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&cat=19&pid=16887&cache=true " alt="Cameron warns over vote for Clegg" class="alignleft" />
David Cameron has reacted to the Lib Dem surge in the opinion polls by warning a vote for Nick Clegg could see the country being “stuck” with Labour. In an interview with the Guardian, the Conservative leader said only his party could offer “decisive change”. The latest YouGov poll puts the Lib Dems 1% ahead of the Tories on 33% with Labour in third place on 26%. It come as Labour leader Gordon Brown recalled Cabinet members from the campaign to deal with the air crisis. The YouGov daily poll, for the Sun newspaper, suggests the bounce Mr Clegg received after his widely-praised performance in Thursday’s inaugural televised prime ministerial debate, is enduring. BBC polling expert David Cowling says the margin of error makes it unclear whether the Lib Dems or Conservatives are in front “but there is no doubt that Labour is third”. ‘Positive’ The poll, which was carried out on Saturday and Sunday, suggests that Britain is heading for a hung Parliament after the election on 6 May. If the voting intention figures for this poll are put through the BBC’s election seat calculator then, on a uniform swing, the Conservatives take 246 seats, Labour take 241, the Lib Dems 134 and other parties 29, says David Cowling. If there is no clear election winner, Mr Clegg has said he would work with the party which has the biggest “mandate” – although he has not made it clear whether that means the highest number of votes or seats, which could be different. In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Cameron, whose party at the turn of the year was averaging 40% in the polls, said he would ignore advice to attack Mr Clegg head-on in the run up to the next TV debate on Thursday. “My response to all this is to redouble the positive,” he told the newspaper. “I am sure plenty of other people will now scrutinise Liberal Democrat policies in huge detail and I am sure that is a very worthwhile thing to do. “But what I want to do in the remaining 18 days of this campaign is to make the case for a different prime minister for Britain, to make the case that if you want to solve the problems we have then it is decisive change we need, and all other options manifestly fail.” ‘Stuck’ He said the only way to guarantee “decisive change” on 6 May was to vote Conservative. “Anything else and you risk being stuck with what you have got,” he told the newspaper. Meanwhile, a survey of major investors by the Financial Times, highlights concern about the tightening opinion polls and the impact on the markets of a hung Parliament. Ten leading investment funds, with more than
April 19, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16882&cache=true " alt="Davis penalty hands Furyk victory" class="alignleft" />
FINAL LEADERBOARD: -13 J Furyk* (US), B Davis (Eng) -10 B Van Pelt (US), Luke Donald (Eng) -9 K Blanks (US), C Villegas (Col), R Barnes (US), Selected others: -5 P Casey (Eng), R Karlsson (Swe), F Jacobsen (Swe) * Furyk won at first play-off hole Jim Furyk won the Verizon Heritage in bizarre circumstances after Londoner Brian Davis suffered a two-shot penalty at the first play-off hole. Davis birdied the last hole at Hilton Head Island for a 68 to finish level with the American on 13 under par. But at the first play-off hole, the Englishman told officials his club struck a reed, incurring a penalty. Furyk holed out for a par to clinch victory, with Luke Donald in a tie for third with Bo Van Pelt on 10 under. Seeking his first victory on the PGA Tour, Davis sunk an 18-foot putt on the 18th to set-up the play-off with Furyk. But the same hole proved his undoing as he sent his approach on the first sudden-death hole into sand amongst rocks on the beach. Davis chipped onto the green but immediately called over a rules official because he believed his club might have made contact with a loose impediment. The officials consulted a TV replay and deemed that Davis had struck the reed on his backswing which incurred a two-shot penalty. With Furyk on the green, it effectively ended the contest. Furyk, who shot a last-round 69, putted out for his 15th PGA Tour win and second since March, earning him $1.026 million. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16913&cache=true " alt="In the attic" class="alignleft" />
The mad heroines of classic Victorian fiction have long been objects of fascination. The violent and feral Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, the mysterious Woman in White whose escape from an asylum begins Wilkie Collins’s gripping thriller, and the terminally delusional Emma in Madame Bovary. But were they really mad? Would we today recognise them as mentally ill or were our heroines merely misunderstood, not to mention a tad inconvenient? For Radio 4 documentary, Madwomen in the Attic, medical historians, psychiatrists and literary specialists gave their diagnoses of our troubled heroines. No restraint The picture of Mrs Rochester on all fours, baying at the moon, manic laughter ringing through the house, sadly still defines our notions of madness today. Yet even when Jane Eyre was published in 1847, Charlotte Bronte was criticised for her portrait of insanity. But Charlotte’s brother Branwell was an opium-addicted alcoholic, subject to severe depression. “While she was writing Jane Eyre downstairs,” says Anne Dinsdale, archivist at the Haworth Parsonage – where the Bronte family lived – “Branwell would have been raving in the bedroom on the second floor, where he had been confined because he was a danger. “He even set the bed on fire.” Bertha Rochester does the same in Jane Eyre. “We have a letter from Charlotte to her publisher,” says Anne, “in which she answered her critics saying that ‘the character is shocking but all too natural’.” “Bertha is the embodiment of the monstrous lunatic who requires restraint,” says historian of madness, Catherine Arnold. At the time, mental illness was regarded with shame and as evidence of familial “taint”. Even though asylums were available, secrecy was better served by keeping the sufferer confined at home, as Rochester (and the Brontes) did. There has been much speculation about the first Mrs Rochester’s madness. Notions of female insanity in the 1850s included “unrestrained behaviour,” often merely Victorian-speak for female sexuality. “Attics are where wives who cannot be contained, who are over-sexualised and unruly are stored away,” says writer and psychotherapist, Adam Phillips. And would not anyone have then gone mad, locked up in an attic with gin-sodden Grace Poole? But Dinesh Bhugra, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, recognises a clear description of schizophrenia in Jane Eyre. “You can rule out manic depression as there is no evidence of a mood disorder, just a chronic deteriorating condition.” Captive By the time Wilkie Collins wrote Woman in White in 1860, there were many private and public asylums, including the long established Bethlem Hospital (from which we get the word Bedlam), now the Imperial War Museum. The plot of Woman in White sounds far-fetched – wicked aristocrat Sir Percival Glyde, aided by sinister Count Fosco, plans elaborate asylum switch of sane woman (his rich wife Laura) for madwoman (the nothing-but-white wearing Anne Catherick) in order to get his hands on a fortune. But it was based on a real-life case, that of millionaire novelist and MP Bulwer Lytton who had his wife Rosina carted off to an asylum when she began to criticise him in public. She was released only after a public appeal. “If a man wanted to get rid of his wife, he would simply get two doctors to certify her and lock her up,” says John Sutherland, Emeritus professor of English Literature at University College London. “It’s what Dickens himself did when his wife kicked up a fuss at his affair.” But what about the “madwoman”, Anne Catherick? “They talk about her as being feeble-minded as a child and that she’d grow out of it – so perhaps a learning disability as we understand it,” says Dinesh Bhugra. “An asylum wasn’t necessary.” Meanwhile he points out that there are a number of plainly certifiable mad-men in Woman in White. The psychopath Fosco, for instance, or the obsessive compulsive Mr Fairlie. They are admired, not incarcerated. Frustration In the 19th Century women were thought to be intrinsically mad by virtue of their femaleness, which made them vulnerable, and women outnumbered men in Victorian asylums almost two to one. If Jane Eyre looks back to an almost medieval view of madness, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary looks forward to the age of Freud and analysis. Madame Bovary marries a dull, unsuccessful doctor called Charles. She dreams of luxury and romance and after the birth of her daughter, embarks on two ruinous affairs. A serial fantasist and shopaholic, she gets into a monstrous level of debt. When there is no way out of her debt, she takes poison and dies. It is a coolly analytic portrait of a woman unravelling. Flaubert knew of the work of Parisian neurologist Charcot (later to be a mentor of Freud) and of his descriptions of hysteria. “You could argue that Madame Bovary is a clinical case study,” says Sandra Gilbert, Professor of English at the University of California. But is Emma mad? “No she’s not mad, just very frustrated,” says Adam Phillips. And very, very irritating, perhaps particularly to women readers. “Men find her fascinating and today there is no doubt she’d be a reality TV star, living out her fantasies and celebrated – not censured – for her dreams.” Vivienne Parry presents on BBC Radio 4 at 1130 BST on Tuesday 20 April 2010 and afterwards on BBC iPlayer. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16912&cache=true " alt="In the attic" class="alignleft" />
The mad heroines of classic Victorian fiction have long been objects of fascination. The violent and feral Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, the mysterious Woman in White whose escape from an asylum begins Wilkie Collins’s gripping thriller, and the terminally delusional Emma in Madame Bovary. But were they really mad? Would we today recognise them as mentally ill or were our heroines merely misunderstood, not to mention a tad inconvenient? For Radio 4 documentary, Madwomen in the Attic, medical historians, psychiatrists and literary specialists gave their diagnoses of our troubled heroines. No restraint The picture of Mrs Rochester on all fours, baying at the moon, manic laughter ringing through the house, sadly still defines our notions of madness today. Yet even when Jane Eyre was published in 1847, Charlotte Bronte was criticised for her portrait of insanity. But Charlotte’s brother Branwell was an opium-addicted alcoholic, subject to severe depression. “While she was writing Jane Eyre downstairs,” says Anne Dinsdale, archivist at the Haworth Parsonage – where the Bronte family lived – “Branwell would have been raving in the bedroom on the second floor, where he had been confined because he was a danger. “He even set the bed on fire.” Bertha Rochester does the same in Jane Eyre. “We have a letter from Charlotte to her publisher,” says Anne, “in which she answered her critics saying that ‘the character is shocking but all too natural’.” “Bertha is the embodiment of the monstrous lunatic who requires restraint,” says historian of madness, Catherine Arnold. At the time, mental illness was regarded with shame and as evidence of familial “taint”. Even though asylums were available, secrecy was better served by keeping the sufferer confined at home, as Rochester (and the Brontes) did. There has been much speculation about the first Mrs Rochester’s madness. Notions of female insanity in the 1850s included “unrestrained behaviour,” often merely Victorian-speak for female sexuality. “Attics are where wives who cannot be contained, who are over-sexualised and unruly are stored away,” says writer and psychotherapist, Adam Phillips. And would not anyone have then gone mad, locked up in an attic with gin-sodden Grace Poole? But Dinesh Bhugra, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, recognises a clear description of schizophrenia in Jane Eyre. “You can rule out manic depression as there is no evidence of a mood disorder, just a chronic deteriorating condition.” Captive By the time Wilkie Collins wrote Woman in White in 1860, there were many private and public asylums, including the long established Bethlem Hospital (from which we get the word Bedlam), now the Imperial War Museum. The plot of Woman in White sounds far-fetched – wicked aristocrat Sir Percival Glyde, aided by sinister Count Fosco, plans elaborate asylum switch of sane woman (his rich wife Laura) for madwoman (the nothing-but-white wearing Anne Catherick) in order to get his hands on a fortune. But it was based on a real-life case, that of millionaire novelist and MP Bulwer Lytton who had his wife Rosina carted off to an asylum when she began to criticise him in public. She was released only after a public appeal. “If a man wanted to get rid of his wife, he would simply get two doctors to certify her and lock her up,” says John Sutherland, Emeritus professor of English Literature at University College London. “It’s what Dickens himself did when his wife kicked up a fuss at his affair.” But what about the “madwoman”, Anne Catherick? “They talk about her as being feeble-minded as a child and that she’d grow out of it – so perhaps a learning disability as we understand it,” says Dinesh Bhugra. “An asylum wasn’t necessary.” Meanwhile he points out that there are a number of plainly certifiable mad-men in Woman in White. The psychopath Fosco, for instance, or the obsessive compulsive Mr Fairlie. They are admired, not incarcerated. Frustration In the 19th Century women were thought to be intrinsically mad by virtue of their femaleness, which made them vulnerable, and women outnumbered men in Victorian asylums almost two to one. If Jane Eyre looks back to an almost medieval view of madness, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary looks forward to the age of Freud and analysis. Madame Bovary marries a dull, unsuccessful doctor called Charles. She dreams of luxury and romance and after the birth of her daughter, embarks on two ruinous affairs. A serial fantasist and shopaholic, she gets into a monstrous level of debt. When there is no way out of her debt, she takes poison and dies. It is a coolly analytic portrait of a woman unravelling. Flaubert knew of the work of Parisian neurologist Charcot (later to be a mentor of Freud) and of his descriptions of hysteria. “You could argue that Madame Bovary is a clinical case study,” says Sandra Gilbert, Professor of English at the University of California. But is Emma mad? “No she’s not mad, just very frustrated,” says Adam Phillips. And very, very irritating, perhaps particularly to women readers. “Men find her fascinating and today there is no doubt she’d be a reality TV star, living out her fantasies and celebrated – not censured – for her dreams.” Vivienne Parry presents on BBC Radio 4 at 1130 BST on Tuesday 20 April 2010 and afterwards on BBC iPlayer. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16885&cache=true " alt="‘Obama effect’ boosts views of US" class="alignleft" />
Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, according to a BBC World Service poll. For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America’s influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative. As in 2009, Germany is viewed most favourably while Iran and Pakistan are seen as the most negative influences. Nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were interviewed for the poll, between November 2009 and February 2010. Fifteen of the countries have been surveyed every year since 2005, allowing long-term trends to be discerned. In these nations – or 14 of them, not including the US itself – positive views of the US fell to a low of 28% on average in 2007, from 38% in 2005, but recovered to 35% in 2009 and 40% in this year’s poll. Meanwhile, perceptions of China in the 14 other countries have been declining – falling from 49% on average in 2005, to 34% in 2009 and 2010. “People around the world today view the United States more positively than at any time since the second Iraq war,” said Doug Miller, chairman of international polling firm GlobeScan, which carried out the poll with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) at the University of Maryland. “While still well below that of countries like Germany and the UK, the global standing of the US is clearly on the rise again.” China ‘in neutral’ Pipa director Steven Kull noted: “After a year, it appears the ‘Obama effect’ is real. “Its influence on people’s views worldwide, though, is to soften the negative aspects of the United States’ image, while positive aspects are not yet coming into strong focus.” He added: “While China’s image is stuck in neutral, America has motored past it in the global soft-power competition.” Of the full list of 28 countries surveyed this year, the US is viewed positively in 19 (20 including the US itself), while six lean negative and two are divided. Compared with 2009, positive views of the US jumped 