Assembly presiding officer to go

 10 May 2011 Last updated at 12:10 ET  Lord Elis-Thomas has been the assembly's only presiding officer since it was founded in 1999 Lord Elis-Thomas's tenure as the Welsh assembly's presiding officer is to end after 12 years in the job.

AMs will choose a presiding officer at the first plenary session on Wednesday, following last week's election.

A source close to him says he will chair the meeting but not be re-nominated as presiding officer - the equivalent to the Commons Speaker.

The Labour AM for Newport West, Rosemary Butler, is expected to be nominated as his successor.

The Conservatives, now the assembly's second-biggest party, want one of their members to fill the post.

Plaid Cymru AM Lord Elis-Thomas has served as the presiding officer since the assembly was established in 1999.

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The firm view of the Conservative group is that the presiding officer should come from the Conservative benches”

End Quote Paul Davies AM Interim Conservative assembly leader He was re-elected as the AM for Dwyfor Meirionnydd last week with a majority of more than 5,000.

AMs elect the presiding and deputy officers in secret ballots.

The Conservatives' interim leader in the assembly, Paul Davies, said Tory AMs William Graham and Angela Burns had expressed an interest in the post.

He said: "The firm view of the Conservative group is that the presiding officer should come from the Conservative benches."

A Plaid source said the presiding officer was expected to come from the government and that the party would not put forward a deputy.

A Labour source said Mrs Butler, deputy presiding officer in the last assembly, would have cross-party support.

Neither the presiding and deputy presiding officers participate in Senedd votes.

Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones is also likely to be nominated as first minister at Wednesday's plenary session.

Party Convoy in Turkey Is Fired on, Killing Officer

The attack came after Mr. Erdogan had left the convoy. It was unclear whether he had been the intended target.

Less than an hour earlier, he had addressed a rally in Kastamonu, a city near the Black Sea about 150 miles north of Ankara.

At the time of the attack, Mr. Erdogan was in the nearby town of Amasya for another campaign event, said the governor of Kastamonu Province, Erdogan Bektas. The prime minister then left the area by helicopter, Mr. Bektas said.

In remarks delivered in Amasya, Mr. Erdogan condemned the political violence and appeared to allude to a separatist motive for the attack, though he stopped short of naming any group. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

“Call them whatever you want, these terrorists, these separatist powers, those who realize that they cannot handle their business at ballot boxes, think that they can achieve results only this way,” the Anatolian News Agency reported Mr. Erdogan as saying.

Since the 1980s, the Turkish government and armed Kurdish separatists known as the P.K.K. have engaged in a protracted struggle that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

“Nobody should seek for alternate ways except the ballot box,” Mr. Erdogan said.

Turkey is heading for parliamentary elections in June with Mr. Erdogan’s pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party, buoyed by a robust economy, expected to win a third term as the majority government.

The attackers aimed at police vehicles escorting the prime minister’s election bus, which carried officials from Mr. Erdogan’s party, the NTV television network reported. A large number of ambulances were sent to the area.

Gunfire caused one of the police vehicles to explode, Mr. Bektas said. Earlier news reports, citing witnesses, had indicated grenades were used in the attack.

 

Inquest Faults London Officer in 2009 Death During Protests

 

Now, two years later, a jury in an official inquest has reached a damning conclusion. After hearing five weeks of evidence contradicting the original account, it determined on Tuesday that Mr. Tomlinson had in fact been “unlawfully killed” by the “excessive and unreasonable” behavior of the police officer who hit him, Police Constable Simon Harwood.

As a result of Constable Harwood’s attack, the jury said, “Mr. Tomlinson suffered internal bleeding, which led to his collapse within a few minutes and his subsequent death.”

The case has been a cause célèbre since the death of Mr. Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor whose fatal encounter with an angry army of police officers took place as he tried to make his way home during the sometimes-violent protests against a Group of 20 meeting on April 1, 2009. The verdict was a huge embarrassment for the police, which have been repeatedly accused of using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators and of being unable to control violent protesters, and who seemed to be doing their best to avoid taking responsibility for Mr. Tomlinson’s death.

Mr. Tomlinson, an alcoholic who had liver disease, had a number of peaceful encounters that evening with the police, who stopped him repeatedly as he walked, slowly and not very steadily, through London’s financial district.

One officer, Police Constable Andrew Brown, said that he encountered Mr. Tomlinson “shuffling” toward a police cordon against a backdrop of fires, smoke and rocks being thrown by the protesters. “He was staring vacantly towards the demonstration,” Constable Brown told the inquest. “I explained why he could not get through. He said he needed to get to West Smithfield where he lived — he needed to work in the morning.”

A few minutes later, Mr. Tomlinson was standing with his hands in his pockets when a line of police officers clearing the area of protesters told him to get back. It was then that Constable Harwood, who told the inquest that he was panicking at the mounting violence and who had already had several altercations with people in the crowd, ran forward.

