The Guardian World News

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• Fierce day signals Libya's shift towards civil war
• Andrew hosted dictator's son-in-law
• North-south gap in depression drugs
• Daily Star reporter quits in protest
• Wales votes for lawmaking powers
• Dior runs show without Galliano
• Manning 'forced to sleep naked'
• Mexican student police chief flees
• Anger at Shahbaz Bhatti funeral
• Obama's green agenda under attack
• Somalia peacekeeper toll 'at least 53'
• Clegg faces Lib Dem revolt over NHS
• Boy, 12, accused of killing his parents
• Crowd flock to World Book Night
• Where China likes to spend it
• Look who's talking
• Women of a certain age
• The Middle East: to go or not to go?
• Dan Lepard's sherried apple tart
• A working life: The app developer
• Has tech robbed travel of its riches?
• 'Look away, Mum!'
• Anglican bishop sues Israel over visa
• No Glory for Taurus XL rocket
• Slave port ruins unearthed in Rio

Fierce day signals Libya's shift towards civil war Posted: 04 Mar 2011 11:19 AM PST Pro-Gaddafi forces launch widespread offensives and rebels fortify their positions as diplomatic efforts fail Libyan rebels are under intensifying pressure as forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi launch new offensives on several fronts to regain control of key rebel-held towns and oil facilities, and international efforts to mediate an end to the fighting appear to run into the sand. Some of the fiercest clashes since the uprising began on 15 February took place in rebel-controlled Zawiyah, about 30 miles west of the Libyan capital, according to Arab media reports. Al-Arabiya tele vision quoted a local doctor as saying at least 13 people were killed there, and al-Jazeera TV gave a figure of 50 dead and more than 300 wounded. The leader of the rebels in Zawiyah, Colonel Husein Darbouk, was among those killed when his position was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Following attacks including an artillery bombardment by mercenaries and militia in Gaddafi's pay, the rebels were said to be pinned down in the central square. State media predicted the town would fall by Saturday. A witness contacted by the Guardian inside Zawiyah said the assault began at about 10am from the west when government-controlled forces in pick-up trucks entered the city. "There has been fighting here all day," he said. "We are in a very difficult position. They have snipers and have used mortars and rocket-propelled grenades." Although at least a squadron of modern tanks belonging to the brigade controlled by Gaddafi's son Khamis was outside the city with eight Grad missile launchers, he had seen no tanks used in the fighting. "I managed to get down to the square and visit the hospital at the mosque. I think there have been 25-30 people killed, but I think it may be more. There are those who have been killed who could not be reached. They came in the morning while people were going about their business and opened fire." Last night, pro-Gaddafi forces started an assault from the east of the city. Assaults and bombing raids by pro-Gaddafi forces were also reported in the east of the country, which is mostly under opposition control. An oil facility at Zueitina, south of Benghazi, was on fire. Rebel militia defending parts of the strategically vital coast road between Benghazi and the capital, Tripoli, said a missile attack by a government warplane just missed a rebel-held military base which houses a large ammunition dump in the north-eastern town of Ajdabiyah. But Gaddafi's forces did not have it all their own way. Clashes between rebels and government loyalists broke out on the outskirts of the oil town of Ras Lanuf, about 80 miles west of Brega where pitched battles were fought earlier in the week. Columns of rebel trucks poured along the road towards the Gaddafi stronghold and anti-government forces were digging in west of areas they had liberated. They said the move west was not yet part of a concerted push towards Tripoli. "That may come later," said one rebel captain, a former member of the Libyan army, as he stood near a staging point half way between Brega and Ras Lanuf. "But only if the people there can't do it themselves." Anti-aircraft guns thundered into a sandy sky as the rebels haphazardly showed off their weapons to bystanders. There were no air force jets in the air in this area, largely because a raging sandstorm reduced visibility. As night fell, it was still not clear who was in charge of Ras Lanouf's oil facility, which includes a port and storage facilities for crude coming from fields in the deserts to the south. Rebel leaders in Benghazi said they were not expecting an attack soon on their stronghold in the heart of Libya's second city. However, they are fortifying positions in Benghazi and Ajdabiyah in preparation for what many are increasingly seeing as the beginnings of a civil war. Anticipated large-scale clashes in Tripoli failed to materialise as regime security pro-Gaddafi forces moved swiftly to break up protests begun after Friday prayers in the mainly anti-Gaddafi Tajoura district. Teargas was used to disrupt the demonstrations and shots were reportedly fired. At one point s Security forces clad in military fatigues and with green scarves around their heads confronted a group of protesters in front of a mosque, who were waving a tricolor flag – a symbol of the revolt – and forced members to disperse. Gaddafi supporters, bussed in to Tajoura, then threw stones at the retreating protesters. The rest of the city appeared tense but calm. There was heavy security at Algiers Square, near the centre. In the central Green Square, Gaddafi supporters sang and waved green flags. The day brought growing concern that Libyans in rebel-held areas may soon face serious shortages of food and medicine. Many shops are said to be running short of supplies, or not opening at all, as transportation links are disrupted by the unrest. About half of Libya's oil exports – the country's economic lifeline – have been halted. The regime also appeared to be trying to close Libya's border with Tunisia, across which tens of thousands of Libyans and foreign workers have fled in recent days. Diplomatic moves to mediate an end to the violence seemed to go nowhere. Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela and one of Gaddafi's few remaining allies, claimed earlier in the week that the Libyan leader was ready to open talks. But his plan lacked substantive detail and was rejected out of hand by the US. Ahmed Jabreel, an aide to Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel National Libyan Council based in Benghazi, said if there was any negotiation "it will be on one single thing – how Gaddafi is going to leave the country or step down so we can save lives. There is nothing else to negotiate." Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East protests Muammar Gaddafi Protest Martin Chulov Peter Beaumont Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Andrew hosted dictator's son-in-law Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:42 PM PST Sakher el-Materi, son-in-law of deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, attended lunch just months before uprising The government's special trade representative, Prince Andrew, entertained a leading member of the deposed Tunisian dictatorship at Buckingham Palace just three months before the regime collapsed, the Guardian has learned. Sakher el-Materi, the 29-year-old son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, attended a lunch given for him by the Duke of York. They were joined by more than a dozen executives from British multinationals hoping to win business in Tunisia. Materi has since fled the north African country and is under investigation for money laundering. The meeting took place as part of the duke's government-appointed role to help broker deals for British businesses overseas, and its emergence will intensify calls for him to step down because of his contacts with controversial figures in the Middle East. He met Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli on government trade business in November 2008 and lunched with his cabinet chief, Bashir Saleh, in London in July 2009 after giving a seminar at St James's Palace for the dictator's £5bn Libya Africa Investment Portfolio, which Bashir chairs. Bashir's assets have now been frozen by the EU and Swiss authorities along with those of other members of Libya's ruling clique. The seminar was carried out for UK Trade and Investment, the government's export promotion arm. "Nobody should be naive, because international diplomacy involves meeting some dodgy characters, but the charge sheet against Prince Andrew extends way beyond what is acceptable," said Chris Bryant, the former Foreign Office minister who has called for Andrew to be removed. "I just don't think the royal palaces should be exploited in this way." Robert Palmer, of Global Witness, the anti-corruption charity, said: "It is complete hypocrisy that you have Prince Andrew hosting an individual at Buckingham Palace who is accused of corruption and money laundering. The government spends a lot of time telling us they will tackle corruption while we are simultaneously providing a safe haven for corrupt politicians and their family members." Buckingham Palace defended the lunch with Materi. "Whatever has happened since, at the time it was a legitimate public engagement," a spokesman for the duke said. "He was expecting to go to Tunis this year as part of a UK Trade and Investment visit and this was a legitimate occasion at which he could meet British business people investing in Tunisia and the vice- chairman of the British-Tunisian chamber of commerce [Materi]." The spokesman said any engagement by the duke with the Libyan authorities was part of UKTI's programme of events. The duke carries out hundreds of engagements a year in his role as trade ambassador and regularly meets leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well as central Asian countries and in the far east. He is seen as a useful way of gaining access to contracts in autocratic regimes where his royal status opens doors. But Andrew's judgment was further questioned this week after details emerged of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire convicted sex offender. Virginia Roberts, 17, who claims she was sexually exploited by the Florida businessman and his friends, said she met the 51-year-old duke and it was also claimed that Andrew enjoyed regular massages at Epstein's home where it is alleged masseuses worked for £60 an hour. The duke categorically denies any wrongdoing or impropriety. Republic, the campaign for a democratic alternative to the monarchy, called on UKTI to investigate the duke's connections. "It is clear that the continued speculation about the duke's friendships, business interests and professional conduct risks bringing UKTI, the Department for Business and the Foreign Office into disrepute," said Graham Smith, the campaign's executive director, in a formal complaint to UKTI's acting chief executive. When the duke hosted the lunch for Materi at Buckingham Palace, he had been touted as a possible successor to the Tunisian dictator and had built up a conglomerate of businesses from newspapers to car dealerships to become one of the country's leading businessmen. But the way he acquired the assets and his brazen displays of wealth, driving an Aston Martin and building lavish villas, fuelled public resentment of the regime which helped to lead to its eventual downfall. US diplomats reported to Washington that Ben Ali's extended family was cited as "the nexus of Tunisian corruption", according to a cable obtained by WikiLeaks, and when the revolution came, one man ripped out the sprinkler system at Materi's beachside mansion saying: "This is a symbol of everything that was stolen from us." The EU freeze on his assets is "in respect of the acquisition of moveable and immovable property, the opening of bank accounts and the holding of financial assets in several countries as part of money-laundering operations". A spokeswoman for UKTI backed the duke, saying he "continues to add value to British trade interests". She added: "The Duke of York is dedicated, he works hard and is a real asset to supporting UK business, which appreciates his contribution to their success. The Duke of York took up the role of special trade adviser and has no intention of stepping down." A source of embarrassment Prince Andrew's 16-year friendship with the convicted sex offender and billionaire businessman Jeffrey Epstein has been a source of embarrassment at Buckingham Palace this week, as it was alleged that Andrew met a 17-year-old girl called Virginia Roberts, who says she worked for Epstein as a paid erotic masseuse. Pictures of Andrew were published with his arm around Roberts in London and it was alleged that he enjoyed massages from young women while staying at Epstein's Florida home around 10 years ago, although there is no suggestion of any sexual activity. The scandal has caused some "consternation", according to a palace source, especially as he was photographed in New York with Epstein last December, subsequent to Epstein's conviction for soliciting teenage girls into prostitution. "There is an element of reflection going on," the source said. Prince Andrew Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali Tunisia Robert Booth guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

North-south gap in depression drugs Posted: 04 Mar 2011 01:30 PM PST Deprivation and GPs' habits among causes of big divide in way problem is treated according to Guardian investigation Depression, like deprivation and ill-health generally, hits the north of England harder than the south. But a Guardian investigation that reveals that northern areas such as Blackpool, Salford, and Redcar and Cleveland have antidepressant prescription rates that are at least three times higher than in Kensington and Chelsea, raises as many questions about treatment as it does about people's state of mind. Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) state clearly that for mild to moderate depression, pills should not be the first resort. Talking therapies work better in the long-term and there are no risky side-effects. "Unless you have got someone with severe depression, you should start off with self-help," said Tim Kendall, joint director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health and a consultant psychiatrist in Sheffield, who was one of the guideline's authors. "Most people should be offered that as a first line." It doesn't always have to be a person to talk to: computerised cognitive behaviour therapy works well for some. Others need sessions with a therapist. A few years ago, there was a desperate shortage of therapists. A campaign spearheaded by Lord Layard led to a scheme to get more therapists into the NHS. IAPT – Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – was launched in May 2007. As well aiming to provide treatment for 900,000 people, it also had the economically attractive aimgoal of getting 25,000 off sickness benefits and into work. Primary care trusts contacted by the Guardian all acknowledge that they have more therapists than in the past. However, some GPs may not be making the maximum use of their services. Knowsley PCT was one of the pilot areas for IAPT. It has trained 16 therapists under the scheme – the number it was assessed to need in 2007-8. It has its full complement and yet is still near the top of the prescribing table. Socio-economic circumstances are one reason for high levels of medication in the north, it said in a statement. It also has long-term antidepressant users who will be hard to wean off. "However work must also be done in raising awareness with medical practitioners about the available alternatives to anti-depressants. In the past prescribing has been the first treatment option, we should now see counselling as the first option. There is still some work to be done in changing the culture so that counselling options are considered before prescribing to patients … with common mental health problems." Salford, with 60 therapists, is also a high prescribing area. It says it is working on encouraging NHS staff to think through the options, educating GPs and practice nurses on therapy services and how to access them. "This campaign also sought to reinforce the Nice guidance on when medication may be needed and the most effective drugs to prescribe in certain scenarios. The aim of this is to ensure that the most appropriate choice of therapy is selected for a particular patient, whether that is medication, talking therapies or both." Camden and Brent in north London have substantial areas of deprivation and yet prescribing is low. Brent acknowledges that the figures may conceal a different problem: the reluctance to go to the GP. "It is possible that psycho-cultural factors play a great role here," said Ricky Banarsee, lead on mental health. "We know, from transcultural psychiatry, that certain societies/cultural groups do not present with the classical 'depression' features and less so when talking to the GPs. "Many of them have language difficulties and assessing the essential diagnostic clues/symptoms may be lost in translation through the interpreters. There are over 70 different languages spoken in Brent." But even in low-prescribing Brent, a recent audit found that "a significant proportion" of its GPs do not use the Nice guidelines to make a diagnosis, something which the psychiatrist leading the audit said "is not unusual for the rest of the UK". Camden, which also has low prescribing, has made major efforts to put therapy at the forefront of treatment for mild to moderate depression. It has "a highly successful service providing talking therapies for around 3,000 people a year in the borough in line with Nice recommendations", it said. "Having been one of the first to implement IAPT, we have trained a significant number of staff ." Therapy sessions, it says, "are available within almost all surgeries", making it easy for both GPs and patients to try therapy first. There are worries that the money for IAPT will run out. Professor David Richards was sacked as an adviser to IAPT by the Department of Health for publicly challenging the coalition's promise to put in a further £400m. It was not ring-fenced and would be used to pay other NHS bills, he warned. Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland stressed the burden of depression in the region and said the PCTs had more than trebled talking therapy staff at a cost of £3.7m over three years. "This has been a priority area and an important element of the local mental health and wellbeing strategy," it said. It hoped to expand access for younger and older people and increase the range of talking therapies. "The pace and scale of this expansion will be dependent on funding," it said. Middlebrough pointed out that not all prescriptions are the same. In Redcar and Cleveland particularly, GPs prescribe 28 days of drugs, not 56 or 84 days as in some other areas. This could mean 13 prescriptions in a year rather than four to six. Many PCTs have high rates of chronic illness such as heart disease, which are strongly associated with depression. Newcastle said that, as well as high relative deprivation and unemployment which were linked to depression, it had "high levels of patients who need support for chronic diseases, and in particular cardio vascular disease, diabetes etc". These groups of patients are routinely screened for depression. And as a third wave IAPT site, its service has only just gone live. Gateshead said the high prescribing rate could be due to a number of issues, including better treatment in primary care, chronic disease and social factors such as an ageing population. "It is also important to note that antidepressants are not only used for patients with depression, but are being increasingly used for the treatment of a range of other conditions such as anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, treatment of phobias and in the management of neuropathic pain," it said. Blackpool objected to the "unrefined" methodology of the exercise. "We would never use such an over-simplified approach to bench-marking GPs as there are more accurate ways of comparing prescribing that take into account a variety of confounding issues," it said. It preferred to use a weighting factor called the prescribing unit, which takes into account the need of elderly people for more medicine. Its own weighted index, however, still showed Blackpool was well above average in England for antidepressant medication prescribing, although behind Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland. Most prescriptions The primary care trusts that prescribed the most antidepressants in 09-10, and the number of prescriptions issued per hundred thousand of population Blackpool 133,829 Salford 121,293 Redcar and Cleveland 120,137 Newcastle 117,165 Gateshead 116,900 Co Durham and Darlington 114,252 Knowsley 110,144 Middlesbrough 109,695 Barnsley 108,486 Halton and St Helens 107,742 Depression Mental health Health Health policy Sarah Boseley James Ball guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Daily Star reporter quits in protest Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:06 PM PST Richard Peppiatt admits producing fictional stories about celebrities and accuses tabloid of inciting racial tensions • Read the reporter's letter of resignation in full The Daily Star has been accused of printing fictional stories by a disgruntled reporter who has resigned over its "hatemongering" anti-Muslim propaganda. In a resignation letter, Richard Peppiatt said he was leaving after the Star gave sympathetic coverage to the far-right English Defence League last month. Peppiatt admits producing a number of fictional stories about celebrities during his two years at the tabloid, a practice he implies was sanctioned by his seniors. The reporter, who was once made to dress up in a burqa, now accuses the paper of inciting racial tensions and Islamaphobia. "You may have heard the phrase 'the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas'," Peppiatt wrote to the proprietor, Richard Desmond, in a letter seen by the Guardian. "Well, try this: 'The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved-in down an alley in Bradford.' If you can't see that words matter, you should go back to running porn magazines." Desmond's media empire has included pornographic magazines and adult TV channels as well as Express newspapers, Channel 5 and celebrity magazines. Desmond has said he was not consulted before the decision to publish the front-page story and editorial about the EDL. Peppiatt tells him in his letter: "The weight of your ownership rests heavy on the shoulders of everyone, from the editor to the bloke who empties the bins." Peppiatt, who handed in his resignation this week, said the "incendiary" suggestion the EDL was planning to field election candidates was known to be an exaggeration. "But further up the newsprint chain it appears a story, too good to allow the mere spectre of reality to restrain, was spotted," he wrote. The EDL story is one of a number of prominent articles published by the Star that Peppiatt claims were made up, including some of his own. The reporter was recently involved in stories claiming Rochdale council had spent taxypayers' money on "Muslim-only squat-hole loos". In fact, the toilets were neither paid for by the local authority or "Muslim-only". "I was tasked with writing a gloating follow-up declaring our post-modern victory in 'blocking' the non-existent Islamic cisterns of evil," Peppiatt wrote. The Press Complaints Commission later ruled the story was inaccurate and misleading. The reporter also quotes Kelly Brook, who recently complained about the number of fabricated stories she reads about herself on the internet. She said: "There was a story that I'd seen a hypnotherapist to help me cut down on the time I take to get ready to go out. Where do they [journalists] get it from?" Peppiatt wrote: "Maybe I should answer that one. I made it up. Not that it was my choice: I was told to." He said he had "plucked" the story about Brook's experimentation with hypnotherapy from his imagination, adding: "Not that it was all bad. I pocketed a £150 bonus." In a list of "my other earth-shattering exclusives" for the Star, Peppiatt recalls producing articles about Michael Jackson, the pop star Robbie Williams and Katie Price which he said had no factual basis. He also admits making up a story suggesting that Matt Lucas was on suicide watch following the death of the comedian's former civil partner. Lucas won substantial damages in court. Peppiatt criticises the Star's editorial judgment in his letter, accusing it of hypocrisy, and "arranging the day's news based on the size of the subjects' breasts". He adds: "On the awe-inspiring day millions took to the streets of Egypt to demand freedom, your paper splashed on: JORDAN … THE MOVIE. A snub to history? Certainly," he writes. "An affront to Journalism? Most definitely." As a young reporter desperate to make his name in Fleet Street, Peppiatt concedes he took to his commissions "with gusto", but now questions the ethics of what he was required to do, suggesting he was at times promoting an anti-Muslim agenda. "On order I dressed up as John Lennon, a vampire, a Mexican, Noel Gallagher, St George (twice), Santa Claus, Aleksandr the Meerkat, the Stig, a transvestite, Alex Reid. When I was ordered to wear a burqa in public for the day, I asked: 'Just a head scarf or full veil?' Even after being ambushed by anti-terror cops when panicked Londoners reported 'a bloke pretending to be a Muslim woman', I didn't complain. "Mercifully, I'd discovered some backbone by the time I was told to find some burqa-clad shoppers (spot the trend?) to pose with for a picture [with me] dressed in just a pair of skin-tight M&S underpants." Peppiatt's letter concludes by criticising Desmond for not providing greater resources. "When you assign budgets thinner than your employee-issue loo roll there's little option but for Daily Star editors to build a newspaper from cut-and-paste jobs off the Daily Mail website, all tied together with gormless press releases. "But when that cheap-and-cheerful journalism gives the oxygen of publicity to corrosive groups like the EDL ... it's time to lay down my pen." The Daily Star rejected Peppiatt's claims, implying he may hold a grudge against his employer after being "passed over" for several staff positions. It said: "Regarding the paper's coverage of Islam, he never voiced any disquiet over the tone. For the record, the Daily Star editorial policy does not hold any negativity towards Islam and the paper has never, and does not endorse, the EDL."[Peppiatt] refers to a Kelly Brook story – in fact he approached and offered the newspaper that story, vouched for its accuracy, and then asked for and received an extra freelance fee for doing so," the statement said. The Star also claimed that Peppiatt had been warned by senior reporters after suggesting he would make up quotes. Daily Star Richard Desmond Newspapers & magazines Northern & Shell Race issues Islam Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Wales votes for lawmaking powers Posted: 04 Mar 2011 10:01 AM PST All but one of 22 referendum districts support the allocation of new legislative powers to Cardiff assembly The people of Wales have wholeheartedly endorsed giving their assembly more power to make laws without having to ask Whitehall or Westminster for approval. At the declaration at the Welsh Assembly Senedd in Cardiff Bay, 21 out of 22 districts agreed to give the body direct new powers to legislate in specific areas, bringing Wales closer into line with Scotland and Northern Ireland. More than half a million people voted yes while fewer than 300,000 opposed the change. Only Monmouthshire sounded a lone note of dissent. People there voted no by a mere 320 votes – 50.6% to 49.4%. As the last result, for Cardiff, came in there were large numbers of the yes camp gathered, cheering the result. First minister Carwyn Jones said: "Today an old nation came of age. "Our country has united in a way that perhaps it wasn't in 1997. It means, of course, that for us politicians we have a duty to show those people who voted for us that we can use the powers we have for the benefit of the people. We can now do things, instead of talking about doing things." Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams expressed delight, with the caveat that the campaign had exposed widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the Welsh government "which has presided over Wales becoming the poorest part of the UK, with standards in our schools and hospitals slipping behind England and Scotland". She called for a new era of devolution in which a culture of blame is replaced by a culture of responsibility. The areas that delivered the biggest yes votes – 70% and more in favour – were Neath Port Talbot, Gwynedd, Carmarthenshire and Rhondda Cynon Taf. When the first result from Blaenau Gwent was declared, yes campaigners cheered the 11,869-5,366 vote in their favour. Results from Denbigshire and Wrexham soon followed. Lord Roberts, of Llandudno, a yes campaigner, said: "No longer will the bills passed in Cardiff have to be signed in Westminster and that will save time and money and the work of many staff. Cardiff can say today and can do tomorrow. We aren't asking for any more powers or any more money, but a streamlined system." In the lead up to the referendum, some voters criticised the lack of information available to them or claimed they did not fully understand the technicality they were being asked to vote on. In some areas turnout was below 30%, which first minister Jones described as "not brilliant, but then not apocalyptic which some people predicted". Roger Lewis, chairman of the Yes for Wales campaign, said: "Wales has said yes – laws which only affect Wales will henceforth be made in Wales. Together we can take Wales forward, today we have found our voice." Defeat was conceded early by Rachel Banner, the Pontypool teacher who led the True Wales campaign against the change. She claimed the result should not be seen as an endorsement of the assembly's record and said she was concerned about a fragmentation of the UK and "an obsession with lawmaking from Welsh politicians". Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain described the result as a fantastic vote of confidence in devolution and for the way the first minister had led the assembly government. Darren Millar, a Conservative member of the assembly, said: "It's fantastic to see this result. I've been campaigning for a yes vote with my colleagues." He said the referendum was about the lawmaking process, not about independence, and changes needed to make the assembly more efficient. Welsh politics Wales Helen Carter Hannah Waldram guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Dior runs show without Galliano Posted: 04 Mar 2011 11:29 AM PST All mention of John Galliano hurriedly scrubbed from Dior's Paris show – but designer's shadow looms large over collection The symbolic head may be gone, but the heart of Dior remains. This was the heavily orchestrated message that France's premier luxury label has sought to push at its catwalk show after the worst week for a fashion house in living memory. With all official mentions of disgraced former creative director John Galliano hurriedly erased, the show at the Musée Rodin instead began in unprecedented fashion with Sidney Toledano, Dior's president and chief executive, taking to the catwalk in an effort to close the damaging Galliano chapter. "It has been deeply painful to see the name of Dior associated with disgraceful statements attributed to its designer, no matter how brilliant he may be," Toledano began, before again calling the dismissed designer's drunken opinions intolerable. At the end of the show, with no Galliano around to take one of his infamous extended two-minute bows dressed up in a themed costume, a large group of staff from the Dior atelier wearing white work overalls took a collective bow, as the audience rose to its feet to applaud them. Attendance was high – it seemed that the scandalous circumstances of the collection only heightened its pull – but celebrities were thin on the ground, with the models Natalia Vodianova and Leigh Lezark among the few in attendance. Dior routinely boasts the starriest of front rows, but this was not judged a moment to focus on celebrity. It was soon after the actor Natalie Portman, the face of Miss Dior Chérie perfume, denounced Galliano in the week that he was fired. Outside the show, the camera crews seemed to outnumber the guests, but there were no anti-Dior protests, just tourists thwarted in their attempts to see the famous sculptures inside the museum and bad-tempered motorists irritated at the traffic and fur-clad commotion outside. Security was tight. Guests had to show their invitations to three sets of security, but once inside the cobbled courtyard there was a calm atmosphere, with a Dior grey carpet leading up to the white tent in the gardens where the show took place. "It was a masterclass in brand management," said Melanie Rickey, editor-at-large of Grazia magazine after the show. "It was as schmaltzy as a Hollywood movie, but it was what they had to do. It was the right statement to focus on the history of the brand and to close the Galliano era." Toledano's speech stressed the values of the Dior brand, noting how it contributed to French culture around the world. Not once did he utter the name Galliano. Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, welcomed Toledano's speech. "It was the right thing to do, somebody had to take ownership of the show." On the catwalk, it was almost business as usual. It is not known exactly how much of the collection was the work of Galliano himself, but the large design team co-ordinated by Bill Gaytten, who has worked with the designer since the 1980s, will have put the finishing touches to it. There were a few ill-judged decisions. The opening look, which featured a long, flowing, hooded cape and knickerbockers, had something of the swashbuckling highwayman about it, an aesthetic that Galliano often referenced. From the end of the extraordinarily long catwalk, the look appeared remarkably like Galliano himself. Similarly, the last outfit – a long white boudoir-style gown – was completely sheer, which meant that the final view the audience had of the Dior Galliano era was that of a model's naked bottom. Among the audience there was a sense that although Dior was right to sever ties, it might not be the end for Galliano's career – it is believed that the designer is already in rehab. The designer's own-label catwalk show, which was scheduled for tonight and was backed by Dior, has been cancelled. Buyers and editors will be invited to view the clothes in a simpler scaled-back presentation. Shulman said the scandal had highlighted a problem within the industry. "We help these designers build an ivory tower and then we watch them throw themselves off it." Galliano will stand trial for the alleged antisemitic remarks. The Paris prosecutor's office said the trial could take place between April and June. If convicted, the designer could face up to six months in prison and up to €22,500 (£19,350) in fines. The designer has apologised for his drunken outburst, saying that "antisemitism and racism have no part in our society", but has hit back with legal action for defamation. In a statement, he said he was "subject to an unprovoked assault when an individual tried to hit me with a chair having taken violent exception to my look." He made no mention of the video – which sees him saying he loves Hitler – but did take responsibility for the circumstances that allowed him to be "seen to be behaving in the worst possible light. The search is already on for a replacement to head Dior. Riccardo Tisci, who is creative director at Givenchy, the second-largest division of LVMH after Dior, remains frontrunner. But after a well-received collection by Peter Copping at Nina Ricci on Thursday night, rumours began circulating that he was a contender. It is unlikely a successor will be named soon for legal reasons. Under French employment laws if a firing involves a personal matter, it can be a long process. John Galliano Paris fashion week Fashion weeks Fashion Imogen Fox guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Manning 'forced to sleep naked' Posted: 04 Mar 2011 10:27 AM PST WikiLeaks suspect made to relinquish boxer shorts for about seven hours due to 'situationally driven' event The US army private suspected of giving classified material to WikiLeaks was forced to sleep naked in his cell at a Marine Corps prison near Washington, which his lawyer has said is inexcusable. The marines confirmed that Bradley