UK troop reduction in Afghanistan ‘in autumn’

The withdrawal of 3,800 UK troops from Afghanistan this year is unlikely to take place until the autumn, Britain’s top general in the country says.

Responsibility for security is being handed to Afghan forces, who now oversee 80% of the population.
Lt Gen Nick Carter said the insurgency tended to be at its “highest tempo” in the summer months.
He said the UK would take this into account as it sought to “manage” the reduction of troop levels to 5,200.
“We tend to try to work this around periods of very high operational tempo,” Gen Carter told the BBC in his first interview since taking charge,
“It’s well known that during the summer, the insurgency is at its highest tempo. So what we will choose to do is manage that after that period, which would mean the autumn time would be the logical period to do this.”
British troop numbers were reduced from 9,500 to 9,000 before Christmas and numbers are set to fall to 5,200 by the end of 2013.
The remainder will leave by the end of 2014, when all Nato operations are due to finish, although a small number will remain after that, working at an officer training academy and in other support roles.
Gen Carter’s comments come as the MoD announces a third round of 5,300 Army redundancies – as part of a drive to cut the number of regulars in the UK’s Army from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2017.
Bases closing
In central Helmand, British troops are handing over or closing operating bases at the rate of one a week.
The accelerated drawback is reflected in casualty numbers. Three years ago a coalition soldier was killed every 18 hours in Helmand.
Halfway through their current six-month tour, seven British soldiers have been killed in Helmand – one in direct combat, the other six in insider attacks when Afghan security forces turn their weapons on their foreign partners.

Major Mohammed Ashraf suggested the Afghan army still had equipment needs

And as the Afghans start to take the lead, their casualty figures are increasing.
The focus now is training as the Afghan security forces are expected to take full responsibility for security later this year.
British troops no longer train Afghan police directly. It is now Afghans training Afghans. But a great deal of support is still required and the insurgency is far from over.
Asked whether Afghan security forces were ready to face the Taliban alone, Gen Carter said: “In a straightforward tactical fight I think the answer to that question is ‘Yes they can.’
“What’s much more challenging for them is the institutional development of their army. And how their army is logistically sustained and supported and how in institutional terms it’s connected to the ministry of defence, through its general staff down to the corp and brigade level.”
The Afghan army is still lacking military essentials, according to Sgt Glen Miller, who has done multiple tours of the country.
He said: “The challenges will be the things that they can’t really provide. Full medical helicopters and things like that. If they get a casualty, a serious casualty, they can always rely on us.”
And what of the Afghan forces themselves?
Afghan army officer, Major Mohammed Ashraf, said, “Military training is our top priority. We need the modern weaponry that other countries have… armoured vehicles, transport planes and helicopters, those would all be good to have.”
But in the months ahead, as British troops pull back to the UK’s biggest bases, the only soldiers left out on the ground will be Afghans.

Fresh snow set to cause more disruption

Snow and ice are causing disruption across large parts of the UK for a fifth successive day with fresh snow set to cause further problems.

Hundreds of schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland opted to stay shut.
Flights at UK airports have been cancelled and delayed, and roads and rail networks have also been affected.
Further snow is expected in southern England and parts of Scotland and Wales into the evening and overnight.
Drivers in parts of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and Somerset are being warned of hazardous driving conditions caused by heavy, fresh snowfall.
A Met Office “be prepared” snow warning for parts of south-west England and south Wales has been issued and is valid until Wednesday morning.
Up to 5cm (2in) of snow is forecast for parts of south-west England with the threat of anything up to 10cm (4in) on high ground and the possibility of blizzard conditions.
The BBC’s Susan Powell said some of the worst conditions could be encountered during the evening rush-hour along areas including the M4 corridor and the M5.

