Tim Torlot has been ambassador in Yemen since July 2007
Al-Qaeda has been blamed for an attack on the UK's envoy in Yemen.
The suspected suicide bomber threw himself at the convoy of the British ambassador to Yemen as it drove through the capital, Sanaa.
Ambassador Tim Torlot is safe, UK officials confirmed. One person - believed to be the attacker - was killed, say Yemeni security sources.
The attack bore all the "hallmarks of al-Qaeda", the Yemeni interior ministry said in a statement.
The UK Foreign Office said it had closed the embassy to the public.
There are mounting fears that Yemen is becoming a leading al-Qaeda haven.
"The failed terrorist attack that targeted the British ambassador in Sanaa carries the fingerprints of al-Qaeda," the statement on the Yemeni interior ministry website said.
Previous attack
Mr Torlot was reported to have been on his way to the embassy when the attack happened, in an area of eastern Sanaa said to be popular with militants.
ANALYSIS
Ginny Hill, Chatham House specialist on Yemen
British officials are working closely with the Yemeni government to tackle terrorism. British military trainers have been supporting the coastguard and the counter-terrorism unit for several years. Since 2006, the British have also taken a strong lead on development and anti-corruption measures.
In January this year, UK PM Gordon Brown took a visible leadership role by convening a meeting in London in response to the attempted Christmas Day attack in Detroit. The British government is leading the Friends of Yemen, an informal contact group created at the London meeting in January.
The overall security situation in Yemen has improved in recent months, with a ceasefire agreed between the security services and the Houthi rebels in Saada. Unrest in the south continues to bubble away but Sanaa has been mostly calm recently, until today's attack.
Witnesses said the bomber was a young man who was wearing a school uniform, apparently as a disguise, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The attacker, believed to be wearing an explosives belt, was said to have thrown himself at the convoy, but was too slow to hit his intended targets.
The interior ministry also named the suspect as Othman Ali Nouman al-Salawi, 22, from Taiz, south of Sanaa.
It said that the "terrorist Salawi has received training in Maarib province", an al-Qaeda stronghold 170km (around 105 miles) east of Sanaa.
"This operation reflects the state of despair which has hit the terrorists after the painful pre-emptive strikes which they received in their hide-outs at the hands of security services," the ministry said.
Reuters news agency reports that three other people were wounded - two security officials in a police car escorting the convoy and a bystander.
The attack appears to be similar to that carried out against a South Korean diplomatic convoy in Sanaa a year ago. A pedestrian suicide bomber targeted the vehicle on the main road from the city centre to the airport, but killed only himself.
Security threats
"We can confirm that there was an incident in Sanaa this morning," a Foreign Office spokesman in London said.
"There was a small explosion beside the British ambassador's car. He was unhurt. No other embassy staff or British nationals were injured."
The spokesman said the embassy would remain closed "for the time being" and urged British nationals in Yemen "to keep a low profile and remain vigilant".
Mr Torlot has been the British ambassador to Yemen since July 2007, and was formerly number two at the embassy in Baghdad, so is well accustomed to the threats posed to British interests in the region, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in the region.
Security has been stepped up at Western embassies in Yemen in recent months as the US, Britain and other European countries have signalled their intention to play a greater role in combating the extremist groups that threaten Yemen's stability, our correspondent adds.
This came in the wake of the Christmas Day attempt to blow up an airline bound for Detroit in the US. The Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is said to have been trained by a Yemen-based group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Western embassies in Yemen are no strangers to attacks. Militants used car bombs and rocket-propelled grenades in a co-ordinated assault on the US embassy last year.
The UK and US temporarily closed their embassies in January amid security threats from al-Qaeda.
The British embassy was closed twice in 2005 due to threats to "Western interests".
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – An Ohio man who authorities say was carrying a gun and driving a car loaded with law enforcement equipment when he said he wanted to see the president is a "public-service-minded" ham-radio, weather and police buff, acquaintances said Monday.
Joseph Sean McVey, who was spotted by police in an Asheville Regional Airport parking lot Sunday just after Air Force One departed, had a note in his car with formulas used for firing a rifle with a scope, authorities said.
McVey did not have a rifle with him, but the arrest was merited to ensure McVey was not a threat, said Jeff Augram, the airport's public safety chief. Knowing McVey's interests as a radio buff, weather enthusiast and sheriff's volunteer helped explain many of the items found in his car, Augram said.
"In a post-9/11 culture, we have to take a pro-active posture," Augram said.
