David Cameron to rush out law for EU vote

 David Cameron will propose laws tomorrow to guarantee that the public is assured an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union before the end of 2017.

Mr Cameron will spend much of this week in the US

 The Conservatives will take the highly unusual step of publishing “draft legislation” which would write into law the pledge made by the Prime Minister earlier this year.

The draft Bill will be published amid growing pressure from Tory MPs and ministers for a referendum to be guaranteed in law.

The development, which emerged in Washington tonight, came after Barack Obama effectively backed Mr Cameron’s attempts to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU before ordering a referendum.

The president called for Mr Cameron to be given time to “fix” the EU, as he warned that Britain would lose influence if it ever left the single market.

The endorsement was hailed as a coup by Downing Street, 48 hours before a parliamentary vote called by Conservative MPs who are demanding that the referendum pledge is written into law.  

Venezuela MPs in punch-up over disputed election

Several legislators were left bloodied and bruised, with both opposition and pro-government lawmakers accusing each other of starting the fight.
A measure was earlier passed denying MPs the right to speak until they recognised Nicolas Maduro as president.
Official results show he narrowly beat opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who has demanded a full recount.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) - which has rejected Mr Capriles' demand - on Monday said Mr Maduro had won by 1.49 percentage points, or fewer than 225,000 votes.
This came after the council had amended the final result, taking into account votes cast abroad.
In all, 99.79% of the votes have now been counted.
Earlier figures had shown a victory of 1.8 percentage points for Mr Maduro, who stood in the poll as the chosen successor of the late President Hugo Chavez. 
'Being silenced'

Julio Borges appeared on TV with facial bruises after the clashes

On Tuesday, the opposition said a number of its lawmakers were attacked and hurt in the parliament - the National Assembly.
One of the MPs, Julio Borges, later appeared on a local TV station with facial bruises.
"They can beat us, jail us, kill us, but we will not sell out our principles," Mr Borges was quoted as saying.
"These blows give us more strength."
The opposition said it was being "silenced" by National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.
"I am going to ask you: Mr Deputy, do you recognise Nicolas Maduro?" Mr Cabello asked one of them. "If you say no, you don't get to speak in the assembly."
Pro-government representatives blamed the opposition for starting the clashes.
"Today again I had to defend [Hugo Chavez's] legacy," lawmaker Odalis Monzon was quoted as saying by Reuters.


Mr Capriles has demanded a vote-by-vote recount, but the CNE said it would be legally impossible to carry out.
It has, however, agreed to carry out a partial audit, which is expected to take until June. During the audit, 56% of the votes cast will be examined.
The CNE says the remaining 44% had been checked immediately after the election.
On Monday, Mr Capriles said Mr Maduro had "illegitimately stolen the presidency",
He has until 6 May to lodge his request with the Supreme Court contesting the election result.
Mr Capriles said he had "no doubt that this will end up before an international body".
Both Mr Capriles and Mr Maduro have urged their supporters to turn out for separate demonstrations on 1 May, sparking fears the two camps could clash.
Mr Maduro on Monday said he had changed the route of his march because he "did not want problems".
But the opposition says it continues to be targeted by the government, citing the arrest on Saturday of retired Gen Antonio Rivero as proof.
The opposition politician has been charged with criminal instigation and criminal association, after prosecutors blamed him for outbreaks of post-election violence.
Relatives of Gen Rivero says he is on a hunger strike in protest. 

Greeks stage 24-hour anti-austerity general strike

The 24-hour action is expected to severely disrupt public services, including transport and hospitals.
The organisers are demanding an end to spending cuts and tax rises.
The government says the measures are badly needed to lead Greece out of a deep financial crisis and six straight years of recession.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras says the policies are part of continuing moves to ensure more bailout money from international creditors.
Cautious optimism The 24-hour strike officially began at midnight on Tuesday to mark labour day. May 1 is technically not a public holiday in Greece this year, as that has been moved to next Tuesday - after Orthodox Easter.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says public transport will be disrupted, ferries halted and hospitals will work on skeleton staff.
But he says it remains to be seen how big Tuesday's rallies will be, as there have been far fewer strikes and protests this year, and there is a feeling the civil unrest is beginning to die down.
Nevertheless, demonstrations are planned across the country, with police on alert for a repeat of past violence.
The two largest unions - GSEE and ADEDY - have said that the action will focus on demands to end austerity.

