Soldiers use live ammunition on protesters demanding removal of President Saleh, killing six and wounding more than 30 Yemeni troops have opened fire on crowds of protesters demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing six and wounding more than 30 in the second day of clashes in Taiz, witnesses and medical officials said. The bloodshed in the southern city stoked the uprising that has lasted more than a month against Saleh’s 32-year rule. The opposition has held continual protest camps in main squares of cities around Yemen, and on Monday new demonstrations in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in several places. The violence began when thousands of protesters marched through Taiz toward Freedom Square, where demonstrators have been camped out. As the march passed the governor’s headquarters, troops stationed there blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones, witnesses said. Troops on nearby rooftops opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd. The marchers then besieged the governor’s headquarters, said Bushra al-Maqtara, an opposition activist in Taiz, and other witnesses. At least six protesters were killed and more than 30 wounded, some with gunshots to the head and chest, said Zakariya Abdul-Qader, a doctor at a clinic set up by protesters in Freedom Square. Other doctors at the clinic confirmed the figure. The military has clamped down on the city of nearly half a million, about 120 miles south of the capital, Sana’a. For a second day, tanks and armoured vehicles blocked entrances to the city to prevent outsiders from joining the protests. They also surrounded Freedom Square, containing the thousands in the protest camp and arresting anyone who tried to leave. Saleh’s top security official in Taiz, Abdullah Qiran, is accused by demonstrators of orchestrating some of the most brutal crackdowns, particularly in the southern port town of Aden, where he was stationed until his transfer several weeks ago. Marches in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in the cities of Mukalla, in the east, and Hodeida, on Yemen’s western Red Sea coast. In Hodeida, protesters tried to march on a presidential palace in the city but were blocked by security forces, who opened fire with teargas and live ammunition, said activist Abdel-Hafiz al-Abbasi. He said three people were wounded. Yemen Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Vast numbers of youth are out of work as the industrial age draws to a close. If we don’t act, generational conflict looms A common thread to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and protests elsewhere in the Middle East and north Africa is the soul-crushing high rate of youth unemployment. Twenty-four percent of young people in the region cannot find jobs. To be sure, protesters were also agitating for democracy, but nonexistent employment opportunities were the powerful catalyst. Youth unemployment is similarly dire in other parts of the world. In the UK, young people aged 16 to 24 account for about 40% of all unemployed, which means almost 1 million young adults are jobless. In Spain more than 40% of young people are unemployed. In France the rate is more than 20%, and in the US it’s 21%. In country after country, many young people have given up looking for work. A recent survey in the UK revealed that more than half of the 18- to 25-year-olds questioned said they were thinking of emigrating because of the lack of job prospects. Unemployed young people comprised a large portion of the crowd that marched in London on March 26 to protest against the economic policies of the government. Fortunately, the protest was largely peaceful. But youth unemployment will continue to stay high, and the coalition’s austerity measures are not going to help. We’re deluding ourselves if we believe the young will simply continue to be stoical and deferential to authority. Today’s society is failing to deliver on its promise to young people. We said that if they worked hard, stayed out of trouble, and attended school, they would have a prosperous and fulfilling life. It turns out we were inaccurate, if not dishonest. And then we rub salt in the wound by saying we’re in a “jobless recovery” – an oxymoron to tens of millions of young people who are having their hopes dashed. Widespread youth unemployment is one facet of a deeper failure. The society we are passing to today’s young people is seriously damaged. Most of the institutions that have served us well for decades – even centuries – seem frozen and unable to move forward. The global economy, our financial services industry, governments, healthcare, the media and our institutions for solving global problems like the UN are all struggling. I’m convinced that the industrial age and its institutions are finally running out of gas. It is young people who are bearing the brunt of our failures. Full of zeal and relatively free of responsibilities, youth are traditionally the generation most inclined to question the status quo and authority. Fifty years ago, babyboomers had access to information through the new marvel of television, and as they became university-age and delayed having families, many had time to challenge government policies and social norms. Youth radicalisation swept the world, culminating in explosive protests, violence and government crackdowns across Europe, Asia and North America. In Paris in May 1968 , protests that began as student sit-ins challenging the Charles de Gaulle government and the capitalist system culminated in a two-week general strike involving more than 11 million workers. Youth played a key role in the so-called Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia that same year. In West Germany, the student movement gained momentum in the late 60s. In the US, youth radicalisation began with the civil rights movement and extended into movements for women’s rights and other issues, and culminated in the Vietnam war protests . Young people today have a demographic clout similar to that of their once-rebellious parents. In North America, the baby boom echo is larger than the boom itself. In South America the demographic bulge is huge and even bigger in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A majority of people in the world are under the age of 30 and a whopping 27% under the age of 15. The 60s baby boomer radicalisation was based on youthful hope and ideology. Protesters championed the opposition to war, a celebration of youth culture, and the possibilities for a new kind of social order. Today’s simmering youth radicalisation is much different. It is rooted not only in unemployment, but personal broken hopes, mistreatment, and injustice. Young people are alienated; witness the dropping young voter turnout for elections. They are turning their backs on the system. Most worryingly, today’s youth have at their fingertips the internet, the most powerful tool ever for finding out what’s going on, informing others and organising collective responses. Internet-based digital tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were instrumental to the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. We need to make the creation of new jobs a top priority. We need to reinvent our institutions, everything from the financial industry to our models of education and science to kickstart a new global economy. We need to engage today’s young people, not jack up tuition fees and cut back on retraining. We need to nurture their drive, passion and expertise. We need to help them take advantage of new web-based tools and become involved in making the world more prosperous, just and sustainable. If we don’t take such measures, we run the risk of a generational conflict that could make the radicalisation of youth in Europe and North America in the 1960s pale in comparison. Young people Unemployment Protest Internet Social networking Social media Arab and Middle East unrest Don Tapscott guardian.co.uk
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Underwater robots discover remains and debris but hunt continues for flight recorders to determine crash’s cause Investigators have found bodies among the wreckage of an Air France plane discovered around 4,000 metres (2.5 miles) deep in the Atlantic Ocean, nearly two years after it dropped out of the sky. Flight AF447 from Rio to Paris disappeared on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on board . In the days after the crash around 50 bodies and several hundred aircraft parts were picked up out of the water. Despite three costly searches, nothing more was found until Sunday, when undersea robots discovered part of the aeroplane’s cabin containing bodies. The gruesome find shows the aircraft did not smash to pieces when it hit the sea, as previously thought. However French officials said they had not yet located the flight recorders from the Airbus A330, which would enable them to establish the precise cause of the crash. Investigators say without the black boxes, the cause may never be determined. The French transport minister, Thierry Mariani, told a radio station that “bodies have been found” but said he would not give any more details until the victims’ families had been informed. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, minister for environment and transport issues, was more direct: “In the past we found the tail, pieces scattered about, but this time we have found a large part of the plane surrounded by debris, she told French radio. “I’m not an expert but everything didn’t explode. There is part of the cabin and in this cabin there are bodies.” She said it was possible that the bodies might be identified. A statement from the French air investigation unit, the Bureau d’enquÍtes et d’analyses (BEA), said the latest search for the plane, that began a fortnight ago, had discovered the engines, landing gear, and wing parts. They were discovered by underwater robots operating off an expedition ship at a depth of between 3,800 – 4,000 metres. “The good news is that the area over which the debris is scattered is relatively concentrated. Because of this we hope to find the black boxes,” BEA director Jean-Paul Troadec said. Air France director Pierre-Henri Gourgeon added the find was good news. “It brings hope that we will finally have information a bout the cause of this accident that until now remains unexplained.” In the days after the crash, only a small percentage of the aircraft and around 50 bodies were picked up out of the water. Nothing else has been found until now despite three costly searches. Preliminary investigations have claimed the aircraft, which was flying through a high-altitude thunderstorm when it disappeared, may have suffered a failure of its speed sensors. Both Air France and Airbus have been put under investigation for manslaughter. Robert Soulas, the vice-president of a crash victims’ association, described the find as “excellent news”, that might finally reveal “the truth about this crash”. Plane crashes France Airline industry Kim Willsher guardian.co.uk
