The number of tourists travelling the world reached over a billion at the end of last year. Around 80 million of them come from China and spend an average of £1,600 per visit.
Yet, more Chinese visit other parts of Europe than the UK because of awkward visa procedures that differ greatly from other European countries. Twenty-five European countries come under the Schengen Agreement of which the UK is not a member.
The UK China Visa Alliance said, “Chinese visitors spend some three times more than the average overseas visitor but far fewer visit the UK than go to our European neighbours, such as France.
“If we could match France’s success, the UK would earn an additional £1.2 billion annually and create a further 24,000 jobs.”
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) says tourism from China has gone up slightly, with statistics showing an increase of 6 per cent in visitor visas issued in the year to December 2012.
In August last year, Home Secretary Theresa May blocked plans to simplify the tourist visa procedure. In a Sunday paper in February this year, she attacked judges who used human rights to justify not deporting foreigners proved guilty of serious crime.
This month, a spectrum of measures designed to quell the numbers of EU migrants, including Romanians and Bulgarians, were put through in a home affairs cabinet committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Mr Clegg, a Liberal Democrat, has said he would veto Mrs May’s wish to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights before the next election in 2015.
Together with the prime minister’s vow to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, this move to the right by the Tories is seen to be a reaction to the UK Independent Party (UKIP), whose members gained ground in the recent Eastleigh by-election with 28 per cent of the vote, though they did not win.
The UK Home Office has already put in strict measures to quell immigration into the UK. From markers at June 2011 and June 2012, net migration has fallen from 247,000 to 163,000 according to its figures.
The Home Office website says this is happening while “ensuring we continue to attract the brightest and best highly skilled workers and genuine, talented students”.
A UKBA spokesperson said in an email: “Securing of the border and a simple visa regime are not mutually exclusive, and our current system in China does both. We have made it even more simple for Chinese tourists to apply for a visa -- with a six-page form that can be completed online in just 10 minutes.
“We will continue to make improvements wherever possible, but we will not compromise the security of our border.”
This would seem to be an improvement on what one Chinese traveller from northeast China said: “It took me one week to prepare the necessary materials (very complicated) and after I made an appointment from the website, it took me about three weeks to receive the visa finally (too long I think).”
The applicant then had to go in person to a specified centre to complete the form. “It took me four hours by train to get to Shenyang. The train tickets cost me about 350 yuan [around £37] back and forth. There are cheaper tickets but it would take much longer,” the visitor said. However, the UK claims to have twice as many visa application centres in China than do Schengen countries.
On December 12th, 2012, Teresa May set out promises to ease the visits to the UK by Chinese nationals. She included the establishment of a business network with embassy staff dedicated to assisting companies with their visa needs; a mobile biometric service; improved online applications, including translated documents; and enhancements to the Select Business Scheme to lessen reporting requirements.
There was no timetable given for these improvements except to launch the online application system in the coming April.
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Se enfrenta Policía Federal con grupo armado en Tomatlán, Michoacán
MORELIA, 22 de marzo.- En la comunidad de Santa Ana Amatlán, municipio de Buenavista Tomatlán, elementos de la Policía Federal que patrullaban la zona, se enfrentaron con un grupo de hombres armados.
Los hechos se registraron cuando un convoy de la Policía Federal realizaba operativos de rutina por la zona, considerada actualmente como foco rojo, esto por su alta incidencia delictiva, sobre todo, debido a la conformación de grupos de autodefensa.
Al percatarse de la presencia policiaca, los pistoleros detonaron sus armas contra los elementos de las fuerzas federales.
Como saldo preliminar, se reporta un presunto delincuente lesionado, aun no se revela si hubo personas detenidas como resultado del enfrentamiento.
Los hechos se registraron cuando un convoy de la Policía Federal realizaba operativos de rutina por la zona, considerada actualmente como foco rojo, esto por su alta incidencia delictiva, sobre todo, debido a la conformación de grupos de autodefensa.
Al percatarse de la presencia policiaca, los pistoleros detonaron sus armas contra los elementos de las fuerzas federales.
Como saldo preliminar, se reporta un presunto delincuente lesionado, aun no se revela si hubo personas detenidas como resultado del enfrentamiento.
Silencio contribuyentes
El próximo 31 de marzo se cumplirán 15 años del arribo de aquella motocicleta que iba de la Secretaría de Hacienda a la Cámara de Diputados y llevaba la iniciativa del presidente Zedillo con la que pretendía legalizar la enorme deuda contraída por su gobierno a espaldas del Congreso y violando la Constitución para rescatar a los bancos mediante el Fobaproa. En un artículo transitorio pedía convertir 552 mil millones de pesos de pérdidas privadas en deuda federal. El rescate bancario provocó un debate nacional que se convirtió en la primera gran lucha por la transparencia en nuestro país. Al amparo del secreto bancario se cometieron múltiples irregularidades, abusos y fraudes que se reflejaron en la deuda nacional y que sólo pudieron ser descubiertos por la auditoría ordenada por los diputados.
Quince años después parece que estamos condenados a repetir la misma historia. Los escándalos registrados en los últimos meses por las deudas de algunos estados y municipios del país han puesto al descubierto la opacidad con la que operan las contrataciones de estos financiamientos. Protegidos por el secreto bancario, los contratos no son públicos, por lo tanto, las condiciones bajo las cuales se compromete la deuda tampoco.
Es decir, el contribuyente no puede conocer las decisiones que ha tomado su empleado-gobierno con sus impuestos. El secreto bancario, cuyo origen es proteger la información financiera de los clientes de la banca para salvaguardar su patrimonio, aquí actúa justo en sentido contrario. La deuda pública es tratada como deuda privada para no informar. Esta falta de transparencia es la que ha permitido los excesos. En la discreción se deciden bancos ganadores, tasas de interés, plazos, comisiones, garantías, pagos a calificadoras, estructuradores, abogados y hasta se comprometen los ingresos de las futuras generaciones. Todo, por supuesto, con cargo a los bolsillos de los contribuyentes, esos que, como en el Fobaproa, deben pagar sin preguntar.
Para la Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores no existe el artículo sexto de la Constitución. Se ha optado por proteger a unos cuantos bancos y funcionarios públicos en lugar de atender el principio constitucional de que “toda la información en posesión de cualquier autoridad, entidad, órgano y organismo federal, estatal y municipal, es pública y sólo podrá ser reservada temporalmente por razones de interés público en los términos que fijen las leyes”. En este caso, nada favorecería más al interés público que la deuda pública sea pública.
En defensa de este principio y ante la negativa de la CNBV, la semana pasada un grupo de senadores pedimos a la Comisión Nacional para la Protección y Defensa de los Usuarios de Servicios Financieros (Condusef) —que como su nombre lo dice es la institución encargada de proteger y defender a los usuarios de la banca—, que nos informe de acuerdo con la Ley para la Transparencia y Ordenamiento de los Servicios Financieros, de las comisiones y tasas de interés que han cobrado los bancos a los estados y municipios que les han contratado créditos. Esta misma ley le da facultades regulatorias al Banco de México en materia de tasas de interés, comisiones, pagos anticipados y demás operaciones de los bancos con sus clientes. El Banco ha fijado algunos principios que las comisiones deben cumplir, como el de que sean “claras y transparentes” y que “no obstaculicen la competencia”. Por ello también se ha recurrido a esta institución para tratar de obtener lo que la CNBV esconde.
La transparencia en todas las operaciones de deuda pública local provocaría que se formara un mercado competitivo de deuda, donde se asignaran recursos de manera eficiente, se evaluaran riesgos a tiempo y disminuyera el costo de los créditos. De 1998 a la fecha, miles de millones de pesos han sido destinados al rescate bancario y cada año en el presupuesto hay una partida especial para pagar los intereses de una deuda que perseguirá por lo menos a otra generación. No debemos cometer los mismos errores. A quince años del Fobaproa, hay que propinarle una nueva derrota al secreto bancario.
*Senador del PRD por la Ciudad de México
mario.delgado@senado.gob.mx
Twitter: @mario_delgado1
Facebook: /mariodelgadocarrillo
Es decir, el contribuyente no puede conocer las decisiones que ha tomado su empleado-gobierno con sus impuestos. El secreto bancario, cuyo origen es proteger la información financiera de los clientes de la banca para salvaguardar su patrimonio, aquí actúa justo en sentido contrario. La deuda pública es tratada como deuda privada para no informar. Esta falta de transparencia es la que ha permitido los excesos. En la discreción se deciden bancos ganadores, tasas de interés, plazos, comisiones, garantías, pagos a calificadoras, estructuradores, abogados y hasta se comprometen los ingresos de las futuras generaciones. Todo, por supuesto, con cargo a los bolsillos de los contribuyentes, esos que, como en el Fobaproa, deben pagar sin preguntar.
Para la Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores no existe el artículo sexto de la Constitución. Se ha optado por proteger a unos cuantos bancos y funcionarios públicos en lugar de atender el principio constitucional de que “toda la información en posesión de cualquier autoridad, entidad, órgano y organismo federal, estatal y municipal, es pública y sólo podrá ser reservada temporalmente por razones de interés público en los términos que fijen las leyes”. En este caso, nada favorecería más al interés público que la deuda pública sea pública.
En defensa de este principio y ante la negativa de la CNBV, la semana pasada un grupo de senadores pedimos a la Comisión Nacional para la Protección y Defensa de los Usuarios de Servicios Financieros (Condusef) —que como su nombre lo dice es la institución encargada de proteger y defender a los usuarios de la banca—, que nos informe de acuerdo con la Ley para la Transparencia y Ordenamiento de los Servicios Financieros, de las comisiones y tasas de interés que han cobrado los bancos a los estados y municipios que les han contratado créditos. Esta misma ley le da facultades regulatorias al Banco de México en materia de tasas de interés, comisiones, pagos anticipados y demás operaciones de los bancos con sus clientes. El Banco ha fijado algunos principios que las comisiones deben cumplir, como el de que sean “claras y transparentes” y que “no obstaculicen la competencia”. Por ello también se ha recurrido a esta institución para tratar de obtener lo que la CNBV esconde.
La transparencia en todas las operaciones de deuda pública local provocaría que se formara un mercado competitivo de deuda, donde se asignaran recursos de manera eficiente, se evaluaran riesgos a tiempo y disminuyera el costo de los créditos. De 1998 a la fecha, miles de millones de pesos han sido destinados al rescate bancario y cada año en el presupuesto hay una partida especial para pagar los intereses de una deuda que perseguirá por lo menos a otra generación. No debemos cometer los mismos errores. A quince años del Fobaproa, hay que propinarle una nueva derrota al secreto bancario.
*Senador del PRD por la Ciudad de México
mario.delgado@senado.gob.mx
Twitter: @mario_delgado1
Facebook: /mariodelgadocarrillo
Extreme right-wing demo draws thousands
Over 1,000 counter demonstrators gathered in downtown Malmö Saturday to protest a demonstration planned by the anti-Islamic and extreme right-wing Swedish Defence League. At least one person was taken into custody after throwing a broken off flag stand at police on horseback.
Chypre: Une taxe de 25 % dès 100'000 euros envisagée
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Le ministre des finances chypriote a annoncé qu'un «plan complet» avait été présenté à la Troïka. Il prévoirait une taxe de 25% sur les dépôts bancaires de plus de 100'000 euros.
Italy's Berlusconi tax fraud trial adjourned to April 20
MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian court agreed on Saturday to Silvio Berlusconi's request to adjourn his appeal against a tax fraud conviction for one month, as Italy's politicians seek to end a political crisis and form a government.
Mueren diario 1,800 niños por el agua
MADRID, 23 de marzo.— Cerca de dos mil niños menores de cinco años mueren cada día por enfermedades diarreicas y al menos mil 800 muertes están relacionadas con el agua, el saneamiento y la higiene, destacó ayer la Organización de Naciones Unidas para la Infancia (UNICEF).
Con motivo de la conmemoración del Día Mundial del Agua, que se celebró ayer, la UNICEF pidió a los gobiernos, la sociedad civil y los ciudadanos que recuerden que detrás de las estadísticas hay niños.
El responsable del programa de UNICEF de agua, saneamiento e higiene, Sanjay Wijesekera, apuntó que “a veces nos enfocamos tanto en los grandes números, que no somos capaces de ver las tragedias humanas que subyacen en cada estadística”.
“Si 90 autobuses escolares llenos de niños se estrellaran cada día, y no hubiera supervivientes, el mundo prestaría atención. Esto es precisamente lo que ocurre a diario, debido a la mala calidad del agua, el saneamiento y la higiene”, señaló.
UNICEF resaltó que casi 90 por ciento de las muertes de niños producidas por enfermedades diarreicas están directamente relacionadas con el agua contaminada.
También remarcó que, pese al aumento de la población mundial, estas muertes se han reducido de manera significativa en los últimos diez años, pasando de 1.2 millones de muertes anuales en 2000 a unas 760 mil en 2011, pero consideró que todavía son muchas.
Quieren acabar con tabú
La ONU lanzó una campaña para intentar terminar con el mortal “tabú de los baños” y mejorar el acceso a un retrete para los dos mil 500 millones de personas que no lo tienen, una causa importante de problemas de salud. “Es una catástrofe silenciosa que merece toda nuestra atención”, dijo el vicesecretario general de la ONU, Jan Eliasson.
“Hay un tabú en lo que concierne a los baños y la defecación al aire libre”, agregó Eliasson.
“El agua es vida, es fundamental para el bienestar de las personas y del planeta”, afirmó el secretario general de Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon.
Ban recordó que una de cada tres personas vive en un país con escasez de agua y que para 2030 “casi la mitad de la población mundial podría afrontar escasez” de este recurso.
Buscan recuperar calidad hídrica
América Latina y el Caribe, que concentran 31% de los recursos hídricos del mundo, han
avanzado en el manejo compartido de sus cuencas, pero mantienen un patrón dispar en la distribución del agua y deben recuperar la calidad y funcionamiento de sus ecosistemas acuáticos.
Datos de la ONU revelan que a nivel mundial existen unas 263 cuencas con ríos transfronterizos, con Europa como la región con mayor número (73), seguida por América Latina y el Caribe (61).
Exhortan a que la ONU actúe
Un grupo de expertos internacionales propuso ayer que el Consejo de Seguridad de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) incluya la problemática del agua en su agenda, así como la adopción de una definición de lo que es “seguridad del agua”.
Zafar Adeel, director del Instituto para el Agua, Medio Ambiente y Salud de la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, dijo que el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU debería incluir la seguridad del agua como parte de su agenda por su impacto en problemas de seguridad humana.
“El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU es el organismo preparado para responder a los casos más graves de amenaza a la seguridad humana y el agua es uno de los elementos que tiene un impacto más directo sobre esa seguridad”, señaló Adeel.
La recomendación está incluida en un documento preparado por el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Seguridad del Agua de UN-Water, el mecanismo de coordinación entre agencias de la ONU para todos los temas relacionados con el agua.
El documento también propone la adopción de una definición universal del concepto de seguridad del agua.
Esta definición es: “La capacidad de la población para asegurar el acceso sostenible a las cantidades adecuadas de agua y con una calidad aceptable para mantener sus formas de vida, el bienestar humano y el desarrollo socioeconómico para asegurar la protección contra la contaminación del agua y desastres relacionados con el agua, y para preservar ecosistemas en un clima de paz y estabilidad política”, apuntó Adeel.