Acquaintances from his hometown of Coshocton, Ohio, suggested the whole episode may just be a misunderstanding involving a sometimes overly enthusiastic 23-year-old.
McVey, whose mother lives in Asheville, was being held under a $100,000 secured bond for the misdemeanor charge of going armed in terror of the public. If he posts bail, McVey would be released. The investigation was continuing, but Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said he did not believe there was a federal agency that wanted him held.
On Monday, he wore a white jail jumpsuit, appeared calm and spoke in a steady voice for a court hearing via video conference. McVey faces up to 120 days in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor, District Judge Patricia Young said. She told him an attorney had agreed to represent him.
"I'd like to take advantage of the gentleman that you were notifying me about," he responded.
Randy Fisher, president of the Coshocton County Amateur Radio Association, said that he was shocked to hear of the arrest. He said McVey had come to several of the group's monthly meetings over the last two years and that he last talked to McVey about a week ago via radio. He said he always found McVey friendly and interesting.
"I was impressed that he was a public-service-minded type of individual. He really enjoyed using his ham radio for emergency services and that sort of thing," Fisher said.
For about two years, McVey has been a member of a volunteer organization that assists the sheriff's department with traffic control at emergency scenes, said Tim Wise, president of Coshocton County Radio Emergency Association Citizen Team.
Wise said he was inclined to believe McVey's arrest resulted from a misunderstanding. He was unaware McVey had a gun, but said he did not believe McVey would ever want to harm the president.
Security was heightened at the Asheville airport Sunday because President Barack Obama was leaving after a weekend vacation.
At about 2 p.m. Sunday, airport police saw McVey get out of a car and saw that he had a sidearm, airport police Capt. Kevan Smith said. He was using a handheld scanner and radio to monitor local agencies and told an officer in the Asheville airport parking lot that he wanted to see the president, Smith said.
McVey was nowhere near the president's plane, and was in a rental car return lot that is open to the public, Smith said.
McVey's car was equipped with police gear, including a siren box, a mounted digital camera and LED law enforcement-style strobe lights in the front and rear dash, Smith said.
A note in his car's cup holder had rifle scope formulas, which help a shooter adjust for distance from a target. Such formulas estimate how much a bullet drops after it is fired and are generally included with a scope purchased for hunting or recreation, said Greg A. Danas, a firearms expert based in Massachusetts.
McVey gave authorities an Ohio driver's license, but a computer check failed to show the number was valid, police said.
"Everything they found on him, with the exception of a gun, he basically had all that when he was in Coshocton," said Wise, of the volunteer emergency group. "He just basically liked to monitor police frequencies and listen to what's going on."
That's common for the group's members, though they are not authorized to have police sirens and lights or to break the speed limit on the way to emergencies, Wise said.
"He's kind of a go-getter, and I know we had to kind of clip his wings a couple times and tell him he needed to watch what he was doing out there and slow down a little bit," Wise said.
McVey had a camera in his car because he liked to chase severe storms and post video online, Wise said.
Coshocton County Sheriff Timothy Rogers said Monday he had no knowledge of McVey or his family and that he was not investigating McVey.
McVey's next court date is June 10.
He lives in a simple, one-story white house that sits off a narrow, paved township road winding through a hilly, wooded area just south of Coshocton, about halfway between Columbus and Pittsburgh. A man answering the door Monday said he had no comment.
The area is checkered with farms and is supported by nearby electric and steel plants and a paper mill. The county's population is about 36,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
McVey turned 23 less than two weeks ago. He graduated in 2005 from River View High School in Warsaw, Ohio, where he participated in jazz, pep and concert band.
McVey's mother, Jeri Senor, lives in Asheville and said Monday the family did not want to talk.
"We're doing fine but we don't want to comment right now," she said.
Live online debate: GDP Is GDP simply out of date, or can it be improved or supplemented by other measures of living standards, however defined? We want to hear what you think. Full article
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Message from the Obama Administration--by Biodun Iginla, BBC News Topic: melissa gruz, bbc news, obama ad
Biodun --
There are only 190 days until the 2010 election.
Many of you have been at work long before now. You've held strategy sessions all across the country to discuss how to most effectively help candidates in your community who are fighting to bring about change.
At OFA headquarters, we've been poring over your ideas, your input, and the best data we can get our hands on to determine the most helpful role we can play.
Together, based on that feedback, we've crafted a comprehensive electoral plan that can make a big difference in the upcoming elections.
