Ruling by freedom of information tribunal follows request three years ago by all-party group The Ministry of Defence has been ordered to disclose its involvement in the US-led rendering of terror suspects seized in Iraq and Afghanistan to prisons where they were likely to be abused or tortured. In a move that should break official secrecy surrounding the practice, the Information Rights Tribunal has rejected MoD claims that providing the data would be too costly and damage Britain’s international relations. The tribunal, which hears disputes arising from Freedom of Information Act disclosure requests, says it was “difficult to see how any responsible government … with whom we have friendly relations could take offence at open disclosure” of the terms of agreement or arrangements over the practice “to ensure that the law is upheld”. It adds: “Unless cogent evidence is adduced to show why a particular government would have strong concerns about disclosure of such information as we are here considering, we would be minded to conclude that no case of prejudice to international relations would be made out. If, on the other hand, there was such a case, then the public interest in disclosing the terms of those arrangements becomes that much more pressing and weighty.” The tribunal’s ruling came in response to a request, made three years ago by the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, chaired by the senior Conservative backbencher, Andrew Tyrie. It follows allegations by Ben Griffin, a former member of the SAS, that detainees captured by British special forces had been transferred to US forces under whose authority they had been tortured or unlawfully removed from Iraq. An internal MoD review concluded in 2008 that there was no evidence of unlawful rendition. A year later, it admitted that two detainees captured by British forces in Iraq had been rendered to a notorious jail in Bagram in Afghanistan. “For closure on rendition we need disclosure. One way or another, the truth will eventually come out,” Tyrie said. ” Unless the MoD decides to appeal, this judgment will add to the drip-drip of information on rendition in recent years. Far better for us to get to the bottom of this quickly, to learn the lessons and to move on.” David Cameron last year asked Sir Peter Gibson, a former appeal court judge and intelligence services commissioner, to investigate whether Britain was involved in the improper treatment of detainees held by other countries. However, he also said “military detention operations” in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2003 would be investigated separately by the MoD. The parliamentary extraordinary rendition group objects to what it calls an arbitrary cut-off date. Tyrie has written to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, saying that earlier guidance to intelligence officers involved in interrogating detainees abroad, and the committee’s view of it, have not been published. That did not inspire public confidence in ISC investigations, Tyrie says. Terrorism policy Defence policy Freedom of information US foreign policy United States Global terrorism Iraq Afghanistan Middle East UK security and terrorism Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ruling by freedom of information tribunal follows request three years ago by all-party group The Ministry of Defence has been ordered to disclose its involvement in the US-led rendering of terror suspects seized in Iraq and Afghanistan to prisons where they were likely to be abused or tortured. In a move that should break official secrecy surrounding the practice, the Information Rights Tribunal has rejected MoD claims that providing the data would be too costly and damage Britain’s international relations. The tribunal, which hears disputes arising from Freedom of Information Act disclosure requests, says it was “difficult to see how any responsible government … with whom we have friendly relations could take offence at open disclosure” of the terms of agreement or arrangements over the practice “to ensure that the law is upheld”. It adds: “Unless cogent evidence is adduced to show why a particular government would have strong concerns about disclosure of such information as we are here considering, we would be minded to conclude that no case of prejudice to international relations would be made out. If, on the other hand, there was such a case, then the public interest in disclosing the terms of those arrangements becomes that much more pressing and weighty.” The tribunal’s ruling came in response to a request, made three years ago by the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, chaired by the senior Conservative backbencher, Andrew Tyrie. It follows allegations by Ben Griffin, a former member of the SAS, that detainees captured by British special forces had been transferred to US forces under whose authority they had been tortured or unlawfully removed from Iraq. An internal MoD review concluded in 2008 that there was no evidence of unlawful rendition. A year later, it admitted that two detainees captured by British forces in Iraq had been rendered to a notorious jail in Bagram in Afghanistan. “For closure on rendition we need disclosure. One way or another, the truth will eventually come out,” Tyrie said. ” Unless the MoD decides to appeal, this judgment will add to the drip-drip of information on rendition in recent years. Far better for us to get to the bottom of this quickly, to learn the lessons and to move on.” David Cameron