Veteran Nepalese members of British army challenging Ministry of Defence over pensions disparity British Gurkhas are taking their battle for equal pension rights to the European court of human rights. After winning a battle championed by actor and campaigner Joanna Lumley for equal rights of UK residence, the veteran Nepalese members of the British army are challenging the Ministry of Defence over their pension arrangements. The British Gurkhas Welfare Society (BGWS) said it was turning to the Strasbourg court after being rebuffed in a test case in the UK. The legal battle is over the fact that Gurkhas who retired before 1997, despite having won the right to settle in the UK after Lumley’s campaign, continue to receive far smaller pensions than their British and Commonwealth counterparts. A case launched by the BGWS ended with the court of appeal backing the MoD, and the supreme court last December refused the Gurkhas permission to appeal further. The next step is a legal challenge in Strasbourg for allegedly breaching the Gurkhas’ human rights. The BGWS chairman, Tikendra Dal Dewan, a retired army major, said on Monday: “We have taken this step reluctantly but with the knowledge that not pursuing legal options further would effectively put a nail in the coffins of many veterans. It is desperately sad that, after many years of committed and courageous service, these old soldiers cannot find justice within the UK’s borders – and it should be to the government’s shame that the continuing poverty they face goes uncorrected.” The organisation says many elderly veterans, in the UK and Nepal and particularly those who retired before 1997, face “desperate poverty”. In May 2009 the Labour government announced that Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. However, the former soldiers will have to wait years for a hearing and verdict in their pensions case as the Strasbourg judges are not expected to consider their claim until late 2012 at the earliest, with a final verdict due in 2013 or 2014. Gurkhas European court of human rights Human rights Military Europe guardian.co.uk
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From an illicit Pixies gig to a Mesopotamian ziggurat, Guardian critics recall their biggest moment of inspiration in their respective fields Pop: Alexis Petridis Can any gig you see as a critic ever match the ones you saw as a teenager? Bizarrely, going to a gig when I was 17 was harder work than writing reviews has ever been. It involved not merely getting to London, but lying to my parents about where I was going, lying to my friend’s parents about where my parents thought I was going, bunking off school, and then convincing somebody who looked 18 to go to the bar on my behalf. But none of that mattered the night I saw the Pixies supported by My Bloody Valentine, in September 1988. It’s not every night you see arguably the two most important guitar bands of the era on the same stage at the peak of their powers: the Pixies had just released their incredible second album, Surfer Rosa , while My Bloody Valentine had released the astonishing single You Made Me Realise . It says something about the pre-internet age that, before they walked on, I had no idea what the Pixies looked like. I didn’t expect the guy who sang all those dark songs about sex and violence to be chubby and balding. This was nothing compared to the shock of their sound: a ceaseless roar, with the next song starting as the last chord of the previous one was still dying away. I remember that gig in snapshots. Two roadies having to hold on to My Bloody Valentine’s drumkit as Colm O’Cíosóig hit it with such ferocity that
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PC Simon Harwood is accused of killing Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in 2009 PC Simon Harwood, the Scotland Yard police officer accused of killing Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests is to stand trial at the Old Bailey in October. Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller, collapsed and died on the fringes of the demonstrations in central London on 1 April 2009. Harwood was bailed until 17 October for a plea and case management hearing when he appeared at City of Westminster magistrates court charged with manslaughter. The 44-year-old, who appeared in the dock with his arm in a sling, spoke only to confirm his age, name and address. More details to follow… Ian Tomlinson Metropolitan police Police G20 London guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …PC Simon Harwood is accused of killing Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in 2009 PC Simon Harwood, the Scotland Yard police officer accused of killing Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests is to stand trial at the Old Bailey in October. Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller, collapsed and died on the fringes of the demonstrations in central London on 1 April 2009. Harwood was bailed until 17 October for a plea and case management hearing when he appeared at City of Westminster magistrates court charged with manslaughter. The 44-year-old, who appeared in the dock with his arm in a sling, spoke only to confirm his age, name and address. More details to follow… Ian Tomlinson Metropolitan police Police G20 London guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …PC Simon Harwood is accused of killing Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in 2009 PC Simon Harwood, the Scotland Yard police officer accused of killing Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests is to stand trial at the Old Bailey in October. Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper seller, collapsed and died on the fringes of the demonstrations in central London on 1 April 2009. Harwood was bailed until 17 October for a plea and case management hearing when he appeared at City of Westminster magistrates court charged with manslaughter. The 44-year-old, who appeared in the dock with his arm in a sling, spoke only to confirm his age, name and address. More details to follow… Ian Tomlinson Metropolitan police Police G20 London guardian.co.uk
