Russian PM says he's 'still deciding' whether to run in 2012, as he draws comparison with long-serving Roosevelt Vladimir Putin, Russia's combative and increasingly confident prime minister, today made clear he was here to stay and the world would have to come to terms with his authoritarian system of government which stifled political dissent. Drawing an ominous comparison with the US president Franklin Roosevelt, Putin claimed he had not yet decided whether to run in Russia's 2012 presidential election, but suggested that a further long stint in office was entirely possible. Speaking before the Valdai discussion club, a group of experts on Russia, Putin said that he would decide whether to stand closer to the event. Neither he nor Russia's existing president, Dmitry Medvedev, would act against Russia's constitution, he added. Putin said he would continue to "share power" with Medvedev and they would work together until the next election. "We have not decided what will be the best for Russia," Putin said, speaking at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Putin's latest comments failed to clarify whether – as most experts now assume – he will elbow Medvedev aside during the presidential poll in spring 2012. But they come against what looks suspiciously like a re-election campaign that has seen Putin take command of Russia's forest fire crisis over the summer and embark on a media-friendly road trip across the Far East in a bright – if somewhat breakdown-prone – yellow Lada. Today Putin suggested there was nothing wrong with presidents who spent several decades in office, citing the example of Roosevelt, who clocked up a record stint in the White House. "Roosevelt was elected four times in accordance with the US constitution," Putin pointed out. Under Russia's constitution Putin was obliged to step down as president in 2008 after two presidential terms. He then became prime minister. But there is nothing to stop him serving two more terms – now extended to six years – raising the prospect that he could still be running Russia in 2024. In reality, Putin has remained Russia's supreme political arbiter, ranging well beyond his domestic prime ministerial brief. Today Putin praised the US president, Barack Obama, as "sincere". The improvement in US-Russian relations has been one of the few real foreign policy achievements of Obama's presidency. But Putin was scathing about opposition protesters, who have been holding meetings both in Russia and abroad – including in London last week – on the 31st of each month. Picking up from an interview with Kommersant newspaper, when he said demonstrators deserved a "whack on the bonce", Putin dismissed those rallying as a marginal force. He said everybody had a right to express their views, but added that some people deliberately provoked a police beating to capture the media's attention. "Some people want to be beaten by truncheons. They lack patience. They hold private ambitions," Putin said, adding: "Those groups are behaving in such a way that they are not a political force in the country." Putin also defended Russia's strong vertical political system and his contentious decision in 2005 to abolish gubernatorial elections. The Kremlin now handpicks governors.

First Quantum writes to UK authorities over ENRC's acquisition of Kolwezi copper mine A row between two mining companies over a multimillion-pound copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has escalated after one of the firms wrote to the UK regulator alleging that shareholders have been misled over the affair. First Quantum, a Canadian company whose copper mine has been seized by the DRC government, has written to the UK regulator. It alleges that ENRC, the FTSE 100-listed rival which now owns a large stake in the mine, misled investors over the acquisition. The Guardian has seen a letter written last month by First Quantum to the UK Listing Authority, part of the FSA, shortly after ENRC announced the deal. The letter alleges that ENRC broke stock exchange disclosure rules by not detailing to shareholders the legal action against the DRC government by First Quantum to try to win back the mine. A spokeswoman for the FSA declined tonight to say whether it was investigating. ENRC said that the international arbitration process over the dispute was already in the public domain and that it had carried out full disclosure before announcing the deal. It added: "The licence was withdrawn by the DRC in August of 2009, and the court of appeal has confirmed that the withdrawal was lawful. Any dispute that First Quantum has is with the appropriate authorities in the DRC." Last month ENRC paid $175m (£113m) for mining assets in the DRC, including a majority stake in the Kolwezi mine. The revelation will bring further pressure to bear on ENRC. The Guardian has also learned that First Quantum will launch its own legal action this week against its rival, probably in the British Virgin Islands. It will seek to secure damages of about $2.5bn, the estimated value of the lost assets and money spent developing the Kolwezi mine. ENRC bought the stake in the disputed assets via a holding company incorporated there by Dan Gertler, an Israeli mining entrepreneur with strong links to the Kinshasa government. ENRC has a stellar cast of City grandees as non-executive directors, including Sir Richard Sykes, formerly chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, who is deputy chairman. First Quantum is already pursuing the matter in the international court of arbitration in Paris. The DRC last month seized First Quantum's other operation, Frontier, the largest copper mine in the country. The DRC government claims that it removed the licences because First Quantum refused to renegotiate the terms of the contract, alleging "unreasonable behaviour" in three years of negotiations. In an increasingly bitter row, the government also alleges unspecified misconduct by First Quantum executives. First Quantum president Clive Newall said: "They are making weightless and scurrilous accusations against the management. We would be delighted to have an independent review. It's extraordinary that ENRC's non-executives would put their names to this."

