The Guardian World News

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• Al-Qaida vows vengeance over death of Bin Laden
• Golf legend Ballesteros dies
• Greece euro fears prompt secret talks
• EU to impose sanctions on Syria
• New York degree row deepens
• Comply or quit, Ahmadinejad told
• 7/7 families still looking for answers
• Three accused in Berlusconi scandal
• Nuclear power cancer link rejected
• 'Russian Obama' quits Putin's party
• Arab Spring rubs off on Singapore
• Cuba cuts costs with peas in coffee
• Morgellons: an alien epidemic?
• Sudan at a crossroads
• Dirty Dancing: it's not just about sex
• Tyler the Creator - what, me worry?
• Marina Hyde
• Yotam Ottolenghi's polenta recipes
• Pop will adore itself
• Authors rail against reading lists

Al-Qaida vows vengeance over death of Bin Laden Posted: 06 May 2011 04:42 PM PDT White House says US is being 'extremely vigilant' after al-Qaida declares Bin Laden's death a curse on the US Al-Qaida has vowed to carry out revenge attacks on the US and its allies over the killing of Osama bin Laden, warning that celebrations in the west would be replaced by sorrow and blood. The statement on a jihadist website was the first by al-Qaida since Bin Laden's death, which it said would become "a curse that hunts the Americans and their collaborators, and chases them outside and inside their country". The 11-paragraph statement, dated Tuesday, confirmed that Bin Laden was dead, disappointing conspiracy theorists who refuse to believe he has been killed. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said of the al-Qaida statement: "We are aware of it. What it does, obviously, is acknowledge the obvious, which is that Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday night by US forces. We're being extremely vigilant. We're quite aware of the potential for activity and are highly vigilant on that matter for that reason. US security, both at home and at embassies and bases overseas, has been on high alert since Sunday." The Department of Homeland Security has warned US train operators to be especially careful after officials said that among computers, hard disks and other material taken from the Abbottabad compound they found a vague plan to attack the US rail network on this year's 10th anniversary of 9/11. One proposal was to demolish part of a rail track so that a train would fall into a river or valley, according to US officials. Carney said: "One of the things we saw, I think, was the notice that DHS put out with regard to the information collected about the consideration at least of a terrorist plot against American railways back in February of 2010. "The fact that the world's most wanted terrorist might have been considering further terror plots against the United States is not a surprise, but it reminds us, of course, that we need to remain ever vigilant." In its statement, al-Qaida said: "We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheikh Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will not go in vain. We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries. "Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness, their blood will be mingled with their tears." It said Bin Laden's death would not deflect al-Qaida from its war against the US and its allies, which include the Pakistani government. It called on Pakistan to rise up against the "traitors". The discovery of Bin Laden's hide–away so close to the capital, Islamabad, has strained relations between the US and Pakistan. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate armed services committee and a Democrat, ordered an investigation into whether the Pakistani government and intelligence services knew of his whereabouts. "We need these questions about whether or not the top level of the Pakistan government knew or was told by the ISI, their intelligence service, about anything about this suspicious activity for years in a very, very centralised place," Levin said. The senator, who is usually guarded in his public statements, hinted that he believed some senior figures in Pakistani intelligence knew where Bin Laden was hiding – comments that will further inflame the Pakistani government. "I think at high levels – high levels being the intelligence service – they knew it," Levin said. "I can't prove it. I just think it's counterintuitive not to." He raised doubts about continuing the billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan, which requires congressional approval. The Obama administration so far has been reluctant to criticise the Pakistani government and has opted instead to stress the positive aspects of the ties. The strategy seems to be to try to use Pakistan's embarrassment to prise out other al-Qaida or Taliban figures who may be living in Pakistan, such as the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. United Nations human rights investigators have called on Washington to disclose whether there had been any plan to capture Bin Laden. While they acknowledged the difficulties involved in such terrorist-related missions, they raised questions about the legality of the killing. The UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, and the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, said the US "should disclose the supporting facts to allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards", adding: "For instance, it will be particularly important to know if the planning of the mission allowed an effort to capture Bin Laden." There has been relatively little debate in the US so far about the legality of the raid. Meanwhile the New York Times reported that the US may have targeted one of the men named as a possible successor to Bin Laden. Quoting American officials, the paper said a missile strike from an American military drone in a remote region of Yemen on Thursday was aimed at killing Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric believed to be hiding in the country. Separately it was reported that a Saudi man accused of conspiring with Bin Laden in the bombings of two US embassies expects to be extradited in the next few months to face charges after more than 12 years in British custody, according to documents which have emerged from a US court. Prosecutors in New York have charged Khalid al-Fawwaz with helping al-Qaida to orchestrate the 1998 car bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people. A letter from a lawyer seeking to be appointed as al-Fawwaz's US defence counsel, said: "He [al-Fawwaz] anticipates extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States within the next few months to face these charges." Osama bin Laden al-Qaida Obama administration Global terrorism Barack Obama United States US politics Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Golf legend Ballesteros dies Posted: 06 May 2011 11:16 PM PDT • Official website confirms golfer died at 2.10am Saturday • Five-time major winner was 54 Seve Ballesteros, the legendary five-time major winning golfer, has died after losing his fight against cancer. The news was confirmed by a statement on the golfer's official website which said: "Today, at 2.10am Spanish time, Seve Ballesteros passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at his home in Pedreña. "The Ballesteros family is very grateful for all the support and gestures of love that have been received since Seve was diagnosed with a brain tumour on 5th October 2008 at Madrid Hospital la Paz. "At this time the family asks for respect and privacy at such a painful time. Thank you very much. Ballesteros, 54, a five-time major winner, had been recuperating at his home in northern Spain after a series of operations since being diagnosed with two malignant brain tumours in 2008. His condition worsened on Wednesday, at which point he was admitted to hospital; rumours had swept Spain last week that Ballesteros's situation had taken a rapid downturn. On Friday, Ballesteros was under heavy sedation, with his family and friends understood to be preparing for the worst. In an unfortunate coincidence, the Spanish Open – the last competition Ballesteros won as a professional in 1995 – is currently taking place in Barcelona. José María Olazábal, the golfer closest to Ballesteros and inspired by him since childhood, was too emotional to speak to the media in the aftermath of his Friday round in Barcelona. "I can't talk," Olazábal said. "I can only wait, and cry." Another Spanish golfer and Olazábal's playing partner, Miguel Angel Jiménez, was in tears upon completion of his second round. Olazábal, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, recently stated his dream that Ballesteros could be alongside him for the meeting with the United States in Chicago next autumn. The pair met a fortnight ago, at which point Ballesteros was in a wheelchair. Olazábal's manager, Sergio Gómez, reported that Ballesteros's daughter had passed on details of her father's condition on Thursday. "Seve's physical condition was not good when José María went to see him, but they talked about golf and everything," Gómez said. "Then came the call yesterday to tell him that Seve was in a critical condition." Ballesteros's illness initially came to light after he collapsed at Madrid airport in October 2008; during the intervening period, he has rarely been seen in public. Since his first surgery, which lasted 12 hours, he has undergone almost continuous chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In 2009, after his fourth chemotherapy course, Ballesteros labelled it "a miracle" he was still alive. In 2010, during his last television interview with the BBC, Ballesteros spoke of fighting cancer. "You can't have it all in life," he said. "One day you feel fantastic, the next you never know what is going to happen. You just take a look at how many days of glory I had before. It has been a fantastic life and this, what has happened to me, is what I will call destiny; one test that God is putting on me." Ballesteros, who retired from professional golf in 2007, was earlier regarded as a pioneer for the European game overseas. He had turned professional at the age of 16, in 1974, finishing second to Jack Nicklaus in the Open at Birkdale only two years later. He was the first from this continent to claim a Masters title, in 1980, a feat he repeated at Augusta three years later. Ballesteros was the winner of the Open in 1979, 1984 and 1988. Besides winning a total of 87 titles in his career, Ballesteros played in eight Ryder Cups, claiming 20 points from 37 matches. He also captained a successful European team, fittingly on his home soil in Valderrama, 14 years ago. Ballesteros had not been deemed well enough to make a planned trip to St Andrews to say a farewell to British fans at the time of last year's Open. At the Masters last month, Phil Mickelson dedicated a Spanish-themed champions' dinner to the absent Ballesteros, the man he credits with his own decision to start playing golf. Seve Ballesteros Golf Ewan Murray guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Greece euro fears prompt secret talks Posted: 06 May 2011 11:52 AM PDT Europe's inner circle meet to discuss possible debt restructuring for Greece as well as problems in Ireland and Portugal Finance ministers from an inner core of eurozone countries were holding secret talks in Luxembourg tonight to discuss a possible debt restructuring for crisis-ridden Greece. The single currency's leading creditor nations – Germany, France, Finland and the Netherlands – all attended the meeting, called amid concerns that Greece's problems were nearing breaking point. Sources said negotiations centred on the mounting eurozone debt crisis, and included not just Greece but the terms of Portugal's bailout and Ireland's demands for easier repayment terms on its loans. But they denied reports coming out of Germany that Athens had floated the idea of leaving the single currency altogether. The European commission was also at the talks at Château de Senningen, a site used by the Luxembourg government for official meetings, which involved the countries that have provided the bulk of the funds for the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Most of the governments from the 17-nation eurozone were kept in the dark about the talks, and said they knew nothing about the crisis negotiations. Greek media confirmed that a plane carrying the Greek finance minister, Giorgos Papaconstantinou, had landed in Luxembourg. Angela Merkel's spokesman said a prearranged meeting was taking place, but it had nothing to do with the idea that Greece would leave the euro. "There is a meeting of some finance ministers that has long been planned. Greece exiting the eurozone is not on the agenda of that meeting, and it has never been," Steffen Seibert said. Instead, sources said the creditors were looking at a range of options for Greece including a fresh bailout, giving it longer to repay its debts or forcing banks to take a loss on Greek bonds. On the foreign exchanges, reports that Greece would be the first country to quit the single currency led to a sharp sell-off of the euro against the dollar. Spiegel Online, quoting German government sources, said that Greece would leave the euro unless it was allowed to restructure its massive debts. Greek officials categorically denied the report with many describing it as a "joke". "We are putting all our effort into resolving our indebted public finances precisely because we are in the eurozone and want to stay there," said one official, requesting anonymity. "What it is saying doesn't make any sense." Others described the report's timing as "strange and suspicious". In a statement – released only after other countries had rushed to deny the report – the Greek finance ministry said the government had repeatedly rejected such scenarios. "Such articles are not only provocative but also highly irresponsible as they undermine Greece's efforts and those of the eurozone and serve only the interests of speculators," the statement said. Reports in Greece have already talked about a "velvet restructuring" that could include extending outstanding debt and a voluntary agreement to modify repayment terms before 2012. The country wants to return to the debt markets early next year, even though its debt is expected to reach 160% of GDP by then. The country's borrowing costs have been rising as its rating has been downgraded eight times since January 2009, when it had an A rating. A year ago, just after the bailout, it was the first eurozone country to have its debt rating cut to junk when ratings agency S&P had warned that bondholders could recover as little as 30% if the country restructured its debt. Amadeu Altafaj Tardio – spokesman for Olli Rehn, the monetary affairs commissioner – would not confirm or deny the meeting. "I am not aware of any meeting in Luxembourg," he said. "We have no comment on the Der Spiegel report." Sony Kapoor, managing director of Re-define, a Brussels-based thinktank, said: "It would be irresponsible for the creditor countries in the euro area not to be having serious and intense discussions about unresolved questions to do with ongoing problems with Greece, the Portuguese package and Irish demands for easier terms. "However, it is most probably a vicious rumour or a wild Chinese whisper that Greece would have asked for a possible exit from the euro. This would be a disaster for Greece and the wider euro area." But City analysts said the reports coming out of Germany were plausible. Jonathan Loynes, of Capital Economics, said: "If you are Greece and your country is in the mess that is in, and you are thinking about the next five years and the austerity measures you have to go through to stay in the euro, you have a responsibility, I would suggest, to think about leaving." Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered bank, said pressure had been mounting from Berlin. "I think the Germans have been playing hard ball for a few weeks now. If Greece does go I don't think they will be the only one." Spiegel Online said the meeting was being held under strict secrecy and that both the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, and his deputy, Jörg Asmussen, were attending. It quoted from what it said was an internal German finance ministry paper that Schäuble was taking with him to Luxembourg, which warned that a Greek exit "would lead to a significant depreciation of the domestic currency versus the euro" and increase Greece's debt levels to 200% of GDP. "The government has raised the possibility of leaving the eurozone and reintroducing its own currency," the report said. Euro Currencies Greece Europe Debt relief Global economy Economics Larry Elliott Jill Treanor Helena Smith guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

EU to impose sanctions on Syria Posted: 06 May 2011 10:23 AM PDT EU to impose asset freezes and travel restrictions on Syrian officials involved in operation which has killed 500 people The EU agreed on Friday to impose sanctions on Syria next week to step up pressure on the regime as it persisted with its violent crackdown on protesters, killing at least 16 during a "day of defiance". European countries will formally announce the sanctions on Monday, imposing asset freezes and travel restrictions on top Syrian officials involved in a seven-week crackdown that has killed more than 500 by some estimates. The crackdown has tested the courage of protesters and some in the movement had warned that it might even break their resolve. But many thousands turned out in 65 towns and cities across the country on Friday, according to activists. Video footage from several cities showed large crowds chanting "the people want to topple the regime" and "the martyr is loved by God". Perhaps the biggest protest was reported in the south, in the town of Jassem, close to the troubled city of Deraa. One video purportedly from the town showed thousands gathering and calling out "He who kills his people is a traitor" and "We sacrifice our blood and souls for you Deraa". State media have reported that the army is ending its military operation in Deraa, but the city is still shut off. A 15-member delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross was allowed rare access to the city on Thursday. The UN said it had persuaded Syria to allow its teams to check on humanitarian conditions after the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, personally called the country's president, Bashar al-Assad. Death tolls have been hard to quantify. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least six people had been shot dead after security forces opened fire in Homs and Hama. The National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria put the toll at 16 people nationwide. Syrian state television said an army officer and four policemen were shot dead by a "criminal gang" in Homs. The regime also moved to round up prominent activists. Dissident and former political prisoner Riad Seif was arrested in the Damascus area of Midan, where protests broke out for the third week in a row. "My father was shoved into a bus with other protesters who were detained during the demonstration near the al-Hassan mosque," his daughter Jumana told Reuters. As long as no member state objects, the EU's decision to impose asset freezes and travel bans will go into effect next week. Like the US sanctions imposed last week they do not target Assad himself. Katherine Marsh is a pseudonym for a journalist living in Damascus Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East European Union Europe Katherine Marsh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

New York degree row deepens Posted: 06 May 2011 03:30 PM PDT Pulitzer-winner playwright was removed from honour list for his critical views on Israel after CUNY trustee lobbied against him A row over the decision by a leading New York university to refuse playwright Tony Kushner an honorary degree due to accusations he was too critical of Israel has deepened as several high profile honorary degree holders renounced their own awards. Kushner, who wrote the Pulitzer prize-winning Paul Angels in America, was set to get an honorary degree from John Jay College, a campus of City University of New York. But his name was removed from a list of other intended recipients after a CUNY trustee, pro-Israel activist Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, spoke out against it. Wiesenfeld accused Kushner of being critical of the Israeli army, supportive of a boycott of the country and of saying that Israel had been founded partly as a result of ethnic cleansing. In an open letter to CUNY Kushner responded angrily, denying the allegations, accusing Wiesenfeld of slander and saying he was "proud to be Jewish". Now, in the wake of Kushner's letter, at least three prominent previous recipients have declared they no longer want their honorary degrees from the university. Barbara Ehrenreich, an acclaimed activist journalist, issued a statement saying she had renounced her 2004 award. "Please expunge me from your record of past honorees," she said. She was joined by Michael Cunningham, who also has won a Pulitzer, for his book The Hours, and was given an honorary degree in 2009. "I was shocked and dismayed to hear about the treatment Tony Kushner received at the hands of the CUNY board of trustees," he said in a statement. He criticised the university's decision. "To deny him an honorary degree because certain members of the board disagree with some of his political views is a chilling indictment of the freedom of expression CUNY has always championed." Yeshiva University historian Ellen Schrecker also wrote to CUNY to protest and to ask how she could return her own honorary degree. So far the university has issued little detailed public comment on the growing row and Kushner has said in interviews that he would no longer accept the degree if the decision were reversed. A CUNY statement said that the university's board operated independently in making decisions and offered no apology. "The board's actions, however, should not be interpreted as reflecting on Mr Kushner's accomplishments and we regret any such misunderstanding," it added. Meanwhile, the decision was condemned even by CUNY's own faculty union. Union president Dr Barbara Bowen said the vote to not give Kushner an award was "perverse" and aimed at cutting off genuine political and intellectual debate at the university. "The trustees' craven decision is an offence against open intellectual discussion and freedom of thought. It dishonors our university, and the values for which we ought to stand," she said. The controversy is not the first of its kind to involve Wiesenfeld. In February Brooklyn College, another CUNY campus, fired Kristopher Petersen-Overton from a one semester teaching post after objections were raised by Wiesenfeld and others about his views on Israel and the Middle East. In that case Wiesenfeld directly lobbied chancellor, Matthew Goldstein, along with local Brooklyn politician Dov Hikind, to get the academic removed from his post. But after a furious row in the media Petersen-Overton was reappointed. For the time being Wiesenfeld is sticking to his guns. On a blog post at the Jewish news website the Algemeiner he called Kushner an "extremist". "The denial of the honorary degree to Mr Kushner, despite his protestations was a reflection of his long-held radical sentiments," he said. Kushner, whose latest play is currently playing on Broadway, is one of the most famous and acclaimed names in modern American theatre. Angels in America, which is his best known piece, dealt with the Aids crisis in 1980s America. Ironically, people being persecuted for their political views figures in the play and is also a re-occurring theme elsewhere in his work. Tony Kushner New York Theatre United States Paul Harris guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Comply or quit, Ahmadinejad told Posted: 06 May 2011 11:03 AM PDT Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's ultimatum widens rift between leaders and increases pressure on president An unprecedented power struggle at the heart of the Iranian regime has intensified after it emerged that the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had given an ultimatum to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to accept his intervention in a cabinet appointment or resign. A member of the Iranian parliament, Morteza Agha-Tehrani – who is described as "Ahmadinejad's moral adviser" – told a gathering of his supporters on Friday that a meeting between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei had recently taken place, in which the president was given a deadline to resign or to accept the decision of the ayatollah. The extraordinary confrontation came to light after Ahmadinejad declined to officially support Khamenei's reinstatement of a minister whom the president had initially asked to resign. The rift between the two men grew when the president staged an 11-day walkout in an apparent protest at Khamenei's decision. In the first cabinet meeting since ending his protest, the intelligence minister at the centre of the row, Heydar Moslehi, was absent and in the second one on Wednesday, he was reportedly asked by Ahmadinejad to leave. In a video released on Iranian websites, Agha-Tehrani quotes Ahmadinejad as saying: "[Khamenei] gave me a deadline to make up my mind. I would either accept [the reinstatement] or resign." Although Khamenei is not constitutionally allowed to intervene in cabinet appointments, an unwritten law requires all officials to always abide by the supreme leader without showing any opposition. Clerics close to Khamenei have launched a campaign to highlight his role in Iranian politics, saying that to disobey him is equal to apostasy, as he is "God's representative on earth". Meanwhile, the president was reportedly absent from religious ceremonies this week at Khamenei's house, where he was publicly criticised by close allies of the ayatollah. Iranian officials are traditionally required to participate in such ceremonies in order to cover up any political rift that might compromise Khamenei's power. Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Thursday that several members of parliament had revived a bid to summon Ahmadinejad for questioning over "the recent events". It said 90 MPs had signed the petition, up from only 12 last week. Under Iranian law, at least 85 more signatures are required for a possible impeachment of the president. Supporters of Khamenei say that Ahmadinejad is surrounded by "deviants" in his inner circle, including his controversial chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who wants to undermine the involvement of clerics in Iran's politics. Mashaei and his allies have recently been accused of using supernatural powers and invoking djinns (spirits) in pursuing the government's policies. On Thursday, the commander of the powerful revolutionary guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying: "People [close to Khamenei] are not relying on djinns, fairies and demons ... and they will not stand any deviation [of the government in this regime]." Iran's elite revolutionary guards, who played an important role in securing Ahmadinejad a second term in Iran's 2009 "rigged" elections, have distanced themselves from Ahmadinejad in recent months as Mashaei's "secular" views have become more pronounced. In the face of these recent confrontation with Khamenei, Ahmadinejad has been left isolated, with only a handful of serious supporters.Iran's opposition, exhausted by the brutal crackdown of the green movement and the placing of its leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi under house arrest in the past 80 days, has found itself watching these recent developments and wondering what will happen next. Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