Manning was made to relinquish his boxer shorts for about seven hours due to a "situationally driven" event. Defence attorney David Coombs says the conditions of Manning's pretrial confinement are punitive and violate military rules. The former intelligence analyst is charged with aiding the enemy and other offences for leaking the classified information. Bradley Manning WikiLeaks United States guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Mexican student police chief flees Posted: 04 Mar 2011 10:48 AM PST Relative of Marisol Valles says she has fled to the United States after receiving death threats The young mother hailed as the bravest woman in Mexico when she became a small-town police chief in one of the bloodiest fronts of the country's drug wars has reportedly fled to the United States. Marisol Valles attracted global attention last October when she took command of the municipal force in Praxedis G Guerrero on the Rio Grande border with Texas. An unnamed relative told France-Presse agency Valles had gone to the US with two relatives to seek asylum after receiving death threats from a gang trying to force her to work for them. The municipal spokesman, Andres Morales, however, said Valles had merely asked for a few days off to tend to her sick baby and given no indication she was under pressure. "We are expecting her to come back to work on Monday," he said. Praxedis has suffered acutely from the kidnappings, arson attacks and assassinations that plague Juárez valley, which stretches south-east from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico's most violent city. Valles's predecessor's head was dumped outside the police station a few days after he was abducted in August 2009. Of the 17 officers he commanded, 15 were killed in separate attacks. Valles, a criminology student, had always stressed she would leave the job of addressing organised criminal violence to the state and federal authorities. Instead, she instructed her unarmed force of 10 officers to make house-to-house calls aimed at encouraging residents to do such things as send their children to play sports in the town square to rebuild a sense of community. Morales said since then serious crime in the town had reduced. Valles is not the only Mexican woman to take on law enforcement duties in a dangerous community. In the neighbouring town of Guadalupe, Erika Gandara was the sole officer until she was kidnapped before Christmas. She has not been seen since. Mexico United States Jo Tuckman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Anger at Shahbaz Bhatti funeral Posted: 04 Mar 2011 08:05 AM PST Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani leads mourners but few believe he can bring Christian minister's killers to justice The flag-draped coffin holding the bullet-pocked body of Shahbaz Bhatti lurched violently as anguished mourners shouldered it from the Catholic church in Islamabad, chanting angry slogans. "How many Bhattis will they kill?" they shouted, in a twist on a slogan usually reserved for the Bhutto clan. "A Bhatti will rise from every household," came the reply. Bishop Andrew Francis watched from the church door. In life Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minorities, promoted dialogue between faiths, he said. But in death that sense of tolerance had evaporated. "At the moment, it's zero," Bishop Francis said. The prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, led mourners at a tightly guarded funeral service for Bhatti on Friday , a few miles from the street where he was shot by Taliban assassins. Bhatti's death was a black day for Pakistan, Gilani said, promising that his government would "do the utmost to bring the culprits to justice". Few Christians believe that will happen, and reminders of the fragile security situation surrounded the funeral. Police sealed off the church as ministers and diplomats arrived in armoured, black-tinted vehicles, watched by police snipers on nearby rooftops. Inside bulky suited bodyguards wearing earpieces and carrying weapons watched over the congregation. The security contrasted with the lax protection afforded to Bhatti, 42, Pakistan's only Christian minister, who was alone with his driver when the killers struck. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, on Thursday said Bhatti was partly responsible for his own death because he had failed to ask for a police escort. "I think it was his mistake," he said. "It was his own decision." But other top officials have admitted that Bhatti, the recipient of numerous death threats, had requested a bulletproof car and more secure house; the Express Tribune newspaper reported that two cabinet ministers had threatened to quit in protest at his death. The killing comes almost two months after the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was gunned down in Islamabad. Taseer also espoused changes to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which are used to discriminate against minorities. In the weeks after Taseer's death, lawyers flung rose petals on his killer, Mumtaz Qadri, and celebrated him at street rallies. Now Pakistan's Christian community, estimated to number three million, is scrambling to reassess its position in society. The presence of Gilani at the funeral was a sign of "profound hope", said Bishop Francis. "It means that God never fails his promises, and will never fail us." Outside church, Christians were worried. "We have been orphaned," said Sunila Javaid, a teacher from Lahore. "Who will raise our voice now?" One man pointed out that the two-minute silence in parliament for Bhatti days earlier had been a compromise, because no politician dared lead a prayer for a man killed on account of blasphemy. Javaid said the law against blasphemy, which is punishable by death, had become a psychological sword hanging over Pakistan's minorities. "You have to be careful what you think, what you say, who is listening. It's like Big Brother over your shoulder," she said. The government has all but abandoned any reform. Bowing to pressure from conservative religious groups – and perhaps fearful for their lives – senior ministers say that they will not touch the law. They are also grappling with economic crisis and resurgent militancy. As Gilani spoke in Islamabad a bomb ripped through a Sufi shrine at Nowshera, 70 miles to the west, killing at least eight people and injuring 30. After the ceremony in Islamabad a helicopter flew Bhatti's body to his home village in central Punjab, where thousands of mourners waited for a burial tinged with palpable anger. Women with black flags called for Bhatti's assassins to be caught and hanged. "Bhatti, your blood will bring revolution," shouted mourners as his body was taken to the burial site in an ambulance. "These terrorists must be hanged publicly to stop them from committing such brutal crimes," Hina Gill, a member of the Christian Minority Alliance, told Reuters. "These terrorists are wearing the mask of religion to defame religion." Finally, Bhatti's body was lowered into a grave. The softly spoken politician's message, a priest said by the grave, had been "to purge Pakistan of killers and hatred". With his death there are fewer signs that message is being heard. Pakistan's blasphemy laws Pakistan Religion Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Obama's green agenda under attack Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:05 PM PST Environmental protection in US under attack from extremist Tea Partiers backed by big business It started on a sultry day in Houston when hundreds of protesters, mostly oil company employees, were bussed to a concert hall in their lunch hour to rally against a historic first step by Congress to reduce the pollution that causes climate change. The event marked the start of a backlash by wealthy industry owners and conservative activists against Barack Obama's green agenda. Now it has snowballed into what green campaigners say is the greatest assault on environmental protection that America has ever seen. Eighteen months after that Houston rally, the green agenda is under assault on multiple fronts, from cutbacks in recycling in Wisconsin to the loosening of regulations governing coal mining in West Virginia and a challenge to the authority of the White House and federal government to act on climate change. "This is almost unprecedented in environmental history, in that they are moving in so many directions and in so many ways to effect the same results that even if they are only partly successful, it will still have a serious outcome," said Bill Becker, secretary of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which monitors air pollution. "It is as if they are trying to throw as much slop against a wall as they can and hoping some of it sticks in the end. The more they throw the more they feel may stick, and they are throwing quite a bit." On Thursday Republicans introduced bills in both houses of Congress to strip the Obama administration of its powers to act on climate change. The bill introduced in the House and the Senate would bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using existing air pollution laws to reduce carbon dioxide. It would stop the EPA from regulating carbon emissions from power plants and factories. It would not strike down a deal, reached between the White House and car makers, to reduce car emissions. But it would allow no further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from cars once that deal runs out in 2016. "The energy tax prevention act stops cap-and-trade regulations from taking effect once and for all," said James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who is the Senate's most vocal climate change denier. The bill is expected to pass easily in the House – where the Republicans are the majority, and where the bill has already gained support from a number of Democratic leaders. It will have a harder time in the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority. But the bill represents only one line of attack. Last month's Republican spending proposal, which set out $61bn (£38bn) in cuts, reserved the biggest cut of any government agency for the EPA: $3bn, or 30% of its budget. The brunt of the cuts are intended to starve the EPA of the funds it would need to begin regulating carbon dioxide. But the proposals would also do away with funds for protecting salmon in San Francisco bay, or treating sewage going into Florida's lakes. It would weaken rules for mercury pollution from cement kilns, and allow wolf hunting once again. The proposals would also redirect $900m, raised from the proceeds of oil leases, which traditionally has been used to maintain state parks. Campaigners say the cuts go far deeper than any enacted under George Bush, who was notorious for blocking action on global warming and for a more general opposition to government regulation of industry. The cuts have even invaded the White House. The Republican proposal cut off funding for the post of Obama's energy and climate adviser and the state department envoy to the UN climate negotiations. The White House downgraded the post of climate adviser this week, transferring the job to a section of the domestic policy council. A number of Democratic senators are quietly complaining that – without a strong push back from Obama – the anti-environment campaign is in danger of doing lasting damage. The anti-environment measures have spread beyond Washington. New Hampshire last week voted to leave a regional greenhouse gas reduction initiative, with several members of its house of representatives expressing doubt on climate science. "Neither man nor cow is responsible for global warming," said Shawn Jasper, a member of the state Republican leadership. Tea Party governors in New Mexico and Maine have also moved to reverse air and water pollution laws, and efforts to promote alternative energy. In Pennsylvania the authorities have removed restrictions on natural gas drilling in state parks. In Wisconsin the governor, Scott Walker, says he is cutting off funds to local recycling programmes. City councils told reporters they would no longer be able to offer kerbside pick-up of newspapers and glass for recycling. Environmental campaigners describe an offensive on several fronts – legislative, regulatory, and funding – intended to block controls on industries that are heavily responsible for climate change pollution. Florida and other states have taken aim at Obama's pet project, the creation of a high-speed rail network, and shut down rail building projects in their areas. "What we have seen most recently is folks just basically taking the debate over the budget and the financial situation and using it as cover to attack core environmental protections," said Joe Mendelson, director of global warming policy at the National Wildlife Federation. "They are using the budget process as a costume to hide what they are doing – which is a full-on assault against our fundamental environmental protections." Much of the momentum for the anti-environment agenda was provided by the success of extremist Tea Party candidates in last November's elections. "Everything is about the next elections," said Doug Scott, director of the Illinois environmental protection agency. "You have people voting against things they supported for years because it is on the talking points just now." Then there was the large infusion of cash from the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. The Kochs bankrolled the Tea Party group, Americans for Prosperity, which has said it spent $40m in the elections. Koch Industries and its employees donated $2.2m to candidates in last year's elections, more than corporations like Exxon Mobil, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics. Their interest has not waned. Americans for Prosperity sees cutting environmental regulation – especially that related to climate change, which would cost the oil industry – as a key area. "Energy policy is one of our top three priorities," said Phil Kerpen, policy director of Americans for Prosperity. "For me personally it's a top concern and major focus." He added: "It is not that we are totally against environmental protection but in the hierarchy of values, it has taken a back seat." Tea Party movement Republicans Barack Obama Democrats US politics United States Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Somalia peacekeeper toll 'at least 53' Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:41 PM PST Major offensive against Islamist militants during past two weeks has seen higher casualties More than 50 African Union peacekeepers have died in fighting in Somalia since a major offensive against Islamist militants began two weeks ago, officials have said. The death toll is far higher than any publicly acknowledged casualty figures. The AU appears to be trying to keep the extent of its losses under wraps owing to political considerations in Burundi, one of two countries providing the bulk of the forces fighting the Islamist al-Shabab group alongside Somali troops. Two Nairobi-based diplomats said at least 43 Burundian and 10 Ugandan troops have been killed since 18 February, citing information from people involved in the operation. African Union Somalia Burundi Uganda guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Clegg faces Lib Dem revolt over NHS Posted: 04 Mar 2011 10:56 AM PST Evan Harris and Lady Williams lead rebellion against plans to hand GPs control of more than 80% of NHS budget Nick Clegg is facing possible defeat over the government's NHS changes at his spring party conference next weekend when a heavyweight group of Liberal Democrat figures table an amendment opposing the "damaging and unjustified market-based approach". Evan Harris, a doctor and former MP and vice-chair of the party's ruling federal policy committee, will table the amendment, supported by the former cabinet minister Lady Williams, registering their concerns that the current legislation will lead to a widening of UK health inequalities if left unchecked. The government is proposing to give GPs control of more than 80% of the £100bn NHS budget at the same time as driving through efficiency savings of £20bn. The package includes the abolition of primary care trusts. Defeat at his own conference on a central plank of the government's public service reform agenda would mean Clegg would have to choose between ignoring a vote by his grassroots and negotiating concessions from the prime minister. The amendment complains that some of the proposed changes in the health bill "have never been Liberal Democrat policy, did not feature in our manifesto or in the coalition agreement, which instead called for an end to large-scale top-down reorganisations". The changes sought by Harris and Williams include: • No decision about the spending of NHS funds to be made in private and without proper consultation, as can take place by the GP consortiums proposed by Andrew Lansley, the health secretary. • Restoration of the NHS as the preferred provider, only allowing new private providers where there is no risk of "cherry-picking" that would destabilise the existing NHS. At the moment, the legislation brings an end to the NHS as preferred provider. • NHS commissioning retained as an entirely public function, rather than the subcontracting of commissioning to private companies. At present primary care trusts are democratically accountable and open to public scrutiny. • Continued separation of the commissioning and provision of services to prevent conflicts of interest. • Healthcare commissioning to be carried out by locally elected health boards or local authorities, with the ability to vary a fair local tax in order to invest in local healthcare services. Those tabling the amendment believe there are signs more concessions could be forthcoming. In a letter circulated to canvass support, Harris cites an apparent climbdown by the government this week over price competition in the NHS to prove to Lib Dems they can secure further concessions. Writing that one demand in their amendment has already been met, they said: "The amendment calls for the ruling out of any price competition in the NHS, and only this week the government have bowed to pressure to partially accept this, so we should be encouraged to use our conference debate to demand more changes." NHS Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg Health Shirley Williams Allegra Stratton Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Boy, 12, accused of