Supporters clash with riot police removing opposition leader from Kiev courtroom on judge’s orders Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been arrested by police acting on a judge’s orders for violating court procedure during her trial for abuse of office. Her supporters squabbled on Friday with riot police in court, trying to prevent them from driving her away in a prison car and shouting: “Shame! Shame!” Dozens gathered outside court in Kiev and tried to block the road, but were pushed aside. The charismatic Tymoshenko has criticised the trial as a ploy by President Viktor Yanukovych to bar her from elections and mocked the court. She has refused to rise when addressing the court, as required, and routinely insulted the judge. Her supporters have repeatedly disrupted hearings. Complying with the presiding judge’s orders, police surrounded Tymoshenko and escorted her out of the courtroom. The 50-year-old opposition leader is charged with abusing her powers by signing a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that prosecutors claim was disadvantageous to Ukraine. Tymoshenko insists she is innocent, arguing that the contract ended weeks of natural gas disruptions to Ukrainian and European consumers and that she was authorised to sign the deal as prime minister. Experts in Ukraine and abroad believe the trial’s real motive is to disqualify Tymoshenko from upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections by convicting her as a felon. Tymoshenko has a long and bitter history with Yanukovych. She was the central figure in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests, which threw out Yanukovych’s fraud-tainted victory in a presidential election and led to another vote that brought a pro-western government to power. Tymoshenko became prime minister, but Ukrainians grew frustrated by economic hardships, slow reforms and endless bickering in the Orange camp. As a result, she lost to Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election. Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko Europe guardian.co.uk
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Supporters clash with riot police removing opposition leader from Kiev courtroom on judge’s orders Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been arrested by police acting on a judge’s orders for violating court procedure during her trial for abuse of office. Her supporters squabbled on Friday with riot police in court, trying to prevent them from driving her away in a prison car and shouting: “Shame! Shame!” Dozens gathered outside court in Kiev and tried to block the road, but were pushed aside. The charismatic Tymoshenko has criticised the trial as a ploy by President Viktor Yanukovych to bar her from elections and mocked the court. She has refused to rise when addressing the court, as required, and routinely insulted the judge. Her supporters have repeatedly disrupted hearings. Complying with the presiding judge’s orders, police surrounded Tymoshenko and escorted her out of the courtroom. The 50-year-old opposition leader is charged with abusing her powers by signing a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that prosecutors claim was disadvantageous to Ukraine. Tymoshenko insists she is innocent, arguing that the contract ended weeks of natural gas disruptions to Ukrainian and European consumers and that she was authorised to sign the deal as prime minister. Experts in Ukraine and abroad believe the trial’s real motive is to disqualify Tymoshenko from upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections by convicting her as a felon. Tymoshenko has a long and bitter history with Yanukovych. She was the central figure in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests, which threw out Yanukovych’s fraud-tainted victory in a presidential election and led to another vote that brought a pro-western government to power. Tymoshenko became prime minister, but Ukrainians grew frustrated by economic hardships, slow reforms and endless bickering in the Orange camp. As a result, she lost to Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election. Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko Europe guardian.co.uk
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At least 10 people dead after government troops, who witnesses claim also tried to steal food, opened fire at UN distribution site Somali government troops opened fire on famine refugees on Friday, killing at least 10 people, as both groups made a grab for food at a UN distribution site in Mogadishu, witnesses said. Witnesses accused government soldiers of starting the chaos by trying to steal some of the 290 tonnes of dry rations as aid workers tried to hand them out at Badbaado, the biggest camp in the Somali capital for famine victims. Refugees then joined in the scramble, prompting some soldiers to open fire, the witnesses said. “It was carnage. They ruthlessly shot everyone,” said Abdi Awale Nor, who has been living at the camp. “Dead bodies were left on the ground and other wounded bled to death.” David Orr, a spokesman for the World Food Programme, said the food distribution started smoothly at about 6am, but degenerated a couple hours later. “We got reports of trouble, looting. The trucks were overwhelmed by a mob of people. There were