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White House ‘enforcer’ quits post

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in Nov 2009

Mr Emanuel has a reputation for brashness and abrasiveness

US President Barack Obama is set to confirm that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will resign to run for the post of Chicago mayor.

Mr Obama has called a press conference for Friday afternoon in the White House to make a “personnel announcement”.

US sources said the likely interim replacement would be Pete Rouse, who served as Mr Obama’s chief of staff in the US Senate.

Mr Emanuel has made no secret of his desire to run for mayor one day.

“[The post of mayor has] always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives”

Rahm EmanuelProfile: Rahm Emanuel Who has left the White House so far?Profile: Pete Rouse

The position of chief of staff is considered one of the most influential in the White House, and presidential aides have admitted Mr Emanuel’s departure will be a loss to the administration.

Mr Emanuel – who has a reputation for brashness and abrasiveness – is a native of Chicago and represented Illinois’s 5th district in Congress for six years.

Pundits have tipped Mr Emanuel to replace mayor Richard M. Daley since the latter announced on 7 September that he would be stepping down.

Mr Daley has been mayor of Chicago since 1989.

Mr Emanuel has shown himself to be a strong force in the White House.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not confirm Mr Emanuel’s departure but said of him: “The title ‘chief of staff’ in many ways says it all. He has been the energetic, inspirational leader of us, taking the president’s promises and agenda and enacting them into law.”

Chief of Staff contendersPete Rouse, senior White House advisor, former chief of staff in Mr Obama’s senate officeTom Donilon, deputy national security advisor. Mr Donilon is a veteran Democratic political hand and was chief of staff to former Secretary of State Warren ChristopherRon Klain, chief of staff to Vice-President Joe Biden, former legal aide in the Clinton White HouseTom Daschle, former Senate Democratic leader, now a consultant at a Washington law firmJohn Podesta, one-time chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, now president of prominent liberal think tank Center for American Progress

Peter Rouse, 64, is a very different figure, shunning the spotlight. But analysts say he has built up strong relationships around Washington over a long period and is a good troubleshooter.

When asked about Mr Rouse, Mr Gibbs said: “Pete has been with senator-elect, senator, president-elect and now President Obama. There is a complete loyalty and trust with somebody like Pete.”

However, Mr Rouse will face competition for the post when it becomes available on a permanent basis.

Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, the vice-president’s aide Ron Klain, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and ex-Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, may all be considered.

Any decision on a permanent replacement may not be taken until after November’s mid-term elections, when it is likely Mr Obama and his staff will face a very different political landscape in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Congo killings ‘may be genocide’

Rwandan Hutu refugees returning from Zaire (7 May 1997)

More than one million Hutus fled Rwanda for DR Congo during the fighting

The United Nations is set to publish a controversial report into human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s.

The final version is believed to have toned down its language after an earlier, leaked draft provoked fury from Uganda and Rwanda.

Both countries were accused of committing war crimes against ethnic Hutus in DR Congo during the conflict.

They had threatened to pull out of UN peacekeeping missions in response.

The report into conflicts in the DR Congo between 1993 and 2003 is said to detail crimes never previously documented.

It covers some 600 incidents and includes allegations of massacres of civilians, torture, and the destruction of infrastructure that led to civilian deaths.

Rwanda had reacted furiously to allegations that its Tutsi-led army may have committed genocide in DR Congo, known as Zaire until 1997, against Rwandan Hutus.

Under President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has always said its forces entered Zaire to pursue Hutu militias responsible for carrying out mass killings in Rwanda – the rebels had fled to Zaire along with tens of thousands of Hutu refugees.

President Kagame threatened to withdraw Rwandan peacekeepers from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region in response to the report.

He was only persuaded not to after a visit from the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and agreement that Rwanda would be allowed to submit comments for inclusion in the report.

DR Congo and Rwanda: Troublesome neighbours

April-June 1994: Genocide of Tutsis in RwandaJune 1994: Paul Kagame’s Tutsi rebels take power in Rwanda, Hutus flee into ZaireRwanda’s army enters eastern Zaire to pursue Hutu fighters1997: Laurent Kabila’s AFDL, backed by Rwanda, takes power in KinshasaCongo killings ‘may be genocide’ Analysis: Defining genocide Q&A: DR Congo conflict Profile: Rwanda President Kagame

The BBC’s Barbara Plett at the UN says that while the final version appears to still contain the suggestion that Rwanda’s army may have committed genocide, the language used has been toned down.