Mr. Tomlinson had already begun to move away when Constable Harwood hit him in the left thigh with his baton and then pushed him hard on his shoulder. Mr. Tomlinson fell to the ground. He got up and wandered unsteadily for a short time before collapsing again, unconscious. He died soon afterward.

The police at first said that their only contact with Mr. Tomlinson involved trying to help him. But the push was captured on video by a bystander, Chris La Jaunie, an investment banker in New York. Six days later, he released the video to The Guardian, which posted it online.

A police pathologist — who has been suspended twice for failings in other postmortem examinations — concluded that Mr. Tomlinson had had a fatal heart attack. But several experts testified at the inquest that he had in fact died from internal bleeding.

Rose Fitzpatrick, deputy assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, called the verdict a “matter of deep regret” and said the department would begin misconduct proceedings against Constable Harwood. But Mr. Tomlinson’s family said the officer should face criminal prosecution.

“We’ve been let down for two years,” Paul King, one of Mr. Tomlinson’s nine children, said after the verdict. He said that the verdict was “a bit of closure,” but that “we’d like to go to court and continue with the manslaughter charges.”

The Crown Prosecution Service, which originally declined to prosecute anyone in the case, said Tuesday that it would review its decision in light of the inquest.

Constable Harwood denied that he had intended to harm Mr. Tomlinson. The officer “did not intend, or foresee at the time, that his push would cause Mr. Tomlinson to fall over, let alone that it would result in any injury,” Constable Harwood’s lawyer said in a statement.

Jenny Jones, a member of the London Assembly from the Green Party, referred to several cases in which unarmed civilians were killed by police officers, including that of Jean Charles de Menezes. Mr. Menezes, a Brazilian man, was shot dead days after the subway bombings of July 2005 by officers who mistook him for a terrorist after a series of blunders. No officer was prosecuted in the case.

“Ian Tomlinson’s death must not join that list,” she said.

 

Libya Could Become Stalemate, Top U.S. Military Officer Says

The officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that a month of airstrikes had destroyed 30 percent to 40 percent of the capabilities of the military forces loyal to Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, but had not yet drastically tilted the conflict with opposition militias one way or another. He cited shifts in tactics by Libyan forces that made it difficult for NATO warplanes to distinguish them from the rebel fighters and civilians.

“So it’s become a much more difficult fight, much more difficult targets,” Admiral Mullen said in Baghdad, where he visited American troops involved in another American war. “As I have observed in recent days, essentially it’s very much stalemate-like in the vicinity of Ajdabiya and Brega,” two contested cities east of the capital, Tripoli.

His remarks were echoed by those of the most prominent American yet to visit the rebel strongholds in Libya: Senator John McCain. Appearing on Friday in Benghazi, he, too, used the word stalemate as he called on the United States to intensify its attacks on pro-Qaddafi forces, using aircraft like A-10 jets and AC-130 gunships that the White House and Pentagon have pulled from the fight, citing the threat from portable missiles on the ground and saying allied warplanes should take the lead.

Mr. McCain, a strong advocate of intervention in Libya, called for the United States to recognize the rebels’ governing council as the country’s legitimate government, as France, Italy and Qatar have done, and provide it with money and arms on a scale similar to what the United States did in support of those who fought the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

“I have met these brave fighters, and they are not Al Qaeda,” said Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona. “They are Libyan patriots who want to liberate their nation.” His comments came after a brief visit that included meetings with the members of the Transitional National Council, led by a former justice minister, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, and a former interior minister, Abdul Fateh Younes, who both defected when the uprising began in February.

Mr. McCain’s visit, though coordinated with the White House and the State Department, nonetheless underscored a mounting sense of frustration among critics and even some supporters of the Obama administration that it was not acting aggressively enough to help the rebels overthrow Colonel Qaddafi.

Although this week President Obama authorized the use of armed drones in Libya and a $25 million contribution of nonlethal military surplus for the rebel forces, the administration resists deepening the American military involvement. Asked on Thursday whether American soldiers or advisers should be sent to help improve the effectiveness of the rebel forces, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Mr. Obama had explicitly ruled that out. “And there is no wiggle room in that,” he said.

Instead, administration officials have pleaded for patience. They said that while it could take weeks or months for the rebels to mature as fighters, they asserted that the operation continued to weaken Colonel Qaddafi’s military and that sanctions and an arms embargo allowed the United States “quite aggressively, both unilaterally and multilaterally, to put the squeeze on Qaddafi,” as the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, put it on Friday.

“I think it’s important to remember that Qaddafi’s resources are limited,” Mr. Carney told reporters returning with the president to Washington from California. “And the arms embargo and the sanctions that have been put in place will, as each day goes by, make it harder and harder for him to function and for his regime to function.”

