Tunisia elections winner: 'We're hardly the Freemasons, we're a modern party'

Sitting on a plush sofa in his vast office, flanked by the flags of Tunisia and his Islamist party, Rachid Ghannouchi, known by followers as the Sheikh, is avuncular and professorial.

An unremarkable-looking man of 70 with silvery hair, wearing an ordinary grey suit, an open-necked white shirt and with a shy, toothy smile, he is an astute politician with a formidable party machine. Months after he returned from 22 years of exile in the UK, the victory of Ghannouchi's An-Nahda party in Tunisia's first free elections is a political earthquake in the midst of the Arab spring.

Ten months ago Tunisians took to the streets in a revolution that had no leader, was non-political, non-ideological and non-religious, ousting the dictator Ben Ali and inspiring similar uprisings across the region. Now Ghannouchi's brand of moderate Islamism has taken around 40% of the vote in what he calls "the first free and fair elections in the Arab world".

It is the first Islamist election success in the region since Hamas won a Palestinian vote in 2006. Nahda (Renaissance) has defined itself as "a new model for the world": Islamist and pro-democracy, modern, open and consensual, an antidote to the western notion of a clash of civilisations.

The party accepts it must now tread a fine line to navigate Tunisian society. The small Maghreb country has a long secular tradition, a strong civil society, a relaxed attitude to religion and the most advanced women's rights in the Arab world. If 40% of voters chose Islamists, 60% voted for parties which were secular or preferred to keep religion in the private sphere.

Brutally oppressed, exiled, imprisoned and tortured under Ben Ali, Nahda owes part of its election success to its standing as a party which struggled for decades against the old regime. "It is an extraordinary moment. In less than a year, An-Nahda has gone from an underground movement in exile that didn't exist on the ground in Tunisia, to a legal party and now, we can suppose, to the centre of a government team that will have to respond to socioeconomic demands," said Malika Zeghal, a Tunisian professor of Islamic thought at Harvard University.

"It will be quite a test. They have to show they can be pragmatic and that they can respond to the opposition coming from more secular segments of society. We haven't seen anything public coming out yet but there are cleavages between the Nahda leadership and the base. I think the base is sometimes more radical than the leadership would seem to be. One of the challenges of the party will be to manage that difference."

After full results are released Nahda will set about forming a coalition government with centrist secularists. Tunisia's new assembly has one main task: to rewrite the constitution and set a date for parliamentary elections in a year's time.

All parties agree on cleaning up Tunisia's notoriously repressive police and its crooked justice system which kept the dictatorship afloat. All, including Nahda, agree to maintain the constitution's current definition of Tunisia as a Muslim country, not an Islamic republic. Instead, the party pushes its own mix of liberal economics and religious social conservatism, with an emphasis on the family; what Ghannouchi calls "a democratic society built on Islamic values".

In a country which for 50 years was ruled by a personality cult, with giant awnings of the leader's face hanging from public buildings, Nahda argues the presidential system should be abolished completely. It wants a parliamentary system broadly along the lines of the UK but without a second chamber. Ghannouchi says he is not interested in personal power or the presidency. "We don't want to see another dictator come through the presidential system – that's the gate by which despotism arrived."

He says the police, still accused of torture post-revolution, should be overhauled "to serve the people, not the ruler, whether secularist or Islamist.

"Because you know a dictator can wear a turban just as they can wear a hat or any other symbol."

The key issue in the next few days is what jobs the Islamists take in a coalition government. There will likely be an Islamist prime minister, with a secular, centrist interim president. But the new government will inherit a depressed economy, struggling tourism sector, regional inequality between the coast and poor rural interior and crippling unemployment – a root cause of the revolution. It is officially at 19% but thought to be much higher, and over 40% for female graduates.

Nahda has promised 590,000 new jobs over five years and to cut unemployment to 8.5%. Ghannouchi said: "Economically we want a model like Sweden, a social model [and] welfare state, while encouraging entrepreneurs."

