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- Elephant kills US zookeeper
- What I'm really thinking: the dog rescue worker
- The Letters of Paul Cézanne by Alex Danchev – review
- India braces for cyclone Phailin
- Holger Osieck: there were more than enough reasons for him to go
- The Indian civil service still rests on a frame built by the British | Ian Jack
- Adrian Chiles causes Twitter storm after insulting Poland fans live on air
- Benedict Cumberbatch says Julian Assange's letter affected his portrayal
- Holger Osieck sacked as Socceroos coach after 6-0 defeat by France
- Adrian Peterson's son reported dead after alleged abuse
- Homs: a tale of two cities
- Hillary Clinton: we need to talk sensibly about spying
- Migrants die as boat capsizes
- Best pictures of the day - live
- White House downplays short-term debt limit extension as talks continue - live
- US debt ceiling: retrench warfare | Editorial
- JP Morgan facing third quarter loss after $9.2bn legal costs
- Major TV networks petition supreme court to stop Aereo rebroadcasting
- Federal government attempts to block same-sex marriage: The Roast - video
- US forces arrest senior Pakistani Taliban commander in Afghanistan
- Drunk Dial Congress website thrives as government shutdown drags on
- Letters: Vaccinating and microchipping badgers is easy, cheap and effective
- Letters: Grenada's crippling sovereign debt burden
- Country diary: Llanystumdwy: Shooting and conservation? Here, that structure strikes me as oxymoronic
- Starbucks venti coffee comes with a double shot of politics | Jana Kasperkevic
| Posted: 12 Oct 2013 12:21 AM PDT  Experienced handler at Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri, crushed while moving animal between areas A zookeeper has been crushed to death by an elephant in the city of Springfield, Missouri. John Bradford, 62, died while moving an elephant into a chute connecting barn stalls to the barnyard at the Dickerson Park Zoo on Friday, city spokeswoman Cora Scott said. Scott said that the elephant, a 41-year-old female named Patience who had been at the zoo since 1990, hesitated in the approximately four-metre (12ft) long chute. When Bradford reached for her with a guide to coax her forward, she lunged forward. Bradford was knocked into the chute and crushed against the floor. Other zookeepers quickly pulled Patience away from Bradford but he had been killed instantly, Scott said. No other zoo employees were injured. Bradford had worked at the zoo for 30 years and was the zoo's elephant manager for 25 years. "It's an extremely sad time for the co-workers at the zoo and at the city," Scott said. Paul Price, a longtime friend and former co-worker of Bradford, told the Springfield News-Leader that elephants had been Bradford's passion. "He was always aware of dangers and everything and was instrumental in developing the elephant management program at the zoo at the national and international levels," Price said. The zoo has two female and two male elephants. Scott said zookeepers had been keeping a close eye on the female elephants since the death earlier this month of the zoo's matriarch elephant, Connie. Zookeepers reported that Patience's behaviour had been hesitant and submissive since then. Zoo officials said that Patience would not be killed and no disciplinary action was expected. The zoo opened as usual on Friday, although the elephants were not on exhibit. The US agriculture department and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums were notified of Bradford's death. "This is very sad day for the zoo family, as well as our community as a whole," said Mike Crocker, assistant parks director and zoo director. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| What I'm really thinking: the dog rescue worker Posted: 12 Oct 2013 12:00 AM PDT  'I ask you what kind of dog it is, but I already know. A staffie cross' You phone up our rescue centre and ask us to take your dog off your hands. OK, I ask, what seems to be the problem? You haven't got time for it any more and it keeps jumping up at people? Right. You think it might need some training before it can be rehomed? I understand. You are probably the person who came in asking for a dog "that won't bark in the house, and won't moult, and won't mind being left while we're at work all day". Ah, that would be a toy dog, then, was the thought that crossed my mind. I ask you what kind of dog it is, but I already know. A staffie cross. You don't seem to realise that every rescue centre in the country is full to bursting, especially with staffies. I tell you we can't take him because we are full – we've already got 80 dogs – and you ask me what you're meant to do. What you're meant to do, I think, is realise that when you took home a dog, it was meant to be for life. Certainly, that's the impression the dog had, and he placed his trust in you. I know if we can't take your dog, you are going to advertise him on Gumtree, "free to a good home". Can you tell the difference between a good home and someone who wants your dog for a fighting ring? As a bait dog? Do you know how he might end his days? So when I say, "I'm sorry I can't be more helpful", what I'm really thinking is, "I'm really sorry for your dog that he had the bad luck to end up with you." • Tell us what you're really thinking at mind@theguardian.com theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| The Letters of Paul Cézanne by Alex Danchev – review Posted: 11 Oct 2013 11:59 PM PDT  Ruth Scurr is riveted by the revelations of self-doubt and obsession in Cézanne's correspondence In his Cézanne: A Life (2012), Alex Danchev included photographs of 10 of the artist's 26 self-portraits. Every couple of chapters, Danchev broke off to discuss another of these depictions, quoting the poet Rainer Maria Rilke's remark: "He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter-of-fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog." Danchev's new translation and edition of Cézanne's letters offers the most riveting portrait of the artist yet. There are 252 letters from Cézanne, 21 of them not previously collected or translated. They begin in 1858, when he was 19, still living at home in Aix-en-Provence, and end in 1906, when he died, also in Aix. The first letter is to Émile Zola, who was in the year below Cézanne at their school, the College Bourbon. In 1858, Zola left Aix for Paris, and Cézanne wrote playful, lonesome letters framed by the classical education they had shared: "Do you remember the pine that stood on the bank of the Arc, lowering its leafy head over the chasm that opened at its feet? That pine protected our bodies with its foliage from the heat of the sun, ah! May the Gods preserve it from the fatal blow of the woodcutter's axe!" The importance of classical literature to Cézanne – especially Virgil, Horace and Lucretius – is evident throughout his letters: the witty, sometimes scurrilous, versification of his youth giving way over time to what Danchev describes as Cézanne's reliance on the classics to help him live his life. In a postscript of 1902 to his son, he wrote: "A little confidence in yourself, and work. Never forget your art, sic itur ad astra" (thus one reaches the stars), quoting Book 9 of the Aeneid. Cézanne's self-doubt is strongly evidenced in his letters. In 1887, he wrote: "I find I am lacking in canvases that might be submitted for the delectation of art lovers. Wanting to offer for critical appraisal only those studies that might pass muster, I cannot take part in any exhibition." He gave or sometimes sold his paintings to his friends, or exchanged them for groceries; he was 35 before he sold a painting to someone he did not know: The House of the Hanged Man (1874). Zola challenged Cézanne's confidence even as he offered sympathetic artistic companionship and tried to promote his work. He was thrilled when Cézanne joined him in Paris in 1861, but frustrated when his friend spoke almost immediately of returning to Aix. Danchev includes revealing extracts from Zola's letters: "Convincing Cézanne of something is like persuading the towers of Notre Dame to execute a quadrille." In 1886, Zola published L'Œuvre, a novel about a failed painter who hangs himself in front of his unfinished and unfinishable masterpiece. In April that year, Cézanne wrote to Zola: "I've just received L'Œuvre, which you were kind enough to send me. I thank the author of the Rougon-Macquart for this kind token of remembrance, and ask him to allow me to wish him well, thinking of years gone by. Ever yours, with the feeling of time passing." So far as is known, this is the last letter to pass between them. Marking the abrupt end of a friendship of three decades, one central to 19th‑century art and literature, it has been combed by critics and historians for clues to the ensuing rift. Danchev soberly concludes there are none. "Frustrating as it may be, it is well-nigh impossible to infer from the letter any fundamental change, still less to detect signs of an unprecedented upheaval." Cézanne's letters, supported by well-chosen fragments from the letters of significant others, provide a subtle, intimate, oblique account of his life, with as many gaps and silences as a serious, private person working in isolation could wish for. A year before the unfathomable rupture in his friendship with Zola, Cézanne wrote to an unidentified woman: "I saw you, and you let me kiss you, from that moment I have had no peace from profound turmoil." The draft of this letter was found on the back of a landscape. It is his only known love letter, and nothing is known about the intended recipient, except that she caused, deliberately or inadvertently, several months of