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US flag ceremony ends Iraq operation The US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, told troops the mission had been worth the cost in blood and dollars. He said the years of war in Iraq had yielded to an era of opportunity in which the US was a committed partner. Only about 4,000 US soldiers now remain in Iraq, but they are due to leave in the next two weeks. At the peak of the operation, US forces there numbered 170,000. The symbolic ceremony in Baghdad officially "cased" (retired) the US forces flag, according to army tradition. It will now be taken back to the USA. Mr Panetta told US soldiers they could leave Iraq with great pride. "After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real," he said. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Iraqis were glad the US troops were leaving. "They have been difficult years," he told the BBC. "We have had some successes together. We had some failures. We have some mishaps. "I think we are all happy that the American soldiers are returning home safely to their families and we are also confident that the Iraqi people and their armed forces, police, are in a position now to take care of their own security." Some 4,500 US soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis have died in the war. The conflict, launched by the Bush administration in March 2003, soon became hugely unpopular as claims that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and supporting al-Qaeda militants turned out to be untrue. The war has cost the US some $1tr. Republicans have criticised the
pullout citing concerns over Iraq's stability, but a recent poll by the Pew Research Centre found that 75% of Americans backed the troop withdrawal. 'Moment of success' President Barack Obama, who came to office pledging to bring troops home, said on Wednesday that the US left behind a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq". In a speech in North Carolina to troops who have just returned, Mr Obama hailed the "extraordinary achievement" of the military and said they were leaving with "heads held high". "Everything that American troops have done in Iraq, all the fighting and dying, bleeding and building, training and partnering, has led us to this moment of success," he said. "The war in Iraq will soon belong to history, and your service belongs to the ages." He said the war had been "a source of great controversy" but that they had helped to build "a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people". Mr Obama announced in October that all US troops would leave Iraq by the end of 2011, a date previously agreed by former President George W Bush in 2008. Some 1.5 million Americans have served in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003. In addition to those who died, nearly 30,000 have been wounded. Troop numbers peaked during the height of the so-called surge strategy in 2007, but the last combat troops left Iraq in August last year. A small contingent of some 200 soldiers will remain in Iraq as advisers, while some 15,000 US personnel are now based at the US
Photos: AP
The flag of American forces in Iraq has been lowered in Baghdad, bringing nearly nine years of US military operations in Iraq to a formal end.
The symbolic ceremony in Baghdad officially "cased" (retired) the US forces flag, according to army tradition.
embassy in Baghdad - by far the world's largest. 'Ruin and mess' Some Iraqis have said they fear the consequences of being left to manage their own security. Baghdad trader Malik Abed said he was grateful to the Americans for ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein, but added: "I think now we are going to be in trouble. Maybe the terrorists will start attacking us again." But in the city of Falluja, a former insurgent stronghold which was the scene of major US offensives in 2004, people burned US flags on Wednesday in celebration at the withdrawal. "No-one trusted their promises, but they said when they came to Iraq they would bring security, stability and would build our country,"
Timeline - US troops in Iraq •March 2003 - Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with a "shock and awe" assault on Baghdad, which falls in under a month •May 2003 - President George Bush declares "mission accomplished" •Dec 2003 - Saddam Hussein captured in a bunker south of Tikrit •April 2004 - Photos emerge showing abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison •2005 - Suicide attacks in Iraq hit all-time high as insurgency spreads •January 2007 - US troop "surge" begins, leading to a drop in violence by 2008 •August 2010 - Last US combat troops leave Iraq
Ahmed Aied, a grocer, told Reuters news agency. "Now they are walking out, leaving behind killings, ruin and mess." Concerns have also been voiced in Washington that Iraq lacks robust political structures or an abi-
lity to defend its borders. There are also fears that Iraq could be plunged back into sectarian bloodletting, or be unduly influenced by Iran. www.bbcnews.com
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Iraq war in figures The onus of ensuring Iraq's security and rebuilding the devastated country now rests with Iraqi leaders. Almost every figure related to the war is disputed, with none more keenly debated than the total number of Iraqi deaths. This is a summary of some of the key numbers and the arguments surrounding them. TROOP LEVELS US troops led the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, in coalition with the UK and other nations. The numbers of US "boots on the ground" have mostly fluctuated between 100-150,000 apart from the period of the "surge" in 2007. This was President George W Bush's drive to improve security in the country, especially in the capital Baghdad, by sending in 30,000 extra troops. Barack Obama made withdrawal from Iraq a key pledge in his presidential election campaign of 2008 and troop numbers have steadily fallen since he took office in January 2009. On 19 August 2010, the last US combat brigade left the country, leaving behind 50,000 military personnel involved in the transition process. British forces peaked at 46,000 during the invasion phase and then fell away year on year to 4,100 in May 2009 when the UK formally withdrew from Iraq. The Royal Navy continued to train the Iraqi Navy until May 2011. The UK's presence in Iraq is now only as part of the Nato Training Mission - Iraq. That includes 44 military personnel, including a contingent at the Iraqi Military Academy. CASUALTIES The US has lost 4,487 service personnel in Iraq since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 19 March 2003, according to the latest figures from the US Department of Defense. By 31 August 2010, when the last US combat troops left, 4,421 had been killed, of which 3,492 were killed in action. Almost 32,000 had been wounded in action.Since then, in what was called Operation New Dawn, 66 have died, of which 38 were killed in action. Three hundred and five have been wounded in action since 1 September 2010. The UK lost 179 servicemen and women, of which 136 were killed in action. While coalition troop fatalities are reasonably well documented, deaths of Iraqi civilians and combatants are more difficult to track because of a lack of reliable official figures. All counts and estimates of Iraqi deaths are highly disputed. The organisation Iraq Body Count has been collating civilian deaths using crosschecked media reports and other figures such as morgue records. According to IBC there have been between 97,461 and 106,348 civilian deaths up to July 2010. The most bloody period for civilian deaths was the month of invasion, March 2003, in which IBC says 3,977 ordinary Iraqis lost their lives. A further 3,437 were killed in April of that year. The group says the difference between its higher and lower total figures is caused by discrepancies in reports about how many deaths resulted from an incident and
Photo: AP
US Iraq withdrawal Tourism & Evironment marks new dawn
All US troops will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011
whether they were civilians or combatants. Other reports and surveys have resulted in a wide range of estimates of Iraqi deaths. The UN-backed Iraqi Family Health Survey estimated 151,000 violent deaths in the period March 2003 - June 2006. Meanwhile, The Lancet journal in 2006 published an estimate of 654,965 excess Iraqi deaths related to the war of which 601,027 were caused by violence. Both this and the Family Health Survey include deaths of Iraqi combatants as well as civilians. An unknown number of civilian contractors have also been killed in Iraq. Icasualties publishes what it describes as a partial list with the figure of 467.
And yet today, as the Americans pull down their flag and leave, some Iraqis hope that their country's luck may be turning. The chain of events has been a terrible one. In the 1970s, Saddam Hussein became the power behind the throne, and then president. In 1980 he attacked Iran, starting an eight-year war which killed a million people. In 1990 his invasion of Kuwait led to the first Gulf War, and then the Kurdish and Shia rebellions, which he crushed with great bloodshed. The 1990s were marked by UN sanctions which impoverished almost the entire population - except for those around Saddam himself. In 2003 the American-led invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Saddam led to a savage civil war which is still not finished. The United States leaves behind a country embittered by the occupation. If you go to Sadr City, the vast, poor, predominantly Shia suburb of Baghdad, most people curse the Americans and blame them for everything bad that has happened since the invasion. Yet it was American army engineers who worked with courage and generosity to provide Sadr City with clean water and a proper sewage system. Invasion 'on the cheap' At the national level the Americans turned Iraq into an open democracy, and made it possible for the Shia majority to take over political power from the Sunni minority. But the problem was always the lack of understanding of Iraq which many Americans, from the top down, displayed. A senior Iraqi politician met President George W Bush shortly before the 2003 invasion, and warned him about the problems of the Sunni-Shia division. He told me later this seemed to come as a complete surprise to the president. At the insistence of the then Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the invasion was carried out on the cheap, with too few soldiers. And so, at the start of the occupation, American troops stood by and watched as looters attacked Iraq's patrimony: notably, of course, the world-famous archaeological museum. Fifteen thousand priceless artefacts were stolen over three days. A senior museum official begged the Americans with tears in his eyes to stop the looters. They refused. Over the years many dedicated American officials and soldiers did their level best to improve things. But US soldiers and security contractors often behaved in a way which enraged ordinary Iraqis. Anyone driving too close to an American vehicle by accident was liable to be shot, and it was the ordinary soldier or contractor who decided what was too close. Large numbers of people died like this. Others were kept in jail for long periods, merely on the suspicion of a soldier or because they were denounced by a personal enemy.
Hanging Out COST
The respected and non-partisan Congressional Research Service estimates that the US will have spent almost $802bn (£512.8bn) on funding the war by the end of fiscal year 2011, with $747.6bn (£478bn) already appropriated. However, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard's Linda Bilmes put the true cost at $3 trillion (£1.2tn) once additional impacts on the US budget and economy are taken into account. The UK has funded its part in the conflict from the Treasury Reserve Fund which is extra money on top of the normal Ministry of Defence budget. Whitehall figures released in June 2010 put the cost of British funding of the Iraq conflict at £9.24bn ($14.32bn), the vast majority of which was for the military but which also included £557m ($861m) in aid. A summary of how the war was funded was also presented to the UK's Iraq Inquiry in January 2010. DISPLACED PEOPLE Sectarian violence in the conflict began to grow from early 2005. But the destruction of an important Shia shrine in February 2006 saw attacks between Sunni and Shia militias increase dramatically. This caused many Iraqi families to abandon their homes and move to other areas within the country or to flee abroad.
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For 40 years, Iraq has been one of the most damaged countries on earth. Hopeful future It was only when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq that the Americans began to see a way out of the problem. Gen Petraeus understood the country and the war better than his predecessors. His famous surge, which brought in large numbers of extra soldiers, took advantage of the fact that the civil war was starting to run out of steam. The terrible casualty figures, sometimes thousands of deaths a month, began to ease off. The world's media lost interest in Iraq. Soon only the worst suicide bombings would even get a mention in the newspapers and on television. It gave the impression the problem had gone away. There is still violence here: in the past month there were 79 bomb attacks. But that compares with 30 a day in the summer of 2007. The training and equipping of Iraq's soldiers and police - another American priority - is showing results. The police and soldiers at the check-points in the streets and roads look tough and self-reliant. Their weapons and body-armour are first-class. Yet not everything is better. There are power outages virtually every day, a direct result of the early violence after the invasion. If the Americans had restored the electricity supply during their eight years here, they might not be so unpopular now. Overall, though, Iraqis are feeling a little gleam of optimism for the first time in 40 years. Eventually - the government claims by 2017 - Iraq will become one of the world's richest oil-producers again. Because of the shift in power from Sunnis to Shias, Iraq is now much closer to Shia Iran than the Americans would like. But so far it has maintained its independence. Iraqi politicians see themselves as a bridge between the US and Iran, not an Iranian subsidiary. If Iraq becomes wealthy, if it can stay more or less democratic, if it can finally bring terrorism to an end, then the 40 years of horror may be over. Its people deserve a little good luck at last. www.bbcnews.com
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International December 16 - 22, 2011
THE HOTELS ASSOCIATION OF CANCUN RECEIVES AN IMPORTANT RECOGNITION The recognition was awarded to the AHC as a Leading Organization within the program: “Environmental Leadership for Competiveness”. its affiliates have been implementing different strategies and a great number of actions towards a focused objective: to have a green economy that reduces environmental risks, that is efficient in the use of the resources available, and that avoids or compensates for the environmental impacts. In so doing, it joins big and important allies in order to achieve bigger and better results for the benefit of Mexico and improving its competiveness at world level. It should be highlighted that this recognition has been awarded to only two organizations
country wide. Representing Mr. Rodrigo de la Peña, president of the AHC, the
4 The International weekly
Photo: AP Germany's Jaenschwalde coal-fired power plant is one of Europe's biggest emitters of CO2
"So the question is whether we need to tighten that target," she said, adding that some companies in the EUCLG were calling for a cut of 25% or even 30%. Currently the ETS, launched in 2005, sets pollution limits for more than 11,000 energy firms and carbonintensive manufacturers. If an installation's CO2 emissions are higher than the number of permits it has, it must buy extra allowances from other installations which are lower CO2 emitters. The EUCLG wants the EU's Energy Efficiency Directive to be aligned with the ETS, because it expects a 13.9% reduction in carbon prices if firms in the ETS increase their energy efficiency. The letter says the EU must take account of the potential impact of the directive and other green energy policies on the carbon price, to ensure that the ETS remains viable. www.bbcnews.com
was received by Ms. Marissa Setien, (general manager) executive director of the AHC.
