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schizophrenia patients

Wednesday, 29 May 2013 20:19
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Use of an avatar can help treat patients with schizophrenia who hear voices, a UK study suggests.
 
The trial, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, focused on patients who had not responded to medication.
 
Using customised computer software, the patients created avatars to match the voices they had been hearing.
 
After up to six therapy sessions most patients said their voice had improved. Three said it had stopped entirely.
 
The study was led by psychiatrist emeritus professor Julian Leff, who spoke to patients through their on-screen avatars in therapy sessions. Gradually he coached patients to stand up to their voices.
"I encourage the patient saying, 'you mustn't put up with this, you must tell the avatar that what he or she is saying is nonsense, you don't believe these things, he or she must go away, leave you alone, you don't need this kind of torment'," said Prof Leff.
 
"The avatar gradually changes to saying, 'all right I'll leave you alone, I can see I've made your life a misery, how can I help you?' And then begins to encourage them to do things that would actually improve their life."
 
By the end of their treatment, patients reported that they heard the voices less often and that they were less distressed by them. Levels of depression and suicidal thoughts also decreased, a particularly relevant outcome-measure in a patient group where one in 10 will attempt suicide.
 
Treatment as usual
 
The trial, conducted by Prof Leff and his team from University College London, compared 14 patients who underwent avatar therapy with 12 patients receiving standard antipsychotic medication and occasional visits to professionals.
 
Later the patients in the second group were also offered avatar therapy.
 
Only 16 of the 26 patients completed the therapy. Researchers attributed the high drop-out rate to fear instilled in patients by their voices, some of which "threatened" or "bullied" them into withdrawing from the study.
 
New treatment options have been welcomed for the one in four patients with schizophrenia who does not respond to medication. Cognitive behaviour therapy can help them to cope but does not usually ease the voices.
Paul Jenkins, of the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: "We welcome any research which could improve the lives of people living with psychosis.
 
"As our Schizophrenia Commission reported last year, people with the illness are currently being let down by the limited treatments available.
 
"While antipsychotic medication is crucial for many people, it comes with some very severe side effects. Our members would be extremely interested in the development of any alternative treatments."
 
Next phase
 
A larger trial featuring 142 patients is planned to start next month in collaboration with the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry.
 
Prof Thomas Craig, who will lead the larger study, said: "The beauty of the therapy is its simplicity and brevity. Most other therapies for these conditions are costly and take many months to deliver.
 
"If we show that this treatment is effective, we expect it would be widely available in the UK within just a couple of years as the basic technology is well developed and many mental health professionals already have the basic therapy skills that are needed to deliver it."
 
Listen to health issues from around the world discussed on Health Check.
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The UN Human Rights Council has condemned Syrian troops' attacks on the town of Qusair, and the use of foreign fighters in the offensive

Wednesday, 29 May 2013 19:53
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The UN Human Rights Council has condemned Syrian troops' attacks on the town of Qusair, and the use of foreign fighters in the offensive.

 
The vote passed with 36 in favour, one against, and eight abstentions.
 
Syria's key backer Russia called the resolution "odious", but is not a voting member of the council this year.
 
The Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah supports the Syrian government and its fighters are widely reported to be involved in Qusair.
 
The Council also called for an urgent investigation into alleged abuses in Qusair.
 
Only Venezuela voted against the resolution. Two delegations were absent.
 
The resolution - drafted by Qatar, along with the US and Turkey - also calls for immediate access for UN aid agencies.
 
Qatar is widely believed to be supporting opposition forces, some of them also foreign.
 
Before the vote, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on foreign powers to stop "emboldening" the belligerents by providing weapons on both sides of the conflict.
 
"The message from all of us should be the same: we will not support this conflict with arms, ammunition, politics or religion," she said in a statement.
 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier told Russian TV that the resolution could undermine joint efforts to convene an international conference in June on ending the two-year conflict.
 
"For this to happen, everyone has to work honestly, and not allow double standards - backing the conference and supporting this initiative in word," Mr Lavrov said.
 
On Wednesday, Syrian state media claimed they had seized a key air base in the fight for Qusair.
 
The Dabaa air base was seized after several hours' fighting, according to Syrian military sources.
 
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV showed tanks being deployed inside the air base and soldiers in the base's hangars.
 
Fighting around Qusair has been raging for several days as government forces have mounted a fierce offensive to oust rebels from the town.
 
Correspondents say Qusair is a strategic conduit for the rebels, through which weapons and fighters can be transported from Lebanon, about 10km (six miles) away.
 
The town is also important for President Assad because it is located betwevv
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Jessie J admits she is nervous but excited about releasing her second, as yet, unnamed album.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013 23:36
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Jessie J admits she is nervous but excited about releasing her second, as yet, unnamed album.
 