Disminuye el líquido vital mientras crece la población
Con dos mil 121 kilómetros cúbicos de agua consumible en el mundo, equivalente a dos diezmilésimas del 1% del total en el planeta, la escasez de agua potable dejó de ser un problema de cada país para convertirse en un desafío internacional. Lo que se haga con ella va a decidir el destino de la humanidad.
“Naciones Unidas proyectó que otros tres mil 500 millones de personas habitarán nuestro planeta hacia 2050, un aumento de más de 50 por ciento en la población. (En esas condiciones…, la demanda de agua limpia tiene el potencial de superar ampliamente los menguantes recursos”, advierten Doug
Horning y Alex Daley en un artículo para el centro de estudios Casey Research.
El sólo título del artículo, The Coming Water Wars (Las próximas guerras del agua) resume las implicaciones políticas de no atender el problema con la mayor urgencia.
“El Mar de Aral (entre Kazajistán y Uzbekistán) que alguna vez fue el cuarto lago de agua fresca más grande del mundo, se ha reducido a 10% de su tamaño original y desaparecerá en 2020”, agregan ambos autores.
La situación, afirman, no es mejor para el río Jordán, pues fluye actualmente a sólo dos por ciento de su nivel histórico.
En tanto en Brasil, el país más rico del mundo en agua dulce, con 12% de todo ese recurso a nivel mundial, las autoridades pusieron en marcha su Proyecto de Manejo Integrado y Sustentable de los Recursos Hídricos Transfronterizos de la Cuenca del Río Amazonas, así como El Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica de los que forman parte Brasil, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Surinam, Colombia, Guyana y Venezuela.
El periódico Jornal do Senado destaca que “el Sistema Acuífero Guaraní, uno de los mayores reservorios subterráneos de agua dulce del mundo, posee un alto valor estratégico, porque se encuentra en una región con gran demanda de agua”.
El Jornal do Senado recordó que para 2025 la ONU hizo una proyección estadística que anticipa que mil 800 millones de personas “tendrán carencia absoluta de agua”.
“Hoy la disparidad entre los países es grande. En EU la media de consumo es de 300 litros de agua al día por persona. En Europa es de 200 litros. En Brasil de 150 litros”, puntualiza.
Y señala que según Naciones Unidas una persona necesita 110 litros de agua al día para vivir con dignidad. Lo cual no sucede todavía en África Subsahariana.
Efectos
1.- La ONU pondrá en marcha un nuevo programa que incluya el saneamiento de los recursos hídricos.
2.- La UNICEF podría implementar un sistema de programas sociales que transmita métodos de cuidado del vital líquido.
Con motivo de la conmemoración del Día Mundial del Agua, que se celebró ayer, la UNICEF pidió a los gobiernos, la sociedad civil y los ciudadanos que recuerden que detrás de las estadísticas hay niños.
El responsable del programa de UNICEF de agua, saneamiento e higiene, Sanjay Wijesekera, apuntó que “a veces nos enfocamos tanto en los grandes números, que no somos capaces de ver las tragedias humanas que subyacen en cada estadística”.
“Si 90 autobuses escolares llenos de niños se estrellaran cada día, y no hubiera supervivientes, el mundo prestaría atención. Esto es precisamente lo que ocurre a diario, debido a la mala calidad del agua, el saneamiento y la higiene”, señaló.
UNICEF resaltó que casi 90 por ciento de las muertes de niños producidas por enfermedades diarreicas están directamente relacionadas con el agua contaminada.
También remarcó que, pese al aumento de la población mundial, estas muertes se han reducido de manera significativa en los últimos diez años, pasando de 1.2 millones de muertes anuales en 2000 a unas 760 mil en 2011, pero consideró que todavía son muchas.
Quieren acabar con tabú
La ONU lanzó una campaña para intentar terminar con el mortal “tabú de los baños” y mejorar el acceso a un retrete para los dos mil 500 millones de personas que no lo tienen, una causa importante de problemas de salud. “Es una catástrofe silenciosa que merece toda nuestra atención”, dijo el vicesecretario general de la ONU, Jan Eliasson.
“Hay un tabú en lo que concierne a los baños y la defecación al aire libre”, agregó Eliasson.
“El agua es vida, es fundamental para el bienestar de las personas y del planeta”, afirmó el secretario general de Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon.
Ban recordó que una de cada tres personas vive en un país con escasez de agua y que para 2030 “casi la mitad de la población mundial podría afrontar escasez” de este recurso.
Buscan recuperar calidad hídrica
América Latina y el Caribe, que concentran 31% de los recursos hídricos del mundo, han
avanzado en el manejo compartido de sus cuencas, pero mantienen un patrón dispar en la distribución del agua y deben recuperar la calidad y funcionamiento de sus ecosistemas acuáticos.
Datos de la ONU revelan que a nivel mundial existen unas 263 cuencas con ríos transfronterizos, con Europa como la región con mayor número (73), seguida por América Latina y el Caribe (61).
Exhortan a que la ONU actúe
Un grupo de expertos internacionales propuso ayer que el Consejo de Seguridad de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) incluya la problemática del agua en su agenda, así como la adopción de una definición de lo que es “seguridad del agua”.
Zafar Adeel, director del Instituto para el Agua, Medio Ambiente y Salud de la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, dijo que el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU debería incluir la seguridad del agua como parte de su agenda por su impacto en problemas de seguridad humana.
“El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU es el organismo preparado para responder a los casos más graves de amenaza a la seguridad humana y el agua es uno de los elementos que tiene un impacto más directo sobre esa seguridad”, señaló Adeel.
La recomendación está incluida en un documento preparado por el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Seguridad del Agua de UN-Water, el mecanismo de coordinación entre agencias de la ONU para todos los temas relacionados con el agua.
El documento también propone la adopción de una definición universal del concepto de seguridad del agua.
Esta definición es: “La capacidad de la población para asegurar el acceso sostenible a las cantidades adecuadas de agua y con una calidad aceptable para mantener sus formas de vida, el bienestar humano y el desarrollo socioeconómico para asegurar la protección contra la contaminación del agua y desastres relacionados con el agua, y para preservar ecosistemas en un clima de paz y estabilidad política”, apuntó Adeel.
Disminuye el líquido vital mientras crece la población
Con dos mil 121 kilómetros cúbicos de agua consumible en el mundo, equivalente a dos diezmilésimas del 1% del total en el planeta, la escasez de agua potable dejó de ser un problema de cada país para convertirse en un desafío internacional. Lo que se haga con ella va a decidir el destino de la humanidad.
“Naciones Unidas proyectó que otros tres mil 500 millones de personas habitarán nuestro planeta hacia 2050, un aumento de más de 50 por ciento en la población. (En esas condiciones…, la demanda de agua limpia tiene el potencial de superar ampliamente los menguantes recursos”, advierten Doug
Horning y Alex Daley en un artículo para el centro de estudios Casey Research.
El sólo título del artículo, The Coming Water Wars (Las próximas guerras del agua) resume las implicaciones políticas de no atender el problema con la mayor urgencia.
“El Mar de Aral (entre Kazajistán y Uzbekistán) que alguna vez fue el cuarto lago de agua fresca más grande del mundo, se ha reducido a 10% de su tamaño original y desaparecerá en 2020”, agregan ambos autores.
La situación, afirman, no es mejor para el río Jordán, pues fluye actualmente a sólo dos por ciento de su nivel histórico.
En tanto en Brasil, el país más rico del mundo en agua dulce, con 12% de todo ese recurso a nivel mundial, las autoridades pusieron en marcha su Proyecto de Manejo Integrado y Sustentable de los Recursos Hídricos Transfronterizos de la Cuenca del Río Amazonas, así como El Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica de los que forman parte Brasil, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Surinam, Colombia, Guyana y Venezuela.
El periódico Jornal do Senado destaca que “el Sistema Acuífero Guaraní, uno de los mayores reservorios subterráneos de agua dulce del mundo, posee un alto valor estratégico, porque se encuentra en una región con gran demanda de agua”.
El Jornal do Senado recordó que para 2025 la ONU hizo una proyección estadística que anticipa que mil 800 millones de personas “tendrán carencia absoluta de agua”.
“Hoy la disparidad entre los países es grande. En EU la media de consumo es de 300 litros de agua al día por persona. En Europa es de 200 litros. En Brasil de 150 litros”, puntualiza.
Y señala que según Naciones Unidas una persona necesita 110 litros de agua al día para vivir con dignidad. Lo cual no sucede todavía en África Subsahariana.
Efectos
1.- La ONU pondrá en marcha un nuevo programa que incluya el saneamiento de los recursos hídricos.
2.- La UNICEF podría implementar un sistema de programas sociales que transmita métodos de cuidado del vital líquido.
German interior minister concerned by rise in right-wing crime
Germany’s interior minister has expressed concern about a rise in crime attributed to right wing extremists. The problem has been highlighted by a series of neo-Nazi murders that has drawn worldwide attention.
Brazilian riot police evict indigenous people near Rio's Maracanã stadium
Hosts of the 2014 World Cup react to threat of Maracanã stadium not being ready for June friendly with England
Brazilian riot police armed with batons, teargas and pepper spray have forcibly evicted an indigenous community from a dilapidated museum complex next to the Maracanã football stadium.
The forced relocation, which led to scuffles, arrests and accusations of brutality, comes amid growing pressure on the hosts of the next World Cup to accelerate preparations that have fallen far behind schedule. Renovation of the stadium, which will host next year's final, was supposed to have been completed at the end of last year, but there are doubts that it will be ready for a friendly between England and Brazil in June.
The museum has been the focus of a protracted legal battle between squatters, who claim the site should be used to promote indigenous culture, and the municipal authorities, who want to knock down a graffiti-covered eyesore and modernise the area before the world's attention moves to Rio de Janeiro.
"We were negotiating, and then the government resorted to force," said Urutau Guajajara, a bare-chested man wearing a feathered headdress who described himself as a professor of the Guajajara ethnic group. "The police were very violent."
"It was shocking," said Ingrid Paul, an Argentinian who has lived in the community for the past three weeks. "The police were obviously preparing for a fight. They came in with masks at 2:30am. We were all affected by the gas, even a three-year-old child."
After their eviction, some of the indigenous people were taken to temporary housing provided by the government. Others sang songs, smoked pipes and handed out leaflets declaring: "513 years of struggle: resist the expulsion of the multi-ethnic indigenous group of the Maracanã."
In the aftermath, police and TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Officers armed with automatic rifles cordoned off the area and several dozen police vehicles – including armoured personnel carriers – lined the streets.
The government says it is necessary to raze the building as part of the renovation of a rundown area that is supposed to be transformed into a sports and entertainment hub.
The authorities have promised to build a new Indian cultural centre that incorporates housing, though that won't be complete until the end of 2014.
Senior officials appear reluctant, however, to take responsibility for the evictions and demolition. Last October, Sergio Cabral, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, shifted the blame on the world football body, Fifa. "It's being demanded by Fifa and the World Cup organising committee. Long live democracy, but the building has no historical value. We're going to tear it down," he told reporters at the time. Fifa subsequently denied that it had ordered such a step.
Brazil is running out of time to prepare for the World Cup. Several stadiums are far behind schedule. The £300m renovation of the Maracanã was supposed to have been presented to Fifa last month, but – after storms and floods – the pitch was only laid last week, and the installation of seating and roofing has been postponed to 24 May, just nine days before the friendly with England.
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Savings tax for Cyprus looms again after Russia turns its back
Finance minister returns empty-handed from Moscow as Cyprus battles to save banks from collapse
Greek Cypriot MPs are battling to prevent their island state from crashing out of the euro as the country's banks remained closed and demonstrators rallied outside parliament.
The hopes of politicians on the island had been pinned on a rescue package from Russia, but with the Cypriot finance minister Michalis Sarris returning empty-handed after two days of talks in Moscow, the race to secure a bailout from the EU and IMF has now intensified.
Cyprus needs €17bn (£14.5bn), and is in negotiations to get €10bn from the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank. The remainder must come from the country's own resources. The original bailout plan, announced last Saturday, would have raised €5.8bn by skimming nearly 7% off all bank deposits of less than €100,000, and 9.9% of bigger bank accounts. A package of austerity measures was also planned to take the total to €17bn.
Sarris returned with the news no one wanted: the controversial bank tax must now be put back on the agenda.
"I think that it is clearly on the table, that it is something that needs to be discussed to see whether a levy on deposits of some sort … would make a contribution to finalising the package," he said.
It was expected that the levy will focus only on accounts with more than €100,000 – but that threatens to stoke tensions with Moscow. Russian investors have €17bn deposited in Cyprus accounts – the island is a tax haven – and the initial plan provoked anger at the highest levels of government in Russia.
President Nicos Anastasiades had proposed that small savers be included for fear of driving away the Russians, whose deposits are vital to keep the Cyprus banking system afloat. The Russian government has also already extended a €2.5bn loan to Nicosia, which the Cyprus government needs to retain.
The volte-face on the bank levy followed mounting criticism of MPs for rejecting the first bailout accord in the first place. Prominent former MPs accused the island's political elite of pandering to populist sentiment in the maelstrom of outrage that the proposal triggered. Critics said that, had the levy been passed, the government would not have been forced to draw up alternative plans. They now include the restructuring of the island's second biggest bank, Laiki, a move that its CEO, Takis Phidias, described as a "disaster not just for the bank but for the economy of Cyprus". The basic plan is to split the bank in two.
The reappearance of the levy came after Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, also rejected an alternative scheme of a solidarity fund proposed by Anastasiades's government. Another alternative considered is to combine hypothetical returns from offshore gas and oil reserves; to nationalise Cypriot workers' pension funds; and to skim revenue from Cypriot Orthodox church assets to raise the cash that Nicosia needs to qualify for €10bn in aid.
George Vassiliou, the former president of Cyprus, told the Guardian it was imperative that the banking system was not allowed to collapse.
"Cyprus is not just an island in the sun," he said. "We have developed a unique service sector based on confidence in the banking system. If that confidence is lost then you have nothing left. Everything that has been created will be destroyed with formidable repercussions."
The 82-year-old added: "The most pressing priority is to ensure that Cyprus gets help but also, more importantly, that the confidence of foreigners and depositors is restored in its banking system."
He said there was "no doubt" that ordinary people should contribute to the island's financial rescue. But he criticised the lack of foresight the euro group ministers had shown in announcing the levy.
MPs on Friday spent frantic hours tweaking legislation that would satisfy Berlin, the ECB and the IMF, and the Nicosia parliament was sitting on Friday night, although a key vote on part of the new bailout plan could be delayed until this morning.
Merkel has adopted a tough stance. She told German MPs that the Mediterranean island's business model was obsolete and that the bailout would need to be structured in such a way that it could be repaid. Cyprus, she said, could no longer depend on its reputation as an offshore tax haven.
Greece also weighed in, announcing that its local lender, Pireaus Bank, would buy branches of Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus in Greece. The move came as officials in Athens expressed consternation over Germany's apparent determination to cut Cyprus loose if need be.
MPs were expected to vote on a package that included winding up Laiki and creating a good and bad bank out of the two biggest banks, with deposits up to €100,000 insured and those higher than that being hit for much bigger sums.