What executives are labelling 'Future BP' will be a much smaller company shorn of much of its presence around the world BP is still standing, but the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has changed the company forever. It could have been far worse. In June, some City analysts doubted whether BP could survive the crisis. Shares had plunged by more than half. Within the space of a few weeks, the official estimate of the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf had increased from 5,000 barrels to anywhere between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day. The company's repeated attempts to stop the flow had failed and August – the earliest the first relief well could be drilled – seemed a lifetime away. The chief executive, Tony Hayward – who has since resigned – and BP's chairman were summoned to meet Barack Obama at the White House. They were forced to scrap plans to pay shareholders a dividend and instead to set aside $20bn to pay damages to those affected. While the battle to stop the leak is over, the legal battle is only just beginning. BP will fight tooth and nail against accusations that it was grossly negligent. If the charge stands, it faces fines of up to $21bn. BP wouldn't be able to pass off other costs, such as the clean-up and damages, to its partners. With investigations by the Department of Justice, among others, only just beginning, US lawyers say it will take years to decide who was to blame for the accident – and the full level of BP's liabilities. The company is already selling $30bn worth of assets to meet its costs from the spill so far. What executives are labelling "Future BP" will be a much smaller company shorn of much of its presence around the world. If investigations decide it has been grossly negligent, many more asset sales will be necessary. BP argues that whatever happens, it is in the US's interests that it survives so it can meet all its liabilities. But it may be some time before it can afford to resume paying bumper dividends, which normally make up more than one-tenth of all payouts by UK companies.

Industry experts fear that many of Obama's changes in wake of Gulf oil spill will be no more than cosmetic Oil industry executives in the US call the Gulf of Mexico the "wild wild west", a place where regulations are rarely enforced and offshore operators can do what they want. Barack Obama has promised to tighten regulations to prevent a repeat of the Gulf disaster but many within the industry are sceptical that much will really change. A failure of regulation is as much the cause of the disaster as the actions of BP and the other companies involved on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded in April. The evidence that has emerged so far from the US congressional investigations reveals countless instances of standard safety procedures being ignored. It transpires that the federal regulator, the Minerals Management Service, wasn't so much asleep at the wheel but abdicated itself entirely of any responsibility for making sure offshore operators complied with the law. Staff allowed operators to fill in and sign off safety audits of their offshore operations that the regulator was supposed to carry out itself. Among Houston-based insurers, BP had a reputation for being the riskiest operator and for pushing its subcontractors the hardest, industry sources have told the Guardian. But it would never have been allowed to carry on like this had the regulatory sytem not failed. Reining in the industry will be no easy feat. Big Oil – like much of the American South where it is based – is fiercely resistant to what it perceives as interference from the federal government. In New Orleans in June, a judge ruled in favour of a group of oil services companies that had appealed against the moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by the White House following the disaster. The judge agreed that the ban risked causing more economic damage to the region. In the end the ban still stood, but Obama was given a bloody nose and reminded that the oil industry was not about to turn the other cheek. Industry experts fear that many of the changes will be no more than cosmetic. Obama is planning to break up the MMS to prevent conflicts of interest arising in the future, and has already changed its name. He has also promised to end the revolving-door practice of staff finding well-paid jobs as lobbyists for the industry when they leave the regulator. Mike Sawyer, a Houston-based oil industry engineer, is not hopeful that the new regulator will be any more effective than its predecessor. "You have the same guys from the agency now working for the new regulator. All that's happened is the pack has been reshuffled. If you put a dress on a pig it's still a pig," he says. Without a massive increase in funding, it's hard to see how any regulator can closely monitor hundreds of offshore operators, many of whom are drilling in water thousands of feet deep using increasingly sophisticated technology. "Anytime that someone from MMS or any other government regulator goes out to one of the rigs or refineries, the engineers run circles around them on knowledge – as a regulator you can't see everything," Sawyer adds. The oil industry is notorious for wielding influence in the corridors of power in Washington to protect its interests. According to a political watchdog, the Centre for Responsive Politics, companies contributed more than $35m to federal political candidates and parties ahead of the 2008 election. One source recalls trying to drum up interest in Washington about a lawsuit being filed against a major oil company in the Gulf. "Each time we visited, the politicians would say 'oh, that company has just been here'. They were always one step ahead of us. No-one was interested in what we had to say." The oil industry has a powerful card to play with the politicians: energy security. Domestic oil production, most of which comes from the Gulf, reduces US dependence on foreign imports. Companies have already threatened to take their rigs elsewhere if new safety regulations make drilling too expensive. BP's public relations line is that it will take responsibility for cleaning up the Gulf and making those affected by the disaster "whole" again. But privately its lawyers will fight tooth and nail to limit the amount of fines and compensation it must pay out. BP is still in dispute with another regulator, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha), over the explosion at its Texas City refinery back in 2005 that killed 15 workers. Osha had originally fined BP $87m for not implementing hundreds of required safety improvements at the refinery. BP appealed and recently negotiated an out-of-court settlement over some of the charges, but will continue to contest the rest. It knows its negotiating position is stronger now because public – and political – interest has moved on. Brent Coon, a lawyer who represented one of the victims of the explosion who successfully sued BP, says he fears a similar scenario could occur in the Gulf now that BP has finally sealed the well for good. "The public is not thinking too closely now about what happens when the media and the cameras leave but when that happens, the people of the Gulf will be left to their own devices."

