Australian authorities delivered a formal apology on Saturday to the many thousands of people who were abused in state-run orphanages and children’s homes in past decades. New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees unveiled a memorial in Sydney to children who suffered in care from the 1930s to
Posts Tagged ‘south Wales’
Switch to digital starts in Wales
August 11th, 2009 |
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More than 130,000 homes are poised to become the first in Wales to begin the permanent switch to digital television.
The process of turning off traditional analogue TV signals for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot begins at midnight.
It means that viewers who do not have digital will not be able to see BBC Two from Wednesday, and then they will lose all channels within a month.
The rest of Wales will follow later this year and early next year, with every home going digital by March 2010.
Digital UK said 90% of homes in Wales already had digital TV and were able to receive around 40 channels, rather than four or five on analogue.
Emyr Byron Hughes, regional manager for Digital UK in Wales, said: "The UK is going digital, the US has already gone digital, some European countries as well.
"It’s all about more choice and better use of the available frequencies but mostly about choice."
DIGITAL SWITCHOVER, 2009-2010- Transmitter: Kilvey Hill; area served: Swansea, Neath Port Talbot area: 12 Aug – 9 Sept 2009
- Preseli; south west Wales: 19 Aug – 16 Sept
- Carmel; parts of south and central Wales: 26 Aug – 23 Sept
- Llanddona; north west Wales: 21 Oct -18 Nov
- Moel y Parc; north east Wales: 28 Oct -25 Nov
- Long Mountain; parts of east and central Wales: 4 Nov – 3 Dec
- Blaenplwyf; parts of west and central Wales: 10 Feb – 10 March 2010
- Wenvoe; Cardiff, Newport and south east Wales: 3 – 31 March
- Source: Digital UK
The latest figures from Digital UK suggest 95% of people in south Wales are aware of the switchover and 76% of people know what to do.
Analogue viewers have also been reminded with on-screen captions about the need to convert.
The first stage of the switchover will see BBC Two cease broadcasting in analogue and the first group of Freeview digital channels becoming available.
Four weeks later, the remaining analogue channels will be permanently switched off and replaced with additional digital services.
After the Kilvey Hill transmitter, the next to switch will be Preseli, covering south west Wales, on 19 August followed by others throughout the year and early 2010.
The last in Wales will be Wenvoe, serving Cardiff, Newport and south east Wales, on 3 March with the whole process completed by April.
Wales will be the first nation in the UK to go completely digital.
But Consumer Focus Wales has previously warned of potential confusion leading to people being overcharged when changing.
Spokesman Gareth Price said: "Most people won’t need new equipment beyond a digital Freeview box on top of their TV. But if you do, get more than one quote, compare prices and use a reputable trader."
Help scheme
Older and disabled people are able to use a special scheme to help them make the switch.
Gareth Earle, regional project co-ordinator for the Switchover Help Scheme, said: "People are eligible if they’re aged 75 or over, if they’re on certain disability benefits, if they’re blind or partially sighted, or if they have lived in a care home for six months or more.
"Everyone who is eligible will be contacted by us and the standard option for most people will be £40."
Kitty Phillips from Neath said older people such as herself relied on television and would be lost without it.
"It helps people of my age and it helps people who are very lonely," she said.
"It brings life into the home when I can’t get out. I couldn’t be without it if I tried. I love my TV, I always have.
"I enjoy every programme and I practically watch it from morning until night."
The Digital UK helpline is 08456 50 50 50 (08458 48 48 48 for Welsh speakers).
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hard times
August 3rd, 2009 |
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By Peter Jackson
BBC News
Stealing from a rabbit warren or impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner may not sound like crimes of the century, but in Victorian England they could land you with a hangman’s noose round your neck.
Trial records newly released by the National Archives and put online have lifted the lid on a brutal penal system and showcased some of the most infamous criminal cases.
In a world without a police force and a rapidly growing population, early Victorian England was not a place to get caught on the wrong side of the law.
By 1815 – two decades before the Peelers started patrolling the streets – there were more than 200 offences which carried the death penalty.