Guatemala STD report urges future payouts
Firms say low carbon price threatens EU green targets A letter to the European Commission from the industry group warns that the future of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is at stake. The EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (EUCLG) includes Royal Dutch Shell, Enel, Alstom and Acciona. EU carbon permits have dropped 55% in price this year, to 6.45 euros (£5.40). ETS permits, each representing a tonne of carbon emissions, are traded to give industry a financial incentive to cut CO2 emissions and invest instead in green energy. The EUCLG's patron is Britain's Prince Charles. The group's letter called for permits to be withheld in Phase Three of the ETS, which begins in 2013. Reducing the supply of carbon permits would push up the price, they argue, saying "it is critical that the European institutions take decisive action now". Too many permits? The letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged a "recalibration of Phase Three of the ETS by withholding allowances and designing a robust Phase Four that will send the right long-term price and investment signal and will immediately strengthen the carbon price". The EUCLG Director, Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, told BBC News that "the ETS is no longer functioning as it should be functioning". "We're in a financial crisis, and as we're trying to look at the eurozone we need to look at the existing [carbon] market and make sure it's functioning, so recalibrating the market to take into consideration the situation we're in." She said the financial crisis had helped to reduce Europe's CO2 emissions, because of the slump in industrial output. That makes it more likely that the EU will meet its target of a 20% emissions cut by 2020.
award which is a great accomplishment for organized hotel industry and for the destination,
It said agencies involved in research should be more transparent, though they were protected by federal ethics rules. Some 1,300 Guatemalans were infected with sexually-transmitted diseases without their knowledge in the 1940s.Eighty-three people died during the research, prompting President Barack Obama to demand an investigation. In commissioning the report, Mr Obama said what happened in Guatemala was a "sobering reminder of past abuses". "The Commission is confident that what happened in Guatemala in the 1940s could not happen today", Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethics Issues chairwoman Amy Gutmann said in a statement. But there was a "strong ethical case" for compensating people injured in future research, she said.
'Dark chapter' In its final report, the bioethics panel said current regulations should be able to protect the rights and welfare of subjects. But many federal offices "could not provide basic data about the research they sup-
A US bioethics panel says victims harmed by future research should be compensated, after revelations of abuse in a US-funded programme in Guatemala. port", it said.The report highlight problems at the Pentagon, which it said took seven months to prepare information on specific studies it supported. "There is still a need for more transparency and public access to information about federally supported human subjects research," Dr Gutmann said. The report makes 14 specific recommendations to agencies, but notes that similar recommendations made over the past 20 years have resulted in "no clear response" from the federal government. Earlier this year, the same commission officially condemned the Guatemalan research, calling it a "dark chapter of our medical history". www.bbcnews.com Photo: AP
Cancun, Quintana Roo, November 25, 2011.- In the framework of the “Green Solutions” Congress held in Mexico City, the Hotels Association of Cancun (AHC) received an important recognition from the SEMARNAT (Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources) as a leader organization in the 2010 program “Environmental Leadership for Competiveness” because of the diffusion, organization, coordination and implementation of this program in 63 member hotels in Cancun, Puerto Morelos, and the Riviera Maya. In the last few years, the Cancun Hotels Association and
Hundreds of people were infected with syphilis bacteria during the experiments
International December 16 - 22, 2011
The New Zealand Embassy and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise in Mexico, invites you experience "A taste of New Zealand in Cancun". New Zealand products are internationally recognized for their freshness and taste. New Zealand offers premium foods, including tender cuts, rich dairy products, extraordinary seafood, delicious fruits and vegetables with high energy value, internationally acclaimed wines, and innovative gourmet products. During December, The Club Grill at The Ritz-Carlton in Cancun will serve mouthwatering dishes showcasing the best of New Zealand’s food and wine. Enjoy a six course New Zealand themed menu especially created by renowned Chef Juan Pablo de la Sota. For a limited time, the awarded The Club Grill menu will feature the finest ingredients from New Zealand crafted into exceptional “farm-to-table” cuisine complemented with unparalleled service. This epicurean experience starts with a delicious Kiwi Amuse Bouche, followed by a Greenshell® Mussell Soup. Guests will delight in richness of fresh New Zealand dairy products in the Aroha Cheese Mesclun Salad. For a main dish, New Zealand’s Red Snapper and its internationally recognized Cervena® Venison are offered. An indulgent tarte tartin then awaits for dessert. This fine dining experience is best paired with one of the many fine New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wines offered while listening to fantastic live Jazz at The Club Grill. Book this one-of-a-kind dining experience from Tuesday through Sunday, from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m at The Club Grill, located on the ground floor of The Ritz-Carlton, Cancun until December 31st 2011. To make a booking call 01 800 019 5300 or book online at the Ritz-Carlton website: www.ritzcarlton.com To learn more about New Zealand’s food and beverage industry please contact e-mail Ms. Yulia Nunez - New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Business Development Associate at Yulia.Nunez@nzte.govt.nz
French banker says UK Chevron faces should be downgraded first $10.6bn Brazil Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (second left) and other regional leaders ditched ties at a summit
Chile men urged to ditch ties to beat heat The country's energy minister Rodrigo Alvarez said the measure would help reduce the use of air conditioning and lead to overall energy savings. Weather forecasters expect temperatures of over 30C (86F) this summer. The Energy Ministry said letting the temperature of a room rise by 1-3C would reduce energy costs by around 3%. In a statement, it said that if this was implemented in the public and private sectors during the hottest months of the year, from January to March, it could save about £6.5m ($10m). Mr Alvarez said the idea of encouraging employees to leave their ties at home had already been put into practice successfully in Japan and Spain. "This small measure will help the country's energy efficiency. Reducing the use of air conditioning
will lead to energy savings," he said. People could also reduce their energy consumption at home, he said by for instance switching off their electronic devices when not in use. A BBC correspondent in Chile says energy production during the summer months is always strained because much of the country's energy comes from hydroelectric power. In contrast to Chile's woes, last month South Korea's president said this winter he would be turning down his office thermostat and wearing warmer underwear. President Lee Myung-bak revealed the personal details in his regular radio broadcast. Emphasising the economic importance of saving electricity, he urged all businesses and individuals to co-operate as the country struggles to meet growing demand. www.bbcnews.com
US agency Standard and Poor's recently warned France its rating could suffer over the eurozone crisis and downturn. "The downgrade does not appear to me to be justified when considering economic fundamentals," Mr Noyer said. The British Government responded by saying the UK had a credible plan for dealing with its deficit. Speaking to French regional newspaper Le Telegramme, Mr Noyer said any downgrade should start with Britain "which has more deficits, as much debt, more inflation, less growth than us and where credit is slumping". Britain was not identified as a credit risk by Standard and Poor's in its report earlier this month. The spokesman for UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Credit ratings are a matter for credit rating agencies but we've put in place a credible deficit reduction plan and you can see that credibility in the UK's bond yields." There is a sense of frustration across the eurozone that last week's summit in Brussels seems to have done little to calm the financial markets, the BBC's Chris Morris reports. Relations have been strained between France and Britain, which vetoed changes to the Lisbon Treaty that would have allowed for closer economic integration. Hungary and the Czech Republic raised concerns on Thursday about the plans for a clo-
The chairman of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, has said ratings agencies should downgrade the UK before France because its economy is weaker.
legal suit over oil spill
ser fiscal union, saying they should apply only to eurozone states. Loss of the top credit grade would have serious economic implications for France, increasing the interest rate it paid for new state borrowing. Mr Noyer accused ratings agencies of putting at risk "the positive feeling that existed on the markets the day after the Brussels summit". In the French parliament, Finance Minister Francois Baroin poked fun at Britain, saying the fiscal pact had been backed by every country in Europe, "with the singular, now solitary, exception of Great Britain, which history will remember as marginalised". "Great Britain is in a very difficult economic situation, a deficit close to the level of Greece, debt equivalent to our own, much higher inflation prospects and growth forecasts well under the eurozone average," he said. "It's an audacious choice the British government has made."
The prosecutors also asked the court to immediately suspend the operations of Chevron and its drilling contractor, Transocean, in Brazil. Brazil has already fined Chevron $28m for the spill on 8 November. A Chevron official said the company had not yet been notified of the suit. The prosecutors who brought the case argued that "Chevron and Transocean weren't capable of controlling the damages from a spill of 3,000 barrels of oil, which proves a lack of environmental planning and management". They also accused Chevron of keeping information from Brazil's oil regulator, known by its initials ANP. Chevron has been banned from drilling any new wells for at least three months, while the ANP investigates the spill. Chevron has accepted full responsibility for the leak. The company said it had underestimated the pressure of underwater oil deposits while drilling, causing oil to rush up the bore hole and seep into the surrounding seabed.
www.bbcnews.com
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International December 16 - 22, 2011
Lagarde: No country's economy immune from rising risks Photo: AP
IMF head Christine Lagarde has said the world economic outlook is "gloomy" and no country is immune from rising risks. She said all nations, starting with Europe, needed to head off a crisis with risks of a global depression. "There is no economy in the world immune from the crisis that we not only see unfolding but escalating," she said. "It is going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions actually taking action." Speaking at the US State Department in Washington, she said global economic leaders now needed to take a rounded approach towards addressing monetary weaknesses, such as those underscored by the current eurozone debt crisis. "It is going to require efforts, it is going to require adjustment, and
IMF chief Christine Lagarde was speaking at the US State Department
Eurozone downturn slows slightly, PMI survey indicates The composite survey of thousands of firms by Markit showed a continued contraction - but at a slower rate than in November. Manufacturing in Germany the eurozone's strongest economy shrank for the third month in a row. However, the figures were not as bad as many economists had expected. "It's an encouraging sign that the index didn't fall any further. Quite what will happen henceforth remains highly uncertain," said Markit's chief economist, Chris Williamson. The composite Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 47.9 for December from 47 in November. A number below 50 indicates a contraction. However, economists say the slowdown in the rate of contraction is unlikely to be enough to avert a recession. And a separate report from Ernst & Young has predicted a "bleak" winter for the currency bloc. The firm says a "mild" recession is likely in the first half of next year, leading to economic growth of just 0.1% for the whole of 2012.
Slowing contraction The manufacturing index across the eurozone rose to 46.9 in December from 46.4 in November. Services, which account for the bulk of the eurozone economy, also rose to 48.3 from 47.5. Markit said better figures for France and Germany accounted
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for much of the improvement. Germany's manufacturing survey improved slightly from 47.9 to 48.1. France's service industry expanded slightly in December, while the contraction in the country's manufacturing sector slowed. Meanwhile, a French member of the European Central Bank's policy-making committee, Christian Noyer, has spoken out against credit rating agencies' assessment of his country. US agency Standard and Poor's recently warned France and other eurozone countries that their rating could be downgraded as a result of the eurozone crisis and economic downturn. A downgrade in France's top AAA rating might make it more expensive for the French government to borrow money. "The downgrade does not appear to me to be justified when considering economic fundamentals," said Mr Noyer. "Otherwise, they should start by downgrading Britain, which has more deficits, as much debt, more inflation, less growth than us and where credit is slumping," added the ECB member, who is also head of the Bank of France, the country's central bank. Recession Despite the improvements in French and German activity, the PMI survey still suggests the eurozone is entering a recession. "The eurozone suffered its worst quarter for two and a half years in the final three months of 2011, with
Over the past thirty years, the country's economy has grown to become the second largest in the world. This growth has been powered, in large part, by the emergence of millions of new businesses. But for many founders of these new companies, optimism and enthusiasm were tempered by difficulties and pitfalls. There were few role models during that time and it was hard to find the right business model.
The beginnings
clearly it is going to have to start from the core of the crisis at the moment, which is obviously the European countries and in particular the countries of the eurozone." Ms Lagarde mentioned economic bright spots in Asia and Latin America, which she said had taken, with IMF help, steps during crises in the 1980s and 1990s to address weaknesses in their banking systems and their financial frameworks. "All those challenges that they faced in the days of the Asian crisis, of the Latin American crisis, have now served them well," Ms Lagarde said. www.bbcnews.com
Future of Chinese economy in hands of consumer culture
PMI data suggesting the region's economy is likely to have contracted by 0.6%," said Mr Williamson. That would be a bigger fall in economic output than many economists currently expect. Improvements in France and Germany are expected to be offset by deep recessions in troubled economies such as Spain and Italy. "Brutal austerity measures and a lack of strategy to regenerate growth indicates little prospect of the eurozone avoiding a recession," said Altaz Dagha, an economist at Westpac. Market uncertainty The news comes as European money markets continue to digest the latest efforts to stabilise the single currency bloc. Spain successfully raised 6.03bn euros ($7.84bn; ÂŁ5.06bn) in new funds on Thursday through a bond auction - more than it had expected. The average interest rate on 2.45bn euros of the five-year bonds sold fell to 4.023% from 5.275% at a similar auction at the start of the month. However, the rate on nine and 10-year bonds rose slightly on sales in September and October. "(The Treasury) has surpassed its target again on strong demand. The result is surprisingly positive considering these times of market volatility," said Jose Luis Martinez, a strategist at Citigroup's Madrid office. www.bbcnews.com
David Roche is chairman of Independent Strategy, an investment advisory firm with offices in London and Hong Kong. A former senior executive at the US investment bank Morgan Stanley, Mr Roche has watched the business scene in China develop over many years. He says it's not surprising that many of the 1980s wave of would-be entrepreneurs found the task of starting companies bewildering - the culture of enterprise in China up until then was muted at best. "Any form of entrepreneurship was frowned on, yet there was less monolithic industry than in the Soviet Union," he says. "For example, local authorities were allowed to own their own enterprises. Now that is not exactly entrepreneurship but they were meant to make a profit and they catered for local needs. So it was a kind of a mish-mash but not individual entrepreneurship." One of the most visible early signs of the economic liberalisation ushered in by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was the establishment of socalled special economic zones, such as Shenzhen and Zhuhai in the south of the country. Enterprise in these areas was encouraged, along with the possibility of foreign investment. Migrant labour poured in from the surrounding countryside to work in the new factories. Initially the focus was on manufacturing and export-led activity. But as economic growth became more firmly established, new opportunities for entrepreneurs began to arise in domestic markets. In the furniture industry, for example, company founders such as Zhai Meiqing grabbed the chance to build a huge home-furnishing retail chain catering to the needs of an emerging middle-class. The network of manufacturers that Ms Zhai drew upon to supply her stores, would later provide the inspiration for entrepreneurs such as Ning Li to create new businesses aimed at Western consumers. New opportunities Thirty years on from Deng Xiaoping's reforms, the Chinese economy is still growing fast and as prosperity spreads, some business owners see plenty of potential ahead. Wang Zhongjun, co-founder of entertainment conglomerate Huayi Brothers, is
The official economic reforms undertaken in China in the late 1970s and early 1980s have had an extraordinary impact. determined to seize the chance to build a ''film-making giant'' off the back of very strong growth in Chinese cinema audience figures. Zhu Guofan, who runs a network of foot-massage establishments, dreams of leading a company with 200,000 employees. Mr Roche says that there's little doubt that a shift in the make-up of the Chinese economy is underway. The days will soon be over when growth can be driven by "exporting widgets and having massive savings rates which go into the manufacturing industry" and businesses catering to the needs of domestic consumers will become more important. In the future, the biggest opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs will be in the service sector because that's where the economy has to grow, says Mr Roche. "It cannot grow through exports any more, it's got to grow through the consumer." "As soon as the consumer gets in the picture you get middle classes. Middle classes are voracious consumers of services. They want to be insured. They want to have nice doctors. They want to have nice dry cleaners."
