Secretary general echoes US concerns about Europe and says UN ‘must be ready’ to step in when Gaddafi falls Nato’s secretary general has warned that continued disparity in US and European defence spending might lead to a “two-tiered alliance” in which American and European troops would not be able to fight effectively together. In a Guardian interview, Anders Fogh Rasmussen echoed the fears expressed last week by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, about the strains being put on Nato by unequal burden-sharing. “Ten years ago US defence investment represented almost half of all defence expenditure in the whole alliance. Today it is 75%,” Rasmussen said. “This increasing economic gap may also lead to an increasing technology gap which will almost hamper the inter-operability between our forces. The Americans provide … still more advanced military assets and equipment; the Europeans are lagging behind. And eventually it will be difficult to co-operate even if you had the political will to co-operate because of the technological gap.” He added: “All this may in the long run weaken our alliance.” Rasmussen said such a decline in Nato was not inevitable, expressing the hope that European nations would “step up to the plate” to increase defence spending. He also said the pooling of resources in bilateral and multilateral arrangements could make up for the decline in defence spending in difficult economic times. In the short-term, he said the US had stepped in to provide more ammunition for the campaign in Libya in the face of the rapidly dwindling supplies of its European allies, and insisted that Nato now had everything it needed to maintain the campaign at “high tempo” for the next three months. Beyond that, Rasmussen vowed that the alliance was “prepared to continue as long as it takes to accomplish our mission”, to protect Libyan civilians and ultimately force Muammar Gaddafi out of office. But he admitted concerns about the sustainability of operations carried out by a minority of Nato members. “Of course it is a matter of concern that only eight allies are conducting air-to-ground strikes. If we are to ensure the long-term sustainability of the operation we should also broaden the support for the operation,” Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister, said. “The American people ask, and legitimately so, why should we carry the heavy burden to ensure international peace and stability. You also profit from it, so you should also take your share in the burden. That’s Secretary Gates’s message. I share that message.” However, Rasmussen argued that after two and a half months of intensifying Nato air strikes and deepening political isolation, the Gaddafi regime was facing collapse. “It may take some time but it could also happen tomorrow and we have to be prepared for that.” Once Gaddafi fell, he said, the United Nations should be ready to take the lead in managing the transition and be prepared to do so without Nato ground troops. “Firstly we do not envisage a leading Nato role in that. On the contrary we want to see the UN co-ordinate and lead the post-Gaddafi effort,” he said. “Actually I can’t imagine Nato troops on the ground and I think it’s also important to send that very clear message to the UN and other organisations right now so that appropriate plans can be in place in due time and the Gaddafi regime can collapse soon.” Nato officials are increasingly concerned that the UN is not ready to take responsibility for the transition, and worry that UN officials assume that Nato, having led the military campaign, will continue to take lead responsibility by default. “The UN normally take three months to plan for this kind of transition and we don’t see much activity so far,” one official said. Rasmussen said Nato could support a UN-led post-Gaddafi transition, logistically and from the air, but he laid down three conditions for such support: there had to be a demonstrable need for a Nato role, there had to be a clear legal mandate and there had to be Arab support for a continued Nato presence. Jan Techau, head of the European office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said European and other states were making individual plans for assisting any transition, but he warned that the assumption that the Gaddafi regime was on the point of collapse might be premature. “We are increasingly hearing sceptical voices over whether this military operation can be brought to a successful conclusion. That is the biggest nightmare at the moment,” he said, adding that the constraints on the UN mandate for the Nato role and a lack of ammunition were the main problems. Nato Libya Middle East Africa Foreign policy Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Greek prime minister fails to form unity government as police battle rioters in Athens and shares tumble over default fears The Greek government was on the brink of collapse after pitched battles on the streets of Athens on Wednesday, sending world stocks tumbling as EU leaders squabbled over whether and how to launch a second attempt to keep Greece from insolvency. George Papandreou, the socialist prime minister, appeared to admit defeat by offering to dissolve his government and form a national unity coalition, but admitted his efforts to negotiate with the opposition conservatives had