Click here to view this media What do you know. Republican North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones sounds like a liberal here. Now that Osama bin Laden has been killed, there are a growing number of calls for the United States to get out of Afghanistan. This is long past due. CNN : BLITZER: After the death of bin Laden, CNN is now taking an in- depth look at the war in Afghanistan, a war that some U.S. lawmakers are now saying should end quickly. Our congressional correspondent Kate Bolduan is joining us now with some of the details. Kate, what’s going on here? KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the death of Osama bin Laden has renewed the debate here on Capitol Hill, as well as elsewhere, about the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. It’s also renewed the push by some liberal Democrats and some fiscal conservatives calling for the U.S. to get out of Afghanistan altogether, and do that sooner rather than later. North Carolina Republican Congressman Walter Jones and Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern, they both have been long opposed to the war in Afghanistan. They are rolling out a bill come Thursday that would require the White House provide a concrete timeline and specific dates for the U.S. to pull all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan. The administration now, their timeline is to begin the withdrawal in July and finish up in 2014. I spoke with Congressman Jones earlier today about what he thinks the death of Osama bin Laden should mean for U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Listen here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BERGEN: So, when you talk about the news of Osama bin Laden being killed, how does that change in your view as you are looking for the U.S. to get out of Afghanistan? How do you think that changes the debate up here on Capitol Hill? REP. WALTER JONES (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Well, it should change the debate because we were saying that al Qaeda, bin Laden are responsible for 9/11, which is true. Where we have driven the al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, and now bin Laden, who leaves al Qaeda, he is gone. So, therefore, what are we trying to achieve there? The Taliban have — the Taliban we supported when they were fighting the Russians. BOLDUAN: But some of your colleagues, including Speaker Boehner, even, saying just yesterday, they think an accelerated drawdown, an accelerated pullout would be a mistake, would be dangerous at this point. Speaker Boehner even said that this reinforces, this makes our mission in Afghanistan more important, not less. JONES: I would say to the Speaker, what do you want to accomplish? You want Karzai to be your friend when he tells you half the time that he supports the enemy that’s killing our kids? I mean, my — in fact, I have been very disappointed in my party, quite frankly, because why are we — we are up here cutting Medicare, but we are spending $8 billion a month in Afghanistan, borrowing money. But, yet, we’re saying to children and senior citizens in America, we can’t help you. Well, it’s ironic to me that you want to help Karzai remain in power in Afghanistan. (END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Now, the bill that Jones and McGovern will be unveiling Thursday would require that President Obama provide a concrete timeline with specific dates that they will withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and also provide regular updates and reports to Congress about how much the continued fight there is costing and how much they could be saving if they had accelerated the withdrawal. Now, this is likely to be a tough sell up here, as well as with the White House. When the White House spokesperson was asked just today if the — if bin Laden’s death will impact the withdrawal and plans there, he said flatly no, that the withdrawal of troops will be based on conditions on the ground — Wolf. BLITZER: I suspect though this legislation will get some momentum, especially as the congressman points out the enormous cost to U.S. taxpayers of maintaining those troops in Afghanistan. BOLDUAN: That’s what he is hoping. BLITZER: About $2 billion a week, as he says. All right. Thanks very much.