On family values, Nahda has promised not to touch the Tunisian legal code which made it the only country in the Arab world to outlaw polygamy, mandated women's approval to get married and set limits on a man's power to divorce. But Ghannouchi wants to promote the importance of marriage and lower the divorce rate.

"There was a process of dismantling and fragmenting society under despotism, the family was crushed," he said. "We have the third highest divorce rate in the Arab world. There's a societal problem, which we want to address and not brush over."

Ghannouchi calls Nahda a "broad umbrella party" of Islamists. The question is how broad and whether the centre ground will hold. Nahda likens itself to Turkey's socially conservative, Islamist-rooted Justice and Development party. However, the party of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the product of 40 years of evolution, several military coups and a split from more fundamentalist parties.

Some candidates who opposed Nahda said they saw a "double discourse" between party line and more radical rank and file. Lilia Alouni, a secondary school philosophy teacher in Kairouan who ran on a secular list that did not get elected, said: "As a democrat I respect the results. Nahda had a close contact with the electorate on the ground and their discourse clearly reassured voters. But in the rural villages, I found there was a certain difference between the moderate discourse of the party's leaders and more conservative party activists on the ground."

Ghannouchi said any "counter currents" in his party were in a minority. Asked if his party was an unknown quantity, he cited decades of opposition struggle: "We're hardly the Freemasons," he said. "We're not a Sufi sect. We are a modern party."

Because of the 50:50 parity rules on men and women on lists, Nahda will see a number of female candidates win seats.

Amira Yayhaoui, a blogger and rights activist who ran as an independent candidate said: "The party must make sure all those women do take their seats. Tunisia's laws on family and women are very good compared to other Arab countries, but we really need to progress in terms of universal women's rights. One worry about Nahda is that although they're unlikely to roll back women's rights, will they just stick with the status quo and not improve things?"

Ghannouchi said: "We want to strengthen women's rights, on workplace harassment, domestic violence, and better childcare so women can continue their careers."

The party's formidable media operation makes others look amateurish. Journalists interviewing Ghannouchi and even smaller figures in party have been surprised to be filmed by a party worker "to make sure your quotes are correct".

'He proposed after six months but silly me said we had plenty of time': Divorcee, 53, in bid to save her Turkish toyboy from deportation after he outstayed his visa

A divorcee has launched a one woman crusade to stop her Turkish toyboy being deported - despite him staying in Britain illegally.
Julie Haycocks, 53, was devastated when her 19-year-old partner Cihat Haciveliogullari, known locally as Alex, was snatched from his workplace six weeks ago.
The kebab shop worker, from Shropshire, is currently being held at the Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in Scotland after his permission to stay in the country expired.

Julie, who lives in a semi-detached cottage with her teenage lover, is now campaigning to keep him in the country.
She said: 'When I got divorced I thought I would never meet anyone nice again. But then Alex came and I have never been happier.'
Julie claims it was love at first sight when the couple met at the Tesco where she was working on the checkouts three years ago.

She said: 'He was only 17 but we had a lot in common and we hit is off immediately.
'We spent all our time together and it was only three months before he moved in. He proposed after six months but silly me told him that we had plenty of time.
'If I only knew what was going to happen I would have said yes. We were due to get married this Christmas but that is all going to have to wait now.'

The self-employed dog walker already has three grown up children Richard, 30, William, 28, and Eddie, 26, but admitted trying for a baby with Alex.
She said: 'Alex loves children and we both love babies. Unfortunately when we started trying I went to the doctor and the nurse laughed and said "you might look young Julie but I'm afraid it's too late for all that".
'Luckily caring Alex said he didn't mind and that he didn't get with me to have children, he loved me for me.
'We are the odd couple of the village because there is a big age gap, but I like younger people and he prefers older so we are perfect for each other.'
Julie has started a petition called 'Right to Remain for Alex' on Facebook and is in constant contact with him while he awaits his fate.
His case has now been referred to the immigration team in the West Midlands who will decide his fate in the next four weeks.
Alex, who works for his uncle in Five Star Kebab House, in Whitchurch, said: 'My family were always very judgmental about mine and Julie's relationship, but I knew that our love was very real.
'We argued about it a lot but the bottom line is that we were meant to be together and I don't want anyone my own age.'

