The Guardian World News

---

• Million-strong strike planned over pensions
• BBC staff 'arrested, tortured in Libya'
• Prince Andrew lobbies for Azerbaijan
• Dalai Lama retires from political life
• Taliban caught with Iranian rockets
• 'Social cleansing' at Olympics site
• Cameron defends 'excellent' Hague
• NPR boss quits after Tea Party sting
• Republicans cut collective bargaining
• Hunt saboteur wins landmark ruling
• Brothers held in Iceland bank probe
• Illinois abolishes death penalty
• Facebook six stake their claims
• Meditation: endurance, or bliss?
• Losing penis spines 'helped evolution'
• Alone in Berlin published unabridged
• Kira Cochrane
• Brian Logan on punchline spoilers
• Supermarket grows food on its roof
• Bausch cycle plans for London 2012
• Pet Shop Boys reach for the moon

Million-strong strike planned over pensions Posted: 09 Mar 2011 04:05 PM PST Schools, universities, courts and job centres could all be shut down in June in response to review's recommendations Trade unions representing a million state employees are drawing up plans for strikes that could bring Britain's schools, universities, courts and Whitehall to a standstill as early as June in protest over government plans to end so-called "gold-plated" public sector pensions, the Guardian has learned. Lord Hutton, the Labour former work and pensions secretary charged by the coalition with reviewing public sector pensions, will publish his final report on Thursday, and it now looks likely to act as a starting gun for extended industrial action against the government's austerity programme. The report will recommend that 6 million nurses, teachers, local government and other public sector workers should pay more into their pension pots, retire later and receive less when they do. All state employees will be affected, and it will create the first legal basis for simultaneous strikes across the public service unions. Under the plans, the normal pension age of 60 would increase to match the state pension age, which by 2020 will be 66 for men and women. The changes should be brought in by the end of this parliament, though the armed forces should get longer to implement them, Hutton says. Hutton has called on the unions and government to negotiate, saying the status quo is not tenable long term. "These proposals aim to strike a balanced deal between public service workers and the taxpayer. They will ensure that public service workers continue to have access to good pensions, while taxpayers benefit from greater control over their costs," he said. The most generous schemes, which link pensions to final salaries, would be scrapped and replaced with payments based on career averages. Hutton has previously called the existing schemes "fundamentally unfair" compared with private sector schemes. Ministers should also get more powers to raise employee contributions if schemes are becoming unaffordable, but there will be moves to protect the lowest-paid from proposed increases in contributions. The TUC is locked in a debate about the timing of the coming action. Some unions insist any strikes must wait until the government publishes its response to Hutton, which is not expected until the summer. But a hardcore are preparing to ballot members, saying that changes announced after Hutton's interim report – to increase contributions by 3% from next year and change the rate of interest paid from the Retail Price Index to the smaller Consumer Prices Index – provide a legal basis to walk out now. The Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude and chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, made it clear in the first pensions negotiating meeting at the beginning of the month that they would not reconsider the decision to increase contributions and the change from RPI to CPI, leaving some unions arguing that the talks are meaningless. The PCS civil service union, one of the most militant unions, is preparing to take action in June, when the National Union of Teachers and the University and College Union are also considering joint strikes, pending ballot decisions, their national executives' approval and the outcome of further meetings with ministers. Teaching union sources said any action would be timed for before the summer holidays, to maximise political impact and minimise any effect on exams. A delegation from the unions will meet Maude and Alexander next week to discuss Hutton's proposals and the TUC will regroup later to confirm a timetable for industrial action. It appears unlikely that the entire public sector will strike, but instead waves of strikes will be planned sector by sector. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: "If we get all the teachers, lecturers and civil service, you'd have visible protests in every town in the UK. Jobcentres, tax offices, schools, courts, ports, universities would all close. There would be disruption. You would see a scale of unity across the professions that you haven't seen in a long time. It's a sequence of events and it will bring new political pressure." Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UCU, said her union's decision would depend on a ballot result due on Monday and the outcome of the talks with ministers. She said: "These are cuts that have nothing to do with the credibility or viability of the public sector pension schemes and everything to do with the political impetus to trim away at public sector pay." Dave Prentis, the general secretary of the biggest public sector union Unison, said: "On top of a pay freeze, and the threat of redundancy, they now face a pensions raid. This brings the threat of industrial action closer." Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: "The TUC and the unions are involved in negotiations with the government about proposed contribution increases. These increases are not needed, and will be an extra tax on teachers, civil servants, local government employees, firefighters, nurses and millions of other public service workers." Government sources said they would not comment before the report's publication. How the reforms will work What does Hutton recommend? Ending "gold-plated" final salary schemes, which link pension payments to salaries at retirement. Instead they will be linked to career average, reducing payments overall. The normal retirement age will rise to meet the state pension age of 65 (for men and women by 2018). Ministers have already announced increases in contributions of 3% from next year and a switch in the rate at which interest is calculated from RPI to the less generous CPI. Who is affected? Six million state employees. Why is the government doing this? Ministers say the current system is unaffordable and that the public thinks it unfair that taxpayers subsidise generous pensions. The cost of paying public sector pensions will hit £30bn in the next year. Unions say that in some cases the pension schemes are getting cheaper and the changes are merely a tax on state employees to meet the deficit. Are public sector pensions really "gold-plated"? Hutton emphatically says no, warning against changes to state pensions to become a race to the bottom. Average local government pensions are £4,000 for men, £2,800 for women. What happens next? Ministers will meet unions next week and the TUC will consider a timetable for action soon after. The government must tread a careful line: make the new pension system too punitive and people will opt out, storing up a welfare timebomb for the future. Public sector pensions Trade unions Pensions Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

BBC staff 'arrested, tortured in Libya' Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PST Journalists subjected to mock execution in ordeal which represents most serious incident against international media Two journalists working for the BBC in Libya have been arrested, tortured and subjected to a mock execution by security forces of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The shocking account of their experiences, including being held in a cage in a militia barracks while others were tortured around them, was made available to media colleagues in Tripoli after the men had been released and left the country. At one point during their captivity the men say they had shots fired past their heads as they were led into a barracks. One of the men was attacked repeatedly with fists, boots, rifle butts, a stick and piece of pipe. He also described trying to help other victims of torture whom they saw, some of whom had had their ribs broken during beatings. The ordeal represents the most serious incident yet involving the targeting of the international media and may offer an insight into the fate of many of those opposition supporters who have been rounded up during the regime's crackdown on its opponents. It also offers the first real eyewitness depiction of conditions endured by those arrested by the regime, including those whose only crime has been to talk to foreign journalists. A reporter for the BBC Arabic service, Feras Killani, a Palestinian refugee with a Syrian passport and Turkish cameraman Goktay Koraltan, were arrested on Monday with Chris Cobb-Smith, a British citizen, at a checkpoint in Zahra, six miles from the besieged town of Zawiya 30 miles from Tripoli. The two journalists say they were kicked and punched and beaten to the floor with rifle butts while being interrogated as suspected "British spies" despite having permission to work in Libya. Cobb-Smith was not assaulted. Killani described being taken to a "black and white barracks" at first where he was questioned aggressively by a captain with three stars on his shoulders before being taken behind a building and assaulted. "[There] was lots of bad language," Killani saidon Wednesday. "When I tried to respond he took me out to the car park behind the guardroom. "Then he started hitting me without saying anything. First with his fist, then boots, then knees. Then he found a plastic pipe on the ground and beat me with that. Then one of the soldiers gave him a long stick. I'm standing trying to protect myself, I'm trying to tell him we're working, I'm a Palestinian, I have a good impression of the country. He knew who we were [that we were journalists] and what we were doing." "I think there was something personal against me," he added. "They knew me and the sort of coverage I had been doing, especially from Tajoura the Friday before. They don't like us or Arabiya or Jazeera." Warned by his assailants not to tell the others he had been beaten, he was led back to the room where Koraltan and Cobb-Smith were being held, and told not to say a word. "The captain asked the other guards to come and started to hit and kick me. They hit me with a stick, they used their army boots on me, and their knees. It made it worse that I was a Palestinian – and they said we were all spies. Sometimes they said I was a journalist who was covering stories in a bad way. "[Then] they put us in a car and the captain, the one who beat me, told the guard if they say one word kill them." Taken back to Tripoli under armed guard, the three men were taken to a military barracks, as Cobb-Smith explains: "I thought it was a good sign we were going to a legitimate barracks, it was a compound with an eagle on the gate, but we went past the front gate down a back street. "There was a building down the side, attached to the barracks and not behind the perimeter wall. It was a dirty scruffy little compound about 100 metres square." Most chilling was what the men could see in the middle of the compound, a large metal cage. Once again Killani was immediately assaulted, knocked to the ground by four or five men who, when he was on his knees, cocked their rifles as if to shoot him. The three men were then placed in the cage." Next, Killani was taken into what he thought was a guardroom. "[It was] plain concrete with a heavy door. They took me inside and left me alone for a few minutes and then they started. After 15 minutes they were hitting me and kicking me very hard, the worst since I arrived, they put cuffs on my legs. They put three layers over my face, something like a surgical hat, the thing a nurse would wear but over my face. "I was on the floor on my side, hands and feet cuffed, lying half on a mattress, and they were beating me. They were saying I'm a spy working for