New risks But, according to Mr Roche, at the same time as a new emphasis on services may present businesses with new opportunities, there are challenges ahead for the overall economy, because "productivity drives [the] growth rate". It's easier to obtain efficiency gains in manufacturing and mass production than it is in the processes that enable the delivery of services. He points to the example of the US, where he says the productivity rate of the service sector is substantially lower than that of the manufacturing sector. Mr Roche adds that as the Chinese economy becomes more dependent on domestic services, the productivity achieved will drop, and therefore so will the growth rate. "That doesn't mean the people will get poorer but it [does] mean that [China won't] catch up with our living standards at the same speed," he says. Mr Roche also sees another potential problem ahead, if the "consumer society" in China keeps on expanding. He says that middle-class people want rights. "They want their houses protected. They don't want people telling them: get out of the way‌ we want to put a freeway here." A middle-class society may be a little less easy to control. www.bbcnews.com
December 16- 22, 2011
Life on Earth: Is our planet special? Since then the tide of opinion has turned. Astronomers have shown that Earth may be just one of myriad habitable worlds. Meanwhile biologists have shed light on how life might have originated here, and therefore on other planets too. Far from being unique, many now regard Earth as an ordinary lump of space rock and believe that life "out there" is almost inevitable. But could the truth be somewhat more complex? On Friday, top scientists are meeting at the Geological Society in London to debate this very issue, posing the question: "Is the Earth special?". What emerges is that aspects of our planet and its evolution are remarkably strange. Prof Monica Grady is a meteorite expert at the Open University. She explained in what sense the Earth could be considered special. "Well, there are several unusual aspects of our planet," she said. "First is our strong magnetic field. No one is exactly sure how it works, but it's something to do with the turbulent motion that occurs in the Earth's liquid outer core. Without it, we would be bombarded by harmful radiation from the Sun." "The next thing is our big Moon," continued Prof Grady. "As the Earth rotates, it wobbles on its axis like a child's spinning top. What the Moon does is dampen down that wobble‌ and that helps to prevent extreme climate fluctuations" - which would be detrimental to life. "Finally, there's plate tectonics," she added. "We live on a planet that is constantly recycling its crust. That's another way that the Earth stabilises its climate." This works because plate tectonics limits the amount of carbon dioxide escaping
Hanging Out For Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Earth lay at the centre of a small universe and the idea of alien life was unthinkable.
into the atmosphere - a natural way of controlling the greenhouse effect. Earth that never was If these factors were important for life flourishing on Earth, an obvious question is what went wrong for our moribund neighbours, Venus and Mars? One popular explanation is the Goldilocks Effect. This states that Venus was simply too close to the Sun and overheated while Mars was too far away and froze. Between these extremes - like the baby bear's porridge - Earth was "just right" for life. Indeed, just this week astronomers confirmed the discovery of an Earth-like planet in this "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own. Dr Richard Ghail, an expert on Venus at Imperial College London, is highly sceptical of this Goldilocks theory, however. "For me, the key thing is that Venus has a lower density than the Earth," he told the BBC. "That difference was fixed early on in the formation of the Solar System when there were lots of planetary collisions." In the case of Venus, collisions led to accretion into a single planet, but with Earth, the lighter material was flung off to form the Moon. One effect of Venus's lower density is that its interior melts more easily. So, whereas the Earth has a swirling core that is part solid and part liquid, the core of Venus is entirely liquid - and strangely calm.
In Dr Ghail's opinion, this has led to a spiral of doom for Venus. Without a turbulent core, no magnetic field was generated. And no magnetic field meant that Venus was mercilessly battered by solar radiation, causing it to lose all its water. Because water is needed to "lubricate" plate tectonics, the crust stopped recycling. Consequently, carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect ran out of control. As a result, today, Venus is a lifeless inferno whose surface is hot enough to melt zinc. Dr Ghail said: "When you think about it, there was this one amazing chance event [a collision that flung off the Moon] that made the Earth the way it is." If that had not happened, life on Earth might not have evolved at all. Given that Earth's history was shaped by a single improbable event, one might be tempted to assume that life elsewhere must be extremely rare.
Riviera Maya Cosmic rarity?
Wrong, argues Dr Nick Lane, a geneticist at University College London. He believes that the emergence of life is probable on any wet, rocky planet. Dr Lane explained the reasons for his confidence, saying: "One of the most common minerals in the Universe is olivine; interstellar dust is full of it. When olivine and water mix on the seafloor, the
reaction is exothermic." That is, it gives off heat. The environment produced by this reaction "provides analogues for all six essential processes of living organisms," continued Dr Lane. But the especially important thing is that it releases "a rich source of chemical energy that is much easier for an organism to tap than, for example, the Sun's energy". Thus, wherever olivine and water mix in large quantities, conditions are favourable for the emergence of life. Consequently, life is not limited to planets that orbit a star; conceivably it could also exist on asteroids drifting through deep space. Simply put, "The Earth is not special," concluded Dr Lane. Prof Simon Conway Morris, a renowned palaeontologist at the University of Cambridge, is not entirely convinced by these arguments, however. "I would tend to raise one cautious eyebrow to such arguments," he said. After all, there is a horrible gulf between elementary chemical systems and the creation of fully functioning cells. It is a gap that we have been remarkably unable to bridge experimentally." Prof Conway Morris concluded: "One important jigsaw piece that is rarely mentioned in these discussions is Fermi's Paradox." This is the concept of the Great Silence; in other words, if life is common in the Universe, why have we not managed to contact it? And that surely is the key. For in the absence of verifiable alien contact, scientific opinion will forever remain split as to whether the Universe teems with life or we are alone in the inky blackness. www.bbcnews.com
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Science & Technology December 16 - 22, 2011
MIT's trillion frames per second light-tracking camera The equipment captures images at a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second - or about 40 billion times faster than a UK television camera. Direct recording of light is impossible at that speed, so the camera takes millions of repeated scans to recreate each image. The team said the technique could be used to understand ultrafast processes. The process has been dubbed femto-photography and has been detailed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab's website. "There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera," said Andrea Velten, one of the researchers involved in the project.
Scan lines To create the technique, the scientists adapted a "streak tube" equipment used to take data readings from light pulses. It works in a similar fashion to the way pictures are created on traditional television cathode ray tubes, scanning one thin horizontal line at a time. Since each image is only equiva-
lent to one scan line on the television set, many hundred scans had to be taken to create a single frame. The scientists did this by repeating each shot, angling the camera's view with mirrors to record a different scan line of the object. As a result, the technique is only suitable for capturing an event that can be recreated exactly the same way multiple times.
Laser illumination To create a moving picture, a laser pulse was used to illuminate the scene - flashing briefly once every 13 billionth of a second. These pulses triggered the streak tube, which captured the light that returned from the scene. The laser and the camera were carefully synchronised to ensure each pulse was identical. When the scan lines were stitched together, they appeared to have been taken at the same time. It took about an hour to take enough shots to make a final video representing a fraction of a second of real time, leading one member of the team to dub the equipment "the world's slowest fastest camera".
A camera capable of visualising the movement of light has been unveiled by a team of scientists in the US.
Light analysis Software was then used to turn all the images into movies lasting roughly 480 frames. One showed a pulse of light, less than a millimetre long, travelling through a soft drink bottle at a rate of half a millimetre per frame. Another showed different
World's ’smallest steam engine' built in Germany
The world's smallest working "steam engine" has been built in Germany, according to a team of researchers.
The microscopic model was based on a 195-year-old design by the inventor Robert Stirling. Changes included the replacement of the original pistons with a laser beam.The physicists said they were "astonished" by how efficiently the machine converted heat into power - but said it did "not run smoothly" and had no practical use in its current form. A conventional Stirling engine has a cylinder of gas attached to a heat source at one end and a cold source at the other. Attached are two pistons. The first compresses the gas, moving it into the hot area which causes it to expand, pushing the piston back and powering a wheel. The movement of the wheel then causes a second piston to shift the gas from the hot area to the cold one, causing it to contract again, resetting the process. "We wanted to understand how such a basic principle works, and if it works at all at a micron-length scale," Prof Clemens Bechinger told the BBC. "Nowadays everybody is trying to make things smaller - electronic circuits and mechanical devices get smaller and smaller - so we thought why not try to investigate this basic process at a micro-scale." Laser tweezers The physicists carried out their research at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Stuttgart and
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published it in the latest edition of the Nature Physics Journal. To adapt the engine down to micro-size, they replaced the cylinder of gas with a single micron-sized particle made of a plastic called melamine, roughly 10,000 times the size of an atom. The particle was submerged in a chamber of water four-thousandths of a millimetre high. The pistons were replaced with a focused infrared laser beam which acted as "optical tweezers", holding the particle in place. The stronger the laser's intensity the more the particle was confined to one spot. The weaker the intensity the more the particle was able to fluctuate around that spot exploring a larger space. The particle thus behaved in a similar way to the molecules in the original heat engine. When the particle was restricted in movement, it resembled the state the molecules would have been in when the gas was compressed. When it was able to move more freely it acted as the molecules would have done when the gas had been able to expand. Since it was impractical to recreate hot and cold heat baths at the micro-level, a second laser was used. It heated the mixture to 90C (194F) in less than 10 milliseconds. It then was allowed to rapidly cool back to room temperature as soon as the laser was turned off.
Stutter Although this allowed the physicists to recreate the heat engine process, the amount of energy gained per cycle was not stable. "In contrast to a macroscopic heat engine where everything works in a very smooth and very deterministic fashion, our engine stutters," said Prof Bechinger. He said this was because the water molecules in the solution surrounding the microparticle were constantly colliding into it, causing energy to be passed back and forth. In the larger engine the amount of energy generated by the engine dwarfed that of the tiny collisions happening inside the machine, making them irrelevant. But in the microscopic engine the energy levels were much more similar and could even bring the process to a standstill in extreme cases.Although this made the amount of energy produced per cycle irregular, the team said they were surprised that on average, across a range of cycles, the micro-machine was as efficient as its larger counterpart. "That was something we did not expect when we started the project," said Prof Bechinger.Although the physicists conceded that a ministeam engine would never be a practical power source, they said they hoped their research could now be used to create more stable power sources for micro-machines. www.bbcnews.com
wavelengths of light rippling over the surface of a tomato and the table it was sitting on. In addition to revealing new ways of seeing the world, the MIT scientists say the process could have some practical uses. "Applications include industrial imaging to analyse faults and
material properties, scientific imaging for understanding ultrafast processes and medical imaging to reconstruct sub-surface elements, ie 'ultrasound with light,'" they say on their website. www.bbcnews.com
Cambridge University puts Isaac Newton papers online More than 4,000 pages have been scanned, including his annotated copy of Principia Mathematica, containing Newton's laws of motion and gravity. Newton wrote mainly in Latin and Greek, the scientific language of his time, and was reluctant to publish. The university plans to put almost all of its Newton collection online. The papers mark the launch of the Cambridge Digital Library project to digitise its collections. As well as Principia and Newton's college notebooks, the Newton Papers section of the online library contains his "Waste Book". The large notebook was inherited from his stepfather, and scholars believe it helped Newton to make significant breakthroughs in the field of calculus.
