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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8221119.stm | In the latest of a series of articles marking the outbreak of World War II 70 years ago, BBC Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke analyses how opinions on the Nazi-Soviet pact have changed over the years.
The Nazi-Soviet pact remains a highly emotive issue
In recent years, the tone and content of disagreements between Russia and the West over interpretations of World War II have seemed reminiscent of the Cold War.
Official Russia may not have many supporters abroad of its increasingly Sovietised, if not revisionist, approach. But it is one that Russia's own citizens appear to strongly support.
The original German-language copy of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on the Nazi-Soviet division of Europe was seized by Soviet troops in 1945 and removed to Moscow.
The Soviet government understood why the document could have a devastating effect on the image of the USSR as the nation that had done - and suffered - the most for the defeat of the Nazi curse.
This is why the secret protocol's existence was officially denied until 1989. Even Vyacheslav Molotov, one of the signatories, went to his grave categorically rejecting foreign reports of it.
The teaching of history developed by the Soviet authorities in the post-war decades instead chose to portray the pact as a masterstroke of Soviet diplomacy, one that prevented an alliance between Nazi Germany and Western capitalist nations against the USSR.
In 1989 Soviet lawmakers condemned the pact
In 1989, lawmakers in the Soviet Union's first, quasi-democratic parliament, passed a resolution unequivocally condemning the pact. And that, essentially, was the end of efforts in official Russia to address the document's geopolitical legacy.
The statement released by the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service, just ahead of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the pact, strongly suggests Russian official history has reverted to Soviet, if not at times, Stalinist, orthodoxies.
Russia's leading opinion pollster, VTsIOM, asked ordinary Russians what they thought of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ahead of the anniversary.
Some 57% of those questioned said they believed there was "nothing reprehensible" in the agreement.
Just 14% agreed with the western interpretation of the pact as dividing Europe between two totalitarian systems.
After all, in the neighbouring countries - those that had been partitioned or subjected to border shifts and mass repressions as a direct result of the pact - it is seen as a symbol of totalitarian evil.
The BBC's Russian Service, in an online forum, asked its readers what they thought of the pact and its modern-day significance.
Very few of their comments support the Western interpretation of the pact. Indeed, some question whether the secret protocol even existed.
A number adhere to standard Soviet versions of history - the Soviet Union incorporated western Ukraine and western Belarus (parts of Poland in 1939) for "the protection of the local population".
In general, the tone is anti-Western, strongly rejecting moral comparisons of Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR.
These comments come largely from young people living in large cities. Many of them are products of post-Soviet upbringing and education.
They are likely to have travelled abroad, and to have adopted western cultural and social mores.
In connection with its association with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August remains a highly emotive date.
In early July, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe passed a resolution basically equating Nazism with Stalinism.
Proposed by Lithuania and Slovenia, it suggested making 23 August a day of remembrance for the victims of the two totalitarian systems.
The date was deliberately chosen for its symbolism.
The Russian delegation stormed out, promising a "harsh response".
It remains unclear how nascent efforts to criminalise non-official interpretations of history in Russia will shape analysis of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
But already, both Russian and foreign historians are reporting that it has become very difficult to gain access to state archives containing material describing Nazi-Soviet co-operation. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6088914.stm | By Rebecca Morelle
When I told my brother I was heading to Slough - he was rather jealous.
Physical movement is used to control the remote
Not because he had a great desire to see the Brunel bus station, but because I was getting a preview of the Nintendo Wii.
"Why are they sending you - you don't 'do' videogames," he - a dedicated gamer - said over the phone.
"Ah young Daniel," I replied, "that's exactly the point."
The Wii, due out in Europe on 8 December, is being promoted as something any member of the family can pick up - a console that "will introduce new people to the world of videogames".
So, armed with virtually zero gaming knowledge, I headed to Nintendo's offices to see if the Wii could win over a videogame-phobe.
I was led into a special gaming room and set in front of a small box, a screen and given a remote that was hooked around my wrist.
Despite its silly name, the Wii looked good - the console was white and sleek, and, if I was judging purely on appearance, I wouldn't be averse to one sitting in my living room.
But the characters lurching around on the screen looked decidedly peculiar. The game, I was told by Nintendo's Amerie Bagnariol, my patient host, was WarioWare: Smooth Moves and would be a good introduction to the Wii handset.
Instead of pressing buttons or moving a joystick to direct what was going on onscreen, the Wii remote is controlled by physical movement - you can jab it, wave it, wiggle it or twist it about in the air.
So move about I did. The completely bizarre game, big in Japan according to Amerie, entailed carrying out mini-tasks, such as high-fiving a puppy, shredding some paper, bursting a balloon, all for reasons I couldn't quite fathom.
And as I stood in the room, holding the remote and desperately hula-hooping, I couldn't help thinking this was more like ritual humiliation than something supposed to be fun.
But still, even if I did look like an idiot, I was getting the hang of the remote - it was a bit weird to handle at first but straightforward enough.
One of the games involved hula-hooping
Wii Sports, which is free with the console, came next. Here, I had a go at tennis, 10-pin bowling and golf, miming the swoop of a tennis racket, hurl of a bowling ball and swipe of a club with the remote.
I was doing badly - more down to a lack of sporting ability than because they were hard to play - so I thought I would release my aggression with a spot of boxing.
For this, an additional control, called a "nunchuk", was attached to my left hand, allowing me to jab, hook, block and dodge, until my opponent gave me a hefty clunk to the head and my character fell to the floor.
So much for gaming being a sedentary activity - all of the jumping about was rather tiring.
Doctors and nurses
I also tried my hand at carrying out an operation in Trauma Centre, and gripped the remote like a steering wheel for another title called Excite Truck.
So far, so OK - but I still wasn't convinced gaming was for me.
And then I met Link, in the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
The launch date for the Wii in Europe is 8 December
Maybe it was the cute outfit he was wearing, or perhaps it was the fun of using the remote to swipe a sword or ping an arrow, or the fact that there was some kind of narrative to what was going on that made my videogame scepticism lift.
It was definitely the game that required the most skill - using the controller to direct an arrow into an enemy's head needed excellent hand-eye coordination - but, despite this, it was probably one that I'd invest the most time trying to get the hang of.
So, has the Wii converted me to the word of gaming?
I'm not sure I am completely won over. Playing the games was fun, and I would like to have another go on Zelda, but I'm not sure I would spend £179 for a console of my own.
However, if my brother were to become a Wii-owner, the next time he suggested a game, rather than turning my nose up, I might just be tempted to pick up the remote...
The Nintendo Wii will go on sale in the US on 19 November, in Japan on 2 December and Australia on 7 December. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6399961.stm | Criminal gangs have been around for centuries but police believe they have become more organised in recent years. So how do they operate?
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Magazine
A prior engagement one night 21 years ago prevented Shaun Bailey from a life of crime.
"I can place to the day the point I missed out on becoming an idiot," he recalls. "A group of friends was going to burgle a factory near where I live. I missed it because I was at the cadets and they were all arrested."
Of the group of 12, three are now dead of gun or knife wounds, and others have been involved in "madness" or suffered mental health problems, says Shaun, 35.
He credits his uncle for making him join the Army cadets, which not only saved him that fateful night but taught him to listen to his mother and grandmother's values and less to the "street".
After getting a degree, he returned to the west London estates where he grew up and for more than a decade has helped prevent youngsters drifting into gangs and crime, in the knowledge that the line separating a life of purpose and one of violence is a thin one.
But not everyone escapes. Last week the Metropolitan Police identified 169 gangs in London, a quarter of which have been involved in murder.
A gang led by the men who murdered City lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce committed at least 150 robberies, and compiled a robbery guide to Underground stations which rated areas according to police presence and victims.
"The nature of gangs in London is changing and we are starting to see more clearly definable gangs - only a couple or a handful at the moment," says Met Police assistant commissioner Steve Round.
Getting into a gang depends on a recommendation, a family connection or a big reputation, says Shaun, and initiation could mean receiving a beating or stabbing someone. The more organised gangs have tattoos and use websites to spread their message.
"It's a loose association and you might see the others every night or once or twice a week. Now and then someone will plan something or say you need to meet.
When is a gang a gang?
"There's a real power in it, especially if someone has a problem and you deal with it. The camaraderie is unbelievable and is a bit like the Army. People are dependent on you and you have a role. There's the safety, the friendship and there's the purpose."
A role could be keeping the gun, cutting up the drugs or even fixing the mopeds, he says.
"You're getting affirmation from alpha males. Another man telling you that you are good or worthwhile is very, very important."
Gangs are nothing new, of course. In Victorian times, there were the Scuttlers in Manchester and the Peaky Blinders in Birmingham at a time when, not unlike today, there was a panic about yobbery and hooliganism. But methods have changed.
"In my time robbing adults was a big step and people were very rarely prepared to do that," says Shaun. "Now it's stabbing people to death. My friends waited until they were 20 before they got shot. Now there are more guns and knives."
Professor Gus John, who has studied gang culture in Manchester and London and advised the Home Office on policy, says that in recent years those using guns are getting younger. They are more likely to take the law into their own hands, and geography is playing more of a part in gang warfare, which used to be defined more by conflict over business deals.
Some gangs demand a loyalty test on joining, which in extreme cases could mean committing an act of violence against a family member.
"It's a brutalising environment that seeks to transform the individual from what could be a reasonable, well-adjusted social being into a complete and utter monster."
Gangs are usually between 20 to 30 in number and members aged between 15 and 25, he says, but their activities are hidden and many communities like Moss Side which have gangs are otherwise well-balanced, vibrant places to live.
"It's not as if the community would be intimidated by seeing 30 or 40 people together, necessarily. It's the way in which they operate within sub-cultures that are on the margins of what the rest of the community is seeing."
Rules of behaviour
There are three common means of income - drugs, robbery and handling stolen goods. The leaders are clearly identified in the more organised gangs, says Professor John, and when one is killed or imprisoned, others vie for top spot.
And despite the brutality, there is a "moral" code which means younger and elderly relatives are usually off-limits.
"Even within the madness there are certain codes and principles that they ascribe to. But they might not respect the grandparent enough not to hide a gun in their house."
People apply the term "gangs" too liberally and should be careful doing that, he believes, because it confers a status which is worn as a badge of honour.
Shaun Bailey believes government plans for tougher sentences for gangs will glamorise and encourage them, and the notion of what defines a gang is not clear.
"Children hanging around in large groups is the most natural thing in the world," he says. "But whether they are a gang is about what they're doing."
He says the estates in North Kensington where he lives and works have "clicks", groups lacking the loyalty, names and codes of violence associated with the gangs which reside a few miles away in White City and Shepherds Bush.
For instance, if a gang member was attacked then the rest are obliged to exact revenge, but in a click they would not - although they may well do anyway, he says.
Clicks can be formed and dissolved instantly, coming together for an event like the Notting Hill Carnival, and may or may not be involved in crime.
But the distinctions may be irrelevant anyway. In Nottingham, even those not members of gangs imitate the behaviour of those who are, says Karl White, who has 24 years experience working with young people in parts of the city where gangs are rife.
"They may not be a gang member but they become dangerous because they do dangerous things because they want to be gangsters."
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
I grew up in Hackney, East London and Ely, in the Fens. Both of these places, although seeming worlds apart, were in fact very alike. Gangs, drugs, violence, crime, it's everywhere. Youths move in groups, like to do things that would upset their parents and compete with each to be the number one. It's actually quite natural. They are also VERY media driven, so the more you tell them what they are or are not the more they want to be it. I also agree about hip-hop, loved it as a teenager, but seriously, songs about rape, gang-bangs, robbery, drugs, and crime do nothing positive for a teenager. Parental Advisory, that's a joke!
Gang culture is inevitable in a culture that patronises and mistrusts young people. If someone is in a gang they are treated seriously, or even as heroes. That's an attractive prospect to someone who is been told day in and day out that someone knows better than them, and they need to grow up etc.
Paddy White, Salisbury
I have seen gang violence at first-hand and been victimised by teens who are now prolific and well-known burglars who often spend time in jail. My home town has had gangsters here longer than I've been around and there is no crime that they haven't committed at some time or other. Gangs are nothing new and what we see today is just the natural development of a problem that has been ignored, rather than dealt with when the kids were young enough to be saved.
The comments on this article are typical of the hysteria which have surrounded gangs for the past one hundred years. There exists in Glasgow gangs which have had the same name since the early 1900s.These gangs are primarily based on geographical boundaries (real or imagined) and have not changed significantly in structure or intent for over 40 years. To suggest this is a breakdown of societies values etc is simply to echo numerous moral panics of the past.
I can bet there are plenty of teenagers watching these news stories on gangs and thinking: That sounds exiting, lots of kids are doing this, I think our group should become a gang to get some street respect. And people wonder why this nation has a crime problem.
Al Blackwool, Stevenage
If the media didn't publish stories about crime, people wouldn't get any bad ideas. One of the kids at my husband's school decided to attach a razor blade to the underside of a school banister rail, so that when everyone walked down the stairs with their hands on the rail, their fingers ran over the blade. The child said he read about this in the news and thought it would be "fun" to see how many people cut themselves. It's about time the media in this country started to take responsibility for what they publish.
Sarah, it isn't simply a child's awareness of a crime that causes her to think it would be "cool" to replicate it. It's the child's moral judgement when presented with these situations. All that comes down to is a decent set of morals. Suggesting the media shouldn't report these things is ridiculous.
I hang around with up to 10 mates when we go out shopping or for a drink, and we get people crossing the street or tutting at us. We have all grown up together and are mates who have never done anything illegal, but get labelled as a gang because of the media. Not all youths of today are troublemakers but the media seems to think so and because of that most of the public believe them.
Could these youngsters be meeting up in gangs as a form of protection? Streets have become a dangerous place, meeting up in big group gives a sense of protection and belonging.
I agree with much of what has been said before. They need something to do, I was involved in a tall ships cadets and it changed my life. Providing more opportunities not taking them away is the answer
Phil, Farnham, Surrey
I'm 14 and from what I hear a lot of people's comments suggest that almost every teenager in Britain wants to have a gang but I swear that's not the case. At my old school in England, almost everybody in all the year-groups think that these kind of people are disgraces.
George van Eesteren, Wassenaar, the Netherlands
This reads like a marketing brochure for gangs. Highlighting the incentives in joining a gang is hardly the way to deter youngsters from joining. Surely that would be by showing gang members behind bars, badly injured, or dead.
The reason for this so-called yob culture is that there is nothing constructive for the kids to do after school or on the weekends. What happened to all the after-school sports and activities? Where have all the youth clubs gone? Give the kids something constructive and fun and suddenly petty crime becomes not fun but just petty. Give them some self-worth back.
Timothy, east London
Where I live gangs are far less organized and extremely dangerous. I go to school in one of the poorest districts in my city, already this year two of my classmates have died to gang violence. In our neighbouring city of St Paul, gangs are even worse, with violence erupting for little to no reason at all. Drugs sometimes have nothing to do with it, but since it happens in the ghetto the rest of the city is unaffected and does little to solve the problems.
Payton, Minneapolis, US
Give these young people alternative role models to aspire to. Their fathers are often absent, society despises them and the media hounds them. Their general lack of respect for authority is taught at home, with parents expecting teachers and politicians to raise their children for them. The only respect these youths receive is from their peers...leaving the way clear for anyone to manipulate and influence them. Parents need to do their job, with society supporting them!
I wasn't allowed out on the street at night, I was never part of a gang or big group of friends out late. My kids aren't allowed out at night and aren't part of a "gang", they socialise with friends, have sleepovers, attend sleepovers, have respectable friends, meet during the day in town. Do you see where I'm coming from? Parenting, some parents don't do it. It's a massive problem that will not go away. There's so many contributory factors, I don't know where to start. I suppose looking after mine and instilling good values is all I can do.
Andy, Maidstone, UK
We should encourage gangs as a natural aspect of life - what is the problem is not the gang but the criminal activities they get involved with. It is a good way for young people to get involved with their peers. However to avoid the crime I would suggest that competitions be organised with the members for things like team snooker, boxing, air rifle target practice, cards for significant amounts of money. Those teams coming to notoriety for good reasons would encourage more young people to self organise into teams. It would be much easier to organise the gang tournaments than to try and classify and prosecute loose affiliations. The gang tournaments would give direction and purpose to lots of different individuals and provide a mechanism for young men from disadvantaged backgrounds to make a positive contribution. Any better ideas for a liberal society?
Peter Knowles, Chessington
The word "gang" terrifies me now - when I was a child being part of a gang was like the Famous Five or the Secret Seven. Today there is no respect - the only respect that these kids have is one another. I ask myself constantly has society let them down or the law. As a mother of a 15-yr-old who has been severely beaten up for not joining a gang and has turned to the church, he finds solitude there. Whilst I am not a religious person, I welcome the path he going down - he is never rude, can talk to people with a reasonable understanding of all subjects. My partner, who is in the forces and has served all over, has always said that kids should be part of the cadets, to teach them basic skills and respect for those in authority.
Excellent article. Is it possible that there has been a schism in our education process that has broken the link between generations? Previous generations of young men make sacrifices for this country that the youth of today don't appreciate. Young men need role models and this country had them aplenty. We need to resolve this immediately. Schools should research and post on their websites rolls-of-honour. Every sports club and Scout troop, that can, should do likewise. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website has details of all British & Empire soldiers who fell in these conflicts. It would be an interesting and useful project for the boys to do this research themselves. I am sure they would not easily forget what they learned.
It's a lack of individuality in these people's mindset that encourages them to be drawn to gangs of any sort, and their lack of regard for what's right triggers the criminality.
Karl Chads, London, UK
Everybody behaves differently when alone and when part of a group. There is this tendency to abdicate responsibility when with others. This is shown when a group of children run thoughtlessly across the road - individually they would realise they were solely responsible for their safety. Young people need to be told this clearly; too often we just appeal to their better individual morality without realising that this ceases to function in a group, and they don't understand this either. Shaun Bailey's separateness enabled him to foster his individual control. It is not so much peer pressure as peer presence.
Gang members are weak sheep. I'm constantly fed the viewpoint that these youths are bored and have nothing to do. My childhood was far from ideal but I didn't end up throwing a brick at someone's face - Why? Because I thought for myself.
Jamie Read, Southport, Merseyside
I think the key issue here is what youngsters get out of the gang. It's obvious that a lot of these individuals feel dispossessed, bored and ignored, and it's no wonder that something that gives them purpose. A position of respect, power and security should attract them under these circumstances. It seems apparent that we have to treat these key issues that draw these young people to gangs, and/or provide alternative, non-criminal sources to fulfil such needs.
Charlotte Garrett, Manchester
I am a youth myself but only in terms of not being old enough to be counted as anything else. I have had an encounter with a gang member before and they were brutal and have left me scared. I identified the gang member to the police and nothing has been done - that gives the gang members a sense of ownership of towns as they feel they have the power over local police. It is the police that have allowed for these gang members, yobs etc to get out of hand because of the pathetic attempts at stopping them. The parents and police are to blame for the fall of society.
These youngsters are looking for a sense of purpose and shortcutting the road to a potentially successful life for their families and communities. We should be slow to judge and do more to improve their social environment so they are not inclined this way in the first place.
Muqbool Khan, London, UK
The view that this country mistrusts and patronises young people is markedly out of place here. It is the very fact that young people and their 'rights' are emphasised so heavily which throws them into the outside world at a young age. In a world in which children are afforded the rights of adults, but not the punishments associated with those rights, disparity the only logical outcome. I'm not saying that harsher punishments are the answer - quite the opposite. We need to treat children like children. Social institutions need to listen to children, but also need to guide them. Second guessing ourselves and confusing the young are undoubtedly going to produce an unsavoury result.
Josh Robson, London
How about banning the glorification of gangs by hip-hop and rap groups. It's not appropriate for a teenager to listen to music advocating selling drugs, murder, gun crime, burglary etc. With these negative role models prevalent in society no wonder teenagers with 'nothing to lose' are committing so many dangerous crimes. I wouldn't be surprised if these sad individuals we under the twisted belief that membership in a gang will give them a fast track to status, money and power - basically all the things in life successful people have to work very hard to achieve.
Mark, Manchester, UK
The age of "group" members is a key point here. In this age range, children (particularly boys) look to authority figures to admire, emulate, and to be acknowledged and appreciated by them. The line between beneficial and detrimental role models is blurred by these basic needs of the teenager. If a better role model isn't available (through broken families, lack of parental attention or time), then any source of approval will do.
Click is the American pronunciation of the word "clique", which is the proper name for the other type of group referred to...
A gang is only a gang when the purpose of their existing or congregating together is to engage in regular criminal activity, otherwise they are just a group of friends. They may still be intimidating to some people, but let's not tarnish every group of friends with the same brush
Pastor D, Woodford Green, NE London
If you really want to combat gangs, establish an armed presence in cities. Bring back army conscription and stop all this completely insane politically correct cowardice that enables kids to hide behind the law and get away with murder.
Bob, Oxford, UK
Bob, I sincerely hope you are not advocating shooting civilians in the street without a trial because they happen to belong to a gang? It is that kind of attitude against young, disadvantaged people that has probably helped to foster the situation we age in now.
I agree that police should be able to carry firearms in a similar fashion to the US. This at least will mean instant reaction by the nearest police officers in our growing gun-crime country. I also agree with forcing young people to join the armed forces instead of sending them to prison; thus teaching them self discipline, self worth and ultimately giving them the opportunity to be part of the best organised gang in the entire world.
Young people should be encouraged to find organised groups - such as the Scouting movement or the forces cadets - with which to engage. All the benefits of a group of their peers with a defined structure and agenda, and the added advantage of leadership from people who care enough to volunteer to run them.
Megan, Cheshire UK
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12251712 | Asian shoppers thirst for luxury
Something quite extraordinary is happening across Asia.
In the big cities all across the continent, people are shopping as though their lives depended on it, day after day.
In Singapore and Hong Kong, it's been the main leisure pursuit for years.
But now, rather suddenly, the cult of luxury shopping is spreading - and China is emerging as what will soon be the biggest luxury market in the whole world.Eclipsed
So many times in the past few decades, the insatiable appetite of the Americans for imported consumer goods has helped the world out of recession or helped to avoid it.
But if China's emerging class of consumers put their mind to it - up to 800 million of them, compared with roughly 200 million in the USA - their buying power will shape the needs and demands of the rest of the world.
In 2010 China became the biggest marketplace in the world for cars. It was already the largest market for mobile phones. The world's second largest economy, Japan, has been deposed - replaced (of course) by China.
End Quote Paul Husband Co-author, The Cult of the Luxury Brand
There's a view that by 2014/15, China will be the largest luxury goods market in the world.”
And the place that has hitherto been the great consuming nation - the USA - is soon going to be eclipsed. Asians seem to have an even hungrier appetite for luxuries: people who only 20 years ago hardly knew what bling was.Status symbols
Retail expert Paul Husband has been based in Hong Kong for 25 years and he knows the scale of what's happening in the East.
And with his Louis Vuitton bag, Cartier watch and Ferragamo shoes, he knows a thing or two about luxury too.
"It began really in the very late 80s and early 90s," he says, when the first luxury brands like Dunhill began to enter China.
These pioneers tended to base themselves in and around western hotels - although their customers were not always westerners.
"It was opening the cult of luxury. At that time of course, you would see them in hotels and not on the street because the people with money - well, quite frankly one might have questioned where the money had come from. They had to be very discreet. Hence the luxury stores also had to be fairly invisible to the street. One didn't want to be seen going in."
But thirty years later attitudes are different. China has a more relaxed attitude toward wealth and many Chinese have successfully followed Deng Xiaoping's maxim that "to be rich is glorious".Rags to riches
The workshop of Chinese fashion designer Zhang Zhifeng in the posh centre of Beijing is a vivid example of the opportunities open to an entrepreneur in a China moving quickly from communist puritanism to Western-style consumerism.
The ambitious but approachable designer, who heads up the label Tiger NE, is one of the people in China trying to create expensive luxury brands that speak directly to this booming market of people with newly acquired wealth.
His own story is a peculiarly Chinese take on the rags to riches tale.
"At the time of the cultural revolution, my dad was labelled as a capitalist and thrown into a gulag-style labour farm," says Mr Zhang.
"Our family was dirt poor. My mum had to learn tailoring just to make a living, to feed the family."
Mr Zhang learned the craft too, and after graduating from high school he opened his own small shop - just him and a sewing machine.
"This was in 1982. This was still the early days of China's reform and opening up."
When the government began to allow cross-border bartering, Mr Zhang's position on the Sino-Russian border meant he was able to take advantage of one of the first market liberalisations.
"Because of the barter trade, my business started to take off," he says. "Family and friends joined in to help as more and more business came my way. Soon, in 1985, my shop hired more than 300 employees."
"I was one of the first Chinese who had the opportunity to go abroad," says Mr Zhang, who visited his trading partners in the former Soviet Union, and, eventually, Europe and America.'All we had was quantity'
"The more I saw, the more I realised what the differences were between the Chinese and Western clothing industries. For example, the cost of making a shirt in China was about 20 Yuan and the shirt retailed for about 30. But in the States and Europe, a shirt can often fetch anywhere from US $30 to about $100."
In the West, the brand and the design quality had all been factored into the price, he realised, "but all we had in China was quantity. That was when I decided to improve and move into the high end fashion business."
NE Tiger was registered as a brand in 1992. At the time, a Chinese-owned and run luxury brand was highly unusual - and remains so today according to Zhang Zhifeng.
"In Beijing and Shanghai, our shops are still mainly surrounded by Western brand shops," he says.
"The only Chinese high end brand is mine. We are soon to launch a flagship store in Shanghai central shopping district where my new neighbours will be the likes of Louis Vuitton."Expanding
This puts Mr Zhang is in a good position to take advantage of Asia's luxury boom, according to Paul Husbands.
"There's a view that by 2014/15, China will be the largest luxury goods market in the world, meaning that consumption in China and consumption offshore by mainland Chinese would outperform Japan, America and Europe," says the retail expert.
"It's the one large market in the world where we cannot see really an end to the market."
The rise in demand for luxury goods is not just confined to China - it is happening across Asia.
For the series Start-up Stories, I have been speaking to entrepreneurs across the continent, some of whom are looking for a slice of this expanding market.
I've heard from Ho Kwon Ping, whose luxury resort chain Banyan Tree is now exporting an Asian take on luxury to the rest of the world. And I've spoken to watch retailer Jannie Tay and chocolatier Lyn Lee, whose businesses started in Singapore but now trade across Asia.
There are bound to be many more of these stories to come. The arrival of a mass of Asian consumers is quite extraordinary. It's potentially much more significant for the global economy than the 30 year emergence of China as the world's great manufacturing centre.
As we're about to see, when people start to become consumers, what they want is a little bit of luxury. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17224889 | Analysis: Is there light at the end of the NHS tunnel?
It has got to the stage where people are queuing up to have a go at the government's health reforms in England.
Unions such as the British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing have been at the front of the queue.
But in recent weeks they have been joined by some of the medical royal colleges, professional bodies who set standards in areas such as training and education and, as such, tend to be less political.
Independent experts, including a former NHS chief executive, have also entered the fray.
And then, over the weekend, Lib Dem members once again made it clear that they were not in favour after voting against the changes at their spring conference.
All in all, it has created a toxic atmosphere. But despite this there is light at the end of the tunnel.
A lack of winter blues
For the NHS, bad weather means one thing - more patients. Research shows that cold spells lead to more accidents and increasing admissions for everything from respiratory disease to stroke.
Coupled to this is the spike in seasonal flu cases that are normally seen in the early months of the year.
But this winter has been mild. Apart from the cold snap in the first half of February the weather has been relatively warm.
And the ripple effect has been felt in the NHS.
Without the pressure of lots of extra patients, touchstone issues such as waiting times and A&E queues have been kept in check.
This has allowed the debate and arguments about the reforms to take place on a largely theoretical level - a much easier scenario to deal than having a row to a backdrop of images of suffering patients.
The show has gone on
While ministers have spent the best part of the year defending their reforms, on the ground the revolution has been quietly gathering pace.
Nearly 250 GP-led groups have been set up across 97% of the country to take control of the NHS budget from April next year.
The national board which will oversee the new system already has a chief executive and should have a nine-strong senior management team in place within months.
It means the building blocks are in place despite the slow progress of the bill through Parliament.
And it has meant ministers have been able to be patient - even with the intense pressure being applied - safe in the knowledge the NHS will almost certainly be ready to go if and when the bill is passed.
Lords have not been leaping
Parliamentary progress has been slow. The bill was first introduced in January 2011 and ministers were hopeful it would complete its passage within the year.
In the end, it came nowhere near. Instead, early summer 2012 is now a more realistic date.
But despite the Lords going through the bill with a fine toothcomb, leading to countless amendments being tabled by ministers. There has only been one defeat - much less than the government suffered over welfare reform.
Even the most contentious parts covering competition were voted through last week.
It means the bill is set to return to the House of Commons and is now likely to complete its passage in the next few months.
A summer of fun
Health is not the only government department looking forward to the feel good factor of hosting the Olympics kicking in.
A successful Games will divert attention from the troubles with the NHS reform as well as the many battles the coalition is fighting on issues such as the economy, education and welfare.
By the time the Olympics gets under way the bill could have completed all its Parliamentary hurdles and with the country basking in the the 'Greatest Show on Earth' the battles of the past 18 months could be a distant memory.
After all, this is not the first time a government has had to battle against the medical profession and MPs to achieve health reform.
Nine years ago, the Labour government had to fight hard to get its legislation on foundation trusts through. Now they are widely accepted as a natural part of the health service.
Even the creation of the NHS in the aftermath of World War II was not an easy ride. The then health minister, Aneurin Bevan, famously said he had to stuff the mouths of doctors with gold to get them on-board. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19662980 | A Point Of View: Charity shop blues
Are prices at second-hand shops rising? Writer Sarah Dunant thinks so - but is it the recession, the trend for vintage fashion, or a combination of the two?
I'm wearing what I like to think is an interesting jacket bought from a charity shop near where I live.
Much of what some would call my eccentric wardrobe derives from charity shops. People are divided on second-hand clothes. Some find it distasteful, wearing things that others have already worn.
Personally, I've always loved the idea of something having been owned before me. But then, by temperament, I'm a historian and the sense of an object with a provenance somehow ties me more securely to both past and present. There's also a less romantic reason. Like many women, I suspect, I like a bargain.
Find out more
- Sarah Dunant is a writer, broadcaster and critic
- A Point of View is usually broadcast on Fridays on Radio 4 at 20:50 BST and repeated Sundays, 08:50 BST
When the human genome project is finished, I am sure they will find a bargain gene passing through generations.
Although nurture will obviously play its part - my mother, born into most humble circumstances, never quite lost her fear of being poor. For her, getting value for money was close to an obsession. As with many young post-war housewives she made a profession out of being savvy about money.
She would have made a splendid chancellor of the exchequer since early on she saw the folly of an economy built on selling endless credit to people who could never pay it back. "The bill will come in, darling, mark my words," she used to say. I wonder if the grocer's daughter within Margaret Thatcher ever rises to the surface to survey the chaos caused by her quasi-religious belief in home ownership.
She - my mother, not Margaret Thatcher - was a devotee of charity shops. She even worked in one when she retired from teaching. When we come to write the history of British retail in the 20th Century, though the madness of designer labels will warrant a chapter (how future generations will mock the idea of spending three thousand quid on a handbag), the growth of the charity shop will be right up there.
Excluded from land owning and professions regulated by guilds, Jews made the money they were allowed to lend largely from pawnbroking and second-hand clothes”
Making money out of second-hand clothes has a unique history.
It was for centuries the preserve of Jewish communities throughout Europe. Excluded from land owning and any profession regulated by guilds (in effect all forms of production) they made the money that they were allowed to lend largely from forms of recycling such as pawnbroking and - almost as high on the list - second-hand clothes.
Go back to Renaissance Venice, a city of astonishing wealth and equally astonishing poverty, and you find a thriving second-hand clothes industry, centred in Europe's biggest - and for a long time the most accepted - Jewish ghetto.
Rich women's clothes in particular were a palpable form of status, with today's fashion soon becoming yesterday's has-been. Jewish merchants would buy, clean, repair, sometimes remake and then sell down the class chain. Or, in some cases, onto courtesans (another successful Venetian industry) - women out to copy upper class fashion but without the wherewithal to pay for it.
By the 18th and 19th Centuries, across Europe and in an emerging America filled with Jewish immigrants, the rag trade - the phrase poetically summarises the journey from selling second-hand to making new - was big business. In 1851, social reformer Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor devotes a section to Jewish clothes selling in the East End, one huge exchange run by a certain Mr Isaacs specialising in "the cast off apparel of the metropolis".
