Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer Photos of the April 4 Day of Action rallies via http://www.we-r-1.org/ Yesterday was the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, the third of four assassinations in fewer than five years of inspiring progressive leaders. Those years were the strangest combination of hope, progress, joy, grief, bitterness, and despair than any other time in American history. Those five years gave us the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the School Lunch program, Legal Services; and they gave us 500,000 troops in the most pointless and wrongheaded war in our history, and all the bitter divisions that resulted. They gave us the biggest landslide a progressive Democrat ever won for President, and the election of a dark-souled race baiting conservative who would be forced from office for blatant violations of the law. It brought us the rise of the modern feminist movement, the flowering of the biggest student movement in our history, and the ugliest reactionary backlash imaginable. The contradictions and battles of those intense years have never left us. Although hopefully with less violence, this moment in history is feeling like it has much of the same drama and contradictions, hope and bitterness, change and backlash. We elect as President a mixed-race man with an African immigrant father and a Muslim African name; we finally pass a comprehensive health care reform bill that puts us much closer to a system of universal coverage; we make the biggest investments ever in green jobs, public education, universal broadband, and a variety of other public programs; in spite of reformers being outspent more than 500-1, we passed a bill that has begun to re-regulate the financial industry. At the same time, we see the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and a bipartisan political class that still seems locked into conventional views on the unalloyed virtues of the free market; a vicious backlash and the coming to power of the most extreme conservative movement since the Social Darwinists in the 1880s; we see far too much compromise and capitulation to the corporate powers that be by the Democratic establishment; and with the Ryan budget, we see the most dangerous and far reaching attack on the fundamental gains of the 1900s — especially Medicare and Medicaid, which he wants to not only radically slash but totally destroy by his “restructuring” — that we have ever seen; we see the most radical attacks on the very idea of unions that we have seen since the flowering of the modern labor movement in the 1930s. What is most fascinating about the contradictory times we are living in is that both the extremist right-wing movement and the progressive movement are taking to the streets to an unprecedented level. We all saw the tea party movement capture the frame over the last two years, but progressives are now fighting back. Yesterday, on the anniversary of King’s death, our side took to the streets once again. There were more than 1,000 events yesterday — 1,000! — around this great country. People are fighting back in — to paraphrase Dr. King — every state and every city, every village and every hamlet, every mountain and every hill and every molehill of our great nation.
Continue reading …France steps in to oust Ivory Coast’s former leader Gbagbo, now negotiating his surrender
April 5, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media . I put a video of Glenn Beck’s weird discussion of the situation in the Ivory Coast up because it’s very illuminating. Apparently only the Muslim guy named Ouattara — who actually won the reunification election — is responsible for any bloodshed, because Laurent Gbagbo is a Christian guy, and he’d never plunge the country into this situation in the first place, right? When I began covering this tragedy, religion was never a part of who was right or wrong, but who won an actual election. Apparently winning a verified election doesn’t matter if you’re not a Christian to Beck, but this is the meme being driven by Pat Robertson and the religious right community. Below is what’s really happening there. The news coming out of the Ivory Coast is that the French and the UN have joined they battle and have taken over Gbago’s stronghold in Abidjan and are negotiating his surrender. The French government said Tuesday that it was helping negotiate the surrender of Ivory Coast ’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo , a day after the United Nations and France struck targets at his residence, his offices and two of his military bases in a significant escalation of the international intervention into the political crisis engulfing the nation. French negotiators are demanding that, before departing, Mr. Gbagbo sign a document formally renouncing control of Ivory Coast and recognizing Alassane Ouattara , the man who beat him in elections last year, as the country’s legitimate president, the French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon , had backed the French terms, Mr. Juppé added. “What is going on are negotiations with Laurent Gbagbo and his family, to finalize the conditions of his departure,” he said. France hopes to see the United Nations and Ivorian authorities under Mr. Ouattara take charge of the “departure conditions of Gbagbo” once an agreement is reached, Mr. Juppé said… read on President Obama issued a strong statement against Gbagbo: President Obama said Tuesday that he strongly supported “the role that United Nations peacekeepers are playing as they enforce their mandate to protect civilians, and I welcome the efforts of French forces who are supporting that mission.” He added that the violence “could have been averted had Laurent Gbagbo respected the results of last year’s presidential election,” and that to prevent further bloodshed Mr. Gbagbo “must stand down immediately, and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms.” The US needs to do more because even though Gbagbo might finally give in, there’s a chance that many more innocent people could be hurt or killed and it appears as I’ve warned that Liberia could be in deep trouble: UN Refugee Chief Warns Ivory Coast Conflict Could Spill Over to Liberia The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, warns the conflict in Ivory Coast could spill over to Liberia and have a major destabilizing effect on all of western Africa. The refugee chief has just returned from a series of missions, including one to Liberia at the border with Ivory Coast. Guterres calls Ivory Coast one of the most dramatic displacement crises in the world. As of now, the U.N. refugee agency has registered more than 120,000 Ivorian refugees in Liberia and several thousand more in Ghana, Togo and Guinea. The LA Times reports that the Ivory Coast is a country in confusion: When the soldiers left their battle positions and the guns fell silent Tuesday morning in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan around Ivory Coast’s presidential palace, terrified residents didn’t feel safe enough to go outside. Bands of uniformed soldiers and militias in civvies roamed the city, the nation’s commercial capital. It was anyone’s guess whose side they were on and how dangerous they might be. The uniforms of the rival forces in the fierce fight for power are identical — and the allegiances of ragtag armed youth militias rampaging and looting shops and houses are equally unclear. Some back longtime leader Laurent Gbagbo, who plunged the country into crisis by refusing to relinquish power after his defeat last year in a United Nations -certified presidential election, while others support the internationally recognized new president, Alassane Ouattara. The intense fighting has left families trapped in their houses since Thursday, many of them desperate as they run out of food supplies or cooking gas. “The situation is really confused,” Isidore Kouadio, 24, a student staying with friends about 300 yards from the presidential palace, said by telephone. “There are some militias who have guns. Many people have guns.”… read on Also the ICC wants to look into possible atrocities committed in the ivory Coast : The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday he is in talks with West African states about referring alleged atrocities in the Ivory Coast to the court to accelerate an investigation into the violence. More than 1,500 people are reported to have died in the Ivory Coast since Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede he lost November’s presidential election to Alassane Ouattara plunged the world’s top cocoa producer into civil war. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said his office was concerned about reports of atrocities, particularly in the west of the country, and was looking into the violence, but declined to say who might be held accountable for the killings.
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Only eight A&E departments nationally offer alcohol harm reduction interventions for under-16s, Alcohol Concern says Hospitals are failing underage drinkers by not giving them enough help to tackle their problems, the NHS is warned in a new report. Too many accident and emergency units simply help teenagers sober up and send them home without trying to change their behaviour, according to the charity Alcohol Concern. An estimated 64,750 children as young as 11 attend hospital in England every year, of whom 36 a day are admitted for treatment, at a cost to the NHS of £19m. Denis Campbell Some have been found unconscious, many have been attacked or had an accident, and others have self-harmed after drinking. Responses by 128 A&E units to Freedom of Information Act requests from Alcohol Concern show that many offer little or no specialist support to teenagers who have come to harm due to drink. “We have found failings in the NHS’s system [for dealing with such patients],” said Tom Smith, the group’s youth alcohol spokesman. While 52% can refer young people to a specialist substance misuse service for under-18s, the other 48% cannot, which means “health staff are unable to direct young people in crisis to treatment, support or advice”, the report says. Although the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that NHS staff should refer young drinkers to such services, the report says that “too often A&E departments are failing to protect the welfare of vulnerable young people by not developing this measure”. Almost three-quarters (73%) do not have an alcohol harm reduction strategy in place, while 76% do not employ someone specifically to tackle underage drinking. “Overall, only 12 departments (9%) appear to have in place comprehensive alcohol harm reduction interventions. This figure shrinks to only eight departments offering the same interventions to patients aged under 16 years”, it concludes, describing the NHS’s abaility to offer such help as “patchy”. Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, admitted more action was needed. “The amount of alcohol we consume is a society wide issue and the NHS can only be a sticking plaster for much more long term and ultimately more effective prevention measures. “Getting the response right requires co-ordination across different parts of public services and, Alcohol Concern’s report clearly shows that, while some areas already have the necessary strategies and services in place, more needs to be done to make sure excessive drinking in the young does not become a long term, much more insidious, habit. A Department of Health spokeswoman added: “Alcohol misuse is a major public health issue that teenagers can be especially vulnerable to so we welcome this report that suggests how local A&E services might address acute harms arising from teenage alcohol misuse. “Of course underage people should not be drinking and the we are working across government with voluntary, private and community sectors on a range of initiatives to prevent alcohol misuse amongst young people.” Alcohol Health NHS guardian.co.uk
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Workers stem flow of radioactive water into sea using mixture of sawdust, newspaper, concrete and a type of liquid glass Engineers battling to contain the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant appeared to have turned an important corner last night after they stopped highly radioactive water from leaking into the ocean from one of the facility’s crippled reactors. Workers struggling to halt the leaks successfully used a mixture of sawdust, newspaper, concrete and a type of liquid glass to stem the flow of contaminated water near a seaside pit, said the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco). Earlier efforts involving cement, an absorbent polymer and rags were unsuccessful in plugging the leak, which was discovered on Saturday, while radiation of more than 7.5 million times the legal limit for seawater was found just off the earthquake-hit plant. In a sign of Tepco’s desperation, it breached its own regulations on Monday by beginning an intentional discharge of 11,500 tonnes of less contaminated water into the Pacific to make space for the highly radioactive liquid that was seeping out in an uncontrolled manner. The company still needs to pump contaminated water into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the plant and will continue to release the 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive water until Friday. “The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped,” a Tepco spokesman told Reuters. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s northeast coast on 11 March, leaving 28,000 people dead or missing and thousands homeless. It is the country’s worst catastrophe since the second world war. Samples of the water used to cool the plant’s reactor No 2 were emitting 5 million times the legal limit of radioactivity, officials said on Tuesday, adding to fears that contaminants had spread far beyond the disaster zone. Workers are still struggling to restart cooling pumps – which recycle the water – in four reactors damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. Until those are fixed, they must pump in water from outside to prevent overheating, and meltdowns. In the process, that creates more contaminated water that has to be pumped out and stored somewhere else or released into the sea. The government is considering restrictions on seafood for the first time after contaminated fish were found. India is the first country to ban food imports from all areas of Japan over radiation fears. Tepco has offered “condolence money” to those affected in the Fukushima region, but one city rejected the compensation and local mayors who came to Tokyo to meet the prime minister, Naoto Kan, demanded greater assistance. “We have borne the risks, co-existed and flourished with Tepco for more than 40 years, and all these years, we have fully trusted the myth that nuclear plants are absolutely safe,” said Katsuya Endo, the mayor of Tomioka. He was one of eight Fukushima prefecture mayors seeking compensation and support for employment, housing and education for the tens of thousands of evacuees. A total of 60,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water remains in the plant after workers poured in seawater when fuel rods experienced partial meltdown after the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11. Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Energy Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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Once again, liberals have bought into American power as a force for good. But it’s just another ugly, expensive war we now own The world works best when America leads. – The late US diplomat Richard Holbrooke One night, when I was editor of a news wire service on the graveyard shift in downtown Los Angeles, a respectable, middle-aged man in a neat business suit, calling himself Mr Wilson, approached me with a strange tale. We overnighters on duty alone at United Press through the long hours were used to being accosted by drunks, dopers, homeless people and a taster’s menu of southern California lonely souls with their story. Mr Wilson, cleanshaven and persuasively reasonable, told me he’d just been kidnapped by aliens from Venus, had sex with their Queen (“the best of my life”), and then been safely deposited on Venice beach next to Santa Monica. He was so plausibly likeable that I was almost convinced. So I drove him out to the ocean where, indeed, he was able to point out undeniable scorch marks in the sand where the Venutian ship had blasted off, plus three deep indentations where the tripod-shaped landing-gear of space vehicle had stood. Right then and there, I thought it possible I’d had my first encounter, if at second hand, with a real UFO. I felt the same way when listening to Barack Obama’s 28 March speech about his reasons for invading Libya on behalf of the anti-Gaddafi “rebels”. For just a moment there he had me. “Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different,” he told the nation. In that UFO moment, a part of me wanted to believe that high-penetration US Tomahawks, which by some accounts are coated with extremely radioactive DU (depleted uranium), would be killing bad Libyans to save good Libyans and that our flying torpedoes would know the difference. A significant section of what passes for the American left seems to share my fleeting suspension of ethics and political memory – by backing Obama’s war against the third Muslim nation that did not attack us. This is the first war he did not inherit from George Bush (although he’s done his best to make Afghanistan all his own). He has shown exemplary courage in facing down a fourth-rate tyrant with a fourth-world army with a toughness he has never shown against out-of-control Republicans at home. If you’re afraid of the big bully in your own block, it’s smarter to find a smaller one to fight over yonder. Liberal hawks never seem to learn that you can’t get healthcare, decent schools and less unemployment by bombing smaller nations. Military adventures trump domestic rehab every time. We Americans have a very long history – going back to Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba and Woodrow Wilson in the first world war – of progressives going to war for the best, most irreproachable, humane, idealistic reasons, whether that meant saving Belgian babies from fiendish Hun bayonets or rescuing Benghazi civilians today. It’s extraordinary to watch progressives like NBC’s Rachel Maddow, the New Republic’s John Judis, Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, Juan Cole and many others cheerlead the “Obama doctrine” of humane intervention – that is, meddling militarily at “low cost”, usually ending in disaster for all concerned. Such liberal war hawks have serious records of fighting for good domestic causes. But what a disconnect! You have to sleepwalk, or be in serious denial, not to grasp the blood-link between union-busting in Madison, Wisconsin and bunker-busting in Tripoli, Libya. It’s not subtle. We are no longer an infinitely rich country. Our bridges, dams, pipelines and roads are falling apart. Our people are on food stamps and can’t find work. Spilling our money on the desert renders it positively reasonable to cut, slash and degrade – that useful military euphemism – help for the poor and middle class. Obama’s $75bn foreclosure prevention programme is a bungle due to “lax oversight”: translated, that means there’s been too much sucking up the mortgage-holding big banks that evict homeowners often illegally. And Obama takes this very moment in our rising-poverty-so-let’s-go-to-war crisis to cruelly, mindlessly, cut $3bn from LIHEAP , the federal government’s energy assistance (heating oil and air conditioning) to the poor. The arithmetic is brutal. Each Tomahawk cruise missile fired from a sub, ship or land costs roughly $1m, and we’ve probably shot over 200 of them onto Libya, killing Gaddafi’s military, paramilitary, civilians, hospital patients and – now we learn – our guys, the rebels, too. That’s a $200m bill, straight off. The Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments estimates that the Libyan operation costs the US between $100m and $300m per week , so we’re heading toward the $1bn mark even if, as advertised, we pull back marginally. Let the jobless or disabled poor freeze their asses off this and next winter. We on the left often accuse our ideological adversaries of “triumphalism” – a know-nothing superstition that America is and always will be “different”, superior to all other nations, creeds and peoples. If we do it, it’s right and moral because, well, we’re Americans and we mean terribly well. And if you believe that, I have a UFO I want to sell you. US military United States US politics Obama administration US foreign policy Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Public finance Clancy Sigal guardian.co.uk
