Strikes Africa workers hold mass protests

S Africa workers hold mass protests

Strikes began last week and saw clashes between protesters and police

South African civil servants are marching across the country over a wage dispute, with more than one million people expected to participate in strikes.

Labour unions planned the action on Thursday as part of continued pressure on the government to agree to improved pay terms and benefits.

Around 1.3 million state workers have been on strike since Wednesday last week, picketing outside schools, hospitals and government offices.

A day after they began, the strikes became violent when police used rubber bullets and water cannons against teachers and other civil servants, who threw stones and bricks at them when trying to enter a hospital in Johannesburg.

The unions have set a deadline of September 2 for the government to provide a 8.6 per cent rise in salaries and a 1,000 rand ($138) monthly housing allowance, otherwise more state workers are slated to join the strikes.

The South African government is offering a seven per cent pay hike and 630 rand for housing.

Government services and the economy have already been disrupting by the strikes.

Patients affected

Doctors and activists warned on Wednesday that HIV and Aids patients are not receiving treatment because of the nationwide strike. An estimated 5.7 million people are living with HIV and Aids in South Africa, more than any other country.

One doctor, Ashraf Coovadia, said that his HIV/Aids clinic at a Johannesburg government hospital is receiving 20 to 30 patients whereas normally the figure would be 60 to 80.

He said that clinic staff have been calling patients to urge them to come in.

Patients typically receive three-month batches of drugs. They can develop drug resistance if they miss a few days of medication.

Coovadia said that people may fear encountering violence at state hospitals or think that they have been closed by the strikes.

He added that he has had to negotiate with strikers and security guards to ensure patients can enter the clinic safely.

"The situation is quite volatile," he said.

Under pressure
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photo: AP / Fernando Llano Bogota: Caracas hosts Farc rebels

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina has become the first Latin American country to let gay couples marry and adopt children, defying Catholic opposition to join the ranks of a few mostly European nations with similar laws. Argentine senators debate over a same-sex wedding equality bill which was approved in May by the Lower House in Buenos Aires,...

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Goldman paying $550M to settle civil fraud charges

WASHINGTON – Resolving a high-profile government case linked to the mortgage meltdown, Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex investments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Thursday with the Wall Street titan, just hours after Congress gave final approval to legislation imposing the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street firms since the Great Depresssion.
For Goldman, it was a chance to put behind it a case that had tarnished its reputation after it emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis. For the SEC, emerging from the embarrassment of a series of lapses, the charges and the settlement were a high-stakes opportunity to prove it could be tough on Wall Street.
And the agency's sweeping investigation of the conduct of financial firms in the run-up to the mortgage market collapse could bring more cases.
The deal calls for Goldman to pay a $535 million fine and $15 million in restitution of fees it collected. Of the total $550 million, $300 million will go to the government and $250 million goes to compensate two European banks that lost money on their investments.
The penalty was said to be the largest against a Wall Street firm in SEC history. But the settlement amounts to less than 5 percent of Goldman's 2009 net income of $12.2 billion after payment of dividends to preferred shareholders — or a little more than two weeks of net income.
Word that Goldman had settled began leaking about a half-hour before stock markets closed and appeared to please investors. Goldman had been trading at about $140 a share. The stock rose to close at $145.22, up $6.16, and shot up to $151.95 in after-hours trading.
The SEC had alleged that Goldman sold mortgage-related investments without telling buyers that the securities had been crafted with input from a client that was betting on them to fail.
The securities cost investors close to $1 billion while helping Goldman client Paulson & Co. capitalize on the housing bust, the SEC said in the charges filed April 16.
Goldman acknowledged Thursday that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers.
But the firm did not admit legal wrongdoing.
In a statement, Goldman said "it was a mistake" for the marketing materials to leave out that a Goldman client helped craft the portfolio and that the client's financial interests ran counter to those of investors.
"We believe that this settlement is the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients," Goldman's statement said.
Robert Khuzami, the SEC's enforcement director, called the settlement a "stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing."


AP – Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami listens to a question after announcing
Goldman acknowledged Thursday that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers.
But the firm did not admit legal wrongdoing.
In a statement, Goldman said "it was a mistake" for the marketing materials to leave out that a Goldman client helped craft the portfolio and that the client's financial interests ran counter to those of investors.
"We believe that this settlement is the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients," Goldman's statement said.
Robert Khuzami, the SEC's enforcement director, called the settlement a "stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing."
The SEC's wide-ranging investigation of Wall Street firms' mortgage securities dealings in the years running up to the financial crisis goes on, Khuzami said at a news conference at agency headquarters.
"We are looking at deals across a wide variety of institutions and a wide variety of circumstances," he said.
Though the fine won't make much of a dent in Goldman's finances, the settlement will have sweeping legal implications for future securities fraud cases, said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia University.
"Even if the penalty was lower than the market expected, the fact that Goldman admitted that it made misleading and incomplete disclosures to its clients vindicates the SEC's legal theory for the future," Coffee said. "You have to understand that the defendant almost never makes such a concession in SEC settlements."
The settlement is subject to approval by a federal judge in New York.
The SEC said its case continues against Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman vice president accused of shepherding the deal.
Tourre is still employed by Goldman and remains on paid administrative leave, according to a person familiar with his status who wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Goldman is paying Tourre's legal expenses, the source said.
The Justice Department opened a criminal inquiry of Goldman in the spring, following a criminal referral by the SEC.
Of the $550 million Goldman agreed to pay, $250 million will go to the two big losers in the deal. German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG will get $150 million. Royal Bank of Scotland, which bought ABN AMRO Bank, will receive $100 million.

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Congress, OKs, Wall, St. crackdown, consumer ,guards

WASHINGTON – Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.
A year in the making and 22 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide panic in credit and other markets, the bill cleared its final hurdle with a 60-39 Senate vote. It now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature, expected as early as Wednesday.
The law will give the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, create a new agency to guard consumers in their financial transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators. The vote came on the same day that Goldman Sachs & Co. agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle charges that it misled buyers of mortgage-related investments.
From storefront payday lenders to the biggest banking and investment houses on Wall Street, few players in the financial world are immune to the bill's reach. Consumer and investor transactions, whether simple debit card swipes or the most complex securities trades, face new safeguards or restrictions.
A powerful council of regulators would be on the lookout for risks across the finance system. Large, failing financial institutions would be liquidated and the costs assessed on their surviving peers. The Federal Reserve is getting new powers while falling under greater congressional scrutiny.
"I'm about to sign Wall Street reform into law, to protect consumers and lay the foundation for a stronger and safer financial system, one that is innovative, creative, competitive and far less prone to panic and collapse," Obama said.
"Unless your business model depends on cutting corners or bilking your customers, you have nothing to fear."
Republicans said the bill is a vast federal overreach that will drive financial-sector jobs overseas. Before the final vote was even cast, House Republican leader John Boehner called for its repeal.
At an eye-glazing 390,000 words — half the size of the King James Bible — the legislation doesn't offer a quick remedy, however. Rather, it lays down prescriptions for regulators to act. In many cases, the real impact won't be felt for years.
One of the top regulators who will be charged with implementing the law, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said the Senate vote represents a "far-reaching step toward preventing a replay of the recent financial crisis."
The Senate's final passage of the bill, two weeks after the House approved it, is a welcome achievement for a president and congressional Democrats, both increasingly unpopular with voters four months from midterm elections that threaten to put Republicans in charge of Congress. Only three Republicans voted for it — Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who has said the bill is not tough enough, voted with most Republicans against it.
The law has been a priority for Obama, ranking just behind his health care overhaul enacted in March. In its final form, the package hews closely to the plan unwrapped a year ago by the White House and in some ways is even tougher. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs promptly cast the vote in political terms.
"This will be a vote that Democrats will talk about through November as a way of highlighting the choice that people will get to make in 2010," he said.
The political benefits, however, stand to be overshadowed by lingering high unemployment. And Republicans were betting that public antipathy toward big government and worries over jobs would trump their anger at Wall Street.
"We're going to be driving jobs and business overseas with this massive piece of legislation," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who worked with Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut on certain aspects of the bill, denounced it as a "legislative monster."
Named after Dodd and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, the Democratic committee chairmen who steered it to passage, the legislation ends a trend toward looser regulations that peaked in 1999 with the elimination of Depression-era walls separating commercial banking from riskier investment banking.
And though it calls for the biggest changes in generations, it does not approach the scope of the New Deal banking rules enacted under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That era saw the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to protect consumer deposits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the markets.

