Top Stories
- Protests over French Roma policy - Thousands attend rallies in Paris and other French cities to protest at the government's policy of deporting Roma people.
- Karzai sets up Taliban talks body - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a committee to seek peace talks with the Taliban, his office says.
- Pakistan rocked by fresh claims - A fourth Pakistan cricketer is being investigated by cricket's governing body, claims the News of the World.
- Overnight curfew after NZ quake - Police declare an overnight curfew in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a powerful earthquake causes considerable damage but no fatalities.
- Chile miners advised to exercise - Scientists from the US space agency Nasa advise the trapped Chilean miners to exercise and regulate their day and night sleep patterns.
- Blair pelted with eggs in Dublin - Eggs and shoes are thrown at the former Prime Minister Tony Blair as he attends a book signing in Dublin.
- Tropical storm Earl hits Canada - Tropical Storm Earl reaches Nova Scotia, on the eastern Canadian coast, with tens of thousands of people experiencing power cuts.
BBC News
- Making music from children's old toys - The Modified Toy Orchestra is a band made up of five musicians - and 48 tweaked toy instruments.
- What does the future hold for television? - Rory Cellan-Jones tries out 3D video equipment and looks at the latest ultra thin and bright OLED TVs.
- Data dilema: Privacy or personalisation? - Ian Hardy discovers how top researchers and companies are using today's devices and data to make the world a more interesting place
- Tablet PCs take on the iPad - Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Toshiba's Folio 100 are among rivals unveiled at the Berlin gadget exhibition.
- Phone app to monitor heartbeat - More than three million doctors have downloaded a phone application to monitor heartbeats through a phone.
- Portable video 'is the future' - Toshiba’s UK business manager says its Foilo 100 tablet PC complements trends in media usage.
- Advertising watchdog moves online - The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is extending its remit to cover the online realm.
Vanity Fair
- New Balls, Please - Roger, Rafa, and the Williams sisters might dominate headlines, but the tour has hundreds of worthy competitors. Here are 29 of them that Justin Bishop and Jessica Flint found in the U.S. Open’s players’ lounge.
- My Diary - Craig Brown digs up the botany diary of “Russell Crowe.”
- Unanswerable Prayers - Even in illness, Christopher Hitchens has been a lightning rod for debate, particularly among believers of various stripes.
- Vote for Your Favorite Oval Office Décor - On Tuesday night, when President Obama spoke to the nation about the end of combat operations in Iraq, he did so from a freshly redecorated Oval Office, outfitted with snazzy, handmade striped wallpaper and a new oval rug adorned with quotes from F.D.R., Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, J.F.K., and Martin Luther King Jr. Obama isn’t the first president to give the iconic room—which dates to 1909, when William Taft remodeled the West Wing—a face-lift. Here, we’ve collected images of the office as it’s looked since Jimmy Carter’s presidency—click through and vote for your favorite design.
- The Next Establishment - Which young empire builders are poised to become the next top mogul? Peter Newcomb and Adrienne Gaffney report on the achievements of those who might find their way onto the next New Establishment list.
- The New Establishment: The Vanity Fair 100 - Many of the moguls on V.F.’s annual list of the 100 most influential have rebounded from a disastrous 2009, but the hoodie-and mock-turtleneck-wearing top two never even slowed down.
- Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury - Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion.
BBC Americas
- Tropical storm Earl hits Canada - Tropical Storm Earl reaches Nova Scotia, on the eastern Canadian coast, with tens of thousands of people experiencing power cuts.
- Craigslist ends adult service ads - Online marketplace Craigslist closes its US adult services listing following pressure from attorneys general and advocacy groups.
- US sees 54,000 jobs go in August - The US economy shed another 54,000 jobs in August, the third month in a row that jobs have been lost, official figures show.
- BP blowout preventer 'removed' - BP replaces the blowout preventer that failed to stem the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well and says it has paid $8bn (£5.2bn) in damage costs.
- Plans for solar 'close encounter' - Nasa is aiming to get closer to the Sun than ever before, with plans to plunge a car-sized unmanned spacecraft into the star's outer atmosphere.
- UPS plane crashes near Dubai road - A cargo aircraft belonging to the US courier UPS crashes on a major highway in Dubai, setting some cars on fire.
- Clinton warns on Mid-East talks - The US secretary of state warns the current round of Mid-East peace talks may be "the last chance for a very long time".
- Tennessee mosque fire 'was arson' - A fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a Tennessee Islamic centre was arson, investigators say.
- Thai workers 'trafficked to US' - Six recruiters are accused of luring 400 Thai workers to the US with promises of farm jobs, confiscating their passports and demanding high fees.
- "One more bottle and we go home," Axl tells Dublin - Guns N' Roses have walked off stage at a gig in Dublin after being booed and having bottles thrown at them by the crowd.
The Guardian
- Prescott furious over link to phone-hacking scandal -
Documents held by Metropolitan police suggest News of the World targeted former deputy prime minister
John Prescott tonight demanded the Metropolitan police reopen its investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal as the Observer revealed that Scotland Yard holds News International documents suggesting that he was a target when deputy prime minister.
