Tag Archives: time
Peter Moore reveals captivity ordeal
British IT expert held captive for two years after Baghdad kidnap tells of regret at not attempting to escape in early days Peter Moore, the British IT expert who spent more than two years in captivity after being kidnapped in Iraq, tonight revealed how he regretted that he and his fellow captives did not try to escape during the early days of their detention by killing a guard. Moore, a computer consultant from Lincoln, said he had had a chance to flee when one of the two men watching over him fell ill. The 36-year-old was seized with four bodyguards from a government building in Baghdad in May 2007. He was released in December last year and arrived home on New Year’s Day. He told Channel 4 News that one of his fellow captives was asked to treat the sick guard and the hostages discussed injecting him with air bubbles and attempting to overpower the remaining captor. “I was concerned it was going to go out of the frying pan into the fire. There were two of them with us but 400 outside. I think we should have done it in hindsight. It was the best chance we had. I think one or two would have been killed and one made it out. “There was a woman downstairs with a child and we would have had to kill he too.” Moore paid tribute to the other four men seized, saying he was “very grateful” for their help and the medical treatment they gave him after his abduction. Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec Maclachlan were shot dead and their bodies returned to Britain last year. Alan McMenemy, the fourth bodyguard, is also believed dead. Moore was training ministry of finance workers how to spot misspent money when aabout 100 police in 20 vehicles took over the building. Initially he believed he was being arrested. It was only when they began removing his clothes during the ride to Sadr City that he realised otherwise. Moore, who has previously talked of being subjected to mock executions, said he was beaten on a near daily basis and once subjected to severe punishment for allegedly breaking a lock. “They tied my hands behind my back and put a chair next to the door. I was made to stand on the chair with my hands over door and they pulled the chair out to leave me hanging. They did that four or five times. It was very painful. I was screaming in pain.” He contested Foreign Office claims that his kidnappers, from a Shia organisation, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, had requested a news blackout and insisted they wanted to publicise their message. “They felt they complied with everything the British embassy said but still were not getting what they wanted,” Moore said. A Guardian investigation reported that the hostages were taken to Iran within a day of their kidnapping in an operation led and masterminded by the Quds Force, a part of Iran’s revolutionary guard. But Moore believed he was moved to Basra and then Hilla around three months later. In a room next door was an unidentified hostage who he heard making a proof of life video. Iraqi intelligence sources told the Guardian the British captives were never made aware that they had crossed the border. The Foreign Office has continued to insist there was no evidence that Moore was held in Iran, despite claims by Iraqi intelligence that they told their British counterparts and the Foreign Office that the hostages were taken across the border. General David Petraeus, head of US central command, has said Moore was “certainly” held in Iran for at least some of his time in captivity , although he told Reuters it was “difficult to say” what role the revolutionary guards played. British hostages in Iraq Iraq James Sturcke guardian.co.uk
A Democrat disgrace
Obama’s congressmen will sabotage the health bill to keep their seats. It is stomach-churning In our House of Representatives – “the people’s body” – the Democrats at this moment enjoy a gaudy 75-seat majority. Wait. Did I just put “Democrats” and “enjoy” in the same sentence? Scratch that. The Democrats suffer the affliction of a 75-seat majority. That’s a joke, except not really. What is going on right now in the lower house vis a vis healthcare reform is a stomach-turning sight to behold – a saga of preening, duplicity, pomposity, self-interest and, most of all, cowardice that is worthy of Holinshed . The players in this
Tories boycott Ashcroft inquiry
Three Conservative committee members walk out claiming inquiry is pursuing Labour vendetta A Westminster inquiry into the row over Lord Ashcroft’s peerage was thrown into turmoil when the Tory MPs on the committee walked out and said they were boycotting it permanently. In what is understood to be an unprecedented move, Conservative members have withdrawn from the public administration select committee, some following discussions with the party whips. The committee, regarded as one of the most influential in parliament, announced an inquiry into Ashcroft’s ennoblement in the aftermath of the peer’s revelation last week that he has non-dom status. The billionaire described how he had renegotiated an undertaking he gave as a condition of his peerage to become a full British resident to allow him to retain his non-dom status and avoid paying tax on his substantial international earnings. The disclosure ended 10 years of speculation about Lord Ashcroft’s tax status and provoked a bitter row over whether he had broken the spirit of the undertakings he had given to secure his peerage. The Tory leadership was also embarrassed after it was revealed that no one in the party knew of his tax status until the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, found out a few months ago, and that he in turn kept David Cameron in the dark until last month. Sources close to the committee have confirmed the three Tory members have walked out, claiming the inquiry is pursuing a Labour vendetta. Some are under pressure from their leadership via the party whips, one senior source claimed. It also emerged that Lord Ashcroft failed to meet a 9.30am deadline today to respond to an invitation to give evidence to the committee next Thursday. Gordon Prentice, a Labour committee member who has campaigned vociferously against the peer, made the announcement on his website. The committee has no powers to order members of the Lords to give evidence. The remaining members met yesterday and agreed the line-up for their one-day hearing on propriety in peerages. Hague, who as Ashcroft’s closest colleague sponsored his peerage and was subject to his promise to become a permanent resident, has been invited. Hayden Phillips, the senior civil servant at the time, has also received an invitation and Baroness Dean and Lord Hurd, who were on the scrutiny committee at the time of his appointment, are also understood to be on the list. The three Tory members of the committee, David Burrowes, Ian Liddell-Grainger and Charles Walker, will not be attending any further meetings. An end of term lunch, scheduled for today, was cancelled after they failed to turn-up. Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater, confirmed to the Guardian that he had walked out. “I’ve served on that committee since I’ve been a member of parliament. Tony Wright has been a good chair but three weeks before a general election is called they have decided to make this committee blatantly political. It has been totally politicised and is therefore not able to function as a proper select committee any more.” He denied he had been ordered to boycott the committee by the party leadership, saying he reached the decision himself. Burrowes, MP for Enfield, confirmed that party whips had been involved in the discussion about the committee but said did not need the whips to tell him to boycott it. He said the inquiry would become a “political circus” and argued that Lord Paul, the Labour donor and non-dom, should also give evidence. Walker could not be contacted last night. A spokesman for the Conservatives said: “We don’t believe that it [the Ashcroft inquiry] is an appropriate use of the committee.” He said that the central party had not been involved in the MPs’ decisions to leave the committee. Tony Wright, the Labour chairman of the committee, defended the decision to conduct the inquiry. He said: “We are not interested in the party political dimension of this but we are interested in trying to get to the bottom of an issue about propriety that has remained unresolved for the best part of a decade.” Conservatives Michael Ashcroft Labour House of Commons Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
In Kansas City, school’s out
The closure of almost half of Kansas City’s schools shows what can happen when the wealthy opt out, and services suffer Twenty-nine out of 61 Kansas City, Missouri, schools will soon be shuttered in a desperate bid by the struggling school district to stave off bankruptcy. At the same time, close to one-quarter of the city’s school employees will lose their jobs. While many districts around the country are closing under-enrolled-in or low-performing schools in an effort to save money, the scale of KC’s decision puts it in a league of its own. Students around the city will be disrupted by the changes, as they lose teachers, have to travel further to school each morning, and possibly see their class sizes grow. The number of students in Kansas City’s public schools – 18,000 – would indicate that it is a small town. But there’s not much that’s small about Kansas City. In fact, the core of the city, which is Missouri’s largest urban hub, has nearly half a million residents, and the broader metro area is home to approximately 2 million people. Yet for decades its public schools have been in crisis and have haemorrhaged students. For 26 years, Kansas City was under the largest court-ordered desegregation plan in American education history. At first this provided an opportunity to improve the system, injecting $2bn into local schools. But over time the benefits unleashed by the case were undermined by opposing demographic and political trends: Kansas City was bedeviled by white flight; and, eventually, it saw a near-total exodus of the middle classes, of all colours, into suburban school districts, charter schools and private schools. A few years ago, eight schools went so far as to secede from the school district, joining a suburban district that provided more resources to students. By the time the desegregation case ended, in 2003, the city was no longer discriminating against African American students; but at the same time it was increasingly unable to provide quality public school education to any student. It had become a poster-child for educational dysfunction. As a result, the schools that remained under the jurisdiction of the Kansas City school district saw their enrollment shrink by about 75% in recent decades , even as the region’s total population has grown. A number of schools were more than half-empty. In many ways, Kansas City represents the depressing end-point I warned about last week in my article on California’s education cuts : a setting in which those with options have exercised them by opting out of the state school system, leaving the rump public sector both shrivelled and denuded of influential supporters in the community. This week’s decision to downsize the system by close to 50% might well be the least bad option remaining to the board of education in the city given these harsh realities; but necessity doesn’t make these truths any less depressing. If there are lessons to be learned from Kansas City’s dismal experiences, they are about the importance of holistic thinking: of looking for ways not just to desegregate schools but to preserve integrated, economically diverse urban cores; of providing middle-class families with reasons to continue using public services; of building up the notion of common community again so that the public sector flourishes rather than withers. Absent this, Kansas City might well represent a glimpse of a depressing American future: one in which those with resources opt out, en masse, from any and all public services, leaving the public sector to stumble drunkenly from one crisis to the next, a miserable-looking shadow of once-great glories. US economy United States Sasha Abramsky guardian.co.uk
Juventus v Fulham – LIVE
