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domingo, 7 de agosto de 2011

Alejandro Sanz promoverá una canción para recordar que Lorca 'sigue necesitando ayuda'


Alejandro Sanz durante su visita este domingo a Lorca. | Efe

Alejandro Sanz durante su visita este domingo a Lorca. | Efe

El cantante Alejandro Sanz, acompañado del alcalde de Lorca, Francisco Jódar, ha visitado este domingo los terrenos en los que se levantaban algunas de las 700 viviendas que han tenido que ser demolidas por los daños sufridos por los seísmos, tras lo que ha anunciado que, entre otras iniciativas solidarias con la Ciudad del Sol, promoverá con otros artistas un tema para recordar que Lorca "sigue necesitando mucha ayuda" y ha pedido que el Gobierno Central "no se olvide de los lorquinos".

Durante la visita, Sanz ha mostrado su pesar porque "muchos de los comercios, que son la sabia de las ciudades, siguen cerrados y muchas familias siguen sin poder volver a sus casas". "Lo más importante, ha dicho, es la gente y dependen de la buena voluntad del Gobierno Central, que debe cumplir su palabra".

Por ello, ha asegurado que va a ponerse "muy pesado para ayudar a Lorca", incluso ha comentado que "tenemos varias ideas en las que pretendemos embarcar a un montón de amigos, con lo que pretendemos que además de ayudar económicamente también se dé un apoyo anímico, porque en lugares como este se siente el silencio de los que han perdido toda su vida".

Por su parte, el alcalde ha agradecido la solidaridad de Alejandro Sanz que, "desde la misma noche de los terremotos, mostró su apoyo y preocupación y recordó que Lorca sigue necesitando la ayuda de todos para salir adelante".

La ciudad de Lorca sufrió el pasado 11 de mayo dos terremotos de gran intensidad que provocaron la muerte de 9 personas, importantes destrozos en el patrimonio histórico, los centros sociales, educativos y sanitarios, así como en la mayor parte de sus edificios, lo que ha obligado a la demolición de unas 700 viviendas y otras 2.300 familias siguen sin poder volver a sus casas porque todavía no han recibido las ayudas para la rehabilitación. Los daños están valorados en unos 1.000 millones de euros, según fuentes municipales.

Por este motivo, el Ayuntamiento de Lorca mantiene abierta una cuenta solidaria en el Banco de Santander (0049.5017.91.2117626269), cuya recaudación se gestiona a través de una Mesa integrada por los tres grupos municipales, los tres grupos parlamentarios de la Asamblea Regional, Cruz Roja, Cáritas, las dos asociaciones de afectados, así como los consulados de Marruecos y Ecuador.

Estos donativos están permitiendo hacer frente a ayudas para atender las necesidades urgentes de las familias de los fallecidos y heridos graves, anticipos de las subvenciones de alquiler prometidas por el Estado, el Plan de Impulso al Comercio, así como las ayudas de entre 800 y 1.500 euros que se podrán solicitar desde mañana en el Centro Cultural las familias que han perdido su vivienda por los seísmos.





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Jennifer Lopez se da a los hombres más jóvenes como ella!


agosto 7, 2011 - Por Isanora Santana ·

Romance en el plató de “¿Qué se puede esperar cuando se está esperando”, la actriz Jennifer López ha decicido aplacar un fuego con muy brasileño más joven que ella, junto con la protagonista de su última película. Los dos son inseparables en el set y fueron vistos tomados de la mano y ni siquiera se lanza miradas llenas de significado.

Diva de Hollywood Jennifer López, de 42 años, no parece demasiado afectada por la separación del cantante Marc Anthony, incluso esta tratando de reconstruir su vida rápidamente. Según fuentes de la comitiva del artista, se necesita aplastar a un colega, que puso un poco de corazón en llamas. Afortunados logró hacer a Jennifer tener mariposas en el estómago el Brasileno es mucho más joven que su encanto. Se trata de Rodrigo Santoro, un fogozo moreno, de 35 años.

Su romance entre los dos comenzó en el rodaje de “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, una película que se filma en Atlanta. “Desde el rodaje juntos, Jennifer y Rodrigo son inseparables. ¿Dónde está ella, el, también. Ellos se llevan muy bien, echando una mirada llena de significado y sonríen todo el tiempo el uno al otro. Ellos fueron sorprendidos por algunos colegas, tomados de la mano y abrazados en secreto. Parece que se sienten muy bien juntos, y radiante como el de Jennifer no pasado por el trauma de la separación “, dijo un miembro de la tripulación. Después de anunciar su divorcio de Marc Anthony, Jennifer López se ha rumoreado sobre luna relacion con el cubano William Levy, con quien filmó el video “I’m Into You”, pero al parecer era un fuego simple.

A pesar de que Jennifer López y Rodrigo Santoro tratan de ocultarse de miembros y sus colegas que actuan en una película “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” no pueden realmente tener éxito. La gente cada vez es más numerosa y se habían dado cuenta de que cada uno estaba relacionado con algo, sobre todo porque sus gestos, cada vez eran más familiares, y lo traicionan. Jennifer López y Rodrigo Sdantoro se entienden muy bien en el set, apasar de que pasan tiempo juntos después de que terminan su trabajo. Fueron vistos incluso en situaciones de concurso, una cena romántica que la llevó a un restaurante en Atlanta.








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Corpo de prefeito em exercício de Teresópolis (RJ) é enterrado








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Marilyn Monroe Porn Film? Alleged Sex Film Up For Auction






















By MICHAEL WARREN 07/20/11 09:02 PM ET AP

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- A Spanish collector plans to auction what he claims is a newly discovered 8-mm version of a film purportedly showing Marilyn Monroe having sex when she was still an underage actress known as Norma Jean Baker.

A Marilyn Monroe expert, however, says the actress in the film is someone else, considerably heavier and less feminine than the legendary film star.

"That's not Marilyn. The chin is not the same, the lips are not the same, the teeth are not the same," said Scott Fortner, who has a sizeable collection of Monroe memorabilia, including a belt he said proves how much more petite she was. "Marilyn was a tiny little thing. And I know that for a fact. I own her clothing."

Collector Mikel Barsa said in an interview Wednesday that he wants at least $500,000 for the sexually explicit 6 1/2-minute, grainy black-and-white film, which he says was made before 1947, when Monroe was not yet 21.

He said it's an exact copy of a 16-mm film discovered more than a decade ago. Barsa brokered a sale of that film to a European magazine in 1997, which he said in turn sold some 600,000 copies before a collector bought the original 16-mm reel for $1.2 million. Copies of that version are still circulating on the Internet.

"People with romantic notions have denied that it's Marilyn Monroe, and have invented stories" to raise doubts about the film, Barsa said in his Buenos Aires office, which is lined with pictures from his days as a concert promoter. "This film shows the real Marilyn Monroe – it was only later that the studios discovered her and transformed her."

The face of the woman in the film looks considerably different from the Monroe who emerged later as a star, but more similar to the Monroe seen in one of her first movies, 1949's "Love Happy," which shows the actress before she lost weight, added a beauty spot on her left cheek and became one of Hollywood's most enduring stars.

Barsa said he has no idea how the two original copies ended up in the hands of the people who sought his help selling them, and he refused to identify any of the principals involved. He said that in the 1940s, sex films were often made using side-by-side 16-mm and 8-mm cameras, since audiences used both formats.