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Labour says police forces are forcing 2,100 of the most experienced officers into early retirement, some of whom are then being asked to rejoin on a voluntary basis Police officers with more than 30 years experience who have been forcibly retired because of budget cuts are being asked to return as part-time volunteers, Labour has disclosed. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said 13 police forces have so far confirmed plans to force more than 2,100 of the most experienced police officers in England and Wales into early retirement by 2015. A further nine forces are considering similar action. Chief constables have no legal powers to make police officers redundant, but can forcibly retire those with more than 30 years service with 28 days notice under an obscure A19 provision of the police pension regulations on grounds of efficiency of the force. A Labour survey of current police budgets reveals that 13 out of the 43 forces, including the West Midlands, North Yorkshire and Surrey, have already decided that 2,124 officers should be compulsorily retired using the A19 regulation by 2015 in order to make up for 20% cuts in Whitehall police funding. The issue was raised at prime minister’s questions by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who cited the case of PC Martin Heard, who is being forcibly retired after 32 years as a neighbourhood officer in Wolverhampton. Heard received the “Copper’s copper” award from the Police Federation last year, and some weeks after he was forced to retire, he got a letter asking him to rejoin the force as a special constable on a part-time unpaid basis. He was among a group of experienced officers being retired under A19 due to meet the home secretary, Theresa May, today. Others included Detective Constable Tim Kennedy, a recognised specialist in serious acquisitive crime, Sergeant Dave Hewitt, who is 48, with 32 years service, and is one of the youngest officers in the country to be retired, and Inspector Mark Stokes, a leading specialist in crime prevention. Cooper said Heard was not alone in being asked to rejoin on a voluntary basis, adding: “You couldn’t make this up. “Senior, experienced officers are being forced out by the pace and scale of the Tory-led government’s cuts, then asked to come back and do the same job for free because everyone knows they are needed in the fight against crime.” In the Commons, Miliband claimed the policing cuts demonstrated that the prime minister had broken his pre-election promise to send any cabinet minister who came to him with proposals to cut frontline services packing. Cameron told Miliband: “Decisions about police numbers will depend on the decisions made by individual chief constables in individual parts of the country. “The point I would make is that we see, in case after case, that there are far too many police officers in back-office jobs doing paperwork and carrying out corporate development work who should be on the front line. “Responsible chief constables are getting these police officers out on the front line to fight crime, and crime under this government is falling.” He accused Labour of “complete and utter hypocrisy” over police numbers, citing Alan Johnson’s admission when he was home secretary before the general election that he could not guarantee numbers would not fall in the event of the party remaining in power. “The question is not should the budget be reduced – of course the budget has to be reduced,” said Cameron. “The question is who is going to cut the paperwork, who is going to get rid of the bureaucracy, who is going to trust the local managers to make sure we get police on the front line? These are steps we are taking, and steps his government never took.” Police Theresa May David Cameron Labour Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Yvette Cooper Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Pakistan property experts say US government description of ‘$1m mansion’ was way off the mark, as further exaggerations come to light Osama bin Laden’s house, described by the US government as a $1m (£605,000) mansion, is in fact worth no than $250,000 say property professionals in Abbottabad, the town where he was killed. The revelation is the latest of several erroneous descriptions about the nature of Bin Laden’s hideout – and the manner of his death – which have dogged the White House in recent days. On Tuesday US officials retracted claims that Bin Laden was armed when killed, and that he had used one of his wives as a human shield . Descriptions of Bin Laden’s hideout have also been prone to exaggeration. After Sunday night’s dramatic raid by US Navy Seals, a senior Obama administration official told reporters that the property, an “extraordinarily unique compound” in an “affluent suburb”, was valued at around $1m. But two property professionals in Abbottabad – a quiet, military-dominated town – said that much of that was incorrect. Based on the size of the plot and the house, which was built in 2005, and using recent property sales as a guide, they estimated that it would fetch no more than $250,000 on the current market. “Twenty million rupees, maximum,” said property dealer Muhammad Anwar, a 22-year veteran of the local market, at his Abbottabad office. “No swimming pool. This is not a posh area. We call it a middling area.” Asked about the American estimate, he chuckled. “Maybe that’s the assessment from a satellite. But here on the ground, that’s the price.” The assessment was backed by the local branch manager of a major Pakistani bank, who himself owns land in the same locality. “If it was worth that much, we would all be multi-millionaires round here,” he said. A doctor who sold the land where the compound was built identified the buyer as Mohammad Arshad, a name that partially matches that of one of the two brothers who lived in the house – one of whom is believed to have been the courier who unwittingly led the CIA to Bin Laden. Property records obtained by the Associated Press show Arshad bought adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005. Dr Qazi Mahfooz Ul Haq said on Wednesday that he sold a plot of land to Mr Arshad in 2005. He said the buyer was a “modest, humble type of man” who claimed to be purchasing it for his uncle. The neighbourhood where Bin Laden lived, Bilal Town, was developed following the 2005 earthquake that devastated northern Pakistan, killing more than 73,000 people. People from quake-hit towns such as Mansehra and Balakot streamed into Abbottabad, seeking to build new homes in a more secure area. Many residents come from middle-income backgrounds, having built their homes with family inheritances, said Mr Anwar’s 24-year-old son, Junaid. Osama bin Laden Pakistan US foreign policy US military United States Middle East Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It’s looking bad for Republicans in Wisconsin. Really bad. Because when a solidly Republican district falls to a Democrat after Scott Walker has been “carrying out the will of the people” I think it’s safe to say the will of the people doesn’t look much like Scott Walker and his cronies in the Wisconsin legislature think it does. Here’s the straight scoop, right from the keyboard of Fox News : Democrat Steve Doyle defeated Republican John Lautz for the Wisconsin District 94 Assembly, flipping a seat held by Republicans for 16 years in a race that focused attention on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to curtail collective bargaining right for most public employees. With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Doyle won 54 percent to 46 percent , based on unofficial results in Tuesday’s special election. The race flips a GOP Assembly seat for the Democrats, who remain in the minority. This is what it looks like when the will of the people rises up and participates.
