Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, blocked attempt by former PM to hold judicial inquiry into phone-hacking allegations Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, blocked an attempt by Gordon Brown before the general election to hold a judicial inquiry into allegations that the News of the World had hacked into the phones of cabinet ministers and other high-profile figures. As News International prepares to pay compensation to victims of the illegal practice, the Guardian understands that Britain’s most senior civil servant took steps to prevent an inquiry on the grounds that it would be too sensitive before last year’s general election. The then prime minister, who warned Peter Mandelson in 2009 that his phone had been hacked on behalf of the News of the World, wanted a judicial inquiry after new evidence of the illegal practice emerged that summer. The Guardian revealed in July 2009 that Rupert Murdoch’s News Group newspapers had paid more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal illegal phone hacking by private investigators on behalf of News of the World. The revelations were of acute political sensitivity because Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World between 2003 and 2007, was by then David Cameron’s communications director. Coulson was asked to appear before the Commons culture select committee after the publication of the Guardian disclosures. O’Donnell told Brown, who lost the support of the News of the World and its sister paper, the Sun, in the autumn of 2009, that it would be inappropriate to hold a judicial inquiry so soon before the election. Coulson was by then one of the most senior members of Cameron’s inner circle and was appointed as the Downing Street director of communications after the general election. He has consistently denied any knowledge of wrongdoing, and resigned from No 10 in January saying coverage of phone hacking had made his job impossible. The disclosure that O’Donnell blocked an inquiry came as Boris Johnson called for a “truth and reconciliation” commission to establish the full facts about phone hacking. In an interview on Sky News, the mayor of London said: “Plainly the police need to get on with it. But I would like to see the entire newspaper industry, what we used to call Fleet Street and indeed the media generally, have a general truth and reconciliation commission about all this. I think all the editors and all the proprietors should come forward, put their hands up, say whether they know of any of their reporters or employees who may or may not have been engaged in these practices which have now been exposed at the News of the World. I think that would be a very healthy development.” Johnson spoke out after News International issued a public apology on Friday to eight victims of phone hacking. These included the actor Sienna Miller, the former Labour culture secretary Tessa Jowell, the football agent Sky Andrew and the publicist Nicola Phillips. Charlotte Harris of Mishcon de Reya, which represents Andrew, said she was advising her client not to accept compensation until he sees all the documentation in the possession of News International. Harris told Radio 4′s The World This Weekend: “Sky Andrew has been finally offered an apology and we are thinking about what to do. There isn’t actually a particular figure they have offered us for anything. The position Sky is taking is not disimilar to that of Sienna Miller and Nicola Phillips. It is: isn’t this a bit early, we are just about to have disclosure of the documents, we need to have a look and see what has happened and get to the bottom of it and then we’ll see where it goes from there.” Asked if she would advise her clients not to settle without disclosure of notes and emails, Harris said: “Yes. What we have at the moment is an apology and an admission, having been working on this for a very long time. We haven’t even got near the truth yet. We have got orders that mean we are now going to be able to have a chance at getting to the bottom of it, so we need to find out. How are we meant to know what to accept if we don’t know the full extent of what has happened?” Harris added that thousands of phones could have been monitored. “If you consider that if you hack into one person’s phone, you have access to everyone who has left a message for them. And then, if you go into the person who has left a message, you get all of theirs. You have got to be running into several thousand, just from that methodology. To put a figure on it, it is certainly not a handful – maybe 4,000, 6,000, 7,000 – a huge amount of people.”The Guardian understands Gordon Brown was so concerned that News of the World was targeting Labour figures that he warned Peter Mandelson his phone had been hacked. Mandelson approached the information commissioner, but he did not confirm that his phone had been hacked. Critics of Murdoch have urged the government not to decide on his bid to take control of BSkyB until the allegations have been fully investigated. But advisers to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, say he is prevented by law from taking the scandal into account when he considers whether it is appropriate for News Corporation to be allowed to buy all of BSkyB. The £8bn merger, which the minister has already said he is minded to approve, is being examined on its impact on “media plurality”. However, Hunt’s lawyers say that phone hacking cannot be considered in an inquiry as regards plurality. They say it could only form part of a “suitability of persons” test into whether Murdoch and the bosses of News Corporation were appropriate individuals to own BSkyB. That test was designed to prevent pornographers, for example, becoming media owners – but it cannot now be invoked in the case of the Murdoch merger. The Enterprise Act that covers the UK’s merger rules only allows one referral on one set of grounds, which means £8bn deal could only ever have been referred for political approval on either media plurality or suitability of persons grounds, but not both. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: “We never comment about any advice from a cabinet secretary to a prime minister on any issue.” Nicholas Watt Patrick Wintour Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A pattern is emerging on Charlie Sheen’s My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option tour: Crash and burn at one show only to “win” at the next . He did it once again this weekend, scoring a standing ovation at Connecticut’s Oakdale Theatre last night after a disastrous show…
Continue reading …Fred Armisen’s Barack Obama opened Saturday Night Live last night with a summary of the budget deal: “On one got everything they wanted, and everyone walked away unhappy.” The unhappiness trickled down to Congress, Congressional cleaning staff and interns, Tea Partiers, Mitt Romney, the New York Times, and kids who…
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Delegation led by South African president Jacob Zuma may also meet rebel leadership in Benghazi as fighting continues Leaders of five African countries arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in an attempt to broker a ceasefire and a political resolution to the deadlocked two-month-old conflict. The African Union delegation, led by the South African president, Jacob Zuma, may then fly on to Benghazi, the heartland of the rebels, to press for a diplomatic settlement. The initiative came as Nato air strikes once again pulled the rebels back from the brink of a significant defeat by stalling a government assault on the strategic town of Ajdabiya, the gateway to the revolutionaries’ de facto capital, Benghazi. Air strikes destroyed a total of 25 tanks around Ajdabiya and the besieged western city of Misrata. Nato gave permission for the African leaders’ planes to enter Libyan airspace. The aircraft were the first to land at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport since the international coalition imposed a no-fly zone over the country more than two weeks ago. Several hundred Libyan civilians and military personnel gathered to greet the delegation with an eclectic mix of tribal singing and dancing, bagpipes, brass band and the ubiquitous loyalist chant of ” Allah, Muammar, Libya wa bas [that's all we need]“. Zuma, who arrived aboard a South African air force plane, made no comment before leaving in an armoured convoy. Earlier, a statement from the African Union delegation said its objective was to bring military operations in Libya to an end and to mediate between the regime and the opposition on a political resolution. “We hope that mediation will lead to a constructive dialogue for a political settlement of the crisis based on the aspirations of the Libyan people,” said the Mauritanian president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. The other members of the team are the presidents of Congo-Brazzaville and Mali and the Ugandan foriegn minister. The African Union initiative follows a proposal last week by the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for a three-point plan covering a ceasefire, political negotiations and a humanitarian corridor. However, opposition forces insist they will not consider any political deal that involves Gaddafi or members of his family retaining power. Proposals put forward by the regime so far have included Gaddafi or one of his sons overseeing political change in Libya. It is far from clear how this gap could be bridged. Nato said its forces destroyed 11 tanks around Ajdabiya and 14 tanks on the outskirts of Misrata, the sole rebel-dominated town in the west of the country, host to fierce fighting for about six weeks. “The situation in Ajdabiya and Misrata in particular is desperate for those Libyans who are being brutally shelled by the [Gaddafi] regime,” said Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, the Canadian commander of Nato’s Libya operations. A Red Cross ship docked in Misrata at the weekend, bringing medical supplies to civilians in the besieged port city, about 100 miles from Tripoli. The Libyan government has refused to take journalists based in the capital into Misrata, citing safety reasons, but civilians and doctors by phone have described coming under attack from shelling and sniper fire. Many of the victims are reported to be children. Last week, Nato said Misrata was its “number one priority”. The air strikes on Ajdabiya, 90 miles from Benghazi, helped reverse days of setbacks for the rebels which saw Gaddafi’s forces fight their way in to the heart of the town on Saturday. Shelling around the southern entrance to Ajdabiya could be heard on Sunday morning but it died away in the afternoon following the air strikes. Among the vehicles hit were six carrying government soldiers. Their charred bodies were scattered around the still burning vehicles a few hours later. “Nato has to do this to help us every single day. That is the only way we are going to win this war,” a 25-year-old rebel, Tarek Obeidy, told Reuters while standing over the bodies. The rebels said government forces shot down a Russian-made helicopter sent into the fight by the rebels two days earlier. Nato forced a MiG jet fighting for the rebels to land because of the UN-imposed no-fly zone. Many areas were deserted after civilians fled the prospect of Gaddafi’s troops taking it for a second time in as many weeks. Thousands of rounds of discarded bullet