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BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf gusher

NEW ORLEANS – The oil has stopped. For now. After 85 days and up to 184 million gallons, BP finally gained control over one of America's biggest environmental catastrophes Thursday by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring.
Though a temporary fix, the accomplishment was greeted with hope, high expectations — and, in many cases along the beleaguered coastline, disbelief. From one Gulf Coast resident came this: "Hallelujah." And from another: "I got to see it to believe it."
If the cap holds, if the sea floor doesn't crack and if the relief wells being prepared are completed successfully, this could be the beginning of the end for the spill. But that's a lot of ifs, and no one was declaring any sort of victory beyond the moment.
The oil stopped flowing at 3:25 p.m. EDT when the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap was slowly throttled shut. That set off a 48-hour watch period in which — much like the hours immediately after a surgery — the patient was in stable, guarded condition and being watched closely for complications.
"It's a great sight," said BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, who immediately urged caution. The flow, he said, could resume. "It's far from the finish line. ... It's not the time to celebrate."
Nevertheless, one comforting fact stood out: For the first time since an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers April 20 and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet beneath the water's surface, no oil was flowing into the Gulf.
President Barack Obama, who has encouraged, cajoled and outright ordered BP to stop the leak, called Thursday's development "a positive sign." But Obama, whose political standing has taken a hit because of the spill and accusations of government inaction, cautioned that "we're still in the testing phase."
The worst-case scenario would be if the oil forced down into the bedrock ruptured the seafloor irreparably. Leaks deep in the well bore might also be found, which would mean that oil would continue to flow into the Gulf. And there's always the possiblity of another explosion, either from too much pressure or from a previously unknown unstable piece of piping.

Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

More is spent on jobless in U.S., but benefits near end

Watches this More is spent on jobless in U.S., but benefits near end



By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
More than 3 million Americans could lose unemployment benefits by the end of July even as the government spends record amounts to compensate the jobless, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The growing number of unemployed workers without benefits comes as Congress argues whether to again extend jobless benefits.

UNEMPLOYMENT: Long-term jobless fear loss of benefits
BOOST OR DRAIN? The debate over unemployment benefits
WHERE ARE THE JOBS? Forecast for 384 metro areas, 50 states
The number of people collecting benefits will fall from 10.5 million to 7 million at the end of July if Congress doesn't extend the payments.

About 400,000 Americans are exhausting their benefits every week, saving the government $2 billion since June and an estimated $34 billion through November.

Unemployment insurance has played a bigger role in this recession — the longest since the Great Depression— than in previous downturns, the USA TODAY analysis finds.

This extraordinary response has helped as many as 11 million people at one time — a record — while driving the program's cost to an annual rate of $145 billion in the first quarter. That's more than double what was spent in any previous recession, after adjusting for inflation.

Congress has extended unemployment benefits in every recession since the 1950s. The current extension — up to 99 weeks — far exceeds the previous longest extension of 65 weeks in 1975.

Economist Chris O'Leary of the non-partisan Upjohn Institute for Employment Research says jobless benefits have never been scaled back with unemployment near 10%. "An extension seems appropriate," he says.

Labor expert James Sherk of the conservative Heritage Foundation says a more limited extension is needed.

"Two years is excessive," he says. "If you've gone that long without work, there's a range of other anti-poverty programs available."

Copyright 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Israel blocks Libyan ship taking aid to Gaza

Israeli navy insists ship lands the goods outside Gaza for delivery by land



The Amalthea is loaded with supplies at Lavrio, near Athens last Friday before it set sail for Gaza. Photograph: John Kolesidis/Reuters
A Libyan ship carrying aid for Gaza docked at an Egyptian port today after the Israeli navy stopped it from reaching the Palestinian territory.

The Amalthea, flying under a Moldovan flag, will unload its cargo and transfer it to the Red Crescent for delivery to Gaza by land across the border, said Gamal Abdel Maqsoud, director of the Egyptian port of el-Arish.

Israeli missile ships stopped the ship yesterday from reaching the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group took control of the territory in violent clashes with the rival Fatah group in June 2007.

The Amalthea was the latest ship to attempt to break the embargo, six weeks after the Israeli navy's interception of an aid flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed. The assault prompted a wave of international condemnation and resulted in Israel agreeing to ease its blockade of Gaza. But it has maintained the naval embargo, insisting it is necessary and justified under international law to prevent weapons being shipped to Hamas.

The Amalthea sailed from Greece at the weekend carrying up to 15 activists and 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine, according to the organisers, a charity chaired by a son of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

Youssef Sawani, director of the charity, told Reuters it was a "peaceful mission". But Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, wrote to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, expressing concern "that the true nature of its actions remains dubious".

Following intense Israeli diplomatic efforts, Greece – from where the boat sailed – Moldova – under whose flag the boat is operating – and Egypt all agreed that the Amalthea should be directed to el-Arish, 40km (25 miles) from Gaza, where its cargo could be unloaded, inspected and transferred to Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Israel had also invited the activists to unload the shipment at the Israeli port of Ashdod, a similar distance from Gaza.

Despite ceding to calls for the blockade to be relaxed in the aftermath of the assault on the flotilla on 31 May, Israel has insisted the commandos who carried out the raids acted in self-defence. It has resisted calls for a UN-led inquiry but has appointed two panels, one military and one civilian, to review the raid.

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Vatican makes attempted ordination of women a grave crime

Revised Catholic rules put female ordination in same category of crime under church law as clerical sex abuse of minors



Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announces the revised Catholic laws. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP
The Vatican today made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.

The new rules, which have been sent to bishops around the world, apply equally to Catholic women who agree to a ceremony of ordination and to the bishop who conducts it. Both would be excommunicated. Since the Vatican does not accept that women can become priests, it does not recognise the outcome of any such ceremony.

The latest move, which appeared to bar and bolt the door to Catholic women priests, came at a time when the Church of England moved in the opposite direction, to a step closer to the ordination of female bishops.