7/7 families still looking for answers Posted: 06 May 2011 11:37 AM PDT Coroner critical of MI5, but clears them of blame as families of 7/7 bombing victims call for overhaul of security services Families of the victims of the 7 July attacks have called on the government to overhaul Britain's security services after the inquest coroner yesterday described their handling of a critical piece of intelligence as "dreadful" and suggested another failure could have had "dire consequences". Returning verdicts of unlawful killing on each of the 52 victims of the attacks, Lady Justice Hallett also expressed concerns about MI5's recordkeeping and about "confusion" in its system of assessing targets at the time of the attacks. But, crucially, she exonerated the domestic intelligence service of any blame in failing to prevent the 2005 bombings, stressing that the evidence she had heard over 75 days at the high court in London "does not justify the conclusion that any failings on the part of any organisation or individual caused or contributed to any of the deaths". The coroner also found that the emergency services' response to the bombings, which has been heavily criticised for being too slow at several of the sites, had not contributed to any of the deaths. "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that each of [the victims] would have died whenever the emergency services reached them," she said. She saw no grounds for any future public inquiry, she indicated. "I am not aware of our having left any reasonable stone unturned," she said. "One would hope, therefore, that these proceedings will be an end to the investigation of what happened on 7/7." Speaking after the verdicts, however, Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the Edgware Road bombing, said the inquest "causes a lot more questions to be asked than it answers". "It really must compel [the Home Secretary] Theresa May to review the whole operation of the security services in the UK, not just MI5." He called for an independent inquiry into the killings, with a broader remit than the tightly constrained inquest. At an emotional press conference after the verdicts were returned, Ros Morley, widow of Edgware Road victim Colin Morley, called for an apology from MI5, saying: "In any other organisation, if huge mistakes were made and lives were lost, people feel there's a duty to look into that, to have a degree of humility, which I feel has been lost." June Taylor, the mother of Carrie Taylor, who died at Aldgate, was overcome by emotion and collapsed at the press conference after declaring that the family "still have no positive answers". But other family members said they felt the conclusion of the inquest, which opened in October, should represent the end of the investigation into the events of 7 July, when four suicide bombers detonated devices on the London transport network. Grahame Russell, whose son Philip died in the bus bombing at Tavistock Square, said: "There are still issues. The problem I have is that if I continue to hold concerns about issues, then my life would become very bitter." The coroner's recommendations "can help people in the future, one would hope," he said. "But they help me not at all. They do not bring my son back." The coroner made nine recommendations which she believed could help prevent future deaths, encompassing improvements in training and communication for paramedics and other emergency responders, and a suggestion that Transport for London look at putting first aid equipment on underground trains. Two of the recommendations related directly to the security services. Hallett said MI5 must review its procedures on showing photographs to informants after poorly edited images of two of the bombers — "they were dreadful" — were shown by intelligence officers to a key Islamist informant in US custody. "Given the confusion that reigned within the Security Service about these photographs," she added, "it was not clear to me what records were kept of the procedure." Similarly, she was troubled, she said, that the MI5 spokesman Witness G gave evidence that it was not normal practice to revisit photographs when new sources became available. So poor were the records from the time of the investigation, she said, "Witness G himself had to visit retired desk officers at their homes to discover as best he could what they had done, and why." She instructed the MI5 director general Sir Jonathan Evans to investigate the service's documentary procedures, "given the possibly dire consequences of a flawed decision which cannot be properly supervised". The coroner also expressed concern about MI5's failure to investigate the 7 July ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan in detail after undercover teams observed him repeatedly meeting the fertiliser bomb plot mastermind Omar Khyam more than a year before the atrocities. "I am concerned about the fact that the Security Service's other commitments prevented a more intense investigation of a possible terrorist, who made long and suspicious journeys to meet known terrorists at a time when they were obviously planning an attack." The coroner also identified weaknesses involving the Intelligence and Security Committee of MPs and peers, which was shown to have been misled, albeit "inadvertently", by MI5. She repeatedly emphasised there was no evidence that the attacks could have been prevented. Even the badly cropped photo, in the end, had "played no causative part in the failure to identify Khan or [Shehzad] Tanweer". In a statement, the home secretary, Theresa May, said the inquest process had been "vitally important" and said she would "carefully consider" its recommendations. "I am pleased that the coroner has made clear there is simply no evidence that the Security Service knew of, and therefore failed to prevent, the bombings on 7/7." The government and security services were "always looking to learn lessons", she said. "This includes learning from the 7 July attacks and from other incidents, and there have been a considerable number of improvements put in place since 2005." Her Labour opposite number, Yvette Cooper, said the ongoing terrorist threat that Britain faced "makes the lessons from the past even more important". 7 July London attacks Richard Norton-Taylor Esther Addley guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Three accused in Berlusconi scandal Posted: 06 May 2011 05:19 AM PDT Prosecutors want Nicole Minetti, Emilio Fede and Lele Mora to be put on trial, charged with aiding and abetting prostitution Prosecutors in Milan have asked for an Anglo-Italian former showgirl and two other people to be put on trial, charged with procuring 33 young women for so-called bunga bunga sex sessions at the home of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Nicole Minetti, whose mother was born in Britain, denies any wrongdoing. So do the other two accused: Emilio Fede, the best-known newsreader on Berlusconi's television channels, and Lele Mora, Italy's leading showbusiness talent scout. Minetti, a former dancer who qualified as a dental hygienist, met the prime minister during his dental surgery to repair the injuries he suffered in December 2009 when he was hit in the face by a mentally unstable assailant. She subsequently became a candidate for his Freedom People party and holds a seat in the Lombardy regional assembly. Prosecutors who have been overseeing an investigation of the three since last year asked a judge in Milan to put them on trial, charged with aiding and abetting prostitution "from early 2009 until January 2011". The latter date means it is alleged that any wrongdoing continued right up until Berlusconi was indicted, and for three months after news of the investigation into his private life was made public. One of the women who visited his home, Moroccan-born Karima el-Mahroug, was aged 17 at the time and thus under the minimum age for prostitution. She is at the centre of the case involving Berlusconi himself. On 6 April, the 74-year-old TV magnate-turned-conservative politician was put on trial, accused of paying an underage prostitute and abusing his official position to cover up the alleged offence. In a 36-page document submitted to the judge, the prosecutors separately accused the three of aiding and abetting juvenile prostitution from September 2009 until May 2010. The earlier date refers to a beauty contest in Sicily in which Mahroug, then 16, was a contestant. Fede was among the judges. The prosecution claims that he lured her to Milan where Mora found her work dancing in nightclubs. Berlusconi and Mahroug, who also calls herself "Ruby the heartstealer", have denied having sex with each other. Under Italian law, paid-for sexual contact of any kind qualifies as juvenile prostitution. According to the prosecutors, the parties at Berlusconi's mansion outside Milan took place in three stages. First came a dinner; then "bunga bunga", which they said consisted of "striptease and erotic dances". Finally, Italy's prime minister would select one or more girls "with whom to engage in intimate relations during the night". The judge, Maria Grazia Domanico, will now fix a date for the start of committal proceedings, leading to a decision on whether all, or some, of the accused should be sent for trial. Fede said he was not surprised by the prosecutors' move and fully expected to be indicted. "There's no hope until the case reaches trial," he said. "I'm placing my faith in the trial court and in the truth of the case being established there." Fede is famed as the presenter of a nightly news bulletin on the Rete 4 channel in which he routinely throws in comments backing the prime minister or disparaging his critics. Mora is best-known outside Italy for an appearance in a feature-length documentary, Videocracy, in which he lauds Mussolini and plays a fascist anthem stored on his smartphone. Silvio Berlusconi Italy Europe John Hooper guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Nuclear power cancer link rejected Posted: 06 May 2011 08:08 AM PDT Government's advisory committee says it is time to look elsewhere for causes of leukaemia clusters Nuclear power plants have been cleared of causing childhood cancers by experts from the UK government's advisory committee, which says experts should now be looking for other reasons – perhaps infections or even viruses – to explain leukaemia clusters in their vicinity. The 14th report (pdf) from the committee on medical aspects of radiation in the environment (COMARE), re-reviewed all childhood leukaemia cases reported around 13 nuclear power plants in the UK. The request came from the Department of Health and devolved authorities last year in response to the UK's decision to build the most ambitious new fleet of nuclear reactors in Europe. Not only did the committee find no increase in cases linked to emissions, but it also found similar numbers of leukaemia cases in proximity to sites that had been considered for nuclear power plants, but where building did not take place. There were 20 cases of leukaemia in a child under five within a five-kilometre radius of one of the 13 power plants and 430 cases within 25km. There were 26 cases within 5km of one of the seven potential sites and 492 within 25km. Prof Alex Elliott, chair of COMARE, said it was time to look elsewhere for causes. "We should be keeping a watching brief but we think we should be looking at other places," he said. There are other theories about the possible causes of cancer near power plants. "We know that leukaemia is related directly to socio-economic class – the higher the class, the higher the rate. People in nuclear power stations tend to be of higher economic class," said Elliott. Childhood leukaemia is also less likely in over-populated areas, whereas power stations are more likely to be situated away from population centres. Among the other possible explanations are the infection hypothesis of Leo Kinlan, which suggests that the cancers are triggered by the arrival of a group of people to work in the plant and their families carrying microorganisms from other parts of the country. A study about to be published into a childhood cancer cluster in Fallon, Nevada, suggests a virus transmitted by mosquitos could be the cause. The area, which houses a US naval base involving a lot of population movement, had an unusually high incidence of childhood leukaemia between 1997 and 2003. The cases were predominantly diagnosed in the summer and most of the young children lived in agricultural, not urban, areas. There are two identified clusters near nuclear installations, but both, Dounreay and Sellafield, are reprocessing plants, not power plants. COMARE's next report will review the latest evidence for childhood leukemias near them. The latest report also did not look at cancer clusters near the Calder Hall power station, because of its proximity to the Sellafield reprocessing plant. The COMARE report will be a blow to the Heysham Anti-Nuclear Alliance, which in March launched a legally aided action against the government's nuclear expansion programme. Their case centres on a German study, which COMARE was specifically asked to review. The Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von Kernkraftwerken (KIIK) study found a link between leukemia clusters and German power plants. But COMARE says KIIK was heavily influenced by cancer cases diagnosed between 1980 and 1990 and did not take fully into account later years when the risk was lower. KIIK was a case control study, not a geographical study of the sort COMARE undertakes, said Elliott. Nuclear power Health Cancer Children Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'Russian Obama' quits Putin's party Posted: 06 May 2011 10:29 AM PDT First black man to stand for office in Russia leaves pro-Kremlin party claiming its policies are acting as a