The campaigning lawyer Clive Stafford Smith will be online at 1.30pm today to answer your questions about the leaked files on the Guantánamo Bay detention camp On Monday the Guardian and others published a c ache of files on Guantánamo Bay detainees , which lift the lid on life inside the controversial prison camp in Cuba. The files contain details of inmates who passed through Guantánamo, including a number of British nationals and residents held by US authorities, who were aware that they were not members of the Taliban or al-Qaida. The files also reveal that almost 100 of those detained at the camp are listed by captors as having had a depressive or psychotic illness. At 1.30pm today the campaigning lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith will be online to answer questions relating to the revelations in the files. Stafford-Smith is the founder and director of Reprieve, a legal charity which uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, including detainees at Guantánamo. Reprieve’s team was among the first lawyers to gain access to Guantánamo Bay and has acted for 83 prisoners there – 66 have now been freed through their work, including Ayman al Shurafa and Mohammed el Gharani. Among the issues that Clive can discuss are: • The impact of the leak on those detainees named in the files • What action could be taken by prisoners against regimes named in the files • What these files tells us about the reality of Guantánamo – and the evidence that hasn’t yet been released. The Guantánamo files are among hundreds of thousands of documents US soldier Bradley Manning is accused of having sent to the Wikileaks website more than a year ago. They were obtained by the New York Times, who says there were not given them by WikiLeaks but “by another source on the condition of anonymity”, and shared with the Guardian. You can browse the files and visit the Guardian’s Guantánamo page here, and post your questions for Clive in the thread below. The Guantánamo files Guantánamo Bay Global terrorism al-Qaida guardian.co.uk
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An essential part of good writing, it can also obliterate your best efforts when prompted by the wrong editorial hands Well, the antibiotics weren’t exactly what I needed – should you remember them from the last blog . I had/have viral labyrinthitis and the only response to that is lying down a lot and taking pills to counteract the worst of the symptoms. The worst of the symptoms being panic attacks, nausea and generally feeling as if you are strapped to the prow of a ship in a force nine gale whenever you stand up or do something reckless like turning your head. And then there are the muscle cramps and the immense tiredness … this health bulletin seeming horribly appropriate as we reach what will be the last sketch of Stages in the Writer’s Career, which we might entitle When You Have Been Doing it For Ages And Are Knackered. And may I hope sincerely that all of you writing readers don’t take my precise path to being knackered. It is in every way not worth it and contravenes all the healthy and good advice I give to other people. Of course. Imagine the scene: I am being tended in Warwickshire by my mother. (You know you are ill when you are a grown up and your mum is looking after you.) I shuffle about, sometimes check my email and take short strolls. I feel old. (To be fair, I am old.) I have forgotten many of my hobbies, and the possible strain of arranging any of them leaves me worrying that I will worry and feel worse. (Labyrinthitis both causes and can be caused or worsened by stress. This will be funny when I am well and perhaps a decade away from it.) I am self-employed, but have done no work since my last blog two weeks ago. This doesn’t exactly mean that I haven’t earned anything for a fortnight, but it does mean that I’m further behind schedule than during the weeks building up to Complete Illness when I was only moving at the speed of chilled glue. I assumed I was simply a bit poorly and tense – which is to say, my standard self. I forgot one of my most fundamental rules, dear readers, which is that I have to look after myself in order for myself to be able to do anything. Even writing. I forgot that I am a horrible self-employer and should be dealt with by the kind of harsh arbitration that only ever really happened during the 1970s. Whole swathes of what used to be the TUC should be picketing me, even as I type. I also forgot that I need to arrange nice little outings, trips and inspirations – or just a few hours off for myself to preserve maximum efficiency. I have mentioned this practice of inspiration in our shared virtual pages at other times, when I was sane and functional. I can ignore it but I only ever do so at my peril. It’s not the first time this has happened. One of the issues that must be addressed when you’re writing is the enduring conflict between other people’s agendas and one’s own. The urge to keep working while the work is there can quite simply steal your life. But it’s hard to resist. It may be that I want to watch a box set of Babylon 5, but perhaps someone else is offering me a bit of a trial in a new medium, and although now isn’t ideal, the creative possibilities do seem interesting … Perhaps I have been working on some odds and ends for radio and more than the average number of pitches have been accepted, and I don’t want to now refuse tasks I have essentially been humbly requesting the honour of undertaking (the BBC requires precisely that attitude) for months, so the schedule thickens … Suddenly a novel-free year looks as if it may kill me before the novel that nearly killed me last year has a chance to come out. (This would, naturally, increase sales into the high dozens.) And then there are the rewrites. Rewriting is as much a part of writing as being mugged is part of walking about in an urban environment at night looking happy. The right and