The Vatican's reclassification of attempted female ordination was part of a revision of a 2001 decree, the main purpose of which was to tighten up the rules on sex abuse by priests in reaction to the scandals that have been sweeping through the church since January. The most important change is to extend the period during which a clergyman can be tried by a church court from 10 to 20 years, dating from the 18th birthday of his victim.

The new rules introduce speedier procedures for dealing with the most urgent and serious cases; allowed for lay people to form part of church tribunals that judge such cases; put abuse of the mentally disabled on a level with that of minors, and introduced a new crime of paedophile pornography.

The pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, stressed that the changes applied solely to canon, or church, law. They had no bearing on whether suspected offenders should be reported to the civil authorities.

He said that issue had already been dealt with earlier this year in instructions making it clear to bishops that they must report cases promptly.

The Vatican was working on further instructions "so that the directives it issues on the subject of sexual abuse of minors, either by the clergy or institutions connected with the church, may be increasingly rigorous, coherent and effective," he said

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

US hands over last Iraqi prison under its control

Iraqis take charge of Camp Cropper as US military winds down presence in country before full withdrawal by end of next year

Major General Jerry Cannon, right, and Iraq's justice minister Dara Nur al-Din sign documents during the handover ceremony of Camp Cropper from US forces to the Iraqi government. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
The US transferred the last detention camp under its control in Iraq today as it continues to wind down its military presence in the country.

Iraqi authorities are to rename Camp Cropper Karkh prison.

Major General Jerry Cannon, the head of US detention facilities in Iraq, said the US would continue holding 200 detainees – out of 1,500 prisoners – including eight former regime members. They will be held in a separate area of the prison known as compound five.

Yesterday Iraqi officials said the US had turned over 55 former senior officials, including former foreign minister Tariq Aziz, to Iraqi custody since last year.

The transfer of Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport, comes amid concerns about sectarian tensions spilling over into the prison system. Inmates in Iraqi prisons have repeatedly complained about torture and beatings by the police, as well as overcrowding and poor conditions.

Camp Cropper, established in April 2003 as a "high value" detention site, was named after Sergeant Kenneth Cropper, a member of the Maryland National Guard who died during physical training in 2002 at Fort Myer, Virginia.

The camp, which held Saddam Hussein until his execution in 2006, was supposed to have been a "holding centre" or temporary camp for up to 300 detainees who would be held for no more than a few days.

After being processed, prisoners were supposed to be moved to other locations in Baghdad and Iraq. This proved unworkable as most prisons in Baghdad were badly damaged by looting after the fall of Saddam's government.

Camp Cropper has a troubled history. Five prisoners were shot during a riot in 2003. After the closure of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and the transfer of prisoners to Camp Cropper, it too was criticised for alleged mistreatment of detainees. In 2006 three prisoners died. One died from injuries inflicted by fellow inmates and the other two from natural causes.

In 2007, Lieutenant Colonel William Steele, who was in charge of Camp Cropper was sentenced to two years in prison for "unauthorised possession of classified documents, and behaviour unbecoming an officer for an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter and failing to obey an order".

Camp Cropper is the last of three US prisons handed over to Iraqi control. Camp Bucca was transferred last September, and Camp Taji, a detention facility at an airbase north of Baghdad, in January. The handover of Camp Cropper comes as the US is preparing to pull out all combat forces by September, leaving a force of some 50,000 before a full withdrawal by the end of next year

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Real BP Gulf oil disaster is still to come

Hurricane season could bring petroleum-filled storms – but what if oil is belched out for another hundred years?


BP is yet to predict the worst-case scenario over the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Dave Martin/AP
Despite BP fighting valiantly to keep reporters and photographers away from the affected areas, the oil is still erupting out of the sea bed, making the waters of the Gulf of Mexico heavy with petroleum and smearing the coastline with black goo.

So what is going to happen now the hurricane season has arrived? The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration claims there won't be any oil droplets in any hurricane's precipitation. But Jeff Masters, the founder of Weather Underground, from the University of Michigan, disagrees. In fact, he claims that the oil droplets in the hurricane-force winds might actually cause "explosive deepening" of hurricanes in the Gulf.

What will happen when an oil-powered hurricane hits New Orleans and splatters its streets and buildings with crude oil? What will happen when it's not just pelicans and turtles that are plastered in black stuff but people? What about when rice and sugarcane are covered in oil? How will BP keep the reporters and photographers out of it then?

But BP is aware of the possibility of impending disaster a hurricane might bring. On the BP oil leak response website, Mike Utsler, the BP incident commander, based in Houma, tells us: "It's an area that we've put tremendous planning and preparation, from everything in terms of how we would respond to moving people, first and foremost, to safety, but how we would also protect and manage the equipment that's so vital to our operations …"

So that's all right then. BP is going to move everybody out of the way of any carcinogenic, petroleum-filled storms that hit the mainland.

But wait a minute! Mike Utsler isn't talking about the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. He's only talking about the people and equipment involved in the cleanup. "How do we do and manage our people," he says "in such a way that their safety is paramount."

In fact, BP apparently has a weather team working in conjunction with "the area command weather experts, as well as of course the hurricane centre, and our NOAA colleagues" so when a hurricane hits New Orleans and plasters the streets and buildings with crude oil, at least BP will have predicted it.

But what it's not predicting, at the moment, is the worst-case scenario.

BP doesn't actually know how big the oil field they drilled into is. They're drilling into lower tertiary (Paleogene) rock that was laid down at the same time mammals and birds were coming into being: 65-23m years ago. It is one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry, so as you can imagine, they're feeling their way in all this.

Appearing before a House subcommittee in Washington, Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, estimated that there might be a modest 2bn gallons down there, which could mean it could go on belching out oil for another four years. On the other hand, when BP originally announced their discovery of the "giant" find at its Tiber Prospect, experts estimated the size at 42bn gallons. And since they were talking about "recoverable oil" (which could be only 20% of the actual oil in the site) it would mean the site may hold as much as 210bn gallons. In other words, it could go on belching out oil for another hundred years.

Could that be enough time for the oil slick to reach the Mediterranean? Or, heaven forbid, Brighton

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

BP oil spill cap ready for testing

Faulty hose has been replaced and technicians are moving towards finally closing off flow into Gulf of Mexico, say official

Image from a BP video shows oil flowing from a valve before a leak stopped tests on the containment cap in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: AP
BP engineers trying to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico have fixed a leak in the new containment system and are preparing to start critical pressure tests of the cap, the company has said.

Kent Wells, BP's senior vice-president of exploration and production, said the team had replaced the defective hose and would launch the test later today.

"We landed it this morning," Wells said of the replacement hose. "I'm expecting that we'll start up (the test) here later this morning, sometime today."

The cap, installed on Monday, is a crucial step toward a four-vessel oil capture system that is hurricane-ready and can collect up to 80,000 barrels a day. The first of two relief wells is expected to intercept and plug the leak by mid-August.

It represents the best hope yet of stopping the oil from leaking into the sea since the 20 April Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 people.

The company has come under increasing pressure in the United States amid reports that it lobbied the British government for the release of the Lockerbie bomber in what is being called an oil-for-terrorist deal.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, pledged to consider Congressional demands for an investigation into the charges that BP pushed for the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to help it clinch lucrative drilling contracts off the coast of Libya.