Two invoices held by the Met mention Prescott by name. They appear to show that News International, owner of the NoW, paid Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the heart of the scandal, for his help on stories relating to the deputy PM. Lord Prescott spoke of his anger that the information, spelled out in a letter from the Yard's legal services directorate, emerged only after he was given a series of personal reassurances by detectives at the highest level that there was "no evidence" his phone may have been hacked.
The invoices are both dated May 2006, at a time when Prescott was the subject of intense media scrutiny following revelations that he had had an affair with his secretary, Tracey Temple. There is also a piece of paper obtained from Mulcaire on which the name "John Prescott" is written. The only other legible word on this document is "Hull".
The name "Prescott" appears on two "self-billing tax invoices" from News International Supply Company Ltd to Mulcaire's company, Nine Consultancy.
The Yard's letter, obtained by the Observer, states: "One appears to be for a single payment of £250 on 7/5/2006 labelled 'Story: other Prescott Assist -txt.' The second, also for £250, on 21/5/2006 contains the words 'Story: Other Prescott Assist -txt urgent'."
The legal services directorate adds: "We do not know what this means or what it is referring to."
In a statement to the Observer, Prescott said he formed the impression that the police were more intent on withholding information relating directly to him. "I have been far from satisfied with the Metropolitan police's procedure in dealing with my requests to uncover the truth about this case," he said.
"It seemed more about providing the least possible amount of information. I only discovered from the Metropolitan police that News International and Mulcaire were targeting me after repeated requests and in the end it came from their legal department, not the investigating officers."
Prescott said the letter showed there was "a compelling argument to reopen the police investigation and fully report on the findings to the public".
He added that he was pressing for full disclosure of all documents – including the invoices – and was prepared to seek their release through a judicial review. "We need far greater transparency to ensure not only that justice is done but that it is seen to be done."
Prescott's intervention follows a week in which the phone-hacking row was reignited by investigations carried out by the New York Times which raised questions about Scotland Yard's enthusiasm for pursuing the inquiry. The row has intensified the pressure on Andy Coulson, David Cameron's director of communications, who was editor of the NoW at the time of the scandal.
With MPs due to return to Westminster tomorrow, Labour leadership contenders Ed Balls and Ed Miliband said the allegations threw the judgment of Cameron into question.
Balls called for the home secretary, Theresa May, to make an immediate statement about the phone-hacking affair to the Commons. He said: "This goes to the integrity of the criminal law, proper investigation and government communication, and there will be questions over David Cameron's judgment if he doesn't see the seriousness of this now.
"We need to know that this is going to be properly investigated. It does go to the heart of the integrity of communications in government. When there are now serious and new allegations and questions over Andy Coulson's integrity, that's something which has to be sorted out quickly and I hope David Cameron will do so. You can't just dismiss this as a piece of politics."
Miliband later said: "Instead of sending out a junior minister to just dismiss the allegations and not even engage with them, we need to hear from David Cameron and senior people in the Conservative party about what Andy Coulson's response is to these clear and detailed allegations. Until that happens, a cloud will hang over Andy Coulson, and indeed the government, because this is the man in charge of the government's media machine. He is not some junior office boy – this is someone at the highest level of government."
Former Labour minister Tom Watson said that because Prescott had to battle so hard to extract the information, the Met could be left open to suspicion. "This new evidence suggests incompetence, a cover-up, or both. We need a judicial inquiry to get to the truth."
Prescott has placed intense pressure on the Met to reveal what material it has on him. Last September, the Met's assistant commissioner, John Yates, assured him there was no evidence to suggest his phone had been hacked. But Naz Saleh, the Met's assistant director of legal services, then admitted, following a further search, that it held information suggesting that Prescott had been a "person of interest to Mr Mulcaire".
The international development minister, Alan Duncan, said: "The Labour party – in a concerted campaign through Ed Miliband, Lord Prescott and Alan Johnson – have piled in to attack Andy Coulson about something that happened years ago in order to try to attack the government."
In a statement released yesterday, the News of the World said: "The New York Times story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper."
A spokeswoman for News International declined to comment on information appearing to show it paid Mulcaire for help relating to stories about Prescott. However, NI sources said it often paid for help during its many investigations and the invoices – if genuine – were no proof of illegality.
The Met said no new evidence had emerged and "consequently the investigation remains closed".
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- Ashtiani to be lashed over photo -
Iranian woman facing death for adultery to be whipped despite Times apologising for using picture of another person
Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for "spreading corruption and indecency" after allowing an unveiled picture of herself to be published in a British newspaper.
The claim, which could not be confirmed, comes from her family and a lawyer representing Mohammadi Ashtiani, based on reports from those who have recently left the prison in Tabriz where she has been held for the last four years.
The latest charges against Mohammadi Ashtiani – if confirmed – would appear to suggest that the Iranian authorities have been stung by the international outcry her case has attracted through the campaign of her family and supporters in the media, and could be read as a warning that it is Sakineh who could suffer from the protests.
What has made the latest charges against her even more extraordinary is the fact that the unveiled photograph in question, published by the Times newspaper on 28 August, was not actually of Sakineh but of another woman, for which the paper has since apologised.
In reality, the woman pictured was Susan Hejrat, an Iranian political activist living in Sweden whose photograph had been published on a website along with an article she had written about Sakineh's case, perhaps causing the confusion. In its apology, published on Friday, the Times said that the photograph had been obtained from Mohammad Mostafaei, one of Sakineh's lawyers, who had claimed that he received the picture from her son, Sajad – which he has denied.