improving kind of rewriting is a gruelling delight, as I feel we have established . Anything of mine will have been rewritten until it squeaks before anyone else has to put up with it. On collaborative projects, there will then be necessary changes that deal with technical issues, changes of location, or cast, lack of funds – the possibilities are horribly variable and numerous and yet oddly fun. There are also the good ideas and happy nudges from people who are providing a healthy outside eye on a piece of work. But then there are the other kind of rewrites – the wrong kind. Many of you out there may also be familiar with these and will be wincing and twitching already. These are never to do with the script and always to do with whoever is demanding them – and trust me, they will always be demanded. They will be required to address the demanding party’s personal difficulties with their lives, their need to feel involved and powerful, their need to crap on other people’s days, their need to add hours and weeks and even months to projects which might at one point have been pleasant and alive. Sadly, no literary process can ever cure any of these ills and so the demands can and will continue until the writer does the only thing the writer can do – he or she withdraws, accepts that vast effort has been wasted, that the struggle has been in vain and that the script, text, article, limerick is now a dog’s breakfast that cannot be saved, and nothing anyone would wish to bear their name. At which point everything will always become the writer’s fault and they will be, forever after, branded as “difficult” – even if they are already folded into a pretzel with the strain of accommodating increasingly self-contradictory and mentally peculiar instructions. One script writing friend of mine counts it as a victory if he gets through the terminal conversation without crying – and he’s a veteran of the Korean war. If nothing else, the stress and personal offence this kind of nonsense builds up, can remind the author that he or she really does still care about what ends up on the page. And it can act as an emotional reminder for future occasions, when work is questioned and probed by others. There’s all the difference in the world – and it’s more than palpable – between the sting of someone noting a weakness you missed and the pain of someone deciding to stab something witless into your personal sentences because they had, for example, a funny relationship with their dad. As my years of writing pass, I find that the only thing I really resent, regret and generally deplore is the number of months – perhaps even years – that I have wasted on projects that could have been OK if everyone involved actually wanted them to happen and to be as good as they could be. Choose your collaborators wisely, would be my advice. And take no advice from anyone who can’t take their own. Onwards. AL Kennedy Fiction AL Kennedy guardian.co.uk
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The government’s plan to cut this allowance ignores the principle that a poorer background should not be a bar to education I’m 15, I’m from Hebden Bridge and I go to Calder High School, the oldest comprehensive in Yorkshire. Like many other young people, recent events have made me really aware of the effects that political decisions can have on my life. At the moment, education as we know it is under threat. Despite pledges and promises, tuition fees are trebling and vital schemes such as Sure Start and the educational maintenance allowance (EMA) are being axed. I’d like to stress how important it is that EMA at least is protected. As I’m sure you all know; EMA is a small weekly payment to students from lower income families and it helps them to afford further education. In the words of Nadine, one of the 650,000 college students who currently receive this allowance: “EMA means I can go to college. Without it I just couldn’t manage.” And it’s that simple. Whether this money is spent on transport, books or food at lunchtime, it helps students to cope with the costs of college. But the government is scrapping it. Why? The official line, summarised by a government spokesman is: “In these tough economic times we simply do not have the luxury of being able to spend hundreds of millions on a programme that doesn’t see results in return for the majority of the money spent.” So the government believes that EMA is a wasteful luxury. I don’t agree, and neither do 10 of the UK’s leading economists who, in an open letter in the Guardian , urged the chancellor to reconsider his proposal to scrap EMA. They argue that students who receive EMA are more likely to go into higher paid jobs than they would have done without the scheme; and therefore pay more in taxes, claim less in benefits and contribute more to the economy and society. In this way, EMA pays for itself. The Institute for Fiscal Studies came to the same conclusion , and after thorough analysis of the scheme stated that “the costs of EMA are completely offset” by its benefits. And yet the government is scrapping it, and setting up a replacement scheme that will cut the money available by £400m. They claim that it will be better targeted. Well, I don’t know how nifty Michael Gove thinks he can be with a loaf and some fishes, or even a bus pass and some textbooks, but he’d need nothing short of a miracle to replicate the benefits of EMA with that budget. I’d just like to return to the words of that government spokesman, who says that EMA is a luxury. Is it a luxury to ensure that all young people – regardless of the amount their parents earn – have access to education after the age of 16? Is it not a duty, a responsibility, a principle that students from poorer families should be entitled to the same educational opportunities as richer students? I believe that if even one student is unable to continue education based on their families income and not their ability, then the government has failed in its responsibility to uphold basic rights to education. Politicians always seem to talk about how much they value education, how it’s a priority, how it’s safe in their hands. Well from where I’m standing it doesn’t look very safe at all. How is cancelling EMA safeguarding education for 16- to 18-year-olds? And how is trebling university fees ensuring access to higher education? It’s not. This is why so many of us have taken to the streets in protest to stand up for our right to education. • This is an edited version of the speech Joe Cotton gave to the NUT conference Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Students Schools Further education Colleges Higher education Tuition fees Public sector cuts Education policy Joe Cotton guardian.co.uk
