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The Independent (London, England)
The Independent is a Monday to Sunday newspaper, owned and published by Independent Print Ltd and headquartered in London, England. It was first published in 1986 in reaction to the conservative views held by the London Times and the London Telegraph. It has a liberal slant. The Independent's audience is London based, with 54 percent of its readership living in London and its surroundings. Other notable qualities of its readership are: the average reader is 43 years old; 59 percent are employed; 62 percent are married; 48 percent have a college degree or higher; and 73 percent own their own homes. Regions covered include: London and South East, South West, Midlands, North and North East, North West, Scotland, and Wales. The Independent is the youngest of Britain's daily newspapers and is notable for challenging London's more established and conservative daily newspapers. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. In 2010, Simon Kelner, Editor-in-Chief of The Independent, and Johann Hari, a regular columnist in the paper, each received a Comment Award, similar to the U.S. Pultizer Prize. Oliver Wright is Whitehall editor; Oly Duff is home news editor, and Katherine Butler is comment editor.
Articles from February 4, 2005
20 Reasons Why; Is the Winner over ; Olympic Assessors Descend on the Capital This Month to See How Britain's 2012 Bid Compares with the Favourites, France. Sholto Byrnes Believes London Should Emerge as the Number One Choice
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1 Parks. "Earth has not anything to show more fair. Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty. This City now doth like a garment wear/The beauty of the morning: silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples...
Adams: Blame Game Is Hurting Peace Effort
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GERRY ADAMS, the Sinn Fein leader, told the British and Irish governments last night that they risked "making a bad situation worse" if they persisted in blaming the republican movement for the deadlock in the Northern Ireland peace process. His comment...
A Decade on, Gambon Returns to the National
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MORE THAN 40 years after being handpicked by Laurence Olivier to join the original National Theatre Company, Sir Michael Gambon is to make a return to the venue where his reputation was built. Gambon, 64, will play the role of Falstaff in Henry IV parts...
Allawi Faces Defeat against Iraqi Cleric
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THE COALITION of Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister appointed by the Americans, is heading for election defeat at the hands of a list backed by the country's senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, partial results released yesterday...
Allawi Faces Defeat as Iraqi Cleric's Team Leads the Polls
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THE COALITION of Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister appointed by the Americans, is heading for election defeat at the hands of a list backed by the country's senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, partial results released yesterday...
America's Worst Tippers Shamed (and Named)
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A QUIET rebellion is brewing in restaurants across America and the combatants are arming themselves not with rolling pins or butter knives, but with computer keyboards. These are the waiters and waitresses who finally have had enough with patrons who...
An Aid Scheme Riddled with Loopholes
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What was the oil-for-food scheme? It was a humanitarian scheme offered by the UN Security Council to Saddam Hussein as a way to alleviate the impact of the economic sanctions on his people, which were imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. But it...
Anti-War Lib Dems Target Student Vote
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THE LIBERAL Democrats plan to target the student vote in the upcoming general election, believing that their opposition to the war in Iraq and top-up fees could lead to government ministers and Conservative frontbenchers losing their seats in university...
Army on Trial: Accused: Audit of Charges
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There are five ongoing or completed cases. w Seven members of The 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment are accused of murdering Nadhem Abdullah in Uzayr on 11 May 2003. wThe ongoing court martial in Germany in which three soldiers from The 1st Battalion...
ARMY ON TRIAL: British Convoy Bombed as Militants Vent Anger over `Election Success'
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THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the charges against seven paratroopers for the alleged murder of an Iraqi civilian could not have come at a more sensitive time for British forces in the country. With Islamist militants calling for a renewed campaign of violence...
ARMY ON TRIAL: From Oldham to Basra: A Journey That Changed the Life of a Young Man
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DARREN LARKIN'S role in the invasion of Iraq briefly turned him into a hero in his home town of Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was widely known that a vehicle in which the lance corporal was travelling came under fire from Iraqi troops soon after he...
