Westboro Baptist Church could soon find itself foiled in Illinois. The state Senate passed a measure yesterday that broadens the protection granted to funerals, requiring any protesters to remain at least 300 feet away from the site rather than the currently required 200 feet. The original House bill, proposed by…
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• At least 9 killed in shootout in capital • Activists fear violence will eclipse protest movement Security forces loyal to Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh were locked in fierce gun battles on Tuesday in the capital Sana’a with guards from the country’s most powerful tribal federation whose leader is backing protesters’ demands for an end to the premier’s 33-year rule. At least 4 soldiers and 5 tribesmen were killed and 24 injured in the skirmishes, dimming the prospects for a negotiated solution to Yemen’s political impasse. The shootout, which pitted Saleh’s central security forces against guards of Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashid tribal federation from which Saleh also hails, took place in sandbagged streets surrounding Ahmar’s fortified compound, near several government ministries and the ruling party’s headquarters. Bullets fizzed through the air and plumes of black smoke rose from shattered houses as the two sides fired machine guns and shells at each other in a heavily–populated residential area in the east of the capital. A stray missile thudded into a mosque sending clouds of dust into the air and residents fleeing in panic. As the fighting raged on into the evening, the opposition tribesmen began to advance, barricading main roads and sealing off several government buildings including the interior ministry. The estimated 500 tribal fighters are thought to be directing their assault from the Yemenia Airways office. Local residents, most of whom have been evacuated from the area, say the violence was sparked “randomly” when Ahmar’s guards tried to enter a primary school, claiming that Saleh’s troops had been using it to stockpile weapons. Others have accused Saleh, who recently backed away from signing a Saudi-led deal for his exit, of deliberately stirring the violence. In a statement on Tuesday, Yemen’s opposition members said that Saleh, who is facing mounting pressure from the west to quit office, was trying to spark a “civil war” in an attempt to remain in power. “This is his [Saleh's] last resort,” said Hassan Zaid, a leading opposition figure. “We’re all praying that this doesn’t escalate into a widespread conflict.” The government meanwhile has accused the Ahmar clan of “fomenting unrest” and “exploiting the current troubles in the country”. “The al-Ahmar sons and their gang turned away from the mediation effort and fired rockets and bullets heavily on government installations and citizens’ homes,” the defence ministry said in a statement. Tribal mediators have been scrambling to bring about a swift end to the standoff but have so far been unsuccessful. Marib Press reported late on Tuesday that Ghalib al-Kamish, head of political security and the mediation committee, was severely wounded when a rocket hit Ahmar’s house during a negotiation session. It remains unclear what bearing the clashes will have on the protest movement. Protesters have expressed their concern that their peaceful movement may end up being eclipsed by the armed conflict. “The violence will negatively affect the ongoing protest and will turn the dream of a peaceful revolution into a nightmare of a civil war,” said Ibrahim Mothana, a 22-year-old Yemeni writer and activist. “The protesters will stand firm to keep the uprising going and will never take a violent approach despite the ongoing conflict.” Saleh has resisted intense international pressure to step down. The British Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, issued a stinging rebuke, saying Saleh’s refusal to sign an agreement under which he would leave office in 30 days in exchange for immunity from prosecution is “a matter of the deepest regret to the United Kingdom. “Saleh is now isolated from leaders in his own party and the opposition who have demonstrated their commitment to a peaceful transition of power,” he said. The six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, which has been mediating the negotiations, suspended its efforts indefinitely after Saleh’s latest manoeuvre. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
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The US president survived needy Europeans, unseasonably high winds and a high-risk table-tennis match Considering that American presidents have been crossing the Atlantic to rescue ungrateful Europeans for almost a century now, Michelle and Barack Obama showed admirable forbearance in the face of all the pomp, circumstance and table-tennis balls that cash-strapped Britain could hurl at them. It’s not as if the US is omnipotent or awash with funds itself any more. But those Europeans always have their hands out. They cut their own armed forces but expect Washington to provide more hardware to sort out Gaddafi. They mess up their own currency and look to IMF funds to sort out the mess. David Cameron is hoping Obama will endorse his own cuts strategy. He has already lured him into a high-risk table-tennis match. Even in his ancestral home of Moneygall, County Offaly, the president didn’t get any change when he paid cash for the Guinness. Irish rain and Icelandic ash had forced the 1,500-strong White House party to