There would also be emergency bills on capital controls to try to avoid a bank run and capital flight from the island if the banks reopen on Tuesday after being closed for 10 days.
European commission officials said that the legislation on restructuring Laiki and imposing capital controls had to be endorsed by the troika and then implemented virtually immediately to have a chance of meeting Monday's deadline.
Officials said that eurozone finance ministers could stage another emergency session on Sunday, either in Brussels or by teleconference.
Angela Merkel reportedly outraged over Cyprus's behaviour
Sources claim Germany's chancellor said Cyprus was 'exhausting the patience of its euro partners'
German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly expressed outrage at the behaviour of Cyprus during an extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary faction of her Christian Democrats in the Bundestag.
According to reliable sources present at the meeting, she said Cyprus was "exhausting the patience of its euro partners" and she was particularly incensed that the government had failed to produce a "plan B". She also complained about the lack of communication from Nicosia.
On the streets of Cyprus, she is viewed as a hate figure, blamed for the bank deposit tax plan, even though the idea originally came from Nicosia, and for insisting that Cyprus should raise a third of the country's rescue fund itself. The effect of this at home has merely been to increase Merkel's support.
She knows that voters would never forgive her if she used their taxes to bail out banks that offer an offshore haven for the fortunes of Russian oligarchs. Images of Merkel as an SS guard or donning a Hitler moustache have appeared in Cyprus but one German government official said: "The old Nazi cliches are simply too easy to fall back on when someone's looking for an outlet for their anger".
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
Caroline de Mônaco já é avó. E o neto tem sangue brasileiro
PARIS - A família real de Mônaco acaba de ganhar mais um integrante, e ele tem descendência brasileira. A princesa Caroline anunciou, nesta sexta-feira, o nascimento de seu primeiro neto, um menino, fruto do noivado entre seu filho mais velho, Andrea Casiraghi, com a colombiana Tatiana Santo Domingo. Tatiana é filha da brasileira Vera Rechulski com o empresário colombiano Julio Mario Santo Domingo Jr.
“Sua Alteza Real e Vera Santo Domingo têm a felicidade de anunciar o nascimento do neto, nascido no dia 21 de março. A mãe e a criança passam bem”, anunciou o Palácio de Mônaco em um comunicado em nome das avós. O nome do bebê ainda não foi divulgado.
O novo herdeiro, bisneto da atriz americana Grace Kelly, tem duplamente sangue brasileiro. A outra bisavó do menino era a carioca Edyala Braga, que foi casada com um dos irmãos de Getúlio Vargas e, mais tarde, com o empresário colombiano Julio Mario Santo Domingo - pai de Julio Mario Jr. e avô de Tatiana.
De acordo com a Constituíção de Mônaco, Casiraghi é o segundo na linha sucessão - depois de Caroline. O principado é governado pelo príncipe Albert II.
“Sua Alteza Real e Vera Santo Domingo têm a felicidade de anunciar o nascimento do neto, nascido no dia 21 de março. A mãe e a criança passam bem”, anunciou o Palácio de Mônaco em um comunicado em nome das avós. O nome do bebê ainda não foi divulgado.
O novo herdeiro, bisneto da atriz americana Grace Kelly, tem duplamente sangue brasileiro. A outra bisavó do menino era a carioca Edyala Braga, que foi casada com um dos irmãos de Getúlio Vargas e, mais tarde, com o empresário colombiano Julio Mario Santo Domingo - pai de Julio Mario Jr. e avô de Tatiana.
De acordo com a Constituíção de Mônaco, Casiraghi é o segundo na linha sucessão - depois de Caroline. O principado é governado pelo príncipe Albert II.
Granizo do tamanho de ovos causa devastação
Pedras de gelo do tamanho de ovos, chuvas torrenciais e rajadas de vento que atingem os 177km/h devastam cinco províncias do sul da China desde terça-feira, provocando, até ao momento, 24 mortes.
Reino Unido cobrará depósito de ‘visitantes de risco’
LONDRES - Em novo round da queda de braço pela redução do contingente de imigrantes ilegais no Reino Unido, o governo britânico anunciou nesta sexta-feira novas restrições aos países que ofereçam “maior risco” ao sistema. Apresentada pelo vice-primeiro-ministro Nick Clegg, a ideia prevê a imposição de uma espécie de depósito de pelo menos mil libras (pouco mais de R$ 3 mil) a ser feito pelo visitante que pisar em solo britânico. O dinheiro será devolvido se ele deixar o país dentro do prazo regulamentar do seu visto. Trata-se de um sistema semelhante ao que já é usado na Austrália.
A lista dos países afetados ainda não foi fechada. Mas a expectativa é que inclua nações como o Paquistão e alguns de seus vizinhos, além de parte do Oriente Médio. A medida, que deve entrar em vigor até o final deste ano, impõe uma taxa que poderá ser mais ou menos alta, dependendo do grau de risco oferecido pelo visitante em questão. Clegg destacou que o alvo da nova regra deveria ser bem calibrado para não haver discriminação contra grupos em particular.
Durante discurso para membros do Partido Liberal Democrata, Clegg afirmou que a estratégia, que considera uma “ferramenta poderosa”, é restringir a entrada daqueles que recebem o visto para ingressar no país e acabam ficando - grupo que ele identificou como o maior causador de problemas para a Agência de Fronteira do Reino Unido (UKBA, na sigla em inglês).
Clegg quer tolerância zero para abusos
Se deixou claro que o governo estava endurecendo o discurso contra a imigração ilegal, a fim de agradar ao eleitorado - que tem considerado a política atual dos liberal-democratas muito flexível - o vice-primeiro-ministro fez questão de reforçar a mensagem de que o Reino Unido não estava fechando as portas para os imigrantes. Clegg admitiu que as empresas britânicas dependem de habilidades e conhecimentos vindos de fora para ganhar competitividade, assim como as universidades. Ele destacou a necessidade de o país ser tolerante, mas pregou a tolerância zero para os abusos.
- É por isso que a coalizão rejeitou propostas de impor um regime de vistos para os visitantes do Brasil. Se uma minoria está abusando do sistema, temos de lidar com isso, qualquer que seja a sua nacionalidade. Mas um novo regime de vistos iria conter os turistas brasileiros, reduzir o interesse de investidores brasileiros, e o Brasil faria simplesmente o mesmo conosco, cortando o acesso que as empresas britânicas têm para um dos mercados com as maiores taxas de crescimento do mundo - disse Clegg em seu discurso.
A manifestação específica sobre o Brasil acontece uma semana depois de o primeiro-ministro David Cameron confirmar ao Parlamento que não haveria a imposição de vistos para os brasileiros, medida que havia sido apresentada pela secretária de Interior, Thereza May, na última reunião do Conselho de Segurança Nacional há 15 dias.
- Quero que as empresas do Reino Unido não tenham dúvidas. A prioridade da coalizão continua sendo o crescimento e a construção de uma economia mais forte. Estou certo de que imigração bem gerenciada é uma parte chave disso — disse o premier.
A lista dos países afetados ainda não foi fechada. Mas a expectativa é que inclua nações como o Paquistão e alguns de seus vizinhos, além de parte do Oriente Médio. A medida, que deve entrar em vigor até o final deste ano, impõe uma taxa que poderá ser mais ou menos alta, dependendo do grau de risco oferecido pelo visitante em questão. Clegg destacou que o alvo da nova regra deveria ser bem calibrado para não haver discriminação contra grupos em particular.
Durante discurso para membros do Partido Liberal Democrata, Clegg afirmou que a estratégia, que considera uma “ferramenta poderosa”, é restringir a entrada daqueles que recebem o visto para ingressar no país e acabam ficando - grupo que ele identificou como o maior causador de problemas para a Agência de Fronteira do Reino Unido (UKBA, na sigla em inglês).
Clegg quer tolerância zero para abusos
Se deixou claro que o governo estava endurecendo o discurso contra a imigração ilegal, a fim de agradar ao eleitorado - que tem considerado a política atual dos liberal-democratas muito flexível - o vice-primeiro-ministro fez questão de reforçar a mensagem de que o Reino Unido não estava fechando as portas para os imigrantes. Clegg admitiu que as empresas britânicas dependem de habilidades e conhecimentos vindos de fora para ganhar competitividade, assim como as universidades. Ele destacou a necessidade de o país ser tolerante, mas pregou a tolerância zero para os abusos.
- É por isso que a coalizão rejeitou propostas de impor um regime de vistos para os visitantes do Brasil. Se uma minoria está abusando do sistema, temos de lidar com isso, qualquer que seja a sua nacionalidade. Mas um novo regime de vistos iria conter os turistas brasileiros, reduzir o interesse de investidores brasileiros, e o Brasil faria simplesmente o mesmo conosco, cortando o acesso que as empresas britânicas têm para um dos mercados com as maiores taxas de crescimento do mundo - disse Clegg em seu discurso.
A manifestação específica sobre o Brasil acontece uma semana depois de o primeiro-ministro David Cameron confirmar ao Parlamento que não haveria a imposição de vistos para os brasileiros, medida que havia sido apresentada pela secretária de Interior, Thereza May, na última reunião do Conselho de Segurança Nacional há 15 dias.
- Quero que as empresas do Reino Unido não tenham dúvidas. A prioridade da coalizão continua sendo o crescimento e a construção de uma economia mais forte. Estou certo de que imigração bem gerenciada é uma parte chave disso — disse o premier.
Serotonin Receptors Offer Clues to New Antidepressants
Researchers have deciphered the molecular structures of two of the brain's crucial lock-and-key mechanisms. The two molecules are receptors for the natural neurotransmitter serotonin -- which regulates activities such as sleep, appetite and mood -- and could provide targets for future drugs to combat depression, migraines or obesity.
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Snow: 'we had a barbecue this time last year'
As Britain's coldest March in 50 years continues, snow is causing problems on the roads in Leeds but providing great entertainment for children on sledges.
Achieving a Sustainable Food System with Organic Farming
Despite a slight decline between 2009 and 2010, since 1999 the global land area farmed organically has expanded more than threefold to 37 million hectares, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). Regions with the largest certified organic agricultural land in 2010 were Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations (12.1 million hectares); Europe (10 million hectares); and Latin America (8.4 million hectares), write report authors Catherine Ward and Laura Reynolds.
Le président chinois reçu en grand à Moscou
Le nouveau président chinois, Xi Jinping, a eu droit à une cérémonie somptueuse vendredi à Moscou, alors qu'il avait arrêté son choix sur la Russie pour son tout premier déplacement à titre de chef d'État.
Wholesale gas prices soar in Britain after pipeline is forced to close
No 10 plays down fears over energy stocks after a pump failure cuts off gas supply from Belgium
British wholesale gas prices hit a record high on Friday after the failure of a vital import pipeline demonstrated the vulnerability of the nation's energy supply to external shocks.
The breakdown and price rise followed the revelation that Britain's gas stores could run out in a few weeks if expensive overseas supplies are not piped in quickly amid unexpected demand due to unseasonal weather. Downing Street intervened to reassure households; the prime minister's spokesman expressed confidence supplies were not running out.
Normally Britain can store up to 15 days' gas supply, but that has run down to a few days amid freezing weather. While that is not an immediate problem because Britain is constantly importing gas and is also producing some gas from the North Sea, fears of a fuel crunch were heightened on Friday morning when a pump failure caused the temporary shutdown of the UK-Belgium pipeline. The gas was flowing again by noon but not before the British wholesale gas price soared by more than 50% to 150p a therm, with the price stabilising to about 100p when the pipeline reopened.
However, the looming storage crisis and the pipeline incident raised fears that Britain was becoming over-reliant on a single source of fuel for heating and electricity. It came on the heels of warnings this week by the chief of one of the big six energy suppliers that there could be blackouts within three years unless there is drastic government action.
David Cameron's spokesman said the prime minister was "absolutely confident" that gas supplies were sufficient. "The gas market is how we source our supplies and that market continues to function well. The prime minister's key concern is that gas supplies continue. It is absolutely clear that supplies are not running out."
The owner of the terminal where the pipeline failure occurred acknowledged the seriousness of the technical glitch. Sean Waring, managing director of Interconnector Ltd, said: "We understand the seriousness of a disruption like this in the current tight energy markets. To date, Interconnector has demonstrated a high level of reliability, but operational upsets do occur from time to time in a complex process plant. Our immediate response enabled us to restore flow to full capacity quickly."
The incident demonstrated how dependent Britain is on imports of gas, now that North Sea reserves are depleting, and expensive supplies must be piped in from sources such as Norway and Russia.
It also raised questions over the government's strategy of hugely increasing the share of electricity generation that comes from gas. Chancellor George Osborne has championed a new "dash for gas" that could see the fuel account for more than two-thirds of Britain's supplies.
Andrew Pendleton, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said: "This is a glimpse of a miserable and worrying UK energy future and shows the folly of depending on gas for so much of our electricity generation. Increases in the wholesale gas price are the main reason that our energy bills have rocketed in recent years and this latest concern shows Osborne's judgment in backing gas to provide the bulk of our power for the next generation is seriously flawed."
The gas market ructions came as RES, a wind generation company, forecast that about 15% of electricity this weekend would be supplied from wind, compared with about 10% from renewables on average last year.
David Handley, chief economist at RES, told the Guardian: "With gas supplies continuing to dwindle and expensive imports spluttering through pipelines, it will be the nation's wind that helps to bridge the gap."
The UK can normally store up to 15 days' gas supply, which many regard as an insufficient margin. In recent weeks, the unseasonable March freeze has caused storage to run down dramatically, to as little as a few days if more gas was not piped in from abroad or diverted from the North Sea. Any problems with the technology and pipelines used for the imports are thus magnified, as was dramatically demonstrated when traders pushed the price of gas to record levels on news of the Interconnector failure.
The gas spike also bolstered proponents of fracking, the controversial method of blasting apart dense rocks at high pressure to retrieve natural gas. Fracking has suffered several setbacks in the UK: operations at the only company that has yet fracked for gas, Cuadrilla, are currently stalled, and the government admits it could be more than a decade before fracking produces much gas supply.
However, Ken Cronin, of the UK Onshore Operators group, said: "Consumers, whether they are industrial companies or home owners, have to have the assurance that constant light, heat and reserves of energy are available . Onshore oil and gas will contribute to a more secure and competitively priced energy supply for the UK."
Green campaigners said more renewable energy was a better long term answer. Doug Parr Chief Scientist at Greenpeace said: "As shortages drive up prices for consumers, George Osborne must be the only man in Britain who thinks the answer is a gamble on gas power. Fracking won't lower prices and significant production is more than a decade away. North Sea gas production may be falling, but offshore wind is already helping to fill the gap. The government must act to stabilise bills, secure supplies and create jobs by supporting clean, renewable technologies like offshore wind and a European super grid."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
Jesuítas são "fermento evangélico" da igreja
O papa Francisco considerou os jesuítas um "fermento evangélico" da Igreja, pedindo numa carta enviada à Companhia de Jesus, que Deus "ilumine e acompanhe" todos os religiosos da congregação.
Oxford University settles 'selection by wealth' case
Postgraduate admissions policy to be reviewed after student sued St Hugh's for rejecting him for not having access to funds
Oxford University is to review its postgraduate admissions policy after settling a case with a student who sued one of its colleges for discriminating against the poor.