"I'm not sleeping but in a good way, I'm excited, I want to know what people think, I want to know where it's charting in different countries," she says.
 
Her debut record Who You Are has sold more than 1.2 million copies.
 
Despite her success, Jessie J says she doesn't feel anymore confident this time around.
 
Continue reading the main story
I think it's good to make a point when you shave your head for charity
 
Jessie J on why she is keeping her shaved head for now
"It's no different, it feels exactly the same, I don't ever expect anything so I've taken nearly a year out of releasing music," she explains.
 
"Obviously I've still been in the public (eye) doing The Voice and performances and stuff but it feels like you're starting again because if people didn't like it, you're done."
 
She's released the first new track from her upcoming album this week called Wild which features Dizzee Rascal and Big Sean.
 
It is already number four on the UK iTunes chart just two days after being released.
 
"It's such a different sound this album and Wild is a very small reflection of what the album sounds like," she says.
 
"It's exciting for me for people to hear the next single and the single after that because I know what they are now, it's exciting times."
 
Jessie J is still sporting a shaved head after she cut her hair off, live on television for Comic Relief in March.
 
She says she has no plans to grow it just yet, "I think it's good to make a point when you shave your head for charity,"
 
"It is easy to manage," she explains.
 
"Although I have to have it bleached every three to four days because it grows so quick and I prefer it blonde and short than I do dark.
 
"I'm going to grow it I think and play around with it, have a pixie crop and then cut it again."
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Synthetic drugs are emerging at an ever faster rate in Europe, says the EU's drug agency, with so-called legal highs often being shipped in from Asia.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013 22:05
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Synthetic drugs are emerging at an ever faster rate in Europe, says the EU's drug agency, with so-called legal highs often being shipped in from Asia.
 
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction detected 73 new synthetic drugs last year, compared to just 49 in 2011.
 
The drugs agency said the threats emerging from Europe's drug problem challenged both policy and practice.
 
Its annual report described the EU's drugs problem as "in a state of flux".
 
European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstroem expressed concern that a quarter of European adults - some 85 million people - had used an illicit drug.
 
"We are faced with an ever more complex stimulant market and a relentless supply of new drugs which are increasingly diverse," she said.
 
"The fact that over 70 new drugs have been detected in the last year is proof in itself that drug policies need to adapt to changing drug markets."
 
Among the 73 new psychoactive substances officially notified for the first time via the EU early warning system last year, 30 were synthetic cannabinoids, which mimic the effects of cannabis, said the European Drug Report 2013, launched at the agency's Lisbon headquarters on Tuesday.
 
"These products, which can be extremely potent, have now been reported in virtually all European countries," it said.
 
In a separate study conducted with the European police agency, Europol, the EMCDDA found synthetic drugs were now often imported in bulk from China and India for processing and packaging as legal highs - rather than being made in secret European labs.
 
But the annual drug report noted more positive developments where established drugs were concerned, reporting fewer new users of heroin, less injecting, and the declining use of cannabis and cocaine in some countries.
 
While the report noted an increase in the number of treatment centres for drug users, however, it highlighted the need for national authorities to put long-term support in place for addicts and former addicts, in the face of public spending cuts.
 
Given the long-term nature of heroin problems in particular, governments will have to invest more on continuity of care and social reintegration, it adds.
 
The agency's unique work analysing data from all EU states and several neighbouring countries is keenly followed by policymakers worldwide, says the BBC's Alison Roberts in Lisbon, not least because of the eminently global nature of the markets for many illicit drugs.Synthetic drugs are emerging at an ever faster rate in Europe, says the EU's drug agency, with so-called legal highs often being shipped in from Asia.
 
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction detected 73 new synthetic drugs last year, compared to just 49 in 2011.
 
The drugs agency said the threats emerging from Europe's drug problem challenged both policy and practice.
 
Its annual report described the EU's drugs problem as "in a state of flux".
 
European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstroem expressed concern that a quarter of European adults - some 85 million people - had used an illicit drug.
 
"We are faced with an ever more complex stimulant market and a relentless supply of new drugs which are increasingly diverse," she said.
 
"The fact that over 70 new drugs have been detected in the last year is proof in itself that drug policies need to adapt to changing drug markets."
 
Among the 73 new psychoactive substances officially notified for the first time via the EU early warning system last year, 30 were synthetic cannabinoids, which mimic the effects of cannabis, said the European Drug Report 2013, launched at the agency's Lisbon headquarters on Tuesday.
 
"These products, which can be extremely potent, have now been reported in virtually all European countries," it said.
 
In a separate study conducted with the European police agency, Europol, the EMCDDA found synthetic drugs were now often imported in bulk from China and India for processing and packaging as legal highs - rather than being made in secret European labs.
 
But the annual drug report noted more positive developments where established drugs were concerned, reporting fewer new users of heroin, less injecting, and the declining use of cannabis and cocaine in some countries.
 