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If you want to avoid the crowds, here’s where to head for St Ives in Cornwall has been voted Britain’s best beach resort by Trip Advisor users. But what if you want to avoid the crowds? Here’s our pick of the UK’s unspoilt beaches: 1 Luskentyre Beach, Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides: a sweep of Maldives-style white sand 2 Great Bay, St Martins, Scilly Isles: beautiful, remote, subtropical 3 Oldshoremore, Sutherland: two miles from the nearest village, fringed by marram grass dunes 4 Porthcurno, Cornwall: gorgeous cove near Land’s End 5 Barafundle Bay, Pembrokeshire: no vehicle access, crescent of white sand 6 Bamburgh Beach, Northumberland: huge, with a castle 7 Brancaster Beach, Norfolk: desolate but stunning, in an area of outstanding natural beauty 8 Oxwich Bay, Gower Peninsula: three miles of golden sand dunes to run down 9 Lannacombe, South Hams, Devon: tiny but lovely – and barely visited 10 Portstewart Strand, Northern Ireland: you can always find a quiet spot on this long stretch Gemma Bowes guardian.co.uk
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Adele has just smashed Madonna’s record for longest spell at the top of the album chart for a female artist – and looks likely to beat Bob Marley’s all-time record Back on 16 November last year, someone going by the helpful name of xxxxWGDxxxx played a small part in shaking up the music world. That was the date they logged on to YouTube and uploaded a clip of Adele singing her new track Someone Like You on Jools Holland . The video was soon being passed around feverishly by music fans, normally with some accompanying text saying something along the lines of “wow”. There was something about the way the 22-year-old stood there and sang, displaying diva-like confidence yet wearing her heartache on her sleeve, that proved she had matured as an artist since the modest success of her debut album, 19. Suddenly, people became very interested in hearing more from the follow-up. Since then, that understated song has helped cause a whole lot of noise. On Sunday, Adele’s second album, 21 , smashed Madonna’s record for the longest consecutive weeks spent at the top of the album charts by a female solo artist . It also looks likely to beat the all-time record held by the Bob Marley and the Wailers compilation Legend. And her Brits performance of Someone Like You was deemed to be the highlight of the night by most critics who watched the ceremony. Adele’s success isn’t settling for owning the UK either – 17 European countries have had their album top spot hogged by 21, as has the US. So why has Adele’s star risen so swiftly and why is it connecting now? Yes, she has got a great voice and decent songs – but clearly there’s something special going on here that sets her apart from the crowd of white female soul singers she was originally lumped in with (Duffy, Joss Stone, Pixie Lott et al). What is it? The answer involves a myriad different factors but perhaps the best place to start is with her record label, XL Recordings. They spotted in Adele not just a singer with a great voice but an artist who could be developed as her career progressed. That’s why she was given the freedom to pick who she worked with, choose which tracks to release as singles and have a say on how her records were marketed. XL even trusted her to make the potentially damaging decision not to play music festivals (most record labels would have had a fit at this). If Adele initially struggled to stand out from the crowd, it was her decision to sign with XL that eventually helped her stake out ground as a credible artist. Suffice to say, you probably would not see her cycling around a TV studio singing about Diet Coke. Despite these creative freedoms, it would be unwise to make out that 21 was pushing any musical boundaries. The focus is on big, piano-led ballads, each one transformed by a devastatingly huge soul voice. People can crow at the lack of innovative sonic ideas on display, but they are not what find you an audience, from NME-reading teens to aunties humming along to Radio 2. It’s also worth bearing in mind that people like clinging to “safe” sounds during times of turbulence, making 21 something of a comfort blanket in the midst of a recession. “Adele is one of those increasingly rare artists who has the talent and appeal to reach beyond her typical fanbase and connect with a much broader audience,” says HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo. “She’s now enjoying a wonderful virtuous circle where her continuing success feeds in to more coverage and even greater word of mouth, which, in turn, keeps the sales clocking up.” Of course, having such wide appeal is bound to inspire criticism, and plenty of people find Adele’s sound too middle of the road to be truly inspiring – some critics like to use the term “A-dull”. But that jibe misses a key point – that Adele packs a personality as big as her voice. This is something NME editor Krissi Murison credits her success to. “When you look at the British female songwriters who have been really successful in recent years – Amy, Florence and Lily – the one thing they have in common is their huge characters. Adele is similar in that she’s incredibly hypnotising when you meet her in person. She’s also pretty normal. She doesn’t have a crack habit and she doesn’t look like she grew up with wolves in an enchanted forest. It’s that essential