U.K. police hit out at Cameron's hiring of U.S. crime guru (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – British police chiefs Sunday hit back at Prime Minister David Cameron's plans to enlist a U.S. crime expert after last week's riots, as the conservative leader vowed "zero tolerance" against street violence.

Cameron, criticized by some in his party as being too liberal on crime and punishment, has taken a tough stance after four nights of looting and arson hit cities across England.

"We haven't talked the language of zero tolerance enough, but the message is getting through," Cameron said in an interview in the Sunday Telegraph.

The prime minister, who has suggested the initial police response to the riots was too timid, has enlisted former New York, Los Angeles and Boston police chief William Bratton to advise his coalition on how to tackle street gangs, which he blamed for much of the violence.

But senior police officers, who have criticized the Conservative-led coalition's plans for police cuts, have reacted skeptically to the plan. "I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them," Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told the Independent Sunday.

"It seems to me, if you've got 400 gangs, then you're not being very effective. If you look at the style of policing in the States, and their levels of violence, they are so fundamentally different from here," said Orde, a front runner for the position of head of London's police.

Cameron has dismissed suggestions that political and economic grievances lay behind the violence which killed five people, calling it "criminality pure and simple."

More than 2,800 people have been arrested and courts have worked around the clock and during the weekend to clear a third of those cases.

Two men, aged 17 and 26, were charged late Saturday with the murder of three Muslim men knocked down in Birmingham while trying to protect their communities.

About 20,000 people were due to attend a multi-faith peace march Sunday in the central England city with the aim of keeping a lid on any potential racial tension.

PUBLIC UNHAPPY WITH RESPONSE

The riots have shocked Britons, many of whom are still asking why the mass disturbances occurred, and were allowed to spread so quickly from London to other major English cities with arsonists and looters seemingly taking over many streets with ease.

A ComRes poll for the Independent Sunday and Sunday Mirror newspapers found only 29 percent of voters thought Cameron and his government had handled the riots well, while 48 percent were dissatisfied with the response.

The mass disturbances, the worst in decades, began in Tottenham, north London, after a demonstration against the police shooting of a suspect.

Most offenders are unemployed young men, though they have included a millionaire's daughter, a charity worker, a journalism student and a soldier.

The Liberal Democrats, the junior coalition partner, have been more restrained in their comments, and its deputy leader Simon Hughes, writing in the Observer newspaper, advised against "knee-jerk solutions including over-hasty moves to change the social contract and approaches to sentences."

Planned police cuts include reducing the national police budget by 20 percent, with the loss of about 16,000 officers, as the government deals with a record budget deficit.

Theresa May, the interior minister, said the planned cuts would go ahead. She told Sky News: "I know it is possible to make cuts in police budgets without affecting their ability to do the job the public want them to do."

Finance minister George Osborne told the BBC Saturday that throwing money at the problem was not the answer, saying the country needed to tackle deep-seated social problems.

But the ComRes poll showed 70 percent of people thought the cuts should be immediately reversed.

Opinion polls during the past week have seen Britons calling for stronger police measures, including imposing curfews, being allowed to use water cannon and rubber bullets.

Cities were largely quiet Friday and Saturday after police flooded the streets again to ensure weekend drinking did not reignite the rioting.

"What became clear was that although the Met had put more officers on the streets Monday night that hadn't actually been sufficient," May told Sky News.

"The Met commissioner came forward with proposals, the prime minister and I were very clear about two things. We wanted to see a presence on the streets, we also wanted to see a tougher arrest policy, that has been followed through."

The government's police cuts have been questioned by Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson, less than year before the city hosts the Olympics.

"The general movement (of police numbers) has got to be static or at least upwards, and that is vital for policing in London," he told Sky.

(Editing by Rosalind Russell)

View the original article here

British PM regrets hiring ex-Murdoch editor (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister David Cameron made a public admission of regret over Britain's phone-hacking scandal Wednesday, saying with hindsight he would not have hired a former tabloid editor as his media chief.

As media mogul Rupert Murdoch wrapped up a turbulent visit to Britain, Cameron made a statement during a stormy emergency session of parliament defending his original decision to employ ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

But a day after cutting short a trip to Africa to confront the crisis, the under-pressure Conservative leader conceded he would not have employed Coulson had he been able to predict the furore of recent weeks.

"With 20-20 hindsight and all that has followed, I would not have offered him the job and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it," Cameron said amid jeers from opposition lawmakers.

