Thursday, December 15, 2011

Vladimir Putin calls Russia's protesters 'paid agents of the west'

The Russian PM holds his annual Q&A session with Russian voters, following street protests over his rule and alleged election fraud Link to this video

Vladimir Putin dismissed the thousands of protesters who have massed against his rule as agents of the west in his first response to the growing discontent during a marathon phone-in show.

Putin repeatedly mocked the protesters on Thursday, by comparing the symbol of their discontent – a white ribbon – to condoms. "Regarding 'colour revolutions', everything is clear – this is a developed scheme to destabilise society that did not rise up on its own," he said at the start of a televised Q&A that ran for more than four and a half hours.

He said students had been paid to turn out on Bolotnaya Square last weekend, when an unprecedented 50,000 people gathered to protest against disputed elections and Putin's rule. "Frankly, when I looked at the television screen and saw something hanging from someone's chest, honestly, it's indecent, but I decided that it was propaganda to fight Aids – that they were wearing, pardon me, a condom," Putin said. Protesters have adopted the symbol to express their opposition to the parliamentary election, which saw Putin's United Russia party gather nearly 50% of the vote despite widespread allegations of fraud.

Putin dismissed the allegations, calling them a tool for the opposition to gain power. "The opposition will always claim that [the elections] were dishonest – this happens in all countries," he said.

He did not address protesters' demands for a recount of the election result, or an annulment. Protesters have promised to gather for a second major demonstration on Christmas Eve and have begun focusing on building the movement ahead of a 4 March election, which is widely expected to return Putin to the presidency.

Putin repeatedly used the marathon call-in show as a platform for his presidential promises, promising to increase pensions, hand out housing to military officers and protect Russia from undefined enemies.

He lashed out several times at the US, further putting into doubt the much touted "reset" in relations between the two countries. "We would like to be allies with the United States," he said. "It seems to me that America doesn't need allies, but vassal states."

"People are tired of the dictates of one country," he said. He said the US continued to fear Russia's size and nuclear arsenal and lashed out at Senator John McCain, who recently said Russia's protests were a sign that the Arab Spring had reached Russia. "Mr McCain fought in Vietnam – he has enough civilian blood on his hands," Putin said.

He also saved choice words for London, saying that oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, embroiled in a high court lawsuit, should have met in a Russian court instead. "That would be more honest – for them and for our country," Putin said. "The money was made and stolen here – let them divvy it up here too."

Addressing growing criticism, Putin consistently shifted the blame to outside actors. One caller asked him to respond to a photograph that appeared in Kommersant Vlast magazine last week, showing a spoiled election ballot from London that was scrawled with a curse-laden insult directed at Putin.

"There's nothing new here," Putin said again. "I remember in the early 2000s, when we were actively fighting terrorism in the north Caucasus, there was nothing that I didn't hear or see – especially, of course, from our western partners."

"Regarding this inscription, as far as I remember, it was made on a ballot in London," Putin said. "We know who gathered in London and why they don't return to Russia." A host of Russian oligarchs and dissidents have fled to London since Putin first came to power 12 years ago, including Berezovsky, the Kremlin's favoured scapegoat.

Putin paid lip service to "developing democracy" but offered few concrete examples. Instead, he praised the government's growing strength: "Let it go a little bit and many will understand what real difficulties are." Putin has built his reputation on promises of stability, hinting that chaos would reign without his rule.

One man glaringly absent from Putin's answers was Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president. Putin only mentioned him once during the nearly 300-minute long spectacle, prompting many observers to question whether the outgoing president would be able to follow through with his planned job swap with Putin. Yet Putin devoted more time to praising his longtime ally Alexei Kudrin, who was fired as finance minister earlier this year.

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GOP debate: expect more grenades tossed Newt Gingrich's way

Newt Gingrich: needs to play against type and show some restraint and statesmanship. Photograph: Jeff Haynes/Reuters

Tonight's GOP presidential debate is the most imortant two hours of the year in US politics. Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and the other Republican rivals gather in Sioux City, Iowa, like the survivors of a first world war battle huddling in a trench.

One by one, the Republican candidates have gone over the top. Some barely made it out of their foxhole. But others have all made their brief bid for victory, only to be taken down by a deadly barrage from friends and enemies alike.