British intelligence, they asked me about the $400 and £60 and some dinars I was carrying. They asked if I was given the money from the intelligence department I worked for." "I could hear screams," recalled Koraltan. In the meantime Cobb-Smith had managed to discreetly call the BBC at their hotel with a phone he had hidden, and alerted them to the seriousness of their situation. Killani by now had a mask taped on his face and was struggling to breathe. The two other men were having masks taped to their faces. Taken out of the cage one by one, Koraltan could hear guns being cocked again and thought he would be executed. "I was really scared, panicked; Chris was trying to say to me it was going to be OK. I thought they were going to kill us and blame al-Qaida or the rebels." Killani was kept in the cage, but now his captors had taken off the cuffs binding him, apparently believing his protestations that he was a journalist. With him now were other prisoners. Killani spent the night doing what he could for the other prisoners, who were all handcuffed. Some of them told him they had been arrested because their phone calls had been intercepted – including ones to the foreign media. "I spent the night in a cell. There were 10 to 12 men from Zawiya. Some were in a bad situation, with broken ribs. "I was looking out of the cage. Cars were coming and going. I saw them bring in a guy and three girls, prisoners, too. Two of them told me they had broken ribs. The four who were masked, I helped them breathe by lifting their masks, saw they had been badly beaten. "The four who were masked said they had been three days without food and with arms and legs cuffed. They said where they were now was like heaven compared to where they had been. They said they had been tortured for three days, and were from Zawiya. The four all knew each other. They didn't want to talk much. None of them said they were involved in fighting but the guard told me. Their hands were swollen and so were their faces." The next morning, after a frantic effort by the BBC's team to locate the men and secure their release, they were taken to another barracks. Cobb-Smith could hear screams of pain coming from the second floor and could see people being moved around hooded and handcuffed. "We were lined up against the wall facing it. I stepped aside to face a gap so they wouldn't be able to smash my face into the wall. A man with a small submachine gun was putting it to the nape of everyone's neck in turn. He pointed the barrel at each of us. When he got to me at the end of the line, he pulled the trigger twice. The shots went past my ear. "After the shooting incident, one man who spoke very good English, almost Oxford English, came to ask who we were, home towns and so on. He was very pleasant, ordered them to cut off our handcuffs. When he had filled in the paperwork, it was suddenly all over. They took us to their rest room. It was a charm offensive, packets of cigarettes, tea, coffee, offers of food." Finally the men were set free. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We were aware of the incident and have been in contact with the BBC throughout, facilitating contacts to ensure the safe release of those detained. "We condemn the abhorrent treatment of the team. This is yet another example of the horrific crimes being committed in Libya. The regime had invited journalists to Libya to see the truth. "This truth is even more glaring today than it was before. As we have made clear there will be a day of reckoning for these abuses." Libya Muammar Gaddafi BBC Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Prince Andrew lobbies for Azerbaijan Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:05 PM PST Duke of York asked for support in parliament for benefits of investment in autocracy accused of torture On Monday, as a storm of bad publicity raged around him, Prince Andrew lobbied an MP to help boost British business with Azerbaijan, the central Asian autocracy accused of torturing protesters, it has emerged. Despite growing concern over his willingness to establish business links with foreign dictatorships from the Middle East to central Asia, the Duke of York met Mark Field, Tory MP for Cities of London and Westminster and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Azerbaijan, at Buckingham Palace and asked for support in parliament and Whitehall for British investment in Azerbaijan. "He wants to raise the profile of the all-party group and wants us to make the case in parliament and to the business secretary of the business opportunities out in Azerbaijan," Field told the Guardian yesterday. "He feels it is a cinderella country that has tremendous opportunities." The duke, who acts as the UK's special representative for international trade and investment, is understood to be planning a trade visit to Azerbaijan in June, his eighth since 2005. He is often described as "the dear guest" by local media. He has dined several times with President Ilham Aliyev, including in June 2009 (pictured), and on his last visit in November, camejust weeks after international criticism of the conduct of the country's parliamentary elections. Amnesty International has called on the Aliyev regime to stop torturing activists demanding reform. Andrew has been to the country three times since 2008 in a private capacity. andOtherwise he has travelled there on behalf of UK Trade and Investment. Last year, a coalition of human rights groups said Aliyev had achieved stability only by "a total crackdown on the political opposition, stifling the independent and opposition media, and curbing fundamental freedoms". Field said: "One of the things [Andrew] talked about was his feeling that a place like Azerbaijan is somewhere of great opportunity, and the more British politicians and businesses engage themselves with their counterparts in Azerbaijan, the greater the material benefits." The duke's apparent lobbying of MPs and peers through Field comes despite calls for him to stand down as UK trade envoy over his links to the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and his decision to host Sakher el-Materi, the son-in-law of the deposed Tunisian leader, to lunch at Buckingham Palace just three months before the north African regime was toppled. His ties to Epstein were again in the spotlight last night as the Daily Telegraph reported that the American landed his private jet at an RAF fighter base during a visit to Sandringham. Citing flight logs, it said Epstein's Gulfstream flew into RAF Marham with him and the Duke's friend Ghislaine Maxwell on board, before they enjoyed the Duke's hospitality at the Queen's Norfolk estate. More broadly, the duke's lobbying for Azerbaijan will raise fresh questions about whether he is using his role to act in the interests of British business or in the interests of the foreign leaders the government pays hundreds of thousands of pounds a year for him to visit. Field said he did not think that Prince Andrewthe duke was acting in the interests of the Azerbaijan government during the Monday meeting. He saw it as the prince gathering business opportunities for British companies. Andrew was "relaxed and in good humour", he added, despite discussing "some of the headlines of the day". Buckingham Palace denied the duke was in any way acting in the interests of the Azerbaijan regime. "The job works in two ways," said Andrew's spokesman. "He tries to identify opportunities for British businesses in overseas markets. Equally, it is to sometimes attract inward investment into the UK. "It is entirely appropriate that the Duke of York should try and identify business opportunities for British businesses in Azerbaijan, a country in which the British government operates." Prince Andrew Azerbaijan International trade Robert Booth guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Dalai Lama retires from political life Posted: 09 Mar 2011 08:23 PM PST Though long-anticipated, the move away from the limelight by one of the world's best known political figures signals a dramatic change The Dalai Lama has announced he will retire from political life within days. In a speech posted on the internet and delivered in the northern Indian hilltown of Dharamasala, the veteran Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader said that he would ask the Tibetan parliament in exile to make the necessary constitutional changes to relieve him of his "formal authority" as head of the Tibetan community outside China. The assembly, which meets early next week, is expected to approve his request. Though long-anticipated, the move away from the limelight by one of the world's best known political figures signals a dramatic change. Analysts and supporters have described the decision of the Dalai Lama, whose office traditionally combines spiritual and temporal roles, as "historic". Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet, said that the decision meant that "at a perilous moment in the history of Tibet" the Dalai Lama was "expressing his faith in the Tibetan people." The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has progressively distanced himself from a direct political role and expressed a desire to live as a simple monk. "As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power. Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect," the 76-year-old told an audience at his traditional appearance to mark the anniversary of the Tibetan people's uprising of 1959 against Communist Chinese authorities in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and his own escape to India. Next week the Tibetan community in exile will vote to elect a new Kalon Tripa or prime minister who will, depending on the constitutional changes, take on the Dalai Lama's political functions. The Dalai Lama, who is revered by his followers as the 14th reincarnation of the Buddha Avalokitesvara who achieved spiritual enlightenment, said that many of his supporters had asked him not to take the step. "Since I made my intention clear I have received repeated and earnest requests both from within Tibet and outside, to continue to provide political leadership,"he said. "My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility. It is to benefit Tibetans in the long run." Last year, at a conference in Delhi, the Dalai Lama said that a new set of political leaders were emerging among exiled Tibetans. Since 1960 an assembly has been elected by voters in exile but since 2001 the office of prime minister has been elected too. For the coming polls, 80,000 voters have registered in India, Nepal, Bhutan, US, Europe, Australia and elsewhere. The Dalai Lama had already described himself as "semi-retired" before this announcement. As unrest rippled through Tibetan areas in 2008, he threatened to resign as leader of the administration-in-exile if violence continued. Two years ago, Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, asked him whether it was possible to resign as Dalai Lama, given that Tibetans believe him to be the latest reincarnation in a long line of religious leaders. He told them he would "no longer play a political role or a pronounced spiritual role". The question of the spiritual succession is highly controversial and has the potential to spark serious fractures within the Tibetan community. Chinese authorities are likely to exploit any opportunities offered by the transition of power. Some Tibetans would like to see the Karmapa Lama, a young cleric in his late 20s, succeed the Dalai Lama as the figurehead of the community in exile. Others believe it is time for a more fundamental change. Last year the prime minister of the government-in-exile told the Guardian: "The age of the old monks is passing and we are looking forward to a young, energetic, lay leadership." The Dalai Lama is considering ways of averting any succession crisis, possibly through the unprecedented step of seeking his own reincarnation. The speech, analysts said, was particularly aimed at the six million Tibetans living in China. The Dalai Lama and his senior advisors have been concerned in recent years about a gulf opening between the views and values of the two communities. In today's speech the Dalai Lama spoke of recent events in the Middle East, describing them as "remarkable non-violent struggles for freedom and democracy". "I am a firm believer in non-violence and people power and these events have shown once again that determined non-violent action can indeed bring about positive change," he said. "We must all hope that these inspiring changes lead to genuine freedom, happiness and prosperity for the peoples in these countries." The Dalai Lama also reminded his audience of the importance of preserving Tibet's environment, a key theme in recent years. India Tibet China Dalai Lama Jason Burke guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Taliban caught with Iranian rockets Posted: 09 Mar 2011 05:03 AM PST William Hague condemns Tehran's 'completely unacceptable' behaviour after rocket shipment to Taliban is intercepted British special forces in Afghanistan have intercepted an Iranian shipment of rockets to the Taliban that would have allowed them to double the range of their attacks, western diplomats have said. The rockets were discovered after an intelligence tip-off on 5 February when British special forces and Afghan troops stopped a convoy in Nimruz province, in the south-west of Afghanistan bordering Iran and Pakistan, the officials said. A shoot-out involving the special forces left several Taliban fighters dead. The vehicles were found to be carrying 48 122mm rockets, which western sources described as "substantial weapons" with a range of more than 12 miles. A diplomat with knowledge of the arms shipment said that was double the range of the usual Taliban weapons. Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, issued a statement denouncing what he called "completely unacceptable" Iranian behaviour. "I am extremely concerned by the latest evidence that Iran continues to supply the Taliban with weaponry – weapons clearly intended to provide the Taliban with the capability to kill Afghan and Isaf soldiers from significant range. The detailed technical analysis, together with the circumstances of the seizure, leave us in no doubt that the weaponry recovered came from Iran," Hague said. "It is not the behaviour of a responsible neighbour." Liam Fox, the defence secretary, said in a statement: "This confirms my often repeated view of the dangers that Iran poses not only through its nuclear programme but it's continuing policy of destabilising its neighbours. Supplying weapons to help the Taliban kill Isaf soldiers is a clear example of the threat they pose." Mark Sedwill, Nato senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, said: "These rockets represent a step-change in the lethal impact of weaponry infiltrating Afghanistan from Iran. "All Afghanistan's neighbours have an obligation to prevent weapons from reaching the insurgents who will use them to kill Afghan civilians as well as Afghan and international forces." The weapons were recently manufactured, rigorous technical and intelligence examination had shown, the sources said. "They were doctored and tampered with to look as they came from a third party but were of proven Iranian origin," an official said. The rockets resembled Soviet-era weaponry, caches of which are still occasionally found in Afghanistan. An examination involving British specialists confirmed they were from Iran. Markings had been removed on most but not all of the rockets. They had a green fuse plug, supposedly unique to Iranian-made rockets. "There are at least elements of the Iranian regime who are determined to make life difficult for us," a European diplomat said. "We have always suspected that there was a flow of arms, but we can never be sure how much of it we are find and how much we are missing." A thousand rounds of ammunition were also found in the convoy. It is the largest confirmed shipment of Iranian arms to the Taliban since 2007, when armour-piercing bombs were found in a vehicle in the western province of Farah. Tehran officially supports Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul but Iran's Revolutionary Guard has long been accused of smuggling arms to the Taliban to use against the US-led force in Afghanistan, Isaf. The disclosure of the operation, which took place more than a month ago, comes less than a week after the SAS and British intelligence were seriously embarrassed by the disclosure that UK special forces had been captured by rebels in eastern Libya. British officials suggested it took some time to conduct detailed tests on the rockets. Associated Press quoted an intelligence official as saying that a high-level Afghan Taliban leader had travelled to Iran in the past two weeks to ask a leader of the Quds force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard for more powerful weapons to attack Afghan and Nato troops in the spring and summer. The official said the logistics of the shipment were arranged by a Taliban facilitator based in Iran. Afghanistan Iran Middle East Nato Arms trade Julian Borger Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'Social cleansing' at Olympics site Posted: 09 Mar 2011 10:47 AM PST River Lea residents fear licence could rise from £600 to £7,000, but British Waterways says increase only option Houseboat residents near the Olympic development site in east London are accusing British Waterways of an attempt at "social cleansing". They say proposed changes to rules for living on the canals before the 2012 Games could force hundreds of people from their water-based homes. British Waterways, which manages 2,200 miles of canals and rivers, has put forward changes to the mooring rules on the river Lea, in east London, that could increase the cost of living on the waterway from about £600 to £7,000 a year. Residents see the move as a deliberate attempt to drive them away. A draft note from British Waterways on 6 December 2010, seen by the Guardian, says: "The urgency … relates to the objective of reducing unauthorised mooring on the Lea navigation and adjacent waterways in time for the Olympics." The canal boat residents fear they will be forced from the river if the proposals go ahead as drafted. Alice Wellbeloved, a freelance fashion designer, who has lived on the Lea for almost five years with her partner and baby, said the plan meant it was no longer feasible to live the family life they had built together. "For us it would be disastrous," she said. "We have a 10-month-old baby, and these proposals mean we could not work or get the childcare we need. We cannot afford to buy a new house. We feel we are being uprooted from our community." British Waterways says between 160 and 200 boats in the area are used as permanent residences. These boats can exploit a lack of clarity in the waterways legislation to use a "continuous cruising" licence, costing about £600 a year, which lets owners move just short distances every fortnight. Under the new proposals, people using a continuous cruising licence would not be allowed to spend more than 61 days in a year in each of six designated neighbourhoods across 40 miles of canal network, and they would be forced to move to a different neighbourhood every 14 days. British Waterways says the changes are in line with a national policy on moorings. But residents on the Lea say they are being singled out to allow a "cleaning up" of the waterways before the Olympics next year. For British Waterways the Lea is a high priority because of "high demand for visitor moorings during the 2012 Olympics". Mike Well, a photographer and Lea canal-boat resident for four years, said: "My boat is about a mile from the Olympic park and it is almost inconceivable that the authorities would allow anything unsightly or tatty during the games. This is social cleansing." Wellbeloved said: "People say we're using the river on the cheap. We are desperate for a permanent mooring. But there are none to be had around here – they're so scarce that the last permanent mooring near here was auctioned for £9,000 a year in rent." Nick Brown, legal officer of the National Bargee Travellers Association, which represents the interest of boat dwellers, said: ""These are extremely draconian proposals. BW is riding roughshod over the rights of a vulnerable minority group. The objective appears to be to stop new entrants on to the river and drive away existing canalside residents." Sally Ash, head of boating at BW, denied the proposals were an assault on the "live aboard" boaters. "We want to encourage councils to support more residential moorings. "But we have to control the number of boats, which have increased by 40% over the last four years on the Lea. The only way we can do this is through price, and some people will have to suffer." But she accepted that with feelings running high among river Lea residents, British Waterways would have to take account of the plight of those who feared losing their homes. It would consider "transitional arrangements" for existing residents and explore ways to mitigate hardship, she said. "We will have to do something we prefer not to, and unwillingly accept that we must consider a person's housing position. We are a navigation, not a housing body – but we have to send the message that in future, living on the river will not be such a cheap lifestyle option." Olympic Games 2012 Housing London Communities Ian Griffiths guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Cameron defends 'excellent' Hague Posted: 09 Mar 2011 05:46 AM PST Prime minister is forced to defend foreign secretary after Ed Miliband claims there has been a 'deafening silence' about Hague's performance during the Libya crisis David Cameron had said he takes "full responsibility" for the botched SAS mission in eastern Libya and has given his full backing to his "excellent" foreign secretary, William Hague. The prime minister fought off the charge of government "incompetence" over both Libya and policing amid reports of a 12,000 cut in the number of frontline officers, as he locked horns with Ed Miliband at prime minister's questions. In a heated exchange that resulted in both sides levelling personal attacks, the Labour leader seized on the secret mission to Benghazi – which left Britain severely embarrassed when an eight-strong team including special forces personnel was detained by local rebels – to claim that this was the latest event to fuel "increasing concern about the government's competence on the issue of Libya". Miliband told Cameron there was a "deafening silence" about the performance of the foreign secretary, who was not present in the Commons for question time because he was briefing the Queen, according to the Foreign Office. Hague said on Monday he was responsible for the overseas mission, although Cameron had been involved with the decision. Citing the "flights fiasco", mistaken reports that Colonel Gaddafi was heading to Venezuela, "overblown briefings about potential military action" as well as the bungled SAS mission, the Labour leader asked Cameron to say whether there was "just a problem with the foreign secretary" or a "wider problem in your government?" Pressed on who authorised the mission, Cameron referred to Hague's statement on Monday before adding that as prime minister he took "full responsibility for everything that my government does". On the issue of Hague, Cameron said to cheers from the Tory benches: "Let me tell you, I think we have an excellent foreign secretary." Turning the focus from Hague to the Labour leader's defeat of his older brother, David, who previously held the foreign affairs brief, Cameron added: "There's only one person I can remember around here knifing a foreign secretary, and I think I'm looking at him." During the Commons exchange, Miliband accused Cameron of being "out of touch" and incompetent, saying: "We know the prime minister thinks he was born to rule but the truth is he's not very good at it." The prime minister said he would not "take a lecture from Labour about dealing with Gaddafi". He added: "When it comes to the issue of this government's conduct, we have led the way in getting a tough UN resolution on Libya, we have led the way on getting Libya thrown out of the Human Rights Council, and we have led the way in making sure the world is preparing for every eventuality, including a no-fly zone." Miliband widened his attack to cuts in police numbers, after the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) told ministers that 12,000 police officers and 16,000 civilian staff jobs would be cut over the next four years. Miliband asked if the prime minister had "a clue what is going on out there". Chief police officers had said 12,000 officers' jobs were going to be lost as Cameron imposed cuts beyond the 12% suggested by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, said the Labour leader. "You say you want to improve frontline policing but the West Midlands is losing 1,000 officers, Bedfordshire has scaled back gun licence checks and now we hear that companies who have been burgled are going to be sent fingerprint kits in the post," Miliband said. "I know you believe in the big society, but solving your own crimes is a bit ridiculous, even by your standards." Cameron said Acpo "aren't talking about frontline officers" and Miliband was "simply wrong about that". The prime minister insisted that he wanted to "see police on the streets fighting crime, not stuck behind their desks fighting paper" and that "whoever was standing here right now would have to be reducing the Home Office budget and the policing budget". He seized on comments by Alan Johnson, the former Labour home secretary, who had refused to guarantee that police numbers would not be cut, and said the Labour leader was "jumping on a bandwagon" and indulging in "token opportunism". "You've got no plans to reform welfare, no plans to reform the NHS and nothing useful to say about policing," Cameron said. William Hague David Cameron PMQs House of Commons Ed Miliband Foreign policy Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

