American who exiled himself from his country of birth was seen by many as an heir to abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock Cy Twombly, the US artist whose graffiti-style paintings on large canvases established him in the eyes of many as the heir to Jackson Pollock, has died in hospital in Rome at the age of 83. After emerging from the New York art scene of the 1950s, he was to cultivate and be inspired by a life-long association with Europe’s history and culture, and is regarded as a key figure among a generation of artists who strived to evolve beyond abstract expressionism. Born Edwin Parker Twombly Jr in Lexington, Virginia, in 1928, he took on his father’s nickname, Cy. A student of a number of US art colleges, he travelled extensively in Europe and was to be influenced in later years by his service as a cryptologist in the US military. After spending much of the 1950s in New York, where friends included Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly left for Italy. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1964 before he began drifting away from expressionism and embarking on the abstract sculptures that were to become closely associated with him. The artist, who had been living in Italy, was hospitalised in Rome last week, according to Eric Mezil, the director of the Lambert collection in Avignon. An exposition of Twombly’s photographs opened last month at the Lambert collection. An exhibition of his work and that of Nicolas Poussin, whom he admired, started last week at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. One of the most important exhibitions of his work in decades took place at Tate Modern in 2008. It included his Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons), A Painting in Four Parts (1993-94). “Ah, it goes, is lost,” Twombly had scrawled in pencil on one of the four tall canvases, in a reflection of some of the themes to which he often returned: time, love and doomed desire. Cy Twombly Painting Venice Biennale Nicolas Poussin Tate Modern Art Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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Newspaper and five of its journalists face lawsuit amid spate of leaks about alleged sexual attack The hotel maid at the centre of the attempted rape case against the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is suing the New York Post for libel after the newspaper accused her of working as a prostitute. The lawsuit was filed against the Post and five of its journalists after a stream of articles over the weekend that claimed she had engaged in sex work both in the Sofitel hotel where Strauss-Kahn had been staying at the time of the alleged assault and afterwards when the maid was under the protective care of New York police. The legal action, reported by Reuters, says that “all of these statements are false, have subjected the plaintiff to humiliation, scorn and ridicule throughout the world by falsely portraying her as a prostitute or as a woman who trades her body for money and they constitute defamation and libel per se.” The prosecution case against Strauss-Kahn is in deep crisis after the admission made last week by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that there were “major holes” in the woman’s account of events. The prosecutors agreed to release Strauss-Kahn from house arrest but said they continue to investigate the allegations of a forcible sexual attack. Prosecutors said last week they believe the alleged victim, a refugee from Guinea, lied over claims she was gang raped when she submitted a claim for political asylum in the US. She has also lied about her taxes and investigators found deposits made into her bank account of $100,000 (£60,000) over the past two years, some of which came from a drug dealer. But as the main case flounders, it has been joined by a flurry of legal action on the sides. A French writer, Tristane Banon, has now filed a criminal complaint in the French courts that alleges Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 while she was conducting an interview with him. Banon told L’Express that “I can’t take it anymore hearing that I must be lying because I haven’t filed suit”. Strauss-Kahn has dismissed her claim as “imaginary”. The maid’s libel action suggests that the New York Post had published defamatory articles “in an apparent desperate attempt to bolster its rapidly plunging sales”. In one weekend report, the paper accused the 32-year-old of demanding payment from Strauss-Kahn after having sex with him in his hotel room. A separate report alleges that she continued to work as a prostitute in a hotel in Brooklyn while under the safekeeping of the district attorney’s office. The lawsuit says that the reports were published by the Post even though the newspaper knew they were false or should have known that they were false. The unravelling of the Strauss-Kahn prosecution has been accompanied by an extraordinary spate of leaks to the New York media. In the latest, the New York Times revealed details of the account given by the maid to staff at St Luke’s Roosevelt Crime Victim Treatment Center just hours after the alleged attack. According to paper , the maid said that as soon as she entered his room Strauss Kahn had pushed her on to the bed and began to assault her. She freed herself only to be attacked again. A director of the rape crisis centre that drew up the report has expressed