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A ban on the veterinary use of a painkiller in South Asia appears to be preventing vultures from being poisoned there, say researchers.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Shares in Yahoo fall by the most in a year, after Chinese partner Jack Ma takes back online payment system Alipay.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Diamond Jubilee in 2012 will mark 60 years of the Queen’s reign As Queen Elizabeth II enters the history books as Britain’s second longest-reigning monarch, BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell looks at how her 59-year reign compares with those of other long-serving sovereigns.
Last month the Queen celebrated her 85th birthday. Next year she will reach her Diamond Jubilee, when it will be 60 years since she came to the throne.
Elizabeth II has achieved a number of significant milestones as Queen of the United Kingdom, and this week she passes another.
On Thursday 12 May 2011, she becomes the second-longest serving monarch Britain has ever had.
On that day she overtakes the length of the reign of George III, a king remembered largely for the “madness” which overtook him in later years.
George III died in 1820 after a reign lasting 59 years and 96 days.
Now the reign of Elizabeth II (or, for the factually insistent in Scotland, of Elizabeth I, since the crowns of England and Scotland were only brought together in 1603, after the reign of the other female monarch called Elizabeth) is surpassed in length by that of only one other British sovereign.
Who else, of course, but Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years, seven months and three days, and died at the age of 81 in January 1901.
Victoria’s reign witnessed Britain’s rise to become the then-global superpower. There were industrial, cultural and scientific changes on an unprecedented scale and by the time of her death the British Empire encircled the globe.
George III’s reign was also a period of great change for Britain. The American colonies may have been lost during his time on the throne, but the military ambitions of France were decisively defeated at the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo.
George III was also, incidentally, the first king of the entity known as “the United Kingdom” after the union of the crowns of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.
The future Queen Elizabeth waves to the crowds on the day of her father’s coronation in 1937 But neither reign can surely quite match the sheer scope of the changes that have occurred during the reign of the present Queen.
She came to the throne less than seven years after the end of World War II. Britain was victorious but essentially bankrupt. Sir Winston Churchill was prime minister and food was still rationed.
In the years that have followed Britain has shed its empire and seen changes to virtually every significant aspect of national life that could scarcely have been imagined on that February day in 1952 when she was so suddenly propelled onto the throne by the death of her father, George VI.
The one constant presence on the national stage throughout the past six decades has been the Queen. Today, the majority of the British population (to say nothing of the inhabitants of the 15 other “realms” of which she is also sovereign) have known no other head of state.
Back on the Buckingham Palace balcony – this time after her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947 She will never retire. Only at the moment of her death will she cease to be Britain’s Queen. Even if she were to become incapacitated, she would still remain monarch, albeit then with her immediate heir taking over her constitutional duties as Prince Regent (exactly as happened in the final years of the reign of George III).
But there is not the slightest sign that the reign of Elizabeth II is slowing down in any significant way.
Next week she will make an historic first state visit to the Republic of Ireland, the territory that was once part of the British Crown; later this year she will travel once again to another of “her” countries, Australia, for a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government, and next year she will visit different parts of the UK to celebrate her jubilee.
Will she beat Queen Victoria’s record?
If Elizabeth II is still on the throne on 10 September 2015 she will have done so. She will then, metaphorically speaking, be crowned as the longest-serving sovereign in the 1,000 year history of the British monarchy.
Few at the moment could possibly doubt that she will do it.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
An advert showing a blind footballer kicking a cat across a pitch was the most complained about advert in the UK last year.
The Paddy Power advert prompted 1,313 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The total number of complaints received in 2010 was 25,214. Of those, 96% were from members of the public and 4% from the industry. The complaints focused on 13,074 adverts. Both figures are slightly down on last year.
Key grievances were animal cruelty and the sexual nature of some content. Following action by the ASA, 2,226 adverts were changed or withdrawn, it said in its annual report.
Here are the top 10 adverts of 2010, measured by volume of complaints:
1. Paddy Power plc – 1,313 complaints
The television advert opens with a shot of a kit bag marked Blind Wanderers FC and two teams of blindfolded men in the middle of a game. A cat is shown running on to the pitch before a player takes a kick, followed by the sound of a thud and a loud meow.
People complained it was both offensive to blind people and could encourage animal cruelty.
But the ASA said it was surreal and light-hearted in tone. It decided the advert was unlikely to encourage or condone cruelty to animals or cause serious or widespread offence.
Complaints not upheld
2. Marie Stopes International – 1,088 complaints
The abortion advert that has been controversial
This advert offered sexual and reproductive health advice, information and services. It attracted complaints for various reasons, including that it promoted abortion.
The ASA thought it was clear that the advertisers were promoting their post-conception advice service. It ruled that it was neither advocating one course of action over another, nor trivialising the dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy.
