US embassies to shut on Sunday over 'security threat'

State department spokeswoman Marie Harf: "It is possible we may have additional days of closing"

 

 

The US will close a number of embassies and consulates, mostly in the Middle East, on Sunday in response to an unspecified threat, officials say.

A state department spokeswoman said the order applied to any embassy or consulate normally open on Sunday.

In the Muslim world, Sunday is a work day. In other parts of the world US diplomatic offices are shut on Sunday.

Last year on 11 September, the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked, leaving four Americans dead.

Other embassies are routinely targets of protesters.

"We have instructed all US embassies and consulates that would have normally been open on Sunday to suspend operations, specifically on August 4th," a senior state department official told the BBC.

"It is possible we may have additional days of closing as well."

The official said the state department had "been apprised of information" leading it to these "precautionary steps... out of an abundance of caution".

CBS News reported that among those affected by closure would be the embassies or consulates in Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Last year, the attack on the facility in Benghazi led to the deaths of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, as well as three other US consulate staff.

How German cars beat British motors - and kept going

 

The UK car industry was once one of Germany's biggest competitors, now it has become one of its biggest assets, argues author Dominic Sandbrook. How did Germany accelerate away?

 

Forty years ago, Germany's biggest carmakers were putting the finishing touches to a product that would change their image forever.

The Volkswagen Golf is one of the bestselling cars of all time. It made its debut in 1974, the year West Germany won the World Cup at home in Munich and the German band Kraftwerk released their ground-breaking album Autobahn.

Ever since, the Golf has been shorthand for mass-market success. Last year VW sold more than 430,000 Golfs all over Europe - a staggering 125,000 ahead of its closest rival.

This year they brought out a brand-new, seventh incarnation. And even if you don't own one yourself, there's undoubtedly one in a drive near you.

 

It is, of course, a very familiar story. German manufacturing is one of the great success stories of the post-war age. Little wonder, then, that 21st-Century Germany probably commands more raw economic and political clout than any time in its peacetime history.

If you want to know why Angela Merkel calls the shots in Europe, Germany's car factories are a pretty good place to start.

By contrast, Britain's car industry is a shadow of its former self. We do still make almost one and a half million cars a year, which is good news for thousands of British engineers. But these days, we make them for other people.

The iconic Mini plant at Cowley, for example, is celebrating its centenary this year. It was founded in 1913 by the entrepreneur William Morris as the home for his legendary Morris Oxford.

 

An early Morris Oxford

 

 

Today it still makes thousands of cars - but it makes them for BMW.

 

It's a similar story at Crewe, the home of another great British icon, Bentley - which actually belongs to Volkswagen.

Half a century ago, let alone when Morris was at his peak, this would have seemed unimaginable. But the sad truth is that Britain's car firms only have themselves to blame.

Seventy years ago, at the end of World War II, Germany was on its knees. After the fall of Hitler's empire, its car industry lay in ruins.

In August 1945 the British Army sent a major called Ivan Hirst to take control of the giant Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, which had been built under the Nazis to produce 'people's cars' for the German masses.

Ignoring his sceptical superiors, Hirst could see the potential amid the shattered debris of the Wolfsburg factory.

Rebuilding Volkswagen, he thought, would be a step towards rehabilitating Germany as a prosperous, peaceful European ally. And of course he was right.

 

The British major who saved the Beetle

"Without Major Ivan Hirst, there may have been no Volkswagen as we know it today," says Judy Booth, curator of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Museum in Reading.

"Ivan Hirst was a hero in his own quiet unassuming way; a man who not only saved a fledgling car company but a man whose humanity found a path through the problems left behind by the war."

 

In the next few years, Hirst restarted production of a car we know today as the Beetle. And from them on, VW was flying.

Beetle shells at a VW plant in Germany in 1960

By the late 1950s, with production up and employment buoyant, West Germany was enjoying an economic miracle. The memories of Nazism were banished, and the Germans began to rebrand themselves as a forward-thinking, hard-working and supremely modern industrial nation.

In the meantime, Britain was coasting in the glow of the affluent society. For decades we had been one of the world's great car-making nations. And yet, slowly but surely, the wheels were beginning to come off.

The men who ran our car firms - men like William Morris, who became chairman of the newly merged British Motor Corporation (BMC) at the age of 74 - were elderly and autocratic.

Instead of embracing new technology and tapping the expanding European markets, they shrank from Continental competition and preferred to sell cheap cars to Britain's former colonies

Even the most celebrated British car of all - the Mini, launched in 1959 - was a reflection of our industrial and imperial decline.