failed. “Tomorrow I will form a new government, and then I will ask for a vote of confidence,” Papandreou said on state television. The move followed intense but fruitless negotiations with the conservative New Democracy party to engineer a consensus behind the savage public spending cuts deemed necessary and a wholesale privatisation programme. The opposition had called for Papandreou’s resignation and a renegotiation of the bailout terms with the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund as the price for its assent to a national coalition. Earlier, riot police had battled with tens of thousands of protesters in the capital against the radical austerity measures being imposed to try to secure a second bailout in a year, running to tens of billions of euros. EU governments, the ECB, and the European Commission were gridlocked over how to respond to the debt emergency, which pushed Greece closer to sovereign default, possibly triggering a fresh European banking crisis. A sense of siege descended on Brussels as the Greek drama appeared to be heading towards a denouement. The ECB warned that a Greek default could spark “contagion” across Europe, causing Greek banks to implode and inflicting major damage on the big banks in France and Germany. “It looks like a week of chaos,” said a European official in Brussels. Senior diplomats in Brussels said that an emergency meeting of the 17 eurozone finance ministers on Tuesday had failed to bridge the differences over how to construct a second bailout in a year for Greece, running to almost €100bn. In May last year the EU and the IMF put together a €110bn bailout for Greece, the first in a single currency country. That experiment has failed. Ireland and Portugal have since also needed to be rescued from national insolvency. “The euro area faces a very challenging situation that comes mostly from the interconnection of the sovereign debt crisis and the situation of the banking sector,” the ECB said. “Greece could have a contagion effect,” added Vitor Constancio, an ECB vice-president. Papandreou’s offer of a national unity government signalled he was throwing in the towel, spelling the third government collapse in the EU in recent months because of the debt crisis – following Ireland and Portugal. The debt crisis has also taken a heavy political toll in the richer creditor countries of the eurozone, with anti-bailout populists making big gains in Finland and the Netherlands, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffering political setbacks at home while coming in for criticism abroad for her handling of the emergency. The Americans are exasperated with the failure of EU powers to resolve the crisis and fear for the impact of a Greek default on the international economy. Greek borrowing costs soared to record levels as investors took fright. Stock markets suffered; the Dow Jones industrial average in Wall Street was down 180 points, and FTSE 100 was down 60 points. Berlin, backed by the Dutch, Austrians, and Finns, have been arguing for weeks that there can be no new bailout of Greece without the country’s private creditors being forced to suffer losses on their loans. Otherwise, they argue, European taxpayers will be shouldering the costs while the international banks pocket the proceeds. The ECB, the European Commission and other EU countries led by France argue that this could pave the way to disaster, with the financial markets decreeing the compulsory “haircuts” on private bondholders a Greek default, a “credit event” that could lay waste to the single currency. “We are against any sort of default with haircuts and any form of private-sector event that could lead to a credit event or a rating event,” Constancio said. There was little sign that the differences had been bridged at Tuesday’s emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers. They meet again in Luxembourg on Sunday under pressure to strike a deal on a new Greek rescue by June 20, ahead of an EU summit on Thursday next week. But in Brussels diplomats said it could take weeks, perhaps until mid-July, to reach agreement. Amid a mood of heightening panic, all eyes were on a summit on Friday between Merkel and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Greece needs a fresh infusion of cash from the IMF by next month to service its debts, but the IMF cannot disburse the funds unless Greece’s public finances are deemed to be secure. Without a new EU bailout, they are not secure. Greece European debt crisis European Union Financial crisis Germany Euro Ian Traynor Helena Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A rally of more than 20,000 protesters in Athens’ Syntagma Square turned ugly today, as police fired tear gas into the crowd and protesters hurled rocks, firebombs, and even yogurt at them. There was also fighting amongst the crowd, with demonstrators clashing with a group of violent hooded youths,…
Continue reading …America was shocked yesterday when the, ahem, storybook romance of Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris came to an abrupt end . What could the problem possibly have been, other than their 60-year age difference? The couple got into what E! calls a “rather explosive argument” over the phone, and Harris packed…
Continue reading …