killing his parents Posted: 04 Mar 2011 09:51 AM PST Prosecutor is deliberating whether to treat the boy within the adult criminal trial process or as a juvenile A 12-year-old boy in a small rural town, Burlington in Colorado, has allegedly shot dead his parents and seriously wounded two of his siblings. The carnage has caused bewilderment among relatives and neighbours who saw the family as utterly normal, if deeply religious. Charles Long, 50, and his wife Marilyn, 51, were found shot dead and two of their seven children, Sarah, five, and Ethan, nine, in a critical condition having been slashed with a knife. Sarah, who was slashed in the neck and back, and Ethan, who was shot and stabbed in the groin, are both recovering in hospital. The prosecutor, Robert Watson, is now deliberating whether to treat the boy within the adult criminal trial process or as a juvenile. The decision has huge implications for the child. If he is classified as an adult he could face life in an adult prison. If treated as a juvenile he would be entitled to therapy and rehabilitation and release by the age of 21. "I am not going to take this decision lightly," Watson told the Denver Post. "This is not the type of thing you expect a 12-year-old boy to do." Locals say the family appeared outwardly to be normal. All the children, the four eldest of whom have left home, were home schooled and the Longs were pillars of their local evangelical church where the boy often used to volunteer in Bible classes. The boy's uncle said the tragedy was beyond understanding. "It's a mystery to me. I don't know if anyone can explain it at this point and maybe never will be able to explain it." He told reporters in Denver that he had not noticed anything untoward about his nephew. "He's a typical kid, probably liked to play video games, that kind of thing. I can't imagine what would have happened, what went through his mind." Colorado United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Crowd flock to World Book Night Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:21 PM PST Authors including Alan Bennett, DBC Pierre and Margaret Atwood defy chill to celebrate World Book Night "I'm too cold to turn the page over," drawled Alan Bennett in his familiar Yorkshire vowels, sending ripples of laughter through the several thousand-strong crowd in Trafalgar Square. Moments before, a hush had descended on the normally bustling London landmark as he began reading from his family memoir: A Life Like Other People's at Friday night's curtain-raiser for World Book Night - where a line-up of literary heavywights including Margaret Atwood, John Le Carré and Philip Pullman read from their own works and those of other writers. Even in such company, Bennett was clearly a crowd favourite, a fact further underlined when his parting shot attack on library cuts drew one of the loudest cheers of the night. "Closing libraries is child abuse," he said, recalling childhood memories of visiting them. On an evening celebrating the written word, the comment also served as a reminder of how these are troubling times for lovers of the trusty printed and bound book, which faces a potentially existential threat from the seemingly unstoppable rise of e-readers. Sales of books by UK publishers fell by 5.9% from 492m in 2007 to 463m in 2009 Yet rumours about the death of the old-fashioned printed word seem more than a little premature on the basis of the turnout in Trafalgar Square as well as the support that World Book Night has received from publishers and a number of partner organisations seeking to inspire adults to read by arranging for the distribution of about 1m free books nationally. Proceedings were kicked off by the Australian writer DBC Pierre who read the opening passage from Charles Dickens's Bleak House. "Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Implacable November weather," he read, as the square listened with the same rapt attention that was to greet other speakers such as the authors Monica Ali and Sarah Waters, the actor Rupert Everett and the musicians Nick Cave and Suggs. Inspired by the success of World Book Day, which distributed tokens to schoolchildren for 600,000 specially printed books, each of the 20,000 volunteers signed up to take part in this new event is expected to give away 48 books chosen from a list including works by Atwood, Le Carré, Waters, David Mitchell and poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. With another 40,000 books to be distributed by the organisers, a total of one million are expected to have been given away at locations ranging from high streets and hospitals to nunneries and prisons. Not that the initiative is without its critics. Last month, a number of independent booksellers and authors suggested they would be damaged by the scheme. Far from spreading the joy of reading, they claimed, the mass distribution would simply flood the market with free books and devalue the work of authors in the eyes of the public. Backstage on Friday, exactly the opposite outcome was predicted by World Book Night's mastermind, Jamie Byng. "Of course it will encourage people to buy books," said Byng, the managing director of publisher Canongate and chair of the event. "You take a step back from it to realise that this will be an incredible boost for the selling of books. The thing about it is that we are talking about an incredibly elastic market. If you read a book by one author, then you are going to want to buy, and read another, by the same author. To me also, the personal recommendation and word of mouth and the passion that people feel towards books is really borne out by the way this has been embraced by people across the country and the phenomenal response we have had from people wanting to take part." His words were supported by Atwood. "Once you start circulating books you are creating new readers," she said, as she prepared to read a passage from her novel The Blind Assassin to an audience she said would be five times larger than the biggest public reading she had previously given. She said she was not worried by warnings about the impact of technology on the printed word. "I have two grandchildren, both of them under 10. One loves the ebook and the other is not that interested and wants to collect paper books, so the idea that all kids are going to do one thing is probably wrong," she said. Among those in the audience, many had chosen to pass on their books to complete strangers. The recipients included Steve, a homeless man who had pitched up for the night on nearby Charing Cross Road and who said he was looking forward to tucking into a copy of one of the scheme's listed books, Yann Martel's The Life of Pi. "A girl walking past earlier just gave it to me and said I had to pass it on to someone else after I finished it," he said. "I'm really looking forward to it. It's been ages since I've had a good book." Nearby, Gemma Petters, a member of two book clubs in Bexley, south London, was clutching a copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid, which she had been given earlier, while her friend Victoria Tarr scanned the faces of the crowd for someone to take her copy of Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes. Alan Bennett Margaret Atwood London Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Where China likes to spend it Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:01 PM PST Chinese workers are industrious, committed to saving – and willing to gamble enormous sums in Macau's sprawling casinos You won't find the Paiza Mansions on TripAdvisor. You can't even book the world's plushest hotel – it chooses you. The 6,000 sq ft suites (the size of five semi-detached houses) are reached by private elevator, and come with two butlers and a masseur. Yet it costs nothing to stay there. The surprisingly tasteful suites (despite the 60in end-of-bathtub TVs) are completely free. There's just the small matter of a HK$10-15m (£800,000-£1.2m) that invitation-only guests are required to spend downstairs at the casino. The Paiza Club and Mansions are part of the Macau Venetian, the world's largest casino, and the fifth biggest building on the planet. And every time you buy something with a Made in China label, much of the money eventually ends up here. Las Vegas is puny in comparison. Chinese punters bet around £70bn on Macau's baize tables (they prefer baccarat) last month alone. This year it could reach £1tn, an almost unimaginably colossal sum. Think of all the cash issued from all the UK's ATMs last year. Then multiply it by five. Macau's casinos – the Venetian, MGM Grand, Wynn, Sands, Lisboa, and many, many more – skim around 2.5% from punters, giving them net revenues in February alone of HK$19.9bn (£1.6bn). The enormous Galaxy, Hilton, Sheraton and Shangri-la hotels and casinos are still under construction on Macau's new strip, yet the city is already raking in five times more money than Vegas. "Macau is not the Las Vegas of the East – Las Vegas is the Macau of the West," says veteran casino expert Justin Casey of consultants APG. Yet seven years ago there was just one casino on the peninsula. It's lunchtime on a Tuesday in February, and the skies above the former Portuguese colony are a smoggy grey. The sea is a dirty brown, carrying the effluent of the thousands of factories further up the Pearl River, the world's greatest concentration of industry. But already the Venetian is half-full with visitors streaming over the border with mainland China. The casino, three times the size of its sister complex in Vegas, cost £2bn to build, and as we walk through acres of baccarat tables, the hospitality manager (he looks after 3,000 bedrooms) tells me the floorspace could accommodate 100 jumbo jets. By the end of the day – a quiet one for the complex – more than 65,000 punters have come through the doors. When Deng Xiaoping began the post-Mao economic reforms in China, he didn't anticipate this. The country's industrial revolution has spawned literally millions of millionaires. While the factory workers are bussed into the smoke-filled Lisboa (think Brighton Pier, if it stretched to France), the factory owners are helicoptered into the VIP suites. 70% of the money wagered on Macau's tables comes from the wallets of the Chinese super-rich. But Chinese law forbids its citizens from taking more than 20,000 renminbi (£1,800) over the border. So Macau's billions rest on a very Chinese solution to capital controls. On the mainland, wealthy punters deposit their money in what are called "junkets," organisations widely believed to be controlled by triad gangs. Once in Macau, the junkets dispense the money back to individuals, and extend credit, often two to three times the amount originally deposited with them. They bring the VIPs to the casinos, and are paid huge commissions. Back on the mainland, punters who fail to pay up face menacing debt collectors. In each major casino, the junkets have lavish gaming rooms on private floors reserved solely for their VIP punters, prepared to buy a bare minimum of £20,000 in gaming chips. The public are not just roped off, few would even know of the existence of the private rooms. A small army of security guards keeps the public far from view, and hundreds of CCTV cameras observe every move. But Guardian Money obtained access to several of the rooms. In the first – and this was a Tuesday afternoon – were around 20 VIPs, mostly male. Every single bet was for a minimum of £1,600. In the evening it would rise to £3,200. A second room was empty. A third junket room had around 40 players, again playing at £1,600 a hand. The thickly-carpeted corridor, the width of a big SUV, stretched hundreds of feet, leading to scores more VIP rooms. Back on the smoke-filled "mass market" floors, the minimum bets are typically £20– significantly higher than Vegas. But there are no free cocktails or slot machines. There aren't even smiling faces. Gambling here is a serious business. Why China's industrious workers, the world's greatest savers, will squander it all on baccarat remains a mystery even to China experts. "The Chinese believe in luck. They are willing to gamble a big fraction of their net worth," says gaming analyst Huei Suen Ng of Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia. But she acknowledges that this doesn't quite explain what is going on. "Maybe it's just our culture, maybe it's in our genes," she says. The other rather less acknowledged factor is money-laundering. The junkets take in Chinese renminbi (which cannot be converted on the world's money exchanges) while the casinos can pay out in dollars. Some critics believe Macau is a gigantic operation for secreting money away from the eyes of the Chinese state. Suitloads of dollars take the short hop from Macau to Hong Kong, much of it pouring into the city's white-hot property market. Even bigger sums are believed to head into offshore tax havens. The authorities, for now at least, turn a blind eye. The casinos are a huge cash cow for the Chinese state, too, which levies tax at 39%. If Macau gets out of hand, Beijing can turn it into a desert overnight by refusing internal visas to mainland Chinese. But the casino operators think that unlikely – as the money might instead switch to Singapore, away from Chinese control, where two new mega-casinos are already close to matching the whole of Vegas in takings. Visitors from America or Europe won't be flocking to Macau's polluted shores, and average room rates – close to £160 a night – would in any case deter them. It is a uniquely Chinese place, with hangar-like casinos encircled by Gucci and Louis Vuitton shops. Vegas-style entertainment is thin on the ground, swimming pools are unused, and nightclubs rare. The average Chinese visitor spends 1.6 days in Macau, and uses the time to gamble non-stop. Prostitution is legal, though pimping is not. The daily parade of sex workers in a mall below the Lisboa dubbed "the Race Track" draws organised tour groups with cameras, rather than many real punters. The Venetian's gondoliers in the miles of fake canals sing Volare, and our chanteuse had even sung in the Sydney Opera House, but makes better money in Macau. A water fountain show in front of the five-star Wynn evokes Vegas, but the backdrop of Chinese casino architecture is so extraordinarily vulgar it makes Vegas look almost charming. But Brits can make money from the tables of Macau without going anywhere near China. Shares in casino operators are among the most popular investments in many emerging market and China funds – though ethical investors may wish to steer clear of what one of my fellow journalists called the new Sodom and Gomorrah. Macau's casinos are the world's most profitable – some repay billion-pound construction costs within a year. London-based Neptune Investment Management, which manages more than £100m in its China fund on behalf of British investors, has put around 8% of the fund into shares in Sands, which owns the Venetian, and Wynn. Back in the Paiza – the word is taken from a Marco Polo story – the suites are strangely quiet despite the hotel's insistence that occupancy rates are 90% or more. Insiders explain what's happening: VIPs check into the multimillion-pound suites then head straight to the private tables. "Over 48 hours, they will gamble for as much as 46 hours. The suites are used just as washrooms, really." Patrick Collinson was a guest of Neptune Investment Management in Hong Kong and Macau Consumer affairs Macau China Asia China Gambling Patrick Collinson guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Look who's talking Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:05 PM PST How the best new kids' movies are putting voice actors out of work, and perpetuating Hollywood's star system "Well you might as well talk to me because nobody else will talk about it. I'm not afraid of anybody." I've just told prolific voice actor Billy West – who over the past two decades has worked extensively on the likes of Ren & Stimpy and Futurama – that I'm writing about the use of Hollywood actors in animated feature films. He's not a fan, and is eager to speak about it. "I love tickling the dragon's tail," he says. "It makes me feel like I'm alive! If I can't Tourette out the truth I should be muzzled. I can't help it. Some people say, 'Aren't you afraid you're gonna be blackballed?' but you know what? I'm 60 years old. I don't think there's anything in the world that I'm afraid of." Over the past 20 years, West has watched from the inside as more and more traditional actors (as opposed to career voice actors) have taken over the animated feature film industry. It's such common practice now, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was always like this. Take, for example, this week's Rango, which has been marketed through and through as a Johnny Depp film. Depp's name fills the screen of the trailer within 20 seconds, whereas the film's posters tell you in no uncertain terms that JOHNNY DEPP IS RANGO. He just happens to look like a CG chameleon. But it wasn't always like this. From the beginning of animated feature film history in the 1930s right up until the early-90s, you wouldn't have had a clue who was voicing these characters. Bar a few notable exceptions from the worlds of music and radio, casts were populated by specialist voice actors, whose names certainly did not adorn promotional material. But a change in Disney's production staff during the late-1980s, instigated to revive the company's fortunes, opened the floodgates. Many of this new wave of Disney suits were ex-theatre producers, and they retooled accordingly: Beauty And The Beast required singing talents, so the crew went to theatrical casting directors, resulting in the employment of Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach, established stars of both stage and screen. And then came Robin Williams. Fox's magical rainforest yarn FernGully, released in April 1992, was somewhat pioneering, utilising the voice work of Williams alongside Tim Curry and Christian Slater, but it fared poorly. The role of the Genie in Disney's Aladdin, however, was written specifically for the star, who then ad-libbed substantially, and the film, released in November the same year, grossed $200m in North America alone. Much of its success was justifiably attributed to Williams. The industry has never looked back. Still, the actors took some coaxing here and there, not least because voiceover scale pay is generally much less than for a regular acting role. Even when there's been more money on the table, "cartoon" work has sometimes been viewed as corny. Williams was reportedly paid $75,000 for Aladdin, although Disney still had to woo him by cutting some audio from his stand-up work over rough animation. When casting Toy Story in 1993, Pixar convinced Tom Hanks, who would be paid just over voiceover union scale, via the same method (with dialogue from Turner & Hooch, no less). And comedian Don Rickles was initially prickly: "When [director] John Lasseter came to my home in Malibu to tell me about the first Toy Story, he said he'd like to test my voice for an animated feature he was doing. He said, 'You'll play a toy, a Mr Potato Head.' And I said, 'Go away! I've worked my whole life to try to be a success. I don't need to be a toy.'" But Lasseter enthusiastically pitched his heart out, and Rickles too was sold. 