Revealed: how NHS cuts are really affecting the young, old and infirm

Birth centres are closing, patients are being denied pain-relieving drugs and leaflets advising parents how to prevent cot death have been scrapped because of NHS cuts which are increasingly restricting services to patients, evidence gathered by the Guardian reveals.

The NHS's ￡20bn savings drive also means new mothers receive fewer visits from health visitors, support for problem drinkers is being reduced and families are no longer being given an NHS advice book on bringing up their baby.

People with diabetes and leg ulcers are seeing less of the district nurses who help them manage their condition; specialists delivering psychological therapies are under threat and a growing number of hospitals are reducing the number of nurses and midwives to balance their books.

The disclosure that the savings drive is affecting so many different areas of NHS care has prompted claims that pledges by the prime minister and the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, that the frontline would be protected despite the NHS's tightening financial squeeze cannot be trusted. One of David Cameron's election pledges was: "I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS."

Inquiries by the Guardian into the impact of the quest to deliver ￡20bn of "efficiency savings" in the NHS in England by 2015 also shows that walk-in centres are closing and anti-obesity programmes are being scaled back and hospitals reducing the number of nurses and midwives they employ, despite rising demand for healthcare and an ongoing baby boom.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "Andrew Lansley promised the NHS cuts to save the ￡20bn would be in bureaucracy and waste and would not come at the expense of the frontline. But the evidence we are getting on a daily basis is that the impact is on the patient and frontline services."

"Ministerial promises aren't being kept. We are getting the complete opposite of what we were promised. We were promised no cuts to frontline services and no impact on the patient's journey. Instead we are getting cuts in many, many services and the impact on the patient is huge."

Patients denied painkillers such as co-codamol and tramadol and the sleeping tablet diazepam have contacted the association recently to complain that prescriptions have suddenly been withdrawn.

One of the NHS's 10 regional strategic health authorities has banned primary care trusts (PCTs) in its area from prescribing patients a range of painkillers on cost grounds, Murphy added. Patients on oxygen due to breathing problems have seen visits from district nurses reduced, while other patients have been denied cataract, bariatric or hernia operations, she added.

Children's health experts are dismayed that parents will no longer automatically receive Birth to Five, a longstanding guide to issues such as feeding and immunisation, because the Department of Health has decided to make it an online-only publication as part of a DH purge on health promotion material. Dr David Elliman, a spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "If Birth to Five is no longer to be available to mothers in print, only on the internet, this is bad news. I am particularly concerned that those who profit from it most will be least likely to use it. This is a false economy and is likely to increase inequalities. We would urge DH to think again."

The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths also warned that switching Reduce the Risk – a leaflet that gives parents advice on avoiding cot death – to an online-only format would deprive parents, especially those from low income and disadvantaged backgrounds, of potentially vital guidance, as many are unlikely to download it. Research credits the leaflet with helping to avoid 19,000 cot deaths since it was first published in 1991.

Jacque Gerrard, director for England at the Royal College of Midwives, said shutting birth centres such as the Jubilee, in Hull, and Heatherwood, in Ascot, where midwives rather than doctors supervise women's care, would deny mothers-to-be their right to choice of place of birth. At least six more reconfigurations of maternity services, which could result in further closures, are being discussed by the NHS.

Campaigners for sick babies have warned that a reduction in the number of nurses at a third of neonatal units in English hospitals could result in deaths. "The lives of England's sickest babies are at risk by needless cuts to the neonatal nursing workforce," said Andy Cole, the chief executive of the baby charity Bliss.

