Libya's PM says ex-intelligence chief knows who killed PC Yvonne Fletcher

Exclusive: Abdurrahim El-Keib says Abdul Senussi, who has fled Libya, was 'directly or indirectly involved' in 1984 murder

Libya's interim prime minister said on Friday that his country's former intelligence chief was "directly or indirectly involved" in the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher and knew the identity of her killer.

In an interview with the Guardian, Abdurrahim El-Keib said that Abdul Senussi ? who fled Libya last year and escaped to Mauritania ? was the key to solving Fletcher's murder nearly three decades ago. "He's the black box," Keib said.

He added: "I guarantee he was almost directly or indirectly involved in most if not all of the crimes [of the former regime]. That doesn't mean others weren't involved. But he definitely knows who they were."

Senussi is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity in Libya. In addition, France wants to try him in connection with the 1989 bombing of an airline over Niger in which 170 people died. Britain is also interested in talking to him about the Lockerbie bombing, in which Senussi is suspected of involvement.

Keib said he was convinced Senussi could name the person who shot Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. He laid a wreath on Friday at the spot in St James's Square, bowing his head. "This is a crime we have all been affected by," he said. "Yvonne Fletcher was doing her duty as a policewoman, trying to protect both sides."

Libya's leader met David Cameron on Thursday. He told him that several of his friends had been demonstrating that day in 1984 and pledged to work closely with Britain to achieve justice. A team of detectives from the Metropolitan police will now fly to Libya to continue its inquiry into Fletcher's murder. Asked whether her killer was most probably still alive and in Libya, Keib said: "I leave this to the investigation."

He urged Downing Street to help Libya extricate Senussi from Mauritania, where he fled last year. Senussi is Muammar Gaddafi's brother-in-law. He is accused of numerous crimes including a massacre in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison, which left around 1,200 inmates dead.

He appeared this week at a secret court hearing in Mauritania, charged with entering the country illegally, and is currently being held in a villa in the capital, Nouakchott. Keib promised Senussi his day in court: "This person needs to be tried in Libya soon so we can close the books on many of the crimes committed by the past regime."

The Libyan prime minister shrugged off reports that Gaddaffi's son Saif al-Islam had been mistreated in custody, and said that he would be tried in open court according to international standards. Saif's trial would take place in Libya, he said: "I met with him. I made sure he was well-treated." Asked whether Saif was likely to be executed, if found guilty, he said: "Our intention is not to kill people, you know. Our intention is to bring this issue to closure and move forward.'

Keib said he was optimistic about Libya's future. He said elections to create a new national assembly due on 19 June might be postponed by a week or two but would definitely take place over the summer. "The Libyan people did it [the overthrow of Gaddafi] against all odds. We will surprise the world again by going through the election peacefully," he predicted.

But the prime minister conceded that former regime elements, operating from both inside and outside Libya, were actively trying, as he put it, to destabilise the situation. "They are plotting against the Libyan people. They want to take us back to the Dark Ages," he said. Asked why Gaddafi loyalists would want to cause trouble, since their leader was dead, he replied: "They are in a state of denial."

Keib refused to be drawn on what role he might play in any future government. "I would serve Libya even as a garbage collector, if that helps Libya," he said. Libya's interim ruling body, the National Transitional Council will hand over to the new national assembly, whose chief task will be to draw up a constitution.

Since the fall of Tripoli last summer, the NTC has struggled to assert its authority. Human rights abuses have continued, with bloody clashes between rival militias. There is also a growing divide between Libya's regions, with some towns such as Misrata becoming virtual city-states. There are also serious divisions between different ministries in Tripoli.

Keib, however, rejected the claim that Libya was hurtling towards disaster and becoming inexorably Balkanised. He said the new constitution might result in a federal Libya; another option was a system of provinces and municipalities. Secessionism wasn't just a Libyan problem, he said, adding: "There are a group of people in Texas who want to separate."

In addition, Keib said it was wrong to suggest that Gaddafi's overthrow last year was exclusively the result of western-engineered regime change ? as Moscow claims. "It's unfair to say that Nato liberated Libya. It takes away from the energy, lives, determination and tremendous effort that the Libyan people have done," he said.

Speaking earlier at Chatham House, Keib ? a professor of electrical engineering who became interim prime minister last October ? described Britain as a beautiful country. He said he first visited London as a child in 1965, when he went to a summer school to learn English and lived in Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage.

Keib said he was keen that young men and women from Libya studied at British universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. Asked about the London School of Economics, which unwisely accepted £1.5m from Saif al-Islam, he joked: "LSE even better."

Luke Harding

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(25/05/2012)

Downing Street tried to rewrite Jeremy Hunt adviser's resignation letter

Proposed change in letter would have implied Adam Smith had strayed beyond his remit, he tells Leveson inquiry

Number 10 tried to rewrite the resignation statement of Jeremy Hunt's former special adviser using language that would have implied that the 30-year-old official had strayed beyond his remit in communicating with News Corporation about its BSkyB takeover bid.

Adam Smith told the Leveson inquiry on Friday that he objected to a last-minute rewrite to his resignation letter, which had been proposed by the office of cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood. He successfully insisted that it be removed.

The special adviser also revealed that he had initially been told by Hunt, the culture secretary, that "it won't come" to his resignation on 24 April, immediately after it emerged in evidence submitted to the Leveson inquiry that he had been in regular contact with the News Corp lobbyist Frédéric Michel during the company's bid for BSkyB.

However, the following day Smith arrived at work only to be told by the culture secretary that "everybody here thinks you need to go". The special adviser ? who had previously been praised for his work ? was handed a draft resignation letter to sign.

Colleagues of David Cameron's most senior civil servant then requested that the first line in the proposed letter that was put out last month be amended to read: "While I believed it was my role to keep News Corporation informed". The initial draft adopted a more neutral tone, and read: "While it was part of my role to keep News Corporation informed."

However, Smith said he objected to the unexpected change because "the department had known that that's what my role had been" and the original version was reinstated.

Smith has always said he was given the task of acting as a link between News Corp and Hunt during the period when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was adjudicating on the Murdoch company's £8bn bid for BSkyB.

Smith had been tipped off that as part of James Murdoch's evidence the inquiry would see emails written by Michel and relating to their contact between June 2010 and July 2011. He watched Murdoch's Leveson appearance live and shortly after met Hunt to offer his resignation on 24 April.

He said the culture secretary told him he did not think that would be necessary, and heard Smith's version of events. Recalling their conversation, Smith said he told his former boss that the Michel emails "were a one-sided reflection and in many cases exaggerated".

Smith then went for a drink with colleagues, where the mood was "very pressured and one of the most stressful days that I'd certainly had to deal with". Overnight, however, pressure on Smith mounted ? and when he arrived the next day Hunt made it clear that he would have to quit.

The former special adviser described the conversation at the critical meeting with his boss: "We did discuss how we'd enjoyed working with each other and how it was going to be tough and it wasn't just a one-line conversation, no."

Smith added that he had offered to resign because "I thought by this stage that the perception had been created that something untoward had gone on".

On the day he left, Smith also received a private note from Jonathan Stephens, the DCMS permanent secretary, praising his work. Stephens wrote: "I've seen many special advisers ? you have undoubtedly [been] the best and straightest. You've worked smoothly and professional ? You've given great service to Jeremy ? How you left today was characteristic of the selfless and self-effacing way that you've approached your role."

Dan Sabbagh
Lisa O'Carroll

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(25/05/2012)

Egypt election: latest results

? Shafiq and Morsi head for run-off
? 'The revolution has ended' ? Shafiq spokesman
? Free Syrian Army shuns al-Qaida in Syria

5.00pm: Here's a summary of the situation as it stands at the moment in Egypt's presidential election:

? With the vast majority of votes counted, it's almost certain that the two most divisive candidates, former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood will face each other in a run-off next month.

? Turnout is said to have been just under 42% ? lower than in the recently parliamentary elections.

? Ahmed Shafiq has recorded a bizarre video message in English, addressed to Egyptians living abroad (see 3.07pm). He also provided his email address for anyone who wants to discuss it further: drmorsy@yahoo.com.

? A spokesman for Ahmed Shafiq says "The revolution has ended" (
see 1.42pm).

3.51pm: They are biting their nails at Ahmed Shafiq's headquarters according to journalist Rana Khazbak.

3.42pm: Sabahy has a 786,321 vote gap to close to make it to the runoff, according to Ahram's unofficial tally.