Tonight's debate is the last before voting starts in earnest with the Iowa caucuses on 3 January. For several of the candidates on stage it is also their last chance – in what will probably be the debate with the highest ratings of the season.

Newt Gingrich is the latest – and presumably last – of the GOP candidates to be wounded after racing into a lead in the opinion polls. Only days after Gingrich's surge showed the former speaker of the house vaulting into the forefront, his opponents starting laying landmines for him to trip over.

In particular, Mitt Romney spent much of the last debate five days ago lobbing grenades in Gingrich's direction. The pugnacious Gingrich was able to swat them away – but Romney has sharpened his attacks, helped by Gingrich hoisting himself by his own petard.

On Monday, responding to an attack by Romney for accepting huge fees from government-backed mortgage facilitator Freddie Mac, Gingrich responded bizarrely.

"I would just say that if Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain that I would be glad to then listen to him," said Gingrich, off the cuff at an event in New Hampshire.

At a stroke, Gingrich had not only punctured his self-declared positive campaign, but confirmed precisely the attacks that Romney and his surrogates had been making: that Gingrich was both unstable and – as the British say – too clever by half.

Republican presidential candidates who bash the free market's profit-making principle tend to have a short shelf life. The problem for Gingrich is that he only excites half of the Republican party. The other half, he terrifies.

A candidate-by-candidate guide to who wants what from tonight's debate:

Newt Gingrich. Needs to play against type and show some restraint and statesmanship. Likeability is his biggest problem, and he needs to reassure nervous Republicans that he has shed his ugly image from the 1990s and that his Nutty Professor persona wouldn't get in the way of being a serious presidential candidates.

Newt wins if: he keeps smiling while dodging flak from his rivals

Newt loses if: he starts spouting about EMP and moon colonies

Mitt Romney. Needs to make more headway in framing Gingrich as unstable and unconservative, ideally through recycling Gingrich's "bankrupting companies" charge. If he can needle Gingrich into biting back, so much the better.

Mitt wins if: he can bait Gingrich into saying something dumb

Mitt loses if: he can't defuse his previous "$10,000 bet" gaffe

Ron Paul. Will enjoy his time in the spotlight as his poll numbers in Iowa win him new-found respect from the media. But Fox News is no friend and he should expect a few pointed questions about his views on foreign policy.

Ron wins if: he can keep talking about big government

Ron loses if: he starts talking about 9/11 and al-Qaida

Rick Perry. Gave a solid debate performance last time and desperately needs another. Romney shouldn't be his target: he needs to steal support off Gingrich to get in the top four in the Iowa caucuses.

Rick wins if: he can bait Gingrich as effectively as he did Romney

Rick loses if: he has another debate full of flubs and gaffes

Michele Bachmann. Has faded because her debate performances have been poor, although the last debate was an improvement with her studied "Newt Romney" line, although it didn't gain much traction. She is betting everything on Iowa and needs to fend off Perry and Rick Santorum in the battle for conservative votes.

Michele wins: by talking in detail about policies

Michele loses: by repeating the same cliches as previous debates

Rick Santorum. Is in a mini-contest with Bachmann and, to some extent, Perry for conservative Iowa voters. He has been a good debater but his lack of airtime has choked off his chances.

Rick wins: by getting more airtime than Bachmann

Rick loses: by fading into the scenery

Jon Huntsman. Wasn't invited to the last debate. Sadly, no one noticed or much cared he wasn't there. He is less interested in Iowa, and is instead banking on New Hampshire, but the former Utah governor is unlikely to do well there either,

Jon wins: if he can sound more than just sensible

Jon loses: if he just whines about the format

The debate is being televised on Fox News and starts at 9pm ET (2am GMT).

The Guardian will be liveblogging the debate from 8pm ET.

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Jacques Chirac verdict welcomed by anti-corruption campaigners

Anh-Dao Traxel, Jacque Chirac's daughter, speaks outside the court after he was given a two-year suspended sentence. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

Jacques Chirac may have hoped to be remembered as the dapper president and diplomatic heavyweight who retired from the world stage to become the unofficial grandfather of his nation. A man of "flesh and blood and principles … employed in the service of his country," as he put it.