The university will re-examine a policy under which its colleges select students not just on academic merit, but on their ability to prove they have the up-front resources to pay tens of thousands of pounds for both tuition fees and living expenses.
The review will come too late for thousands who have been unable to study at the university due to the "financial guarantee", but it may help those seeking to join Oxford this September.
Across the sector, the latest figures show that domestic students are increasingly finding postgraduate study too expensive. Almost 16,000 fewer British students started postgraduate courses at UK universities in 2011-12 compared with the previous academic year – an 8% drop, according to data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Earlier this year the Observer revealed how Damien Shannon, 26, was suing St Hugh's college for "selecting by wealth".
He claimed that the college, founded in 1886, was discriminating against the poor by asking students to prove that they had liquid assets sufficient to cover £12,900 a year in living costs, in addition to potentially tens of thousands of pounds in tuition fees.
Under the university-wide policy the college refused to take into account projected earnings from students who planned to do paid work during their course.
In a statement agreed between Shannon and the college, they jointly announced they had "resolved the dispute between them, and that the court proceedings in Manchester county court are at an end with immediate effect".
They added: "St Hugh's College has advocated successfully for the University of Oxford, supported by the Conference of Colleges of the University, to carry out a review of the present financial guarantee policy.
"On completion of the review, recommendations will be put to the university's council and the Conference of Colleges for consideration. It is anticipated that the process will be completed by September 2013."
Both parties agreed to pay their own costs. Shannon has been offered a place on the MSc in Economic and Social History course, for which he originally applied last March.
St Hugh's, whose alumni include the home secretary, Theresa May, had initially hired Peter Oldham QC to fight its case at court at a potential cost of at least £60,000, according to documents seen by the Observer. At the time, friends of Shannon said that, should he lose the case and have to pay full costs, it would probably force him to declare himself bankrupt.
St Hugh's claimed in court papers that the test of a student's financial health was in place to ensure students were able to complete their courses without suffering financial difficulty and anxiety. It said in its defence that the inability to meet the financial guarantee, which was formalised across the university in 2010, did not fall "disproportionately within" the lower socio-economic groups.
However the director of graduate admissions at Oxford University had to apologise to the judge hearing the case after erroneously claiming that other universities had the same admissions practices.
It is understood negotiations between Shannon and the university's lawyers and admissions office started last month and were finalised on Friday.
Hazel Blears, the former Labour cabinet minister and Shannon's constituency MP for Salford and Eccles, said she was delighted by the development.
"Damien has worked incredibly hard in pushing for this because, like me, he believes that insisting students must prove they have £13,000 towards living costs is deeply unfair, especially for those from poorer backgrounds," she said.
"It means that hugely intelligent men and women who have been offered places on academic merit are being denied the chance to make the most of their potential. Our country as a whole also misses out if their talent is not nurtured and the university must cease making proof of living costs a condition of entry."
Blears said she hoped the university would now install a fair policy and establish means-tested scholarships for students from less affluent backgrounds.
As revealed by the Observer earlier this year, around 1,000 students a year turn down postgraduate places won at Oxford because of the financial demands of study there. This amounts to 15% of the 7,500 students offered a place, according to the admissions office.
In January, leaders at 11 universities told of their concerns about the socially divisive impact of rising tuition fees in response to teaching grant cuts and a lack of finance for prospective postgraduate students.
Blears said she would continue to push for a national system of support and loans for postgraduate students, as recommended by the former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn, who is leading an independent review of social mobility, and by the Higher Education Commission.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
St. Petersburg gas explosion leaves 100 homeless
The blast which ripped through a house in the north east ofRussia’s second capital has left apartments accommodating almostone hundred people unfit for living, the country’s EmergenciesMinistry said on Saturday as the rescue operation wrapped up.
Six of the injured in Friday night’s explosion were taken tohospital, three of them in a critical condition. A seventh personwas treated at the scene.
Ninety-one people had to be evacuated. Sixteen are temporarilyaccommodated in a hotel, while 75 others are currently staying withrelatives.
Authorities promise to help all injured in the accident.
"The size and type of assistance will be known after theinvestigation, which is currently underway at the scene,"ITAR-TASS was told by the city’s administration.
The issue of supplying the people of the affected apartments“with housing by means of a replacement fund is currently pending,”added a spokesperson for the city.
The explosion took place in an apartment on the fourth floor ofa nine-story block. Inner walls were damaged and windows of twoapartments were shattered, while balconies on the second and thirdfloors were partially collapsed.
A fire that followed the explosion was extinguished within 15minutes
Six of the injured in Friday night’s explosion were taken tohospital, three of them in a critical condition. A seventh personwas treated at the scene.
Ninety-one people had to be evacuated. Sixteen are temporarilyaccommodated in a hotel, while 75 others are currently staying withrelatives.
Authorities promise to help all injured in the accident.
"The size and type of assistance will be known after theinvestigation, which is currently underway at the scene,"ITAR-TASS was told by the city’s administration.
The issue of supplying the people of the affected apartments“with housing by means of a replacement fund is currently pending,”added a spokesperson for the city.
The explosion took place in an apartment on the fourth floor ofa nine-story block. Inner walls were damaged and windows of twoapartments were shattered, while balconies on the second and thirdfloors were partially collapsed.
A fire that followed the explosion was extinguished within 15minutes
Romanian immigrants face giving fingerprints
Romanians and Bulgarians who come to Britain next year face being fingerprinted and having other "biometric" details taken.
Bomb found near G8 site in Northern Ireland
Device believed to have been destined for police station found 16 miles from where world leaders will meet in June
A bomb has been found in Northern Ireland, 16 miles from where world leaders will meet for the G8 summit by Lough Erne in June.
The bomb is believed to have been made by dissident republicans and destined for a police station. It was found in a vehicle on the main road between Enniskillen and Dublin in County Fermanagh on Friday morning.
Dissident republicans have murdered two soldiers, two police officers and a prison guard in attacks in Northern Ireland since 2009.
A week ago the Police Service of Northern Ireland discovered a mortar-type device aimed towards New Barnsley police station in north Belfast. Also last week three officers escaped injury when an explosive device detonated within metres of them as they patrolled a coastal path on the outskirts of the city.
Earlier this month two men were arrested after police intercepted a van carrying four mortar bombs which were primed and ready to fire at a station in Londonderry.
Pauline Shields, of the PSNI, said: "The people responsible for this have no regard for the lives of anyone in our community. It is fortunate that no one was killed or seriously injured as a result of this reckless act.
"Although investigations are at an early stage it is our assessment at present that this vehicle was destined for Lisnaskea PSNI station."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
A bomb has been found in Northern Ireland, 16 miles from where world leaders will meet for the G8 summit by Lough Erne in June.
The bomb is believed to have been made by dissident republicans and destined for a police station. It was found in a vehicle on the main road between Enniskillen and Dublin in County Fermanagh on Friday morning.
Dissident republicans have murdered two soldiers, two police officers and a prison guard in attacks in Northern Ireland since 2009.
A week ago the Police Service of Northern Ireland discovered a mortar-type device aimed towards New Barnsley police station in north Belfast. Also last week three officers escaped injury when an explosive device detonated within metres of them as they patrolled a coastal path on the outskirts of the city.
Earlier this month two men were arrested after police intercepted a van carrying four mortar bombs which were primed and ready to fire at a station in Londonderry.
Pauline Shields, of the PSNI, said: "The people responsible for this have no regard for the lives of anyone in our community. It is fortunate that no one was killed or seriously injured as a result of this reckless act.
"Although investigations are at an early stage it is our assessment at present that this vehicle was destined for Lisnaskea PSNI station."
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'Catch me if you can' Frenchman impersonating pilot caught in cockpit of US Airways plane
A French man has been arrested after impersonating a pilot on a US Airways flight.
Second UK credit downgrade looms as Fitch ratings agency puts AAA on watch
Blow for the chancellor George Osborne as Fitch reacts to increased borrowing forecasts in the budget
Ed Miliband will warn that Britain is sliding towards a lost decade without economic growth after the ratings agency Fitch responded on Friday night to the increased borrowing forecasts in the budget by putting the UK economy on negative watch, the first step to another credit rating downgrade.
Fitch said Britain's lack of growth and growing debt mountain meant there was a "heightened probability of a downgrade in the near term".
It said its possible decision – which would make it the second of the three major agencies, after Moody's, to downgrade the UK – reflected "the latest economic and fiscal forecasts published by the Office for Budget Responsibility [OBR] that indicate that UK government debt will peak later and at a higher level than previously expected".
The government will find out in April whether the economy has suffered an unprecedented triple-dip recession. In the last three months of 2012 it shrank 0.3%. A second quarter of negative growth could undermine faltering business confidence and choke off the first signs of a recovery.
Several analysts said that even without a triple dip, the worsening economic situation has made further credit downgrades inevitable.
In documents that accompanied the budget, the OBR said it halved the forecast for growth this year to 0.6% and said the debt-to-GDP ratio would peak at 85%.
But Fitch said a tougher measure of the UK's debt burden showed the debt pile would exceed 100% of annual national income before it begins to fall, which makes UK's situation more perilous. While it credited the UK with having a "high-income, diversified and flexible economy", it said the last four years of low growth had damaged the economy.
Fitch said: "The persistently weak performance of UK growth, in part due to European growth, has increased uncertainty around the UK's potential output and longer-term trend rate of growth with significant implications for public finances."
Last month Moody's stunned George Osborne when it became the first agency to kick Britain out of the exclusive AAA club, which still includes Germany, Canada and Switzerland.
In a speech to the Labour party's policy forum on Saturday Miliband will accuse the government of leading Britain into a lost decade. "They are shrugging their shoulders, They have run out of ideas. They are resigned to a lost decade," he will say. But he will also admit that Labour faces a struggle in persuading fatalistic voters that British economic paralysis is not inevitable. He will say: "I know some of you are thinking: 'It's true things look grim. But there's nothing we can do.'
"Many people will believe that the failure of this government means they should give up on politics altogether, that nobody can turn round the problems of this country and nobody deserves our vote."
The Labour leader will say it is his task to show that he can stop the slide and that a "lost decade" is not inevitable.
Polling suggests that although voters are disillusioned with the government's economic record they are doubtful that any government can lift the economy faced by European economic recession.
Frustration with Labour's economic strategy was revealed by Lord Mandelson, the former business secretary, who claimed the public were tired of the Labour argument about cutting too far, too fast.
Speaking at a CBI dinner, he said: "The whole argument about whether we are cutting too far, too fast is about the past. It is rather predictable party political stuff for over the dispatch box. It is a bit tiring to the public.
"I would put the emphasis less on whether we are going too far, too fast, not fast enough, on deficit reduction, and move the debate on to the future of the economy.
"Everyone knows we are in a heck of a bad way in the economy. Quite a lot more pain is going to be experienced. What we should be saying is: this is the light at the end of the tunnel. This is where we should be heading. We should develop a slightly less defensive and more forthright analysis or understanding of the structural problems in our economy and why they weren't completely eradicated by the Labour government. I would be a little more candid about the past".
"We need to explain how we would retool and redevelop our economy. We need a politician who will fight on that rather than fight about the past or fight over what is fair and what is not fair. The Labour party has got to offer more than that.
"If the Labour party is going to go into the next election fighting it on social justice rather than economic transformation and prosperity it will be limited in its appeal. We need to tell people in the country how we are going to earn our way and make our living in the country rather than how we are going to redistribute our money from the very rich. Sometimes they make the mistake of talking about that too much."
Chris Leslie, Labour's shadow Treasury minister, said: "This is yet another blow to a downgraded chancellor who made keeping the confidence of the credit rating agencies the number one test of his economic policy. What really matters are the economic realities which Fitch are responding to including, as their statement says, 'the persistently weak performance of UK growth'."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
Ed Miliband will warn that Britain is sliding towards a lost decade without economic growth after the ratings agency Fitch responded on Friday night to the increased borrowing forecasts in the budget by putting the UK economy on negative watch, the first step to another credit rating downgrade.
Fitch said Britain's lack of growth and growing debt mountain meant there was a "heightened probability of a downgrade in the near term".
It said its possible decision – which would make it the second of the three major agencies, after Moody's, to downgrade the UK – reflected "the latest economic and fiscal forecasts published by the Office for Budget Responsibility [OBR] that indicate that UK government debt will peak later and at a higher level than previously expected".
The government will find out in April whether the economy has suffered an unprecedented triple-dip recession. In the last three months of 2012 it shrank 0.3%. A second quarter of negative growth could undermine faltering business confidence and choke off the first signs of a recovery.
Several analysts said that even without a triple dip, the worsening economic situation has made further credit downgrades inevitable.
In documents that accompanied the budget, the OBR said it halved the forecast for growth this year to 0.6% and said the debt-to-GDP ratio would peak at 85%.
But Fitch said a tougher measure of the UK's debt burden showed the debt pile would exceed 100% of annual national income before it begins to fall, which makes UK's situation more perilous. While it credited the UK with having a "high-income, diversified and flexible economy", it said the last four years of low growth had damaged the economy.
Fitch said: "The persistently weak performance of UK growth, in part due to European growth, has increased uncertainty around the UK's potential output and longer-term trend rate of growth with significant implications for public finances."
Last month Moody's stunned George Osborne when it became the first agency to kick Britain out of the exclusive AAA club, which still includes Germany, Canada and Switzerland.
In a speech to the Labour party's policy forum on Saturday Miliband will accuse the government of leading Britain into a lost decade. "They are shrugging their shoulders, They have run out of ideas. They are resigned to a lost decade," he will say. But he will also admit that Labour faces a struggle in persuading fatalistic voters that British economic paralysis is not inevitable. He will say: "I know some of you are thinking: 'It's true things look grim. But there's nothing we can do.'
"Many people will believe that the failure of this government means they should give up on politics altogether, that nobody can turn round the problems of this country and nobody deserves our vote."
The Labour leader will say it is his task to show that he can stop the slide and that a "lost decade" is not inevitable.
Polling suggests that although voters are disillusioned with the government's economic record they are doubtful that any government can lift the economy faced by European economic recession.
Frustration with Labour's economic strategy was revealed by Lord Mandelson, the former business secretary, who claimed the public were tired of the Labour argument about cutting too far, too fast.
Speaking at a CBI dinner, he said: "The whole argument about whether we are cutting too far, too fast is about the past. It is rather predictable party political stuff for over the dispatch box. It is a bit tiring to the public.
"I would put the emphasis less on whether we are going too far, too fast, not fast enough, on deficit reduction, and move the debate on to the future of the economy.
"Everyone knows we are in a heck of a bad way in the economy. Quite a lot more pain is going to be experienced. What we should be saying is: this is the light at the end of the tunnel. This is where we should be heading. We should develop a slightly less defensive and more forthright analysis or understanding of the structural problems in our economy and why they weren't completely eradicated by the Labour government. I would be a little more candid about the past".
"We need to explain how we would retool and redevelop our economy. We need a politician who will fight on that rather than fight about the past or fight over what is fair and what is not fair. The Labour party has got to offer more than that.