"You live and you learn and believe you me, I have learned."

Coulson resigned as Downing Street communications director in January. He was arrested on July 8 on suspicion of phone-hacking and paying police for information, but denies any wrongdoing.

Cameron refused to cut Coulson loose, however, telling lawmakers: "I have an old-fashioned view about innocent until proven guilty but if it turns out I have been lied to that would be a moment for a profound apology."

Opposition Labour party leader Ed Miliband demanded a full apology from Cameron, accusing him of a "deliberate attempt to hide from the facts about Mr Coulson."

The scandal has so far forced Murdoch to close down the News of the World, claimed the jobs of two of his top aides, and has rocked his global News Corporation empire while also forcing two senior British policemen to resign.

Australian-born Murdoch, now a US citizen, flew out of Britain on his private jet Wednesday after an 11-day visit during which lawmakers grilled him on what he termed the "most humble day of my life".

Parliament speaker John Bercow announced an inquiry into how a protester was able to attack Murdoch with a foam filled "custard pie" at the parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, at which Murdoch's son James was also questioned.

The Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper praised his "plucky" Chinese-born wife Wendi Deng for hitting his alleged assailant, while China's huge online community hailed the "Tiger mother" for her actions.

Police on Wednesday charged Jonathan May-Bowles, 26, over the attack.

It was Cameron's turn to take the heat over the controversy on Wednesday.

He admitted that another arrested former executive from the paper, Neil Wallis, may have advised Coulson before last year's general election but said his Conservative party had not paid him.

The premier also sought to play down his friendship with Rebekah Brooks, who until last week was chief executive of News International, the mogul's British newspaper arm, amid reports the pair regularly saw each other.

"I have never held a slumber party or seen her in her pyjamas," he said, in reference to reports that former Labour premier Gordon Brown's wife Sarah hosted a get-together in 2008 for influential media women, including Brooks.

Elsewhere, Britain's royal family were dragged into the row over Coulson when a Labour lawmaker claimed senior royal staff had been "troubled" by his appointment.

Buckingham Palace described the claim as "outrageous". Downing Street called it "rubbish."

Earlier Wednesday lawmakers released a report criticising attempts by News International to "thwart" phone-hacking investigations and blasting a "catalogue of failures" by police.

The scandal first emerged in 2006 with the conviction of a former News of the World journalist and a private investigator for hacking the phones of members of the royal family.

But evidence that the practice was widespread lay untouched until the investigation was reopened in January and the row exploded this month when it emerged that the phone of a murdered teenaged girl, Milly Dowler, was also hacked.

Scotland Yard said Wednesday it was boosting the investigation team from 45 officers to 60 after a "significant increase in workload."

In the US, former British News of the World and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan demanded an apology from a lawmaker who made claims at Tuesday's hearing about him admitting to phone hacking.

Morgan, now a presenter for US television news network CNN, denied the claims by Louise Mensch that he had "boasted" of phone hacking in a book about his days as editor of the Daily Mirror. She has not responded.

View the original article here

Cameron "regrets" hiring scandal-hit tabloid editor (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron, defending his integrity to parliament in emergency session on Wednesday, said he regretted hiring a journalist at the heart of a scandal that has rocked Britain's press, police and politics.

But in hours of stormy questioning he seemed to rally his Conservative party behind him and stopped short of bowing to demands that he apologize outright for what the Labour leader called a "catastrophic error of judgment" in appointing as his spokesman a former editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World.

Only if Andy Coulson, who has since resigned, should turn out to have lied about not knowing of illegal practices at his newspaper would the prime minister offer a "profound apology."

Analysts said Cameron emerged from the debate looking stronger than when he was forced to fly home early from Africa to face lawmakers who had delayed their summer recess by a day. But he left some lingering questions unanswered, notably about his role in Murdoch's takeover bid for TV network BSkyB.

After his toughest two weeks in office, the 44-year-old premier spoke with feeling of the Coulson saga: "You live and you learn -- and believe you me, I have learnt," he said.

"It was my decision ... Of course I regret and I am extremely sorry about the furor it has caused. With 20:20 hindsight ... I would not have offered him the job."

He said of Coulson, who is under suspicion of conspiring to intercept calls and bribe police: "I have an old-fashioned view about innocent until proven guilty. But if it turns out I have been lied to, that would be a moment for a profound apology.