With fuel prices rocketing after Britain's disastrous bid to recapture the Suez Canal from Egypt in 1956, BMC's designers had been told to produce a car that was smaller and required less petrol.

And although the Mini was an enormous hit, there was a sting in the tail. BMC actually lost £30 for every car it sold.

Far from being a symbol of Sixties cool, therefore, the Mini was really a symbol of something rotten at the heart of Britain's economy. It was a brilliantly designed metaphor for an industry crippled by complacent leadership, dreadful salesmanship and a fatal culture of self-satisfaction.


Beetles in production in 1973

All the time, Germany's car industry went from strength to strength. Crucially, it enjoyed excellent labour relations - a stark contrast with the pitched battles in many of Britain's troubled car plants.

Europe's favourite brands

Brand	Market share
Source: ACEA July 2013
VW	12.5%
Opel/Vauxhall	6.9%
Renault	6.5%
Peugeot	6.2%
Audi	5.6%

In Germany, management and unions worked closely together in the interests of the common good. Indeed, by law all major German firms are required to set up Works Councils, where the bosses and the unions must work together 'in a spirit of mutual trust'.

In Britain, by contrast, car factories in the 1960s and 1970s became daily battlegrounds, where militant shop stewards and complacent managers fought out an overt class war.

One fact probably says it all about the difference between Britain and Germany in the post-war years. In 1978, for every day that German manufacturers lost to industrial action, we lost ten.

Striking workers outside Vauxhall in the UK in 1967

By the time Margaret Thatcher came to power a year later, the game was probably up for Britain's car industry. Drivers were already switching to foreign motors - not least German models such as Mercedes, Porsche, Audi and, above all, BMW, which mastered the art of high-end branding.

In 1994 BMW bought the last remnant of British mass car production, the Rover Group. A year later, in the film Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan's James Bond was even equipped with a BMW Z3, supposedly fitted with Stinger missiles.

By now, cars had become the ultimate metaphor for Germany's extraordinary industrial revival - and for the collapse of much of Britain's manufacturing industry.

Today the results are all around us. Thanks in large part to the success of its manufacturers, Angela Merkel's Germany is the biggest economy in Europe and the fourth biggest in the world, as well as the world's second largest exporter.

It is little wonder, then, that while Britain ran a whopping £120bn budget deficit in 2012-13, the Germans managed to run a small surplus - as they have done so often in recent years.

And it is little wonder, either, that amid the terrible turmoil in the capitals of the eurozone, the Germans have ended up calling the shots.

From Britain's perspective, the tragedy is that we always had the skills. But we lacked the right management, the right unions, the right priorities, and, quite frankly, the right work ethic. And in the end, we paid a heavy price.

Minis being produced at BMW's plant at Cowley, Oxford, in 2006

There is, of course, a bright side. We do still make more than a million cars a year, providing jobs for thousands of British workers. Even during the eurozone crisis, British car production has continued to grow, while German production actually fell last year.

But there's no escaping the fact that the Germans still make more than four times as many cars as we do. And what happens to the profits from all those Minis and Bentleys of which we're so proud? They end up in Wolfsburg and Munich.

Once our car industry was one of the Germans' chief competitors. Now, it has becomes one of their biggest assets.

Half a century ago, they were on their knees. Yet through grit and dedication, they worked their way back. And now, from their car showrooms to their national finances, the Germans are the envy of the world. To be honest, I rather admire them for it.

Iran's 'Jerusalem Day': Behind the rallies and rhetoric

Each year, Iran marks al-Quds - or Jerusalem - Day, bringing millions of people on to the streets for rallies, celebrations and speeches. Its overarching theme is support for the Palestinians and fierce denunciation of Israel, and is as much an expression of policy as ritual.

Here are some lesser known points about the occasion, and what it reveals about Iran:

J
erusalem Day is closely associated with the founder of the Islamic Republic - but the idea came from one of his aides.

Jerusalem Day was not the brainchild of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Revolution in 1979. However he took credit for it. The idea came from Ebrahim Yazdi, Iran's second foreign minister after the revolution: a liberal by the standards of the Iran's ruling clerics back in 1979 and now.

Mr Yazdi took the idea to Ayatollah Khomeini who subsequently proposed it publicly in August 1979 amid deepening tensions between Israel and Lebanon. Mr Yazdi's name was not mentioned in the speech.

Mr Yazdi resigned after the storming of the US embassy in Tehran; his party, Iran's Freedom Movement, was disbanded. He had more reasons to be disgruntled than someone else taking credit for his idea. Mr Yazdi never protested, perhaps out of a reluctance not to be associated with Iran's subsequent foreign policy on the Israeli issue.