The collector said that Mark Roesler of Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, which has managed the image and estate of Monroe, threatened to sue after the earlier version surfaced in 1997. Barsa said nothing ever came of it after the owners offered to sell the film to CMG.

Roesler didn't respond Wednesday to two emails and a phone call requesting comment.

Barsa says he plans to auction the film himself Aug. 7 at a memorabilia collectors fair that he has organized in Buenos Aires, and is hoping for publicity similar to the scandal he generated when he screened the 16-mm version at a similar fair in Madrid in 1997. News coverage of his auction is already creating another buzz on the Internet.

His part of the deal is a 10 percent sales commission, he said.

A variety of sexually explicit films and pictures have been attributed to Monroe over the years, fostering a long and unresolved debate.

"In the Marilyn community, people have debated this for years and years and for the most part it's widely believed that this is not her," Fortner said.

Still, even Fortner said Monroe's image changed considerably as she became a star – that she had some plastic surgery, learned how to hold her face differently in modeling school and adopted a mole on her left cheek. "I actually think it moved from time to time," Fortner said.

Monroe died of an overdose of sleeping pills in 1962 at 36.








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Vai transar? - O governo dá camisinha.

Já transou? - O governo dá a pílula do dia seguinte.
Teve filho? - O governo dá o Bolsa Família.
RESOLVEU VIRAR BANDIDO E FOI PRESO? - O GOVERNO DÁ O AUXÍLIO RECLUSÃO. "Todo presidiário com filhos tem direito a uma bolsa de R$ 862 ,11 POR FILHO."
Agora experimenta estudar e andar na linha pra ver o que é que te acontece! Salário mínino R$ 545,00.








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Entrevista com Fabio Assunção


Queremos algo diferente do que foi dito: apontamos para você, leitor, o que existe de melhor. Fico muito feliz ao apresentar todo o talento exibido por Fabio Assunção em seu atual trabalho. Em Adultérios vive um homem sonhador, considerado louco, lunático, mas, ao mesmo tempo, extremamente lúcido.

A peça exibe o humor genial do autor, Woody Allen, para quem riso e angústia se misturam no cotidiano. E, como Norival Rizzo me falou, é um espetáculo que promove a autoanálise. Da plateia, parece mesmo que estamos no divã. Norival falou da proposta de levar o público a pensar sobre nossos ímpetos de cometer atos considerados loucos. Para ele, dentro de cada um de nós existe outra pessoa, que tende a descompensar, brigar, matar e, por isto, vivemos contemporizando estes lados. Achei interessante e, depois de assistir à peça, constatei: eles cumpriram seus papeis brilhantemente.

E para vocês saberem que eu sofro pra manter a seriedade em certos momentos, alguém me responde: gente, o Fabio Assunção precisava ser tão bonito?



Versátil Magazine: Fabio, qual é a sua expectativa com o presente trabalho?

Fabio Assunção: Minha expectativa é oferecer ao público uma peça inteligente e com humor.


VM: O Woody Allen é um dos ícones do cinema. O que você vê no trabalho dele como especial?

FA: A originalidade, personalidade e obstinação. Certamente ele deve ter enfrentado dificuldades do mercado cinematográfico americano, filmes que deram certo, outros que não foram tão bem aceitos, e ele nunca parou. Todo ano está fazendo um filme original. Especial é perceber a trajetória de um homem que nasceu para isso. A trajetória do Woody passa para mim a imagem de um diretor especial.


VM: Como é a sensação de voltar ao palco, ao teatro, após tanto tempo?

FA: De mergulhar a fundo em todos os departamentos: a produção, a criação dessa peça está sendo uma ótima experiência. É uma sensação de plenitude. Estou trabalhando com sócios que são meus amigos, eu já produzi algumas coisas com o Giuliano Ricca, o diretor Alexandre Reinecke é um cara democrático, inteligente, experiente. A minha parceira, Nextel, entrou com o patrocínio, com mais outras empresas, como Porto Seguro, que apresenta o espetáculo, Banco GM. Então nós temos tranquilidade para produzir. Nós temos atores incríveis como o Norival Rizzo e a Carol Mariottini, as condições de produção favoráveis e equipe de amigos. O processo de ensaio está sendo prazeroso, temos um texto poderoso do Woody Allen. As dificuldades que poderia ter, eu não as tive.


VM: Fazer um trabalho no teatro, ao vivo, deve ser prazeroso por conta da interação imediata com o público. Qual é o lado difícil de estar exposto diante do público?

FA: Em nenhum momento, quando faço teatro, me sinto exposto. Eu gosto de desenhar os personagens que eu faço, e quando estou no palco, no teatro, estou dentro deles, e não eles dentro de mim. Tenho um prazer enorme em passar a energia daquele personagem.


VM: Como é ser uma grande figura pública? Existe um peso nisso tudo ou você se sente acolhido pelo público, pelos fãs?

FA: O público acolhe o que as pessoas produzem. O público gosta de qualidade, surpresa, originalidade, inteligência e diversão. Essas qualidades são as coisas que eu persigo para que o meu trabalho seja acolhido pelo público.


VM: Você pensa que as relações humanas sejam complexas como num filme de Woody Allen?

FA: A complexidade das relações humanas é relativa ao olhar que as observam. As relações humanas podem ou não ser complexas, depende do seu ponto de vista. Eu posso olhar uma mesma relação de uma forma complexa ou de uma forma simplória. Acho que os filmes do Woody mostram essa complexidade para as pessoas.


VM: O que você deseja, como ator, despertar nas pessoas?

FA: Alegria! A minha intenção com o meu trabalho é fazer as pessoas serem um pouco mais felizes.


ADULTÉRIOS. Texto de Woody Allen. Em Nova York, à beira do Rio Hudson, acontece o encontro entre Jim, um roteirista de cinema de recente sucesso, e Fred, um "homeless” esquizofrênico que o acusa de ter roubado sua história para escrever o roteiro do filme. Em meio a uma divertida e tensa discussão, os dois se vêem cada vez mais próximos, a ponto de Fred tornar-se conselheiro da relação amorosa de Jim e sua amante, Barbara, prestes a terminar. Tradução: Rachel Ripani. Direção e adaptação: Alexandre Reinecke. Com Fábio Assunção, Norival Rizzo e Carol Mariottini. Teatro Shopping Frei Caneca. Rua Frei Caneca, 569, Consolação, (11) 3472 2226. Até 27 de novembro.

Claudia Liba






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Ex-presidente Lula viaja ao redor do mundo para dar palestras com uma série de regalias


06/08 às 18h53 Gilberto Scofield Jr. (gils@oglobo.com.br)

O ex-presidente Lula em foto de Marcos Alves

SÃO PAULO - Nos últimos sete meses, o ex-presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva fez 15 palestras remuneradas, 20 viagens ao exterior (nove como palestrante) e 14 pelo Brasil (seis palestras, incluindo três em São Paulo). Com uma agenda que inclui apresentações remuneradas para empresas, discursos não remunerados para instituições variadas (universidades, fóruns, associações, centros de estudo, entre outros) e encontros com chefes de Estado, Lula se transformou no palestrante mais caro do país e um dos mais ativos vendedores do Brasil lá fora, como nos tempos do Planalto.

