On another windy, wet and wild day at the British Open, Darren Clarke endured to win the British Open by three shots and give Northern Ireland another victory in one of golf’s signature events. Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell have won the last two U.S. Opens. Now, it’s the…
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Britain’s top police officer has resigned and turned on the prime minister in a dramatic escalation of the phone hacking scandal Britain’s top police officer has resigned and turned on the prime minister in a dramatic escalation of the phone hacking scandal. In a carefully-worded resignation speech that appeared aimed directly at Downing Street, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said the prime minister risked being “compromised” by his closeness to former
Continue reading …Britain’s top police officer has resigned and turned on the prime minister in a dramatic escalation of the phone hacking scandal Britain’s top police officer has resigned and turned on the prime minister in a dramatic escalation of the phone hacking scandal. In a carefully-worded resignation speech that appeared aimed directly at Downing Street, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said the prime minister risked being “compromised” by his closeness to former
Continue reading …Herman Cain today drew another line in the sand against Muslims, telling Fox News Sunday that American communities should be able to ban mosques from being built. “Islam combines church and state,” he said. “They’re using the church part of our First Amendment to infuse their morals in that community,…
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Prime minister cancels plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan but will use visit in South Africa to speak about debt and free trade David Cameron begins a two-day visit to Africa which has been curtailed to allow the prime minister to fly home early to finalise the terms and membership of Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into the media. In his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as prime minister, Cameron will fly into South Africa with a message that an African free trade area could increase GDP across the continent by more than it currently receives in aid. He will praise his generation for marching against African debt and for holding concerts to raise funds for aid to the continent. But in article in the South African Business Day he will call for a change of approach. “They have never once had a march or a concert to call for what will in the long term save far more lives and do far more good – an African free trade area,” he writes. But Cameron’s free trade message is likely to be overshadowed by events back home following the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, who entertained the prime minister at her Oxfordshire home over the Christmas period. Downing Street aides, who had at one point considered cancelling the trip altogether at the height of the phone-hacking crisis last week, instead decided to cut it back from four days to two. Cameron will now just visit South Africa and Nigeriaon Tuesday. Plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan have been scrapped. Time has been found in the diary to allow No 10 aides – and possibly the prime minister – to watch the appearance by Rupert and James Murdoch. The prime minister will fly home late on Tuesday to allow him to finalise the arrangements for Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry in four areas The first area will look at the terms of reference for the two elements of the inquiry – the first one focusing on media regulation and the second, presided over by Leveson, that will examine the alleged wrong doing and relations between the police and the media. The second part will not begin its work until after the criminal investigation. The remaining three areas are the membership of the panel, which will examine media regulation over the next 12 months; the start date for Lord Leveson, and the size and location of the secretariat that will assist Leveson. One No 10 aide said: “Of course events have intervened to curtail the trip to Africa. We really need to get the arrangements for the inquiry done and dusted by the end of this week because civil servants head off on their holidays by the end of July. But there were other good reasons to visit Africa for slightly less time. Just look at the state of the eurozone.” Cameron will try to use his visit to the two largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa to highlight the importance of creating a free trade area in Africa. Accompanied by a 25-strong business delegation including the Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, he will say that such an area could boost GDP by $62bn (£38.4bn) a year – $20bn more than the world gives sub-Saharan Africa in aid every year. In an article in the South Africa Business Day, the prime minister writes: “In the past, there were marches in the west to drop the debt. There were concerts to increase aid. And it was right that the world responded. “But they have never once had a march or a concert to call for what will in the long term save far more lives and do far more good — an African free trade area. The key to Africa’s progress is not just aid. It is time for some fresh thinking. “Consider these facts. An African free trade area could increase GDP across the continent by an estimated $62bn a year. That’s $20bn more than the world gives