Official spokesman says police scuffled with youths trying to greet King Abdullah Nervousness about the spread of “Arab spring” protests hit Jordan on Monday when the government moved to quash reports that demonstrators had attacked King Abdullah’s motorcade. Jordanian and western media quoted eyewitness accounts of vehicles in the royal convoy being hit twice by stones and bottles during a visit to the southern town of Tafileh, scene of demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government because of its failure to introduce reforms and fight corruption. Reports from the scene described clashes between crowds and the security forces, but the government quickly denied the story, saying the king had been warmly received. “This news is totally baseless,” said spokesman Taher Adwan. “There was no attack whatsoever with empty bottles and stones. What happened is that a group of young Jordanians thronged the monarch’s motorcade to shake hands with him. When police pushed them away, there was a lot of shoving.” The Amonnews website reported that at least 25 people had been injured by security forces. It was not in dispute that Abdullah had been on a fact-finding mission to inspect infrastructure projects and, according to the official Petra news agency, announce the creation of a £12.9m fund for job creation, infrastructure projects and the provision of free medical services. Tafileh has seen regular protests in recent weeks, including last Friday. The incident came as opposition groups reacted coolly to Sunday’s pledge by Abdullah to allow government minsters to be elected rather than appointed, at some unspecified point in the future. The Jordanian monarch became the latest Arab ruler to signal a readiness to implement reforms but gave no timetable for what would be a significant change. Abdullah said future cabinets would be formed according to the results of parliamentary elections. Currently he has the power to appoint the prime minister. Jordan saw unrest at the start of the Arab spring earlier this year but nothing on the scale of protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen or neighbouring Syria. Still, thousands took to the streets demanding better employment prospects, cuts in foods and fuel costs and an end to corruption. “We seek a state of democracy, pluralism and participation through political reforms … away from the dictates of the street and the absence of the voice of reason,” the king said in a televised speech. New legislation should “guarantee the fairness and transparency of the electoral process through a mechanism that will lead to a parliament with active political party representation”, he added. It should allow “the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority and political party manifestos in the future”. But he warned that sudden change could lead to “chaos and unrest”. The opposition, particularly the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has demanded sweeping reforms that would lead to a parliamentary system of government in which the premier would be elected rather than named by the king. In February the king sacked the prime minister, Samir al-Rifai, over the slow pace of reform and appointed Marouf al-Bakhit. Bakhit was asked to take “practical, swift and tangible steps to launch a real political reform process, in line with the king’s vision of comprehensive reform, modernisation and development”. In March, two protesters were killed and more than 100 injured when security forces intervened to end a clash between pro-monarchy and pro-reform protesters. “There was nothing new in the speech,” said Zaki Bani Rsheid, the head of the IAF political office. “The king has expressed hopes, as we have heard several times in the past, but he did not give specifics and there were no guarantees.” Labib Kamhzai, a political analyst, said: “The speech was positive on critical issues like electing a prime minister in the future. But we want to see more being done for wider civil liberties and less security interference in the affairs of the state.” Jordan King Abdullah Tunisia Arab and Middle East unrest Yemen Syria Egypt Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Theresa May criticised as Home Office impact assessment shows plan to reduce non-EU students could harm recovery The government’s drive to cut the number of overseas students coming to Britain will cost the country £2.4bn more than it saves, according to Home Office figures. The official impact assessment for the reform of the student visa system shows the policy will cost more than £3.2bn over the next four years in reduced economic output and a further £330m in lost tuition fees and immigration visa fees. Jonathan Portes, of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: “The government has rightly said that economic growth is its top priority. It also has the commendable objective of rebalancing the UK economy away from consumption and towards exports. However, the Home Office’s own impact assessment shows changes to student visa rules will reduce both growth and exports.” Home Office officials estimate that only £170m will be lost as a result of a reduction in tuition fee income to British colleges. But they admit the figure is “relatively uncertain”, as it is based on the assumption that 80% of the lost places will be replaced by British and European Union students. The official impact statement says: “[The] UK Border Agency [UKBA] believes that private further education and English language institutions are heavily reliant on non-EU students. On this basis we assume that businesses will strive to attract other nationalities of students (UK and EU), otherwise they would face going out of business. “We believe a sensible replacement assumption would be 80%; so for every 10 non-EU migrants no longer able to study at all affected institutions we assume eight of their places would be filled by either EU or British nationals. In English language institutions, we assume that places will also be filled by either resident EU students or by students on the EU student visitor route.” The impact assessment also confirms that ministers expect 260,000 fewer student visas to be issued to non-EU nationals over the next five years as a result of the changes. It also confirms that the drive to cut overseas student numbers will reduce overall net migration by around 48,000 a year between now and the next general election, when ministers have pledged to reduce annual net migration to the “tens of thousands”. The home secretary, Theresa May, officially notified parliament on Monday of the changes in immigration rules to implement the package from 21 July. The impact assessment puts its “best estimate” for the cost of implementing the curb on overseas students over the next four years at £2.4bn, with a “worst-case” scenario of £3.6bn and an “optimistic” scenario of £1.3bn. The “best estimate” is based on total costs to the economy of £3.5bn and benefits of £1.1bn, giving a net cost of £2.4bn. The £3.5bn costs include £2bn for reduced output from students and their dependants who can no longer come to the UK, and reduced output from a change in student work entitlements. A further £1.2bn is accounted for by new restrictions on the ability of overseas students to stay in Britain to work after graduation. The loss in tuition fees is estimated at £170m and the loss in immigration visa fees at a further £160m. Home Office officials admit they did not include any estimate for the potential impact on the growth of the British economy or any wider impact on the higher education sector. The impact assessment does, however, outline benefits totalling £1.1bn, including £850m saved in reduced costs for public services, £75m from colleges reducing provision of courses and £150m saved by the UKBA in processing visas. Matt Cavanagh, associate director at the thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said: “The government’s own estimates admit how much money their clampdown on overseas students is going to take out of the economy, at a time when the recovery is fragile. The reductions have been scaled back slightly – a welcome sign that the government is listening. “As with the cap on skilled workers, policy is still being driven by the political target on net migration. They should change it before it ends up causing real economic damage.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are required to provide impact assessments, but the process for these assessments is unsatisfactory. For example, they require us to assume there is a zero displacement effect of students taking jobs on the local labour market, and so we have asked the independent migration advisory committee to look at this issue.” Immigration and asylum Higher education University funding Cuts and closures Theresa May Economic growth (GDP) Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Doomsday preacher Harold Camping, who incorrectly predicted that the rapture would come May 21, suffered a stroke Thursday night. Camping was taken from his Alameda home by ambulance to the hospital, where he remains, the Oakland Tribune reports. One neighbor who spoke with his wife says his speech is a…
Continue reading …President Obama—who famously angered Wall Street executives by calling them “fat cats,” the New York Times reminds us—is now courting those same executives in his quest for re-election campaign contributions. He kicked off the push by hosting two dozen of them, many longtime donors, at the White House…
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Operation follows arrest of three alleged leaders of internet activist group Anonymous in Spain on Friday The global battle between hacker activists and police intensified Monday with 32 arrests in Turkey and an admission from Spanish police that the group Anonymous had successfully attacked their website in response to arrests made there. Turkish police arrested 32 suspected local members of Anonymous, including eight minors, according to state news agency Anatolian. The arrests followed a complaint from Turkey’s directorate of telecommunications, whose website was taken down on Thursday. Members of the Anonymous collective said that attack was carried out as a protest against internet censorship by the recently re-elected government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan , of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP). Turkey is due to introduce an obligatory nationwide internet filtering system in August that will see users forced to sign up to one of four filters. These are labelled “domestic”, “family”, “children” or “standard”, but hacker activists gathered under the Anonymous umbrella claim they will lead to state control of individual internet use, and allow authorities to keep records of such use. The police