With two governorates to go, Sabahy's lead is not that big in Cairo, and he's currently only second in Giza, after partial results.

3.37pm: Qalioubiya has also gone for Shafiq and Morsi, according to the Ahram tally.

Just Giza and Cairo to go now.

Omar Robert Hamilton comments:

3.29pm: Pre-vote disqualifications played a crucial part in the result that is emerging, argues Steve Negus on the Arabist blog.

Despite Sabahy's surge, the runoff as of mid-afternoon is looking like it will be between the Brothers' Mohammed Morsi and ex-Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, although if Hamdeen repeats his Alex performance in Cairo this may change.

Regardless of who pulls ahead, the margins for second place look like they're going to be around one or two percentage points - meaning that the top two names indicate more about the randomness injected into the race by the pre-vote disqualifications than they really say about voter preferences. If Omar Suleiman were still in the race, for example, Shafiq and he might be relegated to vote-splitting also-rans. If Abu Ismail [the Salafist candidate] were still around, maybe Morsi would be a distant third - or, alternately, maybe Abul Futouh or even Sabahi would have slipped down a few notches.

3.18pm: Morsi and Shafiq came out top in Assiut one of the last four governorates in Ahram's tally. Sabahi was a poor fourth.

Now its just Cairo, Giza, and Qalyoubiya, for Ahram's unofficial count to finish.

3.07pm: The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, the candidate most likely to make it to runoff, has recorded a rambling video message in English to Egyptians living abroad.

In it he expressed his commitment to a free, democratic and constitutional Egypt. He also invites expatriates to email him at drmorsy@yahoo.com.

The video illustrates to English speakers why so many found his campaign uninspiring. And yet he appears to have come top in the first top - so it is also a reminder of the power of the Muslim Brotherhood's electoral machine.

Ian Black has posted a new profile of Morsi:

Little-known to the wider public, Morsi is a famously boring speaker who reduces Egyptian journalists to teeth-gnashing frustration as he rarely says anything remotely quotable. He was ridiculed as a "spare" after Shater's disqualification, and some people waved tyres at his rallies to emphasise the point. But the Brotherhood's well-oiled machine seems to matter more than his underwhelming personality.

3.02pm: Sherine Tadros of al-Jazeera tweets from Morsi headquarters that there will be a press conference at 9pm tonight. As far as Morsi is concerned, it's now a contest between him and Shafiq.

Ashraf Khalil, who said on the Arabist podcast earlier this week that he was losing sleep over the possibility of a Shafiq victory, has posted this comment:

Meanwhile, the Egypt Independent appears to confirm that defeated candidate Abul Fotouh has not endorsed Morsi for the run-off after all (see 12.57pm)

Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh's campaign has denied reports that the former Brotherhood member conceded and endorsed the Brotherhood's candidate, Mohamed Morsy, in the runoffs.

2.37pm: Incomplete results from Cairo suggest a big lead for Sabahy in the capital. The leftist candidate is also comfortably beating Shafiq to second place in Giza.

Ahram Online which is still calling it as Morsi v Shafiq run off says we are still waiting for results from Cairo, Giza, Asiut, and Qalyoubiya governorates, where one third of electorate live.

Mohamed Abd el-Hamid calls for patience:


Mostafa Hussein is crossing his fingers:

2.22pm: The official results now look set to be released on Sunday or Monday, writes Abdel-Rahman Hussein.

Hatem Begato from the electoral commission tells BBC Arabic that the official results will be released before Tuesday, but not today or tomorrow, because complaints and appeals from the candidates need to be taken into account.

1.42pm: The revolution is over, according to a Shafiq spokesman quoted by the New York Times:

Ahmad Sarhan, a spokesman for Mr Shafiq, said voters had rallied to the candidate because he promised to "save Egypt from the dark forces," referring to the Brotherhood and more militant Islamists.

Mr Shafiq would bring back security, Mr Sarhan said. "The revolution has ended," he said. "It is one and a half years."

1.15pm: Shafiq is back into second place according to the latest count from Ahram.

Its latest tally includes counts from 18 of the 27 governorates. Sabahy was in second after counts from 15 governorates.

Morsi 3,451,433 (25.59%)
Shafiq 3,378,998 (25.05%)
Sabbahi 2,862,143 (21.22%)
Abul Fotouh 2,362,956 (17.52%)
Moussa 1,431,239 (10.61%)

Its figures do not include the urban centres of Cairo and Giza.

1.11pm: Hamdeen Sabahy jumped into second place after Ahram's election tally added results from the port city of Alexandria where he enjoys big support, explains Jack Shenker in audio update from Cairo.

There is a lot of confusion. We are not yet sure whether Cairo and Giza votes have yet been included in the tallies we are seeing on our computer screens.

We are getting a mixed picture [from candidate's monitors]. Nobody knows exactly what's happening, but it does seem that whereas a few hours ago the so called 'nightmare scenario' of Shafiq and Morsi going through to the final runoff, it now looks as if Hamdeen Sabahy, the leftist, might just be pipping Shafiq to that second place spot. But we still have to be very cautious ...

All of our predictions have been thrown out the window because areas which we thought would poll well for the Islamist have gone secular, and areas which we thought would be revolutionary, like Suez, have polled quite highly for establishment figures and vice versa all over the country, so it is a very mixed picture.

It could all come down to recounts and accusations of voting violations, Jack says.

If things are a close as they appear to be between Sabahy and Shafiq it is entirely possible that we won't know until Tuesday [or beyond]. Recounts for single polling stations could tip it either way if the figures remain as close as they are. If Sahaby and Shafiq are neck-and-neck for second place ... then individual claims of irregularities and electoral violations suddenly take on hugely significant importance.

12.57pm: The Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV is saying that Abul Fotouh has endorsed the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi for the run-off. Unconfirmed at present, but not totally surprising if true.

Quick update: Blogger Sandmonkey is saying Abul Fotouh has denied supporting Morsi. Hopefully, we shall be able to clarify this shortly.

12.26pm: Much excitement at the latest polls suggesting Hamdeen Sabahy could make the run off.

Journalist Sarah Carr tweets:

Andrew Hammond from Reuters tweets:

Now that the nightmare scenario of a Morsi v Shafiq runoff seems less slightly likely (but still a distinct possibility) it's time to dust off another of Ian Black's runoff scenarios:

Morsi versus Hamdeen Sabahy

In this run-off scenario, the independent Nasserist "one of us" candidate would be likely to win the support of much of the anti-Islamist camp, but there could be a low turnout, which would favour the Brotherhood's man

12.13pm: Will there be a late surge for Sabahy? asks a previously gloomy Abdel-Rahman Hussein (see 11.18am). He emails:

Could the improbably happen? Some polls now are showing that Hamdeen Sabahy has replaced Shafik in second place. There may be life in this race just yet, and more twists and turns coming our way, fingers crossed.

12.00pm: Hang on .... out of nowhere the leftist/nationalist candidate Hamdeen Sabahai appears to have rocketed into second place, according to Ahram Online.

Jack Shenker tweets:

Time to change the picture on this blog.

11.45am: Libya: Prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keib, who is visiting Britain, laid a wreath this morning at the spot where PC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead 28 years ago while policing an anti-Gaddafi demonstration in London.

Keib, a former professor of electrical engineering who took over as interim prime minister last November, also spoke at Chatham House about the problems facing Libya in the post-Gaddafi era ? and not only as a result of last year's conflict.

"When we took office," he said, "Libya was in a state of devastation on all levels ... no civil society, no political parties, no free press. Libya was a country where Libyans felt alien as a result of love wages, unemployment of over 30% and lack of opportunities. Libyans also live in fear of the security apparatus."

He continued: "Under the circumstances we have been making excellent progress. In the area of stability, for example, the government has put in place a serious programme for disarmament and the merger of the revolutionaries into the state system."

Brian Whitaker, who was in the audience, gives his impressions:

Tall, in his sixties and slightly stooping, Abdurrahim el-Keib seemed more grandfatherly than revolutionary. Pointing to his background in engineering, he described himself as "a practical man" ? which is perhaps a polite way of saying he's far from inspirational.

In fact, he sounded very much an old-style Arab politician ? and with similar explanations when things aren't happening. His fall-back position is that many things are on hold, pending the elections next month.

Up to a point, that's true. But he talked a lot about freedom and human rights ? which some in the audience found difficult to reconcile with two recent laws numbered 37 and 38 which prohibit "glorifying" Gaddafi and grant an amnesty for "acts made necessary" by the revolution.

