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May 17, 2012
4:13
Bits Blog: In TV Race, Microsoft Has Lead, Forrester Says
» ‎ NYT > Technology

When it comes to the underlying technology providers that matter for mobile app developers, there's Google and Apple, with Microsoft as an also-ran. But as television begins to resemble the mobile business, Microsoft is in the lead with the Xbox, according to a new report out Wednesday from Forrester Research.
4:05
A Facebook Co-Founder Reflects on the Path Forward
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Eduardo Saverin, who left the company after two years, has settled in Singapore and is assessing how best to manage the extraordinary wealth that will come his way in Facebook’s initial public offering.
3:38
DealBook: Ahead of Facebook I.P.O., a Skeptical Madison Ave.
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Despite the overwhelming level of interest in its I.P.O., Facebook is facing fresh concerns over its ability to attract enough advertising revenue. Will the social network reach its advertising potential?
3:31
State of the Art: SoundLink and Big Jambox Speakers Go Wherever You Go - State of the Art
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Pump up the volume with either of two high-end wireless room speakers: Bose’s SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker or Jawbone’s Big Jambox.

2:49
Mexican generals detained over alleged drug gang links
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Former deputy defence minister and a senior army general are being questioned over suspected links to organised crime
Investigators are questioning Mexico's former deputy defence minister and a top army general for suspected links to organised crime, in the highest level scandal to hit the military in the five-year-old drug war.
Mexican soldiers on Tuesday detained retired general Tomas Angeles Dauahare and general Roberto Dawe Gonzalez and turned them over to the country's organised crime unit, military and government officials said.
Angeles Dauahare was No. 2 in the armed forces under President Felipe Calderon and helped lead the government's crackdown on drug cartels after soldiers were deployed to the streets in late 2006. He retired in 2008.
Dawe Gonzalez, still an active duty general, led an elite army unit in the western state of Colima and local media said he previously held posts in the violent states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua.
An official at the attorney general's office said they would be held for several days to give testimony and then could be called in front of a judge.
"The generals are answering questions because they are allegedly tied to organised crime," the official said.
Angeles Dauahare said through a lawyer that his detention was unjustified, daily Reforma newspaper reported.
If the generals were convicted of drug trafficking, it would mark the most serious case of military corruption during Calderon's administration.
"Traditionally the armed forces had a side role in the anti-drug fight, eradicating drug crops or stopping drug shipments," said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst who formerly worked in the government intelligence agency.

"After 2006, they were more directly involved in public security, putting them at a higher risk of contact (with drug gangs)," he said.
About 55,000 people have been killed in drug violence over the past five years as rival cartels fight each other and government forces.
Worsening drug-related attacks in major cities are eroding support for Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, ahead of a 1 July presidential vote.
Over the weekend, police found 49 headless bodies on a highway in northern Mexico, the latest in a recent series of brutal massacres where mutilated corpses have been hung from bridges or shoved in iceboxes.
Opinion polls show Calderon's party is trailing by double digits behind opposition candidate Enrique Pena Nieto from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which says the government's drug strategy is failing.
Traditionally, the military has been seen as less susceptible to cartel bribes and intimidation than badly paid local and state police forces, who are often easily swayed by drug gang pay offs.
But there have been cases of military corruption in the past. Angeles Dauahare himself oversaw the landmark trial of two generals convicted of working with drug gangs in 2002.
Those two generals were convicted of links to the Juarez cartel once headed by the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was known as the "Lord of the Skies" for flying plane loads of cocaine into the United States.
Since then, the Sinaloa cartel - headed by Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman - has expanded its power and is locked in a bloody battle over smuggling routes with the Zetas gang, founded by deserters from the Mexican army.
- Mexico
- Drugs trade
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2:07
Paralyzed, Moving a Robot With Their Minds
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Scientists said a tiny brain implant allowed two people who are virtually paralyzed below the neck to manipulate a robotic arm.
1:50
A Computer User’s Guide to Cloud Storage
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Cloud storage, now offered by a number of companies in different price ranges, offers a substitute for physical storage, with the additional ability to synchronize across multiple devices.
1:25
App Smart: Digital Guardians That Help Ease the Fears of Parents
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Two apps, FBI Child ID and Footprints, are worth downloading for any parent — even those who can’t imagine ever losing their children.

1:06
Cost of Greek exit from euro put at $1tn
» ‎ The Guardian World News
UK government making urgent preparations to cope with the fallout of a possible Greek exit from the single currency
The British government is making urgent preparations to cope with the fallout of a possible Greek exit from the single currency, after the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, warned that Europe was "tearing itself apart".
Reports from Athens that massive sums of money were being spirited out of the country intensified concern in London about the impact of a splintering of the eurozone on a UK economy that is stuck in double-dip recession. One estimate put the cost to the eurozone of Greece making a disorderly exit from the currency at $1tn, 5% of output.
Officials in the United States are also nervously watching the growing crisis: Barack Obama on Wednesday described it as a "headwind" that could threaten the fragile American recovery.
In a speech in Manchester before flying to the United States for a summit of G8 leaders, the British prime minister, David Cameron, will say the eurozone "either has to make up or it is looking at a potential breakup", adding that the choice for Europe's leaders cannot be long delayed.
"Either Europe has a committed, stable, successful eurozone with an effective firewall, well capitalised and regulated banks, a system of fiscal burden sharing, and supportive monetary policy across the eurozone, or we are in uncharted territory which carries huge risks for everybody.
"Whichever path is chosen, I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect this country and secure our economy and financial system."
Officials from the Bank, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority are drawing up plans in the expectation that a Greek departure from monetary union – increasingly seen as inevitable by financial markets – could be as damaging to the global economy as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
With a second election in Greece called for 17 June, King dropped a strong hint that the Bank would take fresh steps to stimulate growth if policymakers in Europe failed to deal with the sovereign debt crisis.
"We have been through a big global financial crisis, the biggest downturn in world output since the 1930s, the biggest banking crisis in this country's history, the biggest fiscal deficit in our peacetime history and our biggest trading partner, the euro area, is tearing itself apart without any obvious solution," he said.
Doug McWilliams, of the Centre for Economic and Business Research, said a planned breakup of the single currency would cost 2% of eurozone GDP ($300bn) but a disorderly collapse would result in a 5% drop in output, a $1tn loss. "The end of the euro in its current form is a certainty," he added.
Alistair Darling, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer under the former Labour administration, said: "This has the seeds of something disastrous. It is madness. If it spreads to bigger countries, this could be really disastrous for Europe. It could consign us to years of stagnation."
Capital flight from Greece has increased since it became clear that a coalition government could not be formed after the election earlier this month. The Greek president, Karolos Papoulias, said citizens were withdrawing their money amid "great fear that could develop into panic" at the risk of a debt default and exit from the euro area, according to minutes of their meetings posted on the presidency's website. In little more than a week following the election on 6 May, €3bn was withdrawn from bank accounts. The central bank reported that €800m was taken out in a single day earlier this week.
The head of the International Institute of Finance banking lobby, Charles Dallara, said money was leaving Greece at a growing pace due to political uncertainty. "There has been a pickup of deposit flight from Greece, but I think that is stabilisable once you get a new government in place, if that government reaffirms its intention to remain in the eurozone." The damage to the rest of Europe if Greece were to leave the euro would be "somewhere between catastrophic and armageddon", he said.
The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, told parliament that his country faced trouble financing itself as borrowing costs shoot up to "astronomic" levels. The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, said Dublin's plan to return to capital markets in late 2013 might not be achievable because of the uncertainty.
The first meeting between French president François Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel helped to calm nerves in the markets at one stage, with suggestions that Berlin might be amenable to initiatives to boost growth in Greece and the other austerity-stricken nations of the eurozone.
But the jittery mood was underlined by a fall in European shares and the single currency late in the day amid reports that the European Central Bank was cutting off its funding lifeline to Greek banks that had failed to amass enough capital to protect them from future losses.
The ECB later said it expected the Greek central bank to use part of the €130bn bailout from the EU and IMF to ensure that the country's banks were safeguarded from collapse, and that they would receive additional help from Frankfurt only once this had happened. Already delayed by the political uncertainty in Greece, €18bn is now expected to be released to recapitalise the banks.
Sony Kapoor, of the Brussels-based Re-Define thinktank, said: "The high-stakes game of chicken between Greek and other EU politicians must end now. Those saying that a Greek exit from the eurozone will not be a big deal either don't know what they are talking about, or have some ulterior motives. The social, political and economic damage to the EU from a Greek exit is potentially incalculable."
At the G8 summit, which starts on Friday, Obama will press Merkel to lean more towards a growth package for Europe, instead of pressing so hard for the austerity measures that were rejected by Greek voters.
But foreign affairs analysts said that Obama's leverage with the European leaders is minimal. Although the US has the economic muscle to help Europe out of its mess, the Obama administration has taken the strategic decision not to become involved directly.
Instead, Obama is to use the Camp David summit for some quiet diplomacy, hoping to sway Merkel to endorse some immediate actions to help growth.
King, speaking at the publication of the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report, said growth in Britain was weaker and inflation higher than Threadneedle Street had expected three months ago. It would take until 2014 for output to return to where it was in 2008, when Britain's deepest post-war recession began.
"What is so depressing about it is that this is a rerun of the debates in 2007/08 – these are not liquidity problems, they are solvency problems," King said. "Imbalances between countries in the euro area have created creditors and debtors and at some point the credit losses will need to be recognised and absorbed and shared around," he said.
"Until that is done, there will not be a resolution. That is why just kicking the can down the road is not an answer. The European Central Bank has performed heroically in trying to buy time but that time hasn't been used to put in place fundamental underlying solutions."
Larry ElliottJill TreanorPatrick Wintour
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
0:59
Sam Hallam released after seven years in prison
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Decision to release 24-year-old after appeal over 2004 murder conviction follows long legal battle by family
Sam Hallam became one of the youngest victims of a miscarriage of justice on Wednesday when the court of appeal released him after he served seven years for murder.
Hallam, 24, emerged with his mother on to the steps of the high court, where, in front of a crowd of photographers, he was sprayed with champagne by the friends and supporters who have long campaigned for his release.
Hallam, of Hoxton, north London, was just 18 when he was jailed for life for the murder of Essayas Kassahun in a gang attack in October 2004.
The court of appeal is expected to quash his murder conviction on Thursday after the crown dramatically withdrew all opposition to his appeal.
The court heard Hallam was jailed as a result of a flawed investigation that failed to follow lines of inquiry and in which the Metropolitan police and the Crown Prosecution Service withheld evidence.
Outside the court, his mother, Wendy Cohen, said: "I am just shocked. I knew this would happen, he should never have been in there. My family has gone through hell, it is like we were all being tortured. Sam's father killed himself while he was inside, all of us have suffered."
Hallam's release comes after a campaign run by friends and family and supported by the actor Ray Winstone.
Henry Blaxland QC, for Hallam, said: "Sam Hallam – and I put it boldly – has been the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice brought about by a combination of manifestly unreliable identification evidence … failure by police properly to investigate his alibi and non-disclosure by the prosecution of material that could have supported his case."
Shortly afterwards, supporters and friends inside the court gasped as David Hannon QC, for the crown, announced: "We have given this anxious consideration for a long time, and again today, and we are not in a position to oppose the appeal."
Hallam was one of two men convicted of the killing of 21-year-old Kassahun in a gang attack which was over within seconds on the night of 11 October 2004. The trial judge recommended he serve life with a minimum term of 12 years.
The only evidence against him was two supposed witnesses who claimed he was present at the murder, one of whom gave several different accounts. The second retracted his evidence at the trial.
There was no forensic evidence to link him to the scene, and under cross-examination the main witness, Phoebe Henville, admitted: "I just wanted someone to blame."
The appeal was brought after the criminal cases review commission instructed an outside police force to investigate – something it only does in a handful of cases. The inquiry by Thames Valley police uncovered new evidence which showed the witness evidence was "so manifestly unreliable" that it should never have been put to a jury, the court of appeal was told.
Other new evidence included information from previously undisclosed police documents about another suspect, and evidence from Hallam's mobile phone which suggested he was in the pub with his father on the night of the murder.
As the crown withdrew its opposition to the appeal, Lady Justice Hallett adjourned the hearing for a few minutes and asked Hallam if he needed time to compose himself. She then announced that he would be released on bail with almost immediate effect. Hallam was led to the court cells, from where, shortly afterwards, he emerged into the well of the high court and the embrace of his mother. As campaigners cheered and clapped, most in tears, he stared straight ahead, looking dazed.
His brother Terry Hallam, 32, said: "It feels amazing. I just want to get him back home. The first thing we are going to do is visit my dad's grave together, he hasn't been able to do that. We are all stunned, we knew it would happen but we didn't think it would happen so suddenly."
As Hallam was driven away, Paul May, who led the campaign to release him, said he was considering referring the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. "There's a legal duty on the police to pursue reasonable lines of inquiry. They didn't do it, they didn't do their job," said May."Not only has an innocent man gone to prison, the perpetrators of this dreadful murder have largely escaped justice."
Winstone criticised the police and demanded answers on Wednesday evening. He said there had been "an outrageous miscarriage of justice" on ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald. "For me it is the disgraceful unprofessional action of the police involved in this case. Action that has caused a terrible stress within the family of the Hallams."
Sandra Laville
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

0:48
Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: Don't Let Me Squint Too Long
» ‎ NYT > Technology

"George Harrison: Living in the Material World," the new e-book by Olivia Harrison, has generated good reviews from iTunes users, and the content is excellent. Whether it's worth downloading, though, depends on your tolerance for tiny text.