Click the auto-refresh button or batter F5 for the latest news. Email your thoughts to paul.doyle@guardian.co.uk . And click here for all the latest scores in the Europa League 78 mins: There was a glimmer of a chance there! If Duff had more confidence in his right foot he might have flashed the ball across goal, where Zamora was lurking, but instead he took it and turned on to his left, by which time two defenders had converged on him and cut off the crossing opportunity. 76 mins: Juve change: Poulsen off, Momo Sissoko on. 75 mins: Duff and Zamora exchanges smart passes in the Juve box before being crowded out. 73 mins: Fulham are having a fair bit of the ball now but they are not being giving any time on it as Juve to continue to press relentlessly. Both teams have worked extremely hard tonight, which, of course, is the least we should expect. “‘Multi-ass’ is what one happens when one tries to do too many things at once,” explains Ian Copestake. “‘Multi-ask’, however, is what women are very good at.” 71 mins: Konchesky provides support to Duff down the left and is picked out by the Irishman. His low cross towards Zamora is put behind for a corner. This time Duff’s delivery is good but Juve clear. 68 mins: Corner to Fulham. Duff’s outswinger is headed clear by Iaquinta. 66 mins: Legrottaglie has been a formidable presence in the heart of Juve’s defence tonight, and also in the Fulham box from corners, but he won’t be at the Cottage, because he’s jsut been booked for a deliberate handball as Dempsey (I think) tried to pick out Duff. 64 mins: Fulham try to knock the ball around a bit in the middle but Diego nicks it off them and immediately launches a counter-attack. Iaquinta commits a foul in the Fulham box, however, enabling the visitors to alleviate some pressure. “Paul, Your entry about the ‘mutli-ass move’ was clearly just a cheap ruse by a lonely reporter to find out how many people are in fact reading your report knowing we’d all be sad enough to write in and point out the ‘mistake’,” decries Andy (multi?) Cox. “Well I’m not going to fall for that one. Eh? Oh.” 62 mins: Juve switch: Trezeguet off, Iaquinta on. “Come on the Cottagers! An away goal, we’re more than capable of pinching two against anyone when we’re back by the Thames,” hollers Rendel Harris. “It’s just occurred to me that there must be a lot of die-hard Fulham fans watching this, so excuse my hijacking the MBM to air this request : does anyone know where one can find, on t’internet or otherwise, any footage of Fulham (Pathe news clips maybe?) playing pre-WWII? Have looked everywhere but can’t find any. My grandfather, James (Jim) Tompkins played for Fulham in the years leading up to the war prior to volunteering and being killed in action just after D-Day. Any tips gratefully received!” 61 mins: Here’s some good news for all Fulham and USA fans: after a long injury Clint Dempsey has just re-appeared on the pitch, coming on in palce of Davies. 59 mins: Ah. Marc Parravano has just brought it to my attention that I described some Juve approach work as a “multi-ass move”. I assure you that that was a typo (I meant “multi-pass”), not an indication of some innovative and acrobatic bum tricks from the Italians. 57 mins: Fulham are being outclassed for long spells but they’re not falling apart. And when they get the ball they’re showing commendable determination to play their way forward. They worked the ball nicely to Gera just now, and that should not have been the end of the move, but rashness suddenly ambushed the Hungarian and he attempted a shot from 40 yards. With predictable consequences. 55 mins: Another multi-pass move from Juve, who are pulling Fulham all over their place. Diego, Marchisio and Candreva all played lovely roles in that, and in the end Fulham did well to concede only a corner. Legrottaglie again won it ahead of Hangeland but his header flies well over. 53 mins: Gera picks out Baird on the right but the defender is miles offside. Still, at least Fulham pieced together several passes in Juve’s half to get themselves moving again the right direction. 51 mins: Juve are back in control, Fulham having to resume chasing them hopefully. 49 mins: Juve’s first shot of the half is a shoddy one, Diego’s attempted curler from the corner of the box flying high and wide. He’s no Norman Whiteside. 47 mins: I’ve just noticed that Juve made a change durign the break, introducing Camoranesi for … someone. I’ll tell you who when I’ve got my act together. “Does Peter Corway live in a cave?” inquires Spencer Jones. “The whole holding up minutes versus minutes played has been done to death. From the sounds of things Fulham didn’t play to the whistle. Unfortunate? Yes. Accountable? Yes. It isn’t over till the Old Lady sings.” 46 mins: Because Juve tipped off in the first half, Fulham do so in the second. No controversy there. Half-time: “Feel sorry for Fulham there,” blubs Peter Corway. “Two minutes added on is two minutes and nothing more.” Not true, actually. The indication from the fourth official merely means a minimum of two minutes added time. Personally, I think the clock should be stopped every time the ball goes out of play, and even when the goalkeeper is strolling around with it in his arms. Ninety minutes should mean ninety minutes of play. GOAL! Juve 3-1 Fulham (Trezeguet 45+3′) What a sickener for Fulham! The ref had signalled two minutes injury time but after 2:42 secs – and following one brilliant save from Schwarzer – Juve hoisted over a corner and it came to Trezeguet 10 yards out. His shot crashed back out off the post, but his follow-up found the corner of the net, perhaps via a touch from Salihamidzic. 44 mins: Fulham have been transformed by the goal. They’re now enjoying much more of the ball and threatening Juve regularly. After more snappy interplay, Gera has just banged a shot from 16 yards into Manninger’s mid-riff. 41 mins: Freekick to Fulham midway inside the Juve half. Konchesky floats it in, and again it falls to Etuhu at the edge of the area. But this time there is no decisive deflection, just a punt clear. But Fulham send it back in and Zamora meets it with a well-controlled volley from 15 yards. Manninger saves comfortably, however. “While Zebina’s shot was an absolute rocket, none of the ITV commentary team (and I’ll let Southgate off as he’s actually far too good for ITV) seemed to notice that it would have hit Hangeland dead on, yet for some reason he steps right out of the way presumably trying to intercept a cross,” claims Tom Hooper. I didn’t notice that either, Tom, but will pay attention if we get another replay. I agree with you, by the way, that Southgate is abn astute and articulate analyst – it’s enjoyable listening to him. 39 mins: That was nearly an equaliser! Hangeland rose superbly despite the vigilance of Legrottaglie but the Norwegian’s strong header from Davies’s corner was saved well by Manninger. And the rebound was booted clear before Gera could convert it. 38 mins: The goal has lifted Fulham and they’re actually exerting pressure now. After a flowing move in which Duff was intrumental, they’ve won a corner … GOAL! Juve 2-1 Fulham (Etuhu 36′) Thousands of Fulham fans in t he Stadio Olimpico go stir crazy as Fulham score from their first chance in ages, and thanks to a handy slice of luck. Davies curled in a freekick from the left that was headed down to Euthu on the edge of the area. His snapshot was going wide until it took a hefty deflection off Legrottaglie – that wrong-footed Manninger and the ball spun into the net! A welcome twist to a story whose ending had been looking grimly predictable. 