Friday 29 April 2011

Royal Wedding: Household Cavalry Guard proposes to girlfriend while on horse

Household Cavalry (Pic:AP)

A corporal of the British armed forces' cavalry regiment proposed to his girlfriend today while mounted on his horse for the royal wedding procession.

Staff Corporal Darren Daniels, of the Life Guards Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, popped the question to girlfriend Keryl Jones, in full ceremonial uniform as he rode out of Hyde Park Barracks.

The 36-year-old from Preston said he had been planning to ask for Ms Jones's hand in marriage since the royal wedding was announced last year and had a ring ready for the occasion.

Ms Jones, 35, from Watford, delighted Staff Cpl Daniels and onlookers gathered this morning by accepting.

Relieved at her answer, the husband-to-be said: "I was nervous as hell but just delighted she said yes."

The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment is a ceremonial cavalry regiment of the British Army. It is classed as a regiment of guards, and carries out mounted ceremonial duties on state and royal occasions.

Both William, who has taken on the new title of Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, served in the household's other regiment, the Blues and Royals, as cornets after graduating from Sandhurst military academy.

Prince Harry wore an officer's uniform of the Blues and Royals for the service.

Thursday 21 April 2011

Aurora from Saturn moon 'circuit'

Aurora from Saturn moon 'circuit'

Saturn's northern aurorae (NASA/JPL/University of Colorado/Central Arizona College)

 

The aurora vary widely in intensity, and are generally weaker those on Jupiter


Related Stories

Saturn enjoys a flickering "Northern Lights" phenomenon thanks to a flow of electrons to and from its moon Enceladus, researchers say.

A report in Nature suggests these aurora would be faint, and in the ultraviolet part of the light spectrum.

The find by the Cassini spacecraft is similar to the electrical "circuit" between Jupiter and three of its moons.

Electrons flow to and from Enceladus' poles in a vast loop, and aurora result where they hit Saturn's magnetic field.

The aurora creation process is similar to that which happens at high latitudes on Earth; here, the paths of fast-moving charged particles from the solar wind are curved by the Earth's magnetic field and emit the displays we know as the Northern and Southern lights.

In contrast, the fields created by Jupiter and Saturn envelop the planets' moons, and what is known as electrodynamic coupling brings particles directly from the moons, completing what is actually an electrical circuit.

The mechanism behind Jupiter's aurora is presumed to be sulphur from its moon Io's volcanic activity, split by sunlight into electrons and ions.

On Saturn's moon Enceladus, however, the suspected source of electrons is "cryovolcanism" - volcanic activity that shoots up liquids or, in Enceladus' case, salty ice.

'Rare opportunity'

Saturn and its rings

 

Last year, the Cassini mission was extended to 2017

The Cassini spacecraft has been studying Saturn and its moons since it arrived in 2004, having made 12 close passes of Enceladus.

On the close encounter that occurred on 11 August 2008, scientists detected a great stream of ions (molecules with electrons removed) coming from the moon, and then confirmed the electron loops.

"I think it's a very exciting, very interesting discovery," said Andrew Coates, a co-author of the paper from University College London.

"Five or six years ago we didn't know that Enceladus was putting any material into the Solar System - now we get exciting effects like these magnetic and electric current links into the ionosphere of Saturn, producing this (aurora) spot," he told BBC News.

The team says that the aurora are about a tenth the intensity of those seen on Jupiter, and that they vary widely in intensity - by as much as a factor of three.

That, they assume, is down to variations in the output of the geysers that are feeding the process - a process that Professor Coates says seems likely to be happening elsewhere.

"It's probably a universal process; it could be something that's happening in other places like [Neptune's moon] Triton, or extrasolar planets where there are 'hot Jupiters'."

 

 

Amazon fault takes down websites

Amazon fault takes down websites

Foursquare homepage

 

Visitors to Foursquare's homepage were greeted by an error message and apology


Related Stories

Scores of well-known websites have been unavailable for large parts of Thursday because of problems with Amazon's web hosting service.

Foursquare, Reddit and Quora were among the sites taken offline by the glitch.

Amazon EC2 is the retailer's cloud computing business. It provides processing power and storage to companies that do not have their own data centres.

No reason has so far been given for the outage.

Visitors to the website of location-based social network Foursquare were greeted by an apology.

"Our usually amazing datacentre hosts, Amazon EC2, are having a few hiccups this morning, which affected us and a bunch of other services that use them.

"Everything looks to be getting back to normal now," read the statement.

Quora website

 

Information-sharing website Quora was also hit by the outage.

Amazon's cloud service last hit the headlines when it decided to stop hosting a mirrored version of the Wikileaks website.

Like a number of American-owned web hosts, it had come under pressure from the US government over the leaking of confidential State Department files.

Several of the web services that took action against Wikileaks suffered reprisal attacks by hackers.

However, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that the most recent outage was related to the Wikileaks controversy.

 

Amazon fault takes down websites

Amazon fault takes down websites

Foursquare homepage

 

Visitors to Foursquare's homepage were greeted by an error message and apology


Related Stories

Scores of well-known websites have been unavailable for large parts of Thursday because of problems with Amazon's web hosting service.

Foursquare, Reddit and Quora were among the sites taken offline by the glitch.

Amazon EC2 is the retailer's cloud computing business. It provides processing power and storage to companies that do not have their own data centres.

No reason has so far been given for the outage.

Visitors to the website of location-based social network Foursquare were greeted by an apology.

"Our usually amazing datacentre hosts, Amazon EC2, are having a few hiccups this morning, which affected us and a bunch of other services that use them.

"Everything looks to be getting back to normal now," read the statement.

Quora website

 

Information-sharing website Quora was also hit by the outage.

Amazon's cloud service last hit the headlines when it decided to stop hosting a mirrored version of the Wikileaks website.

Like a number of American-owned web hosts, it had come under pressure from the US government over the leaking of confidential State Department files.

Several of the web services that took action against Wikileaks suffered reprisal attacks by hackers.

However, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that the most recent outage was related to the Wikileaks controversy.

 

Tim Hetherington 'admirable' says fellow film-maker

 

Tim Hetherington 'admirable' says fellow film-maker

Tim Hetherington and Janus Metz Janus Metz (r) says Hetherington (l) was an "intelligent guy with huge integrity"

Related Stories

Tim Hetherington, the British photographer killed while covering the conflict in Libya, was the co-director of Restrepo, an Oscar-nominated film about US soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Danish director Janus Metz, whose own film Armadillo followed Danish soldiers fighting in southern Afghanistan, shares his memories of Hetherington and experiences of film-making in a war zone.

My first reaction on hearing of Tim's death was one of shock.

I met Tim last spring and we had a long talk about our respective films. I took a big liking to him and we were supposed to meet up when I was back in New York.

I was shocked to hear the news, but I was also thinking "Wow, it could have been me". When you're trying to report from a war zone you put yourself in situations where your life is in risk.

Tim made it his career to become a war reporter. I think he saw it as a mission to bring home stories and images from these places for everyone to relate to.

A scene from Armadillo Armadillo followed a group of Danish soldiers serving in Afghanistan in 2009

In terms of putting myself in danger, I've only done Armadillo and I have certainly had enough from doing that. I don't have a need to go back.

I had a strong feeling coming back from Afghanistan that we were lucky to pull it off and I didn't feel like testing my luck again.

But there was obviously a pull towards the excitement and the intensity of doing it before we went. The feeling of being alive and doing something important at the same time is quite strong when you're working in war zones.

I think my family and girlfriend know me enough that it doesn't really make sense to try and stop me. When I put my head towards something I do it.

I've travelled to lots of dangerous places and it makes them really nervous every single time.

I think the toll it takes on the people back home is very big. You don't always realise what it does to the people who care for you; in that sense it can be slightly egoistic.

 

Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier in hospital

Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier in hospital

Gerard Houllier

 

Houllier took over at Aston Villa from Martin O'Neill in September


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Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier has been admitted to hospital, the club has confirmed.

The 63-year-old was taken to hospital in Birmingham overnight.

He has spoken to the club's chief executive Paul Faulkner and his condition is said to be comfortable.

Assistant Manager Gary McAllister will take Thursday's training session. Houllier has thanked supporters for their concern.

He is expected to remain in hospital for several days and is undergoing tests.