sub-Saharan Africa in aid. Backed by investment in people and infrastructure, sound government and effective tax systems, imagine what this would mean: businesses growing, new jobs on offer, families on the up, living standards transformed.” Britain supported the decision last month at the tripartite summit in South Africa to launch negotiations on a free trade area covering 26 member states. This came 20 years after the signing of the Abuja treaty which agreed to establish the African Economic Community by 2028. Britain is providing assistance through the Africa Free Trade Initiative in three ways: helping to reduce tariff barriers, reducing bureaucracy, and advising on infrastructure bottlenecks. Britain is also investing more than £160m between now and 2015 to help ease trade by halving delays at 10 key border crossings. One factor which persuaded the prime minister to press ahead with visiting Africa’s two economic powerhouses is the challenge of keeping up with China which dominates trade across the continent. Cameron will meet Nigeria’s newly elected president Goodluck Jonathan who has taken personal charge of improving power supplies in Africa’s largest oil producing country which has little refining capacity. Nigeria, with a population of 155 million, is the world’s seventh largest country and seventh biggest oil exporter. But it has the same amount of grid power as Bradford, according to the Economist. PM’s African delegation Major blue chips 1. Aggreko (Rupert Soames, CEO) 2. Barclays (Bob Diamond, CEO) 3. Coal Authority (Philip Lawrence, CEO) 4. De La Rue (Tim Cobbold, CEO) 5. Diageo (Nick Blazquez, president, Africa) 6. G4S (David Taylor-Smith, CEO, UK, Ireland and Africa) 7. International Hospitals Group (Hertford King, CEO) 8. Mott MacDonald (Keith Howells, chairman) 9. PWC (Ian Powell, chairman and senior partner) 10. Royal Mint (Adam Lawrence, CEO) 11. Turner and Townsend (Vincent Clancy, CEO) 12. Vodafone (Vittorio Colao) 13. Waitrose (Mark Price, MD) Private equity firms 14. Aureos Capital (Sev Vettivetpillai, CEO/CIO) 15. Omidyar (Stephen King) 16. CDC (Rod Evison, acting CEO, managing director, Africa) SMEs and others 17. All Amber (Matthew Dawes, MD) 18. Frontline SMS (Ken Banks, founder) 19. Monitise plc (Alastair Lukies, CEO, co-founder) 20. Osannimu (Alaka Ayodeji, managing partner) 21. Wired Magazine (David Rowan, editor) 22. English Premier League (Bill Bush, director of comms/public policy) 23. Supersport (Imtiaz Patel and Tex Texeira) 24. Perimeter Institute (Neil Turok, founder) 25. School for StartUps (Doug Richard, founder) David Cameron Phone hacking Africa Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …David and Victoria Beckham have themselves a shiny new baby , and today they thought they’d show Harper Seven Beckham off to the socially networked world. “Daddy’s little girl!” tweeted the former Spice Girl, reports People, while Becks posted a photo of “my two girls sleeping” to his Facebook page.
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Former Egyptian president in stable medical condition according to sources at Sharm el-Sheikh hospital Hosni Mubarak is believed to be in a stable medical condition, following earlier reports suggesting the former Egyptian president had slipped into a coma. The 83-year-old is currently in a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, awaiting trial on charges of corruption and the unlawful killing of protesters during this year’s nationwide uprising against his rule. “I was informed about the sudden deterioration in Mubarak’s health and I am now on my way to Sharm el-Sheikh,” said Mubarak’s lawyer Farid el-Deeb. “All that I know so far is that the president is in a full coma.” But sources at the hospital where Mubarak is being treated denied there had been any decline in his condition. The facility’s director told state television that el-Deeb’s comments were inaccurate. Speculation about Mubarak’s medical condition has been rife since the western-backed dictator was toppled in February, and has intensified in recent weeks as the scheduled date of his court case, August 3rd, fast approaches. Rumours of Mubarak falling into a coma have circulated before, as have allegations that he has secretly travelled to Saudi Arabia for hospital treatment despite a judicial ruling ordering him to remain under detention in Sharm. His two sons Alaa and Gamal – the latter being Mubarak’s one-time heir-apparent to the presidency – have both been remanded in custody at Tora Prison in Cairo, and are also scheduled to face trial next month. If convicted of ordering police to open fire on unarmed demonstrators, Mubarak could face the death penalty. Almost a thousand people died in the 18-day revolt, and seeing Mubarak in the dock has been a key demand of protesters – tens of thousands of whom have returned to the streets in recent weeks calling on the interim authorities to speed up the process of holding Mubarak and senior members of his regime to account. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf), which assumed power in February and has promised to give way to a democratically-elected civilian government later this year, has been accused of leniency towards the country’s former leader, who was not put under arrest until several weeks after his resignation. The postponement of other key court cases, such as that of former interior minister Habib el-Adly, has generated an angry backlash from ordinary Egyptians and helped fuel violent street clashes between protesters and police in Cairo, Suez and other cities earlier this month. Hosni Mubarak Egypt Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa Protest Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk
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Taliban claim responsibility for attack less than a week after assassination of president’s brother Gunmen strapped with explosives killed a close adviser to Afghan president Hamid Karzai and a member of parliament on Sunday in another insurgent strike against the Afghan leader’s inner circle. Jan Mohammad Khan was an adviser to Karzai on tribal issues and was close to the president, a fellow Pashtun. His killing, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for, came less than a week after the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s half brother and one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan. Two men wearing suicide bomb vests and armed with guns attacked Khan’s home in the western Kabul district of Karti Char, said Defence Ministry official General Zahir Wardak. Khan, who was governor of the Pashtun-dominated Uruzgan province in the south from 2002 until March 2006, was shot along with Uruzgan lawmaker Mohammed Ashim Watanwal, the official said. Police killed one of the attackers before he could detonate his explosives, while the other was still barricaded inside the home, said the head of the Kabul police investigation unit, Mohammed Zahir. A member of the police’s anti-terrorism unit was also killed, he added. The surviving gunman was alone in the house, Zahir said. The assassination came as international military forces handed over security for Bamiyan province to Afghan security forces, part of a transition process in which seven areas are to be handed over to Karzai’s government this month. It also came one day before General David Petraeus, the top Nato commander in Afghanistan, hands over responsibility for the military campaign in Afghanistan to his replacement, Lieutenant General John Allen. It was unclear how influential Khan was with Karzai, but he was thought to wield considerable influence in Uruzgan. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of the insurgent group. Mujahid said the Taliban killed Khan because he was assisting coalition forces in carrying out night raids against Afghans. The controversial raids carried out by Nato forces have been highly effective in capturing or killing Taliban fighters and mid-level commanders. Karzai has complained the raids anger many Afghans who are mistakenly targeted. “He was cooperating and helping the American forces,” Mujahid said in an emailed statement. The Taliban had also claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s killing of Karzai’s half brother, who was shot dead by a close associate. Wali Karzai’s death left the president without an influential ally to balance the interests of the southern region’s tribal and political leaders, drug runners, insurgents and militias. Sunday’s violence marred the handover of control of a peaceful province in the centre of the country to Afghan police, another step in a transition that will allow foreign troops to withdraw in full by the end of 2014. Bamiyan province is one of seven areas going to Afghan security control this month in a first round of the transition. Another, Panjshir province in the east, began being transferred earlier this month. Both places have seen little to no fighting since the overthrow of the Taliban nearly 10 years ago and barely had any coalition troop presence. The transition to Afghan control will allow international military forces to slowly start withdrawing from Afghanistan until all combat troops are gone in just over three years. Bamiyan only had a small foreign troop contingent from New Zealand. Bamiyan and Panjshir are the only two provinces that will be handed over in their entirety during this month’s transition phase. Other areas to be handed over are the provincial capitals of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan, Herat in the west, Mazer-e-Sharif in the north and Mehterlam in the east. Afghan forces will also take control of all of Kabul province except for the restive Surobi district. In other violence on Sunday, Afghan and Nato troops fought an overnight gunbattle with Taliban insurgents and called in an air strike on the building where the fighters were holed up. At least 13 Taliban were killed. Also on Sunday, Nato said three of its service members died. One was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan and two were killed by a similar device in the south. It did not release their nationalities or any further details. The deaths bring the total number of coalition forces killed this month to 34. Afghanistan Middle East Hamid Karzai Ahmed Wali Karzai Taliban Nato David Petraeus guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Elizabeth Warren is officially out at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: President Obama will tomorrow instead nominate former Ohio AG Richard Cordray to lead the agency, reports the Columbus Dispatch. Cordray is currently the bureau’s enforcement director, and Obama will likely dodge the Senate dogfight that would have erupted over…
Continue reading …As the storied US women’s soccer team takes the field in Frankfurt today, all eyes of a hopeful nation are on the 5-foot-11, 170-pound train in the No. 20 jersey leading her team in the charge against Japan. At 31, the indomitable Abby Wambach knows this could be her final…
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