Fragile manuscripts Newton had to be persuaded by fellow scientists Halley and Hooke to publish his works on gravity, mechanics, calculus and optics. Several of the manuscripts in the collection contain the handwritten line "not fit to be printed", scrawled by Thomas Pellet, a fellow of the Royal Society. He had been asked to go through Newton's papers after his death and decide which ones
should and should not be published. The university had to undertake conservation work on some of the manuscripts, which were considered too fragile to be scanned. Grant Young, digitisation manager at the university library said Newton's works were chosen for the site because they were "perhaps some of the most important papers and documents in the history of science". "Anyone, wherever they are, can see at the click of a mouse how Newton worked and how he went about developing his theories and experiments," he said. "Before today, anyone who wanted to see these things had to come to Cambridge. "Now we're bringing Cambridge University Library to the world." A further 8,000 pages of Newton's works are to be added over the next few months. Other works which will become part of the digital library include the university's Charles Darwin collection. The digital library project was started in 2010 with a grant from the Polonsky Foundation, a charity that supports international educational projects. www.bbcnews.com
December 16 - 22, 2011
You might find it in a red packet in the UK, or a blue packet in the US. Inside, the silver blister packs promise relief from hangover-induced headaches, the ubiquitous bad back and any number of other ailments. Ibuprofen has gained a special status since its development in a small test lab in a house in Nottingham in 1961. Since then it has become a bedrock of pain relief and fever treatment all over the world. As an anti-inflammatory it has been taken by sufferers of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as generations of injured sportspeople, professional and amateur. But unlike most drugs that we get on the recommendation of a doctor, ibuprofen is in that trinity - along with paracetamol and aspirin - that we primarily self-medicate with. These drugs leave us as our own doctors. They have escaped the confines of the pharmacist's shelf and taken up residence in the supermarket, corner shop and all-night garage. For many people ibuprofen is an essential tool in their bathroom cabinet - as well as featuring in many a handbag and desk drawer around the world. Stand in an open-plan office and ask loudly for ibuprofen and somebody will have some. For "just in case", more than likely. But is this a good thing? Doctor and medical columnist Thomas Stuttaford says he thinks ibuprofen is a reasonable analgesic and anti-inflammatory - but it has more side effects than people realise. "Side effects include renal damage. It's not terribly well tolerated by the over 65s. It can cause gastric bleeding. And NSAIDs [the group of anti-inflammatory drugs that
Photo: AP
Ibuprofen at 50: The love Riviera Maya affair with painkillers It is 50 years since ibuprofen was discovered. It has joined aspirin and paracetamol in the special trinity of medicines that people keep close at hand, even when they're well. But have we come to rely on it too much?
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ibuprofen belongs to] contribute to something in the region of 2,000 deaths a year in the UK." The risk factors associated with NSAIDs are much discussed but all medicines can potentially cause side effects, and any figures for deaths have to be measured against the vast numbers of people who use ibuprofen without ill-effect. The same calculation has to be made for aspirin. But some, like Stuttaford, also take issue with the use of ibuprofen as a sort of medical crutch. He believes that governments have encouraged the use of antiinflammatories and analgesic drugs like ibuprofen because it cuts down on visits to casualty departments and doctors' surgeries. "Advice from doctors used to be 'take two aspirin and call me in the morning'. Now the modern day equivalent is 'take two ibuprofen and call me in the morning'." Dr Stuttaford says he does not think this is terribly useful. "Pain is nature's way of telling you something is amiss. I don't approve of over-the-counter patient-directed painkillers - it's much better to get a proper assessment of the pain from a doctor." Pain management consultant Dr Chris Wells says ibuprofen is a useful drug that helps about a third of people who take it, and reduces their pain by about 50%.
But he also has concerns about ibuprofen and its side effects. "It's my belief that it would not get an over-the-counter licence today - but neither would aspirin." He also thinks the overuse of ibuprofen shows that we have lost the confidence to deal with minor aches and pains in our lives without pain relief. Dr Stuttaford says our reliance on drugs like ibuprofen goes hand in hand in the UK with the decline in GP services. "Although we have a much bigger armoury in dealing with health problems, people no longer have a personal relationship with their GPs. They don't know their history, they don't know their mothers and fathers. "The average allocated time with the doctor is a mere seven minutes. If you're dealing with an octogenarian they might not be able to get their clothes off for a proper examination in seven minutes. "There's no time to talk. Prescribing them with ibuprofen is one way of shutting them up." The result? "Many people just bypass the doctors and go straight to the chemists instead." Ailsa Bosworth, chief executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, says people will often go to their GPs in pain, and will be prescribed something like ibuprofen that brings some relief. But what they really need, she
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says, is to see a consultant rheumatologist, and the use of anti-inflammatories can delay a doctor in making a diagnosis. She says anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen play a role in managing conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, but that role has changed since new drugs treatments have become available. Ibuprofen has a following among endurance runners and people playing fast-paced sport such as squash, who use it before or after a big race or match. But many believe the practice is, at best, unwise. Peter Banister, personal trainer at BSAG fitness in London, says he does not recommend its use. "People who take painkillers before training or before competing in a big race are inhibiting their body's ability to respond to their environment," he says. Banister is not keen on using ibuprofen to try to help relieve muscle soreness after exercise either. Research into ibuprofen is ongoing, with possible new uses being
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discovered. In some studies, low doses of ibuprofen over a long period of time were found to be better than a placebo in preventing Alzheimer's disease. Earlier this year, researchers at Harvard medical school announced that people regularly consuming ibuprofen were reported to have a 38% lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Prof Kim Rainsford, a world authority on ibuprofen, says the beauty of the drug is its chemical simplicity. "It is handled and metabolised in the body very predictably. It accumulates very well in sites where you need pain relief. Whilst casual overuse of ibuprofen might not be wise, there is no doubting it has provided accessible, effective and well-tolerated pain relief for millions of people around the world. And it's for that reason it's likely to stay in people's desk drawers and handbags for many years to come. www.bbcnews.com
Global malaria death toll falling Take malaria. Deaths from the parasitic infection - which is spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes - have been falling steadily since around 2004. Only a few years ago it was said that the disease killed one child every 30 seconds. I remember using this figure on a trip to Ghana in 2006. By 2009 the estimate was down to one child dying every 45 seconds. "It is now more likely that malaria kills a child every sixty seconds," according to Dr Richard Cibulskis, the lead author of the World Malaria Report. He explained some statistical factors are at work here - in part the fall is due to a downward revision in overall global childhood mortality. Updates in surveillance numbers in recent years has also led to a
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fall in the global estimate of cases. Assessing the burden of malaria is not straightforward. Many Africa countries do not have strong disease surveillance systems so cause of death data is not always well recorded. This means that surveys and what are called 'verbal autopsies' descriptions of symptoms given by parents - are sometimes used.
Progress
Africa we were fighting a losing battle. Now all that has changed and the risk of dying from malaria has fallen by a third in a decade." The improvement is down to several factors. A total of 145 million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets were delivered to sub-Saharan Africa last year, a huge increase on 2009. Spraying the walls of homes with insecticide is another effective means of reducing malaria. Once infected, it is vital that treatment begins quickly. Rapid diagnostic tests are being increasingly used. These detect the presence of malaria parasites in the blood, often via a simple finger-prick test. The use of artemisinin-based combination therapies has transformed the treatment of the disease in the past decade.
Children who are seriously ill can make a dramatic and rapid recovery after just a couple of days of taking the drug. Drug-resistance There continue to be worrying signs of drug resistance, first confirmed on the CambodiaThailand border in 2009 and now suspected in Burma and Vietnam. To reduce the chances of drug resistance spreading it is vital that artemisinin-based treatments are giving in combination, and yet 25 countries - most in Africa - still allow the marketing of monotherapies. The WHO says most of the manufacturers are in India. There are promising indications from trials of a vaccine against malaria, but this will be only part of the solution to tac-
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Despite difficulties in compiling the statistics, there is a clear, and welcome, downward trend in deaths. It is estimated that malaria killed 655,000 people in 2010, compared to 800,000 in 2004. "It is remarkable progress," said Dr Cibulskis. "When I began working in the malaria field in
kling this preventable infection. There are concerns about the global funding of malaria control which is expected to peak at $2bn this year and fall to $1.5bn in 2015. The UK government is notable among donors in that its support is pledged to increase in the coming years. Malaria remains a major public health threat. Nine out of 10 deaths are in Africa and the vast majority are children under five. Four countries - Armenia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Turkmenistan - have been certified free of malaria since 2007. But around more than three billion people in around 100 countries remain at risk. The battle against malaria has a long way to go. www.bbcnews.com The International weekly
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Health December 16 - 22, 2011
Data from 44 studies showed women with an unwanted pregnancy have a higher incidence of mental health problems in general. This is not affected by whether or not they have an abortion or give birth. But anti-abortion campaigners said the review sought to "minimise" the psychological effect of terminating a pregnancy. Experts from the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) used the same research methods they use to assess evidence on other mental health issues for NICE. The work - funded by the Department of Health - came after concerns that abortion may adversely affect a woman's mental health. Usually, a woman's risk of suffering common disorders such as anxiety or depression would be around 11-12%.But the researchers said this rate was around three times higher in women with unwanted pregnancies.
'Equal risks'
Abortion does not raise the risk of a woman suffering mental health problems, a major review by experts concludes their risk of having mental health problems will not increase. "They carry roughly equal risks. "We believe this is the most comprehensive and detailed review of the mental health outcomes of abortion to date worldwide." Prof Kendall said many previous studies had failed to adequately control for instances when women previously had mental health problems. After a project which involved a three-month consultation, the researchers believe it would not "be fruitful" to carry out further studies into how pregnancies are resolved. They say future work should concentrate on the mental health needs associated with an unwanted pregnancy.
The scope of the review excluded reactions such as guilt, shame and regret - although these were considered important - and also assessments of mental state within 90 days of an abortion. This was because the research was not about "transient reactions to a stressful event". Sophie Corlett, director of external relations at the mental health charity Mind, said: "It is important that medical professionals are given the correct information to provide support for all women, but particularly those with a pre-existing history of mental health problems. "This study makes it absolutely clear that this group is at the greatest risk of developing postpregnancy mental health problems and should be given extra support in light of this." Dr Kate Guthrie, speaking for RCOG, said: "Abortion, including aftercare, is an essential part of women's healthcare services, alongside access to contraception and family planning information." And, in a statement the sexual health charities FPA and Brook said: "This review of evidence will reassure women who have had or are thinking about having an abortion that it's a safe procedure with no direct impact on their mental health."
Support need Dr Roch Cantwell, a consultant perinatal psychiatrist who chaired the steering group, said the review was called for in 2008. He said: "At that time, the Royal College of Psychiatrists issued a position statement saying the evidence on abortion and mental health was imperfect and conflicting. "We all recognise abortion is a very sensitive and emotive topic. Our aim was not to debate the moral and ethical issues, but to focus on the available scientific evidence." Photo: AP
The director of NCCMH, Prof Tim Kendall, said: "It could be that these women have a mental health problem before the pregnancy. "On the other hand, it could be the unwanted pregnancy that's causing the problem. "Or both explanations could be true. We can't be absolutely sure from the studies whether that's the case - but common sense would say it's quite likely to be both. "The evidence shows though that whether these women have abortions - or go on to give birth -
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Photo: AP
Abortion ‘does not raise' mental health risk
Women who have unwanted pregnancies have three times the risk of mental health problems
'False belief' However, a spokeswoman for the ProLife Alliance said: "Once again the politics of abortion blinds those who should be rigorously objective in assessing epidemiological evidence. "This is a pick-and-mix report trying to minimise the psychological effects of termination of pregnancy in a way which does our socalled medical experts little credit." And Dr Peter Saunders, chief executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: "This new review shows that abortion does not improve mental health outcomes for women with unplanned pregnancies, despite 98% of the 200,000 abortions being carried out in this country each year on mental health grounds. "This means that when doctors authorise abortions in order
to protect a woman's mental health they are doing so on the basis of a false belief not supported by the medical evidence. "In other words the vast majority of abortions in this country are technically illegal." Public Health Minister Anne Milton said: "We are pleased to see the conclusions of this important review."The findings will be one of the many sources of information that we will use to inform our sexual health document that will be published next year. "What is clear is that having an unwanted pregnancy has implications for people's mental health and wellbeing." www.bbcnews.com
Catching a yawn ‘a family matter' The act of yawning gets more blood flowing around the brain. The fact that it is contagious has never been fully explained, but one theory suggests it is linked to empathy between people. An Italian study in the journal PLoS One found people were more likely to yawn in response to a close relative rather than just a friend. The finding suggests contagious yawning may have evolved as a way of maintaining alertness within a group. Some believe even animals such as dogs and chimpanzees have been found to be prone to it, and about half of all humans are thought to have this response. The supposed link between empathy and contagious yawning was strengthened by earlier studies in which children with autism, who tend to be less capable of empathy than other children, were found to be less likely to do it. The University of Pisa researchers observed 109 men and women from a variety of nationalities in their day-to-day activities, and recorded instances of contagious yawning.
Contagious yawning may show the closeness of your relationships rather than your tiredness, say scientists. They found it was most likely between directly-related family members, slightly less likely between friends, and then less likely still between acquaintances and strangers. The delay between yawn and response was greater between acquaintances and strangers, again suggesting that empathy and social familiarity played a role. The researchers wrote: "Our results demonstrate that yawn contagion is primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals and not by other variables, such as gender and nationality."