0:10
Statins could benefit health of millions
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Medical journal says cholesterol-lowering pills can reduce the risk of heart problems, especially in the over-50s
Millions of over-50s could safeguard their health by taking statins, according to a study that found the drugs benefit healthy people with no heart problems.
The findings could lead to a change in policy by the NHS, which currently restricts cholesterol-lowering statins to those who either have heart disease or have at least a 20% risk of suffering a "major vascular event", such as a non-fatal heart attack, stroke or surgery on damaged arteries, within the next decade.
But a big study of statins' effectiveness, published in the online version of the Lancet medical journal, challenges that policy and concludes that even for people with no record of heart problems, taking statins can reduce their risk by a fifth.
The international criteria for who should receive statins should be reviewed and extended, the authors say. As many as 20 million Britons could be offered them, which would add up to £240m to the NHS's annual drugs bill.
"If we want to prevent heart attacks and strokes that come out of the blue in people with no previous evidence of problems – and about half such events happen in the absence of any prior history of disease – then we have to identify and treat people who are currently healthy but are known to be at increased risk of developing heart disease," said Professor Colin Baigent of Oxford University, co-author of the study.
The researchers reviewed 175,000 patients who took part in 27 previous randomised trials. They divided the participants into five groups, each with a different five-year risk of a major vascular event. They found that taking statins reduced the risk of such events by 21% for each unit reduction achieved in someone's level of harmful low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. The benefit applied even in the patients deemed at lowest risk, they concluded.
"This benefit greatly exceeds any known hazards of statin therapy. Under present guidelines, such individuals would not typically be regarded as suitable for LDL-lowering statin therapy. The present report suggests, therefore, that these guidelines might need to be reconsidered." they said. The research also found no evidence that that statins increased incidence of cancer or deaths from non-vascular causes.
June Davison, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the study, said: "Those who already have heart disease, or are at high risk, are offered statins because it's well established they help to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. This large-scale research found that even people at low risk of heart disease could benefit from statin therapy. The findings will help to inform policy and treatment guidelines in the future."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We keep all new research under consideration. Nice [National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which assesses the cost-effectiveness of treatments] regularly reviews its published guidance in order to take account of new evidence."
- Health
- Heart attack
Denis Campbell
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May 16, 2012
23:34
Syria's Bashar al-Assad vows to display captured foreign mercenaries
» ‎ The Guardian World News
President issues warning on Russian state TV against those fighting his regime and denounces governments who interfere
Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has promised to display captured foreign "mercenaries" who have been fighting his regime and denounced western governments for failing to protest at the violence being perpetrated by his enemies.
In his first interview in many months, Assad told Russian state TV that the Syrian opposition had shown itself to be insignificant by calling for a boycott of the recent parliamentary elections – dismissed as a sham by critics in Syria and abroad.
"How can you boycott the people of whom you consider yourself the representative?" the president asked. "I don't think that they have any kind of weight or significance within Syria."
Opposition activists meanwhile reported 30 dead across the country on Wednesday. The Local Coordination Committees group said 21 had been killed in Homs, four in Daraa, two each in Damascus and Idlib and one in Deir Ezzor. In all, an estimated 10,000 people have been killed by the Assad regime over the last 15 months.
Assad also issued a veiled warning to unnamed countries he said were interfering in Syria – an apparent swipe at Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have called for arming the rebels.
"For the leaders of these countries, it's becoming clear that this is not 'spring' but chaos. If you sow chaos in Syria you may be infected by it yourself, and they understand this perfectly well."
Syria claimed from the start of the uprising it was facing armed terrorists rather than a popular and at least initially largely peaceful uprising. But the opposition has become more militarised and violent in recent months.
Assad also mentioned religious extremists and al-Qaida members from abroad. "There are foreign mercenaries, some of them still alive," he told Rossiya-24 TV. "They are being detained and we are preparing to show them to the world."
Syria has previously mentioned a list of 12 foreign terrorists killed in Syria, including one French citizen, one British and one Belgian.
The US and other western governments say they have detected a jihadi or al-Qaida presence there. The al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged all good Muslims to fight Assad's "pernicious, cancerous regime".
Several Tunisians were recently killed in Syria and Islamist fighters from Libya are known to have made their way to the Idlib area via Turkey. Others have entered the country from neigbouring Lebanon and Iraq but in small numbers and on an ad hoc basis.
But the strong suspicion is that Assad is deliberately exaggerating the point. "The Syrians have tried to make a big thing recently about the influx of foreign fighters but the majority of serious security problems are still home-grown," said one western diplomat. "In essence this is still a Syrian problem."
The issue came up dramatically last week when twin suicide bombings killed 55 people and injured nearly 400 others near a Damascus security building – the worst attack of its kind so far. Responsibility was initially claimed by a little-known jihadi group called Jabhat al-Nusra but that claim was later withdrawn.
"The Assad regime has been quick to blame jihadi elements linked to the opposition," commented Emile Hokayem of the International Institute of Strategic Studies. "This fits neatly with the regime's attempt to ensure the loyalty of urban Sunnis and minorities fearful of Islamist rule by portraying all opposition as radical, violent and foreign-inspired."
"Just as unsurprising is the opposition's accusation that the bombings were the work of Assad's manipulative and nefarious security services. This is not entirely implausible, given their record and Assad's previous sponsorship of jihadi outfits operating in Lebanon and Iraq. However, a more likely scenario is that those jihadi outfits, which never had much in common with the Alawite Assad beyond an anti-American agenda, have simply turned against their former patron."Analysts of the 7 May elections say a vote for Assad's reforms was undermined by the participation of renamed pro-government parties, safe seats being given to loyalists and regime cronies who were described as independents. They also mention widespread irregularities and massive exaggeration of the reported 51% turnout.
Ian Black
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23:09
Theresa May heckled and jeered during police conference speech
» ‎ The Guardian World News
The home secretary defended 20% funding cuts in a speech to a rowdy Police Federation conference in Bournemouth
The home secretary, Theresa May, had to endure heckling and jeering by rank and file police officers as she defended 20% funding cuts to policing and reforms to their pay and conditions.
May's 25-minute set-piece speech to the 1,200 strong Police Federation conference in Bournemouth ended in complete silence.
But she had to sit stony-faced through huge cheers and applause when one officer told her she was "a disgrace" and was no longer trusted by the police, and she was heckled when she promised not to privatise the police. "You already are," shouted one officer.
When May took to the stage at the Bournemouth conference centre she was greeted by a sea of banners saying "Enough is enough" and "20% cuts are criminal" held up by the audience of 1,200 officers. The home secretary had already taken pre-emptive steps to ensure she did not have to deliver her speech in front of a conference backdrop saying "20% cuts are criminal".
The home secretary insisted that the police funding cuts were "affordable and manageable" and directly answered accusations that policing had been singled out to take the pain. "Let's stop pretending the police are being picked on," she told them. "Every part of the public sector is having to take its share of the pain."
She also responded to growing voices within the Police Federation calling for them to be given the right to strike. "The right to strike is off the table. Keeping our communities safe is simply too important."
The home secretary strongly defended her reform programme and said whatever final conclusions came out of the Winsor review of their pay and conditions she promised the police would remain the best paid of the emergency services.
She also tried to allay concerns about the creeping privatisation of policing by promising that it would only be warranted police officers who made arrests, who led investigations and directed operations.
"We will not privatise patrolling," she said, but when she added: "It is because the police are crime-fighters that we will never privatise policing," one officer shouted: "You already are."
The home secretary had to sit through a 40-minute speech by Paul McKeever, the Police Federation chairman, who told her that 5,200 officers had already been lost, and that she was on the precipice of destroying a police service that was admired throughout the world.
"We are about to go through some fundamental change that will alter policing for ever," McKeever said.
"This is a bad deal for police officers, it's a bad deal for the service and most of all it's a bad deal for the British public."
During her speech, the home secretary announced that the police prosecution powers are to be extended to take over nearly 50% of the cases that go through magistrates' courts. She said they, rather than the Crown Prosecution Service, would have the power to prosecute 500,000 uncontested traffic cases where defendants either did not enter a plea or failed to turn up at court. She was considering extending police prosecutions to other low-level offences and would make an announcement later this summer, she said.
Alan Travis
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23:08
Charles Taylor accuses Hague court of targeting African leaders
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Liberian war criminal likens offences he was convicted of to those he claims US forces committed during Iraq war
The convicted war criminal Charles Taylor has accused the international community of selectively targeting African heads of state with prosecutions while ignoring offences committed by US forces in Iraq.
In his final address before sentencing by a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague, the 64-year-old former Liberian president denied encouraging human rights abuses during the long-running civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone, insisting he had in fact been trying to stabilise the region.
The court should deliver its sentence in a spirit of "reconciliation, not retribution", said Taylor, who offered no admission of wrongdoing or words of remorse.
"I express my sadness and sympathy for crimes suffered by individuals and families in Sierra Leone," he told the panel of judges at the special court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).
"What I did to bring peace to Sierra Leone was done with honour. I was convinced that unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not be able to move forward. I pushed the peace process hard, contrary to how I have been portrayed in this court."
In his 30-minute statement, the one-time accountant and Libyan-trained guerrilla-leader disputed the accuracy of evidence presented during his four year-long trial. "Witnesses were paid, coerced and in many cases threatened with prosecution if they did not give statements," Taylor told the court.
"Families were rewarded with thousands of dollars to cover costs of children's school fees, transportation, food, clothing, medical bills and given cash allowances for protected and non-protected witnesses in a country where income is less than a dollar a day."
He repeatedly blamed his predicament on the US, comparing what he has been convicted of to offences he says American forces carried out during the Iraq war. Other African leaders could be subjected to similar unjust fates. "I never stood a chance," he said. "Only time will tell how many other African heads of state will be destroyed."
Taylor was found guilty last month of 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity by supporting rebels in Sierra Leone between 1996 and 2002 in return for conflict diamonds. Offences of which he was found guilty included: murder, rape, sexual slavery, recruiting child soldiers, enforced amputations and pillage.
He will be sentenced by the court on 30 May. The special court, which is based in the Dutch capital, cannot impose capital punishment or life sentences but the prosecution has called for an 80-year prison term. Any sentence is likely to be served in the UK, which has offered to accommodate Taylor once his trial and appeal are completed. The civil war left more than 50,000 dead in the West African state.
Taylor's defence lawyers say that exiling him to Britain's jails – where a Serbian war crimes convict was attacked in his cell two years ago – would leave him "culturally isolated" and constitute a "punishment within a punishment".
Courtenay Griffith QC, his lead counsel, has argued that "the suggestion that but for Mr Taylor the war in Sierra Leone would not have happened the way it did is an outright fallacy or wild speculation at best."
The lawyer has also pointed out that: all those awaiting trial at the international criminal court, including the former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, are from Africa.
During the trial, Griffiths also said that Africans were being sent for trial and detention thousands of miles away to Europe "in handcuffs and chains", a judicial intervention which amounted to "a 21st-century form of colonialism".
The court's chief prosecutor, Brenda Hollis, a former US military prosecutor, has dismissed allegations that witnesses had been paid as inaccurate, saying that they had only received the standard entitlement to court expenses.
"Considering the extreme magnitude and seriousness of the crimes that were committed against the people of Sierra Leone for which Taylor has been found responsible … the prosecution recommends that Charles Taylor be sentenced to a prison term of no less than 80 years. No significant mitigating circumstances exist in this case," she told the court.
"[His] positions both as president of Liberia and within the west African regional bodies distinguish him from any other individual that has appeared before this court. Taylor's abuse of his authority and influence is especially egregious given that west African leaders repeatedly entrusted him with a role to facilitate peace."
Owen Bowcott
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23:07
Government to miss cookie cut-off
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Most government websites will miss the UK's deadline for complying with EU regulations over cookies, the Cabinet Office tells the BBC.