A farmer clears the road near Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross

The A9 has been reopened near Pitlochry after a crash which left a 70-year-old man injured.
He has been taken to Ninewells Hospital, in Dundee, but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Grampian Police have urged motorists to exercise extreme caution with drifting snow expected.
Up to 10cm (4in) is possible in Wales with the south-eastern counties again the most likely to see heavy localised falls.
Traffic Wales has warned of hazardous driving conditions on the A470 between the M4 at junction 32, the Coryton interchange at Cardiff, and Merthyr Tydfil.
In Northern Ireland – where the Met Office has issued a warning for icy roads – 5cm-10cm of snow has fallen since Monday, with the bulk of it lying over counties Antrim and Down.
Airport cancellations
Heathrow Airport cancelled dozens of flights and warned passengers to expect further cancellations and delays.

The snow did not deter the dogs of the Lauderdale Hunt, Lauder, Scotland

A Heathrow spokesman said: “Because Heathrow runs at almost 100% capacity there is no slack in the system and flights unfortunately have to be cancelled. Further cancellations are inevitable given the adverse weather conditions at other airports around Europe.”
There were also delays at airports including Gatwick, Birmingham, Stansted and Luton.
Eurostar warned passengers to expect delays of up to an hour because of speed restrictions imposed as a result of snow and ice while some services to Paris and Brussels on Tuesday have been cancelled.
Other rail operators including Gatwick Express, Southern and Southeastern also reported cancellations and revised timetables.
National Rail said all UK train companies were expected to run a full service on Wednesday.
There have been school closures:

• In Wales, 474 schools closed, mainly in the south east.
• Some schools are closed in England, including in Cornwall which saw its first snow of the year overnight.
• More than 120 schools in Scotland have been closed.
• In Northern Ireland almost 90 schools have closed.

Thousands of schools were closed on Monday. While many children enjoyed sledging, injuries were reported by ambulance services.
Sixteen-year-old Liam Stafford remained critically ill in hospital after hitting a tree while sledging in Normanby, Middlesbrough.
East of England Ambulance Service also issued a warning after it was called out to attend at least a dozen sledging-related injuries, including broken bones or head injuries requiring hospital treatment.
The cold conditions have claimed some lives. A Somerset postman died while carrying out his rounds in freezing conditions on Exmoor, Royal Mail has confirmed.
It is believed John Bircham had a heart attack after trying to free his van from a snow drift on Saturday.
And on the A12 in Essex on Monday night a driver died when his car left the road and collided with a tree.

Rolls-Royce Ansty to lose 378 defence jobs

Rolls-Royce is to close its UK defence operations in Ansty, near Coventry.

The union Unite has blamed government defence cuts for the closure, which will mean 378 job losses.
The company, which employs about 800 people at Ansty, said it hopes to avoid compulsory redundancies.
Unite national officer for aerospace and shipbuilding, Ian Waddell, said: “The underlying reason for the job losses is the government’s defence spending cuts.”
A spokesperson for Rolls-Royce said: “We are in consultation with trade unions over reductions in our defence workforce at Ansty.
“We hope to achieve this without compulsory redundancies.

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“Start Quote

I’m very shocked, there was no prior warning or indication of job losses.”

Geoffrey Robinson MP for Coventry North West

“In a large and complex company there is a continuing need to align resource and customer demand.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said it had nothing to add to the company’s statement.
‘Very bad news’
In an email to MP Geoffrey Robinson the company said it proposed to “progressively run down Defence Services work carried out at Ansty by a combination of natural termination of legacy programmes or re-location of on-going work to other facilities.”

About 800 people are employed at the Ansty site

It added: “This is expected to take a number of years.”
Mr Robinson, MP for Coventry North West, said: “I’m very shocked, there was no prior warning or indication of job losses.
“We’ve got to resist this in any way we can. It’s very bad news.”
He has contacted Business Secretary Vince Cable and Unite for an urgent meeting.
The proposed reductions are in response to an internal study that reviewed the Rolls-Royce defence aerospace business in Ansty and Bristol.
The site at Ansty, six miles to the east of Coventry City Centre, is also a base for civil aerospace business which is not expected to be affected.

Goettingen: The song that made history

The post-war reconciliation between France and Germany was enshrined in a treaty signed 50 years ago. But many believe a song recorded the following year did as much to thaw relations.