Pair accused of targeting soul singer at her Devon home scheduled to appear before Exeter magistrates Two men have been charged over an alleged plot targeting the soul singer Joss Stone. Junior Bradshaw, 30, and Kevin Liverpool, 33, both from Manchester, were charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. The charges come two days after police arrested two men close to Stone’s remote rural retreat in Devon. Bradshaw and Liverpool are due to appear before Exeter magistrates on Thursday. Stone , 24, issued a statement to reassure fans. She said: “I’d like to thank everyone for their concern but I’m absolutely fine and getting on with life as normal while the police continue with their enquiries.” Neighbour Simon Alsop, a 57-year-old farmer, said Stone was remaining calm. He said: “She came here for a coffee on Tuesday afternoon and she was all right. She was quite laid back and not in a major panic. “It all sounds a bit bizarre and very strange. It is quite scary really. I know the whole family well and they are very good neighbours. If Joss isn’t working she is often here. Joss is never there on her own. She usually has a small entourage of friends.” Florence Webber, 87, whose bungalow is near Stone’s house, said: “It is obviously frightening. You don’t expect anything like that in a quiet place like this.” Two men were arrested by Devon and Cornwall police on Monday morning, initially for allegedly possessing offensive weapons and being equipped to steal. Police stepped in after a neighbour reported that a Fiat Punto had been seen in the area. Stone was only 16 when she had her first hit, Fell In Love With A Boy, in 2004 and had just turned 17 when she won Brit awards in the British female solo artist and British urban act categories. Her soulful vocals saw her hailed in the United States as “the white Aretha Franklin” and she has enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic. Last month, the Sunday Times placed Stone, who grew up in Devon, as the fifth wealthiest British and Irish pop star aged under 30, with a fortune estimated at £9m. Extra police patrols were put on in the Cullompton area where the arrests were made to reassure local people. Police stood guard outside Stone’s property. Joss Stone Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Chancellor outlines proposals to keep London as a global financial centre without risking the rest of the UK economy The chancellor, George Osborne, has set out plans to tackle the “British dilemma”, saying the country needed a settlement with the City that would keep London as a global financial centre without putting the rest of the economy at risk. Adopting a conciliatory approach to bankers in his Mansion House address, the chancellor sought to draw a line under the financial crisis by announcing the sale of Northern Rock – the Newcastle-based lender nationalised after becoming the centre of the first run on a high street bank in almost 150 years. There was speculation that the government may have to sell the bank for a loss. “Images of the queues outside Northern Rock branches were a symbol of all that went wrong, and its chaotic collapse did great damage to Britain’s international reputation,” the chancellor said. “Its return now to the private sector would help to rebuild that reputation.” Osborne said the economy was “on the mend” after the deep recession of 2008-09 but warned that the weakness of the financial sector together with the crisis in the eurozone and softness in the US economy was putting a brake on UK growth. Announcing his support for plans to ringfence high-street banking operations and the toughening up of City regulation under the Bank of England, the chancellor said the country was “within touching distance” of a “new settlement” with finance. “If we achieve it, then we will have answered the British dilemma – and put our country on the path to prosperity. I want the City of London to be a thriving centre of enterprise, more interested in serving its customers than in what government might do to it next. Resolving the British dilemma is the way to do that.” Sir Mervyn King, who will chair the first meeting of the Financial Policy Committee on Thursday – the body set up by Osborne to make sure banks do not take excessive risks en masse – also warned that the City cannot be “allowed to benefit from an unsustainable dependence on the UK taxpayer”. King added: “To allow that would be unfair to millions of people, not here tonight, who are now bearing the costs of the financial crisis. It is precisely because we do want to be an international banking centre with assets a multiple of annual UK GDP that we have to find a solution to the ‘too important to fail’ problem.” Buoyed by unemployment figures showing the biggest quarterly drop in the jobless total in 10 years, Osborne said: “Output is growing. Stability has returned. Britain is on the mend. But it is taking time.” He said the economy faced the problem of unwinding debts built up over a decade. “Of all the major economies in the world, Britain’s was the most over-borrowed. Our families were more in debt than any other in the G7. Our house-price bubble was bigger than America’s. Our government deficit higher than that of Greece.” He added that the financial system, which helped fuel the boom in the middle of the previous decade, was now responsible for holding the economy back. During the past 18 months, when the