Soaring costs and safety doubts post-Fukushima mean India is unwise to plan a doubling of its nuclear plants Japan’s nuclear disaster has fuelled fear and uncertainty among all of the world’s producers of nuclear power. For India, an energy-starved country with big nuclear plans, much is at stake. The wider fear over nuclear power has two main causes. Firstly, although it ranks as a “clean” source of energy, it is accompanied by the terrible shadow of nuclear war and Japan’s last reckoning with nuclear catastrophe 65 years ago at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Secondly, the secrecy that attends all things nuclear has left people not knowing enough to feel confident. The additional fear inspired by the Fukushima disaster will be reflected in soaring costs for nuclear power worldwide, largely owing to demands for improved safety and insurance. Indeed, nuclear plants are prone to a form of panic transference: should a reactor of one design go wrong, all reactors of that type will be shut down instantly around the world. In India, the dilemma is this: it has 20 nuclear plants in operation, with an additional 23 on order. With the country desperately short of power, and requiring energy to grow, concerned citizens are asking if nuclear is still the answer for India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has cautiously announced a “special safety review” of all plants. “Not enough,” say about 50 eminent Indians, who at the end of March demanded a review of the country’s entire nuclear power policy for “appropriateness, safety, costs, and public acceptance”. The group also called for an “independent, transparent safety audit” of all nuclear facilities to be undertaken with the “involvement of civil society organisations and experts outside the department of atomic energy”. Until then, they demanded a moratorium on all nuclear activity and a revocation of recent clearances. This is as explicit as opposition can get. How have other countries reacted? France, a global leader in nuclear power, initially avoided most of the global anti-nuclear concerns. But now it too is promising to upgrade its safety procedures, including a reassessment of the potential effects of natural disasters on nuclear plant operations, conceding that the occurrence of more than one natural disaster simultaneously had not been considered previously. China, which has 77 nuclear reactors at various stages of construction, planning, and discussion, has said that it will embark on a wide-ranging review, but Russia has announced that it will go ahead with its programme. The US has just two under construction on its own territory, despite being the principal exporter of reactors. Meanwhile Denmark, Greece, Ireland and Portugal are strongly anti-nuclear, and Switzerland has stopped all nuclear power projects. All of this will lead to cost evaluation and escalation. According to a study conducted by former Indian government minister Arun Shourie, the price of uranium could rise to $140 per pound, close to its record high. A change of much greater consequence concerns the price of reactors. Pre-Fukushima, a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The Future of Nuclear Power, 2003, as well as a study by researchers at the University of Chicago, established that nuclear energy was 50-100% more expensive than energy from coal or gas. The report by India’s Working Group on Power says the cost of energy production from the country’s coal-based plants is about one-third lower than nuclear power, with gas 50% cheaper. Energy security and public safety should be of equal importance in determining future policy on nuclear power. Indeed, experts like CMA Nayar have said that the Fukushima accident “could have happened even if there was no tsunami”. Nayar suggests that it has long been known that the reactor’s design contained basic flaws, though only the Japanese authorities can verify this. So, what is to be done? Clean energy at a time of global warming is obviously necessary. But so is the safety and security of humans, animals and plants. India has set itself on a path of doubling its nuclear power output. This is deeply troubling, for India’s nuclear supplies almost entirely dependent on imports from manufacturers who refuse liability for any malfunction. So how should India’s energy demands be met? At a minimum, a thorough re-examination and full public debate must precede the construction of any new nuclear plant. Preferably, the entire policy is reassessed, and dependence on nuclear reduced. With nuclear safety suddenly becoming a global imperative, the costs are simply too high to do otherwise. • Jaswant Singh, a former Indian finance minister, foreign minister, and defence minister, is the author of Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence. Copyright: Project Syndicate , 2011 Nuclear power Energy Nuclear waste Waste India Jaswant Singh guardian.co.uk
