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We've already found water on mars, but finding organic inhabitants on our red neighbor would be the discovery of the ages.
Describing Pakistan as 'the intersection of nuclear weapons and terrorism', a top US Congressional panel has warned that the next terror attack on America is likely to originate in its ally's tribal areas.
The Bank of England is expected to cut interest rates later to their lowest for more than half a century.
Pakistan's president yesterday rebuffed India's key demand that he hand over 20 alleged terrorists, as the US intensified its efforts to ease tensions between the two nuclear powers in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.Speaking from Delhi, the visiting US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, told Pakistan it had a "special responsibility" to help India's investigation into the terrorist attacks. Washington also sent its most senior military official to Islamabad to hammer home the same message.Western powers, led by the US, are trying to stop tensions between the two countries spilling over after last week's attacks in Mumbai, which killed more than 170 people. India and Pakistan have fought three wars and had numerous skirmishes in the past 60 years. India has demanded that Pakistan stop providing sanctuary to 20 people it alleges are linked to violence against it. But Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, yesterday appeared to reject this demand, saying the 20 would be tried in Pakistan if there was evidence to charge them.Zardari's comments are likely to anger India's government, which is under sustained pressure from its people to take strong action in the wake of the attacks.Delhi says all 10 terrorists in Mumbai were Pakistani, and had received training there for a terrorist plot controlled from Pakistan that subjected India to a four-day national nightmare. Zardari told CNN: "If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts and we would sentence them." He said he doubted that the only terrorist captured alive was a Pakistani citizen, as India alleges. "We have not been given any tangible proof that he is definitely a Pakistani."Yesterday Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, arrived in Pakistan. Mullen urged Pakistan to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups in Pakistan" and "take more and more concerted action against militant extremists in the country".Most analysts, though, believe the eight-month-old Zardari presidency has limited room for manoeuvre, even if it wants to help India's investigation. Zardari's civilian government faces pressure from hardline groups not only to resist Indian demands, but over the help provided to the west's war against al-Qaida and Taliban elements in its border region with Afghanistan.But in Delhi, Rice said: "This is the time for everybody to cooperate and do so transparently ... Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency. That message has been delivered to Pakistan."In Mumbai, public confidence in India's authorities suffered another blow after it emerged that bombs lay undiscovered for a week at the city's main rail station attacked by terrorists last Wednesday. Police found explosives hidden in a bag among abandoned luggage.Mumbai terror attacksPakistanIndiaGlobal terrorismUnited Statesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Su Yinyin's family were thrilled when she won a place at university. As impoverished farmers, they knew it promised a comfortable middle-class life and a giant step up the social ladder for their daughter.But now Su, 21, is wondering whether she can reach the next rung. As she looked around the heaving employment fair in Beijing, where 10,000 job-seekers vied for the attention of recruiters, she acknowledged that her parents' pride was increasingly tinged with anxiety. "When I became a student, it was both happy and worrying for my family," she said. "We are not rich. I took loans for university. I just hope I can get a stable job after graduation and repay them."More than 6 million Chinese students left university this year and up to a quarter are still struggling to find work. As the global slowdown bites, students such as Su know it can only get worse."The grim economic situation poses an unprecedented challenge for college graduates to get a proper job," the ministry of education warned yesterday.But the problems predate the crisis and mark both a success and failure on China's part. "The number of graduates increased too quickly - by 2006 there were already five times more than in 1999. The labour market can't take that big an increase in such a short time," said Professor Yang Dongping of the Beijing Institute of Technology, the author of a report on graduate employment.The expansion of higher education reflects China's aspirations: the world's factory needs more skilled workers to move up the chain, away from cheap mass production. Yet there are not yet enough higher-end jobs. Four million graduates in recent years have yet to find their first job, according to officials. However, the true figure is probably higher as the current system relies on reporting by universities, who have a vested interest in showing that graduates can find work.Graduates are now competing with people made redundant. "I've had interviews, but they want people with experience," said Liu Jing, who has been job-hunting for six months. "There are more graduates, so there are more competitors for every post."Like Su, she hails from a farming family; she had hoped to earn 2,000-3,000 yuan (£200-£300) a month to pay off her 20,000 yuan education bill. Now the 21-year-old will settle for 1,000 yuan.Higher expectations are clashing with the deteriorating economic reality.Until 1981, the government assigned jobs, with those who dreamed of becoming engineers sometimes ending up as cooks or clerks. But while their parents took the work they were given, these students grew up in an age of personal choice. They expect fulfilling jobs and good remuneration; few want to leave the big cities or take up underpaid teaching work.Guo Qing, 22, should not have been at the fair at all: he found a design job after graduating this summer. But he admitted he packed it in not long afterwards. "I was very picky when looking for jobs before. I felt this or that didn't fit me. Later I realised it was my problem, psychologically," he said. "Our education was idealistic. But you realise the gulf between realism and idealism once you reach the real world. When you're job hunting you have to be practical."Yang thinks China needs to change, too. "Only 6% of the labour force has higher education, much lower than in most developed countries. There have to be structural problems," he said.Spending per student has slumped by almost two-thirds and most investment has gone into new buildings. Yang said that meant a drop in teaching quality and an explosion in liberal arts courses, while resource-hungry subjects such as engineering have lagged behind.The government is reining back expansion and promising more help with job-hunting. But many of this year's graduates are hoping for more direct support. On Sunday, a record 775,000 applicants sat civil service exams - 130,000 more than last year - for only 13,500 jobs."I