last year asked Sir Peter Gibson, a former appeal court judge and intelligence services commissioner, to investigate whether Britain was involved in the improper treatment of detainees held by other countries. However, he also said “military detention operations” in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2003 would be investigated separately by the MoD. The parliamentary extraordinary rendition group objects to what it calls an arbitrary cut-off date. Tyrie has written to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, saying that earlier guidance to intelligence officers involved in interrogating detainees abroad, and the committee’s view of it, have not been published. That did not inspire public confidence in ISC investigations, Tyrie says. Terrorism policy Defence policy Freedom of information US foreign policy United States Global terrorism Iraq Afghanistan Middle East UK security and terrorism Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The real culprit behind American unemployment? The iPad, says congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.: It’s “probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs.” Just look at Borders’ bankruptcy, he noted on the House floor on Friday: “Why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go…
Continue reading …
Series of storms that hit states from Oklahoma to North Carolina left at least 45 people dead and caused widespread damage A US nuclear power company has disclosed that one of the tornadoes that hit the US at the weekend, killing at least 45 people and causing widespread damage, forced the shutdown of two of its reactors. The series of tornadoes that began in Oklahoma late last week barrelled across the country, with North Carolina, where 22 people died, the worst-hit state. The US nuclear safety regulator said on Mondayit was monitoring the Surry nuclear power plant in Virginia. Dominion Virginia Power said the two reactors shut down automatically when a tornado cut off power to the plant. A backup diesel generator kicked in to cool the fuel. The regulator said no radiation was released and staff were working to restore electricity to the plant. The tornadoes were among the worst in the US in the past two decades. Last year, 10 people died in a tornado in Mississippi, while 57 were killed in North and South Carolina in 1984 and 330 across the south in 1974. Two of the survivors of this year’s storms, Audrey McKoy and her husband Milton, who live near Raleigh, North Carolina, told the Associated Press they had seen the tornado bearing down on them over the tops of pine trees. At a nearby farm, winds were lifting pigs and other animals into the sky. “It looked just like The Wizard of Oz,” McKoy said. They took shelter in their laundry room. After they emerged, disorientated, they realised that the tornado had turned their mobile home around. The national weather centre in Raleigh issued detailed descriptions of the tornadoes and their paths of destruction. One of them, with winds greater than 100mph, destroyed trees, ripped off roofs and wrecked power lines. It hit Shaw University in Raleigh and then strengthened to 110mph. “Snapped trees crashed on to and through numerous homes all along the path. It is in this area where three fatalities were reported when two mobile homes were thrown 30 to 50ft [nine to 15 metres]. Nearly all of the mobile homes in the park sustained some type of damage,” the weather report said. Thousands of workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the national disaster organisation, are being deployed in North Carolina to assess the damage. The North Carolina governor, Bev Perdue, interviewed on the NBC Today programme, said the storms had ripped through homes as if they were made of paper. United States Natural disasters and extreme weather Oklahoma North Carolina South Carolina Virginia Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
• Almost 75% of universities have opted for maximum fees • David Willetts says measures will empower students • New NUS president concedes defeat in battle to oppose policy Almost three-quarters of universities that have announced their tuition fee plans have opted to charge the maximum £9,000 for at least some of their degree courses from 2012. English universities hoping to charge more than £6,000 a year have until Tuesday to submit their plans to the government’s access watchdog, the Office for Fair Access (Offa). The average fee of those that have made their plans public currently stands at £8,679.20. It comes as universities minister David Willetts argues that the coalition’s decision to slash the teaching grant will remove the “privileged inner circle” of institutions backed by direct state funding and open up higher education to competition. Willetts says the shift from the teaching grant to tuition fees will empower students as well as enabling private universities to enter the higher education market on a level footing. In an article for the Guardian’s Comment is free site , Willetts writes: “This … shift, by removing the privileged inner circle that gets teaching grant and instead allocating money via fees and loans, opens up HE to a wider range of providers doing things differently. ” And universities will get their money by focusing on the teaching experience for students, which has been their greatest weakness.” The teaching grant will be cut from £4.6bn to £2bn by 2014. Newer universities say they are worst affected by the reduction in funding as they are less able to