 

 May Day rallies are being held across the globe - including here in Tokyo

They say that government measures have led to the country's record unemployment rate of 27%, including almost 60% among young people.
Mr Samaras has defended his policies, insisting that this year of recession will be the country's last.
Our correspondent says that more than 20 general strikes have failed to halt the cuts, and the government feels emboldened by the cautious optimism of its international creditors.
Nearly 3bn euros (£2.5bn; $4bn) of bailout money were approved this week, with another 6bn euros set to come on 13 May.
Since 2010, the European Union and the IMF have promised more than 200bn euros in lending for Greece. Talk of exit from the eurozone has receded.
However, our correspondent says the optimism has not reached the streets, where the mood remains dire given the record unemployment levels.
Other May Day action has been taking place across in the world:

• Protesters demanding the execution of factory bosses over the deaths of hundreds in a recent building collapse in Bangladesh marched in their thousands in the capital, Dhaka
• Rallies have been called in more than 80 cities in Spain
• Thousands of Filipinos marched in Manila demanding the government protect jobs and improve worker contracts
• Cambodian workers rallied in Phnom Penh, calling for higher wages
• Some 55,000 marched in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, protesting at low wages and outsourcing
• Trade unions held demonstrations in Tokyo, with calls for more youth employment one of the main focuses

Cuban opposition group Ladies in White collect prize

Several Ladies in White made the trip to Brussels to collect the award

Members of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White have collected the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in Brussels.

They were awarded the prize by the European Parliament in 2005, but Cuba barred them from leaving the communist-run island to collect it.
The abolition of exit permits by the Cuban government in January made it possible for the women to travel.
They were given the prize for their campaign to free 75 jailed dissidents.
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded annually by the European Parliament to individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom. It is named after the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.
In 2012, it went to Iranian activists Jafar Panahi and Nasrin Sotoudeh.
As she accepted the award on behalf of the group, Lady in White Laura Labrada said they had never lost faith that one day they would be able to collect the prize.
"We are mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of Cubans who find themselves in prison in Cuba for exercising the most sacred human right: to live according to one's own conscience," she said.
Ms Labrada collected the prize on behalf of her mother, co-founder of the Ladies in White Laura Pollan, who died in 2011

She was joined by other Ladies in White at the ceremony.

"You are the symbol of resistance against the Cuban government, and thousands of Cubans support you inside and outside the country," said the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
But in Havana, the Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Abelardo Moreno, suggested that other Cubans were more worthy of the award.
"I ask myself, would it not be worth giving prizes to the work of Cuban doctors in Haiti, for example?" he said.


'No change'
The Ladies in White was founded by the wives, sisters and friends of 75 jailed Cuban activists, who were rounded up and sentenced to long prison terms in 2003 as part of a crackdown on the opposition movement.
Dressed in white, the women march in silence in the Cuban capital, Havana, every Sunday, defying Cuba's ban on organised opposition and street demonstrations.
They are routinely detained and their protests broken up, but they say their protests have yielded results. All 75 prisoners they campaigned for have been released.
The Ladies continue their protest, now demanding that the convictions of the 75 be officially overturned.

Before travelling to Brussels to collect the prize, Ms Labrada told the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Havana that they still suffered harassment at the hands of the Cuban police.
"The arrests continue. It's true the time in detention is less, but we're still repressed, still detained - and in big numbers. Just for thinking differently... This has not changed," she said.
The Cuban authorities say that the group is in the pay of the United States and forms part of Washington's "decades-old effort to undermine Cuba's socialist revolution".

Lloyds' branch sale to Co-op falls through.

   Lloyds' branch sale to Co-op falls through.

The planned sale of 632 UK bank branches by Lloyds Banking Group to the Co-op group has fallen through.


The Co-op blamed the continued economic downturn and tougher regulatory environment imposed on banks.
Lloyds said it will now seek to sell the branches as a stand-alone bank through a stock market listing.
It had been hoped that the Co-op's purchase of the branches would create a bigger competitor to the main high street banks.
Lloyds' chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: "We are disappointed that the Co-operative Group is unable to complete this transaction."

The sales of the branches, known as Project Verde, was demanded by European regulators as the price for being bailed out by the UK government during the financial crisis.
The Lloyds statement said: "The Co-operative Group's board has decided that they can no longer proceed with a purchase of the Verde business given their view of the impact of the current economic environment, the worsened outlook for economic growth and the increasing regulatory requirements on the financial services sector in general."


During the summer the branches will be branded as TSB Bank, and the group will operate as a separate business within Lloyds ahead of a sale.
The Co-op's chief executive, Peter Marks, said: "After detailed and thorough consideration of all aspects of the Verde transaction, we have decided, at this time, that it is not in the best interests of our members to proceed with the transaction.

"Against the backdrop of the current economic environment, the worsened outlook for economic growth and the increasing regulatory requirements on the financial services sector in general, the Verde transaction would not currently deliver a suitable return for our members within a reasonable timeframe and with an acceptable level of risk."

The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, said the Co-op's decision was a blow for the Treasury, which has been backing attempts to create powerful competitors to the UK's big high street banks. He said that the Co-op will now review the future of its banking business.


Challenger banks Lloyds, which is 39%-owned by the government, had a deadline of November 2013 to complete the sale in order to meet European Commission competition rules. But there have been reports over the past few months that the Co-op was going cool on the acquisition.
A flotation is unlikely to be possible until the second half of 2014, which would mean the UK government and Lloyds asking Brussels to extend its end-2013 deadline for the sale.
Co-op agreed in 2012 to buy the branches.
This involved the potential transfer of 4.6 million customers, including 3.5 million in England and Wales and the remainder in Scotland.