INFOGRÁFICO: Relembre os principais fatos do governo Lula




O Lula ex-presidente mantém seu status de celebridade, uma espécie de Madonna política: do agendamento de voos e hotéis ao pagamento de jantares e compras no exterior, tudo é resolvido por seu grupo de assessores. Os deslocamentos são feitos de jatinhos e carros blindados. Seu cachê para palestras no exterior, que começou em US$ 200 mil no início do ano, já passou para US$ 300 mil, líquidos, o dobro dos US$ 150 mil cobrados pelo seu antecessor, Fernando Henrique, e em linha com os valores cobrados internacionalmente por políticos como o ex-presidente dos Estados Unidos Bill Clinton ou o ex-primeiro-ministro britânico Tony Blair.

Lula não abre mão da equipe de oito servidores públicos que o assessoram como ex-presidente - quatro servidores para atividades de segurança e apoio pessoal, dois motoristas e dois assessores estratégicos. Na maioria dos casos, a comitiva cresce com a presença de outros assessores - Lula faz questão de levar nas viagens ao exterior o seu tradutor dos tempos de Planalto, Sérgio Ferreira - e da ex-primeira-dama Marisa Letícia da Silva.


© 1996 - 2011. Todos os direitos reservados a Infoglobo Comunicação e Participações S.A.




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Homem morto próximo ao NorteShopping levava três crianças no carro


Plantão | 07/08 às 01h16 Duilo Victor

RIO- Um homem identificado pela polícia como André Luiz de Andrade Emanuel, 39 anos, morreu depois de ser baleado na Rua Pedras Altas, no Cachambi, próximo ao NorteShopping. A vítima dirigia um Corsa branco e levava três crianças quando ocorreu o crime, por volta das 20h. De acordo com policiais, André Luiz levou um tiro na axila esquerda e ainda dirigiu por cerca de 300 metros até perder a consciência.

O motorista baleado foi levado por bombeiros para o Hospital Salgado Filho, no Méier, mas não resistiu. O caso está sendo investigado pela Delegacia de Homicídios, que fez escolta para o trabalho da perícia no local. Havia apenas uma marca de tiro no vidro no lado esquerdo do carro. De acordo com parentes da vítima que foram ao local do crime para recolher pertences do carro, André Luiz estava a caminho do shopping para fazer um passeio com as crianças.



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The WikiFreak: In a new book one author reveals how she got to know Julian Assange and found him a 'predatory, narcissistic fantasist'


By Heather Brooke

Last updated at 10:00 PM on 6th August 2011

Three of us were sitting in a house in London, late in the evening. Julian Assange, the creator of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, was holding forth. He wasn’t talking about the justice of his mission – of which he is totally convinced – nor the iniquity of any form of censorship.

No, he was taking the opportunity to regale us with stories of various female conquests.

I’d reached a point with Assange where the personal and the professional had begun to blur. He’s the world’s most famous leaker; I’m a freedom of information campaigner, so we’ve a lot to talk about. But he was unsettlingly, even bafflingly, unaware of any personal boundaries.

Fallen idol: Julian Assange at a supporter's Suffolk manor house where he is currently living

Fallen idol: Julian Assange at a supporter's Suffolk manor house where he is currently living

That evening in London, when I asked for a private word to discuss my research, he saw this as an opportunity to try to make another female conquest – and I couldn’t have felt less comfortable alone in that room with him.

Later that night, walking to Pimlico Tube station, he stopped to say he could never understand how people could bear to live in London, ‘all these houses, everyone on top of each other’, staring at me as he said this, pressing me against a brick wall, in full view of the city around us.

I walked away from him surprised and confused by his behaviour. He knew that I was married but that didn’t make any difference to him. Very little did.

Assange was a man who dismissed all views but his own; who showed an apparent indifference to any human cost of leaking documents; and whose behaviour towards women has resulted in charges laid against him for sexual assault and rape.

In a relatively short time, Assange has fallen out with collaborators, some of whom have been with him for years, and alienated his most vociferous supporters. Thanks to him, when WikiLeaks should be at its strongest it is now weaker than ever. No wonder one journalist who worked with him told me that Assange was ‘to use the technical term, a dangerous lunatic’.

Book: Journalist Heather Brooke has written about her experience with Julian Assange

Book: Journalist Heather Brooke has written about her experience with Julian Assange

That’s not how he appeared when I first met him. I had been invited to speak at a conference in Norway last March and when I heard that Julian Assange would be there, I was intrigued.

WikiLeaks was then still a niche interest and he didn’t draw crowds. In fact, there were only eight of us there.

Assange was lean and tall at 6ft 2in, but the striking feature about him was, of course, his platinumblond bob. If the small audience bothered him it didn’t affect the passion and vaulting idealism with which he spoke.

He was unashamedly highminded about free speech and the people’s right to know.
‘The UK is the worst liberal democracy in the world,’ he announced. ‘It never went through a revolution so it’s still a feudal state. The laws were made for the benefit of the lords and aristocracy. Now they are for the benefit of the new lords, the political elite.’

Listening to him, I felt inspired. I grabbed him for an interview afterwards and he was willing to talk, but told me: ‘I’m trying to find a place where my back isn’t exposed.’

I joked that he must be worried about being shot. He didn’t demur.

The main lounge of the hotel where the conference was held had a bar on one side and a wall of windows on the other giving a panorama of the river. I led him over to the non-windowed part of the lobby, where we talked.

However, when I caught up with him later, he was seated on a sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows typing on a laptop.

‘So what happened to the snipers?’ I asked. ‘Do you think they got bored trying to take you out?’
He smiled shyly, looking up through his lashes, like a coquette. When I’d mockingly asked if he thought he was going to be shot, he’d been silent, which I took to mean it was a serious possibility.

Why did he think there were snipers with their sights locked on him?

‘I’ve been tailed from Iceland by two US State Department officials,’ he said.
If this was true (to me it seemed highly dubious) then I wondered why he’d tell it to someone he’s only just met. It’s the sort of statement you might hear from a lunatic, a fantasist, a narcissist or a show-off – or possibly all four.

I asked him what evidence he had.

‘I have friends working in airline check-in desks and they alerted me.’

‘How do they know? I mean, it’s not like spies announce themselves on flights.’

He said two people were on his flight with diplomatic passports. Their seats were held but they didn’t give their passport information until the flight was boarding.

Wanted: A page from the Interpol website showing the appeal for the arrest of the editor-in-chief of the Wikileaks whistleblowing website, Julian Assange

Wanted: A page from the Interpol website showing the appeal for the arrest of the editor-in-chief of the Wikileaks whistleblowing website, Julian Assange

I was starting to get the impression that to be with Assange is to enter a political conspiracy thriller. Whether his paranoia was warranted or not, I couldn’t yet tell.

‘Why do you think you’re of such interest to the State Department that they’d have you under surveillance?’ I challenged. ‘I can’t tell you.’

But later he did. ‘You should come to Washington DC on April 5. We’re having a Press conference.’
‘About what?’

He leant in and said he had some amazing secret footage. ‘It is shocking stuff that shows collateral murder by a major Western government.’

‘Will you be my Mary Magdalene, Heather? And bathe my feet at the cross?’

It would turn out that the footage was taken from an Apache helicopter of American soldiers gunning down people on a Baghdad street in 2007. But at the time, I wondered: if it’s so top secret, why is he telling me, someone he’s just met?

‘How is it that you’re not afraid?’ I asked him.

‘I’m constantly torn between doing things that shake up the system and then feeling anxious because of what I’ve done. It’s natural to be anxious but you must do what you fear,’ he replied, moving closer to me.

‘Fear exists largely in the imagination. That’s what powerful people prey on. It simply isn’t possible to police the world’s citizens, so what they rely on is fear.

