World News joined 0001

[OMEN]

A man who had sex with a 14-year-old schoolgirl, with her mother's consent, has been banned from seeing her.

Daniel Balfour, 23, was due to be sentenced after he admitted underage sex with the girl at her Borders home.

He failed to turn up for a meeting with social workers which meant the case was deferred again to 11 February.

However, his bail conditions were changed when it emerged he was still in a relationship with the girl and claimed they were engaged.

When he was originally put on bail in November he was not allowed to see the girl - who cannot be named for legal reasons - unless accompanied by an adult.

Sex register

At Duns Sheriff Court, Sheriff Kevin Drummond asked if the approved adults "included the girl's mother, who already approved of the sexual relationship".

When he was told that was the case, he ordered Balfour to have no contact with the girl until the case was disposed of next month.

Balfour has already been placed on the sex offenders' register.

A previous court hearing was told that the mother - who can also not be named - allowed Balfour to stay in the family home three or four nights a week.

She went as far as writing a letter to a local newspaper justifying her actions saying it had been to protect her daughter.

Her behaviour prompted political criticism.

South of Scotland SNP MSP Christine Grahame described it as "completely outrageous".

"This girl is in need of care and protection from her mother's values, which appear to be upside down," she said.

Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said the woman's attitude was "astonishing".

"This is quite a depressing story where a parent has neglected her responsibility for the welfare of her child," he said.


BBC

[OMEN]

John Atta Mills has been sworn in as Ghana's new president following a cliff-hanger election victory.

Mr Atta Mills, 64, took his oath of allegiance in front of thousands of people in Independence Square for the inauguration in the capital, Accra.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate beat the ruling party's Nana Akufo-Addo in a hotly contested poll by a margin of less than 0.5% of votes.

President John Kufuor has stood down after serving the maximum two terms.

He is the second elected head of state in Ghana's history to hand over to an opposition politician.

Loud cheers

The BBC's Will Ross in the Accra says there is a carnival atmosphere in the capital.
Crowds began forming at the stadium before dawn - decked out in the national colours of green, yellow, red and black - amid an air of intense excitement after one of the closest election races in Africa's recent history.

Mr Atta Mills was dressed in a local kente cloth woven in the national colours, Reuters news agency reports.

After he was sworn in, he raised up the State Sword - representing government authority - to cheers from the crowd, the agency said.

A military unit then fired off a booming 21-gun salute.

"It is a dawn of a new era for Ghana and I hope to tap the experiences of the two former presidents... to build a better Ghana," AFP news agency quotes Mr Ata Mills as saying in his first address as president, referring to Mr Kufuor and his predecessor, Jerry Rawlings.

There were loud cheers when he thanked the man he narrowly beat in the election.
"During the elections Ghana's democracy was stretched to the limits but at the end of the day the sovereign will of the people prevailed," he said.

Our reporter says the fact that Mr Akufo-Addo attended the inauguration is a sign that Ghana has a relatively mature democracy and is a long way ahead of many other African countries.

Several foreign dignitaries attended the ceremony, including several heads of state from the region.

At times the police and army have had trouble keeping the crowd back so enthusiastic were they to see this change of power.

Good example

On the eve of the inauguration, Mr Kufuor showed his successor around his new home, the presidential residence officially known as Jubilee House.
Ghana's new leader, who had lost two previous elections to Mr Kufuor, has pledged to be "a president for all".

Mr Akufo-Addo won the first round but not by enough to avoid a run-off in last month's knife-edge polls.

Mr Atta Mills was finally declared the winner on Saturday after a re-run of voting in the rural constituency of Tain, which was boycotted by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Our reporter says there may only be one side celebrating at the inauguration, but many Ghanaians of whatever political persuasion are proud that the country is setting a good example.

Despite allegations of multiple voting and intimidation from both sides, electoral officials found no evidence of foul play and monitors gave Ghana's poll a clean bill of health.

One of Mr Kufuor's last acts as president was to intervene and persuade the governing party to accept defeat, a move which helped ensure that Ghana's election did not descend from acrimony into violence, our correspondent says.

The stakes were raised further in the election by Ghana's recent discovery of crude oil, with production due to start in late 2010.

Turnout was high for the West African country's fifth set of polls since it embraced multi-party democracy in 1992.

The former British colony was the first African state to gain its independence in 1957.

A nation of 22 million people, it is the world's second biggest cocoa grower and Africa's number two gold miner.