Customers in England and Wales had already received letters telling them of the move and giving them the option to stay with Lloyds. This information is still relevant, as customers of the branches being sold will still become customers of the new TSB Bank.
The aborted takeover would have created Britain's seventh-biggest bank with about 5% of personal current accounts and mortgage market and about 10% of the branch network.
A Treasury spokesman described the Co-op's move as "a commercial matter." However, he stressed that government remained committed to encouraging so-called "Challenger" banks to increase competition on the high street.

Major earthquake strikes south-east Iran

Major earthquake strikes south-east Iran


The epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude quake was near the south-eastern city of Khash, close to Pakistan.
The quake struck deep and in a remote region, apparently limiting casualties.
Iranian state TV said 27 people had been injured, but rowed back on early reports of deaths. However, more than 30 people were killed in Pakistan.
The Pakistani military has been mobilised to help with rescue efforts, officials said.
Two military helicopters carrying medical teams have been sent to the area and troops will support the relief efforts, they said.
The border area has since been shaken by several strong aftershocks.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the organisation stood ready to help "if asked to do so". The US has also offered assistance.







The earthquake struck in the province of Sistan Baluchistan at about 15:14 local time (10:44 GMT), close to the cities of Khash, which has a population of nearly 180,000, and Saravan, where 250,000 people live.
"The epicentre of the quake was located in the desert, and population centres do not surround it. There were no fatalities in the towns around the epicentre," an Iranian crisis centre official, Morteza Akbarpour, was quoted as saying by the Iranian news agency Isna.
The power of the tremor led to offices being evacuated in Karachi, Pakistan, in the Indian capital of Delhi, and in several Gulf cities.
Iranian state TV initially reported that 40 people had been killed, and one Iranian official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying hundreds of deaths were expected.

               


Iran's Fars news agency said the depth of the quake had reduced its impact to the size of a magnitude-4.0 tremor on the surface.
Iranian scientists said it was the country's strongest earthquake for more than 50 years.
All communications to the region have been cut, and the Red Crescent said it was sending 20 search-and-rescue teams with three helicopters to the area.
A resident of Saravan, Yar Ahmad, told BBC Persian that a number of people in the nearby village of Lolokadan had been injured, with broken arms or legs, but only had first aid kits for treatment.
No rescue workers had arrived, and the roads were in poor condition, he said.


Tents and shacks Sistan Baluchistan is Iran's biggest province and one of its most impoverished areas.
A member of parliament for Saravan, Hedayatollah Mir-Morad Zehi, said there were 1,700 villages in the area, and most of the buildings were made of mud.
Many people in the area live in tents or shacks, a factor which is thought to have limited the number of casualties.



Across the border in Pakistan, up to 34 people were killed and about 80 injured in the Mashkel district of Balochistan province, the army said.
Communications were disrupted in Mashkel, which has a population of about 45,000. But aid workers said many houses were thought to have been damaged or destroyed.
The earthquake was felt across the region.
Michael Stephens, a researcher at RUSI Qatar, told the BBC from his office in Doha: "I definitely felt the walls shaking. It lasted for about 25 seconds."
Mohammad Wazir, a correspondent for BBC Persian in Pakistan, says the quake was felt in the cities of Karachi and Quetta.
Tuesday's earthquake was about 180 times stronger in energy release than a 6.3-magnitude quake that struck on 10 April near the nuclear plant at Bushehr in south-western Iran. That quake killed at least 37 people and wounded 850.
The Bushehr plant was not damaged by the earlier earthquake, and an official at the Russian firm that built the plant said it had not been damaged by Tuesday's earthquake either, Reuters reported.
Scientists say earthquakes in south-eastern Iran are triggered by the clash between the Arabia and Eurasia tectonic plates, the former of which is pushing north at a rate of several centimetres each year.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake destroyed much of the south-eastern city of Bam and killed some 26,000 people.

Nicolas Maduro wins Venezuela presidential election

 Socialist candidate Nicolas Maduro has won a narrow victory in Venezuela's presidential poll.

 

Mr Maduro, who was chosen by the late Hugo Chavez, won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles

 

The electoral commission said the results were "irreversible".
There has been no comment from Mr Capriles, who earlier on Sunday has suggested there was an attempt to doctor the result.
Mr Maduro told a rally of supporters in the capital Caracas that he had won a "just, legal and constitutional" victory.
However, the margin of victory was far smaller than that gained by the late President Chavez over Mr Capriles at elections last October.
Mr Maduro said he was willing to allow an audit of the election result.
Almost 80% of eligible voters took part in the poll.
Mr Maduro had been serving as acting president since Mr Chavez died of cancer on 5 March.
He is due to be sworn in on 19 April and serve until January 2019 to complete the six-year term that Mr Chavez would have begun in January

 

Kerry in Japan for talks on North Korean tensions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Kerry arrives in Japan having secured a pledge from China to calm tensions with North Korea

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Japan, the last stop of his four-day Asian tour which has focused on tensions on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has recently threatened attacks against South Korea and the US, sparking alarm in the region.
After meeting China's top leaders on Saturday Mr Kerry said China was "very serious" in its pledge to help resolve tensions with North Korea, its ally.
Mr Kerry has said the US will defend itself and its allies from any attack.
Speculation has been building that the North is preparing a missile launch, following reports that it has moved at least two Musudan ballistic missiles to its east coast.

