Alaskan senator Ted Stevens loses fight for re-election
Ted Stevens, a titan of Alaskan politics who gambled that voters would overlook his conviction on corruption charges, yesterday narrowly lost his race for re-election to the Senate.
Stevens, who turned 85 on Tuesday, was trailing Mark Begich, a Democratic mayor of Anchorage, by 3,724 votes when the result was declared after a two-week count of absentee and early voting ballots.
The Republican did not immediately concede the race, and aides had suggested earlier yesterday as Begich was building his lead that Stevens could seek a recount.
But the strain on the man who had been active in Alaskan politics since before it even became a state was growing more apparent. In Washington earlier yesterday, Stevens confessed to reporters he had no idea whether he would be back in town when the new Congress is convened.
"I wouldn't wish what I'm going through on anyone, my worst enemy," he said. "I haven't had a night's sleep for almost four months."
Stevens - or Uncle Ted as he was known at home - was first elected to the Senate just nine years after Alaska achieved statehood, channeling billions of dollars in military and federal government contracts to the region over the years.
The longest serving Republican in the Senate, he was also one of the more influential figures in Washington.
But his dominance of Alaskan politics came crashing down when he was convicted on seven charges of corruption - barely a week before election day.
Stevens was found guilty of failing to report more than $250,000 worth of building work on his "chalet" and other gifts from an Alaska oil company.
In an act of defiance, he went from the courtroom in Washington straight back home to Alaska to campaign vigorously for re-election, casting his conviction as politically motivated. He also said he would appeal the verdict.
The strategy, which played on Alaskans' distrust of the mainland, initially seemed successfully. Even Begich was cautious of directly criticising Stevens.
The Alaskan Republican's loss to Begich puts the Democrats one step closer to a filibuster-proof majority in Congress. The Democrats now have 58 seats, with races in Georgia and Minnesota still undecided.
Stevens' exit also spares his Republican colleagues the embarrassment of seeing him face expulsion proceedings from the Senate.
Mitch McConnell, who leads Republicans in the Senate, had earlier called on Stevens to resign.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsDemocrats line up first black attorney general
Barack Obama's administration began to take shape yesterday after it was reported that he had chosen a former Clinton official as his attorney general.
Eric Holder, 57, a member of Obama's vice-presidential search committee, was reported to be Obama's top choice to head the justice department by Newsweek and other news organisations yesterday.
The New York native has a solid legal resumé: prosecutor, judge, and deputy attorney general in Bill Clinton's administration. He spent six years working for a high-powered Washington law firm before signing up to the Obama campaign.
He would be the first African-American attorney general, taking on a justice department demoralised after nine federal prosecutors were sacked for failing to demonstrate enough loyalty to George Bush. The justice department is also accused of tailoring its legal advice on torture and wiretapping without court oversight to suit the Bush administration. However, Holder also carries political baggage from his role in the flurry of controversial pardons granted by Bill Clinton during his last days in the White House.
Officials did not confirm the reports that Obama had settled on Holder, and it is thought the president-elect will move first to announce a treasury secretary and secretary of state. But as with the increasing anticipation that Obama had chosen Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, neither the president-elect nor his aides did anything to counter the reports.
Holder would be taking over a department still in disarray after it emerged that the former attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, had sacked nine district attorneys for purely ideological reasons.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsPolice raid Lincolnshire farms in human trafficking inquiry
More than 60 eastern Europeans, allegedly required to work long hours for little money, were removed from Lincolnshire leek fields yesterday morning in the UK's biggest move against human trafficking for labour exploitation.
Police believe the workers, aged 15 to 67, ended up with pay far below the minimum wage, after working up to 16 hours a day, six days a week.
On top of the punishing shifts in the fields of East Anglia, the workers were spending up to four hours a day travelling in vans between the farms and their cramped accommodation in Northamptonshire and the West Midlands, according to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. It is thought some of the vegetables they picked went to the big supermarkets.
Three men were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation, and four men and a woman were held on suspicion of people trafficking and money laundering. All are UK residents but their nationalities have not been not confirmed.
