After multiple delays, a record-breaking 183 preview performances, and so many mishaps that “troubled” seemed like part of its name, the Spider-Man musical officially opened on Broadway Tuesday night. True to form, the curtain rose for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark almost an hour later than scheduled, the Wall Street…
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Eight people killed and four wounded in attack, while mortar blasts country’s largest police training facility A suicide bomber has killed eight people and wounded four in an attack on a governor’s office in north-east Afghanistan, while a mortar targeted a building where Nato and Afghan officials were inaugurating the country’s largest police training facility in central Afghanistan. The two attacks occurred at about the same time. Provincial spokesman Halim Ayar said the bomber blew himself up about 200 metres from the office of the governor, Azizul Rahman Tawab, in the north-east Kapisa province. He said four of the dead were police officers and four were civilians. All the wounded were civilians, he added. The interior ministry said: “The leadership of Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan condemns this inhumane and cowardly suicide attack. Such attacks will never weaken the determination of the Afghan National Police.” Meanwhile, in central Wardak province, a mortar landed next to a large building where Afghan ministers and Nato officials were celebrating the opening of the flagship centre of a multibillion dollar Nato programme to train Afghan national security forces before the planned withdrawal of US-led coalition forces at the end of 2014. Afghanistan’s second vice-president, Mohammed Karim Khalili, and interior minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi were in attendance when the blast shook the building and more than 500 police recruits ducked for cover. Gunshots rang out after the attack. Bodyguards rushed Afghan and Nato officials into a hardened shelter before evacuating them on helicopters. The area has seen increasing attacks by insurgents as the Taliban press a spring campaign against Afghan and Nato forces. It was unclear if Khalili, who was born in Wardak, was the intended target of the attack, but the mortar seemed to have been aimed at the building where he had just finished delivering his speech. The $106m (£65m) facility houses 725 recruits but will expand to 3,000, making it the largest of its kind in the country. A mostly US-funded programme has been spending about $10bn a year in 2010 and 2011 to train, equip and build infrastructure for a range of Afghan forces, including police, soldiers and an air force. That programme calls for increasing the number of Afghan police to 134,000 by October, from the 81,509 of two years ago. US Major General James Mallory told the Associated Press that Nato would be able to properly train and support an estimated 157,000 police officers before the coalition’s planned withdrawal in 2014. However, he acknowledged there would be long-term legacy costs that the international community would need to bear for the country as it struggles economically, especially as 86% of incoming recruits cannot read or write. “We’re dealing with a lost generation,” Mallory said. He spoke just before the mortar attack. Afghanistan Taliban Nato US military United States US foreign policy guardian.co.uk
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Pair arrested near singer’s home in Devon were reportedly in possession of swords, rope and body bag Two men are being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to rob and murder after being arrested close to the home of the singer Joss Stone. The men were detained in Cullompton, Devon, at around 10am on Tuesday after residents reported a suspicious looking vehicle. The pair, aged 30 and 33, were initially arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and going equipped to burgle/steal. The 30-year-old was also arrested for driving while disqualified. After further inquiries the police said the men were being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to murder. The Sun reported that police found swords, rope and a body bag as well detailed maps and aerial photos of Stone’s property when they arrested the pair. Detective Inspector Steve Parker, leading the investigation, said: “The two men in custody had in their possession information relating to an individual in the Cullompton area and items which lead us to suspect that they may have intended to commit a criminal offence. Police inquiries continue and the men remain in custody.” Stone has sold more than 11m records globally and is estimated to be worth £9m . The singer, 24, was recently asked to join a new “supergroup” formed by Mick Jagger, featuring Dave Stewart, from the Eurythmics, Damian Marley, the Grammy-winning youngest son of Bob Marley, and the Bollywood composer AR Rahman. Stone is a friend of Prince William and attended the royal wedding. Joss Stone Crime Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
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• Unemployment rate down to 7.7% • But number of people claiming jobless benefits rises • Wage growth up just 1.8% in a year • Public sector sheds 24k jobs, private sector gains 104k Unemployment is falling at its fastest pace in a decade, official figures reveal, in a boost for George Osborne as he prepares to deliver his Mansion House speech . The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of people unemployed fell by 88,000 in the the three months to April, to 2.43 million — the largest drop since the summer of 2000. The unemployment rate was 7.7%, down from 8% three months earlier. The positive jobs figures are good news for the chancellor, who has been forced to defend his economic policy in the face of flagging growth. However, analysts warned that there were signs of weakness in the data, with the more timely claimant count measure of unemployment showing a much worse than expected rise of 19,600 in May to 1.49 million. That was the third consecutive increase in the claimant count. Alan Clarke, of Scotia Capital, said the claimant count was an early sign that the labour market could deteriorate. “With GDP growth unlikely to stray very far above zero over the next 6 months, we should brace for further increases in unemployment.” There was also fresh evidence of the painful squeeze facing households, as pay increased at an annual rate of just 1.8%. That means on average, incomes are rising at less than half the rate of inflation, eating into families’ standard of living. Hetal Mehta, of Daiwa Securities, said that weak wage growth would reassure the doves on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee who want to leave interest rates on hold at their record low. “Wage growth remains well below levels that the Bank would consider a threat to inflation. This combined with inflation remaining steady and weak retail indicators reinforce our view that the Bank of England will stay in wait-and-see-mode with regard to interest rates until next year,” she said. Separate figures also revealed the rapid pace of job-shedding in the public sector in the first three months of the year, with the bulk of job cuts concentrated in local government. The ONS said the number of people employed in the public sector fell by 24,000 in the first quarter of 2011 – or 39,000 when temporary staff hired to work on the census are removed. Over the same period, employment in the private sector increased by 104,000, more than soaking up the government job losses. Unemployment and employment statistics Economics Unemployment Economic policy Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk
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Public and Commercial Services Union leader Mark Serwotka says industrial action will mount over coming months unless the government changes tack The leader of the largest civil service union has warned that co-ordinated strike action by public sector workers will intensify over the coming months as millions of staff face pay freezes, mass job losses and pension reforms branded as nothing short of “daylight robbery”. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, issued the warning to the government ahead of his union’s strike ballot result, due on Wednesday, which is expected to result in civil servants joining teachers and lecturers for a walkout on 30 June bringing schools, colleges, universities, courts, ports and jobcentres to a standstill. The National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers announced their ballot result yesterday over proposed pension reforms that unions say will leave their members paying more, working longer and receiving less when they retire. Ministers say they are crucial to get public spending under control. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, the biggest public sector union, signalled a further wave of unrest in the autumn by announcing on Monday that he was preparing to ballot 1.2 million state employees for sustained and co-ordinated strike action. Francis Maude, the minister for the Cabinet Office, who is steering government relations with the public sector unions, hit back by saying the government was keeping under review the possibility of making it harder for workers to go out on strike. “We have not ruled it out,” said Maude on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Maude issued the warning as unions signalled plans for mass action in what would be the strongest industrial act of defiance yet against the government’s cuts programme. Serwotka said he believed co-ordinated action would mount over the coming months as the government showed no sign of having “second thoughts” over the pension proposals, which would leave members across the public sector significantly worse off. It made sense to make “common cause” with other unions whose members face the same threat to their pensions, he said. Speaking ahead of Maude, Serwotka told Today: “He knows as well as I do, because I’m in these talks, that what they’ve told us at every meeting that they will not compromise on putting up the pension age, they will not compromise on forcing us to pay three times the contribution and they will not compromise on people’s value of their pension being slashed. “So in reality the talks are a farce and he knows it, and therefore if you’re faced with mass job loss, with privatisation, with pay restraint and then the biggest slashing of your pensions there’s ever been, I don’t think it’s surprising that people want to defend themselves. It obviously makes sense that you make common cause with council workers, health workers and teachers because we all face the same attacks. Serwotka said the size of public sector pensions has been greatly exaggerated. “Many people therefore fall for the line of ‘the government and their gold-plated pensions’ and actually the average civil service pension is £4,000 a year,” he said. “It reflects the fact that most people are on extraordinarily low wages and even though we have a defined benefit pension scheme, it produces a very small amount of money at the end of it.” Maude denied that the talks were a “farce” and claimed public sector pensions represented an excellent deal, and would continue to do so when they had been reformed. As the country heads for the first wave of industrial unrest later this month, Maude warned striking teachers that they should be prepared for a public backlash. People would be “very angry” that a school “randomly closes down” when talks were still underway, he said. And he said turnout for the ballots suggested that the majority of NUT and ATL members were not in favour of strikes. “The idea that all these teachers are rising up in fury is rubbish,” he said. Asked if he supported calls made by Boris Johnson, the London mayor, and the Confederation of British Industry, to tighten strike laws by establishing a threshold turnout of between 40% and 50%, Maude said the government had not ruled this out. “There have been a lot of proposals made from outside about how strike laws might be reformed. It is notable that the teaching union ballots yesterday were on a very low turnout… There’s not a sense of the whole of the union membership rising up en masse. “We think the strike laws work pretty well at the moment. We certainly don’t rule anything out, but we’ve got no plans to make changes at the moment.” The CBI seized on planned strike action by tube unions to step up its call for changes to employment law so that more workers would have to take part in a ballot before a strike could be held. Talks will be held today to avert a walk-out by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union over the sacking of a driver. Katja Hall, CBI chief policy director, said: “This strike is an attempt to cause maximum disruption for Londoners on a minimal turnout. “It can’t be right that just 29% of the balloted workforce voted in favour of this strike and that the tribunal case at the centre of this dispute has not even been decided. “Yet the travelling public now faces a difficult period trying to get in and around the capital. We are calling for the law to be changed so strikes can only go ahead with the backing of a significant proportion of the workforce.” Bob Crow hit back at the CBI, saying: “Who elects their members who have the power to ruin the lives of entire communities and plunge tens of thousands of vulnerable people into uncertainty at Southern Cross? There is no ballot threshold there and these greed merchants should keep their noses out of our business.” Trade unions Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Public sector pay Public sector pensions Local government Mark Serwotka Teaching Dave Prentis Bob Crow Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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Foreign office minister ‘shocked by horrific scenes’ in Channel 4 film that apparently show summary execution of prisoners Britain has renewed calls for Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes after video footage apparently showing the summary execution of naked and bound prisoners was broadcast on UK television. The film, shown on Channel 4, reportedly shows “trophy videos” taken on mobile phones by Sri Lankan soldiers taking part in the military operation in 2009 to crush the Tamil Tiger insurgency and end a 25-year civil war. The broadcast came as the Home Office prepared to deport some 40 Tamils to the south Asian island state, including five who claim that their safety has been put in danger after UK officials passed papers in their case to the authorities in Colombo. Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said he was “shocked by the horrific scenes” in the Channel 4 film, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, which he said contained “convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law”. Burt said the UK was ready to join the rest of the international community in pursuing “all options available” to put pressure on the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take action. The film was shown to the United Nations Human Rights Council in May. Presenter Jon Snow said it was “one of the most shocking films” the channel had ever produced. It included footage of apparent extrajudicial killing of prisoners by government forces, the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian hospitals and the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been sexually assaulted. It also examined atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the use of human shields and a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced. Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009, as the Colombo government claimed victory over the insurgents after a bloody military operation that killed thousands of people and displaced many more. A panel of experts convened by the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, reported this year that it had found “credible allegations” of war crimes on both sides and said that a civilian death toll of 40,000 or more could not be ruled out. In its annual human rights report for 2010, published in March, the Foreign Office voiced concern about continued human rights violations, disappearances, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests in the country after the end of the war. Responding to the film, Burt said: “The recent UN panel of experts’ report, this documentary and previously authenticated Channel 4 footage constitute convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. “The whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence. “Since the end of the conflict the UK has called for an independent, thorough and credible investigation of the allegations that war crimes were committed during the hostilities and the UK government expects to see progress by the end of the year. I reiterated this message to the Sri Lankan foreign minister on 14 June. “If the Sri Lankan government does not respond we will support the international community in revisiting all options available to press the Sri Lankan government to fulfil its obligations. “Unless this is done, Sri Lanka will not be able to move on, and the prospects for reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s communities will be curtailed. It is of the greatest importance that this does not happen.” Channel 4 News highlighted the case of 40 Tamils being held at a detention centre at Heathrow airport and who are due to be returned to Sri Lanka on a deportation flight on Thursday. The programme quoted one of the asylum seekers – who was not named – as saying he feared he would be killed if he was sent back. His lawyer said that the provision of potentially incriminating documentation on his case to the Sri Lankan authorities amounted to a serious breach of confidentiality in contravention of UN guidelines and Home Office rules. Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers Channel 4 Human rights United Nations War crimes guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A victory for gay marriage in California today: The judge who overturned the state’s ban last year was under no obligation to recuse himself because he is gay and in a long-term relationship, a federal judge ruled. “It is not reasonable to presume that a judge is incapable of making…
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Detention of five CIA informants involved in leadup to Osama Bin Laden killing seen as sign of fresh Pakistan-US discord Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested five CIA informants who fed information to the US spy agency before the raid last month which killed Osama bin Laden, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. One of the detainees was reported to be a Pakistani army major whom officials said copied licence plates of cars visiting the al-Qaida leader’s compound 30 miles northwest of Islamabad. The fate of the CIA informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear, the newspaper reported, citing American officials. Outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta raised the issue of the informants’ detention during a trip to Islamabad last week where he met with with Pakistani military and intelligence officers, the newspaper said. Some in Washington see the arrest as another sign of the deep disconnect between US and Pakistani priorities in the fight against extremists, the New York Times reported. The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs until after it was completed, humiliating Pakistan’s armed forces and putting US military and intelligence ties under serious strain. Last week, at a closed Senate Intelligence Committee briefing, Deputy CIA director Michael Morell rated Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations a “three” on a scale of 1 to 10, the New York Times reported, citing officials familiar with the exchange. Other officials cautioned that his comments did not represent the administration’s overall assessment, the newspaper said. “We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise,” CIA spokesman Marie Harf told the newspaper. “Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It’s a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs.” Asked about the report, a CIA spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied it and said she had no further comment. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, was quoted as saying that the CIA and the Pakistani spy agency “are working out mutually agreeable terms for their cooperation in fighting the menace of terrorism. It is not appropriate for us to get into the details at this stage”. Pakistan United States Osama bin Laden CIA guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Looking for an oceanfront (and oceanback) getaway? The government has put two old lighthouses off the Jersey coast up for auction, reports the Star-Ledger . Bidding starts at $10,000 each at the General Services Administration website for the Romer Shoal Light Station and the Great Beds lighthouse. Previous lighthouses sold…
Continue reading …The Wisconsin Supreme Court handed Republican Gov. Scott Walker a major victory today, ruling that his polarizing union rights law can go into effect. In a 4-3 decision, the court said Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi overstepped her authority when she said Republican lawmakers violated the state’s opening meetings…
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