Mr Kerry is holding talks with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and on Sunday will meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Mr Abe has said they must make Pyongyang "recognise that their provocative actions will not benefit them at all".
Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said he hoped Mr Kerry's visit would send "a strong message" to North Korea's leaders.
"It is important that we co-ordinate internationally and firmly tell North Korea that it must give up its nuclear and missile programmes," he told reporters.
Washington and Tokyo have a security alliance dating back to the 1950s, under which Washington is bound to protect Japan if it is attacked.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Tokyo says Mr Kerry's visit aims to reassure Japan that they have America's continued support during this crisis.

Celebratory launch?
North Korea habitually issues fiery statements denouncing the US and South Korea, but the rhetoric has grown increasingly aggressive since the UN imposed a fresh round of sanctions in March.

The sanctions punished Pyongyang for carrying out a banned test of a ballistic missile and conducting its third test of a nuclear device.

Pyongyang has also been angered by joint military manoeuvres by the US and South Korea, which it says are preparations for war.
It has responded by vowing to restart an inactive nuclear reactor, shut an emergency military hotline to the South and by urging countries to withdraw their diplomatic staff, saying it cannot now guarantee their safety.
It has also withdrawn North Korean workers from the Kaesong industrial complex - a rare joint Korean enterprise where South Korean companies employed Northerners.
The South has offered to discuss the future of the complex, but on Sunday Pyongyang rejected this, saying it was an "empty, meaningless" act aimed at disguising invasion plans, the North's KCNA state news agency reports.
On Monday, North Korea will mark the birth of national founder Kim Il-sung. Such occasions are traditionally marked with shows of military strength and it is thought this year the date could be used for a missile launch.
Some estimates suggest that the Musudan missiles which North Korea has moved to its east coast could travel 4,000km (2,500 miles).
That would put US bases on the Pacific island of Guam within range, although the exact threat is unclear as it is not believed that the Musudan has been tested before.
Mr Kerry has stressed that it would be a "huge mistake" for the North to go ahead with a launch, saying it would further isolate North Korea and that the people of the country are in need of food, not missiles

 

 

Yankees’ Rodriguez Tied to Clinic Records Purchase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former employees of a now-shuttered South Florida anti-aging clinic and others who had ties to it have told Major League Baseball that the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez arranged to purchase documents from the clinic to keep them out of the hands of baseball officials, according to two people briefed on the matter.  

The assertions about Rodriguez’s activities were conveyed to baseball officials through investigators who have been in Florida since last summer as they try to establish if the clinic was providing performance-enhancing drugs to major leaguers, including Rodriguez, 37, a slugger who is still recovering from off-season hip surgery and has yet to play in 2013.

The two people said that the investigators were told by the ex-employees and others that documents said to be from the clinic had been put up for sale by various people and that Rodriguez had arranged for an intermediary to purchase at least some of them.

That, in turn, led Major League Baseball to conclude that other players linked to the clinic would also attempt to buy documents to conceal incriminating evidence and accelerated baseball’s own efforts to purchase as many documents as it could.

A spokesman for Rodriguez denied on Friday that his client had arranged to acquire any documents.

 From baseball’s point of view, a cat-and-mouse game has now emerged with the clinic and Rodriguez. Since admitting several years ago to using performance enhancers in the early part of last decade, when he was playing for the Texas Rangers, Rodriguez has had to meet with baseball’s investigators on several occasions as new allegations have periodically linked him to drug use.

Rodriguez, in those meetings with baseball officials, has consistently denied using performance enhancers after he left the Rangers. Investigators for baseball, unsatisfied, have on several occasions asked federal authorities to provide them with any drug-related information about Rodriguez. But those requests have not been successful.

Now Major League Baseball believes that Rodriguez bought documents to keep the sport from getting a full picture of his links to the clinic.

But there are an untold number of documents swirling around, and questions about what they actually show and how they would be authenticated. Major League Baseball may ultimately choose to focus on testimony it has obtained from a number of the clinic’s former employees rather than the documents if it proceeds with efforts to discipline Rodriguez or other players, one of the two people said.

Those ex-employees were paid for the time they spent talking with baseball’s investigators, the two people said, with the payments not believed to have exceeded several thousand dollars. Whether their statements alone are strong enough for baseball officials to proceed with disciplinary action against players remains to be seen.

In its decade-long effort to rid the sport of performance enhancers — an effort that has included a wider range and number of drug tests and increasingly heavy penalties — baseball officials have still found it difficult to suspend a player in the absence of a positive drug test.

And that is still the hurdle the sport faces even as it has taken the unusual step of paying for evidence and as it contemplates what penalties would be called for if it could establish that Rodriguez bought documents in order to conceal them.