economy grew by 2.5%, the financial sector contracted by 4%. “Take the financial sector out of the equation, and economic growth in the rest of the economy during the recovery has actually been above its average rate of the last two decades. Put the financial sector into the equation, and economic growth has been below trend.” The chancellor said he was working on plans to ensure that the taxpayer was no longer “first on the hook” in the event that things went wrong in the City. But as he threw his weight behind the interim report of the Independent Commission on Banking under Sir John Vickers, he faced criticism for not waiting for the final recommendations due out on 12 September. The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said “we can’t rule out” that a full break-up of the banks might need to be considered by the time of the final report. The banking commission was a key part of the coalition agreement signed last year, and will report back to the chancellor and the business secretary, Vince Cable, who has called for a full separation of “casino” investment banks and high street lenders. Osborne said he would publish outlining draft legislation on Thursday that would give him power to close down the Financial Services Authority and put an end to the tripartite system of regulation involving the Treasury, the Bank and the FSA. “As a global financial centre that generates hundreds of thousands of jobs, a successful banking and financial services industry is clearly in our national economic interests. But we cannot afford to let it pose a risk to the stability and prosperity of the nation’s entire economy. “We should strive for global success in financial services, but that success should not come at an unacceptably high price.” George Osborne Economic policy Financial crisis Recession Economic growth (GDP) Financial sector Northern Rock Mervyn King Larry Elliott Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Labour leader urges prime minister to meet charities to discus cuts that will hit cancer patients David Cameron was urged to meet cancer charities after he insisted he would press ahead with welfare reforms that will see thousands of seriously ill people lose up to £100 in benefits as part of a wider cost-cutting measure. Cameron appeared to be only half-aware of the proposal contained in the welfare bill, and voted through the Commons on Wednesday night, when he was challenged at prime minister’s questions by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband. Cameron accused Miliband of raising the issue as a smokescreen to justify his decision to vote against the welfare bill. Miliband hit back, saying Cameron should apologise to cancer patients for dismissing their concerns, and insisted Cameron did not seem to be aware of the detailed measure in the bill even though it has been raised for months in parliament and the media. Showing an attention to detail and more spirit than in last week’s disastrous prime minister’s questions, Miliband’s performance cheered his backbenchers and quelled mutterings about his leadership. Complex changes to eligibility for Employment Support Allowance for some groups could result in as many as 7,000 cancer patients losing up to £94 a week in sickness benefit, the Macmillan cancer charity has claimed. The government is proposing to limit to 12 months the length of time someone placed in the Employment Support Allowance work-related activity group can receive ESA without being means-tested. Anyone put into the work-related group is deemed to be fit for some work. The means testing threshold is so low that a cancer patient could lose all ESA benefit if his or her partner earns more than £7,500 per year. Critics claim the proposal means cancer victims would lose benefits a year after chemotherapy if they were deemed to be fit for work. In the Commons Miliband challenged Cameron: “When the prime minister signed off his welfare bill, did he know that it would make 7,000 cancer patients worse off by as much as £94 a week?” Miliband insisted: “These are people who have worked hard all their lives, who have done the right thing, who have paid their taxes and when they are in need, the prime minister is taking money away from them,” he said. He told Cameron to “pause, listen and reflect” on welfare plans in the same way that he had on health reforms. Cameron responded: “All we see here is a Labour party desperate not to support welfare reform and trying to find an excuse to get off supporting welfare reform.” Labour’s criticism of the bill stemmed from Miliband’s “weak leadership of a divided party”, he said. An unusually animated Miliband described the comments as “an absolute disgrace, to describe talking about cancer patients in this country as a smokescreen”. Disability groups have been lobbying on the impact of the reforms on cancer victims for months including a letter from 29 charities to the Guardian in March. On Wednesday the Disability Consortium welcomed the way in which the issue had been raised by Miliband. Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary, urged Cameron to meet the cancer charities so he could understand their concerns: “I would urge the prime minister even at this late stage, to sit down with Macmillan, charities and campaign groups to see if we can find a way to sort this out.” In practice a climbdown is likely when the bill reaches the Lords. Overall the changes to ESA eligibility are designed to save £1.2bn annually net, with cancer patients forming a tiny part of that saving. Downing Street said the 7,000 figure cited by Macmillan was a guesstimate, and insisted the reform would go ahead, claiming there was nothing wrong in reducing benefit from someone deemed to be fit for work a year after completing chemotherapy. Labour has proposed the benefit is retained for as long as two years. Chris Grayling, the employment minister, came under pressure in a round of TV interviews when he admitted that he did not know how many cancer patients would suffer. He insisted: “The reality is we have increased the money we provide, the number of people who are going through cancer treatment who receive support from the state who receive unconditional welfare support.” “I don’t recognise the 7,000 figure. Anything in that respect is pure guesswork and estimation.” Ciarán Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We want people who have paid into the system before becoming ill to receive ESA for as long as they are unable to work. We will be very disappointed if the government fail to make these changes. “If the government wants a benefits system which is ‘fairer’ they must not penalise cancer patients.” Welfare Ed Miliband David Cameron PMQs House of Commons Cancer Health Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New York is thisclose to legalizing same-sex marriage, and if the bill comes to the Senate floor Friday, many expect it to pass. Two Republican state senators declared support for the measure this week, leaving it just one vote shy of passage, the New York Times reports. Gov. Andrew Cuomo…
Continue reading …
Undercover police officer raises questions about decision to charge just 26 of the environmental activists arrested before power station protest Mark Kennedy , the undercover police officer who infiltrated environmental campaign groups, has offered to co-operate with an independent inquiry into aspects of his deployment, hinting he has potentially explosive information surrounding the prosecution of activists accused of planning to break into a power station. Kennedy, who spent seven years undercover, was among 114 activists who were arrested by Nottinghamshire police two years ago during a gathering at a school, hours before some of them planned to occupy Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. Only 26 activists were ever charged with conspiring to commit trespass. The other 87 campaigners arrested were eventually released without charge, leading some to suspect that individuals were singled out for a malicious or political prosecution. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live , Kennedy said the inquiry into the controversy should be expanded to consider how police and prosecutors selected those who were charged. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer announced the independent inquiry last week , two days after the Guardian revealed the Crown Prosecution Service was suspected of misleading courts over the collapse of a trial against six of the activists. A retired judge is expected to investigate allegations that prosecutors suppressed surveillance tapes secretly recorded at the school by Kennedy which may have exonerated the activists. Kennedy said the inquiry – which is the eighth official investigation into the controversy surrounding undercover police officers – should go further. “If I can contribute to the independent inquiry, then I have some confidence that those questions which are being raised might be answered,” he said. “I would be interested in seeing what the decision-making process was to [charge] those 26 people out of the 114,” he said. “That would be quite interesting. I think that is an important question that needs to be asked.” Asked if he had a “private theory” as to why only 26 were charged, Kennedy said he did have information that he would convey to the senior judicial figure running the inquiry. In another interview, Kennedy suggested that police planned to “fit up” the activists involved in the Ratcliffe protest. “There was a plan that, this time around, instead of charging people for the usual offences like trespassing and minor criminal damage, which involves going to a magistrates’ court and getting a conditional discharge or a small fine, they were going to set them up with conspiracy charges which were far more serious,” he said. Rebecca Quinn, who was one of the 114 but was not charged and is involved in the campaign group No Police Spies , said: “Kennedy implies that the 26 who were charged were not selected based on the evidence, but potentially something more political, taking us into very disturbing territory indeed. Any truly independent inquiry would have to look into this aspect of the case.” The trial of the six campaigners, who denied conspiring to break into the power station, was abandoned in January after defence lawyers began requesting disclosure about Kennedy’s operation. The CPS told the court that “previously unavailable information” that could assist the defence had come to light just two days earlier. The supposedly new information is now known to be a transcript of Kennedy’s secret recordings, which police say was handed over to prosecutors more than a