 
Jerusalem Day rallies in Tehran can have a carnival-like atmosphere - but are also where people "sign up" to become suicide bombers.
Jerusalem Day in Iran is nominally about Jerusalem. Yet in content it is anything but. The slogans chanted during the rallies organised on Jerusalem Day are primarily "Death to Israel", a refrain that sounds as familiar to Iranian ears as any political slogan can get. The speeches and sermons are a repeat of the same narrative over and over: Israel is a usurper regime - not a country - and as a state, it lacks legitimacy.

However, the repetition of this narrative, and the rhetoric that goes with it, has had the effect of turning the plight of the Palestinians, the victims in this narrative, into a given. Jerusalem Day has turned into an occasion that says more about the political mood in Iran than the Palestinians' own situation.

Familiar sound-bites

 Jerusalem Day rallies are a must for Iranian politicians. Any politician who hopes to establish their credentials has to be seen and hope to be heard delivering a tirade against Israel. It confirms their loyalties and reiterates their identification with what has become an unshakable tenet of Iran's foreign policy.

Being a reformist does not preclude the need for Iranian politicians, including former president, Mohammad Khatami, to attend Jerusalem Day rallies.

The official stance is that Israel is, as a matter of moral principle, illegitimate. However, it does not follow from this that Iran is under the obligation to take direct and pre-emptive action to destroy Israel. This will happen in due course, the rhetoric goes.

Iranians are well-practiced in how to express this idea in short sound bites that are broadcast non-stop during the day of the rallies on state radio and TV. Iranian politicians have particularly become skilled at this. The sentences express a moral outrage over Israel's existence as well as its actions but fall short of requiring that Iran does anything too harsh about this "moral violation".

President Ahmadinejad, however, tried introducing a new element to the traditional narrative: Holocaust denial. His attempts failed and the Supreme Leader, who shares Mr Ahmadinejad's denial but keeps it low-profile, along with Mr Ahmadinejad's political rivals, did not allow for this deviation.
President Ahmadinejad has regularly attended Jerusalem Day rallies, delivering speeches in which Holocaust denial was a prominent theme

What happens in Iran, stays in Iran

The idea behind Jerusalem Day rallies was to gather all fasting Muslims every year on the last day of Ramadan to show their opposition to the existence of Israel. However, Jerusalem Day did not develop beyond an Iranian experience.

Iranian leaders may have initially been motivated by the desire to further an anti-Israeli drive. However, the need to consolidate and project Iran's leadership and influence in the Islamic world as well as intimidating opposition forces inside remained as an incentive to keep the tradition alive.

Jerusalem Day did not achieve the former. As it turned out, whatever leadership and influence Iran wields in the Islamic world has little to do with the rallies on Jerusalem Day. Apart from these annual rallies in some Western and Asian capitals, usually organised and financed by Iran, the ritual never took root among Muslims at large.

Jerusalem Day rallies take place across cities in Europe, north America and Asia by members of Muslim communities sympathetic to Iran's cause

The art of crowd gathering

Jerusalem Day is one of two important country-wide, annual occasions that, like birthdays and anniversaries, mark Iran's political calendar. The other occasion is, of course, the anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution of 11 February 1979. Jerusalem Day provides a yearly photo opportunity for the authorities to showcase the apparent scale of their support base.

The rallies have changed little from the early years: the same types of participants, the same slogans and speeches and speakers, the same routes for demonstrators, and the same level of energy, and by extension the same relevance of Jerusalem Day to solving the Israeli-Palestinian issue.


His name is Hamid-Reza Ahmadabadi. In Iranian social media circles he has gained the epithet 'wide-mouthed Basiji' for his seemingly fixed chanting pose and regular attendance at all official rallies

Jerusalem Day rallies are a massive logistical undertaking and an operational challenge with all official institutions at all levels, and all regions in Iran, competing to bring out as many of their personnel onto the streets as they can. Each year, old banners and posters are pulled out of the closet, as well as new ones getting printed.

Iranian dissidents tried to take advantage of the 2009 Jerusalem Day rallies in the aftermath of the contested presidential elections to steal the limelight and chant the politically heretical slogan "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, God Save Iran". This attempt enjoyed qualified success but the opposition failed to replicate this as a political strategy of civil resistance.

  Iranian protesters were accused by the government of trying to hijack Jerusalem Day rallies in 2009 after an opposition leader called on them to take part in the event

Italy ex-PM Berlusconi in angry tirade at jail ruling

2 August 2013

"We are living in a country... that doesn't know how to be just"

Italy's former PM Silvio Berlusconi has broadcast an angry video message after his prison sentence for tax fraud was upheld by the country's highest court.