disruption in Cézanne's life, ending in a brothel: "I pay, the word is dirty, but I need some peace, and at this price I ought to get it." Cézanne had one son with Hortense Fiquet, whom he eventually married, despite the disapproval of his family. She was seemingly straightforward and unpretentious, and has been maligned and condescended to as a result, even suspected of delaying her arrival at Cézanne's deathbed to attend a dress-fitting. Danchev – who generally keeps notes and explanations to a minimum – makes an exception for Hortense, whose two surviving letters are included for the first time. He argues that she was more resourceful than previously supposed, capable of conducting business on her husband's behalf and of holding her own when socialising with him (on the rare occasions he agreed to socialise instead of work). The letters leave no doubt that working was what Cézanne most wanted to do and did. "Warmest thanks for your last letter. But I must work. Everything, art above all, is theory developed and applied through contact with nature"; "I am pursuing success through work. I despise all living painters, except Monet and Renoir, and I want to succeed through work"; "Art is harmony parallel to nature – what can those imbeciles be thinking who say that the artist always falls short of nature?" Cézanne always preferred to paint outside en plein air: "Today, with the sky full of overhanging grey clouds, I see things in an even darker light." In 1896, he claimed: "If I were not so fond of the lie of the land, I should not be here." He died of an infection that set in after he collapsed, painting in the rain in October 1906. The following October, a retrospective exhibition of his work opened in Paris at the Grand Palais. It was here that Rilke saw the self-portrait that reminded him of a dog looking at its own reflection. Interleaved with beautiful reproductions of Cézanne's work, this edition of his letters resonates with the humble objectivity Rilke noticed. To his friend, the painter Camille Pissarro, Cézanne once wrote: "We've had a very aquatic fortnight here … the frost was so severe that the fruit and vine harvests were ruined. But that's the advantage of art, painting endures." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| India braces for cyclone Phailin Posted: 11 Oct 2013 10:16 PM PDT  Thousands take shelter as severe tropical storm bears down on east coast, bringing destructive winds and torrential rain Rain and wind lashed India's east coast and nearly 400,000 people fled to cyclone shelters after the government issued a red alert and warned of severe damage when one of the largest storms the country has ever seen makes landfall. People gathered at mosques and temples in Odisha state praying cyclone Phailin would not be as devastating as a similar storm that killed 10,000 people 14 years ago. Heavy rain pounded coastal villages in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Phailin had winds of at least 137mph (220km/h) on Saturday morning and was expected to cause a 3.4 metre surge in sea levels as well as potential widespread damage when it hit the coast late in the evening, the Indian meteorological department said. Television showed families walking through the rain to shelters as gusts of wind snapped branches from trees. Tourists left popular beach resort Puri. Officials broadcast cyclone warnings through loudspeakers, radio and television. Officials said Phailin was verging on becoming a "super cyclone". London-based Tropical Storm Risk said the storm was already in that category and classed it as a category 5 storm – the strongest. The US navy's weather service said wind at sea was gusting at 195mph. Some forecasters likened its size and intensity to hurricane Katrina, which tore through the US Gulf coast and New Orleans in 2005. Its scale also stirred memories of a 1999 Indian storm when winds reaching speeds of 150mph battered Odisha for 30 hours. This time the Odisha government said it was better prepared. Half a million people were expected to shelter in schools and other strong buildings when the storm hits. At least 60,000 people left their homes in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on Friday. Authorities warned of extensive damage to crops, village dwellings and old buildings, as well as disruption of power, water and rail services. Shelters were being stocked with rations and leave for government employees was cancelled. A police official said a rescue effort was launched for 18 fishermen stranded four nautical miles at sea from Paradip, a major port in Odisha, after their trawler ran out of fuel. Paradip halted cargo operations on Friday. All vessels were ordered to leave the port, which handles coal, crude oil and iron ore. An oil tanker holding about 2 million barrels of oil was also moved, an oil company source said. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Holger Osieck: there were more than enough reasons for him to go Posted: 11 Oct 2013 07:58 PM PDT  Never mind arguments about an ageing line-up and a post-golden generation slump – the Socceroos coach can be rightly judged to have failed in his appointed mission Socceroos fans will be feeling a mixture of relief and frustration at the news that Holger Osieck has been relieved of his duties after a second excruciating 6-0 defeat in succession. Even bearing in mind the limits of the younger players at his disposal, he has to be judged guilty as charged. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| The Indian civil service still rests on a frame built by the British | Ian Jack Posted: 11 Oct 2013 07:31 PM PDT  The Indian Administrative Service, the foundations of which were laid under British rule, survives as a still-impressive public institution. Here is one of the better legacies of empire The verdict on Indian hill stations – the one the English-speaking visitor is most likely to hear – is that they are "gone" or "finished". Of course, this is only the opinion of a certain class. What this means is that the old hill resorts, established by the British as an escape from the summer heat of the plains, have become too popular. Newly enriched Indians drive up to them now in cars and coaches, booking into new hotels and holiday homes and straining the capacity of roads and sewage systems. The charm that came with the aspic of neglect has almost entirely vanished in places such as Simla and Darjeeling. Or Ootacamund, where in the 1970s I remember going to the afternoon show at Coronation Talkies to see Waterloo Bridge (Robert Taylor, Vivien Leigh, 1940) among an audience that found the film neither laughable nor particularly old. You felt the climb from the plain into this small collection of bungalows and churches had left the present-day behind. It would be difficult to feel that now anywhere in India, but perhaps Mussoorie, where I went last week, has retained more of its remote, hill-station atmosphere than many of its rivals. The weather helped. Rain glistened on the twisting roads and turned tracks into mud. We felt withdrawn, cut off. From my little terrace I could look down on the clouds that came boiling up the valley and, when the weather cleared one early morning, see snow on the Himalayas away to the north. Almost every piece of ground in Mussoorie is dizzyingly steep; it seems impossible that anyone would have wanted to build a town on these slopes, let alone actually managed to do it. And yet by the end of the 19th century, more than 6,000 people lived here, doubling their number with the exodus from below every summer. Mussoorie had a library, an ice rink (with orchestra), a mall where Indians were forbidden to walk, and several grand hotels. The grandest, the Charleville, stood on a ridge in Happy Valley and boasted a stay by the Prince of Wales (later George V) and Princess Mary of Teck, who in 1906 could never have envisaged that 50 years later everything devised for their comfort – the kitchens, the stables, the dining room, the linen cupboards – would be in the hands of the people banned from the mall. In 1959, the government of by-now independent India took over the Charleville and converted it into a college for its elite civil servants. It burned down 30 years ago, but now stands an ugly but capacious new college, which every year prepares hundreds of young men and women for the job of running India. Everything has changed; nothing has changed. The era that produced hill stations also laid down the foundations of the Indian Administrative Service, the IAS, which together with the Indian Foreign Service used to attract (and arguably still does) the brightest from each generation. The IAS owes it structure to the British India Civil Service, the ICS, which administered the country as a colonial possession from 1858 until 1947 through the district-officer system, in which a young Briton, public school and Oxbridge educated, passed a highly competitive examination and after some tuition in Indian languages and customs was given charge of an Indian district as populous as an English county, where under various titles (collector, district magistrate, deputy commissioner) he took charge of law and order and land revenues, and any other piece of government policy that needed enforcing. Lloyd George called it "the steel frame on which the whole structure of our government and of our administration in India rests", and the IAS has kept the steel frame pretty much intact. Its officers exercise enormous authority over a district population of between one and two million, sometimes barely familiar with the local language, apt to be lonely, forever facing the temptation of bribery. And they start so young, so terribly young. The new