Possibly hundreds of victims had been exploited, police said. Detectives suspect the workers, most of whom were in Britain legally, were recruited through adverts and agencies abroad, including in Poland and Lithuania.
Police believe they would have been given money to get to the UK but then been required to pay it back, possibly with interest, from their earnings, and that passports or ID cards would have been taken and cash deducted for rent and transport to the fields. The system was "debt bondage", Andy Baker, Soca's deputy director, said.
Baker said police believed violence was used against some of the people and that some worked without protective clothing and had cuts to their hands. Yesterday's swoop took place in pouring rain and the workers allegedly wore only light clothing. "There were virtually no health and safety measures taken. These conditions were pretty poor."
More than 200 staff from nine organisations were involved in the operation in Holbeach, south Lincolnshire, and in Kettering, Northamptonshire, and other areas of the Midlands, where 21 houses were searched. The move took six months to plan.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsLife magazine photo collection goes online
One of the biggest photo collections in the world that ranges from the 1880s through to the seminal moments of the 20th century and on into the present day was made available to the public online yesterday.
The bulk of the archive is from Life magazine, the premier platform for photojournalists in the 20th century. About 10m images will eventually be available, from Marilyn Monroe and JFK to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. About 97% of the pictures have never been seen before.
Google announced yesterday it had done a deal with Life to put their pictures online. Also available is work from other archives, much of it collected by the former Time publisher Henry Luce.
The collection includes the entire works of Life photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili and Nina Leen. Also available are: the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York from the 1880s; and Hugo Jaeger Nazi-era Germany 1937-1944.
RJ Pittman, the director of product management at Google, said: "We are very excited to bring this amazing collection of photos and etchings from the archives to the internet. With so many never before seen images, this is going to be a real benefit to the public."
About 20% of the collection went online yesterday.
Dawn Bridges, a spokeswoman for TimeInc, said that the archives in their entirety would be available in the first quarter of next year. She said it would not just be historical.
"We will be adding new things. There will be thousands of new pictures from DC for the inauguration on January 20," she said.
Life magazine is defunct but lives on on the internet as Life.com.
Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search.
Google, in a press statement, said: "The effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organise all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
It added: "Only a small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings and prints."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsRichest British Asians increase their wealth despite downturn
Arts diary: Bregenz opera festival shaken and stirred by the 007 connection
The name's Pountney, David Pountney. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? Still, the artistic director of the Bregenz opera festival in Austria (he was also part of the team that ran English National Opera in the 1980s) is as quietly smug as any double-O now that his festival has featured in the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.
An extended sequence in the film takes place during a performance of Philip Himmelmann's 2007 production of Tosca, on Bregenz's spectacular floating stage on Lake Constance - with lots of exciting spying and chasing to the sound of the famous Te Deum. And the really brilliant part? Unlike commercial product placements, Bregenz got paid. "We charged what it cost and a little bit more," said Pountney. "This is fantastic publicity, immeasurable. What comes from this is recognition on an unbelievable scale. Some of the nicest sequences in the film are the chase through our building. Of course, it's not a very good film otherwise."
The production - at least, the Te Deum scene and most of act two - was specially mounted for a week of filming through the night from 6pm to 6am. An army of 1,500 local extras was marshalled (in reality, there are 7,000 seats, so people were moved around to give the impression of a sell-out show). For the benefit of those who study continuity and other errors in Bond films (though the Diary thinks you need no encouragement), here's one for the list: Bregenz lacks an airport, even though the baddies are said to be flying there. And nobody dresses up for the opera at Bregenz - it's come as you are. If you fancy it, they are doing Aida next year.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsFor men who pay for sex with trafficked women, ignorance is no longer a defence
New prostitution laws to be set out today will mean a plea of ignorance is no defence for men facing prosecution for buying sex from a woman who has been trafficked or is being exploited by a pimp.
Under proposals to be published today by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, a man who "knowingly" pays for sex with a woman who has been trafficked or is under the control of a pimp could face a charge of rape, which carries a potential life sentence.
The new offence of paying for sex with somebody who is "controlled for another person's gain" is to carry a hefty fine and a criminal record.
