This article titled “Obama’s contraception rules under fire from Congress and religious groups” was written by Chris McGreal in Washington, for The Guardian on Thursday 9th February 2012 00.24 UTC

Barack Obama has come under a barrage of criticism from Congress and religious organisations over a new requirement that Catholic-run schools and hospitals provide free contraception to workers.

The issue has ballooned into a political confrontation that appears to mark out one of the battle lines for the presidential election campaign. The Republicans said the new regulation is further evidence that the president is “hostile to people of faith”. Democrats claimed that opposition to it is another front in the Republicans’ “war on women’s health”.

The newly announced regulation, which takes effect in 18 months, says that all health insurance plans provided by employers must offer birth control to women free of charge. It applies equally to Catholic-owned universities, medical establishments and charities.

As the Catholic church loudly denounced the rule, Republican opposition focused on whether a religious organisation opposed to contraception could be forced by the government to go against its principles.

Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential candidate who is a convert to Catholicism, called the regulation an “attack on the Catholic church”. Two of the other candidates, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, were also strongly critical.

John Boehner, the Republican and Catholic speaker of the House of Representatives, called the White House move a breach of constitutional protections against government interference with religion.

“In recent days, Americans of every faith and political persuasion have mobilised in objection to a rule put forth by the Obama administration that constitutes an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country,” he said. “This attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country cannot stand, and will not stand.”

Republican leaders said they would push legislation to block the requirement.

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, said that the government’s attempts to force the new regulation on his church had prompted outrage from people of all faiths.

“The more people learn what is at stake here, the more people are speaking up. It’s not just a Catholic issue. It’s an issue that touches all faith based communities, all religions, all organisations that draw their inspiration from their faith. I think what’s happening across the country is that the more people learn about this mandate, the more they’re saying this is wrong,” he said.

Obama also came under criticism from some Democrats, including the former Virginia governor, Timothy Kaine, who is running for the Senate and is a close ally of the president. He said that it was a political misstep.

“The White House made a good decision in including a mandate for contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act insurance policy, but I think they made a bad decision in not allowing a broad enough religious employer exemption,” he said. “I have definitely expressed my grave concerns to the White House about that.”

The White House signalled on Wednesday that it may be prepared to reach a compromise, but there were also signs that the administration is not unhappy to fight a political battle in an election year over a social issue likely to see many independent voters, particularly women, side with the president.

Some critics said that Obama may have misstepped in alienating large numbers of Catholic voters who, while many do not follow their church’s teachings on contraception, object to the government forcing it to go against its beliefs. They also said that it would have a negative impact on voters from other religions and again fire up Christian evangelicals who are ambivalent about the prospect of Romney as the Republican presidential candidate.

Peggy Noonan, a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, wrote in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week that Obama has committed an inept faux pas that showed how removed he is from the “essential realities of America”, and that it could cost him the presidential election.

But Obama also has an interest in keeping issues such as access to contraception on the political agenda, especially if he faces Romney as the Republican presidential candidate.

When Romney was governor of Massachusetts in 2005, a new state law required all hospitals, including Catholic-run ones, to provide morning after pills to rape victims, which the Catholic church regards as a form of abortion. Romney said he opposed the law but he was also quoted at the time as saying: “My personal view, in my heart of hearts, is that people who are subject to rape should have the option of having emergency contraception or emergency contraception information.”

The White House flagged up that the issue will be a political battleground when Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said that it is “ironic that Mitt Romney is criticising the president” for a regulation that is similar to the one in Massachusetts.

“The former governor of Massachusetts is an odd messenger on this given that the services that would be provided to women under this rule are the same services that are provided in Massachusetts and were covered when he was governor,” he said.

The issue is also likely to play in to concerns about Republican attitudes toward women after the furore around the politically-driven attempt by the Susan G Komen for the Cure foundation to halt grants to Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions.

The controversy may not do the damage to Catholic support for Obama that the Republicans hope.

A poll released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that more than half of Catholic voters agree that employers should be required to provide their workers with healthcare insurance that covers contraception. However, only 45% supported the requirement for religiously affiliated colleges and hospitals to do so while 52% oppose it.

Carney hinted that the White House may give ground, but not much.

“We want to work with all these organisations to implement this policy in a way that is as sensitive to their concerns as possible,” he said. “But let’s be clear: We are committed, the president is committed, to ensuring that women have access to contraception without paying any extra costs, no matter where they work.”

One compromise under discussion is permitting church employers to effectively subcontract the part of health insurance covering contraception to an alternative insurer.

The administration has previously rejected another proposal that would broaden the definition of a religious employer beyond the churches themselves to include schools and hospitals.

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This article titled “Iranian attack on America and allies increasingly likely – intelligence chief” was written by Julian Borger, diplomatic editor, for The Guardian on Tuesday 31st January 2012 20.08 UTC

The head of US intelligence has warned that there is an increasing likelihood that Iran could carry out attacks in America or against US and allied targets around the world.

The warning from the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, reflects rapidly rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme after the US and EU announced embargoes on the Iranian oil trade in the past few weeks, Israel leaked details of its preparation for a possible conflict and both the west and Iran boosted their military readiness in the Gulf.