NPR boss quits after Tea Party sting Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:20 PM PST National Public Radio CEO quits after senior fundraiser caught in video sting by activists posing as fake Muslim group The chief executive of America's National Public Radio (NPR) network has quit her post after a video sting by rightwing activists posing as campaigners for a fictitious Muslim group. Vivian Schiller resigned as NPR chief executive a day after the release of a video of a lunch at a fashionable Georgetown restaurant in which fundraisers for the network and the imposters discussed racist tendencies in the Tea Party, as well as the anti-intellectual streak in Republicans, Jewish media "conspiracy", and a potential $5m donation to public broadcasting. The undercover operation was engineered by the conservative activist James O'Keefe, who made his name with a previous undercover sting against Acorn, a community organisation much reviled by the right in the US. The senior NPR fundraiser in the video, Ron Schiller, who is no relation to the former chief executive, had been due to leave the radio network for the Aspen Institute. But Schiller told reporters on Wednesday he would not be taking that job. In the 11-minute, heavily edited video, he denounces the Tea Party as scary, seriously racist, and weirdly evangelical. "I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America, gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people." In the video Schiller offers no reaction to the impostors' claims to be a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood and laughs when one of the men jokes that NPR should be known as National Palestinian Radio. Vivian Schiller immediately condemned his "appalling" comments, and the network made clear that it had never intended to accept the proffered $5m. But in a conference call with reporters, Dave Edwards, the chairman of the NPR board, said that Schiller had to go. "The CEO of any organisation is accountable for all of the operations of that organisation," he said. Vivian Schiller's exit is the latest in a string of high-profile and speedy departures from NPR since last autumn. The episode led to immediate calls from Republicans to cut off funds to public broadcasting, and columnists predicted further turmoil for NPR. The media commentator Jeff Jarvis said on his blog that Schiller's departure suggested NPR's board was too weak in the face of political pressure. Others suggested that NPR had been too quick to "sack" its chief executive. The network acknowledged some of the turmoil hitting the organisation. "I recognise the magnitude of this news – and that it comes on top of what has been a traumatic period for NPR and the larger public radio community," Edwards said in a statement. NPR had yet to fully recover from its clumsy sacking of Juan Williams, a political analyst who did double duty on the rightwing TV network Fox News. Williams, who had been at NPR for 10 years, was sacked for comments made on Fox last October when he said that he felt nervous getting on a plane with people dressed in "Muslim garb". The sacking, and a network official's snide comments about Williams's mental state, made the commentator a hero to conservatives, who embraced him as a victim of political correctness. Williams also got a full-time job with Fox. Three months later NPR forced out the news executive who had sacked Williams. But Williams's dismissal had already inspired O'Keefe, who arranged for two colleagues to pose as activists for a Muslim Brotherhood front group which was offering NPR $5m with no strings attached. Potential damage to NPR was compounded by the fundraiser's assertions that the network would be better off without federal funds. In public, however, NPR executives have been fighting hard to stop Republican cuts to public broadcasting. The exposé of NPR is the second big coup for O'Keefe, although he also has credibility problems. He came to fame in 2009 with a takedown of Acorn, an organisation that had worked for 40 years with poor communities. In 2009, he and a female accomplice visited Acorn offices posing as a pimp and prostitute seeking advice on evading taxes. Acorn disbanded late last year. But O'Keefe pleaded guilty last year to bugging the telephones of the Louisiana Democratic senator Mary Landrieu, and was sentenced to three years' probation. He was also caught conspiring to lure a CNN reporter to a houseboat for a sex tryst, which he planned to film with hidden cameras. Tea Party movement Radio industry 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

Republicans cut collective bargaining Posted: 09 Mar 2011 08:57 PM PST The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers Republicans in Wisconsin's state senate have pushed through the most severe sssault on trade union rights for a generation, taking opponents by surprise and rushing a measure that sharply curtails collective bargaining for public sector workers in barely 30 minutes. The procedural ruse by the Republicans hands victory to the new right-wing governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, in his three week stand-off with the state's Democratic senators. All 14 Democratic members of the chamber had fled to Illinois where they have been in virtual hiding in order to frustrate the governor's plans by preventing a vote on the proposed measure. Under the state senate's rules, any bill that was budgetary in nature has to have a quorum of at least 20 senators. That meant the 19 Republican senators needed at least one Democrat present to move to a vote. But in a shock move, the Republicans unhooked the overtly financial clauses from the bill, and pushed the rest through in record time, arguing that because it was no longer related to the budget it required no quorum. The new bill that cleared the senate provides for a drastic reduction of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, excluding police and fire officers who are exempt. Unions can no longer negotiate over pay rises above the rate of inflation, and they have been forced to accept increased payments to their pension and health schemes equivalent to an 8% pay cut. The bill went through on an 18-1 vote of only Republican senators amid dramatic scenes in the state capitol. Up to 2,000 protesters who had amassed in the building since the confrontation began three weeks ago chanted: "You are cowards!" and "The whole world is watching!" Walker celebrated the rupture of the stalemate saying "the action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs." But Democrats cried foul, saying that by springing the vote on the senate the Republicans had violated their rights. The leader of the senate Democrats, Mark Miller, released a statement from exile in Illinois saying: "Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten. Tonight, 18 senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. We will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government." Wisconsin has become a litmus test of the new more aggressive style of Republican politics that were emboldened by the tea-party fueled victories in the mid- term elections last November. Walker took up his post in January and quickly became the most extreme of a new class of Republican governor that has declared effective war against the public sector unions. Similar battles are sweeping through the US, from Indiana where senate Democrats are also holed out in Illinois to avoid a quorum to Idaho, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee. The Wisconsin bill now has to pass through the state's second chamber, the assembly, but that is considered a foregone conclusion. United States Wisconsin Republicans Democrats US unions Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Hunt saboteur wins landmark ruling Posted: 09 Mar 2011 11:30 AM PST Southampton tribunal decides the notorious campaigner's beliefs are akin to religion under UK employment law An animal rights activist whose long-running campaigns made him notorious in hunting circles has won a landmark ruling that his anti-hunting beliefs should be protected from discrimination in the same way as religion. Since the age of 15, Joe Hashman has taken part in non-violent direct action, sometimes acting outside the law, and undercover investigations against those involved in fox and hare hunting. His activities included covert filming which helped convict TV chef Clarissa Dickson-Wright in 2009 of attending hare-coursing, and have put him at odds with many in his community. At one point, he wrote a gardening column under a pseudonym because he feared the local paper would not allow him the space under his real name. Hashman, 42, now a professional gardener, claims he was sacked from his job as a designer at Orchard Park Garden Centre in Dorset, when his bosses realised he was a hunt saboteur. In a decision which is expected to pave the way for animal rights activists nationwide, a judge ruled his animal rights beliefs were a "philosophical belief" akin to religion under employment law. He alleges he was sacked in September 2009. Hashman, of Dorset, took his employers, Ron and Shelia Clarke, members of the South and West Wiltshire Hunt, to a tribunal seeking damages. He claims that it was the third time he has been sacked for his beliefs. Judge Lawrence Guyer ruled that Hashman's belief in the sanctity of life "extends to his fervent anti-fox hunting belief " and such beliefs should be protected under 2003 employment regulations. Hashman, a father of two, said that his previous role as an active anti-hunt campaigner, which he has now given up, has "followed me about". He said: "Trying to articulate my life's work and actions as a hunt saboteur and advocate for animals has not been easy. At times I have felt exposed and vulnerable. But ultimately I feel vindicated and am proud to have pursued this action." Lawyers for his employers argued that Hashman's beliefs were "incoherent, inconsistent, politically motivated by class war and that they endorsed violence" so were not worthy of respect. They cited evidence from various literature ranging from the Hunt Saboteurs Association to the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair's autobiography, in which he said the fox hunting ban caused "inordinate political convulsions" to argue that it was a class-riven issue. The judge rejected the argument and said that Hashman's beliefs about fox-hunting and hare coursing fell within the parameters of his general beliefs. Quoting Hashman, he held that he believes that "people should live their lives with mindful respect for animals and we all have a moral obligation to live in a way which is kind to each other, our environment and our fellow creatures." Hashman was cross-examined for two hours, in which he was asked about his attitude to slicing worms in half – "he drew a distinction between vertebrates and other animals" – and about the