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Actor is first Doctor Who star to be nominated, but ‘asbo superhero’ series scoops four nods Bafta TV awards: nominations in full Matt Smith has become the first Doctor Who star to be nominated for a Bafta but it was another sci-fi series that dominated the nominations for this year’s television awards – E4′s Misfits. Misfits scored four nominations including best drama series and acting nods for stars Robert Sheehan, who will not return next series , and Lauren Socha. It pipped three other dramas which scored three nominations each – BBC1′s Sherlock, Channel 4′s Any Human Heart, and BBC4 drama The Road to Coronation Street. It was a good night for nostalgia on the BBC – along with the three nods for The Road to Coronation Street, which included first Bafta nominations for EastEnders star Jessie Wallace and Lynda Baron, there were also two nominations for the BBC2 biopic, Eric and Ernie. Steve Coogan received his first Bafta nomination since 2003′s I’m Alan Partridge for BBC2′s The Trip. Miranda Hart was also nominated in the comedy performance category for BBC2′s Miranda, but the multi-award-winning show is not in the running for best sitcom. Two-time winner Mad Men is nominated once again for best international programme, where it will be up against BBC4′s hit Danish import The Killing, E4′s Glee and Sky Atlantic’s Martin Scorsese-produced prohibition drama, Boardwalk Empire. ITV1′s The X Factor is nominated for the entertainment programme prize, along with BBC’s The Graham Norton Show and Have I Got News For You – its 11th nomination – and ITV1′s The Cube, but there is no nod for Cowell’s other ITV1 show, Britain’s Got Talent. Doctor Who, which returned to BBC1 for its new series on Easter Saturday, has won Bafta TV awards before but it is the first time its leading man has been nominated. Smith, in his second season as the Doctor, will go head to head with Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, Any Human Heart’s Jim Broadbent and Daniel Rigby, who starred in Eric and Ernie. The other leading actor prize will be competed by South Riding’s Anna Maxwell Martin, Five Daughters’ Natalie Press and Accused’s Juliet Stevenson, all of them on BBC1, and Vicky McClure, who starred in Channel 4′s This is England ’86. BBC1′s Sherlock, BBC3′s Being Human, ITV1′s Downton Abbey and Misfits will battle it out for the drama series prize, with Eric and Ernie, Channel 4′s I Am Slave, BBC2′s The Special Relationship and The Road to Coronation Street competing for best single drama. Sky received its most nominations to date, with six across its various TV channels, including one for the first 3D show to be nominated for a Bafta, Flying Monsters 3D narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Three new shows are nominated in the sitcom category – BBC1′s Mrs Brown’s Boys and The Trip and Rev, both on BBC2, up against Channel 4′s long-running Peep Show. And there are four first time nominees in the features category – BBC2′s Mary Queen of Shops, Channel 4′s Hugh’s Fish Fight and Come Dine With Me, and Sky 1′s Pineapple Dance Studios. ITV’s coverage of the Cumbria murders and Channel 4 News’s reporting on the rescue of the Chilean miners are nominated in the news category, along with BBC1′s 10pm news bulletin on the handover of power from Gordon Brown to David Cameron, and Sky News’s reporting on the Egypt crisis. The Bafta television awards will take place on 22 May at London’s Grosvenor House hotel and will be hosted by Graham Norton, nominated for his first Bafta since 2002. •
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Thousands of people wait in heat for chance to circle past guru’s body, displayed in glass casket ahead of Indian state funeral A mile-long line of Indians and foreigners have queued for hours in the blistering afternoon sunshine for their chance to circle past the glass coffin of Indian spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba and pay their respects. State-run All India Radio said that the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and the leader of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, were expected to visit his ashram or spiritual centre in Puttaparti, the southern Indian town where the guru was born. The 84-year-old’s death on Sunday triggered an outpouring of grief from followers who included Indian politicians, movie stars, athletes and industrialists. Most remembered him as a pious, selfless person who worked to help others with the billions of dollars donated to his charitable trust. However, he had also been dismissed by some in the past as a charlatan who passed off magic tricks as miracles. Within India, Sai Baba was a well-known face and his photograph, with a halo of frizzy dark hair and orange robes, adorned millions of homes, car dashboards and lockets worn by Indian and foreign believers. His body has been kept in a glass casket inside the main auditorium of his ashram since Sunday evening. Hundreds of volunteers – men dressed in white trousers and shirts with blue scarves, and women in saris and yellow scarves – handed out plates of food and packets of cookies