"The goods are sold wholesale and retail, for an old clothes merchant will buy either a single hat, or an entire wardrobe, or a sackful of shoes - I need not say pairs, for odd shoes are not rejected."
- Born 1812, died 1887
- Journalist, social investigator, dramatist, novelist and co-founder of satirical magazine Punch
- London Labour and the London Poor started as series of newspaper articles on struggle for survival in tough times
- Published as a book in 1851
Mayhew, of course, represents the moment when Victorian England was becoming socially alarmed at the poverty brought by the Industrial Revolution and urban growth. As well as the Victorian obsession with cataloguing, there is a growing movement in philanthropy.
It was the Salvation Army that first passed on donated clothes to the poor at knock-down prices. In some ways it was an extension of how charity has always worked - through and on behalf of the church. But once the idea of the retail charity was born, it didn't take long for it to spread into secular hands.
Two world wars saw the donating and selling of clothes to help address the poverty that followed them, both to those at home and abroad. The very first Oxfam shop opened its doors in Oxford in 1948, as a direct result of an appeal launched to help post-war Greece. The charity had been so overwhelmed by the success and flow of donations that it made the decision to go into retail market selling.
Roll on 20 years and a tidal wave of baby boomers now had money in their youthful pockets. It was an era of unprecedented social mobility, when fashion was expanding from rationing and haute couture into mass market, and the emphasis on individual creativity was making the idea of vintage attractive. In the decades that followed, charity shops grew up everywhere, elbowing out the humble church jumble sale. Oh, what a wondrous thing that was - I can still feel the excitement, plunging my hands into musty piles of crimplene and nylon, in search of the elusive velvet or satin dress, cut on the bias for a woman out of a Scott Fitzgerald novel.
Still, one couldn't complain. This was a win-win situation. The profile of charity shops helped open our eyes to a wider world of need, while supplementing - at times substituting for - government money (from Oxfam and Save the Children to cancer and heart research and lifeboat charities).
As we got richer, the global market got faster and clothes got cheaper, so we all had more to donate. Though there is nasty irony in the fact that our appetite for cheap clothes triggered exploitation in many of the countries where the charities we supported were working to address poverty and inequality. Then there were designer labels. Rich enough to buy them, were you really so cheap as to sell them on?
Celebrity charity is its own business. For instance, next month sees an auction where celebrities donate autographed used shoes to support an innovative charity, Small Steps Project, targeting children in the developing world who live by picking rubbish (often barefoot themselves) off municipal waste tips. The juxtaposition is a provocative one, but it has to be better than a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes going into the bin.
In an imperfect world, imperfect goodness is better than none. Whether it's by donating or buying, we feel we have done something. And given that charity shops largely live on donations, excluded from corporation tax, with zero VAT rating, tax relief on giving and a healthy force of volunteers doing much of the selling, many charities are successful businesses which offer paid employment to others higher up the chain.
However, as an early vinyl copy of Bob Dylan I recently found in a second-hand shop would have it, "the times they are a-changing."
That great national credit bill that my mother railed against finally got delivered, and she was right. We couldn't pay. The protracted recession has hit everyone, everywhere, and nowhere more than retail. There are High Streets in Britain where charity shops are about the only things standing. Why not? It's tough for everyone and charities, like all businesses, must adapt.
Except there's something else going on here. A young friend recently arrived home from abroad to start full-time study in London. With hiked tuition fees and little paid work around, she's on a strict budget and, like thousand of other students, went charity shopping for winter clothes. "Wow," she said, as she pulled a slightly tatty cardigan coat out of her bag. "It's great, but it cost £12! What's happened to charity shops while I've been away?"
It's a good question. I can't be the only one who has noticed it. While prices were always dependent on postcode, over the past 18 months they seem to have taken a hike everywhere. I don't have hard figures, but I have experiential evidence, both from buying across a number of shops and seeing what prices get put onto the things I take in.
Of course there are reasons. Supply and demand. A country in recession is donating less (there are always appeals for more clothes).
For those - like myself - who patronise charity shops partly as fashion choice, this rise is roughly on a par with how much everything has gone up. Undoubtedly there is also more demand. Here comes the tricky bit. Although one of the achievements of charity shops is the way they eliminated the stigma of poverty attached to those early Salvation Army places (the rich donating to the poor) by attracting everyone, the fact is increasing numbers of people hit by the recession now "need" as opposed to "choose" second-hand retail as a way of life.
Maybe I'm not the right customer any more. God knows I've got enough clothes. Or maybe there's an argument for saying that at such a moment charity shops should be thinking of holding or dropping prices, even at the risk of reducing profits for the good causes concerned.
I know what my mother would say to all this. I can even hear her tone. "Charity begins at home, darling." Strange how since she's been dead, I find myself listening to her more. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19191278 | The 66th Edinburgh International Festival begins
While the Olympic Games have brought London into the limelight for the past few weeks and months, Thursday will see Edinburgh play host to its own world-famous event.
The Edinburgh International Festival is expected to attract more than 3,000 artists from 47 different countries, along with 12,000 spectators.
Organisers are hoping the opening ceremony will be a sight to remember.
James Cook reports.
Macbeth footage courtesy TR Warszawa |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18954092 | Pakistanis find fix for energy saving bulbs
Authorities in Pakistan have been trying to encourage people to use energy-saving light bulbs for a number of years to help combat the country's energy crisis.
Many are reluctant to use the devices as they can be expensive and susceptible to power fluctuations.
But some electricians have now found ways to repair the bulbs and give them a new lease of life - making them much more affordable and convenient to use.
Mehvish Hussain reports.
Video produced by BBC Urdu's Abad ul Haq. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6896645.stm | The Spanish Civil Guard has intercepted a boat operated by a US company amid a row over treasure from a shipwreck.
Odyssey says the ship was seized in international waters
The guard had been ordered by a Spanish judge to seize the vessel as soon as it left the British colony of Gibraltar.
Gibraltar officials and Odyssey Marine Exploration, which owns the ship, said Spain had boarded the ship illegally as it was in international waters.
In May, Odyssey said it had found $500m (£253m) in coins from a 17th Century wreck somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
Madrid suspects the sunken galleon may either have been Spanish or have gone down in Spanish waters.
The salvaged booty, which included half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects, has already been flown back to the US.
'Threat of force'
After leaving Gibraltar, the Ocean Alert was picked up at about 0700 GMT on Thursday off Europa Point and sent to the Spanish port of Algeciras to be searched, the Civil Guard said.
RULES OF THE WAVES
Seas and oceans governed by UN Laws of the Sea
Ownership of sunken property in international waters governed by the law of salvage and the law of finds
Law of salvage: If property is owned, those finding it are entitled to compensation for their salvage efforts
Law of finds: Salvor is entitled to all reclaimed property if it is proved to be abandoned
Spain insists it retains rights to all its sunken treasure
Odyssey intends its haul to be dealt with under US federal law, where previous judgements have sometimes granted exclusive rights to salvors
The guard was investigating a possible "offence against Spanish historic heritage", it said in a statement.
Odyssey said the boarding was illegal and said the Civil Guard threatened to use force if Ocean Alert's captain did not follow orders. It said Spain had earlier promised the ship would be searched at sea.
"At this point, Odyssey is assuming that the action on the part of the Guardia Civil is a miscommunication between Spanish authorities," the Florida-based company said in a statement.
A spokesman for the governor of Gibraltar said the ship was in international waters at the time it was seized.
A lawyer for Odyssey, Allen von Spiegelfeld, told Reuters news agency that Spain had not sought permission to board Ocean Alert from officials in Panama, where it is registered.
"The owners of the vessel have contacted the Panamanian maritime authorities protesting the seizure on international waters," Mr von Spiegelfeld said.
Spain has launched legal action over the treasure and the wreck.
Spain's Civil Guard is searching the Panama-registered ship
Some experts believe the wreck to be the Merchant Royal, an English ship carrying stolen Spanish treasure which sank in 1641.
US coin expert Dr Lane Brunner has said there is evidence the shipwreck was found off England's Cornish coast.
Odyssey has kept the location of its find secret, citing security and legal reasons. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7361539.stm | The physiology of bears could lead to a better understanding of some diseases
A new generation of medical treatments could be lost forever unless the current rate of biodiversity loss is reversed, conservationists have warned.
They say species are being lost before researchers have had the chance to examine and understand their potential health benefits.
The findings appear in Sustaining Life, a book involving more than 100 experts.
It is being published ahead of a global summit in May that will look at ways to stem biodiversity loss by 2010.
"While extinction is alarming in its own right, the book demonstrates that many species can help human lives," said co-author Jeffrey McNeely, chief scientist at IUCN (formerly known as the World Conservation Union).
"If we needed more justification for action to conserve species, it offers dozens of dramatic examples of both why and how citizens can act in ways that will conserve, rather than destroy, the species that enrich our lives."
Killing the cure
One creature whose potential benefits have been lost to science is the southern gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus), say the authors.
Some sharks have seen numbers fall by as much as 75% in 15 years
First described in 1973, the frogs, which were only found in Australia, interested researchers because they raised their young in the females' stomachs.
Preliminary studies suggested that the young produced substances that stopped them being digested.
Further research could have led to new ways of preventing and treating stomach ulcers in humans, but the amphibian was last recorded in the wild in 1981.
"These studies could not be continued because both species of Rheobactrachus became extinct," said co-authors Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein from Harvard Medical School, US.
"The valuable medical secrets they held are now gone forever."
The team added that there was a wide range of threatened species whose biology could hold secrets to possible treatments for a growing variety of ailments.
For example, they said some bears' ability to maintain bone mass when they entered a dormant state could lead to a better understanding of diseases such as osteoporosis.
"We must do something about what is happening to biodiversity," the UN Environment Programme's (Unep) executive director, Achim Steiner, told a conference in Singapore, where the book was previewed.
"Societies depend on nature for treating diseases; health systems over human history have their foundation on animal and planet products that are used for treatment."
The authors hope the publication will illustrate why delegates at a forthcoming key biodiversity summit in Germany have to back plans to halt species loss by 2010.
Mr Steiner said: "The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has achieved a great deal but it needs to achieve more if it is to meet the international community's goals and objectives.
"We need a breakthrough in Bonn on all three pillars of the convention: conservation, sustainable use, and access and benefit sharing of genetic resources." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6372813.stm | Eight US troops have been killed and 14 wounded in a helicopter crash in south-eastern Afghanistan, US-led coalition forces say.
Twin-engined aircraft with two, three-bladed rotors
Used to move soldiers, weapons and supplies
Can carry 54 troops or 25,000 lbs (11,340 kg) of freight - more than its own weight
Crew of four
The Chinook came down after the pilot reported engine trouble.
The crash happened in Zabul province, bordering Pakistan. A coalition statement said the Taleban had been building up forces in the area.
Coalition and Nato forces have lost several helicopters in Afghanistan in the last few years, most in accidents.
Initial reports indicated that Sunday's crash was purely accidental.
"It was not enemy fire related," Col Tom Collins, of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
"The pilot was able to radio in that he was having engine problems. We're confident it was not due to enemy action."
However, a statement issued by the US-led coalition forces later on Sunday did not specify the reason for the crash.
It said the CH-47 helicopter had "a sudden, unexplained loss of power and control and crashed in eastern Afghanistan".
It also said that: "Recent reporting indicated a Taleban build up for operations against the coalition forces in the region."
There were 22 people on board, including the crew.
"Coalition forces strongly advise any Afghans in the area of the crash to stay away from the site for their own safety," the statement said.
A Taleban spokesman said the helicopter had been shot down. Similar previous claims have turned out to be unfounded.
In April, 2005, at least 16 people died, 13 of them US personnel, when a Chinook crashed - the worst such disaster suffered by US forces there since the 2001 invasion.
In July, 2005, a US Chinook helicopter which was sent to back up a ground unit was shot down in the eastern province of Konar.
All 16 soldiers on board were killed. The Taleban say they brought it down.
Nato and coalition forces in Afghanistan are bracing for an expected spring offensive from regrouping Taleban fighters. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_2511000/2511953.stm | Sir Winston Churchill finished second, with JK Rowling third.
But just a couple of hundred votes separated Diana from JK!
They were well ahead of footballers David Beckham and Michael Owen.
In the adult vote, Churchill came first with Princess Diana back in third.
Why did you vote for Diana?
Jessica from Buckinghamshire says "she was nice and kind to children in hospital", while Angie from Lincolnshire says "she was caring and sensitive".
There were two kinds of votes, one on the CBBC Newsround website and a telephone one plugged on the TV programme.
On the website JK Rowling was an easy winner, but Princess Diana got loads more votes on the phone lines, edging her clear of the Harry Potter author. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/9523679.stm | This from the victor: "I thought it was good - I think I served well, got a lot of free points off that. Conditions were very warm today so if you can get in front of your opponent you're in good shape. I made quite a lot of good pasing shots in the end and I did well to come through. I need to improve - the best players ever are still in the tournament, so I need to get even better."
Stunning performance from Murray - many wise judges thought today was going to prove a real test for him, but he's breezed it. Delighted ovation from the happy hordes around Centre, bow to the Box from a grinning Sir Muzzington as he heads off for autographs and a well-deserved cold bath.
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 6-2 Gasquet
Serena Williams is OUT on Court No.1 - beaten in straight sets by Bartoli. It's all happening. Murray to serve now to seal his own victory, Lukasz Kubot or Feliciano Lopez awaiting in the last eight. Ace for 30-30, but he's crashed that volley wide - challenge coming from the Brit, but it's way gone. Break point - return long from Gasquet - and when another French forehand goes long, it's match point. First serve... let. First serve mkII: net. Lucky net-cord from Gasquet, and we're back to deuce. Was that the turning-point? Get out of here. Big serve out wide, return into net, match point no.2. Ace! An ace seals it in just two hours four minutes, and Murray is into his fourth consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final.
John Lloyd on BBC TV:
"The way Murray's playing here he's stepped up a level since the first week, that's what you have to do. The first week is all about getting through it. For Richard this is another of those disappointing mental performances. After he lost that first set. I don't think his new coaching team will be very happy with the way it went away in the second set."
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 5-2 Gasquet
Wheels coming off the Gaswagon here. Long forehand, and although a backhand drops in, Murray has two more break points - lob forcing Gasquet back, a smash from the back - stuffed long, and Murray is on the brink of the quarter-finals...
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 4-2 Gasquet *
Murray touching the heights now, a forehand pass on the run leaving Gasquet shrugging his shoulders in stereotyped Gallic exaggeration. Blue sweatband on right wrist, white on left, Murray is in red-hot form.
Steve in a boiling hot office via text to 81111:
"Anyone else worried that this was Gasquet's plan from the start? Reverse the comebacks that Murray completed in their last 2 meetings. True revenge."
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 3-2 Gasquet
Too casual from Gasquet - Murray's stranded at the tape, but his volleyed lob has too little mustard on it and is smashed away. Oh, what a forehand cross-court - creamed away onto the line for two break points, and - ooh la la - he's done it again! Murray's single best game of the championship so far - he has the break, he has the two-set lead, he has magic flowing through his fingertips.
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 2-2 Gasquet *
Just across the concourse, Serena has just saved another match point, and gone on to break Bartoli. Tie-break in second set, the Frenchwoman doing better than her compatriot here on Centre with a one-set lead. Murray holds as ladyfriend Kim Sears glowers in the VIP seats.
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 1-2 Gasquet
Gasquet has come back from two sets down just once in his career; in any case, his career five-set record is four wins to 11 defeats, while Murray's is 25-8. The Frenchman holds in rapid fashion again to keep his statistically unlikely hopes of victory alive.
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 1-1 Gasquet *
Murray now holds to love. On Court no.1, Serena Williams has just saved two match points against Marion Bartoli. Marvellous Monday in full effect all around.
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 0-1 Gasquet
Gasquet holds to love in impressive fashion. 17 winners from Murray in that second set, compared to the Frenchman's nine. Magic numbers. * denotes next server
Annabel Croft on BBC Radio 5 live: SECOND SET
Gasquet's footwork is definitely not there. This is coming down to the fitness of Gasquet and he's just not in getting in position and Murray is taking advantage."
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 Gasquet *
Some dispute around the Jacko tale coming in on Twitter, not least because both player and song are spelled Billie. Murray charging through this - 40-0, brief breather at 40-15, big serve, set sealed. Centre roars its approval, Prince Wills pumping a little royal fist as Kate on his right beams with patrician pleasure.
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 5-3 Gasquet
Beige patches of worn-out grass spreading out along the baselines and around the net-pot where ball-boys crouch. Murray at 30-30, forehand to the corner, Gazza sprinting out wide... oh, how has he made that? Almost over the net-post itself, only entering court airspace at the very last moment to kiss the corner. Murray lining up a backhand pass of his own - mmmm, the crowd purr as sauce of it seduces them - and he'll have a break point. Gasquet on the forehand - it looks long... it is
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 4-3 Gasquet *
The big moments don't always come on the deciding points. Murray is at 0-15 when Gasquet blitzes a return straight into his shoelaces - it's got 0-30 written all over it, only for Murray to twinkle his toes out of the way and conjure a magical half-volley up and over the tape. Murray landing just 57% of his first serve, and that's causing the obvious issues - backhand pass carressed away to avert the immediate danger.
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 3-3 Gasquet
Line-judges lean forward, hands tucked between knees, cream skirts skipping in the breeze and blue striped shirts darkening with perspiration. Glimmer for Murray at 30-30 on the Gazza serve, but he guesses the wrong way on an overhead and the moment slips away.
Murray 7-6 (7-3) 3-2 Gasquet *
The court a pattern of light and dark green stripes stretching from Royal Box to bank of television cameras, the crowd all around a sea of pinking faces, yellow blouses, straw-coloured hats and discarded blue blazers. Murray's turn to hold to love, and he squeezes half a bottle of water down his parched throat as the pair go to their chairs at the changeover.
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 2-2 Gasquet
Nice piece of trivia from my colleague Dave Lee: the Michael Jackson smash referenced at 6-6 in the first set was apparently originally going to be called 'Not My Lover' because Thriller producer Quincy Jones worried people would associate the tennis player with the song. Michael had a massive and the name was changed back - but with the alternative spelling of 'Billie' for added clarity. Gasquet holds to love with minimal fuss. Shamone.
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 2-1 Gasquet
Felt like a missed opportunity, that last Gazza service game - at a set and a break up Murray would have been hard to haul back, but fresh hope springs for the perspiring Gallic toiler. Murray holds at pace, Mervyn King in the Royal Box beaming happily.
Nimit via text to 81111:
I'm at the hospital with a broken finger, they're showing bbc news 24 and my girlfriend is moaning at me for asking them to change it! Come on Murray :)
* Murray 7-6 (7-3) 1-1 Gasquet
Lovely backhand from Murray out wide, fizzing over the highest part of the net before biting the outermost reaches of the line. The line-judge called it out; Murray and Hawk Eye put him right. Another glorious backhand cross-court, and suddenly he has a break point here - Gasquet the net, room for a pass... ooof, just wide, and I think a string broke on that shot. Yup - Murray drops the offending racquet the the turf and strides to his bag for a pinging replacement. Gasquet struggles to put this one to bed as the sun continues to thump down - Mark Webber in the Royal Box too, HRH Wills throwing hands skywards as Murray misses another opportunity at deuce - until a crisp backhand pass curtails the exchanges.
If you've just joined us, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are on Centre Court to watch Andy Murray -
this is how they arrived.
Murray 7-6 1-0 Gasquet *
17 winners from Gasquet in that first set, compared to Murray's 13, but it was all about three big points in the breaker. Murray starting sloppily here - he's suddenly 0-30 in his serve and in danger of following a first set success with a second set slide, just as he did against Ivan Ljubicic on Friday night. That's more like it - running round his backhand to cream a forehand drive away, making use of the space left by Gasquet failing to step in behind his second serve return to canter through the remaining points.* denotes next server
Anonymous via text to 81111:FIRST SET
Gasquet: A player based around skill, touch and talent. Not mental and physical toughness. Murray in 3
Murray 7-6 Gasquet
Now then. Murray to receive, and that's... ole! Wonderful pass, first blood to Scotland. Gasquet responds with a clattering volley off Murray's serve, but that's big serving - 2-1, back on serve. Super double-fisted backhand drive cross-court - tiny angle available and he found it - but that's a fast, sliding serve out wide from the Frenchman, and Murray can only frame it into the photographers' pit. 4-2, another serve to come - oh, but that's poor, a feeble one-handed backhand into the net as Gasquet rushes to the net. Eyes on the prize, not the player. Long, nerve-shaking exchange from the baseline - Murray slices again and again to the backhand, driving the Frenchman to distraction - 6-3 now, Murray on serve, the set awaiting... Big serve, whipping forehand, to the net with the ball floating towards him and the open acres on the backhand side awaiting - easy put-away, and he's drawn first blood in ruthless fashion...
Murray 6-6 Gasquet
Billy Jean King there in the Royal Box, which allows me to put an old rumour to bed once and for all: Billy Jean was not my lover; she's just some girl who says that I am the one. Murray wipes his face on a towel, tosses it back to the supplicant ball-boy and serves deep for 30-15. Gasquet dips a backhand cross-court - called out, challenged by the mutinous Frenchman, confirmed good by Hawk Eye. Murray scampering in to the net, the ball there for the pass - no no, onto the tape and away into the tramlines for 40-30. First serve... net. Second serve... good, but not as good at that Gasquet backhand drive. Deuce. Murray in the net again. Gasquet flailing, the ball beyond Murray and dropping, dropping... ooof, half an inch long. Kicking second serve, Gazza wrong-footed, and we shall march into a breaker...
* Murray 5-6 Gasquet
Gasquet now winning 86% of points on his first serve - only one ace, but the direction and variery is all. Hold to love, and Murray must do it again. Anxious yelps of encouragement fill the sultry air.
Murray 5-5 Gasquet *
Dapper, Gasquet - hair short and neat, blouson crisp, sideburns trimmed. Something of Damien Lewis about him, crossed with Scotty Parker. Ace from Murray, but that backhand flies long - 40-30. Wonderful flashing forehand, opening his body out, the backswing exaggerated and extended, the Frenchman left swishing at empty summer air.
* Murray 4-5 Gasquet
Hmm. Doesn't happen - doesn't happen at all - hold to love, done in the blink of an eye. Murray now staring up at a whole heap of pressure overhead - he'll have to hold to stay in the set. Punters in the sun-baked stands wipe brows and glug from squishy plastic pots of Pimm's.
Murray 4-4 Gasquet *
Murray far from demonstrative this afternoon, his face hidden under the long, curved peak of his cap, his body language calm and controlled. Dreamy dropper again, applauded by spectators fanning themselves feverishly with opened-out programmes and order of plays. Now to get some sort of foothold in the Gasquet serve.
Annabel Croft on BBC Radio 5 live:
"I'm still fascinated by how much Murray keeps looking up at his camp almost as if they have some blame for what is going on out there."
* Murray 3-4 Gasquet
Whether it's the hammering heat, the presence of Their Royalnesses in the Box or weight of expectation I don't know, but this is the most muted atmosphere we've had for a Sir Muzzington match in this Wimbledon so far. Gasquet sprints to 40-0, landing 77% of his first serves and then taking 82% of points when they land, only for Murray to stir some sauce into the crowd with a battle back to deuce. He's in the next point too - out wide onto his favoured forehand, Gazza at the net... oh, what a half-volley, a feathering touch from the Frenchman to slip out of the tackle.
Murray 3-3 Gasquet *
The two rivals so evenly matched - Murray 24, Gasquet 25; Murray 25 wins in 2011, Gasquet 26; Murray no.4 in the word, Gazza back into the top ten if he wins here today. Teeter at 30-30, confidence quashing of trouble with a big serve and then super forehands that leave his opponent flat-footed.
* Murray 2-3 Gasquet
Murray on a seven-match unbeaten streak at the mo, his three wins here following on from that splendid form in winning Queen's. Gasquet's backhand, a thing of beauty at its best, is starting to purr - mmm, that is a delight, breezing one past the helpless Murray to edge his elegant nose back in front.
Murray 2-2 Gasquet *
Someone employing an innovative shawl-headband combo there - necessity the mother of invention as always. First ace of the match so far from Murray, and he's slowly beginning to stretch out after the early tightness.
* Murray 1-2 Gasquet
Few of us need any reminder of the only time these two players have met on grass, that five-set classic in this very arena back in 2008. Murray was two sets and 5-4 down on a break in that match before producing the greatest fight-back of his career to that point. The noise that night.... Gasquet in the groove, holding to love as sweat begins to soak through the two combatants' clothing.
* Murray 1-2 Gasquet
Few of us need any reminder of the only time these two players have met on grass, that five-set classic in this very arena back in 2008. Murray was two sets and 5-4 down on a break in that match before producing the greatest fight-back of his career to that point. The noise that night.... Gasquet ion the groove, holding to love as sweat begins to soak through the two combatants' clothing.
Murray 1-1 Gasquet *
All manner of headgear being employed around the court to keep sun from face and ears from exploding - panamas, boaters, the occasional cloche and even a towel, worn in a drape a la player at changeover. Nerves tinkle all around as a Murray backhand slice dives into the net for the first break point of the match, but an escalating series of fiery forehands pull Gasquet apart on the baseline. Oh, first sighting of the trademark drop-shot - disguised with Hollywood CGI skill, Gazza nowhere near it.
* Murray 0-1 Gasquet
Murray strides to the baseline wearing a white cap to keep the blistering sunshine out of his eyes. Gazza to open out, and he holds to 15 as Murray pushes a brace of backhands wide. The Frenchman hasn't dropped a set in the championships so far. Ominous. * denotes next server
I've been offered Hard Net Life on Twitter, plus a tweak from Will.I.Am to Will.1.Is. Magnificent. We're almost under way.
Ah, here we go - the two players strolling out, enormo bags over the shoulders. This coculd be anything but a stroll in the sunshine for the Great British Hope - while Murray has won the last two of their head-to-heads, Gasquet won the first two - and he's been charging up the rankings again this year like a man truly revitalised.
Roars, screams, standing ovation - no, not Sir Muzzington, but the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Or Will.I.Am and K-Middy, as they'll be addressed by Mr and Mrs Beyonce.
Had a chat with one of the security guards on Centre earlier on. He warned in dire terms of apocalyptic numbers of faintings today. "Too much drinking," he said, shaking his head. Reminds me of my old man, who claims every summer that there's no need to drink any water on a hot summer's day, as long as you get enough G&Ts down you. "Tonic water hasn't got alcohol in it, has it?" is his reasoning.
Did I mention Beyonce and Jay-Z were here? Oh, and William and Kate? Royalty of both hip-hop and tip-top variety. We've opened out on Twitter with Umpire State of Mind; Crazy In, Love; If I Were A (Ball) Boy. Feel free to dive in.
Centre Court, 30 degrees C, Sir Andrew of Muzzington ready to stroll on for what could be a stone-cold classic. Hello summer, it's good to see you. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11645439 | High fashion learns to love selling online
At either end of Milan's expensive Via Montenapoleone sit two quite different temples to fashion.
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, built in 1877, sits near the Duomo, and hosts Louis Vuitton and the first Prada store set up in 1913. At the other end is the thoroughly modern megastore of Giorgio Armani.
In addition to Armani's expensive catwalk collections, the store showcases his children's wear, a bookshop, flower shop and a branch of every celebrity's favourite restaurant, Nobu. Soon, it will also have an Armani Hotel - to go with the one already opened in Dubai.
Not long ago, it was only in stores like these that shoppers could buy designer products.
Yes, there were luxury fashion websites, but they used to be a mess of slow-loading Flash movies and "look books" of high fashion ad campaigns. Direct shopping was the least these websites were about.
'Quality of Internet'
Much of what is available in Mr Armani's store can be found online, at armani.com.
"Mr Armani was among the very, very first," Federico Marchetti says. "He was among a group of innovators."
End Quote Federico Marchetti Yoox
The biggest store they have in the world is online, and the most beautiful”
Mr Marchetti's company, Yoox, is one of a new breed of hi-tech firms that are powering the online strategies of some of the world's biggest luxury retailers.
Yoox manages the websites for 23 brands - including Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna and Marni - and has a waiting list of 33 more.
After years of shunning the internet because it was too slow and broadband connections were few and far between, fashion designers are finally embracing it.
"The big fear was the quality of the internet, and I have to say that they were quite right to wait," Mr Marchetti says.
Yoox.com is an online seller of discounted high-end goods. Mr Marchetti launched the company as a tiny start-up in 2000.
"The idea was to be the link between the internet world and the fashion world because these two were, and are, very far apart," he says.
The company went public last year, the only share sale in Italy in 2009. Yoox is now worth 400m euros ($555m, £347m).
Burberry has been on the cutting-edge of innovation in the luxury fashion world.
The British firm has been providing live streams for its key Fashion Week shows to customers around the world.
Anyone could click on the dresses - and order them before the show had even finished. Burberry's collections will be delivered to your house within seven weeks - a far cry from the usual six-month turnaround for the bi-annual spring and autumn collections.
That "shop the runway" technology is powered by Createthe Group, founded by James Gardner, who helped pioneer algorithmic trading when he worked on Wall Street.
"It's a very powerful way to acquire long-term relationships with their customers," Mr Gardner says. "They're seeing new clothes at the same time as the buyers."
It allows fashion companies to bypass department stores and connect directly with customers.
Burberry has its own mini-social networking series, called the Art of the Trench, which draws attention to different ways to wear its signature trenchcoat.
The firm now receives 30% of its website traffic from social media like Twitter, according to web analytics firm Experian Hitwise.
Artisans benefit too
Innovations in technology have also allowed small players to compete.
Boticca.com came about after co-founder Kiyan Foroughi visited a souk in Morocco and spotted some high-quality jewellery amidst a lot of cheap tat.
Mr Foroughi and his partner, Avid Larizadeh, launched the website to link sellers from Estonia, Dubai, Colombia and beyond with customers around the world.
"It's difficult for them to have mass distribution because every piece is bespoke," Ms Larizadeh says. "With us, they are able to have a marketplace where they will distribute globally."
Because they don't have the overheads of traditional and expensive bricks-and-mortar shops, tiny start-ups like Boticca can compete with the likes of Cartier and Tiffany.
Before fashion giants like Gucci and LVMH decided to go large on the internet, they had to be sure that they would be able to maintain the exclusivity of their brands.
But how does one square being reachable by everybody with only reaching those customers you want to reach?
"The biggest store they have in the world is online, and the most beautiful," Mr Marchetti says. "And they give it us to manage, which is a question of trust."
The brands maintain their exclusivity by restricting access to some of their products, giving valued customers a sense of being VIPs.
For example, a select audience of 1,500 people was invited to watch the live stream of the Burberry show during London Fashion Week in its stores.
Many firms have also embraced social media.
Louis Vuitton is using the location-based service FourSquare - which lets your friends know exactly where you are - to make people who visit its stores show up as "Vuitton insiders".
Shoemaker Jimmy Choo used it for its Catch-a-Choo campaign, which required customers to check in at locations around London to get the chance to buy some exclusive trainers.
Ralph Lauren has iPhone apps for its preppy Rugby brand - where users can design their own styles and then share them through sites such as Facebook.
Createthe Group has set up a more elaborate version as a social network for Juicy Couture.
Of course, the glamour of the front row of the catwalk in Paris or Milan remains. Indeed, one of the most talked-about shows in New York's most recent fashion week was Tom Ford's, who held it in his Madison Avenue store, only invited 100 people and had Beyonce and Lauren Hutton as models.
The photos of the show are supposed to be secret until the clothes are launched, which will not be until next year.
Still, a few pictures of the show leaked - online.
End of real stores?
The low cost of selling online means that small high-end fashion brands can go online - and emphasise their quality.
"We don't want to facilitate mass production," says Ms Larizadeh. "It's actually the uniqueness of each piece that is most appealing."
Mr Marchetti points to another very simple advantage of the online stores - timing. "These stores are open 24-7," he says.
One-third of Yoox's customers buy after 7pm, especially in the Japanese market.
Next year, Mr Marchetti will launch Yoox in China, becoming one of the first to bring fashion e-commerce to an economy that overtook Japan's in size this year.
But he says he cannot see a world where Prada and Gucci do not have any more shops on Bond Street or Fifth Avenue.
At least not yet. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19045513 | Five car crash closes M8 motorway
A crash involving five cars caused long delays on the M8 near Harthill during the morning rush hour.
Traffic in both directions was affected after the crash on the westbound carriageway between junction four and five at about 07:00.
Police said there were no serious injuries but the westbound carriageway was closed for a short time in North Lanarkshire and West Lothian.
Long delays continued for hours on both carriageways and local roads. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21156968 | Gary the Goat walks free from Sydney court
A magistrate in Australia has dismissed charges against a man who was fined after his goat ate flowers outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.