23:06
Marcel Theroux: life with Ukraine's street children
» ‎ The Guardian World News
For some it's a utility room, for others a water pipe. As Ukraine gets set to host Euro 2012, the writer and broadcaster asks why more isn't being done for its thousands of homeless kids
Seventeen-year-old Seryozha squeezes himself through a pair of absurdly narrow bars and beckons me to follow. It's -8C, but I have to take off my coat or I'll never make it through the gap. I lie on the ground, hold my breath, and wriggle slowly under the bars. It's undignified and awkward, but there's no other way in.
The bars fence in an underground utility room that holds the heating and sewage system for a Soviet-era apartment complex. I follow Seryozha warily through a series of pitch-dark chambers, using my head torch to avoid low-slung pipes and piles of human shit. Above us, Kiev is enjoying a day of crisp winter sunshine. At the far end of the chambers, a jury-rigged lightbulb casts a pale-yellow glow on a row of filthy mattresses.
Seryozha shows me a bag of food-scraps he has scavenged from bins. The smell makes me gag. For Seryozha and at least two others, this place is home. They seem indifferent to its shortcomings; probably because they are all high. The dirt floor underfoot is scattered with empty yellow tubes. They're from a brand of Ukrainian glue that's used for resoling shoes, but when inhaled from a plastic bag, the fumes suppress feelings of cold and hunger and produce auditory and visual hallucinations. They also cause brain damage.
On one of the mattresses, a woman in her 20s is inhaling eagerly. The bag she holds clamped to her mouth inflates and deflates in time with her breath. "Look, she's sniffing!" Seryozha giggles. He has a heavily scarred face and wary eyes, but when he smiles he looks young and suddenly lovable. The woman's eyes roll back in her head and she's briefly transported to another realm. "Glukhi, glukhi!" says Seryozha. Hallucinations.
At 17, Seryozha's young enough to get a place at one of Kiev's shelters for homeless children, but he's not interested. "There are bars on the windows," he says. I point out that there are also bars on this cellar. He gives one of his cherubic grins. "But you can get out, you can go for a walk." The word he uses for going for a walk, "gulyat", means to wander around, but when street children say it, it can mean variously "wander around", "hang out", and even "beg".
Seryozha's what Ukrainians call "a social orphan": a child with one or more living parents who are unable to care for him. His is a story of alcohol abuse, beatings, spells in orphanages, and parental failure. By now, the story is familiar: I've heard a version of it from every street child I have spoken to.
He can't remember when he started using glue, and when he speaks he mumbles in a way that reminds me of a punch-drunk boxer. He has a vague plan to get into a rehabilitation centre and kick his habit, and then in the next breath he's talking about his plans for summer, and how he's looking forward to living outdoors.
No one knows how many Seryozhas are sleeping in manholes, or basements, under bridges, or on top of hot water pipes around Ukraine, but the figure is likely to be in the tens of thousands. Unicef puts the number at around 100,000, but it's a contentious estimate: it includes children who have a home, but spend a significant portion of each day on the street.
The head of Kiev's Centre for Children's Services is a charming former social worker called Nikolai Kulyeba. He says there are no more than 10 or 15 children under 18 living on the streets in Kiev. "Otherwise," he says, with a certain circularity of thinking, "I would know about it."
I list the children I have met so far: Dima, a 14-year-old from western Ukraine who sleeps on heating pipes by the railway station; Slavik, 16, who has fled from his drunken mother and lives in a basement with 12 others; Sergei, a 17-year-old with a black eye; 15-year-old Olya who is illiterate and lives in a basement full of drug addicts. I quickly get up to 11 – not including the borderline cases, such as Sabina, who says she's 18 but looks 15 and lives in a manhole. I ask Kulyeba if it's possible that in two weeks in Kiev, during a record freeze when many people didn't venture out of their houses, I might have met the city's entire population of street children. "Maybe they didn't tell you their real age. Maybe they said they were under 18 so you would feel sorry for them."
Outside Kiev's main railway station, outreach teams are offering free health checks to children aged between 14 and 17. A girl with dark hair who gives her age as 18 tentatively offers her finger to be pricked. It takes the nurse an age to coax it into surrendering a few drops of blood. Within minutes, the single lines on the test kits confirm that she is free of hepatitis B and C, and HIV, but positive for syphilis. "It's terribly bad for the baby she's carrying," says the nurse, "but, sadly, we see a lot of cases like this."
Street children are also disproportionately affected by Ukraine's HIV epidemic. The base rate of infection here is already higher than the 1% of the population that epidemiologists say is a critical threshold. The outreach teams tell me that close to 1 in 10 of all children they tested turned out to be HIV positive. Oksana, 17, says she contracted HIV when she was raped while living on the street.
She is in the early stages of infection, when no medication is necessary. But will she have access to anti-retroviral therapy when the time comes? In principle, Ukraine's constitution guarantees free health care to every citizen, but when you mention this to a Ukrainian, the reaction is a roll of the eyes, or a derisive laugh. In practice, you have to give bribes or "donations" when you visit the hospital, as well as paying for your own medicine.
Kiev's main thoroughfare, Khreshchatyk, boasts high-end stores and coffee shops, as well as a Marks & Spencer. It seems very much a part of western Europe. And yet, in some ways, Ukraine is still encumbered with its Soviet inheritance. The country has not scrapped the system of internal passports which the Soviet Union used to control the movement of its citizens. Ukrainians still have a registration stamp in their passport showing their place of residence, and while it's supposed to be irrelevant to job opportunities and healthcare, in practice, you're severely compromised without it. "Bez bumazhki, ty bukashka," goes the old Soviet saying: without the right paperwork, you're an insect.
Ukraine is spending a fortune on the Euro 2012 next month. The final will be played in Olympiskiy Stadium, high above Kiev, a gleaming piece of architecture that was rebuilt from scratch for the occasion at a cost of $700m (£440m).
"Of course, I would love to have that money in my budget," says Kulyeba with a rueful laugh. "But I'm sure it's been calculated so it will yield a profit." Across town, at one of the city's drop-in centres for street youth, the common room is full of the smell of unwashed bodies. Someone tells me that Seryozha was here earlier but was asked to leave because he broke one of the centre's rules by being high on glue. It is typically self-sabotaging behaviour: seeking help, and then disqualifying yourself from it. Three months on, the last I have heard of Seryozha is that he has moved out of his basement, but his life is unchanged in other ways. He's still begging and still using glue. He's clearly not ready to leave street life, and it's not clear he ever will be.
The director of the centre, Leonid Krysov, is bustling around trying to reunite the children with vital paperwork: the birth certificates, passports and registration papers that are a prerequisite for escaping street life.
"Usually we get an allocation, but this time I can't get any tickets to the football," he says with a sigh. "But the kids have told me not to worry. Apparently they know some heating pipes that come up right inside the stadium."
• Unreported World: The Teenagers Who Live Underground is on Channel 4 on Friday 18 May at 7.30pm.
Marcel Theroux
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23:05
Leveson inquiry: Jack Straw used to gossip with Rebekah Brooks
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Former justice secretary reveals he regularly arranged to meet the then Sun editor as they made the same train journey
Jack Straw arranged to meet Rebekah Brooks for a gossip once a week when they commuted on the same train when he was justice secretary and she was editor of the Sun, the Leveson inquiry has heard.
Straw, the former Labour cabinet minister, told the inquiry on Wednesday that they made the arrangement to sit together and used to "gossip about personalities" and what "was in the papers" as they took the hour-long journey from Charlbury in west Oxfordshire to London.
He revealed his meetings just moments after railing against politicians who had too close a relationship with journalists and criticising the press for "recording" his profession as "personality, conflict-based".
Straw said his media policy was "don't have favourites" because politicians were like "shares", in that when they get too close to journalists their price is "over-valued and there is then a crash".
He told Lord Justice Leveson he was an old friend from University of Leeds days with Paul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, and generally one of Labour's fiercest critics in the national press. But in contrast with Brooks, he only met Dacre about once a year.
Straw, who had previously been one of Tony Blair's closest allies as home secretary, had the justice portfolio between 2007 and 2010.
He said the commuting arrangement with Brooks "stopped when she became chief executive of News International" in 2009.
Asked what he would talk about he said: "We would talk about what was in the papers, what was the gossip about personalities, that sort of thing."
But he added they could never get into too confidential a discussion because it was a busy commuter line.
"There were all sorts of people around ear-wigging so there was a kind of limit to what one was going to say either way," Straw said.
He remained a friend of Brooks and was one of several top politicians at her wedding to Charlie Brooks in June 2009, along with David Cameron and the then prime minister Gordon Brown.
Earlier the inquiry heard how the Sun had been "ruthlessly hostile" to the Labour party and that owner Rupert Murdoch enjoyed playing "a power game" with politicians, according to Straw.
Unlike other witnesses to the inquiry, such as Alastair Campbell, who testified earlier this week that the Sun backed Labour because it was a winner, Straw was of the view that the News International tabloid did have the power to make or break politicians' fortunes.
"Few of us who took part, for example, in the 1992 general election, are in any doubt that the Sun's approach lost us seats. That was the purpose [of the hostile coverage] and it is disingenuous for anyone to deny it," Straw said.
He added: "The Sun played a huge part in the fortunes of the Labour party."
The 1992 election saw the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock "knocked mercilessly" by the Sun. He was pilloried as a "Welsh windbag" and on the day of the election the Sun splashed with the headline "If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights".
Straw said the Sun attacked members of the Labour party in the runup to the election. Just days before polling day in April 1992, the paper branded him "a hypocrite for preaching socialism from the luxury of three houses". He complained that this was already in the public domain but that now "every burglar in west Oxfordshire knew that the one day of the year" his house would be empty, was election day. His house was burgled and property stolen but when he complained to the Sun he got the "glazed-eye look", Straw said.
He said he had a run-in with Brooks when she was editor of the News of the World and had launched the campaign for "Sarah's law" to allow parents to check whether people with access to their children were sex offenders. At the time Straw was home secretary.
"I felt there were better ways of controlling the predatory instincts of sex offenders than having them bluntly subject to a mob outside their doors," he added.
He said newspapers should "calm down about the effects of autonomy from politicians" and acknowledge that statutory regulation would not been state control. That, he said, was "nonsense".
Straw said he believed newspapers had debased public discourse about government and democracy and had contributed to the low turnout at elections because they portrayed politics as "boring" and "completely self-serving".
In a barbed remark about journalists, he said: "As John Major famously said, 'the only people who've never made a mistake are the people who have never made a decision'. To which I would simply add: they are called journalists."
Straw told Leveson he was in favour of radical reform of press regulation, which had "palpably failed" over the past 50 years.
He said some sort of "statutory" regime which would provide remedies for fast-tracking cases of defamation and breaches of privacy.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
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Lisa O'Carroll
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23:05
Derby fire: father speaks of anguish as police say blaze was started with petrol
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Mick Philpott, the father of the six children killed in last week's house fire, breaks down as he speaks at press conference
The father of six children who were killed in a house fire in Derby early on Friday has spoken of his anguish as police revealed that petrol had been poured through the letterbox in an arson attack.
Mick Philpott wept as he spoke at a press conference on Wednesday morning with his wife, Mairead, alongside him and said he had been overwhelmed by support from the local community. Five of their children, aged between five and 10, died following the blaze at a house in Victory Road, Allenton, despite his "valiant efforts" to save them. A sixth son, Duwayne Philpott, aged 13, died in hospital overnight on Sunday with his family at his bedside.
Derbyshire police said they believe the fire was started when petrol was poured through the letterbox. Assistant chief constable Steve Cotterill said the seat of the fire was below the letterbox at the front door of the house. Investigations showed the accelerant was petrol.
Mick Philpott thanked fire crews for their efforts to save his children. He revealed that Duwayne's organs had been donated to save the life of another child.
Results of postmortem examinations revealed that the five younger children – Jade Philpott, 10, and brothers John, nine, Jack, seven, Jessie, six and Jayden, five – died as a result of smoke inhalation.
Philpott said that donating his son Duwayne's organs to help another child "makes us happy and it takes a bit of the pain away." He said: "We grew up in a community that's been through a lot of problems with violence and to see this community come together like it has, it's too overwhelming. Those poor gentlemen from the fire brigade who saw what we saw – my heart goes out to them. It's not just us that's suffering, it's them."
He begged the media to leave his family alone as it is disrupting the inquiry. "Please leave my family alone. If you've got any questions or anything at all please don't come through me or my family, please go to the police. You're disrupting what these officers are trying to do." He urged the media to let them grieve in peace and quiet.
On Monday Cotterill said: "After further forensic examination we believe the fire was not accidental, initial indications are that it was deliberately set and, as a result, six children have been unlawfully killed."
"I think it was a very difficult thing for them to do," he said of the Philpotts' decision to hold a press conference. "I pay tribute to their courage. The community have really pulled together and that's manifested itself in additional information that's starting to trickle through." Previously, the police had expressed frustration at the lack of intelligence.
The forensic examination at the scene is likely to continue for some time. A 28-year-old woman and 38-year-old man, both from Derby, were arrested by officers investigating the deaths but were released without charge.
The children were asleep in their beds upstairs when the fire broke out at the semi-detached house in the early hours of the morning. Their parents were asleep downstairs.
Mick Philpott became the subject of media attention five years ago after asking for a larger house to share with his wife, his girlfriend and eight of the 17 children he is said to have. He also featured in a documentary with Ann Widdecombe on the issue of welfare culture.
- Crime
- Derby
Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

23:00
83-year-old gave blood 57 times - now he's donated a kidney
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
An 83-year-old man has achieved a double by becoming the oldest living kidney donor in the UK and the oldest person in the country to give a kidney to a stranger.
Related Stories
23:00
83-year-old man becomes UK's oldest living kidney donor
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
An 83-year-old man has achieved a double by becoming the oldest living kidney donor in the UK and the oldest person in the country to give a kidney to a stranger.
Related Stories
23:00
Two-tier priority system to be introduced for emergency calls requesting an ambulance
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Calls to the emergency services requesting an ambulance are to be prioritised for the first time in an attempt to save lives, it was announced yesterday.
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23:00
Romney Marsh set to become nuclear dump
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Romney Marsh in Kent, one of England’s most peaceful areas and most wildlife-rich wetlands, has been suggested as a site for Britain’s future nuclear waste dump.
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- Power politics: French threat to UK energy
- In Japan, the lights are already starting to go out...
23:00
Government accused of abandoning poor families by slashing fuel poverty spending
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
The Government has been accused of turning its back on hard-up families by slashing spending on fuel poverty.
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23:00
David Beckham to accompany Princess Royal to Athens to take delivery of Olympic torch
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Being no stranger to posh company, David Beckham was an obvious choice to accompany the Princess Royal to Athens to take delivery of the Olympic torch.
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23:00
i Editor's Letter: We are here to serve
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
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- i Editor's Letter: Rethinking our role in the world
23:00
Hundreds of thousands of 11-year-olds leaving primary school unable to swim
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
More than 200,000 11-year-olds quit primary school every year unable to swim, according to a report out today.
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23:00
English university students working harder since introduction of top-up fees
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Students at English universities are working harder since the introduction of top-up fees - but have got little else from universities, according to a report out today.
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23:00
Cameron's allies take control from critics in rebel Tory group
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Critics of David Cameron last night lost an acrimonious battle for control of an influential Conservative backbench committee with direct access to the Prime Minister.
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23:00
Pure elation for rights campaigners – but they still seek an apology
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
"Sam's free!" they shouted down their phones as the news came in.
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23:00
Cameron to tell Hollande austerity works – but King raises alarm
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
David Cameron will claim today that austerity is working despite Britain's slide back into recession as he urges eurozone countries to either "make up or break up".
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23:00
Liverpool sack Dalglish and approach Villas-Boas
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Liverpool's American owners have made contact with Andre Villas-Boas in the past two weeks, in an attempt to establish his interest in taking over at Anfield, where Kenny Dalglish was yesterday dismissed.
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- Kenny Dalglish sacked as Liverpool manager
23:00
James Lawton: Dalglish didn't fail to recreate the past, he failed to face the future
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
It was a good idea at the time and for a little while it might just have been a brilliant one.
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23:00
Luxury goods boom is lifting Richemont
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Shoppers snapping up luxury looks while sitting on the sofa each evening have helped online fashion site Net-a-Porter match the sales growth of its stablemates like Cartier and Montblanc at designer brands giant Richemont.
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23:00
Syria: UN observers evacuated after bomb hits convoy
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
A team of international observers has been evacuated from a town in northern Syria after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb.
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23:00
Roy clears up all the questions
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Q. Can England win the 2012 European Championship?
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23:00
Fund run by JPMorgan bet against Whale
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Hedge funders were not the only market whiz-kids betting against JPMorgan's disastrous London Whale trading positions. Another part of his own bank was too.
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23:00
James Lawton: Hodgson gets credit in bank for being brave and decisive
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
For a man who must have felt these last few days like someone turning out his pockets in the hope of finding a little loose change, England manager Roy Hodgson put on a brave face yesterday. Better still, he gave the distinct impression that he was in charge of both himself and a European Championship squad which, frankly, looks barely competitive.
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23:00
We risk being shut out of financial markets, warns Spanish PM
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
The Spanish Prime Minister has vigorously defended the austerity policies that united thousands who protested against the harsh cuts this week by warning that the country risked being shut out of the financial markets unless it works to bring its debt burden under control.
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23:00
Market Report: Barclays back on the rise after losing fifth of value
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Barclays offered a surprise glimmer of hope in a mostly overcast market yesterday, as the banking giant defied its financial competitors to register a 1.6 per cent jump in its share price. With investors shying away from high-risk options, such as banks, Barclays shares increased by 2.95p to 189.1p after UBS raised its rating on the stock from "neutral" to "buy".
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- Market Report: Diageo rises on talk of deal with tequila maker
23:00
Demand drives up size of Facebook float
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Facebook has increased the size of its initial public offering by almost 25 per cent, and could raise as much as $16bn (£10bn) as strong investor demand for a share of the social network trumps debate about its long-term potential to make money.
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23:00
Ian Bell: Cruel summer climes mean cuts are more crucial than drives
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed

It is strange to think that in 12 days' time we will have completed a third of our Test matches for the summer. We've got three Tests against West Indies, the first of which was due to begin at Lord's today, and then three against South Africa later in the summer.
23:00
Hollande delivers on gender in government
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
President François Hollande showed an unexpectedly ruthless streak yesterday by shaping a gender-balanced French government from which several friends, and one notable foe, were excluded.
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23:00
Teachers in regions may be paid less
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
Teachers in Wales and the North and South-West of England face earning less than their counterparts in the South-east after the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, called for the scrapping of national pay rates for the profession.
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21:50
Robert F Kennedy Jr's estranged wife found dead in New York home
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Mary Richardson Kennedy's final years had been troubled ones, including arrests for driving under the influence
The estranged wife of Robert F Kennedy Jr has been found dead in her home in Bedford, New York, according to the family.
Mary Richardson Kennedy, 52, was RFK Jr's second wife. The couple was married for 16 years and had four children together before separating in 2010.
"We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her," read a statement from Mary Kennedy's family. "Our heart goes out to her children who she loved without reservation. We have no further comment at this time."
The past couple of years had been troubled ones for Mary Kennedy. She was charged with driving while intoxicated in May 2010, when she was pulled over with a blood alcohol level of .11. The legal driving limit is .08.
The only passenger at the time had been the family dog, although Kennedy allegedly told police that she was driving to the school carnival to pick up "some people".
After Kennedy's original DUI arrest, rumors of marriage trouble bubbled to the surface, including reports that RFK Jr had already filed for divorce.
Twice in the week prior, Bedford, New York, police had responded to domestic incidents at the Kennedy home. In 2007 Bobby attempted to take his wife to Northern Westchester Hospital for psychiatric evaluation but she reportedly bolted from the car.
At the time the New York Post reported that Kennedy had suspected her husband, a prominent environmental lawyer and activist, of infidelities.
Three months later she was again charged with driving under the influence. She had been driving 82 mph when police stopped her. She said she told them she was on her way to yoga class, according to the Journal News.
Robert F Kennedy Jr is the son of the former US attorney general, who was murdered while campaigning for president in 1968. He is also the nephew of John F Kennedy Jr, who was also assasinated in 1963.
Brian Braiker
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

20:11
Gadgetwise Blog: Now on Pinterest: Scams
» ‎ NYT > Technology

It wasn't long before scammers and phishers found their way onto Pinterest, the growing social-network site.
20:08
DealBook: Facebook Increases Number of Shares for I.P.O.
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Facebook will offer 421 million shares, 25 percent more than it had planned to offer, in response to high demand.