most humane way to rid a garden of large white butterfly caterpillars, which was, according to an article he had written under the Dirty Nails , to "rub the little fellows out between his thumb and fingers". Having established that Hashman holds a philosophical belief under the regulations, the case will now proceed to a hearing on unfair dismissal against him. His solicitor, Shah Qureshi, of Bindmans, said: "The judgement is based on fact and a clear interpretation of the law rather than negative stereotype. It sends a clear signal that employers cannot discriminated against people merely because they disagree with their deeply held beliefs." The judgment follows a similar ruling in November 2009. Then, a judge ruled that climate change campaigner Tim Nicolson's beliefs were so deeply held they were entitled to the same protection as religious beliefs under employment law. Hashman was taken on by the Orchard park Garden Centre in Gillingham, Dorset, in March 2009, to work on garden design. On 2 September, the day of Dickson-Wright's conviction for hare coursing, he was advised by the garden centre manager, Richard Cumming that he should not attend the centre, due to a number of issues that had been "thrown up". He alleges that, during a subsequent telephone conversation with Cumming, it was confirmed that his contract had been terminated because the Clarkes and a board member, Ludinda Stokes, who was a joint master of the hunt, were unhappy that he was working at Orchard Park because he was an animal rights activist and hunt saboteur. Tensions were high, alleges Hashman, because of the conviction of Dickson-Wright and because of the death in August 2009 of Andrew Prater, the Clarkes's former farm manager and a prominent huntsman with whom Hashman, in his previous activities as a saboteur, had had several run-ins in the past. Hunting Animal welfare Animals Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Brothers held in Iceland bank probe Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:33 PM PST Robert Tchenguiz turned to Kaupthing in his hour of need, but the bank itself was in free fall In the early summer of 2007 Robert Tchenguiz was sitting not just atop his 150ft yacht My Little Violet, in Monaco, but on top of the world. The property tycoon and financier had taken huge stakes in two of Britain's largest public companies – J Sainsbury and pub group Mitchells & Butlers – and was wielding his influence to campaign for a radical strategic shakeup of these conservatively run businesses. Both firms were dancing to his tune. These were sluggish and bloated companies, he argued, resting on billions of pounds worth of freehold properties that could be sold off and then rented back to create a leaner, more responsive business. The prize for shareholders would be huge windfalls. And it was just the message the markets wanted to hear: shares in both firms soared. But by the autumn of 2008 things had gone badly wrong for Tchenguiz. The credit crunch had set in and the banks were in meltdown. The Icelandic Kaupthing Bank – where Tchenguiz was the biggest customer for loans – collapsed and the repercussions cost the tycoon £1bn. His sprawling portfolio of businesses, from the Yates's wine bar chain to the Globe Pub Company, suffered badly in the recession. Other investments were seized by the accountants called in to wade through the Kaupthing wreckage, sparking lengthy legal wrangles. Yesterday, however, the drama took another twist when investigators from the Serious Fraud Office and the City of London police raided seven London addresses at dawn and seven men, including Robert Tchenguiz and his brother Vincent, were arrested. Four years ago, the Tchenguiz brothers were regarded as swashbuckling wheeler-dealers. A wave of hedge funds, billionaire investors and Middle Eastern wealth funds were all cheerleaders for the Tchenguiz model. (Tchenguiz, incidentally, is Persian for "Genghis".) Robert was at the height of his powers, having spent years building on his already considerable family fortune through a series of breathtaking debt-financed real estate deals. Already an established name among Mayfair's property investors, he was regularly snapped in his trademark pink-tinted spectacles for society gossip columns alongside his glamorous wife, former Tatler journalist Heather Bird-Tchenguiz, who now runs an anti-ageing cream business. But it was as activist investor in Sainsbury's and M&B that the billionaire investor was propelled centre stage into the glare of the public markets, a role he appeared to relish. Provocatively, he described Sainsbury's as "a real estate company with a retail business on the side". His words reverberated around UK plc, striking fear into the heart of many boardrooms. Operating from offices in Leconfield House, the former headquarters of MI5 in Curzon Street, Mayfair, Tchenguiz arguably did as much as anyone to set the bar for what, at the time, was called "balance-sheet efficiency". Along with his considerable status and wealth, he gave more than £53,000 to David Cameron's Conservative party in 2006 through his R20 investment firm. His sister Lisa gave a further £100,000 two years later, while brother and sometime business partner Vincent has also contributed almost £20,000 – most of it as recently as last June. Robert Tchenguiz's remarkable run of good fortune went into sharp reverse, however, in midsummer 2007 when the credit crunch saw banks pull their support for a debt-financed property deal at M&B. Months later, takeover talks at Sainsbury's were ended at the eleventh hour, with market uncertainty blamed. By November 2007 Tchenguiz's investment business R20 took the unusual step of releasing a statement to the stock exchange denying "rumours and speculation" that it might be under pressure to sell down investments in Sainsbury's and M&B. "Unfounded speculation is a disservice to other shareholders," Tchenguiz said. Rumours were swirling that tumbling shares would force Tchenguiz into an asset fire sale to cover loan demands. While there were successes elsewhere in the Tchenguiz empire – notably the £1.56bn sale of the grocer Somerfield, in which he had a major stake, to the Co-op – other operations were suffering, including his pub landlord business Globe and bar and restaurant brands such as Yates's, Slug & Lettuce and La Tasca. The commercial real estate market, another investment focus, was also falling sharply. Behind the scenes, several lenders, including Dawnay Day, Morgan Stanley and KSF, appeared to be exerting pressure on Tchenguiz to put up more collateral against his borrowings. In his hour of need he turned to Kaupthing, which backed him to the hilt, repeatedly advancing loans to cover "margin calls" from other lenders looking to cover their exposure to the Tchenguiz empire. Vincent, too, stepped in to help out, putting up £220m of shares in private property companies as collateral against the Kaupthing loans to ease his brother's credit crisis. By 2008 the brothers had combined borrowings from Kaupthing equivalent to about 55% of its capital base, according to figures from a 2,300-page "truth commission" report to the Icelandic parliament. But it was a gamble that did not pay off. Kaupthing itself was in free fall, caught up in the midst of the global banking crisis, together with other Icelandic banks it was quickly identified as weak and, crucially, unable to rely on a state bailout. On 9 October 2008 the bank failed. Tchenguiz claimed to have lost about £1bn in the fallout. The truth commission later concluded it was hard to see how some Tchenguiz loans were "decided with the banks' best interests in mind … The big increase in loan facilities from January 2007 until October 2008 is noteworthy in the light of the fact that in late 2007 Tchenguiz's companies started going downhill." Some former Kaupthing insiders, and Tchenguiz himself, suggest this judgment underplays the level of inter-dependency between the bank and its largest client. Tchenguiz argues that Kaupthing was a minority partner in many of his underlying investments and that these holdings had become vital to the bank's fortunes. Failure to offer a lending lifeline to these enterprises, he insists, would have destroyed the bank even sooner. If true, this bargain at the heart of Kaupthing's lending decisions which bound its fortunes to those of Tchenguiz may not be as clear to all the bank's investors as they would have liked. Establishing when and how any such pact was born, and tracing it as it grew and took a stranglehold over the bank and much of Tchenguiz's investment empire, will be a momentous task. For SFO investigators to prove it involves fraudulent activity may be tougher still. Robert Tchenguiz Banking Iceland Europe Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Illinois abolishes death penalty Posted: 09 Mar 2011 06:50 PM PST Governor of the 16th US state to get rid of capital punishment says it was the hardest decision he has made Illinois has abolished the death penalty after two decades of deliberation on the grounds that the justice system could execute innocent people by mistake, in a move that is likely to renew calls for other states to follow. The move will save fifteen men from execution who are currently on Illinois' death row, moving them to life in prison with no hope of parole. Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat who has long supported capital punishment, spent two months deliberating on the decision, which he described as the most difficult he has made in office. "If the system can't be guaranteed, 100-% error-free, then we shouldn't have the system," Quinn said. "It cannot stand." Quinn's decision incensed many prosecutors and relatives of crime victims. Republican representative Jim Durkin predicted Quinn will pay a political price if he seeks re-election in four years. Quinn said he would oppose any attempt to reinstate a new version of the death penalty. He also promised to commute the sentence of anyone who might receive a death sentence between now and when the measure takes effect on July 1, a spokeswoman said. Illinois becomes the 16th state in the nation without a death penalty. New York and New Jersey eliminated their death penalties in 2007. New Mexico followed in 2009. In his comments, governor Quinn returned often to the fact that 20 people sent to death row had seen their cases overturned after evidence surfaced that they were innocent or had been convicted improperly. Campaigners studying capital punishment said Illinois' move carries more weight than states that halted executions but had not used the death penalty often. "Illinois stands out because it was a state that used it, reconsidered it and now rejected it," said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Centre in Washington. Illinois has executed 12 men since 1977, when the death penalty was reinstated. The last execution was Andrew Kokoraleis on March 17, 1999. At the time, the average length of stay on death row was 13 years. Illinois United States Capital punishment guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Facebook six stake their claims Posted: 09 Mar 2011 06:19 PM PST Six Facebook billionaires make it on to Forbes's latest rich list but top spot again goes to Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim It may not have been Facebook's year at the Oscars, with The Social Network, the film depicting its creation, being trounced by The King's Speech, but when it comes to cold, hard cash, Facebook reigns supreme. In the latest list of the world's billionaires, published by Forbes, no fewer than six made their money from Facebook. As members of the world's richest club, the Facebook six have become an elite within the super-elite. Top of the list is Mark Zuckerberg, the social networking site's CEO and president, who helped to create it while at Harvard University. He ranks 52nd in the Forbes list, with a fortune estimated at $13.5bn. His wealth, along with the other five, massively increased this year when Goldman Sachs arranged an injection of $1.5bn (£926m) in capital into the site, valuing the company, which remains private, at $50bn. Next among the six comes Dustin Moskovitz, a co- founder. He is at $2.7bn – well behind Zuckerberg – although he has the satisfaction of having knocked Zuckerberg from his perch as the world's youngest