Bliss used freedom of information laws to investigate staffing levels in neonatal units. Despite the charity identifying a shortfall of 1,150 nurses in those units last year, some 140 posts have been lost since then through redundancies, recruitment freezes and redefining some staff roles. One in five units also said that they intend to reduce their total of neonatal nurses in the next 12 months.

Ipswich hospital confimed that it plans to shed 250 staff as part of a drive to reduce its 3,800-strong full and part-time workforce in order to help it confront "a serious and urgent financial challenge" and make ￡16m of efficiency savings during this financial year. Those being made redundant by the end of the year include both clinical staff and non-medical support staff. It is shrinking its workforce despite emergency and elective care admissions having risen in the last three years.

The cash squeeze affecting the hospital is so acute that it has no plans to replace a specialist nurse who retired last week who helped about 50 patients suffering from multiple sclerosis manage their conditions. "The MS nurse specialist post is under review. We do however have a serious and urgent financial challenge to face and are going through a period of consultation on a number of posts," said a hospital spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman said the ￡16m target was the result of NHS organisations in England having to make 4% efficiency savings this year towards the ￡20bn goal and the service's Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP), which also wants healthcare providers to become more efficient in order to free up resources to cope with the demands of an increasingly elderly population.

Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison, the union representing 400,000 NHS staff including nurses and paramedics, said the emerging cuts were "a shocking indictment" of the government. The public will not be fooled by David Cameron's hollow words ever again.

"Just over a year in office, and the damage to the NHS is clear to see: birth centres closing, patients left in pain, public health programmes dwindling, district nurse visits being cut, health workers losing their jobs. Waiting lists are rising, and the health bill no-one wants will change our health service beyond recognition, throwing the doors open to privatisation on a never before seen scale," she said.

Janet Davies, director of nursing at the Royal College of Nursing, warned that cuts made in the next three years may be more painful for staff and patients than those in this financial year. "While the cuts we are currently seeing are fairly worrying, we have even more concern about the future, because the task to cut costs and make savings will only get harder. Some trusts have managed to make savings this year in a sensible way that hasn't directly affected patient care. But next year the increased pressure, because the NHS has to make three more years of savings for the three years after this, it's harder to identify where innovation and reduction in waste can make savings.

Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, said hospitals and PCTs should not be using the ￡20bn efficiency drive to cut services to patients. "There is no need for NHS organisations to cut services that their local population requires. The NHS will receive an extra ￡12.5bn over the next four years and in future we want it to focus more on designing services around patients.

"Even with this significant increase in funding, the growing pressures of an ageing population and the rising costs of drugs and other treatments means that the NHS still needs to save up to ￡20bn by 2015. This is not about cuts – it is about becoming more efficient, so that even more money can be spent on providing high quality care for patients, not less.

"We are clear that there should be no blanket bans for treatments, that the NHS must be sensitive to individual circumstances and have systems in place for exceptional cases so individuals can get the most appropriate treatment for them."

5 children from group home, sheriff's deputy die after van collides with truck in Colorado

KIT CARSON, Colo. (AP) — A van driven by a sheriff's deputy who ran a group home for adopted and foster children collided with an empty cattle trailer on Thursday in a highway construction zone, killing him and five children and injuring seven other children.

Howard Mitchell, 57, was taking 12 of the children from the home in Kit Carson to Eads at the time of the crash around 7:30 a.m., troopers said. The school district in Eads, about 15 miles away, said on its website that the Mitchell family had close ties to the community of about 600 people.
The children who died ranged in age from 4 to 17 and lived in the home for adopted and foster children, said Kiowa County Sheriff's office spokesman Chris Sorensen. Seven other children in the van were hospitalized. The truck driver, of Cheyenne, Wyo., was treated at a hospital and released.

A photo provided by the State Patrol showed the front of the van crumpled into the rear of a large livestock trailer. There was about 26 feet of skid marks on the patch of U.S. 287 leading to the collision, Trooper T.A. Ortiz said.