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Thousands of school and college students prepare to join public sector strikes against cuts on 30 June Thousands of school and college students are expected to stage walkouts this month as part of a growing wave of occupations and demonstrations planned to support the co-ordinated strike action organised by trade unions. Students behind last year’s demonstrations against cuts to post-16 education are mobilising in schools and further education colleges as part of a wider campaign to turn 30 June into a national day of action against the government’s austerity programme. The move follows the announcement this week by the direct action group UK Uncut that it would be joining picket lines and staging a “public spectacular” in London to coincide with the industrial action. Michael Chessum from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, one of the student groups behind last year’s protests, said: “It was the student movement before Christmas that really kicked many of the major unions into action, and we’ll be there again in force on 30 June. One of the successes of the student movement was that we abandoned passive, A-to-B marches in favour of direct action in the streets and on campuses. Mass strike action is the logical extension of that. We’re not here to protest; we’re here to actively resist.” More than 750,000 public sector workers from major unions including the Public and Commercial Services Union, the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lectures are expected to take part in this month’s industrial action. The strike, which will be the largest in the UK for several years, is expected to bring schools, colleges, universities, courts, ports and jobcentres to a standstill, and comes as millions of staff face pay freezes, job losses and pension reforms. Activists say the wider campaign of demonstrations, occupations and walkouts will build a broad coalition of people opposed to the government’s programme of cuts and has been inspired, in part, by protests across Europe over recent months – particularly those in Spain and Greece. As part of the preparations, anti-cuts groups have held a series of “J30 assemblies” across the country under the “generalise the strike” slogan, to plan events and mobilise support. Over the next few weeks, assemblies will be held in Birmingham, London, Leeds, Newcastle, Norwich, Sheffield and Sunderland. Another group, Right to Work, says it has organised more than 40 events to coincide with the strikes. One of the organisers of the J30 assemblies, Alex Long, said they had been strongly influenced by protests held in Spain last month. “We want to approach this whole 30 June strike day in a more general way, to use it as a general day of action against the cuts,” he said. In London, activists say they are planning a number of direct action campaigns on 30 June, with events in the City of London and Westminster, including Oxford Street. There is also a call to occupy Trafalgar Square and a Facebook page calling for people to join a “black bloc” protest (the black bloc being the group blamed for smashing up shops during the TUC demonstration in March ). Tens of thousands of students from further education colleges and schools took part in last year’s demonstrations against the rise in tuition fees and the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, and activists hope many will walk out of classes at the end of this month. Campaigners have been leafleting colleges and schools, calling on students to hold meetings, make contact with teachers who are union reps and organise walkouts on the day. Protest Trade unions Schools Students London Further education Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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More than 40 miles of dykes in Lanxi city close to overflowing, potentially affecting more than 20,000 people More than 40 miles (70km) of dykes are close to overflowing in a city in eastern China, the country’s flood authority said on Monday, a day after a senior official warned a critical point had been reached in battling seasonal floods . Heavy rains pounded Zhejiang province over the weekend and the level of a river that passes through Lanxi city has risen sharply, said Zhao Fayuan, deputy director of the flood control headquarters. The level of the Lanjiang river has now hit 110 feet (34m), the highest since 1966, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Several sections of the dykes in Lanxi city are barely holding, Zhao said. More than 20,000 people could be affected if the dykes are breached, he said. The country’s flood control headquarters advised Lanxi officials to relocate all residents near the dykes that are at risk of overflowing, and to repair them immediately. Flooding in eastern and southern China this month has triggered landslides, cut off power and telecommunications and left more than 180 people dead or missing. Another five people were killed on Sunday and one remains missing after surging floodwaters swept them away in their south-western villages, Xinhua said. China’s minister for water resources said on Sunday that the country was entering a crucial period as severe floods triggered by heavy rains threaten southern areas. It is likely that more frequent and more intense downpours will continue, Chen Lei told a meeting in Beijing to discuss flood-control measures, Xinhua reported. He urged local authorities to improve weather forecasting and ensure dykes, reservoirs and dams are safe. However, while the deadly flooding continues, a persistent drought is still plaguing five provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river. It has left 630,000 people without safe drinking water and affected 11.9m acres (4.8m hectares) of farmland, Chen said. China Flooding Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