The US plans to send a third aircraft carrier to the region in March, while Iran’s military has threatened to block the entrance to the Gulf in the strait of Hormuz and is planning to hold naval exercises there in the next few weeks involving a host of new weapons.

Presenting his annual “worldwide threat assessment” to Congress, Clapper said an alleged plot to blow up the Saudi ambassador in Washington last year, which the US blamed on the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, “shows that some Iranian officials – probably including the supreme leader Ali Khamenei – have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime.”

Clapper added: “Iran’s willingness to sponsor future attacks in the US or against our interests abroad probably will be shaped by Tehran’s evaluation of the costs it bears for the plot against the ambassador as well as Iranian leaders’ perceptions of US threats against the regime.”

Western officials say that in the past year there has been a notable increase in activity around the world by suspected members of Iran’s Quds force, the external operations arm of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which they say could reflect positioning of units capable of carrying out reprisal attacks against western and Israeli targets if Iran was itself attacked. “There have been a lot of reports recently of IRGC activity abroad,” one western official said. “There is a great deal of worry about the IRGC carrying out covert and deniable actions. But they may be overestimating how much they can hide their role. The US and others are very concerned about this.

“In this situation, there is a risk of miscalculation,” the official added, “or of rogue elements operating independently.”

US officials say that the alleged Washington bomb plot showed a new recklessness by an increasingly embattled Iranian regime. An Iranian-American was charged last October with planning to blow up the Saudi ambassador to the US while he ate at his favourite Washington restaurant, potentially killing many Americans at the same time.

The US has claimed authorisation for the attack came from the highest levels of the regime, but Clapper’s remarks marked the first time Washington has openly blamed the supreme leader.

However, a western official cautioned that there was no evidence a final decision had been taken to go ahead with the attack. “Our understanding is that this was at the stage of operational planning. The order was for everything to be put in place. There was not, as far as I know, a green light,” the official said.

In recent days, both the Thai and Azeri governments made a number of arrests of suspects allegedly linked to Iranian intelligence who are accused of planning to kill Israel diplomats and a rabbi. One possibility, western governments believe, is that the plots were intended as reprisals for a string of murders in Tehran of Iranian scientists linked to the country’s nuclear programme. Iran has blamed Mossad for the killings, an accusation that many western officials think is plausible.

After an Iranian threat last month to close the strait of Hormuz in response to oil sanctions, the US has deployed two aircraft carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Carl Vinson, in the region. A thirdis scheduled to head to the Gulf in March.

John Pike, a military analyst and the head of the GlobalSecurity.org thinktank said: “That almost never happens. They seldom even have two.”

He added that a fourth carrier, the USS John Stennis, was sailing away from the area but at a slow pace and could be back within a few days.

Tensions have been stoked further by leaked details of Israeli military preparations and cabinet deliberations on whether to strike Iran in the next few months, in an effort to set back its nuclear programme by a few years. Western officials confess they are unsure to what extent such reports represent an Israeli bluff to force urgent action by the US and its European allies, but say they do take the Israeli threats seriously.

One possibility is that Israel could launch air strikes at the height of the US presidential election campaign, on the grounds that the Obama administration would have to mute any politically risky criticism of a longstanding US ally.

Some observers believe the planned European and US oil embargoes, due to come into effect five months from now with potentially severe implications for the Iranian economy, along with a military build-up in the region, could themselves raise the risk of miscalculation on all sides.

“I don’t think they are playing Iran anything like as well as they think they are,” said Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Tehran. “The oil embargo tends to give those elements in Iran who want to have maximal defences, including nuclear defences, added weight to their arguments. Also they are poking Iran with a sharp stick but this is not accompanied by a new negotiating incentives.”

In a strikingly critical report, an influential Israeli thinktank, the Institute for National Security Studies, warned that the Israeli leadership could be rushing into a decision to attack without properly thinking of the implications. The authors said that Israeli society should “not assume that decision makers will automatically make correct choices based on a rational of an attack’s cost effectiveness”.

“Past experience has proven that such an in-depth discussion does not always take place,” the report said. It questioned whether a nuclear Iran was really an existential threat to Israel and warned that unilateral action would alienate the US and other Israeli allies.

“The image – not the first of its kind – will be of an Israel unilaterally violating the rules of the international game and launching a military campaign without legitimacy from the security council. This might increase Israel’s isolation as well contribute to its delegitimisation.”

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. The west and Israel allege it is intended to give Iran at least the capacity to make a bomb, but Clapper conceded in his remarks : “We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

This article titled “US commando team that killed Bin Laden swoop on Somali pirates” was written by Karen McVeigh in New York, for The Guardian on Wednesday 25th January 2012 19.39 UTC

The special forces commandos who swept into Somalia under cover of darkness to rescue two hostages, an American woman and a Danish man, were part of Seal team six, the same navy unit that killed Osama bin Laden, it has emerged.

The Seals killed nine pirates on Tuesday night before rescuing Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60. They had been held hostage for three months after their kidnap from Galkayo, in the Galmudug region of Somalia, last October.