"And, in that event, I can tell you I will not fall short."

Beleaguered but hardly under serious threat of being ousted by his party allies after less than 15 months in power, Cameron defended his actions and those of his staff in dealings with Murdoch's News Corp global media empire and with two senior police chiefs who resigned this week over the affair.

"He seems to have gained a bit of breathing space over the course of this debate," said Andrew Russell, senior politics lecturer at Manchester University. "He looked more self assured today than he has been for a little while."

Conservative member of parliament George Eustice spoke for a party relieved by the leader's performance: "Cameron did really well. He's got back on the front foot and taken the initiative."

He added: "The idea that his position as prime minister was in doubt was a complete nonsense."

LABOUR ATTACK

Labour's Ed Miliband, whose muted first year as opposition leader has been fired up by attacking Cameron on the scandal, has not gone so far as to demand Cameron's resignation.

But he asked during the debate: "Why doesn't he do more than give a half-apology and provide the full apology now for hiring Mr Coulson and bringing him into the heart of Downing Street?"

Opposition members of parliament questioned the credibility of Cameron's defense that Coulson had assured him when being hired in 2007 that, as editor of the News of the World, he knew nothing of the hacking of voicemails which led to the paper's royal correspondent and an investigator being jailed.

Coulson left Cameron's office in January just before police reopened an investigation in which Coulson and his predecessor as editor, Rebekah Brooks, have been arrested and bailed.

Labour lawmakers also questioned Cameron about contacts with Murdoch and his staff, including his friendship with Brooks, who resigned as head of British newspaper unit News International.

The prime minister repeatedly deflected questions on what he may have discussed with News Corp about its $12-billion bid to buy out other shareholders in BSkyB. He insisted he had "no inappropriate" conversations and played no role in a government decision to let the bid proceed in the face of protests it would give Murdoch too great a share of media ownership in Britain.

Last week, as scandal engulfed News International, Cameron joined Labour in calling for News Corp to drop it. It did.

While he has derided suggestions from some on the left that backing the BSkyB bid might have been a payback for Murdoch's papers switching from supporting Labour to promoting Cameron at the 2010 election, Cameron told parliament it may make sense to "further remove politicians" from decisions about media mergers.

Tim Bale, politics professor at Sussex University, said Cameron had sounded evasive on the subject and could face a drip-feed of criticism from the scandal for a long time: "There was a very strong sense of him searching for a form of words that would not get him into trouble. The Commons picked up on that and there will be more questions to answer in that regard."

Before the debate, a poll by Reuters/Ipsos MORI showed Britons' satisfaction with Cameron had fallen to its lowest level since he entered office in May last year. Only 38 percent were happy with the way he was doing his job.

But Helen Cleary of Ipsos MORI cautioned: "We know from other scandals that public opinion tends to bounce back."

And she added: "Even now, after Ed Miliband's boost from the scandal, Cameron is ahead ... on personal satisfaction ratings."

Cameron tried during the debate to move the political agenda away from the scandal, saying voters wanted him to concentrate on handling an economic crisis and other pressing matters.

Bale said: "It's going to be very difficult to draw a line under it permanently. But stressing the need to ... start talking about some of the very serious issues on the economy that are going on makes intuitive sense to a lot of people."

CAMERON ATTACKS

As the rowdy session in the House of Commons continued, he also landed blows of his own by pointing out the close relations Miliband's predecessors, Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, had maintained with Murdoch, who has been courted and feared by British leaders for four decades.

Referring to Brooks's reported attendance at a gathering hosted by Brown's wife at the prime minister's official country residence in 2008, Cameron taunted the Labour benches: "I've never held a slumber party or seen her in her pajamas."

He referred repeatedly to controversial former journalists hired by Labour and to another former News International reporter, from the Times, who is now a senior aide to Miliband.

A day after Murdoch apologized to a parliamentary committee but denied personal responsibility for the affair, Cameron gave details of a judicial inquiry he has ordered into the scandal and wider issues it has raised over relationships among Britain's media, police and political establishment.

The smoldering scandal exploded in the public consciousness on July 4, when the family of a schoolgirl abducted and murdered in 2002 said police had told them they believed someone from the paper had hacked in to the teenager's voicemail, misleading detectives looking for her and giving her parents false hope.

Police say 60 officers are probing the hacking of messages of possibly 4,000 people, not just the rich, famous or powerful, but crime victims and families of soldiers killed in action.