offset their teaching losses with research income. Many have cited the loss of teaching income in their rationale for charging the maximum £9,000 fee. Willetts argues that behind the “sticker price”, many students will be charged much less than the maximum. “If you look behind the headlines, the reality is that lots of students will not face fees anything close to £9,000 a year – including at the most prestigious universities.” The minister gives the example of Warwick’s £9,000 fee, which is reduced by half with the fee waiver or bursary offered by the institution to students whose families have incomes below £25,000. Willetts says the “fixation” with the maximum figure conceals the diversity within universities and across the sector, citing Derby’s decision to cap prices at £7,995, and Portsmouth and Leeds Met at £8,500. The government has said fees of more than £6,000 will be allowed only in “exceptional circumstances”. Willetts initially predicted that the average fee would be £7,500. He later revised that to £7,500-8,000. A total of 60 universities or university colleges have now declared their tuition fees, with at least 70 yet to do so. Of the 60, 41 said they wanted to charge £9,000 for all their courses. They range from Oxbridge to the University of East London, which came second from bottom in the Guardian’s latest university league table. Several universities are charging a range of fees. These include London Metropolitan, where charges range from £4,500 to £9,000, and Coventry (£4,600-9,000). A fee of £9,000 for at least one of their courses will be imposed by 45 of the 60 universities. Every university in the Russell group, which represents large, research-intensive universities, intends to charge £9,000, bar two that have not yet announced their fee levels: Bristol and the London School of Economics. Every university Three universities in the 1994 group, which represents small, research-intensive universities, have yet to announce how much they want to charge – York, the University of East Anglia and Goldsmiths. But every other member of the group wants to charge £9,000. Birkbeck College, University of London, specialises in part-time courses and will charge £4,500-6,750. Many of the newest universities have not yet announced their proposed fees. However, Coventry is one of several institutions to offer a range of fees. It will charge £4,500 for part-time degrees that are taught in the workplace, while its business studies and English degrees will cost £7,500. Degrees that require studio space or field trips, such as fine art, music and geography, will cost £7,900, while courses that require hi-tech equipment, such as media production, will cost £8,300. The university’s most specialist courses, such as fashion, will cost £9,000. The latest universities to declare their fees include Bradford, which plans to charge £9,000, and Northumbria, which is proposing £8,500. Willetts’ defence of the fees strategy comes as the newly elected president of the NUS, Liam Burns, concedes that the battle over tuition fees has – for now – been lost. Also writing for Cif , Burns says “the debate on how to fund education is sadly largely irrelevant until the wholesale removal of public funding is reversed”. Instead, the “first challenge” for the NUS will be to fight the prospect of a cut in student places. Business secretary Vince Cable warned recently that institutions regarded by ministers as overpriced could have places withdrawn. Burns, who takes over from current president Aaron Porter in July, expressed regret over what he described as “significant mistakes” in the campaign against fees. The student movement split after the NUS leadership took several days to endorse direct action, such as occupations of university premises. Burns writes that the NUS “made the wrong call”. “When students peacefully occupied their university buildings, NUS was not clear enough how and if we could support that action; when protests were being organised outside the structures of NUS itself, a certain arrogance implied that the national union had a monopoly over any campaigning relating to education funding; and when the police were baton charging and kettling our members, NUS was too slow to criticise those tactics publicly,” he writes. Burns describes the new fees system as being in “complete chaos” as universities flock towards the maximum fee. Offa will announce which universities’ plans it has approved by 11 July. Tuition fees Higher education Students David Willetts Education policy Further education University funding Jessica Shepherd Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Latest opinion poll, carried out three weeks before AV referendum, suggests opinion against alternative vote system is hardening Support for a change to the way in which MPs are elected is collapsing, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll. The figures give the No campaign a 16-point lead, compared with a two-point lead for the Yes campaign in the equivalent Guardian/ICM poll, carried out in February. Conducted less than three weeks before the UK votes, the poll suggests opinion against the alternative vote is hardening as both sides squabble over the implications of change. The poll is the first for two months to be carried out by telephone using a random sample rather than an online panel, and the results have been adjusted to take account of turnout. Uniquely for the Guardian, the poll also includes a sample of voters from Northern Ireland, which is included in the UK-wide