take refuge in London 12 hours early. At the official start of their state visit the president and his wife were now obliged to cope with a show of unseasonably cold wind, sweeping across the Buckingham Palace lawn as if it was the tail-end of the Missouri tornado. The Queen was sensibly dressed, as usual, for the ritual Guard of Honour, but poor Michelle Obama had clearly been told the British were enjoying a warm spring this year. As her husband inspected the 101 members of the 1st battalion of the Scots Guards (“is this all the armed forces they’ve got left?”) she clung to the billowing skirt of her summer dress as if Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been spotted in the bushes. In practical terms, this was the lightest of the Obamas’ six-day European foray. They enjoyed a leisurely start at Winfield House – the US ambassador’s private garden is central London’s biggest after HMQ’s and ambassador Louis Susman is an old Chicago pal. But business before pleasure. Who should arrive in their Roller to break up the schmooze, but Prince Charles and Camilla – who had been planning to greet Obama and his wife at Stansted, had volcanic ash not intervened on the flightplan. Obama took the precaution of talking to White House reporters (an essential component of the imperial travelling court) about the devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri. The couple then left for the palace in “The Beast,” the president’s armour-plated limo – it can withstand a direct hit by a missile or Sarah Palin – and their 15-car convoy, modest by Washington standards, slipped through London, assisted by the 5,000 Met police officers earning overtime. The combination of Britain’s hereditary monarch and America’s elected version is enough to make otherwise sane TV reporters quite light-headed. All day they assured their viewers that the Obamas – who came up the hard way and have good reason to be cool towards Britain, as most of the 43 previous presidents did not – already feel London is a second home. On the strength of two or three meetings their strong mutual affection for the Queen, 85, and her consort, 89, is an established TV fact. What do they talk about? The countryside, gardening and clothes, according to one report. There may even be a germ of truth in it, for they are all gracious people, even the Duke on his best behaviour. “Nice to see you, sir,” said the president after clasping the Queen in a prolonged double handshake. No hugs from Mrs Obama on this occasion. In any case, there was an extra attraction. The Obamas may be relative newcomers to palace life, but the former Kate Middleton still needs help finding the loos. So up she popped in the stately 1844 room, the new Duchess of Cambridge newly-returned from honeymoon with her spouse. People addressed as “Duke” in Chicago are usually jazzmen, but Prince William is a helicopter pilot. They talked privately for 20 minutes, a gaffe-free debut unless the tabloids had the room wired. But Kate was seen to touch her tummy. That will do for the media pack. The day’s stately progress proceeded to plan, albeit with added wind and looming ash: the Guard of Honour with the band playing The Star Spangled Banner (it celebrates a defeat for the British in the war of 1812), lunch and a quick tour of the Royal Collection, escorted by the boss herself. Poring over details of the loss the 13 American colonies (“America is lost” noted George III) Obama dismissed it as “a temporary blip in the relationship”. Brits are neurotically sensitive about the “special relationship,” so there must have been relief all round. Out of intensive care until the next imagined snub. Appropriate gifts were exchanged – including copies of Queen Victoria’s lively letters to successive presidents – without the kind of incident that almost led to war when Gordon Brown gave the president all Britain’s gold reserves and in return was given DVDs and a family meal voucher for McDonalds. Prince Charles got some seeds to talk to. Spot on! David Cameron had briefly to be fitted in, so did Ed Miliband. But what with the trip to Westminster Abbey – laying a wreath on the tomb of the unknown warrior is de rigueur for state visits – they started running late. In his reflective moment as the choir sang, did Obama have time to recall that Harry Truman, the first US president his royal host had met, was once a frontline soldier in that war? Obama (he’s got a lot on his mind) signed the visitors book “May 24, 2008.” Undeterred the crowds outside called “we love you, we love you,” in sharp contrast to the jeers which hounded George W Bush in 2003. Those Europeans prefer Democrats to cowboys. Cameron further slowed progress by shipping his visitor off to the Globe Academy (opened by Ed Balls in 2008) in Southwark, surely not to cramp Miliband’s moment? No, even Tory posh boys are aware of the Obama CV which makes them keener than ever to trumpet social mobility, not one of the Queen’s strongest suits. They risked being photographed playing table tennis, normally a no-win situation for politicians, even if the host gallantly loses on purpose. This time the pair cunningly played pupils and high-fived their best shots. Handy material for the election file, a win-win after all for the “essential relationship.” No table tennis for Miliband, but he had his meeting in the end, searching for some reflected Obama optimism to share. After that a quick shower for the visitors in Buck House’s Belgian Suite – named after Africa’s most notorious colonialist regime – and that state dinner. What could possibly go wrong? In the Europe of 2011, anything. Barack Obama Europe Michael White guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s friends are reportedly hoping enough money can convince the maid he allegedly raped to drop the case—but because she’s in protective custody, they’ve instead made the pitch to her extended family, who live in an impoverished West African village, a French businesswoman close to Strauss-Kahn tells the…