Instead, in an open letter today, Sajad Ghaderzadeh accused the Iranian authorities of using the mistaken picture as "an excuse to increase their harassment of our mother".
He added: "My mother has been called in to see the judge in charge of prison misdemeanours, and he has sentenced our helpless mother to 99 lashes on false charges of spreading corruption and indecency by disseminating this picture of a woman presumed to be her [Sakineh] without hijab."
Speaking to the Observer today, Sajad said: "This news reached us through some prisoners who were released from Tabriz prison recently and have informed my mother's lawyer, Houtan Kian, that she has been given a sentence of 99 lashes for the alleged unveiled photo of her published in western media.
"As far as we know, the sentence of 99 lashes has not been administered yet. Once I got the Times apology for the misidentified photo, I instantly informed the lawyer and we are going to ask for an appeal. My mother has been denied visits for the past two weeks, no one has been allowed to visit her, including her family and even her lawyer. She has also been denied access to a phone and we have been completely cut off from her."
News of the latest punishment came amid reports from the family that they had learned her case has been referred for a judicial review to Branch 9 of Iran's supreme court which has requested police documents relating to her case, some of which appear to have gone missing. The reports have also emerged amid an increasingly bitter war of words between Iran and Sakineh's most high-profile supporter, Carla Bruni, the wife of France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was described as a "prostitute" in one Iranian newspaper unhappy with her intervention.
Mohammadi Ashtiani was first convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the death of her husband and was sentenced by a court to 99 lashes. Later that year she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death, even though she retracted a confession that she claims was made under duress. Iran lifted that sentence last month, but now says that she has been convicted of involvement in her husband's killing.
According to the Iranian courts, her husband, Ebrahim Qaderzadeh, 44, was found dead on his bathroom floor in Meshkinshahr, in north-west Iran. Mohammadi Ashtiani is said by Iranian officials to have confessed to having had an extramarital affair with the killer, Eisa Taheri, and to have said that she had seduced him. The judiciary has also claimed that she confessed to having planned the murder in collaboration with Taheri, claims that are vigorously denied by her family.
Last month she was presented on Iranian state television where she "confessed" to involvement in the murder of her husband in a television interview recorded in Tabriz prison, where she is being held. It was suggested at that time that the 43-year-old had been tortured for two days before the recording of the confession.
Sajad also appealed to Mohammad Mostafaei not to make any more comments either on his mother's case or on his father's death.
Since her case has captured world attention, Iranian officials have claimed she was an accomplice to the murder of her husband, although her government-appointed lawyer, Houtan Kian, has accused the government of inventing charges against her.
Sajad has said the only reason his mother is still alive is because of the international campaign for her release.
Timeline
2006 Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani lashed 99 times for "adultery" in
Iran, charges she denies
November 2008 she is sentenced to death by stoning for the same offense due to process called "judicial wisdom"
July 2010 Protests begin about her fate
July 12th Iran says the stoning sentence is not for adultery but for the murder of her husband
August in a confession on state TV - which many believe to be forced - she confesses to complicity in her husband's murder
September 3rd News emerges she has been sentenced to 99 additional lashes for allowing the dissemination of a picture purportedly of her (although of another woman) not wearing the hijab
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- Cricket rocked by new fixing claims -
Opening batsman claims team-mates involved in fixing 'almost every match', according to News of the World
Pakistan Test opener Yasir Hameed claimed his team-mates were involved in fixing "almost every match", it was reported tonight as fresh allegations threatened to destabilise the cricket world and the Pakistan team.
The batsman also claimed that he had been asked by a bookmaker to help fix a Test for £100,000, but turned down the money. Hameed himself could now face censure from the ICC for failing to follow proper procedures. The anti-corruption code of conduct states that it is an offence if a player "fails to disclose to the ACSU (without undue delay) full details of any approaches ... that would amount to a breach of the anti-corruption code".
The News of the World also said the International Cricket Council (ICC) was investigating a fourth Pakistan player, who has not yet been named, over match-rigging claims.
The newspaper published details of the spot-fixing claims last weekend, with Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir now the subject of police and ICC investigations.
The paper has now followed up with an interview with Hameed, who played in the fourth Test at the Oval.
He does not name any team-mates, but is quoted in the newspaper as saying: "They've been caught. Only the ones that get caught are branded crooks. They were doing it [fixing] in almost every match. God knows what they were up to. Scotland Yard was after them for ages. It makes me angry because I'm playing my best and they are trying to lose."
Tomorrow's edition will also carry reports that investigators recovered between £10,000 and £15,000 of marked bank notes from Butt's hotel room.
The new allegations follow an apology on behalf of the three players from Pakistan Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi earlier today.
Afridi also confirmed that the businessman at the heart of the allegations, Mazhar Majeed, and his brother Azhar, were managing the trio involved.
Speaking in Cardiff, Afridi said: "On behalf of these boys - I know they're not in this series - I want to say sorry to all cricket lovers and all the cricketing nations."
He said Mazhar and Azhar Majeed were representing several Pakistan players, adding: "These guys, they are their manager(s). He [Mazhar] has been travelling with some of the team guys in Australia and the West Indies. I saw him on the tours but didn't know anything about it."