In addition to the complaints detailed above, over 3,600 other objections were received, some prior to broadcast and some via petitions.
Complaints not upheld
3. Department of Energy and Climate Change – 939 complaints
This advert showed a young girl being read a bedtime story by her father. As if reading a fairytale, a voice-over tells of the dangers of too much CO2. The story book shows black smoke rising up from an urban scene and forming a cloud of CO2 in the shape of a monster in the sky.
At the end the girl turns to her father and asks: “Is there a happy ending?” The voice-over states: “It’s up to us how the story ends. See what you can do. Search online for Act on CO2.”
People who complained thought the campaign was misleading and scaremongering. The ASA did not agree with the majority of the objections, but did uphold some complaints that claims in some of the press ads exaggerated the likelihood and impact of extreme weather conditions.
Complaints upheld in part
4. Global Personals Ltd – 420 complaints
This billboard poster for maritalaffair.co.uk showed a man’s naked torso with a women’s bra draped over his shoulder, next to the headline “HELLO GIRLS”. It attracted complaints that it implied extra-marital affairs were acceptable and desirable.
It was clear that people found the concept of the website distasteful and immoral, says the ASA. However, it says it can only consider the content of the ad and not the service being advertised. The ASA felt the ad itself was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.
Complaints not upheld
5. John Lewis Partnership plc – 316 complaints
The advert shows a boy hanging up a Christmas stocking on an outdoor kennel, but then leaving his dog in the wind and snow. It attracted complaints about irresponsible pet ownership. Complainants objected that it suggested it was acceptable to leave a family pet outside in cold conditions.
The ASA disagreed, and felt the ad did not endorse or encourage animal cruelty or neglect.
Complaints not upheld
6. HomePride Ltd – 273 complaints
Men and women complained about the gender stereotypes portrayed in this advert for oven cleaner. In it a voice-over comments “so easy even a man can do it” and ends with the line “no men were harmed in the making of this commercial”.
The ASA ruled the advert took a light-hearted and comical approach to its portrayal of “traditional” gender stereotypes, and was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.
Complaints not upheld
7. AG Barr plc – 204 complaints
This advert featured cute cartoon animals, cheery music and a Pied Piper type figure. But things turned more sinister when the animals were led to a butcher’s shop.
It already had a restriction which meant it couldn’t be shown around programmes targeted at children, but the ASA still received a number of complaints that it was offensive, irresponsible and distressing to children.
On balance, the authority felt the ad with its existing scheduling restriction was acceptable.
Complaints not upheld
8. Cardell Media Ltd – 185 complaints
This mailing consisted of a torn magazine or newspaper page with a handwritten Post-it note, which said: “Hi, I saw this and thought you’d find it useful – he’s really good! J”. Complainants said the mailing was masquerading as personal correspondence and challenged claims being made within it.
Their complaints were upheld and the advertisers were told to change their approach.
Complaints upheld
9. Unilever UK Ltd – 154 complaints
Continuing their “you either love it or hate it” themed campaigns, Marmite ran two television adverts parodying party political broadcasts. The Hate Party, representing marmite haters, promised to “stop the spread” of Marmite, to introduce designated “Marmite-eating” zones across the UK and enforce a compulsory label change to “Tarmite”.
The Love Party pledge to “spread the Love” of Marmite and promote its “delicious” taste and B vitamins. Initiatives included developing new ways for Marmite to help tackle society’s issues, such as Marmite-flavoured pencils in schools to boost attendance.
Some complaints related specifically to the political aspect of the campaign and these were referred to Ofcom. Other objections related to racism, denigration and offence. The ASA felt the ads were delivered in a lighthearted way and therefore were not in breach of the rules.
Complaints not upheld/referred to Ofcom
10. SSL International plc – 151 complaints
Complainants, who had seen this television advert for condoms before 11am and in the early evening, objected that it was offensive and inappropriate for broadcast when young children might be watching.
The ASA accepted it might not be to all viewers’ tastes, but because there were no explicit sexual scenes or images decided its existing scheduling restriction, which prevented it from appearing in or around programmes targeted at children, were appropriate.
Complaints not upheld
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
As ever, the south of France event is centred around Cannes’ Palais des Festivals The 64th Cannes Film Festival gets under way later with a gala screening of Midnight in Paris, a romantic comedy from US director Woody Allen.
Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard appear in the film, alongside France’s first lady Carla Bruni.
Bruni announced on Tuesday she would not be attending the festival because of “personal reasons”.
British hopes this year rest on We Need to Speak about Kevin, one of 20 films up for the prestigious Palme d’Or.
Directed by Scotland’s Lynne Ramsay, the adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel is the only British film in contention for the festival’s main award.
Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly co-star in the film, which details the events leading up to a high school massacre.
