Number of UK military personnel to have died since beginning of operations in Afghanistan reaches 360 A British soldier from 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment has died after he was fatally wounded in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said. The serviceman was injured in a blast while on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province on Wednesday. He was evacuated by helicopter to a military hospital in Camp Bastion and then flown back to Britain where he died with his family by his side. In total, 360 UK military personnel have died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001. Military Afghanistan guardian.co.uk
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This year’s ‘achievement in dance’ award managed to pass without a single dancer being honoured. Why does dance put up with playing the Cinderella among art forms? Do prizes matter? After the past two months, it’s easy to think that the bloated system of Oscars, Globes, Baftas and so on is more about frocks, marketing and gossip than rewarding genuine talent and creativity. But the most hardened cynic may spare a moment’s sympathy for the slight that was delivered to the dance profession at this year’s Olivier awards , which were awarded last Sunday. Dance has always been a postscript to this event: like opera, it gets just two dedicated prizes. And usually the profession is happy to tag along to what’s essentially a party for theatrical types. But feathers were ruffled this year when, in contrast to the three singers who made it onto the shortlist for outstanding achievement in opera, the shortlist for outstanding achievement in dance contained not a single dancer. Instead there were two designers and a drummer: artist Antony Gormley for his design for Babel at Sadler’s Wells, John MacFarlane for his design for Asphodel Meadows at the Royal Ballet and Yoshie Sunahata for her drumming in Gnosis (Sunahata did move with incredible power, to be sure, but she was cited, specifically, for her drumming). In defence of this odd – albeit very tactless – decision, the awards’ criteria for eligibility does excludes much of the dance that appears in London, and according to one of the judges an unusual number of productions that were up for consideration this year were collaborative creations, for which music and design deserved unusual credit. But anyone who spent any time at Sadler’s Wells, the Opera House and the Coliseum last year, along with the other participating venues, would feel there was no shortage of fine dancing that came within the rules. And you could surely argue that Tamara Rojo made just as outstanding a contribution to Asphodel Meadows as MacFarlane did, and that Akram Khan ‘s dancing was even more key to Gnosis than Sunahata’s drumming. Another good reason for prioritising those contributions is that dancers in general are hardly snowed under by honours and prizes from other sources. In Britain there is little for them beyond the Critic’s Circle awards (hugs and certificates given to the year’s best dancers, choreographers and companies), and the Place prize (which offers money and a platform to new choreography). Within the world of performing arts dancers have, on average, the worst pay, the most arduous hours and the most cruelly short careers. You’d think the Oliviers could have offered just one of them a prize to take home. Would that have been too much to ask? Dance Awards and prizes Akram Khan Antony Gormley Judith Mackrell guardian.co.uk
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At least 35 killed and hundreds wounded in capital of Sana’a after government troops and loyalists open fire on marchers At least 35 people have been shot dead and hundreds wounded in Sana’a after soldiers and plain-clothed government loyalists opened fired on protesters trying to march through the Yemeni capital. The death toll, which is expected to rise, is the highest seen in more than a month of violence in Yemen, with protesters demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. The protest on Friday had started peacefully. Tens of thousands filled a mile-long stretch of road by Sana’a University for a prayer ceremony mourning the loss of seven protesters killed in similar violence last weekend. As the prayers came to an end, however, the sight of black smoke from a burning car caught the attention of protesters, who began surging towards it. Witnesses say the first shots were fired by security forces trying to disperse the protesters and they were joined by plain-clothed men who fired on the demonstrators with Kalashnikovs from the roofs of nearby houses. A nearby mosque