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has charged the trio of players under their anti-corruption code and provisionally banned them from playing in any match.
The three men were released without charge yesterday after being questioned under caution by detectives at Kilburn police station in north-west London. Mr Majeed has also been arrested and released without charge.
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- Observer backs David Miliband -
Of the two leading candidates, the older brother will offer a more credible challenge to the coalition
It is four months since British voters expelled Labour and Gordon Brown from power. Only last week did party members get their ballot papers for the election of a new leader.
In May, the advantages of a long campaign seemed obvious. The end of a 13-year stretch in office demanded a period of reflection. So did the election result, which offered Labour a disorienting mixture of relief and rout; bloody defeat with the weird consolation that total annihilation had been widely forecast.
Gordon Brown's election bid was the biggest failure in that campaign, but not the only one. Nick Clegg's surge vanished. David Cameron's pleas for a clear blue majority were ignored.
Voters did not reward any party with a resounding mandate and yet the Liberal-Conservative coalition that took power has wielded it with impetuous energy verging on arrogance. It aims to change fundamentally the relationship between government and citizens. A sustained assault on public spending is the means to do it. It is not clear that the country gave its consent for this experiment, although it will be profoundly changed by the result.
So it matters who becomes the next leader of the opposition, not just for the health of the Labour party but for the vigour of British democracy. The country would be better and more reliably governed if the coalition were routinely forced to defend its decisions against a credible alternative. It has thus far been spared that rigour.
The Labour leadership candidate who has so far landed the most punches on the government is Ed Balls. He has been aggressive in opposition to government cuts and tenacious in harrying the economic analysis underpinning the coalition budget. But while fierce anti-Tory pugilism heartens loyal Labour voters, it does little to woo the rest.
The same deficiency has marked the campaigns of Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham. Ms Abbott has plugged a traditional left agenda with charming candour, while never seriously dispelling the charge that it is a recipe for perpetual opposition. Mr Burnham has campaigned persuasively on causes that fall under his remit as shadow health secretary. But he has not looked like a potential prime minister.
That leaves, as the serious contenders, the brothers David and Ed Miliband. Both are clever, both are passionate in their allegiance to Labour tradition and articulate on the need for those traditions to be renewed for the current political context. Neither is complacent about the scale of the task. A key difference is in how much of New Labour they would repudiate, the project which was once the party's salvation from an electoral wilderness.
Even then, the differences are often overstated. The leadership campaign has generated caricatures that do neither man justice. Ed Miliband is not a red revanchist; David Miliband is not a slavish Blairite clone.
Nonetheless, Ed Miliband strides more briskly away from Labour's record in office. The financial crisis, he argues, created a pool of resentment and disillusion with rampant capitalism that should be fuel for a social democratic revival. There are arguments about solidarity, mutual obligation and equality that could not be heard when the City was heaping revenue on the Exchequer and banks were stuffing consumers' pockets with cheap loans. But when the coalition cuts start hurting, those arguments will be relevant again. It is time, he says, to "turn the page" on New Labour.
David Miliband has a more cautious critique of the government in which he served longer and at a more senior level than his younger brother. He does not flinch from criticising Labour's unthinking reliance on state power to engineer social change, its tendency to "managerial arrogance" which left ordinary people feeling that the government was not on their side. But he emphasises the need to rebuild a coalition of support from the bottom up and – salvaging the electorally vital kernel of New Labour – a coalition drawn from the broadest possible social spectrum.
David Miliband's most compelling stump performances have been when evangelising for a Labour-inspired alternative to David Cameron's "Big Society"; an authentic, grassroots civic revival instead of a Tory stunt to put volunteers where there used to be public services.
Ed Miliband's promise of a clean break from the Blair-Brown era has much visceral appeal to Labour supporters. But there is strategic purpose in David Miliband's more nuanced message. He wants to win the leadership with as flexible a mandate as possible. The party must manoeuvre adroitly to challenge the Lib-Con coalition and the best line of attack is still unclear. The older Miliband, alone among the candidates, has stayed alert to how promises made in the cosy climate of a party hustings might sound in a general election campaign, when there are not just tribal Labour fans in the audience. Ed Miliband's analysis often sounds bolder; David Miliband's agenda to rebuild the party from its base is discreetly more radical.
If the job on offer was for someone simply to energise Labour supporters, reviving their morale and leading them into a principled charge against the coalition, Ed Miliband might be the best candidate. His advocacy of traditional Labour virtues is more naturally fluent, his rhetoric more ardent. But those skills can be deployed from anywhere on the frontbench.
By contrast, there is a breadth and subtlety to David Miliband's campaign that elevates him above his rivals. He is unquestionably loyal to the Labour tradition, but loyal also to the politics of winning general elections.
The party is uncertain of its chances of recovery because it is uncertain how strong the partnership between Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron will prove to be. Like many a shotgun wedding, it might suddenly unravel in unseemly public rows. But it might also be a lasting union. The coalition leaders hope to build a political empire based on shared liberal values of individual enterprise and personal responsibility. They would like to see Labour consigned to the margins as the party of spendthrift welfarism and state meddling.