reports of some shots fired,” said Orr, who said he could not confirm any death tolls. Another refugee, Muse Sheik Ali, said soldiers tried to steal some of the food aid and refugees began to take the food. “Soldiers opened fire at them. Then soldiers took the food and people fled from the camp,” he said. Thousands of Somalis have flooded into Mogadishu from the drought-stricken south, walking much or all the way and seeing weakened loved ones perish from starvation or complications from malnutrition. The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under five in the past 90 days in southern Somalia alone, according to US estimates. The Somalia prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, visited the camp after the violence and said he was “deeply sorry”. He said an investigation would be held and promised harsh punishment for anyone found guilty. International groups face huge challenges in distributing food inside Somalia. The worst-hit part of the country is a no-go area for most aid groups because it is controlled by al-Qaida-linked insurgents, who deny there is a famine and who have allowed only the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter. More than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are in need of immediate food aid. The UN says 640,000 children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, where the UN has declared five famine zones, including the refugee camps of Mogadishu. Witnesses said two WFP trucks were delivering aid when the chaos broke out. WFP often tries to do what it calls “wet feedings” in Somalia – giving out already made food like porridge – to limit the chances that it will be looted. But in this case it was dry rations, Orr said. Somali soldiers control just part of the capital and are poorly trained. “They fired on us as if we were their enemy,” said famine refugee Abidyo Geddi. “When people started to take the food then the gunfire started and everyone was being shot. We cannot stay here much longer. We don’t get much food and the rare food they bring causes death and torture.” Private militias – most of them politically connected – are competing to guard or steal food. At least four competing militias have the run of government-controlled areas of Mogadishu. The gunmen roar around in pickup trucks and wage battle over the wages they hope to be paid to either guard the aid or for the cash it will bring when it is stolen and sold. The insecurity amid the famine echoes the situation in 1992 that prompted deployment of a US-led multinational force to safeguard the delivery of food to Somalia’s starving. That international intervention collapsed in 1993 after two US helicopters were shot down and 18 servicemen were killed in the crashes and subsequent rescue attempt in the streets of Mogadishu. Famine Somalia Africa United Nations guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …At least 10 people dead after government troops, who witnesses claim also tried to steal food, opened fire at UN distribution site Somali government troops opened fire on famine refugees on Friday, killing at least 10 people, as both groups made a grab for food at a UN distribution site in Mogadishu, witnesses said. Witnesses accused government soldiers of starting the chaos by trying to steal some of the 290 tonnes of dry rations as aid workers tried to hand them out at Badbaado, the biggest camp in the Somali capital for famine victims. Refugees then joined in the scramble, prompting some soldiers to open fire, the witnesses said. “It was carnage. They ruthlessly shot everyone,” said Abdi Awale Nor, who has been living at the camp. “Dead bodies were left on the ground and other wounded bled to death.” David Orr, a spokesman for the World Food Programme, said the food distribution started smoothly at about 6am, but degenerated a couple hours later. “We got reports of trouble, looting. The trucks were overwhelmed by a mob of people. There were reports of some shots fired,” said Orr, who said he could not confirm any death tolls. Another refugee, Muse Sheik Ali, said soldiers tried to steal some of the food aid and refugees began to take the food. “Soldiers opened fire at them. Then soldiers took the food and people fled from the camp,” he said. Thousands of Somalis have flooded into Mogadishu from the drought-stricken south, walking much or all the way and seeing weakened loved ones perish from starvation or complications from malnutrition. The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under five in the past 90 days in southern Somalia alone, according to US estimates. The Somalia prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, visited the camp after the violence and said he was “deeply sorry”. He said an investigation would be held and promised harsh punishment for anyone found guilty. International groups face huge challenges in distributing food inside Somalia. The worst-hit part of the country is a no-go area for most aid groups because it is controlled by al-Qaida-linked insurgents, who deny there is a famine and who have allowed only the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter. More than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are in need of immediate food aid. The UN says 640,000 children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, where the