didn't think of beating so many candidates," one graduate told the state media. "But I have to - because I've submitted my résumé to about 60 firms and got only 10 replies, and no offers." ? Additional research by Chen ShiChinaInternational education newsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Ever since January 11 2002, when the first 20 prisoners were flown in from Afghanistan in orange jumpsuits and shackles, the Guantánamo Bay detention camp has been a hefty burden around the Bush administration's neck. The defence secretary at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, picked the Cuban enclave as the "least worst place" to hold captives accused of terrorism. But the effort to run a camp outside the reach of US or international law, so that "enemy combatants" could be held indefinitely without charge, steadily corroded America's standing in the world. The images of the inmates languishing in small metal cages in Camp X-Ray, the rudimentary first phase of the complex, and the steady stream of reports of human rights abuses, have taken a daily toll. The camp's existence has angered and embarrassed Washington's closest allies, and become a recruitment tool for its enemies. Nearly six years on, there is no debate over whether "Gitmo" should be closed - only how. As it approaches the end of its term, the Bush administration is anxiously attempting to dispose of its own toxic legacy. John Bellinger, the state department's top lawyer, has been trying to persuade other governments to accept detainees cleared for release. More than 500 have already been sent back to their homelands or to third countries, but there are still 250 prisoners left who cannot go home for fear of persecution and who no one else will accept. They are now Barack Obama's problem.The president-elect has frequently stated his intention to close Guantánamo. In an interview since the election, he repeated that pledge, saying it was "part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world". But the question of what to do with the remaining inmates still divides his ideologically diverse national security and justice teams.Obama's inaugural speech on January 20 will be closely scrutinised around the world for signs of how bold or cautious he decides to be. His policy on Guantánamo will be widely seen as a benchmark for his intentions as president. A report by a non-partisan panel of US security and human rights experts, entitled Closing Guantánamo: From Bumper Sticker to Blueprint, estimates that the camp could be emptied within a year if the Obama administration decided on a clean break from Bush policies and devoted enough resources to the job. The report advocates the establishment of an independent commission to review the cases of all the detainees, to assess the evidence against them and order the immediate release of the innocent.The first task will be to complete the Bush administration's effort to find homes for the 150-200 prisoners who, according to lawyers familiar with their stories, have no case to answer but who cannot be sent back to their native countries for fear they would be victimised, tortured or killed. The clearest example of inmates stuck in this limbo are the 17 Uighurs, separatists from a Muslim minority in China who were seized in Pakistan during the Afghan war. They have all been cleared for release by the US authorities, most as long ago as 2003, but have so far not been accepted by any third countries. Albania agreed to take in five other Uighur detainees in 2006, but has refused to take any more. Bellinger's efforts to find any other government to receive the Uighurs have been undermined by the adamant refusal of the US authorities to allow them to live in America because of the presumed threat they pose to the US, in part because of presumed animosity caused by six years of detention without charge. Obama's envoys may find they have better luck than Bellinger."I don't think anyone is inclined to do this administration any favours, but Obama will find he has a lot of goodwill to draw on," a European diplomat says. But that goodwill will be greatly enhanced if the new administration stops fighting the resettlement of inmates in the US.A second category of prisoners will be referred for prosecution outside Guantánamo, but that raises the question of whether that prosecution should be conducted by military courts martial in the US or the civilian legal system. That will be a decision that goes to the philosophical heart of the issue - should the US approach terrorism as a military threat or as a criminal enterprise, or some hybrid of the two? Obama has refrained from using the phrase "war on terror", but he is said to be under pressure from the more conservative national security experts on his team to leave his options open and not bind himself with the procedural constraints of the civilian judiciary.On the other side of the debate is a "rule of law" camp within the embryonic administration which argues that anything short of a complete return to constitutional normality would rob Obama of the international goodwill he might otherwise gain by scrapping Guantánamo.That debate underlies the toughest dilemma the new administration is likely to face on closing the offshore camp: whether there should be a third category of prisoners, deemed too dangerous to release but too difficult to prosecute. The evidence against them may be in the form of intelligence material that cannot be disclosed in court, or that falls short of legal proof. Confessions would also be ineligible if they were obtained under torture, as in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks who was "waterboarded" (subjected to simulated drowning) by the CIA. And few if any of the inmates of Guantánamo were reminded of their right not to incriminate themselves, which is standard police practice.The Bush administration has been seeking international agreement for a new form of preventative detention that would allow inmates in this third category to be held in the US and abroad. "The problem is you've got 200-plus very dangerous people, and the question is what do you do with them. And these are people who say regularly: 'If I'm let out of here, I will go immediately and start killing Americans again,'" Condoleezza Rice, the outgoing secretary of state, said during a visit to London this week. She argued that "even though you know that this person is a future threat, we don't really have a legal framework for that, which is why it's been done within a war framework. But if you don't hold a person who you know is a future threat, then you risk the deaths of thousands of innocents. So I do think that this is something for the international community to take up."There is little sign, however, that the international community has any appetite for such a departure from established human rights law. The decision on preventative detention will be Obama's alone. Several of his advisers and allies, liberals included, think that terrorism is such a pernicious threat, and the security risks of releasing suspects are so great, that new legislation allowing for preventative detention is unavoidable. The political risk of a released inmate carrying out an attack are also enormous. Such an event could prove crippling to a new administration. On the other hand, any new system of preventative detention would be seen around the world as Guantánamo redux, human rights lawyers say. It would be every bit as effective as an al-Qaida recruiting tool, and would perpetuate the extremists' self-image as warriors rather than mere criminals. Within the internal debate under way in the transition team, liberal activists want foreign governments to lobby Obama against creating a new legal limbo. It is one of the toughest decisions the new president has in his in-tray. What Obama decides will say a lot about his presidency. Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and author of the Closing Guantánamo report, says it is uncertain which way Obama would lean. But she adds: "My sense is the president-elect has taught courses in the constitution in one of the most reputable law schools in country. He ran on opting back into the international system. The idea of going for a new legal regime that will result in more years in litigation is not going to appeal. It will not be the clean break he needs to make."A history of the prison camp? January 11 2002: First prisoners arrive? February 27 2002: First hunger strike begins? April 29 2002: The first prison, Camp X-Ray, closes, replaced by a more solid concrete construction, Camp Delta? November 10 2003: US Supreme Court agrees to hear appeals from inmates that they are being held illegally? February 13 2004: Bush administration agrees to establish review panels to establish whether inmates still pose a threat? March 19 2004: Five British detainees freed? February 16 2006: The UN calls for the closing of Camp Delta, arguing that the treatment of some inmates amounts to torture? June 10 2006: Three inmates hang themselves? June 21 2006: President Bush first expresses the wish to close the camp? September 6 2006: Fourteen "high-value" detainees are transferred from secret CIA prisons around the world to Guantánamo, including Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh, three alleged planners of the 9/11 attacks? June 12 2008: US Supreme Court rules that inmates have the right to challenge their incarceration in the US courtsGuantánamo BayObama White HouseBarack ObamaUS foreign policyUnited StatesHuman rightsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Confirmation that Richard Nixon was a lying, venal, foul-mouthed, paranoid conspirator
The economic crisis has dashed the hopes of six million Chinese students who left university this year
An investigation by the US Congress into weapons of mass destruction published yesterday made a chilling prediction of terrorists mounting an attack using biological or nuclear weapons within the next five years.The six-month inquiry mentioned Pakistan as one of the likeliest sources of such an attack. The target could be the US or some other part of the world.The report, by the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, said "unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013". "Terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon," it said. George Bush said the report highlighted the greatest threat facing the US and was "dangerously real". He said that after the 9/11 attacks he had put in place policies tackling the threat and he was leaving a good foundation for his successor.Barack Obama's incoming administration, which is to prioritise tackling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, was briefed on Capitol Hill yesterday about the findings in the 132-page report.The commission, led by former Democratic senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent, was given six months to complete the report. It followed on from the work of the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks.Graham told reporters that a biological or nuclear attack within the next five years was not inevitable and the commission's reports included a series of recommendations which, if implemented, could diminish the threat. The recommendations included the creation of a White House post focusing on proliferation and more emphasis on diplomatic efforts. The team's remit ranged from lack of security at biological labs in the US to the safety of nuclear stockpiles in Russia. It conducted 250 interviews with scientists, analysts, intelligence agencies and the military.The report concluded that the risk from biological or nuclear weapons was higher than sceptical foreign policy and defence analysts have so far suggested. Those analysts had pointed to the complexity of transporting such weapons and the limitations of a nuclear "dirty" bomb, whose radius of damage is minimal compared with missile-delivered warheads.The report disagreed, saying: "No mission could be timelier. The simple reality is that the risks that confront us today are evolving faster than our multi-layered responses."Many thousands of dedicated people across all agencies of our government are working hard to protect this country, and their efforts have had a positive impact. But the terrorists have been active, too - and in our judgment America's margin of safety is shrinking, not growing." It added that much dangerous biological and nuclear material around the globe was "poorly secured - and thus vulnerable to theft by those who would put these materials to harmful use, or would sell them on the black market to potential terrorists". As well as the threat from stateless militant groups, the commission expressed concern about the danger posed by proliferation of nuclear weapons in countries such as Iran, saying the Obama administration must stop Tehran acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.It pointed to Pakistan, both at state level and among stateless groups, as one of the areas of most concern. "Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan," the report said.Talent told journalists: "It is the epicentre of a lot of these dangers." He said the report had been drawn up before the Mumbai attacks. The commission recommended that Pakistan be top priority for the Obama administration in terms of terrorism and proliferation. Proposals include eliminating terrorist safe havens through military, economic, and diplomatic means, securing nuclear and biological materials in Pakistan, countering and defeating extremist ideology, and constraining a nascent nuclear arms race in Asia. Other recommendations include strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and other international safeguards, creating a US national security force appropriate to the 21st century and developing a more coherent strategy for countering ideologies that lead to terrorism.At home, the commission was disturbed by the apparent lack of security at laboratories dealing with dangerous biological materials.Government investigators sent to check on the vulnerability of such research sites were able gain access to the outside of these buildings and then observe work inside. It was fortunate that they were from the government and not al-Qaida as these were precisely the lethal trove that the terrorists have been seeking for years, the report said. The investigators watched a pedestrian simply stroll into one of the buildings through an unguarded loading bay.The commission recommended tighter oversight of the 400 research facilities and 15,000 staff engaged in such work.Another recommendation was for the establishment of an anthrax preparedness strategy.FindingsThe congressional inquiry:? Predicts there is likely to be an attack on American soil or elsewhere in the world in the next five years by a terrorist group using biological or nuclear weapons? Concludes the margin of safety for the US, in spite of the growth of counter-terrorist efforts, is shrinking, not growing? Singles out Pakistan as one of the main sources of danger, saying all roads involving terrorism and weapons of mass destruction intersect the country? Expresses concern at the lack of security at laboratories in America handling some of the most deadly biological material in the world and called for increased oversight of the 400 research facilities in the US engaged in such workGlobal terrorismAl-QaidaUnited StatesPakistanNuclear issuesUS Congressguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