‘Once you realise that fear exists largely in your own mind, then you are on the way to liberation. Also I have this righteous indignation. It spurs me on. Makes me feel invincible.’

All the while as he said this he was cat-like and aloof – until he looked right at me. At various points his focus had shifted from detached and distant to direct and intense. He cocked his head to the side, raised an eyebrow and looked intensely at me.

Lost leader: Julian Assange with Heather Brooke at the conference in Norway

Lost leader: Julian Assange with Heather Brooke at the conference in Norway

The transformation was startling. When he had his eyes on me I had the sense he was looking into my soul. The teenage girl in me swooned, but the investigative journalist concluded that the detached/intense thing was a technique he’d honed after years of practice to get people to open up and give away their secrets.

Indeed, sitting with him, I was starting to feel like a disciple. I’m not prone to this sort of behaviour. I think what clinched it was his fearlessness. Now that he was closer, I noticed that his long pale fingers had black crescent tips and his silken hair was somewhat matted. Was that his real hair colour or was it bleached?

‘It’s real. I used to have it down my back. When I was travelling in Vietnam it got very annoying because everywhere I went people would want to touch it. So I decided the next time I went travelling in Asia, I’d dye it black. So guess what?

‘I went to Japan and did exactly this only to discover that in Japan people dye their hair all sorts of crazy colours and in the manga tradition the male hero usually has white hair.’

Supporter: Jemima Khan

Supporter: Jemima Khan

When I asked if it had always been white he said no. ‘It went white as a result of a childhood experiment with a cathode ray tube that went wrong.’

‘And your name? Is it French?’

‘Some people think it’s French or African. My mother is French. My grandfather was a Taiwanese pirate.’

‘Of course he was!’ I laughed. ‘He really was.’ He looked a little hurt. ‘He was a pirate and landed on Thursday Island where he met and married a Thursday Islander woman. They went to Queensland.’‘Is there any part of your life that isn’t mythical? Your story has enough plots for a dozen thrillers.’

‘Yes, I read your tweets.’

All my sceptical instincts were on alert. The changes in story – one minute about to be hit by a sniper, the next sitting in front of those huge windows. The paranoia. The concoction about his hair colour, and that he’d been sitting there alone reading tweets about himself.

‘Where do you think your drive comes from?’

He thought for a minute. ‘I was looking at the email of Pentagon generals when I was 17. That does something to you when you’re a young man. That’s a defining experience. I think you can see what sort of a person you’ll become based on your first experience with power as a young man. That was mine and once you’ve had power like that it’s hard to give it up.’

My first experience with power was as a trainee reporter in America in the early Nineties looking through politicians’ expenses. ‘Maybe that’s why I’m compelled to investigate politicians,’ I say.
‘No. It’s different when you’re a young man.’

‘Why do you keep emphasising “young man”? Do you think women can’t be driven in the same way?’

‘No. They’re not.’

I was stunned he’d think this, let alone say it. I stared at him baffled and not a little disappointed. He sipped his beer, oblivious. Over the next few months, Assange moved out of his shadowy, niche world and into the international media spotlight.

A young American serviceman, Bradley Manning, had been accused of downloading 90,000 confidential military documents about Afghanistan. Assange had the documents and, in conjunction with several newspapers, was planning publication.

I kept up sporadic contact with him. He had told me that he only spoke on cryptographic phones so we initially exchanged emails. I’d written to him that I’d often felt held back by the nebulous concept of ‘getting into trouble’.

He responded in florid terms: ‘Dearest Heather, courage is not the absense [sic] of fear, courage is the mastery of fear. We fly in airoplanes [sic] every month, machines of abject terror. But through couragous [sic] examples we are able to see through our fears, and go ahead anyway, not because we want to throw our lives from the sky, but because we understand our fears illusions [sic], and that to not fly is to take on the greater risk of living a life unlived . . .’

Yet he remained elusive, even more so once Manning was arrested last May. I would get random, intriguing messages: ‘Lovely Heather, I’m fine. But lots of backroom action at the moment . . . let us do meet, some sunny day.’

Eventually, I asked him bluntly if he wanted me to write about him or not. He responded in typical style: ‘I will have you, Heather, of course I will. But let us be messiahs to generation WHY, not a bunch of aging hacks looking for a pension . . . regards from intrigue hotel . . . I have more interesting adventures for you . . .’

And then, out of the blue, he called he the day I arrived back in London from a trip to America. He was in London, he said, and wanted to stay with me.

‘I have a fever. I’m not sure yet if it’s going up or down,’ he told me. ‘I need some mothering. Someone to make me chicken noodle soup and bring me cookies in bed.’

I politely explained that wasn’t really my scene.

‘Don’t you have a maternal instinct?’ he asked in a breathy, slightly hurt tone.

‘No, sorry, I don’t, particularly not for grown men.’ I paused. ‘Nurturing isn’t something I’m into.’
‘Really? How intriguing. You don’t feel compelled to nurse me back to health?’

‘No.’

‘Are you really so hard-hearted, Heather? Don’t you have a softer side?’

‘I’m prickly, I suppose.’ I wondered where he was going with this. ‘Some people, once they get to know me, might say I have a softer side underneath all those prickles . . .’

‘And are you soft-hearted underneath?’

‘Perhaps.’

I wanted to interview Assange and having him in my flat would be a unique opportunity to do so, but I was wary. I felt he’d be difficult to shift once ensconced. Nor would it be fair on my husband who, I was fairly certain, would not be at all keen to find Assange in the spare bedroom. There was a moment of silence before Assange said: ‘I’ll find somewhere else.’

BETRAYED OVER A PAIR OF SOCKS

Daniel had accepted his colleague’s eccentricities because he believed in WikiLeaks and he could understand why Assange might think personal hygiene and clothes were trivial matters at a time like this.

Possibly for the first time, Daniel took a close look at Assange. His hair was greasy, his clothes askew. Daniel probably knew Assange better than anyone else and yet, looking at him now, he didn’t feel he knew him at all.

Assange could be charming and brilliant, but what was in his soul?

Daniel looked at Assange’s socks. They were the same pair he’d lent him six months earlier, now with holes, and the soles imprinted with a dark footstep.

He knew this was how Assange would turn up to meet Icelandic politicians the next day when they discussed a law to create a ‘new media haven’ in their country.

Daniel said: ‘Julian, if you are going to meet politicians perhaps it is an idea to dress up a bit.’
Assange pretended he hadn’t heard.

‘I’m just saying. It’s not an insult, it’s just to be practical. When you dress like them it makes them feel more comfortable and that is our aim. We want to do everything we can to get this law passed.’

Assange gave Daniel an icy glare. He decided at that moment that he was finished with Daniel. He was not to be trusted. He was a hostile force. Daniel knew too much, not just about WikiLeaks, but about Assange himself.

There were grave consequences for anyone who penetrated this far.

Within months, Assange suspended Daniel for disloyalty and the partnership that had created the most famous whistle-blowing website in the world collapsed in a welter of bad feeling and recrimination.

Later in the day, we spoke again. ‘I just have so much to do,’ he sighed.

‘Yeah, it’s a tough life being a messiah,’ I replied.

‘Will you be my Mary Magdalene, Heather? And bathe my feet at the cross?’

At that time I did genuinely like Assange. When I’d met him at the conference he was like a bolt of lightning. But even so – foot-bathing?