The accident happened on a stretch of highway south of Kit Carson that has been under repair for the past month. One lane was closed, and the collision occurred at the back of a line of traffic about 1,000 feet long, said Stacey Stegman, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Sorensen said the normal speed limit on the highway is 65 miles per hour, but speeds were reduced because of the construction zone. Meteorologists said weather conditions in the area at the time were clear, no wind and temperatures in the low 30s.

In Kit Carson, where Mitchell ran the Mitchell House Children's Home, neighbors said they were devastated.

The family are "good people with good hearts," said Annette Weber, manager of the Trading Post restaurant next door to the group home.

Mitchell, a Cheyenne County sheriff's deputy, was a quiet man who spoke little but was respected by the children in his care, Weber said. "He just had a way with kids," she said.

Some of the children from the home worked at the restaurant, she added. "They always came to work, and they always did a good job and they were always more than happy to help us," Weber said.

Kay Piskorski, mother of the Trading Post's owner, said some of the children would come to the restaurant to buy pie for Mitchell and his wife.

"Good kids, all of them," she said. "Things aren't going to be the same. We're going to miss them. It's unbelievable."

Sorensen identified the children who died as Austyn Ackinson, 11; Tony Mitchell; Tayla Mitchell, 10; Andy Dawson, 13, and Jeremy Franks, 17. Weber said Mitchell had adopted Tony and Tayla. Tony Mitchell was in the fourth grade, Superintendent Glenn Smith said.

Smith described Tony and Tayla as "absolutely full of energy," and Andy was a dynamic kid who loved to play sports. Jeremy was ornery but respectful. In September, after a football team member lost his mother, Jeremy came up with the idea to make a card from the community, Smith said.

The ages of the hospitalized children were 3, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 17, officials said. The 14-year-old, who suffered minor injuries, was the only one in the van wearing a seat belt, although the 3-year-old was properly restrained in a child seat, troopers said.

Kit Carson is about 130 miles southeast of Denver. U.S. 287, a mostly two-lane highway, cuts across the sparsely populated eastern plains of Colorado and is popular with truckers on north-south trips through the state.

In Cheyenne Wells, people left flowers and photos at a makeshift memorial near the fire station.

___

Associated Press writers Steven K. Paulson and Dan Elliott and freelance photographer Will Powers contributed to this report.

'We may need to print even MORE money', Bank of England economist warns just days after ￡75billion cashflow is sanctioned