McAllister will take charge of the team on Saturday for their game against Stoke at Villa Park.

Villa striker Darren Bent said: "Obviously everyone in the squad wishes that Gerrard has a speedy recovery and that he is back soon, but yeah it was a big shock to all the players.

"But the main thing is his health and that he gets that right and hopefully he will be back soon."

The 26-year-old said McAllister was usually extremely vocal in the dressing rooms so there would be an element of continuity when the team met Stoke, even without Houllier.

 

Rare Sex Pistols disc is 'most valuable vinyl'

Rare Sex Pistols disc is 'most valuable vinyl'

The Sex Pistols in 1976

 

Rare records in mint condition can be worth a small fortune

A rare recording of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols has been named the most valuable vinyl disc of all time, with experts saying it is worth £8,000.

The single was originally produced by A&M Records. But the group were dropped before it was released and most of the copies were destroyed.

Record Collector magazine have compiled a list of the 51 most collectible vinyl records.

The Rolling Stones and the Beatles both feature in the top five.

"There is something of an investment market in mint-condition copies of iconic albums," said Record Collector editor Ian McCann.

"The problem is people love them and play them to death, making it increasingly rare to find them in mint condition."

The Beatles' Please Please Me on the Black and Gold label is ranked in second place with an estimated value of £3,500, while the Rolling Stones self-titled debut record from 1964 - valued at £1,000 - is fifth.

Between them on the countdown are jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley's self-titled album from 1957 and rocker Wil Malone's own self-titled release from 1970.

The prices are based on an assessment by the magazine but there are examples of individual records fetching higher values at auctions in the past.

In 2009, a rare copy of unreleased 1965 single Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) by Frank Wilson was sold for £25,742.

 

British tourist Helen Beard catches balcony fall baby

British tourist Helen Beard catches balcony fall baby

BBC map of Florida

 

A British woman on holiday in Florida caught a baby who fell from a third-floor hotel balcony on Thursday night.

Jah-Nea Myles, 16 months, was uninjured after apparently slipping through the balcony railing and falling into the arms of Helen Beard, from Worksop.

Ms Beard, 44, told police she had been at the pool at the Econo Lodge hotel in Orlando when she saw the baby hanging from the railing and ran underneath.

She held the child until emergency medical workers arrived.

Screaming heard

The baby was taken to hospital, where medical staff said they saw no bruises or scratches and deemed her in good health.

An investigator with the Orange County sheriff's office described her as "playful" and said she was not crying.

Helena Myles, Jah-Nea's 20-year-old mother, told police her friend Dominique Holt had been watching the baby in the adjacent hotel room.

Ms Holt, 21, said she went to the bathroom about 2100 local time (0100 GMT), then heard screaming and saw the balcony door ajar.

She ran out onto the balcony and saw the baby in the arms of Ms Beard, from Nottinghamshire.

Police said no criminal charges were pending.

Orlando is a popular destination for holidaymakers, with Walt Disney World and other tourist attractions.

 

Nazi-looted Klimt 'to be returned to owner's grandson'

Nazi-looted Klimt 'to be returned to owner's grandson'

Litzlberg am Attersee by Gustav Klimt

 

Salzburg's government will now decide whether to proceed with the restitution


Related Stories

An Austrian museum is set to return a Gustav Klimt painting to the grandson of its original owner, a victim of the Nazis during World War II.

Litzlberg on the Attersee is thought to be worth up to 30m euros (£26m), experts from the Museum of Modern Arts in Saltburg said.

It is believed the 1915 work was seized from Amalie Redlich after she was deported in 1941 and killed.

Georges Jorisch, an 83-year-old living in Montreal, is Redlich's only heir.

Under a 1998 restitution law, Austria has returned some 10,000 paintings confiscated by the Nazis to the descendants of their former owners.

The local assembly of Salzburg province has still to approve the restitution yet the handover is expected to go ahead.

"The conditions for a return of the painting to Amalie Redlich's rightful heirs have been fulfilled," said Salzburg deputy governor Wilfried Haslauer.

"Therefore I will recommend that the Salzburg government return the artwork to Georges Jorisch."

 

BBC News - Russian software tycoon Kaspersky's son 'missing'

Russian software tycoon Kaspersky's son 'missing'

Russian software entrepreneur Yevgeny Kaspersky  (March 2011)

 

Yevgeny Kaspersky is one of Russia's leading internet entrepreneurs


Related Stories

The son of Russian software entrepreneur Yevgeny Kaspersky has gone missing in Moscow and may have been kidnapped, Russian media report.

Secret service and regular police have been searching for Ivan Kaspersky, 20, for at least two days, a police source told Interfax news agency.

His father's firm, Kaspersky Lab, told a newspaper it could not confirm news he had been abducted.

Yevgeny Kaspersky made his fortune developing anti-virus software.

News of his son's abduction was reported by Russian news website Life News, quoting its own sources.

The kidnappers are demanding 3m euros (£2.6m; $4.3m) for Ivan's safe return, the website says.

According to the unconfirmed report, he was snatched while on his way to work in Moscow on Tuesday.

When contacted by Russian newspaper Gazeta, Kaspersky Lab said it could neither confirm nor deny the report.

There has been no official comment on the story.

Kaspersky Lab is regarded outside Russia as one of the country's few business success stories not related to the energy sector.

The US business magazine Fast Company recently ranked Kaspersky Lab among the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies worldwide

 

BP frees up $1bn to clean up Gulf oil spill damage

 

BP frees up $1bn to clean up Gulf oil spill damage

Oil spill Oil from the Deepwater Horizon explosion last year is still in the water one year on

US Oil Spill

  • Counting the cost
  • Eco-impact still unclear
  • Timeline: BP oil spill
  • Who did BP blame?

BP has agreed to provide $1bn (£600m) to repair damage to the US Gulf Coast resulting from last year's oil spill.

The US Justice Department, which helped form the agreement, said the funds would go to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

It will be used to clean up affected areas, including beaches.

Other recipients of the $1bn include the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration.

Hundreds of miles of coastal wetlands and beaches were contaminated, a third of the Gulf's US waters were closed to fishing, and the economic costs have reached into the tens of billions.

The Justice Department said the release of the money was the largest restoration agreement of its kind ever reached and was "a first step towards fulfilling BP's obligations to fund the complete restoration of injured public resources".

The department said the agreement does not affect the ultimate liability of BP or any other company for environmental damages or other liabilities, but lets restoration projects get started sooner.

The Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, said in a statement: "This milestone agreement will allow us to jump-start restoration projects that will bring Gulf Coast marshes, wetlands and wildlife habitat back to health after the damage they suffered as a result of the Deepwater Horizon spill."

Damaged seabirds and other wildlife including dolphins continue to wash up on beaches in the affected region. The agreement was announced the day after the first anniversary of the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

BP said on Wednesday it was suing Transocean, the owner of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year, for $40bn (£24.37bn) in damages.

 

BP frees up $1bn to clean up Gulf oil spill damage

 

BP frees up $1bn to clean up Gulf oil spill damage

Oil spill Oil from the Deepwater Horizon explosion last year is still in the water one year on

US Oil Spill

  • Counting the cost
  • Eco-impact still unclear
  • Timeline: BP oil spill
  • Who did BP blame?

BP has agreed to provide $1bn (£600m) to repair damage to the US Gulf Coast resulting from last year's oil spill.

The US Justice Department, which helped form the agreement, said the funds would go to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

It will be used to clean up affected areas, including beaches.

Other recipients of the $1bn include the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration.

Hundreds of miles of coastal wetlands and beaches were contaminated, a third of the Gulf's US waters were closed to fishing, and the economic costs have reached into the tens of billions.

The Justice Department said the release of the money was the largest restoration agreement of its kind ever reached and was "a first step towards fulfilling BP's obligations to fund the complete restoration of injured public resources".

The department said the agreement does not affect the ultimate liability of BP or any other company for environmental damages or other liabilities, but lets restoration projects get started sooner.

The Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, said in a statement: "This milestone agreement will allow us to jump-start restoration projects that will bring Gulf Coast marshes, wetlands and wildlife habitat back to health after the damage they suffered as a result of the Deepwater Horizon spill."

Damaged seabirds and other wildlife including dolphins continue to wash up on beaches in the affected region. The agreement was announced the day after the first anniversary of the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

BP said on Wednesday it was suing Transocean, the owner of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year, for $40bn (£24.37bn) in damages.