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Another packed long weekend, with the outdoor season getting underway in Norfolk and festivals kicking off across the country Another long weekend ahead – and while there’s nothing on the scale of last week’s The Passion to tempt you, the theatres are open and there are plenty of shows you should see. In London that list very definitely includes Philip Ridley’s Tender Napalm , a brutally tender dance of love and death at Southwark Playhouse, and Chekhov in Hell at Soho. Although I still haven’t caught up with it, London Road at the National should by all accounts be in your diaries too. At the Roundhouse, Fat Girl Gets a Haircut is a brave and beautiful piece of participatory work made by Mark Storor and a group of teenagers. I’ll be heading to Cambridge over the weekend for Junction Sampled , a two-day festival of performance featuring work from RashDash , Deborah Pearson , The Other Way Works , Non Zero One , Michael Pinchbeck and a raft of interesting theatremakers. Also in Cambridge this week, at the Arts theatre , is the Abbey’s production of Mark O’Rowe’s Dublin story, Terminus, until Saturday, followed by the hugely moving first world war drama Journey’s End . With the High Tide festival of new writing kicking off this weekend and the Norfolk and Norwich festival at the end of the week, there’s a great deal going on in the east of the country. The latter has a number of pieces worth your attention, including Ontroerend Goed’s extremely creepy A Game of You and Hilary Westlake’s Dining With Alice. NNF also marks the start of the outdoor theatre season: Graeae’s take on Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man and Wired Aerial’s As the World Tipped both take my fancy, and can also be seen in other settings over the summer including the Greenwich and Docklands International and Stockton International Riverside festivals. Head further north to Hull for Slung Low’s Mapping the City , a show that – rather like their previous piece, Anthology in Liverpool – has audiences following different stories around a city in a promenade performance. Also of interest is Gary Bridgens and Phill Gregg’s 100-mile performance journey, Vagabonding , following in the footsteps of 1920s showman Walter Wilkinson, which sets out from the historic Piel Island in Cumbria on Tuesday as part of the Lakes Alive programme. That has some good stuff coming up, including Harmonic Fields in early June. If you’re thinking of going to the Manchester International festival , don’t forget that booking for Punchdrunk’s first children’s show, Dr Who-inspired The Crash of Elysium , which opens on Wednesday. Faye Draper invites you to discover what it’s like to be a northern lass in Tea is an Evening Meal , which sets off on tour this week, stopping off at Stockton ARC and Leeds Met Studio. David Morrissey stars in Macbeth at the Liverpool Everyman, while Terry Hands directs The Taming of the Shrew at Clywd Theatr Cymru. This weekend is your last chance for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Northern Stage and Arthur Miller’s The Price at the Stephen Joseph in Scarborough. Over in Northern Ireland, the new Lyric theatre in Belfast reopens with perhaps Arthur Miller’s greatest play, The Crucible , in a production directed by Conall Morrison. In Scotland, the Mayfesto Season at the Tron in Glasgow includes Dead Liberty, an evening of political comedy. On Thursday 5 May the Traverse in Edinburgh hosts an election special called Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia , directed by David Greig and with contributions from Peter Arnott, Rona Munro, Alan Wilkins and others. Mike Bartlett’s My Child can be seen in a double bill with Linda McLean’s One Good Beating at the Arches in Glasgow. Heading south, Metta theatre is in cafes in London and Oxford this week with Pirandello’s The Man With the Flower in His Mouth , and the scurrilously satirical Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett stops off at the Drum in Plymouth. Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s superb The Comedy of Errors makes a guest appearance at the down-but-not-out Northcott in Exeter for a couple of weeks from Tuesday. Idle Motion ‘s delightful account of the early pioneers of flying, The Vanishing Horizon, is at the Theatre in Chipping Norton. On Thursday, Mayfest gets underway in Bristol with a fantastic range of work including Little Bulb and NIE. You really, really don’t want to miss it because it generates a real sense of celebration. Probe’s May , a dance-theatre love story, will be at the festival the following week but stops off at the Place in London this week. Also in London: rare Tennessee Williams with Kingdom of Earth opening at the Print Room; rare JB Priestley with They Came to the City opening at Southwark Playhouse, rare Ibsen with Little Eyolf opening at Jermyn Street in a production starring Imogen Stubbs, who was so good recently in Private Lives in Manchester. All’s Well that Ends Well opens at the Globe and Propeller’s Pocket Dream kicks off the Udderbelly summer season on the Southbank. Bette and Joan at the Arts has Greta Scacchi and Anita Dobson as Davis and Crawford, and Pandora’s Box at Oval House is Ade Solanke’s family story about a British-Nigerian mother on holiday with her son in Lagos. The Union scores another transfer with Darren Murphy’s tale of brothers and blood ties in Irish Blood, English Heart, which goes into Trafalgar Studios 2 . Enjoy your weekend everyone, and let me know what’s catching your eye. Theatre Lyn Gardner guardian.co.uk