was transformed into a chaotic makeshift hospital for injured protesters. The wounded, most of them men in their early 20s, were suffering from the effects of teargas and bullet wounds, many having been shot in the chest. The dead were carried into the mosque’s main prayer room and laid out in a line with miniature Qur’ans on their chests. “They shot people in the back of the head as they were running away,” said Mohammed al-Jamil, an Indian doctor treating the wounded. “Whoever did this wanted these people to die.” Children were also caught up in the violence. “My brother is twelve years old, they shot him twice, once in the arm and once in the leg,” shouted a young man through a crackling microphone to a roaring crowd of thousands outside the mosque. “Saleh would rather shoot us all before stepping down.” Until now government forces have largely used water cannons, rubber bullets and teargas to disperse anti-regime rallies, but live rounds were fired on Friday in what appears be the beginning of an increasingly violent crackdown on protesters. Anti-government demonstrations were held in other cities, including Taiz, Ibb, Hodeidah, Aden and Amran, following Friday prayers at midday. Yemen, the youngest and poorest country in the Arab world, has been hit by weeks of protests set in motion by uprisings in north Africa that toppled long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and spread to the Gulf states of Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Saleh has maintained a firm grip on power for more than three decades and has rejected calls for him to step down, saying he will only do so when his current term of office expires in 2013. Yemen Arab and Middle East protests Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Via the Christian Science Monitor : Shortly before midnight, the streets of Libya’s de facto rebel capital, Benghazi, were quiet, nearly deserted. A few minutes after midnight, tracer bullets and celebratory machine-gun fire were racing into the air from every direction and residents piled into their cars for a massive street party. In between, the United Nations Security Council voted by 10-0 to not only impose a no-fly zone over eastern Libya but to allow for “all necessary measures” short of an occupation to protect the country’s civilians from Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the dictator who’s ruled Libya for nearly 42 years. …. Music blared, young men danced, and volley after volley of heavy machine gun and anti-aircraft fire was released skyward, tracer bullets mixing in with the fireworks erupting over downtown. Overlooking the intersection is a billboard put up in late February that reads: “No to foreign intervention. The Libyan people will do this on their own.” This morning, Benghazi was a city filled with residents preparing themselves for death, worried about Muammar Qaddafi’s forces 90 miles away and spooked by airstrikes today and yesterday that did severe damage to the city’s airport. Tonight, there was only conviction that they will succeed, a collective exhalation of relief that the US, France and others had essentially said to Qaddafi “you will go no further.”
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Click here to view this media Via the Christian Science Monitor : Shortly before midnight, the streets of Libya’s de facto rebel capital, Benghazi, were quiet, nearly deserted. A few minutes after midnight, tracer bullets and celebratory machine-gun fire were racing into the air from every direction and residents piled into their cars for a massive street party. In between, the United Nations Security Council voted by 10-0 to not only impose a no-fly zone over eastern Libya but to allow for “all necessary measures” short of an occupation to protect the country’s civilians from Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the dictator who’s ruled Libya for nearly 42 years. …. Music blared, young men danced, and volley after volley of heavy machine gun and anti-aircraft fire was released skyward, tracer bullets mixing in with the fireworks erupting over downtown. Overlooking the intersection is a billboard put up in late February that reads: “No to foreign intervention. The Libyan people will do this on their own.” This morning, Benghazi was a city filled with residents preparing themselves for death, worried about Muammar Qaddafi’s forces 90 miles away and spooked by airstrikes today and yesterday that did severe damage to the city’s airport. Tonight, there was only conviction that they will succeed, a collective exhalation of relief that the US, France and others had essentially said to Qaddafi “you will go no further.”
