Foreign secretary denies mission creep but says UK military action could stretch beyond December The foreign secretary, William Hague, has acknowledged for the first time that UK troops could be involved in the conflict in Libya beyond Christmas, saying that the government had “no deadline” for military operations there. Hours after returning from Libya, where he had been meeting rebel leaders, Hague denied that the use of Apache helicopters were a sign of “mission creep” and raised new concerns about the future of the country after admitting that post-conflict plans were as yet only “embryonic”. But claims of mission creep in Libya will be compounded by the news that military commanders are considering sending an extra fifth Apache helicopter to join those attacking targets along the Libyan coast. For the second successive day, Apache helicopters based on HMS Ocean attacked targets in Libya at the weekend. There is frustration at the failure so far to deliver a knockout blow to Gaddafi’s forces, British officials said on Sunday. Hague told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show the military would continue to intensify operations, as they had done by deploying Apache helicopters, as necessary, but added: “This is not mission creep; changing the nature of the mission. This is intensifying what we are doing in order to make this mission a success.” Asked about the plans for Libya once Gaddafi fell and his regime ended, Hague said that this had been the main purpose of his visit, a trip accompanied by Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary. “There needs to be such a plan and it’s only in an embryonic stage. Andrew Mitchell has sent what we call a stabilisation response team, that’s leading the international assessment in Benghazi … of what would be needed for Libya to stabilise the situation for the people of Libya after Gaddafi goes.” Pressed on the timescale of the operation, he said: “Well we’re not going to set a deadline. You’re asking about Christmas and who knows? It could be days or weeks or months. It is worth doing. If we were not doing this, Gaddafi would have overrun, by force, the whole of Libya, causing a massive humanitarian crisis, committing many atrocities, and destabilising Tunisia and Egypt at the same time, with terrible consequences for Europe and for this country. So it’s in our own national interest, as well as right.” Officials told the Guardian that the “big problem” in Libya was how to ratchet up the bombing without increasing the risk of civilian deaths. “Nato could do much more if it took more risks with civilian casualties,” one official said. British officials pinned hopes on a twin-track approach – that of the continuing attacks, and of more defections by senior political, security and military Libyan figures. The officials made plain they did not expect a decisive breakthrough in the short term. Gaddafi had insisted he would stay put, UK officials noted. Major General Nick Pope, the MoD’s senior military spokesman, said in a statement: “Royal Air Force Tornadoes joined other Nato aircraft in a major strike on a large surface-to-air missile depot in Tripoli. “HMS Ocean launched her British army Apaches against a multiple rocket launch system positioned on the Libyan coast near Brega. The attack helicopters used Hellfire missiles to destroy their target before returning safely to the ship.” Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi William Hague Middle East Foreign policy Defence policy Military Polly Curtis Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dozens injured as an estimated 1,000 Syrians and Palestinians gathered at border village of Majd al-Shams Israeli troops have clashed with protesters on the Syrian border for the second time in less than a month, with several dozen reported injured and claims that up to 20 had been killed. The violence had been widely predicted after organisers called for a symbolic March on Israel to mark 44 years since the beginning of the six day war in 1967. However, the clashes were smaller in scale than the last time pro-Palestinian activists confronted Israeli soldiers along borders with Syria, the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. The Syrian village of Majd al-Shams was again the focal point with an estimated 1,000 Syrians and Palestinians surging to within 20 metres of the fenced off border over six hours. They threw stones and molotov cocktails at Israeli troops as snipers fired rubber-coated bullets and live rounds at some activists. Israel acknowledged that at least 12 had been wounded on the Syrian side, but disputed claims by state television in Damascus that 20 demonstrators were killed. Television footage shown live from the scene on Syrian and Lebanese television showed scores of people being carried to waiting ambulances, however there has been no confirmation of the deaths. As night fell there were reports that anti-tank mines may have detonated near the Syrian border town of Quinetra, accounting for some deaths. The Lebanese army kept demonstrators away from flash-point areas in the south of the country, while Palestinian organisers called off their protests on Friday after pressure from the army. The village of Maroun al-Ras was the scene of widespread violence on 