and drinking water to the long line of mourners. A canopy stretched several hundred feet to protect the mourners, but the serpentine queues were over a mile long and thousands waited under the beating sun. Afternoon temperatures in Puttaparti can soar to well over 37C in April. Narendra Modi, the top elected official of the western state of Gujarat, was among the mourners. Sai Baba’s body will be on display through Tuesday, and hundreds of thousands are expected to visit before his state funeral Wednesday morning. Sai Baba spiritual centers, or ashrams, exist in more than 126 countries. The guru was said to perform miracles, conjuring jewelry, Rolex watches and “vibhuti” – a sacred ash that his followers applied to their foreheads – from his hair. But rationalist critics called him a charlatan and his miracles fake. Several news reports alleged he sexually abused devotees – accusations he denied as smear campaigns. The allegations and criticism did not reduce the intense devotion from his followers. Health problems forced Sai Baba to reduce public appearances in recent years. He had been hospitalised for nearly a month. The trust – estimated to be worth at least $8.9bn, possibly much more – has no named successor. India Religion Hinduism Islam guardian.co.uk
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Rather than rogue cells gone berserk, cancers may be the foot soldiers of ages-old atavisms Forty years ago President Richard Nixon declared a “war on cancer” . Yet in spite of $100bn (£60bn) of taxpayer-funded research in the US alone, the cancer mortality rate remains little changed. Dozens of much-hyped “cures” developed by drug companies are either useless or have marginal effect. What can be done? Two years ago, in a spectacularly enlightened move, the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) decided to enlist the help of physical scientists. The idea was to bring fresh insights from disciplines like physics to help tackle cancer in radical new ways. Twelve research centres were created to focus the effort, and I was approached to run the one based at Arizona State University . With no prior knowledge of cancer, I started asking some very basic questions. What struck me from the outset is that something as pervasive and stubborn as cancer must be a deep part of the story of life itself. Sure enough, cancer is found in almost all multicellular organisms, suggesting its origins stretch back hundreds of millions of years. Oncologists tend to think of cancer as a motley collection of cells gone berserk, but to me the way that tumours grow and spread to other organs indicates an organised and systematic strategy, designed to evade all that the body and the medical profession can throw at it. Such well-honed behaviour suggests they are the product of a long period of biological evolution. I began wondering whether cancer might be an evolutionary throwback to the dawn of multicellular life, when single cells began cooperating and forming rudimentary aggregations. Geologists trace this phase back to a time a billion or more years ago, during the so-called Proterozoic era , long before the appearance of plants and animals with their well-ordered body plans and fully differentiated cell types. The closest living analogue might be a sponge. How, then, might these ancestral forms reappear today inside the bodies of animals? Evolution works by building on what came before. The genes needed to fashion the primitive cellular aggregates of the Proterozoic era did not all become defunct. Some were incorporated into the genomes of later, more sophisticated, organisms, and lurk inside human beings to this day. That’s because they still serve a crucial function. When an embryo develops, its genes lay down a body plan, starting with the most basic and most ancient features. A century ago the German biologist Ernst Haekel pointed out that the stages of embryo development recapitulate the evolutionary history of the animal. Human embryos, for instance, develop, then lose, gills, webbed feet and rudimentary tails, reflecting their ancient aquatic life styles. The genes responsible for these features normally get silenced at a later stage of development, but sometimes the genetic control system malfunctions and babies get born with tails and other ancestral traits. Such anomalous features are called atavisms. Charles Lineweaver of the Australian National University is, like me, a cosmologist and astrobiologist with a fascination for how cancer fits into the story of life on Earth. Together we developed the theory that cancer tumours are a type of atavism that appears in the adult form when something disrupts the silencing of ancestral genes. The reason that cancer deploys so many formidable survival traits in succession, is, we think, because the ancient genetic toolkit active in the earliest stages of embryogenesis gets switched back on, re-activating the Proterozoic developmental plan for building cell colonies. If you travelled in a time machine back one billion years, you would see many clumps of cells resembling modern cancer tumours. The implications of our theory, if correct, are profound. Rather than cancers being rogue cells degenerating randomly into genetic chaos, they are better regarded as organised footsoldiers marching to the beat of an ancient drum, recapitulating a billion-year-old lifestyle. As cancer progresses in the body, so more and more of the ancestral core within the genetic toolkit is activated, replaying evolution’s story in reverse sequence. And each step confers a more malignant trait, making the oncologist’s job harder. There is some good news buried in this conclusion. The ancient toolkit will be a limited set of specific genes and therefore present a well-defined target for therapy. To build up a full picture of cancers as atavisms, we have to map not just the human genome but the genomes of our oldest common multi-celled ancestors, including those of plants, insects and fungi, and work out how the cancer story relates to these life forms too. It will be in the convergence of evolutionary biology, developmental biology and cancer biology that the answer to cancer will lie. Nor will this confluence be a one-way street. By studying cancer, biologists can gain clues about how complex life evolved on Earth, and maybe on other planets too. Cancer touches every family in one way or another. As other diseases are brought under control, cancer is set to become the number one killer, and is already in epidemic proportions worldwide. Although the elusive “cure” may be a distant dream, understanding the true nature of cancer will enable it to be better controlled and less menacing. Cancer Evolution Cancer Medical research Health Biology Paul Davies guardian.co.uk