The decision to criminalise men who pay for sex with trafficked women is likely to have a widespread impact. The Metropolitan police have estimated that 70% of the 88,000 women involved in prostitution in England and Wales are under the control of traffickers.
It forms part of a wider package of reforms to tackle street prostitution, including prosecuting first-time kerb crawlers and implementing stronger police powers to close down brothels.
The package marks a sharp change of approach for Labour, which four years ago proposed a partial decriminalisation of prostitution in red-light "tolerance zones", and then powers to allow two or three women to work together in a brothel to provide protection for each other. The first proposal, by the former home secretary David Blunkett, was blocked by Downing Street, reportedly because of fears of a hostile media response.
Despite some expectations, today's package will not include changes to the licensing of lapdancing clubs, although Smith has indicated that proposals will be made in future to regulate them on the same basis as sex shops. This is expected to give residents stronger powers to object and to lead to the closure of some clubs, especially in residential areas.
The change in the law follows a six-month Home Office-led review of prostitution laws which included visits by ministers, including Harriet Harman and Vernon Coaker, to Amsterdam and Stockholm to see how the law worked there.
Harman has described the flow of women brought into Britain by human traffickers as "a modern slave trade", and said that it only exists because men are prepared to buy sex: "So to protect women we must stop men buying sex from the victims of human trafficking."
The home secretary has made clear that under the new offence it will not be enough for a man to say "I didn't know". The new offence will include a "strict liability" test so that police will only have to prove that the man paid for sex, and that the woman had been trafficked. There will be no need to prove he knew it at the time.
The tougher approach will allow first-time kerb crawlers spotted by the police to be prosecuted. At present, the police can only prosecute persistent offenders. Police will get powers to close down brothels where there is evidence of trafficking.
The former Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart yesterday warned that the new criminal offence of paying for sex with a trafficked woman might fall apart in practice, and said there had been no prosecutions in Finland, the only other country where it had been made law.
The English Collective of Prostitutes said yesterday that experience had taught them any law against consenting sex forces prostitution further underground and makes women vulnerable to violence.
Key facts
· Men to be prosecuted if they pay for sex with women who are trafficked or under control of a pimp
· Ignorance that woman was being controlled not to be a defence and conviction to carry hefty fine and criminal record
· Men who knowingly pay for sex with trafficked women may face rape charges
· First-time kerb crawlers face prosecution and naming and shaming
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsToo long and too many cliches: critics pan Australia, the movie
Iraqis accused of killing soldiers at risk of torture, court told
Two Iraqis accused of killing British soldiers risk being tortured and executed, in violation of their human rights, if they are tried in Iraq for war crimes, the high court was told yesterday.
Faisal Al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Mufdhi, 58, who are being held by British forces in Basra, are accused of murdering Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp in 2003.
John Hutton, the defence secretary, intends to hand the men over to the Iraqi higher tribunal (IHT). Karon Monaghan QC told Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Silber that there was "a real risk" of a "flagrantly unfair trial before the IHT - and the death penalty thereafter".
They could also face "torture and inhuman and degrading treatment".
That would violate both the European convention on human rights and the 1998 Human Rights Act, and run counter to the government's policy of not exposing any individual to the risk of the death penalty, Monaghan argued.
The continuing detention of both men was in any case unlawful and they should be released and given secure passage "to an agreed location", she said.
British government lawyers say that the two Iraqis are being held lawfully and there is insufficient evidence that their human rights would be at risk in Iraq.
Lawyers for the two Iraqis argue there are substantial grounds for believing that if the men were transferred they would be at real risk of a "flagrantly unfair trial, the death penalty, [and] torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and/or death by state and non-state actors in Iraq whilst in detention pending trial".
The Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office say they have been given assurances at the "highest level" that both men will receive a fair trial and be treated fairly. British military officials had inspected and approved the prison where they will be held, they told the high court.
The murder of Cullingworth, 36, and Allsopp, 24, members of 33 Engineer Regiment bomb disposal specialists, provoked a storm in Britain. The soldiers were travelling in a convoy which was ambushed by fedayeen militiamen in southern Iraq on March 23 2003. Cullingworth, who was married with two sons, and Allsopp were taken to an Iraqi military intelligence compound, where they were shot dead.
