.
So you thought that Mamma Mia! was the feelgood hit of the summer? Wrong! Matt is back and he's still dancing.
As this New York Times article explains, Matt is Matt Harding, a 31-year-old drop-out from Connecticut with a talent for dancing badly in public, a talent that he's used to become perhaps the internet's best-travelled video star. It's the kind of simple formula that would probably make you sick with jealousy if you were, like, a 31-year-old dropout from Connecticut trying to think of a way to turn a few bucks or get a free holiday somewhere.
Matt's last Dancing video, back in 2006, has attracted more than 10 million viewers, many through his wherethehellismatt website. According to the aficionados, the latest one, which has been watched about five million times, is even better. The bit at the end with Gordon Brown in Downing Street is unmissable.
.
So where do you stand on the Coldplay plagiarism debate? What do you mean what debate? Where have you been?
The story so far: as Coldplay releases their latest album, going straight in at No 1 pretty much everywhere, a Brooklyn band name of Creaky Boards accuses them of ripping off the title track, Viva la Vida.
It's the kind of unprovable accusation that big bands must have to put up with all the time. The difference this time was that it was made in a rather brilliant video posted on YouTube - brilliant both because of the song the Creakys say was plagiarised (called, curiously enough, The Songs I Didn't Write) and because of the singer's moustache.
Coldplay denied the accusations. A spokesman insisted that the Coldplay track had been written and demoed seven months before the concert at which, Creaky Boards say, the Coldplay frontman Chris Martin would have heard the song. The spokesman also denies that Martin was even at the concert in question.
But Martin hasn't done himself any favours with this promotional interview for the album in which he admits that Coldplay are "the world's worst—but most enthusiastic—plagiarists as a band".
Times Online news reporter Hannah Strange is spending a week in Sierra Leone, an African country still racked by the aftermath of a brutal civil war in which tens of thousands were killed and a third of its total population displaced. Here is the first of her daily diary entries:
Six years on, the scars of the civil war that brought Sierra Leone to its knees have faded little. Freetown, once known as the Athens of West Africa, remains little more than a giant slum, a mass of makeshift shacks and crumbling concrete blocks sprawling over the hills that rise steeply from the shoreline.
The poverty is overwhelming: from the overcrowded, rusting boat that is now the only way of travelling from the international airport at Lungi to the capital since the alternative helicopter plummeted into the Atlantic along with the Togolese sports minister several months ago, to the sleeping bodies that line the city streets as bare market stalls sell nothing by candlelight.
The capital is a city – if it can truly be classified as that – of destitution, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and religion, the latter as visceral as the humid, tropical heat. The streets are an alphabetic mish-mash of international aid agencies - the WHO, the UN, CARE, Christian Aid – almost every other vehicle is a white jeep. The few other roadworthy cars belong to government ministers.
The cars also belong to the city’s other powerful grouping, the entrepreneurial preachers who feed on the city’s despair. For, saving souls is big business in Sierra Leone. A country with a majority Muslim population of 55 per cent, Christianity has been growing since before the civil war, between 1991 and 2002, but in its wake has recruited thousands of new converts, swelling to a point where any visitor would assume it was the dominant religion.
Freetown and much of the countryside is dotted with half-finished churches as missions from the United States descend en masse to bring relief – and faith – to the impoverished. On the boat from Lunghi to Freetown, I meet a group from the Jefferson Baptist Church in Oregon who are on their way to build their eighteenth church in the country; when they finish they plan to build more. The attached schools are attracting thousands of families drawn to the free education – the Imam of western Liberia apparently sends his children to one just inside the border.
One of the Oregon group tells me how they gave “the Jesus video” to a local who converted at once – and shortly after screened it at a mass service, saving 3,000 souls in the process. These vast services, modelled on the televangelist megachurches of the US Bible belt, are a phenomenon that is sweeping the country. Freetown is awash with banners advertising the next event – there are several, some festivals lasting several days, planned for the next week in the capital alone. Held in the city’s football stadium or in fields surrounding the city, they attract crowds of thousands – but they are not popular with everyone.
Some residents tell me that they are held by evangelical pastors who have broken away from their original organisations to form their own splinter groups, capitalising on the market for salvation amongst the traumatised and impoverished populace. They are in it purely for the profit, I am told, charging their congregations hefty fees to attend and requiring generous donations to “the bank of Jesus Christ” in exchange for pseudo-miracles and the promise of forgiveness.
The rise of Christianity is evident in the banners that adorn almost every vehicle, proclaiming “Thanks to God” (A.D. Tours), “God bless the owner”, or in one rather peculiar case “The more you hate, the more God bless.”
Luckily, there are few frictions between the two major faiths, I am told. For most, religion is not a matter of competition, but of finding a path to a better life, and in this the two groups are united. “God loves Islam too,” the banners declare.
Little more than a day and a half since the start of our poll, the Tories are storming into a huge lead.
