Rebels driven out of town of Brega under heavy bombardment as pro-regime forces advance towards Benghazi Muammar Gaddafi’s forces were routing Libyan rebels in the east of the country today, driving the revolutionaries into full retreat from the town of Brega with a rain of rockets and shelling. The rebel army fled in hundreds of pick-up trucks, many with machine guns mounted on the back, and saloon cars back toward the nearest major town of Ajdabiya. Some of the revolutionaries, many of whom are young men with no previous combat experience, appeared close to panic. Many of the remaining civilians in the area fled with them. The rapid advance by pro-regime forces came as Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, prepared to travel to the region to meet representatives of the Libyan rebels’ revolutionary council. Clinton’s trip follows an unprecedented Arab League call for western military intervention to assist the embattled rebels. The call has increased pressure on Barack Obama to throw Washington’s full weight behind efforts to oust Gaddafi before it is too late. Suliman Refadi, a doctor fleeing Brega hospital, said the town came under intense bombardment. “They shot 40 to 60 rockets at the same time. The sky was raining with rockets, with shrapnel. There was heavy artillery. Then they advanced,” he said. “It was impossible to stay.” Refadi said that among the victims was a seven year-old boy who lost part of his skull and brain and who he expected to die. He said he also saw four civilians, three men and a woman, dead beside the road. The regime’s assault came after it seized control of the strategic oil town of Ras Lanuf yesterday. With the opposition line broken, Gaddafi’s forces appeared to have little trouble moving on Brega about 90 miles along the road towards the rebel capital of Benghazi. It is not clear if the revolutionary forces will be able to make a stand in Ajdabiya, which sits on an important intersection where the main coastal road divides. If the town falls, Gaddafi’s army would be able to move on Benghazi and head toward towns closer to the Egyptian border, notably the major oil city of Tobruk. In what is seen as a crucial week both diplomatically and militarily for Libya, Clinton is due to spend two days in Egypt and Tunisia starting on Tuesday, the first visits by the US secretary of state since the recent popular uprisings. Officials from the Benghazi-based rebel council are expected to travel to meet her. The exact venue and timing of the meeting has not been disclosed. The Obama administration has so far blocked British and French moves to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to curtail Gaddafi’s attacks on rebel forces and civilians. One stated reason for its reluctance is concern that the US has little first-hand knowledge of the embattled rebel groups, which have been asking for western military assistance with increasing urgency in recent days. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Obama expressed caution about dealing with the Benghazi council, which France alone has recognised as Libya’s legitimate successor government. The opposition was “just getting organised”, Obama said. Clinton’s talks are intended to give the US a better picture of who it may be dealing with if Gaddafi falls. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is also in the region and was due to hold talks about the no-fly zone proposal with the Arab League in Cairo today. It was not immediately clear whether Ashton would also seek to make contact with the Libyan rebels. Like the US, the EU has demanded Gaddafi’s resignation and an end to the violence but has so far stopped short of endorsing military intervention. With events moving fast on the ground, it seemed increasingly possible that the diplomatic initiatives would come too late to save the Libyan uprising, a fear apparently shared by the Arab League. Its unanimous weekend decision to ask the UN security council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya was seen as an extraordinary step, given historical opposition by the 22-nation bloc to western intervention in the region. The move was also a risky one for Arab leaders who face popular dissent at home. Syria and Algeria reportedly argued strongly against the decision in private discussions, insisting on a clause saying any western forces should withdraw as soon as the crisis abated. Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary general, said: “Our goal is to protect the civilian population in Libya after what has been reported of attacks and casualties in a very bloody situation.” Describing Gaddafi’s government as “illegitimate”, the League has suspended its membership and begun talks with the rebels, although it has not extended formal recognition to the Benghazi council. Pressure on Obama to drop US objections to a no-fly zone has been increased by the Arab League decision highlighting “serious crimes and great violations” by the Libyan regime and by a statement by Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the Benghazi revolutionary council. Jalil claimed at the weekend that if Gaddafi’s forces, which have gained the upper hand in the fighting in recent days, succeeded in taking Benghazi, it would result in “the death of half a million people”. The US, Nato and the EU say that military intervention would be justified if there were demonstrable need to prevent criminal atrocities on the ground, if there were a sound legal basis (such as a new UN security council resolution) and if there were strong regional support. Some US officials have expressed doubts as to whether a no-fly zone would make any difference to the outcome, since most of the regime’s attacks use ground troops or artillery. William Hague, the foreign secretary, suggested in a statement yesterday that the requirement for regional support had been all but satisfied. Hague said that the outcome of the Arab League meeting showed “Gaddafi’s actions do not have support in the region”. “In brutally repressing a popular uprising by his own people, it is clear he is isolated and ignoring the will of the international community … The Arab League call for a NFZ [no-fly zone] is very significant and provides important regional support to the option of creating a NFZ,” he said. The White House said the Arab League’s declaration of support was an “important step”, but did not say whether it viewed it as definitive. Attention may soon shift to the UN security council, where British and French diplomats have reportedly drawn up a draft resolution on a no-fly zone, although it has yet to be circulated. The Arab League statement could be significant in reducing Chinese and Russian opposition to a new resolution authorising limited intervention. Both countries, veto-wielding members of the security council, continue to express reservations. “Middle Eastern countries should handle their affairs themselves and should not be subject to outside interference,” vice-foreign minister Zhai Jun said during a tour of the region. Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, who last week questioned the wisdom of imposing a no-fly zone, appeared to soften his position at the weekend. Gates said: “A little bit too much has been read into some of my remarks last week,” Gates said. “If we are directed to impose a no-fly zone, we have the resources to do it. This is not a question of whether we or our allies can do this. We can do it. The question is whether it’s a wise thing to do. And that’s the discussion that’s going on at a political level.” Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East protests Chris McGreal Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New NPR CEO: Adding Beck and O’Reilly Wouldn’t Change Conservative Perceptions of NPR
March 13, 2011 No CommentNPR's On The Media is a weekly show produced by WNYC in New York. When there's a NPR scandal, they are not fair and balanced. They are liberal warriors. They have stated repeatedly that liberal bias is a “canard” that causes “false balance.”
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A week of events to celebrate International Women’s Day only highlights the fact that classical music – and composing in particular – remains a curiously male preserve. But the exceptions are growing in number… Try this test. Write down all the women composers you know of. No, don’t run away. Given the nature of this column, stick to contemporary classical. Too hard? OK, include anyone, past or present, who has written religious, symphonic, chamber, vocal, choral, operatic, electro-acoustic works. To make it simple, film and TV scores are allowed too. Still zero? You’re in distinguished company. The Guardian ‘s 100 Most Inspiring Women this week, marking the 100th International Women’s Day, featured not one. In a confined space, however, the panel chose from an even tinier breed, naming a female conductor ( Marin Alsop ) as the classical exemplar. Before you start huffing, this is only marginally lower than the percentage the BBC Proms manages most years, ranging from one out of 43 conductors in 1989 to a miserable one out of 63 in 2010 (according to a report by Women in Music ). Prejudice? Misogyny? Lack of habit or confidence or education? It’s all these things; a different topic but not unrelated and impossible to ignore. Classical music, however much it has changed for the better, remains a predominantly male haven. This is a numerical truth, not the prelude to a rant. Yet it seems baffling, if not shocking, that even now we still use the two words – “woman” and “composer” together as a collective noun, whereas it has long been out of date to refer to Barbara Hepworth or Tracey Emin as “women artists”. It’s a century since Dame Ethel Smyth composed “The March of the Women” (1911), which she conducted through the bars of her cell in Holloway prison with a toothbrush. That remains the single most famous observation about a “lady composer”. Merely mention Smyth’s habit of dressing in tweeds, smoking cigars and falling in love with Virginia Woolf and you can see why she hasn’t become a usable female-composer archetype. Many more know the tale of the toothbrush than have heard her music. Today you can rapidly correct that omission. Comedian-conductor Sue Perkins will direct an all-women’s orchestra in