BBC

[OMEN]

The five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 14 unarmed civilians in Baghdad have pleaded not guilty.

The five men are charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter and one weapons violation count over the shooting that outraged Iraqis.

A sixth Blackwater guard pleaded guilty late last year to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter, and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify at the trial.
US District Judge Ricardo Urbina said jury selection would begin on 29 January 2010 after the five defendants formally entered a not guilty plea.

The shooting occurred as the private security firm's guards escorted a heavily armed four-truck convoy of US diplomats through Baghdad on 16 September 2007.

The guards, US military veterans, were responding to a car bombing when shooting erupted in a crowded intersection.

North Carolina-based Blackwater, the largest security contractor in Iraq, said that it understands the guards acted within the rules set forth for them by the US government and that no criminal violations occurred.

US Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Kohl said at the hearing that witnesses would be coming from Iraq and estimated it would take about four weeks for the prosecution to put on its case at trial.

'This is a straightforward shooting of a lot of people,' Mr Kohl said, adding that he does not expect the case to be delayed by complex classified intelligence issues.

While Mr Kohl wanted the trial to begin in Autumn, defence lawyers said they needed more time to file various motions and challenges, to gather evidence and to go Iraq for interviews.

Judge Urbina agreed to begin the trial early next year but made clear he would not allow needless delays that result in the defence unfairly benefiting from faded memories and witnesses becoming unavailable.

'My interest is getting this case tried as soon as reasonably possible,' Mr Urbina said.

US Justice Department officials have said there was no evidence that any of the other 13 members of the convoy or that Blackwater itself committed any wrongdoing in the shooting.

The defendants are: former Marines Donald Ball from Utah, Dustin Heard from Tennessee; Evan Liberty from New Hampshire and Army veterans Nick Slatten of Tennessee, and Paul Slough from Texas.

RTE

[OMEN]

US President George W Bush will hold private talks with his successor Barack Obama today before they share a rare lunch with all living former US presidents at the White House.

The meeting of past and present US leaders is the first such event since 1981 and marks a historic moment, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, amid one of the most delicate transitions in recent memory.

Those around the table will include Democrat Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Mr Bush's father Republican George H W Bush (1989-1993) and Democrat Bill Clinton (1993-2001).
Prior to the lunch, the 43rd and 44th presidents will have about a half-hour to meet one-on-one in the Oval Office, with 13 days remaining before Senator Obama is inaugurated to the presidency.

Sen Obama, who will be sworn in as the nation's first African-American president on 20 January, inherits two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a grave economic crisis, and a surge in Middle East violence.

'Tomorrow I'm sure they'll talk a little bit about issues,' Mr Perino said, without elaborating.

It was not immediately clear if the former presidents would discuss escalation in the Mideast conflict, with which all have considerable personal experience.

Obama not commenting on Gaza

Democrat Carter's administration in 1978 helped bring off the Camp David peace accords. His Atlanta-based Carter Center has said in a statement that: 'The government of Israel must cease actions that endanger the civilian population of densely-populated Gaza, and the de facto authorities of Gaza must halt rocket attacks.'

Sen Obama has declined to comment on Israel's military assault on Gaza until he takes office, other than expressing concern, but all the presidents who will be around the table are aware of the gravity of the situation as a top US ally in the Middle East battles Hamas militants while civilians are caught in the crossfire.

'After 20 January I am going to have plenty to say about the issue,' Sen Obama told reporters yesterday, fending off criticism that he has failed to forcefully address the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza.

Sen Obama said he was sticking by his campaign pledge that 'at the beginning of our administration, we are going to engage effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict that existed in the Middle East'.

So far, Mr Bush and Sen Obama have spoken regularly, Mr Perino said.

'The president and the president-elect shared a phone call on New Year's Day. They have had periodic calls,' she said.

'So they've had a chance to talk about issues. Those are private conversations.'

'All of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation. But these are leaders who only understand what it's like to be in each other's shoes. And none of us can put ourselves in their shoes,' Mr Perino said.

Sen Obama receives the same briefings as Mr Bush each morning, and Mr Bush's aides have said they shared emergency contingency plans with Sen Obama's team ahead of the handover.

Now, with the Obama family installed at the Hay-Adams hotel within view of the White House in downtown Washington, Mr Perino said she expected some of the conversation would involve family life.

'I'm sure they'll talk a little bit about raising children in the White House, raising children when you're a public figure, and how to protect them.'