While the report noted an increase in the number of treatment centres for drug users, however, it highlighted the need for national authorities to put long-term support in place for addicts and former addicts, in the face of public spending cuts.
 
Given the long-term nature of heroin problems in particular, governments will have to invest more on continuity of care and social reintegration, it adds.
 
The agency's unique work analysing data from all EU states and several neighbouring countries is keenly followed by policymakers worldwide, says the BBC's Alison Roberts in Lisbon, not least because of the eminently global nature of the markets for many illicit drugs.
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Global markets rallied on Tuesday, bolstered by reports that central bank stimulus measures may continue and the release of strong US economic data.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013 21:50
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Global markets rallied on Tuesday, bolstered by reports that central bank stimulus measures may continue and the release of strong US economic data.
 
Wall Street closed 0.7% higher, helped by data showing the biggest rise in US house prices in seven years.
 
Central banks in Europe and Japan have pledged to maintain monetary policy support to bolster economic recovery.
 
Markets were hit last week when the US Federal Reserve suggested it might start slowing its stimulus programme.
 
The Dow Jones index closed 0.7% higher, while the broader S&P 500 closed 0.6% up. In Europe, the FTSE 100 closed 1.6% higher, while France's Cac and Germany's Dax indexes added 1.4% and 1.2% respectively.
 
On Monday, when Wall Street and London markets were closed for holidays, European Central Bank board member Joerg Asmussen said monetary stimulus would stay as long as necessary.
 
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Bank of Japan board member Ryuzo Miyao said it was vital to keep interest rates stable.
 
"Investors want to make sure that everyone is in the same boat, since monetary policy has been the mother's milk of the rally so far this year and there was some concern that policy would be changed or amended," said Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners.
 
'Justification'
Investor sentiment was also boosted by US house price data that suggested recovery in the property market was gathering pace. The Case-Shiller index said the annual rise in prices was the strongest for seven years.
 
Separately, data from the Conference Board showed US consumer confidence in May rose to its highest level in more than five years.
 
Ryan Detrick, senior strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, said: "They say the stock market tends to lead the economy. Now we're starting to see the improvement on the economic front, so there's some justification for this rally."
 
On Tuesday, the Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 1.2%, while the yen slipped against the dollar, a move that should help Japanese exporters. Other Asian indexes also ended higher, and eyes will be on the start of the next trading day to see if the rally is maintained.
 
Monetary stimulus has contributed to stock market gains this year, with the S&P 500 up about 17% and the FTSE 100 at a 12-year high.
 
But the run came to an abrupt halt last week after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said US central bank may pull back on its bond purchases in the coming few weeks.
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Ultimately the economic crisis is about people. That is why respecting human rights and adherence to democratic principles are fundamental when addressing the current economic crisis. We are in this together, so we need multilateral solutions more than ev

Tuesday, 28 May 2013 09:21
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Speech/article, 27.05.2013
 
By: Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide
 
 
 
 
 
It’s all about people
OECD Observer No. 296 Q1, May 2013
Ultimately the economic crisis is about people. That is why respecting human rights and adherence to democratic principles are fundamental when addressing the current economic crisis. We are in this together, so we need multilateral solutions more than ever.
 
Over the last five years we have lived through the severest economic crisis of our lifetimes. Issues such as crippling debt, struggling currencies, stagnating growth and a painfully slow recovery now dominate the agenda.
 
But the crisis is about much more than economic numbers and issues. It is about individuals and the real social drama they live through every day. Families struggling, fearing that they may lose their homes; young people losing faith in the future, worried they will never be able to find a job–the list goes on.
 
When hopes for the future fade, people lose confidence in governments and institutions. The economic crisis may not undermine only social development and welfare. The very foundation of democracy itself is not beyond the reach of corrosive forces. Restoring confidence is essential.
 
Fortunately, the picture is not all bleak. The Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty was reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline. The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen in every developing region.
 
The world is becoming more interdependent than ever before, in terms of production processes, economic stability, food security, climate security, and even health and political security. This is basically good news.
 
We see growth and increased wealth, more and better jobs, and less poverty in many parts of the world. This will ultimately help the “old” world recover faster and with less pain from the current crisis. It also brings hope for those who have not yet been lifted out of poverty, and will help to reduce tensions between world powers.
 
Globalisation, when properly managed, is an important driver of inclusive growth. And economic growth, when spread widely, not just improves living standards, but eases tensions within and between societies, too.
 
Work by the OECD shows that inequality is on the rise in most developed countries. Also, many countries with fast economic growth have experienced widening inequality. This is a worrying trend. We know that more equality is not only a prerequisite for stable democratic societies over time, but a high degree of equality is also good for economic efficiency.
 
The conditions that cause extreme poverty still need to be addressed. These range from hunger, poor health, lack of education and depleted resources, to corruption and poor governance, and war and conflict.
 
