Luxury fashion house forced to price its shares at the bottom end of proposed range as it launches on Hong Kong stock exchange Prada was forced to cut the final price of its stock exchange listing in Hong Kong by almost a fifth on Friday, after nervous investors balked at the lofty price tag placed on the Italian fashion house . Despite the glamour surrounding the initial public offering (IPO), which included a 15-minute fashion show for top fund managers in Hong Kong, the maker of Miu Miu dresses and luxury handbags priced its shares at HK$39.50 (£3.13), at the bottom end of the range set by the company earlier this week. As a result the IPO raised £1.3bn, rather than the £1.6bn originally mooted, with the listing valuing the company at £8bn. It was fifth time lucky for Prada, whose previous attempts to float have been derailed by a series of market downturns, including the slump that followed the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. Friday’s listing follows the rocky debut of luggage brand Samsonite International in Hong Kong this week – its shares slumped 8% on their first day of trading. Around the world, volatile financial markets have been unsettled by renewed fears of a Greek sovereign debt default. “Luxury demand is very self explanatory and it makes a lot of sense for companies like Samsonite and Prada to list in Hong Kong, but we’re talking about quite a volatile market these days,” said Selina Sia, head of consumer research at Mirae Asset in Hong Kong. “The equity market has its own life and may not have anything to do with reality in luxury goods markets.” Prada is yet to confirm the outcome of the share sale but the offering is said to have been over three times covered by institutional investors. The company sold 423.3m shares, or a 16.5% stake, raising HK$16.72bn (£1.3bn). The stock will start trading on 24 June. Retail investors, who typically play a big part in Hong Kong IPOs, were less enthusiastic after Prada’s prospectus warned that shareholders would have to pay Italian capital gains tax of 12.5% on any profits from selling their shares as well as up to 27% on dividends. That is an unusual situation in Hong Kong, which does not tax capital gains or dividends. Mario Prada started the company selling leather bags, trunks and silverware to the European elite from his store in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in 1913 but it is his granddaughter Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli who have turned it into a bona fide luxury label with more than 300 stores around the world. The decision to list in Hong Kong was deemed controversial in Italy, but the company said it made sense given China’s relevance as a major economy and its voracious appetite for luxury products. China’s consumption of luxury goods is growing at nearly 20% a year, with the market expected to be worth £17bn by 2015. IPOs Retail industry China Stock markets Fashion Zoe Wood guardian.co.uk
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Zainab al-Khawaja allowed to spend 10 minutes with her husband Wafu Almajed, who was arrested in April The young Bahraini woman who become a prominent face of the Arab uprisings after going on hunger strike to protest at the detention of relatives has described in a series of heart-rending tweets her first meeting with her husband in more than two months. Zainab al-Khawaja, who staged a 10-day fast in April following the beating and arrest of her father, a prominent human rights activist, and the arrest of her husband and her brother-in-law, described being allowed to spend just six minutes with Wafu Almajed. Much of Khawaja’s overseas profile comes from her much-read and prolific updates under the Twitter moniker angryarabiya . Friday’s brief reunion, in which Khawaja was allowed to bring along the couple’s 20-month-old daughter, Jude, was described immediately afterwards in a series of breathless and emotional 140-character missives. Beginning, “Hi every1, at long last, finally, I have seen my husband ,” Khawaja described being let into the jail in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, by one of the police officers who arrested and beat up her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. He also remains in custody. The description continued: “They took us to a room, after searching us. Then Wafi walked in. I dunno how to explain how I felt … We hugged Wafi, then he was asked to sit on a chair abt 4 mtrs away from us … There were at least 5 police with us in the small room, and 2 by the door. all looking and listening to us … I woke jude and walked over and put her in his lap. I cud tell he’s fighting tears … Wafi started singin Barneys ‘I love u song’ to jude, infront of all the police … Jude had just woken up and was staring at Wafi, probably surprised. Then wafi sang ‘if all the raindrops’ another of Judes favorites.” In tweets before the visit Khawaja had speculated that the 70-day wait before she was allowed to see her husband could be to allow the physical signs of any mistreatment to fade. After visiting him she described seeing what appeared to be a series of old bruises around his face. Her husband did not ask about Khawaja’s father, she added, speculating that this could be because he had been ordered not to do so by police. She ended the description of the visit: “Then he kept saying ‘jude has grown, she’s so much bigger. Does she talk? Wat can she say?’ … he asked abt family, asked me why I had lost so much weight. Asked if I was ok … The whole meeting was abt 6 minutes. The police said ‘visit is over’ … We hugged, he told me to take good care of jude, I told him to stay strong and pray. He smiled ‘don’t worry, all we do is pray.’” Since ending her hunger strike Khawaja has continued to protest at the continued detention of her relatives. On Wednesday she was among three women arrested after staging a sit-in at a UN office in Manama. They were released the following day. Bahrain Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Angela Merkel admits defeat in struggle to extract money from private sector towards European Union rescue package Angela Merkel has admitted defeat over Germany’s plan to force private banks to contribute funds to a new bailout package designed to rescue the Greek economy. After a meeting with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Berlin on Thursday, the German chancellor said they had agreed that any contribution from private creditors to the package would have to be voluntary. “We want the participation of private creditors on a voluntary basis,” said Merkel, stressing that there was no legal way in which banks could be forced to play along. She and Sarkozy both declined to set a date for the Greek deal to be finalised. But Sarkozy indicated that time was running out. “We want a quick fix … There is no time to waste,” said Sarkozy. The summit was well received by financial markets, which have fallen sharply in recent days as investors feared that Greece would suffer a disorderly default. In London, the FTSE 100 index erased early losses, and the euro strengthened against other major currencies. Greek government bonds also staged a small recovery. The yield, or interest rate, on the two-year Greek bond dropped to 28.6%, from over 30% early on Friday. Merkel’s admission was a significant climbdown from her earlier position. Berlin had lobbied noisily for the compulsory participation in a new Greek bailout of private lenders, many of whom stand to lose heavily if Greece defaults on its €300bn (£265bn) debts. Last year’s first Greek bailout, part-funded by European taxpayers, was hugely unpopular in Germany, and Merkel was keen to send a message to voters that not just they, but also the banks, would be paying this time around. Earlier this month, European Union finance ministers were said to be considering a plan in which private creditors possessing Greek state bonds would be asked to cover €20bn – €35bn of the costs . As Europe’s paymaster, Germany had called for Greece’s private creditors to swap their bonds for new ones with maturities that are seven years longer, but encountered fierce resistance to those plans from France, the European central bank and European commission. France in particular was adamant that trying to force private creditors into any Greek deal would be dangerous for the markets. On Thursday, the head of the eurozone, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that imposing losses on investors could trigger a European version of the Lehman Brothers bank collapse – a so-called “credit event”. “It’s a really ugly situation. The [German] idea is dangerous. It could provoke the gravest risk, that all three rating agencies declare a credit event and then there are big contagion risks for other countries,” he said . Merkel’s meeting with Sarkozy on Friday morning in Berlin was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in seven very rocky months in Franco-German relations. On Wednesday, the French ambassador to Germany, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, told a select group of German journalists that Berlin pays too little attention to its ties with Paris. The ambassador suggested Merkel did not give Sarkozky enough face time, pointing out that the last chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, agreed to more one-on-one meetings with his French counterpart when he was in power . But at Thursday’s press conference at the chancellery, Sarkozy heralded a “major breakthrough” with “our German friends”. In three hours of talks, he and Merkel had at least agreed that there ideally should be some involvement on the private sector in the Greece bailout, he said. The deal was based on four principles: voluntary participation, speed, no payment default and agreement with the European central bank. Both leaders also stressed that Greece had to comply with its obligations. The duo were keen to reach a consensus ahead of next week’s EU summit in Brussels, which will see European leaders try to hammer out a Greek deal. Greece Euro Currencies Euro European Union Economics Germany France Angela Merkel Nicolas Sarkozy Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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Broadcaster fails to overturn high court ruling that Ofcom was justified in upholding complaints about interview Jon Gaunt has lost his appeal against a high court ruling that media watchdog Ofcom was justified in upholding complaints about a TalkSport interview in which he called a local councillor a “Nazi”. Gaunt appealed after last year losing a high court