Rodriguez is halfway through a 10-year, $275 million contract — the largest ever in American sports — and is owed $114 million through the end of 2017. He missed all of spring training and is unlikely to return to action until the second half of the season, assuming his rehabilitation proceeds as planned.

Accusations that link him to the anti-aging clinic, and the new assertions about the purchase of documents, have created still more uncertainties about his status for 2013.

Although the Yankees would never publicly say so, Rodriguez is now widely perceived as a diminished player whose contract is weighing down the team and limiting its flexibility. But he has made clear that he intends to keep playing, and if he is able to do so, the Yankees will have to keep paying him.

As for the anti-aging clinic, Major League Baseball grew so concerned about it last year that it created an improvised war room in its Park Avenue headquarters in Manhattan, mapping out potential evidence about the facility’s activities.

In January, Miami New Times reported that it had obtained medical records from the facility that tied half a dozen players — Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal — to the use of banned substances like human growth hormone.

The newspaper, a weekly, said that it had received the records from a former employee of the clinic and that it included handwritten notations listing drugs distributed to players.

The newspaper said that Rodriguez’s name appeared 16 times in the records.

More records then emerged that tied other players, including the Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, to the clinic. Many of the named players, including Rodriguez and Braun, denied obtaining banned substances from the clinic.

In his denial, which was issued through a public relations firm, Rodriguez said the documents cited in the Miami New Times article that were linked to him were “not legitimate.”

Now, Major League Baseball has concluded that Rodriguez bought such documents to keep investigators form obtaining them. And Rodriguez has issued another denial even as baseball essentially ignores it and keeps investigating.

 

Obama Searching For a Key Victory

Obama Searching For a Key Victory

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about his proposed fiscal 2014 federal budget on April 10, 2013, in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Behind President Obama's strong policy offensives on a variety of fronts is a matter of growing urgency: He needs a major victory soon on at least one high-stakes issue or he risks sliding toward lame-duck status in his second term, political strategists say.

"The clout starts diminishing if he doesn't have some breakthrough on the big issues soon," says Ken Duberstein, former White House chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan.

This explains why Obama has been pushing so hard to win congressional passage of a deficit-reduction package, gun control legislation and a comprehensive immigration bill – three of his top priorities. Democratic advisers say he is probably at the high point of his influence now, only a few months after his re-election triumph, and this is the best time to win some Congressional victories.

Presidents tend to lose influence in their second terms as the political establishment and the country begin to focus on choosing their successors, but it usually doesn't happen until their final two years in office.

Obama hopes to avoid this fate by bending Congress to his will now and building on that success to keep fellow Democrats in control of the Senate and give them control of the House in the 2014 mid-term elections.

Obama released a 2014 budget blueprint Wednesday that showed his intense desire to find a "grand bargain" that would put the government on a path to major deficit reduction and put the economy on a path toward a strong recovery.

His proposals included provisions designed to court at least a few Congressional Republicans, who have stymied his agenda in the past. One such provision is to cut benefits for Social Security recipients in an effort to save money. This is causing a backlash among liberals who consider it a betrayal of the Democratic party's commitment to the elderly.

But Obama strategists argue that his top priority is to somehow bring balky GOP legislators to his side. Obama held a private dinner at the White House with a dozen GOP senators Wednesday night, his second such dinner with Republicans senators in recent weeks.

More News:

• Obama Plays Divide and Conquer With the GOP
• From Turmoil to Stability
• Poll: Voters Say Job Creation Is Priority 1

Venezuela: Hunger strikers say government thugs attacked them

Protesters say bikers dressed in Chavez's socialist party colors robbed them and fired guns at them. The government blames Washington.

CARACAS, Venezuela — About 40 hunger strikers camped out in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas came under attack Monday night by what they described as a large group of armed, pro-government activists, leaving at least half a dozen injured after shots were fired.
Demanding clean April 14 presidential elections, the hunger strikers this weekend set up mattresses on a roundabout in a wealthy Caracas district, many of them without eating now for three days.


But some 50 motorbikes descended on their camp, their riders clad in the crimson of late President Hugo Chavez's socialist party followers, protesters told GlobalPost.
The police and socialist party officials did not respond to GlobalPost's requests for comment.
But witnesses and images posted to the internet told of a violent attack, signaling tensions are high during the bitter but brief campaigns to succeed Chavez.
"They were using bikes belonging to the government," said Henry Linares, an 18-year-old student who was taking part in the hunger strike. "They robbed us of our stuff. We have around 10 students injured but we're continuing the fight."
Linares' friend and fellow protester Esteban Galup added: "There were around 50 motorcyclists. They surrounded us."
The protesters said they took refuge at a nearby McDonald's as police and medical assistance arrived.
The students accuse the country's electoral council of a pro-government bias and are calling for a fair election this Sunday, as acting President Nicolas Maduro runs against opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
In Venezuela, after 14 years of Chavez's rule, pro-government still means pro-“Chavismo” — a philosophy that has relied on the country's oil wealth to reduce poverty through a bevy of welfare programs while, opponents say, also muzzling dissent and wrecking the economy. International watchdogs such as Human Rights Watch accused Chavez of stacking the electoral council and the courts with supporters and intimidating or arresting judges suspected of straying from the government line.
Sunday's election and the short campaign preceding it come in the wake of Chavez's death from cancer on March 5.
Unlike in the United States, Venezuelan law calls for a new election after a president dies rather than filling the top executive post with the vice president.
In December, before leaving for an emergency cancer surgery in Cuba, Chavez anointed his faithful deputy Maduro as his preferred heir. That's likely to win Maduro the presidency, according to pollsters.
"We're here demanding that the elections are clean, just and free," said 22-year-old Vanessa Eisig, lying on a mattress alongside other hunger strikers over the weekend. "That's why we're having this hunger strike."
Twitter users posted dramatic messages and pictures of the attack. "We need help," wrote one organizer, Gaby Arellano. "The situation is severe." Her message was accompanied by an image of a protester with blood pouring from a wound on his head.