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• US plans sanctions against Syria • Assad sends in tanks against protesters in Deraa • Nato warplanes hit Gaddafi compound 12.01pm Syria: While human rights campaigners warn of systematic killing in Deraa, the government’s mouthpiece, Sana, has a very different account of the army’s action . The state news agency says the army has been sent into quell “extremist terrorist groups” and that weapons have been seized. Other accounts suggest the protests have been peaceful. In response to the calls for help from the citizens of Daraa and their appeal to the Armed Forces as to intervene and put an end to the operations of killings, vandalism, and horrifying by extremist terrorist groups, some Army Units entered Sunday morning, April 25th 2011, to the City of Daraa to restore tranquility, security and normal life to the citizens, an official army source declared. The official source added that the Army Units, with the participation of security forces, are now chasing the said groups adding that the Army Units were able to arrest several members from the groups and confiscated huge quantities of weapons and ammunitions. 11.53am – Syria: We have our own reports of gunfire in Deraa now, this time from Wissam Tarif, executive director of the human rights group Insan, who fears a massacre is taking place in the city and elsewhere. Within the last half an hour he overheard gunfire during a phone call to Deraa. On reports of mutiny within the army , Tarif said: We have been hearing this for the last four or five weeks. We have interviewed some of the families of soldiers who have been shot. In three cases families suspect that the soldier was shot by security forces for disobeying orders [to] shoot civilians. There is strong evidence that this might be happening, the question is at what scale? The two units employed in Deraa are very loyal to the regime. He added: The few foreign media journalist in Syria are not allowed to leave Damascus. So the Syrian regime has managed to isolate the rest of the country from the world. What is happening in the country is systematic killing. We are talking about an army surrounding a group of civilians with tanks and opening live ammunition. The absurd [thing] about this is that the international community has so far just used strong words but no action whatsoever. I don’t understand why the UN security council hasn’t referred this to the international criminal courts. _ 11.47am – Syria: A resident in Deraa has told Reuters of gunfire and artillery in the city early today. People in Deraa say telephone lines, electricity and water supplies have all been cut. One resident, speaking by satellite phone to Reuters, said there had been intermittent gunfire during the night followed by artillery rounds and intense machinegun fire at around 7.30 (0430 GMT). “Sometimes you suddenly hear a burst of heavy machinegun fire coming in all directions as though to just scare people and terrify them,” he said. He said citizens were cut off not just from the outside world but from other parts of Deraa. “A brother doesn’t know what’s happening to his brother and we are still besieged,” he said. “They have cut off the city’s inner neighbourhoods from each other and army and snipers are still encircling almost every quarter.” But he said in the Sabeel neighbourhood a demonstration of around 300 youths was allowed to go ahead. Soldiers near to a tank deployed close by put down their light arms down to signify they would not shoot, he said. But residents believed that snipers were still active in the city. “They don’t want people to bury their dead,” he said, adding that with electricity cut off mosques could not announce the names of the dead. 11.20am – Libya: This video , posted on Facebook, was taken in Misrata and shows something of the destruction in the city. In the clip you can see rebel fighters clambering over Libyan government tanks and making their way through abandoned buildings. Other videos posted by Libia Ana on the social networking site show a small group of rebel fighters engaged in battle. 10.45am – Syria: This is video purporting to show a funeral in Duma ( 10.02am ) which turned into a demonstration. The video shows protesters scattering to the sound of gunfire and a person lying on the ground. _ 10.37am – Syria: According to the Press Association, the UK, France, Germany and Portugal are drawing up a draft statement on Syria which is being circulated at the UN, where Syria is to be discussed today. In his statement, Hague confirmed that Britain is working with others at the UN security council and the EU to send a “strong signal” to President Assad that he must halt violence against civilians. 