freedom of expression challenge against Ofcom’s ruling that the interview breached its broadcasting code . However, three court of appeal judges have now rejected his appeal against the high court’s July 2010 decision. Gaunt’s contract was terminated by UTV-owned TalkSport in November 2008, 10 days after an exchange with councillor Michael Stark. He took legal action against Ofcom, with the backing of Liberty, claiming its decision breached article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and was an unlawful interference with his freedom of expression. During a hearing last month, the court of appeal was told that Gaunt’s live interview with Stark about Redbridge council’s decision to ban smokers from becoming foster parents – for which he later apologised – drew 53 complaints from listeners. Stark said the welfare of children should outweigh the needs of foster families but Gaunt, who was himself placed in care, accused the councillor of being a “Nazi”, a “health Nazi” and an “ignorant pig”. Gaunt later issued an on-air apology and clarified his comment, saying he meant to say “health Nazi”. Lord Neuberger said it was important to observe that the broadcasting code recognised that “offensive material or language will often be justifiable, but justifiability must be assessed by reference to the context”. “In summary, when one combines the extremely aggressive tone of the interview, the constant interruptions, the insults, the ranting, the consequent lack of any substantive content, and the time which the interview was allowed to run on, it seems to me clear that Ofcom was right to conclude that there had been a breach of … the code,” Neuberger added. It had been suggested that Ofcom attached too much weight and too much offensiveness to the “Nazi”, “health Nazi” and “ignorant pig” insults levied at Stark. But Neuberger said: “In my view, however, Ofcom quite correctly took those insults into account, but only as a factor among others which, when taken together, rendered the interview in breach of … the code.” By the time Ofcom’s finding was published, Gaunt had already been dismissed and there was no suggestion, said the judge, that “he has lost any particular work as a result of the finding”. “His reputation as a very hard-hitting journalist may mean that the finding has done him no damage, but, if it has, it does not only appear to be hard to identify, but it would be an inevitable consequence of any system of controlling broadcasts,” he added. “That point serves to underline the importance of anxiously scrutinising any curb on freedom of expression, but it goes no further than that, and anxious scrutiny is precisely what Ofcom gave the matter.” Ofcom issued its ruling against Gaunt in May 2009, saying the “persistently bullying and hectoring” interview “had the potential to cause offence to many listeners”. An Ofcom spokesman said: “We are pleased that the court of appeal has agreed with Ofcom that Jon Gaunt’s interview was a breach of the broadcasting code. “The court of appeal agreed that the interview had an extremely aggressive tone combined with constant interruptions, was full of insults, ranting, and lacked any substantive content and that it was a breach of generally accepted standards. “Parliament gave Ofcom a duty to ensure that whilst standards in programmes are maintained, the right to freedom of expression is also protected. Ofcom regularly makes decisions under the broadcasting code that respect and balance these principles.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Jon Gaunt TalkSport Ofcom Media law Radio industry Jason Deans guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …AP Plays Up Democrat Objections to Romney Unemployed Joke, But Barely Noticed Obama ‘Shovel-Ready’ Joke
June 17, 2011 No Comment
The Associated Press is blatantly proving it’s going to make Campaign 2012 a long, biased slog for Republicans. Just take their news coverage of jokes. On Thursday, Democratic objections to Mitt Romney were front and center in an article titled “Democrats criticize Romney for ‘unemployed’ joke.” But on Tuesday, President Obama’s lame joke about no “shovel-ready” jobs was relegated to paragraph 16 of an article titled “Obama pledges focus on job creation.” (As if we haven't heard that pledge before.) The
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Executive director of Greenpeace International could face prison for breaking legal injunction surrounding Leiv Eiriksson rig The executive director of Greenpeace International faces prison in Greenland for breaking an injunction and boarding a giant rig exploring for oil in Arctic waters. In dramatic scenes 120km off the west coast of Greenland, a Greenpeace inflatable speedboat evaded a Danish navy warship, allowing Kumi Naidoo and two activists to clamber aboard one of the massive legs of the Leiv Eiriksson, a 52,000-tonne rig. According to Greenpeace, the crew of the rig tried to prevent them from boarding with water cannons. The three activists are said to be 30m above sea level on a small platform. The Danish navy has launched a helicopter which arrived at the rig within the last few minutes. In addition to the likelihood of prison, Greenpeace faces a fine of $50,000 a day after Scottish oil company Cairn Energy obtained an injunction which