Instead, his place in French history has been seriously tarnished after a Paris court convicted him of embezzling public funds and gave him a two-year suspended prison sentence on corruption charges.

Posterity may judge that the former president's greatest achievement was not taking France into the euro or opposing the Iraq war, but inadvertently shining a light on the cronyism and corruption that have long dogged French politics.

Even before the verdict, the former president's lawyer had warned what was at stake. "Your judgment will be the last image we are given of Jacques Chirac," Georges Kiejman had told the court, pleading for his ailing client to be cleared.

Judge Dominique Pauthe was unmoved, however, and found Chirac guilty as charged of embezzling public funds, abusing public trust and an illegal conflict of interests.

The surprise verdict made Chirac the first former French leader to be convicted since Marshal Philippe Pétain, the head of the Vichy regime, was found guilty in 1945 of collaborating with the Nazis.

On Thursday night, Chirac said through his lawyers that he "categorically contested" the verdict, but that he would not be appealing against it.

Chirac, 79, who led France between 1995 and 2007, was not in court to hear the ruling. He had been given a special dispensation to be spared appearing at the trial in September and the reading of the verdict on Thursday after a medical report found he had "irreversible" neurological problems that had caused "an important loss of memory".

The judgment came 20 years after the crime and after more than a decade of legal wrangling. During his time as president, Chirac enjoyed immunity from prosecution and refused to testify before the investigating magistrate, saying it was "incompatible" with his role as head of state. In truth, even after he left office few expected the now frail former leader to be brought to justice, let alone convicted.

Even the public prosecutor had asked for the case to be dropped, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove intentional corruption. The court disagreed.

Benoît Hamon, spokesman for the opposition Socialist party, said it was only right it did. The judgment was late, he said, "but what is important is that it was made and that justice has been done".

It was, he added "a good sign for French democracy that an independent judiciary could pronounce such a verdict on a former president of the republic".

After the verdict Kiejman said he hoped the French would still find a place in their hearts for their former president, whose popularity soared after he left office in 2007 to be replaced by his former protege, Nicolas Sarkozy. "What I hope is that this ruling doesn't change in any way the deep affection the French feel legitimately for Jacques Chirac."

Speaking outside the courtroom, Chirac's adopted Vietnamese-born daughter, Anh Dao Traxel, fought back tears as she said: "The justice system has been very severe, but this is a fair and independent justice system. For the family, it's a great pain we have to accept."

Chirac, at one point declared the most unpopular president of the fifth republic by pollsters, was known for his suave charm, lack of pomposity, diplomacy and love of Mexican beer and Japanese sumo wrestling. The charges against him and nine other defendants, seven of whom were convicted on Thursday, date back from his time as mayor of Paris in the early 1990s, when Chirac was accused of using public money for his own political ends.

Dubbed the "fake jobs" affair, the case centred around 21 fictitious jobs created at Paris city hall between 1990 and 1995. He became mayor in 1977 (pictured left) and held the role until 1995 apart from a two-year period in the 80s when he was prime minister. Investigators have estimated about €1m (£838,000) in salaries and fees were misappropriated from the city payroll to pay people working full-time for Chirac's political party in the runup to his successful election campaign in 1995.

Chirac's right-hand man at city hall, Alain Juppé, a former prime minister and now French foreign minister, was given a 14-month suspended sentence for his part in the affair in 2004.

The Paris city authorities had renounced the right to be party to the case against him after striking a deal and being reimbursed by Chirac and the ruling right-of centre Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP) to the tune of €2.2m, without any admission of guilt.The case followed a string of corruption claims centred around political funding. Many of them involved Chirac's Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) party, which later became the UMP.

Chirac's successor as president, Sarkozy, has been tainted by corruption allegations implicating his friends and allies – also involving claims of illegal party funding. A judicial inquiry into the so-called Karachi Affair – investigating kickbacks from submarine sales to Pakistan in 1994 – has seen at least two of Sarkozy's friends put under investigation.

The long-running family feud that engulfed the family of L'Oréal heir Liliane Bettencourt also brought claims that she gave illegal cash donations in brown envelopes to members of Sarkozy's ruling party.