ARMY ON TRIAL: Seven Paras Accused of Murdering Iraqi
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SEVEN British paratroopers are to go on trial accused of murdering an Iraqi teenager, the Attorney General said yesterday. In what is the largest and possibly most damaging case to come to light, the members of the elite army unit are accused of killing...
Australia's `Hannibal Lecter' Questioned over Disappearance of Children in 1966
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IN AN effort to solve one of Australia's most enduring murder mysteries, police have questioned a man they describe as the country's "Hannibal Lecter" about the disappearance of three children from a beach in Adelaide nearly 40 years ago. The case of...
A Week in Books
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One of them is the late but immortal King of rock'n'roll, the most famous entertainer in the world even 28 years after his death, and still an automatic chart-topper. The other is a highly literary Spanish debut novelist without a solitary previous hit...
Balkan Home Truths: How Croatia Swindled Its Exiled Serbs ; Dragoslav Dupor and His Family Abandoned the Krajina Peninsula 10 Years Ago. Ethnically Cleansed, They and Thousands of Others Have Now Been Robbed of Their Homes. Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reports from Zagreb on a Shocking Epilogue to War
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IT WAS an early summer morning, almost 10 years ago, when Dragoslav Dupor woke up to the sounds of Croatian artillery shells and terrified screams. He packed his wife, their three children, a young grandchild and his mother into an old Lada and fled....
Blair Limits Foreign Trips to Present `Britain First' Image
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TONY BLAIR will limit his foreign trips until after the May general election in an attempt to repair the damage to his standing caused by the Iraq war and his "shoulder-to-shoulder" support for George Bush. The Prime Minister will try to reconnect with...
BOOK: Grandeur of the Mind over Matter ; Marek Kohn Saturday by Ian McEwan JONATHAN CAPE Pounds 17.99 (280Pp) Pounds 16.99 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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On Saturday 15 February 2003, the day in which this story is set, the middle of London was filled by the largest concentration of Ian McEwan's readers ever seen. Graduate England swelled the ranks of the protest, a march so big it overflowed into an...
BOOK OF A LIFETIME: The Epic Courage of a Fearless Love ; THE ALEXANDER TRILOGY MARY RENAULT
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Hermann Bengtson, quoted at the start of Mary Renault's The Persian Boy, states that "If anyone has the right to be measured by the standards of his own time, it is Alexander [the Great]." Recent evidence would seem to demonstrate that the general public,...
Books: BESTSELLERS
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If painting is undergoing another renaissance (or, to use the Saatchi word, a "triumph") it isn't instantly apparent from the art bestseller lists. Instead, what's really cool is graffiti: "street art" from five continents (at number one) and Banksy's...
BOOKS: Escape from, and to, Misery ; Joan Smith Human Cargo: A Journey among Refugees by Caroline Moorehead CHATTO & WINDUS Pounds 12.99 (302Pp) Pounds 11.99 from 0870 079 8897
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We live in a world where human sympathy is in short supply, even towards people who have survived civil wars, massacres and the most appalling sexual violence. The popular press foments hostility towards refugees and asylum seekers until the occasional...
BOOKS: From Youth to Adultery ; Geoff Dyer Villages by John Updike HAMISH HAMILTON Pounds 17.99 (321Pp) Pounds 16.99 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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John Updike is literature's equivalent of Bob Dylan: in place of the never-ending tour we have the never-ending publication schedule. Villages, his latest novel, is his 21st. The book ends with a three- sentence quote from a "celibate villager". This...
BOOKS: Life Lessons in a City of Hope ; Salil Tripathi Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta REVIEW Pounds 20 (497Pp) Pounds 18 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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On a recent flight from Oslo to London, I overheard the staff talking about their next destination - Bombay, where I grew up. The older flight attendant, who had been before, told her younger colleague: "It has very rich people, but also very poor people....
BOOKS: Swansong for Sherlock as He Swaps the Bees for Birds ; John Freeman the Final Solution by Michael Chabon FOURTH ESTATE Pounds 10 (127Pp) Pounds 9 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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Ever since his Pultizer-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon has exhibited a restlessness that would be irritating were not the fruits so delightful. After his children's novel Summerland and an adventure-story anthology...