With more than 2,500 votes cast by Times readers on who you'd vote for on Thursday's local and London mayoral elections, David Cameron's party has achieved close to 70 per cent of the total vote, with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and other parties languishing around the 10 per cent mark.
We don't, of course, claim our results are scientific, that floppy-haired Boris Johnson has by any means got it in the bag, or that Ken Livingstone's necessarily toast.
But we do say our poll's much more fun than the real thing, because you can have your say wherever in the world you live, from Georgia to Oman. And so, using some rather funky technology provided by our polling company, here are some interesting geographical observations on where the last 500 voters have come from, and who they support.
Gordon Brown's Labour have struggled, well, pretty much everywhere. But he has gained a handful of votes in the left-leaning liberal US east coast states of Pennsylvania and New York, as well as in Europe - Ireland, France and Finland, to be precise - New South Wales in Australia, and Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Tories have votes from pretty much all over the world, including much of Europe and as far afield as Jordan, the Phillipines, Ghana and South Africa. The Lib Dems do best in Europe where - one would imagine - a larger number of people have heard of them. But they also picked up a vote in the bohemian US city of New Orleans.
Vibrant political debate has also been raging in the comment section beneath our poll. Grievances with the government over the smoking ban feature in several comments below, along with the economy, the European Union, immigration, and the prospect of voting fraud because of the postal vote system.
But it isn't all doom and gloom for Gordon Brown. Some of you say that voting Tory would be to vote to go back to the days of mass-unemployment and economic instability in the 1980s and '90s. One of you says Mr Brown is more honest than David Cameron, who is painted as an opportunist. And you also point out that Mr Cameron hasn't exactly come up with many decent policy initiatives of his own. Or, as one of you says, the Tory leader has established himself as a "polished, name-calling yob" but little else.
So join the debate below, and have your say by voting in our poll while you're at it.
And while you're here, why not take a glimpse at our map of the world showing where the last 500 voters have come from by clicking here
 Interesting comments from the Ministry of Defence, which has sprung to the defence of Prince William for using a £10 million Chinook helicopter to go to a stag party on the Isle of Wight for his cousin, Peter Phillips.
The Prince borrowed the aircraft last Friday only a few hours after receiving his "wings" from his father, the Prince of Wales, at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, pausing only to pick up his brother, Harry, in London on the way.
An MoD spokesman said: “The Prince’s training was designed to give him an insight into the many roles of the Royal Air Force. Having spent a week under instruction with a Chinook helicopter squadron, Prince William flew a legitimate training sortie which tested his new skills to the limit."
He went on: “Flying at low level Prince William piloted the heavy support RAF Chinook helicopter through the busy London flying lanes to a helicopter landing site in Central London before departing the lanes to the South West, making a water crossing and an approach to a civilian airfield routinely used by Chinook squadrons.”
William was accompanied by an unidentified instructor, who opined, according to the MoD: “Prince William showed natural piloting skills and an ability to pick things up quickly."
Pick things up? What, like Harry?
Anyway, it reminded us of some other taxpayer-funded jaunts, such as:
John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, using his official Jaguar limousine for a 270-yard journey along the Bournemouth seafront during the 1999 Labour Party conference "for security and because my wife does not like her hair blown about".
Tony Blair taking the Queen's Flight on a family holiday to Sharm el Sheikh at Christmas, 2004 - for security reasons, however, rather than to stop Cherie Blair's hair getting messed up. The RAF crew spent eight nights at a luxury hotel waiting to take the Blairs back home.
More recently we had news of a £4,280 taxi bill run up by Mary Martin, wife of the Speaker of the Commons, on shopping trips. This time it was Lord Snape, the former Labour MP who proposed Michael Martin as Speaker in 2000, who rushed in to defend her honour. "Is the Speaker's wife supposed to queue for the No 12 bus when she does her shopping?" he demanded.
Luckily we've still got Gordon Brown, a renowned skinflint who has already ditched his predecessor's "Blair Force One" flight plans. Mr Brown arrived for his official visit to the United States in a rented 757, only to be upstaged by the Pope.
So what's Dick Cheney doing going fly fishing with a naked lady? Hasn't he got a superpower to help run?
This official White House photo of the US Vice-President enjoying an afternoon's fishing at Snake River, Idaho, set off a bit of a storm after an American blogger noticed what looked like a woman in her birthday suit reflected in his sunglasses.
"First he accidentally shoots a man. Now he is fishing with an inflatable sex doll?" wrote a poster on the sportsshooting.com photography website. "That explains his heart problems," replied another.
The White House was quick to damp down the rumours. "Clearly it's a hand holding a rod," said spokeswoman Meagan Mitchell.
So what do you reckon? (Clue: this full-sized version of the image might help.)
It's the White House, some time in January 2002.
Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, and Stephen Hadley, her deputy, are telling George W. Bush that lumping Iran along with Iraq and North Korea in his forthcoming "Axis of Evil" speech may not be such a good idea (especially since - as Rice points out - Iran has a democratically elected president).
