More than 230 members of Syria’s ruling Ba’ath party resigned in protest today over the government’s violent crackdown on protests, even as the UN failed to condemn the massacre, the Guardian reports. The death toll from the crackdown has now reportedly climbed to at least 500. But Russia, Lebanon, and…
Continue reading …In a sign of increasing wariness among Facebook’s earliest investors, a group of shareholders is looking to dump $1 billion worth of shares in the social networking company. The sale would value Facebook at more than $70 billion, five sources tell Reuters . The group, which includes Facebook employees, tried and…
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Excitement builds among the ‘real mixture of people’ travelling to the capital by coach for the big day, discovers Adam Gabbatt Marjorie Williams and her sister, Vera Ogden, became firm friends with Margaret Thompson 16 years ago through a shared passion for dancing. “First ballroom, then sequence, and now line dancing too,” Williams said . The group travel to London together around three times a year on “girly trips”, but this is special. They are here for the royal wedding, and they have come prepared with a wide range of union flag-emblazoned apparel. “I’ve got my little flags, and my full one I’m wearing as a cape, and my hat, and I’ve got a purple feather I’m going to stick in it,” Williams, from Salford, said as she displayed the items. “I’ve told me family: ‘You won’t see me but you’ll see me hat.’ I’ve even remembered my knicker elastic to keep my hat on.” Willams, 71, and Thompson, 74, from Irlam, near Warrington, boarded a coach to London in central Manchester at 7.30am on Thursday morning. They were joined by Ogden, 72, in Stockport, one of several pick-up points on a trip they booked within days of William and Kate announcing their betrothal. “I rang Marge to ask her about booking to come down,” said Thompson. “And she’d booked this trip already. “We’ve left the men at home,” she added. “Well, they moan too much,” Williams said. “They only walk a couple of miles then they get tired.” The group were travelling on a National Holidays coach trip, which included travel to the capital, four nights’ stay at the Europa hotel near Gatwick airport, and travel into Victoria, close to Buckingham Palace, on the morning of the wedding. Martin Lock, commercial director at National Holidays, said there was a “real mixture” of people who had signed up to the six royal wedding trips the company was running. “There are some families, there’s more mature clients but there’s younger clients as well.” He said one enthusiastic young monarchist had booked the trip to celebrate their 21st birthday, although the crowd on the Manchester to London voyage on Thursday was distinctly more mature. The driver, Roger Morgan, revealed a recent disappointment to the Guardian at the first pick-up point in Manchester. It turned out that his efforts to decorate the coach in regal garb had been thwarted by his wife’s over-exuberance. “I sent her out to get us some bunting,” Morgan lamented in a thick Sunderland accent. “But she came back with two huge flags.” He shook his head. “They were just too big.” Mrs Morgan’s flags may have failed to make the trip to London, but she needn’t have worried about the coach looking bare. In Stockport, telephone engineer Darren Berry clambered on board, and promptly affixed a union flag tea towel, customised with a black marker pen to read “Royal Wedding 2011″, to the back window. He agreed to share his double-sided sticky tape with Williams, Thompson and Ogden, but at a price. “What’s it worth?” Berry said. “Do I get a kiss?” No kisses were forthcoming, but perhaps it was for the best given Berry was travelling with his wife, Elena Berry, and her best friend, Ulyana Martysemko. “These two are both from the Ukraine,” he said. “To have the excitement of saying we’ve been to the royal wedding – we’re all just really excited.” Berry (at 37, one of the younger travellers on the coach), said he could remember two big state events in his lifetime: the 1977 silver jubilee and Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981. “And this is like that,” he said, adding: “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.” A staunch monarchist, he said the royals “did a really good job for their country. All of them work, even Charles works. I don’t think people appreciate that.” A stop at motorway services just south of Birmingham provided further opportunity for coach decoration, most of the back half becoming adorned with flags fixed to the windows. With refreshments passed round, the talk turned to family history. Sisters Anne Harrey, 61, and Margaret Houghton, 64, who live in Glossop and Preston respectively, have London roots, and were keen to return to them. “Our family lived in Stratford, and our nana ran a pub in Hackney and knew the Krays,” Harrey said. “I’m really excited. I wanted to be there and now we’re almost there.” As one might expect from a royal wedding coach trip, the support for the monarchy was unflinching across the board. “I’m old fashioned, I like the royal family, but my sons don’t feel the same,” Harrey said as she tucked into a blackcurrant and liquorice boiled sweet. “They said: ‘What you going there for, they’re not even royal any more’.” Harrey said her attempts to involve her partner, David Smith, in royal wedding festivities had been ignored. “He didn’t want to know, so I thought: ‘Right, I’ll go with my sister.’” Houghton, ears perhaps burning, broke off from a chat about musical tastes (“I used to tell my husband I’d leave him for Cliff Richard”) to support her sibling. “She (Kate) looks lovely though, doesn’t she?” she added. “I think it’s good these two have had a normal life, they’ve been out to pubs and everything.” After a singsong – Rule Britannia, led by Williams – and a widespread nap, the conversation inevitably turned to Princess Diana. As the coach approached London, Jacqueline Coldrick, who was travelling with her 76-year-old mother, Hazel Oakley, joined the discussion with a comment that won general approval. “She [Diana] would have been beside herself, she would have been so happy,” Coldrick, 55, said to nods, respectful flag-waving and murmurs of agreement. “She would have been like a big sister to [Kate]. She would have been so proud.” Oakley broke the introspective moment that followed. “They stand a better chance than