recruits in Mussoorie, the lucky thousand who have been chosen from 500,000 candidates by excelling in exams and interviews, are young enough to address visitors as Sir and Ma'am, but in a year or two they will sit as rulers of their own small kingdoms, having been examined in Hindi, the constitution and the law. A young ICS man, setting out from Tilbury to India in 1910, would have felt no less blessed or anxious. I went to the college as part of a literary entertainment. "Sirs, I come from Mumbai. Do you have any advice about coping with a posting to small-town India?" a woman probationer asked in our opening session. I made some light-hearted remark about making sure she got back to Mumbai as often as she could, but my fellow panellist, the redoubtable journalist MJ Akbar, said the question was a disgrace, and symptomatic of a metropolitan attitude that privileged Anglophone city life over that of people in the provinces, or mofussil, which despite accelerating citification is still where most people live. This drew applause: the IAS is no longer a seamlessly elite phenomenon, and later questions exemplified divisions between those who spoke English well or not so well and came either from the big metropolitan cities or the kind of town that still has bicycle rickshaws – a difference often summarised as "India v Bharat". So there was a tension here, but perhaps less than there might have been. One of the world's greatest pieces of positive discrimination, possibly its very greatest piece, is the quota of government jobs reserved for the castes and tribes that successive Indian governments have identified as the least privileged: those defined as belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes and "other backward classes" now make up 49% of each year's intake. Candidates belonging to the other 51% can take the entrance exam four times; a member of the other backward classes seven times; someone from the scheduled castes and tribes as often as they want. No doubt the system is open to abuse and complaint; there is no discrimination that favours women or religious minorities such as Muslims. No doubt, either, that corruption has enhanced many salaries; people constantly remark that the police and revenue services have eclipsed the foreign service as the place an elite Indian civil servant wants to be, because of their money-making opportunities (the size of wedding dowries that entrants to these services can command is said to be the clinching evidence). But for all that, the IAS still possesses a nobility that comes from its long and dutiful record of public service, and the people who join it do seem touched by idealism. On our last night, a company of actors came from Mumbai and put on a play in which an IAS bureaucrat becomes massively corrupt and only at the last minute renounces his dubious career. The audience cheered this resolution, and not only because that was expected of them. In a country that over the past 20 years has been transformed – some would say disfigured – by private money, the IAS has survived as a still-impressive public institution. As the college's deputy director, Ranjana Chopra, said, speaking of the IAS's ability to handle natural disasters better than George Bush's Washington: "Everything may not work well in India, but here is something that does." There are many worse legacies of empire. What's Ian reading?Proper Doctoring, an elegant guide to the doctor-patient relationship by a London doctor, the late David Mendel, has just been republished in the New York Review of Books Classics list. Written before we could Google our diseases, its wisdom, though sometimes paternal, has the cold ring of truth. On prognosis: "Many healthy people genuinely think they want to know everything, but when they are sick, they change their opinion." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Adrian Chiles causes Twitter storm after insulting Poland fans live on air Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:57 PM PDT  • ITV presenter makes Polish builders reference during coverage The ITV presenter Adrian Chiles was at the centre of a Twitter storm on Friday night after making potentially offensive remarks about Polish supporters live on air. Chiles, 46, who had anchored ITV's coverage of England's World Cup qualifying 4-1 victory over Montenegro at Wembley was discussing Tuesday's final group game against Poland with the pundit and former England defender Lee Dixon. After Dixon said he was sure Poland fans would be 'crying at the end' of Tuesday's game Chiles said he hoped they would not be too upset as 'I am trying to get some building work done at the moment'. Chiles had already called the game 'practically a home game' for Poland, referring to the large number of Poles living in and around London. England must beat Poland on Tuesday to be sure of automatically qualifying for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Benedict Cumberbatch says Julian Assange's letter affected his portrayal Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:55 PM PDT  WikiLeaks founder's request gave Cumberbatch 'real cause for concern' as he addressed his role in The Fifth Estate British actor Benedict Cumberbatch says a letter from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asking him not to do a film about the emergence of the anti-secrecy website affected his portrayal of him in The Fifth Estate. Cumberbatch, 37, said in an "ask me anything" interview on content-sharing site Reddit on Friday that he was concerned with playing the part after Assange sent him a letter in January declining an invitation to meet in person and urging him to rethink his involvement in the film. "To have the man you are about to portray ask you intelligently and politely not to do it gave me real cause for concern, however, it galvanised me into addressing why I was doing this movie," Cumberbatch said in response to a user asking him whether Assange's letter affected his role in the film. Assange's letter, dated 15 January and published on the WikiLeaks website on Wednesday, called the actor a "hired gun" and criticised Walt Disney's DreamWorks studio for using "toxic" source material as a foundation for the film, based partly on the 2011 book Inside WikiLeaks by Assange's former lieutenant Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The WikiLeaks founder is holed up at the Ecuadorean embassy in London after being given political asylum by Ecuador. He faces immediate arrest and extradition to Sweden to face accusations of rape and sexual assault if he leaves the embassy. Cumberbatch rejected Assange's comment, saying: "He accuses me of being a 'hired gun' as if I am an easily bought cypher for right-wing propaganda. Not only do I not operate in a moral vacuum but this was not a pay day for me at all." Cumberbatch, who plays the WikiLeaks founder as rude, awkward and unkempt, said he believed the film focused on the success of WikiLeaks and celebrated "its extraordinary founder", Assange, while exploring the impact the website had on the people at the core of it. He said he hoped The Fifth Estate would start a conversation. "I wanted to create a three-dimensional portrait of a man far more maligned in the tabloid press than he is in our film to remind people that he is not just the weird, white haired Australian dude wanted in Sweden, hiding in an embassy behind Harrods," the actor added. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Holger Osieck sacked as Socceroos coach after 6-0 defeat by France Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:26 PM PDT  Football Federation Australia announces dismissal as another heavy loss follows rout by Brazil Australia have sacked Socceroos coach Holger Osieck following their 6-0 thumping by France at the Parc des Princes in Paris on Friday night. "I thank Holger for his contribution to Australian football and wish him well in his future endeavours." Australia have already booked their place at next year's World Cup finals but Osieck came under increasing pressure following a nervous qualification campaign. "That's not my call," he told Fox Sport Australia. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Adrian Peterson's son reported dead after alleged abuse Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:16 PM PDT  Minnesota Vikings' running back asks for privacy after 2-year-old son dies after reported assault by mother's boyfriend The 2-year-old son of National Football League's most valuable player Adrian Peterson died on Friday after being allegedly assaulted by his mother's boyfriend in Sioux Falls, local media in Minnesota and police in South Dakota have reported. Sioux Falls police spokesman Sam Clemens said the boy died after he suffered injuries doctors believe were caused by child abuse. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Friday that Nelson Peterson, Adrian's father, confirmed that the star running back's son was assaulted, allegedly by the mother's boyfriend. The paper reported that the child and his mother live in Sioux Falls, according to Nelson Peterson. After training practice on Friday, the Minnesota Vikings running back said, in videotaped remarks, that he would not take questions about the incident, and asked for his privacy to be respected. Earlier on Friday in South Dakota, officials held a news conference to announce that a 27-year-old man had been charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault on accusations of abusing a 2-year-old boy, who was not identified. Clemens said the man, Joseph Patterson, will face additional charges. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:04 PM PDT  Once seen as the capital of Syria's revolution, Homs is now caught in a vicious stalemate between regime and rebel forces. James Harkin visits a divided city, where kidnappings are rife and chemical disarmament a low priority I first met Abu Ali at the end of February 2012, both of us standing in an alleyway in Damascus, his car still running nearby. I was in Syria on a civilian visa, and trying to hitch a lift to his home town Homs, 160km north of the capital. The Syrian army had by then been shelling rebel-held areas of Homs for three weeks and, like many, he was more focused on the humanitarian cost of conflict than its politics. Abu Ali is part of what is commonly referred to as Syria's moderate opposition, though moderate is a relative term. He opposes President Bashar al-Assad but thinks that arming the revolt was a mistake; he will allow that people have a right to self-defence. He wasn't able to help me then (I found another way), but we have stayed in touch. This July, he told me that at least 1,600 of his personal contacts, friends and relatives had been killed or kidnapped in the past two and a half years. "Our feelings have died," he said. Late last month, we met again in Damascus. This time, I wanted to get to Homs with him, to find out what life was now like in Syria's third city. Once home to a million people, in the early days of the conflict it was dubbed "the capital of the Syria revolution", but no one calls it that any more. Today, like much of the rest of the country, its citizens find themselves stuck in a vicious stalemate: regime forces move around the city, while many towns and villages in the surrounding countryside are in the hands of the rebels. Within Homs, the conflict has fired up long-dormant rivalries between Sunni Muslims (the overwhelming majority of Syrians) and the Alawite Muslim minority (many of whom are loyal to the ruling regime). Last week, UN inspectors began destroying Assad's chemical weapons, but death by poison gas is not an over-arching concern for ordinary Syrians. Many more are being killed by simple bombs and bullets. Abu Ali is a small man who treads carefully, head and shoulders bowed forward, like a pilgrim going quietly about his business. In Damascus, he leads me through the winding alleys of the city's Christian area, formulating an itinerary as we go. He has a peculiar gait; he suffers from slipped discs, the likely result of vigorous interrogation on an instrument called the German chair while serving a 12-year sentence in Sednaya, one of the country's most notorious prisons. He was jailed in the late 1980s for his involvement in a long-defunct underground communist organisation. On our way to lunch, we make a pit stop at the house of a young friend of his. The younger man lies face down on a bed and Abu Ali fits a chair into his back to demonstrate the technique; the hands and feet are tied to the seat, and the back adjusted to cause severe stress to the spine. Thirty-six of his prison colleagues are veterans of this procedure, he says, and all complain of the same problem. Over a lunch of grilled meat and salad in a high-ceilinged restaurant popular with Christian supporters of the regime, we talk about Homs. (Not just Homs: during a lull in conversation, he points to a lavish salad and instructs me to "eat that, good for sex", and chuckles quietly.) Like everyone else, Abu Ali says, his two grown-up children are struggling for money: prices have risen three-fold in two years, and few people except government workers still have jobs. Before the conflict, he had work in the solar power industry but this has largely stalled; his solar contraptions come in useful only at home, during electricity blackouts. He now spends much of his time helping some of the many hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the heavy shelling of rebel areas of Homs and the rest of the country. He manages a project for 600 families moved from rural Hama province and the city of Aleppo to a village west of the city; this involves everything from fundraising to sourcing blankets. He bemoaned the price of milk and the lack of money spent on education; there is huge pressure on schools in the safer areas of the city, and too few schoolbooks. Then there is the strong risk of being hit by a stray mortar or bullet. On 28 May, his nephew Hamza, a 20-year-old student at the city's Ba'ath University, was out shopping with his young fiancee in a pro-regime area when they were hit by rockets fired by rebels. Both were killed instantly. Getting at the truth about the Syrian conflict is not easy. Journalist visas from the government are rare, and travel beyond a few square kilometres of central Damascus requires permission from the ministry of information and the accompaniment of a government minder. Western journalists are often limited to a choice between atmospheric street detail or doleful prison interviews with stressed jihadis; what's harder to capture is a range of Syrians speaking freely about what they want. (In rebel-held northern Syria, the rise in criminality and the presence of al-Qaida-like groups makes reporting even more difficult.) Abu Ali had no wish to get into trouble with the authorities, but if I got the OK from the ministry, he said, he'd host me in Homs. A few days later, with my visa running out (and without telling him I was coming), I simply got on a bus. This is one of the best ways to get to know ordinary Syrians. With no choice but to talk, and no one official looking over their shoulder, many are happy to practise their English by speaking to the stranger on the adjoining seat. The drawback is that this is a perilous way to travel: one bus at the depot in Damascus has a bullet hole in every window. My seatmate on this bus is especially anxious. A boy of 17 from a village near Hama, 40km north of Homs, he is making his first unaccompanied trip home after enrolling at Damascus University. Three days earlier, his friend was injured by a stray sniper bullet on this same route; it might have been the rebels, but no one really knows. He points to the seat where his friend was hit; he says only pride prevents him from lying on the floor for the entire journey. In any case, the boy is no fan of the regime. His uncle was arrested 18 months ago and hasn't been heard of since; the family suspect he is dead. The people in his village have come to hate the rebels, too, he says. "People are so, so bored with them. They come and blow up checkpoints outside towns and run away, then militias arrive and steal everything we have. They would steal even this," he says, pointing to my plastic cup. A poor woman from a nearby village had her only cow stolen by pro-regime militias; when a group of locals asked them to give it back, they told her it had said bad things about the president. Hama, long associated with anti-regime activity, is now very quiet, he says; there are so many soldiers there that oppositionists have learned to keep their mouths shut. "The revolutionaries now accuse Hama of betrayal," the boy says. He is circumspect about his political beliefs even among his new university friends, because many might support the regime. "When I'm around them, I say I love the president, that the terrorists should be punished." Homs has been described in the west as a city under siege. This, I discover when Abu Ali drives me around it, is no longer the whole story. There are still enclaves under armed rebel control, including parts of the old city, where about 3,000 people are cut off from food and electricity, and living in appalling conditions. Elsewhere, the city is returning to a kind of nervy normality. Abu Ali explains that Homs divides into three areas: the rebel enclaves; pro-regime strongholds, often with large communities of Alawites; and areas with pro-opposition sympathies, such as the one where he lives, which are also tentatively controlled by the regime. In both these areas, the government subsidises the price of bread, and fresh food is plentiful, but prices have risen steeply and no one has the money to buy much. Abu Ali says the rebels had been smuggling food and drink into some areas through underground tunnels, but these were discovered and exploded by regime forces. It seems likely that these rebel strongholds will eventually fall to the regime, as Baba Amr did before them – this is the area of Homs where journalists Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik were killed in February 2012. On our trip around the city, we drive past Baba Amr; while a few people have returned, it remains a shattered ruin and a warning from the regime to the rebels. We pass through a checkpoint run by pro-regime paramilitaries, known by the oppositionists as shabiha, or ghosts. Abu Ali points out a series of buildings on our right. "A shabiha general lives here," he huffs. "Before, he was nothing. Now, he's a general." At one point he dashes out of the car to collect something and returns triumphant, having just been handed some money from a passerby to give to his refugees. We drop in on Amjad, a wiry fellow oppositionist who now considers both sides as bad as each other. "When we watch CNN, France 24, even the BBC," he says, "I don't think they are talking about Homs. It is lies." The regime certainly bombs buildings, he says, and it sometimes makes mistakes, but often it's because those buildings are being used as barracks by armed groups. "We are lost between shabiha and debaha," he sighs, using the Arabic word for slaughterers to refer to the rise of puritanical, sectarian Islamism among the rebels. Amjad's brother, a 60-year-old taxi driver, was kidnapped on 4 May. There has been no demand for money or any other obvious motive; the family have not heard from him since. Such