Keib's answer was that these are only temporary. "There are many who are trying to get us to a point where we can't do the election," he said. "Remnants of the regime are still operating."

He insisted that free expression and human rights are still "sacred values" behind the revolution. But how temporary is "temporary"? Similar, supposedly short-term problems have been used in other Arab countries to justify a multitude of abuses, including "emergency" laws that end up becoming permanent.

? Update, 2.45pm: Chatham House has now issued a transcript and recording of the event.

11.18am: The official results of the election are not expected until Tuesday, but almost all the exit polls suggest that Morsi came first and Shafiq second, in the first round says Abdel-Rahman Hussein in audio update from Cairo.

A Morsi versus Shafiq would represent a return to the old days of the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood versus the regime, he says.

The number of votes for Shafiq are possibly votes against the revolution and everything that happened. We can't discount that in the last year and a half a lot of people have been feeling a lot of fear because of this deterioration in security and the economy. And maybe a vote for Shafiq is a nostalgic reaching out for the past where things were not so great, but stable ...

It leaves the revolution, where we all knew it was, appropriated and usurped by the military and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Abdo, who boycotted the poll, adds: "I'm not happy at all that it has come to this. I'm hoping that the numbers change throughout the day, and that this is the not the scenario that we have to face."

He says he will also boycott the runoff in June, but the thought has crossed his mind to reluctantly back Morsi to keep out Shafiq.

10.46am: The Muslim Brotherhood's preferred presidential candidate, Khairat al-Shater, who was disqualified from standing, has an interesting take on the results according to Issandr El Amrani

Shater also predicts that how Abul Foutouh and Sabahy's supporters will vote in the runoff (the two candidates came third and fourth with around 37% of the vote between them).

10.33am: The Carter Centre has praised the fair conduct of the poll, Ahram Online reports citing Mena.

It also talked to a bitter member of the team of the moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh. She said:

I didn't sleep until 4am. How did Shafiq get all these votes? Really, how? I am extremely depressed. I will pray that Hamdeen Sabbahi and Abul-Fotouh will be cursed for leaving us to choose between Shafiq and Mursi in the runoffs. One of them should have stepped down for the other.

10.22am: Many agree that the likely results show how detached Egypt's internet generation have become from reality.

The Big Pharaoh:

Al-Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal:

Journalist Alaa Bayoumi says Shafiq largely ignored the internet generation - a strategy that appears to be paying off.

10.17am: Blogger Zeinobia expresses her dismay at the prospect of a Shafiq versus Morsi contest, and she suggests that Egyptian activists, herself included, were too insulated within an internet bubble to see it coming.

I have spent all night crying and saying stuff I should not say , things I know that I should not write because my rage , things I fear that I would say and then I feel sorry about my Egyptian people.

My only condolences that from 90 million Egyptians only 50% of the eligible voters in the country "50 million" participated in this election , the historical elections that reminds me with the Six Days war defeat.

I do not have any words , it is like choosing between two hells : The Muslim brotherood or Shafiq !!!

We are all to blame especially the #Jan25 Revolutionaries who set back in bubbly Cairo 'that voted for Shafiq' and in their closed social networks realms. We are responsible for this without doubt.

10.01am: Hosni Mubarak will be looking on at the likely presidential runoff with a smug sense of vindication, says Ian Black in Cairo.

In an instant audio analysis on the emerging result, Ian said a runoff between Shafiq and Morsi will make for a very polarised confrontation which many think will prove difficult to get through.

"People who supported the Egyptian revolution will be devastated if that is the choice," he said.

They are both very divisive characters. Millions of Egyptians fear and hate the Muslim Brotherhood because it is an Islamist party ... If you are a secular or a liberal Egyptian, the last thing you want is to be ruled by them. That's one of the reasons why the Mubarak regime was able to last for 30 years, playing on the fears of the alternative, if [his] sort of authoritarian regime went. Shafiq on the other hand is closely associated with that regime ...

Hosni Mubarak, might well feel - in his prison cell - a sense of smug vindication. He always said the Arabic equivalent of Après moi, le déluge - it is going to be tough without me.

Looking ahead to the runoff, and beyond, Ian added:

It is going to be a very bitter contest which doesn't augur well for multi-party democracy in the largest of Arab counties.

Behind the scenes the military will be supporting Shafiq. A lot of people will abstain because they will find it an impossible choice between two such unattractive candidates, if what you are hoping for is progress and building on the achievement of the revolution.

That creates a serious danger of a result that is lacking in legitimacy because people will not want to support it.

Whoever wins whether its Morsi or Shafiq life is going to be much more turbulent on all fronts: politically, economically, security wise. Egyptians would have been better off with a president who was likely to be less divisive.

The capacity for trouble on the streets is going to be greater. There are bound to be tensions with people who believe this is a betrayal of everything the revolution stood for.

The achievement of the Egyptian revolution could look very different in just a few weeks time.

9.16am: Syria: The Israeli daily Haaretz has an intriguing new line on the Shawkat poisoning rumours.

Israel has reliable information showing that despite Syria's official denials, an attempt was made to assassinate several top regime officials four days ago, senior Israeli officials said on Thursday.

The information shows that Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, and several other senior officials were indeed poisoned, just as the Free Syrian Army claims. But prompt medical treatment saved their lives.

9.09am: An official result is still a long way off but a high percentage of the votes have been counted according to various reports, and the projections are not changing.

Now Democracy's Sharif Kouddous:

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros:

8.51am: Egyptian activists have been predicting further protests if the runoff turns out to be contest between Shafiq and Morsi.

Egyptian journalist Mohamed Abdelfattah:

Blogger Zeinobia fears the worst:

Meanwhile, Vidar Helgesen secretary general, of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, has this sage comment:

The Arabist urges us to wait for the official results

8.25am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live. With Egypt's presidential elections heading for what many regard as a nightmare scenario, we will be focusing on the continuing count and the reaction to the results as they come in.

Here's a round of the latest in Egypt and Syria:

Egypt

? The latest results point to what revolutionaries would regard as the worst possible outcome - a runoff between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. At the time of writing the latest count shows Morsi is on 28.2% Shafiq on 24%. The moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh is on 18.6% and leftist nationalist Hamdeen Sabahy is on 17.2%. Amr Moussa is a distant fifth on 11.9%. These figures roughly tally with counts by the Muslim Brotherhood which put Morsi on 25%, Shafiq, Abul Fotouh on 20% and Sabahy on 19%.

? Ian Black predicts who would win in the mostly likely runoffs, including the "nightmare scenario" of Morsi versus Shafiq.

A contest between them would be a highly polarised choice that would take Egyptians back to the bad old days before the revolution. The Brotherhood would mobilise massively behind Morsi, with the army and police supporting Shafiq. Violence would be highly likely to erupt. Abstention rates would soar.

Syria

? Government forces executed entire families in their homes as part of the crackdown on the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, UN investigators have found, Reuters reports. Both President Assad's troops and opposition fighters were committing gross human rights violations despite a six-week-old ceasefire, but the security forces were responsible for most crimes documented since March, the UN report released yesterday said.

? The New York Times examines the struggle to spread, or halt, the rumor that Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat, was poisoned alongside other senior figures, which first surfaced in an opposition video last weekend. Foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi has denied the claim adding that the main evidence refuting the assertion was that most of those mentioned had recently appeared on television. "Others who didn't appear are also in good health and at work as usual," it quoted him telling a Kuwaiti newspaper.

Shawkat, a former head of military intelligence, has not appeared on television for some time.

The inner workings of the police state were difficult to ascertain even before the current uprising started 15 months ago, and they are even more opaque now. There are unconfirmed rumors every week of someone in the Assad family or inner circle being killed or wounded.

But the story about Shawkat has been more persistent and more bizarre.

? A former high-ranking officer in the Syrian army, has called for urgent international military intervention to stop what he called the "barbaric genocide" being committed by government forces in his country, the BBC reports.In a talk at Britain's House of Commons. Brig-Gen Aqil Hashem said more than 15,000 people had now been killed in Syria, and that the only way out of the conflict was for the world's militaries to intervene. Hashem said the very minimum the world needed to do in Syria was to carve out a militarily protected "safe zone" in north-west Syria, similar to the one made for the Kurds in northern Iraq in 1991.

? The rebel Free Syrian Army is shunning al-Qaida's attempt to gain a foothold in Syria, according to the BBC's Paul Wood.