Quantum Minerals claim of illegal seizure is still under arbitration – FTSE 100 company ENRC needs to look to its reputation
• Mining companies clash over Congo copper mine
Canadian copper group First Quantum Minerals claims some of its assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were illegally seized last year by the government. International arbitration proceedings continue. A fortnight ago, Kazakh-based Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) bought a stake in one of the disputed mines and says its lawyers demonstrated that it was free to do so. An everyday tale of mining in central Africa? Yes – but with a twist. ENRC is a member of the FTSE 100 index and boasts the considerable figure of Sir Richard Sykes, former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, as its senior independent director. If ENRC has been dealing in stolen property, which is the gist of First Quantum's allegation, that would be an extraordinary state of affairs. ENRC yesterday repeated its view that "any dispute that First Quantum has is with the appropriate authorities in the DRC", a statement that is correct as matters stand since First Quantum has not issued proceedings against ENRC and is merely considering doing so. The affair will become fascinating if the Canadians make good on their threat. Until such a moment, Sykes and ENRC can probably afford to stick to their legalistic line. But they would well be advised to go further and say something about the character of their company. Everybody knows mining in Africa is a game for grown-ups. But in the FTSE 100 club, reputation also matters.

Captain Andrew Griffiths and Lance Corporal Joe Pool died after attacks by insurgents in south of country A British soldier who died on Sunday after an explosion in southern Afghanistan was the son of the colonel of his regiment, the Ministry of Defence said last night. Captain Andrew Griffiths, 25, was one of two soldiers who died on Sunday to be named. Griffiths died at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham after being seriously wounded in an explosion in southern Nahr-e-Saraj last month. He was from the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. His father, a brigadier, is honorary colonel of the regiment. He was serving as part of a Royal Gurkha Rifles battlegroup, and was wounded while preventing insurgents from disrupting the building of a road. "His loss is a bitter blow but his bravery and selfless commitment to his men and the mission will never be forgotten", the MoD said. Lance Corporal Joe Pool, 26, from the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed on Sunday by a rocket-propelled grenade during a fire fight in Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province. Pool, from Greenock, was the latest in an increasing number of British soldiers being killed by small arms, indicating insurgents are again changing their tactics. Insurgents are becoming increasingly confident in their ability to fire in close proximity at patrols rather than rely, as they have in the past, mainly on hidden improvised explosive devices, military sources say. Insurgents switched to IEDs from gun battles four years ago when they realised that they could not win against the British soldiers' firepower. Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Herbert, commander of the Royal Scots Borderers, said yesterday that Pool "died a soldier's death, in close combat, bravely and tenaciously taking the fight to the insurgents, and in doing so helping to protect the people of Afghanistan from a barbaric enemy". Pool's fiancee, Lynsey, described him as a "loving fiance and wonderful dad of two boys aged seven and two. He was much loved and he will be missed by all his family and friends." So far 89 British troops have been killed in Helmand province this year, compared to 108 in 2009. Between 1 July and 15 August this year, 36 were seriously injured, according to the MoD's latest official figures.