Sarkozy has always denied any involvement in any of the scandals. verdict saying it was an "exemplary sanction" against the former president.

Jerome Karsenti, a lawyer for the group, said the verdict sent a message to all of France's political elite. "It's also proof of a mature and transparent democracy that is today able to make a distinction and try a former president. I see it as a historic and very important decision for the future of French democracy," he said.

As for his place in the history books: whether Chirac will be ultimately remembered as a consummate politician or common criminal, only time will tell.

'Le Bulldozer'

Jacques René Chirac was born on 29 November 1932, the son of an airline company executive and his wife. He grew up an only child; his elder sister Jacqueline died before he was born.

He was president of France from 1995 until 2007 and has been prime minister twice, from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988.

He studied at the prestigious Institute for Political Sciences in Paris and did a term at Harvard University before attending the elite civil servants' school, the École Nationale d'Administration, from which he became a high-level civil servant and entered politics. He modelled himself on de Gaulle and earned a reputation as "Le Bulldozer".

In his younger days he had a reputation as a ladies' man.He is married to the aristocratic Bernadette Chodron de Courcel and they have two daughters, Laurence and Claude, who worked as her father's personal assistant when he was president. They also have a Vietnamese-born adopted daughter, Anh Dao Traxel.

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David Cameron questioned over £448m cash to tackle problem families

 

David Cameron at the Ocean Estate in Stepney, east London. He wants local councils to add £675m to aid the scheme to deal with problem families Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

David Cameron faced questions over whether he has found enough Whitehall cash to effectively help the 120,000 problem families said to cost nearly £8bn in state support.

Cameron announced £448m of funding and said he hoped a further £675m would be advanced by local councils over the next three years.

The cash from Whitehall is designed to fund caseworkers to help tackle deep-seated problems faced by "chaotic families", and co-ordinate the often overlapping work of local agencies.

Local councils will not receive the £448m cash until they can show Louise Casey – the new "troubled families tsar" – that their interventions have cut truancy, antisocial behaviour or addiction.

The scheme is formally voluntary, but if a family refuses to co-operate, councils already have the powers to evict tenants, take children into care or issue antisocial behaviour orders.

The proposals are largely built on ideas introduced by Tony Blair and then expanded by Gordon Brown.

Cameron claimed in his speech that Labour's approach had failed, but the research he published on the effectiveness of family intervention projects derives from ideas developed by Casey and ministers during the Labour years.

Cameron was urged to expand the Labour scheme by the Downing Street permanent secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood. The cash is being drawn from existing budgets held by the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Home Office, the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The success of the scheme will largely depend on whether Casey, one of the most hands-on and blunt-speaking civil servants, can drive councils to take the issue seriously.

She said: "This money should incentivise local authorities, people from health, police, to get a grip of what is happening locally. Part of getting a grip is putting in some money.

"We all need to show commitment and the way you do that is by putting some money on the table, and if you put money on the table, you will get savings.

"At the moment we spend an awful lot of money in a reactive crisis way. The financial climate is all the more reason we help these families now."

Studies published on Thursday by the DCLG show encouraging results from the projects attempted between February 2007 and March 2011.

Interventions typically last a year. Data on the whereabouts of these troubled families facing multiple problems is four years out of date out of date, and will be updated by February.

Cameron said: "We need to provide leadership at the top, action in local authorities and results on the ground. We're not prescribing a single response. But we are demanding results from councils in return for support.

"For many of the most troubled families, there will be a family worker – a single point of contact for the first time for particular families, working out what the family needs, where the waste is and lining up the right services at the right time.

"When the front door opens and the worker goes in, they will see the family as a whole and get a plan of action together, agreed with the family.

"This will often be basic, practical things that are the building blocks of an orderly home and a responsible life. These things don't always cost a lot but they make all the difference. And they will get on top of the services, sorting out – and sometimes fending off – the 28 or more different state services that come calling at the door.

"Not a string of well-meaning, disconnected officials who end up treating the symptoms and not the causes.

"But a clear hard-headed recognition of how the family is going wrong — and what the family members themselves can do to take responsibility."

Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "Improving lives for families and residents is at the heart of what councils do and closer working between public sector agencies like job centres, schools, police, probation officers and social services locally will get better results and cost less.