kidnappings are rife. Some are for military reasons, Abu Ali says, others are motivated by money or religion; sometimes, it's all three. One of his former teachers, a rich artist and a very old man, was recently kidnapped by shabiha who want 24m Syrian pounds (about £100,000) for his release; he hopes to hear from the kidnappers in the next day or two. Then there is Tariq, an Alawite recently kidnapped for largely sectarian reasons; shabiha are demanding the release of government detainees in exchange for his return. On our way back to the car, Abu Ali points out the spot where his nephew and his fiancee were killed. Nearby is the row of shops where French journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed in similar circumstances in January 2012. Jacquier's wife has written a book blaming the regime for the death, but Abu Ali, based on the geography and the pattern of attacks, dismisses this theory. He takes me to the abandoned tenement from which he believes the rocket was fired by anti-regime forces. We head to an opposition area of the city, home almost exclusively to Sunni Muslims, for tea with some of Abu Ali's acquaintances. One is from the ruined Baba Amr district, and has twice been forced to leave his home when the army entered to rout the rebels. He won't talk to a journalist, he says, and sits clutching prayer beads. In any case, he adds, talking about it only makes him cry, and he has a problem with his corneas that means he can't let himself shed any tears. On the verge of crying, he changes the subject. Syrians are an optimistic people, he wants me to know, with 7,000 years of civilisation behind them; some of his best friends are Alawites and Christians, friendships born of coincidence, not religion. "No one should have to see the things I've seen," is all he will say about Baba Amr. He stares out of the window like a blind man. Abu Ali is of a generation for whom picking apart Syria's complex mosaic of religions and ethnicities remains a tasteless and unpatriotic business. As a result, he has never told me directly that he is an Alawite Muslim himself. This fact might make it easier for him to pass through some regime checkpoints, but it also poses certain risks. After our tour of the city, he drives me back to the home he shares with his wife in an opposition area called Shammas. It is on the sixth floor of a tenement block and only 800m from Baba Amr; like many homes in the area, there is a crack or crevice from a stray bullet in almost every room. Things aren't as bad as they were, he says, but sometimes he and his wife can't sleep for the noise of the mortars passing overhead and crashing into the ground. Amjad, who used to live here, joins us for the ride. He, too, is an Alawite Muslim, and he moved from Shammas to Akrama because he was afraid that his daughters might attract insults in the street because of their religion: "Just from young people, looking for revenge." Shammas, a formerly mixed neighbourhood, is slowly being drained of its Alawites; Abu Ali is one of the few who remains. "He believes he is safe here," Amjad ribs him; it is clear he doesn't have the same confidence. For his part, Abu Ali says he has been stopped at several rebel checkpoints and never had any problems; then again, he is well known in the area, so his experience might not be representative. When he was ordered to leave by one armed group, another stepped in to guarantee his safety. Beyond the bombs and the bullets, it is this creeping sectarian migration that represents the most ominous threat to Homs, and to Syria as a whole. Earlier that day, we discover, a Syrian army missile destroyed a building in a very densely populated area of the city, al-Waer, just a few kilometres away. Five hundred thousand people now live in al-Waer; half are recent arrivals, sent from other areas of the city as they have come under the control of armed rebels. Just about everyone there is a Sunni Muslim and the area is not fully under regime control. It is a no-go area even for Abu Ali. Conditions are poor; everyone has a home and bread to eat, but it is seriously overcrowded and some of the tenement blocks remain unfinished, without windows or doors. The regime relies on fortified military positions directly surrounding the area to keep an eye on residents, neutralising threats with rockets or snipers; it sounds like an open prison. On a previous visit to Homs, I had met a young man who had been moved to al-Waer from a rebel enclave. We stayed in touch, and over the last few years his aspirations have shifted from getting a good job and a girlfriend to a growing sympathy with the extreme Islamism of the rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra. He's studying engineering at the city's Ba'ath University, but the checkpoints on the way there and back put the fear of God into him; the shabiha, he feels, can do what they like. A week before I travelled to Syria, and having refused all my previous offers to send a little cash, he had tentatively asked for money for his family: it struck me as a sign of growing desperation. "Life is hard but we continue to live," he wrote. "Here in Homs, all Sunni people want to leave to a safer place." He signed off: "See you after victory." In the evening, while his wife and I eat grapes and watch a popular Syrian crooner on television, Abu Ali sits in his pyjamas at his desk behind us, doing his accounts, catching up with friends on Facebook and Skype, making a few phone calls to try to find a lawyer for someone in prison. In passing, I see the figure of 120,000 he has written on a sheet of paper; this, it turns out, is someone's best guess at the number of people now being held in regime jails. I ask if there has been any news on his former teacher. The gang who kidnapped him have been persuaded to drop their ransom from 24m Syrian pounds to 3m, he says. Like most of the work Abu Ali does, it's progress of sorts, but still a long way from good news. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Hillary Clinton: we need to talk sensibly about spying Posted: 11 Oct 2013 04:10 PM PDT  Former US secretary of state greets debate as British shadow home secretary calls for oversight of intelligence Hillary Clinton has called for a "sensible adult conversation", to be held in a transparent way, about the boundaries of state surveillance highlighted by the leaking of secret NSA files by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. In a boost to British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, who is planning to start conversations within government about the oversight of Britain's intelligence agencies, the former US secretary of state said it would be wrong to shut down a debate. Clinton, who is seen as a frontrunner for the 2016 US presidential election, said at Chatham House in London: "This is a very important question. On the intelligence issue, we are democracies thank goodness, both the US and the UK. "We need to have a sensible adult conversation about what is necessary to be done, and how to do it, in a way that is as transparent as it can be, with as much oversight and citizens' understanding as there can be." Her words were echoed by the British shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, who repeated her call in a speech in July for reform of the oversight of the intelligence agencies. Cooper, a former member of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee that oversees the agencies,said: "I have long argued that checks and balances need to be stronger – this would benefit and maintain confidence in the vital work of our security and intelligence agencies as well as being in the interests of democracy." The conciliatory language of Clinton and Cooper contrasted with that of MI5, whose director general, Andrew Parker, warned earlier this week that the leaked documents by Snowden had provided a gift to terrorists. The former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw reinforced that message Friday, criticising the Guardian for publishing articles based on the leaked documents. Straw, foreign secretary during the Iraq war in 2003, told the BBC: "They're blinding themselves about the consequence and also showing an extraordinary naivety and arrogance in implying that they are in a position to judge whether or not particular secrets which they have published are not likely to damage the national interest, and they're not in any position at all to do that." Clegg, who agrees with Straw that in some cases the Guardian was wrong to publish details from the NSA files, believes the leaks show the need to consider updating the legal oversight of Britain's security services. Aides said he would be calling in experts from inside and outside Whitehall amid concerns that the leaked files show that powerful new technologies appear to have outstripped the current system of legislative and political oversight. Vince Cable, the business secretary, confirmed the Lib Dems wanted to examine the oversight of the intelligence agencies and he praised the Guardian for performing a public service in publishing articles on the files. He told BBC Radio 4's Today: "I think the Guardian has done a very considerable public service. Snowden's contribution is two-fold. One is a positive one, which is whistleblowing, and the other is more worrying, that a large amount of genuinely important intelligence material does seem to have been passed across. "The conclusion which Nick Clegg came to, and set out this morning, is that we do need to have proper political oversight of the intelligence services and arguably we haven't until now. What they [the Guardian] did was, as journalists, entirely correct and right. Snowden