The Zimbabwe government has greatly increased the amount of money people can withdraw from banks from today in an attempt to quell unrest, including riots and looting by soldiers this week, over a cash shortage caused by hyperinflation. The central bank has raised the withdrawal limit from the equivalent of 18p a day to about £33 a week following protests in which scores of troops angry at waiting in long bank queues targeted shops in th capital, Harare, that will only accept payment in US dollars and black market money changers dealing on the streets. The anger among soldiers and other Zimbabweans is in part because of the difficulty of using the national currency to buy anything but a few locally produced vegetables and bread after the US dollar was made legal tender. The central bank is also issuing new Zimbabwe dollar banknotes today worth Z$50m (£17) and Z$100m to keep pace with inflation officially put at 231,000,000 percent in July but which economists now estimate runs in to the billions.Riot police yesterday arrested trade union leaders and broke up a protest over limits on cash withdrawals. The union leaders were detained as they led a march of a few dozen people to deliver a petition to the central bank demanding an end to the restrictions. The demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks" - many people spend hours queuing each day just to get enough money to cover transport and a few basic foodstuffs.The police yesterday also broke up a protest by doctors and nurses trying to deliver a petition to the health ministry in Harare objecting to the lack of medical supplies and the closure of some large government hospitals. The collapsing health service is grappling with the extra burden of cholera. The UN said yesterday that it had confirmed 565 deaths from cholera among 12,546 reported cases but medical charities say the real toll is at least double. One-third of the deaths were in Harare, where water has been cut off for days because of a lack of chemicals to treat the supply.The government said it will punish troops involved in the protests but some of Robert Mugabe's critics suspect the demonstrations may have been orchestrated to justify a further crackdown on his opponents and possibly the introduction of a state of emergency. The former home affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, who has joined a breakaway faction from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, told the IRIN news service that the protests may not be what they seem. "I do hope the demonstrations by the soldiers are genuine and that it is not a ruse to come up with an excuse to crack down on the people, or even worse," he said. "You can't rule out what they [the government] might do. They have so many problems ... such as cholera and money shortages. They want to rule a country where they have total control over the people."Suspicion is rife because the government has sought to retain the backing of the army by ensuring that banks regularly delivered cash to the barracks. However, the troops still have much to be disgruntled about. The central bank is issuing the new banknotes today as the national currency continues its interminable decline. A new Zimbabwe dollar was launched in August after 10 zeros were wiped off the currency because banks and shops could no longer handle the numbers.But the new dollar has plummeted just as fast, falling from about Z$10 to the pound in early August to Z$3m today for cash. Twenty-seven new currency denominations have been introduced in Zimbabwe this year alone.The government caught up with reality by legalising the use of US dollars and other hard currency in September. Dollars and South African rand were already in use in what amounted to underground supermarkets selling imports. Now the transactions are legal, it is almost impossible to buy anything in Zimbabwe dollars.Zimbabweguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Hopes for the hundreds of thousands of foreign travellers stranded in Thailand were raised yesterday when the first international passenger flights left Bangkok's main airport after anti-government protesters ended their eight-day siege.Within hours of the lifting of the blockade the first passenger service in a week arrived from the resort island of Phuket, and a Thai Airways flight left for Sydney.The end of the standoff - which left travellers frustrated and Thailand's tourist industry hamstrung - resembled a victory parade peppered with hugs and handshakes as the protesters declared they had won.Thousands of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) demonstrators left Suvarnabhumi international airport yesterday morning, a day after a court disbanded the governing party and barred the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, from office for electoral fraud. But as services resumed, the Thai airports' authority said the arrival of the first three international flights would not happen until tomorrow - although the hope was that normal services could resume soon after to take home the estimated 230,000 trapped tourists. As PAD supporters, dressed in yellow as a mark of respect for the king, packed up their tents and bedrolls, government MPs met to choose an interim leader. The rump of the six-party coalition - led by the People Power party - plans to meet on Monday to select a new prime minister. It will be Thailand's third prime minister in three months and may spark fresh tensions.Although the end of the standoff has defused the immediate crisis, demonstrators warned they would return if need be, raising the spectre of further violence in the bitterly divided country. "We will come back when the nation needs us," said Somkiat Pongpaibul, a key PAD member, an alliance of Bangkok's urban monarchist elite pitting itself against the rural poor who voted mainly for the government.There was a carnival mood yesterday as the remaining demonstrators sang and danced to a band on the makeshift stage outside the airport's departure areas. Queues formed before a table set up for PAD's co-founders, Chamlong Srimuang and Sondhi Limthongkul, who signed autographs.The international airport's manager, Serirat Prasutanond, predicted a speedy return to normality after inspecting the terminal. As he spoke, 700 soldiers and specialist bomb squads moved into the airport complex with sniffer dogs to search for explosive devices, while cleaners