Smyth’s anthem as the culmination of this weekend’s Women of the World (WOW) festival at the Southbank Centre. All week, indeed, women’s music has been in the spotlight. Last Tuesday, the PRS for Music Foundation, which currently has a female membership of 14 %, launched Women Make Music , “a unique funding opportunity for women music creators”, including jazz and rock, with assistance worth up to £5,000, to “raise awareness of the gender gap and encourage new collaborations”. The aim, according to Sally Taylor, chair of PRS for Music, is to “encourage more women to come forward”, and “to promote role models for the future”. You may think this itself is a retrograde step. Let’s go back to that test. Did you total the fingers of one hand? Not bad. With the BBC Proms a useful benchmark, you could qualify as a programme adviser. When the new season is announced next month the cry will go up, as it does each year as surely as the huntsman’s tally-ho: “Where are the women composers?” And a spokesperson will rush in with some sticking-plaster statistic: one more than last season, two more than the year before. Better anyway than 2006: total nil. 2008 was a redemptive high, with six females out of 117 composers, or 5%. If individuals themselves feel variously angry or ambivalent at being given a helping hand – the same arguments are rehearsed each year for the Orange prize despite the healthy number of women writers – most understand the need for consciousness-raising action. “It’s a delicate balance,” agrees Janis Susskind, publishing director of Boosey & Hawkes. “None of the women composers I deal with like being singled out. It’s more about vigilance, about noticing that there’s no woman on a list. Why not? Are we satisfied? How could things be different?” We can guess the myriad reasons, domestic, financial, educational, for their absence in the past. Nuns wrote music for their own use, famously the 12th-century Hildegard of Bingen . Later, many high-born women who sang or played wrote their own music, especially songs. But with the idea of a profession being lowly, so their talent remained uncelebrated. Some hid behind pseudonyms, like the stylish “Mrs Philharmonica”. Most were forgotten until the explosion of gender studies began to vitalise the forgotten history of women. Aaron Cohen’s International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (1987) managed to gather 6,000 entries. Even having written a book on Hildegard, interviewed many modern pioneers from Elizabeth Maconchy to Minna Keal to Judith Weir and followed the subject fairly closely, I still only recognise about two dozen names. The idea that composition was a male preserve haunted even those who were demonstrably good at it, such as the formidably gifted Clara Schumann , who said it was not a job for women. She devoted herself to helping her composer husband. Today, at last, the landscape is changing. There’s a groundswell of action: the Barbican’s next Total Immersion (9 April) is devoted to Korea’s Unsuk Chin , belatedly a big name. Women fill composition classes in conservatoires as never before. They are securing top composer-in-residence positions (see panel below), with a rash of talent, born in the 1980s, now finding voice. We don’t always help ourselves, and I speak collectively. Men are supposedly keen on women but I couldn’t find one to accompany me to an “all-women composers” concert on Tuesday, or a female friend, come to that (pancake duty, either cooking or eating, was partly to blame). Fortunately others filled the church of St Andrew Holborn for Beneath These Alien Stars, a concert for International Women’s Day. The large, enthusiastic – mixed – London Oriana Choir chose from across the centuries to show the variety on offer, impressively mastering 17 works new to them, including a UK premiere, Talk Show by Elena Kats-Chernin (b 1957). She has achieved her own celebrity by writing the current Lloyds TSB music . The cruelly short-lived, blazingly talented Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) was faithfully represented in the lush, radiant “Hymne au Soleil”. Sally Beamish’s “God of the Moon” and works by Karin Rehnqvist and Cecilia McDowall, as well as Judith Weir (subject of a festival in Manchester last week) and Roxanna Panufnik (new associate composer with the London Mozart Players), stood out. This expressive choir, conducted by David Drummond, who devised the programme – yes, a man – gave Jocelyn Pook ‘s “Mobile” as an encore. It wittily incorporates a “nana na na” representation of the Nokia theme as if to announce, whisper who dare, that women can be, in the best sense, musically sharp. So now that the alibis and inequalities have gone, all doors are open. Still we cannot escape the unanswered, unfashionable and, certainly, uncomfortable question: for all the many good, even excellent women composers, why has there not yet been a great one? Where is the possessed, wild-eyed, crackpot female answer to Beethoven, who battled on throught deafness, loneliness, financial worry and disease to create timeless masterpieces? The answer, and I run for cover even raising the matter, may lie in biology or even psychopathology. If one should arrive, what a cry of joy and relief will be heard. And in this brave new world, that toothbrush will grow into a lightweight, perfectly balanced baton and those prison bars will prove, after all, to have been the work of nurture not nature. Classical music Fiona Maddocks guardian.co.uk