Berlusconi said he was the innocent victim of "an incredible series of accusations and trials that had nothing to do with reality".

The court also ordered a further judicial review on whether he should be banned from holding public office.

Berlusconi, 76, is unlikely to go to jail because of his age.

He is expected to serve house arrest or carry out community service

'Judicial harassment'

The ruling by Rome's Court of Cassation, against which he cannot appeal, came after a three-day hearing. Berlusconi was not in court.

In an emotional nine-minute video, Berlusconi denounced the decision as "based on nothing, and which deprives me of my freedom and political rights".

Opponents of Silvio Berlusconi celebrated Thursday's court ruling

"No-one can understand the veritable violence which has been reserved for me through a series of charges and trials that had no basis in reality," he said.

He described the more that 50 court cases he has faced as "genuine judicial harassment that is unmatched in the civilised world".

"In exchange for the commitments I have made over almost 20 years in favour of my country and coming almost at the end of my public life, I have been rewarded with accusations and a verdict that is founded on absolutely nothing, that takes away my personal freedom and my political rights."

He criticised the country's judicial record, saying: "Is this the Italy that we want? Is this the Italy that we love? Absolutely not."

It is the billionaire businessman's first definitive conviction after decades of criminal prosecutions.

The case concerns deals that his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films.

The former prime minister was sentenced to four years in prison at the conclusion of the trial in October last year, though this was automatically reduced to a year under a 2006 pardon law.

'Stay calm'

The court at the time heard that he and other executives had bought TV rights at inflated prices to avoid paying taxes.

He was labelled the "author of a whole system of tax fraud".

The review of the lower court's five year ban on holding public office means Berlusconi can remain as a senator and as leader of his centre-right People of Freedom Party (PDL) for now.

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says the former prime minister will be relieved that judges ordered a review of the political ban.

Berlusconi's political grouping forms part of Italy's coalition government. Prime Minister Enrico Letta needs both the PDL and his own centre-left Democratic Party to govern.

In a statement after the court ruling, Mr Letta urged "a climate of serenity" for the good of the country.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano also urged the country to stay calm.

"The country needs to rediscover serenity and cohesion on vitally important institutional matters which have for too long seen it divided and unable to enact reforms," he said

Appeals pending

A former minister and ally of Berlusconi, Nitto Palma, told Reuters on leaving a PDL meeting that there was a lot of bitterness about the verdict.

Berlusconi remained at his Rome home, Palazza Grazioli, as the judges delivered their verdict

However the sentence would not affect the Letta government, he said.

Berlusconi's legal team said there were "solid reasons" why Berlusconi should have been acquitted, and it would "evaluate and pursue any useful initiative, also in Europe, to make sure that this unjust sentence is radically reformed".

Anti-establishment politician Beppe Grillo welcomed the court ruling, comparing the sentence to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In a statement on his blog, Mr Grillo said Berlusconi had "polluted, corrupted and paralysed Italian politics for 21 years".

The three-time prime minister and senator has faced a string of trials since leaving office in November 2011.

Appeals are pending in other cases in which he was convicted of having paid for sex with an under-age prostitute, and arranging for a police wiretap to be leaked and published in a newspaper.

Two other alleged tax evasion cases, one of them involving British lawyer David Mills, expired under the statute of limitations.

Abandoned babies given away on Pakistani TV programme

Tanzeem Ud Din and her newly-adopted daughter, Fatima


Two baby girls who were abandoned in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi have been allocated new parents during a live television broadcast, the BBC's Orla Guerin reports.

At just over a month old Fatima has already lived through a lot.

Her life began, and could have ended, on a rubbish dump in the sprawling megacity of Karachi. Instead, Fatima was rescued by a charity and placed in the loving care of a childless couple.
It looks like a happy ending but it came about in the full glare of television cameras. The sleeping infant was one of two abandoned girls handed over during live broadcasts of "Amaan Ramzan", a blend of Islam and entertainment, which runs during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Ratings concern

The dapper host Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain is already famous for giving away cars, motorbikes and household electronics.

Now the controversial showman has added babies to the list, calling it "a noble cause". He insists he is saving abandoned infants, not using them to boost his ratings.

"We were already top of the ratings before we gave away a baby. These children are not a part of garbage, are not a part of trash, so we took these children from the garbage, from the trash, and delivered them to the needy people, the needy parents," said Dr Aamir, who describes himself as "truly a legend" on his website.