Tests of the latest containment attempt began with BP shutting off pipes that were funnelling some of the oil to ships on the surface, meaning the full force of the gusher went up into the cap. Deep-sea robots began slowly closing three openings that let oil pass through. Ultimately the flow of crude will be blocked entirely.

Engineers watched pressure readings to check whether the well was intact. The first two are simple on-off valves. The third – the one with the leaking hose – is closed gradually and takes longer.

Retired coastguard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the government response to the disaster, said a committee of scientists and engineers would monitor the results and assess them every six hours. The test would end after 48 hours to evaluate the findings.

"I was gung-ho for this test and I remain gung-ho for this test," he said.

If the cap works it will enable BP to stop the oil from gushing into the sea, either by holding it back like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channelling some through lines to as many as four collection ships.

The cap was lowered on to the well on Monday. But before BP could test it the government intervened because of concerns about whether the buildup of pressure from the gushing oil could rupture the walls of the well and make the leak worse.

Allen said: "We sat long and hard abo

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

George Steinbrenner: the biggest loser in baseball

The New York Yankees owner was a cruel and petty bully, who does not deserve the eulogies following his death this week



George Steinbrenner … devoid of humility and class. Photograph: Chris O'Meara/AP
George Steinbrenner was a loser. While insisting that nothing less than wining was acceptable, Steinbrenner owned the New York Yankees during the team's longest World Series drought since its first appearance in 1921, a dry spell directly attributable to Steinbrenner's insistent mismanagement.

Steinbrenner, who died on Tuesday at age 80, was a bully and a brat, devoid of humility, class, and civility, born on third base, deluded that he'd hit a triple, and convinced he had to tell the whole world how he'd done it. Famed for his bombast and for making himself bigger than his players and team, tolerated only because he had money and power, this Yankee Doodle Dandy born on the Fourth of July paved the way for America to become a loser by his example.

Just about every bit of praise eulogising Steinbrenner is 180 degrees wrong. The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, called him "a quintessential New Yorker" despite Steinbrenner hailing from Cleveland (Bloomberg's from Boston, weekends in Bermuda), living in Tampa, and blackmailing New Yorkers with threats to move the Yankees out of town to get a new $1.5bn (£1m) stadium that embodies his penchant for vulgar excess. He was a terrific businessman, a daring capitalist who insisted he needed public handouts for his billion-dollar family company; taxpayers underwrote the bonds for that new Yankee stadium and renovated the previous one, and have been rewarded with ticket prices that top out at $2,500.

Steinbrenner was a laughable figure in the comedy series Seinfeld with nothing funny about him. He was a generous man whose many donations we never heard about – as anyone who follows baseball has heard about constantly for the past 35 years – who was breathtakingly cruel and petty. He was a great sportsman, suspended twice from baseball for breaking the rules and convicted for breaking the law. He was a great Yankee who infuriated and alienated the team's players and fans and insulted the Yankees' traditions and greatest legends.

Days before Steinbrenner, the beloved Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard died. Yankee fan websites are abuzz with variants on the theme that Steinbrenner had clung to life to wait for Sheppard to announce his arrival in heaven. Believe me, if there is a heaven, George Steinbrenner won't be there.

I covered the Yankees as a wire service reporter during the 1980s at the height – or depth – of Steinbrenner's reign of error. He spent lavishly, as always thanks to lavish team income, to assemble the best team money could buy, but the Yankees didn't win any titles.

With his American football mentality – if he hadn't gotten rich from the family business, he would have become an itinerant assistant coach, wearing out his welcome at high schools across America after a year or two – Steinbrenner couldn't understand that baseball is a marathon, with a season of 162 games, not 16, and that no team can win every day.

Steinbrenner's impatience led to bad choices, and his megalomania forbade him from taking responsibility for them. So he fired managers, general managers and even public relations directors, with comic frequency. He dismissed the Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra 16 games into the 1985 season, breaking an explicit promise that Berra had demanded before accepting the thankless manager's job. Berra, who played on a record 10 Yankee championship teams, refused to associate with the team until Steinbrenner apologised. He did – 14 years later.

Leading baseball's salary explosion, Steinbrenner believed that paying players like supermen would make them play that way. When they failed – and even the best hitters fail more than 60% of the time – Steinbrenner assumed the right to berate and humiliate them. One late afternoon in the Yankee clubhouse in 1988, the captain, Don Mattingly, the quiet centre of team turbulence, launched a spontaneous outburst against Steinbrenner. "All they give you here is money," he said, bemoaning the lack of respect, courtesy and dignity on offer

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Equality watchdog warned on spending

Government will not tolerate further waste of taxpayers' money, auditors tell Equality and Human Rights Commission



Chair Trevor Phillips has met with the home secretary. Photograph: David Levene
The Equality and Human Rights Commission was warned today that the government will not tolerate continued waste of taxpayers' money, as auditors identified irregular expenditure for the second year running.

The National Audit Office said it was unable to approve the EHRC's annual accounts, because of "serious failings" in the way it had procured contracts.

The NAO's warning comes as the government makes plans for a radical reshaping of the body, which is to become "smaller and more tightly focused".

The home secretary Theresa May, said: "The EHRC has a track record of not being careful enough with taxpayers' money, and these accounts show that problems there persist. Failure to deliver will not be tolerated by this government – we will look at further sanctions if the problems highlighted by the auditors are not dealt with."

She said: "The government is totally committed to creating a more equal society for everyone, but we're also committed to cracking down on waste and failure."

The EHRC has already been fined £508,000 – in the form of reductions to its grant – to compensate for excessive pay rises granted to staff that went beyond government-agreed maximum limits, the NAO report said. It was fined a further £200,000 last month after failing to meet a deadline to produce guidelines on how to implement the Equalities Act, forcing the government's Equalities Office to pay another body to produce the guidance.

The NAO said that the commission's spending practices had begun to improve, but warned that a number of the weaknesses highlighted in the report were "deep seated and longstanding", and said it was "likely that these problems may have continued beyong 2008-09", the year that the accounts cover.

Neil Kinghan, director-general of the EHRC, said that since 2009 a new finance director had been appointed, and stronger accountability mechanisms had been put in place. "I regret that the commission made mistakes in its first 18 months, and accept the NAO's decision to qualify our accounts as a result," he said.

A letter sent by the home secretary last week to the commissions chair, Trevor Phillips , following a private meeting to discuss the body's accounts, appears to confirm that the EHRC will survive the quango cull, but indicates that the organisation will be reformed and streamlined.

In the light of the structural changes expected to be announced in late autumn, May asked Phillips to halt interviews for a new chief executive, a post which has remained unfilled for the past year.

"We agreed that the commission is about to enter a period of significant change from which it is likely to emerge smaller and more tightly focussed," May wrote in the letter, seen by the Guardian. "The recruitment process should be halted, and a new process launched once we have a clearer idea about what the reformed organisation will look like."

The EHRC's budget has already been cut by £7m, to £53m, but officials expect further, deeper cuts. Staff numbers will be cut from 525 to a maximum of 400, and will probably go lower than that, a source said.