20:05
Google makes search 'more human'
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Google revamps its search engine in an attempt to offer instant answers to search questions with a new function, the Knowledge Graph.

19:57
Gadgetwise Blog: A Pocket-Size Recording Studio
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Olympus's new LS-100 recorder may look like a piece of military machinery, but it is actually an eight-track recorder you can slip into your pocket.
19:36
G.M. to Quit Facebook Ad Campaign Worth $10 Million a Year
» ‎ NYT > Technology

The loss of $10 million in ad dollars does not represent a financial disaster for Facebook, but it is a public relations headache so close to the company’s initial stock offering this week.
19:26
A Russian Facebook Bet Pays Off Big
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Alisher B. Usmanov’s investments in the social media giant could be worth at least $6 billion when the company goes public.

17:16
The Pirate Bay hit by hack attack
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

File-sharing website The Pirate Bay appears to have been hit by a coordinated hack attack.

16:29
Mobile sales drop for the first time in two years
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

According to the latest figures from Gartner, retail sales of mobile phones have dropped for the first time in almost two years.

Sales for the first quarter of 2012 totalled 419.1 million units, down two percent year-on-year.

Now the analysts think they will have to adjust their forecasts for the whole of 2012 down by around 20 million units.

Smartphones are doing well, it is just that no one seems to want to buy a phone to send SMS messages or call people any more.

At the moment the best place to try to sell a mobile is China and this period is normally strong for sales because of the Chinese New Year.

Gartner's figures make Samsung the top handset vendor, selling 86.6 million devices and overtaking Nokia which was at 83.2 million.

Smartphone sales up 44.7 percent year-on-year, with Android-based phones accounted for 56.1 percent of all smartphone sales during the quarter.

But the percentage of smartphones to ordinary phones is still small. Samsung was the number one seller of smartphones but it only sold 38 million worldwide which compared to 419.1 million mobile units in total.

Nokia's sales slid 22.7 percent year-on-year. But 44 percent of Samsung's sales were higher earning smartphones, while the devices accounted for just 16 percent of Nokia's sales.
16:24
Brian Krzanich likely to be Intel Otellini replacement
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini appears to have received a mess of pottage from Chief Operating Officer Brian Krzanich and given him his blessing as his heir.

Otellini said Chipzilla will continue a tradition of filling the top position from within its own ranks.

Talking to Bloomberg from the company's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, Otellini talked about his possible successors.

Otellini, 61, as well as his two predecessors, Craig Barrett and Andy Grove, was chief operating officer before taking on the CEO role at Intel.

Otellini said his job is to groom a number of candidates for the board to choose from. It would seem that he has been picking fleas from the coat of Krzanich although he did not mention him by name.

He said that it made a lot of sense for most companies, particularly given the track record in the Valley lately, to hire leaders within the company.

16:23
Facebook to sell 25% more shares
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Facebook says it will sell 25% more shares than first planned in its forthcoming flotation in response to strong demand.

16:06
Samsung slumps as Apple props up Elpida
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

After failing to do any serious harm to its old chum Samsung in the court room, Apple has done more damage by walking away and propping up Elpida.

Shares in Samsung slumped more than six percent costing the company $10 billion on the back of news that Apple had placed huge orders with Elpida.

The source of the news was DigiTimes, but it appears to have been believed, perhaps because no one believed that Apple would stay with Samsung after its court battles..

The orders were for mobile DRAM and were with Elpida's 12-inch plant in Hiroshima, Japan. Basically the move will provide half the facility's total chip production.

Hynix shares also dropped by nine percent. Samsung is the world's biggest DRAM maker and its shares fell.

Choi Do-yeon, an analyst at LIG Investment & Securities, told Reuters that it was more about Apple not wanting Samsung and Hynix to dominate the chip market, so it wants to keep the bankrupt Elpida running.

Micron is in talks to acquire Elpida's business as the Japanese firm, so a merged Micron-Elpida could put the fear of god into the South Korean memory chip makers.

16:02
Disarming Denial – Operation Noah’s Annual Supporters’ Conference, Oxford
» ‎ Latest News

June 23 11-4.00pm Venue: Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford OX1 2DH. More details at: www.operationnoah.org/disarming-denial
15:57
Flame 87.7FM, Swindon
» ‎ Latest News

Swindon Churches Together are running Flame 87.7FM, a community radio station, throughout May.
15:55
Striving for Sanctuary, Birmingham
» ‎ Latest News

Striving for Sanctuary - Climbing the Mountain of Integration, Churches' Refugee Network Conference
15:53
Spectrum: 19th May, Bristol Cathedral: Christians making a difference in Bristol
» ‎ Latest News

ISR, as part of the Churches Together in Greater Bristol is helping organise this second (annual) event.
15:49
‘Responsible Capitalism?’ morning conference, Swindon
» ‎ Latest News

A morning conference to consider the economic crisis and what needs to change to build a fairer economy for the future.

15:32
Virgin Atlantic allows air calls
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Passengers flying Virgin Atlantic from London to New York will soon be able to make in-flight phone calls using personal devices.

15:25
Michael Caine trapped in dressing room
» ‎ The Guardian World News
The actor, who was filming Now You See Me in a disused theatre, was accidentally locked in a makeshift dressing area overnight before being set free the next morning
No tabloid story about Michael Caine is complete without a headline referencing his famous line from The Italian Job: "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" Sub-editors at the Mirror must have thought all their Christmasses had come at once yesterday after the unfortunate 79-year-old actor was locked in his dressing room overnight while taking a nap.
According to the newspaper, Caine was on a break earlier this month from shooting thriller Now You See Me, which also stars Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, at a disused theatre in Louisiana when he decided to grab some well-deserved shut-eye. Because the actor did not have a personal assistant, staff at the Loew's State Theatre were unaware he had not left for the day when they locked his room. An irritated Caine was only freed the next morning when a carpenter turned up for work and heard his cries.
A production source told the Mirror: "It had been a long day of filming and Michael decided to slip upstairs to a makeshift dressing area and catch 40 winks.
"When Michael eventually woke up, he realised he was locked in. His mobile phone was in his trailer and there was no electricity in the attic, meaning he couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black.
"Michael started shouting for help but no one could hear him. It was only when an on-set carpenter who had left his tools in the theatre went to do some maintenance work the following morning that he was discovered. It's fair to say Michael wasn't in the best of moods – although he was grateful to have been found."
Now You See Me, from French director Louis Leterrier, centres on an FBI hunt for a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and hand their audiences the cash. The film is due out in January 2013.
- Michael Caine
Ben Child
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14:33
Jury out in Google Oracle dispute
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

A jury has retired to consider claims that Google wilfully infringed patents belonging to Java developer Oracle.

14:27
Ratko Mladic goes on trial for Bosnia war crimes
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Former Serb general gives truculent display at Hague court as prosecution outlines case including 1995 Srebrenica massacre

Ratko Mladic, the Serb military commander in the Bosnian war, has gone on trial for the worst crimes against humanity that Europe has witnessed since the second world war.
Facing 11 charges including two counts of genocide, the 70 year-old former general appeared unrepentant on Wednesday. When he entered the courtroom at a war crimes tribunal in The Hague, he gave a sarcastic thumbs-up and a slow handclap to the public gallery. At one point, he looked directly at a survivor of the Srebrenica massacre and drew his finger across his throat.
"We visited him before the trial and tried to persuade him to be quiet, not to say anything at all," Branko Lukic, his defence lawyer said. "He told me he made that sign at a woman in the gallery who provoked him by showing him the middle finger. He is like that. He does the same to me."
After the break, Mladic complained about gestures from the public gallery. The judge told him to focus on the trial while warning the gallery he would put up a screen up around the court if there was any further "interaction".
For more than four hours, the prosecution at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, outlined its case. Dermot Groome, one of the two senior prosecutors, said that the evidence would show that Mladic, as the head of the Bosnian Serb general staff, was directly responsible for the atrocities committed. More than 100,000 people died in the conflict, mostly Muslims and Croats, including tens of thousands of civilians.
"The prosecution will present evidence that will show beyond a reasonable doubt the hand of Mr Mladic in each of these crimes," Groome said. In his statement, he drew on the defendant's published directives to his troops during the war, as well his wartime notebooks seized by Serbian police in a Belgrade flat where he had been hiding during his 16 years on the run.
Groome's also highlighted the individual tragedies that lie beneath the statistics, like the 14 year-old boy whose father and uncle were among 150 men from the same community murdered by Bosnian Serb forces in November 1992. He also told the story of a seven-year-old boy in Sarajevo killed by a Serb sniper while out with his mother gathering firewood. The bullet passed through her stomach and into his head. Lying wounded on the street, she thought her boy was simply following her instructions to take cover. It was only when UN soldiers lifted up his limp body that she realised he was dead.
Groome said that by the time Mladic's forces stormed the supposedly UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, killing 8,000 Muslim men and boys, "they were well rehearsed in the craft of murder."
He added that Srebrenica was "different in scale, but no different in intent" from other atrocities carried out by Bosnian Serb forces. "It was no different in its utter inhumanity."
One of the survivors in the gallery, Zumra Sehomerovic, said: "I am proud when I see Mladic finally behind that glass, in front of the court. It has come after 16 years but there is no statute of limitations on the crimes he committed".
Her husband and three other family members were killed at Srebrenica and she said she saw the general up close when he appeared at the scene to "reassure" the terrified captives.
"When I look at him today, I see the man I saw then in 1995. I was standing a metre from him," Sehomerovic said. " There he was with his sleeves rolled up, and he was telling us everything would be OK. He was giving chocolate to the children and said he said he just needed to keep some of the men for a prisoner exchange but that everybody would be together again soon. And then he killed them all."
Groome said the documentary evidence pointed to an "overarching" plan, set out in a list of six war aims drawn up by Mladic, aimed at ethnic cleansing hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Croats and carving out an ethnically pure Serb homeland in western and eastern Bosnia.
The prosecution statement also focused on the 44-month siege of Sarajevo. Groome quoted Mladic from wartime documents and interviews in which he appeared to boast about "putting a ring around the dragon's head of Sarajevo".
At one point the general is quoted as saying: "I have blocked Sarajevo from all four sides. There is no exit. It is in a mousetrap."
Lukic said that he intended to cross-examine prosecution witnesses carefully, but would let the prosecution present its entire case before making his own opening statement.
"Our strategy is not to reveal our strategy and to keep our cards close to our chest," Lukic said, but pledged to present "new evidence" when his turn came. He predicted that the trial could take more than four years to complete.
In court, Mladic cut a much diminished figure from the bluff, stocky and ruddy-faced military commander he was in the war. He survived for 16 years on the run, at first with the help of the Serbian army and the Serbian government in Belgrade, but since the election of a reformist president, Boris Tadic, in 2004, the layers of protection fell away. Mladic was cut off from funds and had been reduced to hiding in the garden shed of a relative in a Serbian village when he was caught last year.
The Bosnian Serbs' wartime leader, Radovan Karadzic, was caught in 2008, living under a false name and posing a new-age healer. He is already midway through his trial at The Hague. Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president who orchestrated the Balkan wars from Belgrade, died of a heart attack in his cell in 2006 before a verdict could be delivered in his case.
At the start of Wednesday's hearing the presiding judge, Alphons Orie of the Netherlands, said the court was considering postponing the presentation of evidence, due to start on 29 May, owing to material omitted by the prosecutors when it disclosed evidence to the defence. Groome said he would not oppose a "reasonable adjournment".
Julian Borger
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14:18
Blue Peter and other children's shows to be ditched from BBC1
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Kids' programming to move to CBBC and CBeebies as shows struggle against TV aimed at adults
Blue Peter is to be dropped from BBC1 as part of wide-ranging shakeup that will see all the BBC's children's programmes moved from its flagship channel after more than 60 years.
The corporation will move all children's programming to digital channels CBBC and CBeebies, as part of wide-ranging plans to cut hundreds of millions of pounds from its budget by 2017 and rejig its output for the post-analogue broadcasting era.
Blue Peter is currently presented by Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood, and airs on BBC1 on Friday afternoons, as well as CBBC. Last Friday, Blue Peter attracted 300,000 viewers and a 3% audience share, and struggles to win viewers who tune into programming aimed at adults.
On Wednesday, the BBC Trust gave the green light to director general Mark Thompson's Delivering Quality First proposals, including the children's programming switch. The DQF cuts will also see fewer entertainment shows, more repeats and reduced programming budgets for BBC3 and BBC4.
The BBC Trust said that viewing of children's programming on BBC1 and BBC2 was low and had fallen significantly over recent years.
As a result, following the completion of digital switchover later this year all children's shows will transfer to CBBC and CBeebies, which the BBC Trust said would affect a very low number of children viewers. Following switchover, CBBC and CBeebies will be available to all UK households.
The BBC Trust said that the level of investment in children's programming would be maintained, meaning that the proportion of the licence fee spent on children's output would actually increase.
"Children's output remains a cornerstone of the BBC's public service offering and one of the BBC's foremost editorial priorities," said the BBC Trust.
A BBC Trust spokeswoman added: "Children's programmes are absolutely fundamental to the BBC and that is why we have protected investment in them in the light of cuts elsewhere.
"Only a very small percentage of children still solely watch these programmes on BBC1 and BBC2 alone, so moving them to digital channels is merely following current viewing patterns and reflects the fact that CBeebies and CBBC will be universally available from the end of this year. We have asked the executive to ensure the changes are prominently publicised well in advance."
BBC1 and BBC2 currently have a shared requirement to show 1,500 hours of children's programming a year.
Digital switchover is due to be completed on 24 October, when analogue broadcasting ends in the final region to go through the process, Northern Ireland.
The BBC began broadcasting kids' programming on its TV service before the second world war, with the For the Children strand.
For the Children returned to the BBC's then only TV channel after the war in 1946 as a weekly strand and subsequently kids' programmes became an established featured of BBC1's weekday afternoon schedule, with Blue Peter launching in 1958.
BBC2 also broadcast children's programmes from its launch in 1964, with one of its earliest shows being pre-school format Play School, which transferred to BBC1 in 1983 and ran until 1988.
BBC1's weekday afternoon children's programming was rebranded Children's BBC – later shortened to CBBC – in September 1985, with Phillip Schofield presenting from the tiny "broom cupboard" continuity announcer's studio. Other occupants of the "broom cupboard" over the years included Andi Peters, Zoe Ball, Gordon the Gopher and Edd the Duck.
BBC1 and BBC2
On other changes to BBC1 and BBC2, the BBC Trust said the two main channels would be largely protected from making significant cuts to the scope of their peak time content and output, with changes targeting less valued parts of the schedule.
BBC1 would see a small reduction in peak-time entertainment shows and the number of repeats aired in peak time would rise.
"Under this plan they will remain below 10% which we believe is an acceptable level," said the BBC Trust.
In addition, BBC1 would stop broadcasting mid-morning and 3pm news summaries and see a small reduction in the number of new programmes broadcast after the 10pm news.
BBC1 is also reducing the minimum hours of arts and music from 45 to 40, achieved through cutting episodes of shows in particular Film 2013.
BBC2 would make slightly fewer entertainment, panel and chat shows and would continue to show international news and current affairs at lunchtime and repeats of factual programmes from the corporation's archive and some live sport.
BBC2's minimum hours of arts and music will be dropped from 200 to 150, first run factual programming hours will be cut from 520 to 375.
BBC3 and BBC4
The BBC Trust said that BBC3 and BBC4 would remain valuable but would suffer budget cuts and would support the flagship channels with more co-ordinated commissioning and scheduling.
BBC3 would reduce drama, music and entertainment programming and focus on appealing to younger audiences.
BBC4 would cut investment in UK original drama and some specialist factual output, the funding for which would move to BBC2, and take a clearer lead role in arts and cultural output.
BBC3's minimum hours of arts and music changed from 35 to 30, first run factual programming cut from 125 to 100.
BBC4's minimum hours of arts and music increased from 100 to 150, factual programming is to be dropped from 110 to 60.
Sport
The BBC is also cutting back its sports right budget by 15%, with the BBC Trust noting that a good deal of this target had already been achieved through its shared broadcast deal with BSkyB for Formula One.
The BBC Trust has given guidance on how the sport rights budget should be spent telling the corporation to prioritise events that have the "greatest national resonance" and provide airtime for minority sports.
BBC News
BBC News will see about 800 job cuts and as well as cuts in the BBC1 bulletins, a reduction in party conference coverage and fewer features and special reports on the BBC News Channel.
There will also be a "small reduction" in lighter current affairs output and the "targeted reinvestment in investigative resources for Panorama".
BBC News channel will also not have to broadcast business and personal finance each hour and there will no longer be co-presenters at the scene of a "breaking major international story".
BBC radio
Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra will share news bulletins, outside of breakfast programmes, and will simulcast between 2am and 4am.
Radio 1 will also replace regional late night shows with a single UK-wide programme, a proposal that was strongly opposed by the public and a number of established musicians with more than 7,000 signatories in Scotland, 6,400 in Northern Ireland and 556 in Wales.
However, the BBC Trust remained unbowed and said the current schedule represents "poor value for money".
Radio 2 will reduce live music broadcasts, to be replaced by more repeats of shows like Friday Night is Music Night, and the amount of comedy programming. Radio 6Music will share some news output with Radio 2.
Radio 3 will have about 25% fewer live and specially recorded lunchtime concerts, fewer orchestral concerts in the evening, which will be replaced with chamber and instrumental concerts, and less contemporary music for Hear and Now.
Overall the number of specially recorded Radio 3 performances will be reduced from 500 to 400 annually, while new drama productions will be cut from 35 to 25 a year.
Radio 4 will have a "limited" change to programming with a 2% increase in the number of repeats and a small reduction in factual and current affairs budgets. Radio 4 Extra will see a 30% reduction in originated programmes.
Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra have been tasked with reducing costs for overnight programming and sports presentation, ending some Sunday programmes including comedy in the morning.
The BBC had planned to drop a one-hour weekly current affairs show on Radio 5 Live, however the BBC Trust overturned this proposal and the programme has been moved to a more prominent slot to boost the audience.
The Asian Network has been saved from closure, however it will no longer broadcast between midnight and 6am. There will be a £1.7m cut to its annual content budget, about 18%; the amount of music will rise from 50% to 60% of output, although this will be split 50/50 during daytime; there will be reductions in sports coverage, drama and bespoke documentaries.
The BBC Trust said that it agrees "in principle" with plans to reduce medium wave transmission for local radio where there is duplicate FM coverage. However, the BBC Trust has told the corporation to do more work to establish costs and impact across the UK before it makes a decision.
HD and red button
The BBC HD channel is to be shut in order to allow a simulcast HD channel for BBC2 to be launched, along with BBC1 HD channels for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The BBC Red Button interactive service has "substantial costs" and as a result the number of video streams on satellite and cable TV will be cut from nine to just one. The news multi-screen service will be shut.
"It is a new experience for the BBC to see its income fall significantly in real terms," said the BBC Trust. "We understand this has been a difficult process for staff and that some licence fee payers will be disappointed by some of the particular choices we have taken as they become apparent on air."
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
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Mark Sweney
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13:25
AUDIO: Could you be a Facebook 'addict'?
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

