White House blasts Republican ‘obsession’ with Rice and Benghazi

The White House sharply escalated its attacks Tuesday on Republicans trying to stop Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice from succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state. Press secretary Jay Carney described GOP lawmakers as being gripped by a politically fueled "obsession" with a series of television appearances Rice made shortly after the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which she wrongly suggested the attack had stemmed from a demonstration over an anti-Muslim video rather than a terrorist assault.

Carney's comments came after Rice met privately on Capitol Hill with Republican senators who have said they intend to block her nomination if President Barack Obama chooses her to replace Clinton as the nation's top diplomat. Rice also acknowledged for the first time, in a written statement issued by her office, that her initial public comments on the Benghazi assault were wrong because there had been no protest outside the compound.

Government minister warns: 'We must develop a third more land' to meet housing demand

                                                                                                                        Photo;-BBC Newsnight

More than 1,500 square miles of open countryside — an area twice the size of Greater London — needs to be built on to meet housing demand, the Government’s planning minister will warn on 
Wednesday.



Nick Boles, a Conservative minister appointed in the September reshuffle, wants to increase the amount of land built on in England by a third.
He insists that he wants to ensure the countryside is not filled with unattractive modern housing by “lazy” builders.
He says that, rather than fight all development, people have to recognise that some buildings could be more beautiful than nature itself. But his comments come as much of England and Wales has been hit by flooding, which in some parts has been made worse by planners allowing development on natural flood plains which are meant to fill with water.
In an interview with BBC Two’s Newsnight tonight, Mr Boles says nine per cent of England has been built on so far – and this should be increased to 12 per cent to meet demand.
This would mean the amount of land paved over would increase from 4,531 sq m to more than 6,000 sq m. The 1,510 sq m increase is more than twice the 607 sq m area covered by Greater London.