On Wednesday, a court dismissed the charges and ruled that Gary the goat and his owner had not purposely destroyed the vegetation.
Comedian Jimbo Bazoobi, real name James Dezarnaulds, had been ordered to pay a financial penalty for damaging vegetation last August.
Serena Chaudhry reports. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8169357.stm | Deborah Dark has faced extradition proceedings in the UK and Spain
A British grandmother is being pursued by France for a crime she was convicted of in her absence 20 years ago.
Deborah Dark, 45, from London, was acquitted of a drugs offence in 1989 - but found guilty and sentenced to six years on appeal without being told.
France issued a European Arrest Warrant in 2005 but recent extradition attempts have failed in both the UK and Spain.
UK charity Fair Trials International said the warrant system was creating a "blatant injustice" against her.
Ms Dark, from Richmond in south-west London, was arrested in France in 1989 in a car containing several kilos of cannabis.
A French court believed her defence that she been set up by an abusive boyfriend and was acquitted.
But she was unaware the prosecution appealed without telling her after she returned to the UK and she was found guilty and sentenced in 1990.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued by the French authorities for Ms Dark to be returned to France to serve her jail term.
Ms Dark told the BBC of the effect that still being officially wanted in France had had on her.
She said: "It's destroyed me, and to see my daughter to go through all that pain again. I just will never forget it.
"I can't leave the country. If I leave the country I will be arrested because I'm still on the European Arrest Warrant."
In 2007 she was arrested on a package holiday at a Turkish airport but the authorities were unable to give her a reason.
On her return to the UK the British police could not find any warrants against her.
When Ms Dark travelled to visit her retired father in Spain in 2008 she was arrested and spent one month in custody.
But a Spanish court refused to extradite her on the grounds of unreasonable delay and the significant passage of time.
When she returned to the UK she was arrested by British police at Gatwick airport and released on bail pending an extradition hearing. Magistrates refused extradition in April this year.
Fair Trials International said Ms Dark was effectively being "imprisoned in the UK".
Chief executive Jago Russell said: "Deborah's case is a shocking example of the way a system intended to deliver justice has created a blatant injustice.
"The European Arrest Warrant should have been designed with a time-limit built in but it wasn't.
"The result - a person's life can be turned upside down for an event alleged to have happened 20 years ago." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7955057.stm | Protesters previously targeted the G8 in Edinburgh in 2005
Known activists are planning in an "unprecedented" way ahead of next month's G20 summit in London, the Metropolitan Police have warned.
Cdr Bob Broadhurst, in charge of the policing operation, said anarchists and environmentalists were plotting a series of demonstrations.
Groups active in the late 1990s were re-emerging and forming new alliances to protest at the meeting, he said.
The operation will involve thousands of officers and cost an estimated £7.2m.
World leaders, including US President Barack Obama, will begin to arrive in the UK on 31 March.
The next day campaigners are expected to target the City of London in a series of anti-globalisation and climate change demonstrations.
As the G20 summit begins on 2 April, protests are also planned at the Excel conference centre in Docklands.
Cdr Broadhurst said officers from six forces would be involved in a massive security operation before and during the summit.
G20 LONDON SUMMIT
World leaders will meet next month in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See
our in-depth guide
to the G20 summit.
The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the US and the EU.
However, it was difficult to estimate how many protesters would actually turn up on the main day of activity on 1 April.
"Clearly there are some very innovative and clever people and they know our tactics," Cdr Broadhurst said. "They want to stop the City on the Wednesday - that is their avowed intention."
He said it was his aim to "facilitate lawful protest" and he revealed plans for a special demonstration pen near the Excel Centre to accommodate a few hundred protesters.
But while police had worked closely with some campaigners, the plans of other groups were harder to ascertain.
"Anarchists by definition won't come and see us," he said.
He said there was no intelligence to suggest there was a terrorist attack planned, but there was evidence that groups not seen since the 1990s, such as direct action exponents Reclaim the Streets and the Wombles, were re-forming and planning activity.
Students were also involved in larger numbers than before, he said, and there was some evidence that foreign activists were heading to the UK to take part in the protests.
Police are expecting activists to block streets and hold demonstrations heading in several directions at once.
"Hitting us at the same time for a day, that is the stretch, that is causing the issues, rather than protecting people, which is our core business," said Cdr Broadhurst.
He added: "There will be times when protest comes up against security and they are not always happy bedfellows."
Cdr Broadhurst said police were facing a particular challenge during the G20 because it falls in the same week as a state visit from the president of Mexico, the England football team's games against Slovakia and Ukraine at Wembley and the Boat Race.
Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson admitted policing the summit and protecting the 20 world leaders and 40 delegations was a "huge challenge". |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8060000/newsid_8069400/8069486.stm | The way we see dinosaurs in museums and TV shows like Primeval may be all wrong according to scientists.
For years giant dinos like diplodocuses have been shown with long drooping necks, but experts now think they may have held their heads up high instead.
They looked at the way animals with long necks act now, and that's changed the way they think about dinosaurs.
They would have bent their heads down low to drink, but were more likely have them in the air the rest of the time.
The giant dinosaurs were called sauropods as a group, and Dr Mike Taylor said: "Unless sauropods carried their heads and necks differently from every living vertebrate, we have to assume that the base of their neck was curved strongly upwards."
Dinosaur skeletons often have their heads low to the ground in front of them
Another expert, Dr Mike Benton, said as the new theory is based on living animals, computers will now be used to study dinosaur skeletons too.
No change to skeletons
Scientists need to work out if it was comfortable for dinosaurs to carry their heavy heads and necks in the same way as modern, smaller animals.
But Dr Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum said the diplodocus skeleton there won't be changing any time soon, as it's still posed in a way that the animal could have stood. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/irish/2952289.stm | Kevin Mahon's Derry City side face Shelbourne on Friday
Derry City have signed Northern Ireland youth international Mark McCrystal from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The 18 year old central defender opted for a return to his home town after being told that he had no future at Molineux because of cutbacks at the club.
McCrystal had been at loan for Bradford City in recent weeks but he has decided to return home to finish his studies.
Derry, meanwhile, have turned down an offer from Longford Town for midfielder Ciaran Martyn.
The former UCD player was unhappy at being substituted in last Thursday's 3-2 defeat by Longford and walked straight to the dressing-room after he had been taken off.
At that point, there was speculation Martyn had played his final game for Derry but manager Kevin Mahon has insisted that he remains on the club's staff.
Shelbourne, who face Derry in the Eircom League at Tolka Park on Friday, have also made a tentative enquiry about Martyn's availability. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17361047 | Shisha clampdown: Concerns raised over fire and health risks
Councils are considering bringing in licensing for shisha cafes, in an attempt to tackle the growing number of back-street premises.
Officials fear that more water-pipe bars are moving into enclosed premises, in a bid to escape anti-smoking laws.
Councils say licences may be needed because of the health and fire risks associated with shisha.
Freedom of Information requests suggest a there has been a 210% increase in the number of such cafes since 2007.
According to requests submitted to 133 UK councils, by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) for No Smoking Day, the number of cafes nationwide has risen from 179 to 556.
The World Health Organization has advised that a 40-minute session on a waterpipe is the equivalent to the volume of smoke inhaled from at least 100 cigarettes.'Deathtraps'
Yet 84% of those surveyed thought it was fewer than 10.
About 44% of young adults, thought it was less harmful than cigarette smoking.
The survey also suggests more than a quarter of 18-to-24 year olds had smoked shisha.
The data also revealed that shisha smoking is no longer a pastime for specific ethnic groups, with 8% of people with white ethnicity saying they used it. The same number of non-smokers had also tried it.
End Quote Janet Bradley Birmingham City Council
These places are like 1940s snugs. There's a phenomenal profit”
The figures have come as no surprise to councils up and down the country trying to enforce the law.
Shisha cafes have to comply with smoke-free legislation by providing open-air canopies.
Govind Mandora, health and safety team manager for Leicester City Council, is concerned about a worrying recent trend with shisha establishments trying to avoid legal requirements.
He has serious concerns about the health and fire risks, and says the shisha smoking culture "is going underground".
"We are investigating and prosecuting several places in the city," he says.
"They're locating in back streets, even old industrial units, hidden from view.
"Customers hear about them via Twitter or Facebook and gain entry by pressing a buzzer by the locked door or making a call from outside on their mobile phone.
"These places are enclosed, often their doors are locked.
"They are deathtraps, not just because of the fire hazard, but with the potential for carbon monoxide poisoning from the charcoal-fuelled tobacco."
Environmental health officers across the country are receiving reports of people collapsing through inhaling the smoke, even playing dangerous smoking games.
Ian Gray, principal policy officer for the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health said: "Students are filling their lungs with the smoke, in a kind of game, then passing out from the carbon monoxide.
"They are starved of oxygen. One GP reported a patient became breathless, with not enough oxygen in his blood. He was a hospital case. He'd been smoking shisha."'Phenomenal profit'
Mr Gray said: "It's now a chic thing to do, especially among the young. It's becoming a young person's introduction to tobacco. I'd like to see a licence for selling tobacco, like they have in Scotland."
Janet Bradley, Birmingham City Council's operations manager for team enforcement, said: "These places are like 1940s snugs. There's a phenomenal profit.
"It's less risky. One assistant in a bar who helps light the coals, by drawing it through the waterpipe, told me how a customer collapsed after smoking for a couple of hours.
"Even the assistants are at risk because of the time they spend in there. We're even seeing shisha bars hired for 18th birthday parties."
One close relative of a 14-year-old in Leicester, who did not want to be identified, described how her nephew and a group of friends were trapped in a shisha cafe.
"They went into the cafe to watch television, but the cafe is encouraging underage smoking. I was horrified to hear that the boys wanted to leave and couldn't.
"My nephew was traumatised. Parents just aren't aware of the risk.
"The shisha smoking is bad for your health, to say nothing of the potential fire hazard with the charcoal burning in the hookah in a room with locked doors."
Leicester City Council is now considering using licences to regulate the cafe culture more stringently.
"This is a nationwide problem, it's no longer a niche pastime, but mainstream" said Mr Mandora.
The manager of a shisha cafe in Leicester, who didn't want to be named, said he was losing a significant amount of trade to the underground scene.
"I asked my customers why I don't see them so much, they said it was warmer in the back street enclosed premises, it's too cold here, because my premises is partly open.
"I've lost about 25% of my trade trying to be above the law, we invested £120,000 in this business, but I'm still in dispute with the council over compliance." |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21696345 | Ulster Bank to reimburse customers who lost cash over computer glitch
The Ulster Bank has said it will reimburse any customer who was left out of pocket as a result of computer problems on Wednesday night.
The bank apologised to customers reporting difficulties using bank cards and making online transactions.
It described the failure as unacceptable but said it was not related to the major IT crash last summer.
RBS, the bank's parent company, said the glitch had been resolved.
However, some people reported problems afterwards.
Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest customers were also unable to withdraw cash for several hours on Wednesday.
Last summer, computer faults caused weeks of disruption for thousands of Ulster Bank customers.
Customers were unable to withdraw cash or access their accounts for weeks after a software upgrade on 19 June last year.
More than £18m was paid out in compensation to 300,000 people in Northern Ireland affected by the fault.'Disappointed'
The latest glitch is understood to be part of a UK-wide problem affecting the RBS banking group.
In a statement on Thursday, the Ulster Bank said: "We are disappointed that our customers faced disruption to banking services for a period yesterday evening, and apologise for that.
"All services are now running as normal again. If any customers are having continued difficulties please call 0800 231 232 between 9am and 6pm so we can resolve their issues.
BBC Northern Ireland business reporter Colletta Smith said the problems began across the RBS network at 22:00 GMT on Wednesday, affecting Nat West, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank customers.
"Bank cards were being swallowed by bank machines, and there were problems with the online and telephone banking systems," she said.
"The bank said the issue was resolved by 01:00 GMT on Thursday although they did not say what the problem was.
"It is worrying for customers as last summer many went for weeks without access to their money because of a backlog of problems caused initially by a computer glitch."
Hear more on the Ulster bank problems on BBC - Podcasts and Downloads - NI Business News |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20734605 | Casablanca piano sold at auction
A piano that features in the classic 1940s film Casablanca has been sold for more than $600,000 (£370,000) at an auction in New York.
The upright piano appears in one of the film's most iconic scenes, in which Humphrey Bogart's character Rick utters the line: "Here's looking at you, kid."
It was sold to an unknown buyer at Sotheby's in New York.
The piano had been offered for sale by its Japanese collector owner to mark the film's 70th anniversary.
It was expected to sell for as much as $1.2m, The owner originally paid about $154,000 for the piano at auction in the late 1980s.
It is used in the film by pianist Sam, played by Dooley Wilson, to play the song As Time Goes By during a key flashback scene set in a Paris bar.
Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, delivers the famous line as he and Ingrid Bergman's character Ilsa Lund lean on the piano, toasting with glasses of champagne.
The piano's sale marks the 70th anniversary of the Oscar-winning World War II classic, which is largely set in the Moroccan port city of Casablanca, then part of unoccupied French North Africa. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4517597.stm | Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut describes the day in June 1972 when he photographed a nine-year-old girl, Kim Phuc, fleeing her village after a napalm attack - a picture that won him a Pulitzer prize.
The picture shows Kim, when her skin is burned so badly.
Behind Kim, you see all the South Vietnamese armies running with her, together.
And next to Kim, her older brother and one young brother looking back to the black smoke, and another two [members of] her family.
She looked ever so bad - I thought that she would die.
You know, I had been outside the village that morning and I took a lot of pictures. I was almost leaving the village when I saw two aeroplanes.
The first dropped four bombs and the second aeroplane dropped another four napalm [bombs].
And five minutes later, I saw people running, calling "Help! Please help!"
As soon as she saw me, she said: "I want some water, I'm too hot, too hot," - in Vietnamese, "Nong qua, nong qua!"
And she wanted something to drink. I got her some water. She drank it and I told her I would help her.
I picked up Kim and took her to my car. I ran up about 10 miles to Cu Chi hospital, to try to save her life.
At the hospital, there were so many Vietnamese people - soldiers were dying there. They didn't care about the children.
Then I told them: "I am a media reporter, please help her, I don't want her to die."
And the people helped her right away.
I have never had a picture like it, all my life. All my foreign editors decided they wanted to send the picture to America.
At first they didn't like the picture because the girl had no clothes. Then I told them about the napalm erupting in the village.
The pictures were shown in America, they were shown everywhere. They were shown in all the Communist countries - in China and in Vietnam. They still use the photo.
Even though pictures [are taken] in every war, they still show the picture of Kim. They don't want it to happen again - not napalm.
After I took the picture of Kim, I took to her very well - I always went to visit, to see her family, and she called me Uncle Nick.
Even now I call her once a week - she lives in Toronto, Canada. We are like a family now.
Nick Ut gave this account to the BBC World Service programme, The World Today. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7680087.stm | Iceland's financial crisis threatens to push many migrants - mostly from Poland - back home, in what would be a further blow to the island's economy, the BBC's Ray Furlong says.
Flateyri's dwindling community heavily depends on migrants
Flateyri is just a handful of weatherboard homes and some squat warehouses perched by the fjord. When the weather is good the waters glisten in the sun, with snow-covered mountains sloping down on all sides.
It is a long way from the global financial storm that is tearing through Iceland's capital, Reykjavik. But that storm could soon be felt here, too.
The only activity in the village, apart from a small pub, is the fish processing plant - where workers from Poland, the Philippines, and Thailand pack cod fillets ready for freezing.
"We have 36 people working for us, and only three of them are from Iceland," says Vigdis Erlingsdottir, the owner.
"Most of the workers come from Poland. We wouldn't be able to have this factory open without them. They are the base of the town.
"When I was growing up we had 350-400 people living here, now it's 200 and more than 100 of them are foreigners," Ms Erlingsdottir says.
It is a story that has been repeated at countless remote fishing communities in Iceland.
Vigdis says her business would not survive without Polish workers
As the local young people left for education and jobs in Reykjavik, the population declined - until the last few years, when an influx of migrant workers, mostly from Poland, reversed the trend.
But Iceland's economic crisis could push the migrants away again.
Janina Krzyszewska came to Flateyri three years ago. She lives with her husband and children, and has even bought a house.
"For now, my home is here, but I plan to go back to Poland in the future. Everything depends on inflation," she says.
Inflation was at 14% before the current financial turmoil, which saw Iceland's currency, the krona, plummet in value. At one stage it lost 30% of its value in a single day.
"It makes me think about going home. My brother is thinking very hard about going back to Poland, and my cousin wants to go back too," Mrs Krzyszewska says.
Icelanders have mixed feelings about migrant workers. This is a society that has never known large-scale immigration.
Janina says she just wants to pack up and go back to Poland
A Reykjavik taxi-driver told me "there are 20,000 Poles in Iceland - and it's 20,000 too many".
The Polish consulate estimates there are 8,000 Poles here, but the comment illustrates a wider mood.
Dorota Erutkowska-Bragasson, who is married to an Icelander and works as a translator, says media reports about Poles committing rapes and thefts have soured the atmosphere.
"Icelandic children hear bad things about Polish people, maybe from their parents or somewhere. Then they come to school and they are using it, saying 'your father is a rapist' or something. It's very sad," she says.
In last year's general election a small opposition party, the Liberals, gained seats in parliament by calling for curbs on immigration.
Magnus Thor Hafsteinsson, one of its MPs, even sees the current crisis as a blessing in disguise.
"This matter of integration is very important for us Icelanders as we are a very small nation," he says.
"We are only 300,000 speaking this language which nobody else does. It's very important that we take care of our history, our background, and our language. Those are the things that make us a nation," Mr Hafsteinsson adds.
In Flateyri, where the migrants are so crucial, there is a more nuanced view.
Maria says the Polish community lives its separate life in Flateyri
"There's nothing for us to do here except work in the fish factory or petrol station or something, so we all want to leave to have some more education," says 19-year-old Maria Kristjansdottir, who has just moved back to the area from Reykjavik to have a baby.
"So we move away. I don't know if the village could survive without the Poles. But I just don't like how they don't try to learn our language.
"I was working at a petrol station, and they just spoke Polish to me and I didn't like that, because they're so many. They have their own community - the Polish community."
Twenty minutes' drive up the road, in the village of Sureyri, the whitewashed walls of a windswept Lutheran church give shelter to a Polish Catholic congregation.
Sureyri also relies on Polish workers to keep its fish plant in business and stop its population shrinking.
The priest, Father Piotr, spends his days driving around the scattered Polish communities.
Many Poles are now unable to send home remittances
"Sometimes, after Mass, people talk to me about the economic situation. These are hard times. But there's nothing we can do about it," he says.
Polish officials in Reykjavik are a bit more forthcoming. Michal Sikorski, the Polish consul, tells me Polish workers have been calling up asking for advice.
In response to the crisis, Iceland has put limits on taking foreign currency out of the country. Mr Sikorski says Poles have been unable to send home remittances - for most, the sole purpose of their stay in Iceland.
That could be a death knell for business people like Vigdis - and the dwindling communities they support. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8137718.stm | Mr Mousavi said post-election arrests would radicalise protesters further
Iranian opposition leaders have criticised what they describe as the "security state" imposed in the country after the controversial June elections.
They also called for the release of people detained during mass protests that followed the vote.
Runner-up Mir Hossein Mousavi's website said the call was backed by fellow defeated candidate Mehdi Karoubi and former President Mohammad Khatami.
The vote was won by hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Although many opposition figures have accused the state of rigging the result, Iran's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has given his seal of approval.
On Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei issued a sharp warning to Western nations not to meddle in Iran's internal affairs, saying relations would suffer if they did.
More than 1,000 opposition supporters and prominent reformists were reportedly arrested in the aftermath of the election, and three weeks later it is possible hundreds remain in prison.
The strongly worded statement on the Ghalamnews website followed a meeting between the three opposition and reformist figures, as well as a number of supporters.
It conveyed their harsh criticism of "attacks against innocent people, dormitories, and houses... and some shocking brutalities carried out by plainclothes forces supported by security forces".
It also referred to the deaths of protesters "whose only crime was to object to the election fraud... at spontaneous several-million-strong demonstrations held in extraordinary peace and order".
"If their rights had been slightly respected or if the people had not been lied to or disrespected, the situation would never have turned to a national crisis," the Ghalamnews statement says.
Mr Karoubi, Mr Mousavi and Mr Khatami go on to underline the importance of ending the "super-security state" and call for the immediate release of protesters who had not committed any crime.
If the current situation was allowed to continue, the statement said, it would lead to increased radicalisation of politics.
Along with the other arrests, the authorities are holding a local employee from the British Embassy, who has been charged with "acting against national security".
Correspondents say Iran's clerical leadership is showing a steely determination to keep control amid the controversy, and urging people to unify in the face of western enemies.
In another sign of this toughness, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, which is under the direct control of the supreme leader, acknowledged that his elite force had played a key role in putting an end to street protests.
Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari said the RG's intervention had given "new life" to the Islamic Revolution and "strengthened its pillars". |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10461066 | Researchers have discovered the fossilised remains of an ancient whale with huge, fearsome teeth.
Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists have dubbed the 12 million-year-old creature "Leviathan".
It is thought to have been more than 17m long, and might have engaged in fierce battles with other giant sea creatures from the time.
Leviathan was much like the modern sperm whale in terms of size and appearance.
End Quote Dr Christian de Muizon Natural History Museum, Paris
At the same time in the same waters was another monster... they might have fought each other”
But that is where the similarity ends. While the sperm whale is a relatively passive animal, sucking in squid from the depths of the ocean, Leviathan was an aggressive predator.
According to Dr Christian de Muizon, director of the Natural History Museum in Paris, Leviathan could have hunted out and fed on large sea creatures such as dolphins, seals and even other whales.
"It was a kind of a sea monster," he said.
"And it's interesting to note that at the same time in the same waters was another monster, which was a giant shark about 15m long. It's possible that they might have fought each other".
The researchers speculate that Leviathan was able to feed on very large prey up to 8m long. It would catch the prey in its huge jaws and tear it apart quickly and effectively with its giant teeth.
A 3m-long fossilised skull of the creature was discovered by researchers in southern Peru in 2008. Dr de Muizon's student, Olivier Lambert was among them.
"It was the last day of our field trip when one of our colleagues came and told us that he thought he'd found something very interesting. So we joined him and he showed it to us," he said.
"We immediately saw that it was a very large whale and when we looked closer we saw it was a giant sperm whale with huge teeth."
The teeth were more than twice the length and diameter of those found in modern sperm whales and they were on the upper and lower jaws.
Sperm whales only have teeth on their lower jaw.
Dr Lambert and his colleagues had speculated that such a fierce creature might once have existed on the basis of discoveries of individual teeth.
Now, the discovery of the skull means that the Leviathan is not merely the stuff of myth and legend.
"Finally we found it," said Dr Lambert. " It was a very exciting moment".
The researchers do not know why this ancient whale died out. They speculate that the ecology and environment changed so that the creature had to change its feeding habits.
That may have led to the emergence of today's much gentler sperm whales, with the carnivorous niche filled by killer whales as conditions swung back again.
The authors of the report in Nature, who are all whale experts, are fans of the novel Moby Dick, which involves a ferocious white sperm whale.
So taken are they with the novel that they decided to dedicate their discovery to the author, Herman Melville, and give the creature its full scientific name of Leviathan melvillei. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-20423763 | Woman charged over fatal crash in Leicestershire
A 27-year-old woman has been charged with causing death by careless driving after a motorcyclist was killed in Leicestershire.
John Stuart Hall, 42, of Oakham, died in a collision in Oakham Road, in the village of Tilton-on-the-Hill, on 18 June.
A driver of a Peugeot 107 car was also treated in hospital.
The woman is due to appear at Loughborough Magistrates' Court on 2 January. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14113084 | A chronology of key events:
12th Century - Shona people arrive in the area, later establishing the empire of the Mwene Mutapa, which includes southern Zambia.
- Became capital of Northern Rhodesia in 1935
- Capital of independent Zambia from 1964
- Mushroomed in the 1960s
- Population: 1 million
16th Century - Arrival of peoples from Luba and Lunda empires of Zaire to set up small kingdoms.
Late 18th Century - Portuguese explorers visit.
19th Century - Instability generated by migration as well as slave-trading by Portuguese and Arabs.
1851 - British missionary David Livingstone visits.Copper discovered
1889 - Britain establishes control over Northern Rhodesia, administering the area using a system of indirect rule which leaves power in the hands of local rulers.
Late 1920s - Discovery of copper, which later encourages an influx of European technicians and administrators.
1953 - Creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, comprising Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi).
1960 - UNIP (United National Independence Party) formed by Kenneth Kaunda to campaign for independence and dissolution of federation dominated by white-ruled Southern Rhodesia.
1963 - Federation dissolved.
1964 - Independence, with Kaunda as president.
Late 1960s-1970s - Key enterprises nationalised. Private land nationalised in an unsuccessful agricultural improvement programme.
1972 - Zambia becomes a one-party state, with UNIP as the only legal party.Help for rebels
1975 - Tan-Zam railway opened, providing a link between the Copperbelt to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, reducing Zambian dependence on Rhodesia and South Africa for its exports.
1976 - Zambia declares support for the independence struggle in Rhodesia. Zambian help proves crucial to the transition of Rhodesia to an independent Zimbabwe.
1990 - Food riots.
Kenneth Kaunda (right), pictured with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, was in power between 1964 and 1991
1991 - Multi-party constitution adopted. Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) wins elections and its leader, Frederick Chiluba, becomes president.
1996 - Change to constitution effectively barring Kaunda from future elections. Chiluba re-elected.
1997 - Attempted coup.
1999 - A high court sentences 59 soldiers to death after they are found guilty of treason for the failed coup attempt in 1997.
2000 May - Fighting between Angolan forces and UNITA rebels spills over into Zambian territory.
2000 July - Environment Minister Ben Mwila expelled from the MMD and dropped from the cabinet after announcing his intention to run for president in 2001.
2000 December - UN officials estimate that up to 60,000 refugees fleeing fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo move to Zambia in less than a week.Chiluba trouble
2001 May - Setback for governing Movement for Multi-party Democracy as senior members hive off to create Forum for Democracy and Development. They're opposed to Chiluba's bid for a third term in office.
2001 July - Paul Tembo, former campaign manager for Chiluba who joined the opposition, is murdered shortly before he is due to testify against three ministers in a high-level corruption case.
2001 July - Zambia appeals for aid to feed some 2 million people after poor harvests caused by floods and drought.
2001 July - Final summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), launch of the African Union.
2002 January - Levy Mwanawasa is sworn in as president amid opposition protests over alleged fraud in December's presidential elections.
2002 July - Parliament votes to remove ex-president Frederick Chiluba's immunity from prosecution.
2002 October - Government says it will not accept genetically modified (GM) maize to help alleviate the severe food shortages facing three million people.
2003 February onwards - Former president Frederick Chiluba is arrested and charged with corruption. Subsequent long-running trials are dogged by adjournments and procedural problems.
2003 December - Supreme Court confirms death sentences on 44 soldiers for their role in 1997's failed coup; sentences are later commuted by President Mwanawasa.
2004 September - Many charges of corruption against former president Frederick Chiluba are dropped, but within hours he is re-arrested on six new charges.
2005 February - Supreme Court rejects opposition challenge to President Mwanawasa's 2001 election victory, but says ballot had flaws.Debt relief
2005 April - World Bank approves $3.8 billion debt relief package which will write off more than 50% of Zambia's debt.
Around 50 workers killed in explosion at Chinese-owned explosives factory.
2005 November - President Mwanawasa declares a national disaster and appeals for food aid. He says more than a million Zambians face food shortages owing to drought.
2006 April - President Mwanawasa suffers a minor stroke. He resumes "light duties" after some weeks and later declares himself fit to run for re-election towards the end of the year.
2006 September - President Mwanawasa wins a second term.
2006 October - President announces discovery of oil in the west.
2007 January - Government launches economic recovery plan which envisages encouraging foreign investment.
2007 February - Chinese President Hu Jintao inaugurates a huge mining investment zone at the end of a two-day visit. His itinerary is cut short due to planned protests against the alleged exploitation of local workers by Chinese firms.
2007 May - The High Court in Britain rules that former president Frederick Chiluba and four of his aides conspired to rob Zambia of about $46 million.
2008 January - Zambia declares floods which have killed more than 40 people "a national disaster".
2008 August - President Levy Mwanawasa dies, 59, in a Paris hospital, where he was being treated for the effects of a stroke in June.
2008 November - Vice-President Rupiah Banda sworn in as president after a narrow election win over the main opposition candidate, Michael Sata, who alleged fraud.
2009 August - Ex-President Chiluba is cleared of corruption after a six-year trial. The head of the anti-corruption task force is sacked after initiating an appeal against Chiluba's acquittal.
2010 February - Zambia and China sign mining cooperation agreement and deal to set up joint economic zone.
Tanzanian Supreme Court dismisses application by ex-President Chiluba aimed at preventing government from applying British High Court judgment convicting him of defrauding Tanzania of $46m dollars.
2010 August - Zambia, China agree to build a second hydroelectic power plant on the Kafue River.
2010 October - Chinese mine managers charged with attempted murder following a multiple shooting at a mine where workers were demonstrating against conditions.
2010 November - UN updates its Human Development Index, which suggests Zambia is now worse off than in 1970, partly due to AIDS.
2011 January - Deadly clashes between police and demonstrators agitating for secession of western Zambia, known as Barotseland.
2011 June - Former president Frederick Chiluba dies.
2011 September - Michael Sata becomes president.
2012 August - Chinese mine manager killed during pay protest. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19656323 | Is redistribution a foreign idea to the US?
Mitt Romney, in the wake of his "47%" comments, told Fox News that government redistribution of wealth is an "entirely foreign concept" to Americans.
He repeated the point today: "I know there are some who believe that if you simply take from some and give to others then we'll all be better off. It's known as redistribution. It's never been a characteristic of America."
I am not sure whether Mr Romney means that such ideas come from abroad or just that redistribution is alien to American values.
But he is on to something.A 'flatter tax'
Despite being factually wrong, he has hit upon a central reason why American politics can seem so very different to what happens in Europe, including in Britain. Specifically, conservatism here is very different from conservatism there.
It was that arch-reactionary, Otto von Bismarck, who introduced the world's first welfare system, including the old-age pension, in Germany in the 1860s”
There is a large section of the American right, indeed of the American people, which does not accept the grand central bargain of post-war politics across the other side of the Atlantic.
The Republican candidate of course protests too much. In a technical sense, any system of taxation involves a redistribution of wealth, from the individual to where the government chooses to spend it.
Of course, hundreds of years ago it was distributing the wealth of the masses upwards to the kings and lords. But nowadays, even if every citizen paid exactly the same in a minimalist state there would still be redistribution to defence manufacturers, or to the police force, or whatever.
That is perhaps a technical point. But Mr Romney himself hasn't always rejected redistribution in a more classic sense.
He has opposed the idea of a flat tax, which means whatever your income, you pay the same percentage of tax, although he does support a "flatter tax".
America has a progressive tax system - the rich pay more than the middle classes, who pay more than the poor. Mr Romney talks about "fairness" and "bringing down" marginal rates, but not about eliminating the principle.Bismarck's New Deal
But he is right that in America has only slowly embraced anything that looks like redistribution of wealth. After all it was that arch-reactionary, Otto von Bismarck, who introduced the world's first welfare system, including the old-age pension, in Germany in the 1860s.
America didn't get anything like it until Franklin Roosevelt - FDR - brought in the New Deal, including a pension for the poorest in 1935.
Maybe it is something about presidents with three initials, but the real expansion of redistribution came with LBJ's Great Society.
Richard Nixon built on this, but many conservatives have never accepted the changes.
This is in contrast to Europe, where both main political traditions after World War II seemed to broadly agree that while Soviet Union-style socialism didn't work, capitalism if left to its own devices produced inequalities which if not softened could prove dangerous.
In 1950s Britain this agreement around the welfare state was pronounced enough to be given the mocking label "Butskellism", a combination of the names of leading Conservative and Labour politicians of the time.
The Iron Lady, Mrs Thatcher, was widely seen to have smashed this cosy consensus, but in fact left the National Health Service, the unemployment benefit, and many other welfare provisions, if not unscathed, still standing.
There has never really been the equivalent in the United States.
While America certainly does have some redistribution of wealth via taxation, many on the right have always been vehemently opposed.
Until a few months ago it was a core part of Mitt Romney's argument that President Barack Obama was leading the US towards a "European-style entitlement society".
The Tea Party stands for "taxed enough already", but it was given life by one man's revulsion at the Obama administration's financial help for home owners who couldn't pay their mortgages - a classic redistribution of wealth.