 

BBC News - Syria protests: Bashar al-Assad lifts emergency law

 

Syria protests: Bashar al-Assad lifts emergency law

Boys hold a banner during a demonstration in the Syrian port city of Baniyas on 17 April 2011 The Syrian authorities are trying to quell an unprecedented wave of demonstrations

Syria Crisis

  • Protests gather pace
  • Assad's change of tack
  • Witness: 'Shooting in Homs'
  • Getting nasty

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has signed decrees ending 48 years of emergency rule.

The move was a formality after the government passed a law lifting emergency rule two days ago.

The repeal of the emergency law was a key demand of protesters. It abolishes state security courts and allows citizens to protest peacefully.

But prominent opposition figure Haitham al-Maleh said the move was "useless", reported Reuters news agency.

He said an independent judiciary and accountability for security apparatuses was needed to make the move a meaningful one.

Thousands of Syrians have taken to the streets to demand new political freedoms over recent weeks, inspired by uprisings around the Arab world.

Rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed.

In Thursday's historic decrees, according to state TV and the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana), President Assad:

  • Lifted the 1962 emergency law
  • Enacted a new law legalising peaceful demonstration
  • Abolished the state security courts

The BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones, who is watching events from neighbouring Lebanon, says people will have to wait and see what the government intentions are.

Sana reports that protests will still have to be approved by the interior ministry.

Start Quote

It is not the state of emergency that fires on people”

End Quote Abdel Halim Khaddam Exiled former Syrian vice president

Opposition activists have called for mass protests across the country after Friday prayers. If people do turn out, our correspondent says, it will be an early test of the government's intentions.

Our correspondent says Syrians are also watching to see whether the government falls back on other laws, such as anti-terrorism legislation.

Move dismissed

Rights activist Ammar Qurabi welcomed the move, but told Reuters other measures must follow, such as the release of prisoners detained during the unrest.

But the move was dismissed by Mr Maleh.

"The problem is that the ruling elite and the security have put their hands on the judiciary, and that other legislation they had introduced exempted the security forces from being held accountable to law," he told Reuters.

Abdel Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president based in Paris who became one of the most trenchant critics of Mr Assad's regime, told BBC Arabic: "The crisis in Syria has nothing to do with the presence or absence of the state of emergency.

"It is not the state of emergency that arrests people and takes them to jail and it is not the state of emergency that fires on people," Mr Khaddam said.

 

Ivory Coast: Pro-Ouattara forces clash in Abidjan

 

Ivory Coast: Pro-Ouattara forces clash in Abidjan

Soldiers from the Invisible Commandos loyal to Ibrahim Coulibaly man a roadblock in the PK-18 area of Abobo neighborhood, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast Monday 18 April 2011

 

Soldiers from the Invisible Commandos still man roadblocks in the north of Abidjan

 

Ivory Coast crisis

  • Lesson in democracy?
  • Rough start to Ouattara era
  • Eyewitness: Bombs cost our baby
  • Q&A: Ivorian crisis

Forces loyal to Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara have exchanged fire in the main city of Abidjan.

The incident took place between the Invisible Commandos group, which controls areas of Abidjan, and troops brought from the north of the country.

The BBC's John James says the firing in the north of the city lasted less than 30 minutes but caused panic.

It the most public sign yet of splits in the coalition of forces that brought Mr Ouattara to power last week.

His predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured last week by pro-Ouattara forces after refusing to step down when he lost elections in November.

Our correspondent says pockets of pro-Gbagbo militia continue to hold out in Abidjan's western district of Yopougon, but stability is slowly returning to the city which has experienced several weeks of fierce battles.

Looting

The backbone of the Pro-Ouattara forces swept down through the country last month from their northern bases, three months into the stalemate over the election result.

They came from a group of former rebels called the New Forces, who for nearly a decade have controlled the northern half of the country.

In Abidjan, they were joined by a former rebel commander Ibrahim Coulibaly, who led the Invisible Commandos to gain control of northern parts of the city in the weeks before the main offensive against Mr Gbagbo began.

Mr Coulibaly, a former bodyguard of President Ouattara, now says he wants recognition for the role he played in overthrowing Mr Gbagbo.

But his forces are accused of being responsible for much of the widespread looting of businesses and vehicles over the past week and also of charging motorists using the road north of Abidjan, our reporter says.

In an apparently unrelated incident, there was also shooting on Wednesday in the south-western port of San Pedro in another internal dispute between pro-Ouattara forces.

The commander in San Pedro said the matter was now settled but gave no further details.

Ivory Coast is trying to restart its economy and the government says schools and banks should reopen next week.

But these incidents will add to the fear that insecurity may persist, our correspondent says.

Meanwhile, the African Union has said it is lifting its suspension of Ivory Coast and has dropped sanctions against the country.

The European Union has also eased some of its restrictions on Ivory Coast, paving the way for cocoa exports to resume.

 

France police 'find bodies' at missing family's home

France police 'find bodies' at missing family's home

A French police handout showing the missing family

 

Police have released a handout showing the family

Police in the western French city of Nantes have found three bodies at the house of a family who went missing earlier this month, reports say.

Investigators now suspect kidnap and murder, city prosecutor Xavier Ronsin said, as a search continued at the property.

He said the family of six had not been heard from since early April.

Parents Xavier and Agnes Dupont de Ligonnes had recently announced they were all moving to Australia.

Records show no internet or phone communications with the house in the centre of Nantes since 3 or 4 April, AFP news agency reports.

The family were named in an appeal for information as business manager Mr Dupont, his wife Agnes and their children Tomas, 21, Arthur, 18, Anne, 16, and 13-year-old Benoit.

'Secret agent' father

Mr Ronsin initially told reporters on Thursday a severed leg had been found beneath a terrace at the house and the investigation was "leaning towards kidnapping and murder".

Police stand outside the house in Nantes where the family were living, 21 April

 

A police forensic search was under way at the house on Thursday

He later announced that a body had also been found, without specifying if it was missing a limb.

Shortly afterwards, a police source told AFP three bodies had been found "beneath the terrace, in the garden".

Before the disappearance, the family left "rambling and contradictory" messages, said Mr Ronsin, saying they were taking their two younger children out of school because they were emigrating to Australia.

"The father explained he was a secret agent and was leaving as part of a witness protection programme," he said, quoting people close to the missing man.

No trace of a struggle or violence has been found at the house, where the wardrobes have been emptied, he said.

A note was taped to the letter box at the house reading: "Return all mail to sender."

'Respectable family'

BBC map

 

Local people described the family as quiet and respectable middle-class Catholics with no history of odd or criminal behaviour.

The couple were originally from the wealthy Paris suburb of Versailles but were living in a townhouse on a central boulevard in Nantes.

He sold advertising space while she volunteered for church activities and taught the Catholic catechism to schoolchildren.

"She was a very good woman, very involved," said neighbour Florent Chotard.

The younger children were attending a private high school.

Headmaster Olivier Bouissou said that when he had received word the family were leaving for Australia he had thought they were "moving not disappearing".

"When we got the letter it was with a cheque that covered the entire rest of the school year," he told AFP.

 

BBC News - Ozone hole has dried Australia, scientists find

Stratospheric polar clouds

 

Clouds in the polar stratosphere are where ozone is broken down


Related Stories

The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia's recent series of droughts, scientists say.

Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics.

Their climate models suggest the effect has been notably strong over Australia.

Many parts of the country have seen drought in recent years, with cities forced to invest in technologies such as desalination, and farms closing.

The scientists behind the new study - led from Columbia University in New York - added the ozone hole into standard climate models to investigate how it might have affected winds and rains.

"The ozone hole results in a southward shift of the high-latitude circulation - and the whole tropical circulation shifts southwards too," explained Columbia's Sarah Kang.

Of particular interest was the southward migration of the Southern Hemisphere jet stream.


Start Quote

There is also the rising trend in carbon dioxide, and that is acting in the same direction as the ozone hole”

End Quote
Dr Sarah Kang
Columbia University

These high-altitude winds are key to determining weather patterns, in both hemispheres. Much of the cold weather felt in the UK over the last couple of winters, for example, was caused by blocking of the Northern Hemisphere stream.

The Columbia team found that overall, the ozone hole has resulted in rainfall moving south along with the winds.