UN has declared five famine zones, including the refugee camps of Mogadishu. Witnesses said two WFP trucks were delivering aid when the chaos broke out. WFP often tries to do what it calls “wet feedings” in Somalia – giving out already made food like porridge – to limit the chances that it will be looted. But in this case it was dry rations, Orr said. Somali soldiers control just part of the capital and are poorly trained. “They fired on us as if we were their enemy,” said famine refugee Abidyo Geddi. “When people started to take the food then the gunfire started and everyone was being shot. We cannot stay here much longer. We don’t get much food and the rare food they bring causes death and torture.” Private militias – most of them politically connected – are competing to guard or steal food. At least four competing militias have the run of government-controlled areas of Mogadishu. The gunmen roar around in pickup trucks and wage battle over the wages they hope to be paid to either guard the aid or for the cash it will bring when it is stolen and sold. The insecurity amid the famine echoes the situation in 1992 that prompted deployment of a US-led multinational force to safeguard the delivery of food to Somalia’s starving. That international intervention collapsed in 1993 after two US helicopters were shot down and 18 servicemen were killed in the crashes and subsequent rescue attempt in the streets of Mogadishu. Famine Somalia Africa United Nations guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: Washington Post In 1952, my father was a young sailor in the US Coast Guard, on leave in Washington. Early one morning, he’d gone to a shop to buy cigarettes, stepped outside for a smoke and was startled by the sight of the President of the United States strolling briskly toward him, trailed by a single security man. He tossed the cigarette away, straightened and saluted. “At ease, sailor,” said Truman with a grin, stuck out his hand and gave my father a quick handshake before breezing past and was gone. By 1952, Truman’s popularity was at an all-time low, but that single moment turned my politically apathetic dad into a life-long Democrat, and he measured the worth of every president thereafter by how close they were willing to get to ordinary American citizens. He treasured a newspaper clipping with a photo of me as a small child riding on his shoulders to see over the heads of the crowd during a visit by Lyndon Johnson, with the president smiling and waving and shaking hands as he rode by in an open car – not that long after his predecessor had been shot in one. After eight years of George Bush and his obsession with security that earned him the sobriquet ‘Bubble Boy’ we have a President who has received an average 30 death threats every day since he took office, more than another president in our history, 400% more than Bush , and has been so vilified by the likes of Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent gleefully whipping up lynch mob hysteria that he has real reason to worry about his personal safety. But yet…. when President Obama landed in San Francisco this past February, rather than hurriedly jumping into the safety of his bullet-proof limo, he strolled across the tarmac to greet people eagerly reaching over a chain-link fence to shake his hand, stopping to chat and even receive a kiss from an elderly woman. After what has to be the most contentious month of his presidency thus far, President Obama chose to greet crowds of tourists at the Lincoln Memorial , much to the delight of surprised ordinary people, in order to stress that despite the Republican mania for cutting every public service they can think of rather than raise taxes on corporations and the rich, national parks, monuments and museums are still and will remain open. And just this past Father’s Day, he stopped at Georgetown’s Thomas Sweet Ice Cream shop with his daughters, Sasha and Malia. The Secret Service did arrive first, but simply asked people to just go about their own business – they didn’t clear anyone out, they didn’t stop anyone from chatting with the President while he and his daughters ordered scoops of cookie dough and vanilla ice cream. It’s probably just not possible any longer for a President to take an early morning stroll nearly unchaperoned down a city street and shake hands with an astonished Coast Guard sailor, but Obama comes close. As a progressive liberal, I have to admit I’ve been disappointed lately with Obama’s unfathomable fixation on “bi-partisanship” and these continually disastrous negotiations with an obdurate right-wing whose only objective is to crush Obama’s presidency regardless of the cost to the economy or the American people. But I can’t remember Bush ever getting this close to actual human beings. I don’t think I ever saw him wading into a public crowd, even when they were thoroughly vetted and screened and anyone so much as wearing a subversive t-shirt whisked off to jail , just in case. Even with the death threats, even as his popularity declines, even as he’s losing the backing of his base, I can’t help but admire Obama’s continued trust in ordinary Americans, and the example he sets for his daughters. He’s still got more courage than any of the dickless wonders on the tea party-controlled right. Happy birthday, Mr. President.