One Free Syrian Army officer told me al-Qaida figures have been visiting, trying to form new alliances. They made a direct approach to a cleric near the town of Qusair. Money, weapons and other support were offered, in return for allegiance to al-Qaeda. They turned him away.

Matthew Weaver
Brian Whitaker

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(25/05/2012)

Eurozone crisis live: 'Battle lines' drawn over eurobonds

? Shares in Bankia suspended
? European stock markets open higher, bank shares rebound
? Consumer confidence steady in Germany, improving in France

5.47pm: One last thing... our man in Madrid, Giles Tremlett, was at the briefing with Catalan leader Artur Mas that has caused such a fuss today. He writes:

Reuters did certainly not quote Artur Mas wrongly or out of context. Some people, however, seem have misinterpreted the phrase: "...we need to make payments at the end of the month". It is not a reference to the month of May. Mas was talking about the end of every month. I am not sure that makes it any more reassuring.

Mas was quite happy to go on-the-record about Catalonia's need for financing. This is no secret. It needs some ?13bn and other regional governments in Spain need around ?24bn more. A further ?15bn will be needed to finance their joint deficit this year, assuming they hit their strict targets. If they fail, even more will be needed.

Spain's government, meanwhile, is dillydallying about whether it will issue so-called "hispanobonds" to cover the financing needs of regional governments, which are largely shut out of the markets. Bank loans, existing government credit lines and patriotic bonds bought by Catalans and others can probably only cover part of what is needed.

Reports suggest that finance minister Luis de Guindos and budget minister Cristóbal Montoro do not see eye-to-eye on this.

Mas was happy to explain his support for hispanobonds because financing has become so difficult, hence the worries about paying bills and the damage this can do to what he called "the real economy".

Mas's basic argument was that just as most of Spain is crying out for eurobonds, so that Germany can back borrowing needs and reduce the interest rates paid in southern Europe, so regional governments want hispanobonds so that the Spanish government can back their debt and bring down borrowing costs.

5.28pm: And we'll close the day with a video from Japanese pop group AKB48.

As we reported earlier, these glossy-haired young women have been enlisted by the Japanese government to help sell "reconstruction bonds" aimed at financing projects in regions hammered by last year's quake-tsunami disaster.


Thanks for all your comments, we'll be back on Monday.

5.00pm: The Spanish government is poised to invest up to ?19bn in its most troubled lender, Bankia, the FT is reporting. Miles Johnson in Madrid and Patrick Jenkins in London write:

The injection, which would give the state as much as 90% control of Spain's second biggest domestic lender, is set to be confirmed later on Friday evening.

4.56pm: Ireland gears up for the referendum on the fiscal compact, with a satirical video on YouTube.

Do you know what will happen if you vote 'no'? Have you ever seen Mad Max?

With thanks to @SpiegelPeter.

4.41pm: The markets closed the day up, just about, although French banks were punished for their exposure to Greek debt.

FTSE 100: up 0.03%, or 1.48 points, at 5352
France CAC: up 0.47% at 3053
Germany DAX: up 0.43% at 6343
Italy FTSE MIB: up 0.36% at 13155
Spain IBEX: up 0.13% at 6543

4.33pm: Greece is a failed state said Deutsche Bank's co-chief executive at a conference in Berlin today. (Read the full-story on Bloomberg). Clearly not a man to mince his words, Juergen Fitschen said:

Greece is the only country, I feel, where we can say 'it's a failed state,' it is a corrupt state, corrupt as far as its political leadership is concerned and obviously other people had to be willing to support this.

4.25pm: Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has invited new French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for a summit in Rome to take place after the Greek elections on June. Reports suggest Merkel, for one, has accepted the invite.

4.02pm: Worth taking the retraction of the Catalan president's comments (see 3.54pm) with a pinch of salt, as one trader points out...

3.56pm: Ouch. Athens stock exchange closed down 3.45%, its lowest level since 3 January 1990. This week it lost a whopping 11.8%.

3.54pm: Back to the Catalonia story (see 1.44pm). Dow Jones is now reporting that the earlier comments from the region's president were taken "out of context".

3.25pm: And back to the eurobond debate, which is fast descending into a slanging match. Our European editor Ian Traynor, who is based out in Brussels, reports:

Bundesbank boss (and former Merkel adviser), Jens Weidmann, was characteristically dismissive of eurobonds in an interview just published in Le Monde, but also deliciously waspish on the level of debate among eurozone and EU leaders.

"Growth is always a good thing," he snorts on the banalities currently being mouthed by EU leaders. "Being in favour of growth is like being a supporter of world peace." Ouch.

He has more. The current focus on "project bonds" by EU leaders? "This debate annoys me a bit. Every month there are brilliant ideas for combatting the crisis, only for them to disappear the next month. At the moment, that's project bonds. Apart from financing problems, I'm not sure that there's any lack of infrastructure at all hindering growth in these countries. And I've yet to see any serious analysis on the topic."

The predictable bottom line for Weidmann is that eurobonds are a false prospectus, as an answer to the crisis an "illusion." Nor can you fix a debt crisis by heaping up more debt. The countries in trouble need to crack on with the reforms they have promised instead of "non-stop delays."

It's up to Greece to keep its word on the agreements with the troika in return for the bailout. If it doesn't, "the aid should be stopped." And Grexit? "I'm often asked that question. On principle I never answer it."

3.10pm: The eurozone should create a centrally-managed body to deal with troubled banks, an ECB board member said today.

Peter Praet, who is on the executive board of Europe's central bank, called for a eurozone-wide banking regulator with the money and authority to restructure banks operating across borders.

He also proposed a eurozone-wide deposit insurance programme. Both measures would be funded by the private sector, not the government, so that taxpayers "would be shielded from picking up the bill for future banking crises". He said:

Europe needs to move towards a 'financial union', with a single euro area authority responsible for the supervision and resolution of large and complex cross-border banks. Decisive and far-sighted reforms like these, unrealistic until a short while ago, are now gaining support. Reacting to the pressure of events may seem unattractive, but it may also be the only way forward.

2.57pm: A quick update from my colleague Graeme Wearden, who won the Wincott prize for online financial journalism yesterday, and clearly went on to celebrate last night...

2.43pm: Will Latvia swap places with Greece? Apparently the eastern European country is the closest it has ever been to joining the euro. Latvia's central bank chief Ilmars Rimsevics said today:

Up until now, Latvia has never been so close to this goal.

Latvia, which was forced to take an EU and IMF bailout because of the crisis, hopes to adopt the euro in 2014.

2.36pm: French banks are drawing up contingency plans in case of a Greek exit, Reuters is reporting, citing unnamed sources.

It says Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale are involved in "heightened preparations". Data from the Bank of International Settlements show that France had lent $44.4bn to Greece at the end of 2011, compared with Germany, which had lent $13.4bn.

2.17pm: The euro has now dropped below $1.25 (although it appears to be bouncing back). There is some benefit of a tumbling euro for anyone heading to the continent, as noted by City Index's chief market strategist.

2.09pm: There's more fighting over the eurobond issue. The Netherlands' caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte has said he would continue to block eurobonds even if Germany changed its mind. He told reporters:

I rule out that Germany will change its opinion but even if it happened, the Netherlands would not participate.

For everything you ever wanted to know on eurobonds, and perhaps a little more, my colleague Phillip Inman has written this essential guide.

2.02pm: The Catalonia story (see 1.44pm) and Bankia's bailout (see 8.48am) have pushed Spain's borrowing costs higher. The yield on the Spanish 10-year bond ? the interest it pays on the debt ? has reached 6.3% and continues to climb.

1.44pm: Back to Spain, where news is coming out that Catalonia will ask the central government for financial help this year as it is running out of debt financing options. The story has spooked the markets, causing the euro to hit a 22-month low of $1.2505.

Catalonia is Spain's wealthiest region and represents one fifth of the Spanish economy. It has more than ?13bn in debt to refinance this year, as well as its deficit. Catalan president Artur Mas said earlier today:

We don't care how they do it, but we need to make payments at the end of the month. Your economy can't recover if you can't pay your bills.

1.40pm: There's plenty of reaction coming in about the bailout of Spanish bank Bankia. Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, says:

The financial rescue and restructuring of Bankia epitomise the failures of Spanish and eurozone policymaking. The whole process has been like pulling teeth. There have been repeated failures on the part of regulators and the government to tackle the balance sheet problems at Bankia head-on, partly because of continued resistance to injecting more public money into the banking sector but also because of the speed of the deterioration in the asset quality of the bank.