forbade the organisation from going within 500m of the rig. Cairn sought the injunction in Holland after 20 Greenpeace activists were arrested on the rig in the last month for stopping the rig from operating. Before scaling the rig, Naidoo said he was calling on the rig’s owner to halt drilling, and would request a copy of the rig’s oil spill response plan. The document, which has not been made public, has been at the centre of a month-long campaign of direct action in the Arctic. Naidoo said: “For me this is one of the defining environmental battles of our age, it’s a fight for sanity against the madness of a mindset that sees the melting of the Arctic sea ice as a good thing. As the ice retreats the oil companies want to send the rigs in and drill for the fossil fuels that got us into this mess in the first place. We have to stop them. It goes right to the heart of the kind of world we want and the one which we want to pass onto our children.” Naidoo, 45, was a youth leader in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, where he was arrested several times and charged with violating provisions against mass mobilisation, civil disobedience and for violating the state of emergency. He lived underground before being forced to flee South Africa and live in exile in the UK. Kumi Naidoo Greenpeace Activism Oil Energy Fossil fuels Oil spills Oil Greenland Polar regions Arctic Cairn Energy John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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• Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf gives up business interests • Saudi women plan protests at driving ban • Special report on the Tunisian revolution six months on 11.57am: There have been several reports of protests taking place in Syria today. The activist group, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria is mapping the reports . Separately we’ve compiled a Google Map of showing videos that activist claim were filmed today. We will try to update it as more videos emerge. Click on each Guardian icon to see the video. _ 11.56am: Huge news if true. The BBC tweets : Yemeni President Saleh will not return home from Saudi Arabia where he is being treated for shrapnel wounds , a Saudi official tells AFP 11.43am: The Bahrain protests map has been updated so you can click on the blue markers to view videos of the demonstrations. Protests purported to have taken place in Karzakkan, Ma’ameer and Barbar last night have also been added to the map. _ 11.40am: The Spanish authorities have detained a close associate of the former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. Businessman Hussein Salem is wanted for trial in Egypt on charges of bribing Mubarak and his family and squandering public funds. Salem’s detention was seen as a major step towards unravelling secrets of corruption throughout the reign of Mubarak, and possibly a key to locating and retrieving much of the Mubaraks’ riches, believed to be stashed abroad at a time when the country’s economy is depressed. Some estimate Mubarak’s holdings at tens of billions of dollars. Here’s the full story . 11.33am: Video has emerged purporting to show arrested men being forced to chant in support of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. The prisoner appear to have been promised water in return for doing this. _ 11.33am: The Associated Press news agency has filed a report on the first day of the women’s driving protest in Saudi Arabia . The agency says one woman took a 45-minute tour through Riyadh with her husband in the passenger seat. Maha al Qahtani said: “I wanted to make a point. I took it directly to the streets of the capital.” There were unconfirmed reports of others driving in Dammam, in the east of the country, and elsewhere. AP says the protests could encourage other pushes for reform for Saudi women, who are not allowed to vote and must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel or take a job. Wajeha al-Huwaider, a Saudi women’s rights activist who posted clips of herself driving on the internet three years ago, said: We want women from today to begin exercising their rights. Today on the roads is just the opening in a long campaign. We will not go back … We’ll keep it up until we get a royal decree removing the ban. AP says the driving ban is the only such country-wide rule in the world. “There is no written Saudi law barring women from driving only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics following a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism. They claim the driving ban protects against the spread of vice and temptation because women drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers or rely on male relatives to drive.” Philip Luther of Amnesty International said: Not allowing women behind the wheel in Saudi Arabia is an immense barrier to their freedom of movement, and severely limits their ability to carry out everyday activities as they see fit, such as going to work or the supermarket, or picking up their children from school. 