Books: The Poetry Confessor ; Brendan Kennelly Is Not Just One of Ireland's Most Popular Poets but a Much-Loved Media Figure. He Talks to CHRISTINA PATTERSON about Ballads and Blasphemy
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Brendan Kennelly is more famous than Seamus Heaney. That's in Ireland, of course. In England, he can wander the streets without being noticed. In Dublin, he can't walk down a road without being stopped by a stranger. It's not autographs that people want...
BOOKS: The Soul under the Skin ; Jeremy Laurance Don't Fence Me In: Leprosy in Modern Times by Tony Gould BLOOMSBURY Pounds 20 (420Pp) Pounds 18 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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We can imagine what it would be like to be blind or deaf. But to lose all sense of touch, with the skin anaesthetised, hands and feet like wooden appendages - that is harder. Paul Brand knew what was involved. An English doctor of great humanity, born...
BOOKS: Tragedy in Comic Form ; Charles Shaar Murray Epileptic by David B. JONATHAN CAPE Pounds 16.99 (361Pp) Pounds 15.99 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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Must the graphic-novel wars be fought over and over again? After Art Spiegelman's Maus, Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, Joe Sacco's Palestine and the notional mainstream acceptance of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and the Hernandez Brothers, is it still necessary...
BOOKS: When Love of Truth Meets the Truth of Love ; Carol Birch the Evangelist by Clare George SCEPTRE Pounds 16.99 (391Pp) Pounds 15.99 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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Max Oldroyd is a passionately atheist evolutionary biologist, the author of a bestselling book about genes, a man on a mission to explain science to the masses and rout the forces of superstition and religion. When we first encounter Max he is a man...
Bribery Scandal Engulfs Greek Church
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GREECE'S TOP Orthodox clerics were in an emergency meeting last night as they tried to limit the fallout from the biggest scandal to engulf the Church in decades. Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for at least one senior cleric as the Holy Synod...
Britain Implicated in Oil-for-Food Scandal, Damning Report Says
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THE BRITISH Government became directly involved in subverting the process for choosing companies to assist in the management of the United Nations' oil-for-food programme, intervening in 1996 on behalf of a London-based company that was ultimately granted...
BT Plans Revamp in Bid to Appease Rivals and Ofcom
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BT GROUP is planning a radical overhaul of its business as part of a regulatory settlement between the former state monopoly and its industry rivals. BT's plan, which includes the creation of a new operating division fenced off from the rest of the group,...
Bush Cites Iran as `Primary Sponsor of Global Terror'
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GEORGE BUSH'S State of the Union address, the first of his second term, was a familiar mix - the litany of sweeping goals at home and abroad, the inconvenient truths glossed over or omitted, the whole presented with astonishing self-belief. On the domestic...
Bush Singles out Iran as the `Primary State Sponsor of Terror'
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GEORGE BUSH'S State of the Union address, the first of his second term, was a now familiar mix - the litany of sweeping goals at home and abroad, the inconvenient truths glossed over or omitted, the whole presented with that quite astonishing self-belief....
BUSINESS ANALYSIS: Brown Shifts G7 Goalposts with Poverty Agenda ; Razzmatazz and British Fare for Chancellor's Bid to Address African Debt and Aid
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FINANCE MINISTERS from the world's richest nations will not know what has hit them when they fly into London today for their regular quarterly meeting. The winter meeting of economics chiefs of the Group of Seven (G7) is normally a dull affair, usually...
Chess
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While the main attention at Wijk aan Zee has naturally been focused on the top event, the second group, "GM B", has also been very interesting. This 14-player event averaged 2,564 (category 13), and boasted four top 100 players - Predrag Nikolic (Bosnia...
Cricket: South Africa Back in Hunt after Agony of Record Tie
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THE ONE-DAY circus departed Bloemfontein early yesterday and prepared to pitch its big top 500 miles south. Port Elizabeth craves more of the same tonight. These two sides, England and South Africa, must be punch-drunk by now. They have spent the whole...