operation in Turkey followed the arrest of three alleged leaders of the so-called Anons in Spain on Friday. Spanish police admitted that Anonymous had claimed responsibility for blocking their main website briefly in the small hours of Sunday morning in retaliation for the arrests. Police claimed the three detainees jointly formed the “leadership” of Anonymous in Spain. They had allegedly been involved in attacks on the websites of the Sony PlayStation, several banks, an electricity company and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand. A server allegedly used in the attacks was taken away when police raided homes in Gijón, Barcelona, Valencia and Almeria. Spanish police said the group had also launched attacks on the Catalan regional police, a trade union and the country’s electoral administration. They said a 31-year-old from Gijón, northern Spain, had been a core member of the leadership. “This person provided infrastructure for the group with a server in their home, from which major international attacks launched by Anonymous were co-ordinated,” police said. But a video posted on YouTube by purported members of Anonymous denied that the three people were leaders. “The police have lied. They cannot detain our leadership because we have no leadership,” they said in a video that featured a “spokesman” wearing the group’s Guy Fawkes-inspired mask and peering down from a digital billboard on Madrid’s central Gran Vía street. “The server they took did not belong to Anonymous but was a small internet relay chat (IRC) server that we annexed.” The Guy Fawkes masks, which originate from the V for Vendetta graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd , have become popular among protesters who have gathered in recent weeks in Spanish squares to demand social and political reform.The Anonymous video stated that the group backed the non-violent protest movement, which finished dismantling its tented city in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square in the early hours of Monday morning – ending several weeks of occupation. A minority of hardcore protesters remain in the Puerta del Sol and in Barcelona’s Plaça Catalunya square, while the movement itself concentrates on spreading its popular assemblies to city neighbourhoods and organising one-off protests . A joint protest in city squares around the globe has been called for 16 June. Anonymous members cripple websites by overwhelming their servers with traffic in so-called denial of service attacks. The group says it is not involved in credit-card fraud, but has been held responsible for attacks on the servers of both Mastercard and Amazon. Spanish police claimed their arrests were the first major action against Anonymous outside the United States and Britain, where several people were detained in January. The British government has admitted to recent cyber-attacks at the Treasury and, in the words of defence secretary Liam Fox, to a “sustained attack” on the Ministry of Defence. Anonymous Hacking Internet Turkey Middle East Spain YouTube Europe Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Operation follows arrest of three alleged leaders of internet activist group Anonymous in Spain on Friday The global battle between hacker activists and police intensified Monday with 32 arrests in Turkey and an admission from Spanish police that the group Anonymous had successfully attacked their website in response to arrests made there. Turkish police arrested 32 suspected local members of Anonymous, including eight minors, according to state news agency Anatolian. The arrests followed a complaint from Turkey’s directorate of telecommunications, whose website was taken down on Thursday. Members of the Anonymous collective said that attack was carried out as a protest against internet censorship by the recently re-elected government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan , of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP). Turkey is due to introduce an obligatory nationwide internet filtering system in August that will see users forced to sign up to one of four filters. These are labelled “domestic”, “family”, “children” or “standard”, but hacker activists gathered under the Anonymous umbrella claim they will lead to state control of individual internet use, and allow authorities to keep records of such use. The police operation in Turkey followed the arrest of three alleged leaders of the so-called Anons in Spain on Friday. Spanish police admitted that Anonymous had claimed responsibility for blocking their main website briefly in the small hours of Sunday morning in retaliation for the arrests. Police claimed the three detainees jointly formed the “leadership” of Anonymous in Spain. They had allegedly been involved in attacks on the websites of the Sony PlayStation, several banks, an electricity company and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand. A server allegedly used in the attacks was taken away when police raided homes in Gijón, Barcelona, Valencia and Almeria. Spanish police said the group had also launched attacks on the Catalan regional police, a trade union and the country’s electoral administration. They said a 31-year-old from Gijón, northern Spain, had been a core member of the leadership. “This person provided infrastructure for the group with a server in their home, from which major international attacks launched by