Vince Cable plans new attempt to privatise Royal Mail

Business secretary determined to press ahead with Royal Mail restructuring, risking stand-off with union

Tim Webb, Zoe Wood, Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour

The government is preparing for another potentially explosive confrontation with the postal unions by attempting to privatise Royal Mail, the Guardian has learned.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, is determined to press ahead with a restructuring of the group, which could embroil the government in a dispute with the Communication Workers Union.

Cable has asked Ed Davey, his fellow Liberal Democrat and junior minister at the business department, to prepare the plan in detail.

Royal Mail is expected to post a fall in annual profits as a result of last year's strikes.

Cable believes that while Royal Mail remains in state ownership it cannot compete in a liberalised postal market. Ministers are also anxious about Royal Mail's pension deficit, expected to be formally revalued at £10bn next month. The Guardian >

Bulgaria's Ex-Tsar Saxe-Coburg Not Tempted by Presidency

Bulgaria’s former Tsar and Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, has stated he was not interested in running for president in 2011.

“I am not at all motivated by the perspective of ending up as the head of state. I am not tempted by that,” Saxe-Coburg said in an interview for bTV which is to be released Thursday.

“There was an intention to change the life of the Bulgarians in 800 days, not a promise,” said the Bulgarian Prime Minister in 2001-2005 with respect to his famous statement made in April 2001 that the situation in the country could be improved substantially in 800 days.

Saxe-Coburg explained he did not regret his decision to appoint the current Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov the Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry back in 2001. He admitted he met with Borisov recently, calling him “a successful mayor” regarding the time that the latter served as Sofia Mayor in 2005-2009.

“It is normal for a new government to blame certain issues on the previous government but this should not become a leitmotif,” stated Saxe-Coburg.

He made clear his view that the treatment of former Defense Minister Nikolay Tsonev during his arrest by the police in April was discreditable for Bulgaria and for the EU. The Interior Ministry video of Tsonev’s arrest, in which he was called a “criminal” and was made to kneel down by a prosecutor, spurred a public controversy.

Tsonev was the Minister of Defense in 2008-2009, and a member of Saxe-Coburg’s party, the National Movement for Stability and Prosperity (NMSP). Novinite >

Ethiopian MP arrested before poll, govt says will free

By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The Ethiopian government pledged on Wednesday to release an opposition parliamentarian who was arrested while campaigning in the country's sensitive Oromia region ahead of national elections on Sunday.

The parliamentary and regional elections are the first since a disputed 2005 poll ended with street riots in which 193 protesters and seven policemen died.

Top opposition politicians were also jailed after the ruling party said they had provoked the violence to force an unconstitutional change of government.

"Asnaketch Balcha was arrested on Sunday and sentenced to six months on Tuesday for contempt of court," said Negaso Gidada, a leader of the biggest opposition coalition, Medrek, and a former Ethiopian president.

"The government needs to release her immediately if it wants this election to continue," Negaso told Reuters, adding that Asnaketch had immunity as an MP. Reuters Africa >

Turkish miners remain trapped

By Ivan Watson and Yesim Comert, CNN

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- The desperate effort to save 30 miners who have been trapped in a northern Turkish coal mine suffered a setback Wednesday, when officials announced that rescue workers had encountered rubble separating them from the victims.

The head of Turkey's state coal company said it could take four more days to cut through the 20-meter, or 65-foot-long, pile of rubble.

Thirty miners have been trapped 540 meters, or more than 1,770 feet, underground in a massive state-run coal mine near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak since Monday, when a mysterious explosion rocked the complex. Since then, rescue workers say, they have had no communication with the miners.

The rescue effort has been complicated by the fact that one of the elevators running down to the lower shafts was damaged by the explosion. Another elevator only reaches to a depth of 510 meters, or more than 1,670 feet. About 400 rescue workers are on the scene.

But an official from the Zonguldak governor's office, who spoke from the coal mine on condition of anonymity, said that rescue teams were forced to work by hand, without heavy machinery, in a constricted area that only allowed teams of 10 to 15 workers to operate at a time. CNN >

Krugers mum on Marzanne's nanny

Johannesburg - The lawyer for the family of baby Marzanne Kruger would not comment on Wednesday about reports of the dismissal of her nanny.

