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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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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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
Continue reading …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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The infamous see-through dress, that is said to have first drawn Prince William’s attention to his future bride, has sold at auction for 65000 British pounds ($104948) and an additional 13000 pounds ($20989) of buyer’s premium. (March 18)
Continue reading …The infamous see-through dress, that is said to have first drawn Prince William’s attention to his future bride, has sold at auction for 65000 British pounds ($104948) and an additional 13000 pounds ($20989) of buyer’s premium. (March 18)
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The infamous see-through dress, that is said to have first drawn Prince William’s attention to his future bride, has sold at auction for 65000 British pounds ($104948) and an additional 13000 pounds ($20989) of buyer’s premium. (March 18)
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Crowds celebrated early on Friday in the centre of the Libyan city of Benghazi, following the decision by the United Nations Security Council late on Thursday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. (March 18)
Continue reading …Crowds celebrated early on Friday in the centre of the Libyan city of Benghazi, following the decision by the United Nations Security Council late on Thursday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. (March 18)
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Crowds celebrated early on Friday in the centre of the Libyan city of Benghazi, following the decision by the United Nations Security Council late on Thursday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. (March 18)
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