The body is undergoing an internal review, aimed at establishing which of the different strands of equality (race, gender, age, sexual orientation, belief, disability, transgender status) should be prioritised, and has commissioned research to assess which of those issues are most pressing, and where least progress is being made. Its conclusions will influence the commission's
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Trip along the Congo River reveals artistic treasures from central Africa

Paris exhibition traces link between works of Bantu speakers spread along the banks of African waterway


A Kota reliquary figure from the Congo River, arts of central Africa exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly. Photograph: Vincent Everarts/EPA
On finally reaching the entrance to the Congo River exhibition, on the upper ground floor, we caught sight of masks that, even from a distance, looked amazing, and equally attractive statues. But we resisted the temptation and headed for a map, in the hope of grasping the ideas underpinning the show, which aims to be much more than just a selection of works from the Congo River basin.

Two arrows on the map show how the Bantu languages spread out from their place of origin in Nigeria from about 3,000BC. One arrow follows the Atlantic coast south, as far as the mouth of the Congo river, arriving there about 2,000 years later. This branch corresponds to the western Bantus. The other arrow heads east towards the great lakes, also reached in about 1,000BC, bending southwards then turning west to follow the Congo and its tributaries. The two branches rejoined in the area now covered by Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The two branches thus circumscribe a vast area, consisting of the river basin and a swath of equatorial forest. To plot the routes, linguists studied successive offshoots of the original Bantu language, identifying the links between the dialects that evolved through time and migration.

This preamble is necessary because François Neyt, who curated the exhibition (until 3 October), makes ample use of the data. He seeks out visible forms of continuity in the statues and masks, and in the religious concepts they reflect. Much as the language, there is unity in the art despite the distances. The subtitle of the exhibition is essential: Correspondence and Mutation of Form.

The show is divided into three parts. It looks first at a specific style of heart-shaped face thought to be common to several peoples – the Kwele, Vuvi and Lega – who also worked with wood or ivory, regardless of whether they were living on the shores of a river or in the depths of the forest.

The second section focuses on the reliquaries associated with specific ancestors fashioned by the Mbede or Fang peoples. Some are made of polished black wood, others are covered with pieces of brass. In some cases, the form is extremely simple, while others accumulate so many votive studs and adornments as to suggest some fantastic anatomy. What is essential in all of them is their magical force: they must contain a power or a spell.

The third part concentrates on the representation of women, the exaltation of their beauty and motherhood among the Punu, Luluwa and Kongo peoples. Here again, the centres of population are often far apart. This section is less convincing, as Neyt has stretched his point here.

The works themselves are splendid though, inventive and beautifully executed, leaving an overall impression of perfection. But different peoples place more emphasis on certain aspects than others. Fang designs are particularly simple, whereas the Songye figures are magnificently overdone.

When the presentation brings together several examples of a single type of object or figure (standing male figures with a closely trimmed beard from the Boyo-Bembe area, or the Kota's geometrical reliquaries) it is fascinating to see the persistence of a prototype and the variations from one workshop to the next. It is equally delightful to see how styles meet and combine, or how the statues and masks of a particular ethnic group are related, but without slavishly applying the same solutions in their representation of faces.

The exhibition feels inexhaustible. This is particularly the case for French-speaking visitors. Belgium having colonised and exploited the Congo, many of the finest pieces created in this region have found their way to collections there. They are represented here in large numbers, to demonstrate the ideas underpinning the show but also to show off the magnificence of what was once known as art nègre

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Should Jerusalem be sung here?

Should Jerusalem be sung here?
Jerusalem isn't Christian enough for some Anglicans, but it's a favourite at weddings. What do you think of the hymn?



William Blake's Jerusalem is a popular choice at church weddings. Photograph: Alamy
The Church of England has issued new advice to churches on the use of the popular hymn Jerusalem at weddings. In the past, some conservative groups have claimed that it's not suitable for official services. William Blake, who wrote the poem later set to music by Sir Hubert Parry, had a distinctly unorthodox take on Christianity.

Reverend Peter Moger, "worship development officer" for the Church of England, compiled the guidance, which explores some of the contentious issues. On the question of whether or not it's appropriate for weddings, he acknowledges that "opinion on the matter is strongly divided".

You might say it doesn't matter whether the theology's right, so long as people know the tune and enjoy singing it. But then no one would expect churches to allow the bride to walk down the aisle to the strains of The Number of the Beast.

What do you think? A storm in a vicar's teacup, or something more serious? Would you want Jerusalem played at your wedding

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Force Israel's hand on Palestinian home demolitions

Israel's resumption of demolition in East Jerusalem requires firm intervention to prevent a total breakdown in talks

A bulldozer demolishes a Palestinian house in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Bet Hanina. Photograph: Olivier Fitoussi/AP
In theory, a municipality demolishing illegal structures on its land should not raise any eyebrows. In practice, however, such a measure should be viewed in the context of the wider politics of the locality – and when it comes to the tinderbox of Israeli-Palestinian affairs, the Israeli authorities' actions should be seen for the provocative and spiteful behaviour that they are.

Ending a nine-month freeze on demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, municipal workers this week razed three houses in the area, provoking a storm of controversy both at home and abroad. The freeze came about as a result of diplomatic outrage last time Israel carried out demolitions in East Jerusalem during Hilary Clinton's visit to the region in March 2009 – actions described by Clinton as "unhelpful" and a violation of Israel's Road Map commitments.

Since then, Israel has continued to flout agreements for a moratorium on illegal construction in Israeli settlements, while continuing to pursue a hardline, heavy-handed approach towards Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. Evictions of Palestinian families to make way for incoming settlers continue apace in Sheikh Jarrah; in Silwan, 22 homes are slated for demolition so that a landscaped public garden can be developed; and throughout the eastern half of the city nonstop pressure is applied as part of what activists term the policy of "quiet transfer".

According to Angela Godfrey-Goldstein of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, the "quiet transfer" denotes the gradual wearing down of the Palestinians to the point that they throw their hands up in despair, quit the area and head east. Housing permits are also part of the quiet transfer, she says.

Much of East Jerusalem has been declared an "open green zone", preventing houses being constructed, which in turn leads to a severe housing shortage in the region. Fewer houses than people means that the cost of property soars, pricing the locals out of the market and forcing them to seek cheaper accommodation on the other side of the security wall. Once they leave, they rescind their rights to Jerusalem ID papers, destroying any hopes of employment in Israel proper – effectively keeping them caged in the poverty of the West Bank for ever.

Meanwhile, green lights are given to settler construction left, right and centre – a blatant case of double standards, Godfrey-Goldstein points out. In the rare event that Israeli courts condemn settlement buildings as illegal – such as Bet Yehonatan in Silwan – eviction orders are ignored by the settlers and unenforced by the authorities, proving the duplicity of the municipality when it comes to building violations by those on either side of the political divide.

On top of the awful implications for the families made homeless by the bulldozers this week, the demolitions are another blow to Israeli-Palestinian relations. The destruction of the homes in Issawiya and Bet Hanina are as clear a sign as any that Israeli leaders care little for concessions and compromise, preferring to make quick political capital on the domestic front by kowtowing to the ultra-nationalists in their midst.

Israeli politicians have been treading such a path for months, their resolve strengthened by the toothless international response to their flouting of both international law and basic moral codes.