Hapless highwayman
The infamous system in England and Wales, which relied on its strong deterrent qualities, was dubbed the "Bloody Code" for good reason.
Executions were public spectacles, with the wealthy hiring balconies to get better views, and it did not take much to book yourself a spot at the gallows.
Being in the company of gipsies for a month, damaging Westminster Bridge, cutting down trees, stealing livestock – or anything worth more than five shillings (£30 today) for that matter – would do it.
"These registers… highlight the often colourful nature of crime, and in particular how creative criminals could be, even in less sophisticated times"
Olivier Van Calster, Ancestry
The death sentence also applied to pick pockets, destroying turnpike roads, general poaching, stealing from a shipwreck and being out at night with a blackened face, which made people assume you were a burglar.
The documents of trials and sentences from 1791-1892 were taken from 279 papers previously held at the National Archives in Kew. They have been put online by family history website Ancestry.
Among the high-profile documents which can now be viewed online are those relating to the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria with a pistol at Windsor Castle in 1882.
Roderick McLean was charged with treason but found not guilty on grounds of insanity, although he lived his remaining days in Broadmoor Asylum.
The 1812 assassination of prime minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons led to bankrupt businessman John Bellingham’s Old Bailey trial and hanging. He remains the only person to murder a British prime minister.
Elsewhere, there are details of the man considered to be the inspiration for the Charles Dickens’ character Fagin from Oliver Twist – the leader of a gang of young pickpockets.
Isaac "Ikey" Solomon escaped arrest, was recaptured and eventually tried at the Old Bailey in 1830 where he was sentenced to 14 years transportation.
And the trial of one of the main Jack the Ripper suspects, Dr Thomas Neill Cream, is included in the files. He was sentenced to death in 1892 for mass poisoning. His final words were said to be "I am Jack".
Or there is the case of inept highwayman George Lyon, who on one occasion failed to rob a coach in the rain because he allowed the gun powder for his pistol to get wet. He was tried in Lancaster and sentenced to death in 1815.
The documents from 1.4 million criminal trials include 900,000 sentences of imprisonment, 97,000 transportations and 10,300 executions, including a boy aged 14.
Stealing onions
But aside from the big show trials, it is the way ordinary people were dealt with for relatively minor offences that reveals the most about the nature of the society.
In 1874, one John Walker was sentenced to seven years "penal servitude" and police supervision. His crime Stealing onions.
And in 1791, a 63-year-old woman called Sarah Douglas was transported to New South Wales for seven years for stealing table linen.
The crime of "carnally knowing a girl under 13" in 1892, meanwhile, landed John William Aylward 14 years in prison.
Ancestry’s managing director Olivier Van Calster said: "These registers testify to the fact that crime and punishment was and always will be a controversial subject.
"They also highlight the often colourful nature of crime, and in particular how creative criminals could be, even in less sophisticated times."
The papers show that in the 19th century, Wiltshire, Hereford and Essex executed the greatest number of people, while the courts in Yorkshire, Durham and Lancashire were the most sparing.
But although sentences were far harsher, the acquittal rate back then of 25% was fairly close to the current levels of 20%.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
UK hostages ‘likely to be dead’
July 29th, 2009 |
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Two more of the British hostages held in Iraq are now thought "very likely" to be dead, the BBC has learned.
Security guards Alan McMenemy, from Glasgow, and Alec Maclachlan, from south Wales, were kidnapped in 2007 along with three other Britons.
The bodies of two of the other men were found last month with gunshot wounds.
The condition of the fifth man, Peter Moore, is not known, but the Foreign Office says all efforts are being made to secure his release.
Mr Moore had been working for American management consultancy Bearingpoint in Iraq, while the other men were security contractors employed to guard him.
The group were captured at Baghdad’s Ministry of Finance in May 2007 by about 40 men disguised as Iraqi policemen.
They are understood to belong to an obscure militia known as Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq.
Deal hopes
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the Foreign Office last week told the families of Mr McMenemy and Mr Maclachlan that the men had most likely died while in captivity.