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Discipline rules grant heads right to charge pupils who make false allegations about teachers Schools have become adept at hiding their naughtiest pupils and worst teachers from inspectors, the education secretary has warned. Michael Gove said it was impossible to know the extent of poor behaviour in England’s schools because teachers had told him that, on the day of an inspection, they had learned to “invite” the worst teachers to stay at home and ensure the best ones were patrolling the corridors. However, Gove said he believed there was a “real behaviour problem in some of our schools”. Speaking at the launch of new guidance on discipline, he said the single biggest reason why teachers left the profession was poor behaviour, and what stopped many graduates from becoming teachers was the fear that they may not be safe in the classroom. “We rely on Ofsted – the school inspectorate – to let us know how behaviour is in many schools … One school I visited told me that teachers had become experts in showing their best face for inspectors.” Gove has introduced no-notice inspections to try to ensure Ofsted sees the true picture, but only a handful of schools have been subjected to these unexpected visits. The new guidance on discipline gives headteachers the right to press criminal charges against pupils who make malicious allegations about their teachers. It states that schools will no longer have to automatically suspend teachers accused of using unreasonable force towards a pupil, and insists that malicious allegations should not be included in teachers’ employment records. The education bill making its way through the Commons gives teachers the right to search pupils for banned items, such as mobile phones, and removes the requirement to give parents a day’s notice of a detention. Charlie Taylor, the government’s new behaviour tsar and the headteacher of a school for children with special needs in west London, said many teachers wanted more training in how to cope with unruly behaviour. He said schools should consider hiring psychotherapists to help teachers. “Pupils need to have high expectations, rules and boundaries. In deprived areas, we need to do a lot more for pupils.” Gove said: “There has to be a sharper focus on schools where behaviour is not what it should be.” Pupil behaviour Teaching Schools Michael Gove Education policy Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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The US version of the hit crime series begins effectively enough – but it’s haunted by the ghost of the Danish original When it was announced that AMC, the channel behind Mad Men, was making an American version of The Killing, my first reaction was: Why? Even if they believed Americans incapable of watching a subtitled a show, surely US television bosses couldn’t hope to capture the spirit of Forbrydelsen, with its lengthy pauses and satisfyingly complicated, slow-burning storylines, Wouldn’t a US version soften Sarah Lund’s sharp edges, trying to make this most dysfunctional of heroines more likeable? And – most importantly of all – what would happen to the knitwear? Fans of the latter can rest assured. The jumpers are still present – although Lund has become Linden, the murdered girl is now Rosie Larsen and we’re are in Seattle, the only place in America as wet as The Killing’s Copenhagen. There are other changes too – Veena Sud, the show’s executive producer, has compared the US version to jazz: “We get to riff off a really beautiful piece, but we tell our own story” – the biggest difference of all being that the killer and the motive are apparently completely different. That’s perhaps understandable in our spoiler-ridden internet age. But it’s also a pretty risky move, as anyone who sat through the US remake of Life on Mars, only to be confronted with an ending so laughably ridiculous that it practically induced retinal bleeding, could tell you. The US Killing is unlikely to collapse in quite the same way, although its worth noting that one of the most satisfying things about the original was that the killer not only made sense, the clues as to why had been carefully sewn from the beginning. There is one other change, which concerns Linden’s character: according to Sud, Linden is hiding a secret. It’s a tired plot device that seems unlikely to illuminate the character. Much of the power of Forbrydelsen lay in Lund – a tightly wound woman unable to communicate with those closest to her – and how she differed from the standard TV cop. By contrast Linden, although still contemplative and aloof, is much more like the driven female cops on US TV that we’re used to seeing from The Closer to Saving Grace. It comes as no surprise to discover that Sud was also executive producer of Cold Case. So given the differences, is the remake actually any good? It’s been ecstatically reviewed in the US and it’s true that the first episode is compelling, clever television with a good performance from Big Love’s Mireille Enos as Linden and a particularly powerful turn from Michelle Forbes as the missing girl’s mother, now named Mitch. That said, it’s hard to judge the show as an original piece of work, not least because the first two episodes stick pretty closely to the original, establishing the story and introducing us to the different, interconnecting strands. It’s also arguable that, good as the Danish version is, at least half of the joy of the programme derived from it being set in a world that was alien to British viewers, who enjoyed pronouncing the names, staring at the gloomy scenery and attempting to unravel the intricacies of a different political and police system. By contrast the American police procedural is so ingrained in our cultural experience that AMC’s version has to work twice as hard to capture its audience and make them believe they are seeing something we haven’t seen countless times before. In this it is largely successful: the pace is slower than your average US cop drama, the dialogue less forced, and the characterisation strong. If I hadn’t seen the original then I would be phoning people up to speculate as to who the killer might be – which is just what the Americans with whom I watched the first episode were doing. The problem is that, like everyone else who has been glued to BBC4 for the past few weeks, I have seen the original and it’s impossible not to think of it when watching the new version. And while Sarah Linden is a smart, interesting and pretty believable cop, at this (admittedly early) stage in the game she’s no Sarah Lund. The Killing Television US television Sarah Hughes guardian.co.uk