Despite the changes, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said the document remained “flawed and dangerous from start to finish”.

She criticised the methodology used to collect evidence and accused the UN of seeking to rewrite history, saying the report had been “a moral and intellectual failure as well as an insult to history”.

Uganda, which was also accused of atrocities, described the draft report as “deeply flawed” and had threatened to pull out of peacekeeping missions, such as Somalia.

The country’s UN ambassador, Ruhakana Rugunda, has told the BBC the document should not be published as it is not a “well-considered, objective report”.

But he said Uganda’s commitment to Africa would not be derailed.

“Our resolve to play our role in the region remains certain because we regard it as our inherent pan-African obligation to stand by the side of other African brothers and sisters,” he said.

The UN report covers the wider conflict in DR Congo, which dragged in several neighbouring countries in what has been called “Africa’s world war”.

More than five million people died in the war and its aftermath – mostly from starvation or disease.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Sex video hate charges considered

Prosecutors are considering hate crime charges in the case of a US student who killed himself after two students allegedly broadcast footage of him having sex with a man.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ryder Cup faces extra day concern

Spectators watch during the opening ceremony for the 2010 Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup will deliver a global television audience of many millions

The Ryder Cup is ready to tee off at Newport’s Celtic Manor after years of planning and millions of pounds in investment.

A global television audience will focus on Wales for golf’s biggest event.

A host of celebrities and former US presidents are among the daily 45,000 spectators set to watch the European and USA teams battle for the trophy.

The three-day tournament alternates between Europe and America and is in Wales for the first time.

The event brings to fruition the dream of the Celtic Manor’s owner, 67-year-old Welsh-born billionaire Sir Terry Matthews.

Rain forces Ryder Cup suspension

The Ryder Cup will deliver a global television audience of many millions

The Ryder Cup is ready to tee off at Newport’s Celtic Manor after years of planning and millions of pounds in investment.

A global television audience will focus on Wales for golf’s biggest event.

A host of celebrities and former US presidents are among the daily 45,000 spectators set to watch the European and USA teams battle for the trophy.

The three-day tournament alternates between Europe and America and is in Wales for the first time.

The event brings to fruition the dream of the Celtic Manor’s owner, 67-year-old Welsh-born billionaire Sir Terry Matthews.

Government to scrap M4 bus lane

The bus lane was known as the “Blair lane” after the former prime minister used it to avoid heavy traffic

The controversial M4 bus lane is due to be scrapped at the end of the year.

Under the plans, all motorists will be able to use the 3.5 mile (5.6km) lane which operates on the London-bound carriageway from near Heathrow.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond is expected to announce the move at next week’s Conservative Party conference.

The lane will be suspended from 24 December for 18 months when it will be brought back into use for the Olympics, after which it will be scrapped.

The unpopular bus lane was introduced by former Transport Secretary John Prescott in 1999.

It became known as the “Blair lane” after the former prime minister used it to avoid heavy traffic.

In his speech to the Conservative Party, Mr Hammond is expected to say: “Nothing is more symbolic of Labour’s war on the motorist than the M4 bus lane.”

He is thought to reveal plans to suspend the lane from the end of December until the 2012 Olympics, and then scrap it permanently after the Games.

Mr Hammond will say that the lane will be temporarily used for the Olympics to help get people “speedily” to and from events.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

China launches Moon mission

China’s Chang’e-2 spacecraft is launched on a mission to map the Moon

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Nigeria marks 50 years of freedom

Huge celebrations are planned across Nigeria to mark 50 years since independence from the UK.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ecuador in state of emergency

There have been chaotic scenes in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, as police have taken to the streets protesting against austerity cuts.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Helping the heroes

By Caroline Wyatt

A British serviceman with a prosthetic leg trains in the gym at Headley Court, an armed forces rehabilitation centre in Surrey

Help for Heroes was set up three years ago

Help for Heroes is celebrating its third birthday after raising a remarkable £70m.