British officials are now focusing on IT consultant Mr Moore. The last proof of life sent by his kidnappers was a video handed over in March, but it is not known when the film was made or if he is still alive today.
The bodies of Mr Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Mr Creswell, from Glasgow, were flown back to the UK last month.
News of their deaths came shortly after speculation that a deal to free all five men alive could be close.
Security experts understood there had been positive diplomatic moves behind the scenes, including the release of a prisoner whose freedom was being demanded by the hostage-takers
Little is known about the captives because of a media blackout during a large period of their captivity.
The blackout originally came came on the instruction of the hostage-takers who said they did not want publicity.
This has been Britain’s longest running hostage crisis for nearly 20 years. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Islamic school ban sparks protest
July 27th, 2009 |
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By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney
Hundreds of people have protested against a government’s decision to scrap plans to build an Islamic school in Australia’s biggest city, Sydney.
Parents and prospective students have said the decision was unfair and racist.
Islamic groups have insisted that the Muslim community in Australia, which is comparatively young and fast-growing, needs more tailor-made education.
Construction of the school had been due to start this week.
Plans to build an Islamic school for 1,200 students in the Sydney suburb of Bass Hill survived objections from residents, the local council and legal challenges only to be scrapped at the last minute by the New South Wales government.
Construction was due to begin but the state has intervened to buy back the land it sold several years ago.
Busloads of angry parents and their children have demonstrated outside the education department, calling on the authorities to allow the project to go ahead.
‘Un-Australian’
A spokesman for the protestors, Rafik Hussein, says the government has made a big mistake.
"We do not accept that decision. It is un-Australian," Mr Hussein said.
"It goes against the basis of, you know, what we call for as Australians; integration, cohesion and for them, look, they have just pulled this one out the hat.
"It is a shocking decision, you know. It is unfair and it is unjust," he said.
Some campaigners have said the debate has been laced with racial and religious intolerance.
Supporters of the plan to build the Islamic school believe that residents’ concerns about noise and traffic congestion have become a euphemism for prejudice.
Education officials have denied that race has played any part in their decision.
They have said there are more pressing needs for the site at Bass Hill and want instead to build a special school to cater for about 40 children with disabilities.
There are more than a dozen Islamic colleges in New South Wales.
Community leaders have said that Australia’s rapidly-growing Muslim population needs more faith-based education. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Now, a drug that can reduce heart attack damage
July 25th, 2009 |
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Scientists have identified that a new drug that has the potential to dramatically reduce heart muscle damage after a heart attack and may lead to significantly improved patient outcomes.
Researchers at University of New South Wales say that pre-clinical trials have shown that the drug, known as Dz13, specifically targets and neutralises the gene responsible for [...]
Military ‘too slow’ to use technology
July 22nd, 2009 |
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Former member of RAF top brass says MoD should embrace benefits of unmanned drones and remote systems
The Ministry of Defence is not “agile” enough in investing in military technology that could save the lives of personnel in battle zones such as Afghanistan, a senior RAF officer said today.
Air Vice-Marshal Martin Routledge said processes were “too bureaucratic and unwieldy” to capitalise on fast-developing technology. His comments came after a government minister was forced to withdraw an admission that British troops lacked helicopters in Afghanistan.
Routledge, who has just stepped down as chief of staff for strategy, policy and plans at RAF HQ Air Command, was speaking at a conference showing the latest developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones.
He said drones could play a vital role in Afghanistan, in preparation for troops’ routes, though their detection of improvised explosive devices – weaponry planted by the Taliban that has killed many British troops in Afghanistan in recent months, including the bomb disposal expert Captain Daniel Shepherd, who died on Monday.
British and American forces already use Reaper unmanned aircraft, but concern is being expressed within the forces that not enough resources are being allocated for such technology.
Routledge, who has previously held important posts within Nato, told the conference in Newport, south Wales, that the MoD was “not that good at agility and embracing in its normal planning emerging technologies and new opportunities and ideas”. He continued: “Our processes are just too bureaucratic and unwieldy to seize these moments.”