President Barack Obama, who authorised the mission two days ago, made no mention of it in his state of the union address to Congress on Tuesday. But he was overheard congratulating the defence secretary, Leon Panetta, on a “good job tonight” as he entered the House of Representatives chamber to give his address.

Minutes after he had finished his speech, the president was on the phone to Buchanan’s father, John, to tell him that his daughter was safe.

Obama said in a predawn statement released by the White House on Wednesday: “Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our special operations forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home.

“As commander-in-chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts. The US will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice,” he said.

The pair were working for the DGG, a land mine clearance unit of the Danish Refugee Council, which confirmed the hostages were unharmed and “on their way to be reunited with their families”.

A senior administration official who was not authorised to speak publicly told AP that new intelligence over the “deteriorating health” of Buchanan had prompted Obama to direct his security team to develop a rescue plan.

Mary Ann Olsen of the refugee council said Buchanan was “not that ill” and did not have to be hospitalised but did require medicine.

Olsen informed Thisted’s family of the successful military operation and said “they were very happy and incredibly relieved that it is over”. She said the freed hostages were in Djibouti and would soon be moved to a “safe haven”.

Pentagon officials have refused to discuss the details of the raid, which took place near the Somali town of Adado. But according to officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity, the rescue team, part of the naval special warfare development group, parachuted into the area before moving in on foot.

They arrived when the guards were asleep. A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told AP the guards had been sleeping off the effects of the stimulant leaf khat, popular in Somalia, which they had been chewing for most of the evening. Hussein said he was not present, but had spoken to others who said that nine people had been killed and three were “taken away”. Officials said that the Seals had intended to capture the kidnappers, but, for reasons that have not been explained, nine were killed.

Following the operation, the rescue team and hostages flew by helicopter to Camp Lemonnier, a US base in Djibouti.

While the commandos were drawn from Seal team six, it is understood they were not the same personnel as those in the Bin Laden operation, and officials stressed that members of the other armed forces were also involved in the rescue.

When the pair were kidnapped, hundreds of Somalis demonstrated against the act in the streets.

“We are really happy with the successful release of the innocents kidnapped by evildoers,” Muhammad Sahal, an elder in Galkayo town, told AP. “They were guests who were treated brutally. That was against Islam and our culture … These men have spoiled our good customs and culture, so Somalis should fight back.”

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighbouring Kenya, and an American journalist who was kidnapped on Saturday.

Negotiations with Somali pirates are notoriously tricky and they typically only release hostages for multimillion-pound ransoms. A British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were kidnapped from their yacht by Somali pirates in 2009 and held captive for 13 months, were finally freed in November 2010 after an undisclosed sum was paid.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

This article titled “America warns Iran that blocking oil route will ‘not be tolerated’” was written by Paul Harris in New York, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 28th December 2011 18.35 UTC

Tensions between the United States and Iran have dangerously ratcheted up as naval officials with America’s Fifth Fleet warned any attempt by Iran to close a strategically vital oil route through the Strait of Hormuz would “not be tolerated”.

The news heightens a sense of growing crisis in the Persian Gulf after two days of threats by senior Iranian figures that they might shut down the important trade route in response to any future international sanctions against the country’s oil exports.

“Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations: any disruption will not be tolerated,” US Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Lt Rebecca Rebarich told the Associated Press. She added that the US Navy was “…always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation.”

The Fifth Fleet is based in the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain and commands a huge flotilla of American naval might, including air craft carriers.

That US response came shortly after the head of the Iranian Navy warned that the country could easily close the Strait of Hormuz if it desired to do so.

“Closing the Strait of Hormuz is very easy for Iranian naval forces… it will be easier than drinking a glass of water,” Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told the state-run Press TV channel. However, he did add that Iran currently had no plans to carry out the act.

But the war of words theoretically raises the prospect of a naval conflict in the Gulf between Iran and the United States. Sayyari’s statement came just a day after Iran’s vice president, Mohamed Reza Rahimi, also threatened to use force to shut the waterway and cut off a flow of oil that many see as vital for the world economy.

They also come as Iran is conducting large naval exercises in the region in what many analysts see as a show of force. The war games stretch over a large area of the Gulf, including the Strait of Hormuz, and could easily bring Iranian ships and submarines into close proximity with US forces.

Iran is reacting to what it says is an unfair campaign to punish it for its domestic nuclear programme, which it claims is peaceful but which many believe is actually aimed at creating a weapon.

The US Congress has passed a bill banning dealings with the Iran Central Bank which President Barack Obama has said he will sign. If that happens the new US law could hit foreign companies that deal with Iran’s central bank in order to buy oil, striking a blow at a commodity that makes up about 80% of its foreign revenues and is vital for the functioning of the Iranian economy.

The oil markets are already jittery about the latest developments. As the oil price ticked up in the face of the bellicose comments Saudi officials said that they would release more oil in the event of any crisis to make up for a loss of Iranian crude. That effort seemed to help calm oil traders’ fears.