Actors Jude Law and Uma Thurman are among the members of this year’s international jury, chaired by fellow thespian Robert De Niro.
Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Jodie Foster are some of the Hollywood stars expected at this year’s festival, which runs until 22 May.
Law, De Niro and Thurman are among this year’s celebrity jurors One of the key talking points is The Tree of Life, the long-anticipated feature from US film-maker Terrence Malick.
Brad Pitt and Sean Penn star in the film, a family saga set in the American Midwest during the 1950s.
Spain’s Pedro Almodovar, Denmark’s Lars von Trier and the Dardenne brothers of Belgium are among former Palme d’Or recipients who will be unveiling their latest work during the event.
Outside the main competition, the festival will also host gala screenings of two Hollywood sequels – Kung Fu Panda 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Hundreds of titles will be screened to distributors, potential buyers and members of the media during the festival.
One film that has already had tongues wagging is Unlawful Killing, a documentary about the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Directed by Keith Allen, the film is understood to feature a paparazzi photograph of the princess in the aftermath of the Paris car crash that killed her and two others.
The British actor – father of pop star Lily – claims the film is “not about a conspiracy before the crash, but about a provable cover-up after the crash”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hollywood stars appear on the red carpet as the sixty-fourth annual Cannes Film Festival opens
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
MPs have been examining how to avoid a repeat of the severe disruption caused by December’s heavy snow fall The UK should appoint a “snow supremo” to try to avoid another winter of chaos at airports, MPs have recommended.
The Transport Select Committee also said a culture change was needed in the rail industry to ensure passengers were looked after during serious disruption.
It said failure to provide information about services should cost the firms responsible money.
MPs also called for a further £10m in funding to enable the Met Office to provide better long-term forecasts.
The Transport Committee of cross-party MPs has been examining the response to the severe weather of December 2010.
It suggested that the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, should appoint a senior Department for Transport official who would oversee snow plans at Heathrow and other airports.
The committee’s report, which pointed out that the winter was the third in a row with severe weather, said that better weather forecasting could help warn the country to be more prepared.
Mr Hammond said he agreed with the committee that some disruption during extreme weather is inevitable.
“We have already started work to improve our preparedness for the coming winter,” he said.
He said the government had set up a committee to consider scientific and economic advice on severe weather preparations.
Debbie Shuttlewood was stranded on a Brighton train for hours last December before eventually being taken back to London Victoria in the middle of the night.
“Investment clearly needs to be made to our infrastructure to deal with weather extremes.”
“[But] the key issue for me is how short-notice disruption is dealt with, things that can’t be planned for.
“There is only a point in [investing] in weather predictions if it’s actually going to make a difference.
“[In my case] we must have known about the snow a week or so in advance, and really things should have been in place by then.
“Time should just be invested in putting together emergency plans at various transport hubs to deal with situations like this.
“Major airports and stations should have accommodation reserved for when people are stranded, and food in place.
“Communication networks need to be set up, and individuals in stations and airports need to be empowered to make decisions.”
His department was also planning a revamp of the regulatory framework for airports, and was looking at ways to keep motorists informed of any problems on their network.
The committee said the current seasonal predictions from the Met Office “do not provide a firm basis on which decision-makers can act with confidence”.
It also said that Mr Hammond had put the £10m price tag on the additional computing power needed by the Met Office to provide more accurate 10-year predictions.
The committee’s chairman, Louise Ellman MP, said: “Given the huge cost of winter weather disruption to the economy – some £280m per day in transport disruption alone – the £10m suggested by Mr Hammond would be a small price to pay to improve the Met Office’s long-range forecasting capability.”
In response the Met Office said: “We welcome the committee’s findings and its acknowledgement of the quality of our short-range forecasts provided through November and December of last year.
“Throughout the cold weather, the Met Office provided consistently good advice. Of 13 individual spells of severe weather, the Met Office forecast provided very good advice on 12 of them,” a spokesperson said.
The report singled out Heathrow, which was at a virtual standstill for days when the snow hit.
It said the airport was totally unprepared to recover from any major incident which necessitated its closure.
A BAA spokesman rejected the criticism.
“This is contrary to the findings of the (BAA-commissioned) inquiry by Professor David Begg, which found that BAA had historically ‘demonstrated its ability to respond well to earlier weather events’, and also contrary to the evidence from the airspace closure caused by volcanic ash in 2010.”
Eurostar is one of the many transport services that witnessed major disruption from snow last December The firm has already said it will invest £50m in snow defence equipment, and is putting in place better procedures for any future major disruptions.
On the railways, the committee proposed financial incentives for companies to keep passengers better informed.
It also said the resilience of the third rail network south of the Thames should be improved, and the long-term aim should be to replace the existing network with a more resilient form of electrification.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus said: “Passengers will be pleased to see this report acknowledges many of the information failings that happened during the snow disruption in December.