casings marked the site of some of the most intense fighting over the weekend. The sudden change in the rebels’ fortunes once again demonstrated how reliant they are on Nato air strikes to hold off government assaults. Nato faced humiliation if Gaddafi’s army forced its way through Ajdabiya once again and threatened Benghazi, the city the western allies launched the first air strikes to defend. Rebel defences around Benghazi are little in evidence, other than a line of artillery about 15 miles from the city. Libyan officials said that the regime was preparing a new constitution, although failed to give details or say whether Gaddafi would retain power. One official, Ibrahim Moukhzam, said: “Constitutions are not designed to fit around individuals. They are designed to serve the nation and any citizen can find a place for them in this constitution. “Muammar Gaddafi as a Libyan individual can find his place in the constitution. The vast majority of people want him to stay. He is a symbol. He has many jobs and tasks.” Asked if it would be a presidential republic or another political system, Moukhzam said it would be a “Libyan version”. Gaddafi made his first public appearance in several days at the weekend, visiting a school in Tripoli where he was greeted by chanting and ululating supporters. Meanwhile, three western journalists are believed to be in the custody of the regime after being detained by government forces near Brega, in the east of the country, last week. A photographer for the Associated Press, who was missing after becoming separated from colleagues near Ajdabiya on Saturday, has been found. Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest African Union Jacob Zuma Nato Muammar Gaddafi Harriet Sherwood Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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Dead authors are still making a fortune, while John Grisham and Dan Brown lead the US rankings Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, has beaten Agatha Christie to the title of most successful – and highest earning – British crime writer of all time. The first crime writers rich list, prepared for the crime drama digital TV channel Alibi , is based on recorded sales, box office returns, licence fees and company accounts. It reveals that many dead writers, including Fleming and Christie, live on as flourishing brands. It puts Fleming in first place at more than £100m, with more than 100m copies of the Bond books sold worldwide. Christie comes a close second at £100m exactly, including ticket sales from The Mousetrap, the longest running stage play in the world, a fixture in London’s West End since 1952. But both were beaten hands down by the American writers John Grisham, at $600m (£366m), and Dan Brown, at $400m. The richest living British crime author, third behind Fleming and Christie, is Jeffrey Archer, who will launch a five-volume saga, The Clifton Chronicles, this year. He is valued at £70m, but the ranking takes into account his art collection and property, not just sales and royalties. Jack Higgins, a Jersey resident since the success of The Eagle Has Landed in 1975, is in third place at £50m plus, followed by Ken Follett, who is married to the former Labour minister Barbara Follett. Both just beat Dick Francis, the former jockey who was said to be the Queen Mother’s favourite novelist. Francis died last year, but his son Felix promises further books will be published. Labour peer Ruth Rendell, creator of Inspector Wexford, an unusually genial figure for a detective, is estimated at £30m plus and is ranked seventh, followed by Ian Rankin, creator of the more typically glum Rebus, at £25m. Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse, just missed the top 10, with a fortune estimated at £20m. The channel is launching a competition for aspiring new crimewriters, who can win a holiday in Sweden, home of the most miserable of all the gloomy detectives, Wallander. The top 10 UK crime authors Ian Fleming £100m+ Agatha Christie £100m Jeffrey Archer £70m Jack Higgins £50m+ Ken Follett £50m Dick Francis, just under £50m Ruth Rendell £30m+ Lee Child £30m Ian Rankin £25m Alexander McCall Smith £20m Top 10 US crime writers John Grisham $600m Dan Brown $400m Patricia Cornwell $300m+ Robert Ludlum $300m Michael Crichton $300m Michael Connelly $250m Thomas Harris $150m Elmore Leonard $100m Ed McBain $75m James Ellroy $50m Crime fiction Fiction Agatha Christie Dan Brown Ian Rankin Jeffrey Archer John Grisham Ian Fleming Ken Follett Ruth Rendell Maev Kennedy guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sarah Palin thinks Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and all, but says of Donald Trump’s sudden quest for the president’s birth certificate, “More power to him.” Asked her opinion yesterday by Fox News, Palin replied, “Well, I appreciate that the Donald wants to spend his resources in getting to…