Anonymous were co-ordinated,” police said. But a video posted on YouTube by purported members of Anonymous denied that the three people were leaders. “The police have lied. They cannot detain our leadership because we have no leadership,” they said in a video that featured a “spokesman” wearing the group’s Guy Fawkes-inspired mask and peering down from a digital billboard on Madrid’s central Gran Vía street. “The server they took did not belong to Anonymous but was a small internet relay chat (IRC) server that we annexed.” The Guy Fawkes masks, which originate from the V for Vendetta graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd , have become popular among protesters who have gathered in recent weeks in Spanish squares to demand social and political reform.The Anonymous video stated that the group backed the non-violent protest movement, which finished dismantling its tented city in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square in the early hours of Monday morning – ending several weeks of occupation. A minority of hardcore protesters remain in the Puerta del Sol and in Barcelona’s Plaça Catalunya square, while the movement itself concentrates on spreading its popular assemblies to city neighbourhoods and organising one-off protests . A joint protest in city squares around the globe has been called for 16 June. Anonymous members cripple websites by overwhelming their servers with traffic in so-called denial of service attacks. The group says it is not involved in credit-card fraud, but has been held responsible for attacks on the servers of both Mastercard and Amazon. Spanish police claimed their arrests were the first major action against Anonymous outside the United States and Britain, where several people were detained in January. The British government has admitted to recent cyber-attacks at the Treasury and, in the words of defence secretary Liam Fox, to a “sustained attack” on the Ministry of Defence. Anonymous Hacking Internet Turkey Middle East Spain YouTube Europe Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
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First Sea Lord says that if crisis continues beyond 90-day extension, government will have to examine priorities The head of the Royal Navy has warned that the fleet will not be able to continue the current scale of operations around Libya beyond the summer unless ministers take tough decisions about what they want to prioritise. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, said the navy had planned for a six month commitment but that the government would have to make “challenging decisions” about what it wanted to do thereafter. Stanhope also conceded that if the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and its Harrier jump jets had not been mothballed last year, they would have been deployed to the Mediterranean. This would have been cheaper, and made operations more reactive, than flying planes from the Italian base at Gioia del Colle, he said. But he insisted that the constant jibes about the loss of the ship and the aircraft were having a “corrosive” effect on navy morale. “There is far too much about what could have been,” he said. Stanhope’s remarks come amid growing concern within the Ministry of Defence about the prolonged nature of the Libya effort and its cost. They also come just days after the US defence secretary Robert Gates mocked some allies for already running out of ammunition. In a briefing at Admiralty House, Stanhope said: “How long can we go on as we are in Libya? Certainly – in terms of Nato’s current time limit that has been extended to 90 days – we are comfortable with that. “Beyond that, we might have to request the government to make some challenging decisions about priorities. “There are different ways of doing this. It’s not simply about giving up standing commitments, we will have to rebalance.” Stanhope denied that this would involve a review of the cuts set out in last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review. Afghanistan remains the MoD’s top priority, and officials are adamant that the effort there will not be compromised for Libya. But Stanhope made it clear that he did not have enough ships to continue what is a relatively small operation in Libya without something else having to give. “If we do it longer than six months we will have to reprioritise forces. That is being addressed now. It could be from around home waters. I will not prejudge what that decision will be.” The navy has one destroyer, HMS Liverpool, the mine clearance vessel HMS Bangor, a Trafalgar class submarine and the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean off the coast of Libya at the moment. At the start of the conflict the navy diverted HMS Cumberland to the Mediterranean as it was returning to the UK to be scrapped. Stanhope also admitted that the navy was having to buy more Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US to replace the ones that it had already fired. “We are not running out, but we certainly have to take action to replace those weapons we have used to bring stockpiles back up to where they were.” Stanhope has been frustrated in recent months about the ongoing criticism surrounding the decision to axe Ark Royal – a replacement carrier, the Prince of Wales, will not be ready for service until 2020. But he said it was time to move on from the debate. Even though there