brake on democracy His business as a watermelon farmer and his promise to "toil like a negro" played to the worst stereotypes, but the man nicknamed Russia's Barack Obama seemed to offer a breath of fresh air when he ran for office on a pro-Kremlin ticket two years ago. Now, Joaquim Crima has dealt a blow to the image of Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party by resigning from it with a scathing letter to the Russian prime minister, saying that the party is "acting as a brake on our country's road to democratisation". Crima, 38, originally from Guinea Bissau, was the first black man in Russia to stand for public office when he put himself forward in district elections in Srednyaya Akhtuba, in the southern Volgograd region. At the time, he praised Putin as an "excellent person, and a serious figure on the world stage" and said he wanted to follow the premier's example and go into politics with United Russia. Crima, known locally as Vasily Ivanovich, came a disappointing third in the local poll in 2009, but his progressive electoral promises and his skin colour won him the Obama nickname and extensive coverage in the nationwide press. Putin met him last year and praised him for repairing a village road. In a letter to the premier published online yesterday, however, the businessman said he was quitting United Russia because it had failed to raise state salaries or cut food prices and was "turning more and more into a party of bureaucrats". The announcement came at a particularly embarrassing time for Putin, who arrived in Volgograd today to chair a United Russia conference. Crima told Putin he was particularly disappointed that party bosses had refused last summer to help him send 20 tons of free watermelons to people in villages near Moscow that had been damaged by fire. "In the end they just rotted," he wrote. To make matters worse, Crima has defected to Fair Russia, a political party set up by the Kremlin that has shown occasional signs of slipping its leash. Russia Europe Vladimir Putin Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Arab Spring rubs off on Singapore Posted: 06 May 2011 04:34 AM PDT In a country known for its censorship, the internet has become a focus for complaints about the long-time ruling party It is a dangerous act in a country where graffiti can fetch eight strokes of the cane, more dangerous still because it parodies the leader of the ruling Lee dynasty. With a few deft applications of spray paint, Skope One finishes a pig-head depiction of the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, with a Nazi-styled SS logo on the lapel and an Uncle Sam-inspired banner emblazoned "Lee Wants You". "We shouldn't be scared any more – it's about time something changed," says the 35-year-old artist, the founder of Singaporean graffiti. "We need to have this freedom of alternative speech." Singapore is known worldwide for censorship and corporal punishment. But in the runup to Saturday's parliamentary elections more people have started to speak out against the clan that has ruled Singapore for almost 50 years. Parallels with the Arab spring are striking, even if revolution is not just around the corner. Most murmurs of discontent can be found online: fears of reprisal are diminished for anonymous bloggers. On internet forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter, grumblings about high housing prices, the widening gap between rich and poor, immigration laws and the salaries of government ministers (among the highest in the world) are hot topics. The People's Action party (PAP) has been in power since independence in 1965, and is widely recognised as having turned this colonial outpost into a financial behemoth in a few decades. But it knows it has a battle on its hands. On Saturday, it will contest 82 of the 87 seats, up from 47 of 84 seats in 2006. More than one in four voters in Singapore's 5 million-strong population, are under the age of 35, and the internet is a main source of news. For the first time, candidates have been allowed to campaign using social media, and the effect has been far-reaching: many Singaporeans say this is the most debated and politicised election they have seen. Not all young people will be using their mandatory vote to go against the grain. Some, such as economics student and first-time voter Sofina Toh, 22, are swayed by the PAP's recent apology for past mistakes and promise to do better. "The PAP has done so much for Singapore – just look at the country now from what it used to be," she says. "Shouldn't we give credit where credit is due? They've promised to make changes. Maybe we can give them another chance." Others are not convinced. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," tweets a management student, Ong Rei En. At political rallies, for which turnout has arguably been the highest in Singapore's history, the energy is electric. An estimated 50,000 people crowded into an outdoor stadium on Thursday to wave blue flags and wield inflatable hammers, symbol of the opposition Workers' party. As the crowd chanted for change, fists raised in hope, armed police watched awkwardly, the sweat on their brows betraying the night's humidity. Rally attendance does not always translate to the polling booth. In 2006, despite large crowds at opposition speeches, the PAP won 67% of the vote. Many Singaporeans fear their ballots will be traced and their mortgages or jobs taken away if they vote for the opposition. Asked if Singapore is an Egypt in the making, Skope One furrows his brow as he bundles his spray-paint cans into a backpack. "We don't want the same problems," he says finally. "But we definitely echo the same feelings." Singapore Protest Social media Facebook Internet Social networking Twitter guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Cuba cuts costs with peas in coffee Posted: 06 May 2011 10:02 AM PDT Cuba authorities bring back coffee mixed with peas in response to rising global coffee prices For some it had the acrid smack of austerity, for others it was a delicious brew that tasted just right. Either way, coffee mixed with roasted peas is returning to Cuba. Authorities have announced the resumption of the special blend, a venerable money-saving tactic, in response to rising global coffee prices and Cuba's economic crunch. "It has been decided to once again produce coffee mixed with peas for the rationed quota," a trade ministry note said in the communist party newspaper Granma. In the past year Robusta coffee prices had jumped 69% to $2,904 a tonne, it said, while peas had climbed merely 30%, to $500 a tonne. With President Raul Castro trying to shake up the centrally planned economy so that "two plus two equals four", the conclusion was inescapable: bring back the peas. Cuba had long mixed coffee with roasted peas to stretch supplies after coffee production slumped, and then collapsed, following the 1959 revolution. The brew is less potent and more bitter than pure coffee, which Cubans tend to drink with lots of sugar. "It's got a thin, sharp taste. I never liked it," said Isa Morena, a guesthouse owner in Havana. "It didn't help that we had no choice. It was that or nothing." But when the pure stuff returned to the monthly ration book in 2005, amid an economic upturn, some complained it was unfamiliar and tasted funny. "I like it better with peas," Juan Hernandez Pedroso, a street sweeper, told AP. "I don't know, maybe it's because it's what I'm used to." Some Cubans in the US have shunned Starbucks and continued to home-brew the pea version. As an additional cost-saving measure the trade ministry cut the monthly coffee ration for young children. "The rationed quota issued to consumers up to six years of age will be terminated. These measures will be applied as of this month." The measures mean that the government can keep distributing 115g bags of coffee, at a subsidised price of 17 cents each, to the population. The island used to produce 60,000 tonnes of beans annually and was reputedly the world's top exporter in the 1940s, but output shrivelled after the plantations were nationalised. Labour shortages, negligence, incompetence and lack of incentives due to low prices all played a part. After a record low of 5,500 tonnes in 2009 a modernisation effort boosted production to around 6,700 tonnes last year. That still left a big shortfall filled with $47m worth of imports, Castro told the national assembly last December. The island could not afford that this year, said the president, and it was an "unavoidable necessity" to once again blend coffee with peas. He hoped the measure would inspire productivity. "If we want to continue drinking pure, unrationed coffee, the only solution is to produce it in Cuba, where it is proven that all the conditions exist for its cultivation, in sufficient quantities that satisfy our demand and enable us even to export it." Cuba Global recession Economics Global economy Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Morgellons: an alien epidemic? Posted: 06 May 2011 04:03 PM PDT It's a mysterious condition that affects tens of thousands worldwide. But what is it? It all started in August 2007, on a family holiday in New England. Paul had been watching Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix with his wife and two sons, and he had started to itch. His legs, his arms, his torso – it was everywhere. It must be fleas in the seat, he decided. But the 55-year-old IT executive from Birmingham has been itching ever since, and the mystery of what is wrong with him has only deepened. When Paul rubbed his fingertips over the pimples that dotted his skin, he felt spines. Weird, alien things, like splinters. Then, in 2008, his wife was soothing his back with surgical spirit when the cotton swab she was using gathered a curious blue-black haze from his skin. Paul went out, bought a £40 microscope and examined the cotton. What were those curling, coloured fibres? He Googled the words: "Fibres. Itch. Sting. Skin." And there was his answer. It must be: all the symptoms fitted. He had a new disease called morgellons. The fibres were the product of mysterious creatures that burrow and breed in the body. As he read on, he had no idea that morgellons would turn out to be the worst kind of answer imaginable. Morgellons was named in 2001 by an American called Mary Leitao, whose son complained of sores around his mouth and the sensation of "bugs". Examining him with a toy microscope, Leitao found him to be covered in unexplained red, blue, black and white fibres. Since then, workers at her Morgellons Research Foundation say they have been contacted by more than 12,000 affected families. Campaign group the Charles E Holman Foundation states there are sufferers in "every continent except Antarctica". Thousands have written to Congress demanding action. In response, more than 40 senators, including Hillary Clinton, John McCain and a pre-presidential Barack Obama, pressured the Centres For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) to investigate; in 2006, it formed a special taskforce, setting aside $1m to study the condition. Sufferers include folk singer Joni Mitchell, who has complained of "this weird incurable disease that seems like it's from outer space... Fibres in a variety of colours protrude out of my skin: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral. Morgellons is a slow, unpredictable killer – a terrorist disease. It will blow up one of your organs, leaving you in bed for a year." So it's new, frightening and profoundly odd. But if you were to seek the view of the medical establishment, you'd find the strangest fact about this disease: morgellons doesn't exist. I meet Paul in a pub in a Birmingham suburb. He shows me pictures he's collected of his fibres. On his laptop, a grim parade of images flicks past. There are sores, scabs and nasal hairs, each magnified by a factor of 200. In each photo there is a tiny coloured fibre on or in his skin. "Is it an excrement?" he asks. "A byproduct? A structure they live in?" A waitress passes with a tray of salad as he points to an oozing wound. "Is it a breathing pipe?" Paul absent-mindedly digs his nails into a lesion just below the hem of his shorts. Little red welts pepper his legs and arms, some dulled to a waxy maroon, others just plasticky-white scar tissue. He has seen an array of experts – GPs, allergy doctors, infectious diseases clinicians and dermatologists. Most end up agreeing with the skin specialist to whom he first took samples of his fibre-stained cotton: his sores are self-inflicted and he suffers from delusions of parasitosis (DOP), a psychiatric condition in which people falsely believe themselves to be infested. This particular form of DOP is thought to be unique, in that it's spread through the internet. Whereas in the past, episodes of mass hysteria were limited to small communities – perhaps the most famous being the witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s – today, imagined symptoms can spread much farther on the web. Paul is not convinced by this diagnosis. He carries an alcohol hand gel everywhere he goes, has four showers a day and steam-cleans his clothes. The stress leaves him exhausted, short-tempered. He has difficulty concentrating or applying himself at work. His lowest points have been "pretty much feeling like ending it. Thinking, could I go through with it? Probably. It's associated with the times the medical profession have dismissed me. It's just… I can't see myself living for ever with this." Has he mentioned these thoughts to his doctor? "No, because talking about things like that adds a mental angle – supports the prognosis of DOP. And it's absolutely a physical condition. I mean, look!" The evidence on his computer does appear convincing. Much thinner than his body hair, the fibres seem to be protruding from his sores. But what are they? And how did they get there? To find out, I'm heading