Slow recovery and high unemployment in our countries have also fuelled fears among people in Europe and North America that the progress made in emerging economies has been at their expense. On the other hand, people in emerging economies are wary of losing their hard-earned gains. Such concerns are among the reasons why multilateral rule-making on issues ranging from trade to climate change has virtually come to a halt.
 
Undoubtedly, the world is better off than in the 1930s. We have learned from our past mistakes. We have developed effective global and regional rules and institutions. But we are clearly faced with a paradox: the world is woven together in interconnected value chains. We are struggling to solve common challenges. Trade is more globalised than ever before, while trade rules are increasingly being developed at the bilateral and regional levels.
 
Part of the challenge is geopolitical. Institutions rooted in the old world order are struggling to adapt to the emerging one. A basic question is: Are emerging countries “advanced countries with many poor people” or “developing countries with many rich people”? Until both sides agree on the answer, consensus in major multilateral negotiations may continue to elude us.
 
We therefore need foreign policy interests back at the negotiating table. After all, we do have a common interest in a well-functioning international order. We all have a contribution to make. We, the advanced economies, must understand that emerging economies need a transition period before taking on the same level of commitment in addressing global issues as we have. Emerging countries, on the other hand, must accept that they will eventually have to take on that level of commitment.
 
But addressing the current challenges is not the responsibility of governments and intergovernmental institutions alone. Our own experience has proven the value of developing strong tripartite co-operation between the government and social partners. This co-operation ensures a stable framework for business and workers, reduces the risk of conflict, and helps reforms win broad public support. Over time this model, combined with our openness to trade and investments and strong participation of women in the work force, has laid the foundation for productivity, wages and jobs to grow.
 
Moreover, civil society, businesses and individual consumers have a key role to play in promoting human rights, basic labour standards, corporate social responsibility and ethical trade. Civil society also has an important part to play in flagging up issues and holding governments and businesses accountable.
 
Respect for basic human rights and adherence to democratic principles are essential for enabling inclusive growth and job creation, and reducing poverty and inequality. A rights-based approach to development and gender equality are crucial for inclusive growth.
 
The challenge is a formidable one. Restoring confidence; tackling unemployment, in particular among young people; stimulating growth; and addressing inequalities will be key to unlocking a brighter future.
 
Addressing these challenges will require concerted and consistent action at national, regional and global levels. This effort demands we acknowledge the following:
 
First, the crisis is about people–respecting human rights and adherence to democratic principles is fundamental, as is confidence.
 
Second, common challenges require joint solutions. We need multilateral co-operation and institutions more than ever. All of us–in advanced and emerging economies alike–will have to contribute.
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European Union foreign ministers have agreed not to renew the union's arms embargo on the Syrian opposition.

Monday, 27 May 2013 23:59
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European Union foreign ministers have agreed not to renew the union's arms embargo on the Syrian opposition.
 
But there was "no immediate decision to send arms" to Syrian rebels and all other sanctions remained in force, the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a tweet.
 
The decision came after lengthy talks in Brussels.
 
A far-reaching package of sanctions against the government of Bashar al-Assad was due to expire on 1 June.
 
Britain and France had been pressing to send weapons to what they call moderate opponents of President Assad, saying it would push Damascus towards a political solution to the two-year conflict.
 
Mr Hague welcomed the outcome of the Brussels talks, saying it was "important for Europe to send a clear signal to the Assad regime that it has to negotiate seriously, and that all options remain on the table if it refuses to do so".
 
But other countries had opposed the move, saying it would only worsen the violence that has already cost at least 80,000 lives.
 
"Member states will not proceed at this stage with the delivery" of equipment that has until now been subject to the ban, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters at a news conference.
 
She said the EU's Foreign Affairs Council would review this position before 1 August, in light of fresh developments to end the conflict including an ongoing US-Russia peace initiative.
 
EU foreign ministers had needed to reach a unanimous decision to extend the current embargo.
 
But now, individual member states will have to decide what their own rules are regarding sending arms to Syria, say analysts.
 
The EU embargo, first imposed in May 2011, applies to the rebels as much as the Syrian government.
 
But in February this year, foreign ministers agreed to enable any EU member state to provide non-lethal military equipment "for the protection of civilians" or for the opposition forces, "which the Union accepts as legitimate representatives of the Syrian people".
 
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Breakthrough in Colombian peace negotiations

Monday, 27 May 2013 21:16
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vvvvvvv Press release, 26.05.2013

Breakthrough in Colombian peace negotiations
In Havana today the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC-EP announced the most important breakthrough in the peace negotiations since formal talks were launched in Oslo last year.  
 
The Colombian Government and FARC-EP have reached agreement on improving access to land for Colombia’s many poor, small-scale farmers. Agricultural reform is one of FARC-EP’s key demands. 
 