What about you? Do you think redistribution is foreign to the US, or intrinsic to the American Dream?
I'm interested in your considered thoughts on the subject - but keep them civil, please. No tired abuse of those you see as opponents. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4286637.stm | French consumers increased their spending by 1.5% in January, a figure which bodes well for the country's economic growth, figures revealed.
French buyers are stocking up on household equipment
The National Statistic Institute (INSEE) added that consumer spending in January rose 3.8% on a year-on-year basis.
Rising sales of household equipment were behind the increase.
The INSEE also said that French consumer prices fell 0.6% in January, but were up 1.6% on an annual basis.
Fewer car sales
Despite the general increase in spending in January, French households bought fewer cars in January.
According to the INSEE, car sales fell 2.8% in January, following a fall of 0.6% in December. But on a year-on-year basis, the sector still saw a sales increase of 6.5%.
Consumer spending fuelled France's economic growth in the last quarter of 2004 and analysts expect that it will continue to support the economy.
"It's a growth that will remain fragile and vulnerable to risks like a strong rise in long-term interest rates, tension in the oil price," Emmanuel Ferry, from Exane BNP Paribas told Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile in Italy, consumer confidence rose to its highest level since October 2004.
Italians consumers are more confident
Economic research group ISAE has said that Italian consumer confidence rose to 104.4 from 103.3, despite a slight deterioration in short-term sentiment. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7102428.stm | By Laura Smith-Spark
BBC News, New York
Many of the shoppers jostling for handbags in Macy's are Brits
Listen to the hubbub of excited shoppers in New York's famous Macy's department store and one thing is striking.
An awful lot of the voices - and particularly those coming from the people clutching the biggest number of bulging bags - seem to be British.
Stop by other large retailers - Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue or any Gap store - and the same experience is repeated, with the odd French or other European accent thrown in.
While Americans are feeling the pinch of a credit crunch, housing slump and rising fuel prices, it seems their European cousins are ready to make the most of a dollar which has slid to near record lows.
As the Brits happily point out, an exchange rate of over $2 to £1 makes clothes, cosmetics and electronic goods so much cheaper that it seems worth paying for a flight and hotel.
FORECAST EUROPEAN ARRIVALS TO THE US IN 2007
From the UK - 4.36m (up 4.5%)
Germany - 1.5m (up 8.1%)
France - 943,000 (up 19.5%)
Spain - 481,000 (up 13.4%)
Ireland - 468,000 (up 13%)
Source: Global Insight
And as a result, it is not just the rich and famous who can enjoy a quick transatlantic shopping trip ahead of Christmas.
Outside Macy's on Friday, Sally Coxon is one of a group of eight women, friends since childhood, who are visiting from London to take advantage of the exchange rate.
"We're here celebrating our 40th birthdays," says Sally. "We've been buying handbags, jackets, whatever we could really."
As they wait for two cabs to whisk them and their mountain of bags back to the hotel, all the talk is of designers and how much cheaper everything is than back home.
Ken McGill, a travel and tourism expert for international forecasting company Global Insight, says statistics back up the impression of a European influx to the US.
According to Global Insight, there will be a growth of 4.5% in the number of arrivals from the UK in 2007, reversing a dip seen last year across the US, barring New York.
Increases are also predicted in the numbers of visits to the US this year from France, Spain, Germany and Ireland.
But it is the British - who make up the biggest share of European visitors - and the Irish who appear most motivated by the prospect of bargain hunting while the dollar slides, Mr McGill says.
Mary McCormick, president of Shop America Alliance, a trade and travel group, agrees.
"The Brits have never been more 'shop happy' in their entire lives, because the pound is so attractive compared to the dollar," she says.
And it is not just New York that is benefiting.
"The problem right now that they run into in New York is that hotels have got so expensive...because of all the people going there to shop in December," she explains. "So I'm hearing that they are going to Boston, Philadelphia, even Chicago and other cities to go shopping.
"Tour operators are telling people 'don't even pack, just go with one little carry-on bag, buy luggage over there and fill it up with what you buy'."
In New York, the big stores are certainly aware that an increase in European shoppers is good for the balance sheet.
At Saks Fifth Avenue, multilingual customer service staff will point customers to rails of designer goods, three cafes - and probably the only shoe floor that can claim to be "so big it has its own zip code" (10022-SHOE, if you were wondering).
Saks' general manager Suzanne Johnson says: "We do have an awful lot of Brits coming in.
"And, when you think about it, once they get to the States, or to New York City, or to Saks, they are starting with half off, so they can benefit greatly because they can afford luxury.
"A lot of shopping is done throughout the store, but in particular handbags and shoes...the average spend per customer has gone up significantly."
The store has not advertised in Europe, she added, but a lot of effort is going into PR and building partnerships with European media and travel groups.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
43.8m visitors in total to NYC in 2006
1,169,000 British visitors to NYC last year
British tourists spend about $235 a day in NYC
Total spending for British visitors in 2006 was $1.64bn
Total visitor spending was $24bn for NYC last year
Visits from overseas account for 17% of total trips to New York but more than 50% of visitor spend
Source: New York City and Company
It seems the message is getting out.
"We had a hundred women from Iceland who chartered a jet to shop in our new designer shoe store," Ms Johnson says.
"They made a three-day trip out of it and they spent a good day-and-a-half in our store."
Christopher Heywood, PR director for New York City and Company, which promotes New York, says the city is the big success story for US tourism, having bucked the decline seen elsewhere in previous years.
The British in particular are getting "tremendous savings" on goods and benefiting from cheap flights, he says.
Top of UK shoppers' wish lists are major brand names such as Apple, Tiffany, Abercrombie and Fitch, Levi and Nike, he adds.
Anything to declare?
However, one cloud may loom on the horizon for Britain's happy shoppers: import duty.
Europeans are benefiting from the euro's strength against the dollar
Not all travellers may realise that they are only allowed to bring in £145-worth of shopping from the US into the UK, including gifts and souvenirs, without declaring what they have bought.
If this limit is breached, HM Revenue and Customs can insist on the payment of import duty and VAT of up to 20% on many items, which may include those prized jeans or iPods.
As for the US, Mr McGill warns against complacency if it wants to maintain its appeal to European shoppers.
Analysts have come up with three possible reasons as to why European tourism to the US has not grown faster, given that exchange rates have been favourable for some years, he says:
- A more negative perception of the US and Americans brought on by the Iraq war and policies of the Bush administration
- An impression that the US is not a very welcoming place because of tightened security and entry policies, such as fingerprinting
- Rising competition from other destinations, such as Singapore, Dubai and Macau, which have made greater efforts to market themselves to European travellers
That said, the Europeans enjoying the pre-Christmas flavour of New York just before Thanksgiving seem pretty content with the deal on offer.
"Don't stop till they turn out the lights," urge the signs in Macy's, advertising its weekend sale. One suspects the pound-rich Brits will be only too happy to obey. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7745858.stm | By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News
Retail sales fell for a second month in a row
Should we save or should we spend?
It's gloomy out there. The economy is shrinking, property values are falling and stock markets are in the doldrums.
Many people borrowed heavily during the boom, and now are tempted to pay off debt or save more for a rainy day - something which until now has not characterised the behaviour of UK consumers.
But if this happens, will the government's plan to boost the economy through greater spending work?
Paradox of thrift
Because thrift may be a virtue for the individual, but could damage the economy as a whole, according to the economist John Maynard Keynes, writing in the midst of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
He called it the paradox of thrift. The more people saved, the more they reduced effective demand, thus further slowing the economy.
This was one reason, he pointed out, that a recession can become self-reinforcing.
Keynes also argued that, faced with slowing demand, businesses would not necessarily use the extra savings available in the economy to invest.
In the Keynesian theory, as the slump in demand cascaded through the economy, the resulting slowdown would mean that everyone had less income - ultimately reducing the absolute amount of savings, even if people increase the proportion of their income they put aside.
As unemployment grew, investment would fall, whatever the level of savings.
Government help needed
The government has slashed interest rates in a bid to boost spending
But how can we persuade the reluctant consumer to spend, and the reluctant businessman to invest?
Keynes' answer was that it was only the government that could overcome the collective paradox: what was good for the individual would weaken the economy.
This is now the theory being embraced by the chancellor, who has abandoned his fiscal rules for the time being in order to pour money back into the economy.
And cuts in interest rates by the Bank of England are also designed to encourage businesses to continue to invest.
But this is not very effective, because credit markets are in deep freeze. As a result, it is even more important to inject cash into the economy - at least according to Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England.
Spectre of deflation
There is another reason why the government wants to give a jolt to the economy now.
It is the fear that prices will actually start to fall as the slowdown gets going.
And deflation - falling prices - would certainly reinforce the paradox of thrift.
If consumers expect prices to drop further in the future, then they have an even stronger incentive to delay their purchases until later, when they can benefit from lower prices.
Deflation, especially in asset prices like houses, can be very long-lasting and hugely damaging to the economy, as recent experience in Japan suggests.
So one reason the government may want to temporarily cut VAT now is to convince people that prices are going to go up later, thus encouraging them to spend.
Will these measures work?
One reason Keynesian explanations of the economy fell out of favour in the last few decades was the rise of a new economic theory - rational expectations.
This argued that people were aware that any government borrowing would have to be paid back later. As a result they adjust their expectations accordingly, and do not spend as much as predicted.
Since this time, the government will be signalling its intentions to claw back the money it spends in future budgets, perhaps we will all save more to cover our future loss of income.
This theory may well apply to the financial markets, which are making the price of UK debt more expensive on the grounds it is likely to expand dramatically.
But the psychology of individuals may be different.
In the first place, some people may not be able save much whatever their expectations. Money that goes to pensioners surviving on the state pension, for example, may go straight into spending.
And some psychological research suggests that people do not "discount" very effectively in the long term.
So we may be under-estimating the attractiveness of spending even in the midst of a recession.
This, at least, has to be the government's hope as it embarks on its most audacious economic U-turn since Labour came to office in 1997. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8351164.stm | Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint talk Half-Blood Prince, Hallows and the future
By Tim Masters
Entertainment correspondent, BBC News
With filming on the final two parts of the Harry Potter series under way, the young actors who have grown up on the set and become global superstars are now considering their next steps. We asked them whether it would be a case of deathly silence after the Deathly Hallows...
The child actors were cast in the summer of 2000
As you might expect, Daniel Radcliffe - who has kept busy on both film and stage projects in between playing Harry - laughs off the idea that the rest of his life might be an anti-climax.
"No man, I've got kids to have yet!" he says excitedly, despite nursing a sore throat on the cold, cavernous film set at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.
"They're going to keep me busy if I do - which I hope I do at some point. I'm not planning on it soon - that's one of the things I'm really looking forward to doing."
The 20-year-old adds: "What's been cool is that I've been here when a lot of people here have had kids while on the film, and I've seen the change it's made in their life and how amazing it is."
His co-star Rupert Grint, 21, who plays Ron Weasley, says he has no doubt that Harry Potter will be the "biggest thing" he will be involved with.
"I make the most of it and enjoy it," he says.
Tom Felton on filming the saga's final films, what his future holds and how he has never seen Star Wars
"It is quite scary when this all ends because we're stepping out into the real world - it is quite a bubble I suppose, we've had these films to do every year and it's become quite a routine.
"I'm definitely going to miss it. It's been a great 10 years. I am quite keen to move on and see what else is out there."
Grint, speaking at the launch of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD, says he is interested in more parts like the "bad boy" role he gets to play in his forthcoming movie Cherrybomb.
The coming-of-age drama premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, but failed to find a distributor.
Fans set up an online petition for its release, and producers now say a distribution deal has been signed, and the Belfast-set movie should be in cinemas in 2010.
"It's nice because it's so different," says Grint. "That's what attracted me to it - it wasn't really a conscious thing to move away.
"It was really fun to be on a different set and experience a whole different budget - it was quite a shock. I really enjoyed it and hopefully I will get to do more films like that."
He dismisses press speculation that he's in the running to play Prince Harry in a film called The Spare that's due to shoot next year.
"I think it's just because I'm ginger they throw me into the frame, but I haven't really heard anything about it," he says.
Actress Emma Watson, 19, who plays Hermione Granger, began studying at an American university in September, though she hasn't ruled out acting projects out of term-time.
Fellow actress Bonnie Wright, 18, has just begun a degree course in film and TV in London. She has played Ron's sister Ginny Weasley since the first film in 2001.
Speaking on the set at Leavesden, she points out that she's spent more than half of her life working on Harry Potter.
"Although it has been massive," she says, "personally I think a greater project is out there. That's what makes me keep working, knowing that there's this project out there that I'm yet to do."
David Heyman, who has produced all of the Harry Potter films, is confident that the global stars that he's helped create will go on to further success.
"They've had a good structure here and at home, they are pretty solid kids," he says.
"They are going to go and have great fun - they are going to have great success. I'm sure they will thrive."
He adds: "I think they all know I'm here to support them, and if they ever want a chat I'll be there for them.
"Ultimately they've got to leave the fold and take flight - and I know they will."
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is out on DVD on 7 December |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/3970901.stm | The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.
In the wake of the shock and panic created by the devastating attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September, 2001, the neo-conservatives reconstructed the radical Islamists in the image of their last evil enemy, the Soviet Union - a sinister web of terror run from the centre by Osama Bin Laden in his lair in Afghanistan.
There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist ideas, and who will use the techniques of mass terror - the attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear.
But the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organisation waiting to strike our societies is an illusion.
Wherever one looks for this al-Qaeda organisation, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the "sleeper cells" in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy.
But the reason that no-one questions the illusion is because this nightmare enemy gives so many groups new power and influence in a cynical age - and not just politicians.
Those with the darkest imaginations have now become the most powerful.
In part one, the programme looked at the origins of the neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists in the 1950s.
The second part of the series examined how the radical Islamists and neo-conservatives came together to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
The Power of Nightmares will be broadcast over three nights from Tuesday 18 to Thursday, 20 January, 2005 at 2320 GMT on BBC Two. The final part has been updated in the wake of the Law Lords ruling in December that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial was illegal. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4099457.stm | By Jane Wakefield
BBC News technology reporter
If broadband were a jumbo jet, then 2003 would have seen it taxiing down the runway, firing up its engines and preparing for take-off. But this year has seen it soar.
Broadband really took off in 2004
In the spring it literally took to the skies as Lufthansa and British Airways trialled it on flights.
This perhaps said more about how indispensable people were beginning to perceive the technology, rather than how useful sky-high broadband would actually be.
It was flying high and by the autumn, five million Britons had signed up for high-speed net access at home.
Such enthusiasm is unlikely to dampen any time soon and experts predict that by the end of next year the numbers will have risen to more than eight million, or more than 30% of homes.
BROADBAND YEAR AT A GLANCE
January - Prime Minister Tony Blair says broadband can drive public service reform
February - MPs urge for better broadband content
March - BT and Telewest drop cost of broadband services to below £20 per month
April - Ofcom says that 12% of homes now have broadband
May - BT reduces cost of local loop unbundling by 70%
June - Figures show 27% of net connections in UK are to broadband
July - Analysts warn of a new broadband divide as some areas get super-fast speeds
August - BT lifts distance limits on ADSL
September - Broadband outstrips dial-up for first time
October - Report finds that China leads the world for number of broadband connections
November - ISP UK Online launches an 8Mb product
December - Report shows that broadband is changing European TV watching habits
The two key factors in whetting people's appetite were falling prices and a huge marketing push.
When operators such as BT and Telewest offered standard 512K broadband for less than £20 at the beginning of the year, it was as if an invisible barrier had been breached - broadband had truly gone mass market.
A feeding frenzy followed as firms vied for eyeballs in a price war reminiscent of that following the mass market take-up of dial-up.
Broadband for less than £10 was even touted by some firms, although such a low price raised eyebrows among more established companies questioning how they are able to sustain such business models.
For those who became broadbanders in 2004 there was no turning back and the days of waiting for the modem to kick in began to seem as outdated an idea as a jungle without celebrities.
The rest of the world was also falling in love with the benefits of fast internet access, to the tune of 100 million connections worldwide by April, prompting research firm Point Topic to declare it one of the fastest growing technologies ever.
By September, the number of broadband connections in the UK finally overtook dial-up and in December BT announced that it was making a new broadband connection every 10 seconds.
Broadband was being mentioned on the 10 O'clock News and in the tabloids; the Sun even carried a cartoon joke about it.
Rivals in BT exchanges could mean big changes for broadband
But two of the most significant pieces of news for broadband were items that did not make the headlines.
In May, BT quietly announced that it was shaving 70% off the cost of allowing other operators access to its telephone exchanges, so-called local loop unbundling.
The vital local loop is the crucial link between telephone exchanges and homes. At the moment BT has a stranglehold on more than 80% of these lines making it the key voice in deciding what ADSL products get into homes.
With cheaper local loop unbundling, rivals to BT can offer faster services that will leave the broadband of today looking positively tortoise-like.
It will mean the UK will finally catch up with countries such as France and the Netherlands, where homes are routinely enjoying speeds of up to 15Mb (megabits per second).
And the major price fall means that, rather than just talk about it, companies are actually starting to get their own equipment into BT's exchanges.
It may not seem that exciting but it is a remarkable transition given that just a few years ago the arguments over local loop unbundling bore more than a passing resemblance to the Northern Ireland peace talks - fraught, bitter and with no end in sight.
Enjoy the ride
Another big piece of news for broadband users in 2004 was the extension of BT's reach, meaning more than 95% of the population could get broadband, regardless of how far away from the exchange they lived.
There was a slight caveat for those wanting to upgrade to 1Mbps broadband, they still have to live within six kilometres of a broadband-enabled exchange.
Many in remoter areas got connected in 2004
For thousands frustrated by their inability to get the technology, the news meant they could finally join in.
Broadband is not just about fast access over the telephone and cable operators NTL and Telewest also had a bumper year.
The biggest news for them was increased speeds, introducing 2Mb and 3Mb services for users and offering a free upgrade to those on 512K.
The cable operators are limited in their reach and it is perhaps testament to how big a deal local loop unbundling could become that even they are considering extending their range via this route.
Broadband can seem confusing for consumers, with the huge amount of operators offering so many different products, some with capped bandwidth and different length contracts and set-up fees.
It is unlikely to get any easier to understand in 2005 but remains a plane worth catching.
As it gets faster and offers extras such as cheap telephone calls online, the only real thing to remember for the coming year is to enjoy the ride. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8548252.stm | 'Nonliners' surf the web for the first time: Maxine Bowler runs a centre in Sheffield to train people who have never used the internet.
Ten years ago a job seeker would have gone to a job centre to find work, a hobbyist might have joined an evening class to pursue a love of art and a person struggling to pay their bills may have turned to social services. Now they go online.
There is still a digital divide in the UK with 20% of the population - about 10 million people - still having no experience of using computers or the internet.
But increasingly people are seeing a value in technology and many are getting their first taste of the internet at one of 6,000 UK Online centres dotted around the country.
Heeley Online Centre in Sheffield is typical, and its daily sessions are always busy.
John Smylie, an 80-year-old retired engineer, is a frequent visitor.
John says the web has opened new windows on the world
He bought a computer in December after "negotiating" with his wife but quickly realised he didn't really know how to use it.
"I was at the wheelbarrow stage. It was going in every direction apart from the one I wanted it to go in," he said.
What he wanted to do was some quite sophisticated web browsing.
"I wanted to look at work from the Whitbread Gallery and the Louvre and I'd heard about a man on YouTube who did practical art demonstrations," he said.
He is now learning how to use e-mail and wants to be able to send pictures to his two sons in Australia.
"I've discovered it isn't called a photograph, it is called an attachment. You have to learn a whole new vocabulary," he said.
But it is worth it, he thinks.
"It opens up a lot of windows on the world. I am not just looking at art galleries but other information on the cultures in other countries. It was a narrow world that I was brought up in and now I have a much wider picture of the world," he said.
Suzanne found the centre made both big and small changes to her life
Suzanne Gambles has more dramatic praise for the centre, claiming it has "saved her life".
Initially it provided her with an e-mail account which allowed her to communicate with her utility company over bills she was unable to pay.
But, after years out of work and without any self-confidence, she also used it to build social skills and find a job. She has recently started work as a cleaner.
"It has changed my life amazingly. Without it I wouldn't have sorted out the bills, I wouldn't have got a job. For me it's the best thing in the area," she said.
And it hasn't just been the big things in her life that the net has helped with.
"I saw a bird on my doorstep and I came here and we typed in the details and found out it was a woodpecker," she said.
A season of reports exploring the extraordinary power of the internet, including:
Digital giants - top thinkers in the business on the future of the web
Maxine Bowler runs the Heeley online centre and has recently successfully bid for an extra £45,000 in funding out of a pot of £32 million made available to UK Online centres.
She plans to use the money to extend the number of outreach projects she does in the area.
Currently she works with 15 sheltered housing units in the city as well as running classes for people with learning difficulties on a nearby estate.
These classes are not without their difficulties - laptops do not always work, access is not easy to get and, currently the centre is relying on a set of dongles - devices which allow machines to connect to the internet over a 3G mobile connection - which don't always connect.
The BBC went with Ms Bowler on her first visit to the Park View Lodge sheltered housing unit.
The new recruits were keen but the registration process - to a course known as myguide - was very slow and in the hour's session none of them actually got beyond the myguide site.
The myguide course has been criticised by some as not being the best introduction to the web although UK Online Centres report a 98% satisfaction rate among those who use the training scheme.
Getting older people online is one of the main priorities of the UK's Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox. It is estimated that only 30% of those of retirement age are online.
Residents of sheltered housing units in Sheffield actively voted to boost their computer literacy skills which illustrates how computers are starting to have an impact on the traditional turned-off older generation.
"The reps from each centre had to vote for which activity they wanted. We were up against chairobic classes and Age Concern who were offering day trips and other activities. I thought trips out would win but they chose us," explained Ms Bowler.
Irene struggled to see the screen
One resident, 63 year old Chris Garrett, is very computer-literate and has his own PC on which he is writing about his life as a singer with sixties rock and roll group Raye Duvall and the Rockmates.
But others had never touched a computer in their lives.
Mr Garrett is keen to persuade his partner, Kathy Skinner, to give it a go and both of them see the internet as a powerful tool in their campaign to get better living conditions for older people.
82-year-old John Beachell has several good reasons to go online. He wants to e-mail his sister in Melbourne who he is no longer able to visit in person as well as explore his own colourful past as an actor with parts in films including the British comedy Brassed Off.
He doesn't seem particularly impressed by his first taste of computers.
"What I've learnt today is not a lot and I'll have forgotten it again in 24 hours," he said.
85-year-old Irene Thorpe has never used a computer but comes with her own set of skills as she used to be a typist.
Her issue is that she "can't see the screen very well" and she finds the keyboard fiddly.
She is not entirely sure why she wants to go online although contact with her grandson, a footballer with Sheffield Wednesday's youth team, is a big incentive.
For residents in the sheltering housing unit as well as at the day centre which caters for people with learning difficulties, the classes have a value beyond the key skills they are teaching.
"Loneliness is one of our biggest problems. This doesn't replace face to face contact but it makes a huge difference to people's lives," said Ms Bowler.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/vote_2005/scotland/4363879.stm | MEET THE PANEL
Name: Stephen Edenborough
Works: Lecturer in higher education
Current voting intention: Conservative
I am 45-years-old, a chartered surveyor working in higher education and married with one son. I have decided to vote Conservative at the forthcoming general election.
I have the long held belief that government is too big and needs to be reined in.
The Labour Party nationally, and the Lib-Dem/Labour coalition in Scotland, seem determined to intrude into almost every aspect of our lives, and to tax us all for the privilege.
There must come a point in the near future when the enterprise section of the economy simply can't pay the cheques that Gordon Brown continues to write.
I expect a Conservative government to reduce the role and scope of the state, to focus spending on putting more police, doctors and nurses onto the frontline and to reward rather than penalise individuals and families who save for retirement.
While Tony Blair continues to promote all things EU, I can see no major benefits to the nation from giving up sterling, and control of our economy, in favour of the Euro. The EU super state seems to me to be dead in the water.
I would be surprised if Labour or Lib-Dem could persuade me to vote for them.
Send us your comments on Stephen's views using the form on the right.
With all the opinions floating around from this 'voters' panel' it has taken a level-headed sensible approach (from a would be Conservative voter) to discuss an issue that is relevant, the EU. With decisions over education, NHS and such like made at Holyrood this election is about four greater issues - foreign policy, the economy, security and the EU, topics that seem to be forgotten by some. I would ask any Labour supporter or candidate this question - why base an entire campaign around the economy you have helped create only to hand executive powers and ruling over to Brussels? Idiocy of the highest order.
I'm impressed that you consider voting Tory in Paisley (of all places) will have any impact whatsoever. Whilst I agree with many of the points here, I am deeply unimpressed with Michael Howard - he is no PM-in waiting, as indeed the Conservatives know. He ended up as leader because no one else wanted the job - scarcely eminent credentials. The Conservatives will have their day, but not this time.
I agree with what Stephen is saying about New Labour. They would do much better if they didn't send Tony Blair to Scotland, but Gordon Brown instead. I must say, however, that I've always failed to understand why anyone votes Tory in Scotland. I was surprised to find out recently that in the 1950s they were the biggest party in this country. So, where did it all go wrong? Well, ask anyone from my home town, Greenock, who used to work at Scott-Lithgow and they will tell you the answer. Their policies are clearly geared towards the South East of England; take, for example, their near-hysterical immigration policy. In my opinion the Scottish Tories don't stand up for Scotland, the words that come out of their mouths are parroted from down south. That has been the case for a long time now and that is why they only have one seat. To me, the Scottish Tories represent smug, cap-in-hand subservience to London. Stephen, what do they stand for to you? Can you convince me otherwise?Dave MacPhail, Edinburgh, Scotland |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/05/born_abroad/countries/html/italy.stm | Italy is one of the European Union nations with the longest historical ties to the UK, and one of the biggest European nationalities.
It supplied some of the first post-war migrant workers, before the UK turned to mass migration from former British Empire colonies.
The 2001 Census data shows complex changes in the Italian profile. In some areas of Britain long associated with Italian communities there has been a decline, almost certainly down to an ageing population or retirements "back home".
But in other areas – such as some affluent parts of London or areas associated with students - there have been steep rises. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7224970.stm | The delegates to the Democratic and Republican parties' national conventions officially choose the nominees for the presidency.
So anyone who wants to run for the presidency representing either party has to try to win the support of as many as possible - and the key is to do well in the state primaries and caucuses held between January and June.
A big vote in favour of candidate X, in a given state, usually mandates a certain proportion of that state's delegates to vote for candidate X at the convention.
Do all states have the same number of delegates?
No. There is a huge variation. The most populous states - California, Texas and New York - have many times more delegates than the smallest states.
Do both parties have the same number of delegates?
No. The Democratic Party convention will have almost twice as many delegates as the Republican Party convention in 2008.
But in both cases a candidate only needs a simple majority (50% +1) of delegate votes to win the nomination - that's currently 2,118 in the case of the Democrats, and 1,191 in the case of the Republicans.
The goal of all candidates is to win the support of as many delegates as possible, as early as possible in the primary season.
Even before a candidate secures the winning number of delegates, he or she may notch up an effectively unassailable lead.
Do all delegates have to vote at the convention as directed by the result of the primaries and caucuses?
No. Both parties have a certain number of elected delegates (also known as pledged delegates), whose vote is determined by the result of the primary or caucus in their state, but they also have a certain number of unelected/unpledged delegates (known as super-delegates in the Democratic Party).
These delegates are free to choose which candidate to support. Many of them hold elected office, but they do not owe their place at the convention to a primary election or caucus.
How crucial are the unelected delegates?
In both parties they form a minority within the ranks of delegates at the convention - about 20% in the Democratic case, and between 5% and 20% of Republican delegates (the Republicans do not provide an official breakdown, and different experts give different figures).
They are mostly high-ranking party officials, members of Congress and state governors.
In most years, candidates do not have to worry too much about wooing unelected delegates. But if the race gets very close - as it is in 2008 on the Democratic side - they cannot be ignored.
Is the number of pledged delegates a candidate wins in a primary or caucus always proportionate to the number of votes he or she receives?
No, not always. The rules vary from state to state and from party to party.
In some states the Republicans operate a winner-takes-all system, where the candidate who wins most support state-wide gets all the delegates.
In others, the winner-takes-all principle operates at the level of congressional districts: the candidate who does best in a district wins all the delegates available in that district.
The Republicans also use a proportional system in some states.
The Democrats always use some form of proportional system, but even then a candidate's share of the vote in a state and his or her share of the delegates can turn out to be quite different.
For example, when delegates are awarded on the basis of results in individual congressional districts, the rules do not guarantee strict proportionality.
Under party rules, it's possible for one candidate to beat the other soundly in a district with an even number of delegates, but for the delegates to be split between them equally nonetheless.
Meanwhile, in a district with an odd number of delegates, even a narrow win gives the winner an extra delegate.
Is it always clear who has won a primary?
It can be confusing when one candidate wins the most votes and another wins the most delegates.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton won more votes than Barack Obama in Nevada's and Texas's Democratic contests - but he won more delegates, according to AP's projections.
Are delegates awarded immediately after the primary or caucus?
After a primary, which takes the form of a state-wide ballot, delegates are usually awarded quickly.
Caucuses are a different matter. The candidates and the media focus only on the first stage of the caucus, when voters at precinct level choose delegates to send to the county caucuses.
But the caucus process often goes through several stages, ending only weeks later, at a state convention where delegates are chosen to send to the national party convention.
This does not stop experts projecting the final allocation of delegates from the results of the precinct caucuses, though they often come up with very different results.
When do unelected/unpledged delegates declare their support for a candidate?
They can do this any time they like. They can also change their mind before the convention.
How tightly bound are elected delegates to a given candidate?
It varies from state to state. In some cases they are not really bound at all.
In others they may be bound to support a given candidate in the first ballot held at the convention, and then be free to make their own choice.
Or they may be bound to support the candidate through two or three, rounds of voting, or even all the way to the final vote of the convention.
If no candidate accumulates a winning number of delegates before the convention, then what?
A convention that begins without a clear winner is referred to as a brokered, or contested convention.
If no winner emerges from the early ballots, the rivals may have to negotiate.
If candidate X offers candidate Y the Vice-Presidency, say, candidate Y's supporters may then help candidate X defeat candidate Z.
Could the numbers of delegates at the convention change?
The number of Democratic super-delegates changes regularly, as politicians leave office, or die, and are replaced by others.
The party also disqualified delegates from Florida and Michigan, when the states broke party rules by holding their primaries too early.
However, in June 2008, the Florida and Michigan delegates were re-instated - though only with half-votes. Finally, on the eve of the convention, the decision was taken to allow them full votes after all. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3575561.stm | An experimental hypersonic plane has broken the world speed record by flying at seven times the speed of sound, says US space agency Nasa.
The plane was dropped from the wing of a B-52 bomber
The unpiloted X-43A aircraft used a scramjet engine that could one day usher in a new generation of space shuttle propulsion systems.
It flew for 10 seconds on its own power over California, then glided for six minutes before falling into the ocean.
"Everything went according to plan," said Nasa spokeswoman Leslie Williams.
"I actually thought it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. We've been waiting a few years.
"For the first time we succeeded in separating two vehicles flying at Mach 7."
Project boss Vincent Rausch earlier said the $230m programme "could mark the beginning of a revolution in aviation and spaceflight".
WORLD AIR SPEED RECORD
X-43A flew at 7,700 km/h (4,780 mph), Mach 7
Previous record for jet held by SR-71 'Blackbird' spy plane, flying at Mach 3.2
Experimental X-15 plane flew at Mach 6.7, with rocket engine
Scramjets burn hydrogen but take their oxygen from the air, which is forced into the engine at very high speed.
Rocket engines have to carry their own source of oxygen. The term scramjet stands for supersonic combustion ramjet.
Cheaper space travel
The technology could eventually pave the way for faster long-distance air travel and cheaper access to space. But that is many years away, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington.
Experts estimate that the first manned craft powered by a scramjet would not take to the air until the year 2025.
At 12,000m the scramjet was released on its Pegasus rocket
Saturday's mission began when a B-52 bomber carrying the 3.7m-long prototype aircraft under its wing took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Once the bomber reached a cruising altitude of 12,000m (40,000 ft), the wedge-shaped research vehicle was released from under the wing.
Its speed was initially boosted by a Pegasus rocket, which fell away at about 30,000m (100,000 ft) leaving the X-43A to fly under its own power for 10 seconds.
The aircraft then glided through the atmosphere, conducting a series of aerodynamic manoeuvres for about six minutes before finally splashing down into the Pacific Ocean.
The mission marked the first time a non-rocket, air-breathing scramjet engine had successfully powered a vehicle in flight at hypersonic speeds.
