Vast array of hardware stolen includes £50,000 worth of night-vision goggles and even an aircraft fuselage Thieves stole enough military equipment from Britain’s armed forces last year to “launch a small coup”, according to an MP. The vast array of hardware included expensive kit needed by troops in the field: almost £50,000 worth of night-vision goggles, as well as pistols, boots, body armour and ration packs. A silver statue worth £25,000 was taken from the Household Cavalry barracks in Knightsbridge, and more than £7,000 of silver cutlery from the Redford barracks in Edinburgh. Compensation cheques totalling £85,000 also disappeared. Thieves somehow made off with pieces of machinery that would have been hard to move without anyone noticing, among them an aircraft fuselage, a Bedford truck, an industrial washing machine, an inflatable boat, an outboard motor and a £50,000 helicopter rotor tuner. Police estimate almost £700,000 worth of equipment was reported stolen from MoD buildings and bases during 2010, but said the level of theft had gone down in recent years. The (.doc file) was put on the House of Commons website after the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavetree, Luciana Berger, submitted a question on the issue. Berger asked for details of equipment stolen from the armed services worth more than £100 and said she was astonished when the inventory was given to her. “There’s enough military equipment to launch a small coup. The list went on and on, and the one I asked for was restricted to those items worth more than £100, so it is likely that many other things were stolen. “This list doesn’t include military bases abroad either. I will be laying down another question about that.” Berger said she had been in touch with service personnel who had told her security at some military bases was poor. They had also raised concern about the lack of patrols by MoD police, a force of 3,500 officers that is responsible for security at MoD bases. The papers name the bases from which material has been taken. Most of the night-vision goggles were taken from HMS Ocean in June last year; a television disappeared from the same ship. Military clothing worth £30,000 was taken from the Assaye barracks in Tidworth, Hampshire, home of the 1st Regiment of the Royal Artillery. The aircraft fuselage went missing from RAF Kinloss in May last year. One defence source said: “How someone managed to walk away with that, God alone knows.” The junior defence minister Andrew Robatham insisted all allegations of theft of military equipment were carefully examined. “The necessary resources, including the Ministry of Defence police, are allocated to investigate the loss, and wherever possible recover the equipment,” he said. “The Ministry of Defence has recently set up a defence crime board to provide strategic direction and initiatives aimed at combating the harm done to defence by crime.” He said the MoD compensation cheques that had gone missing had not been successfully cashed. “The cheques were for £60,000, £16,500 and £8,000. I can confirm that neither the intended recipients nor the MoD have suffered a financial loss as a consequence.” An MoD police spokesman said arrests had been made in some of the cases last year. “It is fair to say that we get a full range of people involved in this. Service personnel, civil servants, outsiders and civilian contractors working in MoD buildings.” In a statement, the force said the military community included “many hundreds of thousands of people”. “Although a certain level of theft is therefore to be expected, it is far less than for a similar-sized population in a UK town,” it said. “The MoD police ensures that all crime reported to it is fully investigated and over the last three years the level of theft it deals with has fallen by almost 20%.” Military Defence policy Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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Violent clashes between security services and mourners at funerals of those killed in Deraa Human rights organisations have warned of a growing death toll in Syria as security forces move to quell protests and sit-ins in cities across the country. As funerals for some of the 27 people shot dead in Deraa on Friday were being held, there were reports of violent clashes between mourners and security services. An eyewitness in Deraa told the Guardian that security forces had been “shooting randomly” as mass funerals went on. It is not yet clear whether anyone was killed in those clashes. Further funerals are due to take place in Harasta and Douma. The government issued a warning amid Friday’s protests, the