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09/02/2010 02:16 PMFresh phone-hacking claim against News of the World Press Complaints Commission confirms it was told two months ago that journalist was under investigation over new claim
The News of the World is facing a fresh allegation of phone hacking against one of its journalists, the Press Complaints Commission confirmed today.
The commission was informed by the paper just over two months ago about the allegation, and the journalist involved has been "suspended from reporting duties".
Stephen Abell, the PCC director, confirmed today that the press regulator was informed by the paper in June "of the existence of the recent allegation of phone-message hacking against the reporter". Abell said that the PCC was prevented from launching its own investigation because the allegation was "the subject of legal action".
The new claim was revealed late yesterday in a New York Times article on the News of the World phone-hacking affair. The paper reported that the News of the World was conducting a new phone-hacking investigation and had suspended a reporter, after a "television personality" had been alerted by her phone company to a "possible unauthorised attempt to access her voicemail" and the number was traced back to a journalist at the paper.
Bill Akass, the News of the World managing editor, confirmed in a response to the New York Times that an internal investigation was under way and that a journalist had been "suspended from reporting duties".
It is understood that the News of the World was first made aware of the phone-hacking claim around Easter this year and that the internal investigation is ongoing.
"A serious allegation has been made about the conduct of one of our reporters. We have followed our internal procedures and the reporter has been suspended from reporting duties, and a very thorough and extensive investigation carried out into that allegation (involving, for example, external forensic specialists)," Akass said.
"The allegation is the subject of litigation and our internal investigation continues in tandem with that, which means I am unable to comment further. If the conclusion of the investigation or the litigation is that the allegation is proven, the reporter will be dismissed for gross misconduct without compensation.
"We have a zero-tolerance approach to any wrong-doing and will take swift and decisive action if we have proof of any wrong-doing."
Abell said: "The PCC was informed by the News of the World in June of the existence of the recent allegation of phone message hacking against the reporter. This is currently the subject of legal action, which has prevented the PCC from becoming formally involved at this stage.
"However, once the legal action has been concluded, the commission will consider the matter further. It was right that the News of the World disclosed the existence of this claim to the PCC, and we will address the issues when it is possible for us to do so. The PCC has made publicly clear on a number of occasions that phone message hacking is deplorable and that view – of course – remains."
The News of the World's editor, Colin Myler told the Commons culture select committee last year that he had introduced new procedures to avoid a repeat of this behaviour. Myler became editor in 2007, when Andy Coulson resigned over the Clive Goodman phone-hacking affair.
Myler told the committee that all staff were ordered to follow the PCC code of conduct and warned that failure to comply could result in disciplinary proceedings. Stricter controls on cash payments and sources were also introduced and all staff had to attend workshops on the PCC code, he added.
The committee called several current and former executives from the News of the World's publisher, News International, including Coulson, last year as part of its inquiry into privacy, press standards and libel.
This fresh round of hearings was prompted by the Guardian's revelation that News International had paid £700,000 to settle a breach of privacy claim from Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, after a private investigator working for the News of the World hacked into his phone.
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09/02/2010 05:29 PMOil rig explodes in Gulf of Mexico Explosion off Louisiana raises pollution fears after BP oil spill, but coastguard say damaged rig is not in production
Another oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico suffered an explosion today, raising fears of more pollution just months after the BP oil spill hit the area.
There were 13 crew on the rig, of whom one was known to be injured. Most of the crew took to the water when the explosion occurred.
The United States Coast Guard said the rig was not in production, suggesting there would be no oil leak, but it could not be sure.
The blast comes as states surrounding the Gulf are still cleaning up after the BP oil spill.
The rig, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay, Louisiana, is owned by Mariner Energy.
Petty officer Colclough, of the coastguard, said the rig was still on fire.
"There are reports that the rig was not producing product," he said, suggesting that the chances of an oil spill were small. But he said that this was still under investigation.
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09/02/2010 03:28 PMMiddle East peace talks – LIVE Follow all the diplomatic activity as Israel and Palestine hold Middle East peace talks in Washington DC - live
2.19pm ET: More on the framework agreement that the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are thrashing out today. The Associated Press reports:
Though "less than a full-fledged treaty," [US peace envoy George] Mitchell said the framework would "establish the fundamental compromises necessary to enable the parties to then flesh out and complete a comprehensive agreement that will end the conflict and establish a lasting peace."How long will that take? According to Mitchell, the goal is to "resolve all of the core issues within one year".
1.50pm ET: Further details emerging from the peace talks this morning, with George Mitchell speaking to reporters at the State Department where the talks are taking place:
"I believe these two leaders – President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu – are committed to doing what it takes to achieve the right results."Mitchell said the two sides are working on a framework agreement for on-going talks, without giving details, although he said the agreement would describe the "fundamental compromises" that would be needed.
On the table is likely to be the list of issues that have been long familiar: Israel's security, East Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and of course the question of borders and settlements.
Mitchell said he and Hillary Clinton would attend the next round of talks later this month.
1.25pm ET: More details now emerging on the agreements for a further round of talks. The US special envoy George Mitchell has announced that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to a second round of talks to take place 14-15 September in the Middle East – probably at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort region on the Sinai peninsula.
Mitchell also said they would meet every two weeks after that.
Sharm el-Sheikh was the site of talks in 1999, as was nearby Taba in 2001.
1.05pm ET: Breaking news There are reports that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to hold a second round of peace talks on 14-15 September.
More details when we get them, but this is encouraging, given that the US had hoped for at least this much.
12.30pm ET: The US's special Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell gave a briefing before the peace talks started, in which he was asked about the role of Hamas, on the grounds it would be "the elephant in the room" during the discussions. Mitchell responded:
We do not expect Hamas to play a role in this immediate process. But as Secretary of State Clinton and I have said publicly many times, while in the Middle East and in the United States, we welcome the full participation by Hamas and all relevant parties once they comply with the basic requirements of democracy and nonviolence that are, of course, a prerequisite to engage in these serious types of discussions.Mitchell then raised the issue of comparing Hamas to the IRA, given his long involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process:
There has been a good deal of a discussion about references to Northern Ireland, and I have repeatedly been asked by reporters and individuals when I make public appearances, well, Senator, you talk to the IRA in Northern Ireland, but don't you talk to Hamas here. The questions reflect an incomplete understanding of what occurred in Northern Ireland and its relationship to this situation.
So, first, let me say they're very different. It's not useful to try to make direct comparisons because the participants, the circumstances, the situation, the timing are all very different. And while we should learn what we can from other processes, each is unique.
But on the central point, the reality is that in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, the political party that is affiliated with the IRA, did not enter the negotiations until after 15 months had elapsed in the negotiations, and only then because they met two central conditions that had been established. The first was a ceasefire, and the second was a publicly stated commitment to what came to be known as the Mitchell Principles because I was the chairman of the commission that established them.
12.15pm ET: Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, answers a few questions about the state of the Middle East peace talks during his daily televised press briefing.
After some talk about approaching Hurricane Earl and today's oil rig explosion in the Gulf, Gibbs is asked if Obama is more optimistic about the prospects, given recent stability in the area.
"The president felt the meetings yesterday were productive and believed that each of the leaders were genuine and serious about seeking peace," responds Gibbs, giving nothing away. But Middle East peace has "eluded generations, we're mindful of that."
Gibbs is asked if the threat to all parties from a nuclear armed Iran was concentrating the minds of participants, including the Palestinians. Gibbs won't go down that road: "We have always maintained that peace was in the best interests of all of these entities involved, regardless of anything else in the Middle East."
But the rest of the White House corpse – sorry, corps – are more interested in asking about the up-coming 2010 midterms and how badly the Democrats are likely to do.
11.32am ET: As usual, the peace talks are being covered in minute detail by the Israeli press. Writing in Haaretz, Avi Issacharoff has a positive view of Mahmoud Abbas's track record as president:
Abbas' control may not extend to Gaza, but in the West Bank he has engineered a revolutionary transformation. Lacking Arafat's much-touted charisma, Abbas has quietly, obstinately changed the very face of the territory. Along with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, he has created a new way of life for the Palestinians. The armed men have disappeared, and West Bank cities for the first time know law and order. And yes, the number of terror attacks against Israelis has plummeted.Issacharoff's conclusion about the chances of success at the peace talks:
The Netanyahu government must understand the price of ending the conflict. You want peace? Give Abbas the Temple Mount. Without Islamic sovereignty over what Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif, we won't have peace even a decade from now.10.55am ET: The Guardian's Chris McGreal is at the State Department in Foggy Bottom, and he listened to the statements from Clinton, Netanyahu and Abbas in the conference room just now. Here's his take:
I thought it was interesting Netanyahu said that if the issues of recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and security were agreed, everything else was doable. That suggests he's prepared to make the necessary sacrifices on settlements, East Jerusalem, the borders, etc. But whether the sacrifices he has in mind meet Palestinian expectations is another matter.The security issues will not be easy, either. Netanyahu made reference to rockets coming from Gaza. What the Israeli have in mind to ensure there is no such threat from the West Bank is not clear
10.49am ET: Back to Clinton, who wraps up the opening remarks:
"Now it's time to get to work."10.40am ET: Now Palestinian President Abbas speaks. After a preamble, Abbas calls for Israel to stop building settlements on the West Bank and to end its embargo imposed on Gaza.