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Another packed long weekend, with the outdoor season getting underway in Norfolk and festivals kicking off across the country Another long weekend ahead – and while there’s nothing on the scale of last week’s The Passion to tempt you, the theatres are open and there are plenty of shows you should see. In London that list very definitely includes Philip Ridley’s Tender Napalm , a brutally tender dance of love and death at Southwark Playhouse, and Chekhov in Hell at Soho. Although I still haven’t caught up with it, London Road at the National should by all accounts be in your diaries too. At the Roundhouse, Fat Girl Gets a Haircut is a brave and beautiful piece of participatory work made by Mark Storor and a group of teenagers. I’ll be heading to Cambridge over the weekend for Junction Sampled , a two-day festival of performance featuring work from RashDash , Deborah Pearson , The Other Way Works , Non Zero One , Michael Pinchbeck and a raft of interesting theatremakers. Also in Cambridge this week, at the Arts theatre , is the Abbey’s production of Mark O’Rowe’s Dublin story, Terminus, until Saturday, followed by the hugely moving first world war drama Journey’s End . With the High Tide festival of new writing kicking off this weekend and the Norfolk and Norwich festival at the end of the week, there’s a great deal going on in the east of the country. The latter has a number of pieces worth your attention, including Ontroerend Goed’s extremely creepy A Game of You and Hilary Westlake’s Dining With Alice. NNF also marks the start of the outdoor theatre season: Graeae’s take on Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man and Wired Aerial’s As the World Tipped both take my fancy, and can also be seen in other settings over the summer including the Greenwich and Docklands International and Stockton International Riverside festivals. Head further north to Hull for Slung Low’s Mapping the City , a show that – rather like their previous piece, Anthology in Liverpool – has audiences following different stories around a city in a promenade performance. Also of interest is Gary Bridgens and Phill Gregg’s 100-mile performance journey, Vagabonding , following in the footsteps of 1920s showman Walter Wilkinson, which sets out from the historic Piel Island in Cumbria on Tuesday as part of the Lakes Alive programme. That has some good stuff coming up, including Harmonic Fields in early June. If you’re thinking of going to the Manchester International festival , don’t forget that booking for Punchdrunk’s first children’s show, Dr Who-inspired The Crash of Elysium , which opens on Wednesday. Faye Draper invites you to discover what it’s like to be a northern lass in Tea is an Evening Meal , which sets off on tour this week, stopping off at Stockton ARC and Leeds Met Studio. David Morrissey stars in Macbeth at the Liverpool Everyman, while Terry Hands directs The Taming of the Shrew at Clywd Theatr Cymru. This weekend is your last chance for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Northern Stage and Arthur Miller’s The Price at the Stephen Joseph in Scarborough. Over in Northern Ireland, the new Lyric theatre in Belfast reopens with perhaps Arthur Miller’s greatest play, The Crucible , in a production directed by Conall Morrison. In Scotland, the Mayfesto Season at the Tron in Glasgow includes Dead Liberty, an evening of political comedy. On Thursday 5 May the Traverse in Edinburgh hosts an election special called Welcome to the Hotel Caledonia , directed by David Greig and with contributions from Peter Arnott, Rona Munro, Alan Wilkins and others. Mike Bartlett’s My Child can be seen in a double bill with Linda McLean’s One Good Beating at the Arches in Glasgow. Heading south, Metta theatre is in cafes in London and Oxford this week with Pirandello’s The Man With the Flower in His Mouth , and the scurrilously satirical Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett stops off at the Drum in Plymouth. Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s superb The Comedy of Errors makes a guest appearance at the down-but-not-out Northcott in Exeter for a couple of weeks from Tuesday. Idle Motion ‘s delightful account of the early pioneers of flying, The Vanishing Horizon, is at the Theatre in Chipping Norton. On Thursday, Mayfest gets underway in Bristol with a fantastic range of work including Little Bulb and NIE. You really, really don’t want to miss it because it generates a real sense of celebration. Probe’s May , a dance-theatre love story, will be at the festival the following week but stops off at the Place in London this week. Also in London: rare Tennessee Williams with Kingdom of Earth opening at the Print Room; rare JB Priestley with They Came to the City opening at Southwark Playhouse, rare Ibsen with Little Eyolf opening at Jermyn Street in a production starring Imogen Stubbs, who was so good recently in Private Lives in Manchester. All’s Well that Ends Well opens at the Globe and Propeller’s Pocket Dream kicks off the Udderbelly summer season on the Southbank. Bette and Joan at the Arts has Greta Scacchi and Anita Dobson as Davis and Crawford, and Pandora’s Box at Oval House is Ade Solanke’s family story about a British-Nigerian mother on holiday with her son in Lagos. The Union scores another transfer with Darren Murphy’s tale of brothers and blood ties in Irish Blood, English Heart, which goes into Trafalgar Studios 2 . Enjoy your weekend everyone, and let me know what’s catching your eye. Theatre Lyn Gardner guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Britain’s queen has dubbed her grandson the duke of Cambridge, making Kate Middleton the duchess of Cambridge, Buckingham Palace officials announced shortly before the wedding procession was to begin. It’s customary for royal couples to be granted new names at the time of their marriage, notes AP . Observers believe Kate…