But there are regional differences, particularly concerning Australia.

"In terms of the average for that zone, [the ozone hole drives] about a 10% change - but for Australia, it's about 35%," Dr Kang told BBC News.

Their modelling indicated that global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions was also a factor - although natural climate cycles are also thought to be important, as Australia suffered severe droughts in the era before ozone depletion and before the warming seen in the late 20th Century.

"This study does illustrate the important point that different mechanisms of global change are contributing to the climate impacts we're seeing around the world," observed Professor Myles Allen of Oxford University, a leading UK climate modeller.

"It's very important to unpack them all rather than assuming that any impact we see is down simply to greenhouse gas-mediated warming."

No reverse

Ozone depletion is caused by chemical reactions in the stratosphere, the upper atmosphere.

The chemicals involved derive from substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and their relatives, which used to be staples in air-conditioning, refrigeration and aerosol cans.

Desalination plant

 

Desalination is one of the approaches being used to combat Australia's dwindling supply of water

Although the UN Montreal Protocol has significantly curbed emissions of these substances, they endure for decades in the atmosphere, and so their effects are still being felt.

The ozone layer blocks the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, which can cause skin cancer and other medical conditions.

Earlier this month, the World Meteorological Organization revealed that the Arctic was experiencing the worst ozone depletion on record - a consequence of unusual weather conditions.

But the forecast is that even the Antarctic ozone hole - which is more severe than its Arctic equivalent - should be repaired by 2045-60.

Sarah Kang cautions that this alone will not restore prior climate conditions to Australia or anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere.

"As the ozone hole repairs, it is going to work to reverse this trend; but there is also the rising trend in carbon dioxide, and that is acting in the same direction as the ozone hole," she said.

Australia's persistently dry weather has caused major impacts on communities, farms and nature.

In recent years, the volume of water flowing into the reservoirs of Perth, the Western Australian capital, has been just one third of what it was during most of the 20th Century.

The Murray-Darling basin, which lies in the highly populated southeast, is the subject of a somewhat controversial plan aiming to distribute water fairly against a backdrop of over-extraction, prolonged drought, natural climate variability and greenhouse gas-mediated global warming.

 

Pakistan: Karachi bomb blast kills 16 people

 

Pakistan: Karachi bomb blast kills 16 people

Police officials examine the site of the Karachi blast

 

Police said that the high number of people in the rooms meant the death toll was particularly high

At least 16 people have been killed in a blast in one of the largest gambling dens in the volatile Pakistani city of Karachi, officials say.

Some 30 people are reported to have been wounded in the explosion.

Police say the blast was caused by a bomb which rocked an illegal gambling den run by a local crime gang.

Officials have told the BBC that the nature of the bomb suggests it was planted by Islamist militants.

One report said the den was known as the Rummy Club, and is located in a poorer part of the south of the city, where gambling is an illegal but popular activity.

Shrapnel

The attack took place in the Lyari neighbourhood, where a number of warring drug and arms gangs operate.

Locator map showing city of Karachi, Pakistan

 

Police officials told the BBC the bomb was planted inside a room within the den and detonated by remote control.

Officials say the high number of casualties was due to such a large number of people being packed into the den's chambers.

Eyewitnesses described how shrapnel from the bomb ripped through victims, killing many instantly.

The city, Pakistan's commercial capital, has seen a series of political and ethnic attacks which claimed 775 lives last year.

Some are believed to be the responsibility of criminal gangs but the BBC's Shoaib Hasan, in Karachi, says that the level of sophistication used by the bombers suggest that it was not planted by rival criminal gangs but was rather the work of Islamist militants.

 

Misrata: Libya's city under siege

 

A mirror set up by rebels to see round a corner on Tripoli St, Misrata, 18 April 2011

 

A broken mirror is used on a corner to alert rebels to pro-Gaddafi snipers

 

Libya Crisis

  • Bowen: No easy exit for Nato
  • Analysis: A new phase?
  • Fearing massacre in Misrata
  • Leaders' letter

While parts of Libya's northern coast have been changing hands from day to day, the conflict in Misrata has turned into a lethal stand-off.

Weeks of heavy bombardments by forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi have failed to break the deadlock.

This is explained partly by the size of Misrata, Libya's third-largest city.

It is the only significant western rebel holdout, and is strategically important because of its deep-sea port, so rebels have fought hard to defend it.

They have a large pool of potential manpower. Many among the 300,000 population have hardened in their opposition to Col Gaddafi during what Western leaders have compared to a "medieval siege", residents say.

The rebels have a lifeline through the port, which has been fired on but has continued to receive supplies of food, medicine and reportedly arms, while serving as an evacuation point for the injured and for trapped migrant workers.

And they have local knowledge - one reason Col Gaddafi's forces may have been unwilling or unable to engage in decisive open battles.

"The rebels know the entrances and exits to the city very well, they know how to take cover," a medic who lives in Misrata told the BBC.

"[Col Gaddafi's forces] know that if they got stuck inside the city, they would be surrounded and totally eliminated. So they just have some snipers who are protected by tanks."

Gaddafi's brigades

The medic, a supporter of the rebels whose account of recent developments in the city matched other reports, said that about 10 days ago, one sniper surrendered and told the rebels that he was one of up to 60 gunmen operating from within the Tameen (Insurance) building, the tallest building in the area.


Misrata under siege

Detail of Misrata city centre

 

That number is now thought to have dropped, and rebels have cut off the snipers' resupply routes by forming a roadblock made of lorries loaded with sand.

Rebels say snipers have evacuated a vegetable market down the road that had also been used by pro-Gaddafi forces as a garage and a prison.

A BBC journalist who visited Misrata last week was told that Col Gaddafi's forces were dug in on either side of the city centre, no more than a kilometre away.

Those forces are better equipped than their opponents, with access to heavy weapons, some basic military training, and none of the supply-line problems they face further east.


MISRATA - REASONS FOR DEADLOCK

  • Size of city and rebels' local knowledge
  • Ability of both sides to get resupply
  • Lack of coherent military strategies

Yet the professionalism of the troops has been widely questioned and their numbers are limited.

The Libyan leader has kept his army weak, and his campaign has been led by a handful of brigades commanded by his sons, perhaps 10,000-15,000 men in total.

These are split between Tripoli, Misrata and the east. But Col Gaddafi is said to be reluctant to let even these supposedly "crack troops" operate in numbers greater than a few hundred, in case they desert.

'Terrorising people'

Their approach has centred on a combination of long-distance bombardment and deploying snipers along Tripoli Street, Misrata's front line.

The attacks have not resulted in any military breakthrough, but they have shut the city's normal life down and caused shortages and mounting casualties.

Hospital records show that more than 300 people have been killed, with many more injured. Rebel accounts that more than 1,000 people have been killed cannot be verified.

A baby being treated for shrapnel wounds in Misrata, 18 April 2010

 

Clinics in Misrata have been struggling to cope with civilian injuries

Among the armoury used by pro-Gaddafi forces in civilian areas are Russian-made Grad rockets and Spanish-made cluster bombs, according to Human Rights Watch and other reports.

The Grad rockets are fired in a dense and inaccurate pattern, while the cluster munitions - now banned by most countries - release high-velocity fragments and molten metal.

"I think that they are bombing at random and I think this is terrorising the people," said Paolo Grosso, an anaesthetist working at a clinic in Misrata for the Italian branch of the aid agency Emergency.

"They have no military target - they bomb anywhere to scare the population."

One woman who fled Misrata said Tripoli Street was a "war zone" and accused Col Gaddafi's troops of abuses.

"There were corpses in the gutter and in the vegetable market where I buy produce," she told the UN humanitarian news service Irin. "The militia raped women, slaughtered men and killed children."

'Bad image'

That is a picture the Libyan government challenges.

Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, told BBC's Hardtalk that the government was trying to protect civilians from rebels, and that doctors in the city were "trying to give a bad image of Misrata" to encourage Nato intervention.


Start Quote

The weapons [the rebels] have are just enough to defend the city”

End Quote
Misrata medic

Without more direct help from Nato, the Misrata rebels - said to be better organised than those further east - seem unlikely to seize the momentum themselves.

Rubbishing government claims that al-Qaeda inspired militants have been sent to help them, they describe the resistance as an improvised movement of civilians motivated by their anger at Col Gaddafi.