10.26am – Libya: A Nato attack on a compound used by Gaddafi caused an “amazing scene” of destruction, our colleague, Harriet Sherwood, reports from Tripoli. “The building, which officials here claim was a civilian office building housing a library and archive, was completely flattened. Nato says it was a command and control centre – it was a legitimate target. The Libya government here are saying very explicitly it was an attempt to assassinate Gaddafi and an act of terrorism.” Meanwhile, fuel queues are mounting, Harriet says. “Huge petrol queues have sprung up again in Tripoli and surrounding towns. I went to a town quite close to the Tunisian border called Zuwarah. There were massive queues of cars, five or six cars deep, and maybe half a kilometre long. And this was for petrol stations that were closed. I spoke to two guys who said they had both been waiting for five days. If Libya is running out of fuel that is a huge symbolic blow… People are very attached to their cheap fuel. That would have a big impact on morale.” _ 10.18am – Syria: The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has issued a statement condemning the Syrian government crackdown. I condemn utterly any violence and killings perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against civilians who are expressing their views in peaceful protests. This violent repression must stop. President Assad should order his authorities to show restraint and to respond to the legitimate demands of his people with immediate and genuine reform, not with brutal repression. Words are not enough: the emergency law needs to be lifted in practice and the legitimate aspirations of the people met. 10.12am – Syria: There have been intriguing reports of defections among Syrian troops, a subject explored by Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian anti-government activist , on his Syrian Revolution Digest blog. In the morning of April 25, the city of Deraa was invaded from all four corners by units affiliated with the 4th Division, which falls under the direct leadership of Maher Al-Assad, the 5th Division, led by Muhammad Saleh Al-Rifai, with reinforcement from the 132 Battalion. Shortly thereafter, reports began trickling then pouring in speaking of a mutiny in the units affiliated with 5th Division and troops from these units standing up to and halting the advance of units from the 4th Division trying to reach Al-Omary Mosque in central Deraa. At first, many of us thought this might be a reference to a few more defections, as had transpired two weeks ago, but the reports continue to come from different sources and eyewitnesses that we managed to reach all through the day, leading us to believe that there might indeed be something worth monitoring here. If such a mutiny has indeed taken place so early in the game, then Assad’s military gambit seems to be backfiring, a development that could spark a wider division within the army in the next few hours and days, with all different sorts of implications for the protest movement, depending on how this internal conflict plays out. If, on the other hand, the reports turn out to be nothing more than exaggerations and wishful thinking, then the protest movement will still have a way to go before producing a significant impact on the structure and power base of the regime, and the challenge will be to keep on message and peaceful all the way through despite the mounting violence on part of the Assads. 10.02am – Syria: Suspected protesters have been rounded up in Duma, a town just to the north of the capital Damascus, eyewitnesses told a Human Rights Watch Syria researcher, Nadim Houry, who has been monitoring the crackdown from Beirut. He said: “An estimated 5,000 members of the security forces circled the town and went in knocking door-to-door arresting people. According to one family three members of their family were detained. They [the security forces] had a list of names that they were looking for. “They [the family] reported hearing gunfire at around 11am yesterday morning, but could not confirm casualty rates because they were hiding inside their apartment.” “The situation in Deraa is even more worrying but unfortunately the city remains completely cut off. We know that the Syrian army with tanks and the like entered the city on Monday morning. There are no available details at this stage of exactly what’s happening. All we have are short clips on YouTube showing the army shooting on the city.” The death toll has been increasing exponentially in Syria, Houry warned. “Between Friday and Saturday over 100 people were killed. The deployment of the army in full gear encircling a city and cutting it off, is very worrisome when you know the fatal history of the 1980s when the city of Hama paid a very heavy price for opposition to [president] Bashar al-Assad’s father.” _ 9.54am – Libya: Xan has just been back on the line to say that he’s hearing that Nato might have taken out some of the Libyan government artillery, which explains the lull in today’s shelling. So rebel frustration at Nato has eased considerably. 9.45am – Libya: Xan Rice, our colleague who is in Misrata on a surprisingly good line, says there has been a lull in the intense shelling of the only rebel-held city in western Libya. There was a lot less shelling last night and I haven’t heard any this morning so far, which is a big contrast since I arrived on Wednesday. The Gaddafi forces have been removed from the city centre and been pushed back beyond the highway, which is a big defeat for them. But residents have not rushed back to their homes as there still may be one or two Gaddafi soldiers hiding out, there is also the danger from unexploded ordinance and lots of homes have been destroyed. While people are pleased about Gaddafi forces being pushed out, there is not a sense that it’s over. The rebels managed to drive government forces out by cutting their supply lines and battering them day after day. The snipers could not be resupplied with food or ammunition. The tanks were taken out by RPGs or were blocked as rebels cut streets off with shipping containers. But there is much frustration with Nato. The rebels are saying: ‘They’re hitting us with artillery from 12 miles away, they must be in the open, why isn’t Nato attacking them.” 9.26am – Syria: It’s been noted by the