Deutsche Bank Takes the Axe to 6,400 Jobs in `Realignment' Plan
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DEUTSCHE BANK announced plans to axe almost 10 per cent of its 65,000-strong global workforce, as part of an ambitious cost- cutting drive aimed at increasing profits by 20 per cent in 2005. The German financial services giant is set to cut 6,400 jobs,...
Doherty Has a Quiet Night in ... at Her Majesty's Pleasure
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PETE DOHERTY, the controversial rock star, was in custody last night on suspicion of assault and theft following an alleged fight at a central London hotel. The former Libertines frontman was arrested after an incident at the Rookery Hotel in Clerkenwell...
DPP Takes on Clarke over Phone-Tap Evidence
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CHARLES CLARKE'S refusal to allow the use of phone-tap evidence against terrorist suspects has put him at odds with Britain's most senior prosecutor. Opposition parties and human rights groups have backed the use of surveillance material in court as...
Drowned on the River He Loved: Comic Who Revived UK Comedy Comedy
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HE WAS one of the founding fathers of alternative comedy, with a penchant for performing naked and a unique technique for stopping hecklers in their tracks. Malcolm Hardee, the founder of the Tunnel Club in south-east London, which played host to some...
FILM: Life Is about Jam Today ; at 53, Oscar-Winner Anjelica Huston Is Riding High in Hollywood. ELAINE LIPWORTH Hears Why Times Are Good
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Anjelica Huston grew up immersed in movies, as the daughter of the legendary director John Huston. She's an accomplished, Oscar- winning actress, and you'd think, at 53, she might be a little complacent about her profession. But chatting about her latest...
FILM: NEW RELEASES: When More Is Less ; Ocean's Twelve (12A) Steven Soderbergh (123 Mins) I8888; STARRING George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones
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As evidenced by last week's Meet the Fockers, there is now a sense in which comedies no longer require sequels - they can just be remade instead. Why bother with the time-consuming business of "what happened next" when you can simply play variations...
FILM: Stick Up for Brit Flicks ; When It Comes to Home-Grown Movies, We're Their Harshest Critics. MATTHEW SWEET Deplores a Long and Ignoble Tradition
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We're in the thick of the backslapping season. Over the next few weeks, film-makers, film executives and film hacks will be stuffing themselves with petits fours at a variety of venerable London hotels, as Baftas, Evening Standard Film Awards and Critics...
First Night: Star Vehicle Transports Guillem into a Distant Orbit ; Manon Royal Opera House
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KENNETH MACMILLAN'S Manon is a company ballet, full of character roles and dramatic detail. Sylvie Guillem, the Royal Ballet's French ballerina, dances as if it were a star vehicle. Guillem is a star, and her fans are there to cheer her on, but she's...
Football: Arsenal and United to Fight Uefa Quotas
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MANCHESTER UNITED, Arsenal and the most powerful clubs in Europe are set to oppose new measures announced by Uefa yesterday that will force teams in the Champions' League and Uefa Cup to include quotas of home- grown players in their squads at the expense...
FOOTBALL: Campbell to Miss Netherlands Match
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SOL CAMPBELL will be out for two weeks after sustaining an ankle injury in Arsenal's 4-2 defeat by Manchester United on Tuesday. The England centre-back will miss games against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace as well as the international friendly against...
Football: Crowning Act on London Stage Remains Galactico's Ambition
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THE LAST time Luis Figo played on English soil, on 23 April 2003, his Real Madrid team were applauded off the pitch at Old Trafford having lost 4-3 in the second leg of a mesmerising Champions' League quarter- final against Manchester United. Watching...
FOOTBALL: Figo Ready for Move to England in Summer
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LUIS FIGO is likely to join a Premiership club this summer. His departure from the Bernabeu has become increasingly certain in the last few days as Real Madrid continue to prevaricate about whether to renew his contract, which expires at the end of next...
Football: Letter of Law Should Apply in Absence of Sporting Spirit
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NO AMOUNT of Fifa fog, of which there is an endless supply, can obscure difficulties that have arisen in football since the world governing body began to meddle with the laws of the game, especially in matters of interpretation. A house divided is a...