"If the Labour party is going to go into the next election fighting it on social justice rather than economic transformation and prosperity it will be limited in its appeal. We need to tell people in the country how we are going to earn our way and make our living in the country rather than how we are going to redistribute our money from the very rich. Sometimes they make the mistake of talking about that too much."
Chris Leslie, Labour's shadow Treasury minister, said: "This is yet another blow to a downgraded chancellor who made keeping the confidence of the credit rating agencies the number one test of his economic policy. What really matters are the economic realities which Fitch are responding to including, as their statement says, 'the persistently weak performance of UK growth'."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
Physicists Debate the Many Varieties of Nothingness
What is nothing ? Sounds like a simple question-- nothing is simply the absence of something, of course --until you begin to think about it. The other night the American Museum of Natural History hosted its 14 th annual Asimov Memorial Debate , which featured five leading thinkers opining (and sparring , sometimes testily, but more on that later) about the nature of nothing ."Nothing is the most important part of the universe," said Lawrence Krauss , a physicist at Arizona State University and author of the recent " A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing ." Of course we can imagine the (mostly) empty space between galaxies as being a sort of nothing. But we should also remember that most of the space around us is empty--even an atom is mostly empty space between the nucleus and electrons. [More]
The dwarves of Auschwitz
The story of a family of dwarves snatched from the gas chamber by Josef Mengele himself sounded incredible. But how to verify the testimony of Holocaust survivors? And should you even try?
'I was saved by the grace of the devil," Holocaust survivor Perla Ovitz told us. Again and again, she recounted in detail how she and her family were taken to the gas chamber and ordered to strip naked. A heavy door opened and they were pushed inside. "It was almost dark and we stood in what looked like a large washing room, waiting for something to happen. We looked up to the ceiling to see why the water was not coming. Suddenly we smelled gas. We gasped heavily, some of us fainting on the floor. With our last breath we cried out. Minutes passed, or maybe just seconds, then we heard an angry voice from outside – 'Where is my dwarf family?' The door opened, and we saw Dr Mengele standing there. He ordered us to be carried out and had cold water poured on us to revive us."
The Ovitz family, from the village of Rozavlea in Transylvania, was the largest recorded family of dwarves: a dwarf father who sired 10 children, seven of them dwarves. Perla, born in 1921, was the youngest. In that remote part of Romania in the early 20th century, it was difficult for anyone to eke a living from the land and livestock, and impossible for someone standing less than 3ft tall.
Their mother, anxious for her children's future, guided them towards a common skill, a profession in which they could together make a living and would be neither isolated nor ostracised. As the five sisters and two brothers were all good-looking and musically gifted, the stage seemed the perfect choice: for where else could they be applauded, courted, honoured?
Throughout history, dwarves had been entertainers, often part of a circus or vaudeville show. But the Ovitzs wanted the stage all to themselves. They appropriately named their musical ensemble the Lilliput Troupe, and for 15 years had a flourishing career in central Europe. Their two-hour show consisted of popular hits of the day, skits and music. Perla had a tiny, four-string pink guitar that looked like a toy, her sisters Rozika and Franziska played on quarter-sized violins, Frieda struck on the cimbalom, Micki played both a half-sized cello and accordion, while the energetic Elizabeth took on the drums. Their elder brother Avram was the scriptwriter, actor and general manager.
The Ovitzs lived a communal life in one big house in the village. When any one of them got married, the spouse moved in and joined the enterprise. While the dwarves basked in the limelight, the average-height family members worked behind the curtains as stagehands and wardrobe mistresses. It was the only all-dwarf ensemble with a full show of their own in the history of entertainment.
When the Nazis came to power, the Ovitzs were doubly doomed: under the Aktion T-4 euthanasia programme, the Germans set out to kill people who were physically or mentally disabled, whose lives were considered "unworthy of living", "a burden on society"; and, as Jews, the Ovitzs were the target of the Final Solution.
On 19 May 1944, they were brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp because they were Jews. But, by a twist of fate, their disability played for them. It was rare that one person from an entire family survived the camp, let alone two, but all 12 members of the Ovitz family – the youngest a baby boy just 18 months old, the oldest his 58-year-old dwarf aunt – emerged alive.
Listening to the unimaginable horrors of Holocaust survivors, you shrink, stunned. But historians are reserved about oral testimonies. The witness may get the timeline wrong, forget facts or infuse memories of others into his or her own. Close to the event, the witness often finds it difficult to convey details of the trauma they endured. Crucial events can be forgotten, and trivial ones take centre stage. Consciously or unconsciously, shame and guilt can obliterate vital facts.
We embarked on the trail of the seven dwarves of Auschwitz with the notion that we would subject their story to the same rigorous examination that would be applied to any other historical source. So we not only collected their testimonies, but crosschecked them with those of dozens of other survivors, inmates and doctors, either first-hand or in archives and libraries. We unearthed medical documents in Poland and Germany. Still, we followed the advice of Professor Yehuda Bauer, a Holocaust historian and himself a survivor, that "one must never argue with a survivor".
Descending the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the seven dwarves and their five average-height family members were immediately separated from the others in the transport. They were told to wait for the arrival of Mengele. In rotation with other physicians, he was sending the multitudes to their immediate death, and selecting the few fit enough for slave labour. He was also using his long shifts on the ramp to pluck out twins, as well as hunchbacks, hermaphrodites, giants, dwarves, obese men and corpulent women – in general, anyone suffering from a growth disorder.
On the night the Ovitzs arrived, Mengele was asleep in his room at the nearby SS headquarters. All the troopers on duty at the ramp, however, knew well of his passion, of his collector's mentality. To gain favour with the freak-hunter, they were always on the lookout for new specimens to enrich his "human circus". While a lone dwarf did not provide reason enough to knock on Mengele's door in the middle of the night, seven dwarves, along with their tall siblings, seemed good cause for disturbance.
While the SS were brutal towards the newly arrived, they were cheerful with the dwarves. Realising this, two families from the Ovitzs' village approached and told the officer they were related. The Ovitzs kept silent and did not prove them wrong. Now they were 22. Mengele hurried out to see his new acquisitions. He was delighted: "I now have work for 20 years," he exclaimed.
A black army truck took them to a building at the edge of the camp. They were pushed in, stripped naked and smelled the fumes. The event indelibly etched the imminence of death not only on Perla's memory; three other members of the group, whom we interviewed, as well as Elizabeth, Perla's sister, who wrote her memoir, all attested that they were beginning to be gassed and would have died if Mengele had not suddenly reappeared.
Though we had five first-hand eyewitness accounts, we wanted to verify the story. The only way to do so was to study the procedures and manuals of operating a gas chamber. These were designed to kill between 500 and 2,000 people at once, depending on the size of the hall. Cyclone B was effective only at a room temperature of 27C, which was achieved by cramping a mass of people together. Gas chambers were simply not operated for merely 22 people; small groups were shot.
Furthermore, according to the camp's rigid safety orders, SS personnel had to wear gas masks when operating Cyclone B. Although the victims died within 15 minutes, the SS men routinely waited half an hour before turning on the powerful fans that dispersed the gas from the chamber. Only then were the doors opened. The operators themselves did not enter; instead, Jewish inmates from the Sonderkommando were sent in to drag out the bodies for cremation. Once the extermination process had begun, it could not be halted, because by then it would have been impossible to open the doors.
What actually happened was that the Ovitzs and their neighbours were taken to the camp sauna for disinfection, where the water poured over heated stones produced much steam and fumes, as well as temperatures intense enough to cause someone to faint. The sauna had a particularly traumatic effect on both small children and fragile dwarves that might easily have created the impression of being gassed.
And what about the appearance of Mengele at the door? They regarded him as their saviour, and there were several later incidents in the camp when he indeed rescued them from imminent death at the hand of one of his rival doctors. So, for the Ovitzs, every narrow escape that they had in the camp was thanks to him.
Mengele had several hundred twins at his disposal, and he carried out notoriously cruel experiments on them that led to countless deaths. But he had only one family of dwarves, so he was careful not to put his precious guinea pigs at risk. He gave them special living quarters and their food portions were larger. Their hair was not shorn, because he needed it for his experiments. They were allowed to wear their own clothes, because prisoners' uniforms did not fit their bodies. Former inmates told us that they thought they were hallucinating when they saw a colonnade of seven dwarves dressed warmly and elegantly, as if for a Shabbat stroll.
In the research on twins, Mengele was the field worker for his mentor, Professor Otmar von Verschuer, in Berlin. But he was looking for a research niche of his own and he found it in dwarfism. Mengele was aiming not only to discover the biological and pathological causes of the birth of dwarves, but to demonstrate the racial theory that in the course of its long history, the Jewish race had degenerated into a people of dwarves and cripples.
Members of the Ovitz group described to us in detail the painful blood-taking that they underwent. Often they fainted and water was poured over them to revive them, only for siphoning their blood to resume. Medical science of the time was obsessed with blood and its constituents, and it was generally believed that plasma contained all genetic traits. But only the medical records, all bearing Mengele's flamboyant signature, clarified what he was looking for: signs of kidney problems, liver function, typhus and syphilis.
Written accounts of inmate doctors shed further light on the endless anthropological measurements and comparisons between the Ovitzs and their neighbours, whom Mengele mistook for family. The doctors extracted bone marrow, pulled out healthy teeth, plucked hair and eyelashes, and carried out psychological and gynaecological tests on them all.
The four married female dwarves were subjected to close gynaecological scrutiny. The teenage girls in the group were terrified by the next phase in the experiment: that Mengele would couple them with the dwarf men and turn their wombs into laboratories, to see what offspring would result. Mengele was known to have done it to other experimental subjects.
Inmates in Auschwitz-Birkenau tried to improve their lot with whatever talents they had. A barber would hope to shave a kapo (prisoner supervisor) for a piece of bread or two cigarettes; a seamstress might mend the block elder's clothing; a painter would get a piece of sausage for making portraits for the SS guards; and one champion chess player was kept alive to play with Mengele.
Professor Israel Gutman, an Auschwitz survivor and prominent historian, recalls that "feasts and saturnalias were celebrated at kapos' and block elders' quarters. The artistic programme consisted of obscenities and dirty jokes. Sometimes a prisoner with a sweet voice would sing prewar hits in various languages. The kapos especially favoured melancholy tunes. The famous stars were very popular among the kapos and enjoyed a special income, thanks to their art."
However, Perla Ovitz insisted that she and her family never took part in the "nightlife" of the death camp: they never performed in these drunken revelries, never sang in public nor entertained parties of kapos and SS men. She did remember one event. Sunday 30 July 1944 was the fast of Tishah Be'av, commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Being familiar with the Jewish calendar, Mengele perversely ordered the leader of the women's orchestra to prepare a special concert to desecrate the holy day. Perla remembered that the programme consisted of romantic, melancholy German songs that moved her and her sisters to tears as they watched the performance from their tiny stools in the audience.
Yet in her autobiography, Playing For Time, singer Fania Fénelon remembers it entirely differently: "We start with a foxtrot, Mengele waving his hand, the dwarves filling the stage, some couples dancing, other participants only managing a kind of grotesque, depressing twist. The men bow with a touch of servility; the women follow. Their jewellery, silk, ornaments glitter in the sun, igniting thousands of sparkles, dancing, swinging, intermingling. These creatures emit joyful sounds, trying to sing along with Clara, Lotte and me. They have high shrieking voices. The orchestra plays a march and they accompany with clapping and stamping."
Against the bleak backdrop of the death camp, the concert was so vivid that it became deeply etched in the memory of the survivors whom we interviewed. Isaac Taub was part of a group of twin boys enlisted to carry chairs and benches and arrange them in rows. The teenagers were allowed to stand at the back during the performance and Taub clearly remembered the Ovitzs on stage. "We all knew that the dwarves were performing for the Nazis."
Yet Perla denied that they ever took part. As pious, God-fearing Jews, the Ovitzs deemed performance in Auschwitz to be an abomination, like singing and dancing in a graveyard. Nor would performance under coercion have lessened their shame – not with a painful awareness that while they were entertaining Nazis, the chimneys never stopped smoking. No wonder they strove to erase their experience from their history, and their minds.
Death was the master of Auschwitz and its toll was piled outside for all to see, like so much garbage waiting to be collected. A space suddenly empty in a bunk did not shake heaven and Earth. Those who survived the night walked about as if wrapped in an invisible shell, praying to live one more day. But the Lilliput Troupe drew the inmates beyond their shells, to care about them and their whereabouts. Subsequently, many survivors referred to the fate of the dwarves in their own memoirs.
In her autobiography, Auschwitz: True Tales From A Grotesque Land, Sarah Nomberg-Przytyk describes in appalling detail the horrible death of two members of the Ovitz group, one of them an 18-month-old baby boy who died as a result of one of Mengele's experiments: "Around him, like pillars of stone, stood a large woman, along with the child's mother, slim and frail; the three midgets sat in miniature chairs." In the evening, the dead toddler was placed outside the block with the other corpses to be taken to the crematorium. Nomberg-Przytyk also recounts the death of Avram Ovitz, the leader of the group: "The old midget wanted his wife" and tried to slip through the barbed wire; a guard spotted him and, when Avram got close enough, shot him. "He never made it to his wife."
But the little boy and his uncle Avram were not killed, and lived to see liberation day. What, then, caused Nomberg-Przytyk to make such grave mistakes? Most likely she was compressing a number of events, and attributed to the dwarves two common occurrences in the daily life of the camp: the death of a child in his mother's arms and the shooting of an inmate who approached the electrified fence.
And there were others, such as Renee Firestone, who described the death of the Ovitz dwarves: "The Germans found a community of midgets, transported them to Auschwitz, shot them en masse and then were forced to let them sit in a pile for three days until the crematoria could take them."
One plausible explanation for the discrepancy between fact and remembrance is that the survivors, who regarded their own deliverance as miraculous, found the chances slim that someone as helpless as a dwarf could escape death. The fact that the Ovitzs were transferred several times from one side of the camp to the other caused their fellow inmates to lose touch with them, and in Auschwitz, when you stopped seeing someone, it could mean only one thing.
The seven dwarves, as well as their entourage, all survived the war, and emigrated to Israel in May 1949. Three months later, the Lilliput Troupe was back on stage. In 1955 they made their last bow, but dwarfism did not affect their life expectancy. The first-born, Rozika, reached the age of 98 and her sister Franziska died aged 91. Perla Ovitz died in September 2001.
• Giants: The Seven Dwarfs Of Auschwitz, by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev, is published by the Robson Press at £16.99.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
'I was saved by the grace of the devil," Holocaust survivor Perla Ovitz told us. Again and again, she recounted in detail how she and her family were taken to the gas chamber and ordered to strip naked. A heavy door opened and they were pushed inside. "It was almost dark and we stood in what looked like a large washing room, waiting for something to happen. We looked up to the ceiling to see why the water was not coming. Suddenly we smelled gas. We gasped heavily, some of us fainting on the floor. With our last breath we cried out. Minutes passed, or maybe just seconds, then we heard an angry voice from outside – 'Where is my dwarf family?' The door opened, and we saw Dr Mengele standing there. He ordered us to be carried out and had cold water poured on us to revive us."