human-ness that so many people love.” She may have attended the Brit School, but she is as far from the dead-eyed, all-singing, all-dancing stage-school desperado as imaginable. Her cockney accent does nothing to soften the fact that she’s not one for airs and graces. During a recent Observer interview , for instance, she broke the ice with the journalist by discussing her struggles with irritable bowel syndrome. When asked how she felt minutes before wowing the Brits crowd, she answered simply: “Shat myself.” In a world where record labels are constantly trying to find the new Lady Gaga, it’s perhaps obvious why people would warm to a size-14 girl from Tottenham in north London who prefers her language, rather than her photoshoots, to be racy. Adele’s way of presenting herself is at odds with many of her flesh-baring peers and nowhere is this demonstrated better than through her TV performances – where the music, rather than the outfits, unleash her smouldering sexuality. On this front her TV plugger – Craig McNeil from Beggars – has played something of a blinder. It would have been McNeil who got Adele on to that Jools Holland show and who also secured her the Brits slot. Her music has also made its way on to all sorts of emotional TV montages, a particularly memorable one being a tear-jerker on this year’s Comic Relief. The internet era may have made music accessible to all, but only on TV can songs be given the kind of emotional backdrop to unite such a broad audience at once. You get the feeling even XL weren’t prepared for this . After all, Adele’s upcoming tour will see her playing such enormodome venues as, er, Shepherd’s Bush Empire and Leicester’s De Montfort Hall – hardly venues fit for a star who has just knocked Madonna off her perch. Still, this just adds to the Adele story – an ordinary girl genuinely shocked to be living the kind of “dream” that shows such as The X Factor promise but can never truly deliver. It is perhaps this unexpected nature to her success that makes it sweetest of all. Adele Pop and rock UK charts Celebrity Tim Jonze guardian.co.uk
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Police search homes of paper’s chief reporter and former news editor as CPS and police row over failure of first inquiry Scotland Yard’s inquiry into allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World took a dramatic turn on Tuesday as the paper’s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, and its former assistant editor Ian Edmondson were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept mobile phone messages. Thurlbeck and Edmondson were arrested after voluntarily presenting themselves at different police stations in south-west London. Both men were later released on police bail to return in September. Their homes, as well as Thurlbeck’s office and computer at the News of the World head offices, were searched by police. It is believed Edmondson, who was sacked from the News of the World in January, and Thurlbeck have been implicated in the long-running scandal through documents seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator employed by the newspaper. Both Edmondson and Thurlbeck deny any wrongdoing. In another major development, Keir Starmer QC, the director of public prosecutions, directly challenged the accuracy of evidence given to parliament by John Yates, the acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police. Yates has repeatedly claimed there were only 10 or 12 victims of the affair, but evidence has emerged that police in 2006 knew of “a vast number”. Yates has told parliamentary inquiries four times that he used the lower number because prosecutors advised police to adopt a very narrow interpretation of the law, but in a detailed letter to the chairmen of two select committees, Starmer contradicted Yates’s account of the legal advice, insisting that prosecutors “did not limit the scope and extent of the criminal investigation”. The Labour MP Chris Bryant said Yates should now “consider his position” at the Met. The DPP’s letter was greeted by fury at Scotland Yard. His claim that police did not dispute the facts in his letter, setting out the timeline of legal advice given to detectives investigating phone hacking, left top officers “very, very angry”. In recent days, each side has been describing the other in increasingly vitriolic terms, bandying around words such as “disingenuous” and “lying” in private. Such a vitriolic and sustained dispute between senior officers and prosecutors is unprecedented, say sources in both organisations. The News of the World until recently insisted that the only phone hacking carried out on behalf of the paper was by a “rogue reporter”, Clive Goodman, and the only other arrests linked to the long-running saga took place in 2006, when Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal editor, and two associates were arrested. In January 2007, Goodman was given a four-month jail term and Mulcaire a six-month term for plotting to intercept voicemail messages left for eight public figures. Suppressed evidence of further phone hacking was not revealed until a Guardian investigation in July 2009. Operation Weeting, which is responsible for Tuesday’s arrests, is the third investigation into hacking run by Scotland