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José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva fought against illegal loggers and had received death threats but was refused police protection Six months after predicting his own murder, a leading rainforest defender has reportedly been gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon. José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, are said to have been killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá. According to a local newspaper, Diário do Pará , the couple had not had police protection despite getting frequent death threats because of their battle against illegal loggers and ranchers. On Tuesday there were conflicting reports from about whether the killing happened on Monday night or Tuesday morning. A police spokesperson said there were reports of a “double homicide” at the settlement called Maçaranduba 2. In a speech at a TEDx event in Manaus, in November , Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence him. “I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, ‘are you afraid?’ Yes, I’m a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest.” Roberto Smeraldi, founder and director of the environmental group Amigos da Terra, who worked with Da Silva in the Amazon, said he had been in a meeting with Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, discussing changes to the forest code when the news broke of Da Silva being killed. “He was convinced he would be killed one day,” Smeraldi said. He added that Da Silva had been “very active” in the fight against illegal forest burning and logging. According to Brazilian media reports, Rousseff has asked her chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho, to offer support to the murder investigation. “We now have another Chico Mendes,” said Felipe Milanez, an environmental journalist from São Paulo, referring to the Amazonian rubber-tapper who became an environmental martyr after his murder in 1988. Milanez said that in a recent phone conversation with Da Silva’s wife she had suggested the situation was “getting very ugly”. Milanez added: “He knew the threats were very real. He was scared.” A 2008 report compiled by Brazilian human rights groups listed Da Silva as one of dozens of Amazon human rights and environmental activists “considered at risk” of assassination. Brazil Forests Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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Authorities urged to do more to get people out of harm’s way as new violent storm forecasted The authorities in the Missouri town devastated by the worst tornado in modern history tested their warning sirens on Tuesday amid calls for better alarm systems to get people out of reach of violent storms. At least 117 people were killed when the town of Joplin took a direct hit from a tornado. Hundreds of others remain missing in the town, which saw 30% of its buildings flattened. Seventeen survivors have been found in the rubble of the town, officials said, but recovery operations were affected by violent weather. Two emergency workers were struck by lightning on Monday. With forecasts of a new violent storm system heading for Oklahoma and south-western Missouri, the head of the national weather service said the authorities needed to do more to get people out of harm’s way. “We need to ask ourselves, what can we do to protect Americans?” Jack Hayes, the federal agency’s director, said. “I have to say, it’s not enough. We have to do more.” The national weather service is considering introducing smartphone warnings and other systems to increase its warning capability. Storm sirens sounded more than 20 minutes before the tornado hit Joplin just before 6pm on Sunday – more than the 13- or 14-minute average warning time, said Greg Carbin, the meteorologist who heads the weather service’s storm prediction centre. That should have been ample time to get to cover. But forecasters are growing concerned that people – especially those living in tornado-prone areas of the south and central United States – are becoming blase about warnings, or that the warnings are not getting through in time. Increasing the warning lead time might even make the problem of complacency worse because it would also affect accuracy of forecasts, said Carbin. “That is something we grapple with all the time,” said Carbin. “If we want to push the envelope with respect to predictions are we also going to overwarn or cry wolf too often? I would argue that there may be some signs we are already doing that.” However, Missouri’s governor, Jay Nixon, suggested some people in Joplin could not hear the tornado sirens over strong winds and heavy rain. “When the pressure caused those alarms to go off, there was so much rain, so much hail many of the folks couldn’t even hear it,” he said. There were similar complaints after last month’s deadly tornadoes in Alabama and other southern states when thunderstorms blew down powerlines and weather service systems, leaving mobile phones as the only means of