referendum. ICM posed the same question that will be asked in the referendum: “At present, the UK uses the first past the post system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the alternative vote system be used instead?” The results will make depressing reading for Yes campaigners, who began the year with high hopes. A December Guardian/ICM poll last year put the Yes vote six points ahead before adjusting for likely turnout. In February, the two camps were neck and neck on the same measure, and now – again before turnout is taken into account – the No vote is 11 points ahead. Pro-AV campaigners had hoped people who wanted change would be more likely to turn out on polling day. Instead, once people are asked how likely they are to vote, the lead for the Nos increases. Among people who say they are likely to vote and have made up their minds, the No lead is now 16 points, with 42% saying yes and 58% no. Three-quarters of Conservatives are planning to vote will vote against, as will a small majority of Labour supporters. Only Lib Dem voters are firmly in favour, with more than two-thirds saying they will vote for the change. The Yes camp could still turn things around by winning over the 23% who say they do not know how they will vote, but this includes many people who say they may not turn out at all. Young people are more than twice as likely to favour AV as pensioners, but pensioners are more than twice as likely to vote as the young. Increasing youth turnout could determine the outcome. Ahead of the elections, which will take place in Scotland and Wales for devolved administrations and in England for many local councils, Labour has also regained a narrow lead over the Conservatives. The estimated national voting intentions put Labour on 37%, up one. The Conservatives are on 35%, down two, and the Lib Dems on 15%, down one but still higher than in most online polls. Support for other parties stands at a combined 13%, a recent high in ICM surveys. That includes 3% each for the Greens and Ukip and a combined 5% for the Welsh and Scottish nationalists. • ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,033 adults across the United Kingdom aged 18+ by telephone on 15-17 April 2011. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. Voting intention based on British sample of 1,003 people. Alternative vote Electoral reform AV referendum Opinion polls Julian Glover guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …An American robot sent into the crippled nuclear reactor buildings at Fukushima Dai-ichi has detected radiation levels too high for workers to enter, more than a month after a quake and tsunami crippled the plant, reports the AP . Reactor Unit 1 measured 49 millisieverts per hour, and Unit 3 reached…
Continue reading …
Mixing New York scuzz and west coast shimmer, this washed-out J Mascis purveys wondrous chill-grunge Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida. The lineup: Uno Yu-No (music, production). The background: What’s that over there? Is it a boy? Is it a band? No, it’s Unouomedude. A boyband – as in, one boy who does everything a band does, on his own, not a bunch of prancing karaoke muppets in Top Shop dummy threads . A one-man-band, if you will, although not one of those you used to see in the 60s clunking down the road, carrying a guitar and a tambourine and a drum on his back, looking like a collision with a junk shop . No, this is a modern variant on the all-singing, all-performing paradigm. As it says on his Bandcamp: “All songs written, recorded and produced by Uno Yu-No.” The songs, which he’s been posting on the world-famous internet since last summer, are pretty decent, and posit Jacksonville, Florida as a viable alternative home of woozy chill-pop. You can sort of tell that Black Kids came from there. Less immediately discernible is that it was the birthplace of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Then again, what Unouomedude does (try saying that when you’re stoned or hammered, or both) is so much faster and thrashier – and guitarier – than chillwave it requires a new name, even if that name is probably not “chill-boogie” or “chill-punk”. The single, Frequency, comprises just two chords, but they do the trick, enhanced by our old friend reverb and Yu-No’s fey, faux-bored vocals. It’s equal parts New York scuzz-rock and west coast shimmer, with shades of Vaccines and some ooh-oohs like an off-tune Mike Love that make a mockery of the notion of perfect harmony. The flip, Frequency II, is more than just a variant on the alternate-take-of-A-side, with its quasi-churchy, chanty multi-tracked vocals and varispeed handclaps. It’s a bit Witch, a bit Salem. Teens is grunge-lite, like Dinosaur Jr on a diet playing an anorexic Freak Scene. Nightlight, too, essays a kind of chill-grunge with a washed-out J Mascis in charge. It skitters along at a brisk pace but the chord change on the chorus suggests sadness, regret, longing, all the classics. Buildings has an enervated energy all its own, while Birthday Party is Drums-style high-school hop-pop revisited. Quite different is Dream Home, which features dizzyingly looped synths worthy of Oneohtrix Point Never and the sardonic euphoria of MGMT. Our favourite by some distance, however, is Icarus , a collaboration with Police Academy 6 – not the mirthless “comedy” franchise but yet more wondrous purveyors of surftronica. It’s so good, so listlessly lovely, you’d almost forgive Yu-No, whoever he really is, if he turned up on Police Academy 7 