Libyan rebels are reporting what looks to be the biggest incidence of friendly fire since the conflict began. They say a NATO airstrike mistakenly hit rebel vehicles near the city of Brega, killing at least 13 anti-Gadhafi fighters, reports Reuters . A rebel spokesman called it “regrettable” but said the airstrikes…
Continue reading …How to keep your composure when a public reading goes south. Plus, why does everyone assume that women can only write about themselves? One of the unexpected consequences of publishing a
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Samuel Tomlinson to appear before magistrates on Monday charged with attempting to kill Chloe West An 18-year-old man has been charged with the attempted murder of a teenager who was stabbed near the gates of a secondary school in Stourbridge. West Midlands police said Samuel Tomlinson, from the Sedgley area, would appear before magistrates in Dudley on Monday charged with attempting to kill Chloe West and wounding one of the 14-year-old’s fellow pupils. Chloe, who suffered wounds to her upper body and face outside Ridgewood High School in Stourbridge on Friday, was discharged from Birmingham Children’s Hospital this afternoon after undergoing surgery. Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Too many guests and too little space used to leave Tobias scratching his head, but that was before Morag of the Marsh came to the rescue We’ve got a chronic shortage of shelters here and have many more people wanting to come than we can accommodate. I
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Recording of YouTube sensation by singing binman and doctors’ cult hero MC NxtGen was funded by Unison His musical attack on Andrew Lansley’s plans for the NHS has become a viral sensation on the web. But the story behind the rise of Sean Donnelly, aka MC NxtGen, to the status of cult hero among the nation’s surgeons, doctors and nurses has remained something of a mystery. Now the Observer can reveal that the 22-year-old singer was given his helping hand by the health workers’ union, Unison. Donnelly and his girlfriend, an occupational therapist and member of the union, contacted officials with the idea three weeks ago. The union insists that the words to the track are those of Donnelly, who is a binman by day, but admit that they were so impressed by his lyrics that they funded the recording and a film clip. The result has capitalised on strong opposition to the government’s proposed reforms, with David Cameron expected to announce a delay this week in the publication of the health and social care bill until after local elections on 5 May. The prime minister is said to be increasingly worried about public opinion against change, demonstrated by the popularity of Donnelly’s rap. By yesterday, a week since his clip was posted on YouTube, it had received 200,000 hits. Donnelly, from Loughborough, has now been contacted by BBC3 to feature on a forthcoming programme, and Channel 4 has asked him to write a rap on the subject of the royal wedding. “It has been a hectic week,” said Donnelly. “I have got a few TV meetings lined up for next week – it’s good, really good. I did the rap first and then thought Unison might be able to back me up so I got my girlfriend to put it through to them and they really liked it and got me the place to film it. It took about a day and a half. I don’t think it cost much because Tom the video guy doesn’t charge much. “I did the lyrics myself, went on the internet, did some research and put it together like a jigsaw and made it funny. And it has just spread.” Filmed in Ash Field school, a special school for the physically disabled in Leicester, and eschewing the traditional hiphop themes of bling, booty and babes, Donnelly’s three-minute rap about the Department of Health’s white paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, is personally dedicated to the secretary of state for health. “Andrew Lansley, greedy, Andrew Lansley, tosser,” runs the rap, over a sample taken from the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun. “The NHS is not for sale, you grey-haired manky codger!” But if Donnelly is far from polite, he has certainly done his research. “So the budget of the PCTs, he wants to hand to the GPs/ Oh please. Dumb geeks are gonna buy from any willing provider,/ Get care from private companies.” Later, he adds: “We’ll become more like the US/ and care will be farmed out to private companies,/ who will sell their service to the NHS via the GPs/ who will have more to do with service purchase arrangements than anything to do with seeing their patients.” He is now trying to release the track on iTunes. Lansley was moved to comment. “We will never privatise the National Health Service,” he said. “But I’m impressed that he’s managed to get lyrics about GP commissioning into a rap .” Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: “We want to use every means to let people know about the damage it will cause to the NHS.” Andrew Lansley Rap Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Get Disney on the line. While conducting last-ditch search and rescue efforts off the northern coast of Japan, the coast guard discovered what might be the world’s most resilient dog, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Rescuers spotted him atop the floating debris of a house that had washed away, and…
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Carmakers plan for parts shortage as global impact of earthquake and tsunami takes hold Honda could be forced to halt production at its car plant in Swindon next month as the repercussions of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami reach British factories. At a crunch meeting this week, the Japanese carmaker will agree a plan on how to tackle the growing shortage of key components such as satnavs. Executives will discuss a range of options, including a temporary closure of the Swindon plant, which employs about 3,000 staff, or a period of reduced production. The plant makes about 165,000 Civics, CR-V compact SUVs, and Jazz superminis a year and is braced for a shortage of electronic, electrical and brake parts. Each car comprises about 20,000 parts, 10% to 15% of which come from Japan. A Honda spokesman said: “All scenarios are a possibility. There will be an impact, although it won’t be till May. We don’t yet know what to do to get around the issue, but a decision will be made some time this week.” Honda is by no means alone, with car manufacturers around the world expecting interruptions to production as component shortages spread worldwide. Toyota’s UK plants in Burnaston, near Derby, and in north Wales are to continue a ban on daily overtime and fortnightly Saturday shifts imposed