The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Scots to get more powers as UK edges towards federalism
Nationalists say not enough May spur similar demands from others

London, November 27
Britain agreed to further dismantle its highly centralised system of government on Thursday, striking a political deal to grant Scotland new tax-raising powers in a move critics fear could trigger the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom.

The deal, unveiled on Thursday after an agreement between all the Scottish chapters of Britain's main political parties, will trigger the biggest transfer of powers to Scotland from the United Kingdom since 1999 when a Scots Parliament was set up and will be implemented after a UK-wide election next year.

It is likely to spur demands for similar powers from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teeing up political uncertainty and heralding an eventual redistribution of power in the world's sixth largest economy to its constituent parts.

Scotland, which already enjoys a large measure of autonomy and voted to reject full-blown independence in September, will get the power to set income tax rates, some influence over welfare spending, and powers to decide how the Scottish parliament and other structures are selected and run.

"This I think is a good day for the UK," Prime Minister David Cameron said, playing down fears from lawmakers across the political spectrum that it could weaken the United Kingdom and was the start of a slippery slope to a break-up.

Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), said the deal didn't go far enough. "I welcome all new powers," she said. "But 70 per cent of our taxes and 85 per cent of welfare staying at Westminster is not real home rule," she said, referring to British Parliament.

Under the settlement Scotland will have control over tax revenues worth £20 billion ($32 billion) a year and welfare spending worth 2.5 billion pounds a year.

Part of a power play by Britain's established parties to neutralise a threat from the SNP two months after it lost an independence referendum, the left-leaning opposition Labour party is hoping but cannot be sure it will revive its flagging fortunes in Scotland before next year's UK-wide vote.

Just weeks after seeing their dream of an independent Scotland wiped out in a historic referendum defeat, Scottish nationalists have turned failure into a revival which could transform British politics. Opinion polls suggest the SNP, which has just six seats in the House of Commons in London, could win more than 50 of the 59 Scottish seats in UK Parliament next year.

Cameron said the agreement kept a promise to Scots to give them more powers and would be followed by proposals to only allow lawmakers in British Parliament representing English constituencies to vote on laws affecting only England. — Reuters

A step towards countering separatists

Britain's three main political parties promised to grant Scotland more powers in a last-ditch attempt to shore up support for the union days before a referendum in September in which Scots ultimately spurned independence

The proposals include giving Scotland the power to set income tax rates, some influence over welfare spending, and powers to decide how the Scottish Parliament and other devolved political structures are selected and run

Legislation on Scotland's new powers is due to be drafted by the time Scots celebrate the birthday of their most revered poet, Robert Burns, on January 25

British embassy car attacked in Kabul, 5 killed

Kabul, November 27
A suicide bomber attacked a British embassy vehicle in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing five persons, including one Briton, officials said.

mangled remains: The wreckage of a British embassy vehicle after a suicide attack in Kabul on Thursday. Reuters

The blast in the east of Kabul wounded 33 persons, including many bystanders, the latest in a wave of bombings to hit the city as the majority of foreign combat troops prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of the year.

Taliban insurgents, who were ousted from power by a US-led coalition in 2001, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it "targeted foreign invading forces".

Attacks aimed at foreign embassy personnel are less common than the near-daily strikes against Afghan and international military forces on the country's roads.

"I can confirm it was a British vehicle ... We are working with the Afghan authorities," said a British embassy spokesman in Kabul who asked not to be identified.

Britain later said two embassy personnel, including one British national, were among the five killed.

"I am deeply saddened to confirm that a British national civilian security team member and an Afghan national working for the embassy were killed in the incident," Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement, adding that another Briton had been injured.

A Reuters witness saw at least one survivor being led away from the charred shell of the vehicle on foot by a member of the British security force. — Reuters

Protests dwindle in US after two nights of unrest

Ferguson, November 27
The streets of Ferguson, Missouri, were mostly quiet overnight after two days of racially charged unrest sparked by a grand jury decision not to prosecute a white policeman who shot dead an unarmed black teenager.

On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, wintry weather kept many indoors across the state and other parts of the Midwest and the East Coast, though hundreds demonstrated against the killing in the California cities of Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Protesters also held up banners reading "Solidarity with Ferguson" and "Black Lives Matter" outside the US embassy in London. Among those who attended was the family of Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police in north London in 2011, prompting Britain's worst civil unrest for decades. The St. Louis suburb of Ferguson first erupted into protests after police officer Darren Wilson shot dead 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9.

The town became an epicentre of national outrage again this week when a St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Wilson on criminal charges on Monday.

Late on Wednesday, a few dozen protesters huddled in falling snow outside Ferguson's police headquarters, in sharp contrast to the scenes of arson, looting, sporadic gunfire and clashes with police on Monday and, to a lesser extent, Tuesday.

Businesses were boarded-up or burned along a mile-long stretch of West Florissant Avenue, which bore the brunt of Monday's lawlessness, and downtown streets between the police department and City Hall.

Demonstrations spread to a dozen or more major US cities by Tuesday, culminating in at least 400 arrests nationwide. — Reuters

Spotlight on state of race relations

The case has exposed long-running strains in Ferguson between its predominantly black residents and its mostly white politicians and police.

It has also focused global attention on the state of race relations in the US and evoked memories of other cases, including the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012

14 convicted in UK of sexually exploiting girls

London, November 27
Fourteen men have been convicted in Britain of running a sex ring that involved the abuse, rape and prostitution of girls as young as 13. The men, all from Somali backgrounds, were convicted in two trials that ended yesterday. Reporting restrictions were lifted today.

Prosecutors said the men, in their early 20s, groomed vulnerable girls in Bristol, southwestern England, and persuaded them to have sex in return for money, drugs or alcohol. The case is the latest in a series of trials that have exposed sexual exploitation of children in cities across Britain.

The cases have stoked racial tensions, as the perpetrators in several cases were from Pakistani backgrounds and many of the victims were white. — AP

War veterans steal the limelight in Ukraine’s new Parliament
Yatseniuk wins new term as PM | Pilot held in Russia elected deputy

Kiev, November 27
War veterans and nationalist radicals brought a revolutionary air to the opening on Thursday of Ukraine's new Parliament convened to name a government to hold the country together and set out a programme of far-reaching reform.

Hundreds of riot police guarded the building as the parliament quickly formed a five-party coalition of support for the pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko and later elected Arseny Yatseniuk for a new term as prime minister.

But it was the men, and women, of force who stole the limelight from the besuited politicians when proceedings opened in the ornate parliament building a short walk from Kiev's Independence Square or Maidan, the centre of last winter's Euromaidan revolution.

Several deputies in battle fatigues — the sign of volunteer fighters from the war front against pro-Russian separatists — stood out among the ranks of politicians who swore an oath of allegiance in the 450-seat assembly.

Outgoing speaker Oleksander Turchynov brought an air of triumph by announcing that one of the deputies, Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian military pilot, had managed to take the oath, with the help of her lawyer, despite being held in a Moscow psychiatric clinic.

Savchenko, 33, was captured by separatists and spirited into Russia where she is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in Ukraine. To cheers from the assembly, her signed oath was flashed up on a giant screen.

Meanwhile, European Union governments agreed on Thursday to add 13 Ukrainian separatists and five organisations to the bloc's sanctions list. The decision swells an EU sanctions list over Ukraine that already covers 119 people and 23 entities. — Reuters