• Sussex captain to fly home immediately • ‘I felt that it was the only sensible option for me’ Michael Yardy has been withdrawn from England’s World Cup squad suffering from depression and has returned home ahead of England’s quarter final match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Yardy was days away from one of the biggest matches of his life, but after consultation with England’s medical staff he has returned home immediately to receive specialist advice as he seeks to overcome an illness that an England Wales Cricket Board statement said he “has been managing for a prolonged period of time.” A statement from Yardy, the Sussex captain, said: “Leaving at this stage of a World Cup campaign was a very difficult decision to make but I felt that it was the only sensible option for me and I wanted to be honest about the reason behind that decision. “I would like to wish the squad all the very best ahead of the game on Saturday. I would appreciate some privacy over the coming weeks while I spend time with family and close friends ahead of what I hope will be a successful season for Sussex.” Hugh Morris, managing director of England cricket, said: “I would like to offer my full support to Michael on behalf of everyone involved with the England team and the ECB. He has been an integral part of the England set up in recent years and while he will be missed in the knockout stages of the World Cup, our priority now is to ensure that he returns home to his family and is able to spend time recovering with a strong support network around him. ” The ECB has applied to the ICC’s Technical committee to replace Yardy in its CWC squad and is awaiting a decision. He is the fourth player to pull out of England’s World Cup squad in a matter of weeks, following Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad and Ajmal Shahzad, whose involvement was prematurely ended because of injury. Yorkshire’s all-rounder, Adil Rashid, overlooked for the entire winter, would be one of the players in contention along with Nottinghamshire’s Samit Patel. Yardy has had a troubled time on the field during the World Cup. He took only two wickets against India, Ireland and South Africa and he looked innocuous on Indian pitches, drawing attention to the fact that England utilise his slow left-arm as a defensive option in one-day cricket even though he is not a regular bowler at county level with Sussex. He was also a vital component of England’s Twenty20 World Cup win in the Caribbean earlier this year but, at 30, it is possible that his international career is now at an end and he will return to a less stressful career on the county circuit. This is not the first time an England player has suffered from a depressive illness. Marcus Trescothick retired from international cricket, failing in several England comeback attempts, because of clinical depression. He has continued to play county cricket and has captained Somerset without any relapse. Trescothick described in his award-winning autobiography the homesickness, sleeplessness and anxiety which forced him to fly home from Test series against India in February 2006 and from Australia later that year. “I would not have wished this illness on my worst enemy,” he said. Sussex were quick to offer support. Mark Robinson, their cricket manager, said: “Sussex are very proud of Michael Yardy and very supportive of his decision, not only to come home but also to be prepared to go public with the reasons. “He’s always been a person admired for his utmost honesty and integrity, and his courage in dealing with this issue emphasises that. As captain and one of our leading players, we’ll give him all the time and all the support necessary so that he can continue to lead this club forward.” Cricket World Cup 2011 Cricket David Hopps guardian.co.uk
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• Hit F5 or tickle the autorefresh button for the latest updates • Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Buy the Guardian’s Ashes OBO book, why don’t you? 1st over: Australia 3-0 (Watson 1, Haddin 1) India will open the bowling with the offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin. He was impressive against the West Indies on Sunday, and his second ball is a nice doosra that Watson defends respectfully. There’s an interesting atmosphere – unusually hushed by Indian standards (still deafening by any other standards), a reflection of the insecurity surrounding both sides. Watson takes a single to leg and then the fourth ball turns so sharply as to be a leg-side wide. There is a sense that this pitch will turn a lot more from this end than the other, so expect all the spinners from this end. The tense start continues when Haddin drags an inside edge over midwicket for a single. You can smell the fear. “Thanks for your link to that yoga video, which has left me scarred for life,” says Chris Hotham. “From now on I will be resting in the safe haven of the blog page and will certainly not be clicking any links.” Something for a Thursday morning, from Bharath Rajagopalan “As the title says, this is a very scary video .” And I thought Napoleon Dynamite was a comedy, not a documentary. Australia have won the toss and will bat first. MS Dhoni says he would also have batted, and that’s a decent toss to win on a pitch that should lose a bit of life as the day progresses. There’s some surprising team news on both sides. India have omitted Yusuf Pathan, with Suresh Raina