West Bank settlers are given training before protests predicted to coincide with a Palestinian petition for UN recognition The Israeli military is arming and training West Bank settlers in preparation for mass protests by Palestinians that it expects to erupt around the time that the UN is asked to recognise a Palestinian state, according to a leaked document . Teargas and stun grenades are being distributed and training sessions held with settlement security teams, according to the document obtained by Haaretz. The army has also drawn lines on maps around Jewish settlements close to Palestinian villages to guide troops, police and settlement security chiefs. Protesters who breach the first line will be subject to teargas and other methods of crowd dispersal. If a second “red line” is crossed, soldiers will be permitted to open fire at protesters’ legs. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed it was liaising with settlers over Operation Summer Seeds, its codename for the military response to the expected protests. However, Palestinian leaders vigorously deny that violent protests are planned, and the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects September to pass quietly. In a statement the IDF said: “The IDF maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario. “Recently, central command has completed training the majority of the first response teams; these exercises are ongoing. Beyond the aforementioned training, the IDF cannot comment further regarding its operational preparedness.” According to Haaretz, the army has held training sessions for settlement security officers at a military installation near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh. Settlers are pressing the IDF to issue specific instructions on how they should respond to Palestinian protests, the paper says, but the military advocate general is concerned that such instructions could be interpreted as rules of engagement. Hagit Ofran, of Peace Now, an Israeli organisation which monitors settlement activity, said: “We hope the army is making clear that non-violent protest is legitimate and no settlers should use any violence against unarmed demonstrators.” Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights said there were already “serious questions and problems” with settlement security officials acting outside their designated boundaries. “We’re very concerned that [the IDF move] will not reduce conflict but increase it,” he said. Preparation for anticipated protests has been under way for weeks, with extra training given to thousands of police officers and soldiers. The Israeli authorities have allocated funds for training exercises and the purchase of additional equipment. The military has reportedly stockpiled around 200,000 litres of foul-smelling liquid to be fired from water cannon at protesters, or possibly dropped from planes. Supplies of stun grenades, rubber bullets and riot gear are also being topped up. According to the leaked document, the IDF expects demonstrations to turn into “mass disorder”. It says the protests may include “marches towards main junctions, Israeli communities and education centres; efforts at damaging symbols of [Israeli] government. Also there may be more extreme cases like shooting from within the demonstrations or even terrorist incidents. In all the scenarios, there is readiness to deal with incidents near the fences and the borders of the state of Israel.” Earlier this month, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s rightwing foreign minister, said the Palestinians were preparing for “bloodshed the likes of which we’ve never seen before”. Some commentators believed his remarks were aimed at inflaming the situation and stoking fears among the Israeli population. The Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Israel was “trying to fuel a fake picture of what will happen in September”, adding: “These Israeli predictions of violence aren’t true.” The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has called for peaceful demonstrations in September to coincide with the Palestinians’ petition to the UN for recognition of their state. But he has repeatedly said protests should be peaceful. “I insist on popular resistance and I insist that it be unarmed popular resistance so that nobody misunderstands us,” he told the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s central committee. The Palestinian leadership is expected to present their request to be admitted to UN membership when the general assembly meets in September. Membership of the UN requires security council approval, which the US has already said it will veto. The Palestinians are then expected to request an enhanced “non-member state” status, which needs a two-thirds majority in the general assembly. They claim to have the backing so far of 124 of the UN’s 193 members, and expect to get a majority by the time of a vote. Israel Palestinian territories United Nations Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Welcome to First Look, our daily roundup of early-bird news: • Obama’s job plans may include a tax cut to reward companies for hiring. (Washington Post) • A federal judge puts Alabama immigration law on hold. (Politico) • Most U.S. Muslims say they feel targeted by the country’s anti-terrorism policies. (AP) • Hurricane Irene’s death toll has risen