"Since the first days of this conflict, we [the rebels] are taking the defensive position and they are taking the attacking position - the weapons we have are just enough to defend the city," the Misrata medic said.

Coalition air strikes have been reported around the edges of Misrata, but Western officials say they are not willing to risk civilian casualties by directing these within the city, despite loud rebel calls for more muscular Nato action.

"This is a government and a regime that's opted to use the tops of hospitals, of mosques, parking their tanks beside schools and hiding themselves behind men and women to makes sure that we do not attack them," Lt Gen Charles Bouchard, the head of Nato operations in Libya, told the BBC World Service.

"So when we talk about action, one has to be mindful of all of these factors."

But even the possibility of further Western intervention may be a deterrent, with the Misrata medic saying on Monday that government forces had withdrawn some tanks and heavy artillery.

"Right now it looks like they are afraid," he said.

 

Tripoli witness: Tales of defiance and a mystery man

Tripoli witness: Tales of defiance and a mystery man

Selling fish to residents in Tripoli on 16/4/11

 

Life may appear to be normal on the surface in Tripoli, but it is anything but

 

Libya Crisis

  • Bowen: No easy exit for Nato
  • Misrata: City under siege
  • Analysis: A new phase?
  • Fearing massacre in Misrata

Tales of fleeting acts of defiance and a mysterious hooded rebel momentarily lift the spirits in a city of fear, as one resident in the Libyan capital, Tripoli - who does not want his name to be used for security reasons - explains.

I have come across some interesting and amusing analogies for this conflict in the past week.

"The opposition is singing along to the tune of 'Hit the road, Jack', while the regime's ruling family rocks on to the tune of 'Should I stay or should I go'," one musical analogy goes.

Another is: "It's like a bad round of poker. The winning hand is bluffing until the last minute when he reveals his true cards, but his opponents around the table are well aware of the ruse throughout the game."

Realities are not as light-hearted, however.

Last Thursday afternoon, a friend of mine stopped by to tell me what he had seen and heard.

"There was a small anti-government demonstration by students just outside Nasr University. I heard the shooting because I was in the area, I walked over and got as near as I could and I saw a crowd and a scuffle," he explained.

"Then security forces moved in, sealed the area and pushed out onlookers. We all left quickly. Other people I know later told me they saw some blood being covered with sand. No one died, but someone was definitely injured in the shooting."

Dark threats

To a visitor - not that there are many these days - and to some looking from the outside, things may appear normal here. But the reality is far from it.

For example, every TV screen in cafes, clothing stores and mini-markets is tuned into the same state-run station that no-one really watched two months ago. In normal circumstances, they would be beaming out al-Jazeera Arabic or a music channel.

"We can't change the channel," a shop-owner tells me. "The security people randomly check all our shops to make sure we don't put the 'enemy' channel on."

That is not the only tale from private businesses. Many tell me they were forced to open their stores and cafes, having shut down for two weeks following anti-government protests in Tripoli on 20 and 25 February.

"Remaining closed was our way of protesting, but they [government entities] told us we have to open or they would give our shops to someone else and they will continue our business," one said.

Others tell me of a darker threat by various security apparatuses. "They said: 'You open or we will destroy you and your family and your shop.' So what can we do?" another said.

All these measures are arguably adding pressure on many here who are already reeling from the state of limbo they find themselves in.

'Gone mad'

Most grown men and women are pestered by their families to return home before sundown - the unspoken civil curfew.

It is perhaps understandable, given the unwanted trouble that can be caused by the sporadic gunfire (not against Nato aircraft) that often envelops some parts of the city at night, as well as the countless checkpoints that emerge on every street.


Start Quote

A stolen moment of 'freedom' here comes in different forms, in an attempt to let off steam from a city that has been likened to a sleeping volcano”

End Quote
Tripoli resident

But daylight is not necessarily a pleasant experience either.

A friend told me about his cousin who - last Monday - said she would go mad if she stayed at home for another day.

"She went out and took her mother with her. It was around one in the afternoon. As they drove up the main road in Gergaresh they were forced to slow down as three cars sped past them.

"There were two white Chevrolet cars chasing another car with a young man driving. They quickly cut him off and forced his car to pull over.

"The men in civilian clothes who jumped out of the two white cars were armed with Kalashnikovs. The two women saw the men dragging the young man out of his car by force; they beat him, tied his hands together and threw him into the back of one of their cars and drove away.

"My cousin made a quick U-turn and came back home terrified of what she saw."

My friend is visibly uncomfortable as he recounts the incident: "That was in broad daylight! They don't care who sees what any more, it's like they've gone mad and are constantly out for blood," he adds.

Hooded man

In the Souk-el-Joumha district, one of three large areas in the capital that are home to many of the uprising attempts, there is a "talking wall".

Merchandise featuring Colonel Gaddafi is on sale in Tripoli on 20/4/11

 

Merchandise featuring Colonel Gaddafi can be found on sale in Tripoli

In a fit of laughter my friend recounts a story his friend witnessed in four consecutive days because he lives close to the infamous wall.

"At first we saw an anti-government message painted on the wall: 'May the regime the toppled.' Then we saw it white-washed - [presumably by local neighbourhood government agents] - and written over in black: 'Allah, Muammar [Gaddafi] and Libya.' Then we saw that message white-washed and written over with an anti-regime slur. It went on back and forth like a conversation for three days until the last message we saw said: 'NO! We told you, No! - Muammar only!'"

Then we have a mysterious figure that has emerged on the streets recently.

There is a hooded man, I'm told, who runs around in public in Salaheddine district.

"Every time there's a Nato air strike in the capital, he runs around a street shouting: 'May the butcher [Colonel Gaddafi] fall! May the regime be toppled!' And then he flees. I don't think he's been caught by anyone yet. We still hear about him," a friend tells me with a thoughtful grin.

Meanwhile, there have been several sightings of the "opposition flag" in Tripoli, albeit for a fleeting moment.

A friend of mine who lives in Salaheddine district saw one flapping about in the wind early one morning last week. "It was on the roof of a small clinic next to the mosque," he amusingly recalls.

Another flag - quite surprisingly - was briefly raised on top of the Taqadom School in Ben Ashour district, some residents there tell me.

A stolen moment of "freedom" here comes in different forms, in an attempt to let off steam from a city that has been likened by many here to a sleeping volcano.

 

Tim Hetherington: 1970 – 2011

The sad news of the death of photographer and journalist Tim Hetherington in Libya began to filter out late yesterday afternoon, and was eventually confirmed by BBC correspondents and the Associated Press in the early evening.

Further details soon emerged and it became clear that Chris Hondros of Getty Images was also killed, Guy Martin of Panos Pictures seriously injured, though he is now said to be in a stable condition, and another photographer Michael Brown was also been treated for shrapnel injuries.

Though I only knew Tim through a couple of phone interviews and a number of e-mail exchanges, I can say that he was as dedicated a professional as you will ever find, not to mention a talented journalist, photographer and film maker.

His work in Afghanistan and subsequent film Restrepo, plus his picture of an American soldier in a bunker in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley during fierce fighting with the Taleban which won the World Press Photo Award in 2007, are well known, yet it is his work in Liberia that I will remember him for most.

I can remember seeing his early multi-media pieces from Liberia, many years ago, before the term multi-media had been coined. It was a revelation and a sign of what was to come. His book Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold, is arguably the best long form photojournalistic project for a decade or more.

It was a conflict that was rarely in the headlines, out of our consciousness, yet he dedicated five years to uncovering and collecting evidence, photographic evidence. He was the only photographer to live behind rebels lines during the conflict in 2003 and later was an investigator on the Panel of Experts for the UN Security Council's Liberia Sanctions Committee. As this interview with the New York Times shows, Tim Hetherington did not take on projects half-heartedly; he gave his all and produced fully rounded pieces of journalism. He committed himself to those he was reporting on.

If there is such as thing as truth, then Tim got as close as anyone could.

So Tim, no one can change the world, but there are those who would have met you in years to come who will be worse off for not doing so. Our thoughts are with your family and close friends.