Continue reading …Margaret Carlson: ‘Professor Obama Turned Into General Obama And Ran This Incredible Raid’
May 4, 2011 No Comment
Just when the media adulation of Barack Obama might have been showing signs of waning, along comes the killing of Osama Bin Laden to drive it to new sycophantic heights.
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Kenneth Branagh’s Norse epic hammers the competition while latest Fast & Furious instalment shows no sign of slowing down The winner To say that Marvel’s film division had a lot riding on the success of its Thor movie would be an understatement. The company and distribution partner Paramount had a hit franchise in Iron Man, but would audiences show up for a Kenneth Branagh action sci-fi about a hammer-wielding alien god starring Jim Kirk’s dad from the Star Trek reboot (Chris Hemsworth)? And if they didn’t, where would that leave the forthcoming Captain America picture, next year’s Avengers team-up, and more besides? In the UK and elsewhere, Marvel and Paramount have plenty to be happy about. Thor debuted with £5.45m, including £2.34m from three days of previews. Add in bank holiday Monday, and that tally rises to £6.44m. That’s in a similar ballpark to Iron Man three years ago, which opened on the same May bank holiday weekend with £5.47m including previews of £667,000, and just over £7m including the Monday. Iron Man 2, which as a sequel benefited from a built-in audience, began its run exactly a year ago with £7.66m, including £877,000 in previews, and £9.54m including the May Day Monday holiday. Thor isn’t matching those giddy heights, especially when you consider the boost from its aggressive preview strategy and the price premium on 3D tickets, but given the relative obscurity of the character, the numbers are good enough. The runner-up Fast & Furious movies typically live up to their moniker, screaming out of the starting grid before quickly hitting the speed bumps. Two years ago, for example, the fourth film opened with £4.93m and then fell 61% on the second weekend. This time, the instalment is braking less rapidly. Fast & Furious 5 fell a relatively modest 36%, delivering an 11-day total of £11.16m, and £11.94m including the Monday holiday. £12m in 12 days is pretty good going for a film that isn’t based on a famous comic book or literary-blockbuster character. When Neal Moritz produced the first film in the series eight years ago, based on a 1998 Vibe magazine article by Ken Li, “Racer X”, he presumably had no inkling how much future value he was creating for himself and backers Universal. The total dominance of Thor and Fast & Furious 5 at UK cinemas currently can be gauged by looking at the top 100 engagements chart. Starting with Thor at the Vue Westfield, and ending with F&F5 at Cineworld West India Quay, the two films occupy an astonishing 98 positions of that chart, and the whole of the top 90. Only Insidious (Cineworld Sheffield, 91st place) and Rio (Vue Dublin, 96th), prevent a Thor/F&F5 top 100 clean sweep. The chasing pack Following its premiere at the Toronto film festival last September, the release of horror flick Insidious has been considered and patient. Opting to wait out the whole of the winter/spring awards season and the busy Christmas period, and then sensibly giving Scream 4 a two-week berth, UK distributor Momentum chose late April as a propitious date, counter-programming against Thor. Selling points included the writer (Leigh Wannell) and director (James Wan) of Saw, with Paranormal Activity’s Oren Peli among the producer credits. Given Insidious’s status as a fresh property, the opening numbers are solid. The film took £1.44m over the three-day weekend, and £1.84m including holiday Monday. That’s nowhere close to Paranormal Activity, which debuted with £3.59m on the back of massive hype in November 2009, but puts it in the same category as recent mid-range hits such as Source Code (£1.31m), The Adjustment Bureau (£1.40m) and Unknown (£1.36m). Since it’s horror, Insidious is likely to suffer quicker burnout. Landing outside the top 10, indie comedy Cedar Rapids is a disappointment for 20th Century Fox. The company failed to position the film as a worthy successor to much-loved Fox Searchlight comedy hits such as Juno, Sideways and Little Miss Sunshine, resulting in a weak debut of £146,000 from an optimistic 180 screens, and £189,000 including Monday. Also disappointing is The Veteran, starring Toby Kebbell and Brian Cox. Not really convincing as an arthouse title, The Veteran suggested itself as a small-scale genre picture, which is always a tricky sell. An opening of £11,000 from 45 screens resulted – or £13,000 including Monday. Much healthier was French flick Farewell, with a decent £40,000 from 30 sites, rising to £52,000 including Monday. The 3D docs Distributor CinemaNX can justifiably claim that its motorbike racing documentary TT3D: Closer to the Edge is winning the battle for audience word of mouth. Over the four-day weekend, the film took more box-office than the equivalent period the previous week (£156,000 vs £149,000). Thanks to an aggressive preview strategy, the film has now grossed £600,000 after two weekends of play. TT3D looks well placed to match non-fiction hits such as Man on Wire (£879,000), An Inconvenient Truth (£936,000) and Buena Vista Social Club (£955,000), as long as it can hold its screens. Meanwhile, fellow 3D doc Pina also held up well, reaching £275,000 after two weekends on release. Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams has now reached £525,000. The future Overall the market is a healthy 21% up on the previous weekend and a slim 6% down on the equivalent 2010 frame, when Iron Man 2 kicked plenty of new life into the box-office. After a frankly dismal March and April, UK cinemas are recovering, and looking forward to Pirates of the Caribbean on 18 May. There are still a couple of weekends to get through, but Water for Elephants, starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, opens today, well-placed to pick up audiences not effectively served by Thor and Fast & Furious 5. It’s joined on Friday by Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett; Something Borrowed, with Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin; and Priest, with Paul Bettany. Everywhere & Nowhere, from Kidulthood director Menhaj Huda, will be hoping to match the successes of recent British urban hits. Cast includes the talismanic Adam Deacon, from Kidulthood, Adulthood and Anuvahood. Top 10 films 1. Thor, £5,449,300 from 500 sites (New) 2. Fast & Furious 5: £2,609,244 from 452 sites. Total: £11,163,953 3. Insidious, £1,441,292 from 325 sites (New) 4. Rio, £801,102 from 501 sites. Total: £9,779,770 5. Arthur, £682,187 from 434 sites. Total: £2,477,285 6. Scream 4, £396,190 from 377 sites. Total: £5,096,897 7. Hop, £314,829 from 461 sites. Total: £6,727,678 8. Beastly, £210,974 from 249 sites. Total: £1,071,105 9. Source Code, £196,978 from 212 sites. Total: £5,707,782 10. Red Riding Hood, £169,325 from 317 sites. Total: £2,469,669 Other openers Cedar Rapids, £146,062 from 180 screens Farewell, £40,272 from 30 screens Chalo Dilli, £25,260 from 17 screens The Veteran, £10,694 from 45 screens Battleship Potemkin, £4,078 from 4 screens Tracker, £1,961 from 7 screens Vaanam, £896 from 8 screens I Saw The Devil, £876 from 1 screen + £510 previews Shadow, 2 screens, £714 Science fiction and fantasy Action and adventure Kenneth Branagh Charles Gant guardian.co.uk
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Is your perfect picnic a masterpiece of planning, a pot luck adventure or an impromptu last-minute affair? The latest combination of religious and royal festivities, public holidays and sunshine have lured Brits into the country’s green spaces for picnics. But while seizing an opportunity to bask in the British heat in the company of a cold drink is as easy as pie, the question of picnic food often provides more of a challenge. Reading Elizabeth David’s Of Pageants and Picnics , I became aware of an old school sense of ceremony around picnics. For her, a picnic is as much (if not more) of a treat as fine dining: “As you drink wine from a tumbler, sprinkle your bread with olive oil and salt and eat it with ripe tomatoes or rough country sausage you feel better off than in even the most perfect restaurant.” She refers to “evolving” one’s “picnic technique”, plans the “packing and transport” down to a tee, and considers complementary drinks: “a stout red wine such as a Mâcon or a Chianti … ” The Davidean picnic, it would seem, would have been nothing short of a feast. A far cry from those of the present-day, which are so often reliant on express supermarkets and other quick fixes. Scanning the huddles of picnickers on Clapham Common over the bank holiday, it was obvious that – from a food perspective – few take these outdoor repasts as seriously as David. Continuing in the vein of the Subway-sponsored Picnic Rocks event held on the common a couple of years ago, ready-made sandwiches and cans of ready-mixed Pimms are ubiquitous, as are plastic tubs of hummus, pre-prepared carrot batons, crisps, little cheeses, and packets of prawns with a separate compartment of cocktail sauce for dunking. Is anyone with me in thinking this a missed opportunity? The institution of the picnic needs to be done justice. It dates back to medieval Europe, where outdoor banquets of cooked meats, bread and pastries were served as pre-hunting feasts. It’s unlikely the word “picnic” (probably stemming from “piquer”, the French verb meaning “to pick”) was applied until the 17th century, when the tradition became for each attendee to contribute a homemade dish. And it’s from here that the American notion of the “potluck picnic” sprang: no one knew of what the spread would consist, lending the event an exciting culinary variety. Needless to say, a last-minute scour of the aisles in