What is critical right now is to draw a line under the losses with a level of state aid that is sufficient and which the markets deem to be sufficient. This is easier said than done given that Spanish bank restructuring is a moving target: the deeper the downturn, the greater the scope for a further deterioration in banks' asset quality.

1.19pm: And for some light relief, The Wall Street Journal has a remarkable story about Japan's finance ministry enlisting the help of a pop group to sell government debt.

The cash-strapped government will, apparently, use the 90-strong girl group to promote "reconstruction bonds" aimed at financing the rebuilding of the areas hit by the earthquake and tsunami last year. The government plans to issue ¥2.682 trillion of the bonds this year but demand is weak.

The WSJ reports: "The move is part of a broader campaign to use celebrities to stoke interest in the bonds, with Mongolian sumo champion Hakuho the first of four stars to appear in TV commercials, newspaper ads and posters over the next year."

12.58pm: Quick lunchtime wrap. The markets, for the most part, have turned negative after opening higher.

FTSE 100: down 0.44%, or 23 points, at 5327
France CAC: down 0.33%
German DAX: up 0.06%
Spain IBEX: down 0.66%
Italy FTSE MIB: down 0.37%

? Shares in Spanish bank Bankia have been suspended at the request of the company. Reports suggest the bank will ask the Spanish government for a ?15bn bailout today.

? Surveys out of France and Germany suggest consumer confidence is improving in both countries. German consumers are considerably more optimistic in May, compared with last month, and their willingness to buy increased slightly. In France, optimism about the economic situation continues to edge up.

? There are reports of a German government plan to encourage growth in Europe, under which crisis countries like Greece would receive tax concessions, on condition though that they reform their labour markets, like Germany did in the early days of the euro.

12.38pm: News in from Athens where our correspondent Helena Smith reports yet another twist to the debt crisis.

Greece's caretaker prime minister Panaghiotis Pikrammenos has JUST proved once again that this is a [debt] drama with more contradictions (or perhaps theatrical ploys) than a Molière play. One day after the EU summit, the high court judge as diplomacy dictates, spent the morning back in Athens briefing Greece's head of state president Karolos Papoulias. The summit was he said especially "positive." "I'd like to tell you that contrary to the rumours of the last few days and contrary to what has been written in newspapers, all of our European partners want our country to remain in the euro zone. And because of this we discussed at length taking certain measures that could help our country in the direction of development and combating unemployment," he said.

Readers will recall that addressing reportersin the wee hours of Thursday after the summit, the prime minister revealed that Angela Merkel, the German chancellor had expressed her irriation at all the "scenarios" about Greece exiting the euro zone during a private meeting he had had with her. It has not been lost on commentators here that most of those scenarios have been cultivated by venerable institutions like the Bundesbank in Berlin.

12.34pm: The euro has recovered somewhat from two-year lows against the dollar today but the outlook remains bleak given worries over a Grexit and the risk of contagion.

The euro inched up to $1.2581, from $1.25155, the lowest level since July 2010 yesterday.

Geoff Kendrick, a currency analyst at Nomura, says:

We think if Greece does not exit the eurozone, the euro will see a gradual decline to $1.23 in coming months. But if it does, then we see the euro falling to $1.20 by the end of the second quarter and $1.15 by the end of the third.

12.17pm: A new reality for the eurozone is on the way: Cheviot's David Miller sums up the week.

? Uncertainty is increasing and unlikely to subside until Germany defines the 'new reality' for the eurozone
? The fall in UK inflation re-opens the door for QE
? Watch out for action by other central banks looking for ways to stimulate growth

Eurozone
The dysfunctional eurozone remains a major concern to all. Recessionary forces are strengthening and no sensible solutions are close to implementation. In Spain, with recession drifting towards depression and unemployment over 25%, investors are heading for the exit, leaving the local banks, funded by the ECB, as the only material buyers of government debt. Voters throughout Europe are exercising their democratic rights and are voting against further austerity.

Uncertainty is increasing and is unlikely to subside until Germany defines the 'new reality' for the eurozone ? a move to a more federal Europe with no leavers, partial fragmentation or breakup. No one can be certain about the outcome. Forget market manipulation by international banks and hedge funds; Germany is the ultimate insider.

In Greece, having delivered a protest vote, perhaps the Greek voters will shift back on 17/6, allowing the formation of a government that will cooperate with the EU/ECB/IMF.

Volatile markets
Financial markets are trading in an increasingly correlated way. One of the reasons for this is that central banks are pursuing similar agendas. After four years of consistent action to support growth and ensure that financial markets are liquid, Q1 saw a series of more hawkish, less accommodative statements.

? In the US, the Federal Reserve indicated that encouraging economic news made further Quantitative Easing less necessary.
? In Europe, after the injection of ?1 trillion liquidity into the banking system, the ECB, although talking about a "Growth Compact" essentially passed the buck back to Governments.
? Finally in the UK, the monetary policy committee, hemmed in by higher than expected inflation, backed away from providing more support.

Only the Bank of Japan talked about making a move in the opposite direction in an attempt to lift the world's third largest economy out of the deflationary mire. Markets sensed that for the moment, they were on their own, which is one of the reasons why since mid-March, trading has been much more erratic.

Now the mood music has changed and QE on both sides of the Atlantic is back on the agenda. Economic growth forecasts are being downgraded due to a combination of less robust growth in China and increasing concern about the eurozone.

11.29am: HSBC - Europe's biggest bank - has warned that the eurozone crisis and increasing regulation could affect its future performance. It said it would deploy capital in markets where it can expect higher growth.

Chief executive Stuart Gulliver told the bank's annual meeting at the Barbican in London:

There remain factors affecting our performance that are beyond our immediate control - from the eurozone to the future regulation of the industry. We have gained real traction over the past year in those areas we can control.

11.21am: Greece should be ok if the next tranche of bailout money is delayed for a few weeks, a German finance ministry spokesman told Reuters.

"As far as I am aware, there is no current need for external financing up until beyond the first half of the year," spokesman Martin Kotthaus said at a regular news conference in Berlin. He added that a delay of a few weeks would be "unproblematic".

He also said that Greece's lenders will need a positive report on their reform progress before a planned second tranche of aid worth ?4bn is released at the end of June. Greece holds a second election on 17 June after an election in early May produced a messy result. Syrizas, the radical leftist party opposed to the EU-IMF austerity programme, is expected to do well.

11.14am: In France, confidence is improving, according to stats office Insee. According to its confidence index, households' optimism about the economic situation continues to edge up, with the index gaining 1 point in May from April. It has gained 9 points since November but still remains below its long-term average. More here.

11.09am: The Footsie has just turned negative, trading down 2 points at 5348, while European markets are still up. David Jones, chief market strategist, IG Index, says:

Markets have maintained an upbeat tone so far this morning, despite news of the suspension of Spanish bank Bankia. The new management team of Bankia are expected to ask for a ?15bn bailout from the government today, and it is thought the suspension is to avoid any further speculation until the results of the meeting are known. Market reaction to this has been negligible, with even the Spanish stock market index still just about positive for the day. So it would appear ? for now at least ? that investors see Bankia as an isolated case and not the first warning sign for Spain's banking sector as a whole.

Back to the UK, earlier this week the FTSE did have a brief flirtation with the 5400 level so there is definitely scope for some more gains from here ? although the combination of the weather, the weekend and Monday's US holiday may see activity fade as the day goes on.

Looking ahead to the US, at the moment we are expecting the Dow around 40 points higher at the open.

10.57am: Consumer confidence data for Germany from GfK painted a stable picture this morning. The research organisation said:

The mood among consumers in Germany was very stable in May. Consumers are considerably more optimistic than in the previous month and willingness to buy also increased slightly. Income expectations, however, dropped marginally. Following a revised value of 5.7 points in May, the overall indicator is also forecasting 5.7 points for June.

10.20am: Got an email from Graeme Wearden this morning but he hasn't told me yet how he is feeling. He won the online financial journalist of the year award at the Wincott Awards, and was also commended last night for the Reporting Europe prize. What a star!

10.15am: Over to Greece where our correspondent Helena Smith says an emergency meeting is about to be held at the economy ministry to discuss dramatically declining state revenues.

Clearly alarmed by plummeting budget revenues, attributed in part to the country's political instability following inconclusive elections earlier this month, Greece's caretaker government has decided to take action. Figures released by the state general accounting office show revenues down by almost a third ? some ?1.35bn - compared to May last year.