preferred at No7 and the fit again Virender Sehwag coming back into the side. That really is a shock. Australia have also strengthened their batting, with David Hussey replacing Steve Smith. That’s a reflection of the poor performance of the middle order on both sides thus far. India Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni (c/wk), Raina, Harbhajan, Ashwin, Zaheer, Patel. Australia Watson, Haddin (wk), Ponting (c), Clarke, M Hussey, White, D Hussey, Johnson, Lee, Krejza, Tait. The last time India went out of their World Cup , in 1996, the fans rioted . Just saying. In other news, here’s some rare footage of Graham Gooch sweeping India to death in the semi-finals in 1987 – the other occasion on which India were eliminated as hosts. Whoever wins tonight will play Pakistan on Wednesday. If India get through, that will make today’s match seem like a jaunty little warm-up fixture. Preamble This is a quarter-final only in name. In nature, India v Australia is something much grander, especially when it is the hosts against the holders. It’s almost too big for a final, never mind a last-eight game, and that adds a significant frisson to today’s contest. There is a unique tension when two superpowers meet ahead of schedule. If the quarter-finals is par for the heavyweights in a football World Cup, then in rugby and cricket it’s the semi-finals. If you go out before that you are generally doomed to bathe in ignominy for the foreseeable future. Everyone and everything has an unspoken minimum requirement when it comes to performance. For some, it’s a triumph to simply get through the day without making a total fool of themselves, or without brushing their teeth with the Original Source Chocolate and Mint Shower Melt and smearing Colgate under their armpits; for some of us you, defiant mediocrity really is a victory. For others, and certainly for these two teams, the bar is a little higher. A quarter-final exit alone is enough to invite widespread criticism – but this time that will be exacerbated by both teams’ modest performances during the group stage. Whoever departs today will have beaten just one of the top eight sides, New Zealand in Australia’s case and West Indies in India’s. That’[s not good enough. Both sides have problems, and have been dangerously dependent on their openers and one high-class fast bowler (Brett Lee for Australia, Zaheer Khan for India). Today’s match might not be decided by who reaches the greater peaks, but who best avoids the troughs. Chuck in the compelling subplots, particularly Ricky Ponting fighting for his life and Sachin Tendulkar on 99 international centuries, and it’s clear that this game is – as Mark Nicholas once said – massive, massive . It’s almost too much to comprehend that one of these sides will be out of the tournament by this evening. But they will and, whoever it is, they probably shouldn’t read the papers tomorrow. * Chocolate shower gel? That’s a still-drunk-the-morning-after accident waiting to happen. What next. Deodorant-flavour beer? Ready salted crisps with a hint of Ralgex? Cricket World Cup 2011 India cricket team Australia cricket team Over by over reports Cricket Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
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• Hit F5 or tickle the autorefresh button for the latest updates • Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Buy the Guardian’s Ashes OBO book, why don’t you? 1st over: Australia 3-0 (Watson 1, Haddin 1) India will open the bowling with the offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin. He was impressive against the West Indies on Sunday, and his second ball is a nice doosra that Watson defends respectfully. There’s an interesting atmosphere – unusually hushed by Indian standards (still deafening by any other standards), a reflection of the insecurity surrounding both sides. Watson takes a single to leg and then the fourth ball turns so sharply as to be a leg-side wide. There is a sense that this pitch will turn a lot more from this end than the other, so expect all the spinners from this end. The tense start continues when Haddin drags an inside edge over midwicket for a single. You can smell the fear. “Thanks for your link to that yoga video, which has left me scarred for life,” says Chris Hotham. “From now on I will be resting in the safe haven of the blog page and will certainly not be clicking any links.” Something for a Thursday morning, from Bharath Rajagopalan “As the title says, this is a very scary video .” And I thought Napoleon Dynamite was a comedy, not a documentary. Australia have won the toss and will bat first. MS Dhoni says he would also have batted, and that’s a decent toss to win on a pitch that should lose a bit of life as the day progresses. There’s some surprising team news on both sides. India have omitted Yusuf Pathan, with Suresh Raina preferred at No7 and the fit again Virender Sehwag coming back into the side. That really is a shock. Australia have also strengthened their batting, with David Hussey replacing Steve Smith. That’s a reflection of the poor performance of the middle order on both sides thus far. India Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni (c/wk), Raina, Harbhajan, Ashwin, Zaheer, Patel. Australia Watson, Haddin (wk), Ponting (c), Clarke, M Hussey, White, D Hussey, Johnson, Lee, Krejza, Tait. The last time India went out of their World Cup , in 1996, the fans rioted . Just saying. In other news, here’s