11.24am: The human rights campaign Avaaz has broadcast an appeal to the Syrian army not to fire on protesters. An advert broadcast on a number of international satellite channels widely watched in Syria carries a direct an appeal from a Syrian mother in Deraa. In the advert, which is also being broadcast on radio stations, she says: I am a Syrian mother. I call on every soldier in the Syrian army and each member of the security forces: do you remember how your mother and father taught you to be a good person and loyal son? How your mother made every effort to teach you to respect the elderly, and offer kindness to children and dedication in the defence of those who do not have the ability to defend themselves? I’m here because I appeal to you to be that person today. A man and a soldier and a security officer does not use his weapon against his family and his people, the Syrians. There are those who give orders and force you to use violence against your brothers and sisters, but the decision ultimately is yours. Syrian civilians will not forget the courage you display, and will stand behind you today and in the future, when the sun shines again on all Syrian civilians and military soldiers living in love and freedom. _ 10.56am: The main opposition party in Bahrain , the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has called for anti-government protests after Friday prayers today to mark the fourth month of the uprising (which actually began on 14 February), reports Press TV , the Iranian-government-controlled news network. All of al-Wefaq’s MPs resigned from parliament in March in protest at the deaths of anti-regime demonstrators. Meanwhile, protests were held overnight in a number of places, according to YouTube footage. The following videos purport to show protests in Sinabis, on the island of Sitra, and in the village of Shahrakan. Sinabis : Sitra : Shahrakan : Here is a map of the locations of those protests: In a significant development this week, the US, a close ally, put Bahrain on its list of human rights abusers , a list that includes Iran, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe. Bahrain is an important strategic ally to the US, not least because it is home to the US Navy’s fifth fleet, a relationship that some critics feel has dampened American criticism of the crackdown against protesters in the Gulf state. Bahraini blogger Lamees Dhaif, on a tour of the US with 19 other bloggers from the country, was highly critical of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Mondoweiss reports . It quotes Dhaif as saying: We expected that Americans would stand by us. We thought that when five armies came into our country, America would give a definite no no no, this should not happen. We were shocked by Hillary Clinton’s statement. She gave the green light for the people who are crushing us. If Iran was coming to Bahrain, we wouldn’t mind [the Saudi and UAE armies entering Bahrain]. But nobody is there but us. 10.53am: Syrian reaction to news that the tycoon cousin of the president, Rami Makhlouf, would retire from business has been mixed, writes Nidaa Hassan , a pseudonym for a reporter in Damascus. Among others, Maklouf has interests in oil, real estate and owns 40% stake in Syriatel. He has been the subject of protesters’ ire for his dominance of the economy since its liberalisation in 2005. Some are sceptical that Makhlouf is withdrawing from the scene, although he has reportedly sold some of his businesses, including a chain of duty-free shops to a Kuwaiti company last month, and shipped money outside of the country. If he does retire, others suspect other big businessmen with connections to the regime will step in to fill his place as Mr Five or Ten Per Cent, the man with whom businesses hoping to enter the Syrian market have to partner. In recent years Makhlouf has demanded a share in more and more businesses, analysts in Damascus say. Certainly, protesters have rejected the move, seeing it as making no structural change to the regime and coming too late. “It makes no difference to us,” said a 30-year-old office worker in Damascus last night. “At this stage, people want to whole regime to go.” But for fans of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and many of those still deciding which side to support, the move may well be interpreted as signalling changes are being made. Makhlouf has been under US sanctions since 2008 and recently was slapped with EU ones. Further EU sanctions on a number of his companies are expected to be announced. The mere fact that such an announcement has been made is a blow to Makhlouf and the regime, which has been forced to seemingly nudge aside one of the members of its inner circle as protests enter their fourth month. Today, protests are dubbed “The day of Saleh al-Ali” after an Alawite leader who fought against French colonial rule. The name was chosen by activists who are keen to keep sectarian tensions from growing and to convince Alawite members, who have generally stuck with Assad, to join the protests and that they will not face a backlash if the regime falls. 