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Policy Exchange report comes as No 10 prepares natural break in legislation to decide what changes should be made to bill One of the thinktanks closest to Downing Street is to tell David Cameron to slow the pace of health reforms to ensure GPs feel comfortable in their new role. The advice, in a report from Policy Exchange , comes as No 10 prepares a natural break in the legislation to decide what changes should be made to the bill. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, launched a scathing attack on the reforms and their handling by Downing Street, including horse-trading between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. The report, entitled Implementing GP Commissioning, suggests the health and social care bill’s proposals to abolish every primary care trust (PCT) by 2013 “could lead to the new structure simply replicating the existing system in all but name”. It is based on interviews with the GP leaders or managers of 16 “pathfinder” consortiums, and with other experts. Its findings will add pressure on Cameron to rethink how he sells the reforms and whether they should go ahead at the pace planned, given the growing hostility from GPs. Some of the Policy Exchange ideas would require radical recasting of commissioning. The study concedes that “the government has lost many potential supporters inside and outside the NHS”, and blames the Department of Health for not winning over GPs. It also questions “whether GPs have the necessary skills to run such highly complex operations before the transition to GP commissioning takes places”. Eve Norridge, the lead author of the report, said: “There are many GPs who have the potential to become highly successful commissioners. It would be a loss to everyone, especially patients, if the policy were discredited due to overly hasty implementation. “Ministers need to address GPs’ concerns before loading such huge new responsibilities on their shoulders. “The danger is that GPs take part so reluctantly in the new scheme that it ends up replicating the existing model rather than becoming the new and innovative system the government desires.” The Department of Health has insisted that applications to join the pathfinder projects show real support for the ideas contained in the bill, but others argue that GPs have merely bowed to what they regard as the inevitable. The interviews suggest: • Not abolishing primary care trusts too quickly. PCTs are struggling to deal with the transition because good staff are increasingly leaving, knowing their organisations are set to be abolished in two years’ time. The subsequent loss of expertise is creating a vacuum that is deterring many GPs from trying new and innovative ideas under the new system. • An end to micromanagement. The authors argue that “many GPs are worried about the size of the new commissioning board and whether a culture of bureaucracy is really ending”. The research found some had been pushed into large groups against their will. Others are “facing pressure to employ ex-PCT staff, regardless of whether they are the best people for the job”. • Bringing commissioning decisions much closer to patients. The report says: “This is one of the key aims of the policy, but it is under threat. GP consortia need to be much smaller than existing PCTs. Current projections for the size of GP consortia mean that commissioning could be no closer to patients than it was in 2002.” • A lack of clarification about the framework and terms under which external support providers might operate. • An absence of trust in the new system. The report says: “It is crucial that patients have absolute trust in their GPs if the new system is going to work. Consortia and their GPs should have to declare any hospitality or gifts they receive from providers of NHS care. “The regulator will need to ensure that information is widely available to mitigate against the conflict of interests between GPs’ roles as providers and commissioners of services.” David Cameron Health policy Conservatives Liberal Democrats Health NHS Doctors GPs Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Fourth straight day of demonstrations in Afghanistan cities after burning of holy book by Terry Jones’ church Protests have continued in Afghanistan against a Florida pastor’s burning of the Qur’an, prompting four straight days of demonstrations against the destruction of Islam’s holy book. The protest in eastern Laghman province briefly threatened to turn into another melee as about 300 protesters brandished sticks and threw stones at police, who in turned started firing shots in the air. Anger flared in Alingar district with the crowd moved towards the provincial capital of Mihtarlam, where they clashed with officers, said GeneralAbdul Aziz Gharanai, the provincial police chief. However, protesters dispersed as officers started firing warning shots and no one was wounded, Gharanai said. At least 21 people have been killed over three days of protests across the country. The violence started after the burning of the Qur’an by a Florida church on 20