Charles and Di though,” she said quietly. “It’s a love match, that’s for sure. And she’ll be watching from up there.” Royal wedding Monarchy Weddings Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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GP Howard Stoate, who stood down at last election, says claim that he supported NHS reforms was ‘entirely misleading’ Howard Stoate, the former Labour MP who left parliament to return to work as a GP, has attacked David Cameron for citing his support for the government’s controversial health bill. The claim was made during heated exchanges on Wednesday that saw Cameron tell a female shadow cabinet member to “calm down, dear”. Stoate, the former MP for Dartford, writes in the Guardian that doctors do not “glibly accept every aspect of the health bill; it clearly has many inherent problems”. He says Cameron “should stop using the health service as a political football and allow GPs to get on with the job of improving health services”. “I [had] said many GPs were enthusiastic about the chance to help shape services for patients,” he writes. “I was referring to GPs in my own borough of Bexley, south London, and qualified this by saying GPs in the borough had a head start, building on their experience of commissioning over the last four years. Taken out of context, and interspersed with condescending comments to backbench MPs, Cameron’s quote is entirely misleading.” With senior Labour figures claiming that the the prime minister lost his cool because he has lost “the argument over the NHS”, the intervention by Stoate – the only practising GP to serve in parliament when he stood down at the general election – robs Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, of a line of attack: that the government reforms had high-profile defenders in the medical profession. Writing on his blog , Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications and strategy, said that Cameron was rattled over the dispatch box because of the unpopularity of the coalition’s health reforms. “On the NHS, the government’s reform plans are not thought through, not popular with those who run the NHS or those who use it, and politically toxic, not least because they have no mandate for them,” says Campbell. Read Howard Stoate’s article David Cameron NHS Labour Conservatives Health Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …GP Howard Stoate, who stood down at last election, says claim that he supported NHS reforms was ‘entirely misleading’ Howard Stoate, the former Labour MP who left parliament to return to work as a GP, has attacked David Cameron for citing his support for the government’s controversial health bill. The claim was made during heated exchanges on Wednesday that saw Cameron tell a female shadow cabinet member to “calm down, dear”. Stoate, the former MP for Dartford, writes in the Guardian that doctors do not “glibly accept every aspect of the health bill; it clearly has many inherent problems”. He says Cameron “should stop using the health service as a political football and allow GPs to get on with the job of improving health services”. “I [had] said many GPs were enthusiastic about the chance to help shape services for patients,” he writes. “I was referring to GPs in my own borough of Bexley, south London, and qualified this by saying GPs in the borough had a head start, building on their experience of commissioning over the last four years. Taken out of context, and interspersed with condescending comments to backbench MPs, Cameron’s quote is entirely misleading.” With senior Labour figures claiming that the the prime minister lost his cool because he has lost “the argument over the NHS”, the intervention by Stoate – the only practising GP to serve in parliament when he stood down at the general election – robs Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, of a line of attack: that the government reforms had high-profile defenders in the medical profession. Writing on his blog , Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications and strategy, said that Cameron was rattled over the dispatch box because of the unpopularity of the coalition’s health reforms. “On the NHS, the government’s reform plans are not thought through, not popular with those who run the NHS or those who use it, and politically toxic, not least because they have no mandate for them,” says Campbell. Read Howard Stoate’s article David Cameron NHS Labour Conservatives Health Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
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Twelve dead and three wounded after rebel unit guarding city’s port came under attack, reports say A Nato airstrike has killed 12 rebel fighters and injured three others in a friendly fire incident in the Libyan city of Misrata, according to local doctors and one of the survivors. The attack occurred at about 5pm on Wednesday evening close to the port, which is the lifeline for the besieged city and has been under attack from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Nato, which had been conducting strikes in the area, has not commented on the incident. Speaking from his hospital bed, rebel fighter Ahmed Swesi, 20, said his 15-strong unit was gathered next to a small building near a salt factory. The area is about 10 miles from the city centre. The men, who had been transferred from their position in the city centre to guard the port, had three improvised battle wagons with them, each equipped with a heavy weapon. “We had a message from Nato to paint a special mark on top of our vehicles so we could be identified, which we had done,” he said. “We had also obeyed an order from our military council not to go beyond a certain point. So we thought we were safe from bombs.” The fighters had just finished having tea with an ambulance crew when they suddenly heard a strange whizzing noise in the sky that did not sound like Gaddafi’s missiles. “I immediately lay down on the ground. But most of the others were still looking up when the bomb struck,” said Swesi. Twelve of the men, who were aged between 20 and 40 and had become “like brothers” after spending two months together since the start of the uprising, were killed instantly. Three others were taken to hospital. Swesi, who had been preparing to go to university when the revolution started, lost four fingers, and his leg and arm were shattered. He had shrapnel wounds to his stomach and