Bush rejects their arguments. President Khatami will understand, he says. If anything, it will help him and Iran's other reformers in their battle against "the hardliners, the deadenders, the Ayatollah Cockamamies".
"Iran stays in," he declares.
Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff, hands Bush a bottle of non-alcoholic beer. Then Dick Cheney, Vice-President, finally chimes in.
"Anyone can go to Baghdad," he says. "Real men go to Tehran."
Bush smirks and clinks his beer bottle with Cheney's coffee mug.
"Real men," he says.
Continue reading "'Real men go to Tehran': what Dick Cheney might have said" »
"I don't think anybody in this city is shocked about what consenting adults do. As long as you don't involve children, animals and vegetables, they leave you to get on, and live their own life in their own way."
Perhaps this is merely the wishful thinking of a man with five children by three different mothers. But will Livingstone's liaisons, revealed last night, affect your choice of London mayor?
It had been assumed that Boris Johnson, his main rival, was the most sexually active of the mayoral candidates. The dishevelled Old Etonian is known to have cheated on his wife more than once.
Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem long-shot, has also negotiated an eventful private life. His ex-wife says the couple shared a "wonderful marriage", but she is not thought to be best of friends with his current long-term boyfriend.
Does it matter what London's next mayor gets up to in his own bedroom?
Some people never grow out of their childhood fascinations. But at the age of 33, Mike Stimpson decided it was time to put his to a creative use, combining his long-standing love of Lego with a new-found passion for photography to recreate some of the world’s most iconic images.
Stimpson, a computer programmer from Birmingham, used the well-loved children’s toy to reconstruct scenes from famous photographs, such as Charles C. Ebbet's 1932 "Lunch atop a skyscraper" and Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare."
And although Lego men are endowed with a permanent grin, Stimpson nevertheless put them to work in some of the most horrific images of war from the 20th century.
Shooting them mostly in black and white, he spent hours painstakingly arranging the scenes and experimenting with lighting to ensure he got the right effect. His devotion to detail is apparent in all his recreations, from patterns on clothing to roadmarkings in backdrops.
Stimpson next hopes to recreate Diego Maradona’s notorious “Hand of God” goal against England and soldiers raising the US flag at Iwojima during World War Two.
His photographs are available for sale on redbubble.com.
View his recreations below and then click here to see if you guessed the correct originals.
"Vietcong Captain", Tet Offensive, Eddie Adams
"Tiananmen Square", 1989, Jeff Widener
Are you an April Fool? Read the selection of stories from around the world today and see if you can work out which are true and which are spoofs.
1. The BBC will today broadcast the first ever footage of flying penguins. Until this unique colony was discovered while filming on King George Island, 750 miles south of the Falklands, it was thought that the birds were entirely flightless.
2. A study published in the journal Australasian Psychiatry has lit a fire under the debate between Australia’s two biggest cities. A neuropsychiatrist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital carried out a series of brain scans on Sydneysiders and Melburnians.
The results revealed that the brains of Sydney’s inhabitants had suffered significant shrinkage, a well-known stress symptom. It is thought the rapidly rising house-prices in Sydney have contributed to their brains getting smaller.
3. Budget airline Flybe has blown Ryanair out of the water with its latest fare offer.
The company yesterday paid 172 actors £40 each to fly from Norwich to Dublin.
The low fare airline ensured they will now meet their annual passenger targets, but Greenpeace described it as “lunacy”.
4. Robert Mugabe banned the custom of April Fool pranks yesterday amid growing tensions in the country's elections.
He told a party rally: "This country has had enough of British and American customs, and if this is the last change I am able to make to Zimbabwe's proud history, I will rest assured that the struggle against British Imperialism is one step nearer to the finish.”
5.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s fiscal responsibility was questioned today when he was caught on camera using a scratch card.
The image showed him playing the Lotto game in his local corner shop. Building worker Hugh Grenoble, 30, told the Daily Mail: "I actually did a double take when I saw him.”
6.
Harriet Harman has reignited the row over safety on the streets of London by going out in South London in a stab vest less than three months after the Home Secretary admitted she was scared to go out at night.
The Deputy Labour leader was pictured fully kitted out for a stroll through her own constituency of Camberwell and Peckham despite the furore that followed Jacqui Smith conceding that she felt unsafe walking alone in London at night.
7. The Rock, a New Zealand radio station, had to cancel their April Fools joke this year when it transpired that 2,000 people were planning to turn up to their fake “secret” Foo Fighters gig.
After inquiries from fans, record labels and promoters the station got cold feet.
Brad King, Program director at The Rock, said: "This is what happens when fools plan April Fools jokes.”
 8. Cedric and his half-brother Clinky, a pair of Tasmanian Devils, are on the verge of a great cancer breakthrough.
Australian Professor Greg Woods from the University of Tasmania says that the tough genetic make-up of the steely creatures could end the scourge of cancer.