One of the Bank of England’s leading economists has warned it may need to print even more money to bolster the sickly economy.
In a sign of growing fears over a double-dip recession, Dr Martin Weale signalled that it will step up its money-printing scheme if growth does not pick up soon.
The warning came before the Bank has even begun distributing the extra ￡75billion it set aside for its quantitative easing (QE) programme just days ago.
Today two new reports on Britain’s economic prospects make grim reading for ministers - predicting that growth could go into reverse next year  as confidence levels in plunged to two-year lows.
In addition, Dr Weale’s comments came as the country braces itself for the worst labour market figures since the depths of the recession of the early 1990s.
Economists predict official data released on Wednesday will show unemployment rose by 90,000 to 2.54million in the three months to August, pushing the jobless rate up to eight per cent.  That is the worst figure for 17 years.
But Dr Weale, a member of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee, yesterday admitted there was ‘quite a lot of scope’ for QE to be expanded.
That is despite the view of some experts who believe another injection of new money will spell bad news for savers as it could drive down long-term interest rates and boost inflation.
Annuity rates on new pensions are already falling and the cost of living is likely to rise yet again - putting even more pressure on household bills.
Dr Weale said: ‘Obviously there is uncertainty about the exact impact and equally we don’t know whether the impact in the future will be similar to what we think it was in the past.’
‘I have not heard anyone suggesting that quantitative easing actually inhibits the growth of the economy, that it fails to provide support.’
QE was an ‘appropriate response to a weakening economic prospect’ he added.
Britain’s central bank this week increased its QE scheme from ￡200 billion to ￡275 billion in a bid to flood the financial system, boost lending to firms and households and revitalise the economy.
It was the most dramatic signal yet that the plummeting confidence and the euro-zone debt crisis have left Britain on the edge of a precipice.
But Dr Weale told Sky News that printing new money would not increase inflation without also providing a much-needed boost to the economy.
Tackling runaway inflation through interest rate rises was not an option the Bank was prepared to take as it would inflict too much damage on the economy, he suggested.
To reduce inflation from its present levels of 4.5 per cent to the two per cent target rate in the immediate term would require a ‘very tight squeeze on the economy’, he said.
‘It haven’t heard anyone thinking that that’s a good idea,’ said Dr Weale.
Dr Weale , who voted for a rate rise earlier this year, said the Bank was priming the printing presses because there had been a ‘sharp deterioration in Britain’s economic prospects’ over the summer.
A recent study showed that the earlier round of QE in 2009 had added between 1.5 to two per cent to national output while lifting inflation by 0.75 to 1.25 percentage points.
In a survey of 11,000 firms published today, accountancy firm BDO said the economy could shrink in the first three months of next year after confidence levels in plunged to two-year lows.
Neither manufacturing nor the powerhouse services sector, which makes up more than fourth fifths of the economy, can be ‘relied upon to lead the recovery’, it said.
As gloom descends on boardrooms, firms will have no choice but to cut staff and put expansion plans on ice, a separate survey by auditing giant Deloitte warned.
Finance chiefs at big firms are more pessimistic than they’ve been in two and a half years because of the mounting fears over the global economy, according to Deloitte.
As a result they are clamping down on costs, with ‘expectations of a revival in corporate capital spending and hiring fading,’ it said.
Margaret Ewing, a senior partner at Deloitte, said growing uncertainties and weaker economic growth was forcing executives to pull expansion plans and cut staff.
They were ‘responding with a renewed focus on cost control’, meaning that the prospect of a ‘revival in corporate capital spending and hiring are fading’, she predicted.

Four arrested in Amish-on-Amish religious attacks sparked by internal feud in Ohio community