10.51am: Reuters has a report from rebel-held Misrata, Libya , about the police officers and civil servants who have returned to work without pay at the request of the rebels. Just weeks since it was the scene of some of the bloodiest battles of the Libyan war so far, Misrata is dragging itself to its feet thanks to a volunteer workforce and a deep sense of pride in what was once an affluent trading hub … Most public utilities are functioning thanks to employees working without pay, and concerned parents have reopened a number of schools on at least a part-time basis to keep their children occupied. The exodus of mainly sub-Saharan African workers since the conflict began has also had a big impact on farming and construction. The rebels are calling on the west to release billions of dollars held abroad by Muammar Gaddafi so they can pay wages. Meanwhile the UN human rights council has extended the mandate of its expert panel investigating abuses in Libya to the end of the year. 10.35am: My colleague Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor, sends this Facebook page monitoring protest in Morocco . . 10.34am: Al-Jazeera just had a report from Saudi Arabia on the first day of protests by female drivers ( see 9.38am ). One woman told the channel: If I can drive a car by myself I do not need to have a male relative drive me … [I will not face] a possible problem from a taxi driver or foreign man; this way I can be safe. A Saudi man called for women to be allowed to drive. He said: If my wife could drive I would be relieved of some of the day-to-day responsibility of things such as school runs. Al-Jazeera reported that conservatives in the kingdom had launched an opposing campaign, with a Facebook site calling on activists to beat up any women caught driving. 9.59am: Over on the Defence and security blog , Richard Norton-Taylor discusses Nato’s lack of civilian casualties so far in the Libya conflict. For all sorts of reasons, including political ones — the need to keep as many Arab nations as possible on side — Nato has to limit civilian casualties to an absolute minimum. And it seems to have succeeded. Though the risk increases as the air strikes continue, the number of civilian deaths appears remarkably low given that Nato planes have been involved in more than 3,000 strike sorties, a significant number though only about a third the number over the same period during the 1999 Kosovo war … Many of Nato’s targets in Libya have been hit by more than one bomb. Most of the civilians killed by Nato strikes, including one which killed 13 people , seem to have been the result of “friendly fire” — Nato bombs hitting rebels. As a result, Gaddafi and his spokesmen have not been able convincingly — so far at any rate — to use civilian casualties as a propaganda weapon. 9.44am: New video of a woman driving in Riyadh today claims to be the first Women2Drive clip of the day. There are likely to be more. The date on the mobile phone appears to confirm that it was filmed today. _ 9.38am: It’s still early but there are already a few reports of women taking to the roads in Saudi Arabia, writes Brian Whitaker. In what seems to have been a night-time excursion before the official start, @FouzAbd tweeted: Only mom is driving and I don’t see any other women driving. But ppl r not harassing us at all Drove all the way from our Uni where we celebrated my sister’s graduation till our house. And then went out again and driving in AlSahafa On our way back home and no one harassed us at all. Even thu some men stared at us Meanwhile, Ana3rabeya tweeted : Some Saudi Men are considering going out for a drive while wearing women’s Abayas to confuse the police! It may be difficult to judge the success or otherwise of today’s action, since it’s not intended as a mass demonstration in a single place – more a case individuals asserting their rights here and there. The authorities will probably claim there has been little response. My guess is that they will arrest a few women, but not so many as to imply that there has been large-scale defiance of the rules. The important thing to keep in mind, though, is that this has never been intended as a one-off one-day protest. The idea is that from today women who have international licences will drive whenever they wish to do so. The real measure of success will be how long it takes the authorities to cave in and start issuing Saudi driving licences to women. 9.15am: The Syrian army is reported to have moved into another town in the north-west of the country as opposition activists set out details of today’s protests. The Associated Press news agency reports : Syrian troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships swept into another north-western city early Friday, just days after laying siege to it, activists said. Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso said large numbers of soldiers entered Maaret al-Numan. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties in the operation. Many of the residents of Maaret al-Numan, a town of 100,000 on the highway linking Damascus with Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, have fled after Syrian forces swept through the north-western province of Idlib last week near the Turkish border. Here’s a map : The opposition group the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said today’s protests will mark three months of an uprising that it says has claimed the lives of 1,600 people. Activists are appealing to the regular army to defect. The LCCS claims: In Deir Azzour and Homs, residents attempted to bring food to the soldiers and to ask that the protests be allowed to continue peacefully. 