around the middle of last month, while a Nissan spokesman said the group was “constantly monitoring the situation in the UK and all over its operations”. The shortage of parts in the UK is expected to become increasingly significant over the next month, since many components from Japan take six weeks to arrive. Paul Everitt, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said: “The disruption in Japan will have an impact on the UK motor industry, but the scale and timing remain very uncertain.” Initially, carmakers had hoped that most component manufacturers in Japan would be up and running in time to ensure minimal interruptions to overseas supplies. However, in the past fortnight it has become increasingly apparent that the damage and power shortages in Japan will have an impact overseas. Professor ManMohan Sodhi, an expert in supply chain management at Cass Business School in London, said: “There has been an aftershock in car manufacturing that mirrors the aftershocks from an earthquake. They may be smaller, but they are still significant.” In Japan, the economic damage caused by the crisis is already evident. Sales of new vehicles plummeted by 37% in March, the biggest monthly decline since 1974. Although none of the major car manufacturers suffered serious damage to factories, most cannot return to full operation until at least mid-May. Toyota had to halt production at all 18 of its plants in Japan immediately after the earthquake, although two have since reopened to produce a limited number of Prius and two other hybrid models. Honda said it would resume making parts for export markets tomorrow, with production due to restart at all its Japanese factories seven days later – but only at half their original capacity. The firm has not said when manufacturing will return to normal. Nissan, which estimated that its production fell by 55,000 vehicles in March, said it would resume normal operations by mid-April at all but one of its assembly plants. The exception is a factory in Iwaki, north-east Japan, located just 50km from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Honda Automotive industry Japan disaster Japan Tom Bawden Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Ministers taken by surprise as department is swamped by universities’ decision to charge new higher rates The government body responsible for monitoring “equal access” to universities charging £9,000 tuition fees has had to double its staff and appeal for more funds amid the chaos caused by the recent reforms. The number of universities declaring that they wish to charge students the highest amount from next year has caught ministers by surprise, with the majority of institutions planning to charge more than £7,500 a year. As a result the Office for Fair Access (Offa), which has responsibility for ensuring those universities recruit from all parts of society, has had to engage in emergency budget negotiations with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as an unexpected number of universities have informed them of their intention to charge the highest fees. David Barrett, Offa’s assistant director, admitted his “very small” organisation was still in discussions with the government over its budget and had to take on two additional permanent staff and two casual staff to cope with the work load. Friday was officially the day by which universities had to inform Offa if they intended to charge more than £6,000 for tuition, but Barrett said paperwork was expected to flood in over the coming week. He also admitted the 11 July deadline by which Offa is due to pronounce its satisfaction or otherwise regarding universities’ plans to ensure equality of access may need to be flexible. “The department has given us some additional resourcing and we have got some additional temporary resource from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE),” Barrett added. “The 11 July deadline is still our intention. “If there were extremely long and protracted negotiations with lots of institutions, then it is possible that some won’t meet that decision date, but my firm belief is that we will be able to make that for all institutions. “We are taking on some more staff and have temporary support from HEFCE, who support us in a service-level agreement in any case. The extra support is set up to be in place early on in the process and was negotiated with the department recently. There are contingencies in place as well.” Offa has only three full-time staff plus a part-time director and a part-time office worker, but an additional two full-time and two temporary members of staff will soon be drafted in. The £500,000 budget set aside for Offa is expected to be doubled, adding to the spiralling costs to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Ministers had claimed that maximum £9,000 fees would be the exception. Long-term financial modelling carried out by the Treasury was based on universities charging an average of £7,500. But it is feared a huge funding black hole will be created as the government struggles to provide student loans to cover the cost of higher fees. If this is exceeded, it is feared the loans bill will reach unsustainable levels. A BIS spokesperson said: “In our letter of guidance to the director of Fair Access, issued in February, we asked that he should be more challenging and demanding of universities seeking to charge fees above £6,000. “We have always made it clear to the director that, if he felt additional staff were needed to deliver the strengthened regime of access agreements, then we would support his request.” Shadow universities minister Gareth Thomas said: “This is just the latest sign of how badly the tuition fees fiasco has been handled. David Cameron and Nick Clegg failed to listen to independent experts who were warning even before the fees vote that allowing tuition fees to treble would cause problems they hadn’t properly thought through.” Tuition fees Higher education Students Education policy Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Attention Facebook users, and especially teachers: When you post something, please try to remember other people can read it. For one first-grade teacher in Patterson, New Jersey, the obvious warning did not come soon enough. She gave the entire community an uncensored look into her innermost thoughts when she wrote…
Continue reading …President Obama will make it official next week, reports Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times : He’s running for re-election. The president is expected to file his papers with the Federal Election Commission as early as Monday to be a 2012 candidate, a move that will allow his camp to start…
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