“The breakthrough is a milestone in the negotiations and reveals a genuine willingness to find a peaceful solution to Latin America’s longest armed conflict,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide. 
 
Together with Cuba, Norway has acted as a facilitator of the peace negotiations, which aim to bring an end to over 50 years of internal conflict in Colombia. Since November 2012 the parties have conducted the negotiations in Havana. 
 
“The conflict in Colombia has had severe humanitarian consequences for the civilian population. We are now one step closer to a solution. Norway will continue to support the negotiations for as long as this is the expressed desire of the parties,” Mr Eide said. 
 
The parties will now discuss rights and guarantees for opposition groups in Colombia – a key issue that needs to be resolved if FARC-EP is to lay down its weapons in favour of participation in the political process. Other issues that need to be addressed include a ceasefire, disarmament, how to combat the drugs problem and compensation for the victims of the conflict.
 
Over four million people have been internally displaced as a result of the conflict. Tens of thousands have been killed, and there are a large number of landmines that continue to pose a threat to the civilian population.   
 
Norway has been involved in peace and reconciliation efforts in Colombia for several decades. This work has consisted, among other things, of efforts to promote dialogue between different 
 
 
 
 
governments and guerrilla groups in Colombiagovernments and guerrilla groups in Colombia
 
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Films about New York folk singers,

Sunday, 26 May 2013 15:57
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Films about New York folk singers, young lesbian lovers and a tangled French-Iranian family will be among the contenders when the top prize is handed out at the Cannes Film Festival later.
 
The favourites for the Palme d'Or include Blue is the Warmest Colour, an explicit story about two French women.
 
The Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis and Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's drama The Past have also been tipped.
 
The contest for this year's Palme d'Or is "wide open", Variety magazine said.
 
"Usually by this point in the Cannes Film Festival, the race for the Palme d'Or has narrowed itself down to one or two clear frontrunners," Variety magazine's senior film critic Justin Chang wrote.
 
"It's a testament to the strength of this year's competition slate, however, that no single runaway favourite seems to have declared itself," he said, adding that five or six films had made "strong cases for themselves"Blue is the Warmest Colour is a three-hour love story, described as "epic yet intimate" by The Guardian, which has attracted attention for its performance from actress Adele Exarchopoulos as well as its explicit sex scenes.
 
Inside Llewyn Davis could provide the Coen brothers with their first Palme d'Or since they won in 1991 for Barton Fink, and its star Oscar Isaac, who plays the Dylanesque folk troubadour of the title, is being tipped for the best actor prize.
 
Asghar Farhadi has followed up his Oscar-nominated 2011 drama A Separation with The Past, a drama that features an acclaimed performance by French actress Berenice Bejo, previously best known for her role in the silent film The Artist.
 
Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty, a sumptuous story about an ageing novelist, pays homage to Federico Fellini and was described as a "brilliantly executed, glitteringly hypnotic film" by The Guardian.Like Father, Like Son is about two families who discover that their six-year-old boys were switched at birth, and was directed by Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda.
 
Twenty films are in competition in total. Those seen to have an outside chance include Behind the Candelabra, in which Michael Douglas stars as the legendarily flamboyant entertainer Liberace.
 
This year's jury is being chaired by US director Steven Spielberg, who is joined by Life of Pi director Ang Lee, actress Nicole Kidman and Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz.
 
The other judges are We Need To Talk About Kevin film-maker Lynne Ramsay, French actor Daniel Auteuil, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, Japanese director Naomi Kawase and Bollywood star Vidya Balan..
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An overheating battery on an ANA flight led 787s being grounded in January.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 15:12
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Japan's All Nippon Airways has resumed commercial flights of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the first time since the planes were grounded over safety fears.
 
The first flight landed at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Sunday evening, local time, after a short flight from Sapporo in northern Japan.
 
Other airlines have already resumed 787 flights, but ANA is Boeing's biggest Dreamliner customer, with 17 planes.
 
An overheating battery on an ANA flight led 787s being grounded in January.
 
It followed a separate battery-related emergency on a Japan Airlines flight.
 
The planes have since been modified with new battery systems and have been given approval to fly again by the US Federal Aviation Authority.
 
Sunday's Dreamliner flight was the first of five scheduled by ANA in May, before the airline restarts a full commercial schedule on 1 June.
 
It ran its first test flights in late April.
 
ANA operates more than a third of all Dreamliners currently in service, and has another 36 on order.
 
In a statement issued on Friday, Osamu Shinobe, ANA's chief executive, said the airline remained committed to the aircraft.
 
"The safety of passengers is our number one priority. Modifications for all 787 have been implemented and ANA has undertaken its own additional testing," he said.
 