Baboons aping Dr Catriona Morrison, an experimental psychologist from the University of Leeds, said that this primitive subconscious response could shed light on the evolution
of the human brain. She said: "Some have suggested that it developed from the days of cavemen when someone had to be on watch all the time yawning increases cerebral blood flow so can improve alertness. "Social behaviour is thought to be a conscious function of the brain, but this is unavailable to consciousness. "We just don't have any control over it at all." Dr Atsushi Senju, from Birkbeck College in London, said that a similar effect had been noted in a type of baboon, with contagious yawning more likely between close allies in a troupe. However, he said: "It is still not certain that empathy is the cause there are still those who believe that this is simply a natural reflex." www.bbcnews.com
December 16 - 22, 2011
The International weekly
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Tourism
December 16 - 22, 2011
Translation by: Jeanette Martínez and Gabriela Jiménez.
Valladolid is one of the more beautiful colonial cities of Yucatan and a great Mayan culture, by the majesty of its temples and the ancestry district. Valladolid is only two hours to Mérida or Cancun by highway, hour and a half the Mayan Riviera and other attractive tourist circuits; to the north, Las Coloradas, Ek-Balam, Rio Lagartos and San Felipe; to the east, Coba and the Mexican Caribbean; and to the west, the incredible archaeological zone of Chichen Itzá and the colonial cities of Izamal and Mérida. Valladolid was an important role in the conquest of the peninsula, because their inhabitants did not accept the Spanish dominion easily. Finally it was conquered and it had his definitive seat in the old “Zaci” (“White Sparrowhawk” in Mayan); it was in addition an important political and religious
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center where the gentlemen of the Mayan lineage Cupul resided, being witness to diverse indigenous rises, like the call “War of Chaste”. Valladolid counts on places to stay of all the prices, like several restaurants of national and international cuisine. Also it will
be able to enjoy innumerable typical stews of the region those characteristic Mayan names: the mount turkey in Sak-kol, the Panuchos, Papadzules, the Escabeche Oriental, the Smoked Longaniza, the Lomitos of Valladolid and the Soup of Lima. In the end it is recommended to prove famous Mayan liquor: “Xtabentun”, excellent digestive made with the flower of the same name, anis and honey. Attractive Tourist. Between the colonial but representative constructions of the beautiful city of Valladolid they are the cathedral of San Servacio in the Main Place, the Museum of San Roque, the Municipal Palace and
the House of the Culture, the Tempo of San Juan de Dios, the churches of Santa Lucia and San Juan, the ex-convent of San Bernandino de Siena, the districts of Candlemas and Santa Ana and the Alley of the Friars. Between main attractive the natural ones of Valladolid they are the natural wells and the grottos. Although in the neighborhood of Valladolid there is a great amount of natural wells and grottos, but visited are: The Zací natural well (located within the city), Dztinup (X'keken and Samulá), Suytun, X-Canche in the Archaeological Zone of EkBalam. The most visited grottos are the Grottos of Balankanche. The Zací natural well is a symbol of the city, a prodigy of the nature; Located near the main place he is one of the greater open-cast natural wells of the Peninsula. The water mirror, has 28
meters of diameter in greater part and 25 in the minor, and the height between the vault and the water-bearing surface is of 26 meters. Dzitnup natural well, known also like " The cave azul" it is located to 2 kilometers of distance towards the west of Valladolid. The sun crosses a small natural entrance in the part superior of the vault, illuminating the interior and creating therefore an impressive image with the reflection of the water. In the environs there are wonderful and imposing archaeological zones such as ChichenItza (to 25 minutes), new wonder of the world. Ek-Balam (to 15 minutes) to only 40km to the north of Valladolid and the archaeological zones of Coba and Tulúm (to 60 minutes). The old city of Ek´Balam, sleepy during centuries in the middle of the forest, is allowing to admire its greatness and majesty. Although he was known by the inhabitants of the near regions, was reported for the first time in 1886. But it was until in 1984, that began the investigations of a American project in coordination with the INAH. With facility from Valladolid it is possible to be arrived at attractive tourist enjoying the nature, Punta Laguna, where long walks and observe the species of the region in their habitat and important sanctuary of the “monkey spider” and the impressive lagoon that gives the name to this town. Ría Lagartos, a reserve where the flamenco ones in their natural habitat can be observed, as well as varied birds and reptiles of the region. Other sites to visit can be: San Felipe and Las Coloradas, Campamento Hidalgo, Holbox (part of the reserve of the Biosphere Yum Balam, important in the observation and conservation of the marine birds of the region), Tulúm and its reserve of Sian Ka'an among others.
December 16 - 22, 2011
The International weekly
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Culture December 16 - 22, 2011
THE MAYA'SReal SADNESS Estate Since the beginning of their civilization, approximately 3,000 years ago, the Maya have related stories, legends and fables about mythical beings and the laws of nature. These tales are drawn either from both individual and collective experiences or imaginary ones. Today, they help us to understand a very different way of life and being, as well as allow us to enter one of history's most mysterious cultures. The following fable is by an unknown author and of unknown date. However, its location can be placed exactly in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and is called The Maya's Sadness. One day, all the animals drew near to a Maya man and said to him: —We do not like to see you so sad. Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it. The man said: —I want to be happy. The owl responded: —Who knows what happiness is? Ask us for something more concrete. —Well then, continued the man, I want to have good sight. The vulture replied: —You shall have mine. —I want to be strong. The jaguar said: —You shall be strong like me. —I wish to be able to walk without tiring. The deer replied: —I will give you my legs. —I want to be able to forecast the arrival of the rains. The nightingale said: —I will let you know with my song. —I want to be astute. And the fox said: —I shall teach you. —I long to be able to climb the trees. The squirrel responded: —I will give you my claws. —I want to be able to see in the dark. And the cat said: —I will lend you my eyes. —I want to be able to recognize medicinal plants. And the serpent responded: —Ah, this is my domain, because I know all the plants. I will mark them for you in the fields and woods.
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Hearing the words of the snake, the man left. Then, the owl said to all the animals: —Now the man knows much more and is able to do many things, but he will always be sad. —Poor animals! Poor animals!
This, they said occurs every 5125 years when the charges in the Sun affect the earth by altering its axis of rotation. The Maya predicted that on Sunday the 22nd of December 2010 the Sun will be struck by a powerful synchronizing ray from the center of the galaxy, causing a change in polarization and producing an immense radiant flare. Humanity must therefore be prepared to pass through the doorway that the Maya left us, transforming our present civilization, based on fear, into a harmonious vibration at a much higher level. Only individually can we go through the door that will allow us to avoid the great cataclysm that the planet will suffer, to begin a new era in the sixth cycle of the Sun. The first prophecy talks of the “time of no time”, a period of 20 years which began in 1992 and end in 2010, when humanity will enter into a final period of great learning and great changes. Seven years after the beginning of this period, an age of darkness will commence which will bring us all face to face with our own conduct: “the great hall of mirror”
Fashion & People MAYAN PROPHECIES
The Mayan knew that all this was going to happen and therefore they left us a message carved in Stone. One element is a warning telling us what is going to happened during the times we are now experiencing, and another is a message of hope with the charges we must make in ourselves in other to bring humanity towards a new era.
Restaurantes
First prophecy
The world of hate and materialism will end on Saturday 22nd of December 2012, and with it be an end to fear. On this day humanity will have to choose between disappearing as a think species that threatens to destroy the planet, or evolving towards harmonious integration with the whole universe, with awareness and understanding of every living thing, of the fact that we are part of this whole and that we can exist in new age of light to turn aside from the path of destruction and integrate ourselves with all existence. The Maya knew that our Sun is living, breathing being which from time to time synchronizes with the immense organism with in which it exists, producing magnetic shifts.
Hoteles
Business
Tourism
Culture December 16 - 22, 2011
A collection of paintings by a renowned Welsh artist has been discovered gathering dust in an American college.
Monet had panoramic views of the Thames from his hotel room
Monet pastel returns to the Savoy Hotel The French impressionist sketched the pastel artwork in January 1901 from his view from room 618, now known as the Monet suite. Invited guests will be able to view Waterloo Bridge from the same room. Hotel guests will then be able to view the sketch in The Savoy Museum located next to its renowned American Bar. It will be on display between 13 and 16 December. The work is on loan from an art dealer and is currently available to buy. Waterloo Bridge is one of 26 pastels of the River Thames known to have survived from Monet's stays at The Savoy, and the only example not held in a museum.
them into albums for someone she admired is important." After researching the artist's friendship with Symons, Prof Robins discovered that she had given these albums to him in June 1920, shortly after he had returned from meeting her in Paris. This also was significant. "It was the first time we had had a date," she said. "She never put a date on anything of hers." 'Superb technician' Asked to describe Gwen John's importance as an artist, Prof Robins replied: "Many people think she is simply one of the best. "She is a real painter's painter. She was an absolutely superb technician. She worked incredibly hard at her painting. "When you look at these watercolours you can see her every mark, and that every one was carefully thought out before she put it down." Don Skemer, curator of manuscripts in the department of rare books and special collections at Princeton University Library, said many of the discovered
The watercolours were found in albums within a dusty accordion file. Reproduced courtesy of the Princeton University Library, Manuscripts Division.
watercolours depict nuns, women parishioners and orphaned girls in the Catholic church at Meudon, the Paris suburb where John lived for nearly 30 years. "Almost all of these subjects are viewed from the back," he said. "Other watercolours in the album portray a woman in a train carriage, a woman wearing a striking boa, and a black cat in a window. A few of the watercolours have
pencil sketches on the reverse." Symons' papers, including the watercolours, were bequeathed to Princeton in 1951 by American painter and art collector AE Gallatin, who acquired them from Arthur Symons' widow. The watercolours are on display at Princeton until 31 December. www.bbcnews.com
Antony Gormley unveils ‘empty' sculpture To mark English Pen's 90th anniversary, Gormley's creation depicts an empty chair made out of metal. The chair is a symbol used by the charity to represent writers in prison. "This is a place of witness, cast in massive iron that will simply rest, isolated, for anyone or noone to occupy," Gormley said. The sculpture, named Witness, joins Sir Eduardo Paolozzi's Newton and another Gormley work, Planets, on the piazza in front of the British Library. The charity holds an annual conference where an empty chair is always used to represent a writer who is unable to attend because
The British Library has unveiled sculptor Antony Gormley's latest work, which was commissioned by a charity that promotes the freedom to write. they have been imprisoned, detained, threatened or killed. "It will stand as tribute to, and reminder of, those writers who, because of censorship and tyranny, are not free to go to any library either in their countries or in ours, and at the same time recognises the work of Pen branches throughout the world in service of free expression," said English Pen's president
Gillian Slovo. Gormley is best known for creating The Angel Of The North. The sculpture overlooks the A1 motorway in Gateshead and has become one of the UK's bestknown pieces of public art since it was completed in 1998. www.bbcnews.com Photo: AP
they produced a dusty box containing an accordion file, and in this were two albums," she said. "They were also very dusty and clearly hadn't been looked at for a long time. "I opened them up and was amazed." Prof Robins said her first reaction was to go to the librarian on the desk and tell him she thought it absurd that the university library had 23 Gwen John watercolours that it clearly knew nothing about. "He said: 'There's was a complaints form over there. If you are unhappy with the library you should make a complaint'." 'Very significant' After some research Prof Robins realised the true significance of her discovery. "It turned out that these watercolours were very significant," she explained. "Not only were they great quality, but [Gwen John] rarely exhibited her work during her lifetime. So the fact that she had selected these watercolours and put Photo: AP
The 23 unsigned watercolours by Pembrokeshire-born Gwen John were identified at Princeton University by a British-based art expert. Prof Anna Gruetzner Robins, of Reading University, found the works among papers bequeathed to Princeton by Milford Havenborn poet Arthur Symons. Prof Robins estimated their worth at ÂŁ500,000. Gwen John, who died in France in 1939, was often overshadowed by her brother Augustus but has been more recently regarded critically as a superior artist. Prof Robins explained that she was working last year at the university in New Jersey as a senior research fellow when she discovered the collection "by pure chance". "It was down to serendipity," she said. "I had finished working on my research into something quite different and thought I should make the most of the time I had left." Deciding to take a look at papers belonging to Arthur Symons, a highly-regarded symbolist poet and a correspondent with Irish poet WB Yeats, she noticed on a computer entry that they included a quantity of unknown watercolours. "When I requested the files
Photo: AP
Gwen John watercolours found at Princeton University
"Since opening in 1889, The Savoy has played host to numerous artists such as Whistler and Picasso. However, Monet's views of the Thames are without doubt the most celebrated works of art associated with the Savoy," said hotel manager Kiaran MacDonald. Monet only used pastels to paint Waterloo Bridge because his oil paints, brushes and canvases did not arrive on time. He wrote to his wife Alice, saying he had resorted to working at "many pastels". His materials arrived a week later and wrote to Alice: "It is thanks to my promptly-made pastels that I saw what I had to do." www.bbcnews.com Witness can be found on the piazza in front of the British Library The International weekly
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December 16 - 22, 2011
Photo: AP
Christie's sale of 80 items had been estimated to raise about $20m (£13m), but took more than double the record for a single collection. The highlight was a necklace featuring a 16th Century pearl which sold for $11.8m (£7.6m), a record for the gem. The actress' famous 33.19carat diamond ring, given to her by Richard Burton, also sold for $8.8m (£5.7m). The pearl, known as La Peregrina, has been depicted in artwork for centuries and was once painted by 17th Century Spanish artist Velazquez. Burton, who married Dame Elizabeth twice, bought the pearl in 1969 at auction for $37,000 (£23,800). It was once owned by Mary Tudor and later by Spanish queens Margarita and Isabel. The actress commissioned Cartier to design a ruby-and-diamond necklace mount for the piece. It had been estimated to sell for $2 million (£1.3m) - $3 million (£1.9m), but surpassed the previous auction record for a pearl, set in 2007 with the sale of The Baroda Pearls for $7.1m (£4.6m). The BBC's Laura Trevelyan, who was at the auction house, said applause broke out as the bidding passed $10m (£6.4m). The first lot to be auctioned, a gold and gem bracelet valued at up to $35,000 (£22,500), sold for $270,000 (£174,000). Minutes later an ivory and gold necklace fetched more than 100 times its estimate of $1,500 (£967) - $2,000 (£1,300), selling for $314,500 (£203,000). One buyer also paid $600,000 (£387,000) for a diamond and sapphire ring given to the actress by
Photo: AP
Elizabeth Taylor jewellery auction fetches $116m
Tourism & Evironment The Help leads Screen Actors Viola Davis is up for best female actor in a leading role for The Help
Guild award nominees As well as best ensemble cast, Viola Davis is up for best female with co-stars Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer receiving supporting honours. Sitcom Modern Family led the field in the television categories, also securing four nominations. British actresses Emily Watson, Dame Maggie Smith and Kate Winslet dominated the TV movie/miniseries category. Davis will be up against Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs, Tilda Swinton for We Need To Talk About Kevin and Michelle Williams for My Week With Marilyn on the best film actress shortlist. Silent movie The Artist also received three nods for its actors, including best ensemble cast in a film. The male lead acting nominations went to Demian Bichir for A Better Life, George Clooney for The Descendants, Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar, Jean Dujardin for The Artist and Brad Pitt for Moneyball. Kenneth Branagh is also nominated for best supporting male for his role as Laurence Olivier opposite Williams in My Week With Marilyn. Dame Maggie is recognised for her role in ITV1's Downton
La Peregrina sold for a record $10.5m before auction fees were added
A collection of jewels owned by the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor has fetched $116m (£74.9m) at a New York auction. her close friend Michael Jackson. Other highlights included the Taj Mahal diamond, another gift from Burton marking Dame Elizabeth's 40th birthday, which sold for $8.8m (£5.7m), a record for an Indian jewel. The per-carat record for a ruby was also broken by Burton's Van Cleef & Arpels ruby and diamond ring, a 1968 Christmas gift. Another record, for a tiara, fell when the actress' third husband Mike Todd's 1957 gift to Taylor sold for $4.2 million (£2.7 million) - about six times its estimate. Christie's Marc Porter said the auction was "one of the most
extraordinary sales" they had ever held, calling it "a testament to the love of Elizabeth Taylor worldwide". The sale will continue on Wednesday when Dame Eizabeth's haute couture, including the dresses from her two weddings to Burton, will be sold. Part of the proceeds will go to The Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation, which she established in 1991. Taylor, who was best known for National Velvet, Cleopatra and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? died in Los Angeles in March at the age of 79.
