The 84th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee is under way, and before a winner is crowned on national television tomorrow night, thousands of really obscure words will be tackled by 275 kids ages 8 to 15. Twelve-year-old Kevin Lazenby of Opelika, Ala., kicked off round two today, notes the AP…
Continue reading …Something to read on the bus : Alaska will release 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin emails from her days as governor, reports the Anchorage Daily News . News services actually requested them when she was running for vice president, and now they’ll get them as she may or may not be…
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Moroccan NGO says it will file legal complaint demanding investigation of claims made on television by Luc Ferry An accusation of child abuse against a former French minister has sparked a major row in the wake of the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn for attempted rape. Luc Ferry, a philosopher and former education minister, told a TV chat show that a former French minister had previously been caught at an orgy with young boys in Marrakech in Morocco. He said senior government sources, including a former prime minister, had told him about the incident, but would not name the ex-minister involved for fear of libel laws. Politicians attacked Ferry for making vague allegations. Rachida Dati, the former justice minister, said if Ferry knew something he must reveal the facts otherwise he risked the offence of failing to report a crime. The foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said if Ferry – who was in government from 2002 to 2004 – had proof of a crime “he must go through the justice system” and not just “go yacking to the press”. A Moroccan NGO for the protection of children said it would file a legal complaint, demanding an investigation. Under French law, authorities are able to investigate sex tourism or sex crimes committed abroad. Meanwhile, the philosopher and writer Jean-François Kahn, who was on the talk-show panel with Ferry, told the webiste Arret Sur Images that after the programme, Ferry had given him the name of the former minister, though Kahn refused to reveal it. On Wednesday, Ferry repeated his claims on TV, but said he had no proof or facts. Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF and one-time Socialist hopeful for next year’s presidency, has denied allegations that he attempted to rape a New York hotel maid. He is expected to plead not guilty on Monday. The case has sparked a wider debate in France on whether the media should do more to investigate politicians’ private lives. France Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Following Panorama investigation, coalition announces ‘guarantee’ residents will be found alternative accommodation Downing Street moved to prevent a collapse in public confidence in the care of Britain’s most vulnerable citizens amid fears over the solvency of the country’s biggest residential home operator for the elderly and widespread horror at revelations of abuse in a private facility for people with learning disabilities. Ministers abandoned insistence that these were local issues by announcing a “guarantee” that 31,000 elderly residents of the care home chain Southern Cross would be found alternative accommodation if the company went under. The prime minister’s official spokesman said Downing Street was in touch with Southern Cross. “Our role is to ensure we keep in close contact with what is going on, and keep monitoring the situation, and we will do what we can to ensure there is protection for anyone affected by this.” The move amounted to an effective repudiation of the government’s commitment to localism. Local authority leaders, who had been told that the Southern Cross problem was a contractual issue for them to resolve, were unaware of the nature of the guarantee, but they issued their own assurance that all the company’s residents – including those who pay their own care fees – would be looked after. Meanwhile, Downing Street has demanded a full report following the disclosure by the BBC Panorama programme of systematic abuse at a unit for people with learning disabilities near Bristol run by the Castlebeck company, a firm ultimately owned by Irish tycoons JP McManus, John Magnier and Dermot Desmond. The Department of Health had been insisting behind the scenes that it was an issue purely for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the care sector regulator, and the local authorities and NHS primary care trusts that paid the £3,500-a-week fees for the young adults they referred there. But the health department found itself obliged to step in. No 10 has asked for a detailed account of what the various agencies knew and did about the regime at the unit. The CQC, which failed to follow up tip-offs from a whistleblower who then contacted Panorama, has admitted its mistakes were “unforgivable”. For ministers there were unnerving signs that controversy over social care was seamlessly taking over from controversy over the government’s becalmed NHS reforms, now that its “listening exercise” on complaints about the reforms has concluded pending a report. The clear link between the two in the public eye is that the NHS plans include outsourcing NHS care to “any qualified provider”. Stephen Dorrell, the chair of the Commons health select committee who has voiced doubts about some aspects of the government’s NHS plans, outlined arrangements for a wide-ranging inquiry by his committee in the autumn. Dorrell, a former Tory health secretary, said the inquiry would look broadly at the process of commissioning care and support for vulnerable adults, following a report due next month from a government commission on the funding of social care, led by the economist Andrew Dilnot. “The questions will be about how can these stories of abuse arise,” Dorrell said. “There was Panorama yesterday, but also the report last week on care of the elderly in NHS hospitals, all the issues around Southern Cross and the CQC in particular. “We are talking about 70% of patient load of the health service, that is people with long-term needs and conditions, and so often we focus on waiting times for elective operations. This is a far bigger issue.” Referring to the Castlebeck case, Dorrell added: “Someone had to sign the cheque that the care home operator was being paid to provide a service of £3,000 per week. I presume the majority of those cases were paid for with public funds. The people who signed the cheque have a duty to make certain that standards are of an adequate nature.” Long-term care Social care Disability Health Health policy Liberal-Conservative coalition David Brindle Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In North Korea, images of Kim Jong Il and heir apparent are treated as holy icons. In the South, soldiers use them for target practice. Or at least they did until local media showed them doing so. Now Seoul has ordered cadets to stop decorating their rifle ranges with the…
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Wall Street share sell-off is triggered by gloomy US jobs and industry figures Shares fell heavily on Wall Street on Wednesday after a gloomy report from US factories and signs of a slowdown in employment growth prompted fears that the recovery in the world’s biggest economy is fading. With weaker than expected data from Europe and China adding to the downbeat mood, the Dow Jones industrial average lost almost 200 points in morning trading in New York. Selling was initially triggered by the monthly health check on private sector job creation which showed a rise of only 38,000 last month, well down on the 177,000 jump recorded in April. Economists immediately scaled back their forecasts of a hefty increase in employment in Friday’s non-farm payrolls report to between 100,000 and 120,000. The decline in the Dow intensified with the release of the index on manufacturing from the Institute for Supply Management, which recorded a drop from 60.4 in April to 53.5, its lowest level since September 2009 and far lower than Wall Street had anticipated. On the foreign exchanges, the dollar fell against the euro and the Swiss franc on anticipation that the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, would hold interest rates close to zero until the second half of 2012. The yield on the benchmark 10-year treasury bill dipped below 3% for the first time since late 2010 as analysts pushed back their forecasts of when monetary policy would be tightened. Some predicted a third bout of quantitative easing – money creation – from the Fed. Despite the additional $600bn pumped into the economy over the past eight months, it grew at an annualised rate of only 1.8% in the first three months of this year, a sharp slowdown from its performance last year. Mike Riddell, fund manager at M&G, said: “The last month has been a horror show for the world’s biggest economy, and things are getting even worse if data released today is anything to go by. It seems that almost every bit of data about the health of the US economy has disappointed expectations recently. “US house prices have fallen by more than 5% year on year, pending home sales have collapsed and existing home sales disappointed, the trend of improving jobless claims has arrested, Q1 GDP wasn’t revised upwards by the 0.4% forecast, durable goods orders shrank, manufacturing surveys from Philadelphia Fed, Richmond Fed and Chicago Fed were all very disappointing. And that’s just in the last week and a bit.” Separate US data showed a 4% drop in mortgage applications in the latest week and a pick-up in the number of people laid off during May. Tom Levinson, an analyst at ING, said: “The US soft patch for data is clearly continuing and the market will be comfortable with its pricing for the first Fed rate hike to come only in the third quarter of 2012.” Reports on manufacturing from other parts of the world also pointed to a slowdown. China’s purchasing managers’ index fell from 52.9 to 52.0, close to the cut-off point of 50 that separates expansion from contraction, while the reading for the eurozone dropped to a seven-month low of 54.6. Spain and Greece slipped back below 50, suggesting that their manufacturing sectors were back in recession. The depressed state of the Irish economy was underlined by official figures showing that unemployment rose to 14.8% of the workforce last month. The prospect of weaker global growth dragged down oil prices. Brent crude for delivery next month fell 54 cents to $116.19 a barrel in morning trading in New York, while US US July crude fell 77 cents to $101.93 a barrel. US economy Dollar Euro Economics Currencies Recession Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Olympic golds pale in comparison to this national feat: The US last year consumed more wine than France. And it’s just one of many full-bodied wine stats for 2010. The Los Angeles Times shares the signs that Americans are trading their recession-minded ways for a good (or, at least, decent)…
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Global warming should be limited to 1.5C, not 2C, declares Christiana Figueres The world should agree to limit global warming to just 1.5C instead of the current target of 2C, the United Nations’ climate chief has said, in remarks that shocked the governments of developed nations. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said: “Two degrees is not enough – we should be thinking of 1.5C. If we are not headed to 1.5C we are in big, big trouble.” Scientists estimate that 2C of warming is the limit of safety, beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible. Last December at a UN climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, all countries reached a consensus on a 2C target, the first time the world’s governments had set a target limit on climate change. But Figueres said reaching 2C of warming would have a devastating impact, such as sea-level rises that could overwhelm low-lying islands and some coastal nations, and levels of warming in sub-Saharan Africa that could severely damage agriculture. Figueres was speaking at Carbon Expo , the annual conference of the International Emissions Trading Association . For Figueres to reopen the debate on the proposed target is regarded as dangerous by some countries, who fear that a push by the UN for a tougher target would derail the already fragile negotiations that officials have been trying to reconstruct after the 2009 summit in Copenhagen ended in only a partial agreement, amid acrimony and scenes of chaos. Developed nations and some rapidly emerging economies, such as China, want to stick to the weaker target of 2C, arguing that it would be impossible to opt for the tougher target at this stage. One participant in the talks said: “We need to be ambitious but realistic. Although it’s positive to start discussions about more ambitious targets, the UN Environment Programme concluded a while ago that countries will have to make more ambitious emission-reduction pledges [than they have done] if global-temperature rise is to be curbed at 2C.” Another participant said: “This is a big