largest and most deadly yet. A statement from the interior ministry, posted by the official Sana media agency, said: “There is no more room for leniency or tolerance in preserving security of the country and protecting the general order.” It added that this would be done “according to the law which specified the conditions for using weapons”. Sit-ins are taking place in Deraa, with the coastal city of Banias cordoned off. The National Organisation for Human Rights said 37 people had died across the country on Friday, including 27 in Deraa, three in Homs and Harasta and one in Douma, bringing the total death toll since 18 March to more than 200. “We are very worried, especially for Banias where mobile coverage is currently down,” Ammar Qurabi, the head of the organisation, speaking from Cairo, said. Other activists said they were concerned about Latakia, where several districts have been cut off and the army deployed, although the town centre remains quiet. As in Deraa, there are reports of access to medical care being blocked. “Pharmacists have reported being told by security to shut early and to report those who purchase goods to treat the injured,” Wissam Tarif, a local human rights monitor, said. Both security forces and the shabiha, a group of thugs in Latakia with links to the ruling Assad family, reportedly carried out the violence in Banias and Latakia. The government has denied this, blaming “spiteful individuals, outsiders and those who were compelled by known foreign parties”. The US president, Barack Obama, has condemned the “abhorrent” crackdown. Activists and protesters have become increasingly frustrated by a muted international response, which has prompted countries in the region to rally to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s side. Syrian activists said they were concerned that a cycle of violence had taken hold which would only escalate as the government refused to meet protesters’ demands. They said a critical mass of protesters had not yet been reached. “It is a fight between the people and the regime,” Ayman Abdel Nour, a Syrian dissident living in Dubai, said. “Friday was an escalation, but we are still not seeing enough people from all governorates and segments of society coming out to allow them to tip the balance.” However, there are some signs of growing unhappiness among formerly loyal parties. An editor of the state-run newspaper Tishreen, Samira Masalma, was sacked after she criticised shootings by security forces. There have also been reports of some army and security forces refusing to shoot at protesters. The Guardian could not independently verify these reports. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East guardian.co.uk
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MP Norman Lamb says he agrees with giving GPs more power, but attacks ‘risky and destabilising’ speed of legislation One of Nick Clegg’s closest allies today expressed “very real concerns” about the coalition government’s NHS reforms and threatened to resign if the pace of change was not checked. Norman Lamb, chief political adviser and Commons aide to the deputy prime minister, said he agreed with the principle of giving GPs more power and responsibility, but insisted the shift needed to be “more evolutionary”, claiming there was “no evidence” about how the proposed GP-led commissioning bodies would work, even though they are supposed to be up and running by 2013. Appearing on BBC1′s The Politics Show, Lamb said he had spoken to Clegg about his intention to appear on the programme, but insisted that he was speaking for himself. “As things stand I have very real concerns and I think it’s right for me to express those,” he said. “My real concern is the financial risk of doing it too quickly because then services and patient care suffers and the political risk is enormous, and most of all, for everyone who cares about the NHS and I think the Government does, we’ve got to get this right.” “Surely we should be doing an evolutionary approach in health as we are doing in schools … That way I think the government can get itself off the hook that it is on at the moment, it can get a lot of professionals back on board, and most of all it can reduce the financial risk.” Asked whether it could be a resignation issue, he said: “I’ve said if it’s impossible for me to carry on in my position I will step down, I don’t want to cause embarrassment, but I feel very strongly about this issue. “And I think it’s in the government’s interest to get it right in the way that I suggest.” Challenged that it would be destabilising to the government if he walked out, he added: “It would be incredibly