The BBC's Gareth Mitchell discusses whether it is possible to be addicted to social networks like Facebook with psychologist Dr Cecilie Andreassen.

13:25
Anders Behring Breivik trial: survivors tell of hiding under bodies
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Oslo court hears testimony from three who escaped gunman in Utøya massacre by lying motionless among dead and dying
Three survivors of Anders Behring Breivik's Utøya island massacre have described how they clung on to life in a room filled with death.
Seven teenagers were killed in the Little Hall of the island's cafe on 22 July last year. Ingvild Leren Stensrud survived only because another girl, Ronja Søttar Johansen, fell on top of her.
Stensrud had been shot twice in the knee and shoulder. As the life ebbed out of Johansen, Stensrud played dead underneath her, trying not to breathe.
"I was lying with my eyes closed, motionless. Then he hit me in the shoulder," she told Oslo's criminal court. There was silence and she thought he had gone – until she heard a terrible sound. "He was reloading."
Whether Breivik believed she was dead or whether he got distracted is unclear. But he finally left the room. Lying there, she heard cries outside which she thought belonged to Breivik's accomplices. "I thought I could hear war cries or battle cries or celebratory shouts," she said.
She couldn't make out the words and thought they were speaking a foreign language. It was only later she realised she was hearing the terrified screams of her friends trying to escape.
Also lying on the floor of that bloody room was a boy, now 18, who does not want to be identified. Breivik shot him in the foot. Right next to him was the body of his friend, Bendik Rosnæs Ellingsen. He was dying: Breivik had shot him eight times in the head and face. The witness said he had one overriding memory: "What I remember best was opening my eyes and feeling the rush of blood from Bendik."
He lay there quietly until help eventually arrived. "I lay there with all the people, the blood. It was like a pool of blood that I lay right in the middle of. Blood is warm in the beginning but it turns icy cold after a while, so I was really cold."
His mind was full: "I was thinking what consequences this would have to the nation, to us, to my life. You have a lot of philosophical thoughts in a situation like that."
He ran through in his mind images of the man who had shot him: "I noticed, though I didn't look at him too much, I noticed that he was white and dressed in black. So I quickly associated him with something rightwing extremist. That turned out later to be true. All traitors from before the war until today have been rightwing extremists."
At this point in proceedings, Breivik smiled. Until then, he had stared straight ahead, occasionally fiddling with his pen; never showing any emotion.
The 18-year-old remembered talking to Stensrud and them both trying to keep another boy awake, Glenn Martin Waldenstrøm, now 20.
The anonymous witness felt sure he was watching Waldenstrøm die.
"I was pretty certain that he would bleed to death before we could get any help. The way I remember it, he was bleeding so badly. We tried to keep contact with him but he could barely speak."
But Waldenstrøm survived to give evidence on Wednesday. It was immediately clear that he has yet to recover from the physical and mental injuries Breivik caused him that day. He has a scar in the middle of his neck, where a bullet entered, passing through the palate of his mouth and out just under one of his eyes.
His vision is severely impaired – one eye has just 10% vision left and the other struggles to compensate. But Waldenstrøm did not want to face Breivik in the courtroom. His lawyer made an application for Breivik to watch proceedings from a side room. He agreed.
When Waldenstrøm woke up from a coma two days after the attacks, his first thoughts were of guilt. "The first thing I said was I apologised for not saving Silje," he said, referring to his friend Silje Merete Fjellbu, whom he tried and failed to protect from Breivik's bullets.
He remembered the strange expression on Breivik's face. "It was a mixture of joy and anger. His face was distorted in a way. His forehead looked angry but his mouth was smiling," he said.
On Tuesday, another survivor of the Little Room massacre was defiant in the face of the atrocity. "We are stronger than ever," Ina Rangønes Libak told the court.
On Monday, another girl who swam to safety said she triumphed over Breivik: "We won. He lost. Norwegian youth can swim."
And though Waldenstrøm still suffers the effects of the attack – "I have been terribly frightened sometimes," he said – he allowed himself to feel triumphant. He had read Breivik's witness statement, he told the court, and noted his account of the Little Room massacre. Breivik referred to seeing a boy bleeding heavily from the neck, dead or dying. "I felt that had to be me and I felt a great sense of victory," said Waldenstrøm. "I felt, yes, I tricked him. I was able to fool him."
Helen Pidd
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12:57
"Inadequate" ICO hit by Anonymous
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

A group working under the banner of Anonymous has succeeded in bringing down the ICO's website with a suspected DDoS attack.

The privacy watchdog's site was down for all of yesterday after a group identifying with the collective dealt its blow.

According to a Tumblr page, the team - calling itself Anon A Team - targeted the privacy watchdog because they believed it lacked independence and had repeatedly failed "to protect the public’s privacy from hacking or data protection breaches."

It also claimed that the law protecting privacy was "inadequate and with disproportionate measures in relation to political protests but none for the civil service or media," as well as a systematic bias in the way the press reports public interest stories - as a consequence of its failure to give sufficient weight to certain stories.

"There is zero commitment by all our regulators to protect UK citizens from data protection breaches," it continued.

The group described the Leveson inquiry as a "farce".

The sentiments were echoed in an interview at TechWeek Europe, where someone claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous said the watchdog was not "equipped, nor have the motivation to ensure that we are protected".

The attack was met with mixed feelings by the security industry with many refusing to comment.

However, one security professional did speak with TechEye under anonymity. "Hackers are far cleverer than heads of states, government bodies and companies," the source said. "No matter how much security is in place, if Anonymous wants to take you down, it will.

"Do I agree with this attack? They do have a point about privacy," the source said.

The ICO itself refused to speak beyond issuing a generic statement:

“Access to the ICO website has been disrupted over the past few days. We believe this is due to a distributed denial of service attack. The website itself has not been damaged, but people have been unable to access it. We provide a public facing website which contains no sensitive information.

“We regret this disruption to our service; however we are pleased that our website is now available.”

12:42
Sexting threat comes from peers
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

A report commissioned by the NSPCC suggests that children are coming under pressure from friends to post explicit pictures

12:21
Deal Professor: China Flexes Its Regulatory Muscle, Catching Google in Its Grip
» ‎ NYT > Technology

China is having the final word on Google’s biggest and perhaps most strategic deal to date — its proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the American handset maker and communications company.

12:19
Google patents Project Glass design
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Search giant Google patents the design of its augmented reality glasses, known as Project Glass.

12:14
Patent Dispute Holds Up Sales of 2 HTC Phones in U.S.
» ‎ NYT > Technology

Apple scored a narrow victory against HTC in a patent lawsuit in December over the technology used in the devices.

10:45
Walter Wink
» ‎ Greenbelt Blog

When Walter Wink died last Thursday (10 May, 2012), Greenbelt lost one of its most powerful and prophetic theological influences. Below, just two of those involved in the festival in the past who had the privilege of hearing and working with Walter remember him and celebrate his legacy. There will be hundreds more with similar stories to tell.
Garth Hewitt (founder of Amos Trust)
I was sad to hear the news of Walter Wink’s death. I felt that it was a great privilege that we had him several times at Greenbelt. I was strongly influenced by hearing his talks and by reading his books such as “Naming the Powers”, “Unmasking the Powers” and “Engaging the Powers”. I read books of his on no- violence and transforming Bible study – and many will have been very helpfully influenced by his book on “Homosexuality and the Christian Faith.” For me I heard him at the right time and I began to understand the incredible significance of a gospel of non-violence that rejects the myth of redemptive violence and that speaks truth to the powers. Many others will have been equally moved by him.

Strangely, one of the moments that had the deepest impact on me was when I wandered into the back of a seminar and it was a question time and somebody asked him about a passage in St Matthew’s gospel and he replied: “Yes, I think Matthew was wrong on this.” It was one of those enlightening moments when I thought, “We can say that?!” It opened me up to a far more creative and liberating view of the Bible. It’s a moment for which I am very grateful.
Martin Evans (former Greenbelt festival manager)
The importance of Walter Wink’s ‘The Powers’ trilogy cannot be underestimated. It has made an immense contribution to our understanding of our relationships with each other, with institutions and with God. But remember Walter most as a human being. Walter was warm, funny, and totally and utterly – in a gentle, twinkling way – challenging. His unique contribution was a deep understanding of the interface between theology and the psyche. The Powers trilogy will play an important role in understanding the human condition for a long time to come, and he will be greatly missed.

For me, being a part of the Greenbelt family has been such a privilege. You get to meet, listen to and share with, the most extraordinary and thrilling bunch of people, who possess deep humanity and fantastic ideas. Walter was one of this bunch. He will be remembered with love, warmth and continuing excitement – because of his ideas and his humanity. Our prayers and thoughts are with June, his wife.

10:35
ASA barks at TalkTalk
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

TalkTalk has been investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after a customer complained about how the company advertised its broadband speeds.

The customer approached the watchdog after viewing a speed checking service on TalkTalk's site. After he entered his postcode, he was told: "Your estimated speed 3.8 Meg Your estimated speed range is between 2.1 and 5.3meg ...".

He challenged whether the ad was misleading, because he was a TalkTalk customer and had been informed that the maximum speed available to him was less than 2.1 Mbit/s.

TalkTalk claimed that it was compliant with the Ofcom Voluntary Code of Practice on broadband speeds, which stated that internet service providers must "provide a facility (line checker) on their website so that consumers can find out, in a clear and easily accessible manner, what their estimated access line speed is".

It added that given the material differences between the network measured access line speed and the throughput speeds consumers were likely to receive, the Code of Practice also required that ISPs explain that the actual throughput speed received would be influenced by a number of factors.