"The 787 remains a game-changing aircraft, important from an environmental, efficiency and passenger comfort perspective."
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I happened to be chatting to the intendant of the Deutsche Oper the other day,

Sunday, 26 May 2013 14:38
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Hard-working, efficient, humourless. There are many dubious stereotypes about Germany and its people. The build-up to this month's celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth helped Stephen Evans realise how often he got it wrong.
 
I happened to be chatting to the intendant of the Deutsche Oper the other day, as you do - the director of the Deutsche Oper, one of the world's big opera houses.
 
And I thought I would have a bit of go, having just seen a production of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde which irritated me.
 
Tristan and Isolde, you see, is to me - and to Wagner - all about Celtic myth and Cornish kings. But this production was set on an ocean liner with naked drug addicts wandering across the stage.I can take a bit of radical opera production as much as the next opera buff but this, I felt, was too much - classic German opera production up its own bottom. I scoffed from the cheap seats.
 
So, given the chance to meet the man at the helm, I spoke my mind.
 
"Why do you Germans have to have productions which are so outrageous?" I asked him.
 
This, by the way, was before the recent Tannhauser in Dusseldorf featuring Nazis murdering Jews which got the audience booing within 30 minutes and the production pulled within a week.
 
So, why, I wanted to know, was Germany so in thrall to radical productions such as the Tristan for which his company was currently responsible.
 
He paused, put down his delicate coffee cup, looked at me and said: "That production was done by a British director."
 
I had not noticed, but so it was. Graham Vick, actually.It made me realise how prejudice lurks unknown even in ourselves.
 
It struck me again when I went to Leipzig to talk to the man there who is organising the erection of a new statue of Wagner.
 
This is the city where Wagner was born and there are great attempts to get in on the act - the commercial act as much as anything.Although, one event is called, in English: "T'was in the merry month of May that Richard Wagner hatched one day," which one feels doesn't quite get the full Wagnerian tone.
 
The organiser of the statue and I talked in the park outside the grand opera house built by the communists, replete with socialist symbols engraved on the outside, hammers and ears of wheat and the like.
 
I suppose, I mused, that Wagner wasn't the DDR's cup of tea - too nationalistic and resonant of the Nazis. Wrong again.
 
It turns out that Wagner filled the opera house in Leipzig.
 
The communist regime loved him, though it did have doubts about the Christian symbolism in Parsifal. My preconceptions were wrong again.
 
We get a lot wrong about Germany from outside. Hard-working? Look at the figures - the German working week is shorter than that of the Greeks.
 
Efficient? Except the well-publicised string of big projects which are vastly over-budget and way behind time, including the revamping of the opera house in Berlin which remains behind scaffolding, silent to the sounds of Wagner or anyone else.Militaristic or non-militaristic? Germany does remain reluctant to get involved in foreign wars but its arms industry is booming.
 
Tanks to Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Submarines capable of delivering nuclear warheads to Israel.
 
And over this there is much debate because a line has been crossed. The unwritten rule used to be that Germany sold things that floated but not things with wheels - not material which could be used against a country's own people. That has changed.
 
There is one big misconception outside, particularly in Britain, which is delightfully wrong - the absence of a sense of humour.
 
The other day, I went to the site of an unexploded World War II bomb. They frequently turn up in building work and this one was near the main station in Berlin.
 
The bomb disposal man was there. He is the chap who walks calmly up to these rusting lumps of danger with a wrench to make them safe.
 
He had a badge which said in English: "If you see me running, make sure you catch up."
 
Now that is a sense of humour.Hard-working, efficient, humourless. There are many dubious stereotypes about Germany and its people. The build-up to this month's celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth helped Stephen Evans realise how often he got it wrong.
 
I happened to be chatting to the intendant of the Deutsche Oper the other day, as you do - the director of the Deutsche Oper, one of the world's big opera houses.
 
And I thought I would have a bit of go, having just seen a production of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde which irritated me.
 
Tristan and Isolde, you see, is to me - and to Wagner - all about Celtic myth and Cornish kings. But this production was set on an ocean liner with naked drug addicts wandering across the stage.I can take a bit of radical opera production as much as the next opera buff but this, I felt, was too much - classic German opera production up its own bottom. I scoffed from the cheap seats.
 
So, given the chance to meet the man at the helm, I spoke my mind.
 
"Why do you Germans have to have productions which are so outrageous?" I asked him.
 
This, by the way, was before the recent Tannhauser in Dusseldorf featuring Nazis murdering Jews which got the audience booing within 30 minutes and the production pulled within a week.
 
So, why, I wanted to know, was Germany so in thrall to radical productions such as the Tristan for which his company was currently responsible.
 
He paused, put down his delicate coffee cup, looked at me and said: "That production was done by a British director."
 
I had not noticed, but so it was. Graham Vick, actually.It made me realise how prejudice lurks unknown even in ourselves.
 