to the 4th Annual Morgellons Conference in Austin, Texas, to meet a molecular biologist who doesn't believe the medical consensus. Rather, he argues, the forensic tests he's commissioned on the fibres point to something altogether more unworldly. In spring 2005, Randy Wymore, associate professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University, stumbled across an article about morgellons. Reading about the fibres sufferers believed were the byproduct of some weird parasite, but which were dismissed by dermatologists as humdrum environmental detritus, he thought, "But this should be easy to figure out." He emailed sufferers, requesting samples, then compared them with samples of cotton, nylon, carpets and curtains. Examining them under the microscope, he got a shock. The sufferers' fibres looked utterly different. Wymore arranged for fibre analysis at the Tulsa police department's forensic laboratory. Moments into his tests, a detective with 28 years' experience of this sort of work murmured, "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this." The morgellons particles didn't match any of the 800 fibres on their database, nor the 85,000 known organic compounds. He heated one fibre to 600C and was astonished to find it didn't burn. By the day's end, Wymore concluded, "There's something real going on here. Something we don't understand at all." Last year, he approached several commercial laboratories to run further tests, but the moment they discovered the job was related to morgellons, firm after firm backed out. Finally, Wymore found a lab prepared to take the work. It is these results that will be revealed during the course of the two-day conference. An hour south of Austin, in the lobby of the Westoak Woods Baptist Church convention centre, morgellons sufferers from the US, UK, Spain, Germany and Mexico gather by the breakfast buffet. Threads of conversation rise from the hubbub: "I mix Vaseline with sulphur and cover my entire body"; "The more you try to prove you're not crazy, the more crazy they think you are"; "The whole medical community is part of this. I wouldn't say it's a conspiracy but…" Many of the attendees have been diagnosed with DOP, a subject that enrages one of the first speakers – Dr Greg Smith, a paediatrician of 28 years' experience. "Excuse me, people!" he says. "This is morally and ethically wrong! So let me make a political statement, boys and girls." He pulls off his jumper, to reveal a T-shirt reading, "DOP" with a red line through it. "No more!" he shouts above wild applause. "No more!" Later, Smith tells me he's been a sufferer since 2004. "I put a sweatshirt I'd been wearing in the garden over my arm and there was this intense burning, sticking sensation. I thought it was cactus spines. I began picking to get them out, but it wasn't long before it was all over my body." He describes "almost an obsession. You just can't stop picking. You feel the sensation of something that's trying to come out of your skin. You've just got to get in there. And there's this sense of incredible release when you get something out." Smith's exposed skin is covered in waxy scars. Although he still itches, his lesions appear to have healed. If, as morgellons patients believe, the sores are not self-inflicted but caused by fibre-creating parasites, how is this possible? "I absolutely positively stopped picking," he says. That evening, at a nearby Mexican restaurant, I meet Margot, a midwife from Ramsgate who has resorted to bathing in bleach to rid herself of morgellons. She describes how, armed with times-three magnification spectacles, a magnifying glass and a nit comb, she scraped "black specks" from her hair and face on to sticky labels and took them to a dermatologist. She was diagnosed with DOP. "I'm a midwife," she says. "I take urine samples and blood specimens. So I was taking them a specimen. That's what wrecked my life and career." Next, I corner Randy Wymore. He is a slim man with a charcoal shirt, orange tie and neatly squared goatee. "We have not yet exactly replicated the exact results of the forensics people in Tulsa," he admits. So far, the laboratory has found Wymore's various morgellons fibres to be: nylon; cotton; a blond human hair; a fungal fibre; a rodent hair; and down, most likely from geese or ducks. "That's disappointing," I say. He leans his head to one side and smiles. "It is, for the most part, disappointing, but there was a bunch of cellulose that didn't make sense on one. And another was unknown." There's a pause. "Well, they said it was a 'big fungal fibre', but they weren't completely convinced." The next day, nursing practitioner Dr Ginger Savely, who claims to have treated more than 500 morgellons patients, leads an informal discussion in the conference room. Around large circular tables sit the dismissed and the angry. "I've seen a fibre go into my glasses," says one. "I've seen one burrow into a pad," adds another. "One of my doctors thinks it's nanotechnology"; "I was attacked by a swarm of some type of tiny wasps that seemed to inject parts of their bodies under my skin"; "They have bugs on public transport. Never put your suitcase on the floor of a train." A furious woman with a big scar on her jaw says, "I have Erin Brockovich's lawyer's number in my purse. Don't you think I'm not going to use it." "But who are you going to sue?" asks a frail, elderly lady two tables away. The morgellons believers look expectantly at the indignant litigant. "I don't know," she says. In a far corner, a woman with a round plaster covering a dry, pinkly scrubbed cheek weeps. I retire to the lobby to await my allotted chat with Savely. I become aware of a commotion at reception. One of the attendees is complaining loudly: "It's disgusting! Bugs! In the bed. I've already been in two rooms…" When she's gone, I ask the receptionist if, over the weekend, there has been a surge in complaints about cleanliness. "Oh yeah." She leans forward and whispers conspiratorially. "I think it's part of their condition." Yet, when we speak, Savely is resolute. "These people are not crazy," she insists. "They're good, solid people who have been dealt a bad lot." A woman approaches the vending machine behind Savely. Between her hand and the handle of her walking stick is a layer of tissue paper. There is an element of craziness, I suggest. "OK, there is," she says, "but it's understandable. For people to say you're delusional is very anxiety-provoking. Then they get depressed. Who wouldn't? The next stage is usually an obsessive-compulsive thing – paying attention to the body in great detail. But, again, I feel this is understandable, in the circumstances." I slip back into the conference room, where Margot is using her £700 Wi-Fi iPad telescope to examine herself. I have an idea. "Can I have a go?" Pushing the lens into my palm, I immediately see a fibre. The group around me falls into a hush. "Did you clean your hand?" Margot asks. She fetches an antibacterial wet-wipe. I scrub and try again. I find an even bigger fibre. I wipe for a second time. And find another one. Margot looks up at me with wet, sorry eyes. "Are you worried?" She puts a comforting hand on my arm. "Oh, don't be worried, Will. I'm sure you haven't got it." Back in London, I find a 2008 paper on morgellons in the journal Dermatologic Therapy that describes patients picking "at their skin continuously in order to 'extract' an organism"; "obsessive cleaning rituals, showering often" and individuals going "to many physicians, such as infectious disease specialists and dermatologists" – all behaviours "consistent with DOP". (For treatment, the authors recommend prescribing a benign antiparasitic ointment to build trust, and supplementing it with an antipsychotic.) After finding "fibres" on my own hand, I'm fairly satisfied morgellons is some 21st-century genre of OCD spread through the internet and the fibres are – as Wymore's labs report – particles of everyday, miscellaneous stuff: cotton, human hair, rat hair and so on. There is one element of the condition that's been niggling, though. Both Paul and Greg's morgellons began with an explosion of itching. Now it's affecting me: the night after my meeting with Paul, I couldn't sleep for itching. I had two showers before bed and another in the morning. All through the convention, I am tormented; driven to senseless scratching. Why is itch so infectious? I contact Dr Anne Louise Oaklander, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and perhaps the only neurologist in the world to specialise in itch. I email her describing morgellons, pointing out it's probably some form of DOP. But when we speak, she knows all about morgellons already. "In my experience, morgellons patients are doing the best they can to make sense of symptoms that are real. They're suffering from a chronic itch disorder that's undiagnosed. They have been maltreated by the medical establishment. And you are welcome to quote me on that," she adds. In 1987, German researchers found itch wasn't simply the weak form of pain it had always been assumed to be. Rather, they concluded itch has its own separate and dedicated network of nerves. And while a pain nerve has a sensory jurisdiction of roughly a millimetre, an itch nerve can pick up disturbances on the skin over three inches away. Oaklander surmises that itch evolved as a way for humans instinctively to rid themselves of dangerous insects. When a mosquito lands on your arm and it tickles, this sensation is not the straightforward feeling of its legs pushing on your skin. It is, in fact, a neurological alarm system; one that can go wrong for a variety of reasons – shingles, sciatica, spinal cord tumours or lesions, to name a few. In some cases, it can be triggered, suddenly and severely, without anything touching the skin. This, Oaklander believes, is what is happening to morgellons patients. "That they have insects on them is a very reasonable conclusion because, to them, it feels no different from how it would if there were insects on them. To your brain, it's exactly the same. So you need to look at what's going on with their nerves. Unfortunately, what can happen is a dermatologist fails to find an explanation and jumps to a psychiatric one." That's not to say there aren't some patients whose problem is psychiatric, she adds. Others still might suffer delusions in addition to their undiagnosed neuropathic illness. Even so, "It's not up to some primary care physician to conclude that a patient has a major psychiatric disorder." The CDC is due to publish a long-delayed study on the condition and, if it proves Oaklander's theory correct, this would explain a great deal. Why, for example, Greg Smith's lesions stopped developing when he stopped scratching: because they were self-inflicted. Why I found fibres on my hand: because they are picked up from the environment. What's more, if morgellons is not actually a disease but a combination of symptoms that might have all sorts of different maladies as its source, this squares with something Savely said she's "constantly perplexed about… when I find a treatment that helps one person, it doesn't help the next at all. Every patient is a whole new ball game." I phone Paul and explain the itch-nerve theory. "I can't see how that relates to the physical condition," he sighs. "I've got marks on my back that I can't even reach. I've not created those by scratching." I ask how he has been. "Pretty crap, actually. Been forced out of my job. They said it's 'based on my engagement level', and that's down to the lack of energy I've got. I can't sign myself off sick or as having a degraded performance because morgellons is not a diagnosis. There's no legitimate reason for me not to be operating at full speed." There's a silence. "Another thing has been destroyed by this disease," he says finally. "And all because morgellons isn't supposed to exist." • Some names have been changed. Health & wellbeing Health Internet Will Storr guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Sudan at a crossroads Posted: 06 May 2011 04:07 PM PDT With Sudan dividing into two countries, and with many issues still unresolved, it is in the interest of all Sudanese that there be mutual trust and respect for each country's security and stability Two months from now, Africa faces a momentous change, as the continent's largest country divides into two – the republics of Sudan and South Sudan. The division is the result of the January 2011 referendum on self-determination for southern Sudan provided for under the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that ended Sudan's civil war, one of Africa's longest and bloodiest conflicts. Of more than 3.8 million southern Sudanese who voted, nearly 99% chose secession. This new chapter offers an opportunity for the Sudanese to put the conflict of the past behind them for good. Norway, the UK and the US, longstanding humanitarian and development partners of Sudan and guarantors of the CPA, are supporting the creation of two economically viable and peaceful states that enjoy good governance and respect for human rights. We are also committed to assisting those affected by conflict and poverty. As representatives of the three guarantor countries, we are visiting both Khartoum and Juba this weekend to make clear our support for these goals. Several key parts of the CPA are incomplete, and many issues remain to be decided between north and south before separation on 9 July. These include determining the border; security arrangements; citizenship issues; wealth, sharing including oil revenues; a framework for future north-south co-operation; and the status of Abyei (a community that straddles the north-south border). We are greatly concerned by an impasse in talks on some of these critical issues. We call on the parties to make the final tough decisions needed to create sustainable economic, political and security arrangements between the