On July 25 last year, the secret American military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan were published. They included the revelations that a secret US special forces unit existed to carry out ‘kill or capture’ operations; that the coalition forces were using Reaper drones to hunt and kill targets by remote control from a base in Nevada; and that the Taliban had acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles and were causing increased carnage with their roadside bombing campaign, illing more than 2,000 civilians.

The US army had kept all of this quiet.

I was impressed by Assange’s bravery in publishing such material, but some newspapers were quick to point out how the revelations put innocent lives in Afghanistan at risk. Some of the documents contained details that indentified informants.

According to journalists who worked with him, Assange said the people exposed were informants and as such they deserved whatever was coming to them. (He later denied saying this.)

David Leigh, a Guardian journalist, tried to tell Assange it wasn’t as simple as that. ‘If a crowd of Americans armed to the teeth comes to your house and starts asking questions you may well think it wise to comply,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t follow that you’re some kind of capitalist running dog. We thought Julian’s attitude was terrifying, really.’

Nick Davies, another journalist, said: ‘It was so frustrating. He could have been in such a powerful position if he had just listened. But Julian doesn’t listen to anyone. He always thinks he is the cleverest person in the room.’

Then, on August 21, a Swedish newspaper published a report that Assange was facing allegations from two women of rape and sexual assault. He had arrived in Sweden on August 11 and stayed in the apartment of a female supporter who would go on to accuse him of sexually assaulting her.

The other woman had attended the conference Assange was addressing and accused him of having unprotected sex with her while she was asleep.

How two once-adoring admirers had ended up reporting Assange for sexual assault and rape is, as yet, unclear e is fighting a legal battle in Britain to prevent being extradited to Sweden to face trial) but it wasn’t the first time Assange’s attitudes towards women had been called into question.

When, on one occasion, he failed to meet journalists anxious to set up an interview, his excuse was that he had impregnated a woman in Paris and wanted to be present at the birth.

Supporters suggested that Assange step out of the spotlight while the charges were investigated, but not only did he refuse, he wanted money donated to WikiLeaks to pay for his personal legal defence.

More and more, Assange saw himself as the only person in WikiLeaks who mattered – and his attitude pushed the organisation into crisis.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic MP and long-time supporter, had been trying for months to arrange a time when everyone could get together to discuss the future of WikiLeaks.

Assange saw this as an attack. You were either with him or against him, and with him meant following his orders obediently and without question.

It was not for this that volunteers had given up their time. They wanted an alternative to authoritarian and secretive power structures, not another one with a different face.

WikiLeaks’ second-in-command Daniel Domscheit-Berg said: ‘We had arguments before but there was always the common goal that was so strongly in focus.’

To Assange’s fevered mind, even someone as committed as Domscheit-Berg was against him. In October, Assange suspended him. Domscheit-Berg told me: ‘He said it was for “disloyalty, destabilisation and insubordination in times of crisis”.

These are terms from the US Espionage Act 1917. Everything we’d been fighting against was manifesting itself in him.’

Domscheit-Berg finally confronted Assange online: ‘You are not anyone’s king or god. And you’re not even fulfilling your role as a leader right now. You behave like some kind of emperor or slave trader.’

Assange replied: ‘You are suspended for one month, effective immediately. If you wish to appeal, you will be heard on Tuesday.’

The suspension was another unilateral decision. Other WikiLeakers disagreed, but Assange told a young Icelander, Herbert Snorrason: ‘I am the heart and soul of this organisation, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organiser, financier and all the rest. If you have a problem with me, p**s off.’

By now, his behaviour had alienated his original media partners – the result of his self-aggrandising attitude and his refusal to stick to agreements about which newspapers and broadcasters were to be involved.

So profound was the disillusion with Assange that one of his disaffected colleagues gave me a full set of the US diplomatic cables that Assange was planning to use in his next publication.

In other words, I had a leak of his big leak.

On October 12, the day before I was leaving for America, I got a phone call from David Leigh who said he’d just had a ‘sinister’ telephone call from Assange. Apparently, Assange was in a rage – about the leaked cables, of course – and Leigh said: ‘He says he knows where you and your husband live. I thought I’d better ring you.’

I wasn’t that worried but I asked Leigh if he thought I should be.

‘I shouldn’t think he’d do anything. I told him you were in America. It’s doubtful he’ll follow you there. You couldn’t be in a safer place.’

But Assange’s rage went on. In one meeting with journalists, he shouted: ‘It [the US government information] doesn’t belong to her. She stole it!’

Then he said he would sue me and The Guardian for depriving him of his ‘financial assets’.
When the drama dissipated I met Assange again. He was thinner, coughed continually and his platinum bob had been replaced by a hatch of black and blond spots. He made a number of personal attacks and accusations about my trying to sabotage his enterprise.

But his anger now was less directed at me and more at his former allies at The Guardian, which had gone from being the best paper to the worst, much as Sweden moved from being a country with the world’s best legal system to the worst, all based on how it had served Assange personally.

It was last December that the Swedish authorities issued a European arrest warrant for Assange in relation to sexual assault allegations from last summer (allegations he denies).

Assange turned himself in at a local police station and spent a week at Belmarsh Prison before moving in to stay in the Suffolk manor house of a wealthy supporter, where he has been ever since. His case has brought him a number of famous supporters, including Jemima Khan.

The High Court hearing into whether or not Assange should be extradited to Sweden was completed last month, but judgment has been reserved.

So we are still waiting to see if he is to face the sexual assault charges – and what, if anything, the future holds for WikiLeaks.

But Assange has already lost the faith of many who once admired him – including me.








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Brazil Defence Minister Nelson Jobim resigns


Nelson Jobim, April 12 2010. Nelson Jobim was first appointed by the former president, Lula

President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has replaced her defence minister after he made disparaging remarks about other senior officials.

Nelson Jobim is the third minister to lose his job since Ms Rousseff took office in January - a turnover that has strained her governing coalition.

He is reported to have called one fellow minister a "weakling" and described others as "idiots".

Mr Jobim will be replaced by the former Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim.

Nelson Jobim is one of several ministers who also served under Ms Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Overruled

He is said to have been angry that Ms Rousseff overruled him on a multi-billion dollar contract to buy fighter jets.

In recent weeks he been reported as making a series of critical remarks about fellow ministers.

First he said at an opposition event that he was surrounded by "idiots".

Then he said in a television interview that he had voted for Ms Rousseff's opponent Jose Serra in last year's presidential election.

The final straw appears to have been a magazine interview, parts of which have been leaked, in which he reportedly called another minister a "weakling".

Mr Jobim's resignation is the third to shake Ms Rousseff's government since she took office on 1 January.

Last month, her Transport Minister Alfredo Nascimento resigned over a corruption scandal in his department, though he denied any wrongdoing.

And in June her chief of staff, Antonio Palocci, stepped down in the face of questions about his rapid accumulation of personal wealth.




www.bbc.co.uk/



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US special forces Afghan helicopter downed 'by Taliban'


BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the crash was a significant loss for the international mission

Thirty US troops, said to be mostly special forces, have been killed, reportedly when a Taliban rocket downed their helicopter in east Afghanistan.

Seven Afghan commandos and a civilian interpreter were also on the Chinook, officials say.

US sources say the special forces were from the Navy Seal unit which killed Osama Bin Laden, but are "unlikely" to be the same personnel.

This is the largest single US loss of life in the Afghan conflict.

The numbers of those killed have now been confirmed by the Nato-led mission in Afghanistan.