Photos of the soldiers at the compound as they lay dying, surrounded by a baying crowd, were later shown on al-Jazeera.
The legal-aided hearing is due to last three days.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsCruel sea: Week of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia
Piracy and ransom payments: Risky business - safe transactions
The lesson from recent years in the Gulf of Aden is that piracy pays, and it is a lesson that has not been lost on the pirates.
Piracy is big business and almost certainly the biggest single business in Somalia's lawless state. The typical ransom paid is between $1m (£500,000) and $2m, and the shipowners, lacking any other means of safeguarding their crews, ships and cargoes have consistently been willing to pay. Most estimates put the total ransoms paid so far this year at more than $30m.
The mechanics of those transactions are fraught with risk. How do you deliver large amounts of cash discreetly to a band of pirates on the high seas? Most maritime security experts involved in the trade are reluctant to talk, but there appears to be more than one method, and the name of the game is cautious improvisation.
Pirates will deliver their initial demand to the shipowners either via radio from the deck of the captured vessel or intermediaries on shore. They can be anywhere in the Middle East or as far away as London.
The negotiation can take weeks. The pirates have become increasingly ambitious, demanding $35m for a Ukrainian arms ship, the MV Faina, captured in September. The owners were last reported to have beaten the ransom down to $8m but the ship remains in the pirates' hands.
Jason Alderwick, a maritime security expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: "There is usually a coordinator onshore who deals with the dynamics. Money is brought to a prearranged location, which could be in Somalia or Yemen. There is basically a transfer of money bags. The money goes down the line through a series of intermediaries, with the local government, the mayor or chiefs having a direct hand.
"The transaction has tended to take place away from the vessel and away from the crew, because if it's tracked or traced, then they are finished."
Often the intermediaries have been Somalis nationals living in Europe, the Middle East or Africa, and the money disappears into the traditional banking system, hawala, which operates through trust and personal relationships, and is very hard to monitor.
In the case of a Spanish trawler hijacked in 2000, the payment was made in London, according to the shipowner.
"There are some law firms that specialise in this and the kidnappers have contacts there," Inaki Latxaga told a local newspaper earlier this year. "I think anyone can judge for themselves the actions of these firms, because sometimes you have to ask yourself whether the pirates are in Somalia or in London."
Alderwick agreed. "The City of London has a lot on its hands," he said.
But in recent months security experts say there is a trend towards direct deliveries, to Somalia or to the captured ship, as intermediaries in third countries with functioning legal systems have become wary of handling the transaction.
Roger Middleton, the author on a report on piracy for the Chatham House foreign policy thinktank, said: "The company has to assemble the money in cash. Then its taken normally to Mombasa or Yemen. Then it goes by a private security firm, mostly ex-SAS guys, who use small boats, such as tugboats. They come alongside the hijacked ship and hand over the money."
A certain amount of trust involved. The shipowners have to be sure that once they have paid they will get their crew and ship back. The pirates have to trust the shipowners to guarantee them safe passage after they have left the hijacked ship.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsLife is sweet in piracy capital of the world
Dhows rest on a white sand beach in front of a few dozen ramshackle homes. A creek cuts inland, traced by a dirt road that runs to a craggy fishing settlement two miles away. Until recently Eyl was a remote and rundown Somali fishing outpost of 7,000 people. Now, thanks to some spectacular ocean catches, it is a booming mini-town, awash with dollars and heavily armed young men, and boasting a new notoriety: piracy capital of the world.
At least 12 foreign ships are being held hostage in the waters off Eyl in the Nugal region, 300 miles south of Africa's Horn, including a Ukrainian vessel loaded with 33 tanks and ammunition that was hijacked last month.
They are being closely watched by hundreds of pirates aboard boats equipped with satellite phones and GPS devices. Hundreds more gunmen provide backup on shore, where they incessantly chew the narcotic leaf qat and dream of sharing in the huge ransoms that can run into millions of pounds.
In a war-ravaged country where life is cheap and hope is rare, each successful hijack brings more young men into the village to seek their fortune at sea.