Scientists are trying to work out why Cedric is impervious to cancer despite malignant cells being pumped into him.
9.
Google.com.au, the Australian branch of the global search giant, as unveiled a new feature that allows users to select “one day in advance” and search only for results published tomorrow.
The Google Day function uses Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation – it’s known as gDay (MATE) for short.
But not everyone was impressed, Sally from Western Australia said: “This is old news. I read about this announcement yesterday on Google.”
10. Gordon Ramsay has banned swearing in his restaurants. He will fine any member of staff caught using the “F” or “C” words.
The move came 10 days after an Australian parliamentary motion was tabled calling for a review of the broadcasting code of conduct, following an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, in which the chef swore more than 80 times.
11. Japan has held its first ever pen spinning national championships. The winner was Ryuki Omura, 16.
Mitsuhiro Nakamata, a spokesman for the Pen Spinning Association Japan, said: "Pens are always around, so you can practice and enjoy pen-spinning anytime, anywhere."
12. Amy Winehouse will appear in the latest series of Doctor Who. The Back to Black singer will play The Rani, originally played by actress Kate O'Mara in the 1980s.
The character is an evil scientific genius who has enslaved entire planets in previous episodes of the sci-fi drama.
It will be Winehouse's first acting work since being expelled from the Sylvia Young Theatre School.
Click "Continue reading" for the answers
Continue reading "Fool or Fact" »
 Up to 100 Tibetan protesters are thought to have been killed as Chinese troops attempt to crush the biggest uprising against Beijing's rule in two decades, evoking fears of another Tiananmen Square as what began as a peaceful protest by monks spills over into violence.
Tibetan exile groups have written to the International Olympic Committee asking them to intervene with China, which is keen to use the Beijing Olympic Games in five months' time to enhance its international reputation. Some believe a boycott would embarrass the Chinese government into relaxing its grip on the territory and changing its stance on other issues such as the Burmese military junta and the crisis in Darfur, over which Steven Spielberg recently resigned as the Games' artistic director. Others, including the US and European governments, say such a move would only further isolate China and undermine international efforts to encourage human rights and democratic reforms.
Tell us what you think in our online poll, and come back soon to check for the final results.
Marion Cotillard took the best actress Oscar for her haunting portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, the first time a French actress has won the award in almost half a century. Watch her acceptance speech below:
 Tilda Swinton beat Cate Blanchett to the best supporting actress award for her role in Michael Clayton, a film directed by George Clooney. Meanwhile Javier Bardem won best supporting actor for his portrayal of a hitman in the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men. Watch them accept their awards here.
 Finally, see all the glitz and glamour of the red carpet in this video.
 A blood-drenched tyrant to some, an anti-imperialist icon to others, Fidel Castro's announcement today that he is to resign as President of Cuba after almost half a century in office was always bound to draw mixed reactions. The news has been greeted in some quarters as a welcome first step towards democratic change, while in others, it has prompted warnings against renewed US interference in its neighbour. Meanwhile on the streets of Miami's Little Havana, responses have been most notable for their caution - in contrast to the scenes of jubilation on the when Castro first handed over power to his brother Raul in 2006. With no hint yet that Castro's retirement (or rather, retreat into a shadowy backstage role) will signal the demise of the socialist regime, it seems Cuban exiles and their supporters have yet to release their collective breath.
Here's a selection of comment from the web:
Steve Clemons, the Huffington Post:
"Of all the low cost opportunities to demonstrate a new and different US style of engagement with the world, Cuba is at the top of the list. Opening family travel -- and frankly all travel -- between Cuba and the US, and ending the economic embargo will provide new encounters, new impressions, and the kind of people-to-people diplomacy that George W. Bush, John Bolton, Richard Cheney, and Jesse Helms run scared of.
"This is a huge potential pivot point in US-Cuba relations. Will Hillary Clinton step up to the plate -- and will Obama move beyond the somewhat timid proposals he offered previously and go to the gold standard in US-Cuba relations articulated by Senator Chris Dodd?
"And will John McCain just ignore history's offered up opportunity or will he continue to paw the dirt and blow steam at the island nation just off the Florida coast?"
Cuban Triangle:
"Cuba’s stability during Castro’s entire 19-month absence, and his exit by an orderly constitutional succession, do answer one question for Americans. Our “Cuba problem” will not go away on Sunday because, like it or not, it derives not from one man, but rather from a political system. Cuba has problems – many identified by its own government – and Cuban socialism will now sink, swim, or adapt on its own, without Fidel."
Uncommon Sense:
"Fidel's "retirement" is not a moment to celebrate. Unfortuntely, his legacy will survive his life's work, and his life. It is a historical moment to note but nothing more.
"And it means little to this son of former Cuban refugees. Maybe it would be different if this morning we were reading his obituary, but consider me underwhelmed. I won't be breaking out the champagne, and I won't be driving to Miami for the party."