two future states. Sudan and South Sudan will be each other's most important neighbours thanks to economic, historic, geographic and cultural ties. It is in the interest of all Sudanese that there be mutual trust and respect for each country's security and stability. The livelihoods and practices of pastoralists – the herders who traditionally traverse the north-south border zone – must be protected and accommodated. A "soft" border between north and south allowing for trade and the easy movement of people would benefit all Sudanese. Allegations of support to proxy forces by both sides are serious, and should be independently investigated. The CPA rules out the existence of armed groups outside the two established forces of the parties To help reduce poverty, increase transparency, and utilise revenue from natural resources, including petroleum, for the benefit of the citizens of both states, both governments should join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which supports sustainable economic growth and government accountability to citizens. Both north and south must also diversify their economies, reduce their reliance on oil, increase their food security through agricultural development, and expand health, education, water and sanitation services. We must also not lose sight of Darfur, where much still needs to be done to finally resolve the conflict in that region. For nine years, Darfuris have endured violence, displacement and poverty. This situation is deplorable and intolerable. For long-term stability and development, there must be an inclusive and just peace in Darfur, with all groups and voices represented in the political settlement. We will continue to work intensively with all parties towards this goal. Despite the challenges inherent in separating and launching a new nation, this is a time of opportunity for all of Sudan. Stability and co-operation across north and south will benefit all Sudanese. Increasing trade and co-operation between north and south, and with all of Sudan's neighbours, will provide economic opportunities for youth, who make up more than half of Sudan's population, and for women and girls, who have not had full access to opportunities for education and employment. We urge the international community to press for peace and development throughout Sudan, so that this region that has endured far too much suffering will not return to conflict. We urge the governments of north and south to urgently resolve the outstanding issues before 9 July to ensure a firm footing for their future relations. We believe that the UN has an important role to play in supporting these two new states after the end of the CPA, and look forward to ongoing discussions on its future role. And we are committed to continuing to help the governments and people of both countries develop in peace and partnership, offering hope and a brighter future for all Sudanese. • Erik Solheim is Norway's minister of environment and international development, Andrew Mitchell is the UK secretary of state for international development, and Rajiv Shah is administrator of the US Agency for International Development Sudan Darfur Andrew Mitchell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Dirty Dancing: it's not just about sex Posted: 06 May 2011 04:08 PM PDT As the hit musical Dirty Dancing prepares to go on tour, our reporter joins young hopefuls at open auditions, and asks how a low-budget film became 'a cultural event that lasted decades' You could probably argue that Flashdance is the better film, but it is Dirty Dancing that captured our collective heart. They call it "Star Wars for girls". It's not much on paper: a family goes on holiday, and its late-teenage daughters fall in love, one with a good'un – Patrick Swayze on career-defining form – and one with a bad sort. Steamy dancing occurs, that's the main thing. When the stage version opened in 2006, it had the highest pre-sell in West End history. Now, they're holding open auditions in the regions, for the national tour. At 7.15 on Thursday morning, there is a snake of girls standing outside a dance studio in Edinburgh, standing in first position from muscle memory, wearing so much makeup that they look like those street performers in the festival who think it's entertaining to pretend to be a statue. I always thought the point of open auditions was just to drum up publicity for the show, but the Dirty Dancing tour has no need of publicity. It's already taken £8.5m in sales, when booking's only been open three weeks, and the show doesn't start until September. It sounds like a lot of money. Guy Chapman is the most modest marketing man I've ever met, not just in theatre, but in any field. "Well, I come from opera. Everything sounds like a lot of money." Really, though, how does it compare to other musicals? "It is in a different league. Twenty-five per cent of people buying a ticket have never booked with that theatre before – so it's not people who go to Mamma Mia! or Sound of Music. It's the Take That/Kylie crossover, it's basically the pop audience. The theatre crowd are a bit more savvy, and they know they don't have to book straight away. The pop crowd will book the first day booking opens." The Take That reference hits this demographic squarely on its head: women born between 1970 and 1980 are obsessed with this film. I have a theory about this. I stole it off a friend who is into Freudian psychoanalysis: the whole theme, the eponymous dirty dancing, is sublimated sexual energy, that much is obvious. That memorable moment when Swayze finally manages to heave, sorry, lift Jennifer Grey off the ground (to recap, they've tried the lift before, for a competition, and not pulled it off … after much ill-fortune, his holiday camp-dancing career seems to be over, and she's been relegated back to childhood … ) is a metaphor for losing your virginity. And it's clearly a female-crafted metaphor, proceeding not with a clear narrative urgency, as straight as a die to the irreducible explosion, but rather, with mis-starts and damp squibs and dance routines that don't go right because both people weren't doing the right thing at the right time and didn't have the right feelings for each other. But that's just background: the edge comes from the fact that the metaphor is more embarrassing than the simple sexual awakening it's trying to sublimate. The audience is bound together by the shame of having enjoyed something so heavy-handed, and the more bonded you are, the more you enjoy it; the more embarrassed you are about enjoying it, the more bonded you are, until it has become more than a film, it's a cultural event that has lasted decades. There is one moment like this every generation: the swing scene in Sons and Lovers, and almost any scene with a horse in it in International Velvet. Sex substitution is a much darker art than actually writing a sex scene. Having said all that, I am still surprised to see such a lot of girls queuing up to audition. When this film was released in 1987, almost none of these people were born. If we take as given that they wouldn't have been allowed to watch it before they were 10 (it has "adult themes"; even now the producers aren't encouraging schools to book), the film would have been 15 years old by the time a lot of them saw it. Was it really still iconic by the turn of the century? "It was absolutely iconic," Adiza Shardow tells me. "I grew up watching this film". Alice Wilkins and Amy Harrison both say the lift is iconic. Their friend Leeanne Dobbie says the watermelon scene is iconic. They all say the watermelon scene is iconic, apart from the one who thinks it's a pineapple, while 21-year-old Adelle Burn distilled something else about Dirty Dancing, a subdivision within the sexuality umbrella: "It's on a par with Chicago, but that's raunchy sexy. This is more feel-good sexy". Elizabeth Pick, also 21, refines it further: "It's not your average dance routine, where everything's spot-on and perfect. It's quite grimy." "Grimy, like, dirty?" "No, grimy, like messy." She is here with Kayleigh LeMay, Rebecca Clarke and Gemma Cutler, all 21, all from the Liverpool Theatre School and College. They all, variously, say they fancied Swayze, which is quite moving, given his premature death in 2009 from pancreatic cancer. It dawns on me that they're all convinced I have some kind of sway with the production, even though I keep telling them I don't. They think this is some kind of pre-audition, where someone tests your passion for the work before you're allowed to dance it, like in Miss World when they test your personality. But let's assume that they're telling the truth. Apparently, at the Cardiff auditions a bloke turned up in a suit and danced in his socks, but most people here seem semi-professional, or at the least, ex-stage school. It's quite Darwinian, and incredibly hard. Two minutes in, the good ones are already at the front because the crap ones already don't know which way they're facing. I thought it would be like picking a horse in the Grand National, the differences would be minor, a couple of unlucky ones would fall over, and sooner or later, someone would end up winning. It's a bit more human than that. Dancing suggestively, besides being technically difficult, is challenging in some other, elemental way. That's why "dance like there's no one watching" is a well-known phrase. That's why you have to be drunk. But this film hasn't just lasted because of the dancing. It was political for its time – and set against our neutered, advert-whipped Hollywood, it looks almost radical. Chapman says: "It's not like in Verdi, where the political reference is there, but no one ever thinks about it. This is explicit, if you listen." Since the abortion is what everybody talks about, that is not a bad place to start. Unwanted pregnancies are the main staple of teen drama, and you can tell a lot about a film from the way they're dealt with. In a straight feel-good event, such as Grease, they will vanish of their own accord; in something modern, such as One Tree Hill or Dawson's Creek, abortion won't even be on the table, there will just be a bittersweet adoption or an incredibly photogenic single parenthood. In Dirty Dancing, not only does Penny get pregnant, but she can't afford to get rid of it (who talks about the economics of reproductive health in films now?); she has to borrow cash from the heroine's father (class issues abound – if you can't tell a posh American from a regular one, just remember their doctors are incredibly well paid); she nearly dies getting a backstreet operation (again raising the politics of access to healthcare); even the unpleasant relationship that created the pregnancy feels like it's more about class than a gender point about how men are bastards. "Some people count, some people don't," says Max Cantor, whose film career was truncated by his death from a heroin overdose in 1991. When they originally screen-tested the film, however, 39% of people didn't realise abortion was the subplot. History doesn't relate whether this is because they didn't notice it at all, or that they thought it was the main plot. That famous line about putting "Baby in the corner" ends with Swayze saying: "Somebody who taught me about the kind of person I want to be: Miss Frances Houseman", which refers us obliquely back to Baby's namesake, Frances Perkins, the first woman in the US cabinet. You'd almost have it as the Thinking Teen's teen movie, if it wasn't for all that ridiculous grinding. Back at the auditions, I am amazed how stoic these girls are: they spend two hours cha-cha-chaing urgently in front of a huge mirror, trying to remember to look as if they're enjoying themselves without staring directly at anybody, trying to remember not to grin, trying not to give in to the humiliation of getting a high kick wrong, or just not high enough. Then they're handed back their CVs and invited breezily to leave, and they back out smiling graciously, as though leaving a tea party. By the time they get further along, though – having been pulled out of the fray for a singing audition, and then failed that – emotions are a bit closer to the surface. All four of the Liverpool dancers (they were my favourites) got through the first round, and all four were turned down at the second. Someone told Kayleigh that she was perfect, but she looked too young. She took it on the chin, but looked distraught. "They know who they want. It's nobody's fault, it's just like interviewing for a job and not knowing one particular thing about a computer." I think the truth is that she didn't look, erm, dirty enough. But I didn't know whether or not that helped, so I didn't say it. Other musicals that matter Cabaret Nobody needs a musical to tell them the Holocaust was bad, nor even that reasonable people might be bisexual. But one is so used to Weimar Germany as an impossibly distant place, and suddenly you have a VIP pass to its throbbing epicentre. And: Liza Minnelli (pictured). OK, it's still a musical. You can't watch this instead of reading Primo Levi. Hair There are political messages here, but they're so buried in hippie claptrap that this is a better example, not of a musical with a message, but of the power of a soundtrack. Would the Vietnam peace movement have been so popular without this album? Rent It seemed at the time that this was the fastest trajectory of disease-to-stage in epidemiological history, but now that I check, it was devised in 1994, by which time HIV had been known about for more than a decade. Still, if you look at La Boheme, upon which its plot is based, that was first performed in 1896. TB was identified in the 1020s. Things are definitely speeding up. Footloose Not such a political moment, but it has something of the Dirty Dancing about it: a plot in which the dance is almost a character in its own right. Kevin Bacon is a teen in a town where dance is banned. I know! Imagine! Musicals