 

Libyan government 'sad' about photographer deaths

 

Libyan government 'sad' about photographer deaths

Tim Hetherington

 

Tim Hetherington and a colleague, US photographer Chris Hondros, were killed in a grenade attack

 

Libya Crisis

  • Bowen: No easy exit for Nato
  • Misrata: City under siege
  • Analysis: A new phase?
  • Fearing massacre in Misrata

The Libyan government has expressed "sadness" over the deaths of two award-winning photographers killed while covering the conflict in Misrata.

But spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said there were always casualties in war, saying: "People die from our side, from their side, people get caught in the middle."

Briton Tim Hetherington and US photographer Chris Hondros were killed in a grenade attack on Wednesday.

Tributes have poured in for the widely respected photo-journalists.

Two other jounalists were injured in the attack, including Briton Guy Martin, a Cornish photographer who was working with Panos Pictures agency. He was hit by shrapnel and is being treated at a hospital in the city.

A survivor told the BBC that a group of journalists had been pulling back from near the front line during a lull in the fighting in Misrata when they were attacked.

The BBC's Orla Guerin, in Misrata, said there appeared to have been "a direct hit on the group".

Mr Ibrahim said the Libyan government did not want people to die and called for an end to the fighting.


Start Quote

Tim was a very cautious war reporter. He knew the risks but he decided to take them in order to cover the story”

End Quote
James Brabazon
Friend of Tim Hetherington

"We are sorry for the loss of any human life, of course. We have said this before, we are sorry for the loss of the rebels' lives, and we said we want people to stop fighting, so no one dies," he said.

He also said: "We do not kill anyone that does not fight us. We need to check the circumstances in which [these] journalists died.

"And it's war of course. People die from our side, from their side, people get caught in the middle. We need to check the circumstances. But of course we are very sad that someone died."

Mr Hetherington, 40, co-directed the Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo. Mr Hondros, 41, won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for war photography.

Mr Hetherington's friend James Brabazon, who worked with him on Restrepo, said: "He was extremely talented, experienced and dedicated."

He explained why Mr Hetherington was working for Vanity Fair magazine in Libya: "He went there for humanitarian reasons. He went there to shed light on a very confusing situation."

In a statement on the magazine's website, his family said he would be "forever missed".

Vanity Fair magazine said Mr Hetherington - who was killed outright by a rocket-propelled grenade - was "widely respected by his peers for his bravery and camaraderie" .

In a recent entry on Twitter, Mr Hetherington described "indiscriminate shelling" by pro-Gaddafi forces, who have been battling rebels trying to end the rule of long-time leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Mr Brabazon said: "Although it's an oxymoron to say it, Tim was a very cautious war reporter. He knew the risks but he decided to take them in order to cover the story."

Mr Hondros was based in New York for Getty Images.

The company's director of photography, Pancho Bernasconi, said Mr Hondros had covered conflict zones since the late 1990s, including Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House issued a statement expressing its "deep sadness" at Mr Hondros's death and said it underscored "the need to protect journalists as they cover conflicts".

Chris Hondros pictured in Misrata on 18 April 2011

 

The White House said it was deeply saddened about the death of US photographer Chris Hondros

New York-based photographer Michael Christopher Brown was also treated for shrapnel injuries.

Our correspondent added that Misrata's hospital had received more than 100 casualties on Wednesday, the vast majority of them civilians. The hospital said five civilians had been killed.

Libyan government forces have been battling rebels in Misrata, which is in western Libya, since late February. An estimated 300 civilians have died.

Mr Hetherington, who had dual UK and US nationality, studied Literature at Oxford University.

The New York-based journalist was best known for his work in Afghanistan, and the film Restrepo followed US troops on an outpost in the country. He won the World Press Photo of the Year Award in 2007.

Another of Mr Hetherington's friends, Peter Bouckaert from the campaign group Human Rights Watch, said the journalist had been planning to "slow down" and start a family with his partner.

The New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) said two other journalists had been killed this year in the Libyan conflict.

Cameraman Ali Hassan al-Jaber was shot when his Al-Jazeera crew was ambushed near Benghazi on March 13. Mohammed al-Nabbous, founder of the online Libya Al-Hurra TV, was killed as he was streaming live audio from a battle in Benghazi on March 19.

 

Libya: US drones to carry out missions

Libya: US drones to carry out missions

US Predator drone (file image) Predator drones have been used to target militants on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan

Libya Crisis

  • Bowen: No easy exit for Nato
  • Misrata: City under siege
  • Analysis: A new phase?
  • Fearing massacre in Misrata

Armed US Predator drones are set to carry out missions in Libya, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said.

Mr Gates said their use had been authorised by President Barack Obama and would give "precision capability" to the military operation.

US drones are already used to target militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Libyan rebels have been battling Col Gaddafi's troops since February but have recently made little headway.

"President Obama has said that where we have some unique capabilities, he is willing to use those," Mr Gates told a news conference.

He said two armed, unmanned Predators were being made available to Nato as needed.

Mr Gates denied that the drone deployment was evidence of "mission creep" in Libya and that there was no plan to put US "boots on the ground" in Libya.

He said they marked a "modest contribution" to the military operations.

Gen James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the first mission had taken place on Thursday but turned back due to bad weather.

He said the drones - which can fly at a lower altitude than conventional fighter jets - were "uniquely suited for urban areas", providing improved visibility of tanks and other potential targets.

Post captured

Earlier on Thursday, Libyan rebels seized control of a border post on the Tunisian border after government soldiers fled, say reports.

The move marks a rare advance against government troops in the west of the country and followed intense fighting in the western mountain region.

Fierce fighting is also continuing in the western city of Misrata, where medics say more than 1,000 people have died.

Rebels in Misrata claim to have found remnants of cluster bombs but the Libyan government has so far denied the charge.

The BBC's Orla Guerin in Misrata says she has seen the bombs herself and that doctors have told her they are causing increasingly horrific injuries, with some civilians losing limbs.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on the Libyan authorities to "stop fighting and stop killing people".

He said the UN's priority was to bring about "a verifiable and effective ceasefire" to enable humanitarian work and political dialogue to take place.

Map

Are you in Libya? Have you been affected by the unrest? You can tell us your experiences using the form below.

 

Friday 1 April 2011

DUP leader Peter Robinson: 'first everyday NI election'

 

DUP leader Peter Robinson: 'first everyday NI election'

Peter Robinson

 

DUP leader Peter Robinson was speaking at the launch of his party's assembly election campaign


Related Stories

Northern Ireland is facing its first election where the main issues are everyday ones, DUP leader Peter Robinson has said.

Mr Robinson said he wanted to see a new society "where the divisions of the past are being eroded and our new society is taking root".

Launching the DUP's election campaign, he said he wanted everyone to be able to say they were proud to be from Northern Ireland, regardless of political outlook.

The DUP leader criticised the UUP over cuts, the SDLP over 50/50 police recruitment, the Alliance Party about water charges and Sinn Fein over education.

However, he added that he would not "promise the earth" and would be prepared in the future to support other parties' ideas if he decided they were good.

"We have created more jobs in the last four years than any time in Northern Ireland's history; there is more to be done because we're losing more jobs at the other end because of the recession," he said.

"We want to see more jobs; we're out to see tougher sentences particularly for those who attack the elderly; we're looking at issues such as how we can fix education and get a better health service; we're looking at how we can get a shared society with people working together in the assembly, and of course we want to ensure that we strengthen unionism as well."

TUV leader Jim Allister said the DUP offered "four more years of Sinn Fein veto, of whatever it takes to keep their disruptive partner happy, because power, any power, is the overriding imperative".

 

Scottish elections: Focus on education and health

Scottish elections: Focus on education and health

drugs being dispensed

 

Prescription charges in Scotland were abolished on 1 April

 

Scottish election

  • Tongue hustings first in living memory
  • Council 'political mag' withdrawn
  • SNP urged to release tax advice
  • Campaign catch-up

Education and health are top of the agenda on the Holyrood election trail.

Tory leader Annabel Goldie called for "second chance centres" for unruly school pupils.

Lib Dem campaign chairman George Lyon was promoting messages on jobs and education while Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray met apprentices at a wood processing company.

Deputy SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon visited a pharmacy in Glasgow to mark the abolition of prescription charges.

Candidates from all the main political parties will also be taking part at a BMA hustings at Edinburgh University, on the future of medical education in Scotland.

Campaigning in Hamilton, Miss Goldie said almost 160 youngsters were excluded daily from schools - the equivalent of one pupil every two minutes.