Routledge, who remains in the RAF until the autumn, said the potential of unmanned planes and vehicles was “enormous” but that more “drive, effort, enthusiasm” was needed to push projects through.
He said there were many questions as to which sort of drones could be used and how they could best be deployed. But he added: “In the absence of clear direction from the strategists in the Ministry of Defence I think all of these questions are yet to be truly answered.”
Routledge, who was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the Queen’s birthday honours, also said there was a “marked reluctance” from the RAF to embrace drones and wondered if there may be “something in the culture” holding it back.
“The RAF is a fighting service. We fly and fight from the air. We drop bombs, we break stuff. If somebody gets airborne to try to fight us we shoot them down. It’s what we do.”
A second RAF serviceman, based at the air warfare centre at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, gave examples of how unmanned aircraft were being used. He showed video footage of a building in which a sniper was hiding being blown up by a drone controlled by a pilot 6,000 miles away.
The serviceman, who asked not to be named, described an instance in which a convoy had been alerted to an IED hidden in a culvert because of information gleaned from a drone.
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Backpacker father: My son’s no fake
July 16th, 2009 |
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Jamie Neale ‘went to hell and back’, says Richard Cass after son’s 12 days lost in the Blue Mountains in Australia
The father of the British backpacker lost in the wilderness has denied claims that his son faked his ordeal in the Australian bush in order to make money.
Richard Cass told Australian TV that his son, Jamie Neale, was angry at suggestions that his account of being lost in the Blue Mountains for 12 days, was either embellished or completely fictitious.
“This is not a hoax,” Cass said. “My boy has been to hell and back.”
Sean Anderson, a Sydney-based agent, told the Times that he had signed Neale and his father to his agency to sell their story to the British and Australian media.
Another talent agent in Australia, Max Markson, told ABC News there that the backpacker could earn up to £49,000 for his story. “I think it’s worth A$100,000 immediately. And a lot of that money would come from the English press. There’s enormous interest in the story in England,” said Markson.
By tomorrow Neale, 19, from Muswell Hill, north London, could be discharged from the Blue Mountains hospital where he has been recovering from dehydration and exposure.
Neal arrived in Australia on 22 June, and, on 2 July, booked into a youth hostel in Katoomba, a popular destination for backpackers planning to explore the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. The following morning, dressed in a light shirt, jacket, jeans and a cap and carrying a small bag, he set off alone on a 10-mile hike. He then became disoriented and lost.
The alarm was raised after he failed to turn up for a prepaid tour of local caves the next day. A hunt involving 100 people – including police rescue teams, dog handlers, firefighters and volunteers – started that eventually cost more than A$100,000.
Superintendent Anthony McWhirter, of the Blue Mountain police, told Australia’s Channel 9 News that the force had no reason to doubt Neale’s story. “Questions are being asked, at the end of the day an incredible story is far harder to believe,” he said. “But [from] our preliminary reports and discussion with Jamie, he’s been there for 12 days.”
Cass said his son had survived after finding water and by eating seeds and “some sort of weed which was like [salad] rocket”. He was found alive but dehydrated by sightseers in the Blue Mountains national park, west of Sydney, yesterday.
A hospital spokeswoman said: “We’re taking it one day at a time. We’re waiting on test results. He is stable and resting comfortably, and has eaten well.”
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Missing backpacker is found alive
July 15th, 2009 |
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A 19-year-old British backpacker missing in Australia for 12 days has been found alive.
Jamie Neale, from Muswell Hill, north London, went missing in dense bushland in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
New South Wales Police said two "bushwalkers" alerted emergency services after finding Mr Neale.
His father Richard Cass flew to Sydney to assist in the search. Mr Neale was taken to Katoomba Hospital suffering from dehydration and exposure. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Missing backpacker found alive
July 15th, 2009 |
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Jamie Neale survived by eating seeds and wild plants after becoming lost in Blue Mountains
A British backpacker has been found alive 12 days after going missing in the Australian bush, having apparently survived by eating seeds and wild plants.
Jamie Neale, 19, from Muswell Hill, north London, disappeared on 3 July when he left his hostel in the town of Katoomba, New South Wales, and went for a walk in the Blue Mountains.
He was found by two walkers about nine miles from where he disappeared. His father, Richard Cass, said Neale had eaten seeds and grass to stay alive. At night he slept by huddling up in his jacket and on one night sheltered under a log. Neale was taken to Katoomba’s Blue Mountains hospital suffering from exhaustion and dehydration.
“He did think he was going to die, he was that scared,” Cass said at a press conference after visiting his son. “He has come back from the dead.”
Cass flew to Australia to join the search but had given up hope that Neale would be found alive. He was told the news while preparing to leave Sydney on a flight today and after holding a “little closure ceremony” and lighting a candle in the park to say goodbye.
He said his son was “gaunt and scrawny” and had been losing hope he would be rescued as search helicopters failed to spot him waving at them. “He’s still a bit depressed, a bit dazed about what happened to him. He said he was losing faith in the idea there was a God every time the helicopter flew over and he was waving and shouting and nothing happened. He thought he was going to die.”
Cass said he had thought his son had “probably fallen off a cliff” and he would get a talking-to about the trouble he had caused.
“When I’ve seen the mistake after mistake he’s made – I can’t say I’d kill him because it would just spoil the point of him being back. [But] I’m going to kick his arse ‑ the millions that have been spent on this search, the man hours and woman hours that have gone into it … all because he goes out on a walk without his mobile phone. The only teenager in the world who goes on a 10-mile hike and leaves his mobile phone behind.”
Officials said Neale was found near the Narrow Neck fire trail. Narrow Neck, south-west of Katoomba, is around 1,000m above sea level and surrounded by forested hills. Night temperatures in the area over recent days have been close to or below freezing.
Cass said his son survived by foraging in the bush. “He was eating seeds. He ate some sort of weed which was like rocket, as he described, a kind of lettuce,” he said. “What he was saying was he would go up on a height and see where the cliffs were and where he had to go, but as soon as he went down he couldn’t see where he was.”
A hospital spokeswoman said Neale was in a stable condition.
Neale went to Australia on 22 June as the first stop on a trip that was due to include Laos, Vietnam and Nepal. He was due back in the UK in September before starting a government and politics degree at Exeter University in October.
He checked into a youth hostel in Katoomba on Thursday 2 July and was last seen about 9.40am the next day.
A check of his room at the hostel revealed he had not taken any of his belongings with him including his mobile phone and personal papers. He booked and paid for a tour of some nearby caves for the Saturday but never turned up. His bank and email accounts had not been touched since his disappearance.
A wide-ranging air and ground search carried out by police, fire, mountain rescue and the park service failed to find Neale, despite the use of dogs.
New South Wales police said in a statement: “About 11.30am today, two bushwalkers alerted emergency services to advise they had come across a man who identified himself as Jamie Neale near the Narrow Neck fire trail, near Katoomba. Police rescue officers, using a rural fire service vehicle, made their way to the location and confirmed the identity of the man.”
Police inspector Carl Clark described the terrain as “extremely rough”, saying dozens of searchers advanced no more than a mile or so on some days. “We always hoped it might be one of those miracle scenarios,” Clark told Sky News.
Two officers spoke to Neale briefly as they were taking him to the hospital.
“At this stage we have no evidence other than what we believe to have have happened, which is that he was genuinely lost,” police spokeswoman Joanne Elliott, said. “Once he is well enough police will be seeking to obtain a formal statement from him simply to clarify the circumstances.”
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted local radio as saying one of the bush walkers gave Neale first aid.
Neale’s mother, Jean Neale, told Sky News: “I never gave up hoping, I always knew he’d be coming home. He’s determined and if he sets his mind to something, he will do it.
“I told all the family and his friends that he was coming home and I had no doubts about that. That kept them strong and in turn that kept me strong.”
Her son had been tearful and exhausted when they spoke on the phone, she said. “I spoke to him in hospital and he said he didn’t think he’d ever see me again and he just wanted to hear my voice. I told him, ‘you don’t get rid of me that easily’.”
She said that as far as she knew he had simply become lost. The trip was the first time that he had been travelling, his mother said, after working as a lab technician to save for the journey.
Mrs Neale spoke to her son in hospital bed. “He said to me ‘All I wanted to do was hear your voice’,” she said. “He said that thinking of me helped him get through this ordeal.”
In 2006 an Australian teenager, David Iredale, died in another part of the Blue Mountains park near Mount Solitary after becoming separated from his friends during a bush walk.
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Afridi wants to be remembered as Pakistan’s craziest cricketer
July 14th, 2009 |
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Pakistani all rounder Shahid Afridi, who is on a new high after helping his team win the Twenty20 World Cup, has said that he wants to be remembered as the country’s craziest cricketer.
In an interview with DawnNews, Afridi said: “I would like them to remember me as the craziest cricketer that ever played for Pakistan,†[...]
Australia charge thwarted by rain
July 11th, 2009 |
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First Ashes Test, Cardiff (day four, stumps):
England 435 & 20-2 v Australia 674-6d
Coverage: Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave, Red Button and BBC Sport website, plus live text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles. Live on Sky Sports
Match scorecard
By David Ornstein
England face a fight to save the first Ashes Test after being dominated by Australia on day four in Cardiff.
Marcus North (125no) and Brad Haddin (121) both crafted superb centuries as the tourists posted 674-6 declared – a first-innings lead of 239 runs.
England’s situation then worsened when Mitchell Johnson trapped Alastair Cook lbw for six and Ravi Bopara fell in the same manner to Ben Hilfenhaus for one.
The hosts were 20-2 – 219 runs behind – when rain forced an early finish.
Australia should be delighted with their position going into day five and will be confident of taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
While England would have been relieved to see the heavens open just as tea was taken, they still face an uphill battle to avoid defeat as the forecast for the final day is fair.
Captain Andrew Strauss (6no) and his predecessor Kevin Pietersen (3no) will return to the crease on Sunday morning hoping to build a solid partnership and help their side to safety.
The weather was always expected to play a part but, despite forecasts of morning showers, day four got under way as scheduled at 1100 BST.
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Conditions were fairly muggy with a heavy covering of cloud overhead, which should have enabled England to get the ball swinging as they went in search of early wickets.
But there seemed a general lack of urgency about the hosts and Australia, who resumed on 479-5, were able to ease through the opening exchanges.
Haddin, four not out overnight, would have expected an uncomfortable start, but he received nothing of the sort – clipping, hooking and driving Stuart Broad for three effortless boundaries to calm any nerves.
At the other end, North was allowed to get his eye in all too comfortably and, from an overnight score of 54, the left-hander pushed on towards three figures with little trouble.
Andrew Flintoff, England’s principal pace threat, was not introduced until the 11th over of the morning session but by that point the batsmen had settled into a nice rhythm.
The all-spin combination of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann did cause problems – both beat the outside edge and Swann had a decent lbw shout against Haddin correctly rejected by Aleem Dar – yet they could not dissuade Strauss from taking the third new ball three overs before lunch.
Flintoff and Anderson were restored to the attack as England went in desperate search of a pre-interval breakthrough, but the move backfired as North and Haddin punished some wayward new-ball bowling.
North guided Anderson behind point to record a richly-deserved century – the Western Australia captain has now scored tons on both his Test and Ashes debuts – and Haddin took a quick single off Flintoff to pass 50.
Australia reached lunch on 577-5, a lead of 142 runs, and after the re-start they put England to the sword.
Haddin was their destroyer-in-chief and signalled his intent by hitting cutting, edging and flicking three successive Anderson deliveries to the rope.
The 31-year-old New South Wales wicketkeeper was treating England with utter disdain and closed in on his second Test century with towering sixes off Swann and Panesar.
When he flicked Paul Collingwood to fine leg to reach 100 it was the first time Australia had hit four tons in an Ashes innings.