communication, Bob Henson of the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research said. “People tend to confirm a warning themselves before acting. Did the sirens go off? What is the TV meteorologist saying? What are my family and friends Does it look like a tornado is approaching?doing?” he said. Fast-changing conditions also lead people to underestimate the danger or assume they have more time to get to safety. And, Henson wrote in a recent blog, there may be no readily safe haven anyway. “As with other tornado outbreaks across the southern US, it’s likely that a disproportionate number of deaths occurred in mobile homes, which are not designed to withstand major tornadoes or other severe wind and water hazards.” Missouri United States Natural disasters and extreme weather Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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British aircraft join heaviest bombardment of Tripoli so far and commanders prepare to deploy Apache helicopters Ministers have agreed to step up the scale and intensity of military action against Libya while privately admitting there is now a danger the conflict could drag on for months, well-placed Whitehall officials have told the Guardian. As British aircraft joined the heaviest bombardment so far of the Libyan capital Tripoli and HMS Ocean prepared to head for the country’s coastal waters with Apache attack helicopters on board, officials said the coalition was attempting to apply psychological pressure on the Gaddafi regime as well as depriving it of equipment. Government sources made clear the Apaches were being sent to Libya, and the intention was to use them, despite Nick Harvey, the armed forces minister, insisting in the Commons that no final decision had yet been taken. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, told a London news conference on Monday night that the opposition had organised a legitimate and credible interim council that was committed to democracy. The US has invited the council to set up an office in Washington. “Their military forces are improving and when Gaddafi inevitably leaves, a new Libya stands ready to move forward,” she said. However, British officials made plain that while they hoped the Gaddafi regime would collapse soon, they did not hold out much expectation it would do so. RAF Tornados, armed with 230kg (500lb) guided bombs, on Tuesday attacked a military vehicle depot within Gaddafi’s large Bab al-Aziziyah complex in the centre of Tripoli, the Ministry of Defence said. As the result of the shockwaves, plaster was reported to have fallen from the ceilings in a hotel where foreign reporters were staying, about 1.2 miles (2km) away. A Nato official said the facility had been used to attack civilians. “It is definitely, in terms of one target, the largest and most concentrated attack we have done to date,” a Nato official in Brussels told Reuters. “This complex is where members of the Gaddafi regime, not only military but hit squads, were based in the early days of the violent suppression of the popular uprising, and it has been active ever since.” A Libyan government spokesman said three people had been killed and 150 wounded, and that the casualties were local residents. In London, Harvey told MPs that while “no decision” had yet been taken to use Apaches, the advantage of using the helicopters was that they could “strike moving targets with greater precision”. He dismissed the widely-held view that the use of Apaches in close-quarter attacks would be a significant escalation in military operations. “The targets would remain the same” and it was “simply a tactical shift”, Harvey told MPs. Asked about the estimated £1bn cost of the conflict to the UK if it continued into the autumn, he said the chancellor had made clear the cost would be met by the Treasury. The minister was summoned to the Commons to answer an urgent question tabled by the shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, following reports that military commanders had decided to deploy the Apaches following a green light from the National Security Council chaired by David Cameron. HMS Ocean, with four Apaches on board, is expected off the Libyan coast within a week. The helicopters, armed with Hellfire missiles and 30mm cannon, will be used to mount a 16-mile buffer zone around the port city of Misrata, defence officials said. After the Commons exchanges, Murphy said: “Parliament has not written the government a blank cheque on Libya and ministers should never keep the British public in the dark over major military decisions. The deployment of attack helicopters would represent a significant moment and an escalation of the conflict.” Libya Military Middle East Africa Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Mahmoud Abbas must be prepared to accept Jewish state alongside Palestinian state, Israeli PM says in hardline speech Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has spurned American pressure to make a significant gesture towards peace to stave off international support for a declaration of Palestinian independence by telling the US Congress that the Palestinians want a country in order to continue the conflict, not end it. Netanyahu had been under pressure from the White House to outline immediate and practical steps towards peace after Barack Obama warned him that the US was increasingly unable to shield it from growing frustration over what is seen as Israel’s intransigence. But while Israeli officials had billed the speech as