It struck me again when I went to Leipzig to talk to the man there who is organising the erection of a new statue of Wagner.
 
This is the city where Wagner was born and there are great attempts to get in on the act - the commercial act as much as anything.Although, one event is called, in English: "T'was in the merry month of May that Richard Wagner hatched one day," which one feels doesn't quite get the full Wagnerian tone.
 
The organiser of the statue and I talked in the park outside the grand opera house built by the communists, replete with socialist symbols engraved on the outside, hammers and ears of wheat and the like.
 
I suppose, I mused, that Wagner wasn't the DDR's cup of tea - too nationalistic and resonant of the Nazis. Wrong again.
 
It turns out that Wagner filled the opera house in Leipzig.
 
The communist regime loved him, though it did have doubts about the Christian symbolism in Parsifal. My preconceptions were wrong again.
 
We get a lot wrong about Germany from outside. Hard-working? Look at the figures - the German working week is shorter than that of the Greeks.
 
Efficient? Except the well-publicised string of big projects which are vastly over-budget and way behind time, including the revamping of the opera house in Berlin which remains behind scaffolding, silent to the sounds of Wagner or anyone else.Militaristic or non-militaristic? Germany does remain reluctant to get involved in foreign wars but its arms industry is booming.
 
Tanks to Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Submarines capable of delivering nuclear warheads to Israel.
 
And over this there is much debate because a line has been crossed. The unwritten rule used to be that Germany sold things that floated but not things with wheels - not material which could be used against a country's own people. That has changed.
 
There is one big misconception outside, particularly in Britain, which is delightfully wrong - the absence of a sense of humour.
 
The other day, I went to the site of an unexploded World War II bomb. They frequently turn up in building work and this one was near the main station in Berlin.
 
The bomb disposal man was there. He is the chap who walks calmly up to these rusting lumps of danger with a wrench to make them safe.
 
He had a badge which said in English: "If you see me running, make sure you catch up."
 
Now that is a sense of humour.Hard-working, efficient, humourless. There are many dubious stereotypes about Germany and its people. The build-up to this month's celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth helped Stephen Evans realise how often he got it wrong.
 
I happened to be chatting to the intendant of the Deutsche Oper the other day, as you do - the director of the Deutsche Oper, one of the world's big opera houses.
 
And I thought I would have a bit of go, having just seen a production of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde which irritated me.
 
Tristan and Isolde, you see, is to me - and to Wagner - all about Celtic myth and Cornish kings. But this production was set on an ocean liner with naked drug addicts wandering across the stage.I can take a bit of radical opera production as much as the next opera buff but this, I felt, was too much - classic German opera production up its own bottom. I scoffed from the cheap seats.
 
So, given the chance to meet the man at the helm, I spoke my mind.
 
"Why do you Germans have to have productions which are so outrageous?" I asked him.
 
This, by the way, was before the recent Tannhauser in Dusseldorf featuring Nazis murdering Jews which got the audience booing within 30 minutes and the production pulled within a week.
 
So, why, I wanted to know, was Germany so in thrall to radical productions such as the Tristan for which his company was currently responsible.
 
He paused, put down his delicate coffee cup, looked at me and said: "That production was done by a British director."
 
I had not noticed, but so it was. Graham Vick, actually.It made me realise how prejudice lurks unknown even in ourselves.
 
It struck me again when I went to Leipzig to talk to the man there who is organising the erection of a new statue of Wagner.
 
This is the city where Wagner was born and there are great attempts to get in on the act - the commercial act as much as anything.Although, one event is called, in English: "T'was in the merry month of May that Richard Wagner hatched one day," which one feels doesn't quite get the full Wagnerian tone.
 
The organiser of the statue and I talked in the park outside the grand opera house built by the communists, replete with socialist symbols engraved on the outside, hammers and ears of wheat and the like.
 
I suppose, I mused, that Wagner wasn't the DDR's cup of tea - too nationalistic and resonant of the Nazis. Wrong again.
 
It turns out that Wagner filled the opera house in Leipzig.
 
The communist regime loved him, though it did have doubts about the Christian symbolism in Parsifal. My preconceptions were wrong again.
 
We get a lot wrong about Germany from outside. Hard-working? Look at the figures - the German working week is shorter than that of the Greeks.
 
Efficient? Except the well-publicised string of big projects which are vastly over-budget and way behind time, including the revamping of the opera house in Berlin which remains behind scaffolding, silent to the sounds of Wagner or anyone else.Militaristic or non-militaristic? Germany does remain reluctant to get involved in foreign wars but its arms industry is booming.
 
Tanks to Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Submarines capable of delivering nuclear warheads to Israel.
 
And over this there is much debate because a line has been crossed. The unwritten rule used to be that Germany sold things that floated but not things with wheels - not material which could be used against a country's own people. That has changed.
 