billionaire. Moskovitz, a newcomer to the list as a result of the Goldman deal, was born on 22 May 1984, eight days after the Facebook supremo. The remaining six include Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake in the film), who is put at $1.6bn, Peter Thiel ($1.5bn) and a Russian investor in the company, Yuri Milner ($1bn). The final member of the group is Eduardo Saverin, whose falling out with Zuckerberg and the eventual lawsuit and settlement provided the dramatic core of The Social Network. Forbes estimates that the agreement that was reached makes Saverin worth $1.6bn. "Shed no tears for Eduardo," says Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of the business magazine that bears his name. "If you do get to be thrown out, a billion dollars isn't a bad severance package." Some features of the list remain comfortingly stable in a rapidly changing world. The top three names are unchanged, with Carlos Slim Hélu, the Mexican telecoms tycoon, unrivalled in the No 1 slot with a personal value of $74bn, an increase of more than $20bn. The next two in the list – Microsoft's Bill Gates and the investor Warren Buffett – can only muster a lacklustre $56bn and $50bn respectively, but then they are both preoccupied with giving away most of their wealth to charitable causes. Overall, Forbes reckons there are 1,210 billionaires in the world today, 214 more than last year. Another steady theme is the rise of Asia, particularly China. Asia has more billionaires (332) on the list than Europe (300). The US hasn't done too badly this year – the number of American billionaires has risen by 10 to 413. Yet in the medium term its story is one of relative decline. Ten years ago the US accounted for fully half of the global billionaires; last year that proportion had fallen to about 40%. This year it stands at 34%. There are 102 women on this year's list, up from 89. The richest is Christy Walton, widow of John Walton, son of Sam Walton, who founded the US retail giant Walmart. Facebook Mark Zuckerberg United States Social networking Internet Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Meditation: endurance, or bliss? Posted: 09 Mar 2011 12:00 PM PST Was it possible to survive 10 days of meditating in an Indian retreat without speaking, reading or making eye-contact with fellow guests? I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in a large hall, surrounded by strangers. Sweat is running down my face, and my thighs are bleating in agony. I'm trying to meditate but my mind keeps calculating how long I've been here (about five hours) and how long there is to go (about another 100). It is the first day of my silent retreat in Gujarat, India. I am not allowed to talk throughout the 10 days. In fact, I am not allowed to do much at all: I can't make eye contact with my fellow meditators, or read, write, listen to music, exercise or do just about anything except sit here on the floor. My reasons for signing up suddenly seem very foolish. Rather than it being a spiritual quest or an attempt to resolve deep-seated personal issues, I came here hoping for fireworks of the meditative kind. I have meditated intermittently for years, and I know that it works. When I have occasionally managed to keep it up for more than a few days at a time, it definitely makes me a calmer, nicer person, and better able to sleep. On good days, I find it mildly pleasant, but there has always been something missing. Other meditators describe seeing colours, experiencing heightened states of bliss or developing a serene understanding of the complexities of life. That has never happened to me. So, in the hope of bypassing the years of steady effort I suspect may be required, I travelled to the Dhamma Sindhu centre to do a Vipassana retreat, the most extreme form of meditation I know. Vipassana, which means "to see things as they really are", is an ancient Buddhist technique revived and popularised by a Burmese-born Indian, SN Goenka. His courses are taught in about 140 centres around the world, all of which observe the same schedule: wake up at 4am, meditation from 4.30am, breakfast at 6.30am, more meditation, lunch at 11am, meditation, dinner (two pieces of fruit and a cup of tea) at 6pm, meditation, a video talk by Goenka, and lights out at 9.30pm. The courses are free, although you are encouraged to give a donation at the end. There are about 120 of us doing the Gujarat retreat, all but 10 of whom are Indian. The day before it starts, we queue to hand in books and mobile phones, before being shown to our single, cell-like rooms. The following morning, with just five hours of meditation under my belt, I am already experiencing misgivings. I had been prepared to hate it at times, even occasionally to regret coming, but I hadn't expected it to be a constant struggle. Worse than the silence, by far, is the pain. No amount of meditation I've done before could prepare me for sitting on the floor for 10-and-a-half hours a day. I try everything: more cushions, fewer cushions, two small cushions under my knees, a firmer cushion tilted under a softer cushion, a cushion on my lap to rest my hands on. Nothing helps. After two days, gaps start to appear in the meditation hall. People are dropping out. We have been warned that days two and six will be the most difficult, so I moderate my expectations and prepare for it to be grim until day seven, when, surely, there will be joy? In the meantime I suffer. The Vipassana technique involves systematically moving your attention around your body, noticing physical sensations but not reacting to them. If you find your mind wandering, you are told to observe your thoughts and let them pass without joining the conversation. But that is easier said than done. Work, relationships, my parents' deaths, the novel I had been half-way through, Downton Abbey: all these kept popping into my head. Every night Goenka encourages us from the television screen, promising a happier, more harmonious life if we learn to welcome both pleasure and pain. "Accept the sensations as they arise, no craving and no aversion, they will pass," he keeps saying. Day six is no improvement, and several more people leave. Day seven is awful. As well as the pain, there is the boredom. I realise how much I rely on external narratives to get me through the day – work, novels, films, gossip, Twitter, news, whatever. Here it is just me and my daydreams, which are embarrassingly transparent. By now I know my search has failed. "The purpose of Vipassana is not to experience pleasurable sensations but rather to develop equanimity towards all sensations," Goenka says. "Your progress is measured only in how far you are able to face life's vicissitudes with equanimity, nothing more." There is a lot of talk about the vicissitudes of life, and being equanimous in the face of adversity, all of which I find rather quaint. I can imagine how useful that might be, but mostly I'm just counting the hours until I can leave. Then, after lunch on day eight, everything changes. I enter another dimension. It is as if the boundaries of my physical body have dissolved, setting every molecule free to fly around the room. Everything is glowing red; everything is joyful. It is like the most intense drug-induced out-of-body euphoria, but calm, with no anxiety, no doubt. So this is it, I think. I picture my fellow meditators sitting quietly around me. Are they feeling the same thing? Why has it taken me so long? I don't understand what is happening and I don't feel the need to try. It could be a purely chemical reaction to depriving my brain of pleasure for so long. It doesn't matter. The sensations last, with varying intensity, for the remainder of the retreat. On the afternoon of the 10th day the silence is lifted and I try to speak to the others about their experiences, keen to find out if they had these glorious out-of-body sensations too. A Polish woman, who is in a cell near mine, seems a bit embarrassed by my questions. "That's not what it's about," she says, somewhat dismissively. A Filipino man on his fifth Vipassana retreat tells me that he has never felt any bliss, but doesn't mind because meditating has changed his life so much. Back home, my friend Stella, who has done a Vipassana retreat, is more forthcoming. "Oh, you had the orgasms," she says. "Yes, I had those too, but not everyone does. They're really not important." She is right. What I have to admit afterwards is that sensation-seeking is the very antithesis of meditation. It is not about the colours or the bliss; rather it's about strengthening the muscle that helps build resilience. A steady practice that leaves you a bit better equipped to pause before lashing out, to rise above perceived slights and not be put off by the usual setbacks. A little more able to face life's vicissitudes with equanimity, as Goenka would say. Meditation Health & wellbeing Judith Soal guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Losing penis spines 'helped evolution' Posted: 09 Mar 2011 10:00 AM PST Genetic comparison with chimps suggests that losing chunks of DNA – including one associated with penis spines and facial whiskers – played a crucial role in making us human Scientists have identified a clutch of subtle genetic changes that have shaped our minds and bodies into the unique form that sets humans apart from chimpanzees and the rest of the animal kingdom. The work by researchers in the US represents a landmark in a search that has occupied philosophers and scientists for millennia and one that goes to the heart of understanding what it means to be human. The findings offer up the humbling conclusion that the secret of human success may owe more to what we lost along the path of evolution, rather than anything we gained. When the human genome was first deciphered more than a decade ago, some scientists expected to find extra genes that explained why humans had an intellectual edge over their closest living relatives and other species. But since diverging from chimpanzees around seven million years ago, it turns out that our human ancestors lost several hundred snippets of DNA, which together led to traits that are uniquely human, the researchers claim. In ditching these chunks of DNA, our ancient ancestors lost facial whiskers and short, tactile spines on their penises. The latter development is thought to have paved the way for more intimate sex and monogamous relationships. The loss of other DNA may have been crucial in allowing humans to grow larger brains. Intriguingly, hardly any of the lost DNA was from genes, which make the proteins that are the building blocks of life. Instead, the missing DNA came from areas of the genome that regulate where and when certain genes are active. "Like someone looking for their keys under a lamp post, the genes were the easiest place to look for differences between humans and chimpanzees, and in many respects those have been studied pretty well," said Philip Reno, a co-author on the study at Penn State University. "But there is a larger unknown in the form of these other regions of DNA, and in those we are only just beginning to find ways to pull out the differences between humans and chimpanzees." In the years since the human genome project was completed it has become clear that humans and chimps share around 96% of their DNA. Of the three billion pairs of "letters" that make up the human genetic code, genes account for less than 2%. The US team compared the complete human genome with sequences from the chimp, macaque and mouse. They found that humans lack 510 short sections of DNA that are present in the other animals. Intriguingly, only one missing piece of DNA affected a human gene directly. The vast majority of lost DNA disrupted parts of the genome that control how genes are expressed. One missing section of DNA was found to block a gene that, in other animals, stifles the growth of brain cells. Losing that DNA may have been a pivotal moment in human development, as it allowed parts of the human brain to expand into the most complex organ known. Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers describe how our ancestors lost another piece of DNA that gives rise to both facial whiskers and sensitive spines on the tip of the penis, both of which are found in chimpanzees and other non-human primates. Penile spines – which make the penis more sensitive and speed ejaculation – are more common in animals that face intense competition for mates, and where females are likely to mate with many males in rapid succession. The loss of penile spines may have allowed our ancient ancestors to copulate for longer, a development thought to have nurtured monogamous couples and paved the way for more complex social structures. When the scientists checked their genetic discoveries against the Neanderthal genome, they found the same chunks of DNA were missing, meaning the DNA was lost more than 800,000 years ago, which is when our human ancestors split from the Neanderthal lineage. The scientists are still working out what many of the lost sections of DNA do, but expect to find more evidence of how humans differ genetically from chimpanzees. "There are going to be many different features that make humans unique and I don't think we're close to describing all the links between genes that make us different from chimpanzees," said Reno. "We are just getting the initial picture." Evolution Genetics Anthropology Reproduction Biology Ian Sample guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Alone in Berlin published unabridged Posted: 09 Mar 2011 11:08 AM PST Bestseller set in Nazi Germany and published in communist era is to have controversial chapter reinstated More than 60 years since Hans Fallada's international bestseller Alone in Berlin was published, readers will be able to digest the unabridged version for the first time. Germany's Aufbau publishing house recently dug out Fallada's original manuscript from its archive, only to find there was an extra chapter, and a rather different story. They decided to reprint the novel as Fallada originally wrote it. Based on fact, Alone in Berlin tells the bleak story of a working-class couple, Otto and Anna Quangel, in wartime Berlin. Crushed by the news that their son has been killed at the front they begin a resistance campaign, distributing anti-Nazi postcards. Hounded by the Gestapo, the couple are finally tried and executed. The missing chapter 17 reveals a side of the Quangels only hinted at in the first version. "No one suspected that the original in our archive differed from the published version," says René Strien, the director of Aufbau. Yet the changes were considerable. Handwritten corrections on the original manuscript show that chapter 17 was completely cut, and the style and politics of the novel consistently toned down. "The first edition was more tame, more black and white. There are more shades of grey in this original edition," said Strien. "But remember, Aufbau was an East German publisher and there was censorship back then. A communist should be a marvellous person, a Nazi should be bad." Founded in 1945, Aufbau became the major publishing house in postwar East Germany and specialised at first in communist and anti-fascist literature. The changes shift the reader's understanding of the story, according to the Penguin editor Adam Freudenheim. "I was surprised to read the new chapter," he said. "It was clear in the existing version that they are not heroic resisters, it's the death of their son that causes them to search their consciences. But this is more dramatic. There's not just good and evil." Fallada's original portrayal of the Quangels is more ambivalent. At the start, they are an average German family, settled into the political status quo. Chapter 17 depicts them as actively taking part in national socialist society. They are grateful to Hitler that Otto has work as the foreman in a furniture factory. His wife admires the Führer and volunteers for the National Socialist women's league – details deleted from the published edition. It is only after they lose their son that the couple turn against the regime. "This is really exciting," said Manfred Kuhnke, a Fallada researcher and old family friend. "These are substantial changes. Fallada didn't want flawless anti-fascists. He would never have taken this chapter out." Linguistically, the original also brings you closer to the writer, according to the critic Hajo Steinart. "It's grittier, more authentic, we're learning more about the author's state of mind," he said. Fallada's life was troubled by mental illness and addiction. He died shortly before the novel was published and it is not clear whether he ever proofread the corrections. Aufbau says the first edition may even have been the version Fallada wanted. "It's not as if the poor British readers have the wrong book," said Strien. "They are both legitimate versions." The reprint will initially only be available in Germany but Penguin said it was considering a reprint with the rediscovered chapter 17 as an appendix. The novel has been translated into 20 languages and sold more than 300,000 copies in the UK alone. In Germany, it is called Jeder stirbt für sich allein (Everyone Dies Alone). Germany Second world war Europe guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Kira Cochrane Posted: 09 Mar 2011 12:00 PM PST Arsène Wenger's tirade at the referee after Arsenal lost to Barcelona was just the latest outburst from a profession whose members are supposed to be role models Another day, another ugly outburst on the football pitch. On Tuesday night it was the turn of Arsène Wenger, the increasingly frustrated Arsenal manager, who confronted referee Massimo Busacca following his team's disastrous 3-1 defeat by Barcelona. The tongue-lashing began on the pitch, and continued furiously into the tunnel. Yesterday Wenger was charged by Uefa with improper conduct for "inappropriate language". It wasn't the first time Wenger has shown his anger so publicly. The man known by fans as "the professor" dashed a water bottle furiously to the ground last year, kicked another into the air the year before and was once fined £10,000 for his aggressive behaviour after pushing former West Ham boss Alan Pardew. All this from a man considered one of the more placid and intellectual in the game. The truth is that spitting anger from football managers has become so common it often barely prompts a shrug from fans. Just days before the Wenger incident, highly stressed Celtic manager Neil Lennon squared up to Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist at the end of their match, in a scene that was genuinely chilling. Some of the most successful football managers are famed, even celebrated, for their anger – the most prominent, of course, being Manchester United's Alex Ferguson who, while usually well-behaved during games, has always trailed rumours of terrifying behaviour in the dressing room, including one incident in which he allegedly kicked a boot into David Beckham's face. On-pitch anger is bad enough when coming from players – young men idolised by boys and girls – but it is even more insidious and repulsive from managers, men at the very top of their profession, who are plainly, explicitly, authority figures. This kind of behaviour would be considered completely unacceptable in any other job, and yet in one of the most high-profile, prized and best-remunerated roles in British public life it has become every day. Each incident leaves another scar on the face of the beautiful game. Kira Cochrane guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Brian Logan on punchline spoilers Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:45 PM PST 'Should I give away punchlines in my reviews?' I reviewed the comedian Paul Sinha a fortnight ago, and sparked a conversation on the Guardian website (and on Sinha's blog) about the quoting of punchlines in a standup review. I quoted twice from a show that had a hundred-plus laugh lines. But that's twice too much for some, who argued in comments after my review that to do so is "unfair on the performer" and "ruins the joke if you go and see [the show]". I humbly disagree – but acknowledge the need to tread carefully. Quoting a comic's act is different to quoting a play script, or song lyrics. Jokes work partly by surprise; to broadcast their punchlines risks reducing their effectiveness. But it needn't "ruin" them: it's not just the words that make jokes funny. Comics get laughs for their personality, their rhythm and expressiveness, the context for each joke, and its delivery. And their pace – most punchlines have come and gone long before the person who's read the Guardian review saw them coming. In any case, gags aren't always made less funny by familiarity – hence repeat viewings of beloved sitcoms, and audiences shouting out at gigs for their favourite jokes. A critic has several duties, including fairness to the performer. I ration the punchlines I use and, as much as possible, quote those least likely to spoil surprises. (Those Sinha lines weren't conventional punchlines; each was one among several examples he gave to illustrate a point.) But we're also meant to give a flavour of what the act does. If I praise Sinha's "fine comic writing", I have to illustrate that. Quotation is the most effective way to evoke a comic's character and verbal style in the 300 words allotted; it can also excite the reader about their work. In this tweeting, YouTube era, it's hard for standups to protect their material, and I understand their anxiety about "free giveaways" in reviews. I keep them to a minimum – but I don't see how anyone is best served by comedy reviews that quote no jokes whatsoever. Comedy Brian Logan guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Supermarket grows food on its roof Posted: 09 Mar 2011 11:59 AM PST Food from the Sky has planted a vegetable garden on a shop roof in north London – and its founder wants other shops around the country to do the same Of all the things you might reasonably expect to be doing on a blustery March day, standing on the roof of a supermarket and dragging a rake through a bag of decaying vegetables is probably not one of them. I am on top of Thornton's Budgens supermarket in Crouch End, north London, which volunteers have transformed from a flat expanse of concrete into a flourishing potted garden and vegetable patch. The project, called Food from the Sky, is an unusual exercise in the principles of permaculture and sustainable gardening, and is the brainchild of former silversmith and art consultant Azul-Valerie Thome. It opened last May, when a crane lifted 10 tonnes of compost and 300 green recycling boxes donated by Haringey Council on to the roof. Now the garden is producing enough vegetables to sell in the aisles downstairs every Friday, and has just won a community prize at the Co-operative's annual People and Environment Achievement Awards. On a quick tour of the garden, Thome and several volunteers show me an impressive array of vegetables – from peas and potatoes to kale and purple sprouting broccoli – alongside flowers, tiny strawberry and raspberry plants, and a composting area. Here, fruit and vegetables left unsold each day in Budgens are mulched, along with woody branches and soil, by the 20 local people who volunteer in the garden. Volunteer Peter Budge tells me the conditions are perfect for the plants: the warmth from the supermarket's heating and lighting systems comes up through the roof, sparing the seeds the worst of the frosts – and there are no slugs or snails, while marauding pigeons are deterred by CDs hanging from the perimeter fence. "It might seem mad that we're growing things up here," Budge says, "and it is. But it really works." The idea came to fruition when Thome returned to London after living in Devon. "I looked up at the roofs and had a vision of them covered with gardens and orchards." She met Andrew Thornton, who manages two north London Budgens stores. "He showed me the roof of the store as a potential space," Thome says. As well as producing fruit and vegetables to sell, Food from the Sky is, from this weekend, running a course in permaculture, as well as visits for local primary schools. And in one corner of the garden, a group of nondescript lidded boxes contains a project for the future: the Garden of Bangladesh, an exercise in growing the ingredients used in Bangladeshi cooking, such as gourds and coriander, suggested by some of the Bangladeshis who work in the store. "Next up is Sri Lanka," Thome says, "and central Europe is getting jealous." Thome's ultimate aim is "to create a template to show that produce can be grown in cities, and sold locally. One day, I want to see supermarket