President Obama recorded a video message to share our goals for 2010 with you -- and to remind us what's at stake. Watch it now.
We've accomplished a lot together. But we're in for a tough fight this fall.
Historical trends aren't in our favor -- the president's party generally loses seats in the first midterm election. And even though President Obama has taken bold steps like the Recovery Act to put us back on the path to prosperity, escaping from a financial crisis like this one takes time.
The prognosticators and pundits are predicting steep losses for the Democrats. The Republicans are already measuring the drapes for their new offices, saying that anything short of an electoral landslide that gives them back control of Congress won't be a victory.
But these are the same folks who said Barack Obama could never become president, the same ones who said we were trying to do too much, too fast -- and that we'd never pass historic health reform. They were wrong then, and they're wrong now.
I believe we can avoid the nightmare electoral scenario that Republicans in Washington have already convinced themselves will happen. But only if we work together.
Two years ago, we challenged a group of young and disaffected voters to participate in the 2008 election. They cast votes for the very first time and helped us elect a new president. You told us that your top priority for 2010 was to help these people head back to the polls -- and we built our plan around that goal.
President Obama has America heading in the right direction. But our opponents want to repeal health reform. They're standing with Wall Street banks to block any efforts to rein in reckless behavior and protect consumers. And they're attacking a foreign policy that has renewed America's standing in the world. They are eager to undo all we've done.
The stakes are high. And that's the level of commitment we need from you. So watch the President introduce our 2010 plan -- and find out how you can get involved in the fight:
Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee -- 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
------------------------------------------------------------ Presented by Jeremy Paxman ------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Biodun!!!--we miss you at Bush House. Hope you come visit us really soon!!!
With opinion polls continuing to suggest that we are heading towards our first hung parliament since 1974, the war of words over what such a result would mean for Britain intensified today.
The Conservatives dubbed a hung parliament "stitch up politics" which would "paralyse" the economy.
Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg took an opposing view saying it could usher in political reform and end the "preposterous" current system.
While Labour's Gordon Brown argued it was "arrogant" to discuss Westminster deals before voting happens on 6 May.
But even as the parties are trying to push out their pro or anti hung parliament messages, they are also preparing for such an eventuality.
Tonight, Michael Crick will report on what inter-party deals could be on the table and we will be talking to some of the main players.
Paul Mason is looking into why two-party politics is on the decline and the social and economic trends driving this change. We will be talking to commentators, including author Jeanette Winterson and historian Andrew Roberts.
In his interview with Jeremy Paxman on Friday, David Cameron indicated that the north-east of England and Northern Ireland may face a public sector squeeze under the Tories.
A report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research published today says that public spending as a share of GDP is close to 50% - up from 37% in 1998/99 - and that in Northern and Wales public expenditure is about 70% of GDP.
David Grossman has been despatched to Belfast to find out if the situation there is sustainable in this time of massive public debt.
And, in a Newsnight exclusive, Yes Minister's Sir Humphrey Appleby returns to TV tonight after more than 20 years.
Sir Antony Jay, writer of the classic political comedy Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister has penned three special election episodes for BBC Newsnight.
In each episode we see Sir Humphrey grappling with how the civil service should respond to party manifesto promises, ahead of the arrival of the new minister - up first the Conservative manifesto.
The role of Sir Humphrey, made famous by Sir Nigel Hawthorne, will be played by Henry Goodman who will also be playing the same role in the forthcoming theatre production of Yes Prime Minister at Chichester Festival Theatre.
A Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that a recent Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) report rebuts the Obama administration's argument that health care reform will lower health care costs. However, as Third Way has noted, the CMS report indicates that health care reform would actually result in lower health care spending per insured person over the next decade, and according to Ezra Klein, the trend outlined by CMS suggests that overall health spending will be lower after 2019.
Citing CMS report, WSJ calls health care reform cost control a "fantasy"
Wall Street Journal: CMS report "is one more rebuke to the White House fantasy that a new entitlement will lower health costs." In an April 26 editorial, The Wall Street Journal cited a report from CMS actuaries to call President Obama's claim that health care reform will reduce costs a "fantasy":
In Massachusetts, Mr. Patrick says his price-control sally will be followed by reviewing what doctors and hospitals charge -- or in other words for price controls on the medical services that make up most health spending. ObamaCare will gradually move in the same direction.
Or maybe not so gradually, judging by the study released last last week by Richard Foster, the Obama Administration's Medicare actuary. Mr. Foster predicts net national health spending will increase by about 1% annually above the status quo that is already estimated to be $4.7 trillion in 2019. This is one more rebuke to the White House fantasy that a new entitlement will lower health costs.