The Chinook went down in the early hours of Saturday in Wardak province, said a statement from President Hamid Karzai's office.

It was returning from an operation against the Taliban in which eight insurgents are believed to have been killed.

A senior official of President Barack Obama's administration said the helicopter was apparently shot down, Associated Press news agency reports.

An official with the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan told the New York Times the helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says it is rare for the Taliban to shoot down aircraft.

The Taliban say they have modified their rocket-propelled grenades to improve their accuracy but that may not be true, our correspondent says.

'Enemy activity'

Nato's worst Afghan moments

  • 6 April 2005 - Chinook crash in Ghazni province kills 15 US soldiers and three civilian contractors
  • 28 June 2005 - 16 US troops killed when Taliban bring down Chinook in Kunar province
  • 16 August 2005 - 17 Spanish soldiers die when Cougar helicopter crashes near Herat
  • 5 May 2006 - 10 US soldiers die after Chinook crashes east of Kabul
  • 2 Sept 2006 - 14 UK personnel killed when RAF Nimrod explodes following mid-air refuelling
  • 18 August 2008 - 10 French soldiers killed in Taliban ambush east of Kabul
  • 6 August 2011 - 31 US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers killed in Chinook crash

Source: BBC and news agencies

"The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expresses his sympathy and deep condolences to US President Barack Obama and the family of the victims," the statement from President Karzai said.

President Obama, too, issued a statement paying tribute to the Americans and Afghans who died in the crash.

"We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied. We also mourn the Afghans who died alongside our troops in pursuit of a more peaceful and hopeful future for their country," the statement said.

Reports say more than 20 of the US dead were Navy Seals.

A US military source has confirmed to the BBC that they were from Seal Team Six - the same unit which killed Bin Laden in Pakistan in May.

Who are the Navy Seals?

  • 2,500 US Navy special forces
  • They carry out Sea, Air and Land operations, hence their name
  • Origins lie in World War II
  • Involved in Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen
  • Team Six is elite group officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group
  • Team Six based near Virginia Beach, members usually have five years of experience, part of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC )

However, US officials have told both the BBC and AP they do not believe that any of those who took part in the Bin Laden operation were on the downed helicopter.

The size of Team Six, an elite unit within the Seals, which is officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, is not known.

Several air force personnel, a dog and his handler, a civilian interpreter, and the helicopter crew were also on board, AP reports.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it was mounting an operation to recover the helicopter and find out why it crashed. It said there had been "enemy activity in the area" where it went down.

A Taliban spokesman said insurgents had brought down the helicopter with a rocket after US and Afghan troops attacked a house in the Sayd Abad district of Wardak where insurgents were meeting late on Friday, Associated Press said.

Sayd Abad, near the province of Kabul, is known to have a strong Taliban presence.

A Wardak government spokesman quoted by AFP news agency agreed with this, saying the helicopter had been hit as it was taking off.

A local resident told the BBC Pashto service a rocket had hit the helicopter.

"What we saw was that when we were having our pre-dawn [Ramadan] meal, Americans landed some soldiers for an early raid," said Mohammad Wali Wardag.

"This other helicopter also came for the raid. We were outside our rooms on a veranda and saw this helicopter flying very low, it was hit by a rocket and it was on fire."

Map of Afghanistan showing Wardak province

There are currently about 140,000 foreign troops - about 100,000 of them American - in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban insurgency and training local troops to take over security.

All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and some troop withdrawals have already taken place.

Nato has begun the process of handing over control of security in some areas to local forces, with Bamiyan becoming the first province to pass to Afghan control in mid-July.

An increase in US troop numbers last year has had some success combating the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan, but attacks in the north, which was previously relatively quiet, have picked up in recent months.



America's black day: Bin Laden hit team troops shot out of sky by Taliban

  • 31 dead after rocket-propelled grenade destroys Chinook helicopter
  • News comes as USA loses gold-plated AAA credit rating
  • Deadliest single incident since Afghan war began in 2001
  • President Obama tells shell-shocked Americans of 'extraordinary sacrifice'
  • Afghan president sends condolences to Obama

By Christopher Leake

Last updated at 10:01 PM on 6th August 2011


More than 20 US Navy Seals from the elite unit that killed Osama Bin Laden have died after their helicopter was shot down by insurgents in Afghanistan.

They were among 31 American Special Forces troops and seven Afghan soldiers who were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade destroyed their Chinook helicopter.

The terrible development came on the day when Americans were absorbing the shock news that for the first time in its history the United States had lost its gold-plated AAA credit rating.

Scroll down for video

Gunned down: A twin-rotor Chinook, same as the one pictured here in Afghanistan in June, was brought down after a Nato operation in an area where insurgents were gathering

Gunned down: A twin-rotor Chinook, same as the one pictured here in Afghanistan in June, was brought down after a Nato operation in an area where insurgents were gathering

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said it was marking the US down a notch to AA+ because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress last week did not go far enough to stabilise the country’s debt situation.

According to US intelligence officials, 23 Seals who killed Bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan in May had recently returned to Afghanistan from their base in North Carolina.

It was reported last night that the Seals who died in the helicopter crash were not among the 23 who killed Bin Laden. However, they were members of the same 120-strong Seal Team Six and would have trained alongside and been close friends with those who carried out the Bin Laden raid.

It was not clear if the Taliban had deliberately targeted the helicopter as an act of revenge. But its shooting down is bound to be greeted in many parts of the Arab world as terrible vengeance for the death of the Al Qaeda leader and an enormous blow to the international standing of America, already badly shaken by the financial meltdown.

Dangerous territory: The helicopter crashed in the Tangi Valley in the volatile Wardak province, which borders the Taliban stronghold province of Kabul

Dangerous territory: The helicopter crashed in the Tangi Valley in the volatile Wardak province, which borders the Taliban stronghold province of Kabul

Vulnerable: Slow-moving transporter craft like the Chinook face massive risks in eastern Afghanistan

Vulnerable: Slow-moving transporter craft like the Chinook face massive risks in eastern Afghanistan

Reports suggested that seven members of the Afghan National Army, one dog handler, an interpreter and an unknown number of crew were also on board the downed helicopter. Friday night’s attack is the deadliest single incident since the Afghan war began in 2001.

It was also the highest one-day death toll for US Navy Special Warfare personnel since the Second World War. In 2005, 16 Navy Seals and US Army special forces troops died when their helicopter was shot down as they tried to rescue four comrades under attack from the Taliban.

The Chinook involved in Friday’s attack – a US twin-engined helicopter mainly used to transport troops – was hit by a shoulder-held grenade as it returned from a night raid on a militant gathering in the Tangi Valley in Wardak province, west of Kabul.

Unforgiving terrain: The Taliban-infested, rocky valleys of the Wardak province where the helipcopter was brought down

Unforgiving terrain: The Taliban-infested, rocky valleys of the Wardak province where the helipcopter was brought down

The Tangi Valley, dubbed ‘Death Valley’, is known for being one of the most hostile corridors in Afghanistan. The volatile Wardak province is an infamous insurgent stronghold.

US soldiers have frequently been attacked there, and an entire Soviet division was ambushed and destroyed in the valley in the Eighties.

The Special Forces unit in the Bin Laden operation, Seal Team Six – known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group – has around 300 members, of whom 120 are commandos. The rest are communications and specialist support troops.

US sources said the troops were being flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with rocket fire and that wreckage was strewn at the scene.