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Organisations allocating European Union money to boost local economies have been abolished in rush to cut spending, MEPs say Some of England’s poorest areas risk losing millions of pounds in EU development funding as a result of government cuts, it has been claimed. Labour MEPs and the shadow European minister, Wayne David, said almost £1.5bn of funding for English regions from the 2007-2013 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) had not yet been allocated to projects. Labour claims spending cuts, along with the abolition of regional development agencies (RDAs), means the government may not be putting in the funding necessary to unlock millions of pounds of EU cash. The EU money is allocated to projects that boost local economies and infrastructure, and is supposed to be targeted at areas most in need of support. The fund has previously financed initiatives including the Eden Project, in Cornwall, and the redevelopment of Liverpool’s docks. But David claimed organisations that hold responsibility for distributing the money and for finding ways of identifying the government and private sector cash needed to access the matching Brussels cash had been abolished without the consequences being thought through. The Labour MEP Glenis Willmott added: “This is just another example of the government’s cuts hitting the poorest hardest. “This EU cash was intended to give a boost to areas facing some of the toughest economic conditions in the country,” she said. “It is supposed to be about sowing the seeds for growth and more jobs. “But thanks to the government’s rushed-through programme of cuts, it looks like English towns and cities could be missing out. “By cutting investment in economic growth, George Osborne is effectively stealing millions in EU cash from the areas that need it most. We want a cast-iron government commitment to ensure that communities won’t be denied this EU money because of government cuts.” Labour’s European spokesperson on EU regional funding, Derek Vaughan MEP, said: “Last year, the European commission blocked ERDF payments to Britain because of concerns about how the scheme was being administered. “Those concerns have now been allayed and payments continue – but now they could be under threat once again because of the government’s changes. “Despite attempts by ministers to reassure local government leaders on this issue, there are still very important questions that have been left unanswered. It is still unclear how the government intends to ensure that match funding will be available to access EU money. “We still don’t know how the government will ensure local accountability in the way project money is allocated. And we still don’t know how funding programmes will be monitored to ensure they do actually boost the local economy. “Without answers to these questions, there are real dangers that EU money could be lost.” RDAs are being abolished as part of a cost-cutting measure, although the short-term costs of closure through redundancies will be £460m by 2015. The government has said the department of communities and local government will take over responsibility for what it admits is complex day-to-day administration of the ERDF. Ministers have set up a £1bn regional growth fund aimed at stimulating private-sector job creation by focusing on cities where private-sector demand is high. But critics claim ERDF and the government regional growth fund are not seeking to do the same thing. The government has said that administration of EDRF funding will move to the department for communities and local government, but has provided little detail about how this will happen. Development Liberal-Conservative coalition European Union Public sector cuts Public finance Regeneration Communities Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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At least five people wounded as thousands take to streets calling for fall of Assad regime in defiance of ban on demonstrations Syrian security forces opened fire on a demonstration on Friday in the coastal city of Latakia – the heartland of the ruling elite – wounding at least five people as thousands took to the streets in several places across the country, witnesses said. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has stepped up its deadly crackdown on protesters in recent days by unleashing the army along with snipers and tanks. On Friday protesters came out in their thousands, defying the crackdown and using it as a rallying cry. A witness in Latakia said about 1,000 people turned out for an anti-government rally when plainclothes security agents with automatic rifles opened fire. He said he saw at least five people wounded. Like many witnesses contacted by the Associated Press, he asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal. Other demonstrations were reported in Banias and in the north-eastern city of Qamishli. The government had warned against holding any demonstrations on Friday. Syrian state television said the interior ministry had not approved any “march, demonstration or sit-ins” and that such rallies sought only to harm Syria’s security and stability. Many of the protests were held in remembrance of more than 50 people killed in the last week alone in Deraa, a southern city at the centre of the revolt. Deraa has been under military siege since Monday when thousands of soldiers stormed in backed by tanks and snipers. A devastating picture has been emerging from the city – which is largely sealed off, without electricity and telephones – as residents flee to neighbouring countries. On the Jordanian side of the Syrian border several Deraa residents who had just crossed over said there was blood on the streets of the city. “Gunfire is heard across the city all the time,” one man said, asking that his name not be used for fear of retribution. “People are getting killed in the streets by snipers if they leave their homes.” An AP reporter at the border heard gunfire and saw smoke rising from different areas just across the frontier. Residents said the gunfire had been constant for three weeks. Since the uprising in Syria began in mid-March, inspired by revolts across the Arab world, more than 450 people have been killed nationwide, activists say. The Muslim Brotherhood urged Syrians to demonstrate on Friday against Assad – the first time the outlawed group has openly encouraged the protests in Syria. The Brotherhood was crushed by Assad’s father, Hafez, after staging an uprising against his regime in 1982. “You were born free so don’t let a tyrant enslave you,” said the statement, issued by the Brotherhood’s exiled leadership. Assad has said the protests – the gravest challenge to his family’s 40-year ruling dynasty – are a foreign conspiracy carried out by extremist forces and armed thugs. But he has acknowledged the need for reforms, offering overtures of change in recent weeks while brutally cracking down on demonstrations. Last week Syria’s cabinet abolished the state of emergency, in place for decades, and approved a new law allowing peaceful protests with the permission of the interior ministry. But the protesters, enraged by the mounting death toll, no longer appear satisfied with the changes. “The people want the downfall of the regime,” said an activist in the coastal city of Banias – echoing the cries heard during the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to troublespots since the uprising began, making it almost impossible to verify the dramatic events shaking one of the most authoritarian, anti-western regimes in the Arab world. Witnesses and human rights groups said Syrian army units clashed with each other over following Assad’s orders to crack down on protesters in Deraa, where the uprising started. While the troops’ infighting in Deraa does not indicate any decisive splits in the military, it is significant because Assad’s army has always been the regime’s fiercest defender. It is the latest sign that cracks are developing in Assad’s base of support. About 200 mostly low-level members of Syria’s ruling Ba’ath party have resigned over Assad’s brutal crackdown. Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Protest guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A bomb ripped through a tourist cafe in the center of Marrakesh, killing at least 15 people in Morocco’s worst terrorist attack since 2003. The victims were foreign nationals, including six French citizens and a Canadian couple with roots in Morocco’s tiny Jewish community. The attack was carried out by…
Continue reading …London police have arrested three people who were planning a very different kind of royal wedding celebration. The trio of anti-monarchy activists—one of whom was dressed as an executioner—had planned to mark today’s ceremony with a mock execution of a royal, reports the Guardian . Police seized a working…
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Impetus for Egyptian-style uprising increases as soldiers stage Kampala crackdown after opposition leader’s arrest Riots have swept across the Ugandan capital, Kampala, as protesters called for an Egyptian-style uprising against their autocratic president. At least two people were killed and more than 100 wounded after soldiers fired live bullets and tear gas and beat demonstrators with sticks. Civilians fought back, blocking roads with burning tyres and pelting vehicles with rocks. The growing unrest – sparked by rising food and fuel prices – gained fresh impetus after the brutal arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye on Thursday. But President Yoweri Museveni, who was been in control for a quarter of a century, has met the protests with a show of force. His military police were accused of attacking innocent spectators