The current rising tensions are also merely the latest in a series of serious spats between Iran and Western nations. Earlier this month Iran captured an unmanned US spy drone, broadcasting pictures of the downed craft that created headlines around the world and represented a major intelligence coup. In November violent crowds in Tehran stormed the British embassy and ransacked offices and residences. That led to the closure of the embassy and the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Britain.

Iranian media has carried detailed reports of how it might act to close the Strait, deploying a mix of ships, submarines, missiles and torpedoes. Few experts believe that any Iranian force could stand up to the US military but any form of armed conflict would likely trigger a global diplomatic and economic crisis.

It would also play out against a backdrop of concerted Israeli efforts to warn against Iran’s nuclear programme, which the nation believes represents a threat to its existence. Isreali military and political figures have
consistently threatened that armed strikes against Iran might be needed to stop the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

This article titled “China imposes tariff on US car imports” was written by Graeme Wearden, for The Guardian on Thursday 15th December 2011 01.39 UTC

The tension between America and China over international trade escalated on Wednesday when Beijing imposed additional duties on cars imported from the United States.

China’s commerce ministry accused America’s car industry of “dumping and subsidising”, thereby causing substantial damage to China’s domestic car industry. From Thursday, levies will be charged on larger-engined cars from several manufacturers, some being European firms with factories in the US.

General Motors faces the greatest impact, almost 22% extra on some sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and other cars with engine capacities above 2.5 litres. Chrysler faces a 15% penalty, while a 2% levy will be imposed on BMW, whose US plants make many of the cars it exports to China.

Existing taxes and duties already push up the cost of US imports by 25%, and the new levies make it even more expensive for Chinese consumers to buy American. The move was swiftly attacked in the US. Carl Levin, the Democratic senator for Michigan (which includes the motor city of Detroit), called it an “unjustified” attempt to circumvent international trade laws. “Instead of ending its unlawful trade practices, China is choosing to take further steps that are unauthorised by world trade rules,” he claimed.”The livelihoods of American families and the integrity of global trade law are at stake.”

GM says the levies will have little immediate impact, as it mostly exports lower-power cars to China. Analysts, though, said the decision underlined China’s determination to protect its car industry.

“The move shows that China is always capable of intervening politically in its markets,” Juergen Pieper of Bankhaus Metzler, the German investment bank, told Bloomberg. Georges Dieng, a Paris-based analyst with Natixis Securities, said the levies had been set to “inflict pain on the Americans, above all”. Shares in General Motors fell by over 3%, while BMW’s shares slipped 5%.

China and the US have peppered each other with legal actions and tariffs over the past few years.

Earlier this month, the US International Trade Commission ruled against China’s solar-power industry after an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation. Last week, the US pledged to take China’s anti-dumping measures against American poultry imports to the World Trade Organisation.

Debbie Stabenow, the junior senator for Michigan, urged the US government to take China’s car levies to the WTO as well. “China relentlessly breaks international trade rules, and seeks to gain an anti-competitive advantage over our companies and workers. America must be equally relentless in fighting back,” she said.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

This article titled “Virginia Tech put on lockdown after two shot dead on campus” was written by Adam Gabbatt, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 8th December 2011 22.30 UTC

2.25pm ET: A gunman is at large after two people were killed at Virginia Tech this afternoon, the university said in a statement.

Virginia Tech said the “status of the shooter is unknown” but has warned people on campus to stay inside.

One of the dead men is a police officer who was shot during a “routine traffic stop”, the university said.

“Shortly after noon today, a Virginia Tech police officer stopped a vehicle on campus during a routine traffic stop in the Coliseum parking lot near McComas Hall,” a statement posted to Virginia Tech’s website said.

“During the traffic stop the officer was shot and killed. There were witnesses to this shooting.

Witnesses reported to police the shooter fled on foot heading toward the Cage, a parking lot near Duck Pond Drive. At that parking lot, a second person was found. That person is also deceased.”

The statement added: “The status of the shooter is unknown. The campus community should continue to shelter in place and visitors should not come to campus.”

Virgina Tech said several law enforcement agencies have responded. Virginia state police are leading the investigation.

A spokeswoman for Virgina Tech confirmed the statement on the website was correct. She was unable to provide further information.

The Collegiate Times, the student newspaper for Virginia Tech, was evacuated from its office as police pursued the gunman. The paper’s Twitter feed reported police activity around the campus’s Squires Student Center.

AP reported that the shooting came the same day that Virginia Tech, which has an enrollment of about 30,000, was appealing a $55,000 fine by the U.S. Education Department in connection with the university’s response to the 2007 rampage, when a student gunman killed 32 students and faculty and then shot himself.

2.40pm ET:The Collegiate Times reports that the police SWAT team has left Squires Student Center after finding “no suspicious persons inside”. The Guardian cannot confirm this.

The Washington Post has a map of the university campus which shows where the deceased were found this afternoon. The police officer was shot and killed at the Coliseum parking lot. A second victim was found at the Cage parking lot, according to the Post.

2.50pm ET: Unconfirmed reports are suggesting police are hunting a burgundy Mitsibushi in connection with the shooting at Virginia Tech.

Reddit user enginerdy says they are listening into a police scanner feed, and are providing a rolling commentary.