Peace Envoys From Taliban at Loose Ends in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar — When a handful of Taliban emissaries flew into Qatar on an American plane in 2010, the Obama administration hoped they would help negotiate a peace deal that could stabilize Afghanistan and allow the United States a graceful exit.

Three years after that secret arrival, the Taliban officials remain idle and their political office here remains unused.

“They are just living here enjoying the air-conditioning, driving luxury cars, eating and making babies,” one Afghan diplomat in Qatar said. “It’s all they can do; they have no work to do.”

They are unlikely to see a negotiating table anytime soon either, with the new fighting season in Afghanistan off to a particularly violent start and with the latest push to restart talks all but abandoned. Once again, the Taliban’s attention is on the battlefield, and on what may be gained or lost there as the American military begins its withdrawal from the war.

The Taliban presence here — eight or more relatively high-ranking officials with their families, Afghan officials say — is occasionally reconfirmed in a sighting on the streets or, in the case of the Afghan diplomat, when the Taliban men come to the sleepy Afghan Embassy here to register the birth of another child.

Early insurgent negotiations with American officials had a faltering start, initially over a proposed prisoner exchange, in which five Taliban figures being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be released in exchange for the freedom of the lone American soldier being held prisoner by the Taliban, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. But American officials say that their talks have ended and that there have been no further discussions with the Taliban since early 2012.

Recently, Western diplomats in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, expressed hope that the discussions might resume amid intense diplomatic activity by many countries to push peace talks, this time led by Afghanistan. That hope now appears to have fizzled once again, and diplomats’ expectations of some movement by the end of March from the Taliban side have come to naught. President Hamid Karzai met here with the Qatari emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on March 31 in what Afghan officials billed as discussions about opening the office, but no developments were announced after the meeting.

“There is a limit to how long we can wait,” said another Western diplomat familiar with the peace efforts. “If at some point they don’t issue statements, it’s not open-ended. There are ways we can pressure the Taliban in Qatar.”

Officially, the Qataris have never explicitly admitted that the Taliban are even present here, and the government-controlled press never mentions it, although they have acknowledged that they are willing to host an official office for peace talks.

Qatari officials did not respond to requests for comment about the Taliban presence.

“With the Taliban, the Qataris have a hot potato,” said an Afghan journalist working here, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being expelled. “How do you handle hosting suicide bombers? They can’t acknowledge them until that sort of activity stops.”

The Taliban representatives here are not lightweights. The most prominent among them is Tayeb Agha, the chief of staff to the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. Others include Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the former Taliban health minister, and Qari din Mohammed Hanafi, their former minister of planning. The delegation includes veteran diplomats like Mualavi Shahabadin Delawar, the former Taliban ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Sohail Shaheen, a former ambassador to Pakistan; and Hafiz Aziz Rahman, the representative to the United Nations for the Taliban government when it ruled Afghanistan.

Just why the effort to open a Taliban office has faltered is a matter of dispute. The Americans say the Taliban have simply decided to continue fighting, worried by pressure from their own hard-liners and concerned that entering peace talks would sap their will on the battlefield. “No one wants to be the last one to die before peace talks start,” as one diplomat put it.

The Taliban say the Americans reneged on their confidence-building pledge to free the Guantánamo five, which would have been politically difficult for President Obama, given bipartisan opposition in Congress to such releases. Instead, the Americans insisted that talks would have to include the Afghan government first. The Taliban has rejected that condition, deriding the government of President Hamid Karzai as a puppet regime and saying it would talk to the Afghan government only after reaching a settlement with the Americans.

Still, neither Western diplomats nor the Taliban have given up on the idea of talks in Qatar. “There are Taliban all over the place talking about peace, but the U.S. government’s view is that the most promising is the Doha track,” one diplomat said.

Wahid Muzhda, a former official in the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry who now lives in Kabul but maintains contacts with the insurgents, said that “some of the Taliban still believe it’s worth having the office there, but its prospects do look dim.”

Both Taliban and American officials publicly agree on one thing: that they are no longer talking to each another, officially or unofficially.