But CMS report indicates per person spending will decrease
Third Way: Health care reform reduces spending per insured person. In an April 23 post, The Washington Post's Ezra Klein wrote that the CMS report indicates that "though total spending nudges up (though by the end of the first 10 years, it's coming back down), spending per insured person actually comes down." Klein cited Third Way, which concluded: "The fact is that by 2019, national health spending per insured person will be $15,132 compared to $16,812 without the new law. That's 10 percent less spending per insured person than it would have been, according to the actuary's report."
CMS report doesn't capture cost control that kicks in after 2019
CMS report: Overall health care spending increases in first decade.The CMS report stated of the health care law's impact on national health expenditures (NHE) in the 2010-2019 period:
[W]e estimate that overall national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion (0.9 percent) during calendar years 2010-2019, principally reflecting the net impact of (i) greater utilization of health care services by individuals becoming newly covered (or having more complete coverage), (ii) lower prices paid to health providers for the subset of those individuals who become covered by Medicaid, (but with net Medicaid costs from provisions other than the coverage expansion), and (iii) lower payments and payment updates for Medicare services. Although several provisions would help to reduce health care cost growth, their impact would be more than offset through 2019 by the higher health expenditures resulting from the coverage expansions.
Klein: Cost controls "really kick in" after 2019. Klein wrote in his April 23 post: "[T]he CMS study projects only to 2019. That's not very long, given that the bill is implemented in 2014. So it doesn't do much to project how cost controls like the Independent Payment Advisory Board will work in the second decade, which is when they really kick in." Klein added that "there's reason to think CMS is conservative in its cost estimates," noting that the estimate for Medicare Part D "was 37 percent too high."
After 2016, increase in national health spending as a result of health care reform begins to shrink
CMS: Increases in national health expenditures are largest in 2016 and "gradually decline thereafter." The CMS report stated:
In aggregate, we estimate that for calendar years 2010 through 2019, NHE would increase by $311 billion, or 0.9 percent, over the updated baseline projection that was released on June 29, 2009. Year by year, the relative increases are largest in 2016, when the coverage expansions would be fully phased in (2.0 percent), and gradually decline thereafter to 1.0 percent in 2019, as the effects of the Medicare market basket reductions compound and as the excise tax on high-cost employer health plans becomes effective. The NHE share of GDP is projected to be 21.0 percent in 2019, compared to 20.8 percent under prior law.
Klein: "Assuming the trend holds, the second decade will see national health expenditures fall below what spending would've been if the bill hadn't passed." In his post, Klein noted that the 1 percent NHE increase cited by The Wall Street Journal is not an annual number as the Journal claimed, but the total for the years 2010-2019. Klein further wrote that after 2016, when CMS estimates that NHE will be 2 percent higher than it would be without health reform, "cost controls kick in over those years and bring it down to 1 percent":
CMS is looking only at the spending side. And here's what it finds: In 2019, implementation of the Affordable Care Act will reduce the ranks of the uninsured by 34 million people and increase nation health expenditures by 1 percent.
One percent.
And that 1 percent is actually 1 percent and falling: When the legislation is fully implemented in 2016, the spending increase will be 2 percent. But cost controls kick in over those years and bring it down to 1 percent. Assuming the trend holds, the second decade will see national health expenditures fall below what spending would've been if the bill hadn't passed. So that's the bottom line of the report: We're covering 34 million people and come 2019, spending is expected to be one percentage point -- and falling -- above what it would've been if we'd done nothing.
Sunday's collision near Cambridge caps a tragic weekend in which 4 other teenagers also died on Minnesota roads. Sabrina Schumacher got her driver's license less than a month ago and was thrilled with the independence that comes with it, her friends say. But her newfound freedom also apparently led to a tragic, two-vehicle crash along Minnesota 95 in Cambridge early Sunday that claimed the lives of her four passengers and two others who were in a sport-utility vehicle.
You think about Francisco Liriano, and it's hard not to remember 2006, when the Minnesota Twins left-hander, then just 22 years old, dominated American League hitters. Liriano was 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 121 innings.
JERUSALEM – The Israeli government has effectively frozen new Jewish construction in Jerusalem's disputed eastern sector, municipal officials said Monday. The decision was made despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public insistence that building would not be stopped in the face of U.S. pressure.