Continue reading …enlarge Credit: Washington Post In 1952, my father was a young sailor in the US Coast Guard, on leave in Washington. Early one morning, he’d gone to a shop to buy cigarettes, stepped outside for a smoke and was startled by the sight of the President of the United States strolling briskly toward him, trailed by a single security man. He tossed the cigarette away, straightened and saluted. “At ease, sailor,” said Truman with a grin, stuck out his hand and gave my father a quick handshake before breezing past and was gone. By 1952, Truman’s popularity was at an all-time low, but that single moment turned my politically apathetic dad into a life-long Democrat, and he measured the worth of every president thereafter by how close they were willing to get to ordinary American citizens. He treasured a newspaper clipping with a photo of me as a small child riding on his shoulders to see over the heads of the crowd during a visit by Lyndon Johnson, with the president smiling and waving and shaking hands as he rode by in an open car – not that long after his predecessor had been shot in one. After eight years of George Bush and his obsession with security that earned him the sobriquet ‘Bubble Boy’ we have a President who has received an average 30 death threats every day since he took office, more than another president in our history, 400% more than Bush , and has been so vilified by the likes of Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent gleefully whipping up lynch mob hysteria that he has real reason to worry about his personal safety. But yet…. when President Obama landed in San Francisco this past February, rather than hurriedly jumping into the safety of his bullet-proof limo, he strolled across the tarmac to greet people eagerly reaching over a chain-link fence to shake his hand, stopping to chat and even receive a kiss from an elderly woman. After what has to be the most contentious month of his presidency thus far, President Obama chose to greet crowds of tourists at the Lincoln Memorial , much to the delight of surprised ordinary people, in order to stress that despite the Republican mania for cutting every public service they can think of rather than raise taxes on corporations and the rich, national parks, monuments and museums are still and will remain open. And just this past Father’s Day, he stopped at Georgetown’s Thomas Sweet Ice Cream shop with his daughters, Sasha and Malia. The Secret Service did arrive first, but simply asked people to just go about their own business – they didn’t clear anyone out, they didn’t stop anyone from chatting with the President while he and his daughters ordered scoops of cookie dough and vanilla ice cream. It’s probably just not possible any longer for a President to take an early morning stroll nearly unchaperoned down a city street and shake hands with an astonished Coast Guard sailor, but Obama comes close. As a progressive liberal, I have to admit I’ve been disappointed lately with Obama’s unfathomable fixation on “bi-partisanship” and these continually disastrous negotiations with an obdurate right-wing whose only objective is to crush Obama’s presidency regardless of the cost to the economy or the American people. But I can’t remember Bush ever getting this close to actual human beings. I don’t think I ever saw him wading into a public crowd, even when they were thoroughly vetted and screened and anyone so much as wearing a subversive t-shirt whisked off to jail , just in case. Even with the death threats, even as his popularity declines, even as he’s losing the backing of his base, I can’t help but admire Obama’s continued trust in ordinary Americans, and the example he sets for his daughters. He’s still got more courage than any of the dickless wonders on the tea party-controlled right. Happy birthday, Mr. President.
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At the end of Thursday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Harry Smith, formerly of CBS, made his first appearance on the network with a fawning birthday message to President Obama: “Happy birthday, Mr. President. Once upon a time, when you were a young man, all you had to do was show up and teeming throngs of people would gather to cheer you on….They even wrote songs about you.” [ Audio available here ]
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enlarge Credit: Media Matters Don’t look now, but the stock portfolio you used to have before you sold it after you got laid off is now worth a lot less. As of this posting the Dow is down another 200 points from yesterday’s horrible plummet of over 500 points. It’s the market’s way of telling the GOP their idea of focusing only on their short-sighting petty game of Pin the Bad Economy on the Democrat is actually hurting the entire world’s economy. So here’s the trick: when the markets freak out as a direct result of Republican policies they throw a tea party. There’s a pattern: bad economic forecasts – Republicans in tri-corner hats waving pocket-sized Constitutions. It’s the Republican costume indicating they just completely botched the economy again. Remember the economy in ’08? Remember all the Republicans with Medicare pacemakers dressing up like Thomas Jefferson and decrying socialism? Uh huh. The other sign? Scary black people! The new Black Panthers ! Hip-Hop! Obama! Hussein Obama! Muslim Brotherhood! And nothing captures this more than the screen capture above. See the little breaking news bar? The economy added some jobs last month and the unemployment rate is down. But not the stock market. So therefore on Fox Nation – LOOK OVER HERE POTUS IS BLACK WITH BLACK FRIENDS! See: Southern strategy. H/T Media Matters