Cuba Solidarity Campaign, UK:
"Now, more than ever, friends of Cuba need to be extra vigilant to the Bush administration’s reaction. President Bush has stated on numerous occasions that he will not accept a transition of power from Fidel and they will inevitably use this as another excuse to try and destabilise the country and to promote regime change to a US favoured government.
“President Bush has already held a news conference today, stating that the: “international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy." Cuba’s sovereign institutions should be respected by the US government, which has no right to dictate who should lead their country.”
The Lede, New York Times:
"...The response so far has been muted among those who fled his rule, some of them in makeshift rafts floating over shark-infested waters. The Associated Press’s first dispatches from the Cuban-exile neighborhoods carried headlines like “Miami Quiet On News Of Fidel Resignation,” and the people quoted in the article and in another published online by The Miami Herald didn’t seem to think that this was a big deal ...
“Is the enthusiasm buried deep inside Little Havana residents, awaiting some much-needed Tuesday morning fuel from cafecitos and pastelitos? Or have they simply given up hope that real change is in the offing? "
The Economist:
"Only five years younger than Fidel, Raúl Castro is likely to be a transitional figure. Some commentators do not discount the possibility that Carlos Lage, the de facto prime minister who runs the economy, might be named as the new president. Cuba watchers will study the new Council of State for clues as to whether the pace of reform may now accelerate. Another clue might be the calling of a long-overdue Congress of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party, of which Fidel Castro remains first secretary.
"George Bush this week repeated the United States’ call for free and fair elections in Cuba. But as long as Fidel remains alive, a move towards liberal democracy will not happen. Frail though he is, Fidel Castro will continue to exercise a veto power over the pace and direction of change in Cuba. He plans to continue writing regular articles in the official press. “I am not saying goodbye to you. I want only to fight on as a soldier of ideas,” he said in his statement. He has stepped down but he has not quite left the stage."
Launching a new space strategy today, the Government announced a review of Margaret Thatcher's 1986 decision not to spend taxpayers' money on manned space missions. An expert working group has already given their backing to the idea, despite the huge cost.
But what do you think?
The Archbishop of Canterbury has stubbornly occupied the front pages of websites and newspapers for the past four days after his speech on Islamic law in the UK created one almighty row.
The head of the Church of England has successfully united the government, Muslim leaders and members of his own church in condemnation. A statement has since appeared on his website suggesting the whole thing was a terrible misunderstanding.
It read: "The Archbishop made no proposals for Sharia in either the lecture or the interview, and certainly did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law."
Is he sure? This is what he said, so make up your own mind:
(Excerpts from a speech at the Royal Courts of Justice and a BBC radio interview)
- "There's a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law, as we already do with some other aspects of religious law."
Continue reading "Is the Archbishop just misunderstood?" »
Bobby Fischer's legendary 1972 world title match with Russia's Boris Spassky became an expression of the Cold War tensions of the time and began his reign as the only non-Soviet or non-Russian world champion in the latter half of the 20th century. Tim Jones, Times journalist, recalls his time reporting on the event in the early days of his career:
"When Bobby Fischer eventually turned up in Iceland to save the world – as he saw it – from the "Commies" by waging war against Boris Spassky over the battlefield of 64 squares, he was met by the greatest number of journalists, academics, spooks and Kremlin watchers ever to have assembled to watch a chess match.
"I was among them to witness this strange, smart, lonely and obsessive genius grind his way to the victory which broke the back of Soviet domination of the game which they had regarded as proof of the intellectual superiority of their political system.
"His hopeless lack of social graces was amply demonstrated after his victory when, I ventured to his hotel suite to congratulate him and ask for an interview. The door of his room opened an inch and in answer to my request he said: "Shove off jerk" before slamming it shut. It hardly mattered for I had witnessed a little bit of history and caught a glimpse of his tortured, troubled mind."
Click titles below to view archive material:
Bobby Fischer, the self-appointed champion of the 'free world' - April 5 1972, The Times
"The one-time boy prodigy, who shuns company and dreams of living in a house shaped like a rook, regards himself as the natural representative of the "free world" against the evils of communism.... Fischer is conscious of the prestige he would bring to the United States if he wrests the crown. The Russians have virtually monopolized chess since the war and the acquisition of the title would be regarded by Fischer as a blow for democratic truth."
Bobby Fischer, still missing, is given a two-day reprieve - July 3 1972, The Times
"The match was officially opened last night at a ceremony resembling the Court at Versailles without the Sun King. The National Theatre was packed with Icelandic dignitaries and grandmasters from all over the world. The only empty seat was one in the front row reserved for the absent challenger... Even Americans here have given up making excuses for him and are beginning to admire the correct etiquette of the Russian camp."