Can there be many songs that really did change the world?
There have certainly been records which have been immensely popular – and some of those have had a message. But did they really change the hearts and minds of ordinary people? Did they alter politics?
There is one which did, and it’s barely known now.
Fifty years ago, Germany and France were neighbours where the scars of war were still raw.
Germany had invaded France and been repulsed, inch by bloody inch and town by town. Germans were trying to come to terms not just with total defeat, but with how what they thought was their civilised country had perpetrated one of the great crimes of history.

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Barbara, the woman in black

• Born Monique Serf in Paris in 1930
• the second child of a Jewish fur salesman
• family had to move several times during the German occupation and even fled one home after being denounced as Jews
• studied music in Paris and then moved to Brussels, where she first performed under the name of her maternal grandmother
• found considerable success in the 1960s and 70s
• always dressed in black on stage
• acted, directed and campaigned about HIV
• death in 1997 sparked outpouring of grief

Into this minefield of potential resentment and painful rancour, stepped a slight, soft-voiced chanteuse.

Barbara was her stage name – she had been born Monique Serf in Paris in 1930. She was Jewish and so a target for the Nazis. But, two decades after the end of the war, she travelled to the German city Goettingen, as near to the heart of Germany as you can get.
She fell in love with the city and its people and recorded a paean of praise, first in French and then in German, the language of the former oppressor. She sang of “Herman, Peter, Helga et Hans”. Who had they been, the listener wonders. Her friends? Her lovers?
It captured the hearts of her German audience at the Goettingen theatre. It became a hit.
A street was named after her. The city bestowed its Medal of Honour on her. The citation talks of the song and its “quiet, emphatic plea for understanding”. The song’s popularity, the citation says, “made an important contribution to Franco-German reconciliation”.
As the song says:
“Of course, we have la Seine
And our Vincennes’ wood,
But God, the roses are beautiful
In Goettingen, in Goettingen.”
And then:
“But children are the same,
In Paris or in Goettingen.
May the time of blood and hatred
Never come back
Because there are people I love
In Goettingen, in Goettingen”.
One of the people in the audience was a student by the name of Gerhard Schroeder.

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What leaders said about her

• Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (above) – “[song] went to our hearts”
• President Jacques Chirac – ”she was talent, intensity, stage presence, passion”
• Prime Minister Lionel Jospin – ”a woman who knew suffering and understood the suffering of others”

He would later become Chancellor of Germany and use the words of the ballad in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty of reconciliation between France and Germany, a speech made exactly 10 years ago.

He said: “I was a doctoral student in Goettingen when she came to sing. It went to our hearts, the start of a wonderful friendship between our countries.”
Listening to the song today, it’s easy to understand its appeal then. It remains hauntingly beautiful, a wistful paean of love with a tinge of sadness.
She had much to be sad about. She had suffered sexual abuse from her father, and she had spent the war in flight from the Nazis, leaving Paris for the south and then dodging to hide from collaborators who would have handed her over to her murderers.
With the war over, she returned to Paris and took up singing and piano lessons at the Paris Conservatoire. But it was cabaret to which she was drawn, and the world of Edith Piaf and then Jacques Brel. Her big breakthrough came in the early 60s with “Barbara chante Barbara”.

And Goettingen. In Germany, she was loved for the love she had extended to them. In France, she was a star. Streets were named after her there too. A stamp had her face on it. When she died in 1997, a quarter of a million mourners went to the funeral.
But all that is just the ephemera of showbusiness – the hits and the publicity and the pictures in the paper of her smouldering in dark glasses.

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‘Her songs stroke the brow’

Soft, silky and confidential, her voice never rages like Piaf’s nor goes Gitane-blue like Jacques Brel’s, her patron. Her songs stroke the brow and disturb the unconscious. Like Mahler and Freud, she quotes a hint of nursery rhyme to evoke innocence and its corruption. Yet she is never harsh or cruel. Her greatest love – “ma plus belle histoire d’amour,” she would assure adoring audiences – “c’est vous,” her voice breaking on the last monosyllable. For Barbara, music was the element that bonds the lonely to the whole.
British music critic Norman Lebrecht

• Read the full article in Standpoint

The part that still matters is that song. After all, which other singer could claim to have changed the world and for the better?