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Loyalists mounted attacks on English press, parliamentarians and politicians before celebrating new mandate Sepp Blatter rode a crashing wave of anti-English sentiment within the “football family” to extend his presidency of Fifa for another four years. Corruption scandals have caused alarm among sponsors, national governments and fans alike, but amid an atmosphere of bridling indignation, world football’s governing body threw up the barricades in Zurich. Blatter loyalists mounted attacks on English press, parliamentarians and football politicians before celebrating his new mandate with a standing ovation. In his acceptance speech, after Blatter had won 186 out of 203 votes in the ballot of Fifa’s member associations, he thanked delegates for “your vote and your confidence” and pledged curtly to “put Fifa’s ship back on the right course in clear, transparent waters”. An hour later, Blatter revealed that former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger would head the “politicians, celebrities and former footballers” making up the “solution committee” that would address the corruption problems that have shredded Fifa’s reputation. Kissinger is a long-term associate of Blatter. The vote in the uncontested election had taken place only after an attempt by the English Football Association to force a postponement suffered a heavy defeat, by 172 votes to 17. The FA chairman, David Bernstein, said he was exercising his democratic right to propose a measure without which Blatter could not have a “proper, credible mandate”. The FA initiative drew ferocious criticism from Fifa’s second-most senior politician, Julio Grondona of Argentina. “We always have attacks from England, mostly with lies and with the support of a journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth,” he said. Grondona confirmed his message that he would only support England’s 2018 World Cup bid if the Falkland Islands were “given back” to Argentina because they “belong to us”. He insinuated that Bernstein’s measure had been motivated by bitterness at England 2018′s failure. “It looks like this country doesn’t like it and doesn’t show goodwill. Would you please leave the Fifa family alone?” Moucharafou Anjorin, federation president of Benin, the world’s 72nd-ranked team, took the podium to say: “I’m ill at ease that this comes from a country like England with its football standing. “Some people in Africa take great pleasure from watching English football on the television. This is why I do not understand why we want to create more tensions within Fifa. England should not be conveying this message. England should not divide us.” Joining Anjorin was the Congolese Selemani Omari – his country 122nd in Fifa’s rankings – who delivered impassioned rhetoric with a veiled message to the English dissenters and media. “Fifa belongs to 208 associations, not one or another,” he said. “We’re ill at ease with people who wield unfounded accusations. He who accuses must provide evidence. “We have no lessons to take. If there is a single candidate also sometimes it is because we are satisfied with the candidate.” In an attack on the English media that he did not seek to conceal, Costakis Koutsokoumnis from Cyprus (89th) said: “Allegations. What a beautiful English word. We must not allow people outside this room to enter Fifa’s agenda.” There had been only one name on the ballot papers after the Qatari challenger, Mohamed Bin Hammam, after withdrew in an effort to clear his name amid allegations of vote buying. Bin Hammam and the Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, have been suspended from the federation. On the platform Warner and Bin Hammam’s seats, as well as those of two other members of the ruling executive committee serving similar bans, remained vacant throughout the proceedings. Although football’s political structures showed faith in the man at the helm, there are questions whether the storm has yet abated. Theo Zwanziger, the chairman of Germany’s federation, called for an inquiry into the process that led to Qatar winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup. Zwanziger’s words carry the force of a serving Fifa executive committee member after he joined it upon the retirement yesterday of Franz Beckenbauer. However, there were messages of defiance from other of football’s senior politicians who bristled at the allegations swirling around Fifa. “It is enough,” said Angel Maria Villar Llona, a former Spanish international who heads Fifa’s legal committee. “Let us not be led by these people. They are assaulting us with crimes we’ve not committed. They assault our freedom.” Before the vote, Blatter spoke of being the “captain of the Fifa ship”. He only had to make modest concessions: future World Cups will be selected by the whole Congress instead of the 24-strong executive committee; an internal committee will examine Fifa’s corporate governance; and the ethics committee will be strengthened, once again an internal process. But his message of triumph was more one of congratulation for delegates’ defensiveness. “I am happy we are able again today to bring this solidarity and unity which allows us sufficient courage and also a positive standpoint,” Blatter said. “Something marvellous has happened today in this solidarity.” Fifa Sepp Blatter Switzerland Europe Matt Scott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Old World Italians are face to face with the self-described guidos and guidettes of the Jersey Shore —and they definitely don’t like what they see. The hard-drinking, sex-ravenous East Coast crew is an embarrassment to Florentines, who are trying to figure out how to keep the reality stars quiet and…
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