8.25am: Welcome to Middle East Live on what is set to be yet another key Friday in the Arab spring, six months after Tunisian fruit-seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight, sparking uprisings across the region . Protests are planned today in Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen and women in Saudi Arabia will take on the kingdom’s ban on female driving . The King of Morocco is also expected to unveil reforms to the constitution demanded by pro-democracy activists . Where the Arab spring will end is anyone’s guess , writes the Guardian’s Middle East editor Ian Black, But it is striking how Arab unrest has become a permanent feature of the global landscape. It is unfinished business wherever it is happening. For the moment Syria remains the most volatile country and the key place to watch. The Syria tycoon and opposition hate figure Rami Makhlouf is to give up his business interests , in a move being seen as a sign that the regime is wobbling. Makhlouf, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad is a key figure in the president’s inner circle and a target of protesters’ anger. They frequently chant slogans against him and in March tried to burn down the headquarters of his telecommunications business. His decision comes as thousands of Syrians are again expected to take part in anti-government protests after Friday prayers. Last month in an infamous interview with the New York Times Makhlouf said the regime would fight to the end . Anthony Shadid, who conducted the interview, outlined the significance of Makhlouf’s apparent removal from power . The move, if true, would suggest that Assad was so concerned about the continuing protests that he would sacrifice a relative to public anger. Diplomats also told Shadid that Assad is preparing to address the nation on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Syrian writer Robin Yassin-Kassab argues that Turkey could intervene in the crisis to create a safe haven for refugees in the north that could also act as a rebel base . If many more refugees join the 8,500 who have fled to Turkey, [prime minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan may order a limited occupation of Syrian territory to establish a “safe haven”. That – the regime’s inability to hold a section of the homeland – may prove a tipping point. It could also offer Syria its Benghazi, a base for organised resistance. Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Syria Bashar Al-Assad Tunisia Libya Muammar Gaddafi Bahrain Saudi Arabia US foreign policy Nato Matthew Weaver Paul Owen Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
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Young people also more likely to drink if parents leave them unsupervised, according to Joseph Rowntree survey Children who regularly see their parents drink are twice as likely to binge on alcohol themselves, according to a survey. Youths who are left unsupervised are also more likely to drink, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found. Researchers for Ipsos Mori questioned 5,700 teenagers in England, and found one in four 13 to 14-year-olds had been drunk more than once, compared to just over half of children (52%) aged 15 to 16. Those who said they had seen their parents inebriated were twice as likely to have been drunk several times. And the odds of a teenager having ever had an alcoholic drink are also greater if their parents do not know where they are on a Saturday night or if they are allowed to watch 18-rated films unsupervised. Claire Turner, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “This research shows that parents can have more influence on their teenagers’ behaviour than perhaps many assumed. “Both what parents say and how they behave have a strong impact on their teenagers’ drinking, drinking regularly and drinking to excess.” The survey found the influence of friends was the most significant factor in childhood drinking, as the likelihood of youths drinking to excess more than doubled if they spent more than two nights a week socialising. Spending every night with friends multiplied the odds of drinking heavily more than four times. The report concluded that schools were key to distributing information about drinking. “The findings suggest that efforts to improve drinking behaviour among young people at a national policy level are best directed at supporting and educating parents,” it said. “This should include positive messages for parents about how they can influence their child’s behaviour and stress the importance of parents’ own drinking and what their children see and think about this. “Friends are another key area of influence. Schools could help here by challenging incorrect perceptions about the regularity and scale of heavy drinking by peer groups. “Schools could also be a channel for information, getting targeted messages to parents encouraging actions at specific times in their child’s development.” Diane Abbott, the Labour health spokeswoman, said: “This report confirms that the government’s failure to take real action on alcohol pricing is helping to feed an epidemic of teen drinking. “We should equip young people with the skills they need to resist peer pressure to go out drinking. There are concrete lessons to be learned from overseas, where tried and tested programmes aim to reduce alcohol and substance abuse through classroom-based education. These types of programmes have had excellent success rates.” A Department of Health spokesman said: “Alcohol misuse is a major public health issue. We know that teenagers can be especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of drinking. “For young people and children not drinking is the healthiest and best option.” Children Alcohol Parents and parenting Family guardian.co.uk