Fischer gets the world title after Spassky telephones surrender - September 2 1972, The Times
"Fischer dislikes Russians and it appeared at times that he was using the opportunity to punish them through Spassky for all the injustices that he alleges he has suffered at their hands. In his hands the gentle game of chess became a weapon of retribution and the result a vehicle for telling the world: "I told you so.""
How rich is Vladimir Putin? It is an easy question to answer formally by looking at Mr Putin's declaration of assets as a candidate in this month's parliamentary elections (writes Tony Halpin, Moscow Correspondent of The Times).
This showed that he earned £40,000 last year and had £74,000 in savings as well as two vintage Volga cars, an apartment in St Petersburg inherited from his parents and 230 shares in a local bank, worth about £400.
Informally, however, some staggering numbers are circulating as gossip among political analysts in Russia.
Continue reading "Is Putin a billionaire?" »
The State Opening of Parliament is the main ceremonial event in Parliament's year, when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travel up the Mall by horse-drawn carriage to deliver a speech in the House of Lords on the Government's legislative plans for the coming year. She is escorted on the short journey by the Household Cavalry, seen here preparing for duty.
The Queen arrives at the Sovereign's Entrance at 11.15am.
Her crown and mace are sent ahead of her in their own coaches, and carefully handed over once they arrive at the Palace of Westminster.
The Queen and the Duke walk to the robing room where she is helped to don on the Imperial State Crown and parliamentary robe.
The Queen and the Duke lead a procession through the Royal Gallery to take their place on golden thrones at the head the House of Lords while MPs are summoned to her presence.
Baroness Thatcher among the hundreds of peers clad in colourful robes as they wait for the official known as Black Rod to summon the MPs from the House of Commons.
The MPs stand behind the Bar of the House of Lords, at the opposite end from the Queen, to hear the Queen's Speech. Although the Queen reads it out, the content of the speech is entirely written and approved by the Government. It contains an outline of proposed new laws to be passed in the coming year.
Once the Speech is delivered, the Queen's role is done and she leaves Westminster.
This year the Queen may have been in a hurry as she travelled back up the Mall, as she had another engagement scheduled this afternoon, to open the refurbished St Pancras station.
At the window of Buckingham Palace Lady Louise Windsor, the Queen's granddaughter, waits with her mother the Countess of Wessex for a glimpse of the returning coach.
When Tony Blair and David Cameron walked through Parliament together last year to listen to the Queen's Speech, apparently they were having an animated chat about what the Prime Minister thought of the actor who played him in the film The Queen.
This year there wasn't the same repartee between the party leaders, as the new Prime Minister used the three minute stroll to deliver a monologue and the leader of the Opposition managed no more than the occasional "yes... yes".
Adam Boulton, Sky News's veteran political commentator, was for once at a loss to guess what was said. "I never noticed before that David Cameron is three inches taller than Gordon Brown," was all he could manage.
As silence fell after Black Rod issued his demand to the House of Commons summoning MPs into the Queen's presence, a voice piped up from the backbenches.
"Oo shot the 'arriers?" it demanded - no doubt a tasteless and ill-timed reference to the recent controversy over whether Prince Harry, the Queen's grandson and a keen sportsman, was implicated in the shooting dead of two hen harriers, a protected bird species, on the royal estate at Sandringham.
The prince was questioned about the incident and police sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, but it emerged today that no-one is to face charges.
The camera did not show the identity of the speaker who perpetrated such lese majeste, but the voice had a strong northern accent - an accent not dissimilar to that of Dennis Skinner, the irreverent Labour MP known as the Beast of Bolsover.
One of the small tweaks introduced this year to the pomp and circumstance of the Queen's Speech will come as some relief to her Majesty.
In previous years the Queen has been forced to wait for ten minutes or more on the huge, ornate throne in the House of Lords while the gentleman usher Black Rod marches right across the Palace of Westminster to collect the MPs from the House of Commons and lead them into the upper chamber.
This year, Sky News informs us, Black Rod has been allowed to wait in the central lobby so that he can round up the Commons and usher them in as quickly as possible. Which is nice, when one has to hang around in a great big heavy crown.
One eagerly awaited highlight of today's Queen's speech is the outfit to be worn by Jack Straw, the new Minister of Justice who will take on the ceremonial role once performed by the Lord Chancellor.
Suspicion has lingered that Mr Straw is vain since his sudden appearance three years ago without the thick-lensed glasses he used to wear, apparently after undergoing laser eye surgery.
Continue reading "His Jackness has a new outfit" »
It certainly wasn't a leadership bid. But he jokes were decent enough, the delivery was light but firm and the tone was reassuring. If he was a bank manager, he would probably be working for Smile.
In 20 minutes, Alistair Darling managed more contrition than Gordon did in ten years. "Last week was difficult. Difficult for Northern Rock savers, for us all. There are lessons to be learnt." And he hints at a tougher approach towards the city, perhaps even those dreaded hedge funds, than he suggested in his very first interviews as Chancellor. "We need effective regulation in international markets too. Far greater openness and to prevent risky investments being hidden off balance sheet."