TalkTalk said it provided people with a link on its site that explained how it estimated speed. It also claimed that the speed checker results were based on the methodology set out in the Code of Practice, which was based on the standard distribution of access line speeds shown across their network but limited to between the 20th and 80th percentiles.

It said it had ensured it gave consumers a clear picture with its speed checker, which "was qualified, with the prominent statement that the speed was an estimated one as well as the text "Your estimated speed range is ...", for that reason."

However, it did admit that it could implement changes to improve the consumer experience in relation to the speed checker.

The ASA said TalkTalk didn't go far enough to explain these speeds and differences - and that the ad was misleading.

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form and also told TalkTalk it must ensure its speed checker results were more clearly qualified in the future.

It also told the company to ensure it was in a position to provide evidence to substantiate the impression that was likely to be taken from its future advertising.
10:21
Apple's Siri fixed to lie about 'best phone ever'
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

While Apple is unreasonably slow in issuing security patches which imprison its users into botnets, it has been jolly quick at saving itself from an embarrassing fault in Siri.

Last week it was discovered that if you asked Siri what the best phone ever is, it would tell you that it was the Nokia Lumia 900.

Siri was taking information from Wolfram Alpha, which had determined that the Lumia 900 was the best smartphone by looking at customer reviews.

Now, it is nothing but the truth and the sort of thing that Apple users need to be continuously reminded of. But it was a bit of an own goal for the cargo cult which has made a name for itself by peddling sizzle and not steak.

Apple rushed to fix "the problem" and if you ask Siri what the best phone is in the world it will confirm your previous programming that you have not wasted money on your iPhone.

Asking Siri what the best smartphone is results in such answers as: "You're holding it" and "Wait... there are other phones?"

It seems that Apple has decided that rather than present information about technology in a fair and balanced way, it is simply going to use it to fling advertising at you. It is to be expected, but still.

As you might expect, Nokia was furious. A spokesperson said that Apple claimed Siri was an intelligent system that's there to help. If Apple does not like the answer they override the software.
10:05
'G20 geek' found not guilty
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

The insecurity expert who was arrested for allegedly plotting to bomb the 2010 summit of world leaders in downtown Toronto has walked free from court after two years behind bars.

Byron Sonne, the so-called "G20 geek", lost his marriage when his wife Kristen Peterson ended the couple's eight-year marriage while Sonne was in jail.

Sonne is a hacker who was a big name in the cyber security industry. He was arrested on June 22, 2010, as the first high-profile detention of the chaotic G20 weekend.

According to the Star, he was charged with mischief, weapons possession and intimidating justice officials. But by the time the case reached trial, most of the charges were dropped.

It turned out that the weapon was a potato cannon and the other charges were chucked out.

Sonne was left with four counts of possessing explosive materials and one count of "counseling the commission of mischief."

According to the prosecution, Sonne had all the necessary ingredients to build a homemade bomb and was encouraging people, through social media, to disrupt the G20.

He had not assembled any explosive devices and police found neither bomb-making plans nor a detonator.

The prosecution claimed that since he had all the ingredients to build a bomb and was criticising the G20 through his Twitter and Flickr accounts he must have been planning to kill people.

Sonne admitted to having materials that could be made into an explosive, but said he hadn't combined them and hadn't intended to.

Justice Nancy Spies said that the Crown could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Sonne was guilty of any offence.

Out of all those arrested during the G20, Sonne was the least likely to be a terrorist.

The potentially explosive chemicals he possessed had household uses and others were part of his model rocketry hobby.

Sonne said he had published photos of the $9.4 million security fence, surveillance cameras and pictures of police officers.

Some of his headlines would not have endeared him to the police. They included disparaging headlines such as "bacon on wheels" and "stationary bacon".

But that is not a reason to arrest someone for being a terrorist - and opposing bail for two years.

Sonne said that his job was testing the vulnerabilities in online security systems and he could see flaws in the G20's security.

Other evidence suggested that Sonne was intentionally provoking police to test the limits of civil liberties.

10:01
Inspiring stories of growth
» ‎ Latest News

New initiatives are springing up all over the diocese as parishes engage with ‘Releasing the Energy’ and roll out their growth plans.

9:45
Canada shelves C-30 cyber snooping law
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

The Canadian internet surveillance legislation, Bill C-30, is as dead in the water as a freshly clubbed harp seal.

The bill, which was sponsored by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, aimed to force ISPs to hand over any data that police wanted.

It was famous for Toews telling the world and its dog that if they did not back it, they supported child pornographers.

Federal and provincial privacy commissioners strongly objected to the bill as an unjustified violation of privacy rights.

It appears that it was Toews' child pornographers comment which killed the bill as it showed the law to be just pretty nasty and silly.

According to the Globe and Mail, the government backed down, declaring the bill needed further study, and nothing happened.

House Leader Peter Van Loan decided to send C-30 to the public safety committee first, where it is supposed to be extensively revised, before returning to the House for a second and third reading.

But before it can do that, it has to be debated for at least five hours and that requires it to be booked in for a day's shouting. So far it has not turned up on the booking list.

The Conservatives could send C-30 to the public safety committee in the autumn. But it would take months to rewrite the bill, and then weeks to get it through the second and third reading, which is unlikely to happen.

9:37
Diablo III players report game bug
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Blizzard say they are working to fix a 'game breaking' bug in Diablo III as the eagerly anticipated release is hit by more problems.

9:33
HTC suffers another blow
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

Smartphone maker HTC is seeing two of its phones blocked by US Customs.

The Taiwanese company has not been doing very well lately and needs to turn around sales in what used to be its largest market.

Sadly, it looks like Apple is using its narrow victory against HTC in a patent lawsuit in December to keep the company out of the market.

HTC said in a statement that the US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a US Customs review of shipments that is required after an International Trade Commission exclusion order.

The ruling said that HTC phones with the disputed technology would be banned from entering the US from 19 April. What is frustrating for HTC is that the new phones have a work around which does not require Apple's blessing. However, the shipments still require inspection and this has delayed everything.

Some shipments of the One X model had reached the US before the ban date, enabling the model's launch, but further shipments are being delayed.

The EVO 4G LTE, which was supposed to be launched on Friday, will also be delayed.

HTC said it believes it is "in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with customs to secure approval".

Still, it is all pretty bad news for HTC which needs to see things improve fast.

Some analysts are warning that HTC's problems could get worse. It was expected that general exclusion order from the patent infringement referred only to old HTC models, but there are some indications that all models could be at risk.
9:26
American paranoia moves online
» ‎ Tech Eye - Latest technology headlines

The Land of the Free has found a new fear which is fast replacing terrorism and its number one bugbear.

The US is good at collective fear. It was founded by those who feared Catholics, whipped up by a fear of witches, then a fear of paying tea tax. Later on there was a fear of communists, then terrorists.

Now a security study by Unisys said that more Americans want the presidential candidates to focus on protecting the government and the electrical grid against hackers than fighting terrorist groups.

The good thing about a fear of hackers is that you do not have to suffer from extreme security arrangements at airports.

The Unisys study said that more than 74 percent wanted better protection of government computer systems against hackers and criminals.

Over 73 percent thought it was better to protect the US electric power grid, water utilities and transportation systems against computer or terrorist attacks.

The survey, based off a random phone survey of 1,000 households in America, asked: "How important is it for a candidate to emphasise the following issues in the upcoming 2012 presidential election?" - along with a set of questions about how worried Americans were about other security threats, such as identity theft and online fraud.

Unisys did not mention how may Americans wanted to see US presidents deal with witchcraft and Catholics, so we guess the Land of the Free has evolved a bit.

9:06
HTC shares dip on shipment delay
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Shares of Taiwan's HTC fall after US customs officials hold up shipments of its new smartphones over a patent dispute.
8:13
Sorkin to write Steve Jobs biopic
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is to write the script for Sony Pictures' upcoming biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
7:00
Milestone for wi-fi with 'T-rays'
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Researchers smash a record for wireless data transmission in the terahertz band, an uncharted part of the electro-magnetic spectrum.
2:41
Sina swings to loss on expenses
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Sina Corp, China's largest internet portal and media website, posts a loss in the first three months of the year.
0:21
Flipboard integrates audio in app
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Flipboard, the popular social news magazine, starts integrating audio into its app for Apple's hand-held devices.
May 15, 2012
23:01
Power behind the phone: Imagination Technologies
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

The tech firm putting the smart into smartphone

23:00
Grace Dent: Twitter might have turned into a party with 10 million guests, but I'm still loving every minute of it
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed

Welcome, Britain's official 10 millionth Twitter user. Pull up a username, excrete your first techno-brainfart, make yourself comfy. If you're a Twitterland newby this week you'll notice we're mostly doing Joey Barton v Gary Lineker, the saga of Rebekah Brooks, silly Huey Morgan, Cameron's love for Pink Floyd, and that dog on Britain's Got Talent who "dances" for a cunningly hidden ham sandwich. Or perhaps that's just my timeline.
23:00
Joan Smith: Is this really how people should treat their pets?
» ‎ The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed

Dr Johnson was famously sniffy about dogs walking on their hind legs. So I'm not sure he'd have been entranced by Pudsey, the mop-haired pooch whose owner swept up a £500,000 prize at the weekend. Ashleigh Butler, who's 17, has trained her collie-cross to dance on his hind legs, and their barn-storming performance took them to victory in the final of Britain's Got Talent.

21:10
Nvidia aims for fastest computer
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Nvidia unveils a new GPU which it says should help the the US overtake Japan to claim the world's fastest supercomputer.

20:14
François Hollande meets Angela Merkel - full coverage
» ‎ The Guardian World News
France's newly appointed president arrives in Berlin for his first meeting with Germany's chancellor
9.12pm: A couple of key quotes in full now from that first joint Merkel-Hollande press conference.
Hollande, who wants to temper Berlin-led austerity policies with pro-growth measures said he and Merkel both wanted Greece to remain in the euro currency zone and hoped voters there would show they did too in a June 17 election.
"I hope that we can say to the Greeks that Europe is ready to add measures to help growth and support economic activity so that there is a return to growth in Greece," Hollande said.
"On growth, the method that we agreed is putting all ideas and all proposals on the table and seeing what legal means exist to put them into effect."
8.56pm: It wasn't exactly a cordial press conference and seemed a little awkward at times even though Merkel and Hollande tried their best to show they will get on, according to Mathieu von Rohr, Paris bureau chief for Der Spiegal.