intended to “garner major international attention” and shift the ground from under the Palestinians attempts to win UN recognition for a state at a vote in September, Netanyahu remained largely uncompromising. The Israeli PM told an overwhelmingly sympathetic Congress that it is the Palestinians themselves, led by Mahmoud Abbas, who are the main obstacle to peace. “Why has peace not been achieved? Because so far the Palestinians have been unwilling to accept a Palestinian state if it meant accepting a Jewish state alongside it,” he said. “President Abbas must do what I have done. I have stood before my people and I have said I will accept a Palestinian state. It’s time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say: I will accept a Jewish state. “Those six words will change history … With those words, I will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise.” Palestinian officials accused Netanyahu of grandstanding for Congress, and said his demands for an immediate recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, rather than as part of an overall peace deal, was yet another obstacle to an agreement. “What came in Netanyahu’s speech will not lead to peace,” said Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah. Netanyahu said he recognised that a peace agreement would require Israel to give up some of the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria. But he rejected the contention that Israelis had no legitimate claim to the West Bank. “In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers,” he said, to a standing ovation. “We’re not the British in India. We’re not the Belgians in [the] Congo. This is the land of our forefathers. “But there is another truth. The Palestinians share this small land with us. We seek a peace in which they will be neither Israel’s subjects nor its citizens.” Netanyahu repeated previous assertions that he was prepared to make what he called “painful sacrifices” that would involve a partial pullout from the West Bank while retaining control of larger Jewish settlements that he described as suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He said that Israel recognised that a Palestinian state had to be large enough to be politically and economically viable, but added that Israel “will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967″. “Israel will be generous on the size of the Palestinian state, but will be very firm on where we put the border with it,” he said. Netanyahu’s at times belligerent tone is not likely to persuade countries considering how to vote at the UN on Palestinian statehood, particularly European governments. He said that support for any such move would undermine not further the cause of peace. “The Palestinian attempt to impose a settlement through the United Nations will not bring peace. It should be forcefully opposed by all those who want to see this conflict end,” said Netanyahu. “Peace cannot be imposed; it must be negotiated.” Netanyahu addressed the dramatic changes in his region by saying that “an epic battle is now underway in Middle East between tyranny and freedom” that “holds out the promise of a new dawn of freedom”. But he said that the world should remember how quickly the hope of freedom was snuffed out after the Iranian revolution in 1979. “The Middle East stands at a fateful crossroads and I pray that the people of the region choose the path less travelled, the path of liberty,” he said. Netanyahu’s speech, and particularly his emphasis on no return to the 1967 borders, was not only a snub to Obama, but a recognition that he has largely outmanoeuvred the White House over recent months. At Obama’s first meeting as president with Netanyahu two years ago, the US president demanded an immediate halt to settlement construction as a first step to a swift and comprehensive peace settlement. The Israeli prime minister openly defied the pressure to the alarm of some in his own country who feared that he could not afford to alienate Washington. But the stand paid off for Netanyahu. Obama has since backed away from the demand on settlements. The resignation of Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, this month marks the reemergence of a traditional and more cautious White House approach to the conflict. Mitchell had pressed the administration to outline its own plan for a peace settlement if there was no progress between the two sides, a strategy that initially won favour among senior officials keen to break the deadlock that permitted Israel to continue expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and tightening its grip on Jerusalem. In Mitchell’s place has reemerged his deputy, Dennis Ross, who has served three US presidents as Middle East envoy. Ross has been criticised as being too close to Israel. His deputy at earlier negotiations, Aaron David Miller, once described him as acting as “Israel’s lawyer”. Bassam Abu Shareef, a political adviser to the last Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has said that Mitchell quit because of the “extreme bias” and obstructiveness of Ross. Israel Palestinian territories Binyamin Netanyahu US Congress Middle East US foreign policy United States US politics Obama administration Barack Obama Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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The US president and wife Michelle’s first day in the UK included meeting the Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace
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