But the speech's most impressive section was a highly effective attacks on the Tories, highlighting a section in the John Redwood competitiveness report that, in retrospect, seems less like a good idea...
"It is the luxury of opposition they don't always get held to account for everything they said last week or last month. And that's a luxury to which the Tories are welcome for a long time.
"But just occasionally, we are entitled to draw attention to the dangerous nonsense that they talk. Let me give you one example. Just a few weeks ago, the Tories said there was "no need to continue to regulate the provision of mortgage finances, as it is the lending institutions", the banks, "taking the risk."
""Does David Cameron, today, really think that there is no need to regulate the mortgage market?"
Ouch
Some useful links if you want to follow the Virginia Tech massacre and get a feeling for the profound shock caused in the "Hokie" community.
Two student newspapers have struggled bravely to keep up with the news: the Collegiate Times and Planet Blacksburg. The latter has its own mourning wall where visitors can leave their messages.
The Roanoke Times, a local newspaper, also has its own guest book.
The God Bless V Tech blog is carrying a list of victims as their names are published, and allowing their friends and relatives to get news.
The Crime Blog has some intriguing websleuthing, including the transcript of a Roanoake gunshop owner who claims to have sold Cho Seung Hui, the South Korean gunman, a Glock 19 and a Walter P-22.
Ladies excited by the news that a giant poisonous cane toad found in Darwin was 'the size of a small dog' should put aside thoughts of being the first on the block with newest fashion accessory.
As the pictures above show, while the ex-toad - over-excited vigilantes killed it after the creature's final 'breeding frenzy' in a pond late on Monday night - may be the weight of a small dog (2lb), it in no way matches the size or charm of an actual small dog. On the left, Paris Hilton and pet chihuahua (world's smallest breed, max 6lb); on the right, Paris Hilton and the amphibian formerly known as Toadzilla. The dog wins.
 In April 1988, Robert Maxwell held a meeting, or series of meetings, in London with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Curious encounters they must have been, between the larger-than-life socialist kleptocrat and the tiny Albanian nun who had become a living saint.
Mother Teresa was in London to complain about its "cardboard city" and homelessness under Margaret Thatcher. Maxwell offered to back her campaign - but what did he want in return? The playwright Ian Curteis has offered his best guess in The Bargain, recently opened at the Theatre Royal, Bath.
The play was reviewed in today's Times by Benedict Nightingale, who put it in that fashionable genre, speculative biography, and pointed out that "nobody knows what was said before the sinner got himself photographed with the saint".
But I know what was said, or at least a little of it. I was there. I was actually introduced by the sinner to the saint - before finding myself spirited out Maxwell's Holborn office by a former British ambassador to Washington.
Continue reading "How Robert Maxwell introduced me to a saint" »
If you read this morning's Times piece about Alan Nunn May, the British physicist who passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during the Second World War, you might be interested in the Times coverage of the opening of his trial, from March 20, 1946
 Fair game, or a political stitch-up?
On Sunday night, Al Gore climbed up onto the stage by Leonardo DiCaprio to pick up his Oscar for the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", leaving the door tantalisingly open for a tilt at the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination as he appealed to Americans to fight climate change.
Next day, an "independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan" think tank announced that it had got hold of the former vice-president's energy bills for his 20-room Tennessee mansion and found that Gore and his wife Tipper used a stunning 221,000 kWh of electricity last year.
"Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own 'Inconvenient Truth'," ran the headline on the communique from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.“We wanted to see if he was living by his own recommendations and walking the walk," said the group's president, Drew Johnson.
Reaction to the news, which was brought to wider attention by the Drudge Report, was entirely predictable - the liberals cried foul at the intrusion of privacy while the conservatives cried: "Hypocrite!"
According to the Department of Energy, the typical US household uses 10,656kWh of electricity a year - 20 times less than the Gores. With gas included the former second couple spend $30,000 a year powering their mansion (not to mention their other two properties).
We checked with the Energy Savings Trust and the average household consumption in the UK is a paltry 3,300 kWh - barely enough to heat/light/cool one of the Gores' eight bathrooms. That's not to say we couldn't all do better. UK homes emit an average of six tonnes of carbon dioxide - enough to fill six balloons 10 metres high.
Curiously, neither Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace was prepared to comment on the Gore controversy. A spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth, which is organising screenings of An Inconvenient Truth at a London cinema, said: "We don't tend to comment on individuals." Greenpeace, normally said its climate team were all unavailable, but perhaps Friends of the Earth could help?
Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for the Gores, did not dispute the figures but pointed out that both Mr and Mrs Gore liked to work from home, that they purchased only 'green' electricity and also used carbon offset schemes to reduce the family 'carbon footprint' to zero.
“Sometimes when people don’t like the message, in this case that global warming is real, it’s convenient to attack the messenger,” she added.
 It must be every woman's worst nightmare, that you turn up at a really glamorous social event somewhere and someone else is wearing the same dress as you.