An attempt to fly an X-43A three years ago ended in the destruction of the vehicle when its launch system failed. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_3614000/3614701.stm | But it's goodbye to Will Young who with the least votes, gets the boot, and is replaced by pop diva Christina Aguilera.
Rockers The Rasmus get a new entry in the rock chart.
You've also given Green Day the shove, but you are still loving Evanescence.
The late goal from Chelsea's Wayne Bridge in their game against Arsenal last week obviously impressed you as you've voted him into your sports chart.
But can he take on Becks' title as your fave sports star?
Corrie fans will be sad to know that it loses its place on the TV chart.
But Buffy lovers will be glad to hear that the slayer is back in its place.
And farming game Harvest Moon has been voted into your computer chart to take on the mighty Sims.
Will your fave things change next week? You decide.
Charts are updated every Saturday. The message board chart is updated on the first Saturday of every month. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/drivers_and_teams/8545628.stm | A diagnosis of Lewis Hamilton's 2010 season
Lewis Hamilton 2010 Season StatsLast updated: Thursday, 15 November 2012 12:32 UK
BBC COMMENTATOR MARTIN BRUNDLE'S 2010 REVIEW
"You can never count out Lewis Hamilton, who has been in contention for the world title in three of the four seasons that he has been in F1.
"He is always going for it, even though he has not had the fastest car this year.
"But for every brave overtake we applaud on his way to magnificent victories in Turkey, Montreal and Spa, there have been moments this season where it has all gone wrong.
"His crashes in Monza, Singapore and Suzuka effectively took him out of championship contention.
"This season has been a lost opportunity for Hamilton, but I still see the 2008 champion very much growing as a race driver."
HAMILTON TAKES OUR DRIVERS' TEST
What three words would you use to describe what it's like to be a Formula 1 driver?
Adventurous, cool and fortunate.
What is the biggest perk of the job?
Getting to drive some pretty cool Mercedes-Benz road cars.
How would you like to be remembered as an F1 driver?
As one of the best.
What is your most embarrassing sporting moment?
Crashing the go-kart at an event in 2007.
Who is the worst-dressed Formula 1 driver?
We are all wearing team kit when we see each other, so no-one is that bad.
Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost?
I'm going to say Senna, but I also have a huge amount of respect for Prost.
Spa or Monaco?
If you weren't an F1 driver what would you be?
Who is the greatest sportsman of all time?
What would be your perfect day off?
A day on the beach.
Where is your favourite place to go on holiday?
Apart from a house, what is the most expensive thing that you own?
What is your favourite item of clothing?
My special TAG Heuer watch.
What is your favourite music to drive to?
Which famous person - dead or alive - would you like to have dinner with and why?
I would change my answer to this every day. It depends what kind of mood you are in at the moment you are asked I guess.
You could go for someone like Will Smith or Eddie Murphy, because they would be hilarious, but then on another day I would say Ayrton Senna, and on another Muhammad Ali.
Tell us something about yourself that most F1 fans might not know
I'm a big online gamer.
Steve McQueen or Paul Newman?
Steve McQueen AND Paul Newman
Boxers or briefs?
Angelina Jolie or Keira Knightley?
James Bond or Austin Powers? |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/7558618.stm | Great Britain's medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
19 golds, 13 silvers, 15 bronzes.
How she did it - Cooke, who finished fifth in 2004, won a thrilling sprint finish after hitting the front with four others in the gruelling 126km race. The 25-year-old was grateful for the pace-making efforts of team-mate Emma Pooley.
What they said - "I came over the line and there was so much... I was just so happy and there were so many emotions coming out all at once. I made so much noise because I guess that's just the person I am."
"It was mature and astute. She's become her own person. Call it a coming of age."
Chris Boardman, 1992 gold medallist and adviser to Team GB
How she did it - Adlington produced an astonishing finish in the 400m freestyle to pip American Katie Hoff by seven 100ths of a second - the length of a fingernail. The teenager then blew away the opposition - shattering the world record in the process - in her favourite event, the 800m, to become Britain's most successful swimmer of the last 100 years.
What they said - "I absolutely can't believe that has happened."
Adlington after winning the 800m
"When we did our Olympic send-off I promised her a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes if she brought back gold, so it looks like I might have to eat my words now. She has raised the profile of Mansfield and as an individual she is remarkable."
Mayor of Mansfield Tony Eggington
How they did it - Britain's track cycling team began a velodrome gold rush with victory in the first final. GB had lost to France at the last three World Championships but comfortably saw off their rivals by 0.523 seconds.
What they said - "The French have been so dominant. To stick half a second into them, it's amazing."
"Our friendship has been so dominant in the last few years. As part of a team, you can't let anyone down."
"It was awesome."
How they did it - Incredibly, injuries to Hodge and James meant Britain's first-choice four had never raced together competitively before they arrived in Beijing. But after dominating their semi-final, they produced a late surge in the final to overtake Australia and keep up Britain's proud tradition in the coxless four.
What they said - "I haven't won any international races before but we knew beforehand we could do it."
"[Coach] Jurgen Grobler kept telling us no one could beat us but sometimes it was hard to believe him."
"We were on the ropes and we put together the best finish we've ever had."
"I've never been in that pain in my entire life."
How he did it - 'Wiggo' fully lived up to his status as pre-race favourite. The 28-year-old defending champion produced a peerless ride in the final to thrash New Zealand's Hayden Roulston by three seconds.
What they said - "I had to play it safe, I couldn't play silly beggars and go chasing world records."
"When he saw that Chris Boardman race [in 1992] he said 'I'm going to win an Olympic gold medal'. And he did. I wish I'd had a bet on him."
Wiggins's mum Linda
How he did it - The 'Real McHoy' collected his second gold of the Games, his raw power in the final lap proving far too much for his rivals. Hoy had only taken up the event in 2007 when the kilometre time-trial - at which he won gold in Athens four years ago - was dropped from the Olympics.
What they said - "After the 'Kilo' was dropped, there were parts of me thinking that it could be the end of my individual career, but to come back to win a different event altogether is just fantastic, it really is."
"You are now Scotland's greatest Olympian."
British Olympic Association chairman Sir Craig Reedie to Hoy on the podium
How they did it - The triumphant 2004 Yngling crew lost Shirley Robertson but Pippa Wilson stepped in and the 'three blondes in a boat' won the final race in atrocious conditions to beat the Dutch by nine points.
What they said - "We know we're the best."
"Our experience was everything, we stayed sure and we got better."
"We've been happy to come out here in any conditions and today we proved that."
How they did it - The hot favourites for gold came into the Olympic regatta unbeaten this season. They held off Greece in the final to win Great Britain's first lightweight rowing gold.
What they said - "I'm in a bit of a daze. National anthem, flag - it's a dream come true."
"The last 10 years have come down to six minutes of hell, but it's all worth it."
How he did it - Hot favourite Ainslie made it three gold medals in three Games to become Britain's most successful Olympic sailor. Leading going into the medal race, the 31-year-old only needed to finish six places behind closest rival Zach Railey - but still won the race anyway.
What they said - "To me, that's what sport is about. It's those pressure moments. That's what I love about competing."
"Everyone in sailing knows he's a legend. He's so young still and he has yet to do more. I wouldn't be surprised if he surpassed Sir Steve Redgrave. In my lifetime, he's the most special sailor we've seen."
Two-time Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson
How she did it - After winning a silver medal in rowing in 2004. she switched to cycling two years ago and claimed gold by beating team-mate Wendy Houvenaghel in the 3,000m.
What they said - "I haven't got the reaction that I'd imagined that I'd have... but it's magical. It's been so hard. I can't explain what I've had to go through. "
"She did say she might like to try something a bit more glamorous, like beach volleyball [in the run-up to London 2012]. But I must stress that was definitely a joke."
Rebecca Romero's mother
How they did it - The favourites even surprised themselves as they clocked the new world record of three minutes, 53.314 seconds as they beat Denmark in the final.
What they said - "We were just rattling around, it was so smooth, it felt easy to be honest. We knew it was fast but 3:53.314 … we just can't believe it. That's going to go down in history, that time won't be broken in a long time, we're the best team in the world."
"We've got a young dynamic team and we haven't even started yet."
Britain's cycling coach Dan Hunt
How he did it - Following his Athens heartbreak in 2004 when he narrowly missed out on bronze, Goodison led going into the medal race and held on to first place by finishing ahead of his nearest rival Sweden's Rasmus Myrgren.
What they said - ""It just feels unbelievable. It's going to take a while to sink in but wow."
How she did it - Ohuruogu looked beaten down the final straight but her strength and stamina saw her overhaul her fading rivals in dramatic fashion as she added the Olympic title to her 2007 world crown, having previously been banned for a year for missing three out of competition drug tests.
What they said - "I don't really care what people think or say, they can say what they like. I have come here and got what I wanted and I'm happy."
"She's level-headed and surrounded by good people - she will keep her feet on the ground. She has had her trials and tribulations and she knows how to treat it."
Bob Smith, chairman of Newham and Essex Beagles Athletic Club
How he did it - The man the rest of the team hold in awe, Hoy beat team-mate and rising star Jason Kenny to become the first Briton in a 100 years to win three golds at an Olympics. The Scot with tree trunks for thighs just had too much power for Kenny.
What they said - "An inspiration to the British cycling team and an inspiration to British sport in general. Chris Hoy for Superman? Yes!"
"It's like he has swallowed a motorbike."
Dutch rival Theo Bos
"Chris's performances at the Beijing Olympics were simply outstanding and he deserves every recognition. I can think of no better way of marking his historic success than by naming Scotland's only world-class track cycling facility after him."
Glasgow City council leader Steven Purcell on naming the velodrome for the 2014 Commonwealth Games after Hoy
How she did it - Now known as Queen Victoria. The pressure was on for her to win gold in the only event she was competing in at the velodrome, but you could not tell. She blitzed her rivals in commanding style to win the gold she craved.
What they said - "I've wanted this so badly. I'd beaten everyone in the field so there was a lot pressure on me to win a medal - I'm 'the golden girl of the track'.
"I'm paid to win gold medals. Let's win 'em all."
Dave Brailsford, Britain's cycling performance director
How they did it - Percy and "Bart" Simpson trailed Sweden by two points at the start of the double-points medal race and needed to finish ahead of their rivals to snatch the gold. The Brits produced an outstanding display to come home in fifth, five places ahead of the Swedes, in a nail-biting encounter.
What they said - "I felt good this morning. I knew we could do it. I knew we weren't going to bottle it and we didn't. It's been a killer four years and it feels great to put it behind us."
"I'm shocked and to do this after the week and year we've had is unbelievable. Words can't describe how happy we are. There's never certainty but since last year we focused on nothing else but this week. I made a few little mistakes today but we pulled it back and luckily it came good for us."
How he did it - A bronze medallist in 2000, Brabants entered the 2008 Olympics as world and European champion. He got off to the quickest start and always led as he powered his way to victory
What they said - "In the first two strokes there was no doubt I was going to win the race. No-one was going to come past me, I felt fantastic. Four years ago I had unfinished business. I was good four years ago but I wasn't this good."
How he did it - Fighting Cuba's Emilio Correa in the final, DeGale went 6-1 ahead when Correa was penalised two points for biting. The lead was reduced to two in the final tense moments but DeGale hung on.
What they said - " He was tough, horrible and strong throughout the bout. But I'm Olympic champion, it's unbelievable."
"That was painful. I thought the referee had lost the plot, but you have to do what you have to do and James was going to win that whatever way it took. We've delivered for UK Sport, now UK Sport have got to deliver for us."
Team GB coach Terry Edwards
How he did it - The Scot started the day in fourth place but he put in a perfect run clocking 178.61 seconds to put him ahead of Poland's Krzystof Bieryt and Czech Stanislav Jezek. It was Britain's first silver in Beijing.
What they said - "I am absolutely delighted that I put in a good final run in the pressure of a big final, it is the most exciting time to do it."
How she did it - The rider, who lives in Switzerland, went out fifth and set a blistering pace, to record a time of 35:16 over the hilly 23.5-km course. She led for much of the race, until Kristin Armstrong of the US posted a late time of 34 minutes 51.72 seconds to win gold.
What they said - "I just concentrated on riding as fast as I could, being absolutely smooth and enjoying myself without anyone to push me off. It helps being positive-nervous, because you've been waiting four years for this."
How he did it - It was always going to be a scrap for the other medals with Chris Hoy in action, but Edgar put in a fabulous performance after missing out on selection for the sprint line-up. He timed his late burst superbly to beat Japan's Kiyofumi Nagai on the line.
What they said - "The team sprint was hard to watch, the guys put in a phenomenal ride. It was a shame I couldn't be part of team but I'm delighted today, I can't put it into words."
"It's fantastic for him. He's such a high-calibre rider, so for him to pick up a silver in this, not being a member of our team sprint, it's a sign of the times of how strong this Great Britain team is."
How they did it - They were bidding for GB's first women's rowing gold, and despite a phenomenal effort at the end, it wasn't enough to see off the Chinese. It was an agonising third successive silver for Grainger.
What they said - "I believe if we did it again we could do it. I want to go back to the start and try again. We let it slip away at the end. It was 100% from everyone but we didn't quite get it right."
"I'm absolutely gutted for them. They really deserved to win, I'm gutted for all of them."
Former rower Rebecca Romero
How they did it - Four years after a punctured lung forced him out of the four, Alex Partridge lined up with his team-mates and pushed the Canadians all the way in a stunning race, but just didn't have enough at the end. It was close though.
What they said - "It came down to great force and a gutsy performance. Unfortunately it wasn't quite there to beat them. I'm disappointed."
How she did it - She was up against team-mate Rebecca Romero, but Houvenaghel barely got a look-in over the 12 laps finishing nearly two seconds behind in a time of three minutes 30 seconds.
What they said - "I gave everything I had to push Rebecca all the way. I have done that, and I am very proud. To be standing on the podium at the Olympics is a great achievement."
How they did it - It was a poor start for the British duo, but they hit back with a fantastic effort to finish the final race in third place, enough to take second overall behind Australia.
What they said - "That was the most intense race I've done for so long. We came through and I'm really pleased"
How he did it - It was a tall order going up against fellow Brit Chris Hoy but the 20-year-old still managed to push the Scot all the way - only losing the opening race by half a wheel's length. Hoy cruised the second race, but Kenny's time will come.
What they said - "You turn up at the Olympics and finish second and you think - you know, I'm really very good!"
"Kenny has come through the ranks and he is the man who will win at London 2012. Beating him was really tough - it was probably the hardest race of my life."
How he did it - The 25-year-old shocked everybody with a phenomenal showing. He initially failed his first attempt at 2.29m, before moving on to clear 2.34m. He even edged out defending champion Stefan Holm and finished behind Russian Andrey Silnov for a glorious silver.
What they said - "I'm happy I came here and delivered silver for Great Britain. I've been working for this for four years of my life and it feels like heaven."
How she did it - Payne and team-mate Cassie Patten swam superbly, but the British pair were undone after a battling late charge from Russian Larisa Ilchenko in the final 100m. Payne matched Ilchenko stroke for stroke but was narrowly edged out.
What they said - "We didn't talk at all out there, we're best friends, we train together and we just kind of knew when to kick at the right time."
Kerri-Anne Payne on her GB team-mate
How he did it - Davies led for most of the race, making a decisive move with about 800m to go but then drifting offline in the final stages. He was pipped to gold by Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden, who finished just 1.5 seconds ahead of Davies.
What he said - "It's going to take a while for it to sink in but it's a proud moment for me. I gave it everything, that was what I wanted to do, and I have something to show for it."
How he did it - The dyed redhead was favourite to win the title and it seemed his jump of 17.62m would be enough for gold, but along came world champion Nelson Evora, whose leap of 17.67m left the London leaper with silver.
What they said - "I would have liked to go to the London 2012 Olympic Games as defending Olympic champion, and I can't believe I'm standing here disappointed with silver, but I am."
How she did it - A decent shoot, followed by a strong performance in the fencing and a season's best in the 200m swim put Fell in second place - a solid show jumping followed and although she made up 10 seconds on winner Lena Schoneborn on the final 3,000m, gold was just beyond her.
What they said - "I had some luck - you have to for five events to go so well. The crowd helped so much and it has been a great day. For two Brits to finish in the top seven (Katy Livingston) in our first Olympics shows how strong we are."
How she did it - Jackson was up against the mighty Brit Becky Adlington and American Katie Hoff. The 21-year-old didn't disappoint and after turning fourth at the halfway point, she had the strength to put in a late surge to edge out France's Coralie Balmy.
What they said - "I didn't really know what to expect because it was a hard swim to get into the final, and to win a medal at the Olympics is overwhelming - I'm just so pleased."
How she did it - When lying in joint sixth heading into the final show-jumping stage on Miners Frolic, Cook put in a clear round which saw her briefly occupy top spot. It was an anxious wait watching six riders follow her around the jumps, but four of them dislodged fences which elevated her to third.
What they said - "I can't speak. It is unbelievable, like a dream come true."
How they did it - The British team began the final day 11.70 points behind top-placed Australia, but struggled to push for the top medals, despite a fine effort and clear round from Tina Cook.
What they said - "I'm so excited. The way he has jumped feels great. The horse is really young and I'm really pleased with him as he has never seen anything like this before."
Tina Cook on her 10-year-old mount Miners Frolic
How they did it - It was a second successive bronze for Laverick in the double sculls, after her efforts in Athens four years ago. But it was still a great achievement with Laverick fighting back to fitness after being the victim of a hit-and-run' accident in 2005. They were edged out of the top two spots by the New Zealand and German boats.
What they said - "We left it with too much to do but - in Anna's first final - we were nearly there. I said I was going to stop after this but now who knows?"
How they did it - It was a fabulous effort from the British pair who just missed out on silver by 0.05 seconds. They had been firing in second place behind Australia's David Crawshay and Scott Brennan but were passed by Estonia in the last few metres.
What they said - "It was very disappointing not to get the gold, extremely disappointing not to get the silver but you never pass up an Olympic medal. I'm just delighted."
"In that last couple of strokes I thought we had it but I'm really pleased to have come away with something."
How he did it - It was always going to be tough facing the Sydney 2000 champion and Athens 2004 silver medallist Joan Llanares, but there was a chance for silver as Newton battled German Roger Kluge with nine laps left and one sprint. Newton faded with the finish in sight to end on 56 points.
What they said - "It was hard out there. I was very calm before the race. I didn't think I was ready for it, but as soon as I pulled on a skinsuit something kicked in."
How he did it - Team-mate Bradley Wiggins may have grabbed all the headlines, but Burke surpassed all expectations after beating Alexei Markov with a fantastic display in the velodrome. Not a bad effort for a man who had focused on the team pursuit, and was only drafted into the British team for the individual event just 24 hours before the start of qualifying.
What they said - "I never though this would happen. 2012 was the goal and it came a few years early."
How he did it - With the Chinese crowd ringing in his ears, Smith was in silver position after a tremendous performance. China's Qin Xiao won gold with 15.875, but it was Croatia's Filip Ude who just edged out the Brit on the tiebreaker, as he had fewer deductions on count-back for artistic merit.
What they said - "I was emotional, scared and nervous. It was absolutely unbelievable. I hope this medal is a stepping stone for British gymnastics. I hope it will inspire youngsters to come into our sport."
How she did it - It was one almighty battle for Patten and team-mate Keri-Anne Payne as they struggled to contend with the efforts of Larisa Ilchenko. The Russian sat on the feet of the leading Brits but then made a late surge before edging past in the final few metres.
What they said - "Every part of your body is hurting. Your stomach is the size of a pea, because all the blood rushes to your arms, your body is saying stop but your head is saying come on keep going."
How she did it - It was an emotional day for the Londoner who began the medal race in third place with 41 points. Chinese sailor Yin Jian, who took gold, and Italy's Alessandra Sensini proved too strong for the Brit but it was still a fine achievement for Shaw who was making her Olympic debut.
What they said - "I'm so happy. It was such a hard race and a hard week," said Shaw, whose display gave Britain their first-ever medal in the women's windsurfing event."
How she did it - After injury and a number of illnesses, it's been a topsy-turvy season for Danvers. But the selectors will be pleased after the Commonwealth silver medallist has done nothing but amazing things since arriving in Beijing - cruising through the qualifiers and storming to a stunning bronze clocking a PB of 53.84s behind Jamaica's Melaine Walker and American Sheena Johnson.
What they said - "Oh my goodness, I'm just pleased beyond measure. I'm so thrilled. It's been probably the worst - and now the best - year of my whole life."
How he did it - Following a bye in the first round, Jeffries made the last eight after coming through a messy encounter with Colombia's Eleider Alvarez on a count back. He then dispatched Hungary's Imre Szello 10-2 to reach the semi-final where he was outclassed by Ireland's Kenny Egan.
What they said - "Before I came here I would have been happy to get a medal but now I feel absolutely gutted. I felt brilliant in the warm-up but on the day he boxed brilliantly. I don't think I boxed that badly but he upped his game. Kenny was the better fighter on the night and he beat me fair and square."
How he did it - Price stopped the favourite for the gold, Russia's Islam Timurziev, in the second round of his opening contest. He was beating Jaroslav Jaksto 3-1 in their quarter-final before the Lithuanian was forced to retire in the second round. But Italy's Roberto Cammarelle was too powerful in the semi-final and stopped Price in round two.
What they said - "I feel like all the good work I've put in here has just gone down the pan. He caught me cold in the first round and he surprised me. The best man won on the night. No-one can take my medal away from me and it's been a fantastic journey up until today. I'll sit down and have a think about what to do next. I might return in 2012 - but it might be in synchronised swimming after that."
How he did it - In a dogfight over the last 20m, with Australia's Ken Wallace just came through to take gold, Canada's reigning world champion Adam van Koeverden held on for silver in a photo finish with Brabants, who became Great Britain's fourth multi-medallist of the Games.
What they said - "I came out to these Olympics with the hope of getting two medals - one of them gold - and that is what I have done. It has been fantastic. I feel very lucky to be here."
How she did it - Stevenson had lost her quarter-final to China's Chen Zhong, but a successful appeal against a controversial judging decision gave her a second chance. After a semi-final defeat to Mexico's Maria del Rosario Espinoza she regained her composure to beat Noha Abd Rabo 5-1 for the bronze.
What they said - "I didn't come for bronze but I'm really happy. Physically, I was more ready than I have ever been, but mentally I was tired. It has been good and the ups and downs are something to remember."
BEST BRITISH GOLD-MEDAL HAULS
55 - 1908, London
14 - 1900, Paris
14 - 1920, Antwerp
11 - 2000, Sydney
10 - 1912, Stockholm |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17521775 | Copyright licensing system 'needs to be streamlined'
Copyright licensing needs to be made easier and cheaper to use to support the UK's digital economy, according to a government-commissioned study.
An independent expert was appointed in November to investigate whether the current process was "fit for purpose".
After studying evidence from creative industry leaders, Richard Hooper concluded that existing systems "need to be streamlined".
It paves the way for the creation of a "Digital Copyright Exchange".
The system would act as a "one-stop shop" database collating copyright information from a range of industries that could be accessed online.
Richard Hooper, a former deputy chairman of the broadcast regulator Ofcom, said such a move would help small and medium-sized businesses launch new digital services over broadband and mobile networks - potentially creating the next Spotify or Netflix.
He added it should also prove beneficial for existing media giants.
"[This] will drive economic growth across the UK's creative and technology industries," he told the BBC.
"Also if the media companies are seen to be doing everything possible to enable and encourage new digital services via easier and more streamlined copyright licensing, then that makes it easier for politicians to be even tougher against copyright infringement."'Complex and confusing'
Among the evidence considered by the inquiry was a submission concerning the Victoria and Albert museum's struggle to clear picture rights.
The V&A was said to have spent 125 working days and £14,000 to track down who owned the rights to 270 still images it needed to clear for one of its exhibitions.
The education body Scotland's Colleges also wrote in to highlight the problems its members faced having to seek permission to use teaching materials from nine different copyright-collecting agencies.
It said: "Licences are complex and confusing and difficult to understand by the majority of those working in further education."
Mr Hooper said that the BBC had also highlighted that rights clearances had become very labour intensive, noting that it was currently spending about £10m a year on the issue.
"The BBC would like a copyright licensing regime in place which reflects the needs of a digital converged world - a world increasingly dominated by high-volume, low-value transactions as opposed to the low-volume, high-value transactions that were a feature of the analogue era," its statement read.
Mr Hooper said he planned to issue a final report to Business Secretary Vince Cable in July which will suggest either the creation of a Digital Copyright Exchange or some other industry-funded solution. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-20539615 | Peterborough Town Hall attacked with graffiti
A woman has been charged with criminal damage after allegedly painting words including "corrupt", "liars" and "shambles" on Peterborough Town Hall.
Police officers were alerted to the graffiti on the front of Peterborough City Council's offices in the early hours.
Samantha Moss, 25, of Oundle Road, Peterborough, was arrested and subsequently charged.
She is due to appear at Peterborough Magistrates' Court.
Council contractors have been working to remove the graffiti.
The city council has declined to comment on the attack. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-17027300 | 'Unique' 11th Century coin discovered near Gloucester
A "unique" medieval coin from the reign of William the Conqueror has been discovered in a field near Gloucester.
The hammered silver coin was found by metal detectorist Maureen Jones just north of the city in November.
Experts from the Portable Antiquities Scheme said the find "filled in the hole" in the dates the Gloucester mint was known to have been operating.
The coin, which dates from 1077-1080, features the name of the moneyer Silacwine and where it was minted.
The Portable Antiquities Scheme said that until the coin was discovered, there were no known examples of William I coins minted in Gloucester between 1077-1080.
"The discovery of this coin therefore proves that the mint was in operation throughout the whole reign of William I," it said.
Ms Jones, who found the coin, is a member of Taynton Metal Detecting Club.
"I went out with two other ladies to an open field and that's where I found it," she said.
"I know it's a silver hammered coin but I didn't recognise the king.
"It's quite amazing."
Kurt Adams, finds liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said the penny coin would have been "quite valuable" at the time that it is thought to been lost by its owner more than 900 years ago.
It is due to be returned to Ms Jones shortly. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20836795 | Police Scotland: New service chiefs named
The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) has named six assistant chief constables for the new single police force which will be formed in Scotland next year.
The posts include local policing roles for the east, north and west of Scotland.
The other three roles cover serious crime and public protection, operational support and crime, serious organised crime and counter terrorism.
All will be based at Police Scotland's headquarters at Tulliallan Castle.
The country's eight police forces are to be merged into a single Scottish service at the start of April 2013.
The Scottish government said the new service would have a much slimmer command structure and save £1.4bn over 15 years.
There are currently eight chief constables, nine deputy chief constables (DCCs) and 13 assistant chief constables (ACCs), costing about £4.8m a year.
The new service will have one chief constable, four DCCs and six ACCs - costing less than £2m a year.
The ACCs are due to take up their roles soon and will earn between £90,726 and £105,849 a year, subject to experience.
New ACC appointments
- Local Policing East - Mike McCormick
- Local Policing North - Derek Penman
- Local Policing West - Wayne Mawson
- Serious Crime and Public Protection - Malcolm Graham
- Crime, Serious Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism - Ruaraidh Nicolson
- Operational Support - Bernie Higgins
Among those appointed ACCs are acting Central Scotland Chief Constable Derek Penman, who will cover local policing for the north area, and Strathclyde Assistant Chief Constable Bernie Higgins, who will take on the operational support role.
SPA chairman Vic Emery said: "Our focus as an authority is to ensure that the new police service is ready operationally, legally and financially for day one.
"Appointing a command team to provide the chief constable with the support he needs has been a top priority.
"The new team is taking shape, and the appointment of the assistant chief constables marks another big step forward."
He added: "Each of them will play a major role in working with us to ensure the people of Scotland continue to get the best possible police service within the resources available."
The recently-appointed head of the new national police force, Stephen House, said the six assistant chief constables would play "critical roles in the future of policing in Scotland".
He added: "The team will now drive forward local policing, deliver operationally on organised crime, major incidents, counter terrorism, public protection and operational support.
"They will work closely with the deputy chief constables to shape the best possible service for communities to keep people safe." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7078612.stm | The world's richest model has reportedly reacted in her own way to the sliding value of the US dollar - by refusing to be paid in the currency.
The model reportedly demanded euros for a Pantene advert
Gisele BŁndchen is said to be keen to avoid the US currency because of uncertainty over its strength.
The Brazilian, thought to have earned about $30m in the year to June, prefers to be paid in euros, her sister and manager told the Bloomberg news agency.
However, Ms BŁndchen, 27, declined to comment on her pay arrangements.
Last week the dollar hit long-term lows against the euro, the British pound and the Canadian dollar.
According to Brazil's weekly magazine Veja, when Ms BŁndchen signed a deal to represent Pantene hair products, she demanded that the brand owner, Procter & Gamble (P&G), paid her in euros.
P&G was reported as saying that it could not comment on details of the contract.
There are also reports that she will be paid in euros for a deal with Dolce & Gabanna to promote its The One fragrance.
"Contracts starting now are more attractive in euros because we don't know what will happen to the dollar," Patricia BŁndchen told Bloomberg in September.
But the supermodel's agent in New York, Anne Nelson, denied that there are any special currency arrangements.
"When she works in Europe she gets paid in euros, when she works in the US she gets paid in dollars, when she works in Brazil she gets paid in reais and so on," she said.
She also pointed out that Ms BŁndchen lives in New York and so needs US dollars.
Last month, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said that he was not confident about the strength of the dollar.
"We are still negative on the dollar relative to most other currencies so we bought stocks in companies that earn their money in other currencies," he said of his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle.
And Jim Rogers, a former investor partner of George Soros, told the BBC that if he was buying currency now it would be the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc and not the US dollar.
The dollar has slipped amid US interest rate cuts which have been trimmed to 4.5% after standing at 5.25% in September.
This means that investors are looking to buy other currencies that will give a higher rate of return. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8068174.stm | By Andrew Walker
BBC News, Warri
For the past 13 days the Nigerian military has been mounting an offensive in the swampy creeks of the Niger Delta, pursuing oil militants who kidnapped 15 sailors, 18 soldiers and hijacked a petrol tanker belonging to the national oil company.
They say the continuing military action is an attempt to rescue their men or confirm if they are dead.
The militants started it, they say, and the military is just reacting, according to commander Gen Sarkin Yakin Bello, whose name means "lord of war" in the northern Hausa language.
But security and diplomatic sources have told the BBC the military action in Delta State is part of a new "get tough" approach which has been on the army's drawing board for months in an attempt to deal with key militant leaders from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).
The clock is ticking on the offensive, as it is disrupting business, and may begin to have a bad effect on Nigeria's already depressed oil industry.
The military action could backfire and stir up militancy in the western Niger Delta, observers say.
It could also spark ethnic conflict in a race to secure lucrative patronage from government and business in the Delta.
Stories are emerging from the area of military brutality against civilians, as soldiers move through villages looking for guns and weapons.
Groups representing the Ijaw people who live in the area have issued alarming numbers for those killed or chased from their homes.
The military has denied access to journalists so far.
But the Nigerian Red Cross has told the BBC they went to several villages in the creeks and saw a few burned houses, but not the total destruction those fleeing described.
Those who fled into the bush have been creeping back to their homes at night and then leaving again at first light, the Red Cross's Ovocity Egboworo said.
"The biggest problem they are facing is a lack of food, as no supplies have been able to get up there for some time now," he said.
Other international aid agencies have decided not to travel to the region for the time being, unconvinced that the humanitarian need outweighs the risk of going into the active conflict zone.
It is certain that this is the largest military operation against the militants since the rise of the armed conflict in 2006.
Mend leader Government Tompolo is now on the run
They are attacking fighters loyal to the man known to be the regional commander, and suspected to be the overall military leader of Mend, Government Tompolo.
Mr Tompolo has in recent years established himself as the major powerbroker in the area.
Local businessmen say he is the point man for the leaders of the Ijaw community, funnelling money from government patronage and lucrative contracts and members of his family and close circle hold key government positions.
If a company wants to move anything in the oil creeks of Escravos and Forcados, home to a great deal of Nigeria's oil industry, they must pay Mr Tompolo's "boys" for protection.
The militants also make money stealing crude and selling it through bunkering syndicates, an organised crime operation that has links to Nigerian politicians, military figures, and connections to drug and gun runners, analysts say.
Before the recent offensive violence against oil infrastructure was actually down, as the militants had reached terms with the state government and the oil companies.
The military action seems aimed at dislodging Mr Tompolo from this powerful position.
Mr Tompolo is on the run from his base, rumoured to be either in Cameroon, the Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom, or lying low in the Delta State city of Warri, depending on who you talk to.