34 mins: It’s still all Juve. Gera has dropped into midfield to help out (and did so many minutes ago, in truth) but still the visitors are spending almost all their time and energy chasing the home team. 31 mins: Duff attempts to skip by Cannavaro on the right and instigate Fulham’s first attack for ages. But Cannavarao stretches out a leg and dispossesses him with elegance and efficiency. “When Hodgson first took over at Fulham, the Soccer Saturday Sky Sports crew had a field-day slagging him,” claims Peter Corway. “Le Tiss famously said that it was a mistake hiring Hodgson and that he’d be sacked when Fulham got relegated. The mighty Cottagers went on that epic run, stayed in the league, are now playing European football against Juventus and Sky praise him all the time. Football is a fickle sport? Never.” Not everyone was slagging Hodgson off when he arrived. Look what one wise man wrote . 28 mins: Juve ware intent on killing this tie off tonight. Fulham are still struggling to get their foot on the ball and are being pulled all over the place. GOAL! Juve 2-0 Fulham (Zebina 25′) A fine goal! Candreva took two defenders with him as he walzted forwar from the middle to the right, then rolled the ball back to Zebina. The defender took forward a few more strides – eliminating Davies and Etuhu on his way – and then struck a fierce diagonal shot in off the post from 25 yards. Schwarzer had no chance. 23 mins: Marchisio robs Greening in midfield and slips the ball through to Trezeguet, who, being something of a Jermain Defo in this (and only this) respect, shoots as soon as he gets the ball. Over the bar from 20 yards. 21 mins: Though they’re finding it difficult to secure possession, Fulham are performing reasonably well here insofar as they are closing down incessantly, preventing Juve from creating any real openings since the goal. 18 mins: Juve besiege the Fulham box, with Marchisio and Diego prbing constantly. But that spell of pressure concluded with Candreva booming a shot over from outside the box. 15 mins: A chance for Fulham! Duff – whose revitalisation under Hodgson has been delightful – dashed down the right and the pulled the ball back from Davies … who lost his composure and sliced badly from the penalty spot. 13 mins: Fulham steady themselves with a string of tidy passes. And then Juve win it back and resume zipping the ball around. “Over on the FW podcast blog, a list of who supports who is currently being created,” discloses Peter Corway. “At the minute, you’re listed as an ABU. Mainly because nobody knows what French team you support?” I don’t cliam to know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the people compiling that list are despicable fundamentalists. 11 mins: Fulham are under serious pressure here. Juve are showing plenty of class as they pass and move with pace and purpose. Diego is instrumental in most of what they are doing. GOAL! Juve 1-0 Fulham (Legrottaglie 8′) Fulham have generally defended set-pieces very well under Hodgson but here they were undone by a well-delivered corner by Diego. Cannavaro and Legrottaglie both attacked it powerfully, with the latter meeting it and sending a downward header into the net from 12 yards. 7 mins: Schwarzer dives to his right to turn away a Trezeguet header. Corner to Juventus. “Is it just me that still finds it hard to fathom that this game is actually happening?” goshes Patrick Brody, continuing waht seems to be the theme of the evening. “I mean, I never even thought I’d say Fulham and Juventus in the same sentence. Then again, I was lucky enough to see Sheffield FC vs. Inter Milan. I guess miracles can happen.” Indeed they can – permit me to refer you to this . 4 mins: It’s settled into a bit of nip and tuck at the moment. “The very fact of this game puts a smile on my face
Brain scans reveal thoughts
Brain scans revealed with reasonable accuracy which short film clip volunteers were thinking about Scientists have used brain scans to delve into people’s minds and predict what films they are thinking about from one moment to the next. This is the first time brain imaging has been used to decipher such complex thoughts, which take place in the base of the brain in a region known as the medial temporal lobe . The work follows an earlier study in which neuroscientists at University College London
A Galaxie far, far away
Galaxie 500 were once lumped in with many of the shoegazing outfits currently hopping on the revival bandwagon. But their reissued albums show they were heartbreakingly apart, writes Alexis Petridis If you came of musical majority as the 80s bled into the 90s, if your age means you can remember when a chart placing of 38 and Snub TV showing a homemade video represented a dizzying peak of mainstream acceptance that an indie band could scarcely dare to dream about, then recent events in rock may have left you feeling discombobulated. First, virtually every alt-rock band from that era reformed. It was all profoundly odd, like waking up one morning to discover that everyone you’d copped off with in your teens had assembled in your front garden and started batting their eyelashes at you. But it comes to us all: eventually, almost everyone reaches an age at which the music industry starts trying to divest you of cash in exchange for a wallow in your youthful memories, whether those memories involve Freddie and the Dreamers or the Butthole Surfers’ Locust Abortion Technician. What happened next was more surprising. New