Abbas then talks about efforts the Palestinian Authority has been taking to find the terrorists who killed four Israeli settlers yesterday, and the police work and arrests that have followed.
Abbas then said "the goals are clear" and the path to an enduring peace is known to both sides – and that means it should be possible to achieve a final peace agreement within the year-long table favoured by the US sponsors:
"We do know how hard are the hurdles and obstacles we face during these negotiations – negotiations that within a year should result in an agreement that will bring peace."10.38am ET: Netanyahu:
"President Abbas, history has given us a rare opportunity to end the conflict between our two peoples, a conflict that has been going on for more than a century."Netanyahu then quotes from the book of Genesis, the story of Isaac and Ishmael joining together to bury their father Abraham in Hebron, and concluding:
"I can only pray, and I know that millions around the world ... pray that the pain that we have experienced, you and I, in the last 100 years of conflict, will unite us not only in a moment of peace around a table of peace here in Washington, but will enable us to leave from here and forge a lasting peace for generations."10.33am: Now Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking. So far, diplomats have been struck by the force of Netanyahu's insistence yesterday that he wants to find an historic compromise. But they remain sceptical about whether he has the will and the ability to do so.
"We have to get from disagreement to agreement, that's a big task," says Netanyahu, who refers to the "two pillars of peace": legitimacy and security.
"Just as you expect us to recognise the Palestine as the nation state of the Palestinian people, we expect you to recognise Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people."Netanyahu refers to Clinton's remark about the "veterans" of Middle East peace talks, and the 12 years he has been involved in them, but then talks about what has changed in recent years, especially the influence of Iran.
10.29am ET: Clinton is making no bones that the chances of success from these talks are slim.
"I want to conclude by saying a few words directly to the people of the region," says Clinton, telling them "you are the ones that will ultimately decide the future."
"For the effort to succeed we need your support and your patience ... we cannot do this without you."10.22am ET: The first official public act begins: at the State Department, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opens proceedings with a statement:
"I look around and I see veterans. We've been here before and we know how hard this will be."Looking at Netanyahu and Abbas, seated around her at the U-shaped conference table, Clinton said: "You each have taken an important step toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change."
Things will "get no easier if we wait, nor will they resolve themselves" says Clinton, warning of "all the long days" that will follow if the peace talks are to proceed.
10am ET: Amid the searing heat of a Washington summer and swarms of police and Secret Service vehicles around the centre of the city, the latest round of Middle East peace talks are formally underway.
You can tell it's Middle East peace talks at the State Department from the presence of bomb-sniffing dogs and long lines to get through security. Computers have to be opened and placed on the ground for the dogs to sniff – and given that they are journalists' laptops, the greatest security threat may be to the health of the sniffer dogs from the toxic keyboards.
The Guardian's Chris McGreal sets the scene:
Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has said he is looking "to find a historic compromise" that will bring peace to the Middle East for generations as he begins direct talks with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Washington today.Today's talks are the first since the last peace effort foundered in December 2008, and take place against a background of violence in the West Bank and Israeli settlement activity. As a result, expectations are low and the US is setting its sights on an agreement to hold a second round of negotiations as a mark of success.
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09/02/2010 12:14 PMHague 'wanted to put record straight' No 10 says Hague enjoys PM's full support as foreign secretary says he wanted to 'put the record straight' about his sexuality
David Cameron declared his "100% support" for William Hague today, as the foreign secretary said he had decided to speak out about his private life because he could no longer put up with allegations about his sexuality.
Hague also received the backing of his local constituency party chair after issuing a statement yesterday in which he denied having had an "improper" relationship with his special adviser, Christopher Myers, who resigned as a result of the "pressure" put on his family due to the "untrue and malicious allegations" circulating on the internet.
At a press conference this morning with the German foreign minster, Guido Westerwelle, Hague refused to be drawn on his decision to appoint Myers, or respond to the suggestion that he had exercised "poor judgment" in sharing a hotel room with his assistant.
Downing Street said today that Hague enjoyed Cameron's full support, after the foreign secretary denied having had any relationships with men and revealed details about his wife's miscarriages to dispel rumours that he had made an "improper" appointment in hiring Myers.
Government sources stressed that the statement was Hague's idea and that it was fully supported by his wife. But Andy Coulson, the Downing Street director of communications, was said to have been heavily involved.
At the press conference, Hague said: "Yesterday, I made a very personal statement, which was not an easy thing to do. I am not going to expand on that today. My wife and I really felt we had had enough of the circulation of untrue allegations, particularly on the internet, and at some point you have to speak out about that and put the record straight."
Asked to comment on a claim made by fellow Tory MP, John Redwood, that he had exercised "poor judgment" in sharing a room with his assistant, Hague insisted that the work of the Foreign Office "has not missed a beat, and will not miss a beat, at any stage. I have not spent many minutes away from all duties of the foreign secretary."
Questioned about Myers's eligibility for the job, Hague claimed this had been covered in his statement of yesterday. However, that statement made no mention of why he had given Myers the job despite already having two special advisers.
There had been unease in Downing Street at Hague's judgment in appointing a 25-year-old graduate with little apparent expertise in foreign affairs.
But asked today whether Hague continued to have the support of Cameron, a spokeswoman for the prime minister said that he was not making any new statement on the issue but had given the foreign secretary his full backing throughout.
The spokeswoman said: "We have always given William our 100% support. That was the case yesterday and it is the case today.
"The prime minister totally understands why William made the statement he did and he backs him 100%."
Ed Balls, one of the candidates for Labour leader, sympathised with the Hagues, but said he did not think making the statement was the "wisest" way to respond to the internet rumours.
Balls said that together with his wife, shadow work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper, he had "put up with" smears and lies from rightwing blogs rather than respond publicly.
The shadow education secretary told BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show: "I'm not sure whether going out and making a public statement in that detail is the wisest thing to do. I think it probably gives more credibility to some of these websites and to allegations which aren't true.
"I've no reason to think that there's anything other than complete integrity in what William Hague says and I feel sorry for him and for Ffion in going through this."
Hague's decision to issue a statement was described as "very brave" by Christopher Bourne-Arton, the chair of the Conservative Association in his North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond.
Bourne-Arton told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "Rumour has been created by somebody who makes a living out of blogging and has nothing better to do and so he had to nail it once and for all. The tragedy is that it was made necessary by this media feeding frenzy."
Hague confirmed yesterday that Myers had resigned as a result of the "pressure" put on his family due to the "untrue and malicious allegations made about him".
In his statement Hague said: "Any suggestion that his appointment was due to an improper relationship between us is utterly false, as is any suggestion that I have ever been involved in a relationship with any man."
Hague admitted to "occasionally" sharing hotel rooms with Myers during the election campaign.
But he added: "Neither of us would have done so if we had thought that it in any way meant or implied something else. In hindsight, I should have given greater consideration to what might have been made of that, but this is in itself no justification for allegations of this kind, which are untrue and deeply distressing to me, to Ffion and to Christopher."
Hague acknowledged that releasing the statement would cause "distress" for their families but insisted he had to reveal the "straightforward truth".
Myers was employed by Hague during the general election campaign as a constituency aide and had worked for the foreign secretary as a policy adviser on a salary reported to be £30,000.
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09/02/2010 02:50 PMRBS cuts 3,500 British jobs Total positions lost at bailed-out British banks RBS and Lloyds rises to almost 45,000
The total number of British jobs axed by RBS and Lloyds TSB, both of which were bailed out by the taxpayer and are still part owned by the government, reached almost 45,000 today.
RBS announced that it was axing 3,500 back-office jobs as a result of the sale of 318 of its branches to Santander, a move demanded by EU regulators in return for the bank's £54bn government bailout almost two years ago. That takes the total number of posts lost since Stephen Hester took over as chief executive two years ago to almost 27,000.
The decision was met with dismay by union leaders, who described the latest in a string of job losses from the financial services sector as "a horror story", not least because it comes after the bank, in which the taxpayer has an 84% stake, announced profits of £1.1bn last month.
Earlier this summer, Lloyds TSB axed another 1,850 posts, largely from the Halifax business it rescued amid controversy at the height of the banking crisis, taking the toll since it was bailed out to almost 18,000. The full impact could actually be even higher as a further 1,000 positions are on the line because of Lloyds's decision to close the 265 agencies used by Halifax to allow customers to pay money into their accounts. Often based in estate agents, the people affected by this decision are not employed by Lloyds.
RBS, meanwhile, said today that the axe would fall across its back office, technology and property operations and no front-line – or "customer-facing" – staff would be lost. Over the next two years, RBS intends to close 12 of its business operations centres: the axe will fall in Leeds, Ashton House in Bolton, Enfield, Harrogate, Bristol, Borehamwood, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Telford, Bradford and Norwich. It will retain its centres in Birmingham, Chatham, Edinburgh, Greenock, London, Manchester, Rotherham, Southend, Menai and at a second site in Bolton.
RBS, however, actually expects staffing levels in Scotland to rise, especially in Edinburgh and Greenock, as it consolidates its mortgage, IT and support services on two key sites in the area; the 318 branches sold to Santander are all south of the border. RBS also shifting 150 technology posts from the Netherlands to Edinburgh.
RBS employs 24,000 people in its back-office functions, out of a total workforce of just under 100,000.
"It will be a specially bitter pill for staff to swallow as RBS has decided to move some of the jobs abroad to the far east, India and America," said Rob MacGregor, national officer at the union Unite. "Just three weeks ago, staff were boosted to hear of the £1.1bn half-year profit, yet today thousands of them are told that they have no future at the bank.
"The scale of the cuts announced today beggars belief and staff across the country today will be left reeling from this news. We continue to see a financial services sector which thinks the skills and expertise of its staff are a disposable asset with scant regard for the high level of service these very same staff provide to their customers."
But a spokesperson for RBS said: "Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support.
"We continue to make efficiencies across our business and adjust our plans in line with the divestments we have been required to make by the EU. We will do all we can to support our staff, offer redeployment opportunities wherever possible and keep compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum."
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09/02/2010 03:36 PMPakistani diplomat defends players Top Pakistani diplomat claims Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who have been dropped from tour, were set up
The Pakistani high commissioner said today he believed the three cricketers under investigation for spot-fixing were "set up", after talking to them in London about the allegations.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who will take no further part in the tour of England, had been summoned to explain themselves to commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, and the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt.
After the meeting, Hasan read out a statement saying the men maintained their innocence but had requested their own removal from the remaining matches because of the "mental torture" they had faced. He said he believed in their innocence.
Later, he went further, questioning the veracity of the News of the World video that forms the basis for the accusations.
He said it was not clear "whether they [the videos] were taken before the match" and suggested they might have been recorded after the no-balls had been bowled.
Asked twice whether he believed the three players had been "set up" he replied "yes" both times. In a statement, the News of the World described the set-up allegations as "ludicrous".
In his statement this morning, Hasan said: "They [the three players] mentioned that they are entirely innocent in the whole episode and shall defend their innocence as such.
"They further maintain that, on account of the mental torture which has deeply affected them, they are not in the right frame of mind to play the remaining matches.
"Therefore they have requested the Pakistan Cricket Board not to consider them for the remaining matches."
While speaking, Hasan was persistently asked by Pakistani journalists, who believe the team is the victim of a conspiracy: "What about India?"
The three players were met by a media scrum as they arrived at the high commission this morning in four-wheel drives with blacked-out windows, and required a police escort to the building.
The Pakistani team manager, Yawar Saeed, said earlier that the players would miss all the remaining matches of the tour. Replacements will be called up for the five-match one-day series against England but not for the two Twenty20 matches.
The players' removal from the squad will come as a relief for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which will be hoping the move takes the pressure off the rest of the tour and stems any protests by fans.
Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman and chairman of the ICC's Pakistan taskforce, welcomed the announcement that the players would play no further part and said he hoped the remaining matches would be played in a competitive spirit.
"I look forward to working with Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, and Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and everyone involved in Pakistani cricket in taking forward cricket in Pakistan so that a proper plan exists for the whole of Pakistani cricket," he said.
The focus will now return to the ICC investigation, although officials will not be interviewing the players until they get the go-ahead from the police. That is likely to be tomorrow at the earliest, which is when the police are next due to question the players.
Ever since the allegations broke, Pakistani officials have maintained that the players would not be removed from the team until wrongdoing had been proved. Hasan denied today that they had come under any pressure from either the ICC or the ECB to pull them out of the tour.
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09/02/2010 01:30 PMUS declares hurricane emergency Hurricane expected to reach North Carolina later today as states from Virginia to Massachusetts prepare to batten down hatches
States along the eastern coast of the United States were today preparing evacuation plans to be put in to operation if hurricane Earl moves inland instead of glancing the shoreline.
As thousands of people were told to leave islands off North Carolina, Barack Obama authorised the department of homeland security and the Federal Emergencies Management Agency (Fema) to co-ordinate disaster relief – a move that should allow rapid movement of equipment and other resources if the hurricane threatens the most densely populated area of the country.
Storms are expected to reach North Carolina later today before moving north-east as states from Virginia to Massachusetts also prepare to batten down the hatches.
The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have already declared emergencies. The Virginia governor, Bob McDonnell, activated the National Guard, sending troops to the Hampton Roads area on Chesapeake Bay. "I'd rather be safe and get our troops and state police in place by Thursday night," he said.
"Post-Katrina, people are really sensitive to storm preparedness," said Trace Cooper, mayor of Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. "I don't think we're going to see too many people sticking around and saying they're going to have hurricane parties. You see enough pictures of people waiting on their roofs to be rescued and you decide to take precautions."
Winds of up to 140mph were reported as Earl continued to gather strength. Authorities are hoping the storm will stay offshore, but forecasters have warned that it could come closer and pass over New York Island, Boston and Cape Cod.
At the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, spokesman Dennis Feltgen said: "There is still concern that this track, the core of the storm, could shift a little farther to the west and have a very significant impact on the immediate coastline. Our present track keeps it off shore, but you never know."
Warnings have been issued along the Atlantic coast for most of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts, alerting residents that hurricane and tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 to 48 hours.
A mandatory evacuation has already been ordered for 30,000 residents and visitors on Hatteras Island, in North Carolina. But some residents were preparing to ride out the storm.
"I worry about not being able to get back here,'" said Nancy Scarborough, who manages the Hatteras Cabanas holiday-home complex. "I'd rather be stuck on this side than that side."
About 5,000 tourists were also ordered to leave Ocracoke Island, to the south.
Earl is a category four hurricane, one short of the most powerful category, five, the classification for storms hitting 155mph and higher.
"Everyone is poised and ready to pull the trigger if Earl turns west – but our hope is that this thing goes out to sea and we're all golfing this weekend," Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts emergency management agency, said.
In Boston, some boaters had already pulled their vessels from the water in anticipation of rough seas, said Harwich assistant harbour master Heinz Proft. "It's been a small percentage so far, but we are encouraging people to be proactive," he said.
Red Cross officials in New York are ready to open up to 50 shelters, housing up to 60,000 people, in an emergency.
The risk modelling agency, AIR Worldwide, estimated that Earl caused $50m (£32.5m) to $150m in insured losses in the Virgin Islands, St Maarten, St Martin and Puerto Rico when it blew through the north-east Caribbean earlier this week, blowing down signs, roofs, trees and power lines.
Obama's declaration of an emergency comes days after the fifth anniversary of hurricane Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans and prompted criticism of federal agencies' slow response during George Bush's presidency.
Federal agencies were also accused by residents of Louisiana of being slow in reacting to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April.
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09/02/2010 04:48 PMKosovo offers fresh start with Serbia Prime minister Hashim Thaçi, writing for Comment is free, responds to EU calls for talks with Belgrade neighbour
The prime minister of Kosovo, which seceded from Serbia and declared independence two years ago, has offered to make a fresh start in relations with Belgrade, which is coming under increasing European pressure to respond in kind.
In an article for the Guardian's Comment is free, Hashim Thaçi said it was "inevitable" that Kosovo and Serbia would resolve their deep enmity, bury their differences, and look to a future integrated in the European Union (EU).
The call for new negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade followed a blunt warning to the Serbian government this week from the foreign secretary, William Hague, who said the Serbs were jeopardising their chances of joining the EU by refusing to deal with an independent Kosovo.
The Serbs have tabled a draft resolution, to be discussed next week at the United Nations in New York, calling for Kosovo's secession to be condemned.
Hague told the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, to ditch the resolution. If he refused, Serbia's application to join the EU would be in trouble, Hague warned. If Tadic agreed, Britain would be Serbia's biggest backer in seeking to join the EU. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, delivered a similar message in Belgrade last week.
Thaçi appeared to be responding to the growing calls from Brussels and west European capitals for the opening of new talks between Belgrade and Pristina.
"My country looks forward to working with Serbia and discussing practical issues that would improve the lives of all of our citizens," Thaçi said. "We are neighbours and we face common challenges. Our Serbian neighbours may not recognise Kosovo's independence just yet, but cooperation between the two independent states is inevitable."
The International Court of Justice dealt Serbie a blow in July, rejecting a demand from Belgrade to declare Kosovo's independence against international law.
Hague told the Serbs it was time to end recriminations from the outcome of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, to accept the new reality, and to focus on the future, with eventual EU membership.
Serbia has applied to join, but Brussels has yet to rule on opening negotiations. Membership is years away and improbable unless Serbia recognises an independent Kosovo, something it has vowed never to do.
Nato went to war against Serbia over Kosovo in 1999. The territory, populated mainly by ethnic Albanians, was then put under UN stewardship, leading to the declaration of independence in 2008. Serbia refuses to accept that. But Thaçi complimented Tadic. "Today's Serbian government," he said, "has a different complexion from the one that terrorised my people 11 years ago."
Hague said the map of the Balkans, redrawn in the 1990s as a result of the wars and the collapse of Yugoslavia, was now complete and would not be re-opened, meaning Kosovo's fate was settled and there could be no Serbian secession in Bosnia.
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09/02/2010 04:46 PMMiliband tells Labour to end feuding Labour leadership contender says he wants to lead 'a government not a gang'
Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband today sought to distance himself from the party feuding reignited by Tony Blair's new book, declaring that he wanted to lead "a government not a gang".
As ballot papers went out to eligible voters, Miliband sent an email to all party members in which he said he was "sick and tired" of seeing the leadership race characterised in terms of a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour.
Instead, the shadow foreign secretary pledged to "change the way we do politics" and said he was "ready to lead".
Miliband dispatched the email to members after the publication yesterday of Blair's autobiography, which charted the former PM's deteriorating relationship with Brown.
Urging members to give him their vote, Miliband said: "I respect both Tony and Gordon deeply. But their time has passed. Their names do not appear on the leadership ballots. And now we need to stop their achievements being sidelined and their failings holding us back."
He said those who presented the Labour leadership contest as a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour were doing a disservice to all of the candidates and to the thousands of members who have participated over the last few months.
The leadership election was about "pulling together all the talents of our party" rather than "tired old Westminster games", he said.
In a nod to the warring Blair and Brown camps during Labour's first 10 years, Miliband said: "I want to change the way we do politics. Because I want to lead a government not a gang, a movement not a machine, where honest debate can be a source of strength, not a sign of weakness."
In the book, Blair describes David Miliband as having "clear leadership qualities".
Last night, Miliband sought to distance himself from his old political patron by insisting that if he became leader, he would stick to the "Labour way" of tackling the deficit, which was to halve it over four years.
In his book, A Journey, the former prime minister issued a stark warning to the party not to drift to the left and said he believed Labour lost the general election in May because it "stopped being New Labour" under Brown's leadership.
Blair also came close to endorsing the economic strategy of the Conservative-led coalition government.
Miliband rejected the accusation that he was the "heir to Blair" when it was put to him during last night's leadership debate on Channel 4 News.
"I am my own person. I look forward to the day when Tony says he is a Milibandite rather than people asking me whether I'm a Blairite," he said.
But he added: "Whoever becomes the party leader will become the heir to Gordon Brown's leadership of the Labour party. Few people would say I was the continuity candidate with Gordon."
In what will be seen as a thinly-veiled attack on his older brother, Ed Miliband said during the debate that Blair "along with others" was stuck in a "New Labour comfort zone".
He said: "The truth is that unless we change our attitude on a whole range of things that New Labour took for granted, like flexible labour markets that mean low pay and bad working conditions for people, tuition fees and ID cards, unless we change we are not going to win again. So Tony was a great servant to us in the past, I don't think he's right about the future."
The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, claimed New Labour was seen as "hollow and disconnected" and said: "When Tony Blair says we don't need to move a millimetre away from New Labour I think he has not been on doorsteps recently and he has not recognised how we came to be seen."
Leftwinger Diane Abbott issued a broadside on the Blair-Brown era by saying New Labour had "frayed" some of the community ties because of its obsession with markets.
In a speech on how Labour should respond to the government's "big society" agenda, delivered today, she said: "I believe that it is time issues around family and community took centre stage in the debate about what the Labour party is for," she said.
"New Labour regarded mutual organisation and co-ops as dusty and old fashioned compared to the bright shiny world of the free markets and international financial services. But now unfettered free markets have nearly crashed the world economy, maybe it is time for the Labour party to rediscover some of those old models. They might provide appropriate structures going forward for banks like Northern Rock currently in government ownership."
As contenders bid to succeed Brown, the former premier revealed he going to work on projects including promoting global access to education and boosting internet use in Africa.
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09/02/2010 06:36 PMNo sharing ships, say UK and France Reports that two countries are to combine forces denied as defence secretaries meet to discuss closer military co-operation
British and French officials engaged in high-level defence talks have denied reports the two countries are considering sharing aircraft carriers, but are paving the way for unprecedented military co-operation, according to sources on both sides of the Channel.
Speaking on the eve of talks in Paris between the defence secretary, Liam Fox, and his French counterpart, Hervé Morin, officials said plans were being drawn up in an attempt to save money but maintain capabilities.
"We're in a phase where we must absolutely synchronise our budget cuts so that, in the end, there's no loss in our military capacities," a senior French diplomat told Agence France Presse news agency this week.
But British defence officials, irritated by reports of plans to "combine forces" and "share" ships, are keen to play down the significance of tomorrow's meeting. Morin is expected to be a victim of an imminent French government reshuffle.
"We will be looking at areas of closer co-operation between the two countries. But there are no plans to share carriers," British officials said.
Officials are instead pointing to the significance of the Franco-British summit between David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, due to be held in England on 5 November. In a keynote address to ambassadors last month, Sarkozy said France was prepared to undertake "concrete" defence projects with Britain. He added: "We will be discussing this with them without taboos in November."
The results of the British government's strategic defence and security review are expected to be announced before the November summit, making it easier for Cameron and Sarkozy to announce specific plans for co-operation.
Recent reports the two countries were planning to share ships, notably aircraft carriers, have provoked a storm of protest. Lord Boyce, the former first sea lord, said: "You cannot co-own an asset. It is totally impracticable and simply won't work."
French military officials have also expressed concerns about the practical problems involved, including different warship design. The countries also have different interests or have taken opposing positions on key international issues, including the Falklands Islands, former French colonies in Africa and the invasion of Iraq.
However, there are many potential areas of defence co-operation, which British and French officials have been working on intensely throughout the summer.
Britain is building two carriers at a cost of £5.2bn which are due to enter service in 2016 and 2018. They are unlikely to fall victim of the defence review, officials say, if only because £2bn has already been spent on them and under the contracts with shipyards and the manufacturers BAE Systems, Babcock International, and the French company Thales, scrapping them would save less than £1bn.
France, which has one aircraft carrier, has delayed until next year a decision on whether to build a second one.
Instead of sharing carriers, Britain and France could ensure more effective co-operation on missions about which the two governments agree, officials say. These could include humanitarian operations such as those off Lebanon four years ago and in the Persian Gulf.
Britain and France could also increase the "interoperability" of their warships, provide surface escorts for each other's carriers, and synchronise nuclear missile submarine patrols, officials say.
Officials point to successful co-operation between the two countries in the past on maritime missions in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and countering pirates off the Horn of Africa.
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09/02/2010 01:17 PMParents held in 'honour' killing case Mother and father of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed questioned six years after remains found by Cumbrian river
The parents of a Muslim teenager thought to have been the victim of an "honour" killing were arrested today on suspicion of her murder, almost seven years after she went missing.
The remains of Shafilea Ahmed, 17, from Warrington, Cheshire, were discovered by the river Kent near Sedgwick, Cumbria, in February 2004, five months after she disappeared from her home in Great Sankey.
After her disappearance, it emerged that the teenager had refused an arranged marriage, and that during a visit to Pakistan to meet a prospective husband she had swallowed bleach, causing injuries that required regular hospital treatment. Her father, Iftikhar Ahmed, 50, later claimed she had drunk the liquid during a power cut, mistaking it for fruit juice.
She had intended to go to university and wanted to become a lawyer.
This morning, Cheshire police arrested Shafilea's father, a taxi driver, and her mother, Farzana Ahmed, 47, at their home. The couple are being questioned at a police station in Runcorn.
They had previously been arrested and bailed by police on suspicion of kidnapping in December 2004 but were never charged after the Crown Prosecution Service said that there was insufficient evidence.
The couple had strenuously protested their innocence and claimed police had been racist, a claim denied by investigators.
Six other members of Shafilea's extended family were also arrested in connection with her disappearance but freed on police bail.
Her parents' arrests come in the wake of an armed robbery at their home last month when Shafilea's mother and two of her siblings were tied up by three masked men. Shafilea's sister Alisha Ahmed, 22, was later arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to rob.
A Cheshire police spokeswoman said: "A 50-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman from Warrington were arrested … on suspicion of the murder of Shafilea Ahmed in 2003."
No one has ever been charged over Shafilea's death. In January 2008, the Cumbria coroner, Ian Smith, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, saying she had been the victim of "a very vile murder". Her family failed to overturn his ruling in the high court.
During the inquest, it emerged that Shafilea had confided in her teachers that she feared she was being forced into an arranged marriage.
The inquest was told that she had once arrived at school with a bruised neck and a cut lip. Her parents denied any mistreatment of their daughter and said that they were not involved in her disappearance, in September 2003.
Poignant song lyrics written by the teenager were found in her bedroom after her disappearance.
In one song, Happy Families, she referred to a clash of cultures. "I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more," she wrote. "Desire to live is burning. My stomach is turning."
In a second song, entitled I Feel Trapped, she wrote: "But came this day when everything changed, I came home it seemed like a normal day. But sumthing wasn't right. I feel trapped so trapped. I'm trapped."
Referring to arranged marriages, her father told the inquest: "When you look at the children who are born here, whether they want to follow into our footsteps or not is a different thing. I always ask to my kids, 'Whatever you decide to do with your lives I'm fully behind you.'"
Shafilea had gone missing on two earlier occasions and her disappearance had been reported to police both times.
The search was launched after staff at her school overheard her siblings discussing her.
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09/02/2010 11:43 AMActivists arrested after Arctic protest Severe weather forces campaigners to give up their perilous position on British-owned rig off the coast of Greenland
• Greenpeace shuts down Arctic oil rigFour Greenpeace activists who halted drilling by a British-owned oil exploration rig off Greenland have been arrested after they abandoned their occupation because of severe weather.
Greenlandic police arrested the four after high winds buffeted the Stena Don drilling rig overnight, forcing them to abandon mountaineering-style platforms they had suspended by ropes underneath the platform less than 48 hours earlier.
The activists' arrest is a setback for Greenpeace, which believed a longer-term occupation of the rig would be a serious blow to attempts by the Edinburgh-based exploration firm Cairn Energy to strike oil or gas before the intense Arctic winter sets in.
However, sources in the region had predicted when the four protesters clambered on to the platform at dawn on Tuesday that severe weather forecast for early this morning would cut short their occupation.
Greenpeace has warned that if Cairn strikes oil or gas, it will provoke an "oil rush" in the vulnerable and unspoilt waters of the Arctic.
Today the circumstances surrounding the activists' arrest provoked a bitter row after Greenpeace accused the police of spreading "disinformation" about last night's events.
Morten Nielsen, deputy head of Greenland police, told the Guardian that the four men were "rescued" before midnight local time using baskets and ropes lowered from the Stena Don's deck after severe winds and waves up to 6m (18ft) battered the platform.
But Greenpeace's lead climber on board its protest ship the Esperanza, which has been shadowing the drilling operation in Baffin Bay west of Greenland for 11 days, said that was "simply not true".
Dean Plant said the police had "flat out" refused Greenpeace requests to get the climbers down safely before the severe weather hit the rig last night. "Given that the weather was fine at this point, we regard this refusal as irresponsible. Because the police wouldn't let the climbers come down by the safest method, the activists were instead forced by the police to go up on to the rig," he said. "To call the operation a rescue demonstrates a startling lack of honesty by the Greenland police."
A Greenpeace spokesman added that had the campaign group been allowed to retrieve the four men as requested, they would have expected them to be arrested and taken into Greenlandic custody. "We take full responsibility for what we're doing. We certainly wouldn't expect to up anchor and high tail it out," he said.
Nielsen said the protesters, from the US, Germany, Poland and Finland, have now been arrested under Greenlandic regulations for breaching the 500m safety zone around the rig and under Danish criminal law for trespass.
"Basically we were readying ourselves for any eventuality but it worked out. What needed to be done was a rescue operation," said Nielsen.
He also revealed that the police yesterday in the town of Qeqertarsuaq seized a helicopter used by Greenpeace on the Esperanza to photograph the rig.
The four protesters will make their first court appearance in about 24 hours, after being transferred from the rig to the town of Aasiaat.
In a further row, a senior Inuit politician accused Greenpeace of damaging relations among the Arctic First Nations. Aqqalak Lynge, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), an umbrella body with official representation at the UN, said the protest was hindering debate about offshore drilling.
Although many Inuit were unhappy with offshore drilling because it threatened the seas, Lynge said Greenpeace was widely disliked by Inuit because of its stance on seal hunting.
"We support development on land but not out in the ice fields, in the very pristine waters off Greenland. We live by fishing. That's our economy, our industrial economy," he said. "I think what Greenpeace is doing, they are destroying a discussion, a more nuanced discussion among the Inuit people. We are tired of being told by Greenpeace what to do and what not to do."
Mads Christensen, executive director of Greenpeace Nordic, confirmed the group had reputational problems with many Inuit because of its campaigns against seal culling in the 1970s and 80s. However, he said there were Greenlanders who opposed offshore drilling, including fishing organisations, but public debate was being stifled by Greenland's desire for economic independence from Denmark.
Cairn Energy said drilling resumed as soon as the four were arrested and that the company had built delays and unscheduled stoppages into its schedule.
Greenpeace attempted to widen its campaign against deep sea drilling by threatening to take the British government to court, accusing it of breaching EU and domestic environmental and safety legislation.
The group has sent the government a "letter before action", warning that it plans to apply for a judicial view, claiming ministers have issued new licences for deep sea drilling in British waters before they had found out what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a letter to energy secretary Chris Huhne, Greenpeace has highlighted admissions in official reports that the UK has little chance of tackling a major oil spill in the Atlantic because it does not have the equipment.
The government's own environmental assessment says the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has "very limited capability for surface oil recovery, and there is currently no capacity for large-scale containment and recovery in the offshore UK continental shelf (or in adjacent national waters, including Norway and Ireland)".
John Sauven, Greenpeace UK's executive director, said: "The world needs to go beyond oil, but here in the UK the government is waving through applications for new drilling as if the Deepwater Horizon explosion never happened.
"The Gulf of Mexico disaster was a game changer, so ministers should suspend new deep water licences and companies like Cairn Energy must stop dangerous drilling in the Arctic and start investing in clean alternatives instead."
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09/02/2010 06:40 PMDamien Hirst faces eight new plagiarism claims List includes In the Name of the Father, Pharmacy, as well as the spin and spot paintings
From formaldehyde-immersed sharks to diamond-encrusted skulls, Damien Hirst has become used to taking flak from traditionalists.
Less than welcome have been the accusations of plagiarism, the latest of which were detailed today with claims that no fewer than 15 works produced over the years by the self-styled enfant terrible have been allegedly "inspired" by others.
While Hirst has previously faced accusations that works including his diamond skull came from the imagination of other artists, the new allegations include his "crucified sheep", medicine cabinets, spin paintings, spot paintings, installation of a ball on an air-jet, his anatomical figure and his cancer cell images.
Charles Thomson, the artist and co-founder of the Stuckists, a group campaigning for traditional artistry, collated the number of plagiarism claims relating to Hirst's work for the latest issue of the Jackdaw art magazine.
He came up with 15 examples, with eight said to be new instances of plagiarism. The tally includes the medicine cabinets that Hirst first displayed in 1989, and its development in 1992 - a room-size installation called Pharmacy.
"Joseph Cornell displayed a cabinet with bottles on shelves called Pharmacy in 1943," said Thomson. Nor were Hirst's spin paintings or his installation of a ball on a jet of air original, he said, noting that both were done in the 1960s.
"Hirst puts himself forward as a great artist, but a lot of his work exists only because other artists have come up with original ideas which he has stolen," said Thomson. "Hirst is a plagiarist in a way that would be totally unacceptable in science or literature."
Aggrieved artists include John LeKay, a Briton who says he first thought of nailing a lamb's carcass to wood like a cross in 1987, only to see it reproduced by Hirst. Lekay previously claimed in 2007 that he had been producing jewel-encrusted skulls since 1993, before Hirst did so. Lori Precious, an American, says she first arranged butterfly-wings into patterns to suggest stained-glass windows in 2004, years before Hirst.
Imitation may be flattery, but not when Hirst is taking both the financial and artistic credit for their ideas, say Lekay and Precious. LeKay has never sold anything above £3,500, while Hirst's set of three crucified sheep was a reported £5.7m. Precious's butterflies sold for £6,000 against Hirst's version for £4.7m.
While Hirst is one of Britain's richest men, LeKay cannot live off his art. Accusing Hirst of being "dishonest" about where he gets his ideas, he said: "He should just tell the truth."
Although LeKay recognises that artists have always found inspiration in each other, he says the great ones adapt ideas to create works with their own individual and original stamp.
He said: "Damien sees an idea, tweaks it a little bit, tries to make it more commercial. He's not like an artist inspired by looking inwards. He looks for ideas from other people. It's superficial. Put both [crucified sheep] together and … it's the same thing."
In the 1990s, they were friends and shared exhibitions, which is when Hirst may have seen his sheep. Since then, LeKay has become more interested in Buddhism than material wealth, so he does not plan to seek compensation.
Precious recalled her pain at seeing Hirst's butterflies in a newspaper: "My artist friends and collectors called to tell me they couldn't believe the similarities between Hirst's work and mine, and … at first I too thought it was my work."
Although the patterns are not identical, she said: "It's the same material (butterfly wings) and the same idea (recreations of stained-glass windows)."
Without the funds to pursue legal action, she no longer produces butterfly works.
It emerged in 2000 that Hirst agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to head off legal action for breach of copyright by the designer and makers of a £14.99 toy which bore a resemblance to his celebrated 20ft bronze sculpture, Hymn.
David Lee, editor of The Jackdaw, says that Hirst's compensation was an admission of guilt. "The fact he was willing to fork out the money is an indication that he knew he was plagiarising the guy's work."
Hirst declined to comment.
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09/02/2010 04:09 PMThe best of the latest US TV imports Conspiracies, zombies, assassins, cops – there's plenty to get your teeth into in the latest shows coming across from America
Autumn treats: comedy highlightsIs US TV out to get you this year? We've got not one, but two conspiracy thrillers on the horizon, plus a zombie invasion, conmen, assassins – and a lot of undercover cops. Here's a quick look at some of the best of the new US dramas coming to UK screens this autumn.
Rubicon - BBC4
AMC's conspiracy thriller is all hidden clues in crosswords, clandestine meetings in libraries and (very) slow-moving plots – the perfect show to settle down with in the long winter months. James Badge Dale (The Pacific, 24) is the junior intelligence analyst who starts to wonder whether he's working for one of those ultra-secret societies who are out to control the whole world. Miranda Richardson, Arliss Howard and Roger Robinson are all involved, somehow.
The Event – Channel 4
"The assassination plot … is not the event." "The disappearance is not the event." "The CIA cover-up is not THE EVENT." Another giant conspiracy to keep you guessing this autumn. But where Rubicon seems to be drawing on The Conversation, Three Days Of The Condor and The Parallax View, the reference points here are more 24, FlashForward, Lost … and possibly even the X Files. What's so secret that the secret service haven't even got President Blair Underwood on their "need to know" list? Hmm.
The Pillars Of The Earth – Channel 4
Big, bloodthirsty epic about the fight to build a cathedral in 12th century England, based on the novel by Ken Follett. Ian McShane (no stranger to muddy battles after his days in Deadwood) is wrangling with a cast that includes Matthew Macfadyen, Rufus Sewell, Donald Sutherland, Sarah Parish and Hayley Atwell.
Dark Blue - Five USA
Dylan McDermott (The Practice) teams up with Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) for this undercover cop squad drama where they plot against drug dealers from one of those dimly lit HQs that look a bit like pool halls.
Nikita - Living
Hong Kong action star Maggie Q follows in the high-kicking high heels of Anne Parillaud, Bridget Fonda and Peta Wilson to play the rogue assassin who's looking to take down Division, the mysterious agency who trained her. (Didn't they used to pop up and give Jack Bauer a hard time at CTU?)
The Walking Dead - FX
The True Blood vampires will be back soon but, until then, maybe it's time to let some other monsters into your life? Based on a cult comic and produced by Frank "The Shawshank Redemption" Darabont, The Walking Dead offers at least the possibility of seeing Andrew Lincoln being eaten by zombies, which should make it worth a look. It's also produced by AMC – the American home of Mad Men and Breaking Bad – which suggests there should be a lot to it than hordes of lurching undead stalking malls.
Hawaii Five-0 – Bravo
You know the names, you know the number and you'll be familiar with the theme tune: this re-imagining of the classic cop show brings Alex O'Loughlin (Moonlight), Scott Caan (Ocean's Thirteen), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) together as an all-new elite squad dishing out island justice. Masi Oka (Hiro in Heroes) is also on board as the team's coroner.
Also back …
The mighty Mad Men return with a new office next week on BBC4; terrestrial viewers get a chance to wallow in the Southern gothic of True Blood's second series on Channel 4 – the third (with added werewolves prowling the Bon Temps woods) is on FX later in the year. Medics Nurse Jackie (BBC2) and House (Sky1) are also both set to return - but who'll be the first to get an iPhone stethoscope app storyline?
Looking ahead to early 2011
Sky's deal with HBO will kick in next year, with Martin Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire, David Simon's Treme and the "fantasy Sopranos" Game Of Thrones all on the cards. Sky1 has also bought Ride-Along – a new cop show from The Shield's creator Shawn Ryan starring Jennifer Beals, and Lone Star - think The Riches with a dash of Dallas. Over on More4, meanwhile, there's Shameless USA, with William H Macy putting a Chicago spin on Frank Gallagher's messy family guy.
Still waiting for…
Breaking Bad. Are Five ever going to show the second series of this brilliant show again? That quick run last Christmas went by way too fast. And what about the third? Surely Bryan Cranston's Emmy win this year should ensure that it gets a proper slot?
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09/02/2010 04:22 PMIPCC must keep its eye on the ball Instead of producing reports 3,000 pages long, the IPCC should focus only on the key questions that everyone is interested in
If the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change didn't exist, would we need to invent it? Many people find it helpful to have a single point of reference on the big, global questions that everyone is interested in: can we detect human influence on climate, how large are changes expected to be in future, what are the main impacts likely to be and what can (not should) be done about it? These are questions on which the level of scientific consensus is far higher than most non-scientists believe, so an institution like the IPCC clearly has a role to play to assess and communicate the extent – and limits – of that consensus.
Where the IPCC has gone wrong, in my view, is mission-creep. Everyone is emphasising that "there were bound to be a couple of mistakes in the 3,000 pages" of the IPCC 4th Assessment, but no one is asking why there were 3,000 pages in the first place. The IPCC started out as a simple assessment of the literature when there wasn't much climate literature to assess. As the volume of the literature has exploded, the IPCC has tried to keep pace, with ever larger reports and teams of authors. Most readers of IPCC reports don't have 10 times as many questions about climate as they had in 1990, so why do they need reports that are almost 10 times as long? The reason is that the IPCC has allowed itself to be bullied into trying to address all the questions about climate change that someone might ask, rather than confining itself to the questions that everyone is asking.
Governments are exploiting the IPCC to get climate assessments done on the cheap – authors and editors are not paid – and the scientific community is falling for it hook, line and sinker. Using an intergovernmental panel to tell the government of the Netherlands how much of the Netherlands is below sea level, or even the governments of India, China and Nepal how fast Himalayan glaciers are receding, is a bit like asking the US 101st Airborne Division to build primary schools in Afghanistan. It works, but it is not the most efficient way of doing things, and the impact of mistakes is massively magnified.
If an Afghan contractor breaks a child's foot, that's a tragedy, but a local one: if the digger is being driven by a US paratrooper, the poor kid becomes a poster child for al-Qaida. If the "2035 for 2350" mistake had been made in a regional assessment commissioned by Himalayan governments, perhaps using methods and standards of assessment endorsed by the IPCC, users of the regional assessment might have been mildly irritated, but that is all. I haven't heard of any Indian, Nepalese or Chinese hydrologists claiming to have based any decisions on the 2035 figure: they would look pretty silly if they had done, since the number was clearly wrong and contradicted elsewhere.
The only reason the 2035 mistake mattered was that it gave some journalists an excuse to talk about "the catalogue of errors in the IPCC 4th Assessment Report", failing to tell their listeners, readers and viewers that none of these errors had any impact whatsoever on the assessment's headline conclusions.
If we are going to produce regular international assessments of the climate issue, reviewed with the rigour the InterAcademy Council rightly called for this week, then they cannot be 3,000 pages long and address every aspect of climate change that is of interest, however pressing, to some government department somewhere in the world. Instead, we need reports a few hundred pages long covering the issue as a whole and addressing only the key questions that everyone is interested in. This is hardly a revolutionary idea: it is simply going back to what was done in 1990.
A key part of the IPCC's remit should be to recommend methods and standards for regional assessments. We clearly need different countries to interpret the phrase "impact of climate change" in similar ways. But undertaking these regional assessments should be up to regional governments. If the government of India wants help from the scientific community in assessing the impact of climate change on India, then we should provide it, but the IPCC has no business to do the assessment for them. The IPCC could still conduct regional assessments as special reports commissioned by interested governments, provided these are clearly separate from the regular global assessment, so no one can claim that a single mistake contaminates the whole batch.
Clearly, none of this is relevant to the 5th Assessment due to be published in 2013-2014: too much work has been done to make major changes at this stage, with author teams already in place. It will be thousands of pages long and will contain a couple ("catalogue") of errors that will be gleefully pointed out sometime in 2015. But now is the time to start thinking about what happens afterwards. We don't need to keep doing this to ourselves.
• Dr Myles Allen is head of the Climate Dynamics group at Oxford University's Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics department.
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09/02/2010 03:05 PMAuthors, keep the thank yous brief Why do writers whose prose is clean and clear turn into gushing Kate Winslets in the thank-you pages of their books?
The title story of If I Loved You, I would Tell You This, Robin Black's debut collection, is a shimmering, skewed tale of domestic disturbance and urban disaffection. It's one of 10 glacially poised stories that stand out for their simplicity; that quietly dissect the minor dramas of life and love, and blaze with understated emotion. However, on finishing the collection something else stayed with me almost as clearly as the stories themselves: the fulsome four pages of acknowledgements at the end.
Black stops short of thanking the baristas in the local coffee house or the manufacturers of the computer she uses, but it wouldn't have been a surprise to see them mentioned. Friends, fellow writers and her family are given long, involved thank yous explaining exactly why they are great critics, writers and/or friends. For someone whose prose is so lithe and without adornment, these pages seem gushingly unreal: as though a literary hybrid of Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet has wrested control of the keyboard.
Acknowledgements are one of the few places in a book when a writer can break out of their fictional world and address readers in their own voice. This is something that perhaps is more powerful than we realise. While I know the text is supposed to be the most important thing, and I'm well aware that the biographical details of a writer's life should be incidental to the reading experience, the acknowledgement pages can have a subtle effect on the way I read a book.
The best thing to do would be not to read them; to ignore those pages and stick with the story. But in moments of distraction I can't help flicking to the back to see whether I recognise the name of their editor, or if there will be gracious thanks to famous novelists or artistic grantors. I can't help but slightly judge an author by the way they acknowledge their debts: too effusive and they seem a bit needy and try-hard; too brief – a list of names in alphabetical order – and you run the risk of appearing cold and dismissive. It's probably the difficulty of treading such a fine line that makes me read long lists of names of people I have never met.
Despite my enthusiasm for them, there is a sense of the juvenile about acknowledgements – they seem longer and more sweated over in debut novels and collections than in books by more established names, from which acknowledgements are regularly entirely absent. Where they do appear they are often to express thanks for "Big" Jim Marshall, the Texas Ranger who taught the author the ins and outs of surveillance techniques, or Dr Ahab O'Shaunessy who explained the history of sickle cell anaemia, or captain Bryce Jones whose experiences informed the Afghan section of this book – normally suffixed by that staple of acknowledgement pages "all mistakes are of course my own". These kinds of acknowledgements can often appear to have been given with one eye on letting the reader know exactly how much research has gone into their fiction.
Let's be honest: it would most likely be safer for an author to eschew an acknowledgments page altogether and give the people they want to thank a bottle of wine and a copy of the book. But that somehow doesn't cut it when you've been writing a collection for years and have been helped immeasurably along the way. I can understand why Robin Black might want to pour her heart out to her nearest and dearest, but perhaps she might have done better by taking a leaf out of the rest of her book and keeping things clean and clear.
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09/02/2010 02:57 PMCan you trust unpaid theatre critics? Everyone's a critic these days – so how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? And who is reviewing the reviewers?
A few years ago, at a weird corporate dinner, an actor from a satirical sketch show turned to me and said, "I've always wondered, what exactly are your credentials to review me?" I could have obligingly set out my career path. I could have argued that the qualities qualifying a reviewer to review are as ultimately unquantifiable as hers to sit on stage naked in a bathtub doing impressions of the Queen. I could have reassured her that I made a point of never reviewing people I'd sat with at weird corporate dinners. Instead, in the absence of a critic's exam certificate, I said: "Yes, I see what you mean."
I remembered this while reading the Scotsman's recent article about an apparently suspect glut of four- and five-star reviews at this year's Edinburgh festival, which has led many to pose the question – who is reviewing the reviewers? A new body has now been set up to do just that. Festival Media Network, a trade organisation for independent media covering the Edinburgh festival, hopes among other aims to establish a code of best practice for reviewers, with numbered passes that can be used to verify the holder's membership.
Declaring conflicts of interest, striving for objectivity, promising to post a review within a reasonable timeframe, agreeing on pain of death not to use the phrase "a good time was had by all" – these should be established standards for any reviewer. The only question for me is: why aren't we talking about rolling such a network out across the country?
It used to be that the name of your publication stood your credentials to both artists and audiences. But theatre review websites have proliferated in the past few years, and with them the numbers of critics vying for readers' time and venues' tickets. Culture Wars and the Arts Desk are both staffed by professional critics, some of them ex- or current newspaper writers. Fringe Review, which reviews in London, Edinburgh, Brighton and internationally, uses a combination of theatre practitioners and journalists. Three Weeks, which has also sprouted roots far outside Edinburgh, is a training ground for mostly student writers. Since 2006, something called the Public Reviews has been taking this all to its logical conclusion, on an international scale, by vetting theatre reviews by members of the public.
One member of staff at a small London pub theatre told me she'd had five reviewers call for tickets one week but recognised the name of only one publication. (One, she thought, had said they were from something called "Kangaroo Reviews", suggesting either an Australian zine with a particular interest in the work of Frank McGuinness, or that cash-strapped drama students are getting cockier). Even if a reviewer writes for a well-known publication, there's no quick way of guaranteeing they're an experienced professional rather than a volunteer enthusiast: financially squeezed regional newspapers in particular are supplementing their professional review teams with unpaid amateur critics.
You may be able to tell within the first few lines of a review if the author is someone in whom you would place your trust (basically, don't fork out on a theatre ticket on the basis of one that starts "Walking into the foyer of the theatre, I …" or, possibly, "G'day, Mr McGuinness …"). But the majority of reviews aren't consumed in this way – they reach us stripped down to a line, or simply a star rating, on a piece of promo. How seriously should you take those five stars from the unknown website with no declared policy? Or the solitary star from the person who could, for all you know, be the director's arch-enemy?
The truth is, most of these review organisations aren't out there to wangle free theatre tickets or turn their friends' flyers into minor constellations: they're there to do a useful job. In Brighton, sites such as Three Weeks and Fringe Review have been welcomed with open arms by a fringe that has been underserved by the mainstream press. And their reviews often bring good shows to the attention of high-profile critics. At the moment, it's too easy for more established organisations to turn their noses up and not acknowledge them. So maybe, if amateur reviewers were more organised – even with a formal code of practice – then they could be the ones who benefit most.
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09/02/2010 12:41 PM'We all want to try and be original' Video: Juliette Binoche on the importance of originality and the fallout from her Cannes acceptance speech
09/02/2010 11:10 AMTable-turning tops diners' dislikes Second sittings at restaurants are increasingly common, and are increasingly annoying customers who want to to enjoy a relaxed meal. Should we accept this practice, asks Rebecca Smithers
The second sitting is an increasingly common wheeze used by restaurants to make more money. You ring to reserve a table at your favourite eaterie only to be told there is no question of lingering over a brandy or two at the end of your meal – you will be unceremoniously turfed out when the next set of ravenous diners come through the door.
Table-turning, as it is known in the trade, is so unpopular among restaurant aficionados it has emerged as one of their most common gripes in a survey by lastminute.com, which says it handles more than 2m restaurant enquiries a year.
For cash-strapped diners understandably anxious to squeeze value for money from eating out, table-turning clearly rankles. Other practices getting the thumbs down are poor service – including the not-so-optional service charge – and being left waiting for the bill to arrive, even when it has been requested.
Restaurateurs with an eye on the bottom line should take note of the other moans published in today's Plate of the nation report, which surveyed more than 2,000 British diners and quizzed 100 of the country's biggest culinary names: almost two-thirds (64%) of diners say they are irritated by tables being packed too closely together, while half are annoyed by persistently wobbly tables. Of the well-known restaurants, 15% admitted they table-turn at peak times.
More than half of the diners quizzed said that being asked to sup up and ship out at specific times because others were waiting came towards the top of their list of restaurant bug-bears. Other moans which make diners see red are "incomprehensible" menus, and charging corkage on wine brought by diners.
The imposed time limit means gastronomes are being asked to spend £6.17 for every five minutes they spend at their table at London restaurant Hakkasan, which tops the list of table-turners, allowing eaters a mere two hours at a table and charging a couple on average £148 for their meal. Anglian foodie paradise, Midsummer House in Cambridge, came second in the list charging diners £5.80 for every five minutes at their table.
Mark Bower, lifestyle director at lastminute.com, says: "Diners understand that restaurants have got to make money, and that one way of doing that is by getting two or more sittings per night at each table. But we're urging diners to check table-turning policies when booking and to negotiate just how much time they have for their meal to avoid feeling rushed."
It advises that diners having trouble booking a table somewhere really special to consider Sunday lunch as an option, or to take advantage of an early, pre-theatre sitting.
What do you think? Is it reasonable to expect restaurants – particularly popular ones – to have more than one sitting, or is this just unfettered greed on their part? Do you think they take diners for granted and should they be doing more to make those who can still afford to eat out feel welcome?
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09/02/2010 11:18 AM3D TV dominates electronics show Panasonic and Sony show off new 3D products at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show in Berlin
3D television has dominated the early agenda at IFA, Europe's largest consumer electronics show, with Panasonic and Sony both announcing flurries of new products and initiatives.
Panasonic showed off what it claimed was the first genuine 3D consumer video camera, the HDC-SDT750. This will allow users to shoot their own footage in 3D. Makoto Nagura, director of Panasonic's video camera business unit, said this would put 3D firmly into the hands of consumers.
"There is still one thing missing [today]...That is to keep your precious moments in 3D," Nagura said.
The SDT750 will go on sale in October. UK pricing was not available but it is expected to be priced at $1,399 (£908) in the US.
Most of Panasonic's press conference in Berlin was devoted to 3D – one indication of how keen the electronics industry is to persuade consumers that they should embrace the new technology, and spend considerable sums of money upgrading their home electronics set-up.
Alongside new 3D televisons and Blu-ray players, Panasonic also announced a new service to deliver 3D movies and films directly to users' living rooms. This could fix one of factors that is holding back 3D – a lack of content. Panasonic said that around 2,000 films would be available to be downloaded over a broadband connection to one of its TVs or Blu-ray players. News, sport and music channels would also be supported.
Hirotoshi Uehara, who runs Panasonic's TV business, told IFA that this 3D IPTV service would help to propel 3D into the mass market.
However, hefty price tags may continue to hold the technology back. One of the Panasonic TVs unveiled at IFA, the 42in TX-P42GT20, is available for pre-order at £1,499.
Epson also cast a cloud over the 3D euphoria in Berlin when it failed to show off a 3D projector. It took a much more cautious line than Panasonic, saying that the technology was not yet ready for mass adoption.
"When the market is ready, when the content is ready and when the technology is ready we'll be there," Jean-Marie Lacroix, commerical director of Epson Europe, told journalists.
Sony, though, took a very different view as it beat the 3D drum with considerable gusto. It claims to be the only end-to-end 3D provider, as it produces movies shot in 3D, the cameras that are used to film them, and TVs that people can watch them on.
Unlike Epson, Sony did announce a 3D video projector. The WV-90 will let consumers project a 3D film onto a wall, which could give a cinema-style experience.
The Japanese giant also had a prototype model of its first 3D-capable laptop, which chief executive Sir Howard Stringer said would be commercially available next year.
Like Panasonic, Sony is trying to increase the amount of 3D content on the market with a new television service. Stringer, who cited James Cameron's Avatar as a crucial factor in driving 3D forward, cautioned that film-makers should not rely on 3D at the expense of storyline.
"A hit is still a hit, is still a hit, except that in 3D it's a bigger hit."
Sony's entire press conference was filmed live in 3D and broadcast on a large screen. This, however, highlighted one of the other drawbacks to 3D broadcasting – that viewers need to wear special glasses.
Stringer, who described Sony as the "biggest engine" in the 3D train, also argued that the technology could be about more than just films and sport, and demonstrated this with footage of a performance by Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
Lang Lang himself then played live at IFA, telling the press conference that he was a fan of 3D as it let music lovers "get closer to us".
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09/01/2010 04:32 PMLife on a waiting list: action stations Eight years ago James Hipwell received a kidney from his brother. Now he prepares to go into surgery again, this time alongside his wife Rachel
When I started this column in June, I was just coming to terms with the fact that I was in end stage renal failure for the second time in my life. I have to admit I had no idea that only three months later, my wife and I would be packing our bags for a stay at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and major organ surgery for both of us would only be a few days away.
Things have been moving very quickly now that Rachel has been given the green light to be a donor. Dialysis has given me a very basic form of kidney function, and so now that my health has improved a little, the hospital is keen to perform the kidney transplant as soon as they can.
They plan to transplant one of Rachel's kidneys – her left one specifically – into me next week. We had our final briefing from Alison, the Royal Free's live donor transplant sister, yesterday.
From this Friday, she told me to start taking a huge dose of Tacrolimus, the main immune-suppressant drug and one of the most expensive ones permitted by NICE. The doctors want to use the "Tac" to batter my immune system to pieces with the aim of reducing the risk of my body rejecting Rachel's kidney as much as possible.
I will be going into hospital on Monday. They will dialyse me that afternoon and again on Tuesday to make sure my blood is in as good a shape as it can be for the op.
Rachel will be admitted on Tuesday. We will be allowed to have a last supper together on Tuesday night before this momentous act in both our lives happens on Wednesday morning. Alison's turn of phrase sounded ominous when she said "they would come" for her at around 8.30am to take her to theatre. I'm not sure why, but I thought of Nazi jackboots clattering up the stairs in the Warsaw Ghetto.
I will be allowed to see my wife one last time before she goes under the knife but I know that we will hardly be garrulous. Nervous as hell and cracking bad jokes in a pathetic bid to ease the tension, I would have thought.
What I won't be able to put into words in the coldness of that hospital ward is the unalloyed love I have for her. That she is making this huge sacrifice for me I find difficult to comprehend. I mean it really is beyond the call of duty, isn't it? It is an extraordinary act and I know that we will have a unique bond afterwards.
She is my hero. As is my brother, who went through the same thing for me eight years ago. I'm one hell of a lucky guy.
By the late morning Rachel's team should have removed the kidney that is destined to be transplanted into me. Meanwhile, I will have been wheeled into a neighbouring theatre on the third floor of the Free, anaesthetised and ready for surgery myself.
Rachel will be in the recovery ward by midday whereas I won't be back in my ward until early evening. When I had my first kidney transplant in 2002 I remember feeling completely back to normal, abdominal pain aside, within a few hours of the operation. All my various blood figures, which before the op had been either far too high or too low, returned to normal almost straight away.
If the same thing happens this time following a successful transplant it will be the nearest thing Rachel and I, atheists both, get to witnessing a miracle.
Thanks to everyone who has left a message of support. See you on the other side, as they say.
• If you would like to join the organ donor register, you can do so here: uktransplant.org.uk
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09/02/2010 11:53 AMArtist of the week 103: Claire Barclay Despite this artist's glossy, futuristic sculptures, a sense of precariousness runs through all her work
At first appearance, Claire Barclay's elegant sculptural installations seem like a design junky's dream. Her works include sleek black metal structures and thin curving tubes of brushed aluminium, which cut graceful arcs through gallery spaces like climbing frames for grown-ups. Lush sheepskins might be left invitingly on the floor, arrangements of coloured leather melt in butter-soft folds or sheath pendulous glass that hangs from the ceiling. Nubs of polished deer antlers and coats of crochet sprout in unexpected places. Opposites collide in a weird but glamorous unison: the handcrafted and the industrially produced, the natural and the man-made.
Born in 1968, Barclay is a major figure within the generation of Scottish artists who came out of Glasgow art school in the 90s. She graduated alongside Martin Boyce and Ross Sinclair and, together with the likes of Douglas Gordon and David Shrigley, helped establish the city as a serious centre of contemporary art. Barclay was also one of three artists to represent Scotland for the country's first showing at the Venice Biennale in 2003. While she took her degree in environmental art, the fact that she came to maturity as an artist in the decade that spawned style magazines and new age culture also left its mark.
There is clearly pleasure in the process of making the work, from the careful arrangements assembled in response to each new venue to the beguiling play of forms and textures. Yet her treatment of materials hailing from the world of luxury furnishings is far from uncritical. The so-called "natural" elements don't seem so different to the flashy furnishings. Her strange fusions of the earthy and the factory-produced point up the hokum in certain lifestyle ideologies, be that the purity of handicraft or the totems of eco-living. And while her creations might call to mind decor fads, they're far too enigmatic and even dangerous-looking to risk sitting down on.
In the murderously titled Some Reddish Work Done At Night from 2002, metal spikes make for lethal-looking protrusions on an untreated pine bench, while a glazed stoneware pot balances a seesawing plank, suspended from the ceiling by a hanging curtain of knotted string; the whole thing looks like a trap waiting to be sprung. This sense of precariousness is in all of Barclay's work. Objects teeter between the familiar and the strange, nudging us to look again at what we surround ourselves with and why.
Why we like her: For Shifting Ground, her 2008 installation at Camden Arts Centre – a strange, seductive world of metal structures and woven corn, perfectly tactile bowls and hay bales dunked in lime.
Crafty: None of Barclay's designer objects are ready-mades. Taking a hands-on approach, the skills she's learned over the years range from ceramics (complicated), through to pottery, woodturning, macrame-making and straw weaving (comparatively easy).
Where can I see her? At Stephen Friedman gallery in London from 3 September until 2 October, which coincides with her Bloomberg Commission Shadow Spans at the Whitechapel Gallery until 2 May 2011.
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