: “A proper apology that acknowledged ‘virginity testing’ was not an isolated incident was never issued,” they said. The demand for an apology was backed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, which was involved in the original 1979 case. Hina Majid, the JCWI’s legal policy director, said: “This represents yet another shameful chapter in the ignominious history of British immigration control. “It is deeply regrettable that no apology has ever been rendered to those women who underwent this degrading and discriminatory practice. “Whilst this is a practice of the past, it is demonstrative of a wider, and indeed ongoing tendency to sideline women in immigration policy making. Whilst in 2011 we may no longer be virginity testing South Asian brides, the sad reality is that many migrant women continue to be denied equal treatment, and the full enjoyment of their human rights,” she said. A UK Border Agency spokesman said: “These practices occurred 30 years ago and were clearly wrong. This government’s immigration policies reflect the UK’s legal responsibilities and respect immigrants’ human rights.” Immigration and asylum Newspapers India Pakistan Guardian Media Group Newspapers & magazines Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Barack Obama raises pressure on Pakistan to investigate whether its people were involved in helping Bin Laden hide Barack Obama has ratcheted up the pressure on Pakistan, demanding that the Pakistani government investigates whether its own people were involved in a network to support Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad hideout. The US president’s comments are his most direct yet on the subject of Pakistan’s possible complicity with terrorism. He told the CBS show 60 Minutes that Bin Laden must have had “some sort of support network” inside the country. “We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, outside of government, and that’s something we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate,” he said. Obama’s words add to a sustained verbal attack by the US administration on the Pakistani government in the wake of the raid on the al-Qaida leader’s lair in the middle of a busy garrison town that is home to three regiments, a military academy and thousands of soldiers. Last week the CIA director, Leon Panetta, told Congress that Pakistan had been “either involved or incompetent”. Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, said on ABC’s This Week that there was no evidence Pakistan had foreknowledge of Bin Laden’s presence. But he said the al-Qaida chief “was living, and we now know operating, in a town 35 miles away from Islamabad, a military town. So questions are being raised quite aggressively in Pakistan.” Donilon said the US would remain “cool and calm”. But he added: “They need to do an investigation.” One objective of the intensifying pressure on Pakistan is to ensure its co-operation with the CIA and other US investigators into the treasure trove of documents found inside Bin Laden’s compound. Most of the materials – amounting to the single largest cache of information ever taken from a senior terrorist, equivalent in size to a small college library, officials say – were taken away by the US navy seals and are now being pored over by federal anti-terrorism investigators. But a substantial number of documents were left behind and are now held by Pakistani officials, who are also holding in custody the non-combatants found in the compound, including Bin Laden’s three wives and several children. The US now wants access to the wives to be able to question them. The mounting pressure from Washington puts the Pakistani government in an awkward position. On the one hand, the fact Bin Laden was holed up for so long in the middle of the country is a huge embarrassment, but so too is the unannounced US raid inside its sovereign territory. That conflict is reflected in the position of the army chief, General Ashfaz Kayani, who has announced he is leading an investigation into what happened. He has warned the US not to try another stealth mission inside the country. Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani, promised “heads would roll” once the Kayani investigation was completed. “If someone is complicit, there will be zero tolerance for that,” he told This Week. “If any member of the Pakistan government, military or intelligence service knew were Osama bin Laden was we would have taken action. Osama bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan was not to Pakistan’s advantage.” Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is due to make a statement to parliament tomorrow, his first formal comments on the Bin Laden issue. Senior opposition figures have called for his resignation over the affair. Until now most western criticism has been directed at Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies. Some US officials have insinuated that the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped to harbour Bin Laden. Now the ISI is hitting back with judicious media leaks. In a move bound to infuriate the US, several Pakistani television stations on Friday named the CIA station chief in Islamabad as Mark Carlton. The stations said he had been given a verbal roasting by the ISI chief, General Shuja Pasha. The naming is sensitive because the previous CIA chief in Islamabad quit his position in December over security worries after being named in a court case and in the national media. Some US officials blamed the ISI for the leak. The Pakistani government has introduced curbs on international media in Abbottabad, ordering television stations to cease broadcasting and some reporters to leave town. On Saturday night the television regulator, Pemra, ordered nine international channels – including the BBC, CNN and Fox – to stop “illegal” broadcasts. It suggested the channels could not broadcast from Abbottabad or anywhere in Pakistan without obtaining a licence, a previously unknown requirement. Officials contacted several British, Australian and American journalists, instructing them to leave Abbottabad because their visas did not permit them to stay. The government also took measures to stop more journalists entering Pakistan. At diplomatic missions in London and New Delhi, Pakistani officials said there was a temporary hold on media visas. The measures appear to be part of a concerted government effort to stem a tide of critical media coverage over Bin Laden. Osama bin Laden al-Qaida Pakistan US foreign policy Obama administration United States Ed Pilkington Declan Walsh Saeed Shah guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that President Barack Obama should put waterboarding back on the table. Intelligence derived from the Bush-era enhanced interrogation program “probably” contributed to the death of Osama bin Laden, Cheney told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “Which raises the question, if we were to now capture another new high value target, which is certainly more likely given this apparent trove of information that they recovered in bin Laden’s compound, should the president reinstate enhanced interrogation including waterboarding?” Wallace asked. “Well, I certainly would advocate it,” Cheney replied. “I’d be a strong supporter of it.” “We went to a lot of trouble to find out what we could do, how far we could go, what was legal and so forth. Out of that emerged what we called enhanced interrogation. It worked. It provided some absolutely vital pieces of intelligence.” “It was a good program,” he continued. “It was a legal program. It was not torture. I would strongly recommend we continue it.” CIA Director Leon Panetta has said waterboarding is torture but the former Vice President disagreed. “Waterboarding and all of the other techniques that were used are techniques that we use training our own people. This is stuff that we’ve done for years with own military personnel. To suggest that it’s torture, I just think is wrong.” The former vice president called the Obama’s administration’s investigation of CIA interrogators that may have abused detainees an “outrage.” “These men, all devoted, capable officials shouldn’t have to look over their shoulder and worry if they follow the orders of this president to carry out this interrogation program at some point down the road when there is a change in policy, they can expect to be prosecuted,” he said.
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Ban Ki-moon and Norway lead calls for Israel to hand over tax revenues withheld over Palestinian reconciliation agreement Israel is under pressure to release tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA) which it has blocked in response to the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas . The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and an umbrella group of countries that make donations to the PA have urged the Israeli government to hand over a sum of around 300m shekels (£53.1m). The income is used to pay the salaries of PA employees and to provide services. The EU announced an extra €85m (£74.3m) in aid to the Palestinians after a request from the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, to cover salaries and welfare payments. “This decision renews our commitment to support the most vulnerable among Palestinians,” said the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. “It is important that access to essential public services remains uninterrupted and the right to social services is respected.” Norway, which chairs the committee of donor states to the PA, has made an official request to Israel to unblock the tax funds. It has offered to form a “firewall” to ensure that the money does not reach Hamas. The funds come from VAT and customs revenues due to the PA, which are collected by Israel under the Oslo accords, amounting each year to around 3.6bn shekels (£630m). Israel has blocked tax revenues to the PA in the past, once during the second intifada and again after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. After the resulting government collapsed, Israel forwarded the funds with interest. After the reconciliation agreement was signed last week, Israel raised concern at the prospect of the Islamist party Hamas forming a government with the more moderate Fatah. The Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said: “It’s Palestinian money but we can’t transfer it to a terrorist organisation.” He said a monthly meeting to authorise the transfer had been postponed. “No decisions have been taken but there have been preliminary discussions,” Regev said. Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak, opposed withholding the funds. “These funds belong to [the PA] according to international agreements,” he was quoted in the Israeli press as saying. Twenty-nine US senators have written to Barack Obama demanding that aid to the PA be frozen if Hamas members join the government. Such a move, they said, “threatens to derail the Middle East peace effort”. The US is scheduled to give $550m (£335m) to the PA this year. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is expected to revise a speech he is due to deliver to the US Congress later this month in the light of the Palestinian unity agreement. He is preparing to say there is no chance of any peace deal with the Palestinians unless Hamas recognises Israel and renounces violence, according to Israeli media reports. Israel Palestinian territories Hamas Fatah Ban Ki-moon United Nations Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Claim comes as four women shot dead by security forces in first use of violence against an all-female demonstration Iran is playing an increasingly active role in helping the Syrian regime crack down on pro-democracy protesters, according to western diplomatic sources in Damascus. The claim came as Syrian security forces backed by tanks intensified operations to suppress anti-regime unrest in three new flashpoint towns on Sunday and it was confirmed that four women had been shot dead in the first use of force against an all-female demonstration. A senior western diplomat in Damascus expanded upon assertions, first made by White House officials last month, that Iran is advising President Bashar al-Assad’s government on how to crush dissent. The diplomat pointed to a “significant” increase in the number of Iranian personnel in the country since protests began in mid-March. Mass arrests carried out by door-to-door raids, similar to those that helped to crush Iran’s “green revolution” in 2009, have been ramped up in the past week. Human rights groups suggest more than 7,000 people have been detained in total since the uprising began. More than 800 people are said to have died, up to 50 of them during last Friday’s “day of defiance”. “Tehran has upped the level of technical support and personnel support from the Iranian Republican Guard to strengthen Syria’s ability to deal with protesters,” the senior western diplomat said, adding that the personnel were not involved in any physical operations on the ground and numbered in the few hundreds. “Since the start of the uprising, the Iranian regime has been worried about losing its most important ally in the Arab world and important conduit for weapons to Hezbollah [in Lebanon],” the diplomat said. Last month White House officials made similar allegations about Iranian assistance for the regime, particularly in terms of intercepting or blocking internet, mobile phone and social media communications between the protesters and with the outside world. But the officials did not provide hard evidence to support their claims. Activists and diplomats claim Iran’s assistance includes help monitoring internet communications such as Skype, widely used by a network of activists, methods of crowd control and the provision of equipment such as batons and riot police helmets. Syria has denied seeking or receiving assistance from Iran to put down the unrest. In a statement issued on Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry stressed Syria’s “prime role” in opposing Israel and the US, and urged opposing forces inside the country to agree a compromise on political reform. US policy towards Syria was based on “opportunism in support of the Zionist regime’s avarice,” it said. The Assad family, from the Shia Muslim minority Alawite sect, is likely to be nervous about being seen to be being helped by its Shia-dominated ally to crush protesters drawn from the 75 per cent Sunni population. Regime forces backed by tanks were in action over the weekend in Homs, in the town of Tafas north of Deraa, and in the coastal city of Banias, activists said. Violence was also reported in the Damascus dormitory town of Zabadani. Along with arbitrary detentions, shootings have continued. Razan Zeitouneh, a lawyer in the capital who is monitoring the protests, said four women were shot dead in the village of Merqeb, close to Banias, and six men were shot dead in Banias on Saturday. The women, who were protesting in the nearby village of Merqeb, were named as Ahla Houska, Layla Taha, Layla Sahoun and Marwa Aabas. Women have so far not taken to the streets in great numbers, some citing fear on the part of their male relatives. Residents of Tafas, in the predominantly agricultural south-western Hauran plain said troops entered the town during the night. Tanks and troops also stormed two main neighbourhoods in Homs on Saturday night – the first incursion into residential areas of Syria’s third city. The protesters, who lack a national leader and organisation, are demanding political freedoms, an end to corruption, and Assad’s resignation after 41 years on Baath party rule. Assad has said the protesters are part of a foreign conspiracy to cause sectarian strife, plotted by “armed terrorist groups”. The US and the EU have imposed limited sanctions on leading regime figures in a bid to halt the repression