on Friday. One victim could be seen lying in a pool of blood, apparently after being shot in the head at a local market. In the Karwerwe neighbourhood, police chased a teenager, Andrew Kibwka, with heavy wooden sticks and rained blows on him. “I thought the police were going to kill me,” he said minutes later, his arm bruised and a finger bleeding. “I was telling them I’m harmless, but they just carried on. I did nothing to provoke them. They beat me because I was running away.” The 18-year-old added: “I’m in pain all over my body. The police are being too brutal. I think Uganda will get worse if the president does not resign.” A minibus, a taxi and other vehicles that tried to travel up the street were pelted with stones. Then soldiers in armoured vehicles appeared and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, and people ran away in panic. Standing at a market, Robert Mayanja, who described himself as an activist, said: “What they are doing now shows that Museveni rigged the last election. “If you look at Uganda, why should we vote for him after 25 years? We have high prices, we have hospitals without medicine. Is there anything to vote for?” Mayanja, 31, said a repeat of the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia was “definitely” possible. “What we are seeing here are people who are not armed but are taking a stand against armed forces,” he added. “People are ready. It’s just a question of time. “We know they are going to arrest many people and put them in torture chambers. We know this regime has expired. These are the signs.” Eric Mbiro, a 20-year-old student, agreed: “We are tired of this government because of the price of commodities,” he said. “There is no presidency in Uganda. The president rules the country like his own home. He is a dictator. We need change.” But he was more sceptical about the prospects for an uprising, saying: “We will not manage to do what they did in Egypt because people here are poor. There is too much poverty in Uganda.” Military police fired live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas at numerous burning barricades blocking the main road out of Kampala to the international airport in Entebbe and sprayed adjacent residential areas with bullets. Shell casings littered the main road, tear gas hung in the air and security forces beat local residents. In Ntinda, angry youths shouted and hurled stones and chunks of concrete at passing cars. On one corner, a man ran up to a council vehicle as it drove by and smashed the driver’s window with a rock, raising cheers from onlookers. A coded sign language is already in place. Motorists who hold two fingers aloft in a “v for victory” symbol, showing they support the rebellion, are allowed to pass unharmed, but a single raised thumb is interpreted as a pro-Museveni gesture. Roads were blocked by rocks, cones, debris and burning tyres. A bare-chested man lay face down on the grass, his head being bandaged by Red Cross medics. An eyewitness said the man had been the victim of an unprovoked attack. “The military police were making people clear the road, and this boy worked for 30 minutes,” Timothy Ssenfuma, a 35-year-old electrical engineer, said. “He said he wanted to go, but they beat him on the head and back until he collapsed. They were also beating up even women and young ladies just to clear the road. “They are killing innocent Ugandans who are not even involved in the uprising. We appeal to the rest of the world to help Ugandans as they have in Libya and elsewhere.” A teacher, who gave his name only as Nixon, claimed the security forces had launched an indiscriminate attack, saying: “The military police came and started beating up people. “Some had to run away and others had to fight back to defend their friends. People have terrible anger at the way they were treated.” The 32-year-old said he could not imagine an Egypt-like revolt in the short term. “But in the long term, I believe it can happen,” he added. “The military is still strong and many of the soldiers are unwilling to turn to the side of the people. But, in time, they might get tired of beating the people. “I really look forward to it. As your friends are beaten and arrested, the professionals need to come out and organise the people.” Red Cross official Richard Nataka said more than 100 injured people had been taken to five centres, including 78 , of whom 10 had gunshot wounds, at the Mulago Hospital. He said one person had died and a pickup truck brought in a second body shortly afterwards. Red Cross vehicles were arriving at the Mulago Hospital every few minutes with more casualties. Besigye has held five “walk to work” demonstrations against rising prices and what he calls a corrupt government. On Friday, demonstrators carried posters praising Besigye, and asked why police needed to use violence to arrest him. Besigye has been released on bail, but is said to be in poor health and still unable to see after pepper spray was fired into his eyes. Uganda Protest Arab and Middle East unrest David Smith guardian.co.uk