The Ovitz family, from the village of Rozavlea in Transylvania, was the largest recorded family of dwarves: a dwarf father who sired 10 children, seven of them dwarves. Perla, born in 1921, was the youngest. In that remote part of Romania in the early 20th century, it was difficult for anyone to eke a living from the land and livestock, and impossible for someone standing less than 3ft tall.
Their mother, anxious for her children's future, guided them towards a common skill, a profession in which they could together make a living and would be neither isolated nor ostracised. As the five sisters and two brothers were all good-looking and musically gifted, the stage seemed the perfect choice: for where else could they be applauded, courted, honoured?
Throughout history, dwarves had been entertainers, often part of a circus or vaudeville show. But the Ovitzs wanted the stage all to themselves. They appropriately named their musical ensemble the Lilliput Troupe, and for 15 years had a flourishing career in central Europe. Their two-hour show consisted of popular hits of the day, skits and music. Perla had a tiny, four-string pink guitar that looked like a toy, her sisters Rozika and Franziska played on quarter-sized violins, Frieda struck on the cimbalom, Micki played both a half-sized cello and accordion, while the energetic Elizabeth took on the drums. Their elder brother Avram was the scriptwriter, actor and general manager.
The Ovitzs lived a communal life in one big house in the village. When any one of them got married, the spouse moved in and joined the enterprise. While the dwarves basked in the limelight, the average-height family members worked behind the curtains as stagehands and wardrobe mistresses. It was the only all-dwarf ensemble with a full show of their own in the history of entertainment.
When the Nazis came to power, the Ovitzs were doubly doomed: under the Aktion T-4 euthanasia programme, the Germans set out to kill people who were physically or mentally disabled, whose lives were considered "unworthy of living", "a burden on society"; and, as Jews, the Ovitzs were the target of the Final Solution.
On 19 May 1944, they were brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp because they were Jews. But, by a twist of fate, their disability played for them. It was rare that one person from an entire family survived the camp, let alone two, but all 12 members of the Ovitz family – the youngest a baby boy just 18 months old, the oldest his 58-year-old dwarf aunt – emerged alive.
Listening to the unimaginable horrors of Holocaust survivors, you shrink, stunned. But historians are reserved about oral testimonies. The witness may get the timeline wrong, forget facts or infuse memories of others into his or her own. Close to the event, the witness often finds it difficult to convey details of the trauma they endured. Crucial events can be forgotten, and trivial ones take centre stage. Consciously or unconsciously, shame and guilt can obliterate vital facts.
We embarked on the trail of the seven dwarves of Auschwitz with the notion that we would subject their story to the same rigorous examination that would be applied to any other historical source. So we not only collected their testimonies, but crosschecked them with those of dozens of other survivors, inmates and doctors, either first-hand or in archives and libraries. We unearthed medical documents in Poland and Germany. Still, we followed the advice of Professor Yehuda Bauer, a Holocaust historian and himself a survivor, that "one must never argue with a survivor".
Descending the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the seven dwarves and their five average-height family members were immediately separated from the others in the transport. They were told to wait for the arrival of Mengele. In rotation with other physicians, he was sending the multitudes to their immediate death, and selecting the few fit enough for slave labour. He was also using his long shifts on the ramp to pluck out twins, as well as hunchbacks, hermaphrodites, giants, dwarves, obese men and corpulent women – in general, anyone suffering from a growth disorder.
On the night the Ovitzs arrived, Mengele was asleep in his room at the nearby SS headquarters. All the troopers on duty at the ramp, however, knew well of his passion, of his collector's mentality. To gain favour with the freak-hunter, they were always on the lookout for new specimens to enrich his "human circus". While a lone dwarf did not provide reason enough to knock on Mengele's door in the middle of the night, seven dwarves, along with their tall siblings, seemed good cause for disturbance.
While the SS were brutal towards the newly arrived, they were cheerful with the dwarves. Realising this, two families from the Ovitzs' village approached and told the officer they were related. The Ovitzs kept silent and did not prove them wrong. Now they were 22. Mengele hurried out to see his new acquisitions. He was delighted: "I now have work for 20 years," he exclaimed.
A black army truck took them to a building at the edge of the camp. They were pushed in, stripped naked and smelled the fumes. The event indelibly etched the imminence of death not only on Perla's memory; three other members of the group, whom we interviewed, as well as Elizabeth, Perla's sister, who wrote her memoir, all attested that they were beginning to be gassed and would have died if Mengele had not suddenly reappeared.
Though we had five first-hand eyewitness accounts, we wanted to verify the story. The only way to do so was to study the procedures and manuals of operating a gas chamber. These were designed to kill between 500 and 2,000 people at once, depending on the size of the hall. Cyclone B was effective only at a room temperature of 27C, which was achieved by cramping a mass of people together. Gas chambers were simply not operated for merely 22 people; small groups were shot.
Furthermore, according to the camp's rigid safety orders, SS personnel had to wear gas masks when operating Cyclone B. Although the victims died within 15 minutes, the SS men routinely waited half an hour before turning on the powerful fans that dispersed the gas from the chamber. Only then were the doors opened. The operators themselves did not enter; instead, Jewish inmates from the Sonderkommando were sent in to drag out the bodies for cremation. Once the extermination process had begun, it could not be halted, because by then it would have been impossible to open the doors.
What actually happened was that the Ovitzs and their neighbours were taken to the camp sauna for disinfection, where the water poured over heated stones produced much steam and fumes, as well as temperatures intense enough to cause someone to faint. The sauna had a particularly traumatic effect on both small children and fragile dwarves that might easily have created the impression of being gassed.
And what about the appearance of Mengele at the door? They regarded him as their saviour, and there were several later incidents in the camp when he indeed rescued them from imminent death at the hand of one of his rival doctors. So, for the Ovitzs, every narrow escape that they had in the camp was thanks to him.
Mengele had several hundred twins at his disposal, and he carried out notoriously cruel experiments on them that led to countless deaths. But he had only one family of dwarves, so he was careful not to put his precious guinea pigs at risk. He gave them special living quarters and their food portions were larger. Their hair was not shorn, because he needed it for his experiments. They were allowed to wear their own clothes, because prisoners' uniforms did not fit their bodies. Former inmates told us that they thought they were hallucinating when they saw a colonnade of seven dwarves dressed warmly and elegantly, as if for a Shabbat stroll.
In the research on twins, Mengele was the field worker for his mentor, Professor Otmar von Verschuer, in Berlin. But he was looking for a research niche of his own and he found it in dwarfism. Mengele was aiming not only to discover the biological and pathological causes of the birth of dwarves, but to demonstrate the racial theory that in the course of its long history, the Jewish race had degenerated into a people of dwarves and cripples.
Members of the Ovitz group described to us in detail the painful blood-taking that they underwent. Often they fainted and water was poured over them to revive them, only for siphoning their blood to resume. Medical science of the time was obsessed with blood and its constituents, and it was generally believed that plasma contained all genetic traits. But only the medical records, all bearing Mengele's flamboyant signature, clarified what he was looking for: signs of kidney problems, liver function, typhus and syphilis.
Written accounts of inmate doctors shed further light on the endless anthropological measurements and comparisons between the Ovitzs and their neighbours, whom Mengele mistook for family. The doctors extracted bone marrow, pulled out healthy teeth, plucked hair and eyelashes, and carried out psychological and gynaecological tests on them all.
The four married female dwarves were subjected to close gynaecological scrutiny. The teenage girls in the group were terrified by the next phase in the experiment: that Mengele would couple them with the dwarf men and turn their wombs into laboratories, to see what offspring would result. Mengele was known to have done it to other experimental subjects.
Inmates in Auschwitz-Birkenau tried to improve their lot with whatever talents they had. A barber would hope to shave a kapo (prisoner supervisor) for a piece of bread or two cigarettes; a seamstress might mend the block elder's clothing; a painter would get a piece of sausage for making portraits for the SS guards; and one champion chess player was kept alive to play with Mengele.
Professor Israel Gutman, an Auschwitz survivor and prominent historian, recalls that "feasts and saturnalias were celebrated at kapos' and block elders' quarters. The artistic programme consisted of obscenities and dirty jokes. Sometimes a prisoner with a sweet voice would sing prewar hits in various languages. The kapos especially favoured melancholy tunes. The famous stars were very popular among the kapos and enjoyed a special income, thanks to their art."
However, Perla Ovitz insisted that she and her family never took part in the "nightlife" of the death camp: they never performed in these drunken revelries, never sang in public nor entertained parties of kapos and SS men. She did remember one event. Sunday 30 July 1944 was the fast of Tishah Be'av, commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Being familiar with the Jewish calendar, Mengele perversely ordered the leader of the women's orchestra to prepare a special concert to desecrate the holy day. Perla remembered that the programme consisted of romantic, melancholy German songs that moved her and her sisters to tears as they watched the performance from their tiny stools in the audience.
Yet in her autobiography, Playing For Time, singer Fania Fénelon remembers it entirely differently: "We start with a foxtrot, Mengele waving his hand, the dwarves filling the stage, some couples dancing, other participants only managing a kind of grotesque, depressing twist. The men bow with a touch of servility; the women follow. Their jewellery, silk, ornaments glitter in the sun, igniting thousands of sparkles, dancing, swinging, intermingling. These creatures emit joyful sounds, trying to sing along with Clara, Lotte and me. They have high shrieking voices. The orchestra plays a march and they accompany with clapping and stamping."
Against the bleak backdrop of the death camp, the concert was so vivid that it became deeply etched in the memory of the survivors whom we interviewed. Isaac Taub was part of a group of twin boys enlisted to carry chairs and benches and arrange them in rows. The teenagers were allowed to stand at the back during the performance and Taub clearly remembered the Ovitzs on stage. "We all knew that the dwarves were performing for the Nazis."
Yet Perla denied that they ever took part. As pious, God-fearing Jews, the Ovitzs deemed performance in Auschwitz to be an abomination, like singing and dancing in a graveyard. Nor would performance under coercion have lessened their shame – not with a painful awareness that while they were entertaining Nazis, the chimneys never stopped smoking. No wonder they strove to erase their experience from their history, and their minds.
Death was the master of Auschwitz and its toll was piled outside for all to see, like so much garbage waiting to be collected. A space suddenly empty in a bunk did not shake heaven and Earth. Those who survived the night walked about as if wrapped in an invisible shell, praying to live one more day. But the Lilliput Troupe drew the inmates beyond their shells, to care about them and their whereabouts. Subsequently, many survivors referred to the fate of the dwarves in their own memoirs.
In her autobiography, Auschwitz: True Tales From A Grotesque Land, Sarah Nomberg-Przytyk describes in appalling detail the horrible death of two members of the Ovitz group, one of them an 18-month-old baby boy who died as a result of one of Mengele's experiments: "Around him, like pillars of stone, stood a large woman, along with the child's mother, slim and frail; the three midgets sat in miniature chairs." In the evening, the dead toddler was placed outside the block with the other corpses to be taken to the crematorium. Nomberg-Przytyk also recounts the death of Avram Ovitz, the leader of the group: "The old midget wanted his wife" and tried to slip through the barbed wire; a guard spotted him and, when Avram got close enough, shot him. "He never made it to his wife."
But the little boy and his uncle Avram were not killed, and lived to see liberation day. What, then, caused Nomberg-Przytyk to make such grave mistakes? Most likely she was compressing a number of events, and attributed to the dwarves two common occurrences in the daily life of the camp: the death of a child in his mother's arms and the shooting of an inmate who approached the electrified fence.
And there were others, such as Renee Firestone, who described the death of the Ovitz dwarves: "The Germans found a community of midgets, transported them to Auschwitz, shot them en masse and then were forced to let them sit in a pile for three days until the crematoria could take them."
One plausible explanation for the discrepancy between fact and remembrance is that the survivors, who regarded their own deliverance as miraculous, found the chances slim that someone as helpless as a dwarf could escape death. The fact that the Ovitzs were transferred several times from one side of the camp to the other caused their fellow inmates to lose touch with them, and in Auschwitz, when you stopped seeing someone, it could mean only one thing.
The seven dwarves, as well as their entourage, all survived the war, and emigrated to Israel in May 1949. Three months later, the Lilliput Troupe was back on stage. In 1955 they made their last bow, but dwarfism did not affect their life expectancy. The first-born, Rozika, reached the age of 98 and her sister Franziska died aged 91. Perla Ovitz died in September 2001.
• Giants: The Seven Dwarfs Of Auschwitz, by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev, is published by the Robson Press at £16.99.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. |
Not even close: Pentagon requests $49 million to build new Gitmo prison
The proposed facility is an apparent replacement for Camp 7,which was constructed to hold 14 “high-value” detainees – includingthe self-described 9/11 attack architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed –who had been in CIA custody, but were handed over to the militaryin 2006.
Follow RT's in-depth day-by-day timeline on Gitmohunger strike.
The proposed prison comes on top of funds previously requestedto upgrade the camp’s facilities, including a new dining hall,barracks for prison guards, a hospital, a “legal meetingcomplex” and a “communications network facility” tostore data, the New York Times reports.
Many of the facilities were in a state of disrepair as they werenever intended to be used on a permanent basis, a Southcomspokesman told the Huffington Post.
"Most of the buildings and infrastructure were built for ashort-term mission," said Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders. "We gotdown there in 2002, but never in a million years would we stillhave this in 2013 with no end in sight."
The additional request will balloon the overall cost to $195.7million, significantly higher than the estimated $150-170 millionthat Southcom commander General John Kelly gave while providingcongressional testimony on Wednesday, NYT reports.
The special detention facility was also not included among the listof proposed constructions released by Southcom on Wednesday.
All of the projects have already been approved by Kelly, thoughthey are pending approval by the Pentagon, which is headed the newSecretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.
With an operational budget of $177 million for 2013, Guantanamo isthe United States most expensive prison, with US taxpayers alreadypaying more than $1 million dollars for each of the camp’s 166detainees per annum.
The proposed upgrades come in the midst of a hunger strike amongGuantanamo detainees which has now entered its 45th day.
On Wednesday, Kelly told a congressional committee that twodozen Guantanamo prisoners were on
"hunger strike light" following allegations the Koran hadbeen mishandled, claims which the general dismissed as
“nonsense.” “They had great optimism that Guantanamowould be closed. They were devastated apparently ... when thepresident backed off, at least [that's] their perception, ofclosing the facility," John Kelly told the House Armed ServicesCommittee in Washington.
The officially-acknowledged number of Gitmo detainees on hungerstrike reached 26 people on Friday, with eight receiving enteralfeeds, Guantanamo Bay spokesman Capt. Robert Durand told RT.
Former Guantanamo prison official Ret. Col. Morris Davis told RTthat many of the hunger strikers had become disillusioned withObama’s promise of hope and change.
“But here you have a majority of the men at Guantanamo -- 86of the 106 who have been cleared for transfer -- who have been inconfinement now for more than a decade in some cases. So to them,with the hunger strike, they’re kind of out of sight out of mindand the only way to potentially call attention to it is to dosomething drastic like a hunger strike. So the numbers - DoD hassaid the numbers have gone from seven to 14 to 21, to I believe 25is the last official number. But if you talk to some of theattorneys that have been down there, they say that’s a low-ballfigure, that it’s probably three or four times that.” PresidentBarack Obama’s first act as president was to sign an executiveorder to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay,Cuba.
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo,and I will follow through on that,” Obama told CBS’ Steve Kroftin November 2008.