But leaders from his Ijaw ethnic community have apparently withdrawn their support for him.
Ijaw elder Chief Edwin Clark, 76, told the BBC he would not shelter Mr Tompolo.
"He is not a monster, but if he came to me I would hand him over to the authorities," said Mr Clark, who has decided to get out of the region for a couple of weeks.
Mr Tompolo still commands large military resources, and while it remains to be seen if he can return to his plum position, it is clear he is not prepared to go without a fight.
But Mr Clark says it seems like the government is serious about tackling the militants this time.
Last year the military was given millions of dollars to spend on equipment for fighting in the Niger Delta.
Soldiers of the JTF review weapons allegedly seized from a Mend camp
A report leaked outlined possible military scenarios, including the one currently unfolding.
There was also a large military exercise several months ago in Ondo State where the military Joint Task Force (JTF) practised the tactics it would need to fight militants.
Following a briefing by Nigeria's Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe, diplomatic sources told the BBC they came away with the impression the militant attack that triggered the current operation had simply put in motion an existing plan.
But security sources say the military will have to capture large amounts of weapons for this offensive to be a success, as there is no way they can kill all the militants.
Nothing is moving on the creeks now, and militants have continued to attack pipelines shutting in 100,000 barrels per day.
So far the military has shown journalists a heap of rusted antique shotguns and a few buckets of bullets.
'Not the end'
A former adviser to both ex-Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and his successor Umaru Yar'Adua on the Niger Delta told the BBC he was afraid the military action would make the situation worse in the long run.
"Removing Tompolo will not be the end of it," said Rev Stephen Davis, Canon Emeritus at Coventry Cathedral's reconciliation ministry, who recently wrote a report on the possibilities of peace in the Niger Delta.
This would open a position other leaders would be prepared to fight over, he argued, raising the spectre of gang warfare in Delta State.
It also risked inflaming ethnic tensions between Ijaw and another Delta State ethnic group, the Itsekiri.
The two fought a war between 1997 and 2002, and Mr Tompolo's hold on government patronage came as a direct result of the Ijaw victory.
According to Rev Davis, the Mend leader is not the root of the problem, but a symptom of the lack of governance in the Niger Delta.
"Tompolo is a toll-gate keeper," he says.
"The real ones driving this conflict are the ones who built the road." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4071122.stm | Mary Warnock, architect of England's special needs education system, is to publish a damning report on how it has turned out in practice.
Baroness Warnock wants a "radical review" of special needs education
Baroness Warnock says pressure to include pupils with problems in mainstream schools causes "confusion of which children are the casualties".
She also says the way the most severe needs are assessed is "wasteful and bureaucratic" and "must be abolished".
She wants a "radical review" by an independent committee of inquiry.
In a pamphlet to be published later this month by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Lady Warnock calls for a fundamental re-thinking of the concept of inclusion, in which children with physical or emotional difficulties are encouraged to be taught in mainstream schools.
This ideal of inclusiveness "springs from hearts in the right place" but she describes its implementation and the consequent moving of pupils out of special schools as a "disastrous legacy".
"Governments must come to recognise that, even if inclusion is an ideal for society in general, it may not always be an ideal for school."
Instead of putting special needs pupils into mainstream schools, she calls for a change in the status and purpose of special schools.
At present, she says these suffer from a "patronising" attitude, which limits their use to children with the most severe and complex disabilities.
"They are regarded as little more than places of containment, hospitals or day centres, but with better educational facilities," she writes.
'Cards stacked against them'
Instead she proposes a system of special schools which could serve a wider variety of needs, including autistic children, but which would be small enough to provide a reassuring and personal environment for emotionally vulnerable pupils.
These would also have to recognise that special needs might emerge from social deprivation as well as physical disability, she writes.
Baroness Warnock wants to re-open the debate about inclusion
She says children can feel excluded even if they are in a mainstream school.
"Inclusion should mean being involved in a common enterprise of learning, rather than being necessarily under the same roof."
The system of "statementing", in which the educational needs of pupils with more severe difficulties are established, is also robustly criticised by Lady Warnock - who acknowledges her own responsibility in designing a process which has "turned out to be not a very bright idea".
Lady Warnock, aged 81, a former head teacher, academic and leader of several high-profile inquiries, produced the report which laid the foundations for the introduction of statements of special educational need in England and Wales in the early 1980s.
The law says all state schools must do their best to see that special help is provided for all children with special needs
In a few cases, the local education authority (LEA) will have to make an assessment of a child's educational needs, based on specialist advice
If the LEA decides the child needs extra help, they must write a "statement" describing the child's needs and all the special help he or she needs
In 2004, 1,445,080 children in England were deemed to have special needs
247,590 of those (17.1%) had statements
When the idea was first proposed, Lady Warnock says that it was expected that 2% of pupils with special needs would receive statements.
That statements were actually given to 20%, she says, reflects the lack of clarity over their application.
The statementing process has become too bureaucratic and unresponsive to parents, she writes.
The Advisory Centre for Education, which helps parents, said: "The statementing process is necessarily 'bureaucratic' as it's the gateway to scarce resources for which good records are needed of the nature of the child's difficulties and the appropriate special help required."
The leader of the NASUWT teachers' union, Chris Keates, said the principle of inclusion was "absolutely correct" but was undermined and discredited if it was pursued in a "dogmatic, ideological and unqualified manner".
It had often masked an agenda in some local authorities which had more to do with financial considerations than pupils' needs.
She added: "There is now some evidence that due to pressure from schools and parents a more realistic and considered approach is emerging." |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7570000/newsid_7578900/7578910.stm | Teenage diving sensation Tom Daley has finished seventh in the 10 metre final to become Britain's highest-placed diver at the Beijing Games.
The 14-year-old was fourth after doing his most difficult dive in the first round, but got overtaken by his rivals.
Australia's Matthew Mitcham was first, China's Zhou Luxin second and Russian world champion Gleb Galperin third.
Afterwards, Daley said he was pleased with his performance as he'd enjoyed himself and gained lots of experience.
"This has been a big bonus going into 2012 as I now know what the Olympics are like," he said.
"I'm going to work on some harder dives so I can be more competitive."
In the meantime, he's got just two days off before he'll be back in the pool to start training for the junior world championships in September. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9366000/9366413.stm | Could private investment help to give our society's poorest children the best start?
A report on early intervention published by Labour today says proposed social investment bonds could help save the state money while at the same time improving the futures of disadvantaged youngsters.
Toby Eccles, Development Director for Social Finance, is involved in a similar programme and tells the Today programme that it works, while Edward Melhuish, Professor of Human Development at Birkbeck College, University of London argues that "how we are going to assess the effectiveness of these programmes"
Get in touch with Today via
or text us on 84844. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11086944 | US new home sales in sharp fall
New homes sales in the US fell sharply in July, according to official data, adding to concerns over the weakness of the US economic recovery.
The rate of new home sales fell 12.4% in July from a month earlier to an annualised rate of 276,600 a year, the US Commerce Department said.
That makes it the slowest rate since records began in 1963.
Separate figures showed a smaller-than-expected rise in sales of industrial goods.
The sale of so-called "durable goods" rose by 0.3% in July, the Commerce Department said.
On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors also reported a sharp drop in sales of existing homes.
Analysts fear the data could reflect weakness in the US economy.
The annualised rate represents what the total number of sales would be if the relative pace for that month were maintained for 12 consecutive months.'Double-dip'
Although most analysts had expected a fall in sales, the number was even lower than expected.
"There is nothing good you can say about the number," said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities in New York.
"The odds of the dreaded double-dip [recession] are increasing."
Keith Hembre, chief economist at First American Funds, said: "If you don't get a pick up [in home sales] in the next couple of months, it sure looks like it's possible the economy could contract in the third quarter".
Signs that the US recovery from recession is weakening have been growing in recent months.
Unemployment remains stubbornly high, with a rate close to 10%, while hiring in the private sector has slowed, as has the rate of GDP growth.
In the last quarter, the US economy was estimated to have grown by an annualised rate of 2.4%, down from 3.7% during the previous three months. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19464353 | Tax return warnings sent by HMRC
Thousands of taxpayers will receive letters this week urging them to deal with any historical tax returns they have failed to submit.
HM Revenue and Customs' Tax Return Initiative is aimed primarily at higher rate taxpayers who have gaps in their self-assessment record.
Fines will be reduced if taxpayers come forward with details voluntarily in the next month.
Criminal inquiries could come after the deadline, the UK tax authority warned.
"This campaign offers a quick and straightforward way to bring your tax affairs up to date, but time is running out," said Marian Wilson, head of campaigns at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).Fines
The campaign primarily targets those who have failed to return a tax return for 2009-10 or earlier, and who pay at the 40% tax rate. The campaign is open to those who pay basic rate tax.
HMRC has written to 7,100 individuals who the authority considers to be most likely to have missed a submission "despite penalties, reminders and statements", urging them to come forward.
Anyone who does so is likely to have to pay the tax and any interest owed, as well as a fine set at the equivalent of 10% or 20% of the tax owed.
In some circumstances, HMRC said it would allow people to spread these payments.
Following 2 October, the tax authority said it would use its legal powers to pursue those who have failed to submit self-assessment forms and have tax payments outstanding.
The fine could then increase to 100% of the tax due. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18422867 | Goodfellas mobster Henry Hill dies aged 69
Henry Hill, a former mobster-turned-FBI informant whose life became the basis for Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, has died in Los Angeles aged 69.
His partner and manager, Lisa Caserta, did not give a specific cause but added years of heavy smoking combined with complications from a recent heart attack led to his death.
"He had been sick for a long time, his heart gave out," she told TMZ.
On screen, Hill was played by Ray Liotta in the 1990 Oscar-winning film.
The movie was based on the 1986 book Wiseguy, written by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, which documented Hill's life.
Ms Caserta told CBS News Hill was with family members when he died, adding he "went out pretty peacefully, for a goodfella".
Born into an Italian-Irish family, Hill was as an associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York.
He was involved in numerous criminal acts including the Lufthansa heist at John F Kennedy International Airport in 1978, when $5m (£3.2m) in cash and $875,000 (£560,000) worth of jewels were stolen.
Hill lived the mob life for 20 years until 1980 when he was arrested on drugs charges and, to avoid prison, agreed to testify against his former mafia bosses.
He entered into witness protection but was expelled from the programme in the early 1990s after committing various drug-related crimes.
In more recent years, Hill became a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show, marketed his own spaghetti sauce and opened a restaurant called Wiseguys.
Goodfellas was nominated for six academy awards including best director and best picture, but picked up just one for Joe Pesci in the supporting actor role of Tommy DeVito, based on real-life mobster Thomas DeSimone. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-21652555 | Jade Clark's family appeal over A31 'hit-and-run' death
The mother of a 16-year-old girl killed in a suspected hit-and-run in Dorset has made a public appeal for help.
Jade Clark died when her moped was involved in a collision on the A31 at Ringwood at 20:23 GMT on 24 February.
Sharon Clark appealed to the driver who fled the scene of the crash to come forward. A £1,000 reward to find them has also been put up.
Police said "a number of vehicles" were involved but they believe a Volvo XC90 struck the moped first.
Speaking at a press conference, Sharon Clark paid tribute to her daughter.
She said: "Jade was such a lovely girl. Losing her has left a hole in our hearts and our lives that we'll never fill.
"She was a wonderful daughter, and step-daughter, sister and granddaughter, and friend.
"So many people have said so many nice things about Jade and I just say thank you to you all for your kindness."'Huge heart'
An inquest was earlier opened and adjourned in Bournemouth where it was heard Jade died from severe head injuries after being hit by a number of vehicles.
The Crimestoppers charity is offering the reward for information leading to the Volvo driver being charged.
Insp Matt Butler, of Dorset Police, said the front of the vehicle was damaged in the collision and urged anyone who may have seen it to come forward.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, Martyn Underhill, said there may be a case for lowering the speed limit on the A31.
He added: "I have been briefed by the force on this issue and my thoughts are obviously with the family at this terrible time.
"I have also requested that I receive a briefing on the summary of accidents on this stretch of road."
Chris Edwards, head teacher of Ringwood School, which Jade attended until July last year, said she had a "lively, bubbly personality and was always full of life".
She said she will be remembered as someone who had a huge heart and was a "positive force for good".
The teenager was also a member of Hampshire Fire and Rescue's youth organisation, the Young Firefighters' Association. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19941695 | NI Fire Service paid unapproved bonuses to three staff
A number of unapproved bonus payments were made to senior officers in NI's Fire and Rescue Service without official approval from the Department of Health, the BBC has learned.
The information is expected to be included in an internal audit published on Tuesday.
It is the latest revelation to emerge about the organisation.
The bonuses issue concerns the most senior managers between 2007 - 2011.
The service has been subject to several investigations involving senior managers.
The audit is also expected to reveal how a former assistant chief fire officer accepted and retained a Land Rover from a Northern Ireland car dealer despite being told by his boss to return it.
In 2008, payments were made to the deputy chief fire officer, Louis Jones, and assistant chief fire officers Peter Craig and Tom Wright.
The £15,000 figure was not disclosed as required in the 2008/2009 pay documentation.
The move, that was not authorised by either the Fire Service board or the Department of Health, illustrates what an earlier report described as a lack of governance oversight in the organisation.
In response to the BBC, only one of the officers replied. Louis Jones said he was not aware that the payment was irregular.
He said: "In 2006, the Fire and Rescue Board considered my performance and as a result agreed to pay me a bonus for my work activities. I wasn't aware that the payment was considered inappropriate."
It is not the first time that irregular payments were made.
The 2008/09 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts revealed that £50,840 was paid to three non-uniformed directors on the basis of a job revaluation.Evaluation
They were Terry McGonnigle, Ann Conley and Doros Michail.
It is understood that one of them, Doros Michail, is challenging the payments issue in the High Court.
The evaluation was carried out by Belfast City Council.
However, among its conclusions the 2008/09 report reveals that the payments were not properly approved.
The process by which the payments were awarded was also described as unlawful.
The report said: "The arrangement by which Belfast City Council was selected to undertake the job evaluation does not follow public procurement best practice as established by HM Treasury and endorsed by the Department of Finance and Personnel."
The process was later put out to tender.
The audit is also expected to reveal how a former assistant chief fire officer, Peter Craig, accepted a vehicle from car dealer Charles Hurst in 2009.
Despite being told by his boss, Colin Lammey, to return it, it was found to have been stored in a lock-up garage in Carryduff.
The Charles Hurst Group is currently the major supplier of tyres to the Fire Service.
In a letter to Peter Craig, Mr Lammey, the then chief fire officer, instructed that the vehicle be immediately removed and given back.
But instead of being driven to the car dealers on Boucher Road it went to Carryduff.
The information will be contained in the health minister's statement which he is expected to deliver to the assembly on Tuesday.
When Peter Craig himself became chief, he overturned the previous decision that it should be returned.Turbulent
When later questioned, he said that it had all been a "genuine mistake".
In a statement on Monday, Charles Hurst said the vehicle had not been supplied for anyone individual and that the tyre contract was awarded by the government's central procurement agency rather than directly by the Fire Service.
"We can confirm that in 2009 we made a vehicle available to NIFRS with full NIFRS & Charles Hurst vehicle livery - and not any one individual - on the basis that it was to be used, on loan, by the community development team in support of a road traffic collision education programme.
"As a company which tangibly supports the communities in which we operate, we regularly contribute to a wide and varied number of initiatives as part of our corporate and social responsibility commitment.
"Charles Hurst is one of four appointed suppliers to NIFRS and was subject to precisely the same tender process by the procurement team of the central purchasing agency as all potential bidders," the company said.
It has been a turbulent time for the NIFRS.
The investigation centres on managers not the fire fighters.
The BBC has previously revealed how a senior member of the Fire Service was allowed to run a private business selling uniforms at the same time as he was in charge of the organisation's stores and procurement.
The man, had secured contracts with some leading local and national companies. But the Fire Service said it was satisfied there wasn't a conflict of interest.
The BBC also published details of how the service dealt with 126 grievance cases in the past decade - 22 remain outstanding despite being lodged several years ago.
At the same time the service has been involved in 54 industrial tribunals.
It has been a turbulent time for the organisation with three chief fire officers in as many years.
It is hoped the current investigations and the appointment of an interim chief fire executive will bring some stability to the service. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15475068 | Turkey earthquake: Teenage boy found after four days
A 13-year-old boy has been pulled alive from the rubble in south-eastern Turkey, 108 hours after an earthquake devastated his town.
The injured boy was rescued from a collapsed building in Ercis.
Just hours earlier a man was freed from a flattened apartment block and taken to hospital.
The Turkish authorities now say 570 people are known to have died in Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake - more than 2,500 were injured.
End Quote Baris Dogan Rescue worker
My feelings are inexplicable - it was like taking my own son out.”
So far 187 people have been rescued but hundreds are still missing and hopes are fading of finding more survivors.
Rain and snow have been hindering the rescue and relief effort.
The rescued boy, named Ferhat Tokay, was found alive late on Thursday and pulled out by search teams early on Friday morning.
"We started digging and at first we saw his hand - then we started speaking to him," Baris Dogan, a member of the rescue team told Reuters news agency.
"My feelings are inexplicable - it was like taking my own son out," he said.
Ozgur Yildiz, a friend of the boy told Reuters: "We didn't believe he would die - he is a strong child. I feel so good right now and I'd like to say to him get well soon."
Rescue workers say Ferhat Tokay was taken to hospital but appears to be in good health.
Search teams continued to dig through the rubble of the building after the 13-year-old was rescued, searching for several other people from the same block who are thought to be missing.
However, work has stopped at some other sites as the chances of finding anyone alive diminish.Waiting
Pouring rain and in some places snow have brought further misery to the tens of thousands of people made homeless by the earthquake.
Although the authorities are working to address a big shortage of tents, many people spent a fifth night outdoors.
Large numbers of men are reported to have spent the night wondering the streets of Ercis, the worst hit town, with nowhere else to go, having settled their families in whatever shelter was available.
In the provincial capital, Van, the damp conditions are also making it difficult for people to cope.
Nimet, a mother of three, told Reuters she was tempted to return to her damaged home.
"It looks fine from the outside, but inside it looks very unstable with all the cracks in the walls. What other choice do we have but to go back to our houses?" she said
"Last night it rained and all our belongings are still wet. I don't know how many more days we can stay in a tent like this."
Aid supplies have been sent from several countries.
On Thursday planes loaded with tents arrived in Turkey from France, Ukraine and Israel. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11435240 | Q&A: The Ayodhya dispute
BBC News examines key questions surrounding the bitter dispute over the flashpoint religious site at Ayodhya in northern India - in 1992 it prompted some of the country's worst religious violence since partition.
What is the row about?
Hindus and Muslims have been at loggerheads for more than a century over the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Hindus claim the mosque was the birthplace of one of their most revered deities, Lord Ram, and that it was built after the destruction of a Hindu temple by a Muslim invader in the 16th Century.
Muslims say they offered prayers at the mosque until December 1949, when some people placed the idols of Ram under the cover of darkness in the mosque. The worship of the idols began soon after.
Over the next four decades, Hindu and Muslim groups went to court over the control of the site and the right to offer prayers there.
The dispute erupted in 1992 when a Hindu mob destroyed the mosque, and nearly 2,000 people were killed in subsequent religious riots across the country.
What do the courts say about the row?
Allahabad High Court's ruling in September 2010 addressed three questions. It said that the disputed spot was Ram's birthplace, that the mosque was built after the demolition of a temple and that it was not built in accordance with the tenets of Islam.
Following the decision, Hindus hope to see a temple built on the site, while Muslims are still demanding the reconstruction of the mosque.
In 2011 the Supreme Court suspended the ruling after Hindu and Muslim groups appealed against the 2010 verdict.
The case has already languished in India's famously sluggish legal system for so long that most of the original petitioners have died.
Who was awarded what?
The court ruled in an 8,500-page judgement that two-thirds of the disputed site should be allocated to Hindu groups, with the remainder to Muslims.
For the first time in a judicial ruling, it said that the disputed site was the birthplace of the Hindu god.
The court ordered that the current arrangement at Ayodhya - which is currently the site of a makeshift Hindu temple - should be "maintained as the status quo" for three months to allow time for any appeals against the judgement.
How did the judges rule on the conflicting claims?
The court ruled that the disputed site is the birth place of Lord Ram, who is "both a juristic person and a deity".
The two Hindu judges on the three-judge panel said that the building constructed by the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, Babur, was not a mosque because it was built "against the tenets of Islam" on the site of a demolished Hindu temple.
However the Muslim judge in the case dissented from this view, arguing that no temple had been destroyed and that the mosque was built on ruins.
The two Hindu judges also agreed that the Ayodhya site was found by the Archaeological Survey of India originally to have been "a massive Hindu religious structure" and that Hindus had been worshipping there as a "sacred place of pilgrimage... since time immemorial".
It also ruled that Hindu idols were placed in the disputed structure in 1949 - a point which Muslims argue is important because that act, they say, triggered much of the tension over Ayodhya that remains today.
When did Hindu-Muslim tensions last escalate?
More than 50 people died in February 2002 when a train carrying Hindu activists returning to Gujarat from Ayodhya was set alight, allegedly by a Muslim mob.
At least 1,000 people - mainly Muslims - died in the violence in the state that erupted afterwards. Other estimates say the death toll was at least double that.
Have religious tensions eased in India in recent years?
Yes. It is now not as easy to mobilise young people under the banner of religion as it was in the early 1990s.
India's economic boom has changed priorities, and development is now the key issue. Correspondents say in recent years Hindu extremists have failed to win the supporters that many feared they would in 1992. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19665233 | Judge denies actress' bid to remove anti-Islam film
A California judge has denied an actress' request to remove from YouTube an anti-Islam video that sparked riots in the Muslim world.
Cindy Lee Garcia says she has received death threats over the film trailer, in a lawsuit against Google, which owns YouTube, and a man linked to the film.
Garcia said she had been misled by the maker of the amateur movie and was unaware of its anti-Muslim content.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the trailer's alleged producer, is in hiding.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin said in his ruling that he had rejected Garcia's request partly because the man who is believed to have made the film had not been served a copy of the lawsuit.
End Quote Cindy Lee Garcia Actress
I think it's demoralising, degrading”
"The request for a temporary restraining order is denied," Judge Lavin said. "The plaintiff has not shown a likelihood to prevail on the merits."
Judge Lavin also said that Garcia had not been able to produce an agreement related to her role in the film, and as a third-party, Google and YouTube were protected from liability.
Before appearing in court on Thursday, Garcia said she had been left emotionally disturbed by the fallout from the film trailer.
"My whole life has been turned upside down in every aspect," she said. "My family has been threatened."
Referring to the video, Garcia added: "I think it's demoralising, degrading. I think it needs to come off [YouTube]."
A clip for the US-made film, Innocence of Muslims, was dubbed into Arabic, provoking widespread anger for its disrespectful portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
The film was made on a very low budget, with insults and offensive inferences to the Prophet Mohammad and Islam crudely dubbed on afterwards.
But it has not broken any laws in the US, where freedom of speech is enshrined in the constitution's first amendment.
A lawyer for Google said actors did not have rights over how their films were interpreted.
"If we viewed it that way we'd say that Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg in Terminator was a factual statement about Arnold Schwarzenegger," lawyer Timothy Alger told Reuters news agency.
Last week, YouTube did block access to the video in Egypt and Libya.
On Wednesday, it extended restrictions to "countries where it is considered illegal by local authorities. That is, to date, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia."
Some countries, such as Pakistan and Sudan, have blocked access to the clip themselves.
Garcia has also filed a lawsuit against Nakoula for fraud and slander. In court documents, Garcia says she had been led to believe the project was a desert adventure film.
"There was no mention of Mohammed during filming or on set," the lawsuit said. "There were no references made to religion, nor was there any sexual content of which Ms Garcia was aware."
The trailer has sparked furious protests across the Middle East, North Africa and as far away as Sri Lanka.
Four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stephens, were killed last week during an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
A total of 30 people have died in seven countries as a result of the protests. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6090036.stm | Two British children feared to have died from poisoning during a Greek holiday have been described as "gorgeous" by family members.
The two adults remain seriously ill in hospital on the island
Officials are still investigating how Robert Shepherd, six, and sister Christianne, seven, died.
Their father, Neil Shepherd and his partner, Ruth Beatson, both of W Yorks, remain seriously ill in Corfu.
Ms Beatson's mother, Helen, said: "They were gorgeous children. That's all we want to say."
Her father, Stephen, told reporters the family had "absolutely no idea what had happened".
The pair flew to the Greek island on Friday to be at their daughter's bedside.
After they arrived, 27-year-old Ms Beatson regained consciousness and managed to smile - although she has not yet spoken to anyone.
Mr Shepherd, 38, who is separated from the children's biological mother, was understood to have improved slightly overnight.
Gas leak probe
On Thursday morning, a cleaner at the hotel in the village of Gouvia discovered the two children dead in their room, and Ms Beatson and Mr Shepherd unconscious.
The couple, from Horbury near Wakefield, were thought to be in a coma and were taken to Corfu General Hospital.
Officials are investigating whether the family could have been poisoned by a gas leak or by something they ate.
Police said engineers would be checking the installation of air conditioning and boiler systems at the hotel on Friday afternoon.
A pathologist at the hospital told reporters that he suspected the family had ingested a "powerful poison".
Toxicology tests were taken and post-mortem examinations were being carried out on Friday, with the results expected in two weeks' time.
The children lived with their biological mother in Horbury. She flew out to the island with her new husband on Thursday when they were told of the deaths.
The family had been taking a week's holiday for the school half-term break. They stayed at the Louis Corcyra hotel in Gouvia - a small fishing village near Corfu town which is considered an upmarket destination.
The hotel says no other guests have been taken ill
Thomas Cook, the company they were travelling with, said it was working closely with the hospital and the police to gain further information and to support the family.
BBC correspondent Luisa Baldini said Britons at the hotel had been queuing up to buy British newspapers to try to find out what has been happening.
A pile of children's clothes remained outside the family's holiday bungalow, she added.
Guests at the hotel told how they recalled seeing Robert collapse at breakfast on Wednesday, and that the family had complained of feeling "woozy".
But the Louis Corcyra strongly denied any possibility of food poisoning at the hotel, saying none of the other guests was taken ill.
Last year 100,000 British tourists visited Corfu. Travel specialists say the deaths will have a big impact on the island. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7585443.stm | The killings were recorded and posted on a website
A Nepalese man and relatives of 12 others who were killed in Iraq four years ago are suing American firm KBR on charges of human trafficking.
The men were recruited in Nepal to work in a hotel in Jordan, but were later told they would have to work at a US air base in Iraq, their lawyers said.
Twelve of the men were kidnapped and killed by Islamic militants while being transported inside Iraq.
The 13th man was made to work against his will at the air base, lawyers said.
The execution-style killing of the hostages was recorded by the extremists and posted on a website.
The incident sparked riots in Nepal with angry demonstrators targeting a mosque, some government buildings and offices of employment agencies.
At least two people were killed in the protests.
The lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday alleged "that the illicit trafficking scheme... was engineering by KBR and its subcontractor", identified as Daoud & Partners.
The men, between the ages of 18 and 27, were recruited "to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman, Jordan", said a statement from Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, one of the law firms handling the case.
Some recruitment agencies are blamed for sending workers to Iraq
But once they arrived in Jordan "they were not provided the expected employment," the statement said.
Their passports were seized, and they were told they were being sent to Iraq "to provide menial labour" at the Al-Asad air base, it added.
"For 15 months, the 13th man Buddi Prasad Gurung, was held in Iraq against his will, before KBR and Daoud allowed him to return home to Nepal," the statement said.
"It doesn't appear that any of them knew they were going to Iraq," news agency Reuters quoted attorney Matthew Handley as saying.
KBR would not comment on the lawsuit, but in a statement, the company said it "in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behaviour".
Nepal banned its citizens from going to Iraq to work there in 2003 because of safety concerns.
But a lack of employment opportunities back home meant that private recruitment agencies continued to send Nepalese workers to Iraq through countries like Jordan and Kuwait. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-11998652 | Death of Diamonds player Dale Roberts 'not suspicious'
The death of Rushden and Diamonds goalkeeper Dale Roberts on Tuesday at the age of 24 is not being treated as suspicious, police have said.
It is yet to be revealed how the former Nottingham Forest player died. A report has been prepared for the coroner.
Rushden and Diamonds opened Nene Park on Wednesday for fans to pay tribute to the player, who was found at his home in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire.
Roberts joined Diamonds in January 2009 and was an England C international.
Prior to that he had loan spells with Eastwood Town and Alfreton Town.'Wonderful son'
Rushden and Diamonds' FA Youth Cup tie at Hull, which had been scheduled for Wednesday evening, was postponed following the death.
The goalkeeper's fiancée, Lindsey Cowan, described him as "my childhood sweetheart and the love of my life".
In a separate statement, the footballer's parents, Isabelle and George Roberts, said Lindsey and their son had been very happy together.
Mr and Mrs Roberts added: "We are grieving for our wonderful son Dale.
"We are devastated by his death."
In her statement, Miss Cowan said: "We had been together since a young age and I will never get over his death." |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17986746 | Why the US is chasing India's regions
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Calcutta to meet the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was not just one successful woman politician on Time magazine's Power List paying a courtesy call to another.
US secretaries of state are not known to waste time promoting sisterhood unless it serves American interests. In July 2011, Mrs Clinton paid a similar visit to J Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
In both instances, crucial foreign policy issues were on the agenda.
Ms Banerjee has claimed that Mrs Clinton did not raise the issue of water sharing between India and Bangladesh on the Teesta river or foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail in their meeting.
However, the US secretary of state had made her views on the twin issues very clear in a televised public interview in Calcutta a day earlier.
She was not unaware that the two initiatives of the Delhi government had been scuttled by West Bengal's chief minister. Ms Banerjee is also the head of the Trinamool Congress party, a key ally of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition.Weak centre
With the Tamil Nadu chief minister last July, Mrs Clinton had also discussed a foreign policy issue - finding ways of putting pressure on Colombo for the rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils displaced by the war against the Tamil Tigers.
The Americans seem to have recognised that certain foreign policy issues cannot be pushed with a weak central government in Delhi alone.
It is the prime minister's job to push the policies of his government and not that of the foreign minister of another country”
They can see that there are domestic political compulsions which affect Indian foreign policy and sometimes they may require massaging the egos of regional satraps to push it in the desired direction.
There are other instances of how foreign policy issues get shaped by the local agendas of certain states or regional political leaders.
The Tamil Nadu cabinet passed a resolution against restarting work on the Koodankulam nuclear power plant - stalled by anti-nuclear protesters - knowing full well that it would impact on Indo-Russian relations.
Later, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was persuaded to change her stance. The price she is believed to have extracted was to get India to vote against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Commission on the Tamil rights issue.
Regional Tamil party DMK, a coalition partner of the central government, also pushed Delhi to vote with the US on the Sri Lanka resolution - although up to then India had always made a virtue of not voting on any country-specific UN resolution.
Up north, the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature of Indian-administered Kashmir occasionally discusses walking out of the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan as some Kashmiris consider it an unfair treaty.
These are instances where the states have had to be brought on board on issues which impinge on India's relationship with foreign countries.
Up to a decade ago, these would have been seen strictly in the domain of the central government. After all, the Indian constitution places foreign affairs - defined as "all matters which bring the Union into relations with any foreign country" - in the Union List, meaning states can exercise no power over it.
That does not seem to be the case any longer.'Ham-handed US'
One cannot draw an unequivocal conclusion that all foreign policy is being hobbled by the states as there is a large domain of foreign policy which continues to be pursued by the centre without any state opposition.
However, it is equally true that when a foreign policy issue affects a state's interests, especially where it undermines the strong ideological positions of a regional party in power, the centre can no longer afford to ignore their views.
However, what happens when foreign powers start making tentative approaches to the regional leaders directly?
The Teesta water sharing treaty and FDI in multi-brand retail are not issues that specifically refer to US interests.
FDI in multi-brand retail is not solely an Indo-US issue - there are a number of European countries which are also waiting for the policy change.
If the head of Walmart or Carrefour were to meet officials from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) or the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on the issue, nobody would object.
However, if the US secretary of state starts leveraging her weight to ram the door open for FDI in multi-brand retail, then even those who think it is a genuinely good idea will stop favouring it. Ham-handed US diplomacy in this case is likely to be counter-productive.
If Americans blatantly push their agenda on FDI in multi-brand retail with West Bengal, they also stand in danger of being seen as disregarding the constitutional distribution of powers between the centre and the states in India; and undermining the position of the Indian prime minister.
It is the prime minister's job to push the policies of his government and not that of the foreign minister of another country.