Enginerdy has ascertained from the feed that police have cleared Rector Field House and Johnson Hall. The Guardian cannot confirm his account.

3.10pm ET: Exams scheduled to take place at Virginia Tech tomorrow have been postponed, according to the university’s Twitter feed.

Virginia Tech said a media briefing would be held at Schott Media Room in Lane Stadium at 4.30pm.

3.17pm ET: An audio stream reportedly picking up communications from police leading the operation at Virginia Tech is available on radioreference.com here.

Just a few minutes ago officers could be heard discussing a possible suspect – which can be heard in this recording. One officer says:

My partner just talked to a subject advised there was a 10-100 walking in the field behind the old [inaudible] sewage plant, wearing a hoody. Possible suspect.

A response comes through: “Dispatch unit to old sewage plant, see if that’s it.”

3.23pm ET: Flickr user daniellinphoto has uploaded photographs from Virgina Tech this afternoon.

Officers can be seen carrying weapons at the campus.

3.27pm ET: The latest update from Virginia Tech’s twitter feed says:

3.53pm ET: In this second audio grab from the police scanner feed a report comes in of a suspicious male having been spotted two miles west of Virginia Tech.

We have a 10-100 at Heather Drive at Tall Oaks, skinny white male [inaudible] shirt wearing prescription glasses and a maroon avalanche. No tag available, unknown direction of travel, acting suspicious.

There is a Heather Drive/ Tall Oaks Drive intersection two miles west of the university campus.

4.05pm ET: On Reddit, enginerdy is continuing to post updates he says are gleamed from a police scanner in the area. The posts make interesting reading and give a sense of a multi-pronged police operation in the area. Police appear to be tracking various leads. There are multiple reports of a suspect wearing a “maroon hoody”.

4.15pm: The Republican governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, has issued a statement on the shootings at Virginia Tech this afternoon. He says:

I am deeply saddened by today’s news of another tragedy affecting the Virginia Tech community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those impacted by these shootings.

Since this news first broke we have been monitoring the situation closely and I have made available all requested state resources to Virginia Tech, including the Virginia State Police. I have also spoken to Virginia Tech President Charles Steger earlier this afternoon.

I want to thank the multiple law enforcement agencies and all of the officers for their speedy response and focus during this difficult time. I also want to commend Virginia Tech leadership, students, faculty and staff who cooperated to efficiently respond to this emergency.

While we will await the completion of the initial investigation of this incident before commenting further, I want to again offer our continued support to all of those impacted by this tragedy. Virginia Tech is a university of great resolve, and I have no doubt that the students, alumni and faculty of this proud institution will emerge from this sad day stronger and more united than ever before. There will continue to be needs in the days ahead as we move forward from this situation and I will ensure that those needs are met completely and fully by the commonwealth.

4.25pm: Law enforcement officials believe the second casualty at Virginia Tech University was the man who shot and killed the campus police officer, according to NBC news.

Law enforcement officials tell NBC News they believe the second shooting victim at Virginia Tech University was the man who shot and killed the campus police officer.

NBC’s Pete Williams reports that authorities say they’re awaiting final confirmation but that they believe the campuswide alert for a gunman at large will soon be canceled.

4.30pm: A weapon has been recovered at the where one of the two dead men were shot, local news station WDBJ7 reports.

4.33pm: Virginia Tech has just announced on Twitter that police on the campus have declared the emergency over.

4.41pm: The Virginia Tech press conference is about to start. You can watch it on the live stream above. You may need to refresh this page.

4.48pm: Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech, confirms the lockdown at the campus has been lifted.

Charles Steger, president of Virginia Tech, describes a “wanton act of violence”, where a police officer was murdered during a routine traffic stop”.

He says: “Our hearts are broken again, for the family of our police officer, and we extend our deepest sympathy and condolences.”

4.49pm: Gene Deisinger, deputy chief of Virginia Tech police department, says police received a report saying a suspect had been seen approaching an officer and fired a gun. Police responded and found an officer “who had received a gunshot”, he says.

At about 1pm an officer saw a suspicious person. When he approached the man, he found him dead from a gunshot wound.

This afternoon police have been following up leads from members of the public.

4.52pm: Sergeant Bob Carpentieri of Virginia state police is speaking now. The dead officer served on the force for four years.

After the officer was found another body, of a white man, was found near the duck pond on Virginia Tech campus, he says. He had also suffered a gunshot wound.

A gun was also found, but Carpentieri will not discuss the weapon or its calibre. Carpentieri says there have been no further shootings since the two bodies were found.

4.57pm: Carpentieri will not confirm whether police believe the second dead person to be the shooter, and says he does not have the identity of the second dead person.

Deisinger clarifies the information on the second deceased man. Witnesses at the scene of the first shooting reported that the gunman had fled toward the “cage lot”. A dead man was later found there.

Asked if the second dead man was the same person who was initially the subject of the traffic stop, Carpentieri says no. The shooter walked up to the officer while he was dealing with the incident.