cleared the rubbish and IT technicians started rebooting systems shut down a week ago.Thailandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Many parts of the UK were forecast yesterday to wake up today to find a thick covering of snow making the daily commute treacherous.A combination of heavy snow and high winds was expected to cause blizzards across most of Scotland, northern England and the north Midlands through last night and into this morning. On higher ground up to 20cm (10 in) of snow was predicted, with deposits of between 2cm and 5cm lower down in populated areas.In the Scottish Highlands temperatures were expected to fall to -10C. Hundreds of traffic accidents have already been reported in Scotland during the cold snap. Wales and parts of the Midlands may also have a dusting of snow, according to Met Office forecasters.Across southern England and south Wales, heavy rain was forecast but it could turn icy in places as it falls on cold ground.Forecasters said driving conditions during the morning rush hour would be difficult, even in the south where heavy rain could turn to ice as a result of falling temperatures.The M74 in Scotland was affected by blizzards yesterday with only one lane open in each direction. About 90 schools in Aberdeenshire were closed or partially closed due to the weather.The Met Office said a weather system had begun moving in from the Atlantic from yesterday afternoon. "That will lead to snow in Northern Ireland, although it will turn back to rain after a couple of hours. The main risk is for falls of snow across the north Midlands, northern England and Scotland," it said.The snow is expected to be accompanied by strong winds of up to 40mph, which means there is a real risk of blizzards and drifting.Parts of Oxfordshire and the northern home counties may also see snow, although it was unlikely to settle as it would turn to rain later.Traffic in the north-west was severely disrupted yesterday when the M62 was closed in both directions following a fatal accident involving a lorry and a car, which killed one person.Thousands of homes in Kelso, Berwickshire, were left without gas, where 3,000 properties were affected during sub-zero conditions. Around 70 households were affected in the village of Ednam. It could take several days to restore the supply, and temperatures would remain below 5C until the end of the week.On Tuesday about 200 schools in the north-west of England were closed because of snow causing poor driving conditions.William Hill have cut the odds of snow on Christmas day to 4/1 in the UK's major cities. If it does snow on the 25th it could cost bookmakers £1m.A spokesman for the firm said: "Make no mistake this is a massive gamble and snow on Christmas day will be a disaster for us."The company is offering considerably longer odds (100/1) that the Thames freezes over between Westminster and Tower bridge.WeatherTransportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
It has been a while since Doon Mackichan was last hung, drawn and quartered for laughing at the suffering of children. There was a week in August 2001 when you couldn't pass a newsstand without seeing her handsome, sparrowhawk face, forehead partially obscured by the word "evil" or "depraved".The Brass Eye paedophile special is now mostly remembered as virtuoso satire, so it's easy to forget what a stink it caused at the time. And it was Mackichan, who played TV presenter Swanchita Haze, who bore the brunt of it. People expected that sort of thing from Chris Morris, but Doon was a woman with - gulp - children of her own. "[Mackichan] had seen herself as a major comedy force in the making," wrote the Mail. "She even dreamt of becoming a film star. But with the Brass Eye disaster as her epitaph, all those plans lie in tatters."Looking back, it's hard to say her career didn't suffer. There were two more seasons of Smack the Pony, the girly Channel 4 sketch show with Sally Phillips and Fiona Allen, but to diminishing returns. There were wifely roles in ropey sitcoms. There was theatre. Then came a two-year break for unhappier reasons (of which more later). And now she's back, in a play that, well, laughs at the suffering of children. Adults, too. Especially those six feet under. Joe Orton's Loot, like Brass Eye, is comedy that sets out to shock. Don't be fooled by its age; although the play was first performed in 1965, Loot has weathered better than, say, a TV parody of late-90s news shows. Death doesn't date as a cultural taboo; likewise religion. Rereading Loot is like having a shower when you hadn't realised the boiler's broken: unexpectedly shocking."Yep, it's full on," says Mackichan, eating a tuna sandwich between rehearsals in London. "There's this one line about a really great brothel run by Pakistanis who pimp out their kids for Mars bars." She smiles: an attractive smile, heavy on the lippy. "I'm like, 'Oh we'll cut that, won't we?' Well, no, we can't, because what about all the other things people might find offensive? Cut them all and you won't have much of a play left."Other lines trouble her. Orton's gleeful description of a sexual assault, complete with tooth-breaking detail. "That specific image is just really horrible. Do you lose a portion of your audience when you leave that in? Do people stop thinking it's a great play? Or as my mum would say, 'Ooh, Orton's so kinky; yes, I love all that.' " Doon plays Fay, an Irish Catholic home nurse and a prolific serial killer (87 in one week alone). She has lately buried her seventh husband and has her eighth in her crosshairs, having just dispatched his wife with a syringe of poison. Loot takes place on the day of the wife's funeral, and charts the power struggle between Fay, Hal (whose mother is being buried), Dennis, Hal's boyfriend, with whom he has robbed a bank and put the money in mum's coffin, and Detective Truscott, the sinister inspector who comes calling. Orton's stage instructions put Kay in her late 20s; other than that Mackichan, 46, is a good fit. She is Celtic, by nurture at least. She grew up in Surrey but moved to Fife with her family when she was nine. She survived the transition, she says, by acting, specialising in "posh bitches". This is something she still does: she is a natural authoritarian, physically pneumatic, temperamentally tough - a few years back she swam the English channel with a team of paratroopers. "Yes, I could kill someone," she says, without thinking too hard about it. "It must be so easy to just nip a needle in, or hold a pillow over an old person's face. The power and the buzz you'd get." She has been boning up on True Crime magazine to further understand her character's homicidal motivation. "But I just can't read the books. There's such an orgasm about they way they're written. 