Hanging Out www.bbcnews.com
Billy Joel receives Steinway Hall portrait honour Joel is only one of two living artists to feature in the Hall's portrait collection and will hang next to famed Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz, one of the singer's idols. "I don't know how crazy he'd be about having me that close to him," he said. The gallery is home to the piano makers, Steinway & Sons Joel said the closest he had been to Horowitz, who died in 1989 aged 86, was when he "ran into him once on the street, on Madison Avenue, back in the '70s." He added: "I had long hair and a black leather jacket and I said: 'Maestro!' and he thought I was gonna
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mug him. He kind of ran away." The Paul Wyse painting will hang among other musical greats such as Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Arthur Rubinstein. Joel said he was honoured to be recognised by the instrument company. "They make pianos the old-fashioned way. They're not mass-produced. They're hand-crafted. "When you find a great Steinway, it's a phenomenal piano. There's a quirkiness in individually produced pianos that I appreciate, sort of like handmade guitars."
The Forbes magazine Best Actors for the Buck calculates actors' wages against their movies' box office return. Twilight actress Kristen Stewart is number one. Her films earn $55.83 (£35.79) for every $1 (0.64p) she is paid and her most recent film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, has been at the top of the box office for three weeks. Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson is number three on the Forbes list. The actor is also famous for roles in films like Water for Elephants and Remember Me. His films earn $39.43 (25.27) for every $1 (0.64p) he's paid. Anne Hathaway sits in between the Twilight stars at number two. For every $1 (0.64p) she's paid
Riviera Maya
www.bbcnews.com
The gallery is home to the famed piano makers, Steinway & Sons
www.bbcnews.com
Twilight's Kristen Stewart tops bankable actors list Photo: AP
US singer-songwriter Billy Joel has become the only non-classical performer to be honoured with a portrait at the prestigious Steinway Hall in New York.
Abbey, Winslet is up for period drama Mildred Pierce and Watson is shortlisted for her part in the Fred West drama Appropriate Adult. The trio will go up against Diane Lane for HBO's Cinema Verite and Betty White for CBS' Hallmark Hall of Fame: The Lost Valentine. White also scored a second nomination for best female in a comedy series for her role in Hot In Cleveland. Modern Family stars Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara are recognised in the best male and female categories, with the sitcom is in the running for best ensemble cast in a comedy. The casts of 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Glee and The Office will also compete in that category. Best male in a TV movie/miniseries nominees include Laurence Fishburne, Paul Giamatti, Greg Kinnear, Guy Pearce and James Woods. Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Good Wife and Game of Thrones will compete to win best ensemble in a drama. The SAG awards ceremony is due to take place in Los Angeles on 29 January.
her films, including Alice in Wonderland, earn back $45.67 (£29.27). Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is number four. For every $1 he's paid, his films earn back $34.24 (£21.95). Transformers star Shia LaBeouf is number five. His films earn back $29.40 (£18.85) for every $1 (0.64p) he makes. Also in the top 10 are Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes star Robert Downey, Jr. who earns $18.74 (£12.01) for every $1. Matt Damon earns $15.83 (£10.15) for every $1, Cate Blanchett earns $15.17 (£9.72) for every $1. Meryl Streep $13.54 (£8.68) for every $1 (0.64p) and Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp $12.48 (£8) for every $1. www.bbcnews.com
Entertainment December 16 - 22, 2011
Annie Leibovitz made her name photographing celebrities for publications like Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. But her new book and exhibition Pilgrimage leave behind contemporary stars and instead show the places which evoke the historical American figures which now fascinate her. a couple of months later at my studio in New York I was fascinated. So these are places which mean something to me in quite diverse ways. "The other place which got me started was Emily Dickinson's house in Amherst in Massachusetts." As with other images in the book, there's a slightly ghostly feel to Leibovitz's pictures from Amherst, all captured using a digital camera. "In fact it was the visit to Amherst which got me thinking how remarkable are the results you now get working digitally. The Emily Dickinson house was very low-light but the images work." Pilgrimage is Leibovitz's first 100% digital project. The book is mainly about America Leibovitz says that didn't have to be the case. "Anywhere you go in any country places are full of these hauntings. In New York City you can't walk down a street without encountering some historical association - but it would be the same in Paris or London." In fact the new collection has a rural feel - the best of the landscapes suggest the great American photographer Ansel Adams. Trees and expanses of water feature throughout. Sometimes Leibovitz is interested in the by-ways of American
Orson Welles' Citizen Kane Oscar up for auction The gold statuette, which Welles won for best screenplay in 1942, is expected to fetch up to $1m (ÂŁ642,000). Despite some tarnishing on the legs, the Oscar is "overall in very good condition," according to auction house Nate D Sanders. It is the second time the Oscar has been on the auction block, after it failed to sell in 2007. The award itself has had a colourful history - Welles believed he had lost it, but it resurfaced after his death when it was put up for auction in 1994 by a cinematographer who claimed the filmmaker had given it to him as a form of payment. Welles' daughter Beatrice sued and won back ownership of the Oscar, but she was then sued herself by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - which gives out the awards - when she tried to auction it in 2003. In a bid to stop public sales, the Academy introduced an agreement in 1950 that banned winners from selling their Oscars to anyone
but the Academy for the nominal sum of $1 (64p). After a legal battle, Beatrice Welles won the right to sell the statuette and sold it to a US charitable foundation, who in turn unsuccessfully tried to auction it at Sotheby's in New York in 2007. In that instance, it was expected to sell for a similar amount, but it is now believed the movie memorabilia market is much stronger. "There has been so much movie memorabilia that has been selling for high prices," spokesman Sam Heller said. "People are just willing to spend a lot of money to buy these things, whether as an investment or as a collector." Although Citizen Kane received nominations for best screenplay, best director and best leading actor for Welles, the writing award was the only competitive Oscar awarded to him throughout his life. He collected an honorary Academy Award for his life's work 3in 1971. www.bbcnews.com
history, such as the life of Annie Oakley (outside America known mainly from the musical Annie Get Your Gun). There's a picture of a playing-card she's reputed to have shot through. There are no people in the pictures so it's a shock even to encounter a statue of Abraham Lincoln - and the hat he was wearing the day he was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Lincoln is one of the dominant figures. "As a child living in suburban Washington DC the Lincoln Memorial was one of my favourite memorials - even if I didn't quite understand why," she says. "But volumes and volumes have been written about him and I had to accept that in quite a modest work like this I had to tread lightly: I'm not trying to be a great historian. "The tough thing was not getting seduced by a fantastic story like Lincoln's. I found myself driving endlessly around Kentucky looking for log cabins. "The hat of Lincoln you see in the book is very moving. It's not just that he took it to the theatre where he was shot but also that it has a mourning band on it for his son." As Leibovitz got further into the Pilgrimage project she began to see connections between the people featured.
Annie Leibovitz: 'It was a kind of voyage of discovery"
"Perhaps the reason I went to see Pete Seeger is that he's the closest modern America can ever get to Abe Lincoln. He even built his own log cabin." There's a small British presence in the collection too. We see Charles Darwin's house in Kent and Leibovitz was delighted to get permission to photograph inside the Freud
Museum in London - based in Sigmund Freud's home after he'd fled Nazi Germany. "It was wonderful to steep myself in all this history. It's not that I dismissed it all when I was a child. But it didn't have any real resonance for me then. Now it does." www.bbcnews.com
Simon Cowell ‘didn't like' Paula Abdul on American Idol Photo: AP
Annie Leibovitz has photographed everyone from John Lennon and Clint Eastwood to the Queen. One thing which connects virtually all her portraits is that they were commissioned. With the book Pilgrimage (and the related exhibition opening in London) Leibovitz has tried for once to step off the treadmill and explore at her own pace a different America. Mainly the book pictures the homes or other places associated with US historical figures as varied as Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women). But the format is flexible enough to include pictures of the home in upstate New York of the veteran folk singer Pete Seeger, now 92, and even a small group of locations in the UK. "Who knows what I was looking for?," says Leibovitz. "Honestly, at first I didn't. But that was what was so wonderful about the exercise. I picked a random group but I think eventually I saw it wasn't so random." In 2009 Leibovitz was suffering some well-publicised financial turmoil. At that point a daytrip with her two children to Niagara Falls was an important inspiration for the project. "I was having a difficult couple of years so I was enjoying watching the children just scamper around. Then I saw them suddenly stop, mesmerised by what they were seeing. I walked over to them and took a picture of the falls over their heads," she says. "I was just standing by a guard-rail - it's a location anyone can go to. I only took three or four frames but when I looked at them
Photo: AP
Annie Leibovitz captures America
He worked with the former pop star on the programme for eight seasons until she left the show in 2009 and they now appear together on The X Factor USA. "On the first two seasons, we couldn't travel on the same plane together," he told ABC's Barbara Walters. "We really disliked each other that much. I think it was sexual tension - on her part." Simon Cowell gave up his seat on the X Factor judging panel in the UK to launch the show in America this year.The 52-year-old music executive has been mentoring the girls while Paula Abdul has been looking after the groups. Talking about his chemistry with the star, who has had six number one singles in America, he jokingly said he had thought about dating her and asking her to come back to his house for a drink."I considered it but I don't think the after would be as good as the before," he said."I'd let her stay for a few hours but then it would have to be goodnight." Josh Krajcik, Marcus Canty, Chris Rene and Melanie Amaro are still battling for a place in next week's X Factor USA final. Paula Abdul has no groups in the final four while Simon Cowell will be hoping his final act, Melanie, makes it through. www.bbcnews.com The International weekly
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December 16 - 22, 2011
Photo: AP
The 50-year-old, who raced for Minardi for two seasons in 198889, succeeds German Colin Kolles, whose split from the team was announced on Wednesday. Perez-Sala initially joined the Spanish team as an advisor to the new owners, investment group Thesan Capital, this summer. "We had to establish a base from which to grow slowly, but we are now seeing the results of that work," he said. The team is being moved to a new base in Valencia and are trying to establish themselves as an all-Spanish outfit. They have taken on veteran Pedro de la Rosa as one of their drivers, with the other seat still to be filled. Perez-Sala, whose best result was sixth in the 1989 British Grand Prix, added: "We mustn't lose our perspective and [should] be aware that assuming responsibilities such as designing the car or moving the headquarters to Spain are huge tasks and we still have a lot of work ahead. "We must be patient and keep in mind that we cannot expect to achieve great success in the short term, but we can take a team forward that we can all feel proud of." HRT joined F1 in 2010 as one of three new teams, alongside Lotus and Virgin. They finished 11th out of 12 teams in both of their seasons so far.