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As rescuers fight their way through to the victims, workers struggle to contain radioactive leaks from a nuclear power plant The full horror of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan is starting to emerge amid fears that the death toll could run into many thousands. A day of high tension saw workers battle to save a nuclear plant from meltdown and 50,000 rescuers fight their way to victims in the midst of mud, flood waters, collapsed buildings and continuing blazes. At least 1,700 people were reported dead or missing following the earthquake and tsunami, Kyodo news agency said. Further shocks of up to 6.4 magnitude continued to strike the north-east a day and a half after the major quake. In addition, Kyodo said, 9,500 people could not be contacted in Minami Sanriku in the northern prefecture of Miyagi, around half the population. Japanese broadcaster NHK said 2,700 homes had been destroyed in Arahama, in the same prefecture. Further north, the National Police Agency said 5,000 homes were under water in Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate prefecture. Survivors were reported to be clambering over uprooted trees and overturned cars to reach homes. Rail operators were also searching for four commuter trains that were travelling coastal lines in Miyagi and Iwate when the tsunami struck. The frantic search for survivors was almost overshadowed by the spectre of radioactive leaks at a nuclear power plant at the heart of the area most affected by Friday’s earthquake. At the Fukushima plant, radiation leaked from a damaged reactor after an explosion blew the roof off. Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the accident was rated less serious than the Three Mile Island or Chernobyl disasters, but up to 160 people were exposed to radiation. Authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s atomic watchdog, they were making preparations to distribute iodine to people living nearby. Iodine can increase resistance against thyroid cancer in the case of radioactive exposure. A 20km evacuation zone was imposed around the plant as authorities moved tens of thousands of residents from the area, some 240km north of Tokyo, as they tried to reduce pressure in the reactors. The IAEA said Japanese authorities had informed it of the explosion and that they were “assessing the condition of the reactor core”. Early this morning, technicians were battling to relieve pressure in a second reactor at the plant after its cooling system failed. The procedure was expected to release a small amount of radiation. As the first wave of military rescuers began arriving, prime minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops had joined rescue and recovery efforts, aided by boats and helicopters. Dozens of countries also offered help; Britain sent a specialist team of search and rescue experts. Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, said: “Our thoughts are with the people of Japan as
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Dior designer’s indiscretion may have hit the big names, but the minnows see a silver lining It was the most spectacular and scandalous Paris fashion week in years, and many of the big names – not least John Galliano – were left counting the cost. However, for many designers less well-known outside the rarefied world of fashion, sensational headlines brought a potentially profitable silver lining. One such was Haider Ackermann, an independent designer who has been described by some fashionistas as “the new Yves Saint Laurent” and is being tipped for the top job at Dior. “It was a very bizarre fashion week, but a very good one for us,” said Katou Brandsma, who represents Ackermann. “Everyone was congratulating us. We had buyers from shops, like Barneys in New York, we’ve been waiting for 10 years to turn up to our shows. Our designs stood out because everyone else – apart from McQueen – was so boring.” Among the other designers to reap the rewards of the unusually scrutinised fashion week was the Italian-Japanese designer Nicola Formichetti, who counts Lady Gaga among her fans and was widely congratulated for her debut collection for Thierry Mugler. Following unconfirmed reports that she had been chosen to design Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, British creator Sarah Burton’s collection for the label of the late Alexander McQueen also drew plaudits. Some observers had feared that the aftermath of Galliano’s dramatic firing from Dior – for allegedly making antisemitic comments in a drunken rantin a Paris bar – would result in a fashion week dominated by scandal rather than sartorial fireworks. Their worries were not soothed by the hullabaloo greeting Kate Moss’s appearance on the catwalk smoking a cigarette. One writer at the event, who