Football: Mourinho Dream Machine Fights On
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WHEN JOSE MOURINHO began his coaching career with an ill-fated stint at Benfica he once had to substitute his captain Jose Calado at half-time because the player complained that the opposing side had subjected him to taunts about his sexuality. The episode...
Friday Law Report: Grounds of Appeal Should Clearly Identify Points of Law ; 4 February 2005 B V Secretary of State for the Home Department ([2005] EWCA Civ 61) Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Buxton and Lord Justice Carnwath) 1 February 2005
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WHERE THE Secretary of State sought to appeal against an adjudicator's decision in an asylum case, it was important that the grounds of appeal should be settled by someone who was capable of identifying clearly the points of law on which it was alleged...
Future in the EU Threatened in War Crime Hunt
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CROATIA'S BID for EU membership talks was in deep trouble last night, as the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said the Zagreb government was not trying hard enough to arrest a general wanted for war crimes against Croatian Serbs. Ms...
Gangmaster Guilty of Pounds 5m Racket
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A UKRAINIAN asylum-seeker who came to Britain penniless and his shoes held together with elastic bands was convicted yesterday of operating a pounds 5m gangmaster operation. Victor Solomka is thought to have run one of the largest illegal immigration...
Greenhouse Gas `Threatens Marine Life'
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GIGANTIC CHANGES to the oceans, leading to the extinction of marine life from cod to coral reefs, are likely because of the main greenhouse gas causing global warming, British scientists warned yesterday. Researchers have found a new and potentially...
I Don't Want Orgasms Delivered by E-Mail
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It is time to spare a thought, and perhaps even the briefest pang of sympathy, for the those poor, benighted folk who happen to believe in creationism. The Adam-and-Eve gang have been enjoying some success in America, campaigning against the teaching...
IRA Hardens Stance on Peace Process
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OMINOUS RUMBLINGS from the republican movement yesterday emphasised that the Northern Ireland peace process is in trouble, with an increasingly confrontational stance from both Sinn Fein and the IRA. Security sources admit they are baffled by the exact...
Israel to Release Prisoners as Peace Gesture
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ISRAEL DECIDED yesterday to release 900 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture that government officials suggested was designed to help "jump start" a peace process ahead of next Tuesday's summit between Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas. The first 500 could...
JAMES LAWTON: Drink, Drugs and Depression: The Tragic Demise of a Super Bowl Hero ; as America Prepares for a Sporting Showpiece on Sunday, a Former Gridiron Hero Fights for His Life in a Miami Hospital
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Here in the harbour the cruise ships twinkle in anticipation. Super Bowl XXXIX is laden with historic possibilities as the New England Patriots seek a dynastic three wins out of four under their phenomenally clinical coach Bill Belichick. There is also...
Kathmandu Seethes as City Is Cut off from Country by Wall of Silence Nepalese Capital Sealed by Wall of Silence in Silence as Information Sources Are Shut Off
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NEPALI TELEVISION started broadcasting again last night. But all it offered were newsreaders reciting the official propaganda line from King Gyanendra. Soldiers had been posted in every newsroom to ensure all broadcasts were suitably loyal. A country...
Last Night's Television: More Attention to Detail, Please ; HORIZON: LIVING WITH ADHD BBC2; THE REAL DA VINCI CODE C4
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You don't have to strain hard to detect irony in the idea of a TV programme about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. So many programmes these days are made on the assumption that ADHD is what most viewers suffer from. Last night's Horizon on the...
Leading Article: There Can Be No Doubt Now about Climate Change
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THE GOVERNMENT-sponsored conference on climate change, which concluded in Exeter yesterday, was a success. It demonstrated, beyond doubt, that global warming is one of the gravest threats facing our world today. The conference also confirmed that the...
Leading Article: This Pause in the Peace Process Is Dangerous - but It Need Not Prove Fatal
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THE WORLD, it seems, can bear only so much peace-making at once. As the new US Secretary of State heads to the Middle East to breathe new life into that peace process after the US and Palestinian elections, the drive for a lasting settlement in Northern...