15 May when up to 10 demonstrators were shot dead as they rallied near the fence that separates Lebanon and Israel. Up to 1,000 demonstrators arrived at the area in buses to mark “Nakba day”, the Palestinian name for the day Israel was formed in 1948. One demonstrator who was wounded that day told the Guardian the Lebanese militia Hezbollah had given him $50 to turn up at the border and $900 to have his gunshot wounds treated by physicians. He said he had been planning to return to Maroun al-Ras yesterday until the rally was cancelled. At the Qalandia crossing between Jerusalem and the West Bank around 50 demonstrators were forced back by Israeli border police who fired teargas and rubber bullets. The protesters walked for about 200 metres before being dispersed with rounds of teargas. At the same time youths threw rocks at Israeli soldiers and police but were never close enough to cause harm. A small group appeared with placards next to the Israeli soldiers but were dispersed with percussion grenades. The same group lay in front of a police truck used to spray “skunk”, a noxious liquid used for crowd control, and stayed for a few minutes despite being doused in the liquid. The injured were hit by rubber bullets and gas canisters, and overcome by teargas and pepper spray. In Gaza, Israeli police prevented hundreds of demonstrators from approaching the Erez checkpoint and confronting the army. Until Nakba day, when hundreds of protesters from Syria and Lebanon breached the northern Israeli border, the frontier with Syria had remained trouble-free for almost four decades. But as the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown on protests show, protesters are only allowed to gather when the state allows them. The Golan area of Syria is off-limits without state permission. Analysts in Damascus say that while Israel may be culpable for opening fire, they view events on both days as deliberate antagonism of Israel by the Syrian regime. Rami Makhlouf, the president’s cousin and a member of the regime’s inner circle, last month told the New York Times: “If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel.” “There is no question the regime organised this to say it’s us or chaos,” Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian human rights activist in exile in the US, said. One Syrian activist tweeted: “So Bashar sends army and tanks to crush peaceful protests, and sends a few dozen Palestinian refugees to liberate the Golan?” After breaching the border on May 15, one man, Hassan Hijazi, made it all the way to Jaffa in search of his family’s former house. Nidaa Hassan is a pseudonym for a journalist in Damascus Israel Syria Palestinian territories Gaza Lebanon Protest Middle East Conal Urquhart Nidaa Hassan Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Firefighters worked through the night to protect several mountain communities from a wildfire that has been blazing uncontrolled since May 29. The 144,000-acre Wallow Fire, near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, has burned through 225 square miles of forest and brush and is the third largest fire in state…
Continue reading …Death toll rises to 21 as number of cases increases to 2,200, with bean sprouts thought to be to blame German hospitals are struggling to cope with the surge in patients caused by the E coli outbreak, as the death toll from the virus rose to 21. The health minister, Daniel Bahr, said hospitals in northern Germany were finding it difficult to provide enough beds and treatment for patients, with the total number of cases increasing to 2,200. “We’re facing a tense situation with patient care,” Bahr said, “but we will manage it.” Agriculture officials said that bean sprouts grown in one organic farm between Hamburg and Hanover were the likely cause of the illness. Hospital authorities said blood supplies were running low and staff were exhausted and working round-the-clock, with the northern cities of Hamburg and Bremen the worst affected. “They [the doctors] voluntarily come in on weekends and even sleep here,” Oliver Grieve, a spokesman for the Kiel University hospital in northern Germany told Spiegel Online. Hamburg’s health minister, Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks, told a news conference the city was considering bringing doctors out of retirement. “We want to discuss with doctors about whether those who recently retired can be reactivated,” she said. Patients with less serious illnesses are now being moved to nearby hospitals and operations for non-threatening diseases are being postponed. A spokesman for Regio Clinics, the largest private hospital in the state of Schleswig Holstein, told Reuters: “All the hospitals in the region are pushing their limits. We can handle it but some of our patients have to be sent to other hospitals, especially those with HUS [haemolytic uraemic syndrome] or needing dialysis.” Extra nurses are being recruited from southern Germany to plug the gaps. Meanwhile patients have described “horrendous” conditions in some hospitals. One said poor hygiene standards were contributing to the problem. “All of us had diarrhoea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women, it was a complete mess,” Nicoletta Pabst told the Associated Press. “If I hadn’t