declined to be named, said his editor demanded: “Give us a good story about fashion week, but don’t bother about the clothes.” For the unluckiest on the French capital’s fashion circuit, the controversy did indeed spell disaster: Brussels-born designer Anthony Vaccarello’s show was scheduled for the first day of the week – the same day, it transpired, that Galliano was fired. Vaccarello, remarked the New York Times , had a “fine presentation whose fate it was to be forgotten instantly”. Others, however, remain convinced that a good dose of publicity never did any harm. Dana Thomas, a Paris-based fashion writer and author of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Lustre , said the fall-out from l’affaire Galliano and the subsequent rumours of musical chairs at the big-name fashion houses had produced a “win-win situation”. “The intrigue, bar-room brawls and court proceedings brought a new dynamic and will have created renewed interest in fashion,” she said. “The scandals gave the whole business a shot of adrenaline, including for the business side. It wasn’t bad news for the French fashion industry at all.” Neither, she added, was good fortune reserved for the designers: writers were also rejoicing at having something new to report on. “It allowed fashion writers to get back to what they used to do, being proper journalists writing about fashion news rather than giving a critique of clothes as though they were talking about movies and art,” Thomas said. “It had become so boring writing about clothes, which can be pretty and interesting but not the most intellectual pursuit ever known. I mean, at the end of the day a pencil skirt is just a pencil skirt.” For the success stories of the week, celebrations have been tempered by an awareness of how high the stakes are. Ever since Galliano bowed out, Paris has been awash with speculation over who might replace him. Ackermann, for one, was under enormous pressure, said Brandsma, his representative. The Colombian-born Frenchman’s star rose sharply last year when Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld picked him as his favoured successor. “I have a contract for life, so it all depends on who I would hand it to. At the moment, I’d say Haider Ackermann,” he told Numéro magazine. When his phone started ringing non-stop on 1 March, the designer dealt with it in his own way. “When everything went mad, he locked himself in his showroom and turned off his BlackBerry,” said Brandsma. “I believe it’s still off now.” Paris fashion week John Galliano Kate Moss Fashion Kim Willsher guardian.co.uk
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Four-day weekend to celebrate marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton taken as chance to escape for early summer sun When David Cameron gave the nation an extra day off in honour of the wedding of a prince, he may not have reckoned on the impact. Far from pinning up some bunting or jostling for elbow room around the biggest flatscreen in the village on 29 April, many British people plan to leave the country and abandon the spectacle to the tourists. Bookings for foreign breaks have shot up, while online holiday companies are reporting that the number of people searching for April getaways is double last year’s. Travel agents are reporting from 30% to 56% rises in interest in their holidays, while Hotels.com says that the number of people searching for holidays for the week ending 29 April has increased by 212% compared with the same time in 2010. Thomas Cook has put an extra 100,000 sunshine breaks on sale to meet demand, a third more than usual, while Ryanair has reported a 65% increase in bookings. “It’s a bonanza for the foreign travel industry, which I’m sure the prime minister wasn’t expecting,” said Lonely Planet’s Tom Hall, who has been inundated with readers looking for advice on the best destinations. “And it’s an absolutely lovely time to be in the Caribbean.” Hall added: “There is a huge degree of interest making the most of the extra time that’s being offered. As pretty much anyone who works will back up, an opportunity like that is not to be missed. And, of course, hoteliers in this country are facing an influx of tourists coming into London for the wedding, so it’s a good time to leave town.” The extra day off on Friday, 29 April, means that millions of workers will enjoy two successive four-day weekends in quick succession: 22-25 April, taking in bank holidays on Good Friday and Easter Monday, and 29 April–2 May, taking in the royal wedding and the May Day bank holiday, with only a three-day working week in between. “Holidaymakers now only need to take five days’ annual leave to benefit from a 14-night holiday,” said Richard Calvert, managing director of Thomas Cook holidays, welcoming it as “great news for savvy travellers”. So far, the most popular destinations are places with plenty of early summer sunshine, such as Turkey, Egypt and the Canaries. European republics are also popular, especially with independent travellers. The travel firm Skyscanner said that Germany was the top destination for escapes over the 29 April weekend. For those keen to avoid the wedding but