The Labour party would be wise to choose a leader who has the intellectual agility and political experience to meet that threat. The combined skills of the Miliband brothers, working in concert, will be essential. For the top job, David Miliband is the better candidate.
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- Six million hit by tax errors -
Around 1.4 million taxpayers owe up to £5,000 after computer system finds PAYE underpayments totalling £2bn
Nearly 6 million people in the UK are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with some facing bills demanding up to £5,000 in extra payments.
Around 1.4 million people will be told they owe an average of £1,400 because of errors in HM Revenue and Customs' calculations of the pay as you earn (PAYE) tax system over the past two years.
The errors were identified by a new computer system that found widespread underpayments by employers through the PAYE system, which total about £2bn.
Employees who moved jobs or accepted company cars or cash benefits from their employer were the most likely to be caught by the new system.
But 4.3 million people are set to receive a rebate because they have paid too much. With a total overpayment of £1.8bn, each could receive an average rebate of £418.
The first 45,000 letters from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.
Around 30,000 letters will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate and 15,000 will inform them that they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to retrieve the money.
With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the cash is recouped.
It is believed that in some cases individuals may have both underpaid and overpaid, and the amounts could cancel one another out.
In some cases, HMRC will consider writing off demands where taxpayers can demonstrate that they provided all the information necessary to calculate their tax correctly.
The problems arise because at the end of each year HMRC checks that the amounts deducted in tax and national insurance by employers using the PAYE system mach up with the information held on their records.
The process of checking contributions was done manually on a case-by-case basis until last June when a new computerised system was introduced, which HMRC says should help reduce mistakes in the future. It aims to reconcile information held on different systems within HM Revenue and Customs.
A HMRC spokesman said: "The vast majority of the 40 million people who pay through PAYE deductions are correctly taxed, but because circumstances change during the year there will always be a minority who have paid either too much or too little."
He said taxpayers could dispute extra tax charges by claiming on a ESC19 form that they had supplied information in good faith and retrospective bills should be dropped.
Anita Monteith, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said some people would not have to make the repayments if HMRC made the error while calculating the tax codes manually.
She said: "HMRC can agree to give up collecting an underpayment if they had the right information to calculate tax deductions and did not use it when they should have done.
"However, it would depend on what has caused the underpayment."
Monteith said anyone who receives a letter should first check that the HMRC's new calculation matches the information on the P60 for that year.
"If you disagree with what they are asking for then call or write to HMRC. However, you might find that the phone lines are jammed next week.
"People cannot refuse to pay the money because it is legally due."
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- Eggs and shoes thrown at Tony Blair -
Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs
Skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.
Four men were arrested and charged with public order offences for their part in the protest this morning outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, which involved anti-war demonstrators and the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Féin, who oppose the Northern Ireland peace process.
A Garda spokesmen said the four men – two in their late teens and two in their mid-30s – were released from custody and will appear before Dublin district court on various dates later this month.
Gardai had earlier dragged a number of demonstrators off the street and during the fracas a male protester in a wheelchair was knocked to the ground.
Protesters shouted "Whose cops? Blair's cops!" as they taunted the gardai while Blair remained inside the bookshop. They also shouted: "Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?"
About 400 people were queuing up around the side of the store in Middle Abbey Street to meet Blair. They were verbally abused by a number of demonstrators who denounced them as "west Brits".
Protester Pixie ni hEicht, from Dublin, criticised both the garda and the hundreds who had turned out for the book signing: "The police are west Brits who are protecting a British terrorist and the people queuing up over there should be ashamed of themselves. All these people buying the book are jackeens and traitors."
Activist Kate O'Sullivan, from Cork, attempted to make a citizen's arrest during the signing before Blair's security team dragged her away.
"I went up to him and I said 'Mr Blair, I'm here to make a citizen's arrest for the war crimes that you've committed'," said O'Sullivan, 24, a member of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Movement.
Richard Boyd-Barrett, of the Anti-War Movement, accused the former prime minister of making blood money from the Iraq war.
He said: "It really is shameful that somebody can be responsible for the death and destruction that he was responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan and walk away without any accounting for that and become a very wealthy man off the back of it."
Following the skirmishes, the city tram service was suspended and shops in the surrounding area were also closed.
Buyers at the signing had to hand over bags and mobile phones before entering the store. Undercover detectives mingled with the crowds taking names before Blair arrived at about 10.30am.
A huge security operation was put in place around Dublin's main thoroughfare in preparation for the Blair visit. The northbound end of O'Connell Street was closed to traffic from early this morning while the city's main northside tram link, the Luas line, was closed down.
Plain-clothes detectives were also deployed around O'Connell Street as part of the security operation.
After the signing, Blair was whisked from a side entrance of the store at about 12.40pm.
In his memoirs, A Journey, Blair defends his decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. The book, which was released earlier this week, has become one of the fastest selling autobiographies on record. His decision to donate the £5m proceeds from the book to the British Legion has been dismissed as a cynical gesture to curry favour by critics.
Before the signing he had already enraged the anti-war movement in Ireland with comments on the Irish TV programme The Late Late Show last night.
During his interview on RTE, Blair warned that Iran was now one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam. It must be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon, even if that meant taking military action, he said.
Blair defended the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite Saddam Hussein not possessing weapons of mass destruction.
He tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war because he could not take decisions "based on those that shout most".
Blair, who was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios, also denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a war criminal.
It is believed he chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs' publication because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland.
He said: "When we finally got the whole lot together, literally weeks before I left office in 2007, and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley, and it was such a strange and extraordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually."
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- Curfew in quake-hit Christchurch -
City's 400,000 residents told to stay indoors overnight to avoid danger of aftershocks after 7.1-magnitude quake
New Zealand police have imposed an overnight curfew in Christchurch following the powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck the country's South Island last night.
Police said the curfew was intended to protect the city's 400,000 people from falling debris, as the quake caused widespread damage to buildings, although there were few injuries reported.
City mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after the quake struck the east coast of the island region at 4.35am, warning that continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings.
"We're all feeling scared, we've just had some significant aftershocks," he told TV One News. "Tonight we're just people in the face of a massive natural disaster, trying to help each other ... and we're grateful we haven't lost a life."
There were reports of some people trapped inside damaged buildings, although none appeared to be seriously injured.
Police Inspector Alf Stewart told New Zealand's National Radio that some people had been arrested for looting. "We have some reports of people smashing [shop] windows and trying to grab some property that is not theirs … we've got police on the streets and we're dealing with that," he said.
Up to 90 extra police officers are flying to Christchurch to help, and troops are likely to join the recovery effort on Monday.
The prime minister, John Key, who flew to Christchurch to inspect the damage, said it was "an absolute miracle" that no one died in the quake which blocked roads with debris, cut off power across the region and disrupted gas and water supplies.
Key said initial assessments suggested it could cost at least 2bn New Zealand dollars (£0.93bn) to repair the damage caused by the quake. Civil defence minister John Carter added there was "a lot of damage" to the region's key infrastructure.
Christchurch Hospital said it had treated two men with serious injuries and a number of people with minor injuries.
One man was hit by a falling chimney and was in a serious condition, while a second was badly cut by glass, a spokeswoman said.
Mark O'Connell said his house was full of smashed glass, with food tossed from shelves and sets of drawers, TVs and computers tipped over.
"We were thrown from wall to wall as we tried to escape down the stairs to get to safety," he said.
State geological agency GNS Science said the epicentre of the quake was 19 miles (30km) west of Christchurch. It reported 29 aftershocks in the 14 hours following the quake, ranging in strength from magnitude 3.7 to 5.4.
Sheep farmer Paul Cowie, from the town of Darfield near the quake's epicentre, said his family was knocked to the floor.
"We couldn't stand up, but we had to run across the house to get to the kids ... and they were shaken up," he said. The family fled the house and huddled in a car parked in an open field.
Emergency shelters have been set up at schools in suburban areas to house those forced out of their homes, a civil defence spokesman said.
People in Christchurch's eastern suburbs were told to be ready to evacuate after electricity, gas, sewage and water systems were cut by the quake.
Residents have been asked not to flush toilets because of potential damage to the city's sewerage system which could lead to contamination. Christchurch airport was also closed as a precaution while runways were safety checked.
Despite tsunami fears by residents, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said "no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical earthquake and tsunami data".
New Zealand lies above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates collide and the country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year – but only about 150 are usually felt. Schoolchildren in the country regularly undertake earthquake drills.
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- Coulson 'lied about phone hacking' -
• Pressure mounts as No 10 spin doctor's ex-colleague speaks
• Tessa Jowell says phone was hacked 28 times
• Prominent figures to sue Met for lack of warningAndy Coulson, the No 10 communications chief, found himself in the direct line of fire in the News of the World phone hacking scandal tonight when a former colleague alleged that he issued direct orders to journalists to carry out the illegal practice.
As the former cabinet minister Tessa Jowell revealed that her phone had been targeted on 28 occasions, Coulson stood accused of presiding over a "culture of dark arts" which encouraged phone hacking.
The hacking scandal blew up again this week after the New York Times published a lengthy article including the claim that Coulson freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques during his time as editor of the tabloid. Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World after its royal reporter and a private investigator were jailed. He denies any knowledge of phone hacking.
Downing Street and Scotland Yard, which is facing criticism for failing to investigate the allegations properly, were facing pressure last night as:
• Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary, told the Independent that her phone had been hacked into on 28 occasions.
• Lord Prescott, who is joining forces with three other public figures to sue police over a failure to warn them they had been targeted by the private investigator at the heart of the scandal, said he has evidence that Glenn Mulcaire targeted him on behalf of News International.
• Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, is to invoke his rights as a former cabinet minister to review official papers relating to the case from his time in office.
• Brian Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner with the Met who is seeking a judicial review of the alleged failure of his former force to tell him his name had been found on a list of public figures whose phones may have been targeted, called for Coulson to be interviewed by police.
The figures spoke out as a former News of the World journalist quoted by the New York Times repeated his claim tonight that he had been ordered by the former editor to hack phones. Sean Hoare told BBC Radio 4's PM: "There is an expression called the culture of dark arts. You were given a remit: just get the story. Phone tapping hadn't just existed on the News of the World … I have gone on the record in the New York Times and said I have stood by Andy and been requested to tap phones, OK, or hack into them. He was well aware the practice existed. To deny it is simply a lie."