Photo: AP
Luis Perez-Sala appointed HRT team principal Westwood won the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City two weeks ago
Lee Westwood leads after shooting career -best 60 in Thailand HRT finished second last in the constructors' championship for the last two years
Former driver Luis Perez-Sala is to be the new team principal of HRT. Having made a late decision to design and build their own car, HRT face a struggle to get it ready for the start of the season in Australia on 18 March. Saul Ruiz de Marcos, HRT chief executive officer, said: "Since we began working with Luis our
connection has been great. "Now he takes on a much more key role in the team but the decision was an easy one given his knowledge and his way of doing things. It is the best decision we could make."
The Englishman carded 10 birdies and an eagle at the Amata Spring Country Club. "I made a dream start and you start thinking about 59, I guess," said Westwood, the world number three. Westwood set the tone for his round with birdies at one, three, four and five and an eagle at the par-five second. "I guess 59 is one of those numbers where if it is meant to be, it is meant to be. I messed it up with a few pars!" He picked up another shot at the seventh to reach the turn
in 29 and a further five birdies coming home maintained his momentum. Westwood's round was even more remarkable given the tricky wind in Chonburi. "It's not really a 60 course," he added. "It was a bit breezy out there. "[Caddie] Billy [Foster] said he thought he had seen the best round of golf ever when I shot 62 at the Nedbank a few weeks ago but he said that was better today, so I am making progress!"
Tourism & Evironment www.bbcnews.com
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Security would be police-led but the military would make a "significant contribution", the MoD said. Some 5,000 troops will support the police, up to 7,500 will provide venue security and 1,000 will provide logistical support. Last week, ministers revised the Games security budget from ÂŁ282m to ÂŁ553m. In addition to the 13,500 figure, there will be a 1,000-strong unarmed contingency force ready for deployment in the event of an "Olympicsrelated civil emergency".
Venue protection The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it now estimated 23,700 security staff would be required at Olympic and Paralympic venues next summer, more than double the original estimate of 10,000. In a written ministerial statement, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said that the MoD would be increasing the specialist support work during the Games that it routinely provides for the civilian authorities - such as bomb disposal, building search teams and specialist sniffer dogs.
18 The International weekly
In addition to the 5,000 personnel allocated to that role, some 3,500 would provide venue security. This figure would rise to 7,500 on peak days during the Olympic Games, he said. The MoD said the servicemen and women would be on hand across the UK to protect 150 venues and training sites. And as part of the military's Olympic security role, the Royal Navy's HMS Ocean and HMS Bulwark will also be based at Greenwich, in London, and Weymouth Bay, in Dorset, respectively.
Specialist skills Mr Hammond told the BBC that the Games were "the biggest security challenge this country has faced for decades". But he added that military deployment during Olympic Games was routine since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. "This defence contribution is on a similar scale to that deployed at other recent Olympic Games and will contribute to ensuring a safe, secure and enjoyable 2012 Olympics," he said. "Defence will continue to be able to support current and contingent
operations during the Games and my priority will remain the troops we have deployed on operations, including in Afghanistan, before, during and after the Olympics." Mr Hammond also said the military would split its role into two areas. "First of all we will be providing the routine military aid to the civil power - helping and supporting the police, with things like special forces, bomb disposal capability, military search capability. "And then we'll be supplying up to 7,500 men and women to support the guarding of the venues themselves. "They'll be working with civilians in mixed teams, searching and checking people going into the stadiums, making sure - airline style - that nothing that shouldn't get in there gets in." The defence secretary also said the military would be using its full range of capabilities and equipment to "keep London safe during the Olympics". He added: "Military hardware will be used, we'll be deploying helicopters, we'll be deploying Typhoon fighters to defend London's airspace, we'll be deploying ground-to-air missile systems."
Photo: AP
London 2012: 13,500 troops to provide Olympic security
Up to 7,500 military personnel will provide venue security on peak days
Military 'pride' Lord Dannatt, a former head of the British Army who used to advise the Conservative Party on defence matters, believes service personnel will be pleased to be involved with the Olympics. "It's not like Afghanistan," he said. "That's been a rolling operation for a long time, 10,000 soldiers there for six months at a time. "This is going to be a relatively short deployment and I think, as Philip Hammond said, the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who are involved actually will be... I think very proud to be part of
Hanging Out
this spectacular, once-in-a-generation operation to showcase London and showcase the UK." Labour's shadow defence minister, Russell Brown, said: "There can be no compromise with security at the Olympic Games and we support the deployment of UK troops. "The British people will want to know everything possible is being done to protect their safety. "It is important we know where these troops will be drawn from and whether there will be any impact on ongoing international efforts." www.bbcnews.com
Sports December 16 - 22, 2011
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola expects striker David Villa to be in for a long spell on the sidelines after the Spain international suffered a broken leg. out Villa for some time. Villa's injury may also put his participation at Euro 2012 in doubt, with Spain set to begin the defence of their crown against Italy on 10 June. He is Spain's all-time leading scorer with 50 goals in 81 games and played a key role in their World Cup triumph in South Africa last summer. "The news is very bad," added Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque. "It's a great misfortune, for him above all since he is the injured one, and looking ahead to Euro 2012, of course this is very bad news.
Toro Rosso name Daniel Ricciardo & Jean-Eric Vergne as drivers for 2012 Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari make way as the team name an all-new line-up for the first time since their debut in 2006. Australian Ricciardo, 22, is a Red Bull test and reserve driver and has raced for HRT this year. French driver Vergne, 21, has tested for Red Bull and took part in practice for Toro Rosso three times this year. Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost said: "One has to remember that when Toro Rosso was established in 2005, it was done so with the intention of providing a first step into Formula 1 for the youngsters in the Red Bull junior driver programme. "It is therefore part of the team's culture to change its driver line-up from time to time in order to achieve this goal." Ricciardo had been linked to Caterham, formerly named Team Lotus, as a possible replacement for Jarno Trulli, despite the Italian having a contract. He took part in Friday practice at grand prix weekends for Toro Rosso this year before moving to HRT in the second half of the season, where he drove for the final 11 races without scoring a point. "This is a really big deal for me," he said. "I have to say that joining Toro Rosso was always my real goal, so a big thank you to Red Bull for giving me this fantastic opportunity. "To be honest, I am still jump-
Toro Rosso have named Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne as their drivers for the 2012 Formula 1 season. ing up and down with excitement at the news. I can't wait to get to work once testing begins." Vergne added: "I must thank Red Bull for all their support so far and for believing I am ready to take on the ultimate challenge of racing in Formula One. "Having driven for them a few times this year and also testing for Red Bull, I definitely feel ready to make the move, even if I know there is a big difference between testing and actually racing. "Sitting on the grid in Melbourne next March cannot come soon enough." Alguersuari and Buemi finished 14th and 15th this season in the drivers championship, with 26 and 15 points respectively. Swiss Buemi competed in 55 grands prix over three seasons for Toro Rosso, while Spaniard Alguersuari drove in 46 races. www.bbcnews.com
"There are six months to go. Let's see if he can get well. Recovering always has its set processes, but there are some players that get healthy sooner than others." Adriano scored twice and Seydou Keita and Maxwell also found the net to secure Barcelona's comfortable passage into Sunday's Club World Cup final against Brazilian side Santos. The competition, made up of the champion clubs from seven continental federations, is one of four Barcelona are attempting to win this year having won their domestic league title, the Cham-
Villa had been linked with a move to the Premier League in January
pions League and European Super Cup in 2011. They sit top of La Liga on goal difference, although, with no domestic game this weekend, they could be overtaken by Real Madrid before the start of a three-
week winter break. Villa, a £34m signing from Valencia in 2010, has scored 12 goals in 26 appearances in all competitions for Barcelona this season. www.bbcnews.com
Daley Thompson backs BOA lifetime bans for drugs cheats The BOA is challenging the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) policy that the ban is "non-compliant" with its code. "I think the BOA should obviously try their utmost to make sure that people don't get an easy ride," said Thompson. "If we are the only country in the world prepared to have those high standards, then so be it." Thompson, speaking as a Laureus World Sports Academy member at the 2011 awards nominations in London, told BBC Sport: "If the people from Wada who are supposed to be looking after the interests of the good guys but don't - if they're are upset with me then so be it. "But I do think it's time that sport was as healthy as it possibly can be and, at the moment in terms of drugs, I don't believe that a strong enough position is taken." The BOA imposes a lifetime Olympic ban on any British athlete banned for more than six months for a doping offence - the only national Olympic committee to do so. However, the policy contradicts Wada's global anti-doping code. The BOA will take its fight to keep a lifetime ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), and athletes like sprinter Dwain Chambers, who has served a ban, could compete at the 2012 London Olympics if the BOA loses. "I think the only reason that the BOA should be here is to make sure that sport is played to the highest standards," said Thompson, who won decathlon gold in 1980 and 1984. "I don't think there's any job more important for the BOA than
Double Olympic champion Daley Thompson has backed the British Olympic Association's (BOA) fight to maintain lifetime bans for drugs cheats. Daley Thompson supports BOA Olympic life bans
to ensure that people that don't cheat are not given a bum deal compared to the people that do cheat. Going in and trying to make sure that people that are serious offenders don't compete in the Olympics is what the BOA should be all about. "Sport can only be played properly if there's fair play." Some who oppose the lifetime ban cite the likes of Chambers and cyclist David Millar, who have worked to encourage athletes against doping since failing tests themselves. "It's always difficult when you start personalising it," said Thompson. "David is probably a brilliant guy, I don't know him - I do know Dwain Chambers and he's a very nice guy too - but I think like a lot of things in society, things have swung a little bit too far and now a lot of people seem to be trying to protect the rights of the people that are cheating. "Not enough people are look-
LIFETIME BANS Sportsmen and women currently subject to the BOA lifetime Olympic ban include: •Dwain Chambers (sprinting) •David Millar (cycling) •Carl Myerscough (shot put) •Peter Meakin (canoeing) •Jade Mellor (boxing) •Callum Priestley (hurdling) •Dan Staite (cycling) •Jamie Stevenson (shot put) •Kieren Kelly (shot put) •Jatinder Singh Rakhra (wrestling)
ing after the people that don't cheat, that play the game properly and do all the right things. "Of course both Millar and Chambers are contrite and sorry and all that kind of thing, but the question I'd like to know the answer to is whether, if they hadn't been caught, would they still be cheating?" www.bbcnews.com The International weekly
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Photo: AP
The 30-year-old fractured his left tibia shortly before half-time in the Fifa Club World Cup semifinal against Qatari side Al Sadd in Yokohama, Japan. "He will be out for a long time with this sort of break," said Guardiola. "He will return to Barcelona as soon as possible for an operation. It's a massive blow for him and Barcelona." A glum-looking Guardiola added: "We will have to win the Club World Cup without him but he is in our hearts." Villa, who has been linked with a move to the Premier League in January, was carried off on a stretcher after appearing to land awkwardly 39 minutes into a game Barcelona were winning 10. Although the Spanish club completed a 4-0 victory over Al Sadd to book their place in the final, they can expect to be with-
Photo: AP
Barcelona striker David Villa breaks his leg
Fashion & People December 16 - 22, 2011
Restaurantes Hoteles
Business Miu Miu Ready to wear Just girlishness
Tourism
Following the teenage vampires movie mixed with a little of chic style, the result is this season collection of Miu Miu. Cover by a full skirts and matching bra tops covered by little cloaks tied with velvet ribbons with red eye shadow, very magical in the juvenile trends. Beautiful lace coats and dresses, some finely pleated and
others overlaid in contrasting colours, accompanied by fullbacked satin coats of palest pink or blue, just to reminding us of the true princess that the Miu Miu girl can be.
A few very important accessories were leather boots of white with yellow roses twisting up them, or red growing up black. Only Miuccia Prada who could produce a collection that looks entirely fresh, juvenile and at the same time very chic and sophisticated in the way; also this collection really puts everybody in a good mood,
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Fashion & People December 16 - 22, 2011
Royal Family plans for Queen's Diamond Jubilee unveiled The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh intend to travel as widely as possible across the UK to mark 2012's Diamond Jubilee, Buckingham Palace has said. Caribbean islands with an extra visit to Gibraltar. Other travelling royals include the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent. The former will head to the British Virgin Islands and Malta. And the latter is set to go to the Falkland Islands and Uganda. The host countries are likely to hold a range of events for the visiting royals, from official banquets and public celebrations to events that showcase the individual nations.