and encourage reform. But they have stopped short of calling for Assad’s departure. Both the government and protesters claimed victory after Friday’s confrontation. Thousands took to the street, despite a heavy security and military clampdown, but the protests have not grown to the critical tipping point seen in Egypt and Tunisia. Many in the capital express support for Assad, blaming the violence on his brother Maher and security chiefs. The government has reached out to some opposition figures amid unconfirmed rumours in the capital that it is planning a national dialogue conference and the announcement of some reforms. Statements by the regime and the protesters are often impossible to verify independently, in part because Syria has banned most foreign media and reporters. Syria Middle East Iran Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Protest Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk
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• Click on auto-refresh for all the latest action • Ping your emails towards barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Follow Barry on Twitter Half-time discussion: “Why isn’t David Chamberlain asking the pretty girl sitting next to him on the bus to Birmingham to explain the offside law?” asks Peter Hillmore. “A perfect chatup line, I would have thought.” Half-time: Carlo Ancelotti ambles down the touchline with a face like thunder after Howard Webb brings the curtain down on a massively entertaining first half with three shrill blasts of his whistle. With Manchester United two goals to the good, ity’ll be interesting to see how Ancelotti shuffles his deck at half-time. Luiz is having a shocker, Ivanovic is a red card waiting to happen and he’s going to have to bring on Fernando Torres sooner rather than later if the reigning champions are to have any hope of pulling this one out of the fire. 45+2 min: I really wouldn’t like to be David Luiz right now. He’s just made another mistake, prompting Carlo Ancelotti to give turn the serious stink-eye on him once again. The Chelsea centre-half is going to get the mother and father of all rollockings during half-time interval. 45+1: A Park Ji-sung cross from the left has too much welly on it and wafts over the heads of all waiting for it in the Chelsea penalty area and out of play. 44 min: Michael Essien’s just been booked; I’m not sure why because I didn’t see whatever it is he’s supposed to have done. There’ll be three minutes of added time in the first half. 43 min: Antonio Valencia goes close for Manchester United. No cigar. 41 min: Is anyone else wondering how things are going between David Chamberlain and the pretty girl sitting beside him on the bus to Birmingham? Assuming the bus isn’t full, I’d imagine she’s now moved to a different seat and is wondering whether or not she should call the police. 40 min: Branislav Ivanovic is very lucky to avoid a second yellow card for a late, intentional trip on Wayne Rooney. Instead of dismissing the Chelsea right-back, Howard Webb takes Chelsea skipper John Terry to one side and orders him to have a word with his team-mate. 38 min: Wayne Rooney gets booked for a foul that leaves David Luiz on the floor nursing a hip injury. If I was him I’d stay down and pray for a merciful release from my afternoon’s embarrassment. 36 min: “A pretty girl next to me on the coach to Birmingham is also refreshing this page,” writes David Chamberlain. “Can you tell her to take her headphones out and say hello?” Hey, you, pretty girl on the bus to Birmingham – take out your headphones and say hello to David Chamberlain, who is sitting next to you. Then email me and let us know how you get on. 35 min: The camera cuts to Carlo Ancelotti, who looks very morose in his technical area. 32 min: Another free-kick for Chelsea, 30 yards from the Manchester United goal, a mite left of centre. Didier Drogba steps up again, but fails to get his shot on target. If he had he’d almost certainly have scored, because Edwin van der Sar looked rooted to a spot that was nowhere near the ball’s flight-path. 30 min: Chelsea win a free-kick about 30 yards from the Manchester United goal. Didier Drogba gets the ball up over the wall and down, forcing Van der Sar to dive low to his left to bat it clear. With assorted Chelsea players charging in to capitalise on the rebound, it breaks kindly for United and John O’Shea hacks clear. 26 min: This match is a belter – so action-packed I’m scarcely getting time to do it justice. The contribution of Giggs in their second goal can’t be over-stated. He played a corner shortish, ran out of the quadrant to take the return pass, then jinked his way to the byline, from where he put in a cross so sublime that even I could have scored from it. Prio to the goal, Park Ji-sung had brought a smart save out of Cech with a long-range effort from the edge of the penalty area after cutting in from the left touchline. His opportunity presented itself after United had won a free-kick in Rooney territory, that the England striker strangely elected not to shoot from. 24 min: Chelsea almost pull one back from a corner of their own. The ball came in from the left, Kalou won the header and brought a decent save out of Van der Sar, who could only flap the ball towards his right upright. Ivanovic tried his luck with an acrobatic overhead kick, but the angle was too narrow and he could only find the side-netting. GOAL! Manchester United 2-0 Chelsea (Vidic 23) Ivanovic gets caught flat-footed as Ryan Giggs sends in a cross from the left after jinking past a defender, allowing Nemnja Vidic to nod the ball home at the far post from five yards out. 20 min: “Luiz is having a mare!” writes Jonny Mac. “It’s going to be long afternoon for Chelsea back four … when they decide to start the game of course.” He is having a shocker alright – he’s just got his second bollocking from Carlo Ancelotti, whose left eyebrow now has gone so skywards it’s created a sort of impromptu Wembley-style arch over Old Trafford. 