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Following the March 8 release of an undercover sting video of NPR executive Ron Schiller calling Tea Party members “racist,” CBS initially gave no coverage to the ensuing scandal and resignations of him and NPR President Vivian Schiller. However, it turns out that the controversy was covered by a CBS News broadcast, the barely-watched 4 A.M. Morning News. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric did a news brief on House Republicans voting to de-fund NPR: “Republicans say NPR does well enough to fund itself, but Democrats say a cutoff of federal money would cripple some 600 public radio stations.” She failed to make any mention of the scandal that preceded the vote. On the March 10 CBS Morning News at 4 A.M. ET, anchor Betty Nguyen did only a slightly longer news brief on the release of the sting video: 4:11AM ET
Continue reading …Following the March 8 release of an undercover sting video of NPR executive Ron Schiller calling Tea Party members “racist,” CBS initially gave no coverage to the ensuing scandal and resignations of him and NPR President Vivian Schiller. However, it turns out that the controversy was covered by a CBS News broadcast, the barely-watched 4 A.M. Morning News. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric did a news brief on House Republicans voting to de-fund NPR: “Republicans say NPR does well enough to fund itself, but Democrats say a cutoff of federal money would cripple some 600 public radio stations.” She failed to make any mention of the scandal that preceded the vote. On the March 10 CBS Morning News at 4 A.M. ET, anchor Betty Nguyen did only a slightly longer news brief on the release of the sting video: 4:11AM ET
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Christopher Grady, who tried to kill six-year-old son in same incident, faces life sentence A father is facing a life sentence after being convicted of murdering his five-year-old daughter by deliberately driving his car into a freezing river with her inside. Christopher Grady, 42, was also found guilty of attempting to murder his son, then six, who was also in the car. Birmingham crown court heard that Grady drove to the house of his estranged partner, Kim Smith, in Evesham, Worcestershire, in February last year, telling her: “You’ve got 10 seconds to say goodbye to your kids, and then they are dead.” With his daughter, Gabrielle, and son, Ryan, inside the Vauxhall Vectra, Grady circled a field before driving at speed into the river Avon. Two police officers pulled Ryan from the water but Gabrielle was trapped inside the vehicle for two hours. She died in hospital three days later. The jury took five hours to deliver an 11-1 majority verdict that he intended to kill his children. The judge, Mr Justice Lindblom, adjourned sentencing until next week but told Grady that he faced a mandatory life sentence. The court heard that Grady, who had regular access to his children following the breakdown of his seven-year relationship with Smith, faced personal and financial difficulties and had been evicted from his flat. West Mercia police were contacted six times about Grady’s behaviour before the murder. However, an investigation overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission ruled that officers could not have prevented the tragedy. Smith, reading a brief statement on the steps of the court, said: “Although Christopher Grady is facing a deserved jail term, this does not take away the fact that myself and my family were robbed of our Gabby just over one year ago and that will stay. We are still living with the loss and devastation. “What must also not be forgotten is what my son Ryan also went through on that day – not only the trauma of the events but that he also lost his sister, who was also his best friend.” Asked about the morning of the murder, Smith said: “Horrifying, the worst experience ever, absolutely shook to the core. He said, ‘Be outside, you have 10 seconds to say ta-ra to the children, the kids’.” Grady’s mother, Valerie Hubbarb, said: “Unfortunately there are no winners in this case. We are all losers, as our darling Gabby is no longer with us.” The officer in charge of the case, Superintendent Steve Cullen, praised the two officers who rescued Ryan, adding: “I would like to mention the force’s admiration for Gabby and Ryan’s mum, Kim, and the rest of their family for the dignity and strength they have shown.” Crime Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Activists to swamp US arms giant with Twitter storm and email messages to protest at firm’s £150m census contract Protesters urging a boycott of this year’s census are holding a day of internet or e-action to kickstart two days of campaigning amid increasing fears about data security and the involvement of global arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The campaigners are angry that the £150m contract to run the census has been awarded to the US arms giant, while others claim the legal safeguards to prevent breaches in data security are inadequate. Activists are aiming to swamp Lockheed Martin with a “Twitter storm” and email messages detailing the minutiae of their day. Hundreds more are expected to take part in protests in towns and cities across the country on Saturday, with many saying they are willing to risk a criminal record and a £1,000 fine by refusing to fill in the 32-page questionnaire. A small group of protesters demonstrated outside Lockheed Martin’s offices in central London at 8.30am on Friday. About a dozen people – some dressed as weapons and others as arms dealers – attempted to enter the offices to voice their concerns but they were turned back by security guards. Chris Browne, from the Count Me Out campaign , said: “I strongly believe that the more people who find out about the involvement of the