destabilising politically if we get this reform wrong.” Lamb insisted change in the NHS was necessary because of rising health costs and that GPs should be given a bigger role: “The principle at the core of this – of giving GPs more power and responsibility – is absolutely right. But whenever you introduce new structures, of course there is no evidence, so the sensible thing to do after this period of reflection is test it, see if it works, and it would gather a momentum of its own. “It would be a crying shame if that really important principle was lost because we rushed the reform process and get it wrong. The intervention by an MP so close to Clegg is a sign of the scale of the challenge the coalition government faces in winning over the Liberal Democrats. Ministers announced last week they were going to “pause” the health reforms amid widespread opposition among NHS professionals, patients groups and rank-and-file Lib Dems. The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, said Lamb’s comments were “very significant indeed”: “Clearly Norman is very close to Nick Clegg, he’s his closest political and parliamentary adviser,” he told the BBC. “He made a very important point, which is that we shouldn’t see reform as always good. There are good reforms and there are bad reforms. “These are bad reforms, they are not popular, they won’t work, they will be destabilising financially and also in terms of treatment. What we don’t want is a pause or a PR initiative. What we want is the government to say ‘we got this wrong’.” David Cameron and the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will hold a round-table meeting with representatives of the voluntary sector on Wednesday morning. Lansley will then attend the Royal College of Nursing congress in the afternoon. More public engagement events will follow over the coming weeks, supported by the new NHS Future Forum made up of patient representatives and healthcare professionals. Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury, said the government would come back with “substantive” changes to the Health and Social Care Bill. “We have to go forward with reform which is about empowering people within the NHS to take more responsibility for themselves,” he said. “It’s something where, of course there have been concerns raised by Liberal Democrats and elsewhere, and this listening exercise is a real opportunity for the government to hear all those concerns.” Health policy NHS Health Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Liberal-Conservative coalition Andrew Lansley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Thousands Of Union Members Sleeping Over At Washington Capitol To Protest Budget Cuts
April 10, 2011 No CommentThe labor movement is alive and growing in Washington State, as thousands slept over for a third night to protest proposed budget cuts: OLYMPIA, Wash. – Thousands of union members from all over Washington poured into the state Capitol Friday, calling on lawmakers to “put people first” by ending corporate tax breaks and painful cuts to public programs. The protest was by far the largest of four days of boisterous demonstrations in Olympia over spending cuts legislators are considering in order to help close a looming $5 billion budget deficit for the next two-year cycle. Buses began arriving at the Capitol hours before the noon rally, carrying musicians, iron workers, firefighters and others concerned about the scarcity of jobs, the rising cost of college and the security of their pensions. The Washington State Patrol estimated 7,000 people gathered outside the main legislative building, while labor group leaders put the figure closer to 12,000. Protesters said they hoped the demonstration would serve as a powerful reminder to lawmakers of who their decisions are affecting as they work to craft the state’s next two-year budget. The House plans to vote Friday or Saturday on a budget plan that includes $4.4 billion in cuts, while the Senate will introduce its own proposal next week. “We need to remind them that we need changes right now, not later,” said Tim Haslett, an electrical worker and father of five from Seattle who has been unemployed for most of the past two years. “I’m trying to do everything I can to pay for my youngest daughter to go to college next year, but I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do that if there are no jobs.” “We do not have a budget deficit,” Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, one of the rally’s main organizers, told the crowd. “We have a social services deficit, we have a jobs deficit, we have a revenue deficit, and we have a deficit of leadership.”