Yard. Previous investigations failed to act on evidence that they obtained in 2006. So far six reporters and executives have been publicly linked to the phone-hacking practice. In December, lawyers for the actor Sienna Miller obtained papers that implicated Edmondson in the hacking of her and eight of her friends and family. Thurlbeck’s name was brought into the affair through an email that was disclosed to a select committee by the Guardian in July 2009 in which a News of the World reporter sent the transcript of 35 voicemails “for Neville”. In another separate development, Vodafone agreed to hand over call data relating to Miller, following a legal ruling that could set a precedent for other public figures suing the paper over allegations of phone hacking. The Met hopes Tuesday’s arrests will prove to the public that the phone-hacking scandal is now being aggressively investigated. It hopes the arrests will allow a distance to be drawn between itself and the original investigation, which was heavily criticised. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, leading the new investigation, reportedly told one alleged victim, John Prescott, she was “not satisfied” with the original inquiry. “Whatever the police did before on this investigation is water under the bridge. The new operation is doing a good, thorough job. If that shows that someone in the past did a bad job, then so be it,” a source close to the inquiry said. The arrests are also, the source claimed, proof that the operation is flourishing despite being under considerable pressure. The team of 45 full-time detectives – more than triple the number deployed to investigate illegal expenses claims by MPs – is having to review all actions and decisions taken by the previous investigation. News International said in a statement: “News International has consistently reiterated that it will not tolerate wrongdoing and is committed to acting on evidence. We continue to co-operate fully with the ongoing police investigation.” How the case unfolded December 2005 Buckingham Palace asks police to investigate interference with mobile phone messages. April 2006 CPS lawyer suggests police may need to adopt a narrow view of the law but adds “this area is very much untested and further consideration will need to be given”. She also advises that the Computer Misuse Act could be used without any ambiguity. June 2006 Police send file to the CPS confirming they are working with Computer Misuse Act as well as Ripa. 28 July 2006 David Perry takes over as prosecuting counsel and advises CPS that Ripa is unclear and there is no need to take a view on its narrow interpretation unless defence raises it. 8 August 2006 Goodman and Mulcaire are arrested and charged with offences under Ripa. October 2006 Goodman and Mulcaire plead guilty without questioning how Ripa should be interpreted. March 2011 John Yates gives evidence to select committees, quoting early advice from CPS but not later advice from David Perry. Amelia Hill Nick Davies Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
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Real Madrid had so much in their favour already that it was cruel to see them also outnumber Tottenham Hotspur, who saw Peter Crouch dismissed after a quarter-of-an-hour. José Mourinho’s team would surely have come out on top in any case, but the margin is such that the return with the La Liga club is one that the White Hart Lane support can enjoy merely for whatever sense of occasion survives. The fourth goal, two minutes from the end, was struck by Cristiano Ronaldo from an angle on the right and the fact that Heurelho Gomes ought to have saved it added to the forlorn tone. The dismantling of Tottenham was underway in advance of the game itself. Aaron Lennon was taken unwell before kick-off, with the vacancy in the line-up filled by Jermaine Jenas. The latter’s sense of privilege lasted for the four minutes it took for Mourinho’s side to take the lead. A deep corner from the right saw Emmanuel Adebayor elude Jenas for a header that Luka Modric could not stop from crossing the line. If there was group sloppiness then, it was an individual aberration that brought a handicap of another sort in the 15th minute. Crouch, already booked for a foul on Sergio Ramos, attempted a tackle near the opposition’s penalty area and felled Marcelo. The red card from the German referee Felix Brych was unavoidable. Tottenham were thorough in their bid for self-destruction. Real were not exactly rampant and it was as if they had decided that patience was their wisest approach when time was expected to take its toll of Tottenham. The nature of the fixture was epitomised in the 41st minute, as the left-back Marcelo displayed even more adventure than normal as he set up an opportunity for Adebayor. The striker, on loan from Manchester City, cut far more eager figure than had been witnessed at Eastlands and the great opportunity at this club seemed to galvanise him. It took far more willpower to lift Tottenham. The absence of Lennon had produce an odd reaction from Harry Redknapp, with the manager initially putting Gareth Bale to work on the right. The obvious danger to Real, beforehand at least, had been he impact of the Welshman from the left. In the group phase Internazionale