Guardian’s Simon Tisdall among others that the US has been pulling its punches with Syria. As the Washington Post pointed out in its coverage, Obama has yet to declare that President Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule as he declared in the case of Gaddafi in Libya and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The Post quotes an administration source as saying that policy will be “event driven” . The tipping point may have come in the weekend of violence, giving Obama the popular cover he has sought before calling for regime change in the Arab world. “We’re not there yet,” the administration official said. “This will be event-driven.” Obama’s reluctance is rooted in fear of what might replace Assad, a member of Syria’s minority Alawite sect who is running a Sunni-majority country with a prevalent, if repressed, Islamist strain in its society and politics. His secular Baath Party has been viewed by neighbors as a bulwark against Islamic extremism, making his government a linchpin in the region. Many U.S. allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, hope that Assad finds a way to remain in power. 9.00am: Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of unrest in the Middle East, where the Syrian government sent in tanks, snipers and thousands of troops to crush pro-democracy protesters in the southern city of Deraa. • Scores were reportedly killed and many more arrested in a widespread pre-emptive crackdown that was described by one human rights activist as a “savage war” against the pro-democracy movement . Deraa, which has been a centre of the rebellion, bore the brunt of the regime’s assault . Witnesses said at least 3,000 troops, backed by tanks and heavy weapons, entered the town in the early hours of Monday. Human rights organisations warned that this latest crackdown signalled an attempt by the regime to deliver a fatal blow to the pro-democracy movement. • The Obama administration condemned “the brutal violence used by the Syrian government”, describing it as deplorable . The US said it is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions . • In Libya, Nato was accused of trying to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi after two air strikes in three days hit sites in or near the compound where he is believed to direct military strategy . At least two large missiles or bombs struck a multistorey office building in Bab al-Azizia, the sprawling complex in the centre of Tripoli, shortly after midnight yesterday . The Libyan government claimed three people were killed in the attack, although some officials there shortly after the strike said there had been no injuries. Syria Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Mark Tran Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
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Ben Bernanke, chairman of Federal Reserve, expected to maintain loose monetary policy The US dollar has fallen to new lows against other major currencies, undermined by predictions that the US would continue to resist pressure to raise interest rates. In early trading, the dollar dropped to its weakest level ever against the Swiss franc, having touched a record low against the Australian dollar overnight. It also hit a four-week low against the yen, while the dollar index, which measures it against a basket of rival currencies, was close to its lowest level since August 2008. The fall came a few hours ahead of the start of the Federal Reserve’s monthly two-day meeting to set monetary policy. City experts believe that this will be a defining week for the dollar. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, will for the first time hold a press conference on Wednesday evening immediately after the Federal open market committee has voted. Traders expect no change to the Fed’s current loose monetary position. “The market will, as usual, be hanging off every word from Bernanke,” said Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank. “There is a small risk that the Fed will toughen its stance on inflation, but in the absence of this, loose monetary policy in the US is likely to continue to weigh on the dollar at least for the remainder of the year.” The critical US interest rate has been pegged at a record low of 0% to 0.25% since December 2008. The Fed is pushing ahead with its second quantitative easing (QE) programme – buying up government and corporate bonds with freshly created money in an effort to stimulate the economy. Joshua Raymond of City Index predicted the dollar could strengthen rapidly if the Fed indicates that it will speed up its QE exit strategy. But with eurozone interest rates having been raised this month, there are concerns around the US’s more relaxed approach to the risk of inflation. Standard & Poor’s threat last week to cut America’s triple-A credit rating has focused attention on its swelling deficit. There are also fears that its recovery from recession is running out of steam. Preliminary US GDP data for the first three months of 2011 will be released on Thursday, and is expected to show that growth slowed. Uwe Parpart, Cantor Fitzgerald’s chief economist in Asia, is concerned that global economic growth remains weak. He also fears that world stock markets have been driven higher by the Fed’s policy of effectively creating more dollars though QE. Parpart warned: “While stock markets globally have had bull runs since March 2009 thanks to excess dollar liquidity, certainly global economic performance has not, and as global growth slows under the impact of higher interest rates, even US investors will have to ask themselves if [dollar] printing press-enabled stock market valuations will be sustainable when liquidity dries up.” The recent surge in the price of oil could also hamper the global economy, according to the head of Saudi Arabia’s state oil firm Aramco, Khalid al-Falih. He told a conference in Seoul that Saudi was “not