“Failing to provide information at times of disruption is the number one cause of anger and upset on the part of passengers.”
He added that some train companies had continued to sell tickets for trains they knew were unable to run.
The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) recognised that the industry needed to improve.
“We will examine this report closely and continue to work with the rest of the industry to make sure passengers get the services that they expect and deserve.”
The committee’s other recommendations include:
airport operators should be allowed to reclaim the cost of looking after stranded passengers from airlines that have failed to do sobetter online advice on how individuals and communities can tackle problems arising from severe winter weathera high profile campaign to encourage more motorists to take precautions for driving in winter weather.
Mrs Ellman of the Transport Select Committee said: “Every airport operator must now be pushed to plan properly for bad weather, so that people are not left stranded and without even basic supplies in airport terminals for days on end.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Gingrich represented a Georgia constituency in Congress for 20 years Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is expected on Wednesday to announce a 2012 run for the presidency.
Mr Gingrich, who left elected office in 1999, becomes the best known of what analysts consider a lacklustre field of declared Republican candidates.
Other major potential hopefuls have yet formally to enter the race.
Mr Gingrich is best known for leading a team of conservative Republicans who won control of the US House of Representatives in the 1994 election.
On his Twitter feed, Mr Gingrich, 67, advised supporters to watch conservative television personality Sean Hannity’s programme on Fox News on Wednesday evening.
“I will be on to talk about my run for president of the United States,” he wrote.
His entrance into the race has been widely anticipated.
Mr Gingrich is seen as a font of conservative policy ideas and controls a broad network of non-profit organisations and business ventures.
But he is twice divorced, and in the 1990s – while he was leading the charge to impeach President Bill Clinton in connection with his affair with a White House intern – he had an extramarital affair with the woman who became his third wife.
Socially conservative voters influential in the Republican primary race could be turned off by that past.
Other likely 2012 candidates include former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Utah Governor and US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and real estate mogul and reality TV show star Donald Trump.
Of those, only Mr Romney and Mr Pawlenty have taken the first official step toward a candidacy, the formation of exploratory committees to test the waters and begin raising money.
The race for the Republican Party nomination has been slow to take shape this year, even though Democratic President Barack Obama is seen as vulnerable; the first ballots will be cast on 6 February in the Iowa caucus.
Of the candidates deemed most credible by the US news media, only Mr Pawlenty attended the first Republican presidential debate held last week in South Carolina.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Kate Puzey, from the US state of Georgia, was killed in Benin in 2009 The US Peace Corps has apologised for failing to respond adequately to the rapes of volunteers and the recent killing of another serving overseas.
Director Aaron Williams said the corps had “not always been sufficiently responsive, compassionate or sensitive to victims of crime”.
The apology came as three rape victims testified to lawmakers that they were poorly trained to deal with attacks.
The corps sends volunteers to live and work in developing countries.
It is an agency of the US government.
The victims of the attacks and the mother of a murdered volunteer told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that the Peace Corps – which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – reacted insensitively and unhelpfully following the crimes.
Kate Puzey, from the US state of Georgia, was killed in 2009 in Benin. The three rape victims were attacked in Niger, Nepal and Bangladesh.
“I want the young women who go into the Peace Corps today to be protected,” said Carol Marie Clark, who testified that she was raped and impregnated by the programme’s director in Nepal after joining the agency in 1984.
Appearing at the same hearing, Mr Williams apologised for the lack of response by the agency, calling the health and safety of its volunteers the Peace Corp’s top priority.
Mr Williams said the organisation had since taken steps to respond to the crimes, like writing guidelines about how to respond to rape and hiring a crime victims’ advocate.
“The Peace Corps has not always been sufficiently responsive, compassionate or sensitive to victims of crime and their families,” Mr Williams told lawmakers.
“It is heartbreaking to learn, and I apologize for any additional pain the agency has inflicted on our volunteers.”
Members of the committee said the testimony could change the way the agency is run in the future.
The Peace Corps has sent over 200,000 Americans to serve in 139 countries since its founding in 1961.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The bitter dispute between the Unite union and British Airways has been continuing since 2009 Union members are meeting later to consider an offer which could end the long-running dispute between British Airways and some cabin crew.
The BBC has learned Unite union leaders are said to be “content” with what has been negotiated during talks with BA.
If those at the Heathrow meeting back the offer, a formal ballot of union members could be held within weeks.
This dispute began in 2009 over cost cutting but became bogged down over the loss of travel perks to striking staff.
It has resulted in travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of passengers with the bill for the disruption caused to BA estimated to be £150m.
This has been one of the most bitter and prolonged industrial disputes of recent years.
It involved four strike ballots, led to 22 days of strike action and disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. It cost BA about £150m.