Letter: `Anti-Semitic' Posters
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Sir: As the Race Equality Minister from 1997-2001, who worked to launch the first Holocaust Memorial Day, I little expected to have to defend myself a few years later against claims of anti-Semitism by your columnist Stephen Pollard ("Pigs on a poster...
Letter: The Government Need Not Be Too Free with Its Information
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Sir: While I share your view that the Freedom of Information Act is nothing of the kind, ("Is this freedom of information?", 2 February), and that the Government is not entitled to pat itself on the back, I do not share your outrage. I think you greatly...
Murder She Rewrote? Author Accused of Plagiarising Agatha Christie Short Story
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THE EDITORS of the Australian version of The Big Issue were delighted when Jessica Adams, a prominent "chick-lit" author, agreed to contribute a short story to a special new year edition devoted to new fiction. A thrilling tale of murder and the supernatural,...
Obituary: Albert Schatz ; Co-Discoverer of Streptomycin
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IN 1943, at the age of 23, Albert Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, typhoid, tularaemia and plague. It was at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and Schatz was working as a postgraduate student under the supervision...
Obituary: Eileen Bell ; Artist, Children's Writer and Mentor to the Young Alan Titchmarsh
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EILEEN BELL was a prolific natural artist who was still applying paint to canvas into her nineties. Her 2003 retrospective at the Chappel Galleries, near Colchester, showed her to be a rich colourist, producing still-lifes with a quirky perspective and...
Obituary: Peter Dawson ; Eloquent Head of the Teaching Union Natfhe
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PETER DAWSON became head of a teaching union just as the Thatcher years began, and millions of pounds of cuts in education were announced. His tenure as General Secretary of the university and college lecturers' union Natfhe was to coincide with the...
Obituary: Zurab Zhvania ; Prime Minister of Georgia
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FOR THE past turbulent decade in Georgian politics, Zurab Zhvania was a permanent and reliable central fixture, nurtured and promoted by the veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze. By the time Zhvania had started to distance himself from the corrupt Shevardnadze...
Oil-for-Food Scandal: UN Officials Are Linked to $64Bn Fiasco
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THE INQUIRY into alleged corruption inside the six-year oil-for- food programme operated by the United Nations in Iraq widened further yesterday with new questions raised about the former Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali as well about "tainted"...
OUT LOOK: British Telecom
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HAS BRITISH Telecom done enough to stave off the threat of enforced break-up? BT's chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, is replacing a history of reluctant incremental change with what he bills as bold and radical action by creating a separate and transparent...
OUT LOOK: Higher Oil Prices Rescue Beleaguered Shell
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BY THE time you've finished reading this sentence, Shell will have made another pounds 2,000 of profit. Shock, anger, scandal. How dare these profiteering, monopolistic good-for-nothings make so much money at the poor old motorist's expense? Time for...
Palestinians Object to Prisoner-Release Offer
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ATTEMPTS TO prepare the ground for next week's Middle East summit ran into trouble last night when the two sides disagreed sharply over a new Israeli plan to release up to 900 Palestinian prisoners. A meeting to discuss the question of which prisoners...
Pandora
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`Newsnight' truce is broken as Kearney rounds on Paxman The Newsnight presenter, Jeremy Paxman, and his political editor, Martha Kearney, are at loggerheads again. The two, pictured right, had signed an uneasy truce after Kearney accused Paxo of sexism....
Patten Reads the Riot Act to Oxford's Posh `Yobs'
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PUBLIC SCHOOL "yobs" at Oxford are deterring bright pupils at comprehensive schools from applying to the university, its chancellor, Chris Patten, warned last night. Lord Patten, who became chancellor of Oxford last year, lambasted public school yobs...
Post-War Masterpieces by Picasso Expected to Fetch Pounds 8m at Auction
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THE DASHING figure of a musketeer drawing his rapier, by Pablo Picasso, is among nine of the Spanish painter's post-war masterpieces expected to fetch more than pounds 8m at a sale on Monday. They are being auctioned at Christie's with 56 pieces by prominent...