world’s largest arms producer in our census, the more civil dissent we will witness, and the bigger the campaign will get.” Emma Draper, an anti-arms trade campaigner from London, said: “I have no objection to the census itself because I recognise that it has served an important purpose historically. However, I think it is outrageous that the government can get away with paying a huge arms company millions of pounds in order to process data which is supposed to be of benefit to public services and people’s welfare.” Draper, 25, added: “I live my life trying not to get involved with companies who profit from destruction and selling weapons to oppressive regimes and building nuclear weapons and I really don’t see how the government can make people comply with this.” Lockheed Martin, which makes Trident nuclear missiles and F-16 fighter jets, won the £150m contract in 2008. A spokesman for the Office of National Statistics (ONS) insisted all data was securely held and defended the involvement of Lockheed Martin, stating it was “a major supplier of non-defence related services for the public sector”. “The contract for census processing was awarded to Lockheed Martin UK – not Lockheed Martin US – in August 2008,” said an ONS spokesman. “Lockheed Martin UK offered best value for money in an open procurement under European law and the EU procurement directives were satisfied.” Data from the census, which needs to be completed by 27 March, is sent to a secure plant in Manchester and then to Titchfield, Hampshire, for analysis. It is owned by ONS and a spokesman said it remains confidential for 100 years. However, Symon Hill, writer and associate director of the Christian thinktank Ekklesia, said many people remained deeply unhappy about Lockheed Martin’s involvement, adding that he would be among a growing number not filling out this year’s census. “I have reflected at great length. I have not taken this decision lightly but I feel that being asked to fill in the census is being asked to co-operate with an arms company and, as a Christian and as a pacifist, that is something that I feel I cannot do in conscience.” Census Arms trade Internet Twitter Email Computing Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Activists to swamp US arms giant with Twitter storm and email messages to protest at firm’s £150m census contract Protesters urging a boycott of this year’s census are holding a day of internet or e-action to kickstart two days of campaigning amid increasing fears about data security and the involvement of global arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The campaigners are angry that the £150m contract to run the census has been awarded to the US arms giant, while others claim the legal safeguards to prevent breaches in data security are inadequate. Activists are aiming to swamp Lockheed Martin with a “Twitter storm” and email messages detailing the minutiae of their day. Hundreds more are expected to take part in protests in towns and cities across the country on Saturday, with many saying they are willing to risk a criminal record and a £1,000 fine by refusing to fill in the 32-page questionnaire. A small group of protesters demonstrated outside Lockheed Martin’s offices in central London at 8.30am on Friday. About a dozen people – some dressed as weapons and others as arms dealers – attempted to enter the offices to voice their concerns but they were turned back by security guards. Chris Browne, from the Count Me Out campaign , said: “I strongly believe that the more people who find out about the involvement of the world’s largest arms producer in our census, the more civil dissent we will witness, and the bigger the campaign will get.” Emma Draper, an anti-arms trade campaigner from London, said: “I have no objection to the census itself because I recognise that it has served an important purpose historically. However, I think it is outrageous that the government can get away with paying a huge arms company millions of pounds in order to process data which is supposed to be of benefit to public services and people’s welfare.” Draper, 25, added: “I live my life trying not to get involved with companies who profit from destruction and selling weapons to oppressive regimes and building nuclear weapons and I really don’t see how the government can make people comply with this.” Lockheed Martin, which makes Trident nuclear missiles and F-16 fighter jets, won the £150m contract in 2008. A spokesman for the Office of National Statistics (ONS) insisted all data was securely held and defended the involvement of Lockheed Martin, stating it was “a major supplier of non-defence related services for the public sector”. “The contract for census processing was awarded to Lockheed Martin UK – not Lockheed Martin US – in August 2008,” said an ONS spokesman. “Lockheed Martin UK offered best value for money in an open procurement under European law and the EU procurement directives were satisfied.” Data from the census, which needs to be completed by 27 March, is sent to a secure plant in Manchester and then to Titchfield, Hampshire, for analysis. It is owned by ONS and a spokesman said it remains confidential for 100 years. However, Symon Hill, writer and associate director of the Christian thinktank Ekklesia, said many people remained deeply unhappy about Lockheed Martin’s involvement, adding that he would be among a growing number not filling out this year’s census. “I have reflected at great length. I have not taken this decision lightly but I feel that being asked to fill in the census is being asked to co-operate with an arms company and, as a Christian and as a pacifist, that is something that I feel I cannot do in conscience.” Census Arms trade Internet Twitter Email Computing Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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