Follow RT's in-depth day-by-day timeline on Gitmohunger strike.
The proposed prison comes on top of funds previously requestedto upgrade the camp’s facilities, including a new dining hall,barracks for prison guards, a hospital, a “legal meetingcomplex” and a “communications network facility” tostore data, the New York Times reports.
Many of the facilities were in a state of disrepair as they werenever intended to be used on a permanent basis, a Southcomspokesman told the Huffington Post.
"Most of the buildings and infrastructure were built for ashort-term mission," said Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders. "We gotdown there in 2002, but never in a million years would we stillhave this in 2013 with no end in sight."
The additional request will balloon the overall cost to $195.7million, significantly higher than the estimated $150-170 millionthat Southcom commander General John Kelly gave while providingcongressional testimony on Wednesday, NYT reports.
The special detention facility was also not included among the listof proposed constructions released by Southcom on Wednesday.
All of the projects have already been approved by Kelly, thoughthey are pending approval by the Pentagon, which is headed the newSecretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.
With an operational budget of $177 million for 2013, Guantanamo isthe United States most expensive prison, with US taxpayers alreadypaying more than $1 million dollars for each of the camp’s 166detainees per annum.
The proposed upgrades come in the midst of a hunger strike amongGuantanamo detainees which has now entered its 45th day.
On Wednesday, Kelly told a congressional committee that twodozen Guantanamo prisoners were on
"hunger strike light" following allegations the Koran hadbeen mishandled, claims which the general dismissed as
“nonsense.” “They had great optimism that Guantanamowould be closed. They were devastated apparently ... when thepresident backed off, at least [that's] their perception, ofclosing the facility," John Kelly told the House Armed ServicesCommittee in Washington.
The officially-acknowledged number of Gitmo detainees on hungerstrike reached 26 people on Friday, with eight receiving enteralfeeds, Guantanamo Bay spokesman Capt. Robert Durand told RT.
Former Guantanamo prison official Ret. Col. Morris Davis told RTthat many of the hunger strikers had become disillusioned withObama’s promise of hope and change.
“But here you have a majority of the men at Guantanamo -- 86of the 106 who have been cleared for transfer -- who have been inconfinement now for more than a decade in some cases. So to them,with the hunger strike, they’re kind of out of sight out of mindand the only way to potentially call attention to it is to dosomething drastic like a hunger strike. So the numbers - DoD hassaid the numbers have gone from seven to 14 to 21, to I believe 25is the last official number. But if you talk to some of theattorneys that have been down there, they say that’s a low-ballfigure, that it’s probably three or four times that.” PresidentBarack Obama’s first act as president was to sign an executiveorder to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay,Cuba.
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo,and I will follow through on that,” Obama told CBS’ Steve Kroftin November 2008.
UN: More people have access to cellphones than toilets
To improve the situation with basic sanitation for some 2.5billion people around the world the organization is launching aglobal campaign, with awareness being raised as the World Water Dayis marked.
It is 2013, but over one billion people still have no propersanitary conditions. Lack of such development in some areas poses aserious threat to the health of millions of people as no properhygiene results in spread of dangerous diseases, the UN says.
“Let’s face it – this is a problem that people do not like totalk about,” said Jan Eliasson, United Nations DeputySecretary-General. "But it goes to the heart ofensuring good health, a clean environment and fundamental humandignity for billions of people – and achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDG),” he told a press conference onThursday, citing the UN’s official website.
The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced arethe same countries with the highest numbers of child deaths underthe age of five, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, andlarge wealth disparities.
World leaders adopted the MDG back in 2000 and so far, thanks tojoint efforts, the proportion of people without access to improvedsources of water has been halved. Poverty rates have also beenreduced by about 50 percent.
“Yet, with just over 1,000 days remaining before the 2015deadline for achieving the MDGs, we are not even close to reachingthe goal on proper sanitation,” Eliasson admitted in his blogpublished with huffingtonpost.com.
The UN’s call to action aims to improve hygiene, better managehuman waste and water-waste, as well as to completely eliminate thepractice of open defecation by 2025.
Such insanitary practice - common in parts of Brazil, China,India and some other states in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa –is among main causes for diarrhea which annually kills over 750,000of children aged under 5 years old.
In fact, “it is the second largest killer of children underfive in the developing world and this is caused largely by poorsanitation and inadequate hygiene,” said Martin Mogwanja, theDeputy Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Inability to go to the bathroom causes yet another problem:women and girls often become the subject of sexual abuse when theyhave no choice but “take their private needs to the open,”observed Eliasson.
The UN official labeled the entire sanitation problem "a silentdisaster" which is a reflection of the extreme poverty and hugeinequalities in today’s world.
Unfortunately, with the current pace of progress the UNsanitation goal will only be achieved in 2075 - which isunacceptable, Mogwanja told reporters onThursday.
Meanwhile, the global economic gains from investing insanitation and clean water are estimated at $260 billion per year,the UN said as cited by AP. Poor sanitation, on the contrary, harmseconomic growth and costs counties up to 7 percent of theirGDP.
It is 2013, but over one billion people still have no propersanitary conditions. Lack of such development in some areas poses aserious threat to the health of millions of people as no properhygiene results in spread of dangerous diseases, the UN says.
“Let’s face it – this is a problem that people do not like totalk about,” said Jan Eliasson, United Nations DeputySecretary-General. "But it goes to the heart ofensuring good health, a clean environment and fundamental humandignity for billions of people – and achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDG),” he told a press conference onThursday, citing the UN’s official website.
The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced arethe same countries with the highest numbers of child deaths underthe age of five, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, andlarge wealth disparities.
World leaders adopted the MDG back in 2000 and so far, thanks tojoint efforts, the proportion of people without access to improvedsources of water has been halved. Poverty rates have also beenreduced by about 50 percent.
“Yet, with just over 1,000 days remaining before the 2015deadline for achieving the MDGs, we are not even close to reachingthe goal on proper sanitation,” Eliasson admitted in his blogpublished with huffingtonpost.com.
The UN’s call to action aims to improve hygiene, better managehuman waste and water-waste, as well as to completely eliminate thepractice of open defecation by 2025.
Such insanitary practice - common in parts of Brazil, China,India and some other states in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa –is among main causes for diarrhea which annually kills over 750,000of children aged under 5 years old.
In fact, “it is the second largest killer of children underfive in the developing world and this is caused largely by poorsanitation and inadequate hygiene,” said Martin Mogwanja, theDeputy Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Inability to go to the bathroom causes yet another problem:women and girls often become the subject of sexual abuse when theyhave no choice but “take their private needs to the open,”observed Eliasson.
The UN official labeled the entire sanitation problem "a silentdisaster" which is a reflection of the extreme poverty and hugeinequalities in today’s world.
Unfortunately, with the current pace of progress the UNsanitation goal will only be achieved in 2075 - which isunacceptable, Mogwanja told reporters onThursday.
Meanwhile, the global economic gains from investing insanitation and clean water are estimated at $260 billion per year,the UN said as cited by AP. Poor sanitation, on the contrary, harmseconomic growth and costs counties up to 7 percent of theirGDP.
Guccifer releases second trove of Clinton emails
An elusive hacker using the moniker Guccifer was creditedearlier this week with infiltrating the email account of journalistSidney Blumenthal and uncovering a collection of highly sensitive memosallegedly sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nowfor the second time in only a week, the person known only by athree-syllable screen name has provided yet another compilation ofcorrespondence that highlights America’s foreign diplomacy in waysthat are rarely made public this side of WikiLeaks.
The first collection of correspondence, published by RT earlier this week, is believed tocontain classified emails regarding last year’s terrorist attack inBenghazi, Libya and shined a significant light on an event that,although culminating in the death of four Americans, remainsrelatively obscured from major discourse six months later. In theemails obtained by RT on Friday, though, Guccifer relays memosalleged to have been sent from Blumenthal to Sec. Clinton that diveinto matters regarding the January 2013 Algerian hostage crisisthat left three Americans dead, as well as info about the innerworkings of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s office.
Blumenthal, 64, has neither confirmed nor denied theauthenticity of the emails, and his son, journalist Max Blumenthal,told RT that his father would not comment on the leak. AOL,however, has admitted that the former White House aide’s accountwas indeed compromised. As with the correspondence detailing theBenghazi attack, though, the latest intelligence leaked to RT couldprove to be quite substantial if and when their authenticity can beverified. And given Blumenthal’s relationship with Washington’selite — he served as an aid during the administration of thesecretary’s husband, former-US President Bill Clinton — thelikelihood that the emails prove to be legitimate is not all thatunlikely.
The four emails received by RT on Friday are all believed to besent from Blumenthal to Clinton from his since-compromised AOLaccount and include correspondence dated December 8, 2012, January18, 2013 and March 3, 2013. A fourth email, undated, discusses theJune 2012 election of Egypt’s Pres. Morsi and is annotated asoriginating “from an extremely sensitive source” and shouldbe “handled with care.”
Cooperation in Egypt
In the undated email, senior intelligence sources explain howthe newly elected Egyptian leader plans to interact with the WhiteHouse during his administration and details other strategiesconsidered during the first days of Pres. Morsi’s term. Althoughthe Egyptian election went to Morsi, a member of the MuslimBrotherhood, the emails suggest that his office intended to workwith the state’s military, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces(SCAF), which governed the country from former-President HosniMubarak’s departure in Feb 2011 up until Morsi was elected thatJune. In particular, Morsi’s officials agreed that cooperation withSCAF leaders, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, would beimperative during the early days of the then-infant presidency.
“The SCAF officers reiteratedtheir previous position that Tantawi and the SCAF do not want torule the country, but they will not tolerate any move that limitseither their budget or their position of respect insociety,” the email reads in part. Later on, the sourceclaims that both the Muslim Brotherhood and SCAF leadership agree“that their first order ofbusiness together in the new Egyptian political situation will bedeveloping a coherent police towards Israel,” which would bedone by“maintaining the PeaceTreaty with Israel while limiting joint activity and cooperation onsensitive security matters.” To do as much, the source saysEgypt desired more solid ties with the US and other allied nations.Elsewhere, though, the source says that a relationship with theWest could mean connecting Egypt’s economy more seriously withthose in the West.
Both Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood colleague MohammedBadie “are firmly committed to adual Islamic/Western banking system and good relations with Westernfirms,” another section of the email reads. “[Pres. Morsi] regularly states that the Westhas dealt with Saudi Arabia for many years, and the system heanticipates for Egypt will be far less restrictive than the one putin place by the Saudi rules. Badie also believes the fact thatMorsi was educated in the United States and has many good contactsin that country.”
The fall of Morsi and help fromAmerica
In the second memo, dated Dec. 8, 2012, secret intelligentsources say that Morsi was already confident with his party’simpact on Egypt’s government, even if public opinion was stillsplit. “Morsi added that althoughthe ongoing demonstrations against his declaration of emergencypowers will continue, and, if anything, become more violent, hefirmly believes that at least 60 percent of Egyptian voterscontinue to support his efforts to eliminate the last vestiges ofthe regime of former president Hosni Mubarak,” it reads.
“According to a sensitivesource, Badie and the leadership of the [Muslim Brotherhood]believe they are on the verge of reaching the goal of their 85 yearcampaign to gain control of the Egyptian government,” thememo goes on to state. In a separate email dated March 13 of thisyear, though, Pres. Morsi’s time in office is reflected as one thatcontinues to be marred with not just disapproval but demands forAmerican aid.
As early as three weeks ago, Badie told sources that“while ongoing unrest in thecountry is worrisome,” a Morsi presidency would be likelyfor another year. In order to counter the stagnant level of unrest,the source said Morsi was working to develop policies that wouldallow for a $4.8 billion loan package from the InternationalMonetary Fund, which Badie predicted will lead to the US lendinganother $1 billion.
Algeria’s arrangement withterrorists
But perhaps the most significant of the leaked memos is one fromJanuary 18 of this year, roughly two days after al-Qaeda linkedterrorists operating under the since-slain Mokhtar Belmokhtar tookover 800 people hostage at a gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria.By the time the stand-off ended on January 19, 39 foreign hostageswere killed, including three Americans. But according to“a very sensitive source,”an informal relationship between the Algerian government and knownmilitants was expected to have thwarted such a situation.
The source, speaking privately, claims that Algerian PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika “was surprised and disoriented with theattacks” because his government “reached a highly secret understanding withBelmokhtar” a year earlier. “Under the agreement Belmokhtar concentratedhis operations in Mali, and occasionally, with the encourage of theAlgerian Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, attackMoroccan interests in Western Sahara, where the Algerians haveterritorial claims. The Algerian security officials fear thatJanuary 17 attacks might mark a resumption of the 20 year civil warand resolved to deal with the situation with extremeforce.”
“According to these sources, thefate of the hostages is a secondary consideration in thisdecision.”
From an unknown sender
As with memos obtained by Guccifer and provided to the mediaearlier, the hacker apparently attempts to cover his tracks bycloning the original documents and saving the text in an alternateformat. Once again with these emails, Guccifer appears to havecopied the text of the original memos, and then placed them in atext file — after changing the font to Comic Sans — where the finalimage was saved as a picture file.
Since that breach, Guccifer has published at least eightincredibly sensitive emails, including the trove from earlier thisweek that linked the Algerian hostage crisis to the death of USAmbassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi lastSeptember. In those emails, intelligence sources said that al-Qaedain the Islamic Maghreb funded Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and that withthat money Islamic militants likely afforded both the Benghazi andAlgerian incidents.
But perhaps as an attempt to back-up his alleged hack, Gucciferhas also this time included a series of other documents — namelyscreenshots from within Blumenthal’s inbox and an image of US Gen.Colin Powell and other men posing for a photograph.
The screenshots supplied to RT, included correspondenceinvolving Blumenthal, Sec. Clinton, a former CIA agent and anattorney and journalist. Attempts to have those sources verify theemails have gone unanswered as well.
Guccifer has previously been credited with hacking Gen. Powell’sFacebook and the email account of former President George W. Bush’ssister, in turn leaking a number of oil paintings purported to havebeen done by the president. The Secret Service has since claimed tobe investigatingthe breach.
The first collection of correspondence, published by RT earlier this week, is believed tocontain classified emails regarding last year’s terrorist attack inBenghazi, Libya and shined a significant light on an event that,although culminating in the death of four Americans, remainsrelatively obscured from major discourse six months later. In theemails obtained by RT on Friday, though, Guccifer relays memosalleged to have been sent from Blumenthal to Sec. Clinton that diveinto matters regarding the January 2013 Algerian hostage crisisthat left three Americans dead, as well as info about the innerworkings of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s office.
Blumenthal, 64, has neither confirmed nor denied theauthenticity of the emails, and his son, journalist Max Blumenthal,told RT that his father would not comment on the leak. AOL,however, has admitted that the former White House aide’s accountwas indeed compromised. As with the correspondence detailing theBenghazi attack, though, the latest intelligence leaked to RT couldprove to be quite substantial if and when their authenticity can beverified. And given Blumenthal’s relationship with Washington’selite — he served as an aid during the administration of thesecretary’s husband, former-US President Bill Clinton — thelikelihood that the emails prove to be legitimate is not all thatunlikely.