pleasuring the commandant . The buzz: “Bands like Wavves and No Age might come to mind off the bat, but Uno separates himself by exploring realms far outside lo-fi or punk with a hand of subtlety that doesn’t come easy” – inyourspeakers.com . The truth: He hits the right Frequency, even if his name sounds like a bad teen comedy starring Ashton Kutcher . Most likely to: Cast a spell. Least likely to: Spell his real name. What to buy: Frequency is released tomorrow on Old Flame . File next to: Russian Futurists, Flaming Lips, DOM, Vaccines. Links: unouomedude.com . Tuesday’s new band: Loick Essien. Pop and rock Indie Paul Lester guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Apple share falls less quickly as Google operating system takes over – but Windows Phone has barely sold half of the 2m handsets shipped, say new figures Nokia is suffering dramatic falls in market share worldwide, and RIM has seen a calamitous fall in its US sales – while the Android mobile operating system is streaking past rivals in almost every developed country to become the dominant player everywhere. New figures provided exclusively to The Guardian by Kantar WorldPanel Comtech shows Nokia’s market share for smartphones dropping from 10% to just over 1% in the US over the past six months, meaning it sold only about 160,000 top-end devices there. The story is the same for the troubled Finnish phone manufacturer in every country over a 12-month or six-month period, with a collapse in market share that bodes badly ahead of its quarterly financial results due this Thursday. The story is no more encouraging for RIM, which according to Kantar has seen a huge fall in the number of sales in the US, the world’s biggest smartphone market. There its share has fallen from 32.5% in June 2010 to just 10.6% in March 2011, meaning that it only sold an estimated 1.4m devices there. Apple is also being rapidly eclipsed by Android devices, though Kantar notes that the introduction in the US of its iPhone to the Verizon network provided an uplift to sales, so that it actually increased its market share there. But in other countries, notably the UK, Germany, France and Japan, the iPhone saw double-digit falls in market share – which could mean that even if it is selling more phones, it is not growing the number as quickly as the market is expanding. Meanwhile Microsoft’s Windows Phone launch has made barely a ripple, with the company’s share of the market falling in every country as the last of its previous-generation Windows Mobile phones are phased out. Kantar’s figures suggest that only 1m Windows Phone devices were sold since they launched – around half the number that Microsoft has repeatedly said have been “shipped”. “The key underlying trend is that Android is growing in every country,” said Dominic Sunnebo, consumer insight director for Kantar. “Windows Phone handsets have had virtually no impact on the market; until Nokia starts to produce versions of them, I don’t think that we are going to see anything, because there’s no key reason why you could choose one over an iPhone or Android phone – those can already do everything you might want to do with a Windows Phone handset.” Sunnebo warned that Apple faces serious dilution of its market share unless it expands its handset range quickly. “The lesson of Android is that if you release enough handsets, they are going to sell. It’s hard for Apple to compete against that if they’re only producing one new handset per year, especially when the growth in this market is among the low-end devices. Apple is profitable in the developed markets such as the US, but if you look into the future, at countries like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, there’s no way that they can get serious penetration there because of the import duties adding to the sheer cost of the phone. Places like that are where [Nokia's] Symbian is dominant, and that’s where Android is getting to be dominant now.” Rumours have circulated for some time that Apple will try to expand its iPhone offering to take in low-end buyers, as it did when it expanded into the cheaper end of the digital music player market with its iPod mini in 2004. But at that time it controlled the music player market – a situation that doesn’t apply with mobile phones. RIM faces problems because the ASP (average selling price) of its handsets is falling as it tries to expand sales – which keeps revenues strong but cuts profits. “They’ve realised that they can’t compete with Apple and they’re struggling against Android,” said Sunnebo. Meanwhile Windows Phone faces a difficult transition period while it waits for Nokia to make its move, announced in February, to bury Symbian on smartphones and replace it with Windows Phone . The Guardian has forecast that Nokia will not be selling any Windows Phone devices before October , when Microsoft is expected to release a substantial upgrade to the OS, codenamed “Mango”, with enhanced functionality that should put it on feature parity with iOS and Android’s present capabilities. Kantar produces its figures from a global consumer panel, carrying out around 1m interviews per year in Europe alone. It tracks mobile phone purchasing and other behaviour. The data provided excludes enterprise sales. Smartphones Android Apple iPhone Nokia Microsoft Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
The Strokes went sci-fi, Lauryn Hill wrapped up for the winter, and even Danny DeVito was there. Here’s all the action from this year’s Coachella
Continue reading …