5.17pm: The press conference is drawing to a close. The only other pertinent piece of information to have emerged is that police had been investigating an armed robbery in nearby Radford yesterday. This WSLS report says the robbery happened at 11.25am in Calhoun Street, at the offices of a real estate agent.

The suspect demanded the keys to an employee’s car when he left, described as a 2011 white Mercedes SUV with Virginia tag KLF-6778.

5.30pm: Here’s a summary of events at Virginia Tech today.

Two people have been killed at Virginia Tech university, leading to a manhunt and campus lockdown. A police officer was shot dead just after midday during a routine traffic stop and a dead man was found with a weapon nearby.

The shootings took place at the same college that was the scene of the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in US history. In April 2007 incident, 32 people died when a student, Seung-Hui Cho, went on the rampage. He was able to buy guns despite having been diagnosed with mental health problems.

In today’s incident, the dead officer, who had served with Virginia police for four years but has not yet been named, was conducting the traffic stop when witnesses saw another man approach and shoot him. Police said the gunman was not connected with the traffic stop. Witnesses saw the shooter run in the direction of the Cage parking lot.

The gunman was later found dead. About 45 minutes after the first shooting, the police spotted a man acting suspiciously in the Cage parking lot. By the time officers approached him, he was dead from a gunshot wound. The police said they did not shoot him.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

This article titled “Gay rights must be criterion for US aid allocations, instructs Obama” was written by Karen McVeigh in New York, for The Guardian on Wednesday 7th December 2011 00.03 UTC

President Barack Obama has instructed officials to consider how countries treat their gay and lesbian populations when making decisions about allocating foreign aid.

In the first US government strategy to deal with human rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens abroad, a presidential memorandum issued on Tuesday instructs agencies to use foreign aid to promote such rights.

Gay and lesbian lobby groups have reported an increase in human rights abuses across Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Obama is among international leaders who have condemned a bill proposed in Uganda that would make some homosexual acts a crime punishable by death. The Ugandan parliament recently reopened debate on the bill, which had been abandoned after an international outcry.

In a speech in Geneva to mark international human rights day, secretary of state Hillary Clinton backed the presidential directive. “I am not saying that gay people can’t or don’t commit crimes,” she said. “They can and they do. Just like straight people. And when they do, they should be held accountable. But it should never be a crime to be gay.”

Clinton has called for greater protection of sexual minorities and the safety of those seeking asylum. In June, she welcomed a UN resolution on equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Clinton compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women’s rights and racial equality, and said a country’s cultural or religious traditions are no excuse for discrimination. “Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” she said.

Among US measures, the state department will lead a group to direct agencies to provide a “swift and meaningful” response to serious incidents that threaten the human rights of LGBT people abroad, Obama said. Agencies are directed to combat the criminalisation of LGBT status or conduct abroad, protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers, and engage international organisations in the fight against such discrimination. Agencies are instructed to report on progress within 180 days.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney argued gay rights should not be a test for US engagement abroad. “I will be looking at foreign aid, whether it meets our national security interests and, number two, whether these nations are friends of ours and are willing to be friendly with us in ways when it matters the most,” he said on Fox News.

The Texas governor, Rick Perry, went further. “Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money,” a Perry campaign statement said.

It was unclear whether those countries that target and discriminate against gay and lesbians would have their funding cut.

The latest state department report cites countries including US allies such as Saudi Arabia as having human rights issues over treatment of homosexuals.

The UN Human Rights Council passed the resolution on equal rights for all by a narrow margin, despite strong objections from African and Muslim countries.

While the US, the EU and Brazil backed the effort, the move drew strong criticism from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Pakistan, among others.

In October this year, USAID made an announcement that it “strongly encourages” businesses contracted with USAID to go beyond mandatory non-discrimination protections, to prohibit job bias for LGBT employees and other workers.

Among the top 10 countries granted economic and military assistance from the US, according to USAID, are Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Egypt Pakistan, Sudan, West Bank/Gaza, Ethiopia, Kenya and Columbia.

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This article titled “Iran faces new wave of sanctions over nuclear programme” was written by Chris McGreal in Washington and Julian Borger, for The Guardian on Monday 21st November 2011 19.44 UTC

The US and Britain are leading a new wave of international sanctions targeting Iran’s banks and oil industry following the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report earlier this month that said Tehran worked for many years to develop nuclear weapons and may still be doing so.

Britain has used counter-terrorism powers to order its financial sector to cut all ties with Iranian banks in an attempt to undermine funding of the nuclear programme. The US announced measures intended to limit Tehran’s ability to refine its own fuel as well as targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ financial interests.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wrote to European leaders as well as the US and Japan calling for “unprecedented” sanctions against Iran, including a halt to buying its oil.

But the measures are expected to have a limited impact in the face of resistance from China and Russia to strengthening global sanctions against Iran through the United Nations security council.

Britain went the furthest by, for the first time, cutting an entire country’s banking system off from London’s financial sector. It said that Iranian banks “play a crucial role in providing financial services to individuals and entities within Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes”.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, said the measures are part of increasing pressure on Iran to engage with the IAEA and foreign governments about its nuclear programme.