Study finds people with drink or drug addictions have similar rates of violent crimes whether or not they have a mental illness Illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are not the reason why violent crimes are committed by mental health patients, a study showed today. An exhaustive study which tracked more than 8,000 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and another 3,700 identified as having bipolar disorder over three decades in Sweden found that the abuse of illegal drugs and alcohol caused mentally ill people to perpetrate crimes of murder, manslaughter and sexual violence. Dr Seena Fazel, a clinical senior lecturer in forensic psychiatry and consultant forensic psychiatrist at the University of Oxford, said: "The relationship between violent crime and serious mental illness can be explained by alcohol and substance abuse. If you take away the substance abuse, the contribution of the illness itself is minimal." The academic said that all over Europe patients had been reinstitutionalised because of "this view that people with mental illness are a high risk … there's a lot of stigma". He said a solution would be to tackle drug and alcohol abuse across the whole population. Dr Fazel added: "It's probably more dangerous walking outside a pub on a late night than walking outside a hospital where patients have been released." He said rates of violent crime among people who were mentally ill and abused substances were no different from those among other people who abused substances. People with mental illnesses who abuse substances have violent crime rates which are six to seven times higher than the general population – as do people with no mental health issues who have similar drink or drugs problems. Dr Fazel said data also showed that those who were mentally ill but did not abuse substances were only at "minimally increased risk" of committing violent crime. Around 0.9% to 1% of the general population suffers from bipolar disorder while 0.4% to 0.5% have schizophrenia. Research has shown that around 20% of people with bipolar disorder abuse alcohol and drugs compared with about 2% of the general population. Dr Fazel said that one reason for this might be that substance abuse was "genetically programmed" into patients. "We are looking at two reasons why this figure is higher. One is whether patients attempt to self-medicate with substance abuse. The other is that there is a possibility of genetic predisposition towards substance abuse given that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder both have an element of genetic predisposition."

You may not have heard of this British novelist, but Barack Obama has taken her latest book on holiday with him Age: Early 40s. Appearance: Surprisingly happy for a novelist. That's one hell of a grin. Has she just signed a multimillion-pound rights deal? Not that we know of. Or won a pointless but lucrative literary prize? That neither. Hmm. So why should we care about some la-di-da bookworm? Because she has been endorsed by the most powerful man in the world. Simon Cowell? The other one. Stuart's novel The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise was the only non-American book that Barack Obama took on holiday with him last month. Oh, that most powerful man. Has anyone else been reading it? Enough people to send it into the top 25 of the New York Times hardback fiction bestsellers list. Not bad for a woman whom The Australian called a "flop novelist". So what's it about? A tower, a zoo and a tortoise, of course. The tower is the Tower of London, the zoo is the royal menagerie and the tortoise is the 180-year-old Mrs Cooke. Looking after her is a Beefeater whose wife works in London Underground's lost property office. Three years ago they lost their son. "The cuteness sometimes comes across a little thick," says Publishers Weekly, but "the love story is adorable". In Britain, the book is called Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo. Has Stuart written anything else? Her first novel, The Matchmaker of Périgord, was the story of a French provincial barber forced to try a new career. Joanne "Chocolat" Harris called it a "hilarious romp". Is she a particularly slow typist, or has she been doing something else with her life? She used to write for newspapers, and spent eight years with a little-known publication called the Independent. She grew up in the West Midlands, and has spent time in France, Spain and Bahrain, but now lives in Egypt. Do say: "If it's good enough for the President . . ." Don't say: "I thought he only read the Qur'an."