Theatre Patrick Swayze Abortion Health Women Zoe Williams guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Tyler the Creator - what, me worry? Posted: 06 May 2011 04:02 PM PDT Tyler the Creator touches down to talk goblins, chillwave and the trouble with saying stupid stuff Tyler Okonma, better known as Tyler the Creator, 20-year-old frontman of Odd Future, the world's most notorious rap group, is having a fit. He was sitting cross-legged on the table of a boardroom in the London office of his new record company, XL – home to Adele, the xx and Dizzee Rascal – but now he's on all fours, and in raptures. "Oh, my gosh!" he explodes as a bowl of bacon and syrup is placed in front of him. As he smells the food he emits a raspy gasp that sounds vaguely satanic. "Suck my dick," he says to no one in particular, before tucking into his hearty American breakfast. It is 4pm. "Oooh, this is so fuckin' good," he moans in an impossibly deep voice, the one that has earned him a grievous reputation for rapping about murder, rape and all manner of depraved, disgusting acts. He resents being teased about going vegetarian. "Fuck, no," he says, lifting his head from the plate to fix the Guardian with an "are you mad?" stare. "That shit's gay." You can't really ignore Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. Well, you could, but you'd have to not use the internet and not read any press. They are everywhere. There's a good reason for the ubiquity: OFWGKTA are astonishing, both on record and live, where they approximate the combined imagined force of the Sex Pistols, Slipknot and NWA. At YoYo in Notting Hill last week, London's most glamorous – as well as Adele, the xx, Mark Ronson, and Jamie Reynolds of Klaxons – turned up just to watch OF's in-house engineer Syd Tha Kyd do a DJ set. Tyler and OF mates Left Brain and Hodgy Beats were there, sitting in the background, holding court. Suddenly, Syd cut in an OF track and, out of nowhere, the three jolted into life and began moving manically as though they'd been cattle-prodded across the room. Even the none-more-cool crowd went wild, a scene repeated at two rammed OF appearances at Village Underground and the Camden Crawl. And you should hear their records. No, you really should. For sustained and diverse brilliance, only the Wu-Tang Clan with their numerous side projects come close, and even they weren't this precocious (Odd Future are aged 17-23) or prolific. Over the past 18 months, the eight rapping and recording-artist members of OFWGKTA (a collective that also includes producers and illustrators), have made more than a dozen albums available for free download. Forget "mixtapes", these are fully realised works; sample-free, each meticulously crafted and worthy of major label release. There are two albums by the Jet Age Of Tomorrow, who specialise in light'n'breezy cosmic lounge funk; two collections of by turns psychotic and psychedelic crunk by MellowHype; two albums of hi-tech latterday G-funk by Mike G; some blunted beats and experimental studio play courtesy of Domo Genesis; even a suite of exquisite R&B with soul-baring lyrics from Frank Ocean. Then there are the three Odd Future compilations (The Odd Future Tape Vol 1, Radical and Some OF Shit) that have hinted at what OFWGKTA are capable of, and the two solo works that have made it explicit: Tyler's Bastard and Earl by Earl Sweatshirt. Bastard is ghoulish, but it's also rather gorgeous, with its stark piano lines and pillowy keyboards. There is misogynous loathing of the most extreme kind, and there is suicidal despair, all wrapped up in murderous tunes and expressed in that viscous growl, like Rakim with all the nutritional elements removed. In this writer's opinion it is one of the best rap albums ever made, free or otherwise. Earl is an even more sick (in both senses) attraction, with its buzzing synths like drills in an abattoir made all the more menacing by the almost facetiously pretty melodies. What impresses most is the witty intricacy of the rhymes as the appallingly articulate (and, it has to be said, furiously funny) rapper, 16 when he recorded it, moves from one repugnant scene to another. The group's totemic outlaw figure, the Sid Vicious to Tyler's Johnny Rotten, only blazingly talented, Earl is currently in a facility for wayward youth in Samoa; chants of "Free Earl!" are commonplace at OF gigs. "He's so good," says Tyler, who has finished eating and is sitting, legs outstretched, on the table. "I want to be on his level one day. That dude's sick. He has such a natural flow; I don't know how he does it." 'I don't know where all the anger comes from. It's just this dark place that I go to when I'm alone. We all do' - Tyler the Creator What about Tyler: how does he do it? Inspiration for the plaintive atmospheres and mournful violins, he explains, comes from "a bunch of French jazz, old soundtracks, library music, shit with crazy chord progressions and changes in it." He adores Roy Ayers: "Listening to him, it's like, 'How the fuck did he find that?' That shit's tight." There are elements in his productions that rap fans will recognise – the murk of Cannibal Ox, RZA's haunting strings – while others may hear in its billowing synths echoes of chillwave (Toro Y Moi even produced a "chopped and screwed" version of Tyler's track French). "I listen to Washed Out, Beach House and Broadcast," says Tyler. "That's what I'm influenced by. [That's why] the music is a mixture of pretty chords, fuckin' hardcore drums and basslines, and really nice strings." It was Fader and Pitchfork who first picked up on OF. They were rejected by the hip-hop blogs, and Tyler is less enamoured of the form ("I respect it but I don't really like it"). He seems happier with the notion of OF continuing a legacy of rock radicalism rather than fitting into rap history. When it's proposed that they're signalling one of those seismic moments comparable to Public Enemy in 1987 or Dre and Snoop in 1992, he seems disappointed. When I add names such as the Sex Pistols and Nirvana, making OF part of a bigger continuum, he perks up. "You mean like how the Sex Pistols and the Doors came along and changed everything?" he wonders. "Oh, I see what you're saying now." He loves Joy Division – Ian Curtis, Hitler and late US comedian Bernie Mac would be his three perfect interviewees – and the idea of Berlin. "I've never been there but I'm expecting it to be fuckin' grimy and scary and dark, but like a really beautiful place once you look past it," he says. You really couldn't ask for a more pithy encapsulation of the OF aesthetic. But what about those lyrics, Tyler? "I usually just say what I'm feeling at the time, what I think is cool," he replies. "It's sporadic. It's the first things that come in my head. Like the word 'goblin'," he says, referring to the title of his imminent solo album and first official release. "It randomly came to me. Goblins are little mischievous fucks." Brought up by his mother, a former social worker, much of the rage in his music is directed at his father, who abandoned him, and at women, for whom he reserves his most chilling put-downs. "I don't know where that anger comes from," he reflects. "It's just this dark place that I go to when I'm alone. We all do." Does he not consider the effect his music might have? "I never think of that. I just make shit I want to listen to. Not everyone's got to like it." Tyler still lives with his mother and he claims she doesn't listen to his lyrics, but she has been seen at OF gigs, getting off on the music. "She just supports her son doing what he always wanted to do, being on the cover of magazines, so she can show her friends," he laughs. "I know if I was a parent and my son was on fuckin' TV, I would look past any negative shit he said and just support my kid." 'They're some of the nicest people you will ever meet. We play, we joke, we have fun. None of us wanted to grow up. This is how we keep our innocence' - OF DJ-engineer, Syd Tha Kid And yet, for all Tyler's debased language and casual use of the word "faggot" in conversation, he and OF are not feral skatekids rampaging across the States on a diet of pills and "purple drank" cough syrup. He might announce, "I'm bad milk – drink it" on Bastard, and he might lurch around on stage in a ski mask, but actually he's a teetotal non-smoker who doesn't touch coffee. "I'm a pretty nice dude," he says. "I have fun and people take it the wrong way. Like when I start making fun of people and fucking with them, it's just funny to me." Is there anything he wouldn't rap about? He pauses for a moment: "Not that I know of yet." Has he ever been offended by anything? "Somebody called me a homophobe. I'm not homophobic. I just say 'faggot' and use 'gay' as an adjective to describe stupid shit." Enter Syd "Tha Kyd" Bennett. She's engineered most of the group's recordings in the guest house at the back of her "upper-middle class" (her phrase) parents' home. Still only 19, she used to be a business student; she also happens to be gay. Does her presence allow the boys to "get away with it"? "In a sense it does," she says, although she adds that, "Even if I wasn't here, they'd still be saying the same stuff." Asked whether she condones the use of brutal language against women, she replies that she must do; after all, she says, "I mixed it all. I listened to those tracks millions of times." She argues that "offensive words don't deserve their value, their power", and that they're just words. "He [Tyler] isn't necessarily saying, 'I want to rape so-and-so.' They're just sick, twisted fantasies that he's had, based on girls that have hurt him in the past. A lot of people have sick, twisted fantasies, so why not give them something to relate to?" She considers her male Wolf Gang members "some of the nicest people you will ever meet. We play, we joke, we have fun. None of us wanted to grow up. This is how we keep our innocence." Just when you're reeling from the idea of OF as joyous naifs, you read Tyler's Twitter feed, where he's declaring his intention to slap a child at the airport for wearing a Donald Duck hat. "Yeah, she wouldn't shut the fuck up," says Tyler of his message. "I didn't want her to have it [the hat]. Stupid little bitch. I shoulda socked her ass. See? A six-foot-two black guy talking about socking a seven-year-old Asian kid in the face … that's funny to me!" Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Rap Hip-hop Dance music Pop and rock Paul Lester guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Marina Hyde Posted: 06 May 2011 02:00 PM PDT Lost in the moral maze surrounding Osama bin Laden's death? John Ford's classic western will show you the way As a certain someone once said: there's an old poster out west … actually, forgive me. There's an old poster by my desk, as I type this, for a movie that would have been at the forefront of my mind this week even were I not staring at a picture of Jimmy Stewart holding a pistol and looking rather troubled. If you haven't seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, then consider yourself immensely lucky, because you have the most wonderful treat ahead of you. The gazillions who know and love the John Ford classic, though, will be familiar with the story, set in a frontier town menaced by the outlaw Liberty Valance. Our principals are the grizzled cowboy John Wayne and the idealist newcomer Jimmy Stewart. A lefty lawyer beginning his political career, Stewart takes a frightful kicking from the start, but sticks with his programme of social reforms for the town – you may be on the point of spotting the analogy – working to improve education and even racial equality. Of Liberty Valance, he insists to John Wayne: "I don't want to kill him. I just want to put him in jail." Who'd have thunk it, then, that the person who should face down the outlaw in a duel is not John Wayne, but Jimmy Stewart. And who'd have thunk it even more that it is the bookish idealist who kills Liberty Valance with a single shot, in a piece of good fortune he can scarcely believe. Needless to say he becomes the town hero, and gets Wayne's gal. It is only subsequently that Wayne tells him that the shot that killed Valance in the so-called duel was in fact fired by him, from across the street. Not the fairest of fights, you might be thinking – but in the Duke's mind, the end justified the means. He urges Stewart to run for office and live up to the status this misattributed act has bestowed upon him – which Stewart duly does, becoming the state's first governor and then a senator. Yet weighed down by the moral compromise on which his success is based, he finally confesses all to a local newsman when he returns from Washington for John Wayne's funeral. Now he has learned the truth about Liberty Valance's death, does the reporter debunk the myth? Please. He burns his notes, uttering the immortal line: "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." And so to Barack Obama, who will forever be The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden, with all the inevitable moral grey areas the title implies. Admittedly, the facts about Bin Laden's shooting have been corrected rather sooner than those concerning the death of Liberty Valance. At this rate, it will emerge by Monday that the al-Qaida chief was naked, with his hands up, and shrieking, "Not the face! I'll tell you everything!" when he was gunned down. But whilst it might appear that the ineptitude of the White House communications department is rivalled only by that of the Pakistani security services, those first golden hours of mythmaking have shaped the narrative that will endure in American consciousness. The legend has become fact. For my own part, despite considering myself a liberal, I must confess my tears have struggled to liquefy over the manner of the unarmed Osama's dispatch. It's not that my bleeding heart is all out of type A, nor am I summoning the