She said "second chance centres" would see problem pupils taken out of mainstream education and given help to refocus their lives.

Youth unemployment

The Scottish Tory leader said: "Well-behaved pupils must be able get on with learning, and teachers to get on with teaching, without the distraction of a few badly behaved pupils.

"It is common sense for school discipline to be at the forefront of the education debate - until we get to grips with it, Scotland's schools will continue to get a raw deal."

Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said the reduction and eventual abolition of prescription charges in Scotland meant "a new era of health care free at the point of need".

She added: "The SNP are the only party with a record of commitment to no prescription charges.

children taking exams in an exam hall

 

Education was a focus for the Tories and Lib Dems

"Under Labour, prescriptions cost nearly £7, under the Tories and Lib Dems in England they are £7.40.

"The abolition of prescription charges shows what an SNP government working for Scotland can do."

Meanwhile, Mr Gray arrived in Stirling to warn unemployment could lead to another "lost generation"

Claiming youth unemployment had soared by almost 20,000 during the SNP's time in office, he said: "I remember the dark days of the 1980s. I was a teacher and saw first hand youth unemployment destroy a generation.

"We cannot return to those days - we must act today to stop the ticking time bomb of youth unemployment."

He reiterated his pledge to give those unemployed for six months or more "the chance of a real job", as well as guaranteeing an apprenticeship for all suitably qualified youngsters.

Public services

Commenting after campaigning in the West of Scotland, the Scottish Liberal Democrats George Lyon said parents had told him that they shared his party's ambition to restore Scotland's reputation for "excellence in education".

He added: "We want more powers for headteachers, because they're best placed to make decisions about their schools and we are committed to improving the pupil to teacher ratio in our classrooms.

"Over 600,000 young people will benefit from Liberal Democrats' solutions for education in Scotland."

Also hitting the campaign trail, the Scottish Greens said the main political parties were "all mouth and no trousers" on public services.

Co-leader Patrick Harvie said their pledges to protect public services could not be trusted unless they could say where the money was coming from.

He added: "We know where it should come from.

"Untaxed business assets and the wealthiest in Scottish society.

"Most Scots support raising fairer taxes, so why are we the only party offering an alternative to the cuts?"

 

Labour attacks Willetts over feminism remarks

 

Labour has called on David Willetts to withdraw comments in which he appeared to suggest feminism was the "single biggest factor" responsible for a lack of social mobility.

The universities minister gave a briefing to journalists travelling with Nick Clegg in Mexico, ahead of the publication by the government of a social mobility strategy.

Asked what was to blame for a lack of social mobility the Daily Telegraph quoted him saying: "The feminist revolution in its first-round effects was probably the key factor.

"Feminism trumped egalitarianism. It is not that I am against feminism, it's just that is probably the single biggest factor."

A spokesman at Mr Willetts' department said they had not disputed the quotes in the article.

The newspaper reported Mr Willetts as saying there had been an "entirely admirable transformation of opportunities for women" which meant that "with a lot of the expansion of education in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the first beneficiaries were the daughters of middle-class families who had previously been excluded from educational opportunities".

'Problems'

And he added: "If you put that with what is called 'assortative mating' - that well-educated women marry well-educated men - this transformation of opportunities for women ended up magnifying social divides.

"It is delicate territory because it is not a bad thing that women had these opportunities, but it widened the gap in household incomes because you suddenly had two-earner couples, both of whom were well-educated, compared with often workless households where nobody was educated."

Yvette Cooper, who is both shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women and equalities, criticised the comments and said they should be withdrawn.

She said: "Now we see why this Tory-led government is hitting women twice as hard as men. Instead of addressing the problems and disadvantages low-income families face, senior Tory ministers have decided women and feminism are to blame."

She added: "David Willetts should quickly withdraw this rubbish and face up to the real problems his policies are causing for young people and women who want to get on."

 

David Sokol's lost lessons in integrity - Mar. 31, 2011

David Sokol's lost lessons in integrity

David SokolDavid Sokol exits Berkshire Hathaway.


David Sokol's lost lessons in integrity - Mar. 31, 2011

 

FORTUNE -- After Warren Buffett announced David Sokol's resignation on March 30, the Wall Street rumor mill got cranking at full speed. Some wags proposed that Sokol, the Berkshire Hathaway executive who bought some $10 million worth of Lubrizol shares in the months leading up to his company's acquisition of the chemicals giant (and made a $3 million profit in the process), might have committed insider trading or front-running.

Others say his Lubrizol (LZ, Fortune 500) share purchases were not illegal, but certainly displayed poor judgment by the man most often mentioned in the press as Buffett's heir apparent. Whether Sokol broke the law or merely bent it will be up to federal investigators to determine, and that's if the SEC or an industry regulator moves to investigate.

 

David Sokol's lost lessons in integrity - Mar. 31, 2011

 

he more interesting question -- and one of perhaps Shakespearean proportions -- is what kind of guy writes a self-published book called Pleased But Not Satisfied that names integrity as one of his six business commandments, but then displays what is inarguably bad judgment and ends up embroiled in a scandal?

On page 30 of his book, which he hands out to his employees, he writes: "If you are uncertain about an issue it's useful to ask yourself, 'Would I be absolutely comfortable for my action to be disclosed on the front page of my hometown newspaper in an article written by a knowledgeable and thorough reporter, and read by my family, friends and co-workers?'" Or blared, for that matter, in The New York Times or Wall Street Journal?

David Sokol will not talk on this point, but I did have the opportunity last summer to spend a lot of time with him while reporting the Fortune story: "Buffett's Mr. Fix-It." I found Sokol to be a brilliant executive, a company builder who gets results. With longtime Buffett friend Walter Scott, Sokol had bought a small $28-million-a-year geothermal business in 1991 and through acquisitions and internal growth built it into MidAmerican, the utility powerhouse that last year brought $11.4 billion of Berkshire's revenue.

You don't get those kinds of results by being a milquetoast, and Sokol -- as driven an executive as I've met -- rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. During his turnaround of Berkshire's NetJets fractional-share business, one executive shown the door commented: "Once you challenged him in a meeting, he'd give you a look to kill, and you'd fall very fast out of his favor."

Throughout my reporting, I always found Sokol to be civil and patient to explain things, but when the subject of integrity came up, he suddenly seemed to switch gears. When I asked him last year about a $32 million ruling that declared his company MidAmerican had "willfully and intentionally" miscalculated future profits to force out minority stockholders in a hydropower project in the Philippines in the 1990s, he seemed upset and rapidly fired off numerous reasons why the ruling was invalid, and how he'd appeal. But what saddened him most, he said, was the lack of integrity displayed by his business partners in the Philippines, whom he felt had been almost family to him.

So what to make of the Lubrizol stock controversy? I think it unlikely that Sokol believed he was doing anything wrong. He is too smart not to understand insider trading and front-running and their implications. He is a vastly wealthy man who does not need the $3 million in profits he made on the Lubrizol deal. He sees himself as a man of integrity -- and the Buffett culture reinforced such beliefs. Buffett has written in a memo to his executives: "We can afford to lose money --even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation -- even a shred of reputation."

It may have been inconceivable to Sokol that he could do anything that was unethical. Perhaps, therefore, he was blind to the fallout that would ensue from buying $10 million of a stock for his personal account and then recommending to Buffett that Berkshire buy the company. During his appearance on CNBC earlier today, Sokol seemed both surprised and piqued by the whole affair, saying that he had done nothing wrong but if he had it to do over again, he'd buy the stock and not tell Buffett about it as a prospective acquisition.

And he'd be so much better off if he had, because this story is not going away. Too many unanswered questions have been left hanging. Mitch Berns, a partner and securities fraud specialist at the White Plains law firm of Lane, Sash & Larrabee thinks attention will be focused on the December 13th meeting between Sokol and Lubrizol's banker Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), in which Sokol asked one of the Citi bankers to try to arrange a meeting with Lubrizol CEO James Hambrick to discuss a possible deal between the two companies.

Shortly after that meeting, Sokol made his first buys of Lubrizol shares. Says Berns: "Did Sokol receive positive feedback in the meeting that Lubrizol might be interested in being acquired? Had Sokol already engaged Berkshire's staff to seriously look at the deal, or was a Berkshire acquisition just a vague notion of his? Until we know the answers to these types of questions, we won't know whether Sokol engaged in any kind of illegal activity."