'Enforced celebration' A Buckingham Palace spokesman said details and timings of the visits are "still under discussion with the host governments". The Queen will be 86 in April and Prince Philip, who will be 91
Photo: AP
The Diamond Jubilee will mark 60 years of the Queen's reign. Other members of the Royal Family will visit the 15 other countries where the Queen is head of state, as well as some other Commonwealth countries. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit Malaysia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. It will be the couple's second overseas tour following their visit to Canada earlier this year. 'Under discussion' The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will visit Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. And Prince Harry will tour Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas. The prince's overseas visit will be his first solo trip on behalf of the Queen. It might see Harry take the opportunity to stage a fundraising polo match on behalf of his Sentebale charity. The Duke of York will travel to India and the Princess Royal is set to visit Mozambique and Zambia. The Earl and Countess of Wessex will tour a number of
next year, has already publicly stated that he is reducing his workload. The pressure group Republic, which campaigns for a democratic alternative to the monarchy, has announced a series of demonstrations timed to co-ordinate with the official Jubilee celebrations. These include a protest on the afternoon of 3 June when a flotilla of up to a 1,000 boats, headed by the Queen and senior politicians, will travel along the Thames from Putney to Tower Bridge. Republic spokesperson Graham Smith said: "The Pageant goes to the heart of what's wrong with the monarchy. It's an enforced celebration of hereditary power, and all the problems that spring from it." www.bbcnews.com
The Diamond Jubilee will mark 60 years of the Queen's reign
Royal wedding tops Google's Zeitgeist 2011 search list
60 new woods are being created for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations
Stoke woods to be planted for Queen's Diamond Jubilee The Forestry Commission has given a grant of ÂŁ220,000 for the woods at Fenpark and Biddulph Road near Packmoor, in Stoke-onTrent. The 60-acre woodlands will be planted and maintained by Stoke City Council. Councillor Janine Bridges said: "We will be talking with as many people as we can throughout the city to see how they want to be involved." Consultation events to discuss the plans were held earlier in the year, and the council will now invite schools, community groups, businesses and other organisations to take part in planting the woods in the new year. The council said all the trees
planted would be native broadleaf species that grow naturally in Stoke-on-Trent, and will include silver birch, ash, oak, rowan, and hawthorn. The funding will also provide improvements such as signs, benches and new entrance features. The new woodlands are two of 60 being created by Woodland Trust for The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Georgina McLeod, from the Woodland Trust, said: "There's no better way to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee by planting trees to benefit both people and wildlife, helping to transform our local environments and communities." www.bbcnews.com
Photo: AP
That's according to Google's annual Zeitgeist - a look back at the most popular search terms of the year. The royal wedding topped the list of "fastest rising" search terms, with Apple's yet-to-be-released iPhone 5 coming in second place. The most intriguing list was the "what is" top 10, with a diverse set of queries including "what is scampi".
Nephrops Interest in scampi has gone up by over 80% over the year but David Jarrad, director of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain, is at a loss to say why. "I'm quite surprised. It has been a traditional pub grub for many decades and it remains the UK's most popular and valuable shellfish by a long way," he said. But he could not explain why interest had spiked so much this year. He could, however, offer an explanation of what scampi is for those who have not yet Googled it. "Scampi is the tail of a Nephrops, also known as a Dublin Bay prawn or Norwegian lobster," he said. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will be heartened to know that the British public, despite voting against AV (Alternative Vote) in a referendum, did want to know more about it. It topped the "what is" list.
Complex subjects Revealing themselves to be a diligent lot, Britons also sought out tips on how to revise. It topped the "how
The royal wedding proves popular with Googlers
to" list, followed by another teenage obsession - how to snog. "As usual, search is helping people satisfy their appetite for celebrity pictures and salacious gossip - and this year is no different, with Kim Kardashian and Rebecca Black coming to the fore and Ricky Gervais the only man gatecrashing the femaledominated top 10 celebs list," said a Google spokesman. "But what we're also seeing is that people are turning to Google to understand complex subjects like the alternative vote system and searching for tips and tricks on how best to revise for exams," he added. Singer Adele made it into two top 10s - number two on the fastest-rising people list, just above the less obvious pop star Rebecca Black, whose debut sin-
gle catapulted her into the limelight when it was released on YouTube to universal derision. She also came seventh in "fastestrising" searches, just below Ryan Dunn - the star of TV show Jackass who died in a car crash this year. Illustrating the British obsession with the latest gadgets and a love of a bargain, both the iPad 2 and Groupon also featuring in the "fastest-rising" list. There was interest in cookies, presumably the coding kind, possibly based on new guidelines about how websites can use them. Copyright also featured. That is sure to please the content industry as it continues efforts to educate people that downloading paid-content for free is illegal. www.bbcnews.com The International weekly
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What to do December 16 - 22, 2011
What to do
DECEMBER Exhibit “Casualidad” By Pérez Gutiérrez "el Coze" Drawing-painting urban art Until December 30 (Wednesday to Sunday) Artezissimo Gallery Puerto Morelos. 2pm to 6 pm. Theater "Nosotros los de abajo" By Pablo Méndez Until December 31 City Theater´s Gallery Cancun
Friday 9 Showcase (Dance, music and visuales arts)
Quintana Roo University Campus Riviera Maya Playa del Carmen. 6 pm
Saturday 17
Music Therapy Free concerts Quartz Bowls Shangri La´s Garden Playa del Carmen. 7 pm Showcase “La Navidad cerca de ti” (The Christmas is close to you) Dance: Fernanda Yanim Dance Academy Singer: Fidel Diaz Singer: Charlisse La pitufiherencia de acadans By: Fernanda Yanim Plaza de la Reforma Cancun. 7 to 9 pm
Music Therapy Free concerts Musicoterapia Indian songs Workshop Shangri La´s Garden Playa del Carmen. 7 pm Showcase “La Navidad cerca de ti” (The Christmas is close to you) Pastourelle Christmas Balls Plaza de la Reforma Cancun. 7 to 9 pm
Sunday 18 Music Therapy Free concerts Musicoterapia Indian songs Workshop
Shangri La´s Garden Playa del Carmen. 10 am a 3 pm Movie Premier El cielo dividido (The Divided Sky) Dir: Julián Hernández Guest: Sergio Téllez Raise funds for “Aprendiendo a vivir con VIH/Sida” Home Cinemex / Centro Maya Playa del Carmen. 8 pm Showcase “La Navidad cerca de ti” (The Christmas is close to you) Pastourelle “La Navidad de Ahauilpal” Dir: Ileana Romero Singer: Brandon Paredes Christmas Balls By: Maestros del J.N. Ahauilpal Magician: Daniel Magician Singer: Wendy Hernández
Plaza de la Reforma Cancun. 7 to 9 pm
Wednesday 21 Music Therapy Free concerts Quartz Bowls La Ceiba Park Playa del Carmen. 7 pm
Thursday 22 Music Therapy Free concerts Quartz Bowls Place: En Sanar 10th between 20 and 25 Playa del Carmen. 12pm
e. e. cummings Quotes American Poet (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962)
“Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.” “Be of love a little more careful than of anything.”
“Nothing recedes like progress.”
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” “Private property began the instant somebody had a mind of his own.”
“I imagine that yes is the only living thing.”
“Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.” “Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.”
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The International weekly
“The earth laughs in flowers.” “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” “To destroy is always the first step in any creation.”
“Unbeing dead isn't being alive.” “Unless you love someone, nothing else makes any sense.”
December 16 - 22, 2011
Weekly Horoscope
Sudoky
December 16 - 22, 2011
Aries It's likely that because someone has now decided to move on, that you'll be asked to make a snap decision. However exciting this may be, there are signs too that effort will be required. So you could find your stamina put to the test. On top of this, a contractual relationship might warrant attention - or an existing partner ask for help with a responsibility they now feel too heavy for them to carry alone. It seems then that for every two steps forward, there's one back! yet you are now on the move.
Taurus There might still be matters to clear up and the fine print of documents to go through; yet there should also be the feeling that preparations for 2012 are well underway. Even so you may be faced with difficult choice - notably that you might have to work longer for a short time. Though you might not consider yourself t be particularly well-organised, it seems a Virgo does: that relationship could blossom in the next two weeks.
Gemini Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square.
Mexican Christmas Punch Ingredients 2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut in 1/8ths 3/4 cup raisins 1 pound guava, quartered 3 (3 to 4-inch) pieces sugarcane, each cut in strips 1/2 cup prunes 1/2 pound crabapples, peeled and cored 2 cups (1-inch) diced pineapple 1 cup sugar 4 (2-inch) pieces Mexican cinnamon 8 cups water Tequila
Directions In a large pot, place the fruit, sugar, cinnamon, and 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil and lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Serve hot in a mug that has a shot of tequila in it.
It wouldn't be surprising if you changing your mind about a relationship or finding that a partner has now come round to your way of thinking. Of course it may be necessary to trawl back through conversations which might not be entirely comfortable. Expect conversations to be hard-hitting as you each seek to reposition. The process could take more than a few days too. Focusing energy and then rallying support could see a situation resolved as the Sun moves into Capricorn next week.
Cancer There may be times when you feel that a list is ever-growing - yet even the act of making the list would surely be helpful to those who don't 'see' the jobs you know need to be done! It's not impossible that you'll feel to have an 'army' in place and that under your direction, there's real progress. To add to your workload though you may be asked to cover for someone who's found the last two weeks a real strain. It won't help either of you to dwell on the fact that they took on too much to start with. In helping out though you could catch sight of yourself and your tendency to assume you can't delegate. (pot calling the kettle etc) and astound yourself by vowing to break this habit.
Leo
Libra It's likely to feel as though time is passing even faster. Before then putting the final touches to plans and travel arrangements may be tiresome and messy. There's also the high probability of spending time chasing a refund. The pace changes and true, though you might need to get tough, it's probable that proposed changes to plans will suit you. All this could be led by a partner or close companion's plans which impact you greatly - possibly prompting thoughts of the merits of being self-employed and the need to break free from a yoke that's held you back for too long. With the longedfor return of a good friend also likely, could find you discussing a very different working strategy for 2012
Scorpio There is much catching up to do and a few surprise announcements to absorb. Specifically, it seems someone you thought you knew very well has decided on a change of direction. Any concerns you may have are most likely linked to finance. Yet, you might agree there is little to lose. Even this could prove a hard-hitting day. At one level, this is an excellent time for bargain shopping, but at another you might feel you've hit buffers placed by a group who - to your mind - have not thought through their actions. Issues of efficiency and how well something is being planned are raised again on Friday. By then, it may be obvious that if you can't beat them, it's best to join. It wouldn't be surprising if you gave some thought to taking out a membership so that you have could have a greater say in forward planning.
Sagittarius Mercury turns direct in your sign on Wednesday and from then it's likely to be action stations with little time to understand the sequence of events. Unless the history of an idea is understood, planned developments could stall even as early as Thursday. In fact, the middle of this week could find you confronting a professional buffer. You might at this point want to consider the strategy you're going to employ in the New Year. With someone close having now taken the first steps on a fresh career path for them, you might also wonder how best you can marry your two routines so that you enjoy better quality time together.
Capricorn It's possible too that the middle of this week will find you in discussion with someone who could advance your professional development. Though you might need to undertake a one-day training course , or at that point sign on for one that starts in the New Year, it's probable that this course of action will be supported by a colleague and will advance your long-term aims. The period between now and your birthday appears rich with opportunity: a lucky break could be headed your way - arriving between 22nd and 30th.
Aquarius
Adjustments may be made necessary by decisions taken, the implications of which may be felt by you. With others anxious to get things done yet want do so 'on a shoe string' you may have felt your style to be cramped. It might help to know that all this will surely change after Jupiter turns direct on 25th (at which point anything to do with property should also become easier to handle). For now, restoring work and play balance should perhaps take priority. You might not like the pressure of being asked to take part in formal occasions yet it's at one of these that you could join forces with someone who's reeling from a surprise announcement and who clearly values your insights. Might his be the start of a 'perfect' partnership?
All this together suggest that any shakeups that occurred, the picture may be clearer from the middle of the week, for progress may not be possible until the end of the year. This week then could find you and colleagues in tidying up mode. This is obviously good news that those coming to the end of an educational term, but this applies in other walks of life as well. You might then decided to join forces with someone older or born under the sign of Capricorn. Together you could implement a plan that would be completed by 22nd and would stand you both in good stead for 2012.
Virgo
In the interim, news reaching you from a Sagittarius (or someone travelling) may be cause for excitement. There's also the possibility of hearing news that affects your financial affairs and might even allow you to complete paperwork. Though you may still have some running around to do before the weekend, you should at last feel that you're no longer chasing your tail. With the completion of this 'chapter' in your life, you could then turn attention to developing an alliance. This could yield long-term reward and in the meantime offer a degree of security and stability that's been lacking.
It's said that as one door closes another opens and this could yet be so very true. Dramatic lift-off is most likely after the Sun's entry into Capricorn on 22nd. This week may be all about preparing for tricky conversations, and ensuring you have facts to hand whilst making it clear to those who're moving on that much as it's helpful to understand the way they've been working, when they move on, then they move on and that you won't welcome interference once they have. That said, suggestions from someone with a track record for facilitating reconciliation could be most useful.
Pisces
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CancĂşn & Riviera Maya
December 16 - 22, 2011
www.elquintanarroense.com/international
Week in Pictures
Approximately 2,500 parakeets roots in the copse at the centre of Wormwood Scrubs in London, which has been designated by English Nature as an important site of natural significance.
Children jump on stage at the Brooks Museum of Art light festival in Memphis, Tennessee. The light show followed an evening of live performances, art creation, carriage rides and a visit by Father Christmas.