"Even secondary school students are stopping their education to go to Eyl because they see how their friends have made a lot of money," Abdulqaadir Muuse Yusuf, deputy fisheries minister for the Puntland region, said yesterday.
The entire village now depends on the criminal economy. Hastily built hotels provide basic lodging for the pirates, new restaurants serve meals and send food to the ships, while traders provide fuel for the skiffs flitting between the captured vessels.
The pirate kingpins who commute from the regional capital, Garowe, 100 miles west, in new 4x4 vehicles splash their money around. When a ransom is received the gunmen involved in hijacking the particular ship join in the splurge, much to the pleasure of long-time residents. Jaama Salah, a trader, said that a bunch of qat can sell for $65 (£44), compared with $15 in other towns. Asli Faarah, a tea vendor, said: "When the pirates have money I can easily increase my price to $3 for a cup."
Somalis in the diaspora - especially in Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the UK - finance the pirate gangs and keep a large chunk of the ransom money, estimated at more than £20m this year alone, far more than Puntland's annual budget. But the gangs of gunmen sometimes split hundreds of thousands of pounds between them.
In the region's bigger towns, such as Garowe and Bosasso on the Gulf of Aden coast, a successful hijack is often celebrated with a meal and qat-chewing session at an expensive hotel.
One successful pirate based in Garowe, Abshir Salad, said: "First we look to buy a nice house and car. Then we buy guns and other weapons. The rest of the money we use to relax."
The pirates appear to have little fear of arrest by the weak administration, who many suspect of involvement in the trade. By spreading the money to local officials, chiefs, relatives and friends, the pirates have created strong logistical and intelligence networks, and avoided the clan-based fighting that affects so much of the rest of the country.
And though few believe the pirates when they claim to be eco-warriors or marines defending Somali waters from foreign exploitation, their daring and wealth has earned them respect. It has become something of a tradition for successful pirates to take additional wives, marrying them in lavish ceremonies.
Naimo, 21, from Garowe, said she had attended a wedding last month of the sort "I had never seen before".
"It's true that girls are interested in marrying pirates because they have a lot of money. Ordinary men cannot afford weddings like this," she said.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsLife with the pirates of Somalia
As captured supertanker anchors off Somalia, pirates strike again
Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden seized a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran yesterday in the latest of the near-daily attacks threatening one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
The Delight, with 25 crew on board, was captured off Yemen, the seventh successful hijacking in the past 12 days. The US navy, whose patrols along Somalia's coast appear to be having little effect on the pirates, said the ship belonged to Iran's state shipping line.
A British tanker also came under attack yesterday, but the pirates were thwarted when the German frigate Karlsruhe launched a helicopter to intercept them. Eight or nine speedboats of heavily armed bandits attacked the British tanker Trafalgar, which radioed the German ship for help. It sent a Sea King and the pirates fled, the German navy said.
The attacks came a day after it was revealed that Somali pirates had hijacked a Saudi supertanker carrying $100m (£67m) of oil. The Sirius Star, which was bound for the US, was hijacked 450 miles south-east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa and is the largest vessel ever captured by pirates. It was reported to have anchored near Harardheere, half way up Somalia's eastern shoreline. The Foreign Office said the two Britons among the 25 crew include the tanker's chief engineer and a second officer. Speaking from Kenya, the armed forces minister, Bob Ainsworth, said: "We call on those holding the men to release them and the rest of the crew immediately."
Britain had earlier handed over eight suspected Somali pirates to Kenya after it obtained assurances they would get a fair trial and would not be executed, UK diplomatic and defence officials said. The Somalis were seized after they attempted to hijack a Danish vessel in the Gulf of Aden last week. Two other suspected Somali pirates were killed by Royal Marine commandos from the frigate HMS Cumberland. The navy said they were shot in self-defence. A Yemeni national found injured later died, despite emergency treatment from Cumberland's doctor.
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, described the hijacking of the Sirius Star, which is carrying 2m barrels of oil, as an "outrageous act" and promised to support a European-led initiative to increase security off Africa's east coast.
"Piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together," he said.
Faced with an Islamist insurgency and crippled by infighting among its own ranks, Somalia's government is powerless to stop the numerous pirate groups said to be employing up to 3,000 gunmen.