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Most complaints dismissed but 130 fully or partly upheld against company that runs three removal centres A security firm that handles immigration detainees received more than 700 complaints last year, according to official figures released under freedom of information. Most common complaints against G4S related to lost property and poor communication but there were 48 complaints of assault, three of which were upheld. Figures provided to the BBC showed there were 773 complaints from immigration detainees against the private company in 2010, of which 130 were found to be fully or partially substantiated. Around 640 were unsubstantiated. G4S said there were only 25 complaints substantiated that related directly to the conduct of its staff. Two complaints of racism were partially substantiated but six were dismissed. The figures showed there were a total of 1,497 complaints between December 2008 and April 2011. The number of complaints in 2010 were up by 240 over the previous year but the proportion upheld fell. G4S runs three removal centres and until recently escorted detainees during deportation. During the two and a half years about 65,000 people passed through the centres. More than half of the complaints related to Brook House, near Gatwick airport in Sussex, which holds convicted foreign criminals awaiting deportation. A spokesman for G4S told the BBC: “Anyone detained within our immigration facilities is given every opportunity to raise concerns about either the treatment they receive from our staff or the services we provide. “The level of substantiated complaints against our employees over the last three years, at 25, is extremely low and of a minor nature, albeit we take each one very seriously. “The vast majority of upheld complaints relate to issues at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre, which houses some of the UK’s most challenging detainees, including a number of convicted criminals, prior to their deportation.” David Wood, of the UK Border Agency, said: “The way that complaints are processed and recorded has been made simpler in recent years, which has led to a rise in recording. “Complaints range from issues about the food served at mealtimes to more serious issues. Importantly these figures show a decrease in substantiated complaints and that the majority of complaints are minor and relate to availability of facilities at the centres.” Immigration and asylum G4S G4S guardian.co.uk
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Life and Times survey shows 73% of Northern Ireland respondents want to stay in UK rather than link up with Dublin Sinn Féin’s campaign for a united Ireland was dealt a severe blow on Friday when a survey in Northern Ireland showed that most Catholics there preferred to remain within the UK. Fifty two per cent of Catholics living in Northern Ireland wanted that union to continue, while 35% said they desired a united Ireland. Overall, 73% of respondents to the Life and Times survey – one of the main polling bodies in the province – said they wished to stay in the UK rather than link up with Dublin. Although both Sinn Féin and the smaller nationalist SDLP party questioned the accuracy of the poll, the Life and Times survey was commissioned by the office of the first and deputy first minister at Stormont, jointly headed by Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson. In successive Life and Times surveys since 2008, a majority of Catholics taking part have indicated a preference for staying in the UK. Over the last few years, the Irish Republic has been perceived to be less attractive to northerners following Dublin’s fiscal crisis and the ongoing recession. An overwhelming number of Protestants in the north of Ireland continue to support the maintenance of the union with Britain. Only 4% of northern Protestants opted for Irish unity in the poll. The results of the survey come as Sinn Féin prepares to launch another push for Irish unity. The party is holding a rally in Dublin this weekend at which its president, Gerry Adams, will put the case for unification The Democratic Unionist party – the single biggest party in the Stormont Assembly – welcomed the Life and Times survey and said it showed that traditional communal loyalties were “crumbling away”. Although a majority of Catholics vote for Sinn Féin, the most robustly pro-united Ireland party on the island, unionist have argued that this does not necessarily translate into support for ending the union. The Northern Ireland Life and Times survey has been carrying out polls tracking political attitudes in the province since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. Sinn Féin Gerry Adams Northern Irish politics Northern Ireland Ireland Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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