intense unhappiness about the leaks. Susan Xenarios, a director, said they were “outrageous.” “We have been in operation for 35 years and this has never happened before. Everything is leaking it seems,” she said. “There are days when I feel psychotic about this.” Xenarios said she was fearful of the impact all these leaks would have on other victims. “I am very concerned that it will have wider ramifications.” She said Strauss-Kahn was a person of “extreme international power. I don’t know how that factors in. The whole thing is very disturbing”. In France, the possible return of Strauss-Kahn to the French presidential race has plunged the Socialist party into a fresh round of infighting. The latest poll showed that even if all charges are dropped against Strauss-Kahn, a majority of French people neither want him to stand nor think he will stand. Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York Post US press and publishing Newspapers Newspapers & magazines New York United States France Europe Dominic Rushe Ed Pilkington Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …India’s health minister ruffled feathers yesterday at an HIV/AIDS conference when he referred to homosexuality as a “disease” that came from the West. “Unfortunately this disease has come to our country, too … where a man has sex with another man, which is completely unnatural and should not happen, but does,…
Continue reading …Contrary to yesterday’s report , Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founder of California’s Crystal Cathedral, “was not voted off the board,” a church spokesperson says. Rather, the board voted to change Schuller’s position “from that of a voting board member to the honorary Chairman of the Board Emeritus, a non-voting position,” according…
Continue reading …Exxon Mobil’s Montana oil spill cleanup faces a big hurdle today as the swollen Yellowstone River peaks at Billings this afternoon. The rising water means that areas already cleaned may be re-contaminated, and the AP reports that Exxon officials acknowledged under fire yesterday that the scope of the disaster was…
Continue reading …There’s a whole lot of evidence that the US’ economic recovery isn’t going well—unemployment remains too high, consumer lending too low, and consumer confidence in shambles—but one place you won’t find that evidence is on corporate balance sheets. US companies are poised to post big profits in the…
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Florida jury acquits mother of killing 2-year-old toddler who went missing in 2008 and was found dead six months later A Florida jury has cleared a young mother, Casey Anthony, of murdering her two-year-old daughter, rejecting the prosecution’s portrayal of her as “a lying, no-good slut” who would rather go nightclubbing than rear her child. The jury unanimously found Anthony, 25, not guilty on murder, manslaughter and child abuse charges in a case that has gripped US talkshows and cable news television. She was, however, convicted on charges of lying to the police after claiming that her daughter, Caylee, had been abducted by a nanny when Anthony was driving around with the body of her child in the boot of her car. Anthony would have faced a possible death sentence had she been convicted of first-degree murder but will serve no more than four years in prison when she is sentenced on Thursday. Prosecutors had alleged that Anthony murdered Caylee because she stood in the way of her party lifestyle and interest in men. Prosecutors told the jury that Anthony killed her daughter with chloroform in 2008 and then buried her body in woods near the family home in Orlando several weeks later. Caylee’s corpse was found with three strips of duct tape over her mouth and nose. Anthony’s father, George, told the court that his daughter left home in June 2008, taking Caylee with her, and did not return for a month. Anthony’s parents asked repeatedly to see the child but their daughter told them she was too busy with work. Anthony also claimed that Caylee was being looked after by a nanny. It was later established that the nanny did not exist. Anthony maintained that claim until her parents received a notice that their daughter’s car had been towed. When they went to pick it up, George Anthony said he noticed a strong odour from the boot that he and a worker in the tow yard told the court smelled like a decomposing body. Anthony’s mother, Cindy, then called the police and reported Caylee missing. “There is something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car,” she told the emergency operator. The prosecution homed in on Anthony’s failure to report her daughter missing during those 31 days. “Responses to grief are as varied as the day is long, but responses to guilt are oh so predictable,” the lead prosecutor, Linda Drane Burdick, said. “What do guilty people do? They lie. They avoid. They run. They mislead, not just to their family, but the police. They divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong. That’s why you heard about what happened in those 31 days.” The defence said Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that her mother then panicked. It claimed that Anthony’s father knew about the accident and helped his daughter dispose of the body. It said George Anthony, a former police office, placed the tape over the dead girl’s face to make it look like murder in an attempt to cover up the failure