'Women who kill! Viciously!' When it comes to sex and violence, we're an island of obsessives. I mean, how does it help people to know the details of how someone was physically tortured?"Ten years ago, Mackichan got her fingers burned over an Anglican sketch on her Radio 4 show, Doon Your Way, but it hasn't left her any more on-message when it comes to religion. "It's been extraordinary finding out what Catholics actually believe!" she says of the research process. "All the rituals and superstition. The whole voyeurism of talking to someone behind a little screen. The idea that you can think, OK, I'll be a bitch, then on Sunday I'll say, 'Oh, I was a bit of a bitch' and then feel great!"She is not religious herself, "but I don't think I'm in an atheistic universe. I do think there's a higher power". Has she ever prayed? "Oh, I've been down on my knees many times." She pauses and then roars with laughter - it's a genuine, accidental Orton-ism. It turns out that Mackichan has had an extremely tough few years. Her father recently died. She is in the process of getting divorced from her husband, Common As Muck actor Anthony Barclay, with whom she has three children, India, 11, Louis, 10, and Ella-Rose, four. And, three years ago, Louis contracted leukaemia. Much of the past three years has been spent with him in hospital. He is now in remission, but shadows still hollow out her face. She wells up frequently, and there is something frayed behind the raucous laugh and actorly tics. "I do find authority hard to deal with now," she growls, after an assistant gives us a 10-minute warning that she needs to get back to work. "I feel a bit of an anarchist. I don't think I could work for someone who was an arsehole any more." She gulps down some fruit juice. "I can't actually have confrontations with people. It's too much. I'm a single muvva with three kids and a show to do." She laughs but she's dead serious.When things were at their worst, she says, her monopoly on heartache was hard to handle. "People would tut behind me in a supermarket queue and I'd have to go, 'Please, go ahead of me, you've obviously got somewhere to go. I'm just going back to the children's cancer ward.' I once had an actress telling me her hair was falling out because of her new kitchen and I thought, I'm not going to say anything, because this is quite interesting, because I remember how I was before it all." And how was she before it all? "Quite selfish, neurotic. Up my own arse. It's made me very tough. I do think I have endurance beyond the pale." When Louis was well enough, Mackichan took her children with her to Africa to shoot a BBC2 series, Taking the Flak, loosely based on John Simpson's reporting from poverty-stricken, war-ravaged places. After such harrowing experiences, how she can cope with her relatively comfortable existence? "You walk into your house and you go: I'm a millionaire. I'm a princess; I live in a palace. And you think: I don't have a lot of shoes, but I do have too many shoes. You look at yourself and think: Party's over, mate. Time to be useful."And yet she is not an aid worker in Africa. She is in north London, rehearsing a play. "I did think, I can't go back to acting. It's too vain, too ridiculous. I was going to retrain as a play specialist in Louis' cancer ward. But this is what I've done for 20 years. It's what I do." She's right. Mackichan is a natural born thesp, right down to her floaty black blouse and stripy woollen leg-warmers. Slice her in half and you would see "actor" written right through the middle of her. "I have a real mission now to be in work that will be cathartic for people. [Work] that's really honest about just how fucking hard it is to stay afloat."Loot isn't exactly what she had in mind, she admits, but its no-nonsense attitude to tragedy has been cathartic. "My whole life lately has been a bit of a black comedy." She snorts. Might she consider turning it into one? "There's a lot of mileage in a children's cancer-ward comedy. All the opening curtains and waving at people being sick into bowls. You could set it in the tiny coffin-like kitchen where only the adults are allowed. You see these little bald children running past the window. It was like suddenly being in a war."Could she really bear to return there, even imaginatively? "I don't know. They haunt me, those nighttime corridors. The characters, too: the carers and nurses and staff and the petty quarrels. And getting high on Quality Street till 3am. But I would like to." · Loot is at the Tricycle, London NW6, from December 11. Box office: 020-7328 1000.TheatreJoe OrtonTelevisionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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November was a big month for Boris Johnson. Policy initiatives flowed, on transport, on culture, on youth crime; some were still at the consultative stage but all have given shape and substance to a regime initially defined by its haplessness. For months, the Mayor Boris story was one of drift and departing advisers. Now, at last, true political battle can be joined. A year ago, candidate Johnson seemed too posh, too daft and too much of the cartoon right to become London's mayor. Today, his opponents may find him a more elusive target than they'd hoped.There was widespread expectation that the Blond's ambition was to be Ken Livingstone's antithesis. Reality is proving more complex. In keeping with his mandate and spurred by the downturn, Johnson has cut jobs and spending across the Greater London Authority bureaucracies, yet has talked up the virtues of public spending on Crossrail, the Underground and an Olympics legacy. Public transport fares will rise above the rate of inflation in January, but discounts for the poorest will be retained. Most intriguing of all, Johnson's gut economic liberalism is being complemented by his own version of its social counterpart.There is more to this than his broad adherence to David Cameron's "caring Conservatism" agenda. Johnson has gone strikingly further, in supporting the London Living Wage and in commissioning a study into the effects of granting earned amnesties to long-term illegal immigrants.Both moves have had Tory top brass leaping to safe political distances, but they pose a greater threat to Johnson's challengers. There are cases to be made that his housekeeping will hurt the vulnerable most and that his housing policy favours those on middle incomes. But it's harder to depict him as a Thatcherite xenophobe when he's bumping up working-class incomes and lobbying for 400,000 rule-breaking foreigners to be freed from the underground economy.Opponents will have to respond imaginatively to his line on inclusion and opportunity. Though he is wearingly persuaded by the rightwing whine about so-called political correctness, he has acknowledged that the agitation for minority rights Ken Livingstone fostered in the 80s had good reasons for existing.Johnson still often recoils from such stuff. Endorsing Barack Obama in his Telegraph column he wrote that a benefit of the US electing its first black president would be the end of "race-based politics" and the associated "grievance culture". With typical Tory dimness, he seems to imagine that Obama's victory could still have happened had "race-base politics" not prepared the ground.His strategies on culture and equalities are similar in disdaining the identity politics that emerged from those civil rights campaigns. Yet they emphasise widening access and encouraging participation. Johnson's approach highlights important questions. Identity politics are often defensive, a reaction to hostility. In the city London has now become, is such defensiveness necessary? Is targeting grants at minority groups the best way to tackle discrimination, or does it sometimes institutionalise a limiting introversion? If the