The dramatic decline will be the focus of an emergency meeting called by Finance Minister Giorgos Zannias to discuss ways of plugging the budget black hole. Officials have blamed the precipitous fall on the failure of tax authorities to collect revenues ? partly because of the uncertainty that has followed Greece political limbo and partly because of cuts to salaries and wages. Ministry officials say they are now considering extending the deadline for the submission of tax returns from 15 June to the end of the month.

9.56am: More from Kate Connolly in Berlin.

Bild is reporting the carefully coordinated contingency plan to enable Greece to leave the euro.

The travel agency TUI is insisting on having a drachma clause in all its contracts, to protect it from financial loss should a currency switch take place.
supermarket chain Metro is making plans to allow customers in its Greek shops to pay in Drachma. It's making preparations for pricing labels and cash machines to be changed, according to the paper.

Deutsche Telekom has sent experts to its Greek partner, OTE to help plan for a change from euro to drachma. German banks have reportedly written off all their junk Greek funds and investments so that a Grexit will not affect them. In addition the paper writes, the European Central Bank is working out practical ways in which Euro notes could be switched ie by stamping them with a special magnetic stamp. The ECB also needs to work out what it does with the ?40bn worth of Greek bonds it possesses. In the event of Greece going bankrupt, or leaving the eurozone they could end up being worthless.

9.53am: Our Berlin correspondent Kate Connolly has just sent this in.


Der Spiegel is just coming out with a report saying it has information about a German government 6-point plan to encourage growth in Europe, under which crisis countries like Greece would receive tax concessions, on condition though that they reform their labour markets, like Germany did in the early days of the euro.

The plan involves creating special economic zones in the crisis-struck parts of the eurozone. Foreign investors would be lured with tax incentives and more relaxed regulation. The crisis countries would be required to establish German-style privatisation agencies or privatisation funds to sell off/part privatise parts of the public sector.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung is writing on its front page that internally the eurozone partners are very seriously preparing for a Gexit, while externally wanting to create impression that Greece is staying.

9.17am: Shares in Spanish lender Bankia have been suspended "due to circumstances that may affect the normal share trading," the Spanish stock market regulator CMV said this morning. The shares closed down 7.4% yesterday.

Bankia will ask the government for more than ?15bn in bailout money when its new management team presents a restructuring plan today, Reuters reported, citing a financial sector source. More from my colleague Giles Tremlett in Madrid here.

8.48am: Today is Bankia day in Spain, with taxpayers likely to discover how much money they must inject into the ailing part-nationalised bank, reports our man in Madrid, Giles Tremlett.


Last night's reports of ?15bn are partly the result of the new management team setting a lower valuation for the bank's parent company BFA in a revised version of the 2011 accounts, according to Expansion newspaper.

That may provoke trouble with the 400,000 shareholders who bought into Spain's fourth biggest bank when it floated shares in July.

The move generates losses at BFA, according to Expansion, which explains why the size of the capital injection it needs from the state has shot up. A board meeting today should provide greater clarity.

El País, meanwhile, continues to insist that the government is studying turning Bankia into a massive nationalised bank by merging it with other troubled cajas - the savings banks that have found themselves drowning in toxic real estate left over from a 2008 housing bust.

It says Bankia might absorb Catalunyacaixa and Novagalicia, two of Spain's top ten lenders. Other smaller banks that have been rescued by the state might also be thrown into the pot.

8.40am: Readers are asking about the whereabouts of my esteemed colleague Graeme Wearden, who won the award for online financial journalist of the year at the prestigious Wincott Awards yesterday. He actually has the day off today and I haven't heard from him this morning (it's still early). I'll keep you posted....

8.23am: Well, despite ongoing disputes among EU leaders over the right way forward, European stock markets have opened higher. The FTSE edged up more than 20 points to 5373 in early trading, a 0.45% rise. It is on track for its best weekly performance in a month as investors are snapping up cheap stocks. On Monday, the Footsie hit a six-month low of 5253,92.

Spain's Ibex has gained 0.9%, Italy's FTSE MIB is more than 1% ahead, Germany's Dax has risen 0.8% while France's CAC has climbed 0.7%. Bank shares are bouncing back.

8.17am: "The euro bails out," says Simon Smith, chief economist at FxPro. Here are his morning musings on the single currency:

Markets approach the end of what has been a pretty difficult week. The single currency has made news lows for the year (vs. the dollar) and markets have no more faith in the ability of eurozone leaders to quell speculation around a Greek exit as anti-bailout parties retain their lead in the Greek election opinion polls. We've also seen the capitulation of the single currency, something which we talked about earlier this month, where the euro has been the weakest currency in a period of dollar strength, rather than the more traditional high-beta currencies, such as the Aussie. The price action on the single currency this week means that we run the risk of short-covering activity into the weekend. Also, the Swiss franc is worth keeping a small eye on after yesterday's volatility (at least compared to recent activity), which was mostly on the back of - so far - denied rumours of further measures to quell currency strength.

8.07am: So what is all the fuss about Eurobonds about? Read our essential guide here.

8.04am: The FTSE 100 index in London has opened some 14 points higher at 5364, a 0.27% gain.

Oil is steady but is on track for its fourth weekly loss - the longest losing streak since early 2010 - as investors worry over the global economic outlook. Brent crude futures inched up 2 cents to $106.57 a barrel this morning.

7.48am: Good morning and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the eurozone debt crisis and world economy. It's a quiet day for economic data in Europe today apart from consumer confidence figures for Germany and France, so the divisions between EU leaders over how to restore confidence in the euro take centre stage again.

A major rift has opened up between Germany and France for the first time since the crisis began, our Europe editor Ian Traynor reported yesterday from Brussels. The new French president, François Hollande, insists that eurobonds are the only way forward and together with the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, is piling pressure on German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets UK, says the "battle lines" are beginning to get drawn over eurobonds.

It can't be any surprise to see the countries that would benefit the most from lower borrowing costs are looking to leverage off Germany's position as the strongest EU economy, and its triple-A rating.

In any case Germany is not isolated on this issue with Austria, Holland and Finland coming out against the proposals, all countries who don't have large debts.

In Greece, new kids on the political block Syrizas, who oppose austerity measures, are moving ahead in opinion polls at the expense of Samara's New Democracy party who are in favour of the bailout plan.

The FT is reporting that some of Europe's biggest fund managers are dumping euro assets amid growing fears over a Greek exit from the eurozone and more euro turmoil. The euro hit a fresh 22-month low at $1.2514 yesterday.

Julia Kollewe

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(25/05/2012)

Millionaire's daughter jailed for two years for part in London riots

Laura Johnson drove looters on late-night spree during unrest

A millionaire's daughter has been jailed for two years for driving looters on a late-night crime spree at the height of last summer's riots.

Laura Johnson, 20, chauffeured the group through London on 8 August in her black Smart car.

As they drove around the capital, her passengers leapt from the car clad in hooded tops, bandanas and balaclavas to loot.

The University of Exeter undergraduate, from Orpington, Kent, was jailed at the Inner London crown court for two years for one count of burglary and two years for one of handling stolen goods, to run concurrently.

Johnson and her accomplice Christopher Edwards, 17, were both convicted of burgling a Comet store at the Greenwich retail park and stealing electrical goods between 7 and 10 August as rioters brought chaos to the capital.

They were also convicted of handling stolen goods following a trial in April.

Edwards can now be named after a ban prohibiting the publication of his name was lifted.

The teenager had previously admitted burglary by stealing alcohol and cigarettes from a BP garage in Charlton.

Edwards was told on Friday he would serve 12 months at a young offender institution.

The court heard Johnson set out early on the evening of 8 August to deliver a phone charger to her friend Emmanuel Okubote, 20, a convicted cocaine dealer and thief, known as T-Man.

When they met in Catford, south London, he jumped into the passenger seat while three others climbed into the back.

Johnson told police she was told to drive from one place to another over several hours as violence spread across the city.

When she stopped, her passengers ? most of whom she claimed to have never met before ? looted and robbed people, including fellow looters, at knifepoint.

Johnson ? who is reading English and Italian at university ? is a former grammar school pupil who reportedly achieved four A*s and nine As at GCSE.

She is the daughter of Robert and Lindsay Johnson, who own the direct marketing business Avongate Ltd.