Nir Barkat, Jerusalem's incumbent mayor, famously dismissed Hilary Clinton's criticism of home demolitions last year as "air", summing up the sneering and self-confident attitude of the majority of those at the helm of Israeli politics.

Unfortunately, it is not hard to see where their arrogance stems from: for years, no American or European leader has dared match their angry words with concrete actions, such as sanctions against Israel.

Despite all the hype surrounding Barack Obama's accession to the throne of American politics, it is still business as usual in the relationship between the US and its client state in the Middle East. Moves to deal sensibly and seriously with the issue of dividing Jerusalem have stalled in line with every other major bone of contention – such as the issues of illegal settlements, water rights in the West Bank and Palestinian refugees.

Against such a backdrop, Israel's resumption of demolition in East Jerusalem can be seen for what it is: a brash statement of intent on both the micro and macro political levels.

"Judaising" East Jerusalem is a stated policy of numerous settler groups and their financial and political backers, and every home demolition and family eviction expedites the process of ethnic cleansing already embarked upon.

If nothing is done to stop the rot, the inevitable outcome will be a total breakdown in talks between the two sides, likely sparking a wave of violent clashes in its wake.

The only way to prevent such a disastrous turn of events is for the US, EU and others to force Israel's hand – for it is Israel who holds all the cards when it comes to negotiations. Anything less will not do: time has all but run out to bring the two sides to the table, and the only winners from the current status quo are the extremists. Israelis and Palestinians alike don't deserve, nor can they afford, the consequences of another intifada, hence firm intervention is a necessity.

Home demolitions are only the tip of the iceberg, but they are as combustible an issue as any in terms of the political implications they engender. Israeli leaders have shown they couldn't care less about the damage they are doing in both physical and emotional terms; it is high time that they were made to care, for the sake of all parties concerned

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Paul the octopus set for sensational transfer to Madrid aquarium

Spanish zoo prepared to meet 'any demands' to sign German cephalopod that predicted team's World Cup final victory



Paul the Octopus correctly predicted Germany's six World Cup results and Spain's final win. Photograph: Roberto Pfeil/AP
In what may prove to be the biggest transfer story this summer, negotiations have begun to bring Paul the psychic octopus to Madrid after he correctly predicted Spain's World Cup final victory.

Madrid's Zoo Aquarium says it is prepared to trump any other offer Germany's Oberhausen Sea Life Centre receives for Paul, certain that the world's most famous cephalopod will attract thousands of visitors.

At present no cash is on the table, and the zoo says it is trying to negotiate an exchange of animals.

Sounding more like the president of Real Madrid than a zookeeper, a spokesman said he was confident that Paul would be in Madrid within a few days. Madrid was prepared to offer Oberhausen "whatever they demand" to complete the deal — suggesting that this will be a cash-plus-animal transfer.

He added that Paul, named after a German children's book by Boy Lornsen, would be treated "with tender loving care" because of his national treasure status in Spain.

Paul correctly predicted the outcome of all seven of Germany's World Cup matches, as well as the final between Spain and Holland. This was an improvement on his record for the 2008 Eurocopa, in which he correctly predicted four out of six of Germany's games.

During the World Cup, Paul became a media phenomenon, with his final predictions screened live on television. He also became the world's third most popular Twitter trend during the competition, out-doing both Shakira and Cristiano Ronaldo with 141 hours of trending.

A Brazilian company has developed an iPhone app based on Paul's performance, allowing users to consult the octopus to help them make decisions. The Ask the Octopus app lets users ask 50-50 questions, to which a cartoon of Paul chooses an answer.
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

24 hours in pictures

A selection of the best images from around the world




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Ground Zero diggers uncover hull of 18th century ship

Archaeologists examine timbers found at site of World Trade Centre bombings



The ship found at the World Trade Centre site was probably among debris used in 18th century landfill. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP
Workers excavating the World Trade Centre site have unearthed the 10-metre hull of a ship believed to have been buried in the 18th century.

The vessel was probably used along with other debris to fill in land to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson river, archaeologists have said.

It was hoped the artefact could be retrieved by the end of today, said archaeologist Molly McDonald. A boat specialist was going to the Ground Zero site to examine the find.

McDonald said she wanted to at least salvage some timbers; it was unclear if any large portions could be lifted intact.

"We're mostly clearing it by hand because it's fragile," she said. Construction equipment may be used later in the process.

McDonald and Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist, were at the site of the 11 September 2001 attacks when the hull was discovered on Tuesday morning.

"We noticed curved timbers that a back hoe brought up," McDonald said. "We quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull.

"We're going to send timber samples to a laboratory to do dendrochronology to help us get a sense of when the boat was constructed." Dendrochronology is the science that uses tree rings to determine dates and chronological order.

A 45kg (100lb) anchor was found a few yards from the hull on Wednesday but the experts are not sure if it belongs to the ship. The anchor was about a metre across, McDonald said.

The archaeologists are racing to record and analyse the vessel before exposure to air makes the delicate wood deteriorate.

"I kept thinking of how closely it came to being destroyed," Pappalardo said
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Conductor Charles Mackerras dies

Australian conductor known as an authority on Czech music and Mozart dies in London, aged 84


Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe for the Guardian
The Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, who led the opening concert at the Sydney Opera House and was the first non-Briton to lead the Last night of the Proms, has died in London at the age of 84.

He had cancer but was as due to conduct two concerts at the Albert Hall at the end of this month as part of the BBC proms which start tomorrow.

In a long career he conducted some of the world's leading orchestras and was the former director of music at English National Opera. He grew up in Australia but spent much of his working life in Britain after emigrating here in 1947.

"I always wanted to become a musician. I was hardly interested in anything else. From about eight or nine I had a sort of mania about it," Sir Charles told the Guardian in an interview to mark his 80th birthday in 2005.

In 1980, a year after he was knighted, he was the first person from outside the UK to conduct at the highly patriotic Last Night of the Proms.

Born in Schenectady New York state to Australian parents in 1925, he studied oboe and piano at the New South Wales Conservatorium. He went on to study in Prague and was an authority on both Czech music, particularly Janáček, and Mozart. But he was also known for the breadth of his repertoire which included Gilbert and Sullivan as well as Handel and Beethoven, and he pioneered performances using period instruments.

He conducted the first London performance of Janacek's Katya Kabanova in 1951 at Sadler's Wells, where he went on to become musical director, and his discography includes an award-winning cycle of Janáček operas performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1990s.

Over his career he conducted more than 30 operas by 15 different composers at the Royal Opera House, but to his disappointment he was passed up twice as musical director at Covent Garden.

Mackerras had a long association with the Sydney Symphony where he was principal oboist in 1946. He became its chief conductor and led the orchestra on the opening night of the Sydney Opera House in 1973.

An international figure, Mackerras made frequent appearances at the San Francisco Opera and also associated the with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

In his Guardian interview he likened conducting an orchestra to hypnotism which he used to give up smoking. "A great deal of the conductor's art is, as it were, hypnotising them by your very presence, emanating what you feel about the music... I've never understood quite how it's done."

Roger Wright, director of the Proms and controller of BBC Radio, said the "range and quality of his work was extraordinary". He was saddened by a Proms season "without his remarkable musicianship, good humour and charm".

Sir Charles had been due to conduct works by Strauss and Schumann in a prom on July 25. Four days later in another prom concert he was to lead the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in works by Dvořák and Mozart.