"It is great news that the money announced today will go to local areas to build on much excellent work already under way. We must ensure this support gets to where it is most needed and is not tied up in endless bureaucracy and form filling.

"We are pleased government has recognised the need for all departments to work much more closely with councils at a local level. This is vital to help us overcome historic hurdles which have stood in the way of the huge savings and greater local accountability this co-ordinated approach can deliver."

Former Labour minister David Blunkett said: "The idea of co-ordinating all resources going into families where there has been a history of worklessness, a variety of forms of dysfunctionality, or troubled youngsters, makes absolute sense.

"However, it is critically important that what is delivered is genuinely a co-ordination of the various streams of funding that are currently available as well as the extra money – above all that there is consistency and quality. My worry is that with a substantial cutback in the local Sure Start programmes, a further reduction in investment in the family intervention programmes, and regrettably in child and adolescent mental health investment, we're taking with one hand while giving with the other."

Barnardo's chief executive, Anne Marie Carrie, said: "We are glad to see the government has acted to support the most troubled families.

"Grassroots services that help prevent vulnerable children and families from getting into difficulties are key to making sure we don't store up problems for society in the future.

"The voluntary sector has an important role to play in reaching out to families with multiple needs, particularly as they may feel that accepting help from them is less stigmatising."

Enver Solomon, director of policy at the Children's Society, said: "Intensive family support co-ordinated by a dedicated skilled worker can make a real difference to chaotic families who have multiple needs.

"But it is important to recognise that there are no quick fixes for families and their children whose problems are often linked with challenging mental health needs, alcohol misuse and poverty.

"Turning around their lives can be a long term process that on the way involves success and failure depending a great deal on accessing good quality specialist support as well as achieving financial security."

 

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Milly Dowler hacking was tip of the iceberg

Did a mistake in the Guardian's Milly Dowler story cause the closure of the News of the World?

The last 72 hours has seen a string of complaints that Rupert Murdoch's decision to shut down the 168-year-old title in July stemmed from a solitary fact: that it was initially reported, wrongly, by this newspaper that the NoW was responsible for deleting voicemail messages on the phone of the schoolgirl, messages that gave her family false hope that she was in fact alive.

As fresh evidence has emerged, it is now understood that this was not the case. The false hope moment came before Glenn Mulcaire, the hacking specialist employed by the News of the World, was tasked with targeting Milly's phone.

The result has been a volley of criticism, in part from past and present News International employees, that without that aspect of the story the NoW would still be open today and 200 people who had been promised redeployment would not have lost their jobs.

Richard Caseby, managing editor of the Sun, summed up the response to a Lords committee, protesting about the "twist of the knife".

He said "the Guardian's statement of fact" regarding the deletions "turned what was natural condemnation into a wave of such public revulsion that the News of the World could not really function as a going concern any more and it had to be shut down".

Others have latched on to the argument. The Leveson inquiry was told that this week a journalist from the Daily Mail called up to ask the Dowlers' lawyer, Mark Lewis, if the family would be "giving their money back". (The family received £2m in relation to its phone-hacking claims.)

There remains no dispute that Milly's phone was hacked into and messages left for her were listened to in April 2002. Journalists from the NoW approached Surrey police, who were searching for Milly, with transcripts of messages left on her phone.

The Guardian's story about the hacking of Milly's phone was published on the afternoon of Monday 4 July. The decision to close was announced on the afternoon of Thursday 7 July. It stunned everybody at the time. Nobody had been calling for the newspaper to close, although allegations of phone hacking were mounting.

Incredulous staff were told by former editor and the then News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks: "Worse revelations are yet to come and you will understand in a year why we closed the News of the World." Company insiders briefed that the title had become "toxic".

According to the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times, James Murdoch said to his father: "Pops, we've got to close it down. If we act now, we do it ourselves." Rupert asked some questions, paused, and uttered one word: "Yes."

The Dowler story had an enormous impact, taking the hacking scandal beyond celebrities and politicians. But it was not the only story about alleged NoW illegal activity to emerge in the three days before the Murdochs swung the axe. The Daily Telegraph followed with two influential scoops that added to the mix. On 6 July, it splashed on "Hackers 'snooped on Soham families'," and also reported that Scotland Yard was contacting the families of victims of the 7/7 bombings amid concerns that they had been targeted.