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RMT union members walked out on Sunday, with further strikes planned for next week London Underground has said a good service is running on all Tube lines despite an earlier strike in protest over the sacking of a driver. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union walked out for six hours from 9pm on Sunday. Longer strikes that would hit the Wimbledon tennis championships are planned for next week. The RMT is calling for the reinstatement of the driver Arwyn Thomas, who is waiting to hear from an employment tribunal whether he has won his claim of unfair dismissal. LU said a good service was operating on all 11 lines on Monday morning, with only “minor service alterations” on Sunday night, with all last trains running to time. LU’s managing director, Mike Brown, reiterated his call for the RMT to await the outcome of the employment tribunal process. “This strike action has not achieved anything, and I once again call on the RMT leadership to calmly await the outcome of the employment tribunal without any further strikes,” he said. “I have given the RMT leadership a written assurance that if the tribunal rules that we should reinstate or re-engage Arwyn Thomas, then we will do so. I give that assurance again now, so there can be no justification whatsoever for the RMT to continue to threaten Londoners with more pointless strike action.” The RMT leader, Bob Crow, said the strike had kept the case in the spotlight, while the union had complied with the legal obligations under employment law. He said: “It is now down to London Underground to do what we have been calling for all along – and that is to put this injustice right and agree with us a mechanism for getting Arwyn back to work in advance of the next phase of action.” London Transport Trade unions Bob Crow Tube Lines Rail transport guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Every time Rory McIlroy lined up a shot today, there was some sort of record on the line, some kind of history to be made. That was this year’s US Open version of suspense. There was never any doubt that the kid from Northern Ireland was going to win it….
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New system will go far beyond .com and .net and allow names in different languages and scripts The internet naming board Icann has decided to allow the number of internet “domains” to expand enormously in one of the biggest changes ever to the internet’s method of naming sites. New website suffixes should start appearing late in 2012 and could be categorised by subjects including industry, geography and ethnicity and include Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. A special meeting of Icann’s board approved a plan to expand the number of possible internet domain name endings from the current 22 – such as “.com”, “.org” and “.net” (which are separate of the country-specific domain endings such as “.uk”) – to allow domains “in any language or script”, according to Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive of Icann. “Today’s decision will usher in a new internet age,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN’s board of directors. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration. Unless there is a good reason to restrain it, innovation should be allowed to run free.” But the move could also create enormous confusion for consumers and companies. It greatly expands the risks from “phishing” sites because they could use confusing domain names in language scripts that look similar to existing ones to capture peoples’ details. And for companies, the challenge will be to decide whether to register their names in all possible domains, or to create their own suffix, or to limit themselves to a small number of domains. The need for a larger number of global top-level domains – gTLDs – has become increasingly obvious with the expanding number of languages being used on the internet and the shift towards IPv6, a new numbering system for internet addresses that enormously expands the number of devices that can be connected directly to the net. Icann’s decision follows years of discussion and debate, and went through more than seven revisions. Icann insists that strong efforts were made to address the concerns of all interested parties, and to ensure that the security, stability and resiliency of the internet are not compromised. The move is the biggest change to the internet’s domain naming system since “.com” was introduced 26 years ago, which opened out the formerly academic and military system to commercial use. Icann will receive applications for new domain names for 90 days from 12 January 2012. The fee is $185,000, and the form for application is 360 pages long. It will also begin an awareness campaign pointing out that it has introduced the new scheme. Internet Web 2.0 Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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