Sainsbury’s Local does little to honour the tradition. The quick fix finger food fetishists are at one end of the spectrum, and at the other sit a more decadent crowd frequenting the likes of Glyndebourne . Here you can hire a dining table, order three extravagant courses (think lobster salad, dressed crab, fillet of beef) and even a porter service. While I’m all for injecting a little more ceremony into picnics, this may be a step too far. Their charm lies in being a bit ad hoc: an impressive and spontaneous spread of food. A picnic is as much of a gastronomic opportunity as any meal eaten indoors, albeit simpler. In fact, in the simplicity of a picnic lies its beauty – leftovers, Scotch eggs, pork or gala pies , hard cheeses and unfussy cooked dishes brought from home. David advocates “cold escalopes of veal, fried in egg and breadcrumbs”; my personal favourite is a protein-rich salad of tinned tuna, butter beans, minced onion, lemon and thyme. Whatever your preference, keep it simple and learn to love your Tupperware. If you’re a seasoned picnicker how much effort do you go to between buying and making, keeping and transporting the food? My grandmother religiously took a raw onion on picnics, to be placed on wasp stings or even eaten (in the unlucky event of the sting being inside the victim’s mouth). Every food lover knows that homemade dishes are always more rewarding than shop-bought equivalents, and picnicking is no different. The American comedienne Minnie Pearl once said: “Kissing a man with a beard is a lot like going to a picnic. You don’t mind going through a little bush to get there.” The likes of our urban parks and common land may not be far off the beaten track, but Pearl does touch on the reward that picnics can bring with a little effort. This summer, wouldn’t it be great to reinstate the potluck feast into the noble picnic? Food & drink Mina Holland guardian.co.uk
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Electronics giant recruits specialist to track down hackers who stole personal details of more than 100 million online gamers Sony has hired private investigators to track down the computer hackers who stole the personal details of more than 100 million online gamers. Meanwhile the UK information commissioner’s office, which probes data breaches of this kind, said on Wednesday that it has contacted Sony and is making inquiries into whether to investigate the attack, which affected a number of UK gamers. The Japanese electronics giant has recruited a former special agent with the US Naval Investigative Service to work alongside security experts from Guidance Software and Protiviti in the aftermath of the online attack. The FBI has launched a separate investigation into the huge breach. The crisis at Sony deepened on Tuesday after the company admitted that the names, email addresses, phone numbers of 25m Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) customers were stolen in the attack, which also hit 77m PlayStation Network (PSN) gamers. Debit card records of 10,700 customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain were compromised in the attack, Sony said. Sony moved to placate growing fears over the security of its users after earlier declining a chance to testify in front of a US congressional hearing. A spokeswoman for the company admitted that an “outdated database” from 2007, featuring personal details belonging to 23,400 people outside the US, was broken into on 16 and 17 April – two days prior to the huge PSN attack. A Canadian law firm on Tuesday launched a $1bn (£600m) proposed class action lawsuit against Sony for breach of privacy. The company admitted that it did not known when or where the next attack would come. “They are hackers. We don’t know where they’re going to attack next,” the spokeswoman said. Another Sony spokeswoman said that there was no evidence that the stolen personal details had yet been used for financial gain. However, some people have contacted the Guardian saying that they have seen unusual activity on their account: one said that since the attack they had seen money regularly taken from their account via a cash machine in Florida. Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal wrote to Sony on Tuesday asking how many credit card accounts were compromised in the attack, which first came to light last week . Blumenthal said he would ask US attorney general Eric Holder to investigate whether the company’s handling of the breach makes it civilly or criminally liable to prosecution. The PlayStation Network remains offline after being shut down more than two weeks ago, when Sony first discovered the breach. PlayStation Sony Data and computer security Games Hacking United States Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal announce end to four years of division in pact brokered by Egypt The rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have signed a landmark reconciliation pact aimed at ending their bitter four-year rift. A ceremony marking the deal, which was mediated by Egypt, took place on Wednesday at the Egyptian intelligence headquarters in Cairo. Speaking at the ceremony, the Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said his faction was “ready to pay any price” for reconciliation among Palestinians, the Arabic satellite channel al-Arabiya reported. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the accord ended “four black years” that hurt national Palestinian interests. He also said at the ceremony that he would soon visit the Hamas-held Gaza Strip. “We announce to Palestinians that we turn forever the black page of division,” he said. The pact provides for the creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government before national elections next year. Critics have cast doubt on the durability of the Egyptian-brokered accord, which has been denounced by Israel. The deal calls for the formation of an interim government to run the occupied West Bank, where Abbas is based, and Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections within a year. Palestinians see this reconciliation as crucial for their drive to establish an independent state in the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Abbas said in his opening address: “We announce the good news from Egypt which has always carried its national and historical responsibility towards the Palestinian people. Four black years have affected the interests of Palestinians. Now we meet to assert a unified will.” The ceremony was briefly delayed by a disagreement over protocol. Palestinian sources said the dispute was over whether Meshaal should sit on the podium with Abbas or among other Palestinian delegates in the hall. At the ceremony, Abbas was initially on the podium to give his speech, and then Meshaal took the podium for his address. “This is an historical moment documenting the real will of the Palestinian people. The people have taken a step to retrieve its unity,” said the Egyptian intelligence chief Murad Muwafi. Shortly before the ceremony, the senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said: “The signing has been done. Everyone signed. Today is the crowning of this achievement.” A spokesman for Abbas, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said the deal was signed on behalf of Fatah by Azzam al-Ahmad and for Hamas by Mousa Abu Marzouk. It was not immediately clear why Meshaal and Abbas did not put their own signatures to the deal. Palestinian officials said the ceremony was a “celebration”. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, university students distributed sweets, sang and rallied to mark the deal. “We are celebrating the achievement of this victory to end divisions and send a message to the Israeli occupation that your threats will not deter us from achieving reconciliation,” said Ahmed Abu Arar, who was among those rallying. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has denounced the deal and stopped transferring Palestinian tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, saying Fatah must choose between Israel and the Islamist group that he says is an enemy of peace. The United States has reacted coolly to the reconciliation accord. A state department spokesman said the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, spoke to Netanyahu and the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, on Monday about the deal. Spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing in Washington that the United States would look at the formation of any new Palestinian government before taking steps on future aid. “If and when a new Palestinian government is announced, we’ll assess that based on its composition,” Toner said. “Hamas needs to abide by the Quartet principles in order to play a role in the political process.” Egypt has set up a committee to oversee implementation of the accord. The ceremony was attended by representatives from the Arab League, Qatar, Oman and Arab members of the Israeli parliament. “The Arab League will have a role in the follow-up with the Palestinians on the reconciliation process to ensure the process unfolds in due course,” the league’s spokesman Hisham Youssef said. Palestinian territories Hamas Fatah Egypt Israel Mahmoud Abbas Middle East Gaza guardian.co.uk