Vela International, the shipping arm of the state oil company Saudi Aramco, which owns the Sirius Star, said the crew was safe and unharmed. No ransom demand had yet been received.
Somali pirates have received more than £20m in ransom payments this year, and ships have recently been fetching millions of dollars each. At least a dozen vessels and more than 250 international crew members are being held hostage. Most of the ships are anchored near Eyl, including the Ukrainian-owned MV Faina, carrying 33 Russian-made tanks.
The pirates, typically armed with AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades, quickly adapt. When ships avoided the Somali coastline they began using captured "mother ships" as a base to launch their high-powered speedboats far out to sea.
Faced with patrols by EU, Nato and US warships, the pirates moved into new waters. The attack on the Sirius Star occurred far beyond the 250 nautical miles from shore recommended by the International Maritime Bureau.
Residents of Harardheere reported seeing two dhows sail out towards the captured tanker yesterday. About 18 men boarded, carrying food and qat, the narcotic leaf chewed by many Somali men.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsRussia to build nuclear reactor for Hugo Chávez
Russia's deepening strategic partnership with Venezuela took a dramatic step forward yesterday when it emerged that Moscow has agreed to build Venezuela's first ever nuclear reactor.
President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, during a visit to Latin America next week, part of a determined Russian push into the region.
The reactor is to be named after Humberto Fernandez Moran, a late Venezuelan research scientist and former science minister, Chávez has announced. It is one of many accords he hopes to sign while hosting Medvedev in Caracas next week.
The prospect of a nuclear deal between Moscow and Caracas, following a surge in Russian economic, military, political and intelligence activity in Latin America, is likely to alarm the US and present an early challenge to the Obama administration.
"Hugo Chávez joins the nuclear club," Russian's Vedomosti newspaper trumpeted yesterday.
Venezuela's socialist leader said the reactor may be based in the eastern state of Zulia. He stressed that the project would be for peaceful purposes. As if to underline that point, four Japanese survivors from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs visited Venezuela this week at the government's invitation.
The energy ministry, which is scouting locations, said the project was at a very early stage. A report which mooted a nuclear reactor long before Chávez came to power has been dusted off.
Despite abundant oil reserves, Venezuela's energy infrastructure is creaking and prone to blackouts. A nuclear reactor would enable the country to utilise its rich uranium deposits and allay criticism that the government has neglected energy investment.
More importantly for Moscow and Caracas, a nuclear deal will showcase a partnership which advocates creating new "poles" of power to check American hegemony.
Nick Day, a Latin American specialist, said the nuclear deal was deliberately timed to pile pressure on the US administration during a moment of transition and weakness.
"Russia is manoeuvring hard in the time between Obama's election and his inauguration. What the Russians are trying to do is to set up a chessboard that gives them greater mobility in negotiations when he [Obama] comes to power," Day said.
He added: "Russia's message is: 'We can exert influence in your backyard if you continue to exert influence in our backyard. If you don't take your missiles out of Poland and end Nato expansion we're going to increase our influence in Latin America and do things to provoke you.'"
According to Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia's federal nuclear agency, no reactor can be built until both countries have signed a preliminary agreement on nuclear cooperation. This will be signed next week, Novikov told Vedomosti.
Both presidents are also expected to firm up details of a Russian-Venezuelan energy consortium to jointly produce and sell oil and gas.
Russian companies which are already exploring oilfields in Venezuela could then extend their reach to fields in Ecuador and Bolivia.
Venezuela has bought $4bn of Russian arms, including Sukhoi fighter jets, making it one of Moscow's best clients. Chávez has spoken of also buying Project 636 diesel submarines, Mi-28 combat helicopters, T72 tanks and air-defence systems.
Despite the spending spree, Venezuela's military has not tipped the regional balance of power.
Chávez's armed forces lag behind that of Brazil, Chile and Colombia and analysts question Venezuelan effectiveness.
For Russia's president, however, Caracas is a valuable springboard into Latin America. In addition to Venezuela Medvedev will visit Peru, Brazil and Cuba - the first trip by a Russian leader to Havana in eight years.