Nato confirmed the overnight crash took place and that there ‘was enemy activity in the area.’

Return trip: 23 Seals who killedBin Laden in his Pakistan compound in May had recently returned to Afghanistan from their base in North Carolina

Return trip: 23 Seals who killedBin Laden in his Pakistan compound in May had recently returned to Afghanistan from their base in North Carolina

But a Nato spokesman said it was still investigating the cause and conducting a recovery operation at the site. It did not release details or casualty figures. ‘We are in the process of accessing the facts,’ said US Air Force Captain Justin Brockhoff.

President Obama mourned the deaths of the American troops as he announced the news to the US public. He said in a statement that the crash served as a reminder of the ‘extraordinary sacrifices’ being made by the US military and its families. He said he also mourned ‘the Afghans who died alongside our troops’.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai expressed his condolences to Mr Obama.

With its steep mountain ranges, providing shelter for militants armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, eastern Afghanistan is hazardous terrain for military aircraft.

Large, slow-moving air transport carriers such as the CH-47 Chinook are particularly vulnerable, often forced to ease their way through sheer valleys where insurgents can achieve more level lines of fire from mountainsides.

President Obama received condolences following the deaths from Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, right
President Obama received condolences following the deaths from Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, right

Write caption here

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that Taliban fighters downed the helicopter during a ‘heavy raid’ in Sayd Abad.

He said Nato attacked a house in Sayd Abad where insurgent fighters were gathering. During the battle, the fighters shot down the helicopter, killing 31 Americans and seven Afghans, he said, adding that eight insurgents were ‘martyred’ in the fight.

There have been at least 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft crashes in Afghanistan this year.

Most of the crashes were attributed to pilot errors, weather conditions or mechanical failures. But the coalition has confirmed that at least one CH-47F Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade on July 25.

Two coalition crew members were injured in that attack.

Meanwhile, in the southern Helmand province, an Afghan government official said yesterday that Nato troops attacked a house and inadvertently killed eight members of a family, including women and children.

Mystery: It was reported those who died were not among the 23 Seals who killed Bin Laden

Mystery: It was reported those who died were not among the 23 Seals who killed Bin Laden

Nato, however, said that Taliban fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and directed small-arms fire at coalition troops during a patrol in the Nad Ali district. ‘Coalition forces responded with small-arms fire and as the incident continued, an air strike was employed against the insurgent position,’ said a Nato spokesman.

He added that Nato sent a delegation to meet local leaders and investigate the incident.

Nato has received harsh criticism in the past for accidentally killing civilians during operations against suspected insurgents. However, civilian death tallies by the United Nations show the insurgency is responsible for most war casualties involving non-combatants.

In south Afghanistan, Nato said two coalition service members were killed, one on Friday and another yesterday. The international alliance did not release further details.

With the casualties from the helicopter crash, the deaths bring to 365 the number of coalition troops killed this year in Afghanistan and 42 in the past month.

At the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said he was deeply saddened by the loss, and vowed that the US will stay the course to complete the mission to make the world a safer place.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the best way to honour their sacrifice was to keep fighting. He asked for patience as the military worked to notify families of their losses.






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BBC satellite truck damaged in protest

Petrol bombs have been thrown at police and three patrol cars, a bus and buildings have been set on fire in a disturbance in Tottenham, north London.

The incident began after a protest over the fatal shooting by police of 29-year-old Mark Duggan on Thursday.

Fire crews were initially unable to reach a building due to the disorder but later began tackling the flames.

Correspondent Andy Moore said a BBC TV news crew and satellite truck also came under attack from youths throwing missiles







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Mass protests held across Israel








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Police shooting sparks London riots




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Riot blaze: North London in flames as police cars, bus and shops burn over police shooting of 'gangster'

  • Mob of 500 people protest about death of father-of-four Mark Duggan who was shot by officers
  • 100 riot police on the streets as Tottenham burns
  • Fears that violence was fanned by Twitter as picture of burning police car was re-tweeted more than 100 times
  • Shop looted and youths storm McDonalds and start cooking their own food
  • Mail on Sunday photographers beaten and mugged by masked thugs

By Ian Gallagher and Steve Farrell

Last updated at 3:09 AM on 7th August 2011


Police came under attack from petrol bombs hurled by rioting mobs in North London last night as hundreds took to the streets following the shooting of a man by Scotland Yard marksmen.

Patrol cars, a shop and a double-decker bus were set ablaze and there were reports of looting amid scenes reminiscent of the violent unrest in the same area 26 years ago when PC Keith Blakelock was hacked to death.

Last night the Tottenham area erupted once again as more than 100 officers and specialist riot police faced crowds of more than 500 people protesting about the death of Mark Duggan, who lived on the estate and was described last week by police sources as a ‘gangster’.

Tottenham's burning: Riot police on horseback are drafted in as a double decker bus is alight in the background

Tottenham's burning: Riot police on horseback are drafted in as a double decker bus is alight in the background

London's burning: Building are alight after being torched by youths during an attempted arrest last night

London's burning: Building are alight after being torched by youths during an attempted arrest last night

There was concern that the disturbances were fanned by Twitter, with some of those taking part posting inflammatory comments from the scene and calling for reinforcements.

One picture of a police car on fire in the area was re-tweeted more than 100 times on the social networking site within an hour.

Mr Duggan, 29, was shot by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s CO19 unit on Thursday evening after the minicab he was travelling in was stopped. There was an apparent ‘exchange’ of fire and a bullet was found lodged in a police radio.

The red double decker burns. The trouble started at around 5.30pm as the protest began

The red double decker burns. The trouble started at around 5.30pm as the protest began

Into the storm: A police officer in riot gear stands looking at a burning car on the night riots returned to north London following a fatal shooting

Into the storm: A police officer in riot gear stands looking at a burning car on the night riots returned to north London following a fatal shooting

A double decker bus burns as riot police try to contain a large group of people
A double decker bus burns as riot police try to contain a large group of people

Twitter riot: A red London double decker bus burns as riot police try and bring rioting under control in Tottenham late last night

Police try and control a huge crowd of people as a shop burns. In the front of the picture a police car sits burnt out

Police try and control a huge crowd of people as a shop burns. In the front of the picture a police car sits burnt out

Mr Duggan died at the scene and an officer was injured, but left hospital after treatment.

The violence last night started soon after a crowd of about 120 had begun to gather at the High Road, near Tottenham Hotspur’s football ground, from about 5.30pm.

Their target was the police station which was being guarded late last night by lines of officers and police vans. As the disorder spread, and the numbers of demonstrators swelled, two police cars being used to block the road were set ablaze by masked youths.

Flames began to billow from a shop and then a double-decker bus was engulfed in flames and quickly reduced to a twisted shell. Witnesses also reported seeing a jewellery shop and a bookmakers being looted. Teenagers and younger children were seen carrying valuables through the shattered glass front of an electrical shop.

London riots: The burnt out shell of a police car in north London as yobs go on the rampage in Haringey following the death of father-of-four mark Duggan

London riots: The burnt out shell of a police car in north London as yobs go on the rampage in Haringey following the death of father-of-four mark Duggan

Windows were smashed at a Barclays Bank and pictures on Twitter appeared to show the building being looted. There were also reports that youths had stormed McDonald’s and had started frying their own burgers and chips.

Footage was posted on YouTube of local solicitor’s office Attridge on fire.

Resident David Akinsanya, 46, who was on the scene, said: ‘It’s really bad. There are two police cars on fire. I’m feeling unsafe. It looks like it’s going to get very tasty. I saw a guy getting attacked.’