A day later, the Telegraph splashed with "Families of war dead 'hacked,'" this time reporting that bereaved relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan may have been targeted and the London Evening Standard wrote that Metropolitan police officers had allegedly received £100,000 in unlawful payments from NoW journalists.

There was a wider context. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation was, at the time, close to winning approval for its highly controversial bid for BSkyB. George Brock, a former managing editor of the Times who is now a professor of journalism at City University, said: "What the Dowler story made clear was that phone hacking wasn't just aimed at celebrities and that the attempts to conceal its scope were going to fail. I'd guess that in that context, News Corp felt that only a very dramatic gesture could possibly save the bid for full control of Sky, which was the company's biggest issue at that stage."

That leads him to conclude the paper would have shut anyway, with or without the detail about deletions, although in the end the BSkyB bid also failed shortly after.

A more significant question is what made the NoW so vulnerable. In some respects, News International had been waiting for a Milly Dowler-like story to drop for months. Towards the very end of 2010, the Murdoch newspaper publisher quietly changed strategy, conceding finally that the old "rogue reporter" defence it had been using since Clive Goodman was jailed in 2007 was dead. It fell apart when a second journalist, Ian Edmondson, the news editor, was suspended after it had been alleged in court that he had ordered Mulcaire to hack into phones belonging to Sienna Miller. He was later dismissed, and has since been arrested on hacking charges.

The recognition at the Murdoch publisher prompted a wave of internal thinking. Senior insiders talked about "scenario planning" – and one such scenario was that a victim of crime would emerge as a target of phone hacking.

News International's tabloids, had, in part, been built on the elevation of the victim: Brooks and other executives well appreciated that a Dowler-like story would be a game changer.

There had been a false alarm a few weeks earlier when the Labour MP Tom Watson said the parents of the murdered Soham girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, had been contacted by the police investigating hacking. But the story did not catch fire.

NI had already endured months of pressure. The ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson had resigned in January from his job in Downing Street as the drip-drip of speculation about the amount of hacking intensified. A few days later the Met began Operation Weeting, its first serious inquiry into phone hacking since the work that had led to the prosecution of Goodman and Mulcaire.

The arrests of the current and former NoW journalists Edmondson, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup followed. The company threw in its hand on the growing number of civil actions brought by the likes of Miller and Tessa Jowell, setting up a compensation fund that it hoped would pay out no more than £20m. Two other police inquiries – Elveden, into alleged corrupt payments to police officers, and Tuleta, into computer hacking – had begun.

There has been hardly any let-up since, although there has been so much revelation that what would have once been a significant development is seen as an incremental piece of news.

Operation Weeting has concluded that 803 people were hacked over a period of about five years, which would imply a rough average of three a week – although nobody will probably ever know how much hacking was done by journalists privately without the assistance of Mulcaire, whose 11,000 pages of notes are critical to the police case. It has to be asked if the NoW could have survived all this.

Significantly, News Corporation has remained silent this week. It has allowed an outrider in the form of Richard Caseby to go on the attack, but the company is mindful of the risks of making firm statements which are undermined by subsequent events.

The expectation, indeed, had been that the publisher would act swiftly to launch a Sunday Sun – undermining the sense the company had suffered long term commercial damage – although in recent months the speculation that it would do so has receded.

It may not be the case that the paper caused the voicemail deletions that gave the Dowler family false hope that Milly was still alive in March 2002.

But there has been no shortage of other serious allegations levelled against the paper, both before its closure and after.

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Learn Quran it brings happiness in this world and the Here after. Reading quran online inspires a man to explore the Arabic quran teachings in a new manner and see the world in a different way the way of truth and guidance. Learn holy Quran it brings happiness in this world and the world after death. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: If you desire the life of the fortunate, the death of a martyr, the salvation on the Day of Regret and the shade on the Day of Extreme Heat, then you should study the Quranic education because it is the word of the Merciful, a sanctuary from Shaytaan and a causes the tilting of the Balance. It is the deputy of every Muslim to spread the word of justice let teach kids quran from the beginning the quran quida  and ask then for listening to quran online from different reciter’s and learn quran tafsir and the quranic tafseer with translation and let the do quran memorization   and learn tajweed quran rules from quran tutor and guide them to spread the word of peace 

Quarter of UK women had underage sex, report finds

More than a quarter of young women today say that they first had sex when they were below the age of 16, a greater proportion than in any previous generation asked about underage sex in an official annual health survey.