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Aintree to review safety after two horses died following race in sweltering heat and over firmer ground than usual The Grand National has been compared to “Spanish bullfighting” and its organisers accused of “ritualised animal cruelty” after Saturday’s race in sweltering heat and firmer than usual ground left two horses dead and the winning animal too exhausted to be ridden into the winner’s enclosure. The annual controversy over the dangers of the meeting intensified further after a jockey riding in the Maghull Novices’ Chase – a race that did not feature the National fences – was put in a medically-induced coma after sustaining head injuries when his horse fell at the first fence earlier on Saturday. The National, run over ground officially described as “good, good-to-soft in places”, was won by Ballabriggs in nine minutes and one second, making it the second fastest ever. The speed at which the horses travelled increased the likelihood of injuries. Only 19 of the 40 horses that started the race finished it. Ten fell; five were pulled up; four unseated their riders; and two were brought down by other fallers. The two horses that died fell during the first circuit of the four-and-a-half-mile race. Ornais tumbled at the fourth fence, breaking its neck, while Dooneys Gate fell at the sixth, Becher’s Brook, breaking its back. Their falls led to both fences being bypassed in the second circuit, the first time such action has been taken in the history of the Grand National. The race also appeared to have taken a heavy toll on Ballabriggs, which was given oxygen and doused with water to cool it down. Its rider, Jason Maguire, had to dismount and enter the winner’s enclosure on foot. Three of the first four horses to finish were too exhausted to enter the winners’ enclosure and went directly to their stables. The protest group Animal Aid, which pointed out that 20 horses have died on the Grand National course since 2000, called for the event to be banned, saying it “should have no future in a civilised country”. Its director, Andrew Tyler, said: “When horses are killed at the Grand National meeting, their deaths are not accidents but entirely predictable. The public has been conned into believing that the Grand National is a great sporting spectacle when, in reality, it is straightforward animal abuse that is on a par with Spanish bullfighting.” The League Against Cruel Sports described the race as “ritualised animal cruelty” and accused its sponsor, brewers John Smith’s, of putting “their profits into sponsoring the cruelty”. Tony Moore, chairman of Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (Faace), said the deaths were “not only sad … [but] inevitable”, adding: “We are going to continue campaigning and raising awareness of this tragedy and perhaps we can make it change, make people think about what they are putting the horses through.” The BBC also came in for criticism for its coverage of the animals’ deaths after its commentator, Mick Fitzgerald, referred to the dead horses as “obstacles”. “[It] deserves special condemnation for all but concealing news of the deaths,” said Tyler. “In fact, one of its commentary team described the dead horses as they lay on the course as ‘obstacles’, which was particularly disgusting and callous.” The corporation defended its coverage, saying it had been aware of the fatalities and had tried to cover them with “as much sensitivity as possible”. A spokeswoman added: “Clare [Balding] was also most sensitive in her reporting of the incidents and even touched on it in her closing links to the programme.” The race’s organisers said they were “desperately sad” over what had happened and promised a thorough review of Saturday’s events. “When a horse gets hurt, everyone is deeply upset,” said Julian Thick, managing director of Aintree racecourse. “Safety is the first priority for the organisers of the Grand National meeting and we will redouble our efforts to make sure that everyone involved in the event – the horses, the jockeys, the spectators – is able to participate in safety and comfort.” The RSPCA confirmed that it would be taking a close look at the race footage to see if anything could have been done to prevent the deaths. “The death of a horse at any race meeting is never justifiable and it is crucial that, wherever possible, steps are taken to reduce the likelihood of such tragedies occurring,” said a spokeswoman. “The Grand National is the most testing of races and due to the number of runners, the distance of the race and the number and variety of obstacles there is a higher risk to horses.” Meanwhile, the jockey who suffered bleeding on the right side of his brain when his horse fell in the Maghull Novices’ Chase on Saturday remained in a stable condition. Peter Toole, 22, was taken to Fazakerley hospital, near Aintree, but was later transferred to the neighbouring Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Trainer Charlie Mann, to whom Toole is attached, said: “He’s in an induced coma and he won’t be brought out until Monday at the earliest. He has bleeding on the right-hand side of his brain. “He also dislocated a shoulder, which has been put back in place. He’s on a ventilator, and it’s not great – but we won’t know any more until Monday.”His weighing-room colleague David Crosse added: “I’ve spoken to Peter’s dad, who said he remains stable, but with no improvement. He’s going to be sedated for 24 hours.” Grand National Horse racing Grand National 2011 Animal welfare Animals BBC Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
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Asif Ali Zardari criticises members of US Congress and US media in Guardian interview The war in Afghanistan is destabilising Pakistan and seriously undermining efforts to restore its democratic institutions and economic prosperity after a decade of military dictatorship, Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, has told the Guardian. Speaking during an exclusive interview in the imposing presidential residence in Islamabad, Zardari also pointed to widespread concern in Pakistan at the slow pace of efforts to end the Afghan conflict, and said some US politicians showed limited understanding of the impact of American policies. “Just as the Mexican drug war on US borders makes a difference to Texas and American society, we are talking about a war on our border which is obviously having a huge effect. Only today a suicide bomber has attacked a police compound in Baluchistan. I