some rare footage of Graham Gooch sweeping India to death in the semi-finals in 1987 – the other occasion on which India were eliminated as hosts. Whoever wins tonight will play Pakistan on Wednesday. If India get through, that will make today’s match seem like a jaunty little warm-up fixture. Preamble This is a quarter-final only in name. In nature, India v Australia is something much grander, especially when it is the hosts against the holders. It’s almost too big for a final, never mind a last-eight game, and that adds a significant frisson to today’s contest. There is a unique tension when two superpowers meet ahead of schedule. If the quarter-finals is par for the heavyweights in a football World Cup, then in rugby and cricket it’s the semi-finals. If you go out before that you are generally doomed to bathe in ignominy for the foreseeable future. Everyone and everything has an unspoken minimum requirement when it comes to performance. For some, it’s a triumph to simply get through the day without making a total fool of themselves, or without brushing their teeth with the Original Source Chocolate and Mint Shower Melt and smearing Colgate under their armpits; for some of us you, defiant mediocrity really is a victory. For others, and certainly for these two teams, the bar is a little higher. A quarter-final exit alone is enough to invite widespread criticism – but this time that will be exacerbated by both teams’ modest performances during the group stage. Whoever departs today will have beaten just one of the top eight sides, New Zealand in Australia’s case and West Indies in India’s. That’[s not good enough. Both sides have problems, and have been dangerously dependent on their openers and one high-class fast bowler (Brett Lee for Australia, Zaheer Khan for India). Today’s match might not be decided by who reaches the greater peaks, but who best avoids the troughs. Chuck in the compelling subplots, particularly Ricky Ponting fighting for his life and Sachin Tendulkar on 99 international centuries, and it’s clear that this game is – as Mark Nicholas once said – massive, massive . It’s almost too much to comprehend that one of these sides will be out of the tournament by this evening. But they will and, whoever it is, they probably shouldn’t read the papers tomorrow. * Chocolate shower gel? That’s a still-drunk-the-morning-after accident waiting to happen. What next. Deodorant-flavour beer? Ready salted crisps with a hint of Ralgex? Cricket World Cup 2011 India cricket team Australia cricket team Over by over reports Cricket Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
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State-run Press TV showed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani describing her alleged role in her husband’s death Ofcom has ruled that Iran’s state-run Press TV station, which has offices in London, did not breach the UK’s broadcasting rules in transmitting a programme that showed an Iranian woman participating in the reconstruction of her alleged part in the murder of her husband. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery triggered an international outcry, was taken from prison to her home in Osku, in Iran’s East Azarbaijan province, last December. She appeared in front of a camera for Press TV recounting how she rendered her husband unconscious before the killer electrocuted him. Ashtiani’s 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh, played the part of her husband in the broadcast. Human rights campaigners described it as a forced confession aimed at collecting new evidence against her and distracting world attention from Iran’s embarrassment over the case. Press TV is Iran’s English-language state television station and has its main overseas office in London, where many of its programmes are made. People in Iran do not have access to the channel. Opponents of the Iranian regime believe the channel is used for propaganda purposes. In response to a complaint made by the Iranian human rights campaigner Fazel Hawramy, who asked whether it was ethical for Press TV to make the imprisoned son play his murdered father, Ofcom said in a letter, seen by the Guardian, that the broadcaster had not breached its code. “Given the broadcaster’s assurances that both Sakineh Ashtiani and her son willingly participated in this programme, we considered that the context was not materially misleading so as to cause harm and offence,” Adam Baxter, standards executive of the media regulator, wrote to Hawramy. Ofcom went on to say: “Given the high public salience of the case of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran, and across the world generally, we considered that it was unsurprising for this matter to be discussed on a serious analysis programme such as this, which focused on Iranian-related matters.” The regulator admitted it was “unusual for a prisoner facing an allegation of murder to take part in a reconstruction of their alleged crime”, but ruled: “It is an editorial matter for broadcasters as to what issues and content they cover in their services, and how they cover them, as long as they comply with the code.” Ofcom added: “The fact that both [Mohammadi Ashtiani and her son] did not appear to be in any obvious distress in their appearances on screen” was another factor it had considered in reaching its decision that “the content, though potentially offensive to some, could be justified by the context”. Ghaderzadeh had been arrested by Iranian authorities before the programme after he spoke to foreign media in support of his mother. Hawramy, who writes for a human rights forum called Kurdishblogger , said: “It is disappointing for me to see that Ofcom has based its conclusions on the assurances Press TV’s editors have given to them. How come Press TV has access to Ms Ashtiani while she, herself, has been denied access to her lawyer? And while one of her lawyers was forced to flee Iran and the other one remains in jail? Why is it that independent journalists were not allowed to access her unrestrictedly while Iran’s state journalists were given permission to?” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian human rights activist based in Norway who is also a spokesman for the NGO Iran Human Rights, said: “I was simply shocked by reading Ofcom’s response. One would expect that Ofcom has sufficient knowledge of Iran’s history of using televised confessions, and the fact that Iran is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists. Iranian authorities claim that prisoners appear ‘willingly’ on the TV and confess against themselves but very often these confessions have been used as new evidence for the death sentences the prisoners have been given afterwards.” According to Ofcom’s letter, Press TV has responded to the regulator and has said: “The complaints are based on the complainants’ assumptions that Ms Ashtiani and her son were forced to appear in the programme and the reconstruction scene. Being that this assumption is false, there is no validity to the complaints. Press TV did not ‘make’ or ‘force’ Ms Ashtiani and her son to do anything they were uncomfortable with. Both participated willingly, and gave no indication that they felt humiliation, distress or violation of their human dignity at any time prior to, during, or subsequent to the filming and broadcast of the programme.” Ofcom said it had received three complaints over Press TV’s programme involving Ashtiani. According to Amnesty International, Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for “adultery while married” but was also given a 10-year prison term in 2006 for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer said later was subsequently reduced to five years for “complicity” in the crime. Last October her son and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested, with two German journalists who were detained after trying to interview her family. The journalists were released after a few months. Sakineh Ashtiani’s stoning sentence was suspended last year, but she and her lawyer remain in jail. Ofcom Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Iran Television industry Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
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State-run Press TV showed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani describing her alleged role in her husband’s death Ofcom has ruled that Iran’s state-run Press TV station, which has offices in London, did not breach the UK’s broadcasting rules in transmitting a programme that showed an Iranian woman participating in the reconstruction of her alleged part in the murder of her husband. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery triggered an international outcry, was taken from prison to her home in Osku, in Iran’s East Azarbaijan province, last December. She appeared in front of a camera for Press TV recounting how she rendered her husband unconscious before the killer electrocuted him. Ashtiani’s 22-year-old son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh, played the part of her husband in the broadcast. Human rights campaigners described it as a forced confession aimed at collecting new evidence against her and distracting world attention from Iran’s embarrassment over the case. Press TV is Iran’s English-language state television station and has its main overseas office in London, where many of its programmes are made. People in Iran do not have access to the channel. Opponents of the Iranian regime believe the channel is used for propaganda purposes. In response to a complaint made by the Iranian human rights campaigner Fazel Hawramy, who asked whether it was ethical for Press TV to make the imprisoned son play his murdered father, Ofcom said in a letter, seen by the Guardian, that the broadcaster had not breached its code. “Given the broadcaster’s assurances that both Sakineh Ashtiani and her son willingly participated in this programme, we considered that the context was not materially misleading so as to cause harm and offence,” Adam Baxter, standards executive of the media regulator, wrote to Hawramy. Ofcom went on to say: “Given the high public salience of the case of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran, and across the world generally, we considered that it was unsurprising for this matter to be discussed on a serious analysis programme such as this, which focused on Iranian-related matters.” The regulator admitted it was “unusual for a prisoner facing an allegation of murder to take part in a reconstruction of their alleged crime”, but ruled: “It is an editorial matter for broadcasters as to what issues and content they cover in their services, and how they cover them, as long as they comply with the code.” Ofcom added: “The fact that both [Mohammadi Ashtiani and her son] did not appear to be in any obvious distress in their appearances on screen” was another factor it had considered in reaching its decision that “the content, though potentially offensive to some, could be justified by the context”. Ghaderzadeh had been arrested by Iranian authorities before the programme after he spoke to foreign media in support of his mother. Hawramy, who writes for a human rights forum called Kurdishblogger , said: “It is disappointing for me to see that Ofcom has based its conclusions on the assurances Press TV’s editors have given to them. How come Press TV has access to Ms Ashtiani while she, herself, has been denied access to her lawyer? And while one of her lawyers was forced to flee Iran and the other one remains in jail? Why is it that independent journalists were not allowed to access her unrestrictedly while Iran’s state journalists were given permission to?” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian human rights activist based in Norway who is also a spokesman for the NGO Iran Human Rights, said: “I was simply shocked by reading Ofcom’s response. One would expect that Ofcom has sufficient knowledge of Iran’s history of using televised confessions, and the fact that Iran is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists. Iranian authorities claim that prisoners appear ‘willingly’ on the TV and confess against themselves but very often these confessions have been used as new evidence for the death sentences the prisoners have been given afterwards.” According to Ofcom’s letter, Press TV has responded to the regulator and has said: “The complaints are based on the complainants’ assumptions that Ms Ashtiani and her son were forced to appear in the programme and the reconstruction scene. Being that this assumption is false, there is no validity to the complaints. Press TV did not ‘make’ or ‘force’ Ms Ashtiani and her son to do anything they were uncomfortable with. Both participated willingly, and gave no indication that they felt humiliation, distress or violation of their human dignity at any time prior to, during, or subsequent to the filming and broadcast of the programme.” Ofcom said it had received three complaints over Press TV’s programme involving Ashtiani. According to Amnesty International, Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for “adultery while married” but was also given a 10-year prison term in 2006 for the murder of her husband, which her lawyer said later was subsequently reduced to five years for “complicity” in the crime. Last October her son and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested, with two German journalists who were detained after trying to interview her family. The journalists were released after a few months. Sakineh Ashtiani’s stoning sentence was suspended last year, but she and her lawyer remain in jail. Ofcom Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Iran Television industry Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
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Bailout request seen as ‘inevitable’ following prime minister’s resignation in wake of failure to push through austerity measures Britain could be forced to contribute more than £3bn to a Portugal bailout package following the Lisbon government’s failure to push through its austerity measures on Wednesday. The Open Europe thinktank claimed on Thursday that the UK’s share of any rescue package would be between €810m (£702m) and €3.7bn, via the European commission’s €440bn bailout fund. Portugal is teetering on the brink of becoming the third member of the eurozone to seek assistance from the EU – and like Greece and Ireland it will probably also ask for help from the International Monetary Fund. Prime minister José Sócrates’s resignation on Wednesday night has left the country in political limbo, and piled extra pressure on European leaders who are gathering at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “Portugal will inevitably ask for a bailout,” said Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel. “But the cases of Ireland and Greece clearly illustrate that the EU’s strategy – to throw good money after bad – is failing. Rather than simply taking a bailout, it would be better in the long run for Portugal to restructure its debt now,” Ruparel added. Sócrates had proposed a wide-ranging plan of tax rises and spending cuts, in an attempt to cut Portugal’s deficit and retain market confidence. The yields on Portuguese government debt has reached record highs , with the 10-year bond trading hitting 7.6% – widely seen as an unsustainably high cost of borrowing. Now that the austerity programme has been rejected, economists also believe Portugal must ask for help. “Portugal moved another step closer to needing a bailout yesterday,” said Gary Jenkins, the head of fixed interest research at Evolution Securities. “Even with complete political harmony it was always going to be difficult for Portugal to persuade investors to continue to fund them and thus yields are likely to rise further from what has already been described as unsustainable levels by Portuguese officials.” Portugal needs to refinance around £4bn of bonds in April. It also emerged last night that the new European Stability Mechanism – to which Britain will not sign up – will not be signed off at the two-day meeting in Brussels, as had been planned. Instead, the deadline for a final agreement has been pushed back to the end of June. “When I started working in the City I was often told to follow the old ‘under promise and over deliver’ formula; the EU seems to be going for the opposite strategy when it comes to dealing with the crisis,” Jenkins added. Fears that the European debt crisis may spread to Madrid were heightened on Thursday morning, when Moody’s downgraded most of the Spanish banking sector. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, argued that Spain was in much better shape than its Iberian neighbour. “You can never say anyone is safe in these times. There is always the danger of a run on a country. But Spain is in a significantly better position than Portugal, which in every likelihood will need a bailout now,” Schmieding told Bloomberg TV. Britain’s inclusion in the €440bn temporary stabilisation mechanism is controversial, as Alistair Darling signed up for the plan on 10 May 2010 – during the hiatus between the general election and the formation of the coalition government. George Osborne, who replaced Darling as chancellor later that week, has insisted that he would have taken a different decision. European debt crisis Global economy Portugal Europe Economics IMF Europe European banks Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bailout request seen as ‘inevitable’ following prime minister’s resignation in wake of failure to push through austerity measures Britain could be forced to contribute more than £3bn to a Portugal bailout package following the Lisbon government’s failure to push through its austerity measures on Wednesday. The Open Europe thinktank claimed on Thursday that the UK’s share of any rescue package would be between €810m (£702m) and €3.7bn, via the European commission’s €440bn bailout fund. Portugal is teetering on the brink of becoming the third member of the eurozone to seek assistance from the EU – and like Greece and Ireland it will probably also ask for help from the International Monetary Fund. Prime minister José Sócrates’s resignation on Wednesday night has left the country in political limbo, and piled extra pressure on European leaders who are gathering at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “Portugal will inevitably ask for a bailout,” said Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel. “But the cases of Ireland and Greece clearly illustrate that the EU’s strategy – to throw good money after bad – is failing. Rather than simply taking a bailout, it would be better in the long run for Portugal to restructure its debt now,” Ruparel added. Sócrates had proposed a wide-ranging plan of tax rises and spending cuts, in an attempt to cut Portugal’s deficit and retain market confidence. The yields on Portuguese government debt has reached record highs , with the 10-year bond trading hitting 7.6% – widely seen as an unsustainably high cost of borrowing. Now that the austerity programme has been rejected, economists also believe Portugal must ask for help. “Portugal moved another step closer to needing a bailout yesterday,” said Gary Jenkins, the head of fixed interest research at Evolution Securities. “Even with complete political harmony it was always going to be difficult for Portugal to persuade investors to continue to fund them and thus yields are likely to rise further from what has already been described as unsustainable levels by Portuguese officials.” Portugal needs to refinance around £4bn of bonds in April. It also emerged last night that the new European Stability Mechanism – to which Britain will not sign up – will not be signed off at the two-day meeting in Brussels, as had been planned. Instead, the deadline for a final agreement has been pushed back to the end of June. “When I started working in the City I was often told to follow the old ‘under promise and over deliver’ formula; the EU seems to be going for the opposite strategy when it comes to dealing with the crisis,” Jenkins added. Fears that the European debt crisis may spread to Madrid were heightened on Thursday morning, when Moody’s downgraded most of the Spanish banking sector. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, argued that Spain was in much better shape than its Iberian neighbour. “You can never say anyone is safe in these times. There is always the danger of a run on a country. But Spain is in a significantly better position than Portugal, which in every likelihood will need a bailout now,” Schmieding told Bloomberg TV. Britain’s inclusion in the €440bn temporary stabilisation mechanism is controversial, as Alistair Darling signed up for the plan on 10 May 2010 – during the hiatus between the general election and the formation of the coalition government. George Osborne, who replaced Darling as chancellor later that week, has insisted that he would have taken a different decision. European debt crisis Global economy Portugal Europe Economics IMF Europe European banks Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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BAA to invest in snow-clearing machines and more staff – with the aim that bad weather will never again close Heathrow BAA will invest £50m in avoiding a repeat of the Heathrow snow fiasco after a report said the chaos that gripped Britain’s largest airport was exacerbated by lack of preparation, poor communication and equipment shortages. An inquiry led by BAA’s independent director, Professor David Begg, recommended that Heathrow adopts a new target of never closing due to bad weather and made a total of 14 recommendations. Accepting the report in full, BAA said on Thursday