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Youth becomes fifth person to be arrested in connection with stabbing at the west London festival A 16-year-old youth has been arrested in west London on suspicion of assault following the stabbing of a 20-year-old man at the Notting Hill carnival, police said. Three men aged 20 and one 21-year-old have already been arrested and are in custody at various police stations in London in connection with the incident, which happened towards the end of the two-day festival. The victim, whose condition is described as serious but stable, was found with stab wounds to the stomach and hand in Ladbroke Grove after 6pm on Monday and taken to a central London hospital. The stabbing was one of only a small number of isolated incidents to mar Europe’s biggest street festival amid an unprecedented security operation following the riots in London and other cities earlier this month. More than 6,500 police officers, a record number, patrolled the carnival streets on Monday, up from 5,500 on Sunday. A total of 245 people were arrested during the carnival weekend, up slightly on 243 last year. Police had targeted potential troublemakers making more than 40 pre-emptive arrests last week, and agreed an earlier finish time of 7pm for both days. The London mayor, Boris Johnson, said during a visit to the carnival it was right to allow the festivities despite worries about street violence following the riots. “I thought it was very important that we should go ahead. Obviously there was quite a few people who wrote to me saying ‘for heaven’s sake, scrap it’. But we said ‘no, that would be wrong, because that would be an admission of defeat, if you like, after what happened earlier in the month’.” Police put in place a Section 60 order, which allows them to search individuals to prevent serious violence, and a Section 60 AA order, giving officers the power to require any person to remove items that conceal their identity. London Ambulance service treated a total of 494 carnival goers over the weekend, with 59 requiring hospital treatment. Last year, 706 people received medical treatment with 117 taken to hospital. Anyone who witnessed the stabbing incident or has information that may assist police is asked to call the incident room on 020 8246 9386, or speak anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crime Notting Hill carnival Festivals Knife crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
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Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan says change needed to avoid similar waste in future The US government has wasted more than $30bn (£18.3bn) on private contractors and grants in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade – more than 15% of the total spend – according to a bipartisan group charged with examining the issue. The figure, described as “sobering but conservative”, illustrated the need for significant law and policy changes to avoid such waste in the future, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan said. The body, set up by a Senate vote in 2007 to mimic the work of a post-second world war commission that investigated waste, will submit its report to Congress on Wednesday. However, some details of its findings were revealed by the co-chairs of the eight-member commission, writing in the Washington Post . At least another $30bn could be wasted if the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan are unable to keep US-run projects running after the US withdraws or simply choose not to do so, Christopher Shays, an ex-Republican congressman, and Michael Thibault, a former deputy director of the Defence Contract Audit Agency, wrote. “Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted through poor planning, vague and shifting requirements, inadequate competition, substandard contract management and oversight, lax accountability, weak inter-agency co-ordination, and subpar performance or outright misconduct by some contractors and federal employees. Both government and contractors need to do better,” they said. Examples of waste in the report included $40m of US money to finance a prison Iraq did not want and that was not completed, and more than $300m on a power plant in Kabul “that requires funding and technical expertise beyond the Afghan government’s capabilities”. In a separate report, released on Monday, the independent Centre for Public Integrity thinktank said $140bn in defence contracts were awarded without competitive tendering last year – almost triple the sum in 2001. A Pentagon spokesman said the department was “well aware of some of the deficiencies over the years in how we have worked contracts”. Marine Corps Colonel David Lapan said: “We have worked hard over those years to try to correct those deficiencies when we come across them.” However, he defended some practices, saying: “There have been many instances, because of wartime needs, where a lengthy competitive bid contract process does not serve the needs of the war fighters. “In many instances, it’s a matter of saving lives, doing things more quickly because of the nature of conflict.” Shays and Thibault said their report was not intended to be an attack on the use of private contractors in general, particularly given that the US “cannot conduct large or prolonged military operations without contractor support”. They added: “But the costs have been excessive, largely because of a shrunken federal acquisition workforce and a lack of effective planning to use contractors and the discipline of competition.” The report will include 15 recommendations, including the appointment of an official to co-ordinate between the National Security Council and the Office of Management and Budget, and to not automatically assume