Many of the leads come from the notes of Glenn Mulcaire, an investigator jailed with the News of the World reporter in 2007.

The 80-year-old Murdoch, who was attacked by a protester with a foam pie during Tuesday's committee hearing, sent a message to his staff that his company was taking steps to ensure that "serious problems never happen again." [ID:nL6E7IK092]

"Those who have betrayed our trust must be held accountable under the law," he said in an e-mail sent late on Tuesday.

An ethics board which Murdoch set up this week said it had now ended continuing payments for legal costs to Mulcaire -- payments questioned by the parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Cameron's Media Minister Jeremy Hunt said News International still needed to explain how malpractice happened without Murdoch or his son James, now News International chairman, being told. They shut down the 168-year-old News of the World this month.

Shares in News Corp gained 0.7 percent in New York, adding to Tuesday's 5.5 percent rise. Some investors speculate the scandal may hasten a handover of power in the company from the Murdoch family in a way that may streamline global operations.

In Murdoch's native Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the local arm of News Corp would face "hard questions" after the phone-hacking in Britain.

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle, Kate Holton, Mohammed Abbas, Paul Hoskins, Peter Griffiths, Olesya Dmitracova, Georgina Prodhan and Stephen Mangan; Writing by Alastair Macdonald)

View the original article here

Unemployment rose to 9.2 percent as hiring stalls (AP)

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer – 41?mins?ago

WASHINGTON – Hiring slowed to a near-standstill last month, raising doubts that the economy will rebound in the second half of the year after a spring slump.

The economy generated only 18,000 net jobs in June, the fewest in nine months. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest rate of the year, the Labor Department said Friday.

Stocks plunged after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 120 points in midday trading. Broader indexes also declined.

"June's employment report doesn't have a single redeeming feature," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics. "It's awful from start to finish."

Two years after the recession officially ended, companies are adding fewer workers despite record cash stockpiles and healthy profit margins.

Businesses added just 57,000 jobs last month_ the fewest in more than a year. Governments cut 39,000 jobs. Over the past eight months, federal, state and local governments have cut a combined 238,000 positions.

It was the second straight month of feeble job growth. The number of jobs added in May was downwardly revised to 25,000.

Companies have pulled back on hiring after adding an average of 215,000 jobs per month from February through April. The economy typically needs to add 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth. And at least twice that many jobs are needed to bring down the unemployment rate.

"Our economy as a whole just isn't producing nearly enough jobs for everybody who is looking," said President Barack Obama, during a speech in the Rose Garden.

Obama used the dismal job data to press Congress to raise the government's borrowing limit. He also said Congress could help the economy by passing three free trade agreements, approving government projects that would create jobs for construction workers, and extending a payroll tax cut.

But Republicans have said they will not support an increase in the $14.3 trillion borrowing limit without an equal cut in spending. They also oppose raising taxes as part of any deal. If the limit isn't raised by Aug. 2, the nation will default on its debts, the Treasury Department says.

"These numbers serve as a warning that as we address the debt limit increase we shouldn't do so in a way that raises taxes and impedes the ability of small businesses to create jobs," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia.

Economists have said that temporary factors, in part, have forced some employers to scale back hiring plans. High gas prices have cut into consumer spending, which fuels 70 percent of economic activity. And supply-chain disruptions stemming from the Japan crisis have slowed U.S. manufacturing production.

In June, hiring was weak in most sectors: Manufacturers added only 6,000 jobs; Education and health care, which added jobs through the recession, was flat; and professional and business services, which include accounting, legal and engineering jobs, grew by only 12,000.

Construction and financial services cut jobs.

The sluggish economy and anemic hiring is causing more people to simply give up looking for work. More than a quarter-million people stopped their job searches in June. That kept the unemployment rate from rising even further. When laid-off workers stop looking for work, they are no longer counted as unemployed.

Including discouraged workers and those working part time, but who would prefer full-time work, the "under-employment" rate jumped from 15.8 percent to 16.2 percent.

Unemployment has topped 8 percent for 29 months, the longest streak since the 1930s. It has never been so high so long after a recession ended. At the same point after the previous three recessions, unemployment averaged just 6.8 percent.

And those who do have jobs are earning less. Average hourly wages declined last month. After-tax incomes, adjusted for inflation, have been flat this year.

The average work week declined to 34.3 hours, from 34.4, which means employers demanded less work from their existing staffs. Usually companies demand more hours from their existing staffs when they are preparing to hire more workers.