Its original aim was to fund a single swimming pool at a rehabilitation centre, but the charity is now helping to fund five recovery centres, other military charities such as Combat Stress and individual soldiers and their families.

Neil Heritage is celebrating turning 30. It is a birthday he nearly did not see.

In 2004, both his legs were blown off by a suicide bomber in Iraq while he was serving with an Army bomb disposal team.

Today, he is at the Help for Heroes office, and some of the staff have brought in a chocolate cake to mark his birthday and the charity’s own milestone.

Mr Heritage turned to the charity after he had left the Army and its safety net of welfare officers and medical care.

“The wives have to do it themselves, which is something that should be addressed”

Sergeant Major Andy Newall

He missed out on the armed forces lump-sum compensation scheme because both his legs were blown off just a few months before it took effect. Although he would rather not talk about it, the strain on his family has been profound.

“At the time when I was blown up in November 2004, I didn’t know my girlfriend was pregnant with our daughter,” he said.

“What it meant was that for the next few years after being injured, you’re trying rehabilitate yourself, come off medication and learn to walk again and things like that.

“So obviously, I didn’t get that same spending time with the baby and family that I would have had.”

On the practical side, more recently he urgently needed new sockets so he could use his prosthetic legs comfortably.

Help for Heroes provided the £12,000 needed from its 72-hour turnaround “quick reaction fund” so he did not have to wait, and could get out of his wheelchair and go to work. Mr Heritage is currently a teaching assistant at a local school.

“When you see a 22-year-old who gets his leg blown off, everybody is thinking about him today. But when he’s 40, when he’s 60, or when he’s 80 – are we still going to be there for him?”

Bryn Parry Help for Heroes co-founder

Like him, Sergeant Major Andy Newall does not complain.

He is still serving with the Parachute Regiment, although he is having to deal with the long-term effects of being shot in Musa Qala in Helmand four years ago, as he led reinforcements in to help colleagues under siege.

The bullet, fired by an Afghan policeman with Taliban sympathies, shattered his arm in 60 places. The scars are clearly visible. Less visible, but just as damaging, are the scars that cannot be seen.

“Unfortunately, I got divorced. The problem was that I changed my personality through the amount of prescription drugs I was taking while I was being treated. I got aggressive and paranoid, and basically I wasn’t myself, ” he says.

“My wife tried for a long time, but while the Army helped me, and I even went to see the psychiatrist, there was no help for my wife. The wives have to do it themselves, which is something that should be addressed.”

Both men have also helped raise money for the charity. It has just presented the cheque for one of the latest projects it is backing – adapting rooms at the Union Jack Club in London, so that the wounded and their families can stay there.

The charity was set up three years ago by Bryn and Emma Parry, who wanted to do something to help while their own son was serving in Afghanistan. The original aim – to build a swimming pool at Headley Court, an armed forces rehabilitation centre in Surrey – has long since been surpassed.

Several recovery centres are now being built, with one in Scotland already up and running. The aim now is to help create a one-stop shop which addresses all the issues – physical, emotional and financial – faced by Britain’s wounded servicemen and women and their families.

“What I want to do is make sure that if someone has a problem because he stood on an IED (improvised explosive device) in Afghanistan, he doesn’t have to ring lots of different places,” said Mr Parry.

“So he can go somewhere if he’s had his legs blown off and say ‘my legs don’t fit, my wife is depressed, I need practical help, my house needs adaptation’.

“All the agencies – government, local government, healthcare, charities – which are out there should all be in one place so he can access it.”

“It is really simple, though I am feeling frustration that we haven’t got there as fast as we should,” he added.

He is grateful to all those who have given money to Help For Heroes, and wants the work to continue.

“When you see a 22-year-old who gets his leg blown off, everybody is thinking about him today,” he says. “But when he’s 40, when he’s 60, or when he’s 80 – are we still going to be there for him? We have to be.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Celebrity snapper

A look at the work of photographer Brian Griffin

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Further tests on women’s bodies

Emergency crews in protective suits were at the scene

Experts are to carry out tests on the bodies of two women found dead when emergency services wearing protective suits entered a south-west London flat.