That, however, is a development that the Afghan government has refused to believe. President Karzai has openly accused the Americans of doing so. “We think they are secretly talking,” the Afghan diplomat in Qatar said. “America is the best friend of Afghanistan, and between friends we should tell each other what we’re doing.”

The Afghans have not tried to block the Qatari initiative. “It suits everybody,” said the Afghan journalist working in Doha. “The Americans want their soldier back, the Taliban want a vacation, the Pakistanis want the Taliban to look independent of them, and the Afghans want distance between the Pakistanis and the Taliban.”

While in Qatar, the Taliban have scrupulously avoided all public appearances, refusing interviews and issuing no statements — which the Qataris have made a condition of their presence.

An Afghan diplomat was at a shopping mall in Doha recently and heard a child call out in Pashto, the language used by most Taliban.

The diplomat turned and saw Hanif din Mohammad, a Taliban representative from northern Badakhshan Province. Introducing himself as an embassy official, the diplomat then said, “So, are you from the other side?” Blushing, the Talib turned and walked away, children in tow.        

Austria: Ex-priest charged in 15 child abuse cases

VIENNA (AP) — Austrian authorities have charged a defrocked priest with sexually abusing 15 children as head of a Catholic boarding school.
They say Alfons August Mandorfer is also accused of torturing and neglecting young boys under his care between 1973 and 1993, when he was director of the school run by a monastery in the Upper Austrian town of Kremsmuenster.
But spokesman Andreas Pechatschek of the regional public prosecutor's office says most of the charges against the 79-year old are based on suspicion of "numerous crimes of a sexual nature."
Mandorfer was dismissed as a priest after several former pupils accused him several years ago of abuse.
Hundreds of alleged sexual victims of Catholic clergy in Austria have come forward in recent years as part of pedophilia accusations rocking the church internationally.

Afghanistan peace deal with Taliban needed, say MPs

The start of an Afghan-led peace deal with the Taliban is needed to secure the future of Afghanistan after British troops leave, a group of MPs has said.

The Defence Select Committee warned that failure to do so could lead to civil war in Afghanistan.
The UK had a responsibility to use its influence to "make Afghanistan work" after 2014, the MPs added.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK would help Afghans to reach "a sustainable political settlement".
The MPs' report focused on the planned withdrawal of UK combat troops at the end of 2014 and the transfer of responsibilities to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
The committee said it wanted to see:

• Open and free elections
• An appropriately trained and equipped ANSF with continuing financial support
• A strong judicial system that protects human rights
• Continued development aid
• Effective measures to tackle corruption and the drug trade

'Starkly opposing' The committee highlighted significant gaps in the capabilities of the ANSF in areas such as helicopters and close air support and medical care.
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot, said: "We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan's outlook, post 2014.

“Start Quote

The fact that Afghan security forces are now leading on more than 80% of all security operations across the country shows we are well on the way”

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond

"The fact is that the UK has limited influence. Indeed, it is for the Afghan people themselves to determine their own future.

"However, the UK and its international partners must show the Afghan people that they will abide by their obligations to continue to support them in their efforts."
The MPs said they had received "very little" information about the involvement of the Ministry of Defence and the UK Foreign Office in Afghanistan beyond 2014.


Viable State
There are currently 9,000 British service personnel in Afghanistan, reducing to 5,200 by the end of 2013.
The committee called on the government to provide detailed plans and costs for withdrawal to ensure the protection of military personnel.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "I welcome the publication of this report which shares our vision of an Afghanistan that can maintain its own security and never again be a safe haven for international terrorism.
"The fact that Afghan security forces are now leading on more than 80% of all security operations across the country shows we are well on the way to achieving that aim."
He added: "The UK is dedicated to helping the Afghan government make progress towards a sustainable political settlement and a stable regional environment, and to help the Afghan people build a viable Afghan state.
"We will continue to support governance and development in Afghanistan through the next decade, with £178m per year of development aid agreed until 2017, to ensure that the progress made will not be lost."

The fact that Afghan security forces are now leading on more than 80% of all security operations across the country shows we are well on the way”

                                                                        ......Defence Secretary Philip Hammond

Why did daddy kill that girl? Backpacker murder suspect's wife tells of children's disbelief

Sarah Groves, 24, was stabbed 40 times in Kashmir on Saturday morning

Dutch national Richard de Wit has confessed to the brutal murder

Wife of de Wit says he had become 'increasingly paranoid and irrational'

De Wit abandoned wife and two children to go travelling six months ago.    