to report the death. The man denied his daughter’s account. The defence also claimed that Casey Anthony had been sexually abused by her father and brother and that was a factor in her erratic behaviour. Anthony’s lawyer, Jose Baez, said the prosecution had attempted to portray his client as “a lying, no-good slut” who murdered her daughter in order to go nightclubbing when in fact Caylee’s death was “an accident that snowballed out of control”. Another prosecutor, Jeff Ashton, said the defence failed to present any real evidence to back any of its claims and, in closing arguments, said the claim that George Anthony staged a murder to cover up a lesser crime made no sense. “That’s absurd. Nothing has been presented to you to make that any less absurd,” he said. But the jury was not persuaded that Anthony killed her daughter either deliberately or by accident. After the verdict, one of Anthony’s lawyers, Cheney Mason, condemned the “media assassination” of his client since her arrest, including by other lawyers who appeared on television talkshows to pronounce her guilty before the trial was over. United States Florida Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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Channel 4 says News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was challenged by police in 2002 over claims that News of the World had a senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance. 8.37pm: More on advertisers reviewing their links to the News of the World. My colleagues Sam Jones and Mark Sweney report that mobile phone firms Orange and T-Mobile are joining Ford, nPower and Halifax in considering their position. A spokesman for T-Mobile said: “We’re currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation.” Orange put out a similar statement, saying: “We’re currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation.” The latest advertising boycotts came as companies including Co-operative, WH Smith, EasyJet, Butlins and Renault came under heavy pressure from internet campaigners to sever their links with the Sunday tabloid. A one-stop page has been set up to allow people to automatically tweet their concerns. 8.15pm: More details from the Channel 4 News website on claims that Met detective Dave Cook was placed under surveillance by News of the World. The report quotes Alistair Morgan, brother of Daniel Morgan, whose murder Cook had been investigating at the time of the alleged surveillance. “Dave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didn’t realise who the newspaper was at that point. … “Dave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed.” 8.04pm: Back to the Milly Dowler Case. Press Association reports Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has written to Brooks and Scotland Yard acting commissioner John Yates asking what prior knowledge there had been of hacking in the Milly Dowler case. This is what Vaz says on the matter: These allegations are extremely shocking. It is now essential that any parties involved criminally are prosecuted and that we uncover who knew what at which point in time at both the Metropolitan Police and at the News of the World. The committee will be raising this issue with police officers involved in the current and previous investigations. We will also seek to clarify why a significant variance of action was taken by mobile phone companies in the aftermath of the phone hacking revelations. 7.44pm: Channel 4 News has made claims about how the News of the World placed senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance at a time he was investigating the murder of a private eye with links to individuals who worked for the paper. Here’s an outline of its report : It said a Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, a senior police officer who appeared on Crimewatch, claimed he was told by colleagues that he was under surveillance by News of the World when he was investigating the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator. The C4 report said police discovered that vans leased to News of the World had been witnessed tailing Cook. It said NoW was investigating whether Cook was having an affair with Jackie Haynes, a Crimewatch presenter who was in fact his wife. C4 says the timing of the NoW surveillance was disturbing because suspects in a case being investigated by Cook were private investigators with close links to NoW. C4 added that Brooks was challenged by police over this at a meeting in 2002. News International was quoted saying it was not aware of the claims but would investigate. It said it could not confirm or deny Brooks’ meeting with police. It said Cook and Haynes were informed two months ago about documentation of surveillance found among notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire. It said they were both considering legal action. 7.14pm: News International’s Simon Greenberg said he is confident the company can come through the phone hacking scandal. Speaking on Sky News he said: “We’ve found some new information that helps us get closer to the facts of the case about who is involved.” He added: “I’m not going to be naming individuals. We’re liaising with the police. We met with the police this morning… It was a routine meeting… It is going to get us closer to establishing the facts.” Greenberg said he was not aware of any claims of phone hacking in the case of Sarah Payne. “We’ve not shied away from the fact that when the allegations were made, Rebekah (Brooks) was editor of the NoW… and she’s going to lead us through this investigation.” He said: “There are things in the past that are highly regretful,” and described the Milly Dowler incident as an “appalling shocking case”. He said during his time at the News of the World he had no idea where the phone-hacked stories were coming from. 7.00pm: Simon Greenberg, News International’s director of corporate affairs, is appearing on Sky News to talk about phone hacking. 