Posted by admin on November 24th, 2009 | Comments Off
The poll found only 1% of mothers and 2% of fathers (with children under five) thought the mother in a family, where the father worked and there were small children, should work full-time.
While the report both attacks and praises Labour’s policies, Ms Odone said it was not about party politics.
“The government has been getting more women into full-time work and getting more work out of those women,” she told the BBC.
“What women actually want is to choose their own childcare providers and more opportunity to work part-time.”
She said women who put home and community before work “were seen as subversive by the government, by the elite who have a very different lifestyle and have different priorities”.
Labour had portrayed itself as the party which listened to women, said Ms Odone, but “they have only been listening to a few”.
But Ms Harman rejected much of her analysis.
She said: “The reality is that many mothers want to work because it gives extra income to the household, but also feel they’ve got a contribution to the world of work, as well as in the home.
“To go out to work doesn’t mean that you’re not a real woman, and it doesn’t mean that you’re work-centred at the expense of your family”, she said.
Ms Harman insisted the government had helped family life.
“We’ve more than doubled maternity pay and leave, introduced tax credits, given rights and respect to part-time workers so they’re not regarded as second class citizens, introduced flexible working rights and more than doubled provision of good quality affordable childcare.
“We want to do more to help women, whatever choice they make”, she added.
priorities'
Posted by admin on November 24th, 2009 | Comments Off
News that two Tibetans had been executed first came last week from Gu Chu Sum, an organisation based in India that helps former political prisoners.
Pro-Tibetan groups and the Tibetan government-in-exile named the men who died as Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, who went by just one name.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu confirmed at a regular press briefing on Tuesday that “two criminals” had been executed, although he did not give their names.
He said: “I would like to point out that China’s judicial authorities handled the cases according to the law.”
Mr Ma said the two fully expressed their views through their lawyers at a public trial and had been given interpreters.
The two men were sentenced to death in April for starting fires in riots that gripped the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March 2008.
Lobsang Gyaltsen was accused of starting fires in two clothes stores that killed a shop owner. Loyak is said to have set fire to a motorbike store, causing the deaths of five people.
British foreign office minister Ivan Lewis, who visited Tibet in September, condemned the executions last week.
“We respect China’s right to bring those responsible for the violence in Tibet last year to justice,” said Mr Lewis. “But the UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, and we have consistently raised our concerns about lack of due process in these cases in particular.”
Mr Ma responded at the press briefing by saying that no one had the right to interfere in China’s legal process.
trial
Posted by admin on November 23rd, 2009 | Comments Off
The BBC sent three specially-designed transmission trucks to France, capable of transmitting back to receiving stations on the south coast of England and, in some circumstances, directly to London.
But for a couple of months after D-Day the BBC worked from what was surely one of the most extraordinary radio studios ever.
The BBC requisitioned parts of the ancient Creully Chateau near Bayeux, convenient for the neighbouring chateau where General Bernard Montgomery was based.
Creully’s 14th century stone tower became home to Frank Gillard and others as they filed for ‘War Report’, the new nightly programme of radio reportage and analysis. Today Creully houses a little museum recalling the BBC presence there.
Though it lasted less than a year, ‘War Report’ was a revolutionary programme. Today we take for granted that radio and TV should provide programmes of reportage from the field.
To the timid BBC of the early war years it would have seemed unthinkable. World War Two had changed the BBC.
And even if some of that energy was dissipated after the war, those changes did much to define what we now think of as good reporting for radio and television
programme
Posted by admin on November 23rd, 2009 | Comments Off
At the border point, known as Tatopani, customs and police officials refused to make any official comment.
But, requesting anonymity, some customs field staff told the BBC that at night, smugglers fix ropes at both sides of a rivulet that separates the Nepal-Tibet border. Then, with the help of a pulley, they smuggle items in and out.
WWF-Nepal’s office in Kathmandu said it too had learnt about the rope and pulley idea.
“We have been trying to [raise] all these things with the Chinese side, but it has not been an easy experience trying to work together,” said WWF official Diwakar Chapagain.
Just outside the Tatopani customs office, I saw for myself two impounded trucks with illegal cargoes of red sandalwood.
The vehicles had double-sided number plates. One side had a Chinese diplomatic number while the other carried a Nepalese registration.