is a different kettle of fish." Downing Street indicated that senior members of the coalition were at odds when the prime minister's spokesman dismissed Cable's claim that Britain arguably lacks a proper system of oversight, saying that the prime minister is satisfied with the system. But David Cameron's spokesman added that members of the national security council, of which Clegg is a member, were entitled to question the intelligence agencies. The spokesman said: "There is a debate that is outside of government that is often reported in [the Guardian] and other newspapers. There is the scope for members of the national security council, privy councillors, to ask questions and the like to better understand the work that the agencies do. That is always open to them." The agencies are overseen in three ways in Britain: they are answerable to their relevant secretary of state; accountable to parliament's intelligence and security committee chaired by the former Tory foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind; and answerable to the intelligence commissioners. David Bickford, a former legal director of MI5 and MI6, told the Guardian that the current oversight regime for Britain's intelligence agencies was "obviously inadequate." "Secrecy in this country is over-protected and under-regulated," he said. "The UK has signally failed to prepare itself for openness when dealing with politically sensitive issues such as terrorism or the involvement of their secret agencies in the gathering of information by secret means."Bickford added: "We see only a fleeting and ephemeral face of the intelligence agencies chiefs; ministers glide over the threats, never explain their relationship with those agencies and are content to retain an obviously inadequate system for their supervision." Bickford said public scepticism was "made worse by the Communications Data Bill's proposal that the agencies themselves control their mining of communications data." He added: "Unless government takes this debate seriously, secrecy will be pierced by the needs of society and terrorism and organised crime will plunder our sovereignty." Nick Pickles, the director of Big Brother Watch, joined forces with ten other like-minded campaigners to call on Cameron and Clegg to reform the system of oversight of the intelligence agencies. In a letter to the prime minister, deputy prime ministers and the ISC chairman the campaigners called for an independent review of the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000 and the Intelligence Services Act 1994; the publication, in line with the practice in the US of legal opinions used to support surveillance methods; and to allow the Intelligence and Security Committee to report directly to Parliament rather than just to the prime minister. In the letter they said: "We would be delighted to meet with you or members of your Government to discuss these issues. At a time when the internet is an inescapable part of daily life, the modern economy and the delivery of public services, it is surely paramount that the laws that govern surveillance are fit for a digital age, and that the safeguards that operate are robust, properly resourced and can command public confidence." Sir Francis Richards, a former GCHQ director, questioned whether it was right for an MP of a governing party to chair the intelligence and security committee. Richards, who was highly critical of the Guardian for publishing the leaked documents, told The World at One on Radio 4: "I think it's probably not a very good idea that a former senior minister in a Conservative government is the current chair of the intelligence and security committee." In her remarks, Clinton did not comment on the UK's oversight arrangements. But she indicated she was wholly supportive of the approach adopted by Barack Obama who – in contrast to Downing Street – has said he welcomes a debate on surveillance in the wake of the NSA leaks. Answering a question from the Guardian at Chatham House, she said the discussion had to take place within a framework that addressed issues of privacy and protection of citizens because some surveillance programmes remained a "really critical ingredient in our homeland security." Clinton, who is considering whether to make her second challenge for the Democratic presidential nomination, added: "It would be going down a wrong path if we were to reject the importance of the debate, and the kinds of intelligence activities that genuinely keep us safe. "So how do we sort all of this out? This is a problem that is well over a decade old, where these capacities have corresponded with increasing outreach to consumers on the business side and increasing concern about security on the government side. People need to be better informed." Cooper was careful to praise the work of the intelligence agencies. She said: "The work of the security and intelligence services is vital, and most of it by necessity must be kept secret to protect our national security and public safety. Leaks of classified information can be deeply damaging, and in the wrong hands can place our country and people's lives in danger. But because so much information needs to be kept secret, it's even more important that there are strong checks and balances in place, to provide effective oversight, accountability and reassurance to the public. And that's why we are proposing reforms. "When dealing with international terrorism or other complex and serious threats, strong powers will sometimes be needed but they should be matched by strong checks and balances to ensure power is not concentrated or abused, and to investigate when things go wrong. As a former member of the Intelligence and Security Committee I have long called for it to have greater powers and resources to pursue searching investigations. And it also needs the credibility and independence of government in the eyes of the public, Parliament and the media that the Public Accounts Committee has. "We should be strengthening other forms of oversight too. We are way past the time when oversight can be delivered simply by retired judges undertaking paper-based reviews and never speaking publicly about their conclusions or the work they do. The current framework of commissioners who few people have heard of simply isn't adequate for a world of rapidly changing technology and public expectations. "The very nature of intelligence agencies is that their work needs to go on behind closed doors, and many of the checks and balances need to be behind closed doors too. But those checks and balances need to be strong enough and credible enough so the public can be confidence in the vital work the agencies do." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Posted: 11 Oct 2013 03:02 PM PDT  Fresh tragedy occurs in the same waters where last week more than 300 migrants travelling from north Africa lost their lives At least 27 people died on Friday after their boat capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa, a fresh tragedy to occur in the waters where last week more than 300 migrants travelling from north Africa to southern Europe lost their lives. As divers continued to search for corpses following last Thursday's disaster, the Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat told journalists in the island's capital, Valletta, that 27 people – including at least three children – had been pulled from the water following the capsizing about 60 miles south-east of Lampedusa. Although near the Sicilian island, the boat was in international waters where Malta is responsible for search and rescue operations. Earlier, Italian navy spokesman Marco Maccaroni told the Associated Press that at least 221 people had been saved from the capsized vessel – a figure which represented a large proportion of the approximately 250 people believed to have been on board. Reacting to the news on Friday night, the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, was reported to have said the latest deaths were a "new and stark confirmation" of how serious the situation in the Mediterranean is. The official toll for last Thursday's tragedy – when a boat loaded with about 500 migrants caught fire and sank in one of the worst disasters to hit the area in recent years – rose on Friday to at least 339. Malta was co-ordinating the emergency response to Friday's crisis, with its ships and aircraft assisted by the Italian authorities. The more seriously injured among them were being flown by helicopter to Lampedusa. Passengers on board the boat had been able to make an emergency call with a satellite phone, which enabled rescuers to pinpoint their location, a spokesman for the Italian coastguard said. A Maltese military plane was on the scene at around 4pm local time (2pm GMT) and dropped a liferaft to start the rescue operation, according to the smaller EU country's navy. The head of the Italian Red Cross said the latest deaths were yet more proof that urgent steps needed to be taken to open humanitarian corridors to protect migrant boats. "Reading the news that is coming out about a new tragedy at sea, I feel anger and bitterness. There is a need for concrete action, as we have said repeatedly, more than words," said Francesco Rocca in a statement. "This is the dramatic proof of everything we have been saying up to today: that we need to take urgent measures to open humanitarian corridors. There is no time to lose." Even before the most recent disaster, it had become clear earlier on Friday that the potentially deadly perils of the crossing had not stopped the flow of migrants to Italian shores. The coastguard said that in five separate operations more than 500 migrants had been rescued in quick succession. "This is not just another wake-up call for Europe. This is the time for action," Muscat said, adding he had spoken to his Italian counterpart to discuss the latest disaster. "This is a European problem, not a problem for Italy or Malta only." Italy is asking for more EU support and an overhaul of the bloc's immigration rules after last week's shipwreck. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Best pictures of the day - live Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:48 PM PDT The Guardian's photo team brings you a daily round-up from the world of photography       |