'On Shrek, Eddie Murphy was locked in as the donkey before we'd even designed the donkey' – Kelly Asbury "Years ago, celebrities wouldn't bother with cartoons; they'd look down their nose at them," explains Billy West. "But since they crashed the party here, nobody looks down their nose at it." And indeed, other studios quickly followed Disney and Pixar's lead: Universal's Balto (1995) featured Kevin Bacon and Bob Hoskins; Fox's Anastasia (1997) boasted Meg Ryan and John Cusack. Even Woody Allen voiced the lead in DreamWorks' Antz. And now, you'd be hard-pressed to find an animated film produced by a major studio (Pixar, admirably, aside) that isn't rammed with major talent. West sees this as a case of Hollywood protecting itself. "If all the big movies that come out from now on are gonna be animated, just because the actors aren't seen on camera we can't lose our precious star system," he spits, sarcastically. "We'll cast them as cartoon characters." Ever since Aladdin's success, more and more animated characters have been written with specific actors in mind. "On Shrek, Eddie Murphy was locked in as the donkey before we'd even designed the donkey," says Kelly Asbury, who was a story artist on the film, and directed last month's animated garden gnome rom-com Gnomeo & Juliet. "It happens a lot that a name actor will be signed on to a project in its germ stage." That's not to say that Murphy isn't fantastic as that donkey. "Sure, Eddie's an example of where it did work," agrees Asbury. "But it happens all the time where they throw in gigantic box-office stars and it doesn't do the film any good whatsoever … I won't name the films or the actors." The animated film industry has evolved. The good movies require great acting as much as they require great voice acting, and there's no denying that Tom Hanks's very funny and emotive Toy Story performances are perfect. But the industry changes also reflect this generation's obsession with celebrity, sometimes to the detriment of the art. And while there may be no solid proof that audiences are more likely to see these films purely because of the names on the posters, studios seem to have got themselves into a state where they're scared not to pluck from the A-list pool. "Kelly Asbury wanted Emily Blunt, James McAvoy and Ashley Jensen for Gnomeo & Juliet," says the film's exquisitely named producer Baker Bloodworth, "and the studio quite rightly looked at this entrepreneurial movie adventure and said, 'You should be getting bigger names. We have an enormous financial risk on the line, we're not being produced by Disney or Pixar.' There was a lot of pressure on us to deliver big-name talent." Asbury got his cast in the end, but admits it was "a little bit of a struggle" to convince studio bosses, who were pushing for American stars. 'It's not the way I approach a movie but, when I heard Michael Caine's voice coming out of this gnome, I wanted him in the movie' – Kelly Asbury "It is a focus," says Asbury, commenting on how studios have become dependent on celebrities to sell these films, "but it is, let's face it, probably healthier for the movie, from a commercial standpoint. For me to say otherwise would be incorrect. It's not the way I prefer to approach a movie, but at the same time, when I heard Michael Caine's voice coming out of this gnome, I wanted Michael Caine in the movie, and that doesn't hurt our marquee value at all." Certainly, having famous humans involved in your film provides considerably more marketing opportunities. "When you have a name actor, with a face that people recognise and a name that can go on posters or billboards and be able to appear on the talkshow circuit and tout the film, that's always a plus," says Asbury. How else can Justin Timberlake's turn as Boo-Boo be explained in last month's Yogi Bear? Other than the audience's parents being moderately impressed that Timberlake can pull off a passable Boo-Boo impression, there doesn't seem to be much point ("Stunt casting," sighs Billy West, who's voiced Boo-Boo in the past and says Timberlake's performance sounds like "a parody of a parody"). Obviously, the film's demographic neither know nor care that Timberlake is involved. Tom Hanks tells a story of how he once met a mum with a kid clutching a Woody doll. Hanks took the doll and signed the sole of one of its shoes, only to have the kid look at him aghast, like he'd "defaced a Picasso. He didn't know who I was; all he knew was that some jerk just scrawled a ballpoint pen all over his Woody toy." Asbury and Bloodworth say the prospect of casting traditional voice actors in lead animated roles in the future isn't impossible. "I think a studio could be convinced," says Asbury, discussing how he would lobby for such an actor to get a lead role if he thought they were right for it. "It sometimes requires an executive in charge having the stomach to take the risk of not putting a star in the role." Pixar at least seems less dependent on A-list razzle dazzle then some of its competitors; Patton Oswalt's lead casting in Ratatouille, for example, was hardly a guarantee of bums on seats, and mega-successes such as WALL-E and Up didn't boast big names. However, Billy West is decidedly less optimistic when we ask whether he thinks he or his ilk could be cast as a lead. "No," he says, emphatically. "Those days are over." He calls it a rigged fight. "People will read this and go, 'What's he bitching about, he's got everything'," he says, referring to his prolific TV work. "Well, I spoke at a voiceover school in San Francisco and I know that in that crowd there was a 19-year-old little firebrand who will never ever have a chance of being in an animated movie. The bottom line is I only care about it because I don't wanna see the loss of a beautiful form of art. I've reckoned with the fact that I might not be able to do all these things – animated movies are a no-fly zone for me – but it's fine with me, I don't have anything to prove. I just feel bad when I see those kids that are dying to bring something to the table; I don't even think they wanna be famous or make millions of dollars, I think they're just driven to do it. But I've said all this with a smile on my face. Believe me." Johnny Depp Michael Caine Walt Disney Company Pixar guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Women of a certain age Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PST A generation of American leads are getting comedy from cancer, chaotic nursing and drug-dealing. When will the UK catch up? "I'm living the dream," whispers Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney) to her neighbour's basset hound. "I'm here all year, performing at Stage IV! It's kinda funny. It's … death comedy." She laughs. Then she cries. Then she laughs again. "Bwowff!" soothes her thickset confidante, jowls swinging approvingly at her choice of metaphor. Such exchanges are not uncommon in The Big C, the new US comedy-drama in which a repressed teacher decides to view her inoperable cancer as a sort of Chessington World of Melanomas: madcap self-reinvention by the sea lion enclosure; knock-about biopsies behind the eastern-themed log flume. The Big C isn't perfect. There's a little too much perk per pound, and a few too many moments where the mischief dissolves into gloopy, windchime-y mawkishness. But still, it remains that most welcome of creations: an original, intelligent and frequently blazingly funny series focusing on a woman defined not by her age, appearance or relationships, but by the manner in which she responds to challenging circumstances. And Cathy Jamison is far from alone. A Showtime series broadcast here on More4, The Big C joins a growing number of compelling US productions in which flawed, complex, middle-aged women find themselves reassessing their lives. In the enduringly brilliant Weeds, widowed mother-of-two Nancy Botwin (played by Mary-Louise Parker, 46), reinvents herself as a morally skew-whiff drug dealer, a career choice which sets her on a collision course with clean-living best friend Celia Hodes (played with relish by fellow movie star Elizabeth Perkins, 50). CBS's The Good Wife casts Julianna Margulies (44) as a litigator attempting to re-establish her career, and her family's reputation, in the wake of her attorney husband's corruption scandal. Diablo "Juno" Cody's United States Of Tara (another Showtime belter that, inexplicably, is yet to be picked up by a UK channel), stars Toni Collette, 38, as a woman whose dissociative identity disorder manifests itself in a roster of alternate personalities. In Nurse Jackie's Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco, 47), meanwhile, the small screen has one of its most exquisitely complicated protagonists: an adulterous, unreliable NYC nurse who frets about the impact of her emotional remoteness on her children while banging the hospital pharmacist in exchange for Vicodin. Here, women respond to crises not with hysteria, or stoicism, or geysers of airbrushed aphorisms. These are not the traditional selfless wives or still-got-it soccer moms dispensing pearls of homespun wisdom while bending over the laundry basket in shorts. Instead, they are multi-layered individuals, all linked by the sort of indefinite, wonky morality that was once the sole preserve of male characters. It's a revelation to find so many female leads who wouldn't look out of place examining turnips in Morrisons After decades of high-maintenance manicures and the notion of empowerment-through-hotness, it's a revelation to find so many female leads who wouldn't look out of place examining turnips in Morrisons. Jackie Peyton shlumps through her storylines in trainers and an anorak, unpowdered T-zone glinting ferociously under hospital striplights. Cathy Jamison's wardrobe consists almost exclusively of plaid shirts and uneventful jeans. With Nancy Botwin's flammable Barbie twin-sets and endearingly repellent golf gear, meanwhile, Weeds is very much One Woman's Adventures in Budget Elastane. Gone, too, are premises predicated on "making it" in "a man's world" (© Ally McBeal, 1997). Even those dramas founded on more mainstream set-ups – new cop series Chicago Code and The Closer, for example, starring, respectively, Jennifer Beals (47) and Kyra Sedgwick (45) – appear to have jettisoned the timeworn notion of the gutsy dame forced to overcome prejudice in a traditionally male environment. Instead, these dramas have succeeded in broadening the range of personality traits available to female characters. The result is not only an extraordinarily rich array of roles for older female actors, but also some of the most boldly original TV drama in years. It's an approach that has proved hugely successful. Linney, Margulies, Collette, Sedgwick, Parker and Falco have all won Golden Globes and/or Emmys for their roles. In 2009, the relatively small, female-dominated cable channel Showtime – home to The Big C, Nurse Jackie, Weeds and The United States of Tara (all of which are written by women, too) – won more awards than any other network. "Television celebrates women," said Julianna Margulies in a recent interview. "It's where the best, richest roles for women are, period." So why, then, is Britain yet to follow suit? There may be strong roles for women in our soaps, costume dramas and literary adaptations, but where are the original, modern dramas in which older female leads are forced to contend with issues beyond the family and workplace? America gets Nurse Jackie forging organ donor cards and fashioning a cancer patient's apple into a makeshift bong; we get the Mistresses tittering over cupcakes next to a Heal's floor lamp. They get emotional breakdowns, drug-running and terminal illnesses; we get the cast of Downton Abbey blushing over a footman buffing the wrong tureen. Where's the oomph, the grit, the kapow? Until the UK catches up (and it seems inevitable that we will; it remains one of TV's least irksome truisms that wherever America goes, Britain is sure to follow), let's celebrate the progress being made on the other side of the Atlantic. So hurrah for those commissioners who refuse to flinch from female leads who don't have skin like steamrollered silk or clavicles like semi-toppled Jenga towers. Hurrah for the death of "women's issues" and the death comedy of The Big C. And three cheers for smart, dark, adventurous and unpredictable dramas in which middle-aged women are allowed to experiment with self-reinvention, to occasionally place their own needs above those of their families, to ignore their cuticles, to excel at some stuff, to fail at other stuff and – should push come to shove – to confide in sympathetic basset hounds. More power to their plaid shirts. Television HBO US television Sarah Dempster guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The Middle East: to go or not to go? Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PST Tourism is a big industry for the Middle East, but is it wise to head there now? We consult tourist boards, tour operators and the Foreign Office Egypt Travel can now continue as normal. Security has improved significantly. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO, fco.gov.uk): The travel ban has been lifted, but a few warnings are still in place. Avoid public gatherings and disturbances (particularly on Fridays, when most take place). Adhere to the midnight-6am curfew currently in place nationwide except for the Red Sea resorts and Luxor. Tourist board: It is business as usual, with hotels and resorts operating normally. All cultural sites are open. There are no areas in Cairo that should be avoided (egypt.travel). Tour operators: Lots of deals available to encourage tourists to return to what was already a low-price destination. Nile cruises and Red Sea resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh will be popular. A week departing Gatwick on 17 March staying at the Tropicana Tivoli hotel, B&B, costs £259pp, including return flights with Monarch (0871 423 8642, monarch.co.uk). Explore (0845 013 1537, explore.co.uk) has discounted all its Egypt trips by £100, if booked by 10 March. Bales Worldwide (0845 057 1819, balesworldwide.com) has a discount of £1,300pp on a luxury Nile cruise in March and April, with seven nights' full board including return flights to Luxor, sightseeing and transfers costing £1,795pp if booked by 17 March. On the street Cairo: Mandy Nickerson, MD of Bales Worldwide, who has visited Egypt nearly 100 times, was there last week and said: "It is so exciting at the moment. Everyone is proud to be Egyptian. There is tight security and I saw tanks in Cairo, but didn't find it daunting. Tourists will receive a very warm welcome – people will be grateful you are there." Alison Harding, product manager for Explore, said: "I visited the Valley of the Kings on Wednesday and saw just 20 people at an attraction that normally welcomes more than 8,000 a day. Even more surreal was my visit to Tutankhamun's tomb. No one else was there. I had my very own private encounter with this famous mummy!" Dahab: Claire Nassar, who runs a tourist lodge and is a blogger (at sunrisedahab.com/blog), said: "Dahab has remained entirely peaceful and unaffected by the violence in the rest of the country; the only enduring effect is the lack of tourists. The continued restriction of flights from several European countries has meant that a lot of bookings (for accommodation, diving courses and so on) were cancelled. Several businesses have had to close, at least temporarily, as their overheads are crippling them. But bookings are steadily coming in for April onwards, and we are all optimistic it will pick up for Easter. There really is no reason for tourists to stay away." The long view: By the end of 2010 Egypt had received 14.7 million visitors from all over the world, of which 1.45 million came from the UK. This was a rise from 1.3 million in 2009, and just 378,355 in 2000 (post 9/11). Numbers are still expected to keep rising, said the tourist board. But Explore's Harding admitted: "Unfortunately for the country's tourism, the aftershock of the 18-day revolution will be felt for some time yet, with many people discouraged from holidaying in the country." Tunisia Travel has resumed and is unaffected, though visitors should closely monitor the situation. Djerba airport is being used to repatriate British and Egyptian nationals from Libya, but there is no reason not to travel in the area, the tourist board said on Thursday. FCO: The warning against non-essential travel has been lifted, but a state of emergency remains in place, and the political situation is undergoing rapid and dramatic change. Stay away from public gatherings. Street protests continue and more rallies and protests are expected (particularly in central Tunis), though most pass peacefully. Tourist board: "Tourism is an important industry, and at no point during the revolution has there been any antagonism towards tourists," said Anissa Ramoundi, the UK director for the Tunisian National Tourist Office (tourismtunisia.com). "For the majority of Tunisians the revolution has been very positive. Summer 2011 will be an interesting time for tourists to visit, to learn about Tunisia's historic 'Jasmine Revolution' and speak to Tunisians first-hand about their hopes for their country." Tour operators: Tour operators are restarting programmes. Thomas Cook returned on Wednesday last week (thomascook.com), and TUI will resume on 13 March (tuitravel.com). Many are offering deals to encourage tourists to return. Explore's next departure is scheduled for 15 March, and is running a £300 discount. The 12-day tour of Carthage and the desert oases now costs £599pp including