year earlier. Kennedy said he was “quite surprised” at the CPS claim to only have become aware of the transcript in January, saying he believes they would have known about his deployment 18 months earlier. The other 20 activists who were charged accepted they planned to break into the power station, but told a jury they were acting to prevent massive carbon emissions. They were convicted in December, but are now challenging the verdicts at the court of appeal. Mark Kennedy Activism Police Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Tank columns sent north to quell opposition cities while the president sends envoys to Turkey and hints at reform Thousands of civilians fled in panic as tank columns pushed into the north-west of Syria in an expanding military campaign against the protest movement. It came as Bashar al-Assad sent envoys to Turkey for talks, and also as the president prepared to deliver a televised speech promising reforms. Reports from Ma’arat al-Numan, on the road between Damascus and Aleppo, described armoured vehicles advancing while troops were deployed by helicopter, as loudspeakers on mosques broadcasting warnings. It was a similar story in the east, on the Iraqi border near Deir al-Zor and around Albu Kamal, where mass protests began last week. In the capital, thousands turned out for loyalist rallies as a pro-government website reported that the president was to address the nation on constitutional changes “within the coming hours”. Assad has spoken twice to the nation since the uprising began, but both times his intervention was seen as too little and too late. The president has not been seen in public since 19 May, but he is thought to be firmly in charge, while his brother, Maher, is overseeing military operations. The Syriasteps website reported that the constitutional changes to be mentioned by Assad could involve article eight, which guarantees the supremacy of the ruling Ba’ath party. In London and other western capitals, diplomats said that a UN resolution condemning Syria could be tabled with the support of 11 of the 15 members of the security council, challenging Russia and China to veto it. Efforts were focusing on Brazil, South Africa and India, which have voiced reservations about a resolution drafted by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal. In stark contrast to international action on Libya, the UN has so far failed to condemn the violence in Syria, in which an estimated 1,300 people have been killed in three months. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights repeated that Syrian security forces have used executions, mass arrests and torture to repress pro-democracy protests. Pressure was mounting on Damascus from neighbouring Turkey, where Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallim, and Hassan Turkmani, Assad’s national security adviser, were holding emergency consultations. Britain and the US have been urging Turkey to get tougher. The once close relationship between the neighbours has been tested by the thousands of refugees crossing the border into Turkey, fleeing Syrian forces in the Jisr al-Shughour area. Turkey’s tone has sharpened, with prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking of Syrian “savagery”. Ankara’s concerns are over the spreading of unrest to Kurdish areas of Syria, and in preventing a new wave of refugees. In Damascus, streets were packed and traffic blocked as crowds headed to the main highway in the upper-class neighbourhood of Mezze for a pro-Assad rally. Text messages had been sent earlier in the week to alert people to join. Many seemed eager to be there, underlining the huge divide between those for and against the regime. Young boys sat on top of cars holding up portraits of Assad on placards, lorries carrying groups of people waving national flags beeped their horns, and women old and young wearing T-shirts featuring Assad’s face over the Syrian flag rushed towards the highway. Chants of “we will die for you Bashar” and “God, Syria, Bashar – that’s all!” rang out. In stark contrast to what happens at anti-regime demonstrations, police cordoned off the road and vendors sold flags, adding to a party mood. Ambulances and buses were nearby. “We love out president, he’s smart and does what’s best, which outsiders don’t understand,” said one man, in a sign that by using the rhetoric of outside threats, from both “armed gangs” and hostile governments, Syria’s government has succeeded in rallying some to its side. “We have security here,” said another. “Even the Iraqi refugees are telling us not to go down this route of protests.” State TV carried non-stop coverage of the rally, interviewing participants young and old, and showing off the unfurling of a national flag more than 2 kilometres long stretching down the length of the highway. Pro-Assad rallies have increased in the last week, especially in front of the French and Turkish embassies to protest their governments’ angry condemnations of the crackdown. While a fair amount of orchestration goes into such rallies, the president clearly does retain support, both among those who are convinced armed gangs are roving the country and those who know there are protests but are against them. Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Protest Ian Black guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …