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Council workers accept pay drop

Neath Port Talbot Council officeNeath Port Talbot says it is the first council in Wales to reach such an agreement
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Staff at Neath Port Talbot Council have agreed to cuts in pay, overtime and travel allowances as part of the authority’s cost cutting measures.

The 7,000 workers have accepted a deal brokered by managers and the unions.

The one-year agreement is aimed at minimising compulsory redundancies as the council looks to close a £24m gap in its budget by 2014.

Council leaders had warned staff they would dismiss and re-employ them on new terms if an agreement was not reached.

The council says it is the first authority in Wales to reach such an agreement.

Higher earners will see a one-off 2% drop in pay on top of a proposed three-year pay freeze.

Analysis

Reaching agreements over downgraded pay and conditions in the light of budget cuts has become a crucial issue for tens of thousands of council staff across Wales.

Earlier in the week Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales’ second largest council, imposed lower terms and conditions on 14,000 workers, with accusations from union officials the measures were being bulldozed through.

The significant element here is a voluntary contribution which amounts to 2% for all those earning above £21,000, as well as the reductions in mileage and overtime allowances.

It’s unclear how much this will be used as a blueprint for other councils across Wales.

The Welsh Local Government Association says it doesn’t necessarily mean that the deal will be replicated elsewhere, however it’s still a significant development.

The lowest earners will not lose any pay while “several thousand” staff will have a pay deduction of less than 2%.

There will also be cuts in overtime rates and mileage allowances.

Eddie Gabrielsen, regional organiser for Unison, which represents 3,000 staff at Neath Port Talbot Council, said the deal went through with a majority of about 2-1 in favour.

He said: “I can’t say they are ecstatic about it, but they see it as a way of ensuring their employment for the future.

“There are some circumstances where you cannot do anything but make the redundancy but, in the main, the agreement is geared towards ensuring proper consultation before any outsourcing or other factors come in to play, where compulsory redundancies may be the end result.”

He said the agreement was the staff’s contribution to “get past the short-time financial situation the councils finds itself in – that the government has put it in”.

He added: “We feel that the cuts by the government are too fast and do not allow councils to adjust properly.”

Mr Gabrielsen said his members also expected councillors to make a contribution beyond declining a recommended increase in their allowances.

He said: “We would invite the councillors to look at their allowances in relation to taking percentage cuts on that.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Hundreds to pay Michaela respects

mourners at ballygawley roundaboutSeveral hundred people gathered on Friday evening at the Ballygawley roundabout, several miles from the Harte family home
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Hundreds of people are expected in Ballygawley over the weekend to pay their respects at the family home of Michaela McAreavey.

Mrs McAreavey, 27, daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte, was found murdered in her honeymoon hotel room in Mauritius on Monday.

Her body was returned to the home of her parents on Friday evening.

Friends and neighbours lined the route close to the Harte home as the hearse carrying the body passed.

Members of the Tyrone GAA club formed a guard of honour.

Park and ride facilities will be set up near the family home to cope with the large number of people expected to visit on Saturday and Sunday.

Her funeral will be held next Monday at 1230 GMT at St Malachy’s Church, Ballymacilroy – the same County Tyrone church where she was married.

In a quiet, private corner of Belfast City Airport, the Harte and McAreavey families came together for the first time since the wedding of Michaela and John.

It is difficult to imagine a more painful re-union.

Together they then accompanied the hearse carrying Michaela’s body on the hour-long journey to the Harte family home in Co Tyrone.

Michaela and John were so close that they were known by friends as ‘Mic and Mac’. The nicknames were derived from Michaela and McAreavey.

In a measure of how popular the 27-year-old Irish teacher was, special facilities are being set up near her family home to cope with the large number of people expected on Saturday and Sunday to attend her wake. A park-and-ride scheme will be in place.

The plane carrying the 27-year-old’s remains touched down at Belfast City Airport at lunchtime on Friday.

Her husband, John, was on the flight that brought his wife of just 12 days back to her home in her coffin.

He was accompanied on the flight by his father, Brendan, his brother, Brian and Mrs McAreavey’s brother, Mark.

There to meet them at the airport was the Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey, uncle of the groom, who married them on 30 December.

The bride’s three brothers were also present to escort her body home.

The coffin was covered with a purple drape as the hearse drove from the airport. The family followed in cars behind.

The procession made its way out of Belfast to the Harte family home near Ballygawley, County Tyrone.

She was found murdered in her room at the Legends Hotel on Monday. Three men have been charged in connection with her killing.

It is thought that she interrupted thieves in her room taking money from a purse. They panicked and she was strangled.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Film ‘sparked censorship debate’

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in Blue ValentineThe film shows a couple (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) at the start and end of their relationship

The director of Blue Valentine has said the recent battle over its certificate in the US has helped open a debate over cinema sex and violence.

The film won an appeal over its adults-only NC-17 rating and was released with an R rating instead.

The marital film drama, which opens in the UK this weekend rated 15, is in the running for two Golden Globe awards.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are nominated for best actor and actress in a film drama.

US ratings are set by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which originally awarded the NC-17 rating for a “scene of explicit sexual content”.

“I think the MPAA made a mistake,” director Derek Cianfrance told the BBC this week.

“They were humble and generous to reverse their decision and I have a lot of respect for them for that.

“It’s started a big discussion in America about why is sex taboo and why is violence okay. I think the MPAA has to re-evaluate its stance on things.

“I feel like my kids will see far worse things during commercials on football games – violence and guns. Blue Valentine is just about intimacy and emotion. There’s very little nudity in the film. It’s more about naked emotions.”

Director Derek Cianfrance and actress Michelle WilliamsDerek Cianfrance (left, with Michelle Williams) conceived the film in 1998

The film’s new R rating means those younger than 17 can see the film if they are accompanied by an adult.

Blue Valentine is the story of the dying relationship between couple Dean and Cindy (played by Gosling and Williams).

It juxtaposes scenes of their courtship, set several years earlier, with painful scenes of marital breakdown in the present.

The filming required Gosling and Williams to undergo hours of demanding sex scenes.

“Michelle and Ryan gave such brave and emotionally naked performances,” said Cianfrance.

“I’m so proud of them. I really admire actors that are willing to be vulnerable and willing to take big risks on the screen. They deserve any accolade that comes their way.”

He added: “We tried to treat the sexuality in Blue Valentine with responsibility. There are consequences to the sex in the film. We treated the sex as we treated every other scene – with a certain kind of honesty and raw integrity.”

The film has been a 12-year journey for Cianfrance. He had re-drafted the script 66 times since 1998. Both Gosling and Williams were attached to the project for several years before it finally started shooting.

“I felt like the movie was cursed, but once it started shooting we were blessed because all these magic moments started happening in front of the camera,” said Cianfrance.

Whatever happens at the Golden Globes, the director is keeping an open mind about its Oscar chances.

“Those things are so out of my hands. For the last year I’ve been on the road supporting the movie. There’s nothing else Michelle and Ryan can do.

“The business and the critical acclaim has been amazing and it’s heartening to know that something that was so personal to me is now becoming personal to other people.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Group to tour Iran nuclear sites

Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, file picTehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes

A group of foreign diplomats is expected to begin a two-day tour of some of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran has said that the tour is a gesture of goodwill and transparency.

The move comes ahead of the resumption of talks about Iran’s nuclear programme with permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

Western nations suspect that Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Iran guards its nuclear sites pretty closely, but now ambassadors from Egypt, Algeria, Venezuela, Syria, and the Arab League will get their own tour of two locations – an enrichment facility at Natanz, and a heavy water reactor at Arak.

But, for the hosts, there is a problem. There may be some empty seats on the minibus.

The European Union turned down its invitation, saying that a tour for diplomats was not a substitute for proper visits by inspectors.