But a change of personnel at the top of both BA and the Unite union gave fresh impetus to resolving the row. Talks got under way in March, away from the glare of publicity.
The new deal will cover disciplinary action that some staff suffered during the strike and the issue of the removal of travel perks to those that went on strike.
It should also lift the threat of any further disruption to BA flights this summer.
However, after 22 days of strikes over the past 18 months, hopes have been raised that an end to the row is in sight.
Negotiations between the two sides resumed in March, when cabin crew voted in favour of a further round of industrial action, and have been going on for weeks.
The union held back from announcing strike dates pending the talks.
A spokesman for the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association – a branch of Unite – confirmed that “talks have now concluded to the satisfaction of both parties”.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, who has held talks with BA chief executive Keith Williams, will address a mass meeting of union members and the union leadership is expected to recommend they accept the offer.
If they do, a formal ballot will be held, with the result expected in July. This raises the prospect of BA flights being free from disruption through summer.
The dispute started in November 2009 as a row about staffing levels on some long-haul flights. BA reduced the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights from 15 to 14 and introduced a two-year pay freeze from 2010.
Unite said this would hit passenger service and affect the earnings and career prospects of cabin crew.
But the union’s demands shifted to the reinstatement of some workers sacked during industrial action and the decision, affecting about 7,000 Unite members, to take away travel perks from striking staff.
Progress is thought to have been made on those two issues, which were the main sticking points, and reports suggest the proposed deal would also cover union representation and pay.
Former British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh became the focus of the anger of many union members during the dispute.
Mr Walsh has since moved on to head the company formed by the merger of BA and the Spanish carrier Iberia, International Airlines Group, and was succeeded by Mr Williams.
Mr McCluskey was elected in Novemebr 2010 to succeed former joint general secretaries Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson.
BBC News industry correspondent John Moylan said the change in leaderships on both sides had given fresh impetus to resolve the dispute.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Col Gaddafi appeared to be in good health in the video
Libya’s state TV has shown footage of Col Muammar Gaddafi meeting tribal leaders in Tripoli – his first public appearance in nearly two weeks.
Libyan officials said the video was shot in the capital on Wednesday. This has not been independently verified.
Col Gaddafi has not been seen since 30 April – when a Nato strike killed his youngest son and three grandchildren.
Earlier, Libyan rebels said they had seized Misrata airport in the west, driving back pro-Gaddafi troops.
Government forces have been pounding the western city, which remains largely under rebel control, for weeks.
Meanwhile, fresh explosions were reported in Tripoli on Wednesday.
Nato said earlier that its planes had carried out 6,000 missions over Libya since it assumed command of military operations there at the end of March.
The air strikes have helped secure rebels in their strongholds in eastern Libya, but observers say it remains unclear to what extent they have loosened Col Gaddafi’s grip on the west of the country.
Rebels in the port city of Misrata have been besieged by pro-Gaddafi forces for several weeks In the footage, Col Gaddafi was dressed in his trademark brown robes, dark sunglasses and black hat. He appeared to be in good health.
“We tell the world, ‘those are the representatives of the Libyan tribes,'” Col Gaddafi said, pointing to his visitors.
A man then was seen telling him: “You will be victorious.”
On Wednesday, eyewitnesses said Misrata airport fell after hours of fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces.
The bodies of pro-government forces could be seen lying in the street as the rebels celebrated their victory, correspondents said. A dozen rebels were said to have been wounded in the fighting.
Col Ahmed Bani, a spokesmen for the rebel leadership in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, told the BBC that as well as taking the airport, “revolutionary forces” now controlled Misrata.
As well as burning government tanks, the rebels had captured other weaponry from the regime troops, he said.
Libya’s third-largest city, Misrata is the only significant western rebel holdout and is strategically important because of its deep-sea port, which has become a lifeline for supplying civilians and for evacuating wounded people fleeing the fighting.
Though the rebels are said to be better organised than those in eastern Libya and have, for example, set up a network of makeshift arms factories, their campaign is still widely seen as an improvised affair.
Nato’s head says “substantial progress” is being made in Libya
Following a wave of revolutions across the region, Libya’s uprising was sparked by February’s arrest of a human rights campaigner in Benghazi, and rapidly spread to other cities.
Authorities used aircraft to attack protesters, prompting the resignation of many Libyan diplomats as rebel forces called on Col Gaddafi to relinquish his five-decade rule and open Libya up to a more democratic rule.
The EU has frozen the assets of Col Gaddafi and members of his family, and banned the supply of arms, ammunition and any equipment that could be used for “internal repression”.
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Japanese automakers have been working at reduced capacity after the earthquake and tsunami Japan’s current account surplus fell by 34.3% in March compared with the same month a year ago, after a massive quake and tsunami devastated exports.
The drop was sharper than forecast. Economists had expected the current account, the broadest measure of trade, to fall by 31.3%.