Since winning the election on 4 November, Sen Obama has been to the White House once before, on 10 November, when he went there for talks with Mr Bush.

The outgoing administration said the pair discussed international and domestic issues, and Mr Bush reportedly showed Sen Obama the rooms where his daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, would stay.

Meanwhile Mr Bush and his wife have already started packing ahead of their departure, Mr Perino said.

'The president's style is always to be one that's a little bit prepared early, and he and Mrs Bush have been working to box things up,' she said.

'They didn't come with a lot of things; they didn't bring a lot of furniture here. So mostly what they have are books, obviously their clothes, and then some of the things that they've picked up along the way on their travels.'

RTE

[OMEN]

Reports are coming in of a shooting in Dublin's north inner city.

Two men have been seriously injured in the incident in Summerhill after 8pm tonight.

The men were in a car near Langrishe place in Summerhill when they were shot.
They have been brought to hospital.

The area has been the scene of a feud in recent times.

There are no further details at present.

RTE

[OMEN]

Fighting has resumed in Gaza following a three-hour ceasefire.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the eastern Gaza City neighbourhood of Zeitun.
Bombing had been temporarily suspended to allow the passage of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Israel earlier announced that bombing would be suspended between 1pm and 4pm (11am-2pm Irish time).

Hamas responded by saying no rocket attacks would be made during the same period.

However, Israeli Defence Force spokesmen said later it would not happen 'each day', as had been reported earlier.

'I can confirm that there is a cessation of offensive activities at this time in order to facilitate humanitarian transfers and we will enable the population to resupply themselves and facilitate the work of the NGOs,' said an Israeli spokesperson.

However, an Israeli spokesperson warned the army would respond to any fire including rocket fire.

Israel pounded Gaza with artillery shells and air missiles again this morning.

An air strike killed a Palestinian man and wounded three others in Zeitun, where some of the heaviest fighting has occurred since Israeli troops invaded on Saturday.

Clashes occurred in Zeitun, and there were reports of air strikes on the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Irish struggle to escape conflict

The Department of Foreign Affairs says it has been unable to help around 20 Irish citizens and their families to leave Gaza because of ongoing security concerns.

According to a spokesperson for the Department, it is issuing Irish visas to family members of Irish citizens in Gaza in an attempt to bring them to safety in Ireland.

One Irish citizen, five-year-old Basil Natil, is in Gaza with his mother and three sisters aged 10, eight and three.

His father, based in the UK, was concerned that visas were initially being offered to only Basil and his mother, but the DFA say that visas are now being offered to all family members in Gaza.

School strike totally unacceptable: Ban

The latest fighting followed Israeli strikes yesterday on three UN-run schools that killed at least 48 people, prompting growing calls for an immediate ceasefire.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply dismayed' by the strikes on the schools and called them 'totally unacceptable'.

Egypt's President and veteran Middle East peace mediator, Hosni Mubarak, is pushing for an immediate ceasefire and has invited Mr Olmert for talks on his proposal in Cairo.

Mr Mubarak said Israelis and Palestinians need 'an urgent meeting to reach arrangements and guarantees that would not allow the repeat of the current escalation'.

Such guarantees would include 'securing the borders and ... opening of the border crossings and lifting the siege'.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the UN Security Council presidency, said a resolution on Gaza would 'complicate' the task of achieving peace.

Libya later submitted a new draft resolution demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire to be respected by both parties.

A Hamas delegation is already in Cairo for talks on the crisis.

Egypt brokered a six-month truce that ended on 19 December.

Hamas refused to renew the deal, accusing Israel of reneging on it by not relaxing the crippling blockade of Gaza it first imposed when the Islamists seized control of the territory in 2007.

Mr Olmert earlier said the rocket attacks and weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza must end before Israel halts its offensive.

RTE

[OMEN]

The Bank of England is expected to cut interest rates to their lowest level in its 315-year history when it makes its latest monthly decision later.

With rates currently at 2%, the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is tipped to announce a reduction of between 0.5 and one percentage point.

This would be the first time since the Bank was founded in 1694 that rates have fallen below 2%.

It comes as the Treasury denied reports it was planning to inject more money.

A number of newspapers said the step was being considered once interest rates fell close to zero as a tactic to help both stimulate the economy and avoid deflation.

Treasury sources said that while the move had not been ruled out, it was not currently on the agenda.

'Balancing act'

While a rate cut is widely expected, there is debate as to how far the Bank will actually go.
Hetal Mehta, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said the Bank was facing "a balancing act".