Strauss must have been praying for rain but if anything the skies began to clear and Haddin’s assault continued as Collingwood was dispatched for a couple more leg side fours and another six.
He eventually holed out to Ravi Bopara at deep midwicket – ending a 200-run partnership with fellow Ashes debutant North – but the damage had already been done and Australia captain Ricky Ponting called his men in.
It was Australia’s highest total against England since being dismissed for 701 in 1934 at The Oval and their fourth highest ever in the Ashes.
Just 25 minutes remained before tea and it was critical for England to reach the break unscathed, but they failed miserably.
As the light deteriorated and the floodlights came on for the second time in the match, Cook played across a full-length delivery from Johnson and Bopara was trapped attempting to flick Hilfenhaus to leg.
Luckily for England the rain then arrived, but for a third day running the spoils belonged to Australia.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Eight British soldiers killed in Afghanistan in a day
July 11th, 2009 |
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• Eight UK soldiers killed in 24 hours
• Afghan death toll eclipses that in Iraq
• Brown warns of ‘very hard summer’
Ministers were bracing themselves for an increasingly bloody conflict in Afghanistan as it became clear that a further eight British soldiers have been killed in 24 hours, the worst combat death toll since the war began.
Five troops were killed in a single incident after they were caught in a bomb blast while on foot patrol. Officials confirmed that 15 troops have been killed in the last 10 days. With the government’s handling of the conflict under increasing scrutiny, Gordon Brown was forced to defend the Afghan mission as he left the G8 summit in Italy. Before heading directly to a private briefing at the military’s operational headquarters at Northwood, Middlesex, he warned of a “very hard summer … It’s not over”.
Speaking at a press conference at L’Aquila before the latest deaths had been announced, with his voice faltering Brown voiced his sympathy for the families of those who have died.
He said: “There is a chain of terror that runs from the mountains and towns of Afghanistan to the streets of Britain. Our resolution to complete the work we have started is undiminished.
“It is in tribute to the members of our forces who have given their lives that we should succeed in the efforts we have begun.”
Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, said the conflict was “winnable” but warned there would be no early end to the fighting. “I do believe that we are making progress and I do believe that this is winnable, but it is not winnable in the short term,” he told the BBC. “We are going to have to … get behind our armed forces who are doing the brave fighting.”
The daybegan with the confirmation of two deaths in Helmand province the previous day: one from 4th Battalion The Rifles by an explosion while on foot patrol; the second from the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, during a battle with insurgents near Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Later, a third soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was confirmed as having been killed when the Viking armoured vehicle in which he was travelling was hit.
Then there was worse news as it was confirmed that five troops had died and others were injured in a bomb blast. The deaths took the total number of fatalities in Afghanistan to 184, five more than the total lost in the Iraq conflict.
As the death toll grew, there were poignant scenes at Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire as five coffins draped with the union flag arrived at RAF Lyneham and were met by sombre crowds on the town’s streets.
Relatives of lance corporal Dane Elson, 22, from Bridgend, south Wales, of The 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, wept as the hearse carrying his body passed.
His girlfriend, Claire Wells, 23, was ushered forward and placed two roses on the hearse carrying his coffin. Wells said she had planned to live the rest of her life with Elson. “Now I’ll never see him again, I can’t bear it,” she said. Wells added that she did not believe the troops ought to be in Afghanistan. “They are fighting a war that we cannot win,” she said. “There are too many of our lads dying.”
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, who broke the consensus among party leaders this week when he criticised the government’s strategy in Afghanistan, said: “This tragic milestone must be a reminder to all of us of the huge sacrifices made day after day by our brave service men and women and their families. The courage and professionalism of our armed forces are second to none.”
Bernard Jenkin MP, a member of the Commons defence select committee, said: “It is astonishing that we are fighting high intensity operations the scale of Afghanistan on a peacetime budget without enough protection mobility and with fewer helicopters per head for armed forces than we had three years ago.”