artists started emerging who sounded exactly like the late thirtysomething’s youthful memories: not, it has to be said, something your Freddie And The Dreamers fan ever had to cope with. Indie dance is back, so is Balearic music, there’s talk of a grunge revival, and you can’t move for shoegazing, albeit under the guise of chillwave, a title arrived at after a lengthy, quarrelsome but ultimately successful meeting called to devise an even worse name for a genre than shoegazing. Then there’s the Drums, who have become a hotly tipped NME band while modelling themselves on Sarah Records shamblers the Field Mice, a state of affairs that would have seemed extraordinary and hilarious in 1989, somewhat akin to becoming Knightbridge professor of philosophy at Cambridge while modelling yourself on Vinnie Jones. It all makes the reissue of the three albums US trio Galaxie 500 released before splitting acrimoniously in 1991 perversely timely: heard 20 years on, Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music prove not every aspect of that era’s indie rock as been stripmined in recent years. No one is currently offering Galaxie 500’s melange of trebly guitar, serpentine basslines, fragile vocals and oddly jazz-inflected drumming (This Is Our Music borrowed its title from Ornette Coleman). Certainly, no one currently sounds like singer Dean Wareham. Listening to his high voice floating wildly off-key in a way that simply wouldn’t be allowed these days for fear of upsetting daytime radio play, you’re reminded of a vanished age before Auto-Tune, when alt-rock’s aims and ambitions and audience were noticeably different. That said, no one really sounded like Galaxie 500 at the time. If they didn’t appear as bafflingly other as their contemporaries Pixies – who, with their Spanish lyrics, biblical references and bass player who billed herself as Mrs John Murphy, gave every impression of having arrived on the British indie scene in a UFO – they still seemed alien compared to their peers. For one thing, all three had been educated at Harvard: after the band split, drummer Damon Krukowski and bass player Naomi Yang started a publishing house specialising in reprinting experimental literature by, among others, Artaud, Apollinaire, and Gertrude Stein, not a career path Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers was ever likely to take. For another, their influences were different from the norm. Like every indie band before or since, they were in thrall to the Velvet Underground; but not the black-clad, feedback-riven John Cale Velvets, upon whose ouevre the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and the umpteen bands that followed in their wake were founded. Instead, they drew on the hushed, introverted sound of the Velvets’ eponymous 1969 album. They were clearly Beatles obsessives – not that common a reference point in late 80s alt-rock – and their cover versions suggested an infinitely more intriguing and tangential approach to the Fabs oeuvre than the endless rewriting of Hey Jude and Tomorrow Never Knows that became Britpop’s lingua franca: George Harrison’s Isn’t It a Pity?; Yoko Ono’s Listen Snow Is Falling; a surprisingly wracked-sounding version of the Rutles’ Cheese and Onions. “Come ride the fiery breeze of Galaxie 500!” implored one of their sleevenotes, and that’s how their records sounded: simultaneously hushed and sweltering, as if they were recorded at the dead of a summer’s night. The reverb that invariably swathed their spare arrangements meant they were lumped in with the shoegazers, but while shoegazing indulged in the rather adolescent practice of amping up vague emotions until they assumed mammoth importance – if they had enough effects pedals, they could make feeling a bit sad sound like a matter of earth-shattering importance – Galaxie 500 did the opposite. There was something stark and understated about their sound, which pointed up both their talent for an effortlessly simple melody – Today in particular abounds with them – and their keen ear for affecting lyrical detail. “I’m listening to the weather, and he’s changed his tone of voice,” sang Wareham on Snowstorm. “The TV’s going wild, they’ve got nothing else to think of,” he adds, to which anyone who endured interminable news footage of abandoned cars and sledging children during the recent big freeze can only add: yeah, tell me about it. They didn’t really change or develop their sonic blueprint so much as hone it: the odd overdubbed acoustic guitar notwithstanding, there’s not much to set 1991’s This Is Our Music apart from their debut. Maybe it was better they broke up when they did, before diminishing returns set in (the three extra CDs here don’t add much to the legend, a deeply improbable Peel Session cover of the Sex Pistols’ Submission aside, suggesting Galaxie 500 did all they had to do on their three official albums). As it is, the simplicity of those three albums still cuts through – their cover of Jonathan Richman’s Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste stretches one chord out for nearly seven minutes, but the result is heartbreaking rather than numbing. And it still sounds unique, even in the current climate: testament to the fact that the past can still be a foreign country, no matter how many people seem intent on emigrating there. Rating: 5/5 Pop and rock Alexis Petridis guardian.co.uk
Egg boss jailed for ‘free range’ fraud