There is one big misconception outside, particularly in Britain, which is delightfully wrong - the absence of a sense of humour.
 
The other day, I went to the site of an unexploded World War II bomb. They frequently turn up in building work and this one was near the main station in Berlin.
 
The bomb disposal man was there. He is the chap who walks calmly up to these rusting lumps of danger with a wrench to make them safe.
 
He had a badge which said in English: "If you see me running, make sure you catch up."
 
Now that is a sense of humour.
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One of the suspects in the Woolwich murder case was arrested in Kenya in 2010, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Sunday, 26 May 2013 14:27
hatef mokhtar
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One of the suspects in the Woolwich murder case was arrested in Kenya in 2010, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
 
It said Michael Adebolajo was arrested there and it gave consular assistance "as normal" in the circumstances.
 
He was believed to have been preparing to train and fight with Somali militant group al-Shabaab, Boniface Mwaniki, head of Kenya's anti-terrorism unit, told the Associated Press.
 
He said Mr Adebolajo was arrested with five others and later deported.
 
The Kenyan government had previously denied he had ever visited the country, but spokesman Muthui Kariuki said there had been some confusion as he was arrested under a different name.
 
Mr Adebolajo, 28, and a second man, Michael Adebowale, 22, were arrested on suspicion of the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday.
 
They remain in custody in hospital in a stable condition after being shot and wounded by police at the scene after the killing.Three further men, aged 21, 24 and 28, were arrested in London on Saturday evening on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder - a Taser was used on two of them.
 
Home Secretary Theresa May told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme "500 officers and others" were working on the case, including counter terrorism officers brought in from elsewhere in the country.
 
Senior Whitehall sources have previously confirmed to the BBC both suspects arrested at the scene of Drummer Rigby's killing were already known to security services.
 
When asked if there were mistakes made by the security services in dealing with this case, Mrs May said: "What we have is the right procedures which say when things like this happen we do need to look at whether there are any lessons to be learned."
 
A special taskforce is being set up to "look again" at the government's strategy for dealing with extremism and radicalisation.
 
It will be chaired by the prime minister and include senior cabinet ministers and security chiefs.
 
On Friday, a friend of Mr Adebolajo, Abu Nusaybah, told the BBC's Newsnight that the Woolwich suspect travelled to Kenya last year "to study".
 
But instead, he said, Mr Adebolajo told him he had been detained by "Kenyan troops", interrogated in a prison cell and "beaten quite badly".
 
Upon his return, Abu Nusaybah said Mr Adebolajo was approached by MI5 who asked him to work for them - a request he rejected.
 
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France began withdrawing some of its 4,000 troops from the country in April From Mali

Sunday, 26 May 2013 01:49
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France has begun a key stage of its military withdrawal from Mali, four months after sending troops to push Islamist rebels out from the north.

A convoy of dozens of lorries left a base outside the capital, Bamako, on its way south to Ivory Coast.

France began withdrawing some of its 4,000 troops from the country in April.

They plan to gradually hand over to the Malian army and a UN peacekeeping force, which will deploy in July ahead of planned nationwide elections.

Saturday's withdrawal comes just two days after Islamist rebels targeted an army barracks and French-run uranium mine in neighbouring Niger, killing 21 people. French special forces helped Nigerien soldiers end a hostage siege at the barracks on Friday.

It is not known if the attacks will affect French troop deployments.

'Surplus to requirements'

The French intervention in Mali in January was prompted by Islamist rebels' increasing control of the north and their advance further south towards Bamako.

The militants had taken advantage of weak central government after a coup in March 2012 and the inability of Malian forces to secure territory. Major towns such as Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu fell, and a strict form of Islamic law was imposed.

 

Within weeks of launching their offensive, French and Malian soldiers, backed by fighter jets and helicopters, forced the rebels out of urban areas. However, some fighters retreated to hideouts in the mountains and desert, from where they have launched isolated attacks.

The BBC's Alex Duval Smith in Bamako says the French intervention has been immensely popular, and most Malians have dreaded the beginning of the withdrawal.

The convoy leaving Bamako for Abidjan is impressive in its size, but the French insist it is simply carrying equipment and vehicles that are surplus to requirements, our correspondent adds.

Tanks and most heavy patrol vehicles will remain in northern Mali for now.

France still has 3,800 troops in its former colony. It says their number will be down to 2,000 by September and 1,000 by the end of the year.

The United Nations' Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (Minusma) is to be composed of 11,200 soldiers and 1,440 police officers. The force says it will be deployed to help establish stability and to rebuild the Malian armed forces.

Last week, more than $4bn (£2.6bn) was pledged at an international donor conference in Brussels to fund the Malian government's plan for a "total relaunch of the country".

It includes rebuilding government institutions, repairing damaged infrastructure, organising presidential elections, holding dialogue with rebel groups in the north and stimulating the economy

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