face. Dr Ali Ahmed, a neurologist at Hikma hospital where many of the victims were taken, confirmed the death toll. Khalifa al-Zwawi, a judge who heads Misrata’s transitional council, said he was still investigating the incident, but said thatthe fault appeared to be with the rebels. “The coordinates we gave Nato [of our positions] were correct,” he told the Guardian. “It seems that our freedom fighters may have exceeded the limits that we gave them.” The incident was the second friendly fire incident in Libya involving Nato, after one of its planes fired on a rebel convoy in the east of the country a few weeks ago causing several deaths. The majority of residents in Misrata strongly support the Nato mission, which has destroyed a chunk of Gaddafi’s heavy artillery that pounded the city for weeks. But they now fear the incident could reduce Nato’s willingness to act again. Rebels guarding checkpoints near where the incident occurred refused to let journalists visit the site. Swesi said his group had been very happy when Nato attacked several of Gaddafi’s vehicles and weapons on Tuesday, effectively ending the assault on the port: “I forgive them for what they did because they are trying to help our people. We want Nato to help us more.” At a press conference before the accident was made public, Ibrahim Bitalmal, a member of Misrata’s military council, said there was “close co-ordination” between the rebel commanders and Nato. Using a map downloaded from Google Earth, he showed how Gaddafi’s forces had been removed from the city centre after weeks of fierce house-to-house battles, and were now concentrated in farmland near the airport to the south of Misrata. Zwawi said: “We have managed to achieve victories every day and defeated them out of the city centre and far away … We will set Tripoli free very soon.” On the western flank of the city where most of the fighting is concentrated, loyalist troops are gradually being pushed back along the road to the capital. In Zawit al-Majoub, a satellite town about eight miles west of Misrata, rebels had liberated much of the town, including the main highway, whose adjacent buildings had been occupied by Gaddafi’s snipers. Libya Nato Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …After President Obama released his long-form birth certificate yesterday, the media went ballistic over the “bombshell.” But, noted Jon Stewart last night , “Wouldn’t the bombshell have been him not being from America? Isn’t this more of a non-shell?” Stewart was particularly interested in Donald Trump’s reaction: “Trump’s made Obama’s citizenship…
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It’s been a long, at times lazy, road but the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 hints at a little belated magic JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books are a guilty pleasure without all that much guilt, a stupefyingly English series of stories that somehow avoid harnessing the worst aspects of petty-minded Anglo-Saxon snobbery. Yet the film series, with notable exceptions , has largely failed to capture the richness and depth of the books. Up until the last instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, I’d pretty much given up on expecting anything beyond bland mediocrity from David Yates’s extended tenure in charge. Watching the film again earlier this week, however, it struck me that the decision to split the book in two – while clearly motivated by studio suits’ desire for one last payday before the series is done – had made for a rather more rounded product than we’ve seen from a Harry Potter film for some time. Ahead of the arrival of the first trailer for part two, which has just hit the web, it’s worth remembering that part one proved to be something of a slow-paced, existential treat. The action segues are thrillingly depicted, but it’s the long, drawn-out sequences in which the teenage wizards mull over where to begin their quest to destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes that stick in the mind. Released from the straitjacket of the series’ usual format, the book always seemed to be a rather unwieldy, distinctly downbeat affair, and yet the same set of circumstances contrived to set the film version free. In particular, I defy anyone not to be swept away by the bravura animated sequence presented to explain the origin of the Hallows. Rowling’s book seemed punctuated with far too many items of significance for one story, yet Yates’s film made the introduction of yet another set of MacGuffins seem like the most natural thing in the world. Almost as importantly, Emma Watson seemed to have suddenly learned how to act. Does Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 “work” as a standalone movie? To be honest, probably not. But then neither did Kill Bill part one – another film enlivened by a standout animated sequence – and Quentin Tarantino’s movie remains one of his best. Perhaps we’ll only discover quite how much the requirement to shrink Rowling’s books down to feature length damaged the films when the inevitable TV iteration arrives in a few years’ time. Imagine an HBO-produced small-screen series: what a prospect that would be. Will part two complete what would be a more-than-decent final fling for the Potter films? At this point it’s still tantalisingly hard to tell, as the trailer inevitably concentrates on the action sequences and Potter’s climactic battle with Voldemort. Nevertheless, there are hints of the first film’s pleasingly off-balance, uneasy tone in a jerky, dissonant opening. The boy wizard has grown up, and Yates seems to have gambled on his readers also having matured: certainly these later films seem gauged more towards a patient audience happy to soak up the full swell of the story, rather than just the more obvious flashpoints. There remains a lot about the Harry Potter series of films that is regrettable, notably the rather safe choice of directors (Alfonso Cuarón excepted), and some lazy casting early on in the series. But as the end comes into sight, a full decade after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone hit cinemas, we might just be safe in girding our loins for a little belated magic. Dumbledore knows it’s taken long enough to get here. Harry Potter Harry Potter JK Rowling Emma Watson Daniel Radcliffe Science fiction and fantasy Ben Child guardian.co.uk
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