Changes to those programmes will announced, Wright said. "We will be paying tribute to him on Radio 3 and dedicating a prom to his memory."

Roy McEwan, managing director of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, said: "Sir Charles was one of the most distinguished conductors of his generation. He had an almost unparalleled mastery of music across a huge range of styles and periods from Handel through Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak and Janacek and beyond".

Mackerras's agent, Robert Rattray, said the conductor retained an ability to inspire fellow musicians throughout his life. "His knowledge and his enthusiasm was something he not only could convey to these orchestral players but to some of the most eminent figures in the classical music world," he said.

Rory Jeffes, managing director of the Sydney Symphony, said: "Australia has lost a living treasure. We are all deeply saddened to have lost such an eminent conductor and a special part of the Sydney Symphony family."

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Karl Rove ranges on to new ground with summer book club

His influence over US readers may fall short of Oprah's, but growing numbers are joining the ex-presidential adviser's projec


Karl Rove, who once held reading contests with George W Bush, has started a book club with news anchor Clayton Morris. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff to George W Bush and the man known as "Bush's brain", has started a summer book club.

With 349 members and counting, the club – which Rove launched with Fox News channel anchor Clayton Morris – has already tackled Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848. Its readers are currently engrossed in the Brad Thor thriller Foreign Influence, in which a former navy Seal investigates the death of a group of American students in a bombing in Italy.

Rove and Morris have each selected eight books, and the public will vote every week on which one they want to read. The political strategist is an author himself, publishing his memoir Courage and Consequence earlier this year. And he has always been keen to show his credentials as a reader, writing in the Wall Street Journal back in 2008 about the reading contests he used to undertake with Bush, when the pair would race to complete the greatest number of books in a year.

"Much like Oprah we've got sass and now our own book club too," said Morris. But Rove is under no illusions that "Karl and Clayton's Summer Book Club" can match Winfrey in all departments, responding to Politico's suggestion that it might match Oprah's mighty influence over America's book charts with a terse "No, it won't.

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Final bet: Oracle Paul the Octopus picks Spain over Netherlands to win World Cup

We are saw this new video enjoy Final bet: Oracle Paul the Octopus picks Spain over Netherlands to win World Cup



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Video of Spain squad homecoming, parade in Madrid, World Cup fiesta

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Palestinian homes bulldozed as Israeli freeze on demolitions appears to end

Watches this Palestinian homes bulldozed as Israeli freeze on demolitions appears to end


Authorities said homes were built without planning permission, which Palestinians say is almost impossible to obtain
An unfinished Palestinian home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Isawiyya being bulldozed by Israelis today. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli bulldozers destroyed at least three Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem yesterday, breaking an unofficial moratorium on such demolitions since the end of 2009.

At least one of the homes was occupied by a family of seven, who removed their belongings shortly before it was razed.

Jerusalem city authorities said the homes were built without proper planning permission, which Palestinians say is almost impossible to obtain.

Basem Isawi, 48, a contractor, said he built his home illegally for about $25,000 because he was convinced the municipality would deny him a permit. He had been notified of the impending demolition.

Under pressure from Washington, Israel has largely refrained from demolitions since November, when a temporary, partial freeze on settlement construction was agreed.

Approval was given on Monday for 32 new homes in the Jewish neighbourhood of Pisgat Ze'ev, East Jerusalem, which is exempt from the freeze. A further 48 housing units should be approved next week.

Settlements on land occupied by Israel in 1967 are illegal under international law. "The rule of thumb in this part of the world is that in the run-up to US elections Israel has a free hand," said Jeff Halper, of the International Committee against House Demolitions. "Israel is taking advantage of that."

Meanwhile, the Israeli navy said it had made contact with the Amalthea, a ship carrying 2,000 tonnes of supplies and 15 activists which had threatened to break the sea blockade of Gaza. It was reported that the ship's captain told Israeli navy ships following him that he was heading for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.

Israeli naval vessels will continue to accompany the Libyan ship, because a last-minute course change could head the ship toward Gaza. El-Arish is in the Egyptian Sinai desert close to Gaza
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Penélope Cruz marries Javier Bardem

We are see this Penélope Cruz marries Javier Bardem
Oscar winners have tied the knot in private ceremony in the Bahamas, agent says



Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz appeared together in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Photograph: Toni Garriga-Bernardo Rodrigue/EPA
Oscar winners Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem got married in a private ceremony in the Bahamas earlier this month, a representative has said.

Cruz's agent, Amanda Silverman, said the couple were married at the beginning of July at a friend's house on the island.

The small ceremony was attended only by family members.

Cruz's wedding dress was designed by John Galliano.

Cruz and Bardem, both from Spain, appeared together in the 2008 Woody Allen romantic comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cruz, 36, won an Oscar for her supporting actor role.

Bardem, 41, won a supporting actor Oscar for the 2007 crime thriller No

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Camping is definitely not communist

Camping is definitely not communist
I once lived in a tent for two and a half months, and I can tell you the experience was far from a socialist utopia



Actually going camping dispels any notion that life under canvas engenders selfless comradeship. Photograph: Getty Images
G2's recent exploration of the joys (and horrors) of camping was pretty comprehensive, covering everything from the practicalities of sleeping under canvas to the controversial question of why some ethnic groups enjoy camping less than others.

This was taken a step further by Aditya Chakrabortty, who suggested that camping is a political experiment – "an exercise in practical communism".

On the surface, he appears to have a point. The popular impression of life on a campsite does sound like a communist utopia, where people share the potato-peeling duties and in the evening there is a big communal sing-song around a campfire. The parallels seem clear.

Until, that is, you actually go camping.

In a previous (and brief) career, I was an archaeologist. While digging holes in Bamburgh Castle, one of England's most striking, but least well-known, archaeological sites, I lived in a tent. For two and a half months. With a Welshman.

It was great fun. We enjoyed the beautiful landscape, we drank a lot of cider and, after running out of cider, we played drunken games of rounders in the dark.

However, the experience was far from the socialist utopia envisioned by GA Cohen.

It's true that our life on the campsite lacked many of the consumerist luxuries normally associated with capitalist urban living, but that was largely because the nearest Tesco was miles away and by the time we wanted to buy a job lot of Pringles or some more Rizlas no one was sober enough to drive.

The "rules of pay-as-you-go market exchange" were not suspended, but instead the mass market was simply replaced by a village shop two miles' walk away and a greasy spoon cafe on the campsite.

Instead of Sir Terry Leahy providing a bewildering range of cereals and two-for-one offers on beans, we had a chatty geordie lady who would cook delicious black-pudding sandwiches. Leahy would have envied her profit margins.

It would be wrong to mistake a lack of material wealth – reduced to living in tents rather than houses and playing practical jokes in the absence of a television – with an absence of capitalism. The people who could be bothered to walk to the village shop, or to drive to the supermarket, would still get a few quid for their trouble. Those who could afford it rented musty caravans rather than sleep on the ground.

We weren't rich, but that didn't make us experimental communists. Nor does camping induce a magical, selfless comradeship among those who pitch their tents in the same field. As we swiftly discovered, nothing is quite as funny as picking up someone's tent while they're asleep and moving it somewhere inconvenient, or hearing someone woken up by a burly archaeologist falling on to their rickety tent in the middle of the night.