goal is to break down barriers against full participation in society, what is the best way for the mayor to help achieve it?Johnson is feeling his way towards a formula that works for him, a blend of can-do, moral intervention and an old-fashioned Tory pragmatism that recognises that the capital is the loser if hundreds of thousands of people are marooned in its social margins. At the same time, it seeks to address Johnson's image problem. Yet paradoxically, it's also one that could build on some of the finest achievements of the left. If it does, how will the left respond?? Dave Hill blogs about London at Guardian.co.uk/Dave Hill's blogBoris JohnsonLondonLocal governmentConservativesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Banks rescued by the taxpayer have seized New Star, the troubled fund management group which is to delist from the stock exchange after a radical restructuring.John Duffield, the founder of New Star, is ceding control of up to 95% of the operation to a consortium banks led by HBOS to relieve its £240m debt.Duffield is thought to have been reluctant to agree to the terms of the debt for equity swap which was finally ratified by the New Star board late yesterday afternoon. The fund manager, which took out high profile billboard adverts to attract savers, had been forced find a way to eradicate the debt to address the concerns of major clients who were reluctant to place their money with the firm.Duffield is not expected to remain with the group he founded for much longer after a long City career during which he has developed a reputation as maverick - albeit a successful one.The complex restructuring is expected to leave banks rescued by the government with control over New Star, which Duffield launched after a high-profile row with the owners of his previous venture, Jupiter. The combined Lloyds-HBOS bank in which the taxpayer is likely to own about 40%, will have an estimated 45% stake in New Star and RBS - now 58% owned by the taxpayer - with about 15% in the fund management group. HSBC and National Australia Bank will also have stakes.Yesterday Duffield, 69, was unrepentant about the restructuring which will also hurt his own pocket as he owns around 5% of the company."The cost of this restructuring is regrettably a substantial dilution for ordinary shareholders, including me. However, in current market conditions we have to recognise that there is no option to ensure the stability of the business," Duffield said."We are now free to focus all our attention on improving our investment performance. Our existing share-based bonus scheme will be replaced by a new scheme to ensure that our key people are locked in." Two new share-based incentive schemes are being put in place for New Star staff, many of whom had been lured to work at the group by the promise of lucrative incentive schemes. Until the credit crunch began to bite, the schemes had proved attractive to employees after its flotation at 225p three years ago. The shares reached 450p before collapsing to just 4p which values the company at barely £20m.Staff own about 25% of the company and the debt for equity swap will wipe out all existing shareholders who will have to approve the de-listing of the shares. The company took on the debt to return £363m to shareholders last year before the credit crunch began.Duffield has taken out a total of £150m from the company which had been forced to renegotiate the terms of the loan last month amid client withdrawals. Funds under management are now £13.9bn from a peak of £20bn.New Star had already embarked upon a cost cutting exercise and is losing 60 jobs from its workforce of 380. More posts may now be shed as the banks exert their influence. Directors such as the chief executive Howard Covington may also decide to step aside. The anxiety about the company's debt was heightened after the market mayhem caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Its customers' nerves were further frayed by the suspension of dealing in its high-profile international property fund. The board also blamed its stock market listing for its plight."The board believes that the reporting requirements and public scrutiny that are part of being a listed company have served to magnify these concerns," New Star said.The restructuring involves the banks converting £240m of the £260m they are owed into £94m of preference shares and enough ordinary shares to allow them to own 75% of New Star. The preference shares pay an annual interest and convert into ordinary shares that could ultimately allow the banks to own 95% of the company. While returns for investors in its funds will be affected by the financial turmoil, all investors' money is held in separate trusts and therefore ring-fenced from the fund manager's operations.New Star Asset ManagementUK banking sectorMergers and acquisitionsCredit crunchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
The Bank of England looks likely to slash interest rates by at least another percentage point today after evidence yesterday of the slump in the services sector pointed to a dramatic deterioration in the economy.If the Bank's monetary policy committee cuts rates to 2%, as is widely expected in the City, that would be the lowest rate since late 1951, itself the lowest since the Bank was founded in 1694. If it cuts by more than 1%, as some predict, then rates will be at an all-time low.Yesterday's monthly snapshot of the dominant services sector - which includes businesses from banks to airlines and hairdressers - hit a record low. The poor economic outlook saw the pound fall sharply to its lowest for 13 years against a basket of major currencies. It dropped to below $1.47 and to just above €1.16.The services sector survey's purchasing managers' index, which measures everything from output to orders and jobs, tumbled to 40.1 last month, the lowest since the report began in 1996. As the figure is far below the 50 level that divides expansion from contraction, the survey suggests that the sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, is contracting rapidly.Roy Ayliffe, of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, said: "Purchasing managers in the services sector reported record falls across activity, new business and employment as the economic climate continued to worsen."He said optimism had turned to pessimism for the first time in 12 years of the survey. Financial services, restaurants and hotels were particularly badly hit.Similar surveys of the manufacturing and construction sectors this week also showed record drops. James Knightley, of ING Financial Markets, said: "Given the weakness across all purchasing managers' indices, it looks as though we could see the economy contract by close to 1% in the fourth quarter."The first quarter of 2009 is likely to be similarly weak given the long lead times before the policy stimulus we have seen can take effect ... This will put pressure on the BoE to continue delivering aggressive monetary easing and we expect to see a further 100 basis point [one percentage point] of rate cuts tomorrow. Rates are then expected to fall to 1% early in the new year."Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "This is a desperately worrying survey given the importance of the dominant service sector to the UK economy. The heightened financial sector crisis has obviously taken a particularly heavy toll on the services sector, while the deep housing market downturn and markedly reduced consumer spending on services is also hitting the sector hard."Consumer spending has been hard hit as well. Nationwide said yesterday that its monthly index of consumer confidence fell again and to the lowest since its survey began in 2004. The index reading of 50 for November compares with 56 in October and 83 in November last year.Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "Reports of job cuts have almost certainly impacted on sentiment about the ... employment situation, causing purse strings to tighten further."A similar survey yesterday of the services sector in the eurozone was equally weak, leading analysts to predict another interest rate cut from the European Central Bank today. Eurozone rates are at 3.25% and analysts expect the ECB to cut them to 2.5% or even lower.There was also gloomy news from the US, where a survey of services also hit a record low last month, while other figures showed that private-sector employers slashed an unexpectedly high 250,000 jobs in November. The world's biggest economy was confirmed as being in recession this week and yesterday's data showed things are getting worse.The Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing index came in at 37.3, the worst in the gauge's 11-year history and below October's weak 44.4. It was also much worse than expected.Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York, said: "The severe damage to the service industry is another indication of the extraordinary force of this recession." Every major category in the ISM survey hit a record low, which is particularly bad news for the US, where 80% of the economy is driven by the services sector.There was some good news, as oil prices fell to their lowest level in three and a half years. US light crude futures fell to $46.78 a barrel, their lowest since May 2005 and more than $100 a barrel below the all-time high reached in July. That is likely to lead to further drops in petrol prices at the pump, though for British motorists the effect of lower oil prices is blunted by the drop in the pound's value against the dollar, in which oil is priced.Stephen Schork, an oil analyst, said that the trend in prices was still down. "Just because we are nearly as close to $40 as we are to $50 does not, in and of itself, mean we are near some theoretical bottom."EconomicsInterest ratesBank of EnglandCredit crunchRetail industryCurrenciesManufacturing sectorOil and gas companiesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
England are ready to resume their tour of India after a security report from Chennai alleviated safety concerns. That, coupled with the prospect of similar assurance from Mohali, has convinced the England and Wales Cricket Board that it is safe for the two Test matches to go ahead.With the exception of Ryan Sidebottom, ruled out by a side strain, and Stuart Broad, who is being allowed a few more days to recover from a hamstring injury suffered during the recent abandoned one-day series before flying out to Chennai, it will be a full England squad - including Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison, and reinforced by nine members of the performance squad - that will fly to Abu Dhabi today for a holding camp, where they will practise before moving on to Chennai on Monday. The first of two Tests is scheduled to begin there on December 11.The announcement from Lord's of the intention to resume the tour came after two days of meetings between ECB officials, security advisers and government departments. "The only consideration in all our discussions has been the safety and security of the team and support staff," explained Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket. "We have been delighted by the input of the Professional Cricketers' Association and also the willingness of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to act upon our recommendations regarding security. While we have sought to reassure players that their safety is paramount we have not pressurised any player into making the trip against their will."Those who leave for Abu Dhabi are all anticipating travelling to India if both the head of the PCA, Sean Morris, and I are happy that Reg Dickason's security plans have been activated. The board and players will be kept fully informed."He added: "The PCA and ECB have worked extremely closely on this issue, and the players have been fully supportive throughout. We will access the highest calibre of security advice on a regular basis so that we can provide the players with the latest accurate information. I have been assured by the ECB that they would never compromise the players' safety and security." Sean Morris was due to travel to India last night to meet Dickason and will fly on to the United Arab Emirates to brief the players.England's opening batsman Andrew Strauss said: "We've weighed up the pros and cons of going back on tour and I think we've all come to the conclusion, if the security arrangements are sufficient, we've probably got a duty to the game of cricket to get out there and play these two Test matches if at all possible."The key to the unanimous decision to return was the positive assessment by Dickason, the ECB security expert. Dickason was in Chennai yesterday, inspecting the team hotel, theMA Chidambaram Stadium and the route between the two, and is satisfied with the strong arrangements that will be put in place by the Chennai police under its commissioner, Thiru K Radhakrishnan."We can provide absolute total security," the police chief said yesterday after Dickason had completed his tour. Dickason will now carry out a similar exercise in Mohali, before completing his reports. Yesterday the chief executive of the ECB, David Collier, praised the way the Indian authorities had handled the situation. "Everyone has been highly cooperative and helpful," he said. "Everything that Reg has asked for has been agreed."If it has been viewed as an expensive extravagance to bring the tour party home for such a brief period, then to persuade the Test party in its entirety to return when so much talk was of dissidents is something of a triumph. There had been suggestions from influential figures that several players, possibly Flintoff and Harmison, were intent on staying at home regardless of the outcome of the security report.Meanwhile it was confirmed that West Indies will tour England in the early summer in place of Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka had been pencilled in, but player commitments to the Indian Premier League, given the backing of their cricket board, meant it was no longer a viable option. The tour will feature two Tests, at Lord's and Chester-le-Street, and three ODIs. England in India 2008-09India Cricket TeamEngland Cricket TeamEngland cricket seriesCricketguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
As a tribute to the absence of the Q branch's lab in the last two films, let's step inside Universal Exports and take a look at the 007 best Q gadgets that never made it out of the lab.
Oil prices fall after a barrage of bad economic data heightens fears of protracted global recession and declining demand.