been sick with E coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there.” She said she had waited three hours to be seen before being sent home, apparently because her blood levels did not indicate that she had kidney failure. Her condition deteriorated and she had to call an ambulance the next morning, she said. She was hospitalised for a week at a different hospital. Despite the increase in the death toll, authorities said the number of new cases had started to decline. Meanwhile health inspectors continue testing samples from a restaurant in the northern city of Lübeck. Tucked away in the cellars of the city’s old town, the Kartoffel Keller became the focus of investigations over the weekend after a local newspaper revealed that up to 17 people who had eaten at the restaurant were infected with E coli , among them tourists from Denmark and a group of German civil servants. Two are seriously ill and a 47-year-old woman died. The Kartoffel Keller is still open for business as officials from Germany’s disease control authority, the Robert Koch Institute, are poised to release the results of samples taken from the kitchen of the restaurant. “We’ve taken salad off the menu and put up an official notice on the door to reassure customers that the food is safe to eat,” said the owner, Joachim Berger. “We’ve got nothing to hide,” he added. “So far all the tests have come up negative. But the guests are staying away.” But one journalist, Oliver Vogt, said locals were deliberately defying the hysteria. “People are coming as a show of support,” he said. “This is one of the best-loved restaurants here in Lübeck.” Just around the corner, the waiter at Lübeck’s only vegetarian cafe had a very different view. “They [Kartoffel Keller] have hit rock bottom,” he said. “You can lose your reputation so fast. It’s not so easy to get it back.” E coli Food safety Germany Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …West insists president quits in exchange for immunity from prosecution and financial guarantees about future The United States and Britain are pressing Saudi Arabia to persuade the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to formally stand down after flying to Riyadh for treatment for injuries that were sustained in shelling in Sana’a on Friday. Diplomats said that Washington and London were insisting Saleh now be urged to implement a deal under which he would relinquish power in exchange for immunity from prosecution and financial guarantees about his future. Pro-democracy protestors in Yemen were celebrating his departure after 33 years in power, but the Arab world’s poorest country still faces turmoil as well as immediate concerns over whether a truce will hold if Saleh tries to return and his relatives and supporters fight back. The risks ahead were underlined by clashes in the southern city of Taiz, which left at least two dead and four injured. Shelling was also reported in Sana’a. Saleh was described as recovering following emergency medical treatment in a Riyadh military hospital because he was injured by shrapnel when his palace compound was attacked by tribal rivals. Yemen’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress, insisted he would be back, but diplomats and analysts expressed doubt, suggesting that Saudi patience with an always fractious and often manipulative neighbour was exhausted. It would be impossible for Saleh to return, argued Abdul Ghani Iryani, a respected Yemeni political commentator. “He is out. That is the only rational course. The exit of the president has defused some of the tensions and war is less likely today than it was yesterday.” If Saleh is finished, he will come to be seen as the latest scalp of the “Arab spring” – which since January has seen the overthrow of the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, repression in Bahrain and anti-regime unrest in Libya and Syria. Popular demonstrations in Sana’a made a huge impact but the immediate trigger for Saleh’s ouster was old-fashioned military action – not Facebook protest. Yemen, a desperately poor and volatile country of 23 million people, faces a complex series of problems including secessionist movements in the north and south, inter-elite and tribal rivalries and a small but menacing al-Qaida presence that has focused US and western attention and brought generous aid in recent years. Saleh has been formally replaced by his deputy, Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi but the constitution allows for the creation of a military council to oversee government business. Diplomats said a key question was the reaction of Saleh’s son Ahmed, commander of the powerful Republican Guard, and his nephews Yayha and Amar, who control other key elements of the security forces. Saleh’s brother commands the Yemeni air force. Al-Arabiya TV reported that Hadi had already met the US ambassador to Yemen Michael Feierstein and was also due to see members of the military and Saleh’s sons. The Saudi-owned channel also described Ahmed Saleh as running the country in his father’s absence in Riyadh. Reinforcing the point, the official Yemeni news agency Saba issued a statement saying that Saleh’s family had not accompanied him to Saudi Arabia – which was seen as a clear warning that his sons would