So imagine Laura Bush's surprise when she turned up on Sunday night at the Kennedy Center Honors, one of Washington's biggest nights, to discover that no less than three other women were wearing the exact same dress as her - an $8,500 red number from Oscar de la Renta.
The First Lady did the only thing any self-respecting person could do: she went upstairs and changed. Unfortunately, however, Mrs Bush had already chosen to wear the self-same dress for the First Couple's traditional 'holiday photo'. 
But how did it happen? According to Letitia Baldridge, White House social secretary under President Kennedy: "Jacqueline Kennedy, when she was first lady, made sure, and her couturiers made sure, that nobody else wore that dress that season."
There must have been a few sore heads this morning in the small world of the Australian media after last night's Walkley Awards dinner.
Remember Jeremy Clarkson and his punch-up with Piers Morgan at the British Press Awards a couple of years back? The Walkleys saw an even more public stoush when Glenn Milne, a veteran political commentator, stormed the stage in a fit of drunken anger and physically attacked Steven Mayne, who runs the successful crikey.com.au media gossip website.
Continue reading "'Sponsored by Foster's'" »
Some nice footage of last night's Flash Mob Mobile Club at Liverpool St Station, courtesy of our young stablemate thelondonpaper:
 The Pope appears to be developing a habit of turning heads by arriving for public appearances in unusual hats.
Today Benedict XVI appeared at a Vatican audience sporting a wide-brimmed red hat, known in Italian as a saturno, because its wide lip resembles the rings around the planet Saturn. It is also affectionately known as a platter hat.
Pilgrims in a sun-drenched St Peter’s Square had a splendid view of the pontiff in his new headgear as he stood, waving, in the car driving him to his weekly audience. Possibly made uncomfortable by the heat, the pontiff later took it off.
The last time that Benedict appeared in a new hat was at a Vatican audience in December, when he donned a fur-trimmed number called a camauro, resembling a Father Christmas hat and popular with pontiffs in the 17th century.
The rounded saturno hat that he sported today was last seen in public on the head of Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963. John, a hat fan, was so keen on the camauro that he was buried with one.
Benedict's latest style is in a long tradition of wide-brimmed clerical hats. The strangest is probably the Cardinals' galero, a very large, very flat piece of headgear hung with enormous tassels. This is the famous red hat once presented to new Cardinals and which traditionally hung over their tombs. Even though the galero is no longer presented to new Cardinals by the Pope, some acquire one anyway, just to have something to hang from their cathedral ceiling.
The smaller saturno is sometimes also referred to as a galero (as, for instance, in the old Ceremonial of Bishops), or as a capello romano, or Roman hat. Click here for some great historic pictures.
The bosses of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme have a curious explanation to offer for why that venerable radio news institution has been losing listeners at an alarming rate: not enough news.
"The last quarter has been slow for news," says Jo Hamilton, BBC Radio's head of research, after it emerged that listeners were nearly ten per cent down in the last year.
Excuse us? Slow for news? Has the war in Lebanon escaped Ms Hamilton? What about that little football tournament in Germany that finished last month? We think it is more likely that Today's elderly audience has been falling off the twig. Perhaps a bit more research is called for at the White City.
Continue reading "BBC complains of lack of news" »
"The deeper the cover up, the prettier the frocks." No, not a supermodel trying to conceal another late night champagne and cocaine binge, but Bob Moodie, a 67-year-old New Zealand lawyer who has taken to wearing women's clothing in court in protest at discrimination against women in the judiciary. The picture shows Mr Moodie, formerly a police officer and keen rugby player, in a fetching skirt but suggests that he does draw the line at this season's wedge heels.
Continue reading "Dainty protest" »
Mothers-in-law beware. A court in East London has upheld a young bride's attempt to use the laws against stalking and harassment to sue her husband's mother for making her endure "months of hell". Gina Singh, 26, was awarded £35,000 in damages after telling how Dalbir Kaur Bhakar banned her leaving the house in Ilford and imposed a regime of 17 hours of housework each day, including cleaning the lavatory without a brush.
Continue reading "Mothers-in-law beware" »
There were tears at the 18th hole at Hoylake yesterday as Tiger Woods won his third Open title, and promptly lost his iron self-discipline as he dedicated his win to his father, who died earlier this year.
Eight people died in Lebanon and Israel yesterday, including three killed when an Israeli helicopter missile hit a minibus full of refugees fleeing their bombed village. About a third of Lebanon's 3.6 million population are now refugees. Western countries have been castigated for failing to care or send aid. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is due in the region today, and is now making more positive noises about a possible ceasefire - the United States meanwhile continues to ship 'bunker buster' bombs to Jerusalem. David Rowan, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, says that Hezbollah's act of provocation which started the fighting two weeks ago has achieved the impossible, by uniting British Jewry behind Israel.
Continue reading "Death by Numbers" »
|