• Supermarket customers duped in two-year, £3m scam • Lawyer claims client is far from industry’s only bad egg A Midlands businessman was jailed for three years today after admitting making a fortune by fraudulently passing off battery farm eggs as free range or organic. Around 100m mislabelled eggs sold by Keith Owen ended up on the shelves of supermarkets including Sainsbury’s and Tesco. That the fraud was able to carry on for two years while he made a £3m profit raises questions for the food industry about the provenance of goods. Owen, 44, from Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, ran Heart of England Eggs Unlimited, which supplied eggs to major packing companies that in turn supplied them to supermarkets and smaller retailers. He pleaded guilty at Worcester crown court to three charges of fraudulent accounting, relating to altering his records to disguise the fact he was buying in eggs laid by caged hens and selling them on for a profit after relabelling or “misdescribing” them in paperwork. Prosecutors said Owen had “dishonestly and systematically passed off millions of battery farm eggs as free range/organic eggs”. Amanda Pinto QC said: “The victims of Keith Owen’s false accounting were not only the direct customers of Heart of England, but also the public, as well as the legitimate egg producers. “The ultimate customer, a member of the public buying these eggs, would have received inferior eggs – sometimes even eggs not fit for sale to the public – or eggs produced by hens kept without the stringent welfare schemes from which they were said to benefit.” Owen’s barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, suggested his client was far from the only one creating what he described as “mischief” in the egg industry. “It’s not the case that all those who Mr Owen supplied eggs were concerned to ensure that the provenance of the eggs was as described,” he said, adding it would be “inappropriate” to elaborate. At the time of Owen’s fraud, between 2004 and 2006, farmers could expect to receive a price of around 90p per dozen for organic eggs, 70p for free range and 35p for cage eggs. As a “middleman” wholesaler, Owen would normally make a few pence profit per dozen, but by passing off cage eggs as free range he could make an extra 35p profit for every 12 eggs he sold. The court heard that Owen not only bought in cheap battery hen eggs, he also bought in huge quantities of so-called “industrial eggs”. These do not meet the quality requirements for sale to the public, and instead are meant to be used only in processed foods. The fraud came to light in 2004 when allegations began circulating in the egg industry that there were vastly more British free range and organic eggs being sold in shops than could ever possibly be laid in UK farms. At the same time, investigators from the Egg Marketing Inspectorate noticed during routine checks that eggs coming from Heart of England were not at all what they purported to be. Because all eggs look the same to the naked eye, the law requires that each egg is stamped with a unique number indicating where the egg was laid and in what conditions. Paperwork must accompany eggs transported through the supply chain to indicate their origin and type. When inspectors checked a selection of Owen’s allegedly free range eggs using ultraviolet light, the shells bore telltale wire marks – a sure sign that they had been laid not on a bed of straw or even Astroturf, as farming regulations stipulate, but in a metal cage. There were also complaints from lorry drivers who arrived at Owen’s farms to drop off consignments of caged eggs and then to pick up free range or organic eggs. A number of drivers reported to their trade union that they were made to wait hours to pick up their deliveries and suspected that the same eggs they had delivered were being relabelled and then sold back to them the same day. All of Owen’s major contracts were to supply British eggs bearing the British Lion hallmark. But investigators from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs discovered that he was regularly buying eggs from the continent and passing them off as home-grown. He used another of his companies, Owens Eggs, to disguise the accounting fraud. Owens Eggs was a legitimate business selling organic eggs laid in a barn, on the same site as the Heart of England egg-packing business. Owen tried to mask the fraud by selling organic eggs from Owens Eggs to Heart of England at an extremely inflated price – £10-£40 per dozen at a time when other producers were selling a dozen for no more than £1. Owen agreed under a confiscation order to surrender £3m of the profit he made from selling the misdescribed eggs, and will not be allowed to be a company director for seven years. Crime Food & drink industry Supermarkets Consumer affairs Food Organics Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Lille v Liverpool
Click the auto-refresh button or batter F5 for the latest news. Email your thoughts to rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk . And click here for all the latest scores in the Europa League 38 min Babel is limping off after a (fair) challenge from Obraniak. It looks like a hip injury, and I’m not sure he’ll be back. 37 min Lille are still attacking with an endearing and entirely misplaced enthusiasm, unaware that Liverpool have a complete grip on this game defensively and are going to squeeze every bit of joy out of all our lives for the next 50 minutes. When you see defensive performances as unyielding and accomplished as this, you wonder how Liverpool how made such a Horlicks of their season. 36 min “Give me some excitement, please” says Mike Down, mistaking me for a pimp. 35 min “Alex McGillivray isn’t far off, but Episode 7 is way creepier,” says Paul Whaley. “And of course to get there, you have to watch all the creepy episodes inbetween . I saw all that four years ago and haven’t slept since.” 34 min Gerrard shoots over from 30 yards after a nice turn. 33 min Lille’s first half-decent attack for a while. Cabael muscles past Lucas and then passes it down the right to Hazard; he plays a low cross towards the near post, where Frau, under pressure from Agger, spanks it high and wide. 31 min A summary of the highlights so far: 30 min “I lost faith in Neighbours when shouty Max left and his previously unknown brother nicked all his lines,” says Charlie Bird. “As for weird YouTube … 28 min It’s gone extremely quiet around the stadium, and Liverpool will be well pleased with how this is going, particularly after such a lively first five minutes. 26 min Babel almost scores a fabulous goal. He and Torres sliced right through the centre of the Lille defence with a nice one-two. That put Babel through on goal, 15 yards out and slightly to the right of centre, but his shot across goal was saved by the legs of Landreau. That was delicious football. 25 min “Although I should point out that I’m not a Liverpool fan, I do live in Italy and know what pushed the deal through,” says Jonny Mills. “Roma needed loads of money to stay in business. They couldn’t sell any of their good players though. But Aquilani wasn’t one of them, and Benitez doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. There.” 24 min “Re: the Aquilani signing,” says John T. “It’s simple, really. If Rafa didn’t buy him for £20m, then he wouldn’t be able to Keane him back to Roma this summer for £15m and subsequently complain that he didn’t have £20m to buy a proper player.” 23 min Frau is getting treatment; he’s leaking what really, really, really, really tough middle-class boys call “claret” from his right eye following an accidental clash of heads with Lucas. He’s back on now. 22 min Balmont has looked good for Lille. Balmont. With a name like that he should be a butler in a particularly farcical episode of Frasier. 20 min “Are you sure this match isn’t being played on my high school soccer field?” says Richard Whittall. “The colour resembles a slightly under-ripe banana.” 19 min Can someone wake me up when something happens please? 18 min “I once did a knick-knack on Harold Bishop’s door,” says Alan Belton, who I hope is talking about knock-door ginger. “My Australian wife was less than pleased with my immaturity at the time, but I think hindsight has given us both the appreciation that it needed to be done.” 17 min For all Lille’s possession, Reina has only had one rudimentary save to make so far. Liverpool are extremely good, away in Europe, at keeping their opponent at arms’ length. 15 min “Erinsborough isn’t an anagram of Neighbours – there’s a superfluous ‘O’,” says Alex McGillivray. “I have no life. Here’s the creepiest thing I found on YouTube .” 14 min Fantastic play from Torres, who moved smoothly past Chedjou in the centre of the pitch and then touched a pass behind Rami for Babel. He was just about to shoot first time from 15 yards when the stretching Rami got the slighest touch to divert the ball for a corner. 12 min “The problem here isn’t Kuyt or Gerrard,” says Adam Wood. “It is Rafa and Lucas. Gerrard and Mascherano should be playing centre mid, with Aquilani just behind Torres. Two defensive mids are unnecessary, especially when playing with wingers like Kuyt, who are defensive-minded. Kuyt shouldn’t even be starting, as Riera, Maxi, Yossi, and Babel are all more worthy than him.” This is understand (although I’m not sure I agree about Gerrard), but the more relevant point is surely that Benitez is always going to play two deep-lying midfielders, which makes you wonder why on earth he bought Aquilani. 10 min There’s a real confidence, almost a swagger, about Lille’s play. Hazard goes on a superb run down the right, past Insua and Agger before driving a beautiful ball right across the face of goal between keeper and defenders. It would have been an open goal had anybody been on the end of it. They weren’t. 9 min “It shames us as a society that we no longer make the gesture involving moving a partially opened fist back and forth from the forehead to signify that the recipient of this gesture was something that rhymes with a tickhead,” says Mike Gibbons. “It’s much quicker to say it and get on with your life having saved precious seconds – but that’s the broadband generation for you. Wayne Bridge would have aced the PR War had he done that to John Terry.” 8 min Gerrard stabs a pass into Mavuba’s chest, appeals for handball and gets it. Agger’s long free-kick is headed away easily. 7 min Liverpool haven’t started yet. “Rob,” says Tom Bason. “There are only six houses featured in the show (numbers 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32) but those numbers would suggest there are at least another 24 houses somewhere, who’s residents have no interaction with anyone else at all. Yours in pedantry.” If they’re not in Neighbours they are dead to me. 6 min The pitch is very poor by modern standards, bobbly and a bit sandy, but it hasn’t really impacted upon on Lille’s passing yet. As Graham Taylor says on Five, “they know how to play the pitch”. 5 min “Rafa refuses to take Kuyt of the pitch,” says Garry O’Connor. “Aquilani plays the same role as Gerrard. So until Gerrard moves to the wing and Kuyt comes of the pitch, Aquilani stays on the bench.” This I all understand. But it does invite the question: why buy him then? 4 min Lille have started much the better, dominating possession and moving the ball around with real menace. 3 min “Erinsborough is an anagram of Neighbours,” says Mike Gibbons. “Send me a catalogue of lives so I can pick one.” I’ll swap yer. 2 min A fast start from Lille, and Cabaye works Reina with a good strike from the edge of the box. Reina gets down to hold on pretty comfortably. 1 min Lille, in red, kick off from right to left. Liverpool are in white. A question for Liverpool fans Can anyone explain the Aquilani signing? Me no understand. I wish I had Tom Bason’s life department “The boy and girl in that scene were Zeke Kinski, and his new piece Mia, an animal rights activist. Zeke is Susan’s stepson (who divorced Karl, got married and widowed, picked up three step-children and is now back married to Karl. Karl fathered a baby himself during this period). Other characters still in it you might remember: Paul Robinson, Steph and Lynn Scully Erm, thats about it.” His new piece. Now that’s a phrase I haven’t heard for a while. I wish I went to Tom Hopkins’ pub quiz department “How many houses are there on Ramsay Street? This question came up at a recent pub quiz. I was sure I had got it right and when it turned out I hadn’t I was so incensed that I checked on the internet the minute I got home; this confirmed that I was in fact completely wrong. P.S. I am aware that there are at least three points there than individually or collectively may suggest that I am powerfully uncool.” The answer’s six, Tom. Also, did you know that Ramsay Street is a fictional cul-de-sac featured in the long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours, it is set in the equally fictitious suburb of Erinsborough. Pin Oak Court, in Vermont South, is the real cul-de-sac that doubles for Ramsay Street.[1] All of the houses featured in the show are real and the residents allow Neighbours to shoot external scenes in their front and back gardens.[2] Neighbours has been filmed in Pin Oak Court since the series began in 1985. Neighbours interior scenes are filmed at the Global Television studios in Nunawading, Forest Hill[3], and there are occasionally differences between the appearances of the inside and outside of the houses. Ramsay Street is named after the Ramsay family, who were a prominent family in the area historically when the show began. By 2001 all members of the family had left the show, but during 2009 three new members of the Ramsay family moved into the street.