not able to leave these shores, an alternative event has been set up by a Welsh cultural group: the Escape The Wedding Camp at a campsite near Machynlleth. Balchder Cymru (Pride of Wales), a group set up to promote Welsh consciousness, is considering staging a march through Machynlleth on the day to celebrate the area’s links with their preferred Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndwr, who was crowned in the town in 1404. “We are giving people an opportunity to escape the razzledazzle and media hype that will take place when the wedding takes place. Not everyone will be celebrating,” said a spokesman for the group. On Oxford Street yesterday, a shop owner who didn’t want to be named admitted that there was little interest in Kate/Wills memorabilia. “Postcards are doing OK, but it’s a lot of Brits writing jokey, bitchy messages.” Tourists were buying union-jack-emblazoned products for their kitsch appeal. Paula Hilton, 26, from Lancaster, in London with her mother Elizabeth, 56, for the weekend, was buying her son a model of a London taxi. “I wouldn’t come near London on the day,” she said. “I’ll have a look at the dress in the paper or whatever, but I’m not invited so I’m not watching!” Many Londoners, meanwhile, are hoping to cash in on outsiders’ enthusiasm. The city’s hotels are racking up prices to take advantage of a possible 500,000 foreign visitors, while the websites Gumtree and London Rent My House have huge numbers of people offering to rent out their homes – while they, presumably, seize the opportunity to take a holiday. The writer Anthony Holden is one of those who have opted to join the anti-monarchist exodus: “I am certainly planning to flee the country, due to my republicanism, general hatred of the news coverage and the fact that because of Easter weekend it’s like the dead week between Christmas and New Year. I shall go somewhere to the sun and work on my new book,” he said. The campaign group Republic is hosting one of several “anti-royal wedding” street parties. Its spokesman, Graham Smith, said he’d expect a few hundred people at the London event. “We expect the majority in the middle who are largely apathetic to just go on holiday to ignore it that way, and I hope they have a good time. At least 20% of the population are opposed to the monarchy, and many more simply don’t care about it.” Polls and complaints to the BBC about coverage before the event showed an unexcited nation, he said, adding: “The public holiday blows a hole in the idea that the wedding will be an economic boost for Britain. The CBI has calculated an extra day off would cost the economy
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Secondary schools in England and Wales focus on brighter children and fail to help teenagers prepare for world of work, warns Demos Half of all teenagers in England and Wales are being failed by secondary schools that focus on brighter children destined to go on to higher education, according to a damning new report from the thinktank Demos. The report, The Forgotten Half , claims that secondary schools routinely neglect pupils with vocational aspirations, offering minimal careers advice and little help in finding the type of jobs that would suit them. “Our schools are teaching just half of the population,” said one of the report’s authors, Jonathan Birdwell. “The education system needs to be less focused on pushing young people through the hoops of assessment that lead on to higher education, and more on equipping them with the skills to enter and progress through the labour market,” he added. One of the key findings of the research is that many of the vocational qualifications that children are encouraged to aim for turn out to be worthless. “That was one thing that really shocked me,” said Birdwell. Work-related learning was found to be low quality and young people failed to benefit from compulsory work experience due to poor links with local businesses and a failure to relate work experience to lessons given in the classroom. Schools were also found to undervalue the importance of part-time work, after-school clubs and volunteering in building up young people’s skills, experience and their CVs. The lack of preparation, the report claims, is an important contributory factor to rising youth unemployment in the UK and the emergence of the Neet – the 16- to 18-year-old who is not in education, employment or training. The recommendations of the report include requiring Ofsted to make careers advice and employer engagement into key components of assessing schools and colleges; to improve the work-experience opportunity; and to actively discourage young people from studying NVQ at levels 1 and 2 or taking up other low-level vocational qualifications that have little labour market value and lead to low wages. “[This report] really brings you up short,” said Shaks Ghosh, chief executive of the Private Equity Foundation (PEF), a venture philanthropy fund that works to support disadvantaged children and empowers young people to reach their full potential. [It's shocking] even for people like me who have worked in the charity sector all our lives and are used to sections