remain in place. Amidst the jubilation in Sana’a, one good sign was the agreement of the al-Ahmar family, leaders of the Hashid tribal federation that has been fighting Saleh, to abide by a truce aimed at stopping the street fighting in the capital. Saleh blamed the al-Ahmars for the attack on his palace on Friday and ordered government forces to retaliate with an artillery barrage against their homes in the Sana’a neighbourhood of Hasaba. The Hashid announced their support for the protest movement in March, and al-Ahmar fighters initially adhered to the movement’s non-violence policy. Saleh’s departure was foreseen in the accord brokered by the six-nation Saudi led Gulf Co-operation Council. It provided a timetable for the president to leave office and to clear the way for new elections within 60 days. He declined to sign the agreement, despite several attempts by Gulf leaders to end to the crisis. Now in Saudi Arabia – and perhaps under pressure from his hosts – he may no longer be able to renege on it. “Saleh may be determined to brazen it out but he will find it hard to resist for very long,” predicted one western diplomat. William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, said he was “very worried” about the situation in Yemen, admitting that previous efforts to persuade Saleh to step down had failed. “We have not succeeded in that but we will continue working very hard on that,” he said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show. “It could become a much more serious threat to our own security.” Hundreds of British citizens have been urged to leave the country while Sana’a airport is still open. “People are worried about what will happen after Saleh’s departure,” Farouq Abdel Salam, a resident of the southern port city of Aden, told Reuters. “They’re most worried about a military coup or struggles for power within the army.” Saleh has ruled Yemen since unification in 1990. Yemen Saudi Arabia Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Ian Black guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tens of thousands turned out yesterday in Hong Kong to call for human rights in China and commemorate the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, the Wall Street Journal reports. Organizers say 150,000 attended the gathering, while local media reports cite police figures—which are generally lower than…
Continue reading …First the hackers came for Sony’s PlayStation Network , and now they’ve breached Nintendo. The Japanese company announced today that one of its US website servers was hacked, but no company or customer information was compromised and nothing was damaged. Though the incident is minor compared to the PlayStation hacking and…
Continue reading …Care-home firm looking after 31,000 elderly and vulnerable people begs landlords such as Ian and Richard Livingstone, Nick Leslau, Nigel Wray and Tom Hunter for rent cuts Some of Britain’s richest property barons, including Ian and Richard Livingstone, Nick Leslau, Nigel Wray and Tom Hunter, will decide the fate of more than one in seven Southern Cross care homes as the crisis-stricken company goes cap in hand to landlord groups asking for rent reductions . The company, which looks after 31,000 elderly and vulnerable patients, insists it will go bust if it is required to pay rents at agreed levels. Landlord groups are currently receiving only 70 pence in every pound billed in rents to Southern Cross. The group, Britain’s largest operator with about 753 homes, wants to negotiate a deal with all 80 of its landlords and has given itself four months to do so. Landlords are engaging through a committee set up by Daniel Smith at Grant Thornton, but some are already talking of taking matters into their own hands. Jamie Buchan, chief executive of Southern Cross, estimates that the business could lose about 200 homes. Among the options he would like to explore with landlords is a debt-for-equity swap or some kind of similar deal that would give them a share of future profits. He also wants to ditch the Southern Cross name. The GMB union is urging the government to step in and appoint a cabinet minister to ensure a swift, orderly resolution to the care homes crisis. It will publish a report naming those in the City it believes are to blame for the firm’s difficulties. “This report shows the reality that they are either greedy pigs or gullible fools.” Among the most important landlord firms Southern Cross will have to win over to survive is London & Regional, the investment empire of former optician Ian Livingstone and his chartered surveyor brother Richard. The pair hold the freeholds to about 90 Southern Cross homes. The brothers, who have a joint fortune put at £1.2bn, control an £8bn global property empire which in the UK includes the Hilton hotel on Park Lane and the Empire Leicester Square cinema. Their London & Regional operation also includes the David Lloyd Leisure fitness group and a string of nightclubs and casinos. Also being asked to accept a rent reduction by Southern Cross is a company called PSX Holdings, which acquired 21 properties from Southern Cross in a sale-and-leaseback deal in 2005. PSX is owned by Prestbury, the investment vehicle of Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray, with the retail