Temporary employment fell 12,000. Businesses generally hire more temporary workers before taking on permanent ones.

The number of unemployed workers rose almost 175,000 to 14.1 million, pushing up the unemployment rate.

There are signs that economy could improve in the second half of the year. Gas prices have come down since peaking in early May at a national average of nearly $4 per gallon. Prices averaged $3.59 a gallon nationwide on Friday, according to AAA.

And manufacturing activity expanded in June at a faster pace than the previous month, according to the Institute for Supply Management. That suggests the parts shortage caused by the March 11 earthquake in Japan is beginning to abate.

More jobs are needed to boost incomes and consumer spending, which fuels 70 percent of the economy. Without more hiring, the economy may not be able to accelerate from its current weak pace of growth.

The government said last month that the economy grew only 1.9 percent in the January-March quarter. Analysts are expecting similarly weak growth in April-June quarter.

The economy is expected to grow at a 3.2 percent pace in final six months of the year, according to an Associated Press survey of 38 economists. But the latest report could prompt some economists to revise their forecasts.

Growth must be stronger to significantly lower the unemployment rate. The economy would need to grow 5 percent for a whole year to significantly bring down the unemployment rate. Economic growth of just 3 percent a year would hold the unemployment steady and keep up with population growth.

View the original article here

Private hiring jumps, sparking recovery hopes (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Companies hired four times more workers in June than in May, strengthening views the economy was starting to escape the doldrums of the first half of the year.

A drop in the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits last week also offered hope for the labor market, although they remain too high to signal robust growth.

Payrolls processor ADP said on Thursday private sector employment increased 157,000 after a modest 36,000 gain in May, a rise more than double economists' expectations.

With gasoline prices falling, automakers cranking up production and the decline in house values moderating, the dark clouds over the U.S. economy are starting to lift.

The jump in private employment was the latest indication the economy was pulling out of its first-half slump, a view bolstered by better-than-expected June sales at retailers, but analysts still see only a modest recovery ahead.

"It adds to the sense of relief that much of the slowdown that the economy endured during the first half of the year was due to temporary factors and there is not much threat of a double-dip (recession)," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The employment gain, which reflected increases in manufacturing and services jobs, prompted several Wall Street banks to raise their forecasts for the government's closely watched nonfarm payrolls count for June due on Friday.

A Reuters survey conducted last week found that economists were looking for an increase of 90,000 nonfarm jobs after May's meager 54,000 gain. But economists now believe employment probably rose anywhere between 125,000 and 175,000.

"ADP has underpredicted the monthly jobs report by 45,000 on average the last four months ... but ADP estimates have won new credibility after their forecast hit May's weak jobs number correctly," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.

JOB GAINS ACROSS THE BOARD

Gains in private hiring last month were largely across the board, although construction and financial services' payrolls shrank. Small businesses, those with less than 50 employees, accounted for most of the hiring, adding 88,000 jobs. Large companies added only 10,000 workers in June, according to ADP.

"While it is just one month's number, it suggests that maybe what happened was a pause in the economic expansion and as we head into the summer months we're going to pick up some momentum," said Joel Prakken, chairman at Macroeconomic Advisers, which produces the report jointly with ADP.

Economic activity in the first six months of the year was curbed by rising commodity prices and supply chain disruptions following Japan's devastating earthquake in March.

With these factors starting to ease, economists expect both growth and employment to rise in the third quarter.

That is starting to show in initial claims for state unemployment benefits, which dropped 14,000 to 418,000 last week. A shortage of parts from Japan forced some auto makers to bring forward their annual retooling shutdowns from July, keeping initial claims elevated.

Still, claims remained above the 400,000 level that is usually associated with a stable labor market for a 13th straight week. Economists expect them to decline considerably in the weeks ahead as auto assembly plants reopen.

"Output and employment are likely to get a little bit of a lift in the third quarter from a rebound in automobile assemblies and a rebound in inventories that would probably carry through most of the second half of the year," said Wells Fargo Securities' Vitner.

Signs of a turnaround in the economy's fortunes were also offered by several U.S. retailers who reported better-than-expected sales gains in June as they lured shoppers with discounts without undercutting revenue.

Macy's Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp, Target Corp and Gap Inc all beat Wall Street estimates.

(Additional reporting by Leah Schnurr in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

View the original article here