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Local and welfare concerns over planning applications lodged for first intensive rabbit farms since 1990s, Guardian can reveal Planning applications for at least six rabbit battery farms have been lodged with local authorities. The intensive farms, which would be the first for rabbits in the UK in 15 years, have been proposed at sites from Nottinghamshire to Cornwall. Each would house up to 1,100 animals in wire cages stacked three high in windowless barns. The rabbits would be sent to slaughter for their meat at 12 weeks old. The developer, Philip Kerry of T&S Nurseries in Grantham, Lincolnshire, told the Guardian that the farms would be “very green and very sustainable”. He said: “The environment will be light and airy, with lots of space in there, and the cages are 18% bigger than required [by law]. And we hope to retire the does after four to five years and give them away as pets, if there is the demand.” The decision on three planning applications are imminent, in Fiskerton , Granby and East Bridgford , all in Nottinghamshire. A proposal for a site near Truro, Cornwall , was refused after the parish council objected and another at Barnack, Cambridgeshire, was also rejected, on the grounds that it would lead to the loss of agricultural land. The outcome of an application for a farm at Gresham in Norfolk appears to have been withdrawn. Kerry claimed he already had three applications for rabbit battery farms granted, but refused to say where they were, saying: “I don’t want to be unpopular everywhere.” The plans come amid controversies over other large intensive farms for pigs and cows. An application for a “mega farm” housing up to 25,000 pigs near Foston, Derbyshire, has been resubmitted to the county council after being withdrawn from the district council in January . The company, Midland Pigs Producers, had used lawyers Carter-Ruck to threaten libel proceedings over an objection lodged by the organic farming trade body the Soil Association . In February, a proposal for a Lincolnshire “super dairy” housing nearly 4,000 cows was withdrawn after objections from the Environment Agency and 1,600 objections lodged with local planners. Michele Danan, at campaigners Compassion in World Farming , said: “It’s time for us to be banning these cruel systems, not to be introducing them. I don’t think that the public will be in favour when they learn that this friendly and inquisitive animal, regarded by many as favourite furry pets, is going to be deprived of their basic rights – to be free from pain or mental suffering.” Some local people have concerns about increased traffic and disposal of waste. “I don’t think there’s any need, and it’s not kind,” said Tracy Annable, who lives a couple of hundred metres from one proposed farm in Fiskerton, Nottinghamshire. “They are moving away from battery farming in chickens, so it seems like a retrograde step.” The proposed rabbit farms would be the first in Britain for at least 15 years. Previous farms closed down, undercut by foreign rabbit farms with lower welfare standards, particularly in eastern Europe. What has changed, according to Kerry, is the ability to produce lower cost feed. The facilities would include a hydroponic pond in which barley grass would be grown, providing 60% of the rabbits’ diet. Grain would provide the rest, and Kerry said his company would mill its own dry feed, saving more money. Each of the battery farms would contain 280 cages, containing 250 does and 30 bucks. The doe would share the 110cm by 60cm cage with her seven to nine kittens until they reached five weeks of age. At that point, said Kerry, the young rabbits would be housed on the floor of the barn with access to an outdoor run measuring three by nine metres. The does would remain in the cages and be “retired” at four to five years old, when their productivity drops. Kerry said 3,000 tonnes of rabbit meat was eaten each year in Britain, virtually all of imported. Most of his rabbits would be New Zealand whites, bred for meat, but some Angora rabbits would be kept for their fur. Kerry argued that, per kg of meat, rabbits consumed much less grain than cattle. Danan said the cages were too small to allow the rabbits to move around normally by hopping or running or to get any meaningful exercise. Bare wire floors, she said, led to painful sores on the footpads and hocks of the animals and a barren environment could lead to rabbits developing abnormal behaviours such as excessive grooming and in the worst cases, cannibalism. “Our information shows that in these intensive systems, rabbits can be so starved of any stimulation, that out of sheer frustration they eat each others’ ears – not an image many of us would want to have in our heads when eating a stew or wearing an angora jumper,” said Danan. The land on which planning permission is being sought for the farms is owned by a company called BCH UK Ltd, which is listed at Companies House as a development and real estate business, and is owned by Kerry. He said he had not kept livestock before, but wanted to find an additional use for the horticultural nurseries and vineyards run by T&S Nurseries. That company, named on the planning applications, was dissolved in September 2010 . Farming Animal welfare The meat industry Animals Planning policy Local government Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk
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