The current account surplus was 1.68 trillion yen ($20.7bn; £12.7bn) in March.
The 11 March earthquake was one of the worst ever recorded in Japan.
The earthquake and ensuing tsunami have left 28,000 people dead or missing.
The twin disasters immediately affected factory output at home and also supply chains around the world.
“Exports are weak and we are importing things that we weren’t able to make domestically,” said Shuji Tonouchi of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
“Some factories are starting to increase production, so we are heading toward a gradual recovery, but there are still risks from the electricity supply.”
Economists believe exports will take time to recover, while imports will surge, as the country brings in fuel and commodities to feed the reconstruction.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Richard Black
The proposals aim to end discarding in EU waters The European Commission is planning to reform the EU’s fishing industry by giving vessels quota shares guaranteed for periods of at least 15 years.
The commission will issue a proposal on reforming the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in July, to take effect in 2013.
But a draft obtained by BBC News outlines moves that some environmentalists describe as “virtual privatisation of the oceans”.
Final decisions on fishing quotas will stay with politicians, not scientists.
The 28-year-old CFP is intended to keep catches within sustainable limits, but has often been criticised for doing the opposite.
One of the central planks of the proposed reforms is to eliminate discards, by switching to quota systems based on how many fish are landed in port rather than how many are caught.
Up to half the catch of some species has to be discarded because vessels have exceeded their quota, or because the fish are undersized.
Other ambitions include:
setting up “multi-annual plans” to restore fish stocks “based on the precautionary approach”restoring fisheries to a level that provides maximum sustainable yield (MSY) – the level that will produce as many fish as possible each year without causing the stock to decline – “not later than 2015″allowing nations to incentivise use of selective fishing gear.
But according to Markus Knigge of the Pew Environment Group, this is not ambitious enough to restore life in Europe’s seas to its full vitality.
“Fish stocks are a public resource, we all own them; and this is the virtual privatisation of the oceans”
Markus Knigge Pew Environment Group
“Two years ago the commission published a highly critical assessment of the CFP, explaining why it was failing to manage fish stocks sustainably,” he told BBC News.
“Our feeling is that the current draft proposal is not going to remedy this failure.”
However, Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, suggested some of the ideals were too lofty.
“The scientists are telling everybody that MSY for all stocks at all times is an impossibility, and certainly by 2015,” he said.
He is also concerned that centrally determined rules will be imposed across EU waters without taking account of local needs and practices.
The CFP has seen an annual ritual played out in which scientists recommend lowering quotas for some species – down to zero in a number of cases – only for ministers of EU member states to then award their fleets higher quotas than the scientists have recommended as safe.
Boris Worm, a noted fisheries scientist from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, said stronger systems did exist elsewhere that the EU could adopt.
“The ideal situation is the one you have in the US, where if a fish stock falls below a certain level it simply can’t be fished – there’s no wiggle room, no bargaining about a quota,” he said.
“If the CFP retains the status quo, where scientific advice may or may not be followed depending on politicians, that may not address overfishing in Europe.”
Fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki is due to unveil final proposals in July The draft proposal would allow the commission to take “emergency measures” unilaterally – but routine decision-making would be led by the Council of Ministers.
EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki has previously said she was impressed by the scale of public opposition to discards across the EU, with more than half a million people signing a petition publicised by UK “celebrity chef” Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
The draft proposal envisages phasing in a complete discard ban, obliging vessels to “record and land” all catches.
This would apply to species including mackerel, herring and tunas from the beginning of 2014.
Cod, hake and sole would follow a year later, with virtually every other commercial species coming under the regulation from 2016.
Precisely how this would be policed is not entirely clear; and fishermen’s groups are already lobbying against it, especially in areas such as the North Sea where many target species swim together.
“If you’re going to have a blanket discard ban applied by the start of 2015, that is the bluntest of blunt instruments,” said Mr Armstrong.
“No fisherman can say, ‘I will go out today and I will catch only haddock’ – that’s just impossible – and under the present regulations, the only way is to stop fishing when you reach your first quota.”
The commission document does not spell out how a discard ban can be implemented in such a way as to give skippers flexibility in these mixed fisheries.
Arguably the draft proposal’s most dramatic impact would be the mandatory adoption of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) “for all fishing vessels of 12m or more… and for all fishing vessels under 12m length fishing with towed gear [such as trawls].”
Skippers would be guaranteed shares of national quotas for periods of at least 15 years, which they could trade among themselves – even, if the national government agrees, trading with fleets from other countries.
This is already practised on a smaller scale in a number of EU member states including the UK, but has been taken much further in countries such as Iceland and New Zealand.
A global survey published three years ago showed that fisheries managed using ITQs were half as likely to collapse as others, which is one of the reasons for the commission’s enthusiasm.