The couple sat at the back of the court on Friday as Martin McCartney, mitigating, described how their daughter led a "privileged life with a caring family".

He said that on the night in question Johnson, whom he described as a "bright, intelligent and articulate" young woman, acted in a "moment of madness".

He said: "At the time of the offence, placing what she did against the background of who she is, this was completely out of character.

"It is not beyond the realms of reason that the way she acted might have been affected by the emotional turmoil she was in."

The court was told that Johnson's mother wrote a "heartfelt" letter to the judge, describing Johnson's "self destructive behaviour" at the time.

During the trial, jurors were told that she had previously tried to kill herself while struggling with mental health issues.

The student broke up with her boyfriend last April, triggering depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

She told the court that almost a month before the riots she was raped by two men at a boy's house but she did not tell anyone at first.


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(25/05/2012)

Bonn climate talks end in discord and disappointment

Climate crisis is not caused by lack of options and solutions, but lack of political action, says Greenpeace spokeswoman

The latest round of international climate change talks finished on Friday in discord and disappointment, with some participants concerned that important progress made last year was being unpicked.

At the talks, countries were supposed to set out a workplan on negotiations that should result in a new global climate treaty, to be drafted by the end of 2015 and to come into force in 2020. But participants told the Guardian they were downbeat, disappointed and frustrated that the decision to work on a new treaty ? reached after marathon late-running talks last December in Durban ? was being questioned.

China and India, both rapidly growing economies with an increasing share of global emissions, have tried to delay talks on such a treaty. Instead of a workplan for the next three years to achieve the objective of a new pact, governments have only managed to draw up a partial agenda. "It's incredibly frustrating to have achieved so little," said one developed country participant. "We're stepping backwards, not forwards."

Connie Hedegaard, the EU climate chief, said: "The world cannot afford that a few want to backtrack from what was agreed in Durban only five months ago. Durban was ? and is ? a delicately balanced package where all elements must be delivered at the same pace. It is not a pick and choose menu. It is very worrisome that attempts to backtrack have been so obvious and time-consuming in the Bonn talks over the last two weeks."

There was also little progress on the key issue of the financing by rich countries of actions in the developing world. Meeting in Bonn, negotiators and officials from around the world haggled over the set-up of a 'Green Climate Fund' that would channel cash from the developed world to poorer countries, to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the effects of climate change.

However, they agreed much of the detail that will be needed to extend the Kyoto protocol ? currently the world's only legally binding treaty on emissions cuts ? beyond 2012 when its current provisions expire. That extension should be finalised at a conference in Doha, Qatar, this November ? but may not be if the EU does not see sufficient progress in negotiations on the proposed new post-2020 treaty.

Chrisiana Figueres, the top climate change official at the United Nations, who presided over the two weeks of talks, said: "Work at this session has been productive. Countries can now press on to ensure elements are in place to adopt the Doha amendment to the Kyoto protocol. I am pleased to say that the Bonn meeting produced more clarity on the protocols's technical and legal details and options to enable a smooth transition between the two commitment periods of the protocol."

However, the only major developed countries that have agreed to continue the Kyoto protocol are those of the European Union. Canada and Japan have dropped out, and the US never ratified the 1997 accord.

The fortnight-long talks in Bonn followed an unexpected last-ditch agreement in December at a meeting in Durban, when countries resolved to spend the next three to four years thrashing out the terms of a new global treaty on climate change and emissions cuts, which would come into force from 2020. Such a treaty would follow on from the Kyoto protocol and from the Copenhagen pledges made at a 2009 summit, in which both developed and developing countries agreed for the first time jointly to curb emissions by 2020. Those pledges do not have the legal force of a full treaty, however, and have been shown in a variety of studies to be inadequate to stave off dangerous levels of climate change.

One of the main tasks for the fortnight-long meeting in Bonn was to flesh out a programme of work towards a new post-2020 treaty. That has been partially achieved, but participants said more needed to be done to draft a clear negotiating timetable. The last major international treaty on the climate that had full legal force - the Kyoto protocol - took five years to negotiate, so the current round of talks will be on a tight deadline if they are to finish in a fully drafted agreement by the end of 2015, as planned.

Countries also discussed at Bonn whether they should try to cut emissions faster than currently planned within the next eight years. That question will be discussed further in the November talks. Green groups were pleased that the possibility of strengthening the 2020 targets was still on the table. However, some participants worried that it could prove a distraction to the difficult task of crafting a whole new post-2020 treaty by 2015.

Celine Charveriat, advocacy and campaigns director at Oxfam, said: "No progress was made to deliver the financial support that the world's poorest and most vulnerable need to deal with the growing impacts of climate change. It is now vital that, at the next UN climate summit in Qatar in November, rich countries commit to an initial US$10-15bn to the Green Climate Fund between 2013 and 2015, as part of a broader financial package.

"At a time when ambitious emission reductions are more urgent than ever, developed countries in Bonn made no progress to close the gap between current climate targets and what is required to avoid the worst of climate change. Developed countries must improve on their current low level of ambition and accept higher reduction targets no later than at the Qatar summit."

Tove Maria Ryding, coordinator for climate policy at Greenpeace International, said: "Here in Bonn we've clearly seen that the climate crisis is not caused by lack of options and solutions, but lack of political action. It's absurd to watch governments sit and point fingers and fight like little kids while the scientists explain about the terrifying impacts of climate change and the fact that we have all the technology we need to solve the problem while creating new green jobs."

Fiona Harvey

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(25/05/2012)

Anarchists claim responsibility for railway signalling sabotage in Bristol

Informal Anarchist Federation says it set fire to signalling cables, causing severe delays to commuter train services

An anarchist organisation has claimed responsibility for two attacks on railway signalling in Bristol which caused severe delays and the cancellation of services.

British transport police and Network Rail have confirmed that signalling cable was destroyed on Tuesday morning in two separate incidents of arson which caused "extensive damage" and substantial delays to passengers.

The group ? calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation ? has warned of further "guerrilla" attacks and sabotage to "hurt the national image and paralyse the economy however we can". On Wednesday the group posted a statement on the Indymedia Bristol website saying it had "struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol", adding that members had "lifted concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burned out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath".

The group said the points on the track had been chosen to target employees of the Ministry of Defence, "military industry companies" such as Raytheon, Thales, HP and QinetiQ, and the "corporate hub of Bristol". It promised further attacks, saying: "Finance, judicial, communications, military and transport infrastructure will continue to be targets of the new generation of urban, low-intensity warfare."

It described Tuesday's actions as guerrilla activity and said it had "no inhibition" about using such methods again. Characterising the Olympics as a "spectacle of wealth" in a time of austerity, it ended the statement saying it wanted "civil war" and that anarchy was "unavoidable".

Network Rail said that in the first attack, discovered at 4:15am by a passing train driver near Parson Street station in south Bristol, cabling was dug up and wrapped in material which was then set alight.

The second attack was spotted at 11:37am near Patchway railway station in the far north of the city.

The train operator First Great Western said normal services had not fully resumed until the following morning.

Transport police say that the two incidents "may or may not be connected". They are appealing for further information.

Network Rail and First Great Western described this type of deliberate attack on railway lines as "very rare"; most vandals target trains or infrastructure that they can sell for scrap.

Detective Chief Inspector John Pyke said: "We are aware of a statement posted on the internet in which a group is claiming responsibility for these incidents. At the moment, this is one of a number of lines of inquiry officers are investigating. This was completely irresponsible behaviour and we will do everything possible to trace those responsible and bring them to justice."

Anyone with any information is asked to call British transport police on 0800 40 50 40, or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Shiv Malik

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(25/05/2012)

A&E hospitals braced for heavy workload in summer of big events

The Olympics, Euro 2012 and the diamond jubilee are expected to produce a big caseload, many of them drunk, for hospitals

Drunken revellers will be treated in "booze buses" and field hospitals and have injuries stitched up at the roadside under NHS plans to cope with a surge of alcohol-related problems during a summer of major events.

One central London hospital is being put on "semi internal major incident" alert from Monday ready for the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations next weekend, adopting a protocol usually only seen on New Year's Eve.

Doctors, ambulance services and the police are finalising measures to keep those who have been binge drinking during the jubilee celebrations, Euro 2012 and the Olympics out of A&E to ensure hospitals do not become overwhelmed.

Extra staff will be deployed, in emergency departments and in mobile units near events and gatherings. There is particular concern about the extra pressure on services caused by the four-day jubilee bank holiday weekend and England's three football matches at Euro 2012 which start a few days later.