of the community being disadvantaged. Failing half of young people? That’s a bit scary.” The foundation is particularly concerned with the Neet phenomenon, said Ghosh. “In July, a whole generation of school-leavers are coming out into unemployment, and they face a real possibility of remaining jobless. They are heading for the scrapheap. “The chances of a graduate becoming unemployed are something like 10%, but if you leave school without any qualifications or if your qualifications are just an NVQ 1 or 2 or something else that is more than worthless, then your chances of being unemployed are 30%.” She said mentoring schemes were now commonplace in European countries and were essential, and so too were business partnerships with schools. This month Demos warned of a boom in Neets as research found that the numbers could reach 1.2 million by 2015. In England, 8% of children leave primary school with very low levels of literacy and/or numeracy. The percentage of young people reaching expected levels for writing at 11, having risen from 54% in 1999 to 67% in 2006, has levelled off at 67% between 2006 and 2009. At secondary school, only 57% of young people achieved five A*–C grades in maths at GCSE and only 27% of young people on free school meals achieved five A*–C grades including maths and English. Schools Demos Vocational education Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bus carrying people home from a casino in Connecticut overturned and was sliced, end to end, by a support pole Fifteen people were killed in New York when a bus carrying people home from a casino in Connecticut overturned and was sliced, end to end, by the support pole for a large sign. Many of the passengers on the bus were residents of Manhattan’s Chinatown. They ranged in age from 20 to 50. The driver, who survived, told police he lost control while trying to evade a swerving truck. Police are now hunting for the truck, which did not stop after the crash. United States guardian.co.uk
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Call for action follows concerns over Prince Andrew’s dealings with despotic leaders A coalition of leading human rights groups is calling for a review into the way the British government does business with non-democratic regimes around the world. After recent revelations involving the Duke of York and his work as the UK’s special trade ambassador, organisations including Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, The Corner House, Global Witness and Campaign Against Arms Trade say the affair has underlined fundamental failings in the country’s supposedly ethical foreign policy. Tom Porteous, UK director of Human Rights Watch and Foreign Office adviser, said Prince Andrew was making the UK “look stupid, frankly”. The groups say that the government’s stated position on human rights, corporate responsibility and the rule of law is at odds with its apparent position of trading with autocratic or corrupt politicians. In recent days condemnation has grown of Prince Andrew’s dealings with figures in north Africa, the Middle East and central Asia. Their calls for action follow concern over delays to implementing the Bribery Act that have left the government open to claims it is not committed to fighting corruption. Campaigners allege they have yet to receive a response from the coalition’s “international anti-corruption champion” Ken Clarke after requesting details of the government’s strategy on tackling dishonest business practices. Porteous, a member of the government advisory group created by the foreign secretary, William Hague, to examine the ethical dimension of British foreign policy, said ministers needed to rethink their way of doing business following the revelations surrounding the prince. “It’s really the UK government that we need to be criticising,” he said. “There needs to be serious reflection about how the government goes about promoting British business in a way that is consistent with its stated principles and objectives on human rights, promoting the rule of law and corporate responsibility. “They need to rethink this whole position and that may involve rethinking who actually holds that position. It should be someone well versed in international affairs and understands the objectives of the British government when it comes to promoting the rule of law.” Nicholas Hildyard, of The Corner House, said a review was required to ensure that “turning a blind eye” to corrupt regimes was curtailed: “There is an absolute necessity to have an ethical foreign policy with very strict screening into what goes where, proper screening of all government-supported exports in the context of human rights.” Robert Palmer, of Global Witness, said the prince’s dealings had given the impression that Britain condemned corruption only in principle: “Our political leaders say how critical it is that we curb corruption that is undermining development and yet, on the other hand, we have figures like Prince Andrew cosying up to seriously questionable figures.” His comments come days after Richard Alderman, director of the Serious Fraud Office and a key figure in cracking down on business bribes