Police said the deaths of the women, found in a second floor flat in Lower Richmond Road, Putney, were not being treated as suspicious.

A neighbour spoke of seeing crews being hosed down and one report said the flat had been “sealed with tape”.

The women have not been named but are thought to be in their 20s.

Emergency services were called to Norman Court just after 1030 BST on Thursday.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were brought in amid fears that toxic chemicals were involved and residents were asked to stay indoors.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the deaths were not being treated as suspicious “at this stage” and no arrests had been made.

Christina Barrett, who lives in a neighbouring house, said she saw a “decontamination unit” and emergency services crew “being hosed down”.

“There was a smell in the air that caught the back of your throat,” she added.

Suzanne Viggers, who lives in the block, said she believed the flat had been rented by one of the women about five months ago.

“Apparently she was supposed to be meeting a friend this morning, but when she didn’t turn up the friend became worried and called the police.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ecuador leader ‘freed by troops’

Soldiers in Ecuador have rescued President Rafael Correa from the hospital where he was holed up, local media report.

Ecuadorean TV showed live footage of a gunfight between army and police outside the police hospital in Quito.

During the battle, Mr Correa was apparently taken out of the hospital in a wheelchair.

The violence follows a day of unrest in Ecuador amid claims of a coup attempt.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Japanese smokers see prices soar

The government hopes the tax increase will encourage smokers to give up

Japan’s government has imposed the biggest tax increase on cigarettes the country has ever seen.

The price of the most popular brands is rising on Friday by about 40%, from 300 yen ($3.60; £2.30) to 410 yen ($4.90; £3.70).

The aim is to encourage smokers to quit, in a country with a reputation as one of the most smoker-friendly places in the industrialised world.

But instead smokers have been busy stocking up on cigarettes.

Lighting up is still allowed in restaurants and bars in Japan, and many offices have smoking rooms.

More than one in three Japanese men smoke, although only 12% of women do.

But now the government has put up the tax on cigarettes by 40%.

The aim is to encourage smokers to give up, and surveys show that 60% are thinking of doing so.

But not just yet. The convenience store chain Family Mart reported that sales nearly doubled in the weeks before the price rise.

And the biggest producer, Japan Tobacco, shipped an extra 12 billion cigarettes, one month’s supply, to meet demand.

“We are expecting a rush, especially the day before the price hike,” a spokeswoman for Lawson, a chain of convenience stores, told the AFP news agency.

“Each shop has expanded its cigarette stock.”

There have been predictions that the hoarding by smokers may even boost Japan’s economy, adding up to 0.6% to consumer spending in the three months from July-September.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Grandage to step down from Donmar

Grandage will leave the Donmar after nine years in 2011

Michael Grandage is to step down as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse after nine years, it has been announced.

He will be leaving late 2011 after nine years leading the company.

“I am now keen to have a career that moves away from being in charge of a building in order to develop my work as a director in other ways,” he said.

During his tenure, Grandage expanded the company internationally with Donmar productions playing in four continents.

‘Big shoes to fill’

“With the Donmar’s reputation in a particularly exciting place both at home and abroad, I feel now is the right moment to start a handover period to a new artistic director,” Grandage said in a statement.

“It will enable someone to build on the success we have achieved over the last nine years and to look to the future with real confidence.”

After he replaced Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes in 2002, Grandage’s inaugural production was The Vortex with Chiwetel Ejiofor, whom he worked with again five years later in his production of Othello.

New writing provided the company with two of its biggest successes in recent years – Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon which enjoyed a West End transfer and a run on Broadway, and John Logan’s Red which saw the company return to Broadway and win six Tonys this year.

The director also put accessibility at the forefront of the company’s ethos, introducing a national touring programme and an extensive education programme.

Last year he led the company into the West End for a year long season of work at the Wyndham’s Theatre.

The season, featuring Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh, Twelfth Night with Derek Jacobi, Madame de Sade with Judi Dench and Hamlet with Jude Law, played to 98% capacity.

The Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, chair of the board of directors, said: “These are big shoes to fill, but we’re excited by the challenge of finding the right person to take us forward to further success.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.