roof-gardens all over the country." Laura Barnett Food Supermarkets Gardening advice Laura Barnett guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Bausch cycle plans for London 2012 Posted: 09 Mar 2011 10:23 AM PST Barbican and Sadler's Wells collaborate on ambitious staging of the choreographer's 10 works inspired by cities One of the final projects that the choreographer Pina Bausch, who died in 2009, was involved in was her most ambitious: an unprecedented season of 10 back-to-back works created as she responded to cities and countries that she visited throughout her long career. The series will be performed in London before the Olympics. In the first collaboration between Sadler's Wells and the Barbican, the works will be staged in June and July 2012 as a highlight of the Cultural Olympiad. In the world of contemporary dance this is as big as it gets. It is a huge endeavour and something of a logistical nightmare, but Bausch's death has proved a spur to making sure it happens. Alistair Spalding, the chief executive and artistic director of Sadler's Wells, said: "Both we and the company have used it as a motivator. We've been absolutely determined to make this season happen because, in our eyes, it was almost like it was her last wish." Spalding said that Bausch was always top of the list when 2012 plans were being discussed. "It was clear to me that if we were going to do anything around the Olympics, then Pina should be involved." Bausch was a titan in the world of dance, as important as Stravinsky was to music, said Spalding. She became the director of Tanztheater Wuppertal in 1973 and was one of the most influential choreographers of the last century. "She introduced a new way of thinking about dance, a new language, and did things on stage which no one had ever attempted," said Spalding. Tanztheater Wuppertal's co-artistic director Robert Sturm said the company would soon prepare for what will be a hugely demanding cycle of performances. "It is very exciting, it is a wonderful possibility for both sides – for us to honour Pina and show so many pieces, and for audiences of course. It is a very special thing." All the pieces are very different. Essentially travelogues, the works were created when Bausch was invited to visit and stay in 10 global locations – in India, Brazil, Palermo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Budapest, Istanbul, Santiago, Rome and Japan – between 1986 and 2009. Seven of the works have not been seen in the UK. Spalding said: "We're covering quite a long period of creativity during which Pina changed her focus, so there are very stormy, theatrical works and towards the end there's more of a focus on pure dance. People will be able to see a progression in what Pina did." The idea emerged from a meeting between Bausch and her designer, Peter Pabst, Spalding and Michael Morris, who has produced all of her works in the UK. "It was the last thing we planned with her and she was very passionate about it," said Morris. "It was something I don't think she ever allowed herself to dream of; it's never been done before. It is a big challenge for the company." The performances will take place from 6 June to 9 July. As one takes place, the crew will be installing the complex and monumental sets designed by Pabst in the other venue, including the six-metre-high hill of red silk flowers needed for Der Fensterputzer (Hong Kong) and the entirely bricked up stage for Palermo, Palermo. The season will be the first collaboration between the two London venues – with four performances at the Barbican and six at Sadler's Wells – which are usually friendly rivals. "Hopefully we will continue to work together in the future," said Spalding. The profile of Bausch outside her hugely loyal fanbase, meanwhile, is likely to widen with the release in April of Wim Wenders's 3D documentary homage to the choreographer, which premiered last month at the Berlin film festival. Pina Bausch Cultural Olympiad Dance London Mark Brown guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Pet Shop Boys reach for the moon Posted: 09 Mar 2011 01:29 PM PST Pet Shop Boys and dance maverick Javier de Frutos have turned a Hans Christian Andersen story into a ballet. How did the moon landings end up in there? Javier de Frutos and Neil Tennant are on their second glass of wine, and getting very emotional about Desert Island Discs. De Frutos, the Venezuelan-born choreographer, has delivered a passionate explanation of why he could never limit his musical choices to eight. Tennant, frontman of the Pet Shop Boys, is quietly triumphant about once being asked to do it. "Being on that programme was one of the best things in my life. I started with She Loves You. When I was nine, I just wanted to be that music. Then I had Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. I remember being unable to believe those harmonies." The two men, seated at the Groucho Club in London, are meant to be discussing their new collaboration, based on the Hans Christian Andersen story The Most Incredible Thing, about a competition to create exactly that. But the collaboration is a pretty remarkable thing in itself: the Pet Shop Boys' first attempt at composing a ballet score, and De Frutos's first full-length narrative dance. It's hard to keep them on topic, though. One minute they're expounding the ballet's underlying theme, the life-changing power of art, the next they're off on a tangent: everything from the fall of dictators to Noël Coward and the potency of cheap music. I'm privately grateful that Chris Lowe, the other Pet Shop Boy, is in bed nursing a cold. These two are handful enough. It was Lowe, however, who first saw the potential of the Andersen tale. In 2007, the Boys had been reading Andersen's stories in a new translation. "Chris phoned me up to say he'd found one that would work as a ballet," says Tennant. Although the story was short, he adds, "it read like this great pitch for a ballet". The two had been considering composing a dance score for some time. "When you have a long career like ours," says Tennant, "you have to keep things fresh. You have to be excited and smiling and scared shitless about something." Having written a West End musical (2001's Closer to Heaven) and a film score (for Battleship Potemkin in 2005), a ballet seemed the next logical step. Their interest had also been aroused by Ivan Putrov, the then Royal Ballet principal. "We started going to see Ivan perform," says Tennant, "and we became very curious as to why classical ballet had remained so traditional in the way it looks. It hadn't gone through what I call the abattoir phase, as opera had in the 1980s, where everything was updated. So we were interested in writing a three-act ballet in the tradition of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, but with modern music and choreography. We didn't want to compose cod classical music – we wanted to write a ballet in our own style." Sure of little beyond the fact they wanted Putrov as their leading dancer, the Boys took their idea to Sadler's Wells, and ended up with playwright and director Matthew Dunster as dramaturge, and De Frutos as choreographer. This could have been a problem. The ballet was to be family entertainment, and that's hardly natural territory for De Frutos, given the early solos in which he performed naked, and the glittering assault he made on the Catholic church in his 2009 work Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez. The latter earned him death threats. But De Frutos has a gift for crafting poetic, sophisticated dance, and has successfully collaborated on several big productions. In 2007, his choreography for the West End musical Cabaret won him an Olivier. The Boys were impressed. "We instantly liked the sound of his name," says Tennant "so we looked at some videos of his work." "And they were not afraid," butts in De Frutos. Andersen's story hinges on a contest held by a king, who offers his daughter and half his kingdom to whoever can show him "the most incredible thing". A young man builds a clock that magically contains the whole world. But before he can claim his prize, the clock is smashed by a blacksmith who argues that destroying such a wonder is an even more incredible thing than creating it. As the judges reluctantly concur, the shattered parts of the clock come back to life and take their revenge. "It's such a profound story," says Tennant of the three-page tale. "It's basically saying you can destroy an object, but you can't destroy an idea." He and Lowe were moved to discover that the story had been secretly distributed by the Danish resistance during the Nazi occupation. Yet they were equally enchanted by the comic, folksy world it portrays. "It unfolds with incredible energy," adds Tennant. "In the beginning, when everyone in the kingdom is trying to do the most incredible thing, there is this one line, 'Small boys tried to spit on their backs'. It's a brilliant image – the idea that to a boy that's the most incredible thing." De Frutos agrees. "There's so much in there, three acts don't feel enough," says the choreographer, who has revelled in exploring all its theatrical possibilities. The second act centres on the magic of the clock, the design of which was inspired by The Weather Project, Olafur Eliasson's evanescently beautiful 2003 installation that brought a glowing sun to Tate Modern; the clock's marvellous contents are evoked by dance and film. These include landmark moments from history, like the Apollo 11 moon landing, and great works of art, among them ballets that De Frutos references in his own choreography. The princess, a curiously deadpan character in the original, has been turned into a rebel. "I've based her on Princess Caroline of Monaco, the original bad princess," says De Frutos. It's an act of homage inspired by the fact that, when Princess Caroline came to a performance of Eternal Damnation, she "made a bee line" for the cast afterwards. "She said she'd loved the work and we all absolutely had to come to her party." De Frutos cast Putrov as the blacksmith: while he's enjoyed showcasing the dancer's burnished, classical technique, he's also been "releasing Ivan's inner bully", hiring a fight trainer to help him through his assault on the artist/clockmaker. And now for 10 other ballets Tennant, too, faced new challenges. "Writing for a ballet is very different from writing pop songs. We have to work with much longer melodic lines and invent different musical themes for the characters. I had to get out the whole score of Romeo and Juliet to see how Prokofiev got from one scene to another, how he introduced different melodies." The scale of the score, written for electronic instruments and live orchestra, has opened up fascinating possibilities. "Chris and I both love woodwind, so we've been able to include lots of oboe and clarinet. We've experimented with different chords and harmonies. There's this one scale, the 'Rimsky-Korsakov scale', which is basically tone, semi-tone, tone, and gives a completely different quality." So galvanised are the Boys by their ballet, they've got a list of 10 others they want to write, starting with The Emperor's New Clothes. "Javier can dance the Emperor and be naked throughout," grins Tennant, flirtatiously. "Oh," says De Frutos, sitting beside him on the sofa, "everybody's seen my bits already." "But Chris and I haven't." How do they feel about Paul McCartney's recent announcement that he, too, has written a ballet score? "I'm slightly annoyed," admits Tennant, "that we're suddenly being seen as part of a trend." He and De Frutos would argue that, far from being a novelty, they're part of a long tradition, going right back to the collaborations of Petipa and Tchaikovsky and beyond. "Tchaikovsky wrote the pop music of the day," says De Frutos. "Everyone hummed his tunes, bought his scores and played them at home." "Every Tchaikovsky ballet, it's a fucking greatest hits album," interrupts Tennant. "This is what Chris and I have always done, giving ourselves new experiences, extending the boundaries of our music. There's no point doing something unless it's a thrill." Ballet Pet Shop Boys Dance Judith Mackrell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

You are subscribed to email updates from The Guardian World News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610