“The IAEA’s report last week provided further credible and detailed evidence about the possible military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear programme,” he said. “Today we have responded resolutely by introducing a set of new sanctions that prohibit all business with Iranian banks.

“We have consistently made clear that until Iran engages meaningfully, it will find itself under increasing pressure from the international community. The swift and decisive action today co-ordinated with key international partners is a strong signal of determination to intensify this pressure.”

British diplomats said the Iranian central bank plays a direct role in procuring equipment for its nuclear programme and added that the sanctions were also intended to punish Tehran for its refusal to compromise over its enrichment of uranium, which can produce reactor fuel or fissile material for a bomb, despite a series of UN security council sanctions calling on it to do so. They said that denying Iran access to the international financial hub in London would raise the cost and hassle for the Iranians of doing business with the rest of the world.

Canada took a similar step against Iran’s central bank.

In Washington, President Obama said additional US sanctions are intended to discourage business with Iran’s petrochemical industry, which traditionally has produced plastics and similar products but has increasingly been used to refine petrol because international sanctions have hit Tehran’s refineries.

“New sanctions target for the first time Iran’s petrochemical sector, prohibiting the provision of goods, services and technology to this sector and authorising penalties against any person or entity that engages in such activity,” Obama said. “They expand energy sanctions, making it more difficult for Iran to operate, maintain, and modernise its oil and gas sector.

“As long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime.”

Washington designated Iran a territory of “primary money-laundering concern” in the expectation that it will discourage foreign banks from doing business with Iranian financial institutions.

However, Washington continues to avoid directly targeting Iran’s central bank because if Tehran is unable to carry through financial transactions necessary to sell its oil, that could force the cost of petroleum up and hit the US economy.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, called the measures a “significant ratcheting-up of pressure” on Iran and said other countries will follow in the days ahead.

In his letter, Sarkozy said that Iran’s nuclear programme represents a “serious and urgent threat to peace”. He called for a halt to purchasing Iranian oil and for the assets of Iran’s central bank to be frozen. EU foreign ministers are also expected to consider further measures at a meeting on 1 December.

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This article titled “Lithuania faces legal action over prisons set up for CIA rendition programme” was written by Ian Cobain, for The Guardian on Thursday 27th October 2011 20.05 UTC

The Lithuanian government is facing legal action in the European court of human rights over secret prisons that the CIA established in the country as part of its worldwide “extraordinary rendition” programme.

It becomes the third European government to face proceedings as a result of its support for the agency’s operations, Macedonia and Poland having already been accused of breaches of the European convention on human rights.

The Lithuanian parliament has acknowledged that the CIA established two prisons with the help of the country’s own security service, the SSD. One was at a riding school in a village 12 miles north of the capital, Vilnius, while the second is thought to have been at a guest house in Vlinius. The parliamentary report failed, however, to establish whether any prisoners had been held at the sites.

Lawyers representing the militant known as Abu Zubaydah say he was detained in Lithuania, and they began court proceedings in Strasbourg on Thursday. They allege that the Lithuanian government is guilty of multiple breaches of the European convention on human rights, first by allowing the CIA to fly Abu Zubaydah to the country and detain him in one of the secret prisons, and then by failing to investigate the matter itself.

The International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights, a London-based organisation bringing the proceedings along with Abu Zubaydah’s US lawyers, said the case highlighted the level of European co-operation in the systematic use of illegal detention and torture after 9/11.

Helen Duffy, special counsel at the organisation, said: “While this was clearly led by the CIA, it would not have been possible without the co-operation of the European authorities. We need to find out what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Crofton Black, a researcher with the legal charity Reprieve, which has mounted its own inquiries into the CIA’s Lithuanian operations, said: “Lithuania’s investigations have so far been manifestly insufficient in scope and rigour.”

There was no immediate response from the Lithuanian government.

The first details of the CIA’s secret Lithuanian connection emerged in 2009 in the US, where the media quoted former agency staff as saying that the government in Vilnius had granted permission for the establishment of the prisons in an attempt to bolster relations with Washington. One told ABC News that neither the agency nor the Bush administration offered the Lithuanian government anything in return, adding: “We didn’t have to. They were happy to have our ear.”

The riding school is said to have been sold in March 2004 – a month before Lithuania joined Nato – to a now defunct company called Elite LLC registered in Delaware and Panama. According to the AFP news agency, the US embassy in Vilnius funded the purchase at a cost of 2m litas (£510,000).

English-speaking construction contractors are said to have embarked on redevelopment work, and local people who asked for work say they were turned away by English-speaking guards. ABC News reported that the CIA constructed a cell block inside the covered riding area of the school and converted the stables into accommodation for interrogators.

According to the documents submitted to the court at Strasbourg, the site was sold to the Lithuanian government in January 2007 and now houses an SSD training centre.

The US media reports led to an inquiry by the national security committee of the Lithuanian parliament, the siemas, which confirmed the existence of the prisons and the arrival of CIA aircraft. The committee’s report said: “Three occasions were established on which, according to the testimony of the SSD officers, they received the aircraft and escorted what was brought by them with the knowledge of the heads of the SSD.” Despite this, the committee concluded that there was no evidence that any detainees had been taken to either prison.