18 min: Edwin van der Sar is forced to leap high in the air Aussie Rules style to punch a cross from deep clear, but doesn’t make much contact with the ball. He falls awkwardly Aussie Rules style too and while still on the ground, the ball drops to Malouda on the right-hand side of the penalty area. He shoots goalwards, but his effort is blocked by a defender. 17 min: Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda combine well through the centre, but a promising looking Chelsea sortie into Manchester United territory breaks down when Dider Drogba attempts to curl the ball towards Salomon Kalou in the penalty area, only to send his pass straight towards the head of Nemanja Vidic. 14 min: On a lightning fast counter-attack, Antonio Valencia gallops up the inside right position with the ball at his feet, before squaring it to Wayne Rooney a couple of yards outside the Chelsea penalty area. With what seems like all the time in the world at his disposal, the Manchester United striker looks up, takes aim and fires … a low drive a couple of feet wide of the left upright. First half possession stats thus far: Manchester United 60% Chelsea 40%. 13 min: Branislav Ivanovic gets booked for a desperate lunge on Wayne Rooney. 10 min: Hernandez goes close again. From the aforementioned free-kick, the ball is played to Park on the edge of the area, right hand side. He sends in a curling cross to the far post, where Javier Hernandez is lurking. The cross gets the faintest nick off David Luiz, which is enough to take it past Hernandez, who could and probably should have bundled it home from about four yards out. 9 min: Chelsea are all over the place here. Their midfield is being over-run and now John Obi Mikel is forced to concede a free-kick by fouling Park after failing to get to a misplaced pass by Michael Essien. 7 min: Petr Cech keeps his side in the contest, diving low to his right to save a sensational Wayne Rooney strike from 25 yards that was heading for the bottom left-hand corner. Slack defending by Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel allowed the Manchester United striker to shoot; they were very slow to close him down, with each seeming to presume the other would take care of him. 6 min: Bloody hell, is there really only six minutes gone? It seems like a lot longer – this is real death or glory stuff. Didier Drogba fires off a shot despite the whistle having been blown. He doesn’t get booked, probably because the atmosphere at Old Trafford is so raucous, it’s probably difficult to hear the whistle. 4 min: According to Sky’s man on the touchline, Geoff Shreeves, Carlo Ancelotti is holding David Luiz responsible for that goal. As soon it was scored, he summoned him for a bollocking, telling him to just get rid of the ball next time it came near him. Sideshow Bob proceeded to argue with him and now Ancelotti has ordered Alex to start warming up. He’ll hardly subject his young centre-half to the indignity of being substituted this early, will he? 3 min: What a sensational start for Manchester United, who have Chelsea on the ropes already. It was a marvellous goal, with Giggs and Park combining to eviscerate Chelsea down the middle, before sending Hernandez galloping clear past David Luiz, who is himself no slouch. GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Chelsea (Hernandez 1) Javier Hernandez’s prayers are answered within 30 seconds after Ryan Giggs plays a ball through the centre to Park Ji-sung, who helps it on its way past David Luiz, who was dumped on his backside, and into the path of the Mexican. Hernandez slots the ball past Petr Cech, into the bottom left-hand corner. 1 min: Little Pea Javier Hernandez kneelks in the centre-circle and gazes heavenwards for a quick pre-match pray, then Manchester United kick off playing away from the Stretford End. Within seconds, Chelsea win a free-kick for, I presume, an offside. Click-clack, click-clack,click-clack: The time for staring intently ahead, clapping hands and shouting “C’mon boys!” is over. The teams march out on to the Old Trafford sward and line up wearing the colours with which they’re readily associated. Office sweepstake: I’ve drawn fifth official and Chelsea skipper England’s Brave John Terry to score the first goal. Go JT! *gets a little sick in mouth* Not too long now. With the sound of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot ringing around the stands of the Britannia Stadium, Stoke RFC have just put Arsenal to the sword in the second of this afternoon’s preliminaries. If the main event is as entertaining as the two Premier League clashes that preceded it (Wolves 3-1 West Brom being the other one), we should in for a real treat. Team news: Fernando Torres is on the bench, with Didier Drogba in attack rather than their £50million Spaniard. United line up without left-back Patrice Evra, who is sidelined by a thigh injury. Sir Alex Ferguson retains only three members of the starting line-up that swept Schalke aside in midweek, with Fabio occupying one full-back berth, John O’Shea the other and Javier Hernandez in attack. Man Utd: Van der Sar, Fabio Da Silva, Ferdinand, Vidic, O’Shea, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Hernandez. Subs: Kuszczak, Anderson, Berbatov, Smalling, Nani, Scholes, Evans. Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, David Luiz, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Essien, Kalou, Drogba, Malouda. Subs: Turnbull, Ramires, Torres, Benayoun, Ferreira, Alex, Anelka. Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire) Good afternoon all. With Chelsea just three points behind Manchester United with three games to go , this match is very much a potential title-decider. Should Chelsea lose, the jig is almost certainly up as far as Carlo Ancelotti’s tilt at consecutive Premier League titles is concerned. Win and they’ll leapfrog Manchester United to go top of the table on goal difference with two matches left to play: Newcastle at home and Everton away (after today’s clash, Manchester United’s remaining fixtures are away at Blackburn and at home to Blackpool). Picking a team to side with this afternoon is a puzzling dilemma for the neutral, what with there being plenty to dislike about both clubs, but a Chelsea win would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons and go a long way towards ensuring the title race won’t be decided until the final day of the season, possibly by goal difference. The boys from Stamford Bridge will have their work cut out this afternoon, however, as Manchester United have only dropped two points at home all season and beat Chelsea at home and away in their recent Champions League quarter-final. They’re 11-5 outsiders to win the game, with Manchester United favourites at 5-4 and the draw priced up at 23-10. Match pointers • No opposition player has scored a first-half goal at Old Trafford in the League since Joe Cole did so in this fixture in March 2010 • Chelsea have won their last three Premier League games against United – Liverpool (between December 2000 and January 2002) are the only side to have beaten them four times in a row • United need to win their final two home games to equal the record of 55 points (P19 W18 D1 L0) set by Chelsea during the 2005-06 campaign • Howard Webb has awarded United a penalty in three of the last four games he has officiated at Old Trafford Premier League Chelsea Manchester United Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Cavuto and His Panel Accuse Democrats of Using Scare Tactics to Frighten Seniors on Medicare Cuts in Ryan’s Budget
May 8, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Fox’s Neil Cavuto and his weekend show panel were terribly upset that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that seniors may die sooner under Rep. Paul Ryan and the GOP’s budget plan during testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee this week. Apparently their vote for Ryan’s budget has got a lot of Republicans on edge and as Steve Benen noted , some of them are using the same talking points as the Fox pundits did here. When Rep. Chris Lee (R) resigned in disgrace in February, few expected his seat to change party hands. His Buffalo-area district has been represented by Republicans for a long while, and national Democrats didn’t expect the special election to replace Lee to be competitive at all. In March, the New York GOP rallied behind Jane Corwin, a well-liked state assemblywoman, and the race in the 26th congressional district appeared to be largely over. And then a Siena College poll was published, showing Corwin’s lead at just five points over Democrat Kathy Hochul. What happened? Part of the competitiveness is the result of Jack Davis, an odd millionaire, running as an independent and splitting the right. And the other part is Paul Ryan’s House Republican budget plan. At this point, the best the Republican campaign can come up with is the charge that Democrats “are trying to scare seniors.” But that’s awfully weak — it’s not demagoguery if it’s true , and if accurate descriptions of the GOP plan end up scaring people, that’s certainly not Democrats’ fault. During this segment on Cavuto’s show they were a bit long on fearmongering themselves and short on just what the details of Ryan’s plan are , even though all of them continually maintained that the people attacking it don’t know what’s in it and need to go read it. And Steve is exactly right on the “scare tactic” talking point; that’s a terribly weak argument. Seniors are afraid and upset because once they get a look at the GOP’s budget plan and the details, they don’t like it , not because they don’t realize fully what it means for Medicare – privatizing it. Of course the panel here just repeated the tired talking point that Medicare needs to be and handed over to the private insurance industry in order to “save it.”
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