The government last night commented on Hoare's admission that he was sacked from the title at a time when he was struggling with problems with drugs and alcohol. Alan Duncan, the international development minister, told Radio 4's Any Questions: "What they are seizing on today are the words of someone who had an alcohol and drug problem who was sacked by the paper."
No 10 is standing by Coulson. Sources close to him said that Hoare had contradicted himself in the interview.
But Labour piled pressure on the government and Scotland Yard in the wake of the New York Times investigation. Alan Johnson is to review government papers from his time in office in the wake of quotes in the New York Times article from unnamed detectives alleging that their investigation had been cut short because of Scotland Yard's close relationship with the News of the World.
Johnson said that he considered summoning the police inspectorate because he felt "uncomfortable" with the investigation's progress. He decided against this after "reassuring conversations" with senior officers at Scotland Yard.
The government, which has been rattled by the renewed focus on Coulson, last night blamed Labour for stoking the saga. Alan Duncan said: "The Labour party, in a concerted campaign through Lord Prescott and Alan Johnson, has piled in to attack Andy Coulson about something that happened years ago in order to try to attack the government. This was looked at by News International lawyers, by a parliamentary select committee, by the police and the CPS. All of them concluded there was no case to answer."
Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, said: "These are very serious allegations. If I was prime minister and Andy Coulson was working for me I would demand to know from Andy Coulson the truth. I don't see how he can stay working in Downing Street unless he clears this up and says whether his former colleagues are telling the truth or not."
The News of the World said: "The New York Times story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper. We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World."
A Met police spokesperson responded to Johnson's statement:. "In July 2009, the [Met Police Service] examined whether any new evidence had emerged in the media or elsewhere that justified reopening the investigation. The clear view, subsequently endorsed by the director of public prosecutions with leading counsels' advice, was that there was no new evidence and consequently the investigation remains closed."
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- Gove dealt blow over 'free schools' -
Exclusive: Education secretary had claimed that more than 700 'free schools' could be established due to high demand
Michael Gove, the education secretary, will next week be forced to announce a dramatic scaling back of the Tories' landmark plans to create a new generation of schools run by parents and voluntary groups.
Labour tonight accused the education secretary of presiding over a "chaotic shambles" after it emerged that as few as 20 free schools are on track to open in September 2011. In June Gove hinted that 700 could be established.
Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, said: "This is another embarrassment for the education secretary's flawed, unfair and unpopular school reforms. Michael Gove took over a successful department which has helped to deliver record improvements in school standards over more than a decade, but in just a few months he has managed to turn it into a chaotic shambles."
Gove said in June that he had been inundated with expressions of interest from establish a new tier of free schools. "More than 700 expressions of interest in opening new free schools have been received by the charitable group the New Schools Network," he told MPs.
The announcement next week will echo Gove's claim in the summer that more than 1,000 schools had applied to become academies. In the end just 32 are opening this term.
The reduced number was a blow to Gove, who rushed through legislation to allow existing schools to obtain academy status by the start of the academic year. The free schools are due to start opening in a year's time.
One senior Tory said: "Michael clearly massively underestimated the challenge he had decided to undertake."
Cameron regards schools reform as one of the key elements in his plans to create a "big society" in which power is devolved to the grassroots.
Gove is relaxed on the grounds that it normally takes between three to five years to establish a new school. While relatively few free schools will open next year, many more are in the pipeline and will open in due course.
A source close to Gove said: "Under the last government only a couple of parent-promoted schools were created over 13 years. Now, within just four months … there are teachers, parents and community groups who have prepared high quality proposals for free schools starting as early as 2011. There are a significant number of proposals in the pipeline and an announcement will shortly be made about those at the front of the queue who are planning to open next year."
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- Doctors call for David Kelly inquest -
Group to seek full inquest into 2003 death of scientist who cast doubt on government's claims over Iraq weapons
A group of doctors is making a fresh bid to force an inquest into the death of the weapons inspector David Kelly.
Legal papers are expected to be submitted to the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, by the end of next week, requesting his authorisation for the five doctors to go to the high court to seek a full inquest into the 2003 death of the scientist.
If Grieve refuses to grant the authorisation, his decision could be subject to a high court appeal.
The doctors have conducted a long-running campaign to overturn the decision of the then lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, to suspend an inquest before the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances of Kelly's death. The inquest was not resumed after Hutton's report in 2004 concluded that Kelly killed himself by cutting an artery in his wrist.
His body was found in woods near his Oxfordshire home shortly after it was revealed he had been the source of a BBC report casting doubt on the government's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that could be fired within 45 minutes.
The latest move was prompted by an interview given last month by pathologist Nicholas Hunt, who carried out an autopsy on Kelly's body.
Hunt told the Sunday Times that he regarded the case as a "textbook" suicide and disclosed details from his postmortem report, which the Hutton inquiry ordered should be kept secret for 70 years.
He found "big clots" of blood on the inside of Kelly's jacket, contrary to reports that there had been little blood at the scene. There were about a dozen cuts on his left wrist, including shallower cuts made before the main incisions.
Kelly's heart disease was so advanced that he could have died at any moment, according to the report.
Barrister Michael Powers QC, who is acting for the group of doctors, said Hunt's comments gave weight to their argument that Hutton's inquiry did not represent a sufficient examination of the cause of Kelly's death.