"At the present moment we are not going to issue any statement at this point on anything," said Pieter van R Coetzee.

The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday that the nanny, Franscina Sekhu, was going to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

According to the report, Sekhu was fired by the Kruger family and they were to be served with CCMA papers on Wednesday.

Sekhu and baby Marzanne were assaulted during a house robbery in Randburg several weeks ago. News24 >

Taliban Militants Attack Bagram Airbase

Seven insurgents have been killed during an on-going attack on the Bagram air base, north of Kabul on Wednesday morning, NATO says 

Five NATO troops were injured during the exchanges, which were said to be "ongoing".

A Taliban spokesman Zabaiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault, saying 20 suicide attackers were involved.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing 18, including Six foreign soldiers.

Bagram is one of the largest military bases in the country, home to mainly US troops.

The attack began early on Wednesday, which included rockets, small arms and grenades. Quqnoos >

Rwanda budget aid to rise 66 pct in 2012/13 year

KIGALI (Reuters) - Donor support for Rwanda's budget is set to increase by 66 percent to 307.5 billion Rwanda francs in 2012/13 (July-June) compared with the next fiscal year's allocation, a minister said on Wednesday.

Funding will rise to 287.2 billion franc in the 2011/12 fiscal year from 185.1 billion francs in 2010/11.

"The ultimate rational of budget support is a contribution to the reduction of poverty and creation of welfare in Rwanda," said John Rwangombwa, Finance and Economic Planning Minister.

Rwanda is often applauded for its significant strides in rebuilding its economy after the 1994 genocide of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

The government has focused on restructuring the tea and coffee industries and the financial system, while investing in energy, transport and telecommunications infrastructure.

Though the United Nations has said Rwanda is not on track to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015, the World Bank has ranked the country as the best global reformer for a string of improvements to the finance and private sector. Reuters Africa >

Kazakhstan reopens border with Kyrgyzstan

Kazakhstan reopened its border with Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday after closing it in April due to violent unrest that led to the ouster of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.

Kyrgyzstan was rocked by massive protests in early April, with more than 80 people killed as an interim government took power and Bakiyev fled the capital and then the country. His supporters later hit back at the new authorities in an attempt to regain power. Several people were killed and scores were injured in new wave of violence.

"Considering the difficult social and economic situation in Kyrgyzstan and taking into account multiple calls from the people of our friendly country, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered the government to lift all temporary limitations on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz state border," a statement from the ministry said.

The ministry said, however, that the work of border, customs and migration bodies will be tightened.

On Wednesday, the prime minister of Kyrgyzstan's provisional government was given presidential authority until elections are held in the country.

The government adopted a decree delegating power to an interim president until December 31, 2011. The document named interim Roza Otunbayeva as the provisional president, but also envisaged a nationwide referendum on the issue as an option.

ASTANA, May 19 RIA Novosti >

Prokhorov, Charming and Guarded, Talks of a Nets Revival

By Howard Beck

In his first public moment as an N.B.A. owner, Mikhail D. Prokhorovlost the No. 1 pick in the draft. He seems to have recovered quickly.

On Tuesday night, Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire and new owner of the Nets, watched helplessly as the lottery balls delivered the top pick to the Washington Wizards, instead of his team, which had the N.B.A.’s worst record.

On Wednesday morning, Prokhorov met with reporters for his first extensive news conference. He was glib, funny, exceedingly confident and — on the major issues — mostly guarded. He deflected policy questions with one-liners and coy smiles, whether the topic was LeBron James’s free agency, the search for a new coach or the strategy for building a championship team.

Prokhorov also showed off his comic timing and American pop-culture acumen, telling a reporter who asked about changing the team’s image: “If I tell you, I’d have to kill you”.

Indeed, Prokhorov revealed little about his plans during a 40-minute news conference and a separate, 90-minute brunch with a smaller group of reporters. There were a few bits of news, however. The New York Times >

Ex-SS guard living in Pa. to be deported

PHILADELPHIA, May 19 (UPI) -- A U.S. immigration judge ordered the deportation of a Pennsylvania man who was a Nazi concentration camp guard in World War II, the Justice Department said.