had not been able to prevent him running free on that flank at San Siro, even with Brazil’s Maicon at right-back. It was to be expected that Mourinho, of all managers, would have a better scheme, particularly since he takes such a special pride in his pragmatism. As it was, it took a while before Bale was switched to his natural setting. The midfield showed dash, but the circumstances meant that he was then earning his side a moment to catch their breath rather than terrorising Mourinho’s men. Given the nature of the game, the accent was on resistance. An Angel di María drive came off the arm of Michael Dawson rushed towards him, but no penalty was awarded. In those opening 45 minutes, the spirit of Tottenham in adversity was impressive and also professional since they had the calm to realise that restricting Real here might create optimism for the return leg. The side was ready for defiance. William Gallas had recovered from a knee injury to re-establish the partnership with Dawson that had done so much to nullify Milan in the last 16 tie. The return of the Frenchman was all the more since the opposition’s commitment to attack. Mourinho may have spoken of a goalless draw being a serviceable result for Real, yet the team selection said otherwise. There were even two wingers in Di María and Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter, of course, cannot be encapsulated in so simple a job description and he was expected by Mourinho to cause a great variety, particularly since his accompanist, Marcelo, was also fit after all the pre-match evasiveness on the subject. Tottenham knew better than to be passive in the face of the threat. Redknapp’s introduction of Jermain Defoe for Rafael van der Vaart at the start of the second half embodied the outlook. There was no lack of spirit from the visitors, who broke purposefully through Bale and Defoe in that period, and they took encouragement from an occasional lack of cohesion when Mourinho’s men were trying to set up a shooting opportunity for one another. Ronaldo even raised his arms to call for animation from the crowd a moment before he tapped a corner to Marcelo, and so had a minor part in helped Real increase the lead after 57 minutes. The left-back crossed and Adebayor was unaccompanied as he placed a meticulous header into the net. Tottenham struggled on, with Gomes tipping over the bar an Adebayor header that would have completed a hat-trick. The former Arsenal striker was deemed to have done sufficient damage and Mourinho replaced him with Gonzalo Higuaín. There was little clemency of any sort for Tottenham on this evening though, and Di María’s wonderful angled strike for the third compounded the gloom. Champions League Real Madrid Tottenham Hotspur Kevin McCarra guardian.co.uk
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British lawyer claims revolutionary leadership apologised for Libyan role in Pan Am and IRA bombings Libya’s revolutionary administration has denied a claim by a British lawyer representing victims of IRA attacks and the Lockerbie bombing that it has apologised for Libya’s involvement and offered compensation. Following a meeting with the rebel council’s leadership in Benghazi, Jason McCue, head of the Libya Victims Initiative, read a statement which he said was an “unequivocal apology” for Libya’s provision of Semtex used in IRA bombings and the blowing up of the Pan Am flight. McCue said the revolutionary council had agreed to pay compensation along the lines paid out in a deal between Muammar Gaddafi and the US government which provided $10m for a death and $3m for a serious injury. He said there was also agreement to set up a trust for other victims. McCue said the apology and offer of compensation was in the name of chairman of its interim governing council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil. But Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, its deputy chairman, said McCue’s claims were “not true”. “We didn’t apologise ourselves. We regret what happened, the catastrophic event of Lockerbie, and we will do our best to reach the truth with the families of Lockerbie. Also for the IRA. We emphasised to the British government that we will work to overcome what has happened. But there was no apology. We are not responsible,” he said. Ghoga said that the council “didn’t negotiate anything about compensation”. “We want to know the truth. We will help the families of the victims to get to the truth,” he said. However, separately, the council said that it would “co-operate fully” to establish what had happened in the Lockerbie attack “and the right of the victims’ families for justice”. Mustafa Gheriani, a council spokesman, was equally clear in his denial that an apology was made. He said they council had expressed sorrow but that Gaddafi was responsible and that it is he who should apologise. “When we say sorry it means we did it. But we did not do it. Gaddafi did it. It’s sorrow not an apology,” he said. The council noted that if it wished to issue an apology in Jalil’s name it would not ask a British lawyer to read it. Libya Lockerbie plane bombing Middle East Global terrorism UK security and terrorism Scotland Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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