    

                                                                                                                                              

The wife of the Dutch tourist accused of murdering a British backpacker in India yesterday told how her children had asked her: ‘Why has daddy killed that woman?’
Thai bride Uma Rupanya said her husband of ten years, Richard de Wit, had become increasingly paranoid and psychotic before abandoning the family six months ago to go travelling.
The first she learned of her husband’s alleged crime was when Dutch officers arrived to tell her that de Wit, 43, had confessed to the murder of former public schoolgirl Sarah Groves, 24, on a houseboat.
Miss Groves, a fitness instructor from Guernsey, was stabbed 45 times in a frenzied 15-minute knife attack at Lake Dal, near Kashmir’s capital Srinagar.
Yesterday Miss Rupanya, who is blind in one eye and suffers from multiple sclerosis, said she does not know what to say to her two daughters, aged 12 and ten.
‘I want to protect them but don’t know how,’ she said.
Jobless de Wit, said to be 7ft tall, fled the murder scene in a stolen rowing boat, which capsized before he swam to shore.
He was arrested by police, dripping wet, with £2,000 stuffed in his underwear and wearing no shoes, 50 miles away.
According to Indian police, he later said he murdered Miss Groves after being taken over by the devil.
Yesterday, Miss Rupanya, 31, said she was in a state of shock and felt immense sorrow for Miss Groves’s family. She told the Daily Mail: ‘My husband left us in November. He was seeing a psychiatrist but had become increasingly irrational and paranoid.

 

More...

• 'We begged her not to go': Tears of Sarah's father as he reveals he pleaded with her to stay away from Indian houseboat where she was stabbed to death
• 'The devil took over my body'... says the 7ft Dutchman accused of stabbing to death 'wonderful' British tourist, 24, on Indian houseboat
• British backpacker fought desperately for her life as 'Dutch killer' knifed her 45 times, doctors reveal

‘He believed the Government was out to get him, that spies were following him, that the house was bugged.
‘He had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication also.
'He said he had to leave for his and our safety. I was very worried about him but never expected something like this to happen.
‘It’s just so awful. He was a good father to our children, he was never violent towards me and he did not take drugs, although I have heard that he started to smoke cannabis after he left us.

‘I feel angry as he left me with a few thousands euros to live on, he knew I couldn’t work or provide for the children myself because of my disability. 

'I just have to try to be strong and be a good mother the best I can but it is a very dark time for us.

‘My children are very angry too. They ask me “why has daddy killed that woman?” I don’t know what to say. I want to protect them but don’t know how.’

De Wit, a former councillor for an extreme right-wing party in his home town of Ridderkerk, met his wife while on holiday in Thailand 13 years ago when he went into her brother’s clothes shop where she worked as a sales assistant.

They had their two daughters before marrying in November 2002.  At the time, Miss Rupanya was seriously ill after giving birth to their second child so the ceremony took place from her hospital bed in Rotterdam’s Erasmus Hospital.

Speaking from the tiny apartment they shared together in the town of Capelle aan den Ijssel, she said: ‘Richard never worked. He stayed at home and played on the computer. 

'At the weekend he would take our children to the museum.
‘After he left us, he would phone and email to see how we were. But I felt very let down.
‘The last time I spoke to him was two days before the murder. He seemed OK and said he was enjoying India. I still can’t believe this has happened.’
De Wit, who has two children from a previous relationship, posted a rambling video online shortly before he left for India detailing his delusional fears that the Dutch authorities were after him and were trying to frame him for a fictitious bomb plot.
He remains in custody in India.

Deadly quake in south-west Iran's Bushehr province

 

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has killed at least 37 people and injured 850 in south-west Iran, officials say.

Rescue teams have been sent to the affected area, but darkness is hampering rescue operations.
The quake struck 90km (60 miles) south of the country's only nuclear power station in Bushehr, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says.
However, the nuclear plant has not been affected and is working normally, officials have said.
The quake was felt across the Gulf in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Some 10,000 people are thought to live in the affected area in more than 50 villages, two of which have reportedly been completely levelled.
Bushehr's governor says 700 houses have been damaged and 200 families affected.
The governor's office has sent generators to the area so rescue operation can continue overnight, the BBC's Mohsen Asgari in Tehran reports.
Seismologists said the quake struck at 16:22 (11:52 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles) near the town of Kaki, south of Bushehr - a Gulf port city that is home to Iran's first and only nuclear power plant.
Iran's seismological centre in Bushehr province, linked to Tehran University, registered the quake at a magnitude of 6.1.

Continue reading the main story

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It was a very strange sensation, rather like being on a rocking boat”

Phil Stevens Office worker in Abu Dhabi

Tens of aftershocks - the strongest measuring a magnitude of 5.4 - struck within an hour, sending many people into the streets for safety.

State media reported that phone lines had been brought down by the quake and its aftershocks.
The earthquake shook buildings across the Gulf.
"Our entire building started to wobble from side to side for around 30 seconds or so," Phil Stevens, working on the 10th floor of a building in Abu Dhabi, told the BBC.
"It was a very strange sensation, rather like being on a rocking boat. We evacuated our office and quickly learned of the earthquake in Iran."

Fault line
The governor of Bushehr, Fereydoun Hassanvand, told Iranian state TV that the nuclear plant was not damaged.
An official with the Russian firm Atomstroyexport told Russian media that the quake "in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor".
"Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," the official was quoted by Russian state news agency Ria as saying.
Iran's nuclear programme has roused concern among major powers that Tehran wants to build nuclear weapons - a charge Iran strongly denies.
Iran straddles a major geological fault line, making it prone to seismic activity. In 2003, an earthquake in the city of Bam left more than 25,000 people dead.