think it [the Afghan war] has an effect on the entire region, and specially our country,” Zardari said. Asked about harsh criticism of Pakistan’s co-operation in the “war on terror” published in a White House report last week, Zardari said Pakistan always listened to Washington’s views. But he suggested some members of Congress and the US media did not know what they were talking about when it came to Pakistan. “The United States has been an ally of Pakistan for the last 60 years. We respect and appreciate their political system. So every time a new parliament comes in, new boys come in, new representatives come in, it takes them time to understand the international situation. Not Obama, but the Congress, interest groups and the media get affected by ‘deadline-itis’ [over ending the Afghan war],” Zardari said. “I think it is maybe 12 years since America has become engaged in Afghanistan and obviously everybody’s patience is on edge, especially the American public, which is looking for answers. There are no short-term answers and it is very difficult to make the American taxpayer understand.” With less than three months left before Barack Obama has promised to begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan, the White House recriminations reflected the growing pressures on all three governments to agree a workable, long-term strategy. The report complained bitterly that after years of US funding of the Pakistani military, “there remains no clear path towards defeating the insurgency” inside Pakistan. It criticised as ineffectual Pakistani army operations in some areas of the western tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, which are believed to be used as safe havens by Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida elements. A congressional panel also weighed in this week, urging the Obama administration to abandon Pakistan in favour of India. “Pakistan is about to go broke or collapse,” said Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat. Zardari suggested that if that assertion were true, the interventionist policies of the US and other foreign governments in south Asia would be a significant contributory factor. Pakistan had been in a state of “security alert” for several decades, he said. “Our emphasis has been on security rather than our commerce and we need commerce for our survival. “We have all the gas in the world waiting to go through to markets in India and the Red Sea but it cannot be brought in until Afghanistan is settled. So Afghanistan is a growth issue for us. I think most of the time, the quantification of the effect of the war is not calculated [by the US]. “Prices are going up, obviously we are a high fuel-importing country, and fuel prices are going up. Because of the war situation, the industry in one of our provinces has practically closed down … When one whole sector is not working, there is an effect on the other sectors.” According to senior intelligence officials, the “war on terror” has cost the Pakistani economy approximately $68bn (£42bn) since 2001. More than 33,300 Pakistani civilians and military personnel have been killed or seriously injured. Last year’s record-breaking floods added to the strain on the economy. Zardari said the security situation was also undercutting efforts to strengthen democratic institutions bypassed or overturned during the military rule of his predecessor, General Pervez Musharraf. “Democracy is evolving. It’s a new democracy. It takes time to bring institutions back. Destroying institutions during a decade of dictatorial regime is easy … So there is a political impact as well as an economic impact.” Pakistani officials say relations with the US reached a “low ebb” following the recent row over Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis ; a CIA drone attack in Pakistan’s tribal areas last month that accidentally killed dozens of civilian elders meeting in a jirga (council), and Pakistan’s suspicions that it is being excluded from discussions about an Afghan peace deal. Zardari, who is expected to visit Washington next month, said he would ask Obama to share drone technology with Pakistan so future attacks could be planned and directed under a “Pakistani flag”. Although this request had been turned down in the past, he said he was hopeful the Americans would be more receptive this time, given the huge anger and rising anti-American feeling that the drone attacks were causing. Zardari and other senior government officials said all parties felt a sense of growing urgency about forging an inclusive peace settlement in Afghanistan, but the process must be “Afghan-led”. Pakistan was ready to play its part, consistent with its national interest, they said. Salman Bashir, Pakistan’s foreign secretary, said: “Everybody is gradually coming round to our point of view that this requires greater diplomatic pressure. There is no military solution in Afghanistan.” Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari Afghanistan United States Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Both the Democrats and Republicans are acting like squabbling adolescents, slams Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times . “It’s unclear where the adults are, but they don’t seem to be in Washington,” he says, adding “it’s painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have…
Continue reading …In the days leading up to the government’s near-shutdown, federal workers hunkered down at Govloop , the so-called Facebook of government workers, to share tips on dealing with the crisis. There was practical adice —”Water the plants. You may be gone for a while.” Comical —”How about we grow beards during…
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