In the meantime, Sokol is heading off to start what he calls his own "mini-Berkshire" -- far, he must hope, from the glaring lights of the press

 

March jobs report: Jobs gain, unemployment falls - Apr. 1, 2011

March jobs report: Jobs gain, unemployment falls

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March jobs report: Jobs gain, unemployment falls - Apr. 1, 2011

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Improvements in the job market may finally be taking hold, as strong business hiring last month brought the unemployment rate down to its lowest level in two years.

The economy gained 216,000 jobs in the month. That's better than the gain of 180,000 predicted by economists surveyed by CNNMoney, and also a significant improvement over the 194,000 jobs added in February.

"Almost two years after the recession officially ended, the labor market appears to finally be picking up," said Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for The Conference Board.

The unemployment rate continued to edge down, dropping to 8.8%, the lowest level since March 2009. The unemployment rate has shed a full percentage point in the last four months, the largest four-month drop since 1984.

 

March jobs report: Jobs gain, unemployment falls - Apr. 1, 2011

 

The unemployment rate has broken through the sound barrier and is continuing to decline," said Sung Won Sohn, economics professor at Cal State Channel Islands. "The recovery in employment is here to stay."

While the payroll numbers are compiled from a survey of employers, the unemployment rate is determined by a separate survey of workers, which also showed significant improvement.

The number of discouraged job seekers who want to work but have given up actively looking was down slightly, as was the number of workers who wanted full-time jobs but could only find part-time work. Another encouraging reading -- the number of people who lost their jobs during the month was down by 125,000, falling to the lowest level in two years.

"It's strong across the board," said Tig Gilliam, president of the North American unit of job placement firm Adecco. "Is it as fast as we'd all want? Probably not, but it's moving in the right direction and it continues to accelerate."

Who's hiring and who's not

Private businesses added 230,000 jobs. Since businesses started hiring again a year ago, they have now added 1.8 million jobs, with nearly a third of those jobs added in just the first three months of this year.

The trend in business hiring is widespread, with 68% of industries adding jobs so far this year. Among the leading sectors were business and professional services, which added 78,000 jobs, health care and social services, which brought on 44,000 workers, and leisure and hospitality, which increased staffing by 37,000.

One closely watched sector, temporary workers, grew by nearly 30,000. That is important because many businesses will bring on temporary staff as a prelude to making permanent hires.

 

Nuclear waste called nation's 'biggest security threat' - Apr. 1, 2011

Nuclear waste: America's 'biggest security threat'

Nuclear waste is called the nation's 'biggest security threat'.Spent fuel is currently sitting in pools around the country, like at this plant in southeast Texas. Many are close to major population centers, and a fire could be catastrophic.

Nuclear waste called nation's 'biggest security threat' - Apr. 1, 2011

 

If the waste catches fire, a situation Japanese officials are racing to prevent at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, critics say it could effectively render an area the size of half of New Jersey permanently uninhabitable.

"It's probably the single greatest security vulnerability in the United States," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, a watchdog group.

How close is your home to a nuclear power plant?

Kamps and many other industry critics want lawmakers to mandate that most of the waste, known as spent fuel, be stored away from the main reactors in certified steel and concrete casks, then have those casks placed in fortified buildings or earthen bunkers.

"But it's fallen on deaf ears in Congress," Kamps said.

Currently most of the waste sits close to the reactors in large pools that resemble swimming pools. A smaller amount is kept outside in casks that critics say are poorly guarded.

The reason so much waste is being stored at the nuclear power plants themselves is that the government hasn't figured out what to do with it permanently.

Storing the waste in this manner was supposed to be a temporary measure until it was permanently buried deep inside Nevada's Yucca mountain. But thanks to a mix of geology and politics, that site was recently deemed unsuitable.

The hunt is on for a new long term repository, but finding and building one will likely take decades.

The industry and the government say storing the waste at the power plants for decades isn't a problem.

"The fuel is safe, in a cask or in a pool," said David McIntyre, a spokesman for the government's Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

McIntyre said the government will take a look at waste storage as part of its comprehensive review following the events in Japan, but added that, at this time, "there's no safety reason to move it."

Industry critics couldn't disagree more.

They say the radioactive spent fuel rods, which rely on circulating water to remain cool, are vulnerable to both natural disaster or terrorist attack.

In a natural disaster, a power outage from an earthquake, hurricane, tornado or other event would cause the water pumps to fail. Yes, there are back up generators, but sometimes those fail too, as is the case in Japan. If that happens, it's only a mater of days until the fuel heats up to the point where it boils off the water and then catches fire.

They note that the pools themselves are located outside the reactor's main containment dome. An explosion, like what occurred in Japan, would expose the pools to the open air.

It's also possible for terrorists to specifically target the pools. Reactors like the ones in Japan, of which there are 23 in the United States, are particularly vulnerable. The pools in that design are located several stories above ground, making them easy targets for shoulder-fired missiles or airplane attacks.

Critics say the concrete and steel around the pools are designed to prevent radiation leaks, not to stop a missile.

"It's hard to understand why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not mandated a more rapid transfer of spent fuel to dry casks," California's Democrat senator, Dianne Feinstein, said at an appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Kamps said the reason is cost -- that it would cost up to $100 million per reactor to move the fuel from the pools to reinforced dry cask storage, a cost the companies that run the plants do not want to bear.

The industry said cost has nothing to do with it.

 

Royal wedding: Prince William will not wear a ring

 

 

Royal wedding: Prince William will not wear a ring

The Queen and Prince William at RAF Valley in Anglesey

 

Prince William showed the Queen around RAF Valley in Anglesey


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Prince William has chosen not wear a wedding ring, St James's Palace says.

But his bride Kate Middleton, 29, will wear a band made from gold from the Clogau St David's mine at Bontddu, in north Wales.

The announcement about the rings came as the Queen visited Prince William, 28, at the RAF base in Anglesey where he works as a search and rescue pilot.

More details have also been revealed about the involvement of the armed forces in the wedding on 29 April.

Gold from the Clogau St David's mine has been used for a number of royal wedding bands, including those for the Queen, the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess of Wales.

The Queen was presented with a fresh supply of gold by the mine in 1986 and it is from this that Miss Middleton's ring will be made.

A St James's Palace spokeswoman said: "After the engagement Her Majesty the Queen gave Prince William some gold to make a wedding ring.

"In accordance with the couple's wishes Miss Middleton will wear a ring. The ring will be from Prince William."

William's father, the Prince of Wales, does wear a wedding band, but his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, does not.

Trumpeters and Tornados

With just four weeks to go until the wedding at Westminster Abbey, the Ministry of Defence has revealed how military personnel will play a role:

  • more than 1,000 members of the Army, Navy and RAF will line the route from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace
  • they will be joined by a series of military bands, including those from the Royal Marines, the Grenadier Guards and the Scots Guards
  • inside Westminster Abbey, eight Household Cavalry state trumpeters and eight RAF fanfare trumpeters will play
  • after the service, a select few personnel - chosen because of their personal relationship with Prince William or their outstanding contributions to their service - will line the path along which the newlyweds will walk as they leave the abbey
  • a guard of honour, made up of members of the Welsh Guards, will await them outside Buckingham Palace
  • at 1330 BST, a fly-past involving the Battle of Britain memorial flight will take place over Buckingham Palace. Two Typhoons and two Tornados will also be involved

Gen Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, said: "It is a huge honour for those servicemen and women taking part and one that they and their families will remember with great pride.

"They reflect the sentiments of the whole of the armed forces who share their pride in supporting this national celebration.

The Queen at RAF Valley in Anglesey

 

The Queen had to hold on to her hat in high winds at RAF Valley

"For those in the path-lining party it will be a particular and poignant honour as many will have served alongside Prince William, and I am sure they will take great delight in being among the first to see His Royal Highness alongside his new bride."

The details emerged as the Queen and the duke were taken on a personal tour of RAF Valley by their grandson.

He showed them the equipment used by the helicopter crews to winch people to safety and told them about some of the rescues he had taken part in.

They also visited the Moran Building, a new training facility for Hawk pilots.

The Queen had been due to officially open the building in December, but was forced to cancel because of snow.

This time she was faced with winds of up to 50mph, prompting William to joke to her: "I was worried your hat would blow off."