Again though, as was so often the case during her political relationship with Hollande's predecessor, Merkel's body language is under close scutiny:
Merkel didn't say anything when Hollande used the dirty word "renegotiation" in front of her. But showed a strange smile/grimace afterwards
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) May 15, 2012
8.50pm: Faisal Islam, economics editor at Channel 4 News, has been tweeting what he took from the press conference:
I got a sense that Hollande and Merkel might give a little back to Greece. No strict reference to "full implementation of memo".
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 15, 2012
Boils down to this: will Merkel/ Hollande give some ground to Greece over the austerity conditionality ahead of June bailout payment? #HoMer
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 15, 2012
8.45pm: And that's it for now. A handshake between the two leaders signals the end of the first joint press conference between the two leaders.
It was a million miles away from anything in the way of political fire-works but, equally, there seemed to have been no attempt to paper over differences.
Hollande emphasised his belief in the need to introduce an impetus for growth within the eurozone while both leaders were completely open about the fact that they disagreed.
8.40pm: A question to the two leaders now on the Greek situation, and whether the new elections will be helpful.
Merkel responds first to another question about what language they used during the discussions this evening.
Everything was talked about in their "native tongues", she says.
As for Greece, she says that the wishes of the people of Greece have to be respected, and the decision to hold elections.
Hollande says he will respect whatever happens with the Greek vote. He also "appreciates" the suffering of the Greek people
As for the conversation earlier with Merkel, he says that they used "the language of intelligence, the will to find solutions".
8.37pm: Hollande is once again emphasising the need for growth creation.
Tomorrow, he says that the new French government will seek advice on how to execute the budget of 2012.
8.34pm: The euro is not just a monetary project but "a political project" too, says Merkel.
European have benefitted from this and will continue to do so, she says, adding that those on the continent have the same values: freedom of speech, liberty and democracy.
"This is also expressed via the single european currency," she says.
8.32pm: Again to the thorny, but ultimately central, question of the Eurozone's fiscal treaty.
Hollande is largely non-committal in answer to a question about what exactly he will be pressing for but repeats that he has told the French people that he wants to renegotiate it.
8.27pm: Hollande says that he wants efforts towards encouraging growth in the Eurozone to be tangible, rather than just words.
A range of options should be on the table, including eurobonds, adds the French President, referencing an instrument which has long been rejected by Angela Merkel as a possible way of bringing the eurozone crisis under control.
8.24pm: Hollande is talking now about the importance of a "balance" in the relationshup between France and Germany.
The two talked about Greece, he adds. Like his Germany counterpart, he says that he wants Greece to remain in the eurozone.
"We have to allow the Greeks to find solutions," says Hollande, adding that he hopes the Greeks will express in the forthcoming June 17 elections their attachment to the eurozone.
8.21pm: We wish to have Greece within the Euro and we know that the majority of the Greek population agree with us, says Merkel.
The two leaders talked about what they could to to help greece in terms of "structure", adds the German chanellor (according to the BBC translator).
8.17pm: The Merkel-Hollande news conference is underway now in Berlin.
Merkel starts by suggesting that the lightning strike on his plane is a good omen for their future relationship.
"We have quite an intensive agenda in terms of European questions," she adds, in what may be the understatement of the week.
8.03pm: While most of the media spotlight is currently on Berlin, it was Greece that was once again centre-stage earlier today.
In case you missed the news, the country is heading back to the polls again after a final round of talks this morning broke up without a deal following the fractured results of its most recent general election.
Amid fears the new election will do the very thing it is supposed to stop, hasten the country's economic collapse and exit from the eurozone, the Guardian's Helena Smith has filed a report from Athens:
After a week of political high drama after inconclusive elections, feuding party chiefs acknowledged their inability to form a unity government on Tuesday, with several blaming Alexis Tsipras, whose Left Coalition party has taken Greece by storm.
"Unfortunately the country is being led again to elections … under very bad conditions," said the socialist Pasok leader, Evangelos Venizelos, after the breakdown of the last-ditch negotiations at Athens' presidential palace. "For God's sake let's move towards something better, not something worse."
Across Europe there is no illusion that the poll, expected to take place on 10 or 17 June, is a referendum on whether the near insolvent country – kept afloat by EU and IMF rescue loans – stays in the eurozone.
Within hours of the election being announced, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, summed up the predicament Greece now faced. "If Greece – and this is the will of the great majority – wants to stay in the euro, then they have to accept the conditions," he told reporters at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels.
"Otherwise, it isn't possible. No responsible candidate can hide that from the electorate."
7.57pm: Back to the issue of the Merkel-Hollande body language. Here's the take of Kate Connolly, Berlin-based foreign correspondent for the Guardian and Observer:
#Merllande cordial but awkward. #Merkel had to steer him back onto red carpet when he stepped across her path. Sign of things to come?
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) May 15, 2012
7.52pm: While we're waiting for the press conference to get underway, Reuters has filed an interesting profile of France's new prime minister, a German speaker whose familiarity with the corridors of power in Berlin may prove invaluable as Paris seeks to temper Germany's austerity drive in Europe.
The stately, silver-haired Jean-Marc Ayrault, a former German teacher and long-time ally of president-elect Francois Hollande - has made pragmatism his hallmark in holding together the Socialists' fractious parliamentary group as its floor leader since 1997.
With his understanding of Germany's language and culture, the conciliatory Ayrault could be a bridge-builder with Berlin after a bruising presidential election race in France that focused on Hollande's demands to renegotiate a German-inspired budget discipline pact for Europe.
At home, his new government will also face the difficult task of selling inevitable deficit-cutting measures to a public weary of unemployment running at nearly 10 percent.
"This is the outcome of a long fight alongside Francois Hollande for the 15 years we have known each other," Ayrault said, adding that despite his reputation for shyness he was not afraid to admit he was moved by the appointment.
"I am aware of the difficulty of the task, the mission which awaits me."
7.34pm: The Merkel-Hollande talks come as an unexpectedly strong recent economic performance by Germany helped compensate for weaker output in Greece, Italy and Spain.
Figures released in European capitals today underlined the two-speed nature of the 17-nation single currency area, even though the 0.5% expansion in Europe's biggest economy helped to compensate for weaker output in Greece, Italy and Spain.
But analysts warned that any respite could be short-lived, with the latest flare-up in Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis likely to damage growth prospects for the rest of the year, reports Larry Elliott, the Guardian's economics editor:
Figures released in European capitals on Tuesday showed that Germany – which accounts for 27% of eurozone GDP – bounced back from a 0.2% drop in output in late 2011, while France followed growth of just 0.1% with a quarter of stagnation in early 2012. In the year to the end of March 2012, Germany grew by 1.2% and France by 0.3%.
Other countries to post quarterly growth included Finland (1.3%), Austria (0.2%), Belgium (0.3%) and Slovakia (0.8%).
But tough austerity measures took their toll on Italy, where the 0.8% quarterly drop in output was the third in a row; Spain, which saw activity decline by 0.3% for a second quarter; and Greece, which reported that the economy was 6.2% smaller at the end of the first quarter of 2012 than a year earlier.
The Netherlands also posted a third consecutive quarter of negative growth, with activity down by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012.
Overall, the eurozone economies have shown no growth in the past year, while the 27-nation European Union has seen output increase by just 0.1%.
7.26pm: The Merkel-Hollande press conference is due to get underway in 30 minutes time.
7.17pm: Watchers of this evening's meeting have had their eyes peeled for the first indications of what the body language will be like between the two leaders.
Sarkozy and Merkel eventually developed a friendlier working relationship as they worked to resolve the continent's debt crisis, but the relationship between the two often looked awkward to say
Some slightly worrying signs emerged from the meeting earlier in Berlin however as Mathieu von Rohr, Paris bureau chief for Der Spiegel, tweeted:
Merkel had to push Hollande around on the red carpet because he stood on the wrong side.
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) May 15, 2012
7.07pm: Hollande has been received by Merkel with an honour guard ahead of talks.
The two leaders are scheduled to hold a joint news conference following the meeting and then have dinner together.
6.59pm: The two leaders are expected to hold a press conference this evening following talks which, Hollande has said, is about getting to know each other.
But there will be much more going on besides that, as the Guardian's Europe Editor, Ian Traynor, has explained:
The pressing issue of Greece, for example, as weeks of a power vacuum fuel German exasperation and add to the sense that enough is enough – time for Greece to end its ill-advised sojourn in the single currency.
The Germans and the Greeks have been the opposing poles in the euro crisis for more than two years. Nicolas Sarkozy hitched himself to Merkel and followed the German line.
No one knows yet where Hollande stands, but the signs are he will favour flexibility over German stickling for the rules.
On the broader national and European issues of recession, debt, and fiscal rigour, Hollande has been outspoken and blunt, campaigning as the anti-Sarkozy challenger to Germany's austerity prescriptions. Asked by French TV if he would arrive in Berlin bearing gifts, he replied: "The gift of growth, jobs, and economic activity."
Merkel, by contrast, made clear she saw no reason to shift her position on the European debt dilemmas just because of a weekend election rout for her Christian Democrats.
Hollande goes to Berlin on the first day of his presidency buoyed by a fresh and powerful mandate from the voters of France. Merkel, in office seven years and squaring up for a third term next year, looks diminished by the calamity on Sunday in the big state of North-Rhine Westphalia where her CDU slumped by 8 points to record its worst postwar performance there.
6.47pm: It's the most eagerly awaited dinner date on the international stage for some time, where the debate over growth versus austerity is expected to take centre-stage.
Hours after taking over as France's president, François Hollande has arrived in Berlin for talks on Europe's debt crisis with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
In what many are hoping is not an ill-omen, the Falcon 7X aircraft which he boarded earlier was struck by lightning and had to return to the Villacoublay air base outside Paris as a precaution.
Hollande and his entourage were transferred to another aircraft, a Falcon 900, and took off shortly thereafter.
As the future of the Eurozone hangs in the balance, we're going to bring you full coverage of the first top level meeting between the two current leaders of the Eurozone's Franco-German engine.
Ben Quinn
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20:11
David Davis says case for secret courts based on a 'falsehood'
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Former shadow home secretary says government's argument 'blown out of water' following US leak about British double agent
The government's central argument for the creation of new generation of secret courts has been "blown out of the water" by the leak of highly sensitive British intelligence in the US, according to former shadow home secretary David Davis.
Ministers are stepping up plans to expand secret hearings into civil courts at the behest of MI5 and MI6, amid concerns that the US authorities will cut off the flow of intelligence if details emerge in open court.
But in a Guardian article, Davis calls on ministers to face down the demands after details were leaked in the US about a British double agent instructed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up an aeroplane with a highly sophisticated underpants bomb.
"This argument has been blown out of the water by last week's disclosures, which demonstrate that the American system leaks far more than the British ever could," Davis writes. "This leak happened not in the pursuit of justice but as a casually irresponsible piece of political spin."
Ministers have been under fire from civil liberty groups over plans to allow some material to be concealed from the public, the media and claimants during civil trials. The proposals are a response to the public airing of evidence during litigation brought on behalf of Binyam Mohamed and other former detainees in Guantánamo Bay.
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, raised concerns about the plans in a letter to ministers on the national security council. Clegg said the courts should only be used in exceptional cases where there are national security concerns.
In the Queen's speech last week, the government announced an acceleration of the plans when it said that they would be included in a justice and security bill. The so-called "material procedures" would allow sensitive material to be heard in court in front of approved special advocates.
Davis argues that the arguments in favour of the secret courts are based on a "falsehood" – that intelligence remains secret in the US. He quotes Mark Fallon, the deputy commander of the Guantánamo military interrogation team, who said: "In the US there are no secrets, only delayed disclosure."
Davis writes: "In the coming year, the government, at the behest of the intelligence agencies, is going to ask us to introduce a secret procedure into our civil courts for the first time in our history. It will allow the covering up of crimes – such as complicity in torture – that may have been carried out in our name. It is being justified as a way of protecting secrets from a country that makes a virtue of being even more open than we are, and which as a result lets slip more classified data in a day than our courts do in a decade.
"It is being argued on the assumption that our allies are naive, and are willing to compromise the fundamental values of our justice system in a war that is supposed to be in defence of those very values. None of these arguments stand, and so this proposal should fall."
Nicholas Watt
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
20:10
Rebekah Brooks defiant over charges relating to phone-hacking 'cover-up'
» ‎ The Guardian World News

Former New International CEO expressed anger that those close to her, including her husband, had been 'dragged into the affair'
Rebekah Brooks made a defiant attack on the "weak and unjust" decision by the prosecuting authorities to bring charges against her on Tuesday and dismissed the case against her as an "expensive sideshow and waste of public money".
Speaking outside her solicitor's office in London, the former chief executive of News International said she could not express how angry she was that those close to her had been "unfairly dragged into this".
An emotional and nervous-looking Brooks, 43, spoke out after a momentous day in the phone-hacking affair saw her facing three charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice over allegations that she concealed "material, documents and computers" from detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World and alleged bribes to public officials by journalists at the Sun. Her husband, Charlie Brooks, a racehorse trainer and friend of the prime minister, faces one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by acting with others to "conceal documents, computer and other electronic devices" from detectives.
Speaking alongside his wife, he also condemned the decision as "an attempt to use me and others as scapegoats, the effect of which is to ratchet up the pressure on my wife, who I believe is the subject of a witch-hunt".
The couple were among six individuals – including News International's head of security, Mark Hanna – charged over allegations that they were engaged in a cover-up to hide evidence from police investigating phone hacking at the News of the World.
One of the most high profile figures in the newspaper industry, and a close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, Brooks was charged by police at a police station in Lewisham on Tuesday afternoon.
She had travelled to London with her husband from their home in Oxfordshire to answer bail after their arrest in March.
The couple were made to attend different police stations – Mrs Brooks at Lewisham, and her husband at Hammersmith – to have the charges laid against them.
The decision to bring the first charges in the long-running phone-hacking investigation, Operation Weeting, had been announced earlier by Alison Levitt QC, of the CPS, in a high-profile televised statement, the lawyer said, in the interests of "transparency and accountability".
Brooks, however, condemned the live broadcast as "the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS".
All the alleged offences took place in July last year when the phone-hacking investigation was at its height.
The charge is a serious one which carries a maximum penalty of life, although the average term served in prison is 10 months. Brooks also remains on bail over phone-hacking allegations and allegations over bribes to public officials.
Levitt said the decision to charge six of the seven individuals arrested for conspiring to pervert the course of justice came after prosecutors applied the two-stage test they are required to when making charging decisions.
"I have concluded that in relation to all suspects except the seventh there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction," she said.
"I then considered the second stage of the test and I have concluded that a prosecution is required in the public interest in relation to each of the other six."
Brooks and her husband were arrested in March. Detectives from Operation Weeting then handed their file of evidence on the couple and the other individuals to the CPS on 27 March. The five others arrested were Hanna, Cheryl Carter, Ms Brooks's former personal assistant for 19 years, Paul Edwards, Brooks's chauffeur and employee of News International, and Daryl Jorsling, who provided Brooks with security, supplied by News international.
The seventh suspect – who has not been named – also provided security.
Scotland Yard said later that the seventh man – for whom no charges were laid – had been released with no further action to be taken.
The first charge against Mrs Brooks alleges that between 6 July and 19 July 2011 she conspired with Charlie Brooks, Cheryl Carter, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards, Daryl Jorsling and persons unknown to conceal material from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service.
The second charge, which she faces along with Carter, alleges that between 6 July and 9 July 2011 they conspired together to permanently remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International.
In the third charge she is accused, along with her husband, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards and Daryl Jorsling and persons unknown, of conspiring together between 15 July and 19 July 2011 to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service.
Brooks and her husband revealed they were to be charged some 10 minutes before the CPS live announcement on Tuesdaymorning.
They promised they would make a further statement after attending the police station. They did that shortly after 5pm outside their solicitors, Kingsley Napier, in London.
Looking tired, Brooks said: "Whilst I have always respected the criminal justice system, you have to question whether this decision has been made on a proper impartial assessment of the evidence. Although I understand the need for a thorough investigation, I am baffled by the decision to charge me.
"However, I cannot express my anger enough that those close to me have unfairly been dragged into this.
"As the details of the case emerge people will see today as an expensive sideshow, and a waste of public money as a result of this weak and unjust decision."
Standing next to her, Mr Brooks raised doubts that his wife would get a fair trial.
"There are 172 police officers, about the equivalent of eight murder squads, working on this; so it doesn't surprise me that the pressure is on to prosecute, no matter how weak the cases will be," he said.
"I am confident that the lack of evidence against me will be borne out in court, but I have grave doubts that my wife will ever get a fair trial, given the volume of biased commentary which she has been subject to."
Scotland Yard said all six defendants were released on bail to appear at Westminster magistrates on 13 June.
Sandra Laville Dan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
19:32
Greece faces stark election choice – in or out of the euro
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Collapse of coalition talks plunges eurozone into fresh turmoil as EU policymakers work on plans for post-Greek single currency
Europe is facing a month of political and economic upheaval after the failure of nine days of coalition talks in Greece prompted fears on Tuesday that a fresh election in the crisis-torn country would herald the start of the breakup of the single currency.
In what was being seen in the financial markets as an "in or out" referendum on membership of the 17-nation eurozone, party leaders in Athens called a second poll next month once it became clear that they were unable to piece together a national unity government to manage Greece's biggest crisis in modern times.
Karolos Papoulias, the president of Greece, finally admitted defeat in his attempts to form a government and the date of the new election – either 10 June or 17 June – will be announced on Wednesday.
The collapse of talks sent tremors through financial markets and prompted warnings from Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, that Greece would have to stick to its hardline austerity programme in order to continue to receive the bailout cash needed to pay government salaries and support troubled banks.
Europe's policymakers are now actively working on plans to minimise the fallout from a possible Greek departure from the single currency after an election in which the anti-austerity Syriza party is expected to increase its support. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said she wanted Greece to stay in the euro but said the IMF had to be "technically prepared for anything".
News of the political impasse in Athens put paid to a modest rally in European markets on Tuesday caused by the surprise news that growth of 0.5% in Germany spared the eurozone collectively from the double-dip recession suffered by Britain.Growth in the monetary union area ground to a halt in the first three months of 2012, although the picture would have looked less rosy had statisticians in Europe followed the UK tradition of adjusting data for the extra working day in a leap year.
David Owen, economist at Jefferies, said that in Germany alone the leap-year effect would added 0.4 percentage points to growth over a full year.
Official figures released on Tuesday showed that Italy's economy had shrunk by 1.3% over the past year, Spain had contracted by 0.4% and Greece by 6.2%. The length and depth of the slump in Greece – which has seen a 20% drop in output in the past four years – has led to the growing popularity for parties of left and right opposed to the terms of the €130bn bailout package agreed earlier this year.
No group won enough votes, however, to have a working majority in Athens's 300-seat parliament and parties that backed the terms of the bailout lost support.
The euro fell to its lowest in three and a half years against the pound on the foreign exchanges, while concern that a Greek exit from the single currency would have a domino effect pushed shares in Spain to their lowest in nine years. The interest rates paid by the Italian and Spanish governments for their 10-year borrowing were both above the key 6% level as concerns grew that the eurozone's third and fourth biggest economies might need bailouts from the IMF and the European Union.
A caretaker government will replace the outgoing left-right coalition, led by the technocrat banker Lucas Papademos, as the nation prepares for another round of election campaigning.
Attributing the breakdown to "petty party interests", Evangelos Venizelos, who heads the socialist Pasok, said he hoped the next decision of Greek voters would be more mature. "Unfortunately the country is being led again to elections … under very bad conditions," he said. "The country can find its way again," the politician insisted, before urging citizens to read the minutes of the two-hour-long talks. "Let's choose to go towards the better. In God's name, let it not be worse."
Like its longtime rival New Democracy, Pasok was pummelled in the 6 May election, a ballot that will be remembered for reconfiguring Greece's political map.
Athens is not only dependent on rescue funds from its "troika" of creditors – the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – that rushed to prop up its ailing economy in May 2010. It is also running out of money fast.
With an €18bn cash injection for the banking system put on hold, a senior official in the outgoing government admitted there were concerns over whether Greece could "make it" until the next election.
"It is a real issue," he told the Guardian. "The economy is in very bad shape. "The banks have no money. There is no liquidity. It is vital that this cash injection is released by the EFSF [the EU's emergency rescue fund]."
Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said: "There is now a considerable danger Greece simply runs out of money next month – that it can't pay wages, can't run public transport, can't maintain infrastructure and that the country just descends into complete chaos."
Greece's eurozone partners are likely to spend the next few weeks ratcheting up the pressure on the country's voters to back parties prepared to stick to the spending cuts, wage reductions, tax increases and privatisation included in the austerity programme. But the economist Nouriel Roubini said he expected Syriza, which wants to "tear up the barbaric accord" to emerge victorious, leading eventually to default and exit from the euro.
Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG Index, said: "The reality now is that there will be elections in mid-June, and at present the anti-bailout, leftwing Syriza party is poised to win a majority.
"If it does, it is pledged to abandon most austerity measures, which would result in the halting of bailout payments and likely result in the exit of Greece from the euro. After two years, this event now seems inevitable, barring some major turnaround in the Greek political climate."
Larry ElliottHelena Smith
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19:30
Video Game Review: Max Payne 3 From Rockstar Games
» ‎ NYT > Technology

The newest version of this video game, by Rockstar, is set in Brazil, with the title character working as a bodyguard.The video game Max Payne 3 follows the former cop in his job as a bodyguard in Brazil.