His show is broadcast from a packed studio, where the audience sits beneath glittering lanterns and a huge chandelier, and fish swim under glass panels in the floor. This is where the sleeping baby Fatima was handed over to her adoptive parents, who embraced her and wept.

Her new father Riaz Ud Din, a bearded civil engineer, told us Fatima was the answer to his mother's prayers. She died the day before the broadcast.

He and his wife Tanzeem waited 14 long years for a child. He refused to divorce her, as many advised, when she could not produce a child.

"When the baby came into my arms on the show," he said, "it felt like another soul had entered my body, like an angel came. She has brought us so much peace. She means more to me than my own soul."

As he spoke, his wife tenderly cradled Fatima in her lap. "I adopted her," said Tanzeem, who wore a black chador, a full-body robe. "But it doesn't feel like an adoption. It feels as if she is my own child, as if I gave birth to her. She is a gift from God."

Seated alongside her was another chador-clad woman now savouring motherhood - Soraya Bilquis. She and her husband waited even longer - 17 years - before getting a child of their own.

"My life is complete now because of her," she said, gazing down at baby Sayeda Zeinab. "I can't describe how happy I am because someone will grow up and call me mother. She is the light of my home."

Both couples said they saw nothing wrong with being given their daughters on live TV. Tanzeem said she hoped it would encourage others to adopt.

But child welfare advocates fear that other TV shows will copy the baby giveaway. They also worry that the lack of confidentiality could expose the children and their families to teasing and stigma in the future.


Fatima was handed over to her adoptive parents on the set of a TV show

"The baby was given away the same way as a gift," said Seema Jamali, assistant director of child welfare for the Sindh provincial government.

"Though it was good to find parents for her, the baby was given like a car, laptop, or motorcycle. It's an insult to the baby and the parents. It should have been done quietly."

It was far from quiet, but it was quick. Both couples were vetted by a private charity, the Chhipa Welfare Association, in less than two weeks. That's a typical time frame here. Checks were carried out on their incomes, medical records, and homes, and there were investigations with the police, and in their communities.
'More transparent'

But the babies were handed over in a legal vacuum, with no regulation by the state. Experts say that's how most children are given new homes here. Adoption does not exist under Islamic law, but couples can apply to the courts to become legal guardians of unwanted babies.


Fatima was left to die on a rubbish dump in Karachi

It's time for a proper legal framework, according to Sharjeel Memon, information minister for Sindh. "We want to make this process more transparent," he told us, "and there must be some legislation that people should go through."

But here in Pakistan there has been no public outcry about the fact that babies were given away on a TV show. Many are glad that they have a new start in life.

Their stories could have ended very differently. More than 300 dead babies are found every year in Karachi alone by Pakistan's largest welfare organisation, the Delhi Foundation. In a 10-day period in July they found 23 tiny bodies. Some had been suffocated.

At their spotless and welcoming home, Fatima's parents keep watch over their precious gift. They take turns to kiss her forehead and arrange her blanket.

"I have hardly had more than two hours' sleep a night since she came," said Riaz, smiling broadly. "We hope she will grow up to be a religious scholar, or maybe an engineer like me." As he spoke Fatima yawned, stirred, and clenched a little fist.

Pacific Rim lands record-breaking opening in China

Good news for fans of Guillermo del Toro's robots vs. monsters smackdown, Pacific Rim, as the film's Chinese opening may just have resurrected its chances of a sequel.

The film opened in China to a record-breaking $9 million on Wednesday, making it Warner's biggest ever debut in the Chinese market.

That puts the film's foreign box office at $140 million, a welcome boon given the film's lacklustre domestic opening of $37 million.

Having spent a budget of around $200 million, and with the film unlikely to make even half that at home, the foreign market will be key to the chances of a Pacific Rim 2.

And while Warner has yet to greenlight a sequel, the film's strong Asian performance is likely to be a huge point in its favour. So long as Guillermo del Toro returns, we're on board...

Bryan Singer releases new image from X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Bryan Singer has released another new image from X-Men: Days Of Future Past, giving us our first look of one of the film's action sequences.

The image shows a powerful leg thrusting into the neck of some hapless goon, and judging by its blue colouring, we'd surmise that Mystique is responsible.

Last we saw, the shape-shifting mutant had allied herself with Magneto's newly formed brotherhood, so we can deduce that she's up to no good in this sequence.

Could this be taking place within the White House, as glimpsed in a previous still released by Singer? We know it takes place in the earlier timeline, if only by looking at those horrendous '70s curtains…

Directed by Singer and co-starring Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, X-Men: Days Of Future Past will open in the UK on 22 May 2014.