Around 27% of women aged between 16 and 24 said they had sex before they reached 16, according to the Health Survey for England. Fewer men in the same age bracket – 22% – said they were under 16 when they first had sex.

The findings of the latest survey, for 2010, suggest that sexual behaviour has changed over the generations, according to the NHS Information Centre, which publishes the annual report, with the proportion of women having sex early growing over time – a trend that is not matched in men.

The median age at which both men and women became sexually active was 17. A substantial proportion of young people aged 16 to 24 had not yet had sex – 26% of young women and 32% of men.

One in five 16-to-24-year-olds reported having had 10 or more sexual partners – with substantially more men (27%) than women (13%) reporting 10 or more.

Men reported a mean of 9.3 sexual partners, while women reported a mean of 4.7. But 17% of women and 24% of men said they had had only one.

Women were more likely to have been diagnosed by a doctor with a sexually transmitted infection – 12% of women aged 16 to 69 said they had contracted an infection, compared with 9% of men of the same age. Equal proportions of men and women – 2% – had been diagnosed more than once.

Young people are more likely than those who are older to have been tested for the STI chlamydia (27% of men and 44% of women aged 16 to 24, compared with 6% of men and 12% of women aged 45 to 54).

Rebecca Findlay, spokesperson for the sexual health charity FPA, said: "This tends to reflect other research on the issue, but we must remember that most young people under 16 aren't sexually active.

"Society has changed dramatically in the last 50 years and the nature of relationships has too. Education and information safeguard the sexual health needs of young people and help them resist having sex before they're ready, which is why, given this data from the NHS Information Centre, there's an overwhelming need for statutory sex and relationships education in schools."

The shadow health minister Diane Abbott said the rising numbers of girls having underage sex was alarming. "It is not a cost-free phenomenon. It poses public health policy challenges and social challenges," she said.

"The underlying cause must be the 'pornification' of the culture and the increasing sexualisation of pre-adolescent girls. Too many young girls are absorbing from the popular culture around them that they only have value as sex objects. Inevitably, they act this notion out.

"The government needs to respond to spiralling underage sex, not with pointless schemes to teach abstinence, but with better PSHE [personal, social, health and economic] teaching in schools for both girls and boys."

She said she was also concerned that the government's reforms would mean local government taking responsibility for sexual health. "In economically straitened times, this could mean cuts in the services offered and even worse underage sex figures in the future," she said.

The report also found that obesity among adults is at the highest level since 1993. Some 26% of men and women were obese in 2010 and, overall, 68% of men and 58% of women were overweight or obese.

The prevalence of obesity has increased from 13% in 1993 to 26% in 2010 among men, and from 16% to 26% among women.

Overall, 16% of men and 17% of women have also been diagnosed with asthma.

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Read quran and it will guided us to the true teaching of The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) he summarized the religion of Islam with this statement: “The Religion is naseehah (sincerity)!” So then Tameem ibn Aws, may Allah be pleased with him, then said, “We asked, ‘To whom?’” He said: “To Allah, HIS BOOK holy quran, His Messenger, the leaders of the people, and their common folk.” [Muslim] so to study the religion people should go to the source of and source of Islam is the quran so learning quran and reading quran with the meaning the quran tafsir and then explore the words of wisdom. And for the Muslims the sincerity that is due to the Book of Allah includes doing the quran recitation, listening to quran along with learning the tajweed rules and reciting it beautifully, letting our kids learn quran learning holy quran tafseer and the reasons for its revelation, affirming that it is the Truth, the perfect Speech of Allah and not part of the creation, honoring it and defending it, abiding by the orders and prohibitions found in it and teaching quran to spread the word or truth and calling to it. So by learning quran education online and reflecting over the Quran online, one fulfills an obligation and is rewarded for that. Upon fulfilling this obligation, the Quran then becomes a proof for him on the Day of Judgment! And that is our second benefit we will take by embracing this Noble Book...