Pounds 1bn Drive to Cut Truancy Proves a Failure
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THE GOVERNMENT has failed to cut truancy in England despite spending nearly a billion pounds on measures to reduce absence from school, both authorised and unauthorised, the Whitehall spending watchdog reported yesterday. About 450,000 of the 6.7 million...
Racing: Curtain Rises on Jockey Club Show
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LES MISERABLES continued its run in London yesterday, also the Woman In White, but the hottest ticket on Shaftesbury Avenue was at No 151, the new, gleaming premises of the Jockey Club. At first glance, the appeal of the 7lb claimer Kristin Stubbs against...
Rail Line to Link London and Manchester in 90 Minutes
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A HIGH-SPEED rail link that could take passengers from London to Manchester in less than 90 minutes - a reduction of at least 50 minutes - was in prospect after the Government revealed it is to undertake a feasibility study of the project. Alistair Darling,...
Resolution Hijacks Osmond's HHG Deal
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RESOLUTION LIFE, the closed life book consolidator chaired by Sir Brian Williamson, moved in to try to break up Hugh Osmond's acquisition of the Pearl, NPI, National Provident and London Life funds yesterday, threatening to make a bid for the entire...
Reviews: CLASSICAL: CAT Artists ; Queen Elizabeth Hall London Ooo99
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Over the past 21 years, the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) has managed the early careers of countless promising performers, not to mention taking on the annual South Bank Mozart birthday concert. This extended celebration of his 249th was given additionally...
Reviews: COMEDY: Monty Python's Flying Circus. at Last, in French ; Riverside Studios London Ooo99
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Around the time that Life of Brian was released, the Not The Nine O'Clock News team ran a sketch in which Mel Smith defended the Pythons from their detractors. "Have we forgotten how often they died for us - live, on national television?" he asked. The...
Reviews: THEATRE: The Winter's Tale Watermill Newbury Ooooo
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Sand falls from the sky, as though from some heavenly hourglass, and a small pyjama-clad boy, playing with dolls, screws up his eyes against the terrors of night-time. This is the opening image of Edward Hall's superb all-male staging of The Winter's...
Reviews: VISUAL ARTS: You Just Know It Won't Last ; Gaetano Pesce Fiera International Milan Ooo99
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Design means the mass production of useful, uniform articles infused with the rational values of Modernism, values that have had the West in their grip for the best part of a century. So what are we to make of the work of Gaetano Pesce, the Venetian...
Rock and Pop: Blood on the Stage ; the Family That Sings Together Isn't Always Harmonious, Says CHRIS MUGAN. Can the Bedingfields Break the Mould at the Brits?
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After Katie Melua and Jamie Cullum destroyed The Cure's "Love Cats" at the Brits last year, you'd expect the awards ceremony to avoid duets. Yet, next week, it brings us a more intriguing partnership: Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield. What will they sing,...
ROCK and POP: NEW RELEASES: Lou Barlow: Emoh DOMINO
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The deliberately primitive and atavistic urge underpinning the current wave of American lo-fi alt.country acts is indicative of a desire to get back to basic principles, an attempt to scour away the accumulated deposits of "commercial" processing to...
Rock and Pop: The Hunger Never Stops ; with an Eye on His Band's Legacy, Feeder's Grant Nicholas Thinks Big with ED CAESAR
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There's a scruffy presence in the top floor bar of a smart central London hotel. Grant Nicholas, Feeder's diminutive front man, is slumped in his chair after an appearance on Radio 2. "They're a big audience," explains Nicholas, "they play a lot of guitar...
Rock and Pop: The Roots of a Hip-Hop Revolution ; before Dizzee Rascal, before the Streets, Roots Manuva Was Making Defiantly British Rap. He Talks to CHRIS MUGAN
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First, the good news: on his latest album, Rodney Smith has surpassed what he achieved on the acclaimed Run Come Save Me. While that record was a landmark for British hip hop, Awfully Deep is already a contender for "album of the year". Not long into...