But the blanket nature of its proposal has raised some concern among scientists and environmentalists.
“The experience shows that ITQs are not necessarily a way to save fish,” said Dr Worm.
“It gives planning security to the industry, but it comes at a social cost – you end up with fewer operators, probably lower employment in the fishing sector, and probably concentration of shares in the hands of people who are good at acquiring them.
“To have ITQs mandated for all vessels over 12m in Europe – that seems a little strong to me.”
Markus Knigge went further.
“Fish stocks are a public resource, we all own them; and access to this resource should be given to those who demonstrate they fish in the most environmental and socially beneficial ways, and it should not be for any great length of time,” he said.
“This is the virtual privatisation of the oceans.”
The commission’s draft is currently being discussed by EU member states and European parliamentarians, and to a certain extent by stakeholders including fishermen and conservation groups.
Following publication of the final version in July, there is likely to be even more strident debate before the reform package is agreed in 2013.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
World Cup finals games featuring England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will remain free to watch Football bodies Fifa and Uefa have appealed against a European ruling that the World Cup and Euro Championships must be on free-to-air TV in the UK.
In February, the European General Court said the UK could keep the events on a list of “protected” events of national sporting interest shown for free.
It means the two tournaments cannot be sold exclusively to pay-TV firms.
Fifa and Uefa say they cannot sell the events fairly, and the cases will now go to the European Court of Justice.
Football’s world governing body has been in the news this week with allegations from former FA chairman Lord Triesman that four Fifa members sought “bribes” in return for backing England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid.
The TV cases will be heard in the European Court of Justice, Europe’s supreme court, regarding the decision made in the General Court (formerly Court of First Instance) earlier this year.
A spokesman for the European courts said appeals processes were currently taking up to one-and-a-half years from start to finish, and that any actual hearing may not get under way for up to a year.
The BBC and ITV have secured the rights to broadcast the football World Cup finals in 2014.
So any potential change of broadcasting towards a future pay-TV model would not take place until the 2018 event in Russia.
As well as the cases against the UK, Fifa has also launched an appeal against Belgium showing all World Cup games on free-to-air.
“The grounds of appeal open to Uefa and Fifa appear to be relatively limited,” said Daniel Geey, an expert on TV rights deals at Field Fisher Waterhouse solicitors.
UK fans will not have to pay to watch stars like Argentina’s Lionel Messi playing at the World Cup He said the football bodies could only appeal on points of law – such as the General Court’s competence, or whether the court breached procedural steps or infringed European Union law.
“They [Fifa and Uefa] cannot not simply repeat arguments that were already set out and heard by the General Court and expect the decision to be overturned,” Mr Geey said.
He added: “UEFA and FIFA are now in injury time if they are to pull off a last minute winner.
“Although not inconceivable, the odds of snatching victory appear to be stacked against football’s two most powerful football bodies.”
Fifa and Uefa have argued that the current set-up interferes with their ability to sell television rights at the best price.
They do not see any reason why all games at tournaments should be shown free on UK television, as part of a list of national sporting “crown jewels” that have to be made available to everyone to watch.
The two football bodies have said that any games featuring England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland will still been shown on TV for free, as will the finals and semi-finals of the tournaments.
But under their plans the rest of the “non-core” World Cup matches and European Championship matches would not have to be shown free in the UK.
Mr Geey said the football bodies believed they should have the ability to sell such “non-core” matches to pay-TV operators.
“With such operators more likely to pay larger amounts for exclusive premium content, both organisations would argue increasing commercial revenues would be further invested back into the game,” said Mr Geey.
Uefa has said the listing infringes its property rights, as it results “in a restriction” of the way in which it can “market the television rights to the Euro [championships]”.
In addition, it has said that showing the entire tournament on free-to-air TV in the UK has led to “a disproportionate and unjustified distortion of competition on the relevant market”.
Fifa earned a minimum of $2bn in TV and media rights deals for the South Africa 2010 World Cup.
And Uefa said turnover during the three-week Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland was $2.04bn, with more than half the cash coming from the sale of broadcasting rights.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Millions of men and women have lost their jobs in the latest global downturn – the biggest for decades. Why do we hear so little about them?
Read much about the unemployed, lately? Did you even know there was an employment crisis? You’d be forgiven if you didn’t.
“In America you can always find another job, right? – that’s what makes America great”
Journalists report the numbers, but what about the individual lives the figures represent? You would have thought that a few of those stories might entice writers/film-makers/artists. You would be wrong.
About the numbers first. In Britain and America the employment situation is worse than at any time since the Great Depression. Yet the monthly headline figures on employment are the only ones you read about.
Strong Job Creation Eases Fear of a Swoon, said the headline in the Financial Times last Friday when the US announced 225,000 jobs had been created the previous month. The fact that these new jobs did not prevent the unemployment rate ticking back up to 9% was left unexplained.