Continue reading …Fourth straight day of demonstrations in Afghanistan cities after burning of holy book by Terry Jones’ church Protests have continued in Afghanistan against a Florida pastor’s burning of the Qur’an, prompting four straight days of demonstrations against the destruction of Islam’s holy book. The protest in eastern Laghman province briefly threatened to turn into another melee as about 300 protesters brandished sticks and threw stones at police, who in turned started firing shots in the air. Anger flared in Alingar district with the crowd moved towards the provincial capital of Mihtarlam, where they clashed with officers, said GeneralAbdul Aziz Gharanai, the provincial police chief. However, protesters dispersed as officers started firing warning shots and no one was wounded, Gharanai said. At least 21 people have been killed over three days of protests across the country. The violence started after the burning of the Qur’an by a Florida church on 20
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No matter how hard Skype and others try to convince us otherwise, we still do most of our web communications via text or, if entirely unavoidable, by voice. Maybe we’re ludittes or maybe video calling has yet to prove its value. Hoping to reverse such archaic views, researchers at the MIT Media Lab have harnessed a Kinect’s powers of depth and human perception to provide some newfangled videoconferencing functionality. First up, you can blur out everything on screen but the speaker to keep focus where it needs to be. Then, if you want to get fancier, you can freeze a frame of yourself in the still-moving video feed for when you need to do something off-camera, and to finish things off, you can even drop some 3D-aware augmented reality on your viewers. It’s all a little unrefined at the moment, but the ideas are there and well worth seeing. Jump past the break to do just that. Continue reading Kinect used to make teleconferencing actually kind of cool (video) Kinect used to make teleconferencing actually kind of cool (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Artist’s assistants and wife released by authorities but his whereabouts undisclosed by Beijing authorities Ai Weiwei, China’s best-known artist, remains missing more than a day after he was detained . Police have confiscated dozens of items from his studio. Officers released his wife and several assistants late last night, following questioning, but Ai and a friend remain uncontactable. Assistants said that police removed more than 30 computers and hard drives from his studio and home in north Beijing on Sunday, as well as notebooks and documents. They also searched at least two more properties connected to the artist. The scope of the police operation, and the fact that the artist was detained at Beijing airport on Sunday morning – not merely turned away from his flight, as had happened before – has increased the concern of friends. Officials had also visited his studio three times in the week before his detention. “There is no news of him so far,” Ai’s wife, Lu Qing, told the Associated Press. “They asked me about Ai Weiwei’s work and the articles he posted online … I told them that everything that Ai did was very public, and if they wanted to know his opinions and work they could just look at the internet.” She said police gave no indication of her husband’s whereabouts or why he was being held. She added that his mother, who is in her 80s, was very anxious about her son’s fate. Beijing police told the Guardian they knew nothing of Ai or the other missing man, Wen Tao. An airport police spokesman said he had no obligation to give out information. Although the 53-year-old artist has repeatedly clashed with authorities due to his outspoken criticism of the government, he was thought to enjoy greater latitude than most thanks to his father’s status as a revered poet and his own high international profile. He also helped to design the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium. Ai created last year’s Sunflower Seeds installation at the Tate Modern turbine hall. His exhibition at the Lisson Gallery in London is due to open next month, shortly after his recreation of a Chinese zodiac sculpture is unveiled at the courtyard in Somerset House. In an interview last year , asked about the possibility of retribution from the authorities, he told the Guardian: “I have to deal with it, but not to prepare for it, because it is a kind of stupidity. If you prepare for it too much, you become a part of it.” His detention comes amid a widespread crackdown on activists and dissidents in the country, which has seen more than 20 people criminally detained, three formally arrested for incitement to subversion and a dozen go missing. “It is getting worse and worse. Ai Weiwei is a very influential figure … [If] even people like him are taken away, it gives a very bad sign to other human rights defenders and netizens [socially concerned internet users],” said Patrick Poon, the executive secretary of the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. Five well known human rights lawyers are among those missing since February and Poon said it had now emerged that another one, Liu Zhengqing, was taken away on 24 March. Liu had been travelling for several weeks and friends lost contact with him when he returned to his home in Guangzhou. Poon said it was unclear why he was held, but that it might be related to his agreement to represent one of the lawyers who had already gone missing. Ai Weiwei China Art Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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