that it would spend £50m on snow-clearing machines, new staff and improving communication with passengers. The Begg panel outlined major failures by BAA that led to the airport being paralysed for four days after a sudden snowfall on 18 December, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers and bringing back familiar scenes of families camping out on terminal floors. Those errors were: • a failure to anticipate the impact of the weather forecast before 18 December, when nearly 13cm of snow fell • the slow clearance of aircraft stands, caused in part by a lack of specialised equipment, which left dozens of jets frozen to the tarmac • “confused and contradictory” messages to airlines and passengers • several failures in internal communication and co-ordination within BAA • the late mobilisation of the executive crisis team Eschewing the apologetic stance that marked its initial reaction to the fiasco, BAA kept up its mantra that Heathrow would only work better if airlines, regulators, air traffic controllers and airport owners worked more closely. The airport group added that British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and bmi had agreed to join it in a “Heathrow partnership” with air traffic controller NATS and the industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority. BAA has sought to portray the snow fiasco as symptomatic of a wider lack of communication within the Heathrow campus, a point repeated today by the company’s chief executive, Colin Matthews. “We clearly understand our role in keeping Heathrow open, unless for emergency or safety reasons, but to do that and to achieve the highest standards of passenger care, we need to work more closely and collaboratively with airlines and them with us, and all agree on the necessary training and investment,” he said. “Heathrow is among the most congested airports in the world and the lack of spare capacity means that unlike every other British or European airport, we have literally no room to move when disruption occurs. “This means that any problem, large or small, that slows down the rate of aircraft arriving at or leaving from Heathrow, will disrupt many people.” BAA’s heavy-hitting chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd, said the board was encouraging management to dedicate “all the necessary resources” to ensure an improved response to extreme weather. Air transport Heathrow Weather BAA Travel & leisure Airline industry Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
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Foreign Office confirms 60-year-old woman killed in explosion outside Jerusalem’s main bus station was UK national The woman killed when a suitcase bomb exploded in Jerusalem on Wednesday was British, the Foreign Office has confirmed. The bombing, the first in the city for seven years, left the 60-year-old dead and injured dozens of others. “We can confirm the death of a British national,” said a Foreign Office spokeswoman, adding that the woman’s family had been informed. The 1-2kg suitcase bomb detonated close to the main bus station and government ministries . Most of the blast was absorbed by commuters waiting at a bus stop, leaving three people seriously hurt and about three dozen with minor injuries. The explosion also broke windows in two buses that were operating nearby. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has vowed to act “aggressively, responsibly and wisely” in response to the bombing, which was also condemned by the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad. Barack Obama criticised the bombing and said “Israel, like all nations, has a right to self-defence”. However, the US president expressed “deepest condolences” to the families of Palestinians killed in recent Israeli air strikes in Gaza. In the past week a barrage of missiles has been fired into Israel from Gaza, followed by retaliatory air strikes and tank shelling by the Israeli military. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed. Israel Middle East Palestinian territories Gaza Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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At least five people dead after suicide bomber rams car loaded with explosives into a police station in north-west Pakistan A suicide bomber has rammed a car loaded with explosives into a police station in northwestern Pakistan, killing five and wounding more than two dozen people, police said. It was the second attack in as many days against police in Hangu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that has been hit by militants many times in recent years. The dead included one officer and four passers-by, said Rashid Khan, the top police official in Hangu. Most of the roughly 30 wounded in the attack in Doaba town on Thursday were also passers-by, he said. The police tried to stop the bomber to check his car for explosives, but he sped past them into the station, said Khan. The blast also damaged several nearby homes and shops, Khan said. On Wednesday, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Hangu, wounding six officers. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Taliban militants have regularly targeted police throughout the north-west. Hangu is located close to Pakistan’s troubled tribal region, where Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have flourished. Pakistan Taliban guardian.co.uk
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