21% in Germany, 18 in Russia, 14 in Portugal and 13 in Chile – though Russia and Germany continued to have a negative view of the US overall. Meanwhile, negative opinions of the US declined by 23% in Spain, 14 in France and 10 in the UK, with the result that all three lean towards a positive view of the country. In only two of the 28 countries, Turkey and Pakistan, do more than 50% have a negative view of the US. Germany is the most favourably viewed nation (an average of 59% positive), followed by Japan (53%), the United Kingdom (52%), Canada (51%), and France (49%). The European Union is viewed positively by 53%. In contrast, Iran is the least favourably viewed nation (15%), followed by Pakistan (16%), North Korea (17%), Israel (19%) and Russia (30%). The 15 countries included in the poll every year since 2005 are: Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, the UK and the US. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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A 16-year-old boy stabbed to death outside a birthday party in Croydon, south London, on Sunday morning, has been named as Wesley Sterling. The boy was initially not thought to have been a guest at the party, which was held at Croydon Sports Arena, but police have now confirmed he was. A post-mortem found the cause of death to be a single stab wound to the chest. A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the investigation but has been released on bail until June. Officers were called to the venue in Albert Road at 0018 BST on Sunday, following reports of a disturbance outside. ‘Gatecrashing incident’ A police spokesman said: “On arrival they found a youth in a walkway near the club with serious chest wounds.” He was pronounced dead at the scene. The spokesman said there had been another incident at the same place at about 2300 BST, when between six and eight people had tried to gatecrash the party. Det Insp Alison Hepworth said: “We know there were many guests at the party and would appeal to them to come forward with information on what happened.” Anyone with any information about the stabbing or the earlier incident has been asked to call 020 8721 4005 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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Parties of school children and many teachers remain stranded overseas because of volcanic ash drifting from Iceland. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16813&cache=true " alt="Talent show opener seen by 10.6m" class="alignleft" />
The first show of the fourth series of Britain’s Got Talent was watched by an average audience of 10.6m, according to overnight figures. At its peak, the programme was seen by 11.5m people and captured almost half the entire television audience. The show, hosted by Ant and Dec, beat last year’s debut which comfortably beat Doctor Who in the same time slot. The 2009 season discovered singer Susan Boyle, who was the eventual runner-up to dance troupe Diversity. Saturday night’s show, which featured Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden back on the judging panel, saw a wide range of acts compete to advance in the competition. X Factor judge Louis Walsh, meanwhile, appeared on the panel to cover Simon Cowell who was ill during some of the auditions screened in the first show. The judges were impressed with 10-year-old schoolgirl Chloe Hickinbottom, who performed Vera Lynn’s wartime classic The White Cliffs of Dover. Another act going through to the next round was dancing dog Chandi and her owner Tina. But there was also a parade of more eccentric auditionees, with puppeteer Persephone Lewin prompting Cowell to declare: “I can’t do this any more, I’m 50 years old.” Part of her performance involved attempting to inflate a rubber glove with a hosepipe. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16815&cache=true " alt="Flight ban extended to fifth day" class="alignleft" />
The ban on flights in English airspace has been extended until the early hours of Monday. A spokesman for traffic control body Nats said the cloud of volcanic ash is now covering all of the UK. Planes will remain grounded across England until 0100 BST on Monday, with a further update expected later. The flight ban has left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded across Europe since the Icelandic volcano erupted on Thursday. A statement from Nats said: “The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland is currently spread acoss the UK. “Based on the latest information from the Met Office, Nats advises the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 0100 BST on Monday. “We will continue to monitor Met Office information and review our arrangements in line with that. We will advise further arrangements at approximately 1500 BST.” This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=16741&cache=true " alt="Two held over takeaway shooting" class="alignleft" />
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 16-year-old girl who was shot in the neck in an east London takeaway. Agnes Sina-Inakoju was shot through the window of Hoxton Chicken and Pizza, in Hoxton Street, Hackney, on Wednesday night, by two people on mountain bikes. Police said those being held were a 16-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man. Detectives say there is no evidence Agnes was a gang member and it is likely she was not the intended target. She died of her injuries in hospital on Friday morning. The shooting is being dealt with by detectives from Operation Trident – the Metropolitan Police unit which investigates serious crime in London’s black community. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 18, 2010 | Posted in
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