 

Syrian rebels 'kill 27 secret policemen and soldiers'

An image released by a group called Ugarit News purporting to show tanks moving along a road in Deraa, Syria Photograph: AP

Syrian rebels claimed to have killed 27 members of the security forces in clashes on Thursday – providing more evidence that the country is sliding into a state of permanent armed insurgency.

On the day that saw the Syrian uprising enter its 10th month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) named 74 senior officials and commanders – including President Bashar al-Assad – who it said should face investigation for crimes against humanity.

The claim that 27 soldiers and secret policemen had been killed by armed defectors in attacks on three separate roadblocks in Deraa near the Jordanian border – where the unprecedented unrest began peacefully in March in the early days of the Arab spring – was made by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It was not possible to obtain independent confirmation of the report, which appears to be one of the worst attacks yet on Syrian government forces. Defectors were also said to have killed least eight soldiers on Wednesday and seven on Tuesday. Responsibility for the Deraa attacks was claimed by the Free Syrian Army.

According to the UN some 5,000 people have been killed in Syria's unrest so far.

Opposition groups reported further incidents of violence on Thursday. The Syrian Revolution General Commission had counted 12 dead by mid-afternoon, including a seven-year-old from the Khalil family in Hama.

It also named four conscripts who were gunned down in Deraa after refusing to open fire on civilians. The Local Co-ordination Committee, a network of activists, said eight had died.

Sana, Syria's official news agency, highlighted a report on the funerals of 11 "martyrs" from the army, police and security forces who had been "targeted by armed terrorist groups" while performing their duty in Homs, Hama, and Deraa.

HRW, calling for an International Criminal Court investigation of Assad and others, said Syrian army commanders had told troops to crush protests "by all means necessary," often giving explicit orders to fire on demonstrators.

Its researchers interviewed 63 army and intelligence defectors, one of whom said his brigade was told to "use as many bullets as you want" in Deraa in April.

A sniper in Homs said commanders ordered that a certain percentage of demonstrators should die. "For 5,000 protesters, for example, the target would be 15 to 20 people," he told HRW. About half of the defectors said officers who issued orders to fire at protesters also assured their men they would not be held accountable.

HRW quoted a soldier who defected from the army's 5th Division: "Our general orders were to kill, destroy stores, crush cars in the streets and arrest people."

France's foreign minister, Alain Juppé and the European Parliament called separately for Assad to step down – a demand being made with increasing frequency by western governments. Assad has denied that orders were issued "to kill or be brutal." He also claimed he was not responsible for the actions of the security forces, despite being the commander in chief.

Frederic Hof, the US state department's key official for Syria, told Congress on Wednesday that the repression may allow Assad to cling to power, but only for a short time. "Our view is that this regime is the equivalent of a dead man walking," he said.

Syria was turning into "Pyongyang in the Levant," a reference to the capital of North Korea. It was difficult to say how long Assad has left in power, he said, but added: "I do not see this regime surviving."

In Istanbul, a former ambassador-turned-dissident announced the formation of an opposition group named the National Alliance of Revolutionary Forces in Syria. Mohammad Bassam Imadi, Syria's former envoy to Sweden, said NARF would work with the larger Syrian National Council to overthrow the regime.

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Reading quran and exploring it is the true duty of a Muslim because it contains Allah’s message to all people and the quran teaching tells the people that how to act correctly. By learning quran you will find that it guides us to a correct way of life in this world. We as a practicing Muslim should teach our kids quran and let the kids learn quran recitation and do quran memorization and we also do quran memorization by heart and there is an other importing thing that learn quran with tajweed because the tajweed rules are very important regarding the pronunciation and way or read the holy quran and further more enhancing the quranic studies by learning quran tafseer and reading quran the translation with it listening to quran online with the quran recitation don by some of the top reciter also. It is the Book of Allah also talks about life after death. It tells us that Allah has prepared Paradise for good people and Hell for bad people. Wile reading Quran we see that it encourages the worship of only one God Who creates and provides for them. The Book forbids people from evil and condemns those who do wrong. It contains stories of the past Prophets and the examples of bad and good people. Find online quran courses