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| In pictures North Korea leader and 'heir' attend military parade bbc.co.uk |
Rich Pakistanis accused on floods Wealthy Pakistanis must do far more to help countrymen devastated by this summer's floods, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says. bbc.co.uk |
China's interest rate rise sends global markets into turmoil • Analysts see move as appeasing US government• Washington wants China to increase the value of the yuan• London's FTSE and other European market indices fall• Dow Jones down 146 pointsChina sent financial markets into turmoil after it increased its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points with effect from tomorrow.The move to raise rates by a quarter percentage point was flagged by the Chinese authorities as an internal signal to property developers that rampant house price inflation was intolerable and would be controlled by the Beijing government.However, the rise was seen more widely as appeasing US policymakers, who have called for China to increase the value of its currency.The IMF warned earlier this month that the world economy was threatened by attempts to artificially depress currency values. China has long been accused by the US administration of maintaining low interest rates to keep the value of its currency low and exports cheap.The pound reacted by falling more than two cents against the dollar in mid-afternoon trading, while the euro was 1% lower on the day at $1.3805Stock markets reacted badly to the news with Germany's Dax down 41.10 points, or 0.6%, at 6475.53, while the CAC-40 in France was 20.99 points, or 0.6%, lower at 3813.51. The FTSE-100 index of leading British shares was down at 5,711, a drop of more than 30 points.In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 146.18 points at 10,997.51.Hitendra Dave, head of global markets at HSBC India, said internal pressures led to the rise. "China hasn't raised so far and [they] have only been raising the reserve requirements. With all the asset price speculation, they had to raise rates to normalise policy. It is the local factors that led them to take this decision."Chris Turner, head of foreign exchange at the Dutch bank ING, said: "This is part of the moderate tightening cycle that we are seeing from Chinese authorities to balance their economy. It is part of the normalisation of interest rates in an economy which is growing at a modestly fast clip."The market is reacting like there is an increased risk of hard landing with the commodity currencies like the Aussie being sold off, but I don't think that is the case," he said.Simon Derrick, of Bank of New York Mellon, said the move was fuelling speculation that Beijing was involved in backdoor deals with the US administration to nudge its currency upwards."The move follows a clear need by the Chinese authorities to take out some of the heat from the economy. Whether this will lead to a broader move on its currency is open to debate. It certainly leads to speculation that the US and China are in some sort of a deal which will perhaps see the US taking a more gradualist approach to quantitative easing. The dollar has already moved higher after this news," he said.CurrenciesGlobal economyStock marketsEconomicsChinaPhillip Inmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Secret files: US ignored Iraq torture • Demand follows massive leak of military documents• UK lawyer warns crimes may have involved British forces• Files show how US ignored torture• Full coverage of the Iraq war logsThe UN has called on Barack Obama to order a full investigation of US forces' involvement in human rights abuses in Iraq after a massive leak of military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.The call, by the UN's chief investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, came as Phil Shiner, human rights specialist at Public Interest Lawyers in the UK, warned that some of the deaths documented in the Iraq war logs could have involved British forces and would be pursued through the UK courts. He demanded a public inquiry into allegations that British troops were responsible for civilian deaths during the conflict.The Guardian has analysed the 400,000 documents, the biggest leak in US military history, and found 15,000 previously unreported civilian deaths. The logs show how US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and generally unpunished.Nowak said that if the files released through WikiLeaks pointed to clear violations of the UN Convention Against Torture the Obama administration had an obligation to investigate them.The logs paint a disturbing picture of the relationship between US and Iraqi forces. Nowak said that UN human rights agreements obliged states to criminalise every form of torture, whether directly or indirectly, and to investigate any allegations of abuse.Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Nowak, who has spent years investigating allegations of US participation in extraordinary rendition and the abuse of detainees held by coalition forces, said the Obama administration had a legal and moral obligation to fully investigate credible claims of US forces' complicity in torture.A failure to investigate, Nowak suggested, would be a failure of the Obama government to recognise its obligations under international law. He said the principle of "non-refoulement" prohibited states from transferring detainees to other countries that could pose a risk to their personal safety.The documents, which cover the period in Iraq from 2004 onwards, have prompted claims that this principle has not been observed. The files contain evidence that US forces were ordered to turn a blind eye to abuses committed by the Iraqi authorities.Numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent death.Nowak said the US had an obligation "whenever they expel, extradite or hand over any detainees to the authorities of another state to assess whether or not these individuals are under specific risk of torture. If this assessment is not done, or authorities hand over detainees knowing there is a serious risk of them being subjected to torture, they violate article 3 of the UN convention that precludes torture."Nowak said it would be up to the Obama administration to launch an "independent and objective" investigation with a view not only to "bring the perpetrators to justice but also to provide the victims with adequate remedy and reparation".He noted that neither the US nor Iraq had ratified the international criminal convention that would see officials from either country brought before the international courts for war crimes. It would be up to the US courts to determine whether US officials or soldiers had breached human rights laws. "If it is established that a particular individual is responsible for torture directly or by complicity, this person should be brought to justice in the domestic courts," Nowak said.As recently as December, the Americans were passed a video apparently showing Iraqi army officers executing a prisoner in Tal Afar, northern Iraq. The log states: "The footage shows approximately 12 Iraqi army soldiers. Ten IA soldiers were talking to one another while two soldiers held the detainee. The detainee had his hands bound … The footage shows the IA soldiers moving the detainee into the street, pushing him to the ground, punching him and shooting him."The report named at least one perpetrator and was passed to coalition forces. But the logs reveal that the coalition has a formal policy of ignoring such allegations. They record "no investigation is necessary" and simply pass reports to the same Iraqi units implicated in the violence. By contrast all allegations involving coalition forces are subject to formal inquiries. Some cases of alleged abuse by UK and US troops are detailed in the logs.In two Iraqi cases postmortems revealed evidence of death by torture. On 27 August 2009 a US medical officer found "bruises and burns as well as visible injuries to the head, arm, torso, legs and neck" on the body of one man claimed by police to have killed himself. On 3 December 2008 another detainee, said by police to have died of "bad kidneys", was found to have "evidence of some type of unknown surgical procedure on [his] abdomen".A Pentagon spokesman told the New York Times this week that under its procedure, when reports of Iraqi abuse were received the US military "notifies the responsible government of Iraq agency or ministry for investigation and follow-up".In response to the revelations, the Iraqi government has vowed to probe the allegations made against its soldiers and police. "The government will show no leniency when it comes to the rights of its citizens," said a statement issued by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's office.Shiner told a press conference organised by WikiLeaks in London today that he plans to use material from the logs in court to try to force the UK to hold a public inquiry into the unlawful killing of Iraqi civilians.Shiner warned that it would be wrong to assume the US military files "had nothing to do with the UK". He said: "Some have been killed by indiscriminate attacks on civilians or the unjustified use of lethal force. Others have been killed in custody by UK forces and no one knows how many Iraqis lost their lives while held in British detention facilities."If unjustified or unlawful force has been used, prosecutions for those responsible must follow, so we are bringing forward a new case seeking accountability for all unlawful deaths, and we argue that there must be a judicial inquiry to fully investigate UK responsibility for civilian deaths in Iraq."He cited one case in which he claimed a British rifleman had shot dead an eight-year-old girl who was playing in the street in Basra. "For some reason the tank stopped at the end of the street, she's there in her yellow dress, a rifleman pops up and blows her away," he said.A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, which has set up the Iraq Historic Allegations Team to investigate allegations of abuse, said: "It would be inappropriate to speculate on the specific detail of these documents without further investigation while the Iraq Inquiry is ongoing. There is no place for mistreatment of detainees and we investigate any allegation made against our troops."The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, told the press conference that the disclosure of the secret files was about getting to the truth of the Iraq conflict."We hope to correct some of that attack on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war, and which has continued since the war officially concluded. While I am not sure we have achieved the maximum possible [political impact], I think we are getting pretty close."Assange highlighted how the reports documented 109,000 deaths – including 66,000 civilians, of which 15,000 were previously undocumented. "That tremendous scale should not make us blind to the small human scale in this material. It is the deaths of one and two people per event that killed the overwhelming number of people in Iraq."The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.Iraq: The war logsUS militaryUnited NationsTortureHuman rightsBarack ObamaUnited StatesIraqMiddle EastDavid Battyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Haiti's Elections Marred by Allegations of Voter Fraud Confusion at polls brings 12 out of 19 presidential candidates out in protest. But the government says that fraud was minimal and the vote should count feedproxy.google.com |