A local woman, who declined to give her name, said: ‘There’s a theory going on that the man who was shot had dropped his gun, but they still shot him. I’m hearing that most of the shops in the High Road are being burgled and robbed.’

Masked youths outside a Barclays Bank which has had its window smashed during the chaos

Masked youths outside a Barclays Bank which has had its window smashed during the chaos

A shot is attacked by arsonists on Tottenham High Road during protests tonight a quarter of a century after the infamous Broadwater Farm riots

A shot is attacked by arsonists on Tottenham High Road during protests tonight a quarter of a century after the infamous Broadwater Farm riots

Several fire crews could only stand ready nearby as they were barred from the High Road where buildings and the bus were ablaze.

One fireman complained to The Mail on Sunday that earlier, three engines had been dispatched to the scene without being warned they were entering a riot zone. He said: ‘We were sent to a road accident but it was the police cars on fire.

‘We were then ordered to leave them burning and to drive off, probably for our own safety.

‘I cannot believe what we have just driven through. As we pulled out of the station, there was a car on fire on the High Road and there were people in the middle of the road – it was very scary. We didn’t give them a chance to try to stop us. I am still shaking.’

Hooded youths use aerosol cans to set fire to shelves of goods inside a retail store on Tottenham High Road after ransacking the premises

Hooded youths use aerosol cans to set fire to shelves of goods inside a retail store on Tottenham High Road after ransacking the premises

London's burning: A police car after rioters set it ablaze during a civil disturbace inTottenham High Road outside the police station

London's burning: A police car after rioters set it ablaze during a civil disturbace inTottenham High Road outside the police station

Meanwhile, two Mail on Sunday photographers were viciously beaten and robbed by masked youths armed with crowbars and other makeshift weapons and reporters on the scene were threatened by looters in balaclavas.

The photographers said there was ‘total lawlessness’ in the area with the contents of shops strewn across the streets and the police unable to gain access.

One said: ‘It is utter carnage out there. We have been beaten up quite badly and had about £8,000 of equipment stolen. We were quite discreet but as soon as we got a camera out we were set on by youths with masks who were armed with crowbars.’

A woman walks through the debris with two children as riot police try to contain a large group of people on a main road in Tottenham

A woman walks through the debris with two children as riot police try to contain a large group of people on a main road in Tottenham

In a separate incident, a Mail on Sunday reporter was chased down a side street and struck on the back of the head with a rock.

In a parallel with the 1985 riot, residents claimed the roots of last night’s violence lay in allegations of police harassment.

John Blake, who grew up with Mr Duggan on the Broadwater estate, claimed the dead man had been victimised by police in recent weeks.

He said: ‘I know the police were harassing him. The police were following him. If you’re from Broadwater Farm, police are on you every day, you’re not allowed to come off the estate. If you come off the estate they follow you.’

Ablaze: A police car burns in Tottenham, North London on Saturday evening

Ablaze: A police car burns in Tottenham, North London on Saturday evening

Chaos: An estimated 300 people were on the streets in north London as news of the riots was spread via Twitter

Chaos: An estimated 300 people were on the streets in north London as news of the riots was spread via Twitter

A family friend of Mr Duggan, who gave her name only as Nikki, 53, said the man’s friends and relatives had organised the protest because ‘something has to be done’ and the marchers wanted ‘justice for the family’.

Some of those involved lay in the road to make their point, she said.

A huge fireball lights up the night sky as yobs go on the rampage

A huge fireball lights up the night sky as yobs go on the rampage

Victim: Mark Duggan, shot by police in Ferry Lane, Tottenham

Victim: Mark Duggan, shot by police in Ferry Lane, Tottenham

‘They’re making their presence known because people are not happy,’ she added. ‘This guy was not violent. Yes, he was involved in things but he was not an aggressive person. He had never hurt anyone.’

As the rioting escalated, trouble-makers on Twitter seemed keen to orchestrate the violence, bringing scores more people into the area. One user calling himself ‘English Frank’ urged attacks on the police, saying: ‘Everyone up and roll to Tottenham f*** the 50 [police]. I hope 1 dead tonight.’

And in a clear incitement to looting, ‘Sonny Twag’ tweeted: ‘Want to roll Tottenham to loot. I do want a free TV. Who wudn’t.’

‘Mrs Lulu’ tweeted: ‘Brehs [men] asking who’s down to roll [go] Tottenham right now, to get justice. – RIP Mark x.’

A tweet apparently passed on by chart-topping rapper Chipmunk, who comes from Tottenham, paid tribute to the dead man: ‘R.I.P Mark Duggan a real straight up and down respected man. LOVE!!!!!!!!’

Joining in the Twitter frenzy, ‘Ashley AR’ tweeted: ‘I hear Tottenham’s going coco-bananas right now. Watch me roll.’

Officers from Trident, the police unit that deals with gun crime in the black community, had been attempting to arrest Mr Duggan when Thursday’s shooting took place.

v

Riot police in shields stand guard as up to 500 people went on the rampage

Later: The scene in Tottenham after two patrol cars were attacked by members of a community where a young man was shot dead by police

Later: The scene in Tottenham after two patrol cars were attacked by members of a community where a young man was shot dead by police

‘Shots were fired and a 29-year-old man, who was a passenger in the cab, died at the scene,’ said a spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating. It is believed that two shots were fired by a firearms officer, equipped with a Heckler & Koch MP5 carbine.

Local MP David Lammy called for calm last night. On his website, he said: ‘We already have one grieving family in our community and further violence will not heal that pain.’

Last night, a Scotland Yard spokesman explained how the riot began.

‘Two police cars had parked up at Forster Road/High Road while their officers conducted traffic patrols on foot. At approximately 2020 hours a number of bottles were thrown at these two cars – one was set alight and the second was pushed into the middle of the High Road. It was subsequently set alight.’

Grim echo of 1985 Broadwater farm riot

Last night’s disturbance sparked grim memories of the infamous Broadwater Farm riot of 1985 in which PC Keith Blakelock was hacked to death.

Violence erupted after the death of Tottenham resident Cynthia Jarrett, 49. Mrs Jarrett collapsed and died from a heart attack while police were at her home carrying out a search the day before the disturbances. On October 6, a small crowd gathered outside Tottenham police station and broke its windows.

Aftermath: About 120 people marched from the local Broadwater Farm area to Tottenham Police Station. After night fell, two police cars parked about 200 yards from the police station were set upon

Aftermath: About 120 people marched from the local Broadwater Farm area to Tottenham Police Station. After night fell, two police cars parked about 200 yards from the police station were set upon

Later that afternoon, two beat officers were attacked and seriously injured by a brick-throwing crowd.

A community protest meeting was followed by a police officer having his car attacked and then a mob attacking the police van called to help him. In the riots that ensued, PC Blakelock, 40, was killed on the Broadwater Farm housing estate.

After police baton charges, officers were forced back by rioters. As they retreated, PC Blakelock tripped and fell and was surrounded by balaclava-wearing rioters.

He suffered 42 wounds and his head was slashed eight times with a machete.

Two policemen were also shot and injured, and by midnight on the day of the riot 58 officers and 24 other people had been taken to hospital.

Petrol bombs were thrown during the violence, and cars were overturned and set alight along with shops and other buildings.

The Broadwater Farm riot followed similar disturbances in Brixton. PC Blakelock was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.





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