It also looks like Russia and China have decided to stay away.

And the United States, which was not invited, has called the tour a ploy.

It is unlikely that the event will change many people’s minds about the nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Diplomats who are not nuclear scientists or weapons inspectors will not be able to give a definitive answer one way or another.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Marine Le Pen ‘to lead far right’

Marine Le Pen speaks at a FN meeting (Dec 2010)Ms Le Pen looks set to be a genuine contender in the 2012 presidential elections
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France’s far right National Front has chosen Marine Le Pen as its new leader, replacing her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, party officials say.

The results will be officially announced on Sunday, but party sources said she had secured about two-thirds of members’ votes.

Mr Le Pen is stepping down after leading the ultra-nationalist party, which he founded, for almost 40 years.

In 2002 he came a shock second in the first round of presidential elections.

Mr Le Pen lost the second round to incumbent Jacques Chirac.

A count of votes cast ahead of the annual FN congress in the central city of Tours showed Ms Le Pen, 42, who had the backing of her father, had easily beaten her rival, Bruno Gollnisch.

The FN, with its anti-immigration agenda has been shunned by France’s main parties.

But Ms Le Pen has said she wants to break with its xenophobic, anti-Islam image and is confident the FN can become part of mainstream politics.

A recent poll suggested the party could come third in the presidential elections to be held in 2012.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Washed away

Sri Lankans affected by floods, January 2011 Over a million Sri Lankans have been affected by days of flooding
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Driving into Kalmunai we saw choppy waters on both sides of the road, something like an inland sea.

The water gave way to flooded coconut plantations.

On Friday, as the Muslim faithful went to midday prayers, the rain was starting up again in this mixed Muslim-Tamil town on Sri Lanka’s isolated south-eastern seaboard.

Life here has been turned upside down.

In normal times this is a land peppered with lagoons but now it is as if they have taken over the land.

Ahmed Lebbe, a farmer, wades through paddy crops in flood-hit Sri Lanka, January 2011Huge expanses of agricultural land have been swamped

By a small Hindu temple, its bell tolling, the road simply petered out, giving way to a huge expanse of water.

There was merely a line of poles indicating where the road should be.

In places like this, local people are now getting around by boat. Motorboats and simple wooden catamarans sailed past.

Not far away a few men, women and boys were peering gingerly round the houses they abandoned six days ago. The water level has gone down but not enough for them to move back in.

Youths were trying to throw out the aquatic plants that have been swept into the buildings. One picked up two snakes that ended up on top of the compound fence.

“The reservoir burst and everything was destroyed. We can’t salvage any crops.”

Ahmed Lebbe Farmer

About half a dozen tortoises of various sizes had also been brought in by the waters.

Much worse, the floodwaters have spilled into the freshwater wells – the UN children’s agency Unicef believes 66,000 wells have suffered this fate.

Navamani Ravichand is just one of nearly 400,000 Sri Lankans now living in makeshift camps that have sprung up in schools.

She, her husband and four children are crammed with about 400 other families into a school that now accommodates those who fled their homes.

A team of local volunteers helped by inmates cooks lunch.

There is improvised cricket while the younger children have taken over the playground – but Ms Ravichand just wonders when they will all be able to go home. Her husband, a farm labourer, has no work at the moment.

Sri Lankans affected by floods, January 2011 Navamani Ravichan (middle) now lives in a makeshift camp with thousands of others

On the way inland are huge expanses of crushed paddy crops – fields destroyed by the rain and by water gushing out of burst irrigation reservoirs.

Ahmed Lebbe, a 50-year-old farmer, faces ruin. “There was no rain for months,” he says.

“Then it started raining and it’s gone on for a month and a half without stopping. Then the reservoir burst and everything was destroyed. We can’t salvage any crops.”

Another farmer who also works as a teacher, Suleiman, is equally desolate.

“Now, nothing to harvest. Everything under water,” he laments in English. “Other people are also like this. So many farmers are very lost. To recover this it will take five years, I think.”