tycoon Tom Hunter and Uberior, a private equity investment arm of HBOS, now part of the taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group. PSX’s latest accounts, signed off in February, appear to show little sympathy for the care-home firm, suggesting the crisis was of its own making. “The future of Southern Cross currently seems uncertain. Whilst the tenant has negligible net debt, it claims to have overstretched itself by entering into a sale-and-leaseback model across its entire estate where it is now claiming the rents it is paying are too high.” Another large landlord, Bondcare, which operates homes itself as well as renting out properties to rivals, has taken an even harder line. “Our suggested solution is to take back the operation of our homes and we have offered the same solution to other landlords to deal with this crisis,” it said last week. The ownership trail for Bondcare, which owns about 40 Southern Cross homes, disappears into a trust based in Gibraltar. Negotiations with the largest landlord NHP is complicated by the fact that its effectively in the hands of creditors after poor performance rendered shares owned by the Qatar Investment Authority worthless. Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Private equity Social care Social care Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Care-home firm looking after 31,000 elderly and vulnerable people begs landlords such as Ian and Richard Livingstone, Nick Leslau, Nigel Wray and Tom Hunter for rent cuts Some of Britain’s richest property barons, including Ian and Richard Livingstone, Nick Leslau, Nigel Wray and Tom Hunter, will decide the fate of more than one in seven Southern Cross care homes as the crisis-stricken company goes cap in hand to landlord groups asking for rent reductions . The company, which looks after 31,000 elderly and vulnerable patients, insists it will go bust if it is required to pay rents at agreed levels. Landlord groups are currently receiving only 70 pence in every pound billed in rents to Southern Cross. The group, Britain’s largest operator with about 753 homes, wants to negotiate a deal with all 80 of its landlords and has given itself four months to do so. Landlords are engaging through a committee set up by Daniel Smith at Grant Thornton, but some are already talking of taking matters into their own hands. Jamie Buchan, chief executive of Southern Cross, estimates that the business could lose about 200 homes. Among the options he would like to explore with landlords is a debt-for-equity swap or some kind of similar deal that would give them a share of future profits. He also wants to ditch the Southern Cross name. The GMB union is urging the government to step in and appoint a cabinet minister to ensure a swift, orderly resolution to the care homes crisis. It will publish a report naming those in the City it believes are to blame for the firm’s difficulties. “This report shows the reality that they are either greedy pigs or gullible fools.” Among the most important landlord firms Southern Cross will have to win over to survive is London & Regional, the investment empire of former optician Ian Livingstone and his chartered surveyor brother Richard. The pair hold the freeholds to about 90 Southern Cross homes. The brothers, who have a joint fortune put at £1.2bn, control an £8bn global property empire which in the UK includes the Hilton hotel on Park Lane and the Empire Leicester Square cinema. Their London & Regional operation also includes the David Lloyd Leisure fitness group and a string of nightclubs and casinos. Also being asked to accept a rent reduction by Southern Cross is a company called PSX Holdings, which acquired 21 properties from Southern Cross in a sale-and-leaseback deal in 2005. PSX is owned by Prestbury, the investment vehicle of Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray, with the retail tycoon Tom Hunter and Uberior, a private equity investment arm of HBOS, now part of the taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group. PSX’s latest accounts, signed off in February, appear to show little sympathy for the care-home firm, suggesting the crisis was of its own making. “The future of Southern Cross currently seems uncertain. Whilst the tenant has negligible net debt, it claims to have overstretched itself by entering into a sale-and-leaseback model across its entire estate where it is now claiming the rents it is paying are too high.” Another large landlord, Bondcare, which operates homes itself as well as renting out properties to rivals, has taken an even harder line. “Our suggested solution is to take back the operation of our homes and we have offered the same solution to other landlords to deal with this crisis,” it said last week. The ownership trail for Bondcare, which owns about 40 Southern Cross homes, disappears into a trust based in Gibraltar. Negotiations with the largest landlord NHP is complicated by the fact that its effectively in the hands of creditors after poor performance rendered shares owned by the Qatar Investment Authority worthless. Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Private equity Social care Social care Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk
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