cartographers, having finally discovered the outer limit of my liberal sensibilities. But it has been a while since I've had to make imperfect sense out of this type of moral muddle without the aid of West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. This extraordinary tale really is made for Sorkin, that most brilliant poet of liberal realpolitik, in whose hands its moral complexities and compromises would stay lodged in the public consciousness far longer than the current mudslinging between the CIA, Pakistan, the military and the international lawyers could ever guarantee. Channel-hopping only a few hours before the White House announced Bin Laden's killing, I happened to stumble upon the Sorkin-scripted movie A Few Good Men, and watch for the umpteenth time Jack Nicholson's terrible bastard of a colonel deliver that horribly convincing post-moral speech about why Tom Cruise's college boy lawyer can't handle the truth. That movie ends with Colonel Jessep facing trial, quite rightly, and it is difficult to disagree in theory that the Bin Laden story should have ended in a courtroom too – though what the al-Qaida Nuremberg would look like is anyone's guess. Rather than taking place post-conflict, it would involve trying one's enemy in an information war, while that war is still ongoing. (Incidentally, can you remember a single thing from Saddam's trial? I'm ashamed to say all that sticks in my mind is the thought of the trapdoor opening at his hanging.) Indeed, as far as The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden goes, one can't overlook that its Liberty Valance precursor was a story about the end of frontier – the creation of civil democracy out of a land of vigilantism and wild west brute force. Given that we are supposed to live in that civil democracy today, I know it would have been better – or perhaps righter – to have brought Osama to trial. But I can also see how it was never going to work out that way. And I do hope that Aaron Sorkin is the man to create enduring cinematic magic out of that Gordian knot. Osama bin Laden Obama administration Barack Obama John Ford James Stewart John Wayne US politics United States Marina Hyde guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Yotam Ottolenghi's polenta recipes Posted: 06 May 2011 04:02 PM PDT Quick-cook polenta is one of the great standbys of the store cupboard. But it needs a bit of embellishment to show off its best side Of all the dry store cupboard ingredients, quick-cook polenta makes the fastest meal. But remember that polenta needs plenty of enhancements – butter, cheese, olive oil – to turn on its soft and soothing charm. Grilled green polenta (V) This rich dish needs a simple, sharp salad. Later in the year, try diced tomatoes very lightly dressed with olive oil and red-wine vinegar instead of this rocket salad. Serves six. 40g basil 20g parsley 20g rocket 10g tarragon 1 clove garlic, crushed 70ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing 600ml water 150g quick-cook polenta 70g parmesan (or other mature hard cheese), grated 70g unsalted butter Salt and black pepper 100g ricotta For the salad 100g rocket 250g cherry tomatoes, halved ½ small red onion, thinly sliced 4 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp lemon juice Put all the herbs, the crushed garlic and the olive oil in a food processor, blitz to a paste and set aside. In a large pan, bring the water to a boil, pour in the polenta and stir continuously until cooked, three to four minutes. (You may need a touch more water to make it more spreadable.) Fold in the parmesan, butter, a teaspoon of salt, some black pepper and the herb paste. Now fold in the ricotta – swirl this through, rather than mixing in uniformly. Adjust the seasoning to taste. With a palette knife, spread the polenta in a 22cm by 22cm baking tray lightly greased with olive oil. (Wet the knife with cold water to stop the polenta sticking.) Leave for 30 minutes to cool and set. Heat the grill. Cut the polenta into six and space on a baking tray. Grill for eight minutes, until it takes on some colour. Mix the salad and season lightly. Serve a piece of polenta with some salad alongside. Asparagus with polenta (V) The two cheeses add complexity, but you could use just one, albeit doubling the quantity. Serves four. 16 asparagus spears 2 tbsp olive oil Salt and black pepper 30g walnuts, roughly chopped ½ garlic clove, crushed 100g quick-cook polenta 20g unsalted butter 20g parmesan (or other mature hard cheese), grated 20g stilton (or other blue cheese), crumbled Grated zest of 1 lemon plus 2 tsp lemon juice 40g soured cream 1 tbsp chopped parsley Bring a large pan of water to a boil, blanch the asparagus for two minutes, drain and refresh in cold water. Pat dry, gently toss in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy frying pan and chargrill the asparagus spears for two minutes, turning once, so they colour all over. Remove from the pan and set aside. Mix the walnuts with the garlic and set aside. Pour half a litre of water into a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, then pour in the polenta. Stir constantly on very low heat until cooked, about three minutes. Add the butter, parmesan, stilton and half the lemon zest, and stir until the cheese and butter melt in. (You may need to add a little water to bring the polenta to pouring consistency.) Stir in half a teaspoon of salt, or to taste, and some black pepper. To serve, spoon a dollop of polenta on to each plate, followed by two teaspoons of soured cream. Lean four spears of asparagus on the polenta. Sprinkle over the garlic walnuts, followed by the remaining zest, a drizzle of lemon juice and the parsley. Serve straight away. • Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London. Cheese recipes Herb and spice recipes Fruit recipes Italian recipes Main course recipes Rice and grains Salad recipes Snack recipes Side dish recipes Spring recipes Starter recipes Vegetable recipes Vegetarian recipes Food & drink Yotam Ottolenghi guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Pop will adore itself Posted: 06 May 2011 04:05 PM PDT Academic sorts have declared modern pop to be chock-a-block with narcissism. Gwilym Mumford checks the charts for proof "Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism." The words of cigar and incest aficionado Sigmund Freud. Unfortunately, for anyone who still values a concept as hackneyed as "love" in the age of Bieber, a new study into pop lyrics has unearthed a pronounced shift away from caring and sharing for one another and towards a form of – for want of a better phrase – aggressive narcissism. Dr Nathan DeWall and fellows of the University of Kentucky used the lyrical content of the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1980 to 2007 as the basis for their results, and claim that the rampant spread of ego-pop is in keeping with the broader social trends of the much fretted-about 16-24 age group. Of course, this study was restricted to the US, where a man who refers to himself as "The Donald" is somehow polling credibly for the Republican presidential nomination, but what of our own sceptred isle? A look into the lyrical content of this week's UK top 40 broadly suggests a similar movement towards narcissism, though there are some notable caveats. Firstly, it must be noted that the American artists currently occupying the top spots across the pond are largely dominant here, with only the likes of Birdy, Adele, Jessie J, Starboy Nathan and Katy B breaking up the J-Lo-led hegemony. Equally, R&B and hip-hop have a near universal presence in the chart – that's J-Lo again – skewing the subject matter somewhat. One suspects that a study taken during the "landfill indie" boom of the mid-noughties would have resulted in less talk of poppin' Cristal and more weeping uncontrollably at sunsets. Still, suggestions that pop has descended entirely into shrill self-aggrandisement do seem off the mark. A quick run-through of the lyrics of this week's top 40 show that the words used most frequently are: Like, Tonight, Got, Wanna and Dollar. Not only does this bear out DeWall's theory, they would make a fairly typical lyric. There are, however, a decent smattering of socially conscious tracks dotted around the chart, touching on topics as varied as feminism (Beyoncé's Run The World), gay and lesbian rights (Lady Gaga's Born This Way), and just being accepted for who you really are (Loser Like Me, by the ever-present cast of Glee). Even the bone-headed Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO smuggles a message of boozy amicability in among the braggadocio. What's more, the displays of narcissism present in modern pop tend to be as carefully manufactured as the messages of love and solidarity. The Black Eyed Peas, currently at No 13 with Just Can't Get Enough, vacillate so frequently between self-centredness (My Humps) and We Are The World-apeing calls for global group hugs (I Gotta Feeling, Where Is The Love) that it's hard to imagine anyone taking either of their personas entirely seriously. And Lady Gaga receives more press coverage for the manner in which she promotes and publicises her songs than for the actual music itself. Narcissism may be on the rise, but it's probably fake. Let's hope that proves some consolation. Pop and rock guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Authors rail against reading lists Posted: 06 May 2011 04:08 PM PDT Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons line up to reject proposal for primary schools floated by national curriculum panel Children's authors are gearing up for a fight over whether schools should be given government-approved lists of books that children should have read by the time they reach a certain age. Authors Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons appear first in line in the latest round of what has almost become a national sport in England over the last 25 years – criticising ministers for seeking to prescribe what they see as the best texts. The idea of replicating in primary schools what already happens in the first three years of secondary schools is being floated by a small panel of experts set up by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to review the national curriculum for five to 16-year-olds, according to the Times Educational Supplement (TES). Rosen, a former children's laureate, told the TES : "I'm all in favour of people recommending books to each other. What I'm utterly against is some centralised list which is supposed to be the government's view or the state's view. "If Michael Gove wants to suggest his list, that's fine. But if it is the government's list or the DfE's list, I would profoundly distrust it." He later said: "If Michael Gove says who's recommending them [the books and authors], then that's democratic, that's the way we share ideas. "If it's just a dictation that this is the way we read books, then we don't live in a totalitarian country, we're not in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, where they dictated what books you have to read." Gibbons said: "What we need to see in schools is trust in teachers and librarians. We need a network of people who know about books and keep up to date with children's literature, who have the freedom to select books according to their pupils' backgrounds and interests." Under the current primary curriculum children are expected to be introduced to a range of writing, including fiction, poetry, myths and plays, but there is no central list specifying books or authors. In secondary schools, the current curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds includes a recommended list of authors and demands that pupils study Shakespeare. In March, Gove suggested that children from the age of 11 should be reading far more than at present – up to 50 books a year . He claimed pupils were only reading one or two books, often Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, and invited children's authors to recommend their own favourites. The current children's laureate, Anthony Browne, said then: "It's always good to hear that the importance of children's reading is recognised – but rather than setting an arbitrary number of books that children ought to read, I feel it's the quality of children's reading experiences that really matter. Pleasure, engagement and enjoyment of books is what counts – not simply meeting targets." The prospect of state-directed reading has been a bone of contention for decades but arguments have been more heated since another bibliophile education secretary Kenneth Baker began laying the groundwork for the national curriculum in the mid-1980s. Guardian writers have never been backward in recommending their own favourites. Last May a list for five to seven-year-olds included Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl, The Worst Witch, by Jill Murphy, and The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth, by Eoin Colfer. Inevitably JK Rowling's Harry Potter was recommended for 8 to 11-year-olds, as were CS Lewis's Narnia books and Jacqueline Wilson's The Story of Tracy Beaker. The Department for Education said: "We want to create a world-class curriculum that will help teachers, parents and children know what children should learn at what age. We are currently reviewing all aspects of the national curriculum and will consult fully on the programmes of study when the review concludes." The review is still in its early stages. Recommended programmes of study for English and other core subjects are expected to be put out for consultation early next year with decisions made by ministers in the spring. They will be sent to schools in September 2012. Literacy National curriculum Schools Education policy Michael Gove Michael Rosen Anthony Browne James Meikle guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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