to win contracts, told Clarke of growing concerns over delays to implementing the Bribery Act. Alderman reportedly warned that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the US justice department had been unhappy with the coalition’s decision to push back the legislation’s introduction, originally planned for next month. Under most scrutiny, however, is the role of the government’s UK Trade and Investment agency, for which the prince works. Kaye Stearman, of the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said that the prince’s position with the agency had effectively rendered him as a “sort of cheerleader and door opener for the arms industry” and called for him to resign ahead of a review into the agency. She added: “He’s the public face of UKTI and the public face of the UK arms trade.” Signs that the pressure may be getting to Buckingham Palace emerged yesterday when the prince pulled out of a controversial trip to Saudi Arabia this week, citing security concerns rather than the media criticism. Pressing questions remain over a private meeting between Prince Andrew and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2008 amid evidence of a close relationship with the country and UKTI, including an office in Tripoli. The prince has also faced allegations that he has a “very close” friendship with Saif Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, and that he met a convicted gun smuggler from the north African state. Natasha Schmidt, assistant editor of Index on Censorship, said people were angered by links between the UK’s special trade envoy and the president of Azerbaijan, whose country is one of the most corrupt in the world. Prince Andrew is last known to have lobbied for Azerbaijan six days ago, despite allegations involving torture of political opponents and rigged elections by President Ilham Aliyev’s regime. “It is absolutely appalling that a member of our royal family would have such close links with Aliyev, an authoritarian ruler who has shown himself to be completely intolerant to criticism and is an enemy of free speech,” she said. Buckingham Palace has defended Prince Andrew’s trips abroad, while the Ministry of Justice has stated it is committed to an anti-corruption agenda. Prince Andrew Bribery Act Human rights Mark Townsend guardian.co.uk
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Four dead and hundreds wounded in Sana’a and Aden as William Hague expresses concern over ongoing violence Yemeni security forces have killed four people and wounded hundreds more in the second day of a harsh crackdown on anti-government protests, witnesses said. One of the dead was a 15-year-old student. The assault with gunfire and tear gas was the toughest yet by the government in a month of protests aimed at unseating the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. An ally in the Obama administration’s fight against al-Qaida, Saleh had appeared to be one of the Arab leaders most threatened by the regional unrest inspired by revolts in Egypt and Tunisia. The violence began with a pre-dawn raid on a central square in the capital, Sana’a, where thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been camped out. Eyewitnesses said security troops surrounded the square with police cars and armoured personnel carriers shortly after midnight and began calling on protesters through loudspeakers to go home. At 5am, security forces attacked, firing bullets and tear gas. One protester died from a bullet to the head, which may have come from a sniper on the rooftop of a nearby building, witnesses said. “We were performing dawn prayers when we were surprised by a sudden hail of bullets and tear gas,” said Walid Hassan, a 25-year-old activist. “The protesters began throwing rocks at security … it was total mayhem, a real battlefield.” A few hours later, another protester was shot dead in a nearby street. In the city of Dar Saad in the southern province of Aden, police used live fire and tear gas to disperse a crowd of several thousand, killing one demonstrator. . Saturday’s raid on the Sana’a square came after Yemen’s largest demonstrations in a month the day before were met by police gunfire that injured at least six protesters. Foreign secretary William Hague described the violence used against protesters in Yemen as unacceptable. In a statement from the Foreign Office, he said “I was shocked by the unacceptable violence seen in Sana’a today. The United Kingdom remains seriously concerned over repeated clashes with protesters and reports of intimidation of journalists in recent days. This is in direct contradiction to the President’s recent announcement on constitutional reform and fresh elections, which we have welcomed. We urge the Yemeni authorities to demonstrate their commitment to an orderly and peaceful transition by respecting the right of peaceful protest and free speech.” The Foreign Office is now advising British nationals to leave Yemen as soon as they can in light of the intensity of the violence. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East protests Protest Alan Evans guardian.co.uk
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