"Six months ago, it was juggling slowing economic growth with soaring inflation," she said.

"But now the Bank has to tread a fine line between avoiding deflation and a further weakening of sterling, whilst doing all it can to soften the impact of the recession."
"Item believes a 50-basis-point cut in the interest rate would be appropriate. However, with survey data continuing to worsen, a larger cut of 100 basis points, taking the interest rate to 1%, is a distinct possibility."

It is not clear how much of any cut would be passed on to mortgage customers.

HSBC, Lloyds TSB/Cheltenham and Gloucester and Bristol & West are passing on the last one-percentage-point cut in full for those customers with variable rate mortgages.

But the UK's biggest lender, HBOS, is passing on only 0.25 of a percentage point.

Even those customers with tracker mortgages - which follow changes in Bank rate - may not see the benefit, as many mortgage providers have "collars" below which their tracker rates will not fall.

Meanwhile, any rate cut will mean that Britain's savers will see their interest earnings fall once more.

Quantitative easing

In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Chancellor Alistair Darling indicated the Bank would have to work "hand in hand" with the Treasury if it wanted to carry out "quantitative easing" - or printing money.

A central bank printing money to inject into the markets is a strategy known as quantitative easing, which was pioneered by Japan as a way of battling its deflationary problems in the 1990s.

Deflation - where prices regularly fall rather than rise - becomes a greater risk as interest rates head towards zero.

It can be a problem because if people believe that prices are going to fall, they have incentives to postpone buying anything they can, which means there is even less activity in the economy.

BBC

[OMEN]

Poor service could cost thousands of jobs in the recession, Britain's tourism chief has said.

Visit Britain chairman Christopher Rodrigues said he feared foreign tourists would be put off by low standards in hotels and restaurants.

Mr Rodrigues told the Independent that the downturn meant establishments could no longer get away with shoddy service.

He said poor standards could contribute to some of the 50,000 anticipated job losses in the industry this year.

'Threadbare towels'

Mr Rodrigues said: "We've had a period in which people could get away with not being of the highest quality.

"We're now in an environment where you have to do quality. Poor value for money and poor service costs jobs and will cost more jobs in a recession.

"Threadbare towels, a previously owned bar of soap and a grumpy person who says 'we don't do breakfast before 8am and we don't do it after 8.12am' - you don't get a lot of happy customers."

Mr Rodrigues, who represents tourism in England, Scotland and Wales, estimated earnings from tourism would fall by £4bn during the recession.

Visit Britain will launch a £6.5m campaign in April aimed at persuading overseas visitors that Britain can offer value for money.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Culture Secretary Andy Burnham are holding a summit with British tourism leaders on Thursday in Liverpool.

BBC

[OMEN]

One man is dead and a second is critically injured after a shooting in Dublin's north inner city last night.

The two men were shot as they sat in a car at the junction of Summerhill Road and Langrishe Place shortly after 8.30pm.

It is believed that both of the men were shot in the head by a gunman who was sitting in the back seat of the car.
The car they were driving then rolled across the road and crashed into the central median.

The killer got out of the car and made his escape through nearby Gloucester Place.

Gardaí who were called to the scene, of what they thought was a traffic accident, discovered the two victims unconscious.

Paramedics worked on the two men and they were taken to St James's and the Mater Misericordiae University hospitals but one of the men, Michael 'Roly' Cronin, was dead by the time he arrived to hospital.

In 1998, Mr Cronin was jailed for 13 years for heroin dealing.

However he was released four years ago. There had been at least three attempts made on Mr Cronin's life.

The area remains sealed off this morning as gardaí continue a forensic examination.

Meanwhile gardaí are investigating a separate shooting in north Co Dublin.

A man was shot in the leg and neck at Drynam Drive near Kinsealey.

He is said to be critically ill.

RTE

[OMEN]

The Taoiseach will hold the first of a series of meetings with the social partners later today in a bid to tackle the worsening economic crisis.

The €20bn public sector pay bill will be central to the discussions and pay cuts have not been ruled out.

The employers group IBEC will be briefed on the economic background today, while the ICTU will be briefed tomorrow.
Yesterday, the cabinet spent over six hours considering the latest Department of Finance projections which showed plummeting revenue, soaring debt and unemployment.

The aim of the briefings is to achieve agreement on a national strategy to get financial matters under control by the end of the month.

However, both Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan have made it clear unpalatable choices lie ahead.

RTE