6.52pm: Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News tweets: Did News of the World team up with Sara Payne to campaign for Sarah’s Law – and then have her phone hacked? Watch C4News at 7 6.28pm: Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, has issued a public apology to those upset by his activity . The statement, released exclusively to the Guardian, makes no reference to hacking Milly Dowler’s phone, but says he never intended to interfere with police inquiries. He said he had been operating under a “constant demand for results”. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. Much has been published in the media about me. Up to now, I have not responded publicly in any way to all the stories but in the light of the publicity over the last 24 hours, I feel I must break my silence. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I’ve been to court. I’ve pleaded guilty. And I’ve gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution. Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn’t understand that I had broken the law at all. A lot of information I obtained was simply tittle-tattle, of no great importance to anyone, but sometimes what I did was for what I thought was the greater good, to carry out investigative journalism. I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime. I know I have brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself, but I do ask the media to leave my family and my children, who are all blameless, alone. 6.21pm: Some companies say they will continue advertising with the News of the World pending police investigations into the voicemail hacking. Tesco, responding to customers on Facebook and Twitter, said: “We know that you have a lot of questions surrounding recent News of the World allegations. “These latest allegations will cause huge distress to a family which has suffered enough. “It’s now a matter for the police. Like everyone, we await the outcome of their investigation.” A Virgin Media spokeswoman said: “We’re not taking any action at this point. We’re just waiting for the outcome of any investigation and then we will look into what to do.” 6.00pm: Good evening and welcome to our live blog on the latest developments and fallout from the Guardian’s revelations about how the News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance. • The stakes have been dramatically upped in the last number of hours after the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, suggested that Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, should resign . • Labour are also demanding an public inquiry into illegality in the newspaper industry, while John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, has approved an emergency three-hour debate on phone hacking in the Commons tomorrow. David Cameron has meanwhile criticised the News of the World – “this is a truly dreadful act”, he said. • Brooks has told employees it is “inconceivable” she knew that the News of the World hacked into Milly Dowler’s mobile phone. The News International chief executive said she was “sickened” by the events, but insisted she was “determined to lead the company” – despite calls for her to resign. • Press Complaints Commission chairman Baroness Buscombe has meanwhile said that she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking. She said she did not know the extent of the scandal when she came on board the PCC in 2009, but admitted she had been “misled by the News of the World” – after she had previously concluded just the opposite. • Separately from the political fallout, Cambridgeshire police have said that the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the two children murdered by Ian Huntley, were contacted by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World. • Ford has pulled ads, reports the BBC, and the energy firm Npower said it is “reviewing” its advertising in the News of the World following the Milly Dowler revelations. According to Sky News, Halifax are also considering withdrawing advertising from the paper. Phone hacking News of the World News International Rebekah Brooks Newspapers & magazines Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …How’s this for irony: Google+ is a Facebook competitor … but its most popular user is none other than Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck hasn’t even posted to Google+ yet, the Atlantic notes, but according to tracking service Social Statistics , he has amassed the most followers; in second is Larry Page. A peek…
Continue reading …By now, you’ve seen the photo of Obama administration brass awaiting word of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. What you haven’t seen is the CIA agent standing just outside the frame, a man the AP identifies only as “John.” He spent years doggedly chasing leads on bin Laden,…
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