Anton Geiser, 85, of Sharon, Pa., was ordered removed to Austria, from where he emigrated after World War II, the Justice Department said Tuesday in a release.

Immigration Judge Charles Honeyman, sitting in Philadelphia, found Geiser could be removed under the Immigration and Nationality Act because he assisted in Nazi-sponsored persecution, the Justice Department said. The 14-page decision noted Geiser, through his attorney, "generally admitted all of the factual allegations" in the charging document.

Geiser's U.S. citizenship was revoked in 2006 after he admitted he was an SS guard at three Nazi concentration camps and under orders to shoot anyone attempting to escape, the department said. He immigrated to the United States in 1956 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1962.

"As a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II, Anton Geiser must be held to account for his role in the persecution of countless men, women and children," Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said. "The long passage of time will not diminish our resolve to deny refuge to such individuals". UPI >

Aquino, Obama to connect

Two leaders can elevate RP-US ties

BY JUN MEDINA SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Apparent president-elect Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd and US President Barack Obama will have a chance to move bilateral relations a “notch higher,” according to Director Walter Lohman of Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. Lohman told Filipino journalists Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) during a luncheon at the Heritage Foundation’s plush offices in the shadows of Capitol Hill here that Aquino and Obama have at least two important things in common. 

Also at the meeting was Nick Zahn, director of the Washington Roundtable for the Asia-Pacific Press, the largest organization of the Asian media in the US and affiliated with the foundation’s Asian Studies Center.

First, Aquino and Obama won clear mandates on the promise of change, which sparked tremendous popular support, particularly among young voters.

And second, both are 50 years old and belong to the same new breed of leaders, which would make it 

easy for them to connect and foster the special relations between their two countries.

“Americans love [the late] President Cory Aquino,” said Lohman, one of the foremost Asia experts of the leading conservative think-tank in the US. The Manila Times >

Gilani, Nawaz challenge Musharraf to appear in Supreme Court

Islamabad, May 19 (ANI): Joining hands against former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, both Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif have challenged the former general to appear before the Supreme Court and face trial in numerous cases pending against him.

Sharif, who returned from London after a long stay, had a telephonic conversation with Gilani and assured him that the PML-N would continue to work with the government to strengthen the democracy and institutions in the country.

Both the leaders also agreed to hold a meeting soon to discuss ways to work together to protect democracy, The Daily Times reports.

They also agreed that democracy would not be allowed to be derailed since it was the only way forward to ensure prosperity and welfare of the common man, sources said. (ANI) OneIndia >

Senate Panel Sets Kagan Confirmation Hearings

By LAURA MECKLER

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Wednesday that confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan will begin June 28, giving the committee the same amount of time to review her work as it had last year to review the record of Sonia Sotomayor when she was nominated to the high court.

Mr. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he would like the hearing finished before the July 4 break.

"This is a reasonable schedule that is in line with past practice," said Mr. Leahy, who noted that Justice Sotomayor's hearing began 48 days after her nomination. His schedule would put the Kagan hearing 49 days after her nomination. The Wall Street Journal >

NBA's Jerebko gets warm welcome in Sweden

Following his first season in the NBA, Jonas Jerebko has returned to Sweden to a warm reception from both the media and fans.

The 2.08m power forward is the first Swedish national team player in the league and was selected 39th in the NBA draft last year by the Detroit Pistons.

"And I had not even seen an NBA game live before," Jerebko told news agency TT on Monday.

Jerebko will spend the summer training and playing several matches with the Swedish national team before heading back to Detroit in the fall.

Earlier this month, the native of Kinna in western Sweden was named an ambassador of Mark, his home county, which also organised a street basketball event where locals could challenge Jerebko.

Local fans will be able to cheer him on when the Swedish national men's team takes on Estonia on August 3rd in nearby Borås.