is a study under way within the MoD about the costs of axeing the Harriers and what it would take to bring them back into service, Stanhope said he did not believe the aircraft would fly again. “If we had Ark Royal and Harriers in February, I feel relatively assured that we would have deployed that capability off Libya to conduct the ground (operations), not the air defence piece which the Harrier was not capable of achieving. “The pros would have been a much more reactive force. Rather than deploying from Gioia del Colle, we would deploy within 20 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half, so obviously there are some advantages there. “It’s cheaper to fly an aircraft from an aircraft carrier than from the shore.” “Do I feel bitter? No. It’s a reality of where we are. I keep saying this. We have to look forward and go for what is in the pipeline which I have already indicated is challenging enough. There is far too much about what could have been as opposed to what is. ” The navy and the RAF suffered disproportionately from the SDSR, having to cut 5,000 jobs from each service, as well as losing ships and aircraft. The head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton told the Guardian that there would have to be a significant uplift in spending after 2015 if the service is to meet its commitments in the future. Stanhope reiterated this and said the government had acknowledged more spending was necessary. Military Libya Defence policy Middle East Afghanistan Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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First Sea Lord says that if crisis continues beyond 90-day extension, government will have to examine priorities The head of the Royal Navy has warned that the fleet will not be able to continue the current scale of operations around Libya beyond the summer unless ministers take tough decisions about what they want to prioritise. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, said the navy had planned for a six month commitment but that the government would have to make “challenging decisions” about what it wanted to do thereafter. Stanhope also conceded that if the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and its Harrier jump jets had not been mothballed last year, they would have been deployed to the Mediterranean. This would have been cheaper, and made operations more reactive, than flying planes from the Italian base at Gioia del Colle, he said. But he insisted that the constant jibes about the loss of the ship and the aircraft were having a “corrosive” effect on navy morale. “There is far too much about what could have been,” he said. Stanhope’s remarks come amid growing concern within the Ministry of Defence about the prolonged nature of the Libya effort and its cost. They also come just days after the US defence secretary Robert Gates mocked some allies for already running out of ammunition. In a briefing at Admiralty House, Stanhope said: “How long can we go on as we are in Libya? Certainly – in terms of Nato’s current time limit that has been extended to 90 days – we are comfortable with that. “Beyond that, we might have to request the government to make some challenging decisions about priorities. “There are different ways of doing this. It’s not simply about giving up standing commitments, we will have to rebalance.” Stanhope denied that this would involve a review of the cuts set out in last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review. Afghanistan remains the MoD’s top priority, and officials are adamant that the effort there will not be compromised for Libya. But Stanhope made it clear that he did not have enough ships to continue what is a relatively small operation in Libya without something else having to give. “If we do it longer than six months we will have to reprioritise forces. That is being addressed now. It could be from around home waters. I will not prejudge what that decision will be.” The navy has one destroyer, HMS Liverpool, the mine clearance vessel HMS Bangor, a Trafalgar class submarine and the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean off the coast of Libya at the moment. At the start of the conflict the navy diverted HMS Cumberland to the Mediterranean as it was returning to the UK to be scrapped. Stanhope also admitted that the navy was having to buy more Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US to replace the ones that it had already fired. “We are not running out, but we certainly have to take action to replace those weapons we have used to bring stockpiles back up to where they were.” Stanhope has been frustrated in recent months about the ongoing criticism surrounding the decision to axe Ark Royal – a replacement carrier, the Prince of Wales, will not be ready for service until 2020. But he said it was time to move on from the debate. Even though there is a study under way within the MoD about the costs of axeing the Harriers and what it would take to bring them back into service, Stanhope said he did not believe the aircraft would fly again. “If we had Ark Royal and Harriers in February, I feel relatively assured that we would have deployed that capability off Libya to conduct the ground (operations), not the air defence piece which the Harrier was not capable of achieving. “The pros would have been a much more reactive force. Rather than deploying from Gioia del