that every non-core task is suitable for contracting. Additionally, officials should better scrutinise proposed projects and “cancel or modify those that have no credible prospect of operating successfully”. United States Iraq Afghanistan Middle East Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Five people rushed to hospital with suspected poisoning after going to sleep with a smouldering barbecue in their tent Five campers were taken to hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after taking a lit barbecue into their tent. The five, who are believed to be members of the same family, were rushed to the Royal Cornwall Hospital following the incident at a caravan park near the resort of Newquay. It is thought the family went to sleep with the smouldering barbecue in the tent on Monday night. Fortunately, one of the occupants woke up and people staying in the tent next door helped get all five out shortly after midnight Tuesday. Shaun Taylor, the watch manager at Newquay fire station, said: “We discovered they had a lit barbecue inside the tent. Any item that produces heat or vapours can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. That was our concern. “If the dad hadn’t woken up and the people in the next tent hadn’t got the people out we would have been looking at a very sad and serious situation this morning.” The two adults and three children were staying at the Trevella Caravan Park, at Crantock near Newquay. A spokesman for Cornwall fire and rescue service said: “Five casualties (two adults and three children) were found to be suffering the effects of this odourless and colourless gas. “The cause of this incident is believed to have been a barbecue appliance that was inside their tent.” The five were all later released from hospital. It is the second time this summer that such an incident has happened. In July three holidaymakers was taken to hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after a similar incident at a campsite near Padstow, north Cornwall, when a smouldering barbecue was taken into tent. Then the fire service warned: “Never take a smouldering barbecue into a tented area or confined area with no ventilation as [it] will give off carbon monoxide fumes.” Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Six people arrested after remains discovered in shop that exploded in the early hours of Monday morning A body has been found in the rubble of a Leicester kebab shop that exploded in the early hours of Monday morning, police have revealed. Six people – two men and four women – have been arrested in connection with the incident, which detectives are treating as suspicious. The emergency services were called to the shop on Narborough Road at 2.23am on Monday following reports of an explosion. They arrived to find the kebab shop had been destroyed and, at 4.30pm on Monday, a body was recovered from the remains of the building. Leicestershire police have confirmed that a criminal investigation is under way, but have not identified the victim or given further details. Neighbouring properties have been evacuated while police and fire investigators examine the scene, and parts of Narborough Road remain closed. Police are asking anyone who was in the area at the time of the incident and may have seen something to get in touch. Kym Marshall, who lives in a nearby flat, told the Leicester Mercury that she had been woken up by a “massive bang and a shudder”. “It was very scary,” said Marshall, 19. “There was debris everywhere, and the building was on fire. “There were people running towards the building and others were shouting, ‘Get back, there’s been an explosion’.” Another local resident described the blast as “like an earthquake”. Warren Bernstein told the paper: “There was a popping noise coming from it and we weren’t sure if it was going to go up again. “People were screaming because they thought there might have been people in there. It must have been a powerful explosion because the metal security shutter was thrown across the road.” Anyone with any information is asked to contact Leicestershire constabulary on (0116) 222 2222 and quote incident 103 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Leicester Crime Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
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Fresh revelations about 1940s medical tests come to light, including deliberately exposing people to sexually transmitted diseases Shocking new details of US medical experiments done in Guatemala in the 1940s, including a decision to re-infect a dying woman in a syphilis study, have been disclosed by a presidential panel. The Guatemala experiments are already considered one of the darker episodes of medical research in US history, but panel members say the new information indicates that researchers were unusually unethical, even when placed into the historical context of a different era. “The researchers put their own medical advancement first and human decency a far second,” said Anita Allen, a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. From 1946-48, the US Public Health Service and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau worked with several Guatemalan government agencies on medical research paid for by the US government that involved deliberately exposing people to sexually transmitted diseases. The researchers apparently were trying to see if penicillin, then relatively new, could prevent infections in the 1,300 people exposed to syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid. Those infected included soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis. The commission revealed on Monday that only about 700 of those infected received some sort of treatment. Eighty-three people died, although it’s not clear if the deaths were directly due to the experiments. The research came up with no useful medical information, according to some experts. It was hidden for decades but came to light last year after a Wellesley College medical historian discovered records among the papers of Dr John Cutler, who led the experiments. President Barack Obama called Guatemala’s president, Alvaro Colom, to apologise. He also ordered his bioethics commission to review the Guatemala experiments. That work is nearly done. Though the final report is not due until next month, commission members discussed some of the findings at a meeting on Monday in Washington. They revealed that some of the experiments were more shocking than was previously known. For example, seven women with epilepsy, who were housed at Guatemala’s Asilo de Alienados (Home for the Insane), were injected with syphilis below the back of the skull, a risky procedure. The researchers thought the new infection might somehow help cure epilepsy. The women each got bacterial meningitis, probably as a result of the unsterile injections, but were treated. Perhaps the most disturbing details involved a female syphilis patient with an undisclosed terminal illness. The researchers, curious to see the impact of an additional infection, infected her with gonorrhea in her eyes and elsewhere. Six months later she died. Dr Amy Gutmann, head of the commission, described the case as “chillingly egregious”. During that time, other researchers were also using people as human guinea pigs, in some cases infecting them with illnesses. Studies weren’t as regulated then, and the planning-on-the-fly feel of Cutler’s work was not unique, some experts have noted. But panel members concluded that the Guatemala research was bad even by the standards of the time. They compared the work to a 1943 experiment by Cutler and others in which prison inmates were infected with gonorrhea in Indiana. The inmates were volunteers who were told what was involved in the study and gave their consent. Many of the Guatemalan participants received no such explanation and did not give informed consent, the commission said. The commission is working on a second report examining federally funded international studies to make sure current research is being done ethically. That report is expected at the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Guatemalan government has vowed to carry out its own investigation into the Cutler study. A spokesman for the vice-president Rafael Espada said the report should be done by November. Guatemala United States guardian.co.uk
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News that Greek banks Alpha and EFG Eurobank were merging, as well as surprisingly strong US consumer spending figures, both boosted market confidence The FTSE 100 soared 150 points on Tuesday, a rise of almost 3%, as London caught up with strong gains on Wall Street and in Asia after the bank holiday weekend. Banking stocks led the way, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays up 12%, 8% and 8.4% respectively. The blue-chip index hit 5,283 in early trading. There were gains elsewhere in Europe, with France’s CAC index 1% higher this morning, and the Dax in Germany rising 0.8%. The US Dow Jones industrial average had closed 2.3% up on Monday, fuelled by a rally in financial stocks. News that Greek banks Alpha and EFG Eurobank were merging, as well as surprisingly strong US consumer spending figures, both boosted confidence. Overnight, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.16%. Although Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke did not announce more quantitative easing during his speech at Jackson Hole last week , markets have bounced regardless. “Despite the initial disappointment of no QE3 announcement at Jackson Hole last week, markets took encouragement from Bernanke’s announcement that he would extend next month’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting to two days to fully explore and discuss any range of options for, and against, further stimulus,” said CMC analyst Michael Hewson. “It seems that markets have taken this to mean that we could well see further stimulus, despite the significant barriers against it, both political and fiscal.” Better news from the eurozone periphery, as well as strong US data, also fuelled the surge. News of the Greek bank deal prompted the Greek equity market to rise 14%, its largest one-day rise in more than 20 years. The deal creates Greece’s biggest bank, and was sealed with help from Qatar. Greek bank stocks shot up 29% in the wake of the announcement, prompting a rally in financial stocks around the world. US consumer spending meanwhile rose at its fastest pace in five months in July, with strong demand for cars in particular. Hewson said: “The market took in its stride IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s warning that European banks needed urgent recapitalisation , and that the crisis was entering a dangerous new phase. This call was firmly rebuffed by EU officials with EU commissioner Olli Rehn insisting that the health of EU banks had improved over the past year. To look at yesterday’s price action, markets seem to concur.” Stock markets Ben Bernanke FTSE Dow Jones Nikkei Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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• Gaddafi wife