Powers said: "The media has now presented evidence which we have never had before. The fact that he felt it necessary to go to the press and say these things proves to us that the inquiry was insufficient."
The doctors are awaiting a decision from the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, as to whether the ruling should be overturned to allow them to see the report.
They insist an inquest is needed to clear up any doubt over whether he was the victim of foul play.
Grieve has called for papers relating to Kelly's death and is considering whether he should himself order an inquest.
But Powers said: "We can't wait indefinitely for the government to make a decision. Hence the decision to lay formal papers."
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The New Yorker
- Art After the Quake - In this week’s magazine, Amy Wilentz writes about the upcoming Presidential election in Haiti, where a million people are still homeless or semi-homeless after the January 12th earthquake. The disaster brought destruction but also inspiration: here are some works of art made by Haitian artists since the quake.
- Steve Coll: The best way to help Pakistan. - Last spring, according to a Pew Research Center poll, eighty-four per cent of Pakistanis were dissatisfied with the way things were going in their country. Inflation, terrorist bombings, and American drone strikes were among the causes of their discontent. Three-quarters disapproved of the job being done by the . . .
- Sasha Frere-Jones: The delicate art of revivals. - Let’s say you hear James Brown records as a teen-ager, as Gabriel Roth, the leader of the band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, did. You may decide that there is no better template for making an entire band play in rhythmic unison, creating motion and a . . .
- Robert Wrigley: “I Like the Wind.” - We are at or near that approximate line where a stiff breeze becomes or lapses from a considerable wind, and I like it here, the chimney smokes right-angled from west to east but still for brief intact stretches the plush animal tails of their fires. I like how the . . .
- Peter J. Boyer: Francis Collins, the geneticist at the center of the renewed stem-cell debate. - When the geneticist Francis Collins was named director of the National Institutes of Health, last summer, he became the public face of American science and the keeper of the world’s deepest biomedical-research-funding purse. He was praised by President Obama and waved through the Senate confirmation process . . .
- Paul Rudnick: It's Time. - Are you sick and tired of the search for bogus eternal romance and some imaginary ideal “soul mate”? Are you interested in finding that special someone who’s just sort of O.K. in a dim light? Are you one of the millions of American singles who’ . . .
- Nell Freudenberger: “An Arranged Marriage.” - Theirs was the second-to-last house on the road. The road ended in an asphalt circle called a cul-de-sac, and beyond the cul-de-sac was a field of corn. That field had startled Amina when she first arrived—had made her wonder, just for a . . .
- Michael Schulman: Which eggs are safe to eat? - 8220;How would you like your eggs?” This ordinary question turned fraught during the past two weeks, when a salmonella outbreak, originating on two farms in Iowa, caused the recall of more than half a billion eggs. By last Monday, Margaret Hamburg, the F.D.A. commissioner, was making an unusually . . .
- Leo Carey: Má Pêche, in Midtown. - paragraph class="noindent">The name Momofuku—as in David Chang’s epochal East Village restaurant—means “lucky peach” in Japanese. And Má Pêche means not “my peach” in French, as you might suppose, but “mother peach” in Vietnamese . . .
- Jill Lepore: Chronicling the Great Migration. - In May of 1939, Ralph Ellison, who was twenty-six at the time, asked an old man hanging out in Eddie’s Bar, on St. Nicholas Avenue near 147th Street, “Do you like living in New York City?” The man said: Ahm in New York, but New . . .
NPR
- Bald Eagles in Connecticut - At the beginning of every new year in Connecticut volunteers gather along rivers, lakes and reservoirs to count bald eagles. WNPR's Nancy Cohen reports the January 2008 eagle count is already swamped with volunteers.
- "Bodies, Revealed" exhibit - An exhibit called "Bodies, Revealed" opened last weekend at the X-L Center, formerly known as the Hartford Civic Center. WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil reports.
- CT families feel the strain of rising energy costs - More and more families in Connecticut cannot afford to pay their energy bills. WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil reports.
- Lawmakers urged to become more business friendly - Executives in Connecticut are urging lawmakers to ease costs and adopt a more business friendly attitude in 2008. WNPR's Harriet Jones reports.
- California denied waiver from Clean Air Act - The US Environmental Protection Agency has denied California a waiver from the federal Clean Air Act. The denial has implications for Connecticut and other states which want to adopt the California standard in order to reduce global warming pollution. WNPR's Nancy Cohen reports.
- A Green Christmas - For many people the holiday season is a time of consumption. But as WNPRs Nancy Cohen reports a number of groups are recommending ways to celebrate by purchasing less and re-using more.
- State Senator has plan to end homelessness - Connecticut Senate Republican leader John McKinney is promoting a plan he says will end homelessness in the state within 10 years. WNPR's Av Harris reports
- GE PCBs polluting Massachusetts school - The U-S Environmental Protection Agency recently detected high concentrations of PCBS in a small area next to an elementary school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The contaminated soil came from a former General Electric plant which used PCBs in its manufacturing process.
- Restoration projects for Housatonic released - The government group in charge of restoring the Housatonic River has released a short list of projects being considered for funding.
- Lieberman throws support to McCain - Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman has crossed party lines again, this time to back Republican John McCain for President.