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British Behaviour Abroad report shows fewer arrests, hospital visits, and passports lost Britons are more likely to require consular help in Spain, get arrested in Thailand, or die in the Philippines, according to Foreign Office figures. While the number of Britons arrested abroad fell last year, statistics show they are still getting into other difficulties while holidaying or living overseas. Total arrests in the 12 months ending March 2011 reached 5,700, a reduction on 6,439 in 2009-10 and 6,919 in 2008-09, according to the British Behaviour Abroad report. Spain recorded the highest number of Britons of arrests, at 1,745, although proportionate to visitor numbers the place Britons were more likely to be arrested was Thailand, followed by the US. Countries with the majority of arrests concerning drugs offences included Jamaica, Norway, Argentina, Brazil, Serbia and Peru. In total, 5,972 Britons died abroad last year, with those in the Philippines most likely to die, although 84% of the deaths were through natural causes. Thailand recorded the deaths of 374 Britons, 64% of which were from natural causes. There were more Britons requiring hospital treatment abroad. Proportionately, Britons were more likely to end up in a Thai hospital. The country recorded 246 cases last year, a mix of ill expats and visitors falling ill or through accidents. The report also highlighted the need for comprehensive travel insurance to cover expensive medical treatment. Previous research has suggested around one in six Britons travel abroad uninsured. The number of Britons raped abroad fell to 115, from 132 the previous year. But sexual assaults rose from 140 to 163. According to the Foreign Office report, proportionately the highest number of sexual assaults occurred in Egypt, followed by Turkey. There were 25,969 cases of lost or stolen passports in 2010-11 compared with 27,272 in the previous 12 months. Foreign Office research, from a poll of 2,000 UK adults, revealed that 43% of 18- to 24-year-olds know someone who has taken illegal drugs while abroad. It also showed that two thirds of people in Britain don’t always find out about the laws of the country they are visiting before they head off abroad, putting them at risk of unknowingly breaking the law, said the report. Nearly one third (32%) of people were not aware that they will always be prosecuted under local law if they broke the law abroad, with 6% thinking they would be prosecuted under UK law, 22% thinking it depended on the country, and 4% admitting to not knowing at all. David Lidington, minister for Europe, said: “We work hard to warn British nationals about the consequences of breaking the law abroad so it is really encouraging to see the overall number of cases of arrests and drug arrests falling. “But last year there were still 5,700 arrests of British nationals overseas. Prison conditions in some parts of the world can be very poor, overcrowded and in some cases dangerous, and sentences can be much tougher than in the UK. “People are mistaken if they think the FO can get you out of jail. We can’t, but we will work hard to try and ensure your sfaety, and that you get a fair trial.” Spain Thailand Philippines Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
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Exam boards seek to reassure students who sat papers containing errors that they will get the grades they deserve Students who sat exam papers that contained errors this summer will “get the grades they deserve,” exam boards have said. Qualifications regulators for England, Wales and Northern Ireland are investigating why mistakes appeared in 12 exam papers. Some 10 of the errors were in papers sat by pupils in England. The Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents exam boards, said it had taken action to ensure no pupil would be disadvantaged by the errors. In some cases, exam boards have awarded pupils full marks for rogue questions, while in others they have discounted the question and changed the total number of marks available for a paper. It said exam boards had used “well-tested statistical procedures … to ensure that all students receive the grades they deserve”. In a joint statement, the exam boards said they “deeply regret” that the errors occurred and “wish to apologise again to students and their families”. “Although only 12 out of more than 60,000 questions set this year were affected, we understand the distress they have caused,” they said. Exam boards said they had told university admissions tutors which papers have contained errors so that students’ chances of winning places on degree courses would not be jeopardised. The qualifications regulators said their investigation into why the errors happened would be finished before the end of the year. The errors included a printing mistake in a maths paper, set by the AQA exam board, which included questions originally answered by pupils taking the same exam in March. Over 31,000 pupils at 567 schools and colleges took the paper. Other errors were discovered in a GCSE Latin paper and a physics A-level exam, both set by the OCR exam board. GCSEs Schools A-levels AS-levels Students Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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