A criminal investigation was subsequently opened by the prosecutor general’s office but later abandoned, with prosecutors saying they were unable to unearth any evidence that either facility was used to interrogate or detain al-Qaida suspects.

The lawyers representing Abu Zubaydah say the Lithuanian authorities are ignoring evidence, including flight records, that they say show a number of the CIA’s detainees were taken to the country. Abu Zubaydah is said to have been flown from Morocco to Vilnius in February 2005, and to have spent about 12 months there before being moved to Afghanistan.

He had previously been held in Guantánamo Bay, possibly Poland, and Thailand, where he was waterboarded 83 times in one month, according to a US justice department memorandum. He is currently back at Guantánamo, where the authorities are refusing permission for his statement to be passed to the court in Strasbourg.

The Polish government is facing European court proceedings over its assistance for CIA rendition operations, while Macedonia is facing proceedings after the country’s intelligence agents seized a German citizen, Khaled el-Masri, and handed him to the CIA to be flown to Afghanistan. He was released five months later after the agency realised they had the wrong el-Masri.

According to several media reports in the US, the CIA also operated a secret prison in the centre of Bucharest, raising speculation that Romania may also face proceedings in the European court.

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This article titled “Alleged Iran plot could have been trigger for war in Middle East” was written by Julian Borger, for The Guardian on Tuesday 11th October 2011 22.55 UTC

Whoever was behind the Washington plot was ready to start a war in the Middle East. The region is already on the brink of conflict over Iran’s nuclear programme, with Israel increasingly twitchy over the progress Tehran is making towards a capacity to make nuclear weapons.

Leaked US State Department cables also make clear that the Saudi king, Abdullah, has repeatedly urged the US to “cut off the head of the snake” and attack Iran.

Against that backdrop, the assassination of the Saudi ambassador in Washington, with mass American casualties and perhaps an attack on the Israeli embassy too, would have ensured that the region went up in flames.

The US accuses the Quds Force (QF), the external operations wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, of being behind the plot. Given the hierarchy of the Iranian regime, such a huge undertaking would have required a direct order from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who personally controls the QF.

Khamenei’s involvement would be surprising, to say the least. Throughout his tenure – since the death of the Islamic republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei in 1989 – he has shown himself to be highly cautious and devoted to entrenching the power of the clerical regime.

Meir Javendafar, an Iranian-Israeli, said: “Khamenei’s first priority is regime stability, and then a distant second, safeguarding the nuclear programme.”

One speculative explanation circulating on Tuesday night was that Khamenei feels so threatened by internal opposition that he would provoke a foreign attack to allow himself to strengthen his grip on the country. But the opposition Green movement is currently in abeyance, and the nuclear programme is advancing steadily with little threat of concerted international action, or much global support for an Israeli strike.

The plot is also out of character for the QF. The unit is well-funded and has considerable freedom of action abroad. It is suspected of involvement in the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994, the funding and arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon, of Shia militias in Iraq, and even the Taliban in Afghanistan. In 2008, the head of the QF, Kassim Suleimani sent the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus a message in which he said, according to Petraeus, that he controlled Iranian foreign policy in the region.

However, to extend those operations to US territory would represent a significant leap in scope and ambitions. The way the plot was conducted would also suggest that the ruthlessly efficiently QF had lost its touch, being clumsy enough to transfer money from accounts under its control directly to US bank accounts.

Robert Baer, a former CIA agent with long experience of observing the QF, said: “This stinks to holy hell. The Quds Force are very good. They don’t sit down with people they don’t know and make a plot. They use proxies and they are professional about it. If Kassim Suleimani was coming after you or me, we would be dead. This is totally uncharacteristic of them.”

Another possibility is that this is a rogue operation, perhaps organised by a faction inside the QF, without the Supreme Leader’s blessing. There is an argument that it suited the purposes of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who recently lost a bloodless power struggle with Khamenei.

If the attack succeeded, it would set in train events dramatic enough to turn the rigid, dusty hierarchy of the clerical republic on its head, giving Ahmadinejad the chance to seize the advantage.

Or the plotters could be fanatics inside the military establishment, bent on bringing the Revolutionary Guard to the top of the regime pyramid, beginning an open race to develop a nuclear weapon and confronting Israel directly.

“If this is a bunch of crazies, then anything is possible,” Baer said.

All such possibilities are speculative. They would fundamentally reshape the Islamic Republic, and yet – for Iran experts – they are scarcely any more far-fetched that the idea that the Iranian establishment was behind a plot as brazen and reckless as this.

The thwarting of the plot almost certainly averted a conflict, but regional tension will escalate nevertheless. Any remote hope of resumed nuclear talks is dead for now. More sanctions and UN Security Council resolutions will be on the table instead.

Conceivably, that could break Khamenei’s will to press on with the nuclear programme, and produce a compromise deal that defuses the threat of conflict.

Or it could just as plausibly convince him to accelerate the programme, persuaded that the regime’s enemies are closing in. In that case, this extraordinary plot could yet succeed in sparking a new conflict in a very fragile region.

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