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Clarke & North make England toil
July 10th, 2009 |
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First Ashes Test, Cardiff (day three, stumps):
England 435 v Australia 479-5
Coverage: Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave, Red Button and BBC Sport website, plus live text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles. Live on Sky Sports
Match scorecard
By Oliver Brett
Australia maintained their solid position on day three in Cardiff, leading England by 44 runs with five wickets in hand in the first Test.
Rain knocked 22 overs off the day’s play, leaving the Aussies on 479-5 after an historic late-evening session played under floodlights.
Three wickets did fall in the morning, Australia going to lunch on 348-4 from an overnight position of 249-1.
But Michael Clarke (83) and Marcus North (54) then put on 143 in 42 overs.
The left-handed North batted calmly and patiently on his Ashes debut, and will be there again on Saturday morning after facing 131 balls thus far.
Clarke showed his acumen against spin and was generally unperturbed against the seamers too as he played a more positive role.
TOM FORDYCE BLOGTom reports from Cardiff
But late in the day he was surprised by a Stuart Broad bouncer which he gloved behind as he attempted a pull, leaving him just shy of a first Test century in England in his sixth appearance.
While Friday’s rain was largely unexpected, further heavy showers are forecast from around noon on Saturday – so the odds favour a draw despite Australia’s dominant position.
However England, whose chances of going 1-0 up with four to play appear to have completely evaporated, may yet find themselves battling to avoid defeat on the final day.
Friday dawned brightly in south Wales, with Ricky Ponting and Simon Katich resuming their marathon partnership.
Aussie skipper Ponting soon advanced his score with two boundaries, flogging a Monty Panesar long-hop through the covers and driving a Graeme Swann full toss down the ground.
Katich leant into a cover-drive off Panesar for his first boundary of the morning, and followed up with a square-cut off Swann that sped to the ropes. Australia were quickly re-establishing their dominance.
Nine overs into the day the second new ball became available and the scoring remained rapid, although Ponting had a bit of good fortune when steering an Anderson ball just wide of Kevin Pietersen in the gully at catchable height.
Finally, the stand was ended by James Anderson, Katich falling lbw for 122 to a yorker-length ball from Anderson that actually swung, unlike anything sent down by England on day two. Katich and Ponting had been together for 70 overs, adding 239.
Flintoff was bowling extremely quickly and his bouncers were not played with any ease by either Ponting or the new man Michael Hussey. Ponting top-edged one hook just over Panesar at fine-leg for the first six of the series, though it was a no-ball, and both men received painful blows.
But it was Anderson who picked up the second wicket of the morning, persuading Hussey to drive outside off-stump, the left-hander tickling an easy catch to wicketkeeper Matt Prior.
Skipper Ponting continued to make progress, until Panesar picked up his first Test wicket since the Trinidad Test in March, the slow left-armer’s fifth ball of a new spell providing the biggest prize of the day.
Ponting, on 150, could only get a bottom-edge to crash into his stumps as he attempted a cut shot, and at lunch Australia were still 87 runs behind and perhaps no longer targeting the sort of huge score that had been in their sights at the start of play.
But the session between lunch and tea in this Test has proved a graveyard shift for the bowlers – and so it proved once again with not a wicket to be had. In three days just one man has been dismissed in the middle session – Phillip Hughes on day two.
North got off the mark with a crisp on-drive for four off Broad, who was also cover-driven elegantly by Clarke. Frankly, Broad was not much of a threat but Andrew Strauss persisted with him.
At the other end Panesar had his moments, but Clarke hit him for an effortless straight six, and when Swann came on another fine drive, this time for four, brought Clarke his half-century.
North, patient against the seamers, started to play freely against the spinners and when Clarke pulled Flintoff powerly to the midwicket fence Australia moved into the lead.
At tea the Aussies were sitting very prettily indeed on 458-4, with Clarke on 70 and North on 50, but just three overs and five runs later the rain came down.
It took nearly two hours to get the players back out again, whereupon Clarke punched an exquisite back-foot drive off Flintoff to the extra-cover boundary.
Six overs were played under the Cardiff lights – it was the first time a Test match in Britain had been artificially lit – and while North continued to accumulate tidily, England had the consolation of removing a very dangerous-looking Clarke.
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