Here are some more grim figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The number of people of working age (16-64) in America actively employed is at a 25-year low, around 64%One in five men of working age are joblessA tremendous number of working people are not in full-time employment – the average working week length is 34.3 hours
And this does not begin to take in people like me.
I was laid off more than five years ago. Today I work full-time as a freelance – but earn 70% less than I did when I had a staff job.
Grapes of Wrath producer Darryl Zanuck was no left-winger – nor was director John Ford It is a grave disappointment to Her Majesty’s Revenue Collectors and a catastrophe for my family.
There are millions like me: people over 50, professional credentials (and achievements), working as “consultants” and not earning a penny, living on savings, trying to re-train. Where in the unemployment figures do we turn up?
I ask the question because I know the answer. When you include us, the actual number of unemployed in America is closer to 20% than 9%.
Now, that number is eye-popping. So why do writers and artists seem uninterested in the human toll of this terrifying downturn?
The question hit me a couple of weeks ago when by chance I saw director John Ford’s classic, The Grapes of Wrath, on a long-haul flight. Where was the equivalent for our time?
When I was a kid, The New York Times’ thumbnail review of the film called The Grapes of Wrath “American movie-making at its finest.”
And it really is. All of Ford’s genius for setting up a frame and allowing complex scenes to play out within it is there.
The grinding poverty of the no-luck Joad family is not sugar-coated. Their world looks harsh, the actors’ faces look like road maps to hard times.
The Grapes of Wrath is all the more amazing because it was a product of the Hollywood studio system. Neither Ford nor producer Darryl Zanuck were known as left-wingers. They were quite the opposite.
George Clooney in the film “Up in the Air” – The Grapes of Wrath it is not Yet something about what was happening in their country affected them and they decided to make a film out of John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name (now, Steinbeck really was a leftie).
There is a pitiless authenticity to the movie. Ford seems to know these people inside out. Perhaps the distance between those who had everything, like Ford, and the dispossessed, like the Joads, wasn’t as great as it is today.
Perhaps it’s because the American Midwest was only a generation past wildness and the older actors in the film were for the most part born into that world.
The closest anyone has come in this downturn to dealing with the crisis of losing one’s job is the film Up in the Air, a romance about a consultant (George Clooney) brought in to do the dirty work of laying people off.
“Hollywood and the publishing industry have learned just one historical lesson from the Depression – people want entertainment in tough times”
The film invites more sympathy for Clooney, when his married girlfriend dumps him, than for the folks he has fired.
He tells them that losing your job is a golden opportunity. They will find another job because in America you can always find another job, right? That’s what makes America great.
But George Clooney has lost the love of his life – and you only get one of those. The Grapes of Wrath it is not.
I can hear my screenwriter and novelist friends saying it is too soon for work reflecting the human cost of the downturn – the Lehman Brothers collapse was only three years ago.
“We writers need time to let these events percolate through our sub-conscious before we turn them into art,” they might argue.
I’m not sure about that. Three years into the Great Depression Steinbeck had already written Of Mice and Men, a tale of migrant farm workers, and had started on The Grapes of Wrath.
At the same time, Henry R Luce, founding editor of Time and Fortune, a right-wing Republican, sent writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans to the rural American South, to report on the Great Depression’s devastating effects.
Their report was so grim that Fortune declined to publish it. The pair published it as a book instead, the classic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
I’m not certain that today’s editors at Fortune have sent top talent out into the field to document the slow-motion collapse of middle-class life in America.
I suppose one reason for the lack of new work reflecting the economic crisis is that the most calamitous aspects of job loss are being avoided this time.
Lucille Burroughs, daughter of a cotton sharecropper in Hale County, Alabama (Picture: Walker Evans) A bit of the social safety net put in place during the Great Depression still exists. Also, in America at least, many households now have two incomes. If one job goes there is still some money coming in.
But I think the primary reason is that Hollywood and the publishing industry have learned just one historical lesson from the Depression: people want entertainment in tough times.
The Grapes of Wrath, the films of King Vidor, even socially conscious gangster films from Warner Brothers were only a fraction of Hollywood’s output then. The Depression was also the era of Fred and Ginger, Nick and Nora, screwball comedy and Busby Berkeley.
That hasn’t changed. Writers, film-makers, game designers all want to eat – and that’s the market they have to create for.
A line of poetry by T S Eliot composed at the same time Steinbeck was writing Grapes of Wrath, and Agee and Walker were having their report spiked, says it best. “Humankind / cannot bear too much reality.”
But humankind has to live in the real world with other human beings. And if writers and artists won’t put a human face on the jobless numbers, who will?
Michael Goldfarb is a former London bureau chief for National Public Radio, and the author of Emancipation: How Liberating Europe’s Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