Military officials said the greatest shortcoming among the ragtag rebel militias was not weapons but training, communications systems and a sensible command structure. The supplies the United States is sending — including uniforms, body armor and nonclassified communications gear — are suited to building a more effective fighting force. With the anticipated arrival in Libya of liaison officers from France, Italy and Britain, officials expressed hope that the rebels would become better organized and coordinate their battlefield movements more effectively.

Even so, Admiral Mullen and other NATO officials acknowledged that an evolving tactic adopted by pro-Qaddafi forces — hiding among the population and moving about the battlefield in civilian vehicles — had vastly complicated NATO’s attempts to locate, identify and attack government troops, armor and artillery.

The use of armed Predator drones is intended to counter that. Those drones, though, will operate only on the frontlines separating the rebels and the government forces, with the justification of protecting civilians in besieged cities like Misurata. As of late Friday, no Predators had yet attacked Libyan government forces, officials said.

A senior administration official acknowledged that the fierce fighting in Misurata in particular called into question whether the NATO campaign was succeeding in protecting civilians. “There are constraints on doing that because of the stated desire to avoid civilian casualties, the technical limits of air power and even the weather,” the official said.

Overall, though, the NATO campaign was never intended, by itself, to overthrow Colonel Qaddafi. The measure of success, the official added, is “not whether the rebels are marching on Tripoli.”

The fighting in Misurata seesawed Friday.

The rebels there said they had driven Colonel Qaddafi’s men from buildings along Tripoli Avenue, a central artery, where snipers had been shooting at anyone who dared venture out. Shooting resumed later, though, near the main hospital, not far from Tripoli Avenue, according to a foreign journalist at the hospital, suggesting that whatever success the rebels had enjoyed was probably short-lived. The Libyan flag, which had been taken down the day before, was once again flying over the city’s tallest building.

Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, said the army might stop fighting in Misurata because of NATO airstrikes, Reuters reported. Instead, he said, local tribes will try to negotiate with the rebels, and if that fails, the tribes will fight the rebels, the news agency reported.

In Benghazi, the rebels seemed buoyed by the news from the front and from Mr. McCain’s visit. He stopped briefly at the courthouse that has been the headquarters of the uprising’s leaders. Only a few dozen Libyans were there, and they chanted pro-American and anti-Qaddafi slogans.

“This,” Mr. McCain said, “was one of the most exciting and inspiring days of my life.”

Rod Nordland reported from Benghazi, and Steven Lee Myers from Washington. Reporting was contributed by C. J. Chivers from Benghazi, Michael S. Schmidt from Baghdad, Thom Shanker from Washington, Alan Cowell from London and J. David Goodman from New York.

 

Case Against Tunisian Police Officer is Dismissed

CAIRO -- A Tunisian court on Tuesday dismissed the case against a policewoman accused of slapping the Tunisian street vendor whose subsequent self-immolation set off a wave of revolts across Tunisia and the Arab world, Tunisia’s official news agency, TAP, reported.

The street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, set himself on fire after a confrontation with the police officer, Fedia Hamdi, who had confiscated his fruit and slapped him in the face, according to other vendors who witnessed the incident in December. Mr. Bouazizi’s act of desperation fueled public outrage and led to a month-long uprising that finally toppled the authoritarian president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and forced him to flee the country on Jan. 14. It also turned Mr. Bouazizi into a symbol of defiance against state oppression and systematic police violations, which inspired similar acts of self-immolation in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania.

According to the Tunisian news agency, Mr. Bouazizi’s mother “withdrew her complaint, ” and Ms. Hamdi denied the charges. The court’s ruling comes at a time of uncertainty for Tunisia as the new government investigates accusations of corruption and the excessive use of force against protesters.

 

Leftist Ex-Military Officer, Fujimori's Daughter to Face Off in Peru Runoff

 VOA News ?April 12, 2011

Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala speaks two days after the election at a local radio station in Lima, April 12, 2011

Election results in Peru indicate leftist, former army officer Ollanta Humala will face the daughter of imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori in a presidential runoff election.

With more than 92 percent of the ballots counted from Sunday's election, Humala led with nearly 32 percent of the vote, while Keiko Fujimori was in second with more than 23 percent.

Humala and Fujimori are set for a runoff on June 5.

The two will be competing for support from about 45 percent of voters who backed less divisive candidates. Former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski secured about 19 percent of the vote, while former President Alejandro Toledo was fourth with more than 15 percent support.

Analysts say many Peruvians question Humala's and Fujimori's credentials on human rights and see them as a threat to the democratic system.

Humala, who led an uprising against then-President Fujimori in 2000, lost a runoff election to current President Alan Garcia in 2006. Humala was outspoken during that campaign about his admiration for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but he has since distanced himself from the leftist leader.

Some Peruvians distrust Fujimori because of her father, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in death squad killings in the 1990s. He also has been convicted of corruption. There has been concern that Keiko Fujimori would try to free her father if elected.

Much of the presidential campaign has focused on continuing the rapid economic growth seen in recent years, while ensuring the poor also see some of the increased prosperity.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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