and three of his children flee to Algeria • NTC says it seek to extradite Gaddafis from Algeria • Leaked memo: UN plan to send police and observers 8.55am: Rebels say they have “almost certain” information that Gaddafi’s son Khamis, and his intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi , were killed in fighting over the weekend. Similar reports in the past turned out to be unfounded. Reuters treats the claim with caution: If true, their deaths would mark the highest-profile casualties on the Gaddafi side since an uprising began six months ago aimed at ending Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-years in power. “We have almost certain information that Khamis Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi were killed on Saturday by a unit of the national liberation army during clashes in Tarhouna (90 km southeast of Tripoli),” spokesman Ahmed Bani told Al Arabiya television. “Khamis Gaddafi was buried in Bani Walid,” Bani told the pan-Arab channel. However, Khamis has been reported dead twice before during the uprising, only to reappear, and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who heads the rebel National Transitional Council, told Al Jazeera television on Monday that he did not have any official information about Khamis’s death. Human Rights Watch has evidence that a force commanded by Khamis Gaddaif carried out summary executions of prisoners in a warehouse in Tripoli . 8.38am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Here’s a round up of the latest developments. Libya • Gaddafi’s wife Safiya, daughter Aisha and sons Hannibal and Mohammed and their children have fled to Algeria. They were received on “humanitarian grounds” Algeria’s ambassador to the UN told the BBC World Service. The NTC accused Algeria of an “act of aggression” against the Libyan people. There were reports on Monday night that another of Gaddafi’s sons, Khamis, had been killed in an airstrike south of Tripoli, but this could not be immediately confirmed. • The National Transitional Council said it will seek to extradite Gaddafi’s family from Algeria. “We have promised to provide a just trial to all those criminals and therefore we consider this an act of aggression,” spokesman Mahmoud Shamman told Reuters. “We are warning anybody not to shelter Gaddafi and his sons. We are going after them … to find them and arrest them.” • The rebels claim they are seeking a negotiated surrender of Gaddafi’s two remaining urban strongholds of Sirte, his coastal birthplace, and Sabha in the south. Mahmood Shammam, the NTC’s information minister, dismissed claims that major military offensives against the towns were about to start. “We don’t know that these two cities are revolting against us. We are negotiating to enter these cities peacefully. We will continue to do so,” he said. Over the weekend Gaddafi’s spokesman Moussa Ibrahim suggested the fugitive leader was willing to discuss a transitional government . • The UN is prepared to send police, military observers and elections monitors to Libya, according to a leaked memo . The document, unearthed by Inner City Press, provides a broadly upbeat assessment of Libyan’s ability to restore order. • Abdelbasset al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, has been falling in and out of a coma for up to three months, according to his family. Speaking outside Megrahi’s Tripoli home, Abdelnasser Megrahi, described his brother’s condition. He said: “He is very sick. The coma came two or three months ago. Sometimes he speaks to his wife or mother, sometimes he is in a coma. His life is in danger now.” He refused journalists access to the home, after CNN had filmed Megraphi attached to a drip and oxygen mask. He also insisted his brother was not responsible for the bombing. “From day one I believed he was innocent. The case was more political than a crime. There is no actual evidence. The world knows my brother is innocent.” • Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries, according to the chairman of the African Union Jean Ping. According to an AP report published by the Washington Post, he said: “NTC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries. If you do that, it means (that the) one-third of the population of Libya, which is black, is also mercenaries. They are killing people, normal workers, mistreating them.” • American journalist and filmmaker Matthew VanDyck has recounted the horror of spending six months in solitary confinement in Gaddafi’s jails, after being freed by rebels last week from the notorious Abu Salim prison. He told the Guardian: I would rather they had just taken me out and beat me, even every day, than go through the solitary confinement, because what it does psychologically is astonishing. I had no idea that the brain could work in the ways that it did in my case. Syria Dozens of soldiers, possibly encouraged by events in Libya, defected to the opposition near the central city of Homs, activists claim, according to the New York Times. The claim coincided with a government assault on Rastan, near Homs. A resident told the paper: “Gunfire and explosion rang across the town early this morning, and we heard that tanks are surrounding the town. We are so scared, too scared to leave the house. We don’t know what they are preparing for us.” Libya Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Abdelbaset al-Megrahi Lockerbie plane bombing Algeria Syria Bashar Al-Assad US foreign policy Nato Eid al-Fitr Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
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