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South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and leaders from Mauritania, Congo, Mali and Uganda will also meet Libyan rebels in Benghazi Jacob Zuma is due to meet Muammar Gaddafi as part of an African Union peace effort, as Libyan government forces and rebels battle for control of the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya. The South African president and leaders from Mauritania, Congo, Mali and Uganda will also meet Libyan rebels in Benghazi as part of the AU diplomatic initiative. South Africa voted in favour of UN resolution 1973, which authorised military action in Libya to protect civilians, but Zuma subsequently criticised western air strikes against Gaddafi. After criticism from his African National Congress party’s youth wing and political allies in the Communist party for voting for the resolution, Zuma accused the US and its allies of going against its “letter and spirit”. The AU delegation arrives in Libya as Libyan government forces continue to push back the disorganised rebel forces. The rebels said forces loyal to Gaddafi killed four of their fighters on Saturday in Ajdabiya, about 100 miles from their stronghold in Benghazi. A Reuters witness near Ajdabiya’s eastern gate heard shooting and artillery fire and saw plumes of black smoke, suggesting Gaddafi’s forces had pushed towards the centre of the town. “There is resistance inside the city. Gaddafi forces are fighting with rebels. They have a presence inside,” said a rebel at a checkpoint on Ajdabiya’s eastern fringes. One rebel fighter, Hassan Bosayna, said eight Gaddafi loyalists and four rebels were killed on Saturday. One of the rebels was shot in the forehead by a sniper. Muftah, another rebel, said: “There are Gaddafi forces inside Ajdabiya in sand-coloured Land Cruisers and we know there are Gaddafi snipers in civilian clothing in the city as well.” Rebels were firing rockets from pickup trucks into the desert on the outskirts of the town, possibly in an attempt to stop any flanking manoeuvre by Gaddafi loyalists. The mostly untrained rebels have tried to reorganise and re-equip but were unable to hold their ground last week against Gaddafi’s better-armed forces in the oil terminal of Brega, west of Ajdabiya, the last major town on the Mediterranean coastal road before Benghazi to the north and the oil terminal of Tobruk further east. Libya’s deputy foreign minister said government forces shot down two US-built helicopters being used by rebel forces. Khaled Kaim accused the international community of double standards for allowing rebel forces to operate aircraft despite the existence of a no-fly zone over the country. “A clear violation was committed by the rebels to resolution 1973 relating to the no-fly zone. The rebels used two Chinook helicopters and they were shot down” near the eastern oil facilities of Brega, he said. “We have a question for the allied forces: Is this resolution made for the Libyan government only or everyone in Libya?” Kaim’s claims could not be confirmed with the rebels, but journalists in the area described seeing at least one helicopter apparently engaged in fighting in the area on Saturday, although it appeared to be a Russian-built model. The government forces still have most of the military aircraft in the country, but a few were taken by the rebels when some air force units defected. Nato, which enforces the no-fly zone, said it has been applying it to both sides and on Saturday intercepted a rebel MiG-23 fighter jet and forced it back to the airport. Nato forces continue to carry out air strikes against Gaddafi’s forces, destroying 17 tanks and damaging nine others, the alliance said on Saturday. Rebels have bitterly criticised the alliance for giving insufficient support as government forces continue to push eastwards and for Nato attacks mistakenly against them . Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Jacob Zuma South Africa African Union Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ken Burns: A CPB Cut is ‘Purely a Show Trial, and We Don’t Do That In America’
April 10, 2011 No Comment
AP reports something that's not very shocking: hallowed liberal PBS filmmaker Ken Burns
Continue reading …From his breakthrough jury room morality movie 12 Angry Men to his Pacino-propelled 1970s thrillers, Sidney Lumet was one of the great Hollywood craftsmen Director Sidney Lumet dies aged 86 12 Angry Men (1957) Fresh from his apprenticeship on the New York stage, Lumet made his screen debut with this claustrophobic morality play, casting Henry Fonda as the lone sane man on a jury that is being led by the nose. 12 Angry Men initially sputtered at the box office, a sore thumb in a mid-50s age of gaudy widescreen Technicolor. It was later selected for preservation by the Library of Congress. The Pawnbroker (1964) More anguished close-ups, high-stakes drama and high-contrast black and white. Rod Steiger gives an electrifying performance as the tormented Holocaust survivor, rattling around East Harlem and seeing ghosts on every subway car. The Hill (1964) Lumet upped sticks to the deserts of Libya for this drama about a brutal British glasshouse. Taking time out from his 007 day-job, Sean Connery stars as the enigmatic sergeant major convicted an assaulting his superior officer. The director and star went on to collaborate on a number of other projects, including The Anderson Tapes and The Offence. Serpico (1972) This true-crime expose charts 12 years in the life of Frank Serpico, a deep-cover New York cop, finding corruption at every turn. Fired by a full-throttle from Al Pacino, the film is rightly hailed as a hardscrabble classic of 70s American cinema. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) In which the director takes an uncharacteristic detour through Europe to shoot a plush, polished adaptation of the Agatha Christie whodunnit. The first-class cast makes room for Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall and John Gielgud, while Albert Finney headlines as Hercule Poirot. Christie approved, but apparently took issue with the skimpiness of Finney’s moustache. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Lumet’s vertiginous opening montage plunges right into the heat, stench and hubbub of a New York summertime. Pacino and John Cazale are the desperate bandits who rob a Brooklyn bank and are then pinned inside by the cops. Dog Day Afternoon sparks and combusts; it’s a tragicomic tour-de-force that plays like an improv session with the gas turned up. Network (1976) Peter Finch is the evening news anchor who threatens to kill himself, live on air. He’s “mad as hell and he’s not going to take it any more”. Lumet’s direction bulled Paddy Chayefsky’s rambunctious media satire into bristling, Oscar-winning life. More than three decades on, his Network remains as relevant as ever. The Wiz (1978) Let it not be forgotten that Lumet made the occasional wild, flamboyant folly too. The Wiz was Motown Productions’ misconceived musical attempt to take Oz uptown. It starred Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Richard Pryor as the Wizard. It promptly went down with all hands on deck. The Verdict (1982) Vintage late-period Lumet: a steely, sombre redemption saga, scripted by David Mamet. Paul Newman gives a majestic performance as an alcoholic ambulance chasing lawyer who is handed a supposedly cut-and-dried case, while there’s devastating support on the fringes from femme fatale Charlotte Rampling and James Mason as the silken “Prince of Darkness”. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) Lumet continued making films through his 60s and 70s, eventually racking up more than 50 screen credits. He went out on a high note. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is an urgent, sweaty account of a heist gone horribly wrong, farmed through various viewpoints and boasting terrific performances from Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. At the age of 83, it seemed, the director had lost none of his rigour and ambition. Sidney Lumet Xan Brooks guardian.co.uk
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People fill churches and cemeteries while large crowd gathers in front of presidential palace to remember Lech Kaczynski Church bells have been rung across Poland to mark the first anniversary of the death of President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in a plane crash in Russia . Poles filled churches and cemeteries and a large crowd gathered in front of the presidential palace, where Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, lived until their deaths in the crash, which happened near Smolensk. The crowd fell still at 8:41 am. Sirens were sounded in central Warsaw, while church bells pealed elsewhere. Earlier, the loved ones of many victims gathered for a private mass at Warsaw airport, to which the coffins of the 96 victims were returned last year. At the time, Poland experienced a short period of national unity amid the shock of losing the president, the first lady and many ranking military and civilian leaders. The disaster, however, quickly deepened political and social divisions and, in an indication of those divisions, separate commemorative events are being held. The prime minister, Donald Tusk, the president, Bronislaw Komorowski, and other politicians placed candles at a memorial plaque to the victims in a Warsaw military church. But Kaczynski’s twin brother, Jaroslaw, marked the anniversary separately, placing a large wreath in front of the presidential palace. Kaczynski and many of the others killed belonged to the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party, which Jaroslaw Kaczynski heads. That camp blames Tusk’s government for selling out Poland’s interests by allowing Russia to lead the main investigation into the crash. Earlier this year, Russian investigators concluded that Poland bore full responsibility for the crash, sparking outrage. The plane crashed while trying to land in heavy fog, and Tusk’s government acknowledges that most mistakes were made by the pilots and other Poles. But they also want Russia to acknowledge the role that Russian air traffic controllers and the rudimentary state of the Russian airport might have played – issues that were avoided in the Russian report. The sense of Russia avoiding responsibility has fuelled anger, and conspiracy theories, among Kaczynski’s supporters. On Saturday, hundreds marched past the presidential palace in central Warsaw, carrying flags and chanting Kaczynski’s name. A large banner accused the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, of being a murderer and Tusk of being a traitor. They also demanded that Russia hand over important evidence and the wreckage of the plane. Poland Russia Europe guardian.co.uk