18:51
Doctors 'rewire' hands of paralysed man
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Man, 71, regains some use of hands after surgeons use healthy nerves to bridge damaged area between brain and forearm
A man who was paralysed in a car crash four years ago has regained some use of his hands after doctors rewired the nerves in his arms.
In a pioneering operation, US doctors took healthy nerves from the man and used them to bridge the damaged wiring that stopped signals getting from the man's brain to his hands.
Surgeons at Washington University's school of medicine said the operation may prove to be a breakthrough for some patients paralysed by spinal cord injuries.
The 71-year-old broke his neck in a car crash in 2008 that left him unable to walk. Though he could still move his arms, he had lost the ability to grasp or hold things in either hand.
In the operation surgeons used healthy nerves to bypass the damaged area and connect working nerves above the spinal breakage to those in the anterior interosseous nerve in the forearm that ultimately controls hand movement.
The man received extensive therapy after the operation and began to move the thumb and fingers of his left hand eight months after surgery. He could move the fingers of his right hand 10 months afterwards.
The patient can now feed himself and write to some extent. Though slight, his improvement is nonetheless remarkable, given the severity of the injury and the 22 months that passed before surgery.
"To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of thumb and finger flexor reinnervation after a spinal cord injury. While the results in this patient are usually modest, due to the severe joint stiffness, his function has improved significantly with his ability to feed himself," the team writes in the Journal of Neurosurgery.
"The use of nerve transfers may represent a significant breakthrough toward improved independent function in select patients with cervical spinal cord injuries," the authors said.
Despite their success, doctors said the procedure would never restore normal function to patients. The limited improvement came after the patient learned to use a nerve that normally bends the arm at the elbow to make hand grasping movements.
Mark Bacon, director of research at the charity Spinal Research, told the BBC: "One of the issues with techniques such as this is the permanence of the outcome – once done it is hard to reverse.
"There is an inevitable sacrifice of some healthy function above the injury in order to provide more useful function below. This may be entirely acceptable when we are ultimately talking about providing function that leads to a greater quality of life.
"For the limited number of patients that may benefit from this technique this may be seen as a small price to pay."
The operation is only suitable for those patients who suffered damaged spines at the base of the neck.
When injuries are higher, there are no nerves to tap into to bypass the damage. And if the spinal cord is severed lower down, the patients are unlikely to lose the use of their hands.
Doctors said further research was needed to work out how reliable the procedure was in patients and the best time to perform surgery.
- Medical research
- United States
Ian Sample
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18:11
JP Morgan: justice department opens investigation into $2bn trading losses
» ‎ The Guardian World News
Chief executive Jamie Dimon sees off attempts by shareholders to strip him of his role as chairman – but pressure is mounting
The US justice department opened an investigation into how JP Morgan lost more than $2bn in poorly managed trading at its London office as the bank's embattled boss, Jamie Dimon, saw off attempts by shareholders to strip him of his role as chairman.
The justice department inquiry is at a preliminary stage and as yet there appears to be no evidence of criminal wrongdoing at the bank. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already launched a separate investigation and as political pressure for greater regulation of Wall Street banks begins to mount.
President Barack Obama appeared on the daytime talk show The View on Tuesday to call for Wall Street reform. "JP Morgan is the best, or one of the best managed, banks. You could have a bank that isn't as strong, isn't as profitable making those same bets and we might have had to step in. That's exactly why Wall Street reform's so important," he said.
He said Dimon, the chairman and chief executive officer of JP Morgan, was "one of the smartest bankers we've got – and they still lost $2bn and counting."
At the bank's annual meeting, held at a tightly secured facility seven miles outside Tampa, Florida, shareholders quizzed Dimon on what went wrong. He said the losses "never should have happened" and that "all corrective actions" were being taken.
Forty-one percent of shareholders voted for a proposal by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) to appoint an independent chairman. Dimon also received 94.8% approval from shareholders on his $23m pay package from last year.
Lisa Lindsley, a AFSCME director, said the vote on splitting chairman and CEO was "pretty high" in favour considering most of the votes were in before the losses were announced last week. A similar proposal last year for an independent lead director got only 11.9% of the vote.
"We're not saying he should be fired as CEO," said Lindsley. But the "stakes were too high to continue business as usual," she told shareholders. "An all-powerful CEO is his own boss," she said. "Looking for an infallible CEO is a fool's errand."
After the meeting, Dimon told reporters that the bank was considering whether to claw back bonuses from those responsible for the losses. "We will do the right thing. And that may well include clawbacks," Dimon said. "The buck always stops with me."
On Monday Ina Drew, JP Morgan's chief investment officer, quit. Drew oversaw the London-based bankers at the heart of JP Morgan's losses.
Drew earned over $31m in the past two years, according to regulatory filings. She is expected to be the first of several bankers to leave the bank in the wake of the fiasco.
The scandal has put intense pressure on Dimon, who also sits on the advisory board of the New York Federal Reserve. Shareholders at the meeting questioned Dimon's role at the New York Fed, a position that has recently attracted criticism from US politicians. Dimon said his role is on an "advisory" board and that he isn't allowed to vote on anything.
But having emerged from the credit crisis as the most credible banker on Wall Street, the London trading loss has dented Dimon's reputation, and his role as Wall Street's chief cheerleader against new financial regulations – in particular the Volcker rule that would limit trades like the ones that went wrong in London.
In April, analysts asked Dimon about rumours of problems in London by analysts. At Tuesday's AGM, Father Seamus Finn, who represents Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, told Dimon that he "had heard the same refrain" before.
"Mr Dimon, you showed your disappointment at the mistakes our company has made over robo-signing and sloppy practices that have wreaked havoc on the life of many homeowners. You assured us you would learn from those mistakes," he said.
Finn said: "We heard you describe the latest problem as an 'oversight' … you spoke of red flags. Do you still believe that the company should still self-regulate any trading on their own accounts?
"Are your thoughts on the Volcker rule still evolving? We can't help wondering if you are listening."
Dominic RusheKaren McVeigh
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18:00
The court of Cannes
» ‎ The Guardian World News
It is the most glamorous, prestigious film festival in the world. But who controls Cannes? How do you get past the bouncers? And will Lars Von Trier ever be allowed back? Xan Brooks decodes the Croisette
Sometimes, standing in line outside the Lumière theatre in Cannes, I find myself wondering whatever happened to Liz, the immaculate American executive last seen being hauled over the barricades at the 2008 premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One bouncer had her by the shoulders and another had her by the legs, and she had just time to shout despairingly to her colleagues – "They don't know who I am!" – before she vanished over the side to rejoin the hoi-polloi. Liz may well have been a player back in LA, someone not to be messed with. In Cannes, though, she was a near-criminal: a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong badge around her neck.
Let Liz stand as an example to us all. In breaking the code of Cannes, she entered a notorious hall of shame that also includes director Lars von Trier (declared persona non grata at last year's event, after saying he "understood Hitler" and was "a Nazi") and all those trigger-happy film buffs who this year dared to post the lineup before the official announcement. "It is disgusting to play with such a thing," fumed festival director Thierry Frémaux in the wake of this leak. "There is a code of conduct for Cannes and it must be respected. Those who don't respect the code will never come back to Cannes." The message is clear: obey the code and, yes, you may look upon the face of Indiana Jones. Break it and you will be cast out like Satan.
The Cannes film festival, which opens today, basks in its reputation as the world's pre-eminent movie showcase. It is a crucial launchpad for prestige pictures and a thriving business hub, sustained by a bustling film market behind the theatres. And yet these lofty credentials come burnished – and perhaps buttressed – by a self-aggrandising mystique, the sense that this is less a festival than a kind of high church with its own strict moral framework. Or, as the actor Henry Hopper (son of Dennis) told me: "It's 'Come into our temple. But remember that this is our effing temple, man. You better behave yourself.'"
The critic and film-maker Mark Cousins prefers to view the setup in more regal terms. "France is a republic, obviously," he tells me. "So instead of the pomp and circumstance of a monarchy, it crowns its cultural and intellectual life. Cannes, therefore, has something of the court about it, and its director has the hint of Louis XIV." All the same, he says, there is a religious dimension, too. "The rituals, the grandeur, the deification, the massing of hordes, the climbing the steps like Santiago de Compostela."
Eve Jackson, culture editor at French news site France 24, agrees. She points out that the organisers recently rebuilt the steps outside the Palais (the regally titled conference centre where screenings and press briefings take place). "They made them even steeper," she explains. "This was to give the impression that the guests are ascending to movie heaven."
Over the coming 10 days, there will be no shortage of dignitaries ascending those steps. Proceedings kick off with the premiere of Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, a comedy set in the 1960s about a pair of teenage runaways starring Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Ed Norton and Tilda Swinton. Then it's full-speed ahead to the finish line, with 22 films in the main competition, scores more in the sidebar sections, and hundreds of others consigned to the market out back.
Past glories are embodied by a quartet of former Palme d'Or winners: Michael Haneke, Cristian Mungiu, Abbas Kiarostami and Ken Loach, all of whom have work screening in the main competition. Other potential highlights include Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone, in which Marion Cotillard has her leg chewed off by an orca; and The Hunt, an account of a modern-day witch trial from Festen director Thomas Vinterberg.
Lest this seem too rarefied for certain tastes, be assured that US cinema is out in force. Up for examination is The Paperboy, a sweaty Florida-noir starring John Cusack, Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman. Elsewhere, Reese Witherspoon headlines in coming-of-age drama Mud, while the Brazilian director Walter Salles attempts to bring Jack Kerouac's On the Road to the screen with its freeform magic intact. Perhaps most intriguing of all, we have the premiere of Cosmopolis, based on the Don DeLillo novel, directed by David Cronenberg and starring Twilight posterboy Robert Pattinson as a listless billionaire who takes a chauffeur-driven trip across a Manhattan in meltdown.
Cannes prides itself on offering (or purporting to offer) the best of the best. While thousands of films are submitted for the festival programme, fewer than 2% are deemed good enough to make the final cut. Steven Gaydos, executive editor at Variety magazine, feels it's this exclusivity that marks the event out from such competitors as Berlin, Toronto or Sundance. "Cannes is the highest profile, most important and best-curated festival on the planet," he says. "An industry boss recently told me that to have your film play in any of the sections at Cannes is better than having it play in the top section at any other festival. I have no reason not to believe him."
But is there a downside? Undeniably, all this reverence and exclusivity does breed a kind of snobbery. The result is a byzantine system in which delegates are badged according to rank, selected films are winnowed into various categories, and the rest of the world can go hang. Cannes can be a trial for first-time visitors and a nightmare for those on the fringes. Journalists, for example, are split into five castes, separate and unequal, each with a colour-coded card that allows them into certain screenings ahead of others and through doors few others can enter. The topmost white card, or carte blanche, grants access-all-areas and is reserved for high-status critics (our own Peter Bradshaw among them). At the bottom of the heap are yellow cards, for lowly bloggers, freelance photographers and the like. All this is part of a hierarchy that, in the opinion of Scott Macaulay, editor of Filmmaker magazine, is "as rigid as a fascist state".
France 24's Eve Jackson says: "Every year I have friends say, 'Oh, you're going to Cannes. Maybe I'll come stay for a few days.' And I think, 'Well, yeah, you can. But one, you won't see me because I'll be working. And two, you won't see anything else, either.' If the public has no access to the film festival, that means they can't see the stars, can't attend the parties and can't see the films. And, of course, all of this makes the film world seem more elitist than ever."
Mark Cousins agrees, up to a point. "The downside is international hubris," he says. Even so, given a choice between the "charmed circle" of the Cannes film festival and the market-driven world of the industry at large, he knows which he'd choose. "Commerce, in general, disenchants. And money kills the magic of movie-going. So Cannes' reverence involves a great re-enchantment."
Variety's Stephen Gaydos also balks at the notion that Cannes is becoming too cosy and calcified. If you want to see real calcification, he says, look at the rest of the business: the big studios pumping out "pre-sold, pre-digested" fodder that asks questions of no one. Compared to that, the festival is positively radical, even inclusive. "Everyone thinks of Cannes as a citadel, a fortress on the hill, utterly unchanging," he says. "But what you have to remember is that the festival has to be recreated from the ground up every year. It has to line up sponsors, select films, and liaise with the French government on a national and local level. So Cannes is constantly evolving and renewing itself. It takes a lot of work to stay number one."
It's no surprise to find Cousins and Gaydos so reluctant to condemn the festival. Both are members of what Cannes president Gilles Jacob refers to as "the Cannes family": brought into the fold, they are given free run of the Palais. In this way, all those who attend become part of the pageant: honoured guests at an exclusive party where even those who boo at the end of screenings only add to the merriment, since they are seen to be protesting against the films rather than the festival itself. Let the faithful into heaven and keep the sinners locked outside – be they Liz or Lars or the hapless onlookers out on the Croisette.
Xan Brooks
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17:59
Diablo III game finally launched
» ‎ BBC News - Technology

Fans knock over maker Blizzard's servers as they rush to play the much-awaited sequel to the fantasy action role-playing game.

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