The inability of the centre to push its foreign policy or economic agendas reflects its incompetence in handling its allies and other regional parties.
However, that is a domestic matter and does not justify tolerating foreign forays in India's internal affairs - even if these have foreign policy implications. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21658944 | Egypt clashes: Port Said security headquarters torched
The security headquarters in the Egyptian city of Port Said has been set alight in a second day of clashes between police and protesters.
The fire started on the ground floor of the building as protesters gathered in the streets nearby.
Earlier, thousands of people joined a funeral procession for three civilians killed in overnight clashes, which also left three policemen dead.
At least 400 people have been injured in the fighting.
Port Said has been rocked by weeks of intermittent violence.
Protests, often leading to clashes, have been taking place there since January, when 21 local football fans were sentenced to death over football riots which left 74 people dead in February 2012.
Violence also broke out in the capital Cairo on Monday as protesters blocked a key thoroughfare and set alight at least one police car.'Stay away'
Fighting began in Port Said early on Sunday when word spread that 39 defendants still facing trial over the riots were being moved to outside the city.
Thousands of protesters clashed with police, hurling rocks and firebombs; while riot police fired back with birdshot and tear gas.
The violence petered out overnight but flared again after the protesters' funerals.
Angry mourners shouted anti-government slogans during the procession.
Reports said emergency services were unable to reach the burning building because of the clashes.
The interior ministry said that two policemen died from gunshots to the head and neck and a third died of his wounds later on Monday.
Dozens of people have been injured by live shots, emergency officials in Port Said said.
The army - which has stayed on the sidelines during other recent violence - moved in at one point to separate the two sides, but its troops began getting hit by live fire and becoming overwhelmed by police tear gas, Associated Press reports.
The agency said protesters cheered when troops fired in the air in the direction of the police, and have been shouting: "The people and the army are one hand!", urging the military to take their side.
The interior ministry, in a statement, accused unknown assailants of randomly attacking police and army personnel in the city "with the aim of creating sedition and divisions" between them.
It urged residents of Port Said "to stay away from groupings near government buildings", according to AFP.'Delay election'
The latest violence comes at a time of heightened political tension in Egypt.
The country has been increasingly polarised between pro-Islamists and liberal and secular forces since Islamists swept to power in parliamentary and presidential elections last year.
Scores of people have died in clashes across the country this year amid protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and grievances over the treatment of those convicted over the football riots.
Leading opposition figure Amr Moussa on Monday again called for the postponement of parliamentary elections due in April. "A delay to the elections is the solution," he wrote on his Twitter account.
There has been widespread antagonism towards the police since the mass protests which brought down former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.
Many people believe the police stood by, allowing last February's football riots which led to the deaths of 74 people, mainly supporters of Cairo's al-Ahly team, in revenge for their support for the anti-Mubarak protests.
A court is due to deliver verdicts against the remaining 39 defendants on 9 March. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6940254.stm | A funeral service including Jewish prayers has been held at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris for Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger.
President Sarkozy flew home especially for the funeral
The former Archbishop of Paris, who died on Sunday aged 80, was born Aaron Lustiger to Polish Jews who had settled in France before World War I.
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, interrupted his summer holiday in the United States to attend the funeral.
Cardinal Lustiger became a Catholic at the start of World War II.
The ceremonies at Notre Dame began with a reading of a Jewish psalm, followed by the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.
Cardinal Lustiger worked to improve Catholic-Jewish relations
Arno Lustiger, a cousin and 83-year-old Auschwitz death camp survivor, read the Kaddish before a crowd of some 5,000 mourners.
President Sarkozy described Cardinal Lustiger as "a great man, a man who was important to the French, believers and non-believers alike, a man of peace, unity and reconciliation".
Cardinal Lustiger was an outspoken opponent of racism and anti-Semitism, who appeared frequently on television as a commentator on current issues.
He was buried in the cathedral's crypt, like most former archbishops of Paris since the 17th Century.
His successor, Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois, praised the late cardinal's role in "the development of relations between Jews and Christians, with the encouragement and support of [former Pope] John Paul II".
Cardinal Lustiger died on Sunday in a clinic in Paris, where he was admitted in April.
The cleric was archbishop of Paris for 24 years before stepping down in 2005 at the age of 78. He was made a cardinal in 1983.
His mother Gisele was deported and killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz during the war. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4295141.stm | US teenagers with HIV are taking more risks than their counterparts did before the advent of powerful new Aids drugs, research of 500 people suggests.
Not everybody has safe sex
The University of California, Los Angeles compared a group studied before the new drugs with one studied after.
The latter group reported having more sexual partners, more unprotected sex and more drug use.
Researchers told the American Journal of Human Behaviour that the increased risk-taking needed further scrutiny.
The treatment of HIV was revolutionised in the mid-90s by the introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART).
This is a combination of anti-retroviral drugs which can keep HIV count to a minimum, and thus extend the life expectancy of most patients.
The UCLA team compared one group of 349 teens with HIV, studied between 1994 and 1996, with another group of 175, studied in 1999 and 2000 after the widespread introduction of HAART.
Both groups came from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami, and were similar in terms of gender, ethnicity and socio-economic characteristics.
The post-HAART group was almost twice as likely to have had unprotected sex in the previous three months.
On average, they had had nearly double the sexual partners and were more likely to have had a sexual partner who used injection drugs.
The researchers stress the study does not prove the introduction of HAART is the cause of increased risky behaviour, but they say the issue needs further scrutiny.
Lead researcher Dr Marguerita Lightfoot said: "Evidence suggests that many people living with HIV believe that sexual behaviours that could lead to the transmission of HIV, like unprotected sex, are less risky if viral levels are low."
The study also suggests the lives of some HIV-positive teens have not improved with HAART.
The post-HAART group was in worse health, more likely to have been sexually abused and to be clinically distressed than the pre-HAART group.
Only 53% of group were on HAART drug therapy.
Dr Lightfoot said it was possible that doctors were reluctant to prescribe antiretroviral therapy to some groups for fear they would not stick to the treatment regime.
A spokesman for HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "It's worrying if young people are taking greater risks as a consequence of successful treatment.
"This research also shows that unprotected sex was viewed as less risky if their viral levels were low. Viral levels can fluctuate quite widely, so it is not possible to know what your level is at any one time.
"This means that the young people studied may be taking a greater risk than they realise."
Yusef Azad, policy and campaigns director at the National Aids Trust, said: "There is evidence of increases in high-risk sexual behaviour in the last decade both in the UK and in other developed countries.
"However, this is not just among people living with HIV, but also amongst those who are currently HIV negative, including gay men and young people.
"More research is needed into the reasons for such trends but it seems unlikely that the advent of HAART is sufficient to explain this phenomenon." |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11746699 | Airbus prepares safety warnings
Airbus is drafting a worldwide safety warning about electrical problems on some of its aircraft.
The company is investigating a fault that temporarily affected primary cockpit displays and computer controls on a BMI flight from Khartoum to Beirut in August.
The standby instruments on the A321 plane did operate normally.
The pilots eventually regained control of the aircraft - but by that time it was 20 miles off its course.
The pilots reported that without warning the aircraft began to shudder, banking steeply on its own - failing to respond to pilot commands over a period of several minutes.
The twin-engined jet with 49 people aboard was cruising at 36,000ft.
The crew said they were bombarded by a stream of warning messages before cockpit screens turned grey and then went blank.
The aircraft's left wing suddenly dropped without any input from the crew.
For years, safety investigators have been concerned about electrical system glitches resulting in dangerous shutdowns of flight control computers.
But such incidents are hard to understand and replicate. Airbus says it is helping both the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the BEA in France with the inquiry.
But it has been reported that investigators have already urged Airbus to alert all operators of its A319, A320 and A321 planes about the potential hazards stemming from such electrical faults. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18190234 | Diamond Jubilee: Queen meets A-listers of the arts
This is my report on the great, the good and the glamorous meeting the Queen at a reception to mark the Diamond Jubilee.
Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Vivienne Westwood and David Hockney were among the 850 luminaries at one of the most glittering gatherings of actors, writers and artists the UK has seen.
Bono, Gareth Malone and Alan Bennett also attended the event at London's Royal Academy, along with rapper Tinie Tempah.
And the Queen had her photograph taken with 20 artistic dames, including the singers Dames Shirley Bassey and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, artist Dame Paula Rego and, from the acting world, Dames Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Diana Rigg.
See also Arts A-list gathers for the Queen |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17844315 | Louis Theroux on dementia: The capital of the forgetful
With an ageing population, a wave of dementia is approaching. Caring for those afflicted isn't easy, writes Louis Theroux.
Nancy Vaughan is a charming and lively conversationalist, a friendly host, and at nearly 90, still has much of the sparkle and attractiveness that must have turned many heads when she was in her heyday as a model in New York.
But she also has trouble remembering her own name, or the fact that she is married (62 years and counting), or indeed, much of the time, some of the basics of the English language.
Nancy is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.
On a sunny late autumn day I visited Nancy and her husband, John, at their home in Phoenix, Arizona. We made friendly conversation in the kitchen and for moments I could have believed that she was mentally well.
Her smile is still engaging, she is physically fit, and she can sometimes carry on brief exchanges. When I asked if she had any problems with her memory, she said an emphatic "no".
Find out more
- Louis Theroux - Extreme Love: Dementia is on BBC Two on Thursday 26 April at 21:00 BST
But when John posed the question directly "Nancy, what is your name?" she looked a bit baffled. Asked for her surname, Nancy said "Bread", a little uncertainly. I wondered whether this might be her maiden name, but was told that was Johnson.
Nancy and John's life has become surreal and stressful in many ways. John has taken to wearing a name tag with his name on it to help Nancy identify him.
He has also stuck a copy of their wedding photo up in the kitchen so that, in her confused moments, he can prove to her that they are married.
John cares for Nancy fulltime. They have no children, so there is no family help take the strain - and they are not in the financial position to have Nancy go into a care home.
Aged 88, John is the full-time carer for someone with many of the same needs as an adult-sized toddler.
John and Nancy are by no means exceptional. There is a slow-moving tsunami of dementia advancing towards us as our population ages.
It's reckoned that one in eight Americans aged 65 and over has Alzheimer's - the most common cause of dementia. Nearly half of the over 85s has the disease. As medical science has become better and better at prolonging our lives, the mental side of things hasn't kept pace.
Nowhere is this more in evidence than in Phoenix. For years Phoenix has been a mecca for America's elderly, who are attracted by the year-round sun and dry desert heat.
Now increasingly it is a kind of capital of the forgetful and the confused.
Not coincidentally, Phoenix is also pioneering the way dementia sufferers are cared for and treated.
One of the top destinations for people in need of round-the-clock care is Beatitudes, a gated retirement complex, which has, tucked among its many buildings, a memory support annex.
Most of the residents at Beatitudes have seriously impaired memories, to the point where they can no longer look after themselves, are quite often confused, and occasionally have delusions.
- Memory and the ability to think clearly are gradually lost over time
- There may also be a change in personality
- Behaviour problems and communication difficulties may also occur
- People with severe Alzheimer's may find it difficult to perform everyday tasks, such as dressing, washing and eating
- As time passes they may not recognise people or their surroundings, so it's common for them to go for a walk and get lost
- There is no cure, but drugs can slow loss of mental function for some patients
It's not uncommon for a resident to imagine that they've seen a non-existent intruder, or to suppose that because they cannot find a purse or wallet, that someone has stolen it.
Partly under the influence of a Bradford University-based psychologist, Tom Kitwood, Beatitudes' carers have a policy of not contradicting - and even playing along with - the delusions of the residents, avoiding confrontations, de-escalating conflicts, and "redirecting" the attention of those in distress, using distractions and pleasurable activities.
Beatitudes staff use medication as little as possible. They try to be flexible and adapt to the quirks of the residents and the symptoms of their condition, letting them wander the corridors at night should they feel urge, letting them bathe, eat and sleep on their own schedule, and offering them snacks and chocolate at any time of the day or night.
I spent the best part of two weeks at Beatitudes, observing their practices first-hand.
One of the people I got to know was Gary Gilliam. A 69-year old, Gary had been a successful dentist in his younger years, as well as doing time in the army.
He'd been at Beatitudes several months when I met him, and though his memory came and went, he spent much of his time under the misapprehension that he was still a practising dentist, stationed at a military base.
Gary was genial and playful, constantly cracking jokes, and so it took me a while to realise quite how advanced his dementia was.
He told me he'd been having some problems with his short-term memory but he had no idea he might be in any kind of care home. But rather than contradict him, the staff would gently go along with Gary's version of reality.
Quite often, especially in the evening, Gary would imagine that his time on "the base" was up. He'd pack his bags and start looking for the exit.
Staff would cajole him into staying another night, saying it was a little late now, it was dark out, better to leave it until morning. Or they might ask Gary to look at their teeth, at which point he would switch into dentist mode and forget his plan.
Gary also had a habit of forgetting that he was married, despite the fact that his wife of nearly 30 years, Carla, was alive and well, and a frequent visitor.
Being one of the few men on his unit, Gary's company was much in demand. He had two girlfriends, who enjoyed cuddling with Gary, though the exact extent of their intimacy wasn't clear.
I had the chance to observe this rather odd love triangle - or "love square", if you include the second girlfriend - when I accompanied Carla on a visit. To my surprise, she suggested that Gary bring one of the girlfriends with him.
The ravages of dementia can be unbelievably upsetting to see”
She said this would make the visit run more smoothly - seeming to imply that Gary might prefer the company of his new friends over hers - but I was also struck that Carla was keen for me to see and understand the pain and the strangeness of loving someone with Alzheimer's.
Perhaps the most extreme visit I observed during my time at Beatitudes took place between a young man called David Watson and his mother Gail.
Though she wasn't very old, Gail's dementia had progressed very quickly. She was on the fourth floor of the Beatitudes memory support building, home to the most advanced cases.
Gail could no longer speak at all, though she was physically well, and would wander the corridors often picking up objects and approaching people, endlessly repeating a sound that sounded like "gulla".
David tried showing old photos to his mum. He tried stopping her on her perambulations for a hug. There wasn't much sign of recognition that I could see.
David explained that his sisters no longer visited. "Because this is hard," he said. But then, a moment later, David's mother leaned in and held his face in her hands. "So that's why I come and visit," he said, visibly moved. "Because sometimes that happens, and then that's good."
Near the end of my stay in Phoenix, egged on by John, I volunteered to care for Nancy for half a day, hoping to give him some small respite but more importantly to have a small glimpse of what John goes through on a daily basis.
I discharged my duties as carer with mixed results. We played ball in the kitchen and broke a glass. We started a walk and then abandoned it.
Some of the time, she was baffled as to who I was and exactly what I was doing in the house. But along the way, we also managed to enjoy ourselves, listening to music, eating lunch together, looking at photos, and indeed chuckling together over the minor calamities that befell us.
When John returned and relieved me of my position, I asked him how much of Nancy he thought was left. He answered in the spirit of the engineer he'd been, with an exact number.
"Thirty per cent," he said, and then he tapped his head, and said that the rest was still preserved safely in his memory.
It was an oddly romantic moment.
The ravages of dementia can be unbelievably upsetting to see. No one would wish the confusion and forgetfulness that goes along with the disease on another person - though sadly, for demographic reasons, they are likely to be an ever-increasing part of our lives.
But my stay in Phoenix also taught me to be mindful of certain positives.
However much is taken by dementia, something always remains. There can still be a person beyond their words and their memories, a spirit, for want of a better word, and a continuity with the person they were.
Faced with the disease, and with the right support, most people can learn and adapt, finding new ways to love their parents and partners. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15991392 | 'Moment of truth' approaching in Higgs boson hunt
In recent months, news headlines have been dominated by one story from the world of particle physics - those befuddling faster-than-light neutrinos.
Such is the interest in those speedy sub-atomic particles that developments in the search for the elusive Higgs boson - usually covered at every twist and turn by journalists - have been all-but eclipsed.
Earlier this month, physicists announced results of a combined search for the Higgs by the Atlas and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Their analysis, presented at a meeting in Paris, shows that physicists have now covered a large chunk of the search area in detail, ruling out a broad part of the mass range where the boson could be lurking.
An even more important milestone in the Higgs hunt beckons in December.
The Higgs explains why other particles have mass, making it crucial to our understanding of the Universe. But it has never been observed by experiments.Small window
Researchers have now excluded the possibility that the Higgs (in its conventional form) will be found between the masses of 141 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) and 476 GeV.
Statistics of a 'discovery'
- Particle physics has an accepted definition for a "discovery": a five-sigma level of certainty
- The number of standard deviations, or sigmas, is a measure of how unlikely it is that an experimental result is simply down to chance, in the absence of a real effect
- Similarly, tossing a coin and getting a number of heads in a row may just be chance, rather than a sign of a "loaded" coin
- The "three sigma" level represents about the same likelihood of tossing nine heads in a row
- Five sigma, on the other hand, would correspond to tossing more than 21 in a row
- Unlikely results are more probable when several experiments are carried out at once - equivalent to several people flipping coins at the same time
- With independent confirmation by other experiments, five-sigma findings become accepted discoveries
Finding the Higgs boson at a mass of 476 GeV or more is considered highly unlikely.
This means that physicists are now focussing their hunt on the remaining "low mass" range - a small window between 114 GeV and 141 GeV.
Within that window, there is an intriguing "excess" in observations - a Higgs hint, perhaps - that stands out at 120 GeV.
But as fluctuations go, this one is relatively weak - at around the two-sigma level of certainty.
This roughly equates to a one in 22 chance that the observation is down to chance. A five sigma level is needed for a formal discovery.
There is also a broader "excess" above that mass. And it must be stressed that such hints may come and go.
But there is an even more intriguing possibility: that the boson may not exist at all, at least in its simplest form.
This is the version of the Higgs that conforms to the Standard Model, the framework drawn up to explain how the known particles - from the quarks to the W and Z bosons to the neutrinos - interact.
In this "zoo" of particles, the Higgs remains hidden in the long grass of its enclosure, invisible to the prying eyes of visitors.Beginning of the end
The search by the LHC has already moved on from the data presented earlier this month.
End Quote Dr Guido Tonelli CMS spokesperson
It is the first yes or no... we are entering a phase where it will be very interesting - this I know”
Teams of scientists at the facility on the Franco-Swiss border have been busy analysing a whopping five inverse femtobarns of data collected by the LHC's experiments up to October this year.
The Atlas and CMS collaborations will present independent analyses of this data set at a seminar in Geneva on 13 December. The respective teams have not had the time to combine their results, as they did for the Paris seminar.
They might see completely different things.
Or, more promisingly, they could both see a fluctuation at around the same mass - as they did when researchers presented findings at the Europhysics meeting in Grenoble, France, in July.
"If you look at the data, it's about five times as much as was presented at the summer conferences," said Dr James Gillies, director of communications at Cern (the Geneva-based organisation that operates the LHC).
"It's possible to exclude much more of the available range for the Higgs.
"It's possible - but I think extraordinarily unlikely - to exclude the Higgs definitively. It's possible that there will be signs something is there.
What is an inverse femtobarn?
- The "barn" is a unit of area used in particle collider physics
- It derives from the measure of a uranium atom's nucleus - comparatively large among atoms, or as physicists joked, "as big as a barn"
- A femtobarn is a millionth of a billionth of a barn
- That's just 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000001 square centimetres
- The inverse femtobarn is a measure of how many particles have smashed into one another in an area equal to one femtobarn
"But what's not possible is to give a definitive discovery announcement, on the status of the analysis, given the time they've had."
Either way, scientists are waiting with bated breath for the December seminar, which will - at the very least - mark the beginning of the end for the Higgs race.
"We are pushing very hard to present preliminary results on the entire statistics," said Dr Guido Tonelli, spokesperson for the CMS collaboration.
He told BBC News that with five inverse femtobarns of data, the researchers will have sufficient sensitivity that "if there is something, we should see first hints. If there is nothing we should see no excess".
"It is the first yes or no. It will very likely not be conclusive - to be really sure at the highest confidence level, we might need to combine the data [from Atlas and CMS] again and collect additional data next year.
"But we are entering a phase where it will be very interesting - this I know."'Uneasy rumour'
The rumour mill is already churning vigorously, and is likely to enter overdrive as the December seminar approaches.
The blogger known as Jester recently proffered a Soviet-inspired analogy: "An uneasy rumour is starting among the working class and the lower-ranked party officials.
"Is the first secretary dead? Or on life support? Or, if he's all right, why he's not showing in public?"
A definitive statement about the Higgs is likely to come next year.
The suggestion that particle physicists have been chasing a chimera for decades is one that some will not want to contemplate. But others regard as a more exciting possibility.
A no-show would open up a new era of activity in particle physics - one focussed on finding an alternative theory to patch up the hole in the Standard Model left by the excision of the Higgs.
Indeed, there is already a substantial body of work on alternatives to the Standard Model Higgs.
As Prof Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of Cern, says, either scenario would represent "a tremendous discovery".
And one particle physicist speaking at the Europhysics conference this year summed it up thus: "God forbid that all we find at the LHC is the Standard Model Higgs and no new physics." |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-18283839 | Extradited Dion Lee in court on drug smuggling charges
A Lancaster man extradited from Nigeria has appeared at Preston Magistrates' Court accused of drug and ammunition smuggling offences.
Dion Lee, 34, was extradited by Lancashire Police officers in partnership with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency on Wednesday.
He is charged with supplying class A drugs and transferring weapons and ammunition between the UK and Holland.
Mr Lee was remanded to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on 18 June. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17587723 | Senegal swears in new president Macky Sall
The new president of Senegal, Macky Sall, has been sworn into office to become the country's first new leader in 12 years.
Around 2,000 people attended the ceremony, including 11 African heads of state, and crowds of people lined the streets to cheer Mr Sall.
He beat the outgoing president, Abdoulaye Wade, in a second round run-off vote last month.
Mr Wade's peaceful acceptance of defeat won him plaudits from around the world.
He had previously been criticised for trying to stay in office for a third term.
The Senegalese constitution states presidents can only serve two terms but Mr Wade argued that, as this rule was only introduced in 2008, it should not be applied retrospectively to include his first term in office.
The new leader, 50-year-old Macky Sall, has in the past served as prime minister.
At the ceremony he pledged to "observe and enforce the constitution" while defending the country's "territorial integrity".
He is Senegal's fourth president since the west African nation gained independence from France in 1960. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17756742 | Saudi court 'convicts rights activist Bajadi in secret'
A state security tribunal in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a prominent human rights campaigner to four years in prison, Amnesty International has said.
The group said it had received credible information the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh had convicted Mohammed al-Bajadi in secret on 10 April.
He was detained a year ago after a pro-democracy demonstration in the capital.
Last week, the authorities denied Mr Bajadi was on hunger strike, as he had claimed in a letter to activists.
The Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA) said on 8 April Mr Bajadi had refused food for a month and that his health was deteriorating.
"I inform you that I am still continuing with my hunger strike," Mr Bajadi wrote in a letter smuggled out of his prison by someone visiting another inmate.
"On 20 March, I was taken to the prison hospital for a check-up and force-fed in the presence of five soldiers and the ward officer."
His lawyers have asked to be allowed to visit him in prison to check for themselves, but are not believed to have been granted access.'Denied justice'
End Quote Philip Luther Amnesty International
Mohammed al-Bajadi appears to have been convicted on charges that amount to the criminalisation of his rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly”
Mr Bajadi was arrested by domestic intelligence agents on 21 March 2011, a day after a small group of Saudis demonstrated in Riyadh, calling for the release of thousands of people detained without charge or trial.
Mr Bajadi was later charged with participating in the establishment of an unlicensed human rights organisation, harming the image of the state through the media, calling on the families of political detainees to protest, contesting the judiciary's independence and possessing banned books.
He was a founding member of ACPRA, which the government had refused to license, while the books in question came from the 2011 international book fair in Riyadh, according to fellow activists.
Judges prohibited Mr Bajadi's lawyers from attending his trial at the Specialised Criminal Court, a state security tribunal for terrorism cases, which began in August.
On Tuesday evening, Amnesty said the court had sentenced him to four years in jail, followed by a five-year travel ban in a secret session. Neither his family nor his lawyers were made aware of the hearing.
"Mohammed Saleh al-Bajadi appears to have been convicted on charges that amount to the criminalisation of his rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, Philip Luther.
"After more than a year in detention without being able to see his lawyer, he has been denied any form of justice in a process which flagrantly breaches his rights," he added. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19663082 | US study finds high levels of arsenic in rice
An American consumer group is warning that higher levels of arsenic have been detected in rice-based foods than previously thought.
The US Food and Drug Administration said that it planned to collect data on 1,200 food samples by the end of 2012 to make its own recommendation on arsenic intake. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg added that consumers should not stop eating rice but encouraged a diverse diet.
To listen to other 5 live stories, please visit the Best Bits page. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/get_involved/4466868.stm | Who wants to look like Monty?
Start wearing our fabulous BBC Sport masks and join in on the craze that's spreading the world.
You can look like England stars Kevin Pietersen and spin king Monty Panesar or India's Sachin Tendulkar.
There are plenty of other world superstars that you can look like too.
To get your mask, click on your favourite player below and print them out (we recommend colour printsouts if you can).
Then just cut it out and stick it on some card (like the back of a cereal box) for a great result.
You could even put elastic or string through each ear of the mask, or stick it to something like a pen or a ruler to hold it in front of your face.
See if you can get yourself noticed on TV or send them into us. Good luck.
LEGENDS OF CRICKET
Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8415935.stm | Renault has come up with a new way of running a manufacturer F1 team
Renault will race on in Formula 1 next year following a deal to secure the team's future, as BBC Sport exclusively predicted last week.
The company had considered quitting F1, but the team will continue under new owners with the French car company retaining a minority 25% shareholding.
Luxembourg-based investment firm Genii Capital will own the rest and share the running of the team with Renault.
Lead driver Robert Kubica is not yet certain to stay following the deal.
Renault has signed the highly rated Pole to replace double world champion Fernando Alonso, who has moved to Ferrari, but
Kubica's manager Daniele Morelli told BBC Sport it was "not automatic" he would be driving for the team under the new arrangement
The design team under technical director Bob Bell will remain the same.
But Bell, who was acting team principal for the final four races of the season following the departure of Flavio Briatore in the wake of the Singapore race-fixing scandal, will be replaced by a new team boss.
Renault said it had reached an agreement for a "proposed sale of a large stake of the Renault F1 team to Genii" and that they would operate the team jointly.
This confirms Renault's commitment and trust in the sport's governing bodies to improve the green credentials of F1
Renault F1 president
BBC Sport understands Genii, run by businessmen Eric Lux and Gerard Lopez, will own 75% of Renault's chassis design and construction base in Enstone in Oxfordshire.
Renault will retain total control over its engine manufacturing base in Viry-Chatillon on the outskirts of Paris.
Renault also said it would continue to supply engines to Red Bull in 2010.
Genii beat David Richards - the boss of the British motor racing engineering firm Prodrive and former team principal of Benetton and BAR in F1 - to a deal with Renault.
It is understood that Renault believed the Genii deal, which is a new arrangement for a road-car manufacturer in F1, better suited its future aims - which remain unclear.
The company felt it was not able to quit F1 having last summer signed legally binding documents committing it to the sport until 2012.
At a time of difficult global economic conditions for car companies, Renault did not want to spend the money that would be required either to extricate itself from its F1 commitments or to continue running and funding the team itself.
There will be a new team principal to replace Briatore
Renault described its move as "a new phase for its F1 programme, consistent with F1's drive for cost efficiencies".
Renault F1 team president Bernard Rey said: "I am sure that Genii Capital's enthusiasm and business expertise will create a new dynamic for the team, the staff and our partners.
"Altogether, we look forward to competing again at the highest level in F1. This announcement also confirms Renault's commitment and trust in the sport's governing bodies to improve the green credentials of F1."
Genii chief executive officer Eric Lux said his "long-term vision aims to return Renault to the forefront of F1".
A statement added that Genii would "look for synergies between companies in its investment portfolio and Renault F1".
The Renault F1 team's future had been in doubt since the company held an emergency board meeting in early November to discuss whether to continue in F1.
The issue was discussed at further meetings of Renault bosses in the last fortnight, with a final decision to go with Genii understood to have been taken at an executive board meeting last Wednesday.
Renault president Carlos Ghosn signed the documents that finalised the Lopez deal in Japan on Tuesday, it is understood.
Renault's decision to examine its participation in F1 came after the team's worst season since it returned to the sport as a constructor in 2002.
They finished eighth out of 10 teams in the world championship, with their best result Alonso's third place in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Far worse for Renault's reputation, though, was the Singapore race-fixing scandal.
Renault were handed a ban from F1, suspended for two years, after being found guilty of asking Nelson Piquet to crash deliberately in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to aid Alonso's chances of winning.
Team boss Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds were banned from motorsport for their part in the conspiracy - Briatore for life and Symonds for five years.
Analysis: Renault race-fixing controversy
Both are contesting their bans in the French courts, with a verdict due in the new year.
Piquet was not punished by governing body the FIA after agreeing to blow the whistle on the affair, even though Symonds gave evidence that the plan was the Brazilian's idea.
Two of the team's major sponsors, the Dutch bank ING and the Spanish insurance company Mutua Madrilena, ended their relationship with the team with immediate effect over the affair.
Renault's uncertainty over its future in F1 came at the end of a year that has seen three of the major road-car manufacturers end their involvement in the sport.
Honda quit in December last year, but helped secure a management buy-out of its team, which raced as Brawn GP in 2009 and won the drivers' and constructors' world championships.
BMW announced in July its decision to quit F1 at the end of the season, and Toyota made public its withdrawal a few days after the final race in early November.
Despite that, now Renault has officially confirmed the future of its team, the F1 grid is set to have six more cars on it in 2010 than this year's 20.
BMW has sold its team back to their Swiss founder Peter Sauber, while four new teams have entered.
The Lotus name is returning with a new team set up by Air Asia founder Tony Fernandes.
The Virgin brand, which sponsored Brawn in 2009, has joined forces with the successful junior category race team Manor to form Virgin Grand Prix, which was launched in London on Tuesday.
They will be joined by Spain's Campos Meta 1 and American outfit US F1. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21054258 | eBay shares rise as sales jump 18%
EBay's sales for the last three months of 2012 topped analysts' forecasts as the online marketplace saw strong trading over the Christmas period.
Sales rose 18% to $3.99bn (£2.5bn) in large part due to growth in the use of smartphones to trade on the site.
"Mobile continues to rewrite the commerce playbook," eBay chief executive John Donahoe said.
Profits fell 62% to $757m, but the comparable 2011 figure was inflated by proceeds from eBay's sale of Skype.
According to eBay's statement, the PayPal payment division generated the greatest growth. Fourth-quarter revenue from the payment service totalled $1.54bn, a 24% increase from the previous year.
The marketplaces division, where most of the shopping occurs on eBay, saw fourth-quarter revenue of $2.05bn, up 16% from the 2011 quarter.
EBay charges a fee for each item sold, and receives a fee for each payment processed by PayPal.
On Cyber Monday in November, traditionally seen as the start of holiday shopping season, sales transactions on eBay's mobile applications more than doubled from the year before. The volume of mobile payments via PayPal almost tripled.
EBay shares rose strongly in after-hours trading following the announcement on Wednesday, and opened 2.7% higher on Thursday. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13599859 | Google uses new tool to track dengue fever hubs
Google is using search patterns about dengue fever in an attempt to help health officials prepare for outbreaks.
It hopes to develop an early-warning system by monitoring dengue-related search terms by users in Bolivia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Singapore.
Google said that its results are collected in real-time, whereas official data can take weeks to be analysed.
In 2009, Google used a similar approach to track the spread of flu.
"Using the dengue case count data provided by Ministries of Health and the World Health Organization, we're able to build a model that offers near real-time estimates of dengue activity based on the popularity of certain search terms," Google software engineer Vikram Sahai wrote in a blog post.
"Google Dengue Trends is automatically updated every day, thereby providing an early indicator of dengue activity."
The project was developed together with Boston's Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The methodology for the project has been shared in an article for the Public Library of Science's journal on neglected tropical diseases.Real correlation
The tool is part of Google Correlate, a new service which connects search analysis with data collected in real life.
Correlate was created following Google's success with Flu Trends in 2009, a tool which tracked searches for flu-related searches worldwide.
Public health officials were able to use the data to distribute vaccines and treatments more effectively.
Google published a report in Nature, the highly-respected journal, and soon received attention by other researchers hoping to use the service to monitor other issues.
Correlate, launched last week, allows experts to upload their own data sets to compare against Google searches.
The software highlights when the real world data and online searches share the same patterns, such as flu outbreaks occuring at the same time as a large number of searches for "treatment for flu".
Professor Peter Sever, an expert in disease prevention from Imperial College London, said the tool could prove very useful for researchers that currently collect data using slower methods.