Moscow has spoken of reviving Soviet-era intelligence cooperation with the communist island and in a sign of dramatically improved ties, President Raul Castro last month attended the opening of a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsAustralian navy to get 62-day Christmas leave
Georgia calls on EU for independent inquiry into war
Georgia yesterday called for an independent inquiry into who started the war between it and Russia in August; amid claims by the Kremlin that the western media now accepts that Georgia was the aggressor.
Georgia's ambassador to the UN, Irakli Alasania, asked the EU on Monday to carry out a "very thorough" international investigation into the five-day conflict. Georgia was willing to provide "all" information including "classified material" to show it was not to blame, he said.
The move follows doubts raised by the New York Times and BBC's Newsnight about Georgia's claim that its attack on South Ossetia on August 7/8 was in response to Russian aggression.
The New York Times quoted military observers in the breakaway region who said they were unable to verify claims that Georgian villages had come under heavy attack prior to August 7. The monitors from the Organisation for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also said Georgian troops had bombarded the city of Tskhinvali, using indiscriminate rocket and artillery fire, the US paper reported.
Yesterday, however, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial said there was overwhelming evidence that shelling had taken place in the days leading up to August 7 and Georgia's assault on Tskhinvali. Both sides were involved, Memorial said.
Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, said that artillery exchanges across the border with South Ossetia began on August 1 - and then "got worse". Civilians on both sides were injured, he said. South Ossetian troops had fired on civilians, Orlov said, including an enclave of ethnic Georgians living inside separatist controlled South Ossetia, north of Tskhinvali. South Ossetian troops had also fired from the Tskhinvali headquarters of Russia's peacekeeping force, Orlov added.
"It's important to find out who was the aggressor. But the answer isn't straightforward," Orlov, who spent two weeks in South Ossetia and Georgia investigating the conflict, said. "Of course Georgia's armed forces started a full-scale military operation. But the previous politics of Russia provoked Georgia to do this."
This did not "excuse" the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, he continued. "But Russian peacekeepers also didn't do their job properly. We know the Russian side gave arms to the Ossetians and that they used them to fire towards Georgia from Russian peacekeeping positions well before August 7."
The war's chronology is disputed by Moscow and Tbilisi. The Georgians have used the bombardment of ethnic Georgian villages as the main justification for their attack on Tskhinvali. They also claim Russia had already begun its invasion of Georgia via the Roki tunnel before Saakashvili sent his army into South Ossetia.
Russia says it is clear that Tbilisi was the real aggressor. "It took [US media] three months to start telling the truth about the August war in the Caucasus," said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador in a letter of congratulation to the New York Times following its November 7 article.
The row came as Barack Obama, the US president-elect, gave his first indications that he does not intend to abandon Georgia. Obama called Saakashvili and assured him of Washington's continuing support, the Georgian president's office said yesterday.
Amnesty International yesterday said Georgia and Russia had seriously violated international law during the conflict.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsChina seeks to cement trade clout with Latin America
China's president, Hu Jintao, is leading scores of Chinese business people on a sweep through Latin America to reinforce Beijing's growing economic clout in the region.
Hu launched free trade talks on a visit to Costa Rica, before flying to a rapturous reception in Cuba. This week he will also be one of the stars at a Pacific rim summit of 21 nations in Peru. By then, Beijing's delegation will have grown to 600 people, including 12 ministers.
"China's relations with Latin America and the Caribbean have never been so close," Hu told Peru's El Comercio newspaper.
In contrast to Russia's politically charged push into the region — which involves selling arms and challenging US influence — Beijing's focus is on agriculture, raw materials and markets for its exports.
China's trade with Latin America has risen tenfold to $102bn (£68bn), and it has toppled the US as Chile's main trading partner since 2000, although the US remains the region's main economic partner, with $560bn in trade last year.
Cuba's state news agency reported that Hu signed almost a dozen agreements with Cuba, including plans to upgrade infrastructure and buy sugar and nickel. China hopes to sign a free trade deal this week with Peru to obtain better access to its copper and iron deposits. There is already a $2.2bn deal to extract 7m tonnes of copper from a single Peruvian peak.