The Chinese embassy in Kathmandu did not respond to a request for an interview.
Nepal’s forest minister Matrika Prasad Yadav, whose Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has just won a major election, said his party will take action once it reaches office.
“If we come to power, all those who have been arrested as wildlife traders but who are actually only porters and the lowest strata in this trade will be released, and the real traders in the upper echelon will be arrested,” he told the BBC before the polls.
There are allegations from conservation groups that the Maoists used illegal wildlife products to fund the insurgency, an allegation the former rebels reject.
The Maoists might like to take action against wildlife traffickers, but political and economic issues are likely to be more pressing factors as they try to lead a new coalition government.
You can listen to One Planet, or download it as a podcast, by visiting the BBC World Service’s One Planet website. This edition should be available from approximately noon GMT Thursday
pulleys
Posted by admin on November 22nd, 2009 | Comments Off
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said innovation was key for the company.
“Even if it is revolutionary sooner or later, people become tired of a new form of entertainment,” he said.
Addressing the rapid turnaround in Nintendo’s fortunes over the last two years, Mr Iwata admitted that the success of the company had taken even staff at Nintendo by surprise.
Referring to the success of the Wii, and peripherals like the balance board, he said: “Everyone had a pessimistic view of Nintendo in 2003.
“Even Nintendo employees could not have imagined that five years later the market respond so quickly that we could sell millions of bathroom scales around the world.”
Mr Iwata, who was speaking to media at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, said the firm’s success had resulted in a paradigm shift in the industry, with hardware sales growing in periods outside the traditional high spots, and software titles like Brain Training and Nintendogs having two-year life spans on retail shelves.
Nintendo said recently European sales of the Wii numbered more than 200,000 each week.
But Mr Iwata did not touch upon supply issues that have continued to affect Wii sales almost two years after its launch.
Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said Nintendo were proving to be very determined and targeted in their approach.
“They are very good at designing hardware and the production line of content; they have got a knack of producing great content and if they keep doing that, they keep innovating.
success
Posted by admin on November 22nd, 2009 | Comments Off
The demonstration could dramatically change the market for operating systems, especially for Microsoft, the biggest player with about 90% share of the market.
When it was first announced, Rob Enderle, industry watcher and president of the Enderle Group, described it as “the first real attempt by anyone to go after Microsoft”.
The fact that it is free could encourage many users to try the system.
Currently, Mr Pichai said the company did not have a business plan but admitted that encouraging people to use the web and Google services “benefits us as a company”.
Google derives most of its revenue from selling advertising around search and its other online products.
Most consumers will have to wait until 2010 to get their hands on a device running the system.
However, the firm used the event to release an early version of the code for developers.
“You can get Chrome OS up and running today,” said Mr Pichai.
They said they had chosen to release the code and the designs for the system because it was based on a variety of existing open source projects such as the Linux and Ubuntu operating systems.
Open source systems allow people to tinker and use the underlying code to build and customize applications. It is normal to publish any modifications to allow other people to take advantage of the changes.
“We’re looking forward to feedback from the open source community,” said Mr Pinchai.
offer
Posted by admin on November 20th, 2009 | Comments Off
Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey in humiliating fashion after crashing to a 4-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of Alcorcon.
For the second year in a row, Madrid have been put out of Spain’s domestic cup competition by a third-tier side.
Kaka, Raul and Ruud van Nistelrooy all played, but it took a late Rafael van der Vaart goal to seal a hollow win.
The damage was done by their 4-0 first-leg loss and there have been calls for the head of coach Manuel Pellegrini.
“To lose to a team in the third division can’t be considered an achievement,” said the under-fire Chilean.
Van der Vaart’s 81st-minute goal at least spared Real’s blushes on the night at home but the club’s fans were far from impressed, booing off their players at half-time and the final whistle. But the home supporters were magnanimous enough to give Alcorcon a massive ovation at the end of the game.
Madrid director general Jorge Valdano tried to be positive, but it was cold comfort for one of the biggest clubs in the world, and a club that spent vast sums on new players in the summer.
“You can’t say in the first leg, or the second, that we didn’t try,” said Valdano.
Following their first leg loss, Pellegrini had admitted there was “no reason or explanation” for the result.