[4] Sample Neighbours dialogue Boy: “This has been the best day of my life” Girl: “Ever?” Boy: ” The clue’s in the word ‘life’ you brainless wench, I never want to see your stupid face again Ever” And then they kiss. And then it cuts to a scene involving Lou Carpenter and Toadie. No way can the game top this. One good thing about Liverpool being on Channel Five is that I’ve just accidentally stumbled across Neighbours on that channel while waiting for the game to start. All our yesterdays. I defy anyone to watch this video and not weep their heart out with joy at a youth well spent in Ramsay Street. You did cry, right? Right? A simple way to improve Liverpool’s form Tell each player that, if they produce a performance of, say 5/10 or less, they will be locked in a darkened room with only a loop of this film for company. Have you ever seen anything so jauntily sinister? David Lynch would kill to have seen this in a nightmare. Team news Glen Johnson starts for the first time this year and, with the possible exception of Martin Skrtel, this is probably what Rafael Benitez regards as his strongest team. Lille (4-3-3) Landreau; Beria, Chedjou, Rami, Emerson; Balmont, Mavuba, Cabaye; Obraniak, Frau, Hazard. Subs: Butelle, Vandam, Aubameyang, Toure, Dumont, Souare, Souquet. Liverpool (4-2-3-1) Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Insua; Mascherano, Lucas; Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel; Torres. Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Riera, Kyrgiakos, Ngog, El Zhar, Kelly. Referee Alan Larsen (Denmark) Now , after Steven Gerrard’s noble attempt to bring back the V-sign – last unironically delivered by an adult in 1987 – I wonder what other retro classics footballers could reintroduce into society. Perhaps John Terry could assert his throbbing masculinity by wearing shorts so tight that it’s touch and go whether you’ll self-vasectomise by the end of the 90 minutes. Or perhaps that popular wordsmith Wayne Rooney could bring back words and phrases from the eighties, like crud or aces or did you see that TV show, Gaylords Say No ? I have no idea where I’m going with this, to be honest. Preamble Hello. It’s been easy to laugh at Liverpool this season, and we’ll come to that in due course, but they of all clubs know that what happens in March stays in March. When a season is appraised, all that really matters in what happens in May: the 1981-82 season, when Liverpool were 12th at the turn of the year only to end up as champions, shows that. So if Liverpool can win the two competitions they are left in, the Europa League and the race for fourth – and they are the most accomplished side left in each of those, even if their form might not suggest as much – they will have redeemed their 2009-10 season to a large extent. Conversely, if they finish fifth or worse and go out of the Europa League in the last 16, even Rafael Benitez might admit that it’s time to call the whole thing off. What happens depends on which Liverpool is most in evidence fof the rest of the season: the granite-willed scrappers who earned hugely deserved victories at home to Manchester United and Everton this season, and should have done the same in their vital Champions League match in Lyon; the irresistible force which produced a stunning 41 goals in the final 13 games of last season; or the demoralised shower that have already lost 14 games this season. They will get a good test from Lille, who are the top scorers in Ligue 1 (try pronouncing that during a particularly debilitating constipation) and who have one of Europe’s hottest teenagers in the brilliant Belgian Eden Hazard, the first foreigner ever to win France’s Young Player of the Year award. Uefa Europa League Liverpool Lille Rob Smyth Minute-by-minute report guardian.co.uk
‘Mercy killing’ wife takes her own life
Euthanasia campaigner Vicki Wood, who earlier tried to to kill her ailing husband, dies at Dignitas clinic in Switzerland A woman who admitted trying to murder her terminally ill husband in a “mercy killing” has taken her own life at Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, it was reported yesterday. Vicki Wood, a 67-year old artist and toymaker from Devon, died at the Zurich clinic on Friday, according to Western Morning News , adding that she had been suffering from a debilitating physical illness and had travelled to Switzerland with a friend. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said officials were looking into the report. In 1999, Wood, a euthanasia campaigner, told a court in Exeter she had tried kill her husband, Tim, who had dementia, by smothering him with a pillow as he slept after she gave him sleeping pills. Wood was put on probation for two years and banned from being alone with her husband. He died nine months later. Passing sentence at the time, Justice Toulson accepted that Wood was acting out of compassion and love for a her husband. In an obituary authorised by Wood, Andy Christian, a journalist and friend of the couple, wrote: “Despite the setbacks, Vicki Wood led a bountiful life.” The tribute, which was sent to the Western Mail, adds: “I remember Tim and Vicki as a happy couple. They were always full of fun and we shared serious conversations and lots of laughter.” The newspaper reported that Wood and her husband had been members of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, now called Dignity in Dying, and had discussed euthanasia in a BBC documentary. Vicki Wood wrote letters to the press in support of the campaigner Diane Pretty, who died unassisted in 2002, a year after losing her battle to get her husband granted immunity from prosecution if he helped her to die. Wood and her husband had written “living wills”, saying they wanted to die rather than have their lives prolonged during serious illness. Last month, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, issued new guidelines to clarify the rules on assisted suicide . They set out six mitigating factors against an individual being prosecuted for assisting the suicide of another. Assisted suicide Switzerland Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
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