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• Click on auto-refresh for all the latest action • Email your thoughts to Jacob Steinberg • Follow Jacob on Twitter Aaron Lennon MKII: There’s a rumour floating about that Jens Lehmann will now start for Arsenal as Manuel Almunia has been taken ill. Mad Jens, we’ve missed you. The Carling Cup’s gone, the FA Cup’s no more, they’re fairly free this Tuesday and Wednesday and Manchester United are 10 points ahead in the title ‘race’. From the quadruple to this for Arsenal. Still, second place would be nice. Arsenal are clinging on to the faintest of hopes that they can still reel United in, but it’s looking like a forlorn task now. For starters, only four teams have managed to relinquish from this position since football was first invented by Sky in 1992 and anyway, did you see Arsenal against Blackburn last week? Lethargic doesn’t even begin to cover it. Earlier on in the day, United had recovered from 2-0 down at West Ham to go eight points ahead. Arsenal knew what they had to do, and they followed it up with that rubbish, much to the displeasure of their supporters, who let their feelings be known in no uncertain terms. Arsene Wenger’s not happy though. Journalists who have covered Arsenal for ages said they’d never seen him so angry in his Friday press conference, hitting out at his critics in the press and in the stands. “After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?” Wenger seemed to be saying. While it’s true that coming second would represent Arsenal’s best finish since 2005, the feeling remains that this season promised so much more. On 16 February, Arsenal beat Barcelona and everything was lookier rosier than Fernando Torres’s cheeks. But since then, their all-too-familiar collapse has been a thing to behold. They lost the Carling Cup final in farcical circumstances, they drew with Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, they lost to United’s reserves, Nicklas Bendtner did his Nicklas Bendtner thing at Camp Nou, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie have all suffered injuries and they haven’t won a single game of football since February. In the seasons that Arsenal have won the title under Wenger, they have tended to bulldoze their way through the second half of the season. Not any more. Blackpool have problems of their own though. One point above the bottom three, this is the first of four home games in a row. It’s also the most difficult – the next three are against Wigan, Newcastle and Stoke. They’ve only won four at home this season though, their defensive slackness too often proving the difference. After an exceptional first half of the season, they seem to have run out of puff, and have only won twice in the league in 2011 (strangely enough against Liverpool and Tottenham). So maybe Wenger’s right; second is somewhere after all. Blackpool (4-3-3): Kingson; Baptiste, Evatt, Cathcart, Crainey; Adam, Southern, Puncheon; Taylor-Fletcher, Campbell, Varney. Subs: Rachubka, Eardley, Ormerod, Phillips, Kornilenko, Reid, Beattie. Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Almunia; Eboue, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy; Diaby, Wilshere; Nasri, Fabregas, Arshavin; Van Persie. Subs: Lehmann, Rosicky, Walcott, Ramsey, Gibbs, Chamakh, Bendtner. Keeping an eye on the swear jar: Lee Mason (Lancashire) Premier League Blackpool Arsenal Jacob Steinberg guardian.co.uk
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• Becher’s Brook is bypassed to avoid stricken horse • Ballabriggs misses chaos to land famous victory The name of the winning trainer was part of the Aintree tradition, but the Grand National changed for good on Saturday as two fences at Aintree, including Becher’s Brook, the most famous obstacle of all, were bypassed by the field on the second circuit to avoid stricken horses. A gruelling race was won by Ballabriggs, trained by Donald McCain, whose father, Ginger, trained Red Rum. Two horses, Dooneys Gate and Ornais, suffered fatal injuries, while Ballabriggs was too exhausted to be ridden into the winner’s enclosure. He recovered fully from his exertions within a few minutes and was able to return to McCain’s yard at Malpas, Cheshire. On a warm afternoon at Aintree, and on ground officially described as good, good-to-soft in places, Ballabriggs completed the four-and-a-half-mile course in 9mins
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