London will bear the brunt of increased demand because of the high number of celebrations taking place there. St Thomas's hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament, whose proximity to the West End means it deals with the largest number of intoxicated patients in the capital, will next week go into "semi internal major incident mode" in preparation for the jubilee weekend. It will take steps that are usually only necessary on New Year's Eve, when it treats large numbers of drunks who have attended celebrations beside the Thames.

"We increase our staffing levels in A&E, have more nurses working on the wards, and clear our emergency admission beds in preparation," said Dr Beth Christian, an A&E consultant at St Thomas's. "Sometimes we open up outpatients and put mattresses down on the floor." In addition, beds in admission wards will be cleared the day before major events to be available for drunk patients, she added.

University College Hospital, also in central London, will also increase the number of doctors and nurses and levels of drugs and other supplies.

In Portsmouth, paramedics will hand out flip-flops to intoxicated young women who can no longer walk safely on their high heels, in line with their regular weekend practice. The city will also use the treatment unit run on Friday and Saturday nights by the Project Safe Space multi-agency hub. Its staff, police and ambulance crews deal with minor injuries and the suturing of wounds, and provide five mattresses for people to lie down and sober up safely.

Tim Churchill, demand manager at South Central Ambulance Service which covers the city, said the centre helps reduce the demand on A&E and ambulance services. "Over the summer, because of the events, and particularly if the weather is good, we will be increasing service provision," he said.

Dr Mike Clancy, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&E doctors, said big events would put "added pressure" on NHS emergency services which are already facing rising demand.

"The resilience of the system is being tested on a daily basis," he said. "The events this summer are added pressure because there will be more people in the country and there will be increased numbers of alcohol cases for departments to deal with. Initiatives that safely care for patients suffering from uncomplicated mild intoxication in settings other than the emergency department are helpful."

In June, the Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, together with the police and ambulance service, is setting up its first mobile unit with medical and other support services on board to help people injured or harmed through alcohol.

In the East Midlands, the ambulance service will provide medical support for the extra events being put on to celebrate the Olympics. First-response vehicles with paramedics on board ? who can stitch people's injuries at the roadside ? will operate in Derby and Leicester for the jubilee weekend and for weekends during the Olympics.

Some hospitals, including the Royal Liverpool Hospital, are increasing the numbers of frontline staff on duty next weekend and during Euro 2012.

Brian Hayes, a senior paramedic with the London Ambulance Service, said he was particularly worried about Euro 2012, especially as the late afternoon and evening kick-off times for England's games in Ukraine and Poland would make it easier for fans to drink while watching them.

The London service will deploy its "booze bus", a customised ambulance that collects up to five drunks at a time and takes them to a recovery centre in Soho where they can sleep on camp beds while being monitored by paramedics. It has operated over the last two Christmases; in February, it began opening on Friday and Saturday nights. It treated 259 people over eight weekends between February and April.

The service is "cost effective" because it keeps people away from busy A&E departments and ambulances, said Hayes. London's ambulances dealt with 66,254 alcohol-related incidents in 2011-12; each callout cost £225.

Alcohol misuse costs the NHS millions of pounds each year. A recent audit by St Thomas's estimated that for the 12 months from late 2010 it dealt with 5,500 alcohol related A&E attendances that cost the NHS between £3m and £4.3m.

Dr Christian said this figure "is the tip of the iceberg" because there is massive under reporting. She said the emergency admission ward was "not set up to be a drunk tank", but 10 of their emergency beds are often occupied by people who are drunk.

"This is a very costly way to manage patients," she said. "An additional 30-40 patients for an A&E night shift can mean a department that is coping becomes a department that is overwhelmed. They are often very disruptive patients. The NHS can't afford a £1,000 for every big night," she said.

The four-hour waiting target in A&E, she added, means "we don't have the luxury of observing patients, so some patients risk being over investigated".

Kate Adams

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(25/05/2012)

Student protesters in Montreal defy restrictions as demonstrations grow

Emergency law tried to limit size and scope of tuition-hike protests, but police allow demonstration to go on as planned

Demonstrators in Montreal have continued to defy an emergency law passed by the provincial government in Quebec to restrict protests by students against planned tuition fee hikes.

As has become traditional, groups of protesters banged pots and pans, marching around the city for several hours.

But there was no repeat of the mass arrests that characterised the protests earlier in the week. On Wednesday, more than 500 Montrealers were arrested ? more than during the entire October 1970 crisis when martial law was declared in the city in response to actions by Quebec nationalists.

The total number of those arrested in the current protests has now exceeded 2,500, and the judicial process is already showing signs that it is struggling to cope.

As protesters snaked through the city's neighbourhoods on Thursday, residents and customers in restaurants showed their support by banging pots as they passed by.

The protest, which began at Place Emilie Gamelin, was declared illegal before it began, because organizers had not provided police with an itinerary, as required by a controversial new emergency law. But Montreal police said in a message posted on Twitter that protesters would be allowed to march as long as they remained peaceful. Four people were arrested.

Helicopters and riot police are an increasingly common sight on the streets of Montreal as a province-wide student strike passed the 100-day mark, but popular support only seems to be growing as the government attempts to clamp down on the strike.

Small red squares, the symbol of the strike historically worn by Montreal students supporting free tuition, are everywhere in the city ? cloth pinned to peope's lapels and daubed onto signs and walls.

Families and older residents are increasingly common sights at protests as well, demonstrating against Bill 78, which places restrictions on protests of more than 50 people. The bill imposes fines of $125,000 a day on student unions that defy its provisions, and student leaders shown to support unplanned protests can be fined up to a maximum of $5,000.

Michelle Hartman, an associate professor at McGill University who attended Thursday night's protest with her young son asleep in his stroller, said she had seen the variety of protesters expand since the strike began.

"There have been people all along who aren't just students ? and I think all along there have been supporters, but definitely since the Bill 78 there have been more and more people just from all different places coming out."

Hartman also noted support from English-speaking students as well. Since the student strike began on 13 February in Montreal, French-speaking universities and colleges have dominated the movement, having led the major strikes and political mobilizations in the 1990s and 2000s.

"What I find really inspiring about the movement is that I've noticed a lot of the students that I know from McGill, English-speaking students, international students from all over the states and other places participating along with their French-speaking and organizing with [them] more than in the past," Hartmann said.

Henri Fernand, 65, who took part in the protest in his wheelchair, told the Montreal Gazette: "The youth is our future and I'm proud of them. I'm here in solidarity with the students."

The protests have resulted in a backlash against the Quebec prime minister, Jean Charest, who has refused to back down over the tuition fee increase, and the new law.

Students have been boycotting classes over the past three months, arguing that the increases would lead to an increased dropout rate and more debt.

In response to the protests, the provincial government rushed through Bill 78 on 18 May. As well as the restrictions on protests, it suspends the current academic term and provides for when and how classes are to resume.

Some student organisers said that the introduction of the bill, far from cowing the demonstrations, had actually brought more support for their cause.

Erin Hale

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(25/05/2012)

Lloyds bank's Jessica Harper charged with £2.5m fraud

Former head of fraud at part-nationalised bank is accused of submitting false invoices

A former head of fraud at Lloyds Banking Group has herself been charged with a £2.5m fraud, causing blushes at the part-nationalised bank.

Jessica Harper, 50, is accused of submitting false invoices to the tune of £2.46m when working as head of fraud and security for digital banking. It is thought her work involved managing supplies and that the invoices did not relate to personal expenses.

The fraud is alleged to have started in September 2008, shortly before Lloyds had to be bailed out by the taxpayer. The UK government owns 41% of Lloyds after funnelling £20bn of rescue funds into the bank during the financial crisis.

Harper, who lives in Croydon, south London, will appear before Westminster magistrates court next Thursday, charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position.

Andrew Penhale, deputy dead of the CPS central fraud group, said: "The charge relates to an allegation that between 1 September 2008 and 21 December 2011 Jessica Harper dishonestly and with the intention of making a gain for herself abused her position as an employee of Lloyds Banking Group, in which she was expected to safeguard the financial interests of Lloyds Banking Group, by submitting false invoices to claim payments totalling £2,463,750.88, to which she was not entitled."

He said the CPS had decided there was "a realistic prospect of conviction and a prosecution is in the public interest".

Lloyds said: "As the court process is ongoing it would be inappropriate for us to comment."

Josephine Moulds

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(25/05/2012)

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