comfortable” with the current oil price, saying: “I am concerned about the impact it could have on the global economy.” Dollar Currencies Ben Bernanke US economy Quantitative easing Global economy Economics United States Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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Panel finds ‘credible claims’ of human rights violations against both sides in separatist conflict and urges independent inquiry The United Nations has said there are “credible allegations” that tens of thousands of civilians were killed by the Sri Lankan government in its final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels. In a report on the brutal end to the 26-year separatist conflict, a UN panel accused both sides of possible war crimes and called for an independent international investigation. The 200-page report (pdf), much of which was leaked to the Sri Lankan media earlier this month , said the conduct of the war was a “grave assault” on international law, cataloguing incidents it said amounted to crimes against humanity. Sri Lanka’s government, which consistently denied targeting civilians, has rejected the findings as biased and fraudulent. Tens of thousands of people died in the last five months of the war that ended in May 2009. The report said most of these were killed by widespread government shelling of no-fire zones where the government had encouraged civilians to concentrate, including hospitals, UN facilities and evacuation routes. The report also alleged atrocities were carried out by the rebel Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE), accusing them of using civilians as human shields and for forced labour, recruiting child soldiers and shooting anyone who attempted to flee the conflict zone. The report said the government used intimidation to silence media reports as it masked its bloody campaign with claims of a “zero civilian casualty” policy and “humanitarian rescue operations”. “In stark contrast, the panel found credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law was committed both by the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it said. “Indeed, the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace.” It said the rebels had begun shooting “point-blank” any civilians who attempted to escape the fighting as government forces launched their final push in February 2009. “Despite grave danger in the conflict zone, the LTTE refused civilians permission to leave, using them as hostages, at times even using their presence as a strategic human buffer between themselves and the advancing Sri Lanka army.” The panel urged the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to establish “an independent international mechanism” to investigate its claims. However, Ban has said he lacks the authority to order an investigation and instead urged officials in Colombo to launch their own inquiry. Before the report’s release, the Sri Lankan foreign minister, Gamini Peiris, told reporters that the UN panel’s 10-month investigation had overstepped its mandate. “It’s wrong to publish the report. It’s equally wrong and unacceptable to take any steps at all on the basis of any findings or recommendations contained in the report,” he said. “We are very conscious of the fact that the need of the hour is reconciliation. Does [the report] further that objective, or does it make the accomplishment of that objective more difficult than it needs to be?” The panel also criticised UN bodies and international officials for not acting to protect civilian lives and not publicising casualty figures to show the human toll of the war. The Tamil Tigers fought for 26 years to create an independent state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamils. The Sinhalese majority controls the government and armed forces. The UN says that between 80,000 and 100,000 people died during fighting. Sri Lanka United Nations Tamil Tigers Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
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It’s hard to cut a dash on the veg patch, writes Jane Perrone Take off your coat, take off your boot, Take off your woolly hat, your boiler suit… These lyrics from the song ‘Bag Lady’ by comedian Rich Hall sum up how I dress for working in the garden. While other women seem to look effortlessly chic while tending their plots (I am thinking of Michelle Obama, Carol Klein, Rachel de Thame, to name a few), I start the day by stumbling out the back door in ill-fitting cords and a shapeless sweater, and end it looking as if I have been dragged through a hedge backwards: not so much shabby chic as just plain shabby.* I realised quite how far from fashionable I’d become when I started mulling boiler suit options on the web as a viable alternative outfit for those sessions turning the compost heap. I console myself with the fact that no one barring my family sees me pottering about in the veg patch with wild hair and mismatching gloves, but what about when I’m working in my front garden, or even up on my new green roof ? Not a big problem, the neighbours probablyl already think I am bonkers. But now I’ve agreed to let photographer Paul Debois take my photograph for a series he’s doing on women garden writers. Panic. So I need help, people. What do you wear in the garden that’s comfortable, practical and effortlessly cool? Or should I continue to channel the ‘Bag Lady’ look and have done with it? Let me know what you’re mowing the lawn in these days: even better if you can supply a picture to our Flickr feed . *I should say that I did try to find a picture of myself dressed for gardening to add to this post, but of the only two I could find, one was so blurry as to be unusable and the other only showed my muddy boots. Clearly I have an inbuilt desire to avoid being captured on film looking like a tramp. Gardens Jane Perrone guardian.co.uk
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