They cannot farm – so many local men see little option other than to try fishing in the floodwaters.

Everywhere, nets are being cast – but little substantial is being caught.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Paper review

Papers

Both the Guardian and the Independent lead on the crisis in Tunisia.

The Guardian describes the departure of the country’s president as a “victory for people power”, but is prompted to ask: “what next?”

The Independent believes similar events could easily be repeated across the Arab world.

The Daily Mail describes it as the first “Wikileaks revolution”, as one of the US diplomatic cables likened the presidential family to mafia mobsters.

The paper says that even though publication of the comments was banned, news of them spread by mouth, and contributed to the public anger.

The lead in the Times is about the collapse of the trial of six environmental activists.

The reason given at the time was that an undercover police officer apparently decided to support the defence.

But the Times says that the case fell apart when secret police tapes came to light, undermining the prosecution.

The Daily Telegraph turns its attention to the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election in which Labour increased its majority over the Liberal Democrats.

The paper’s leader warns that “if political history teaches us anything, it is to avoid reading too much into the outcome of a by-election”.

The Daily Express is angry that, at a time when student finances are in the spotlight, more than £250m of taxpayers’ money is spent each year on giving university places to students from other EU countries.

The paper’s leader concludes that “as in so many areas, European law seems purpose-built to disadvantage Britons”.

And Thunderbirds are go… again, according to the Sun. Nearly 50 years after the show first appeared on TV screens, creator Gerry Anderson, 81, tells the paper that Thunderbirds is making a return.

This time, however, the famous puppets will be replaced with CGI.

But Mr Anderson says Thunderbirds “will not lose its uniqueness”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Pilgrims killed in India stampede

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At least 45 pilgrims have been killed in a stampede at a religious festival in the southern Indian state of Kerala, officials say.

Scores more have been injured in the crush, which was reportedly triggered by a road accident.

The pilgrims were returning from the Hindu shrine of Sabarimala, which is in a remote, mountainous, densely-forested area.

State officials said the death toll could rise.

It was not immediately clear how the stampede had begun.

The Indian PTI news agency said a jeep carrying pilgrims had driven into a crowd returning from the shrine, starting a panic.

However, the Times of India reported that the incident happened when the jeep broke down and overturned as pilgrims tried to move it.

It crushed a number of people and caused others to stumble, which then triggered the stampede, the report said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Zsa Zsa Gabor has leg amputated

Zsa Zsa GaborDoctors said Gabor is in “frail health” after having her right leg amputated
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Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor’s right leg, which was infected with gangrene, has been amputated in a life-saving surgery her doctors have deemed a success.

She is in “frail health” and will be closely monitored in a Los Angeles hospital, Dr David Rigberg said.

Gabor was hospitalised on 2 January after attempts to save her leg with antibiotics proved unsuccessful.

The 93-year-old has been admitted to hospital a number of times since breaking her hip in July.

“Ms Gabor needed an amputation above her knee due to poor circulation and a large ulcerated area on her right leg,” said Dr Rigberg, an associate professor of vascular surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“The surgery today went well, however, she is in frail health so we will continue to monitor her closely,” he said, adding that after consulting with Ms Gabor’s husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, he felt amputation was the best decision.

Gabor had been hospitalised several times for swelling in her legs and blood clots throughout her body, following a hip replacement surgery this summer.

She was readmitted to hospital in the new year because a wound in her right leg had grown and “wasn’t healing any more”, her publicist John Blanchette said earlier this month.

Gabor had reportedly been bedridden in recent months.

She was in critical condition and had asked for a priest during a trip to the hospital in August, but Gabor soon recovered and was sent home.

The veteran actress was partially paralysed in a car accident in 2002 and suffered a stroke in 2005, forcing her to use a wheelchair.

Gabor starred in the films Moulin Rouge, Touch of Evil and Queen of Outer Space, among others.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.