| White House downplays short-term debt limit extension as talks continue - live Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:45 PM PDT • Carney: short-term debt limit 'not the way to go'       |
| US debt ceiling: retrench warfare | Editorial Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:35 PM PDT  The swing in fortune has produced some bizarre scenes, such a US president telling Wall Street to be worried The days when Republicans thought they could deliver ransom notes to Barack Obama are gone. Twelve days into a government shutdown and with the clock ticking on a debt default by the world's leading economy, Republicans in Congress are on Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Harried by terrible polling and angry business supporters (including heavyweight donors), they are dumping their baggage as they go. The demand that they would only fund the government and raise the debt ceiling if Mr Obama agreed to defund the Affordable Care Act? Gone. Delaying the mandate that requires the uninsured to sign up for coverage? Out. They are still refusing to re-open government without some concessions, and the game will be to give them a fig leaf, which they can parade as a concession. The self-induced crisis is not yet over. Their offer to extend the nation's borrowing for just six weeks was too short for the White House, and a potential deal could fall apart at any moment. But the reverse direction of their travel is unmistakable. Republicans are losing the fight not because Mr Obama or his signature piece of legislation have suddenly become popular. While the favourable rating on Obamacare is gradually rising, still only 31% are in favour against 43% who are not. No, they are losing because their own tactics have put everyone's backs up. A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll offers a devastating commentary on this. Public approval of Republican tactics is at a new low of 24%. It's not only that Americans dislike a political party shutting down government. Doing so for political reasons, rather than substantive ones, is even worse in their eyes. GOP leaders in Congress have only themselves to blame for this. Attempting to undo a signature piece of legislation after it had come into force allowed Mr Obama to paint them as ideologues impervious to reason, debate or due process. As the Republicans reverse one position after another, their plight only worsens. As long as they struggle to define what their campaign is about, they are vulnerable to the charge that they are wrecking an economic recovery that is still young and fragile. For a GOP that, despite the Tea Party insurgency, still considers itself to be the natural party of government, that is not a comfortable position to occupy. You can campaign, as the Tea Party has done, on promises never to increase the nation's debt limit, but you cannot simultaneously argue that Mr Obama has been reckless with the nation's finances, while also propelling the most reckless act of all – the day (theoretically next Thursday) when the government will have to delay, or prioritise, the payment of US Treasury bills. Republicans such as Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, who first hoisted the white flag in columns in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal by dropping the link between the budget and defunding Obamacare, are belatedly waking up to the thought that they have been marching down a blind alley. The Tea Party wunderkind Ted Cruz does not have a plan B. They had all assumed that Mr Obama would buckle, as he did in his first term of office. Wonder of wonders, the president learns from past mistakes. This swing in fortune has produced some bizarre scenes, such a US president telling Wall Street to be worried, or the chief lobbyist for Republican donors Charles and David Koch denying they had ever supported the defund strategy. Late in the day, Mr Obama has stumbled on a strategy which stops this nonsense. Had he done this at the start of his presidency, he might have got more done. This down-to-the-wire stuff goes against his instincts as a progressive. But negotiating was never going to work with an opposition driven by fundamentalist forces. Concessions were feeding the crocodile: when you run out of chickens to throw it, it takes your arm. Hopefully the day will come when Republicans realise this too, and turn on their Tea Party wreckers. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| JP Morgan facing third quarter loss after $9.2bn legal costs Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:34 PM PDT  US bank hit by London Whale trading fines and legal penalties over sale of sub-prime mortgages that could yet reach $11bn America's biggest bank, JP Morgan, made a loss in the third quarter of 2013 after legal expenses of $9.2bn (£5.8bn) caused by a wave of regulatory investigations and potential lawsuits. The bank, thought until recently to have weathered the financial crisis well, has put aside $23bn for potential litigation since 2010 and admitted yesterday its legal bills could be $6.8bn more. Jamie Dimon, the bank's chairman and chief executive, described the loss – his first since taking charge in December 2005 and the first since 2004 – as painful. The third-quarter loss is a dramatic reversal for a bank that has survived the five years since the financial crisis without falling into the red and even reported record profits for the last three years. During the crisis, JP Morgan was regarded as strong enough to rescue fallen banks Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. Dimon, who ignored calls to split his management roles earlier this year, said: "We are just trying to improve and move on. Remember these things are related to multiple year events. Remember we didn't lose any money during the crisis." But five years on from the crisis, the bank has been hit by more than $900m in fines for the London Whale trading incident and is locked in talks about the penalties it will incur for the sale of sub-prime mortgage-backed securities in the runup to the 2007 credit crunch. The settlement could cost a record $11bn. As a result of those discussions –in which Dimon has been personally involved – the bank took a $7.2bn legal charge, or $9.2bn before tax, which caused a $400m loss for the quarter compared with a profit of $5.7bn the same time last year. Dimon would rather have focused on the bank's earnings before the one-off legal provisions – $5.8bn – after its revenue fell to $24bn, from $26bn in the same period last year. Last month, Dimon went to Washington to meet the attorney general, Eric Holder, in an attempt to reach an agreement that could include $4bn of payments to consumers and $7bn of penalties over sub-prime mortgage losses. But Dimon said on Friday that reaching a deal involved "multiple agencies so you can imagine how complicated it is." The firm is facing more than a dozen investigations, including one about hiring the children of executives of Chinese state-owned companies. Dimon said an otherwise strong performance had been "marred by large legal expense". Marianne Lake, JP Morgan's chief financial officer, cautioned that the legal expenses were "significantly larger than we could have anticipated even a short while ago". "We would love to reduce the uncertainty around this but it is really hard to do and it will probably be lumpy," Dimon told analysts. "There are multiple agencies involved in every case now, we just have to deal with it and it will abate over time. One day it won't be a big number. Our preference is to resolve it and it is very hard to work with government and regulators. We want to do the right thing for our shareholders and hopefully over time we will make this a much smaller issue." Dimon made reference to the two firms JP Morgan rescued during the crisis – Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual – which were involved in the mortgage scandal. "The board continues to seek a fair and reasonable settlement with the government on mortgage-related issues – and one that recognises the extraordinary circumstances of the Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual transactions, which were undertaken at the request or encouragement of the US government," Dimon said. The settlement talks are taking place just after the bank has been fined $920m by regulators in the US and the UK for the London Whale trading incident last year, which cost the bank $6.2bn in losses and led to Dimon's bonus being cut in half. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Major TV networks petition supreme court to stop Aereo rebroadcasting Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:07 PM PDT ABC, CBS, Disney, PBS and Fox among networks seeking to block startup backed by mogul turned entrepreneur Barry Diller  |
| Federal government attempts to block same-sex marriage: The Roast - video Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:00 PM PDT The Roast is a daily comedy news show that promises to destroy every bastion of journalism known to man. Hosted by Tom Glasson, The Roast also features Mark Humphries, Clarke Richards, Rachel Corbett and Nich Richardson  |