Authorities have made four arrests in a string of Amish-on-Amish violence that has ravaged an Ohio community.
WKYC-TV reported that Levi Miller, Johnny Mullet and Lester Mullet were rounded up Friday for the alleged role in crimes by 'The Bergholz Clan.'
The group was allegedly part of a breakaway sect driving to homes and attacking fellow Amish with scissors, cutting off the men’s beards and the women's hair - which is seen as degrading in Amish culture.
A fourth suspect was also arrested, but was not immediately identified, according to Fox8.com.
The victims, which included children as young as 13, were targeted by as many as 27 members of the gang.
Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said more arrests will take place over the coming days.
The attacks occurred over the past month in the heart of Ohio's Amish population, one of the largest in the United States.
Farmer’s wife Arlene Miller told how her husband Myron was dragged out of their bed by his beard, taken outside and assaulted.
She said: ‘The guys came up and surrounded him and cut off a chunk of his beard. They were unable to get any more because he struggled so hard against them.
'The [attackers] say this is to uncover sins, and it’s to straighten us out.’
A 57-year-old woman said her sons and a son-in-law who had joined the rival group and are involved in a cult attacked her and her husband.
After chopping off her husband’s whiskers, they shaved her head.
'They did this to me,’ she said, taking off a bandana to show her baldness.
Sheriff Abdalla described another savage attack in an interview with Fox8.com.
'In Holmes County, the bishop was supposed to perform a wedding yesterday for his son, and because they had cut his beard off, he refused to do it. He's scared to even come out of the house.'
Traditionally, the Amish settle their differences peaceably and do not co-operate with police, but the Millers have pressed charges.
'This is not a religious fight,' Mrs Miller said. 'We believe we're in danger. They're like hate crimes. They’re terrorising people and communities.'
The Bergholz group has built a village in a picturesque valley near the Ohio River where about 16 families, who dress in their religion’s Victorian-style costumes, are raising a large number of children.
They are educated in a small schoolhouse and help their parents farm the land and maintain the traditional carriages and horses they travel in.
Mrs Miller claimed that the break-away group’s leader, Bishop Sam Mullet, was using cult-like practices, including sleep-deprivation and brain-washing, to keep his followers loyal.
'They totally separate themselves,' she said.
An Amish man who knows members of The Bergholz Clan said the attacks were motivated by religious fanaticism.
He said that members of the group had shaved off their own beards and hair 'under the impression that would cleanse them before God.'
He added: 'They long ago moved from being a church to a cult.'
Mullet, who's also the father of two of the suspects, denied being directly involved in the beard and hair attacks.
But he said he gave some of the young men he knew may have been involved  'a talking to.'
He admitted, however, that he had fallen out with the victims, saying they had been 'excommunicated' for being insufficiently principled.
He added that since the attacks had been motivated by ‘religion’, the police had no right to intervene.
It’s all religion,’ he said. 'We can’t understand why the sheriff has his nose in our business, but that seems to be what they did here.'
Mullet admitted the incidents stemmed from doctrinal differences.
'It started with us excommunicating members that weren’t listening or obeying our laws,' he said.
Sheriff Abdalla said the investigation had been hampered by the traditional reluctance of Amish to turn to law enforcement.
He said; 'You see this crime being committed, and I'm sitting here with my hands tied. I can't do a thing.'
The Amish often shun modern conveniences as matter of spiritual principle.
Donald Kraybill, a professor at Elizabethtown College and an expert on Amish life, said: ‘It's common practice for married Amish to have beards, and likewise, women do not cut their hair based on biblical teaching.'
He added that Amish-on-Amish violence 'is extremely rare.'
The suspects have been charged with kidnapping and burglary in one of the four attacks.
They are being held on $250,000 bond each.
Known for their plain dress and distrust of modern technology, the Amish are a Protestant sect created by a religious schism in Switzerland in the late 17th Century.
They have their own schools, and adherents are required to marry within the faith.
They value manual labour, ride around in horse-drawn carts and are largely isolated from the communities around them - an aspect of life that was vividly portrayed in the 1985 Harrison Ford film Witness, about a young Amish boy who is the sole witness to a murder.
 our-arrested-Amish-Amish-religious-attacks-renegade-cult-Ohio-community.html#ixzz1aGK0MCOT

Suzi Schmidt to stay in office, seek re-election

State Sen. Suzi Schmidt announced Wednesday that she will stay in office and seek re-election next year, despite recent controversy over her 911 call requesting special treatment during a marital dispute.

"I believe I can and will continue to serve the citizens of Lake County with the same dedication and energy I've had for the past 25 years, and the issues in my personal life will not prohibit me from doing the job they elected me to do," she said.

Schmidt, a Republican, again apologized for her "lapse in judgment," asked for her constituents' forgiveness and said she has begun counseling "to help in resolving the issues in my personal life." Her husband, Robert Schmidt, has filed for divorce.

Last Christmas, Schmidt called 911 during a marital spat, identified herself as the former county board chairman and told dispatchers to "ignore" her husband if he called, according to tapes of the call released last week. Schmidt also told the dispatcher her husband feared her because of her "connections."

The tapes' release followed reports of two other domestic disturbances between the Schmidts that resulted in police intervention.

In an August episode, Schmidt told authorities that his wife rammed his car with hers, according to police reports. On Sept. 26, Schmidt told police his wife struck and bit him; she reported that he pulled out her earring and struck her face. No charges were filed in any of the reported episodes.

In response to Suzi Schmidt's announcement, Senate GOP leader Christine Radogno issued a statement saying Schmidt "assures me she is taking the appropriate measures to continue to address these issues while maintaining her focus on the needs of the district."

Radogno had earlier said of Schmidt that any "abuse of the public trust" would not be tolerated.