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The brutal crackdown on protests and disregard of high food and fuel prices do not bode well for Yoweri Museveni’s fourth term Everyone I speak to in Uganda mentions two problems: the current “chaos” and the rising prices. But the underlying question is what kind of society the east African country will be as President Yoweri Museveni settles into his 26th year in power. Recent news about Uganda has certainly been dominated by the “chaos” that has erupted since the government’s treatment of opposition protesters ruptured the calm that followed February’s elections – five people have been killed by security forces, including a two-year-old girl, dozens have been injured and hundreds jailed across the country. The unrest has come amid rising commodity prices and the depreciation of the national currency since the beginning of the year; official figures show that annual headline inflation has risen from 6.4% from the year ending February 2011, to 11.1% for March 2011, and 14.1% at the end of last month. In January the central bank tried to shore-up the shilling but then admitted defeat and gave up. From the north and east, through the centrally located capital, Kampala, to the south, the prices of foodstuffs have shot up. Around Kampala, for instance, the prices of the staple green banana matooke and beef have risen by between 50% and 150%. In Soroti, in the eastern Teso region, prices of some common vegetables have doubled or even tripled. In March the government warned that a third of the country’s 112 districts would face food shortages because of drought; last month a Ugandan legislator told parliament that people in the regions of Teso and northern Acholi had resorted to eating leaves and termites. At the time, according to the New Vision newspaper, ministers said they were already addressing the situation. Figures from the national statistics bureau show that prices of food crops in March were 30% higher than a year ago, with the corresponding figures for April rising to 39.3%. The agency blames this on dwindling supplies due to drought in most areas, but the fact that Uganda is a key exporter of food to southern Sudan cannot have helped the situation. To make matters worse, fuel prices – and therefore transport fares – have risen in line with global oil trends, a situation worsened by the fact that the government doesn’t think it a priority to have fuel reserves. In Kampala, a litre of petrol goes for about 3,500 Ugandan shillings compared to about 2,800 two months ago, forcing more people to walk to work instead of using public transport. But it is not this situation, which is of pressing concern to ordinary Ugandans, that dominates the headlines but the unrest that has swept the country since a government crackdown on demonstrations about rising prices. When opposition politicians attempted to “walk to work” from their homes to force the government to do something about rising prices a month ago, the government reacted by blocking, arresting and then detaining the politicians. Kizza Besigye, the leader of FDC, the main opposition party, has since been shot in the hand with a rubber bullet, imprisoned and crudely rearrested before being flown to Kenya for treatment. Norbert Mao, leader of the Democratic Party, opted to remain “a prisoner of conscience” in the rural jail, more than 62 miles from Kampala. The result of this heavy-handedness by the army and police has been not just publicity for the opposition leaders but anger among the population. After decades of living under what they were told was a regime of “fundamental change”, as pledged by Museveni when he took office in 1986 (as compared with the past regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin), many people are shocked to realise it might all have been a mirage. The brutal treatment of Besigye has provoked sporadic protests in Kampala and other towns hundreds of miles away; even some government officials have criticised the manner of his arrest. But Museveni speaks just one language – defeating, hunting and crushing the protesters instead of addressing the issues that concern real people. The response contrasts with that of Kenya, for example, where the government reacted to soaring fuel prices by cutting taxes on fuel to mitigate the impact at the petrol pump. Instead, what we have seen in Uganda has been huge state expenditure. Museveni is estimated to have spent more than $345m on his reelection campaign, money that must have contributed to rising inflation; the government is spending a quarter of the country’s foreign reserves (more than $736m) on Russian fighter jets, while another $1.2m is to be spent on Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony this month. The government has claimed that Besigye wants to stage the same kind of rebellion that unseated governments in Egypt and Tunisia – although few believe Besigye can topple the government by walking to work. If anything, the reaction has elevated the opposition’s initiative from an ordinary civic action to a political crisis. And the heavy-handedness of the security forces, together with other developments of recent years – the fraudulent elections, the direct and indirect muzzling of the media, and the militarisation of the police – all point to a future in which citizens have much less room to ask the government tough questions, but also one in which the government has no disincentive for ignoring public concerns. Uganda Food security Richard M Kavuma guardian.co.uk
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