"It will of course be highly selective because you'll be picking out the people who are using Google, but of course year on year that's an increasing proportion of the population anyway," he said. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20543133 | Press 'need to act' after Leveson
The Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press has published its report. Here are the key points.
- New self-regulation body recommended
- Independent of serving editors, government and business
- No widespread corruption of police by the press found
- Politicians and press have been too close
- Press behaviour, at times, has been 'outrageous'
An independent regulatory body for the press should be established.
It should take an active role in promoting high standards, including having the power to investigate serious breaches and sanction newspapers.
The new body should be backed by legislation designed to assess whether it is doing its job properly.
The legislation would enshrine, for the first time, a legal duty on the government to protect the freedom of the press.
An arbitration system should be created through which people who say they have been victims of the press can seek redress without having to go through the courts.
Newspapers that refuse to join the new body could face direct regulation by media watchdog Ofcom.
The body should be independent of current journalists, the government and commercial concerns, and not include any serving editors, government members or MPs.
The body should consider encouraging the press to be as transparent as possible in relation to sources for its stories, if the information is in the public domain.
A whistle-blowing hotline should be established for journalists who feel under pressure to do unethical things.
No evidence of widespread police corruption.
Former Met Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates's relationship with media publisher News International, where he had friends working at the News of the World, including the deputy editor, was criticised.
Politicians of all parties had developed "too close a relationship with the press in a way which has not been in the public interest".
The relationship between politicians and press over the last three decades has damaged the perception of public affairs.
But former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and PM David Cameron were cleared of being too close to the Murdoch media empire.
When chasing stories, journalists have caused "real hardship and, on occasion, wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people". This happened to both famous people and members of the public. Press behaviour, at times, "can only be described as outrageous".
At the News of the World, quite apart from phone hacking, there was a failure of systems of management and compliance. There was a general lack of respect for individual privacy and dignity at the paper.
Read commentary from BBC Media Correspondent Torin Douglas on key parts of the Leveson Report's executive summary: |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21814436 | Warrington recalls IRA bombing 20 years on
Hundreds of people in Warrington have gathered to remember an IRA bomb attack which killed two boys 20 years ago.
Johnathan Ball, three, died when two bombs hidden in litter bins detonated on Bridge Street on 20 March 1993. Tim Parry, 12, died five days later.
A civic service took place at the scene before a minute's silence was held at 12:27 GMT, the time the bombs went off.
Doves were released by minister of state for Northern Ireland Mike Penning MP, and the mother of Tim Parry.
The BBC's Danny Savage reports. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21404789 | King Richard III exhibition attracts thousands
About 3,000 people have visited an exhibition about the archaeological dig for Richard III's remains over its first three days.
The exhibition at Leicester's Guildhall explains the story behind the search for the king under a council car park in the city.
It also explains the scientific evidence which has identified the remains beyond reasonable doubt.
The exhibition's curator said visitors have given "very positive" feedback.
Laura Hadland, senior curator of history at Leicester Arts and Museum Services, said: "People were saying it has answered their questions.
"It was really good all round, so I was very pleased."Verge of tears
Visitors have queued around the building for the free exhibition.
The first in the queue on Friday, Andy Morris, said he was on the verge of tears.
"This is fantastic, it is history coming alive in our own city," he said.
The next week is expected to be busy as schools in the area have half-term holidays.
The exhibition is expected to remain at the Guildhall for about a year, until a permanent visitors' centre opens. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12875021 | Community care after brain injury in Wales 'patchy'
Specialist care for people in Wales with a brain injury is patchy, say doctors, workers and health campaigners in neurological rehabilitation.
Care for head injury patients outside Cardiff and Swansea has an "element of postcode lottery," they say.
BBC Wales current affairs programme Taro Naw was told west Wales and the south-east valleys have no dedicated community brain injury services.
Brain injury charity Headway has called for more consistent care for patients
Dr Jenny Thomas, a consultant at Cardiff's Rookwood Hospital, a specialist neurological rehabilitation centre, tells the programme she was concerned that specialist care in the community for patients after a head injury varies from area to area.
She said: "Outside the major urban areas like Cardiff and Swansea we have to see what is available, so there is an element of postcode lottery."
End Quote Dr Jenny Thomas Consultant in rehabilitation
Because of the variation in services we keep some patients in longer than is really necessary”
"I wouldn't say that care for patients is any worse in those areas, but we certainly have to keep patients in hospital for longer than we would if there were specialist teams in their areas."
Dr Thomas also warned that the system was leading to a degree of bed blocking.
She said: "Because of the variation in services we keep some patients in longer than is really necessary.
"We are trying to move people through the system as quickly as possible and sometimes this means that other people waiting for a bed can't get one."
Clive Davies, who helps to run the Swansea branch of Headway, said people in the city were lucky to have the traumatic brain injury service based at the city's Morriston Hospital.
He said: "But there's no specialist community service to the west of Swansea. The boundary ends at the Loughor river and people living in west Wales have nothing."
Other campaigners on the programme said that north Wales was served by only one team offering dedicated community brain injury services, based at Colwyn Bay.
Taro Naw is on S4C on Monday March 28 at 2130 GMT. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20644968 | UAE authorities 'detain 18-year-old blogger'
An 18-year-old blogger has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates, human rights activists say.
Mohammed Salem al-Zumer was reportedly detained by state security officers in the emirate of Sharjah on Wednesday and taken to an unknown destination.
He was said to have posted comments online supporting detained activists.
Last month, the UAE tightened its law on internet use, making it an offence to deride or damage the state or its institutions and organise protests.
Human rights groups have said the legislation places severe restrictions on the rights to free expression and free association and assembly.'Online activities'
The UK-based Emirates Centre for Human Rights (ECHR) said Mr Zumer was driving a car in Sharjah when it was stopped by security personnel.
He was escorted to his home, which plainclothes officers searched for more than an hour, seizing a laptop and other equipment, it added.
His family told the ECHR that he was taken to an unknown destination.
Officials have not confirmed that Mr Zumer has been detained, although one reportedly told his family that he would be released by Saturday.
Mr Zumer is the son of a poet and the nephew of Khaled al-Sheiba al-Nuami, who was detained earlier this year along with more than 60 other civil society activists. Some of whom have ties to Islah - a local group that advocates greater adherence to Islamic precepts.
Government and police officials have said the crackdown is a response to a foreign-inspired Islamist plot that aims to overthrow the government.
A human rights activist in the UAE, who did not want to be named, said Mr Zumer had expressed his support for the detained activists.
"He was arrested because of his association with the detainees and his activities online," the activist told the BBC. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/3318659.stm | England's 1966 World Cup winners have been named the Golden Team at the BBC Sports Personality awards.
Captain Bobby Moore parades the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley
Sir Alf Ramsey's squad won a poll of former team award winners in the 50th anniversary show.
Many of the heroes of the 4-2 victory over West Germany gathered to accept the award, including hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst.
Hurst, along with his fellow '66 winners, wrote his name in English folklore following the famous win.
Sir Bobby Charlton, who received the special award on behalf of the late Bobby
Moore's team, from Sir Bobby Robson, paid tribute to Clive Woodward's England Rugby World Cup heroes.
marvellous for the whole country and we're delighted they did it," he said.
The meeting brought together Ben Cohen, England's wing three-quarter and his
Uncle George, right-back in Sir Alf Ramsey's victorious side 37 years ago.
"Ben was always a big boy. He just like catching the ball and if you have that sort of talent you just go with it," said George who was in Sydney's Telstra stadium to watch England beat Australia 20-17 in last month's final.
But whereas 83,500 were there to cheer on the rugby giants, 93,000, and millions more on television, watched England's 1966 heroes triumph at Wembley.
But in the final moments of normal time when Germany pegged back England, World Cup glory seemed a million miles away.
Ramsay famously said to his team: "All right. You let it slip. Now start again." They duly delivered.
Hurst gave the hosts a crucial lead before powering home a third, and England's fourth, deep in stoppage time.
It is a moment etched in the memory of all English football fans, as are the words of BBC commentator Ken Wolstenholme: "Some of the crowd are on the pitch, they think it's all over. It is now."
However, it was anything but a one-man show and all the team have since been honoured for their part in the country's most famous sporting victory.
Ramsay, who died in 1999, was knighted in 1967, a decoration that was bestowed on Hurst and Bobby Charlton in the 1990s.
1966 WORLD CUP WINNERS
Gordon Banks, Ray Wilson, George Cohen, Jack Charlton, Bobby Moore, Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball, Martin Peters, Roger Hunt, Bobby Charlton & Geoff Hurst
But for his death from cancer in 1993, iconic captain Bobby Moore would undoubtedly have joined that triumvirate as a knight.
Moore's defensive partner Jack Charlton, goalkeeper Gordon Banks and goalscorer Martin Peters were all honoured in the 1970s.
The final five members of the team received MBEs in the 2000 New Years Honours List.
The BBC's Golden Team award comes in the same week that England's most recent World Cup winners, Martin Johnson's rugby heroes, were feted in Trafalgar Square.
Similarities between the two World Cup-winning teams are uncanny.
They are linked in personnel by the Cohen family, footballing full-back George and his rugby playing nephew Ben bridging the years.
And on the pitch each team let slip advantage in the last minute of normal time before winning the game in the dramatic closing stages. But there they stop.
When Moore et al won football's greatest prize 37 years ago, national celebrations were far more muted.
The 1966 winners interrupted their evening with a brief appearance on the balcony of their west London hotel.
Johnson's team will also benefit in monetary terms in a league far removed from the 1966 team.
While each member of Clive Woodward's 2003 World Cup winners will receive a win bonus of £71,000, many of the 1966 team were forced to auction memorabilia.
Moore's shirt went for £44,000, Hurst's raised £80,000, while Banks sold his World Cup winners medal for £124,750.
But their victory, from a bygone sporting era, will rightly remain the benchmark for all English national teams, and is worth its weight in gold. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/matches/match_07/default.stm | An 85th-minute penalty from Asamoah Gyan ensured Ghana began their Group D campaign with victory against 10-man Serbia.
The striker converted emphatically from the spot when Serbia substitute Zdravko Kuzmanovic was penalised for handball attempting to clear a dangerous cross.
Raddy Antic's side had struggled to contain Ghana's dominance in midfield and their task was made even more perilous when defender Aleksandar Lukovic was red carded for his second bookable offence in the 74th minute.
The four-time African champions had dominated large stretches of the game, creating sufficient opportunities to win by a greater margin than the scoreline suggested.
Serbia boss Raddy Antic named his strongest starting XI following Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic's return from illness.
Meanwhile, Ghana manager Milovan Rajevac, a Serb, omitted European Cup-winning midfielder Sulley Muntari in midfield, while Kevin-Prince Boateng, who represented Germany under-21s, lined up for only his second appearance in a Black Stars shirt.
Despite the lack of clear-cut first-half chances, the first 45 minutes were played at a rapid tempo as both sides displayed slick passing moves, albeit without the crucial addition of a quality final ball.
Ghana created the first genuine opportunity of the match when a stinging goalbound left-foot strike by Kwadwo Asamoah was deflected wide by the sprawling right leg of striker Nikola Zigic, while John Mensah and Asamoah Gyan failed to capitalise on half-chances shortly after.
Serbia's best opportunity came from a set-piece when Aleksandar Kolarov's superbly struck 30-yard left-footed free-kick curled past the left-hand post.
Ghana once again dictated the tempo at the start of the second half, with Andre Ayew miscuing a header wide with his marker Vidic well beaten.
Gyan went even closer soon after when he leapt elegantly to meet John Pantsil's long throw into the 18-yard box, only for his powerful six-yard header to skim the outside of Vladmir Stokjovic's left-hand post.
Although Serbia were not without their chances - a Marko Pantelic cross was well blocked by Isaac Vorsah with Zigic lurking - Antic's side showed little attacking threat in the final third.
And Serbia were forced to endure a nervous final 15 minutes when Lukovic was sent off for a second bookable offence when he held back Gyan on the half-way line.
However, Richard Kingson produced a fine stop to deny Milos Krasic when the CSKA Moscow midfielder fired a stinging 12-yard strike straight at the keeper following an enterprising left-wing run from Pantelic.
But Ghana eventually made their dominance count when Kuzmanovic inexplicably left his arm lingering when attempting to head clear a dangerous cross, allowing Gyan the opportunity to step up and wrong-foot goalkeeper Stokjovic with a powerful penalty.
The Rennes striker almost added a second in injury time when his curling shot struck the post with Stokjovic beaten.
Attempts on target
Attempts off target
Projected table based on current scores
|Group A teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS|
|Group B teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS|
|Group C teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS|
|Group D teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS|
|Group E teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS|
|Group F teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS|
|Group G teams||P||W||D||L||F||A||GD||PTS| |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19869316 | BBC and others targeted by Microsoft copyright takedown request
Microsoft wrongly made automated requests for pages on the BBC website to be removed from Google due to "copyright infringements".
The system also mistakenly requested the removal of content created by CNN, Wikipedia and the US government.
The sites were wrongly identified by software which crawls the web for attempts to illegally share Microsoft content.
Google has put the BBC on an approved list, so its pages were not affected.
Other sites targeted - which included Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post and Techcrunch - were similarly unaffected.
However, other sites like AMC Theatres and RealClearPolitics, who were also wrongly accused, had pages taken off Google search results.
Microsoft has not yet commented on the issue.Number 45
Copyright holders are able to make requests to Google - or other sites - to take down content under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). A successful request means the content does not appear in search rankings.
The targeted web addresses appeared on a list published by Chilling Effects, a website which logs legal complaints about online activity. It is backed by several academic institutes such as Harvard and Stanford, as well as campaign group the Electronic Frontiers Foundation.
The majority of sites listed were from websites that typically index a large number of illegal files.
The request, sent in July, contained hundreds of addresses, and appeared to pinpoint articles and pages containing the number 45.
For example, a BBC page following Day 45 of the Olympic Torch Relay was on the takedown list, as was a Wikipedia article on Caesar's Civil War, which ended in 45BC.
A leading technology blog covering BitTorrent and copyright issues has called for companies to be punished for wrongful takedown notices.
"Microsoft and other rightsholders are censoring large parts of the internet, often completely unfounded, and there is absolutely no-one to hold them responsible," TorrentFreak wrote.
"Websites can't possibly verify every DMCA claim and the problem will only increase as more takedown notices are sent week after week." |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-20443176 | Second flood hits Whitesands area in Dumfries
Drivers have been advised to avoid the Whitesands in Dumfries after it was hit by flooding from the River Nith for the second time in a week.
Water has been flowing into the car park but it has not breached the main river wall.
It comes after heavy and persistent rain swept across parts of Dumfries and Galloway.
Earlier in the day 500 homes in Wigtownshire were without power after lightning strikes.
Three separate incidents affected properties in the Lochans and Leswalt areas.
Most homes had been reconnected by mid-morning but problems in some outlying areas took longer to address.
Scottish Power also reported problems with mobile telephone networks in the area.
In Dumfries, police have been moving cars and shopkeepers put down sandbags and flood barriers in front of their doors.
Elsewhere, police said surface water flooding was badly affecting a number of streets in Galashiels town centre.
On the railways a landslip in the Thornhill area closed the line between Kilmarnock and Dumfries.
Dumfries and Galloway had been on stand-by after an amber warning of rain and strong winds was issued for the area.
The A714 north of Newton Stewart was closed for a time and the Bankend Road in Dumfries also shut.
Hazardous conditions have also been reported on stretches of the A75 and A77.
Serious flooding was also being seen in Haugh of Urr on Port Road and Corsehill. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21207601 | Bill Gates: The world can defeat polio
Glance at the latest figures for polio incidence and it would appear that the world is within touching distance of eradicating the disease.
Last year there were just 205 cases of naturally occurring poliovirus compared with 650 cases in 2011 and a staggering 350,000 a quarter of a century ago.
There are now three countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria - where transmission of the disease has never been halted compared to 125 countries in the late 1980s.
India has been polio-free for two years - a remarkable achievement.
This week the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will deliver the annual BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in which he will spell out his commitment to ridding the world of this dread infectious disease which can cause paralysis and even death within hours.
Bill Gates is the single most influential voice in global health, so when he turns his attention to an issue, it is worth listening.
Through the Gates Foundation, Bill and his wife Melinda have already given away nearly $30 billion of their fortune and there are tens of billions more in the pipeline.
He has spoken to me previously of his passionate belief in the power of vaccines and his determination to defeat polio.
In his lecture Mr Gates will liken the pace of innovation in computers with the fight against polio: .
He will say: "In the late 1970s we had a dream of giving everybody access to computer technology - a vision of a computer on every desktop. Now there is a computer in every pocket.
"The pace of innovation keeps getting faster. The same is true of polio.
"It was first recognised at least 4,000 years ago, but it was just 200 years ago we figured out it's contagious - just 100 years ago we learned it's a virus. Just 50 years ago we developed the vaccine to prevent it.
"Just 25 years ago we resolved to eradicate it. And so on."
But Mr Gates will also acknowledge that the final push against polio is proving extremely difficult: "I can say without reservation that the last mile is not only the hardest mile; it's also much harder than I expected," he said.
The killing of nine health workers in Pakistan last month was a shocking reminder of the challenges facing those trying to chase down the virus and protect every last child. I have written before of the hurdles facing immunisation teams.
Part of polio's danger is its utter portability - it can be spread across borders by one infected traveller, who can continue to shed virus for weeks on end.
Only last week an emergency vaccination programme was ordered in Cairo after samples of the polio virus were found in sewage - the strain matches that in southern Pakistan.
The oral polio vaccine can - in very rare cases - trigger polio. The WHO says this happens in one in 2.5 million first doses of vaccine.
Over the past decade 15 billion doses of polio vaccine drops have been given and there have been 200 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus.
But with naturally occurring polio cases now so low there is a minority which claims the oral live vaccine is causing significant harm.
Dr Jacob Puliyel, a paediatrician in Delhi, wrote in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics last year that "the polio eradication programme epitomises nearly everything that is wrong with donor-funded 'disease specific' vertical projects, at the cost of investments in community-oriented primary care".
Dr Puliyel said the money spent on fighting polio in India would have been put to better use on water, sanitation and routine immunisation.Now or never
Dr Puliyel blames the polio vaccine for a sharp rise in India of cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis - weakness or inability to move limbs.
But polio is just one of many causes, with other viruses and bacteria also responsible. Public health officials also point out that monitoring of cases is now far better than in previous decades.
In pure economic terms it is hard to justify the $1bn (£630m) spent annually on driving down polio cases by a few hundred each year.
It makes sense only if global eradication is achieved. Then the repeated - sometimes monthly - polio immunisation rounds in at-risk communities can stop and the vaccine be part of the standard childhood schedule.
This is a now or never moment - kick polio off the planet over the next few years or face a humiliating retreat which could see the virus re-emerge in scores of countries.
Bill Gates recognises what is at stake for global health: "Polio eradication is a proving ground, a test. It will reveal what human beings are capable of, and suggest how ambitious we can be about our future."
The 2013 Richard Dimbleby Lecture will be shown on Tuesday 29 January on BBC One at 22:35 GMT |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-21349962 | Coventry businesses vote over five-year BID tax
Firms in Coventry city centre are being balloted over whether to agree to pay an extra tax for another five years.
The area within the ring road has been a Business Improvement District (BID) since 2007 with retailers contributing a portion of their rateable value.
If it gets the go ahead Coventry BID will have about £450,000 to spend on extra security, cleaning, planting and marketing each year until 2018.
Businesses have until 1 March to cast their vote.
The chair of Coventry BID, Peter Dunkley, said the services provided to more than "600 customer-facing businesses" from the annual levy were additional to what the city council offered.'Why another tax?'
Mr Dunkley, who runs Blue Bistro in Spon Street and currently contributes about £75 a year, said: "There is a need for extra cleaning and there's a need for extra planting services in the city.
"The city centre does need to be well presented for visitors.
"There's a radio security system that runs right across the city centre that's used for shoplifters and any trouble in pubs that I think has made quite a significant difference to the security around the city."
But not all businesses in the city centre feel they have got value for money from the scheme which employs seven people across a range of activities.
Colin Bahia, from Max Mobility in Shelton Square, said: "When you're paying £12,000 in rates you think hold on, why another tax?
"The guys do a good job and we don't want to see anyone lose their jobs but they should be working directly through the council." |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-18647869 | West Yorkshire Police predict crime spots using data
Technology aimed at helping to predict where crimes will occur is being used in West Yorkshire.
The technology, Project Optimal, is being featured on the Crimewatch Roadshow on BBC One on Monday at 09:15.
West Yorkshire Police said intelligence analysts use data to pinpoint streets at greatest risk of burglary, and increase patrols accordingly.
The pilot project started in the North West Leeds Division, which includes the Headingley area.
Police said in Headingley there had been a 65% reduction (20 fewer) burglaries over the first five weeks of the project, compared to the same period last year.
The pilot project started in the North West Leeds Division, which includes Headingley stadium, Leeds Bradford airport and a large student population at two universities.'Pinpoints streets'
It also includes Armley, Bramley, Burley, Calverley, Farsley, Headingley, Rodley, Woodhouse and Otley.
The crime details in the computer are refreshed three times a week.
The statistics allow officers to isolate a short time, even one particular hour, that is a particular burglary risk in a specific street.
Extra patrols can then be put into the area.
Ch Supt Dave Oldroyd, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "This new project allows us to more reliably pinpoint specific areas and times where the risk is greatest so we can target our resources more effectively and efficiently."
A similar predictive approach by Greater Manchester Police helped cut burglaries in the Trafford area by 27% in 2010/11, police said. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-18549186 | Alan Turing anti-homophobia award launched in Manchester
A new award celebrating people who help victims of homophobia will bear the name of computing pioneer Alan Turing.
The gay codebreaker and computer genius was convicted for indecency in 1952 and committed suicide two years later.
The honour will be given as part of the Lesbian and Gay Foundation's annual Homo Heroes Awards.
Manchester City Council's Bev Craig said he was chosen because he "was not ashamed of who he was, but he paid the ultimate price".
The LGF's chief executive Paul Martin said Turing had made "a monumental contribution to the freedom that every single one of us enjoys in the UK today".
"What makes Turing's legacy so tragic is that in the final months and years of his life, many of his own freedoms were denied to him," he said.
"He was punished because of his sexuality and had to make the humiliating choice between imprisonment or chemical castration.
"This ultimately led to him taking his own life. Had Turing been alive today, he would have rightly been celebrated as a hero."
The launch of the award is one of a series of events taking place in Manchester to celebrate the centenary of Turing's birth.
The University of Manchester is holding a four day conference celebrating his work and discussing the history and development of computer science and artificial intelligence, and a plaque paying tribute to him will be unveiled at the building where he worked.
The mathematician and cryptologist spent the last six years of his life working at the university, where he helped create the world's first computers and wrote the scientific paper which proposed the test for artificial intelligence that bears his name. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-21164770 | India avalanche kills 38 yaks in Himachal Pradesh
At least 38 yaks in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh have been killed by an avalanche.
The yaks were domesticated and owned by locals in the tribal Kinnaur district.
The entire Kinnaur valley is cut off from the rest of the country after heavy snowfall, and there has been no power for the last seven days.
Five people were killed by an avalanche last week. Several tourists are also stuck in the valley and efforts are being made to airlift them to safety.
Officials say it could take another week to clear the snow on the national highway that connects the valley to Shimla, the state capital.
Kinnaur, which borders Tibet, has had unusually heavy snowfall and popular scenic villages like Chitkul and Kalpa are under 2.1m (7ft) of snow, officials say.
Much of Shimla district beyond the state capital has also been cut off for the last week - the area is without electricity as power cables and poles have been uprooted in many places.
Northern India has been in the grip of extreme cold weather and the temperature in parts of Himachal Pradesh dipped below -20C (-4F). |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7540819.stm | But all eyes at the Courtyard Theatre immediately sought out the lanky Scotsman who has endeared himself to millions as the 10th Doctor Who on the cult TV series.
And he was not there to disappoint. He seized the role of the young man haunted by his father's ghost with both hands and ran with it. Literally.
At first he is reserved. His hair is swept back and as stiff as his demeanour as his uncle Claudius marries his mother, Gertrude. Standing under the crystal chandeliers he is seemingly oblivious to the celebrations around him.
But when he crouches to the floor, alone, and gripped by unbearable despair, his grief and rage overwhelm.
And it's not long before Tennant's more familiar, frenetic acting comes to the fore.
In an early scene where he encounters his father's ghost, some of his expressions - the bulging-eyed fear, the bared teeth and furrowed brow - are reminiscent of the Doctor.
He races about the stage with ease - all lanky limbs and boyish energy - switching seamlessly between sanity, feigned madness and humour.
In many of the scenes Tennant is barefoot, which adds to the intimacy of the play. The costumes too are pared-down and modern.
It is, perhaps, the first time Hamlet has worn a Parka jacket and beanie hat. Tennant carries it off with quirky aplomb.
David Tennant greets fans after performing as Hamlet
Tennant also uses his hair to great theatrical effect. From the sleek combed-back style of his first scene, he ruffles it to display despair, rage and madness. It deserves a credit of its very own.
Overall, his performance is undoubtedly mesmerising. What he lacks in emotional intensity, he makes up for with wit, humour and stirring energy.
Tennant is at his best, though, when he allows his full dramatic force to take over. The scene in Gertrude's bedroom when he challenges her on her "incestuous" bed is menacingly powerful.
And he delivers the play's most famous lines without fanfare. They are there, subtle and seamless.
Stewart, too, deserves credit for his understated scary portrayal of Claudius. He is the chilling calm to Tennant's vivacity.
Peter de Jersey's Horatio is wonderfully endearing, Oliver Ford Davies is hilarious as doddery old Polonius, while Mariah Gale's Ophelia has a haunting vulnerability.
But all eyes will undoubtedly remain on Tennant as he continues his run as the Prince of Denmark. It has, perhaps inevitably, become known as the Doctor Who Hamlet.
And while Tennant may not be the best Hamlet the RSC has ever produced, he could soon be a serious challenger for the crown.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7789249.stm | By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco
Tidal and other renewable technologies would lower the CO2 burden
If growth in carbon dioxide emissions is to be constrained and even reversed then the world cannot afford a coal renaissance, scientists have said.
Some commentators have argued that falling reserves of oil and gas will automatically limit CO2's rise.
But at an American Geophysical Union meeting, researchers said reserves of coal dwarfed those of other fuels.
It was even possible oil's demise could trigger an acceleration in emissions through more coal use, they added.
"We can replace oil with liquid fuels derived from coal," said Ken Caldeira from the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University in California.
"But these liquid fuels emit even more carbon dioxide than oil, so the end of oil can mean an increase in coal and even more carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, and even more rapid onset of dangerous climate change."
Professor Caldeira's group has used climate and carbon cycle models to look at how future emissions and temperature projections would be altered by different fuel strategies.
The team tried to work out the maximum effects that would arise from replacing oil either entirely with coal-based liquid substitutes or entirely with renewable energy sources.
The assessment found that if coal-derived liquids are adopted, the Earth would achieve a 2C rise in temperature from pre-industrial times (a figure sometimes quoted as being a desirable ceiling to stay beneath in order to avoid "dangerous climate change") by 2042. This is three years faster than a business as usual future with oil.
If the renewables strategy is adopted, the 2C figure is not reached until 2056.
"Clearly, to address the climate issue we have to address the coal issue," Professor Caldeira told BBC News.
Tar sands excavation would lead to a dirtier world, researchers say
His assessment was shared by Pushker Kharecha from Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss).
"We cannot move into things like coal-to-liquids and unconventional fossil fuels such as methane hydrates, tar sands, oil shale and so forth," he said.
"If they become large-scale substitutes for oil and gas, that would worsen things because they are much dirtier than oil and gas because they produce more emissions per unit energy delivered."
Dr Kharecha presented details of recent research from the US, UK and France looking at the feasibility of not only constraining the growth of CO2 emissions but actually reducing its concentration in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million by volume (it is currently up at about 385ppmv).
The group found it was possible, but only with a prompt moratorium on new coal use that does not capture CO2, and a phase out of existing coal emissions by 2030.
Reforestation together with improved agricultural practices could help draw down CO2.
"Efficiency and conservation have huge potential to offset emissions in the near term," Dr Kharecha told BBC News.
"And then in the mid-term and long-term we can focus on moving to alternatives such as renewable energies, and possibly a balanced look at nuclear because it does provide many benefits in addition to the numerous problems that it poses."
Mining for the most polluting of fossil fuels
A new analysis presented here puts the total available global coal reserves at 662 billion tonnes.
The figure is substantially lower than the ones used in assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to gauge possible future emissions scenarios.
"This is a radically different number from what is conventionally assumed," said Professor David Rutledge from the California Institute of Technology, who led the analysis.
"The IPCC assumes that about five times as much coal is available for burning."
But the scientists at this meeting said that if burnt, even this smaller amount of coal would radically alter the climate unless all the emissions were captured and stored.
"There is far more than enough currently useable coal and other fossil fuels to push us past the threshold beyond which we would not want to go with the climate," Dr Kharecha said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21041946 | Hard times for more UK households, ONS report shows
The increasing pressure on household finances has been highlighted in a new report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figures, from its Integrated Household Survey (IHS), show that 37% of people do not have enough money to pay an "unexpected financial expense".
The figure is up from the 27% recorded in 2007, before the recession.
The ONS also said that the proportion of people who cannot afford an annual holiday has risen from 21% to 30%.
Other measures of financial fragility have shown less change, the ONS said.
"There have also been smaller increases in recent years in the percentage of people who say they are unable to afford a car, to heat their home adequately or to pay their rent/mortgage, utility bills or loan repayments," said the report.
"[But] in the UK, the percentage of people who say they are unable to afford a television set, telephone or washing machine is negligible."Wages v inflation
The figures are a further illustration of the way that the recession has squeezed the finances of many families, with wage and salary rises being outstripped by inflation.
In November, ONS figures showed that inflation had been higher than the rise in average pay for the past 12 years.
While average annual pay for full-time workers had risen by 40% since April 2000 - from £18,848 to £26,500 - inflation as measured by changes in the retail prices index (RPI) had gone up by 43%.
That trend had accelerated in more recent years. Since April 2007, prices had risen by 18%, but average annual earnings had gone up by just 10%.
In a separate calculation last October, the ONS showed that national income per head, after taking account of inflation, had fallen by more than 13% since the beginning of 2008.
The IHS survey looked at key indicators of "material deprivation", such as the ability of people to pay:
- rent, mortgage, utility bills or loan repayments
- to keep their home adequately warm
- for unexpected financial expenses
- to eat meat or protein regularly
- to go on holiday for a week once a year
- for a television set
- for a washing machine
- for a car
- for a telephone.
Despite the fact that more people have been suffering on some of these indicators, the proportion of the population deemed to be very poor - suffering severe material deprivation - has hardly changed in the past few years, remaining at 5% of the population between 2005 and 2011.
The ONS said this was below the European average of nearly 9%. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21499435 | Iberia workers strike over job cuts
Workers at the Spanish airline Iberia have begun a five-day strike in protest at planned cuts to jobs and salaries.
Iberia has cancelled more than 400 flights out of 1,000 scheduled for this week, with cabin crew and baggage handlers staging the walk-out.
A lack of services at Spanish airports are expected to affect more than 1,000 flights from various airlines.
Jeremy Howell reports. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16234770 | Cape Verde mourns singer Cesaria Evora
Two days of mourning have been declared in Cape Verde for singer Cesaria Evora, who has died on her native isle at the age of 70.
The musician, forced to retire earlier this year due to ill health, began her career singing in the bars of Mindelo.
President Jorge Carlos Fonseca called her "one of the major cultural references of Cape Verde".
The BBC's Janey Mitchell reports. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-19280963 | Motorcycle taken from crash death scene in Stourport
A motorcycle was taken from the scene of a fatal crash in Worcestershire, police said.
Emergency services were called to Bewdley Road, Stourport-on-Severn, on Wednesday evening where a motorcyclist died at the scene.
West Mercia police said the red and black motorbike had been removed before they arrived and had not been found.
A spokesman said a lot of people had been at the scene and urged anyone who saw it being taken to get in touch.
Ambulance staff said bystanders had carried out CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on the man who was in cardiac arrest.'Lost control'
The accident took place at 18:38 BST by the Brinton Arms pub.
The motorcyclist, a man in his 20s from Stourport, lost control on the bend and hit the kerb, police said.
PC Gary Otun said the rider's helmet had also been taken but later found nearby.
"Within minutes of this incident there were a lot of people on the scene, including people who had been inside the pub.
"I would urge them to come forward if they saw the bike being removed or anything else that could help our inquiries," he said. |
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