| US forces arrest senior Pakistani Taliban commander in Afghanistan Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:24 PM PDT State Department: Latif Mehsud was a leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban, which attempted to bomb NYC's Times Square in 2010  |
| Drunk Dial Congress website thrives as government shutdown drags on Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:14 PM PDT  Website set up by mobile advertising company connects callers, sober or not, with congressmen's essential employees "Mad at Congress over the shutdown? Have a drink and tell them." This is the simple recommendation put forward by the website Drunk Dial Congress, which provides a service to connect frustrated citizens and furloughed employees with a random member of Congress. Enter your phone number on the website and the service will call you, then connect you to the office of a random member of Congress. That call is then fielded by an employee, deemed "essential" enough to remain on duty, who will nonetheless not be getting paid until the shutdown ends. The site also provides a list of topics that people can attempt to discuss once they are connected with a congressperson. At 1pm on Friday – sober – I tested the service. It connected me to the Michigan Republican Mike Rogers' office twice, to three other Republican offices and to one Democrat. When I could not come up with a local zip code to mark my complaint, each of the employees recommended I contact my local representative. The office of the South Carolina Republican Mick Mulvaney also said I could call Mulvaney's DC office, which is handling shutdown complaints. A representative at the office of the Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver told me she was not familiar with the Drunk Dial Congress website but understood why any individual would be upset with the shutdown. "We're watching just like you," she said. The essential employee said Cleaver's office had not received many calls about the shutdown, but added that she expected Republican offices were getting more calls. "It is important that Americans call their congressman," she said. Polls show Congress to be currently less popular than hemorrhoids, toenail fungus, dog poop and the band Nickelback. A mobile advertising company, Revolution Messaging, created Drunk Dial Congress in order to give people space to vent their frustration. "We started the site because everyone at the firm has a friend that has been furloughed, and we thought this would be a great way for them (and others) to spend their newly found free time," said Revolution Messaging's Keegan Goudiss, in an email. "Also, we hoped this would get others who don't generally call Congress, to call in and vent their frustrations with the shutdown." He said the site has seen nearly 45,000 calls and is averaging about 1,400 calls per hour. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Letters: Vaccinating and microchipping badgers is easy, cheap and effective Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT  The present pilot badger cull has spent £2m to kill 800 badgers ('Badgers to blame' for cull failing to hit target, 10 October). That is more than £2,000 per killed badger. I am a vet, trained and licensed to go out to trap and vaccinate badgers. A badger needs to be vaccinated only once in its life. I microchip the badgers after vaccination, so in the following years I don't spend expensive vaccine (at £17 per badger dose) unnecessarily. My role is to place the traps, set them and vaccinate the trapped badgers. Once I have placed the trap, volunteers or landowners can place bait (peanuts) in the traps at night and check the next morning if bait is being taken. Once the bait is being taken, I come and set the trap at night, check them the next morning, and vaccinate the trapped badgers. Charging for an average of five visits per vaccinated badger (which is very generous, often two is enough) the cost of a vaccinated badger comes to a maximum of £200. For this cost you create an area of a vaccinated, stable badger population around farms. The microchipping also gives you yearly information about the number of badgers present, where to find them and where they go. One of my observations, for example, is that in places where people told me "there were dozens of badgers everywhere", there were actually the same five badgers turning up all over the place. I honestly hope that these pilot culls will help to determine that we need a proper badger vaccination campaign, with farmers, vets and the Badger Trust working together to help to resolve the bovine TB problem in cattle and wildlife. • The endangered species of Guardian-reading country dwellers are finding the sentimental clap-trap and images (Cover photo, 10 October) surrounding the highly destructive badger a bit nauseating. Has Brian May ever experienced a badger in his hen run or maize crop? Badgers are also big devourers of wild bee and wasp nests. Having neighbours whose farms are TB infected, we see the despair of sending good stock to slaughter and the strain on man and animal from the six-weekly TB testing regime. While having no desire to return to the era of badger-baiting, sensible control of numbers has in the past kept the TB problem at bay. I think the fact that both the badger and the fox are attractive creatures has a lot to do with the outrage over both culling and hunting. It would be interesting to be able to see the level of hysteria if, by dint of evolution, these species were instead, say, grey and scaly in appearance. (But we did enjoy Steve Bell's cartoon that day.) theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Letters: Grenada's crippling sovereign debt burden Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT  Our tiny island of Grenada, with not many more than 100,000 inhabitants, is saddled with a debt that cannot be sustained. We have been hard hit by the global financial crisis because it affected our cruise ship clientele in the US. A slow recovery from hurricanes in the last decade as well as the reduction in development assistance have also played a part. We are committed to bearing our share of the cost while finding a way out that is both equitable and sustainable. First, we are seeking social consensus by listening to our people. The government has consulted the churches and other civil society organisations. The International Monetary Fund has just completed a two-week visit. We have also become aware of new approaches: At this week's meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington, we have been discussing with stakeholders fairer and more efficient ways of dealing with sovereign debt crises. We are prepared to become pioneers of a new debt-restructuring model that would spare countries from protracted entanglement in the debt trap. Grenada urgently needs debt relief from all its creditors. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Posted: 11 Oct 2013 12:59 PM PDT  Llanystumdwy: If we want to preserve this little piece of heaven and all that inhabits here, we'll need to act quickly A naturalist will return time and again to favourite places. In Wales there's a term for this ritual of habituation: dyn ei filltir sgwar – someone of their own square mile. Being thus brings rewards. When I look back over visits to one precious landscape, where Afon Dwyfor sidles into the sea a mile west of Cricieth, the gifts have been glorious: a marsh harrier hunting across saltings; monochrome flicker of knot scouring across a sunset sky; soft whistlings and purrings of pintail and wigeon at pre-dawn; swirl of otters in pursuit of salmon; reed-buntings and bearded tits among phragmites beds; the Glaslyn osprey flouncing down on a seethe of mullet; goosander and merganser arrowing upstream; gleam of little egrets in the tide-flow; even a great skua – all these illustrations of memory. Soon, perhaps, that's all they'll be. A consultation document just issued by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation supports an application to lease for shooting crown estate land along the tidal river. This land is traversed by the new Wales Coastal Path. The farmer, Peredur Parry, who leases fields behind and keeps them in good heart through unstinting labour, does not want the shooters here. Nor do walkers who exercise here throughout day and year. Nor do I. This is a special place. The association lists species of goose, duck and wader permissible to shoot. It includes wigeon, pintail, golden plover, snipe, woodcock. Look up their status and you'll find a recurrent vocabulary: rare, declining, irregular visitor, threatened. When will we learn? The association outlines plans to breed and introduce more mallard as quarry. They'll become a dominant, excluding species. Extinction's tipping points? Shooting and conservation? In this instance, that structure strikes me as oxymoronic. The lease application's being made last-minute, in hope of slipping through unnoticed before new gun legislation due next month. If you want to preserve this little piece of heaven and all that inhabits there, you'll need to act quickly. Here's a website address that will tell you how to register your objections: www.dheaf.plus.com/shooting/ theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Starbucks venti coffee comes with a double shot of politics | Jana Kasperkevic Posted: 11 Oct 2013 12:19 PM PDT Jana Kasperkevic: The Starbucks Come Together petition calls on Washington to serve the people. But the message may be equally directed at the American public       |
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