In Brazil, the Chinese are negotiating to build a $3bn steel mill with help from the Bank of China, which is to open a branch there next year. China has also sunk billions into oil exploration in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
China has wooed several Latin America states away from its rival, Taiwan. As a reward, Costa Rica is to receive a $300m soft loan, help with building a 30,000-seat stadium and modernising an oil refinery. In a symbolic step, China last month invested $350m in the Inter-American Development Bank, a signal that it wants to be a long-term player in the region.
As China's clout grows, that of the US dwindles. The economic slowdown is expected to hit Latin American exports to the US, as well as remittances from Latino migrants.
"The reality is that to some degree the fate of Latin America has been decoupled from the US," Daniel Erickson, of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank, told the Associated Press. "Or at least it's not as tightly entwined as it used to be."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsIan Williams: Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS reveals the network's concern with appeasing Republicans
Russia to build nuclear reactor for Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez
Russia's deepening strategic partnership with Venezuela took a dramatic step forward today when it emerged that Moscow has agreed to build Venezuela's first ever nuclear reactor.
President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, during a visit to Latin America next week, part of a determined Russian push into the region.
The reactor is to be named after Humberto Fernandez Moran, a late Venezuelan research scientist and former science minister, Chávez has announced. It is one of many accords he hopes to sign while hosting Medvedev in Caracas next week.
The prospect of a nuclear deal between Moscow and Caracas, following a surge in Russian economic, military, political and intelligence activity in Latin America, is likely to alarm the US and present an early challenge to the Obama administration.
"Hugo Chávez joins the nuclear club," Russian's Vedomosti newspaper trumpeted today.
Venezuela's socialist leader said the reactor may be based in the eastern state of Zulia. He stressed that the project would be for peaceful purposes. As if to underline that point, four Japanese survivors from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs visited Venezuela this week at the government's invitation.
The energy ministry, which is scouting locations, said the project was at a very early stage. A report which mooted a nuclear reactor long before Chávez came to power has been dusted off.
Despite abundant oil reserves, Venezuela's energy infrastructure is creaking and prone to blackouts. A nuclear reactor would enable the country to utilise its rich uranium deposits and allay criticism that the government has neglected energy investment.
More importantly for Moscow and Caracas, a nuclear deal will showcase a partnership which advocates creating new "poles" of power to check American hegemony.
Nick Day, a Latin American specialist, said the nuclear deal was deliberately timed to pile pressure on the US administration during a moment of transition and weakness.
"Russia is manoeuvring hard in the time between Obama's election and his inauguration. What the Russians are trying to do is to set up a chessboard that gives them greater mobility in negotiations when he [Obama] comes to power," Day said.
He added: "Russia's message is: 'We can exert influence in your backyard if you continue to exert influence in our backyard. If you don't take your missiles out of Poland and end Nato expansion we're going to increase our influence in Latin America and do things to provoke you.'"
According to Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia's federal nuclear agency, no reactor can be built until both countries have signed a preliminary agreement on nuclear cooperation. This will be signed next week, Novikov told Vedomosti.
Both presidents are also expected to firm up details of a Russian-Venezuelan energy consortium to jointly produce and sell oil and gas.
Russian companies which are already exploring oilfields in Venezuela could then extend their reach to fields in Ecuador and Bolivia.
Venezuela has bought $4bn of Russian arms, including Sukhoi fighter jets, making it one of Moscow's best clients. Chávez has spoken of also buying Project 636 diesel submarines, Mi-28 combat helicopters, T72 tanks and air-defence systems.
Despite the spending spree, Venezuela's military has not tipped the regional balance of power.
Chávez's armed forces lag behind that of Brazil, Chile and Colombia and analysts question Venezuelan effectiveness.
For Russia's president, however, Caracas is a valuable springboard into Latin America. In addition to Venezuela, Medvedev will visit Peru, Brazil and Cuba — the first trip by a Russian leader to Havana in eight years.
Moscow has spoken of reviving Soviet-era intelligence cooperation with the communist island and in a sign of dramatically improved ties, President Raul Castro last month attended the opening of a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana.
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