Jerebko's father, Chris, is an American who played basketball professionally in Sweden and settled in the country. The younger Jerebko played professionally in Sweden and Italy before entering the NBA draft in 2009. The Local SE >

Artist of the week: Christopher Orr

Orr's awe-inspiring landscapes hark back to Turner and Friedrich, yet there's something odd about them – not least their Lilliputian scale

Skye Sherwin

Christopher Orr's paintings are often no bigger than a man's hand, yet the worlds they depict are vast. His oceans, wind-whipped skies, towering forests and midnight pools of infinite dark depth hark back to JMW Turner and Casper David Friedrich. Against this wild backdrop, Orr's best-known works feature an ensemble cast who look decidedly out of place: diminutive figures who march into the sky-blue abyss as if about to catch a bus, or who or raise their heads to cosmic bursts of sunlight like they're inspecting some faulty guttering.

The figures he creates are based on photo shoots from 1950s and 60s magazines, and draw on sources as various as children's book illustration and old Super 8 home movies. While Orr's work reaches back to old masters, his postmodern approach, assembling different epochs into surreal collages, draws upon his apprenticeship at a printer's, where he laid out graphics by hand.

A faded palette of blues, browns, greys and greens holds things in place, yet the sense that all these elements have come together only briefly, as if in a dream, is unmistakable. In the early 2002 painting Encounter, created while Orr was studying at London's Royal College of Art, a man in a tie sits on the grass chatting to a young couple, seemingly oblivious to the lorry-sized fawn he leans against. As time and style are upended, so too is scale: in these paintings shrubbery might be house-sized, an Alsatian dog smaller than a hedgehog. The Guardian >

Non-crew in cockpit in Polish president's plane crash

Non-crew members were in the cockpit of a plane that crashed killing the Polish president and more than 90 others, an investigation has found.

The question of whether the crew were pressured to land remains unanswered, an official said.

One of those in the cockpit has been identified, but the BBC has learned it was not the president.

The plane crashed as it tried to land at Smolensk in western Russia on 10 April, killing dozens of senior Poles.

The investigation, which was releasing its preliminary findings of the investigation, confirmed crew were repeatedly warned about poor weather.

Alexei Morozov, head of the technical commission examining the crash, said air traffic controllers had warned twice that visibility was 400m (1,312ft) and that "there were no conditions for landing". BBC News >

'Clark Rockefeller' must stay in prison

BOSTON, May 19 (UPI) -- A former German exchange student who posed as a member of the Rockefeller family has lost a bid to cut his prison term for kidnapping his daughter in Boston.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 49, was sentenced to four to five years in a Massachusetts prison. A state appeals court, in its decision Monday, rejected his lawyer's argument that the sentence exceeds the 24 months usually given for parental kidnapping.

Gerhartsreiter was using the name Clark Rockefeller when he met and married Sandra Boss, a successful business executive. After their divorce, he kidnapped their 2-year-old daughter, assaulting a social worker supervising his visit with her, and took her to Baltimore, where he was discovered a week later.

Investigators say Gerhartsreiter came to the United States as a teenage exchange student and had been living under a number of assumed identities.

Police in California say he is a "person of interest" in the disappearance of a couple who vanished in 1985 while Gerhartsreiter, then using the name Christopher Chichester, was living in their guesthouse in San Marino. UPI >

John Travolta and Kelly Preston announce pregnancy

By Alan Duke, CNN

(CNN) -- John Travolta and Kelly Preston are expecting a baby, the couple announced on their website Tuesday.

"It's impossible to keep a secret," they wrote, "especially one as wonderful as this".

Preston's pregnancy comes just over a year after the death of their son, 16-year-old Jett Travolta. Jett died after suffering a seizure in the Bahamas on January 2, 2009.

"We want to be the first to share this great news with everyone that we are expecting a new addition to our family," they said in a statement that was signed "Love, John, Kelly and Ella".

Ella is the couple's 10-year-old daughter.

The announcement did not reveal a due date for the baby, although Star magazine is reporting in its issue that hits newstands Wednesday that Preston, 47, is about three months pregnant.

The family suffered the loss of their two small dogs last week when a pickup truck servicing 56-year-old Travolta's jet at the Bangor, Maine, airport struck and killed the dogs, a spokesman said. CNN >