RUGBY LEAGUE: High Drama Hardens Grimaldi to Leading Role
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SINCE HE returned from England to his old club, Tony Grimaldi has known little but drama. The former Gateshead and Hull forward, who will captain the Canterbury Bulldogs in their World Club Challenge against Leeds Rhinos at Elland Road tonight, rejoined...
Rugby Union: Williams Takes Risk on Central Line for Parisian Adventure
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ENGLAND, PARED to the bone on the midfield front after a season- long spate of injuries, are not the only ones with a new centre alliance to their name. Scotland are at it, too. Last season's Six Nations wooden- spoonists are nowhere near as lavishly...
Rugby Union: Woodward Must Beware Being Tempted by Six Appeal
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TWELVE YEARS ago, five tight forwards from Scotland raised enough of a gallop during a Five Nations Championship won by France that they played themselves on to the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand. By the time the Lions left Christchurch...
Russia Turns on Channel 4 for Interview with Warlord
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A REQUEST from Russia for a television interview with the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, mastermind of the Beslan school siege, to be withheld from broadcast was rejected yesterday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the interview with Russia's most-wanted...
SAILING: Golding Limping Home after Major Keel Trauma
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A "DEVASTATED" Mike Golding was nursing his crippled yacht Ecover to the finish of the Vendee Globe round-the-world race last night having suffered the cruel luck of a catastrophic keel trauma with only 52 miles left of the 23,680-mile course. It was...
SHARES AND MARKET REPORT: Dresdner Calls Time on Rentokil Break- Up Talk
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IF WEDNESDAY was a day for takeover stories then yesterday was a day when many punters lost confidence in the rumours. The worst hit was Rentokil Initial, which finished down 4p at 153.75p, as Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein dismissed suggestions that...
Shares and Market Report: Market Movers
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bSmith & Nephew 546.5p (up 11.5p, 2.2 per cent). Posts strong fourth- quarter results and a bullish outlook statement for 2005. bHays 126.25p (up 2.25p, 1.8 per cent). Solid results from its rival Vedior excite investors. bBritish Vita 347p (up 27p,...
Shell Slammed over Record Profit ; Pounds 9.3bn Profit Attacked as `Obscene' W Oil Reserves Cut Again by 1.4 Billion Barrels W Dividend to Hit $10Bn
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THE OIL giant Shell came under savage attack from all sides yesterday after reporting the biggest profit in UK corporate history alongside yet another cut in its reserves. Fuel, poverty and environmental groups denounced the pounds 9.3bn or pounds 1m-an-...
Tehran May Try to Rebuild Bridges with US
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IRANIAN LEADERS reacted with predictable fury yesterday to President George Bush's State of the Union speech, which picked out Tehran as a sponsor of global terrorism. But, as the country prepares for presidential elections in June, the signs are clear...
Texas Pacific Returns to British Vita with Pounds 620m Cash Bid
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THE AMERICAN buyout giant Texas Pacific has offered pounds 620m in cash to take private British Vita, whose products range from chemicals to foam rubber. Texas Pacific made a formal bid of 335p a share yesterday for the Manchester- based company, led...
The Climate Crisis Is Here and Now - but the US President Has Nothing to Say about It
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We are about to reach the point of no return. The British government admitted this week that the world is hurtling towards potentially disastrous changes in world temperature in the next 20 to 30 years, and the trend is about to become irreversible....
THE FRIDAY BOOK: Families - Don't You Just Love Them? ; Feed My Dear Dogs Emma Richler Fourth Estate Pounds 17.99/ Pounds 16.99 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897
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THIS IS a glorious hymn of praise to family, determinedly and sometimes troublingly setting out to prove Tolstoy wrong. The Weiss family is as unlike any other as you could name, yet it is undeniably happy. When sibling fights break out, they are healed...
THE INDEPENDENT BOOK GROUP: A Love Story, for Crying out Loud ; A Science-Fiction Novel Reduced Our Book Group Members to Tears. CHRISTINA PATTERSON Reports on an Emotional Month
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"Sometimes" as the poet Sheena Pugh said, in one of the most popular Poems on the Underground, "things don't go, after all,/ from bad to worse. Some years muscadel/ faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail". And sometimes, she might have...