Larry Leafblad, who served on the Lake County Board for 16 years with Schmidt and is a longtime friend, announced he will challenge her in the March GOP primary.

"I'm not getting in because of her," he said. "The idea is, we can't lose that seat, because then the Democrats will have a supermajority in the House."

Obama urges Congress to free up frozen aid as Palestinians feel the chill

A worried Obama administration has stepped up efforts to persuade US legislators to lift a freeze on almost $200 million (￡130m) in aid for the West Bank and Gaza, which Palestinian leaders said yesterday was already hitting American-funded economic and social projects.

The block on the aid is threatening a series of projects ranging from food distribution to teacher training and medical provision, including a $58m five-year plan for improving Palestinian health services.

It has been strongly criticised not only by ministers in Ramallah but by the US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, and the international community's Middle East envoy, Tony Blair.

The freeze – first revealed on Saturday by The Independent and confirmed by the State Department and Congress in the past 24 hours – was imposed in August by hawkish pro-Israel US legislators as the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, was planning his bid for statehood recognition, currently lodged with the UN Security Council.

Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian Economy Minister, said yesterday that he had been informed officially by USAID, the US government's foreign aid agency, that two projects worth $55m and $26m were being put on hold. Fifty people had already been laid off and another 200 would be sent home by November due to the funding delay to the projects, which are designed to enhance the Palestinian private sector.

"We feel very sorry about this decision by the American Congress, which we think came to sabotage our ability to establish a Palestinian state," Mr Abu Libdeh said. "This is a political measure that reflects a blind bias against the Palestinian interests and will not help the efforts of the US administration to resume [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations."

Dr Fathi Abu Moghli, the Health Minister, said last night that 35 to 40 administrative and technical staff working in the USAID-funded flagship health service development team had already been given one month's notice.

"We hope very much the American government will get this money released," he said. He added that individual projects at East Jerusalem and West Bank hospitals could be hit if funds continued to be withheld.

The ministers' comments came after the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, acknowledged on Monday that the administration was in "intensive" discussions with the architects of the freeze, who include two Republican-led committees in the House of Representatives. She said that keeping aid flowing "is not only in the interest of the Palestinians, it's in the US interest and it's also in the Israeli interest".

Ms Nuland insisted there was still "some money in the pipeline" but added: "The concern is that if we don't get this going with the Congress in short order there could be an effect on the ground."

Brad Goehner, spokesman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the move had been a "tool of Congressional oversight" to allow more scrutiny of how the money was spent, but then went on to add a series of political factors he said had to be "taken into consideration". These included Mr Abbas's UN bid, the so-far abortive attempts at Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, and the Palestinians' rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand that they explicitly recognise Israel as a "Jewish state".

Mr Panetta said in Tel Aviv on Monday that this was "exactly the wrong time" for Congress to be withholding funds from the Palestinians "at a point in time where we are urging the Palestinians and Israelis to be able to sit down and negotiate a peace agreement".

Mr Blair said: "Even if you're completely opposed to the Palestinian bid in the UN, this is not the right way to respond to it because it's harming Palestinian people and it's harming the very things that over the past few years we've been most strongly supportive of."

Republican champions of the cuts

Eric Cantor

Republican Representative from Virginia is the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress in US history since becoming House Majority Leader this year. He told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Republican majority "understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States" and would "serve as a check" on the Obama administration's foreign policy.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

As Republican Representative for a strongly Jewish-American district in Florida and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mrs Ros-Lehtinen is considered to be a key ally for Israel. In 2008, she told the Jerusalem Post that she believed the US would stand "shoulder to shoulder with Israel" if Israel felt military action against Iran were necessary.

Chair of the Middle East Subcommittee of House Foreign Affairs, Republican Representative of Ohio has voiced support for a GOP-led campaign to cut aid to the UN over Palestinianstatehood. "A unilateral declaration of independence is simply rejectionism by another name [...] it takes away any motivation from the Palestinians to negotiate and deal with good faith with Israel," he said last month.