We explain the meaning of the group's outfits, flags and symbolism Eta can hardly be accused of being a victim of fashion. Its spokespeople have been wearing exactly the same outfits for years – black jersey, gloves and beret, and a shiny, silky face mask with eye holes. One of the great virtues of the look is that it is unisex. Women and men are indistinguishable until they open their mouths. For Sunday's ceasefire announcement, the speaking was done by the person in the centre (a woman), while the others limited themselves to occasional fidgeting and a stirring fist-raised salute at the end. In any case, the outfits and the stage-managing of their videos are easily decoded: 1 The face mask The soft masks with eyeholes are not as rugged as the pipe-and-balaclava combination favoured by Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos in Chiapas, Mexico, but they are at least a change from the highwayman's hankie or keffiyeh favoured by other self-proclaimed revolutionaries. The police wear balaclavas in the Basque country – and Eta do not identify with them. 2 The beret We may associate them with cycling French onion salesmen, but the beret really started as a Basque shepherd's hat. Thanks to Che Guevara they are now also a revolutionary symbol. 3 The ikurriña, or flag of the Basque Country Invented by the father of Basque nationalism, Sabino Arana, at the end of the 19th century. He used the Union Flag as his model. Critics claim that the fact that he had to invent a flag is proof that the Basque country has never really been a separate state. 4 The red flag of Navarre Eta believes that Navarre, now one of Spain's 17 autonomous regions and previously a medieval kingdom that covered much of the Basque-speaking lands in Spain and France, should form part of the Basque Country. Most people in Navarre disagree. 5 The black eagle of King Sancho The eagle on the yellow flag symbolizes the kingdom of Navarre at the height of its glory some eight centuries ago. 6 The axe and snake The axe stands for armed struggle. The snake is, depending on who you speak to, either watchfulness or politics. The "bietan jarrai" slogan can be roughly translated as "go forward both ways". The phrase is given various interpretations, including that Eta will pursue both violent and political routes to independence.

Head of Transocean, which operated destroyed Deepwater Horizon oil rig, to be asked about safety and deepwater drilling British politicians will challenge the UK head of Transocean, the operator of the destroyed Deepwater Horizon rig, tomorrow over whether the Gulf of Mexico disaster could be repeated in the North Sea. In the first televised hearing of an investigation by MPs into what lessons can be learnt from the disaster, Paul King, Transocean's managing director, and other oil industry executives will be questioned about the North Sea safety regime, particularly for deepwater drilling. Transocean has a sizeable presence in the North Sea, with more rigs operating than in the Gulf, although they are mostly at shallower depths. Led by committee chairman Tim Yeo, a former Conservative environment minister, the MPs will ask how many rigs operate with only one set of "blind shear rams" inside their blowout preventer, the last line of defence against a major spill. The Deepwater Horizon's single pair of shear rams, which are supposed to cut through the pipe to close off the well in the event of a blow-out, failed to activate. Transocean's new rigs are built so that they can accommodate two sets of blind shear rams, which make such a catastrophic failure less likely. But UK regulations do not require operators to use blowout preventers with two pairs of blind shear rams. A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said yesterday that the rules were "goal-setting and not prescriptive". In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster US politicians have called for the use of double rams to be obligatory. Members of the House of Commons energy and climate change committee will also ask whether undersea robots would be able to remotely activate a blowout preventer in the event that it failed to shut down a blown well. BP tried repeatedly to do this in the Gulf without success, leading to the worst oil spill in US history. Transocean's record has come under closer scrutiny following a report by the HSE, revealed in the Guardian this week, which said that the company's organisational culture was based on blame and intolerance. It also said instances of unacceptable behaviour by offshore management were raised with HSE inspectors by Transocean staff on more than one North Sea rig visited. These included bullying, aggression, harassment, humiliation and intimidation, and were "causing some individuals to exhibit symptoms of work-related stress, with potential safety implications", the HSE said. Malcolm Webb, chief executive of trade body Oil & Gas UK, as well as the head of a new oil response industry body, will also be questioned. Webb is expected to mount a robust defence of the North Sea safety regime and reject calls for the UK to issue a moratorium on new drilling, as the US has done, until the causes of the Gulf disaster are known. The British government recently closed bidding for the 26th licensing round to drill in new areas of the North Sea, which was one of the most hotly contested for some time. The round includes new blocks for the west of Shetland, one of the last frontiers of the North Sea which contains more than a fifth of Britain's remaining oil and gas reserves, most of it in deepwater and rough seas. BP is one of the companies thought to be keen to start drilling in unexplored waters. Webb will also reject suggestions – first made by Europe's energy commissioner in July – for offshore drilling to be governed by European-wide, rather than national, legislation. The committee will also raise concerns that the moratorium in the US and Norway could result in more deepwater activity in the UK. Charles Hendry, the UK energy minister, will appear before the committee at a later hearing. He has insisted that the existing North Sea safety regime is adequate, following a brief review immediately after the Gulf disaster. One improvement already announced is a plan to increase the number of government inspectors for the 300 rigs and platforms in the UK North Sea from six to nine.