“We hope our fans can forgive us,” he added.
Valdano also apologised to fans for that defeat but backed Pellegrini, their eighth different coach in five years.
“It’s difficult and I know how the Madrid supporters must be feeling,” Valdano told the club’s website.
Madrid
Posted by admin on November 20th, 2009 | Comments Off
German referee Robert Hoyzer has admitted match-fixing charges and has promised to co-operate fully with an ongoing investigation.
“The accusations that have been raised in public are true,” he said. “I regret my behaviour profoundly and apologise.”
The German Football Federation had said he was under suspicion of rigging a Hamburg SV cup match last year.
The DFB investigation has now been widened to include five more matches Hoyzer was involved in.
He had initially denied the charges, but said on Thursday: “I have documented completely and unsparingly my behaviour and my entire substantial knowledge of all facts and people known to me in this matter.”
Hoyzer has told state prosecutors Friday that other referees and players were involved in the scandal, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Friday.
According to the newspaper, he said he had been present when other referees received money from a Croatian-controlled betting ring in Berlin and had heard of players getting paid.
Earlier in the week, Hoyzer’s lawyer strongly criticised the DFB’s handling of the case and said his client had been pressured into signing a resignation letter.
The match at the centre of the allegations involved Hamburg SV against lower-league Paderborn where Hoyzer sent off one Hamburg player and awarded Paderborn two penalties.
Hamburg were leading 2-0 but went on to lose 4-2. Manager Klaus Topmoeller was later sacked.
matches
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2009 | Comments Off
“What I hope is the home secretary will come and listen to these people and explain to them why he is thinking of making this go nationwide when we have no evidence of its success here.”
As one resident heckled the Tory leader, arguing that the experiment was working, Mr Duncan Smith added: “I don’t want children in this community to have their lives damaged, to become drug dealers and move into hard drugs.”
Grandmother and foster parent Pauline Cumming, 50, said expanding the experiment would be an “absolute disaster”.
“The dealers have no need to hide now. If the government wanted to try to control drugs, they should have done it in a controlled way in the bars or other places that adults frequent, rather than on the streets.
The home secretary should think again about a drugs experiment “damaging” the lives of young people in London’s Brixton, according to Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.
The “softly, softly” trial in Lambeth was simply “handing over drugs policy to criminals on the street”, he claimed
Mr Duncan Smith said he had reached this conclusion after talking to Brixton residents with shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Home Secretary David Blunkett is expected to announce the downgrading of penalties for possession and dealing of cannabis.
Under the Lambeth experiment - introduced a year ago by former Lambeth police commander Brian Paddick - those found carrying small amounts of cannabis are given a warning by police, rather than prosecuted.
Heckling
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2009 | Comments Off
The commission accepts that police, together with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), are already trying to assess and tackle the problems the drug trade causes communities.
It claims a survey of 427 police and other enforcement agency staff provides support for its case to change focus.
About 90% of respondents said it was “unlikely” the UK drug market would be wiped out in the near future.
Only 21% said current targets - relating to arrests and seizures - were a good measure of the harms caused by dealing.
While the commission accepts limiting supply is important, its report claims that in the UK’s entrenched drugs markets, arrests can lead to damaging unintended consequences.
For example, the arrested dealer may be replaced by someone who is more violent.
Arresting one king-pin drug dealer also raises the possibility of creating a power vacuum, with the resulting turf war and spike in violence, says the report.
Humberside Chief Constable Tim Hollis, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ drugs spokesman, said the police’s commitment to neighbourhood policing reflected a “desire to listen to community concerns and take action that will contribute towards improving the lives of local people”.
Soca director of intelligence David Bolt said impact on communities was already being taken into account.
He acknowledged “an intelligent combination of traditional law enforcement alongside new and innovative approaches” was needed to tackle the harm caused by the drugs trade.
The Home Office said “tough enforcement is a fundamental part” of their strategy but also acknowledged the complexity of the problem.
A spokesman said: “We are not complacent; communities do not want to be blighted by the effects of drug misuse and drug dealing.
“That is why police, local authorities and communities must continue to work together so that our streets and communities can be free from the crime and anti-social behaviour they cause.”
vacuum'