Sure, if someone's guy ropes break or their tent pegs get stolen, their fellow campers will probably dig out some spare ones to lend to them. There is community on a campsite – but it has far more in common with the old-fashioned workings of a small village. You're either friends with your neighbours or you're stuck with them, so you help out when it's needed.

Communism has always been a daydream rather than a reality, and the same goes for the concept of camping as communism. From a distance, it's easy to get misty-eyed about shared ownership flourishing under canvas, but in practice it's still a load of drunk people living in a field

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Gaza aid ship changes course for Egypt

Watches this Gaza aid ship changes course for Egypt
Amalthea being shadowed by Israeli military which has warned it will not be allowed to reach Gaza Strip



Crates of cooking oil are loaded on to the cargo ship Amalthea in Greece. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
A Libyan charity's ship carrying aid for the Gaza Strip has changed course for Egypt after Israel warned those on board not to try and dock in Gaza.

The Moldovan-flagged Amalthea is heading to Egypt's El Arish port, an Israeli official has said. Egypt says the Amalthea has been granted permission to dock in El Arish and authorities plan to transfer its declared haul of 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine overland to neighbouring Gaza.

The new course appears to lessen the likelihood of a repeat of a confrontation that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists on 31 May when Israeli soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara.

Before turning around, the captain of the Amalthea had told the Israeli navy that it had engine troubles. The military had four missile ships tailing the Libyan vessel.

The Libyan charity, headed by the son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, said the Amalthea left Greece on Saturday carrying 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies.

Israeli has invited the activists to unload the shipment at the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The 31 May raid focused international attention on Israel's blockade of Gaza, imposed after the Islamic militant and anti-Israeli Hamas overran the Palestinian territory in June 2007. The international criticism forced Israel to ease its land blockade of the territory but it has maintained the naval embargo, insisting it is vital to keep weapons out of Hamas's hands.

The Gaza blockade and the challenges to it have caused Israel serious diplomatic damage, putting it on the defensive against demands for inquiries and criticism over Gaza's plight.

Israel says the commandos who took part in the 31 May raid had been defending themselves against violent pro-Palestinian activists. Activists have said they acted in self-defence after Israeli troops landed on their ship.

Israel has resisted calls for a UN-led inquiry but has appointed two panels, one military and one civilian, to review the raid.

Findings released on Monday from an Israeli military-commissioned report found flawed planning and intelligence gathering but concluded the commandos were justified in opening fire after being confronted by violent pro-Palestinian activists.

The mandate of the civilian inquiry is limited to investigating the legality of the operation. Two international observers have been attached to the civilian

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Eyewitness: A child labourer in Pakistan

See this Eyewitness: A child labourer in Pakistan



A boy labourer loads bricks on a donkey at a brick yard in Larkana, Pakistan

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

BP faces delay in shutting off new well cap

watches this BP faces delay in shutting off new well cap



BP has suffered yet another setback in its efforts to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, announcing it has been forced to postpone planned tests on turning off valves on a new tighter-fitting cap over the leak.

The gradual shut-off was seen as the first real chance to stop the leak since the start of the environmental disaster almost three months ago.

A White House spokesman had said the operation "represents the best news that we've had in the preceding 85 days".

But Thad Allen, who is overseeing the US response to the crisis, has said that "additional analysis" is needed before the tests can start.

BP has confirmed that analysis is getting under way. "Consequently the well integrity test did not start," it said in a statement.

"It's an incredibly big concern," said Don Van Nieuwenhuise, the director of professional geoscience programmes at the University of Houston. "They need to get a scan of where things are – that way when they do pressure testing they know to look out for ruptures or changes."

The newly installed "capping stack" has a better seal than the last cap placed on the well and aims to stop oil from spewing out of the failed blowout preventer.

Experts said stopping the oil too quickly could blow the cap off or further damage the well.

BP has said the only way to permanently stop the leak is the drilling of two relief wells to intercept the ruptured one. The first is expected to intercept the oil leak by the end of July and plug it with drilling mud and cement by mid-August.

Before the decision to postpone the tests preliminary steps were completed, including mapping the sea bed.

Engineers spent hours on a seismic survey, creating a map of the rock under the sea bed to spot potential dangers like gas pockets. It can be compared with later surveys during and after the test to see if the pressure on the well is causing underground problems.

Experts have said an unstable area around the well could create bigger
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri heads home

We are see this Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri heads home


Screengrab of a man identifying himself as Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared in 2009, speaking at the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington. Photograph: Ho/Reuters
An Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared more than a year ago and mysteriously turned up in Washington is on his way back to Iran via a third country, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman has said.

"With the efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran and effective co-operation of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, a few minutes ago Shahram Amiri left American soil and is heading back to Iran via a third country," the semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying. He did not name the country.

Another Iranian official on Tuesday said Tehran could enlist Turkey's help to return Amiri to Iran. Ramin Mehmanparast said the foreign ministry would pursue the case through legal and diplomatic channels regarding the part the US government played in what Iran says was Amiri's abduction.

Iran had accused Saudi Arabia of handing Shahram Amiri to the US after he disappeared during the hajj pilgrimage a year ago. Amiri subsequently appeared in a series of internet videos, some of which said he was in hiding from US agents.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said: "Mr Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go. In fact he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through a transit country."

Clinton called on Tehran to release three American hikers being held in Iran and to provide more information on the former FBI agent Robert Levinson who disappeared during a business trip to Iran.

Referring to Amiri, Clinton said: "He's free to go, he was free to come, these decisions are his alone to make."

Some analysts have suggested the scientist had been warned by Iranian security agents who interrupted a Skype call he was making to his wife that unless he returned home she would be tortured.

The US devotes considerable efforts to penetrating and monitoring Iran's nuclear programme, which the CIA says it believes could produce two nuclear bombs within two years. Iran insists the programme is entirely for peaceful energy purposes.

Amiri told Iranian radio from the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington that for the past 14 months he had been under psychological pressure and was watched by armed individuals. "After my comments were released on the internet the Americans realised they were the losers of this game," he said.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said Amiri had been dropped off at the interests section on Monday. Iran and the US have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The US is represented in Tehran through the Swiss embassy.

Amiri, a university researcher who works for Iran's atomic energy organisation, reportedly defected to the US and was helping the CIA with information about the clandestine nuclear effort. His university, Malek Ashtar, is connected to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. But it is unclear how much he knows.

"Amiri is not a top scientist in Iran and thus not privy to highly sensitive information," said a Pakistani official. "Apparently his captors had concluded that he was of little use to them." Amiri was in good health and had not been tortured, the official said.

Several internet videos deepened the mystery of Amiri's disappearance. In the first, a grainy message released on 7 June by Iranian state TV, Amiri said he was kidnapped from Medina in a joint operation by teams from the CIA and Saudi intelligence.

In the second, he contradicted his earlier statements and said he was in the US of his own free will and rejected rumours about his defection. It was a better quality recording that showed Amiri well-dressed and apparently relaxed .

In a third video, seemingly hurriedly made, that aired on Iranian TV last month Amiri claimed to have escaped "US intelligence officers in Virginia" and said he could be arrested again at any moment

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010