It remained unclear if the slowdown constituted a formal moratorium or how long it would last, but the move reflected Netanyahu's need to mend a serious rift with the U.S. over Israeli construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state as Washington tries to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
An Israeli government official claimed a weekslong delay in reviewing plans for new construction was nothing more than a bureaucratic issue. Nonetheless, signs of the freeze drew angry criticism from hard-line lawmakers, including a member of Netanyahu's own party who warned the government could collapse over the matter.
Construction in east Jerusalem has been a major sticking point since Israel infuriated Washington last month by announcing a major new east Jerusalem housing development during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
In Washington, U.S. officials said they were aware of news of the freeze but were seeking clarification from the Israeli government and had no immediate comment.
Jerusalem Councilman Meir Margalit of the dovish Meretz Party said top Jerusalem officials intimately involved with construction projects told him that Netanyahu's office ordered a freeze after Washington expressed anger over the building plans.
"The government ordered the Interior Ministry immediately after the Biden incident to not even talk about new construction for Jewish homes in east Jerusalem," Margalit said. "It's not just that building has stopped: The committees that deal with this are not even meeting anymore."
He declined to identify the officials who informed him of the order because they had not approved the disclosure of their names. A Jerusalem municipal spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking interviews with the officials.
Another councilman, Meir Turujamen, who sits on the Interior Ministry committee that approves building plans, said his panel has not met since the Biden visit, after previously meeting once weekly.
"I wrote a letter about three weeks or a month ago asking (Interior Minister Eli) Yishai why the committee isn't convening," he said. "To this day I haven't received an answer."
Turujamen added that the last time his committee met was to make the provocative decision to approve the 1,600-apartment Ramat Shlomo project that riled the Americans.
He said he had received no official word of a de facto freeze order, "but based on the situation, those are the facts."
Netanyahu had previously announced a 10-month slowdown in West Bank construction in an attempt to restart peace talks. But he insisted that east Jerusalem not be included in those restrictions.
After word of the Ramat Shlomo project got out the Palestinians called off indirect U.S.-mediated peace talks. Palestinian leaders, who also are facing American pressure, will seek backing this week from the Arab League to renew participation in those talks.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he has not heard anything official about an Israeli construction freeze in east Jerusalem. "What counts for us is what we'll be seeing on the ground," he said. "We hope the Israeli government will halt settlement activity so we can give proximity talks the chance they deserve."
Attempts to advance construction haven't halted altogether. A lower-level municipal planning committee last week gave preliminary approval to a synagogue and kindergarten in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, he said. But that decision still needs Interior Ministry approval.
An engineer who oversees residential construction in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem said requests for proposals to build hundreds of apartments already approved haven't gone out. The engineer spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his business ties with the city.
Netanyahu has said he was taken by surprise by the approval of the Ramat Shlomo project while Biden was here, and aides announced that he would make sure he would be kept in the loop in the future before any decisions were taken on controversial construction.
But he also has repeatedly stated he would not freeze construction.
Asked about Margalit's claim that a freeze order was in effect, government spokesman Mark Regev replied: "Following the Biden visit and the mishap, the prime minister asked that a mechanism be put in place to prevent a recurrence of this kind of debacle."
He would not elaborate, and stopped short of saying Netanyahu had ordered a freeze.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said this mechanism explained why planning committee meetings were being delayed, because now multiple ministries had to be involved in the coordination.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the site of sacred shrines holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, in the 1967 Middle East war and immediately annexed it. Some 180,000 Israelis now live in Jewish neighborhoods built there in the past four decades, and about 2,000 more live in the heart of traditionally Arab neighborhoods.
The Palestinians, the U.S. and the rest of the international community do not recognize the annexation.
The hawkish Netanyahu, however, has said repeatedly that east Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty in any peace deal, a position the Palestinians reject. Most of the partners in his hard-line coalition have publicly opposed sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians or freezing construction in east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu huddled with members of his Likud Party on Monday and denied any freeze was in place, said Danny Danon, a lawmaker who attended the meeting.
"If we see there is a freeze, we will not sit quietly and the prime minister knows that," he said. "This coalition will not allow the prime minister to freeze building in Jerusalem."
Also Monday, Israeli troops killed a wanted Palestinian militant in a raid on a West Bank house. The man was identified by relatives as Hamas activist Ali Sweiti.
The Israeli army said Sweiti was wanted in five shooting attacks, one of which killed a paramilitary policeman in 2004. The army said he was killed after he refused calls to surrender and opened fire at soldiers.
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