flights, B&B, transport, guiding and some meals. Chris Wrede, director of adventure operator Oasis Overland (01963 363400, oasisoverland.co.uk), said: "In our opinion Tunisia is now safe to travel to and our group currently in Tunisia have been treated fantastically well by local people and the authorities. Our tour leaders will generally avoid city centres on Fridays as this is usually a day of popular protest." On the street: Melanie Benna, a British ex-pat who runs an estate agency (thetunisianhouse.co.uk) in Monastir and blogs about expat life at nomarmiteintunisia.co.uk, said: "The atmosphere is one of uncertainty, but unless you go to a march or sit-in, it is life as normal. Tourists will have absolutely no problem whatsoever – they are being welcomed back. People took flowers to the airport to welcome back the first groups." The long view: Tourism has increased considerably over the decade. Last year there was an unprecedented rise in tourists from the UK, totalling 353,282 – up 28% on 2009 – and the highest figure yet. There were 299,376 in 2000. The tourist board said resort areas such as Hammamet and Monastir would bounce back quickly. "With free elections in sight and a more open and liberal government in the making, Tunisians are optimistic about the future," said Ramoundi of the tourist board. "The UK market is incredibly important for Tunisia and I hope that British visitors will support us as we get back on our feet." Explore's managing director, Ashley Toft, said: "The prompt reintroduction of tourism is one of the best ways to support a country that has experienced difficulties. Past experience tells us that customers will be keen to return quickly – we are already seeing significant demand for our Tunisia trips. We don't expect the recent disruption to have too much impact on the medium- to long-term appeal of this country among our customers." Libya No one should travel to Libya at present. Foreigners are still being evacuated, and the country is in a state of crisis. FCO: Advises against all but essential travel. Tour operators: Travellers who have booked a package are entitled to rebook alternative destinations or dates or, if they are not available, a refund, said Frances Tuke, public relations manager for the Association of British Travel Agents (abta.com). "Customers whose travel arrangements [eg flights] aren't part of a package should refer to the terms and conditions of the services they have bought to determine what their rights are," she said. Chris Wrede, of Oasis Overland, which last week diverted its Libya tour to Tunisia, said: "We plan to return to Libya when it is safe to do so, and all future trips are scheduled to go ahead, with the next departure on 8 June. Decisions regarding future trips will be made closer to departure." The long view: "Until just a few years ago organised tourism in Libya attracted very few adventure travellers," said Gail Simmons, a travel journalist who specialises in the region. "Western sanctions, and the country's oil reserves, meant it didn't need tourist revenues. Sanctions were lifted in 2004, and British Airways started operating daily flights to Tripoli in 2005. Visitors began to return, drawn to world-class sites such as the Roman city of Leptis Magna, and desert adventures in the Sahara." Arkno (020-8312 2358, arkno.com), one of the four major tour companies operating in Libya, estimates it alone took around 3,000 tourists in 2010. Toft of Explore said: "Libya has grown in popularity for us over the past six years, especially since the relaxation of the visa requirements a couple of years ago which meant instead of having to travel as part of an organised tour group, visitors just had to be invited and guaranteed by someone in the country – easy to arrange through a tour operator. It became a legitimate long-weekend destination and we arranged trips for independent travellers." BMI went ahead with the launch of a route to Tripoli from London on 21 February, just as the uprisings took hold, then cancelled flights up to and including 11 March, but is monitoring the situation, and will resume when possible. Jordan FCO: No warnings against travel. Protests have taken place in many parts of Jordan this year, mainly on Fridays. These have been largely peaceful. Tourist board: The demonstrations in Jordan have been very peaceful and in no way compare with protests in other areas in the region. Jordan remains a safe destination for tourists. Tour operators: "With my traveller hat on, now may be the perfect time to visit the Middle East," said Jonny Bealby of adventure operator Wild Frontiers (wildfrontiers.co.uk). "With all the negative press about the region, tourist numbers are down, but there won't necessarily be revolution in Morocco, Jordan or Syria, and the main sites such as Petra will be deserted." An eight-day trip to Jordan's main sites including flights and accommodation departing 21 April has £125 off with Bales Worldwide (details as before), now costing £1,370pp. On the street: "Tourist numbers are down in Jordan, but everyday life goes on," said Huw Williams, a travel writer based in Amman. "Engage people in a conversation in the cafe or at the falafel stall, and opinion is the same, 'Yes there is a desire for constitutional reform, but no, we do not want to overthrow the king. Jordan is different; violent unrest is not how we do things.' Time will tell." The long view: There was a 20% increase in visitors in 2010, compared with 2009. February is expected to show a small fall in numbers as a result of the cancellation of two-centre trips combining Jordan and Egypt. EasyJet (easyjet.co.uk) plans to launch what will be the only no-frills flight to Amman from London on 27 March. Syria Travel is unaffected, though there have been demonstrations, so the situation may change. FCO: No warning against travel, but developments could lead to public unrest. Avoid demos. Tour operators: Trips are going ahead as usual. Bealby, of Wild Frontiers, was due to visit the country this weekend to gauge the atmosphere, and inform customers. The long view: Syria has seen a huge growth in tourism in the past decade. Arrivals for the first eight months of 2010 were 6.5 million, up 47% from 4.4 million for the same period in 2009. Of these around 4.7 million were Arab or ex-pat Syrian, 1.52 million foreign. Brits made up 23% of foreign tourists. Bealby said: "In 2007 we took just 12 people to Syria; in 2010 we took more than 100. It is our second-biggest country after India. To many this is the land where history began – Aleppo is said to be the oldest inhabited city on earth – with extraordinary architecture, incredible landscapes and a truly hospitable population." Bahrain The FCO is advising against all but essential travel to Bahrain until further notice, as demonstrations continue and the potential for violence remains. Thousands of Brits visit each year. Travel to Morocco, Oman, Lebanon, Yemen, UAE has not been affected but tourists should check fco.gov.uk Middle East Egypt Libya Tunisia Jordan Bahrain Syria Gemma Bowes guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Dan Lepard's sherried apple tart Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:04 PM PST For week three of our dairy- and egg-free baking series, make apples the star of this show, and you'll hardly notice there's no butter in the pastry Sherried apple tart For the third recipe in our four-week series on baking without dairy or eggs, I've used an oil and almond pastry to line the base and decorate the top of this apple tart. By using lots of apples and making them, rather than the pastry, the ultimate star of the recipe, you won't miss the butter too much. Be a little careful and stand back when you add the apples and sherry to the caramel, because it will spit and splutter at first. Serve this tart warm with a little dairy-free ice-cream or a simple caramel syrup. Croft sherry is thought to be vegan-safe, though you can use brandy instead, if you prefer. 200g plain flour ½ tsp salt 50g ground almonds 50g icing sugar 50ml sunflower oil 120ml sherry, plus a little extra for brushing 6 dessert apples, peeled and cored Demerara sugar 1 tsp cornflour Put the flour, salt, almonds and icing sugar in a bowl and mix evenly. Add the oil and 50ml of the sherry, mix everything to a smooth dough, then wrap well in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out the dough and use it to line a deep round 20cm tart tin; cut the excess dough into small 5cm discs – you'll use these to decorate the top – and return them, covered, to the fridge. Press some nonstick baking paper weighed down with baking beans inside the tart case and lightly blind bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 for 25 minutes. Cut the peeled and cored apples into eighths. Spoon 50g demerara sugar into a frying pan along with a few tablespoons of water, and cook over a high heat until it turns to a golden caramel. Add the apples and 50ml sherry (stand back!), lower the heat and simmer until the caramel melts, the apples are almost tender and the liquid has reduced. Stir a tablespoon each of sherry and demerara with the cornflour, and mix this through the hot apples. Brush the reserved pastry circles with sherry and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Spoon the apples into the pastry case, decorate with the pastry circles, and bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 for 35 minutes, until golden. danlepard.com/guardian Alcohol recipes British recipes Dessert recipes Free from recipes Fruit recipes Snack recipes Vegan recipes Baking recipes Food & drink Dan Lepard guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

A working life: The app developer Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:01 PM PST Programs for mobiles and iPads are big business, but taking them from concept to reality isn't easy. Justin James tells Mark King how it's done Many of those familiar with the world of smartphones and other handheld computers will have daydreamed of inventing a killer app, one of the simple and often brilliantly useful little programs that run on touchscreen phones and tablet computers like the iPad. Perhaps we imagine our idea will become part of the zeitgeist, be downloaded millions of times and generate unfathomable profits, spawning lucrative toys, T-shirts and other merchandise. As I stroll along Oxford Street to the head offices of Grapple Mobile, I think of a couple of my own money-spinning ideas: a football stadium app telling you where in the ground your seat is, local amenities and the ability to message other fans. Or how about an app that could tell you the real-time gender mix in a bar or club? But it doesn't take much time chatting to Justin James, head of development at Grapple, for me to realise I have no chance of turning my app fantasies into reality. Although they are often minimalist in design and function, apps have become big business – according to research firm Gartner, global sales will reach 17.7bn downloads in 2011, worth around £5.8bn. Angry Birds – in which players catapult small fowl at pigs, and which is one of the most successful apps ever, having sold over 10m copies – was created by three Helsinki technology graduates already highly experienced in mobile game development. On the other hand, I am a journalist with no IT skills and less idea how apps are made. Though he is far from an archetypal IT nerd, James is one such experienced app builder. He works in a trendy office in the West End of London, dresses smartly and enjoys travel and fine dining with his partner. The fact that he can rattle off a Star Trek reference is perhaps the only outward pointer to a life immersed in computing. An Australian by birth, James began a management and finance degree at the University of Perth in 2000 but lasted only two years before deciding it wasn't exciting enough. He "bailed out" and began playing around with computers while working in a cinema. "I had always messed about with them," he says, "but it was at this point that I finally realised I could make a job out of my love of computers." That epiphany came at a fortuitous time. While studying for a computer science degree, also in Perth, he did a module on software programming for mobile phones and realised he could become part of a new wave of technology. "While I was growing up, computers took off in popularity, then later the web exploded and now mobiles are too. The rolling stone is gathering moss and it's exciting to be a part of it." Armed with this knowledge, James set about creating a future for himself. He knew he had to leave Perth to pursue his dream of working in the mobile tech sector, but like many residents of one of the world's most isolated cities, he had lifestyle reasons for leaving, too. "I'd never seen snow in my life," he laughs. He went travelling before arriving in the UK, taking in jobs as a laboratory assistant at a school in Neasden, at a ski resort in Meribel and as a chef. He took trips all over Europe – even to Eurodisney, specifically to ride a rollercoaster. "I went on Space Mountain," he says, his eyes lighting up. "I love rollercoasters." With the travel bug temporarily sated, James got a job with Apple computers in London before joining Grapple in August 2010 – the fledgling company had only launched seven months earlier. James started as a multi-platform developer (building apps that work on different types of phone) and instantly enjoyed his work. "As well as building the app a client wants, there is so much scope for experimentation," he marvels. "You can just grab an iPad and reinvent LCARS, the computer operating system from Star Trek. And I get to play with all the latest devices." James impressed the Grapple bosses enough to become head of development after just four and a half months, having worked on successful launches such as a multi-platform app for wine magazine Decanter, as well as client pitches. "We often get asked to build something speculatively for a client and it's great fun to let your imagination run wild, especially if the app ends up being given the green light," he explains. It is the experimentation that James clearly savours. He also enjoys working on apps that can run on iPhones and BlackBerries as well as Nokia phones and devices running the Android operating system. Indeed, much of Grapple's success has been because it allows programmers to use standard HTML coding (used by website designers) to produce mobile apps, allowing it to recruit from a larger, more talented pool than that offered by mobile-only developers. Grapple is based on Great Marlborough Street, close to Carnaby Street's fashion boutiques and the flagship Apple store on Regent Street. Inside, things are equally lively. The office is decorated in fluorescent purple, orange and green and the workforce looks young, inspired and global. At a developers' meeting, James is bombarded with questions and comments from his team – accents are flung at him from across Europe, the US, and even Brazil. During the meeting, James seems very keen on ensuring a couple of new developers are getting along OK, and implores everyone to help them out, especially "if they are looking blank". There is much chatter about anyone being able to pick up someone else's work and continue where they left off and I sense a collegiate, collaborative atmosphere that is rare among large groups of staff. The number of people in the room (I count at least 30) belies Grapple's humble origins. The firm began with three people but now, only a year later, there are almost 60 staff. In total the firm has created over 70 apps across five different mobile platforms in less than a year of trading, going from an initial two apps a month to 35-40 per month. Watching James at work, I note him moving tiny replicas of iPhones and BlackBerries around on his computer screen as he tests an app in development. But I am equally distracted by his colleagues' screens, noting apps under construction for a major sportswear manufacturer, a popular global fashion house, a vehicle rental agency and even a rival newspaper group that has contracted Grapple to build it a Royal Wedding app. James tells me what his job is all about. "It often involves taking large chunks of data and making it work for the user. It's about coming up with different solutions to the same problems. You're building on stuff all the time, taking what has worked with something else and applying it to a new app." Most often, a corporate client will approach Grapple with what they want from an app, Grapple will take that idea, cost it out, produce wireframes (walkthroughs of how the app will work) and a design aesthetic (if needed) and build the app for as many different types of mobile platform as the client needs. Grapple has completed fistfuls of popular, recognisable app including BT's Phone Book and the XBox Kingmaker – an innovative geo-location-based social gaming experience. James's job is to take a brief from the client, create the app and deliver it on time and on budget. It is easier said than done: "It can be straightforward or it can be difficult. With the Decanter wine app, we had a huge database of wines and regions that the user had to be able to access. We had to find a way of displaying that information quickly and we decided to force the app to access the internet to do it. Even then, that's a large chunk of data for a mobile phone to process so we had to find ways to slow the user down and stop them getting angry if it took too long to find what they wanted." James calls the solution to these problems "the twist", as in: "The client owns the app, but we bring the twist." And clients pay handsomely for it, too. Apps can cost a corporate client around £30,000, even more for a quick turnaround – at one point I note James asking: "Is the end-date critical, like the Britain's Got Talent app?" So while some apps can be built in days, others can take a fortnight or up to a month. It depends on the level of complexity; Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps and even email integration will take longer. Grapple has in-house testers to ensure the finished product ticks all the boxes and, most importantly, is exactly what the client wanted. This is mobile app development in 2011; it is no longer the domain of IT nerds knocking up games in their bedrooms, but an industry worth billions of pounds and employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. It's nothing short of a revolution, offering new revenue streams to all sorts of industries (including the Guardian). I leave James with his colleagues as they discuss their work schedules for the week and as I saunter along Oxford Street once again, my head quickly becomes full of more app possibilities. It's not long before I've got another cracking idea – the one that could make me a fortune. All I need is £30,000 and someone like James to build it for me. Curriculum vitae Pay Junior developers get around £20,000 pa, with James one step up from there. Hours 9am-6pm most days. Work-life balance Fine. "I got into computers because I was working with them in my spare time anyway. You could say my hobby is my job." Best thing "Getting to play with the whole range of mobile devices out there and be part of the new explosion in technology." Worst thing Judging when to stop. "I don't have forever to build an app, so I have to stop myself from running wild. It means I have to stop myself from over-complicating things. But it sucks, as the potential for creativity and how far you can go is endless." Overtime Justin is a big travel fan and loves visiting rollercoasters. "My next trip will be to the Six Flags Great Adventure park in New Jersey to ride Kingda Ka – the tallest coaster in the world and the fastest in North America." Justin also loves cooking and attends "most of the food fairs" in London, including the Taste of Summer and Real Food Fair. "My favourite restaurant ever is Herb Farm, just outside Seattle, which serves incredible food – we had a seven-course meal there and there were five different wine glasses on the table to go with it. Work & careers Apps Mobile phones Tablet computers Computing Games Mark King guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Has tech robbed travel of its riches? Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PST In the days where every decision is filtered via iPhone, has travelling become less interesting? We asked the experts including Jan Morris, Pico Iyer and Rolf Potts The classic travel writers Jan Morris I began travelling professionally soon after the end of the second world war, and I travelled mostly in Europe, where the hyperbole of victory was fading, and disillusion had set in. Seven or eight of Europe's eastern countries, so recently liberated from the Nazis, now found themselves under Soviet oppression, and the so-called iron curtain divided the continent, as Churchill put it, from Stettin to Trieste. Everywhere was shabby. Everything was threadbare. Famous old cities of history lay ravaged, still in ruins. Travelling in this disordered region was not easy. Currencies were hard to come by, visas were necessary almost everywhere, food was often scarce, trains were grimy and unreliable and for the most part air travel was only for privileged officialdom. And always there loomed over the continent, if only in one's mind, the baleful presence of Soviet communism. The iron curtain was like a prison wall, and crossing it from east to west, from St Petersburg (then Leningrad) to Helsinki, say, or from one half of Berlin to the other, really was like a personal liberation. I'm sorry to have to say it, because those times were cruel indeed for many Europeans, but I greatly enjoyed my travelling then. It was an excitement just being on the long-forbidden continent, as we called it then, and travel in Germany had a peculiar fascination for me. I used vividly to think as I sat at a cafe in Hamburg or strolled a Bavarian meadow that only the other day our own thudding bombers had been killing people in these very streets, and only the other day, if I had gone for a walk here, in no time I would have been bundled off to a prison camp. As it was, no single German seemed to bear a grudge against me, but even now, six decades on, I can still summon the sensation into my mind, if I try hard enough. But it was the miserable iron curtain that enthralled me most, in those early wanderings of mine. I always loved allegory, and to come across it almost anywhere, from a stretch of barbed wire or a line of pillboxes to its ultimate obscenity, the Berlin Wall, seemed to me a tremendously allegorical moment of history. I enjoyed the impassive faces of the border guards, when I crossed the curtain by one frontier or another, and they with infinite slow suspicion turned the pages of my passport. I relished the feeling of disquiet that accompanied me everywhere, a western journalist meandering through hostile police states, and I welcomed the moments when murky strangers asked me to take messages home to Britain for them, or played the agent provocateur with black market inducements. It was all grist for my mill, after all, and when a diplomat of my acquaintance once asked me to deliver an unexplainable package to an unidentifiable recipient, I carried it across the Chain Bridge at Budapest feeling childishly like somebody in a spy novel. And now, in another century, almost in another world? Now I can potter around a spanking new Europe as I will, crossing its frontiers almost without producing a passport, and I can even go to the United States without a visa. Of course I relish these new freedoms, which have vastly broadened my horizons and enlarged my opportunities. I am no longer travelling to report for newspapers, but only to gather material for books. As age has caught up with me, too, I no longer pine for those frissons of the cold war, and don't in the least want to be interrogated by armed guards with Kalashnikovs in the interior of Africa. It is a wonderful thing, of course it is, that any of us should be able to travel, wherever we like, whenever we want, pop down to St Pancras and take a train to Avignon, pop up to Manchester airport and be off to Valparaíso. I have to admit that with the ease and general safety of travel, it has lost a little of its excitement for me. Partly, I am almost ashamed to admit, this is because now everybody else does it too! Everyone has thrilled to Manhattan now. Everyone seems to have been to the Great Barrier Reef. One of my neighbours lately went on a package tour to Lhasa. Even the most beautiful city in the world, Venice, undeniably loses some of its wow factor when you can hardly see San Marco for the massed multitudes of its visitors, and every few minutes the Campanile is dwarfed by the passing of another obese cruise ship. And every one of us, if we haven't actually been to the forests of Borneo or the Amazon jungles, have certainly experienced them via television. And yet, and yet … during my 60-odd years of the wandering life I really have been to most of the places I want to go to, have been in most of the world's great cities and experienced the wild world from the Himalayas to the Empty Quarter. For much of the time I am perfectly content to stay in my own incomparable corner of Wales. Nevertheless, the moment those engines burst into life and I fasten my seat belt, the moment I glimpse the Andes through the clouds or watch the blue Adriatic tilting through our windows – the moment I step out into a revivified Berlin or a fabulous Dubai, or find myself once again upon the Honolulu beach with a mai tai in my hand – at every such moment I think once again, as I did when I was young, how marvellous the great world is, and how rich the rewards of travelling it. Pico Iyer The world is just as interesting – as unexpected, as unvisited, as diverse – as it ever was, even though the nature of its sights has sometimes changed. I am fascinated to see Thai tourists, for example, at a sleek new hotel in Jaipur, and to go to Mauritius to find Russian fat cats trying (in vain) to entertain their molls. I am interested in what "Indo-Pak" Chinese food in Toronto might taste like, and what a McVeggie with Cheese amid the ancestral swarm of Varanasi will offer. I once spent two weeks living in and around Los Angeles airport and, although it wasn't a peaceful holiday, it offered as curious and rich a glimpse into a new century of crossing cultures as I could imagine. And when I walk around the Old City of Jerusalem after dark, as I did six weeks ago; or visit the beach in Thailand, as I did two weeks after that; or wander among the "gods' messengers" that are the 1,200 roaming deer which still more or less run the old Japanese capital of Nara, I find these classic beauties as rich as ever they were. Places are like people for me and, as with people, the wise, rich, deeply rooted places never seem to change too much, even though they might lose some hair or develop wrinkles. Damascus, Zurich, Lalibela are as pristine as they were generations ago. And even as the tides of history keep washing against a Havana or a Beirut, their natural spiritedness or resilience or sense of style never seems greatly diminished. My talisman as a traveller has always been that old chestnut from Proust, that "the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new sights, but in seeing with new eyes". A place is boring only if you bring uninterested eyes to it. Some people say that democratic travel has removed the magic of places, but to me that magic is just as strong as ever (in Petra, in La Paz, even in my hometown of Oxford) if it is real. Garbo never grows old, nor Dylan young. When we worry that a place we love has changed – "Bali isn't what it used to be," I sometimes hear myself saying, "It's usually because we have changed." Fascination is in the eye of the beholder. Pico Iyer is the author of The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (Bloomsbury, £8.99) The explorer: Benedict Allen The last great journey on Earth was perhaps Wally Herbert's trek to the North Pole in 1969. Until the end of the last century, explorers were finishing up the scraps – Mike Fay trekked across the Congo, I walked the Namib, and so on. And now, the world is open to us all. You don't need to read accounts by someone like me, the specialist; we're all doing it. Grab your camera or pen and hike! So these couldn't be better times for the average person – we may all share in the privilege. Is it exploration? Well, if it's not advancing knowledge, no. Those who today flog to the Poles are not explorers, they are simply athletes. Inspiring – and, I'm afraid, irrelevant. Yet, man is not, in the end, a rational creature; exploration isn't entirely about assembling proven fact. Dr David Livingstone made many discoveries in Africa but his biggest role was actually as communicator, giving the Victorians a picture of the continent for his day. Take Ed Stafford's recent walk along the length of the Amazon. A pointless journey in itself, and 2,000 miles of it along what is in fact a shipping lane. Yet the journey was saved from irrelevance and self-indulgence because along the way he documented the Amazon for his time, which is our time. This task of accurately conveying our threatened world is more urgent than ever. benedictallen.com The internet traveller: Vicky Baker It's become easy – even fashionable – to be negative about social networking. Yet amid all the nostalgia and cynicism, it's also easy to lose sight of the positive aspects that have come along too, especially for travellers. Personally, I love the fact that we can now make new contacts all around the world at the click of a button; that sometimes just sending an email can open a door to getting welcomed like an old friend; that we can stay in touch with the people we meet; that we can discover places we may not have found by chance, and yet still leave room for plenty of haphazard wandering too. Does the internet take away all the spontaneity? I don't think so. It can still be exciting to follow a random tip you saw on an obscure blog or to wait for the arrival of an unknown, online contact in a cafe. Sure, it's a bit different to what came before, but one day these will be a generation's "good old days" too. There's no need to be online 24/7 or constantly slaving to a smartphone to get the benefits. If you want to take a trip without logging in once, you can do so. That's the great thing about travelling in 2011, you can opt in or opt out. And if you have the time and the money to go off into the back of beyond without so much as a guidebook and without seeing (or rarely seeing) another tourist, those days aren't over either. vickybaker.co.uk The blogger: Rolf Potts The world is as interesting for travellers as it's always been – but as wanderers we need to balance the utility of new travel technologies with the quieter, more organic rewards previous generations of travellers discovered on the road. Interestingly, this whole now-versus-then argument was a topic of debate when I first started vagabonding 15 years ago. Many of the older travellers I met back then – some of them veterans of the 1970s hippy trail across Asia – argued that my travel experiences were tainted by luxuries such as email and credit cards. These days I am myself tempted to look at a younger generation of travellers and suggest that smartphones and micro-blogging are compromising their road experiences. I have to remind myself that this isn't a new conversation – that technology has been altering the travel experience since at least the dawn of the steamship and the railroad engine. Any technology that makes travel easier is going to connect aspects of the travel experience to the comforts and habits one might seek back home – and can make travel feel less like travel. George Orwell tackled this issue in his 1937 essay The Road to Wigan Pier. "Everyone who has travelled by primitive methods in an undeveloped country knows that the difference between that kind of travel and modern travel in trains … is the difference between life and death," he wrote. "The nomad who walks or rides, with his baggage stowed on a camel or an ox-cart, may suffer every kind of discomfort, but at least he is living while he is travelling; whereas for the passenger in an express train or a luxury liner his journey is an interregnum, a kind of temporary death." Here Orwell seems to argue that technology is destroying the true experience of travel – but he goes on to assert that restoring the travel experience is not as simple as refusing the technology: "So long as the railways exist, one has got to travel by train … Here am I, 40 miles from London. When I want to go up to London why do I not pack my luggage on to a mule and set out on foot, making a two days of it? Because, with the Green Line buses whizzing past me every 10 minutes, such a journey would be intolerably irksome. In order that one may enjoy primitive methods of travel, it is necessary that no other method should be available." What in Orwell's day was a matter of rail transit is now an issue of constant connectedness – what I like to call the "electronic umbilical cord". At one level the ubiquity of smartphones and wireless internet makes travel more accessible: apps such as image recognition search Google Goggles can be more dynamic than guidebooks, and sites like couchsurfing.com help travellers connect with local hosts. On another level, part of travel's charm has always been its disorienting uncertainty – and it can be hard to stumble into serendipity when all your travel decisions are filtered through your iPhone. Thus the importance of balance. Just as Orwell wasn't going to walk to London when there were Green Line buses available, most of us aren't going to discard our smartphones and internet access for aerograms and hand-drawn maps. That said, there are times when a far-flung post office encounter or directions scribbled on to the back of a grocery sack can lead a person into the kind of experiences that make travel so surprising and worthwhile. That means 21st-century travellers must be aware of when their gadgets are enhancing new experiences, and when those gadgets are getting in the way of new experiences. If in doubt, unplug the electronic umbilical cord and throw yourself at the mercy of your exotic new surroundings. This time-honoured travel strategy can be daunting if you're not used to it, but you'll soon come to discover that unplugged travel carries its own, often more rewarding, set of possibilities. rolfpotts.com iPhone Twitter Jan Morris Vicky Baker guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'Look away, Mum!' Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PST Rory McGrath was brought up in a staunchly Catholic family, but at the age of 16, he turned his back on it all, refusing to get out of bed to go to church. He tells Simon Hattenstone he has never shaken off the guilt, or squared it with his mother Rory McGrath was too young to understand the concept of sin. So his mother prepared him for his first confession. She said, tell the priest about the times you have fought with your brothers or have been disobedient or have lied. Little Rory went in, regurgitated these "sins", and came out feeling as sullied as a four-year-old could. The very act of creating sins to satisfy the man in the box seemed rather sinful itself. And so began the comic's troubled relationship with the Catholic church. It went on to inform just about every major decision he made, from being altar boy, to telling his parents that he wanted out at 16, marrying Catholic Mary O'Leary even though he considered himself lapsed, sending his children to Catholic school ditto, burning with guilt when he and Mary divorced, right up until a couple of weeks ago when he buried his father in a Catholic church and read from the Epistles for the first time since childhood. The Father, The Son, and The Ghostly Hole is a comic memoir about growing up Catholic. McGrath is both father and son, and the ghostly hole is the void that replaced the early certainties of faith. At the heart of the book is an exploration of sin – from the desperately embellished ones of his childhood confession to those he considers caused him and others real pain. We meet by the river in Cambridge where McGrath dossed his way to a third-class degree and returned to live with his second wife, Nicola. He says the book had a difficult gestation – its publication was delayed for legal reasons. He admits he is not used to dealing with stories about real people, and is not quite sure how you go about it. Before long the interview itself takes on an air of the confessional. "Now my sins are so huge there's no confession session long enough to take them all in. But as you get older, you think, lying – how can that be a sin? That's day to day. That's survival. But when you're four or five, lying is a very serious sin." Is he a good liar? "If I said yes, I could be lying couldn't I?" He smiles. "I think I am quite a good liar. I mean writing is lying isn't it? Except in this book unfortunately there wasn't enough lying." I'm not sure how to respond. Journalists are not allowed to lie, I mutter. But he doesn't seem to hear. "So lying, yeah. I always think writing is lying basically." How? "Well it's making things up isn't it – I mean based on truth." It begins to make a kind of sense. The memoir feels like two books – at times, it could pass as lads' lit with transparently made-up dialogue heading straight for the punchline; at other times it feels painfully true. There's something disarmingly ingenuous about McGrath. Perhaps the book could be called Confessions of a Compulsive Catholic Liar. McGrath painstakingly chronicles his untruths: when he meets Mary for the first time she tells him she runs past his house every day, and he should join her one day. "'I will,' I'd replied. I like running. I do it about three or four times a week. This had been such a stupid and pointless lie." He lies to each one of a succession of one-night stands over a testosterone-charged weekend. "Why didn't this feel like the best weekend of my life? I had lied to and mistreated everybody I had come into contact with." Perhaps it's not surprising that fibbing came so easily – after all, he felt, the edifice of his childhood had been built on the great lie of Father Christmas. McGrath grew up in Cornwall. Both his parents were practising Catholics. They had four children, and as far as McGrath knows neither Mum nor Dad questioned their faith. But he did. In the early years he loved the rituals and the order but before long he had his doubts – if they could tell that massive porky about Father Christmas, what else were they trying to get away with? By age 13, the doubts had grown into a gnawing hostility to all things godly. He was studying Darwin at school, and nothing much seemed to make sense. For three years he continued as an altar boy and said nothing for fear of upsetting his parents. Then one day when he was 16, and he was told to get out of bed because it was time for church, he said he wasn't going. And that was it. He was terrified, expecting an emotional armageddon. But all he got was silence. He knew his mother was upset, and his easier-going father wasn't best pleased – but they never put it into words. Have they talked about it since? "No. I think it would have been too painful for everybody. There's a lot of things not discussed – there are so many elephants in the room when you're Catholic." He never returned to the church, and he never quite shook it off. He was expecting to embark on a binge of guilt-free hedonism at university, but it didn't quite work out like that. He felt rootless rather than liberated. "You think, 'What do I do now, where am I supposed to go, what am I supposed to be doing?' It had an effect on my first years at university because I didn't know what to do. I don't know if this is to do with religion or just my character, but I had a total lack of self-discipline." Nor did the sense of guilt disappear with his divorce from the church. In fact it grew, and he started to feel responsible for anything and everything. "I think guilt grows inside you. I'm still discovering it now, aged well whatever age I am. I'm over 40 and now discovering it's all guilt." Over 40, I say – and some! (He'll be 55 in a couple of weeks.) "Exactly," he says. "Well over 40." At so many crunch moments in his life, he is encouraged or stymied by the Catholicism he thought he'd long cast off. So when he attempts to embark on an adulterous affair (she is married, not him) he can't manage an erection. "Performance anxiety, nerves," he says. Were they just nerve nerves or Catholic nerves? "That is a very good question and one that goes through the book. What is Catholic, what is 'my parents', what is me? I think that was partly down to Catholicism." When he and Mary have children, it's almost inevitable that they pretend to be regular churchgoers to get them into Catholic school – despite both being lapsed. Did he not feel bad forcing his children to go through everything he had rebelled against? He ums and ahs, and says, they didn't, they only put them through it for the sake of a good school, and that both of them (now at university) have found their way to agnosticism if not atheism. When he and Mary separated, the church returned to haunt him. He talks about the time that access to the children was an issue and he was watching his daughter through the school fence – one of his lowest points. "I felt I'd let down my children, Mary, my parents, the holy Roman Catholic Church of St Peter. Even though it was essentially a mutual split, even though it wasn't my fault there was some voice in me saying it was and I was the worst ..." He trails off. Has his mum read the book? "No. She said: 'What's your new book about?', and I said: 'Oh it's a memoir of my Catholic upbringing. Hello, Mum? Did you hear?' 'Will I find it offensive?' she said. 'It's possible.' Then when she read the publicity about it, she said: 'Rory, I'm really pleased you've written a book, and I think it's really good you've got two books published, but can I just say I don't like the title because it seems wrong to me.' She'll be keeping very quiet about it. She'll probably be quite frightened about it." Does he feel guilty about that? "Of course, yeah. I felt I upset her. But I'm over 40 now ... Well over 40. My first reaction, though, is to placate her." It's only a few weeks since McGrath's father died, and it still feels raw. Reading in church, the rights and the liturgy, the Latin, the graveside hymns, reminded him how comforting religion can be. He almost wishes the book had not yet gone to print so he could have added it as a postscript. I keep thinking back to him saying writing is lying. Truth is at the heart of this book, but at times he embellishes just for the hell or humour of it. Strangely, one of the most revealing sections is when he makes an imaginary confession to his priest. "In short, I'm a lazy, selfish, drunken, overweight waste of space, with a gaping emptiness in my soul that I ty to fill with self-indulgence and cheap thrills." The imaginary priest tells him it is a sad macho excuse for a confession: "You were trying to be funny and that's what I find most sad. Being funny is your way of protecting yourself." More disturbingly, some of the most "real" elements of the book turn out to be not quite what they seem. At his nadir, after splitting up from Mary and being sacked from Hat Trick, the TV production company he co-founded, he contemplates suicide, and is dissuaded by the voice of his mother inside his head. I tell McGrath I find this one of the most powerful bits in the book. "Because I lived near Archway at the time I often found myself wandering near suicide bridge, and on that morning I ended there. And it just makes you think, fucking hell, here I am at the lowest point in my life and it's as if God has said, 'Where are you standing?'" And he was seriously thinking of suicide? "Oh no," he says, quickly. "I'd feel too guilty about killing myself. Another sin. I don't think suicide had ever crossed my mind because that would be letting my children down in an even bigger way wouldn't it?" As it happens, everything worked out well. Just after this incident, he heard from his teenage sweetheart, who wrote to say she had just got divorced and asked what he was up to. Today, they are married. In the book, after walking away from suicide bridge he retires to a church to contemplate life and death, and the priest hands him an envelope he has dropped – containing the letter from his old girlfriend. McGrath admits this was another dramatic device and that in real life it didn't happen quite so neatly. Does he have any worries about the book? No, he says, not now – his mum will get over it, he's been nice about most of the people, the lawyers are happy. And what about the bits that are made up? No, he says – that's just writing, and exaggeration or telling the odd fib is hardly the worst sin in the world is it? And if anybody challenges him on his version of events? "I'll say that's exactly what happened. You were pissed, you don't remember." The Father, the Son and the Ghostly Hole: Confessions From a Guilt-Edged Life is published by Ebury Press, £11.99. To order a copy for £9.59 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846 Family Comedy Biography Television Simon Hattenstone guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Anglican bishop sues Israel over visa Posted: 04 Mar 2011 08:38 AM PST Suheil Dawani appeals against deportation order tied to claims he made illegal land transactions with Palestinians The Anglican bishop of Jerusalem has launched legal action against the Israeli government after it refused him and his family a residency visa for the city. The Right Reverend Suheil Dawani, who is Palestinian by birth and US educated, has been denied the visa for more than six months after anonymous and unsubstantiated allegations against him of illegal land transactions and forgery. There are suggestions the accusations may have spilled over from an internal Anglican dispute within the diocese. A letter in Hebrew from the Israeli interior ministry accused the bishop of "acting with the Palestinian authority in transferring lands owned by the Jewish people to the Palestinians and also [helping] to register lands of the Jewish people in the name of the church". Dawani has denied the allegations and demanded details including the names of his accusers – so far unsuccessfully. He has been told he and his wife and daughter must leave the country immediately, though the order has not been enforced. William Hague, the British foreign secretary, and the US state department have raised the matter with the Israeli government. Dawani has been supported by Israel's chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar. Dr Rowan Williams, who as archbishop of Canterbury leads the worldwide Anglican communion, and Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, the US Episcopal church's presiding bishop, have complained to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. The refusal is not unprecedented – a visa was denied to the current Greek Orthodox patriarch in Israel for more than two years until 2009 – but no Anglican bishop has been denied residency before. Dawani's visa was granted after his appointment in 2008 and was renewed in 2009 before being refused last August. Although the bishop lives in the residency next to the city's Victorian St George's cathedral, his diocese includes Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, so his ability to travel to parishes is restricted, as is his status to conduct church affairs. The diocese is one of the smallest in the Anglican communion with 7,000 worshippers across the region. Dawani is the 14th bishop since the first was appointed in 1976. There is a dispute between Dawani and his predecessor, Riah Abu el-Assal, over the diocese's ownership of a church school in the former bishop's hometown of Nazareth. El-Assal publicly backed another candidate as his successor when he retired in 2007. A senior church source outside Israel said: "No one can figure out what the Israelis are playing at. This is not the kind of message they should be sending out. They really don't need to be doing this. Dawani is a very decent, good man and no one has produced any evidence against him. As far as we can tell there is no substance to any accusations." The bishop's office said: "This situation has continued for over six months as Bishop Dawani attempted to resolve this with restraint and without causing the government of Israel embarrassment. The lack of resolution, despite all the efforts, required [him] to seek legal counsel ... upon the recommendation ... he has chosen to take the case to court, seeking redress through the Israeli legal system." In London an Israeli embassy spokesman said: "Israel is not interested in any unnecessary delays but the allegations are still under official review. We understand it is causing damage as long as it remains unresolved." It took the authorities two years to deal with the Greek Orthodox residency wrangle. Dawani could not be contacted for comment. Israel Anglicanism Palestinian territories Religion Christianity Middle East Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

No Glory for Taurus XL rocket Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:57 AM PST The Glory Earth observation satellite was designed to help scientists understand how the sun and aerosols affect climate An Earth observation satellite launched by Nasa on Friday morning has failed mid-flight because the nose cone of the rocket carrying it did not detach properly. The loss of the satellite is the second failure in a row for the Taurus XL rocket, which has been plagued by technical glitches for some time. The rocket blasted off from Vandenberg airforce base in California at 2.09am local time (10.09 GMT) but was declared a failure by Nasa's launch director, Omar Baez, five minutes later. The rocket was carrying the Glory observation satellite, which was designed to help scientists understand how the sun and particles of matter in the atmosphere called aerosols affect the Earth's climate. Also aboard were three smaller satellites called CubeSats designed and built by university and college students. The rocket is thought to have come down in the ocean. The US space agency and the rocket's manufacturer, Orbital Sciences, had spent the past two years fixing problems with onboard systems designed to blast the nose cone free of the rocket before it reaches orbit. The rocket reached an altitude of more than 100 miles and a speed of 9,500 miles per hour before sensors revealed that the nose cone had failed to separate. With the cone still in place, the rocket was too heavy to reach orbit. The Taurus rocket went into service in 1994 and has put 10 satellites into orbit. The failure today was the third in its history. Satellites Space Nasa Climate change Climate change Ian Sample guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Slave port ruins unearthed in Rio Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:17 AM PST Archaeologists find remains of port where hundreds of thousands of Africans were sold to plantation owners It was one of the busiest slave ports in the Americas, a filthy, bustling harbour where hundreds of thousands of Africans were sold into a life of exploitation and abuse. Famished, exhausted and with their heads half-shaved, the slaves were herded off ships, groomed in "fattening houses" and dispatched to sugar and coffee plantations across Brazil. Now, nearly two centuries after Rio's notorious Valongo wharf began operating, local archaeologists believe they may have located the slave port's ruins during a multibillion-dollar, pre-Olympic renovation of the city's harbour. "As soon as the discovery was made I went there," said Washington Fajardo, Rio's secretary for cultural heritage. "It is a moving experience, seeing an existing city and then another city two metres below. You feel a bit like Indiana Jones." The possible discovery of the Cais do Valongo, or Valongo wharf, was made during the regeneration of Rio's port area. With the 2016 Olympics in mind, authorities are steaming ahead with a project known as Porto Maravilha or Marvellous Port, intended to transform Rio's dilapidated port into a vibrant tourist and business hub. Tania Andrade Lima, an archaeologist from Rio's National Museum who has been leading the hunt for the Valongo, said 10 local archaeologists had been digging since February and now believed they had started unearthing "structures" connected to the notorious slave market. Her team has confirmed discovery of Rio's Empress's wharf, believed to have been built on top of the slave port in the 1840s by the French architect Grandjean de Montigny and designed to welcome Brazil's future empress, Teresa Cristina. A 19th-century sewerage system, created by British architect Edward Gotto, was also found. Lima said the Valongo represented a crucial part of the city's history that had been erased as Brazil sought to cover up the "brutal period of enslavement". It is believed that some 3 million African slaves were shipped to Brazil between 1550 and 1888, when slavery was officially abolished. "This area played an important role in Rio's history – the Valongo wharf area has a strong symbolism for Afro-Brazilian descendants in our city," Lima added. Historians say the Valongo slave market operated from 1818 to 1830. During those 12 years men, women and children from across west Africa were shipped into the port on squalid ships, packed into warehouses and sold. The British clergyman Robert Walsh detailed the horrors of Valongo wharf following a visit in 1828. "The poor creatures are exposed for sale like any other commodity," he wrote in Notices of Brazil in 1828 and 1829, describing how slave buyers would manhandle the slaves as if "buying a dog or mule". "They were all doomed to remain on the spot, like sheep in a pen, till they were sold; they have no apartment to retire to, no bed to repose on, no covering to protect them; they sit naked all day, and lie naked all night, on the bare boards, or benches, where we saw them exhibited." In another section Walsh, then chaplain at the British embassy, recalls: "The miserable slaves of Rio, employed only as beasts of burden in the streets, are, of all classes of the human race, by far the most abandoned and degraded." Maria Graham, a British writer who also visited the Valongo, described "rows of young creatures … sitting, their heads shaved, their bodies emaciated, and the marks of recent itch upon their skins. "If I could, I would appeal to their masters, to those who buy, and to those who sell, and implore them to think of the evils slavery brings." Lima hopes her team will be able to officially confirm the Valongo's discovery "over the coming months". Fajardo, the heritage secretary, said the authorities planned to integrate the finds into the new port's design. In the lead-up to the Olympics, changes to Rio de Janeiro's urban landscape were likely to reveal further archaeological sites, he added. "We have high hopes," he said. Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, vowed to build a square where the 19th century ports once stood. "These are our Roman ruins," he said. Brazil Slavery Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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