Colle, we would deploy within 20 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half, so obviously there are some advantages there. “It’s cheaper to fly an aircraft from an aircraft carrier than from the shore.” “Do I feel bitter? No. It’s a reality of where we are. I keep saying this. We have to look forward and go for what is in the pipeline which I have already indicated is challenging enough. There is far too much about what could have been as opposed to what is. ” The navy and the RAF suffered disproportionately from the SDSR, having to cut 5,000 jobs from each service, as well as losing ships and aircraft. The head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton told the Guardian that there would have to be a significant uplift in spending after 2015 if the service is to meet its commitments in the future. Stanhope reiterated this and said the government had acknowledged more spending was necessary. Military Libya Defence policy Middle East Afghanistan Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Doctors in Sweden are preparing for what they hope will be the first successful womb transplant. The likely candidates: a mother, 56, and her 25-year-old daughter, who was born with no uterus. If the transplant from Eva Ottosson to daughter Sara is successful, Sara could end up carrying a child…
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Experts divided on whether ‘deeply complex’ procedure, previously only carried out on animals, is safe for humans A woman in Nottingham has agreed to donate her womb to her infertile daughter if doctors gain permission to attempt the groundbreaking transplant operation. Eva Ottosson, 56, the director of a lighting company, said she would offer her uterus to her 25-year-old daughter, Sara, who cannot have children because of a serious birth defect that left her without a womb. If the operation goes ahead – at a hospital in Sweden – Sara could conceive and carry a child in the same womb she herself was born from, but serious technical hurdles must be cleared if the procedure is to succeed.The operation is experimental and still at a premature stage in animal studies. Only a handful of mice have been born from transplanted wombs and little work has been done in larger animals, such as pigs, rabbits and monkeys. The deeply complex nature of the operation carries serious risks for the donor and recipient, leading some doctors to claim the procedure is not ready to be performed in humans. “As a mother you have all these questions: have you thought it through; do you know what you are doing; how do you feel about having the same womb that you have been developed in yourself,” Eva Ottosson told the BBC. “Of course it’s major surgery and has its risks, but I trust them, I know they know what they’re doing. I’m more concerned about my daughter and what the impact will be for her,” she added. Sara Ottosson, a biology teacher who lives and works in Stockholm, has a rare condition called Mayer Rokitansky Küster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, also known as Müllerian agenesis , in which the reproductive system begins to grow but never fully develops. Women with the disorder are typically born without a womb and fallopian tubes, and have vaginal malformations. Little is known about the cause of the condition, but like many of the one in 5,000 people born with the disorder, Sara only became aware of the problem when she failed to begin menstruating as a teenager. While a small number of womb transplants have led to healthy births in experiments with mice, the procedure is almost completely untested in humans. In 2000, doctors in Saudi Arabia transferred a womb from a dead donor into a 26-year-old woman, but had to remove the organ three months later when it developed a blood clot and began to die. Sara Ottosson is one of seven patients who have undergone tests to assess their suitability for the operation under a programme run by Mats Brännström, a leader in the field of experimental womb transplants at Gothenburg University in Sweden. The operation could go ahead next year. If the operation is approved, Sara would have surgery to transplant her mother’s uterus before an IVF embryo created from her eggs and her partner’s sperm was transferred. A successful transplant would be temporary, with the uterus being removed two to three years later to avoid medical complications. Any birth would be via caesarean section.The operation is technically more demanding than a heart, kidney or liver transplant. Among the greatest risks are life-threatening haemorrhage and an insufficient blood supply to the womb. Sara has said she will consider adoption if the transplant operation does not go ahead or fails to result in a baby. Some 15,000 women of childbearing age in Britain were born without a uterus or had the organ damaged or removed by illness, such as cancer. In 2009, a team of surgeons and vets led by Richard Smith at Hammersmith Hospital in London reported several womb transplant operations in rabbits, though none of the animals became pregnant and carried young. The research has stalled in Britain through a lack of funding and scepticism from some in the medical community. The work is due to resume this year with support from an independent charity, Uterine Transplant UK. Medical research Health Health & wellbeing Ian Sample guardian.co.uk
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