The four emails received by RT on Friday are all believed to besent from Blumenthal to Clinton from his since-compromised AOLaccount and include correspondence dated December 8, 2012, January18, 2013 and March 3, 2013. A fourth email, undated, discusses theJune 2012 election of Egypt’s Pres. Morsi and is annotated asoriginating “from an extremely sensitive source” and shouldbe “handled with care.”
Cooperation in Egypt
In the undated email, senior intelligence sources explain howthe newly elected Egyptian leader plans to interact with the WhiteHouse during his administration and details other strategiesconsidered during the first days of Pres. Morsi’s term. Althoughthe Egyptian election went to Morsi, a member of the MuslimBrotherhood, the emails suggest that his office intended to workwith the state’s military, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces(SCAF), which governed the country from former-President HosniMubarak’s departure in Feb 2011 up until Morsi was elected thatJune. In particular, Morsi’s officials agreed that cooperation withSCAF leaders, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, would beimperative during the early days of the then-infant presidency.
“The SCAF officers reiteratedtheir previous position that Tantawi and the SCAF do not want torule the country, but they will not tolerate any move that limitseither their budget or their position of respect insociety,” the email reads in part. Later on, the sourceclaims that both the Muslim Brotherhood and SCAF leadership agree“that their first order ofbusiness together in the new Egyptian political situation will bedeveloping a coherent police towards Israel,” which would bedone by“maintaining the PeaceTreaty with Israel while limiting joint activity and cooperation onsensitive security matters.” To do as much, the source saysEgypt desired more solid ties with the US and other allied nations.Elsewhere, though, the source says that a relationship with theWest could mean connecting Egypt’s economy more seriously withthose in the West.
Both Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood colleague MohammedBadie “are firmly committed to adual Islamic/Western banking system and good relations with Westernfirms,” another section of the email reads. “[Pres. Morsi] regularly states that the Westhas dealt with Saudi Arabia for many years, and the system heanticipates for Egypt will be far less restrictive than the one putin place by the Saudi rules. Badie also believes the fact thatMorsi was educated in the United States and has many good contactsin that country.”
The fall of Morsi and help fromAmerica
In the second memo, dated Dec. 8, 2012, secret intelligentsources say that Morsi was already confident with his party’simpact on Egypt’s government, even if public opinion was stillsplit. “Morsi added that althoughthe ongoing demonstrations against his declaration of emergencypowers will continue, and, if anything, become more violent, hefirmly believes that at least 60 percent of Egyptian voterscontinue to support his efforts to eliminate the last vestiges ofthe regime of former president Hosni Mubarak,” it reads.
“According to a sensitivesource, Badie and the leadership of the [Muslim Brotherhood]believe they are on the verge of reaching the goal of their 85 yearcampaign to gain control of the Egyptian government,” thememo goes on to state. In a separate email dated March 13 of thisyear, though, Pres. Morsi’s time in office is reflected as one thatcontinues to be marred with not just disapproval but demands forAmerican aid.
As early as three weeks ago, Badie told sources that“while ongoing unrest in thecountry is worrisome,” a Morsi presidency would be likelyfor another year. In order to counter the stagnant level of unrest,the source said Morsi was working to develop policies that wouldallow for a $4.8 billion loan package from the InternationalMonetary Fund, which Badie predicted will lead to the US lendinganother $1 billion.
“[Badie] added that [Morsi]interpreted [US Secretary of State John Kerry’s] statementsfollowing his recent visit to Cairo as indications that the USgovernment recognizes that the Morsi regime is working in goodfaith to reach an agreement with the IMF, and that this courseoffers the best chance for stability in Egypt. According to thissource, Morsi recognizes that the US expects him to take steps tostrengthen the economy and build political unity. He wasparticularly pleased to learn that the US will released $190million of the initial $450 million portion of the US pledge. Badieadded that Morsi felt that he and his team had convinced the USdelegation that these funds were needed to allow planned reforms togo forward, and that the various opposition leaders do not offercredible alternative solutions.”
Algeria’s arrangement withterrorists
But perhaps the most significant of the leaked memos is one fromJanuary 18 of this year, roughly two days after al-Qaeda linkedterrorists operating under the since-slain Mokhtar Belmokhtar tookover 800 people hostage at a gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria.By the time the stand-off ended on January 19, 39 foreign hostageswere killed, including three Americans. But according to“a very sensitive source,”an informal relationship between the Algerian government and knownmilitants was expected to have thwarted such a situation.
The source, speaking privately, claims that Algerian PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika “was surprised and disoriented with theattacks” because his government “reached a highly secret understanding withBelmokhtar” a year earlier. “Under the agreement Belmokhtar concentratedhis operations in Mali, and occasionally, with the encourage of theAlgerian Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, attackMoroccan interests in Western Sahara, where the Algerians haveterritorial claims. The Algerian security officials fear thatJanuary 17 attacks might mark a resumption of the 20 year civil warand resolved to deal with the situation with extremeforce.”
“According to these sources, thefate of the hostages is a secondary consideration in thisdecision.”
From an unknown sender
As with memos obtained by Guccifer and provided to the mediaearlier, the hacker apparently attempts to cover his tracks bycloning the original documents and saving the text in an alternateformat. Once again with these emails, Guccifer appears to havecopied the text of the original memos, and then placed them in atext file — after changing the font to Comic Sans — where the finalimage was saved as a picture file.
Since that breach, Guccifer has published at least eightincredibly sensitive emails, including the trove from earlier thisweek that linked the Algerian hostage crisis to the death of USAmbassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi lastSeptember. In those emails, intelligence sources said that al-Qaedain the Islamic Maghreb funded Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and that withthat money Islamic militants likely afforded both the Benghazi andAlgerian incidents.
But perhaps as an attempt to back-up his alleged hack, Gucciferhas also this time included a series of other documents — namelyscreenshots from within Blumenthal’s inbox and an image of US Gen.Colin Powell and other men posing for a photograph.
The screenshots supplied to RT, included correspondenceinvolving Blumenthal, Sec. Clinton, a former CIA agent and anattorney and journalist. Attempts to have those sources verify theemails have gone unanswered as well.
Guccifer has previously been credited with hacking Gen. Powell’sFacebook and the email account of former President George W. Bush’ssister, in turn leaking a number of oil paintings purported to havebeen done by the president. The Secret Service has since claimed tobe investigatingthe breach.
Flying Blind: Sequester forces closure of 149 air traffic control towers
The towers, all of which are run by private contractors, arecurrently operating at small to mid-sized airports. The hardest hitstate will be Florida, which will have to cope with the loss of 14towers, including in Naples and Boca Raton. Following Florida isTexas, which will see 13 towers closed, and California with 11.
The looming shutdowns mean over half of the 251 privately-runtowers in the US will be affected, though this round tentativelyspares government-run towers.
Under constraints posed by the sequester, the FAA had to make$637 million in cuts from its $16 billion budget for the remainderof its fiscal year. The shutdowns will be spread out over afour-week period, with some 750 to 1,100 air traffic controller andsupervisory positions slated to be cut.
Many of the smaller airports facing the cuts handle lightertraffic, where pilots will now be charged with personallycommunicating and coordinating with each other over a shared radiofrequency before landing.
While pilots are often required to land at the country's smallairports without the help of a control tower, critics of thelooming shutdowns mourn the loss of the additional safety layer toprevent both runway taxiing and midair collisions.
After a 19-seat United Express flight landing in Quincy,Illinois collided with another turboprop aircraft in the midst oftakeoff, a Quincy airport official believed that the accident,which resulted in the deaths of all 14 passengers in both planes,could have been prevented by an air traffic control tower, APreported at the time. In the end, the National TransportationSafety Board concluded that the accident was likely due to apilot's error in monitoring the common radio frequency.
The cuts come as part of the sequester that followed a stalematelast year between the rivaling Democrats and Republicans on how tocut $1.5 trillion from the US federal budget, resulting in a seriesof “automatic” budget cuts now set to kick in under broad andarbitrary guidelines.
In addition to tower closures, all 15,000 controllers currentlyemployed by the FAA will face cuts in working time, with a requiredunpaid day off every two weeks, Bloomberg reports. The policy couldwell lead to greater delays at the country’s most congestedairports.
And with overnight shifts potentially up for elimination at anadditional 72 control towers, full-size aircraft operated bycommercial carriers like Delta and Southwest may be forced to landat busier airports like Chicago’s Midway without any towerassistance.
Airports will have the option to independently cover theoperating costs of their towers in order to keep them running,though it seems unlikely that most will have the necessaryresources.
The looming shutdowns mean over half of the 251 privately-runtowers in the US will be affected, though this round tentativelyspares government-run towers.
Under constraints posed by the sequester, the FAA had to make$637 million in cuts from its $16 billion budget for the remainderof its fiscal year. The shutdowns will be spread out over afour-week period, with some 750 to 1,100 air traffic controller andsupervisory positions slated to be cut.
Many of the smaller airports facing the cuts handle lightertraffic, where pilots will now be charged with personallycommunicating and coordinating with each other over a shared radiofrequency before landing.
While pilots are often required to land at the country's smallairports without the help of a control tower, critics of thelooming shutdowns mourn the loss of the additional safety layer toprevent both runway taxiing and midair collisions.
After a 19-seat United Express flight landing in Quincy,Illinois collided with another turboprop aircraft in the midst oftakeoff, a Quincy airport official believed that the accident,which resulted in the deaths of all 14 passengers in both planes,could have been prevented by an air traffic control tower, APreported at the time. In the end, the National TransportationSafety Board concluded that the accident was likely due to apilot's error in monitoring the common radio frequency.
The cuts come as part of the sequester that followed a stalematelast year between the rivaling Democrats and Republicans on how tocut $1.5 trillion from the US federal budget, resulting in a seriesof “automatic” budget cuts now set to kick in under broad andarbitrary guidelines.
In addition to tower closures, all 15,000 controllers currentlyemployed by the FAA will face cuts in working time, with a requiredunpaid day off every two weeks, Bloomberg reports. The policy couldwell lead to greater delays at the country’s most congestedairports.
And with overnight shifts potentially up for elimination at anadditional 72 control towers, full-size aircraft operated bycommercial carriers like Delta and Southwest may be forced to landat busier airports like Chicago’s Midway without any towerassistance.
Airports will have the option to independently cover theoperating costs of their towers in order to keep them running,though it seems unlikely that most will have the necessaryresources.
N. Dakota pushes abortion ban: ‘Life begins at conception’
The resolution was passed on Friday and will appear on nextyear’s ballot.
It will state: “The inalienable right to life of every humanbeing at any stage of development must be recognized anddefended.”
North Dakota has recently passed several anti-abortion bills.Just last week, it adopted a law making abortion illegal once afetal heartbeat, which develops as early as six weeks into apregnancy, is detected.
Another outlaws abortions in case a fetus has a genetic defect, such as Down syndrome, making NorthDakota the only state in the US to prohibit the procedure in suchcircumstances.
A third piece of legislation passed bans all abortions after 20weeks of pregnancy and makes it mandatory for all doctorsperforming abortion to have admitting privileges at a localhospital.
The only law that failed to pass was the ‘personhood’ bill,which wanted to include that life begins at conception in thestate’s constitution, without requiring the public to vote on theissue.
Pro-choice activists criticize the new anti-abortion laws,arguing that they violate the US Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wadedecision, which legalized abortions until the fetus is consideredviable, at around 22-24 weeks into a pregnancy.
However, Republican Senator Margaret Sitte, who introduced the‘personhood’ resolution, pointed out that the main purpose of it isto “be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade,” she told AP.According to Sitte, the inspiration came from the heart and thelanguage from Wikipedia. “There was no grandiose plan,”Sitte told AP.
Pro-life advocates also argue that they want to shut down Fargo– North Dakota’s only abortion clinic.
Previously North Dakota’s anti-abortion caucus was the oneresponsible for introducing bills aimed to limit the procedure, butit has recently disintegrated over disagreements about whatapproach to take, Democrat Tim Mathern told AP. The group was infavor of a more slow approach at trying to put an end to allabortions.
Without the caucus in charge, more extreme pro-life activiststook up the torch and introduced bills written by out-of-stateorganizations or even the internet.
"None of the bills originated in North Dakota. All the billscame from out of state, every single one of them," said stateadvocacy counsel for the New York-based Center for ReproductiveRights Jordan Goldberg.
Republican Kathy Hawken argues that North Dakota’s residentswould prefer lawmakers to concentrate on other more pressingissues, such as taxes and education.
“This is not coming from here, from the people of our state.It's coming from out of state,” she said. “We're clearly notthe brightest bulbs in the bunch if we take a legal medicalprocedure and try and make it illegal.”
North Dakota’s Governor Jack Dalrymple does not approveresolutions, but he does need to sign all the other anti-abortionsbills. So far, with threats of possible expensive lawsuits againstthe new laws, Dalrymple did indicate whether or not he will besupporting the bills.
It will state: “The inalienable right to life of every humanbeing at any stage of development must be recognized anddefended.”
North Dakota has recently passed several anti-abortion bills.Just last week, it adopted a law making abortion illegal once afetal heartbeat, which develops as early as six weeks into apregnancy, is detected.
Another outlaws abortions in case a fetus has a genetic defect, such as Down syndrome, making NorthDakota the only state in the US to prohibit the procedure in suchcircumstances.
A third piece of legislation passed bans all abortions after 20weeks of pregnancy and makes it mandatory for all doctorsperforming abortion to have admitting privileges at a localhospital.
The only law that failed to pass was the ‘personhood’ bill,which wanted to include that life begins at conception in thestate’s constitution, without requiring the public to vote on theissue.
Pro-choice activists criticize the new anti-abortion laws,arguing that they violate the US Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wadedecision, which legalized abortions until the fetus is consideredviable, at around 22-24 weeks into a pregnancy.
However, Republican Senator Margaret Sitte, who introduced the‘personhood’ resolution, pointed out that the main purpose of it isto “be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade,” she told AP.According to Sitte, the inspiration came from the heart and thelanguage from Wikipedia. “There was no grandiose plan,”Sitte told AP.
Pro-life advocates also argue that they want to shut down Fargo– North Dakota’s only abortion clinic.
Previously North Dakota’s anti-abortion caucus was the oneresponsible for introducing bills aimed to limit the procedure, butit has recently disintegrated over disagreements about whatapproach to take, Democrat Tim Mathern told AP. The group was infavor of a more slow approach at trying to put an end to allabortions.
Without the caucus in charge, more extreme pro-life activiststook up the torch and introduced bills written by out-of-stateorganizations or even the internet.
"None of the bills originated in North Dakota. All the billscame from out of state, every single one of them," said stateadvocacy counsel for the New York-based Center for ReproductiveRights Jordan Goldberg.
Republican Kathy Hawken argues that North Dakota’s residentswould prefer lawmakers to concentrate on other more pressingissues, such as taxes and education.
“This is not coming from here, from the people of our state.It's coming from out of state,” she said. “We're clearly notthe brightest bulbs in the bunch if we take a legal medicalprocedure and try and make it illegal.”
North Dakota’s Governor Jack Dalrymple does not approveresolutions, but he does need to sign all the other anti-abortionsbills. So far, with threats of possible expensive lawsuits againstthe new laws, Dalrymple did indicate whether or not he will besupporting the bills.
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