“Goettingen” was recorded just after one of the big political speeches of the century. President Charles de Gaulle of France went to the German city of Ludwigsburg and addressed the “youth of Germany”, again in their own language.
“To you all I extend my congratulations,” he said. “I congratulate you for being young.”
He had spent much of the war in London as the exiled leader of the Free French and returned to France as the Germany enemy was forced out – so his speech in German was important. The historians mark it as significant.
But which is more important – the speech of the General or the song of the girl?

Music hackers admit stealing unreleased Michael Jackson tracks

ames Marks, 27, and James McCormick, 26, hacked into the record company's servers in the US from their homes in Daventry, Northants, and Blackpool respectively and downloaded thousands of tracks, including ones by the late pop star and previously unreleased music, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said.

The hackers, who met through a fan website forum, also downloaded music by artists including Elvis, Beyonce, JLS, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears.

In total they downloaded around 7,000 files which were completed tracks or the component parts, as well as artwork and videos, SOCA said.

Marks and McCormick were arrested in May 2011 after Sony identified the security breach.

Chatlogs recovered from their computer hard drives showed they were planning to sell or trade some of the files, SOCA said.

Marks and McCormick received six month sentences suspended for one year at Leicester Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to computer misuse offences at an earlier hearing in September.
They were also each ordered to do 100 hours community service.
Mick Jameson, from SOCA's Cyber Department, said: "These men stole thousands of copyrighted files belonging to Sony Music.
"Our remit is to protect businesses as well the public, and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement and industry partners to tackle online criminality."
Speaking after sentencing, Gregor McGill, head of organised crime at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "James Marks and James McCormick have been sentenced for hacking the servers of one of the world's largest recorded music companies from their home computers in Daventry and Blackpool respectively.
"Both huge enthusiasts of Michael Jackson, they targeted Sony Music which has the exclusive licence to the late musician's catalogue.
"At the time of his death, there existed recorded but unreleased Michael Jackson music which aroused the attention of Marks and McCormick.
"It was the prosecution's case that these men were fully aware that the files they obtained on their computers were subject to copyright and that they took steps to sell on and to share the music with a wider audience in internet forums.
"In simple terms, these men broke into a computer system and took music files that were not theirs to take. That was criminal activity."
The year after the King of Pop's death, in 2009, the company signed a seven-year deal with his estate - worth up to 250 million dollars (£158 million) - to sell his unreleased recordings.

Golden Globes 2013: Downton Abbey star prepares for big show

Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery joined Jon Bon Jovi, Hugh Jackman and other Golden Globe nominees and stars as guests of honour at the annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts annual Awards Season Tea Party at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.

Downton Abbey is up for Best Drama in the television section of the awards in the early hours (British time) tomorrow. Dockery plays Lady Mary Crawley in Downton.

Steven Spielberg is hoping for Golden Globes glory for his political drama "Lincoln" on Sunday, as Hollywood hits the red carpet for its biggest pre-Oscars awards show.

The veteran director's presidential biopic is nominated in seven categories, ahead of Ben Affleck's Iran drama "Argo" and Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti Western tribute "Django Unchained," both with five nods.

Taiwanese-American Ang Lee is also up for best movie with his sumptuous 3D adventure "Life of Pi," as is Oscar-winning Kathryn Bigelow's controversial Osama bin Laden manhunt movie "Zero Dark Thirty."

Arsenal 0 Manchester City 2: match report

Manchester City maintained their pursuit of Manchester United with a 2-0 win over Arsenal at the Emirates with an ultimately comfortable performance defined by the early dismissal of Laurent Koscielny.

First half goals from James Milner and Edin Dzeko settled the match before half-time, and City maintained their lead despite seeing captain Vincent Kompany sent-off for a studs-showing sliding tackle on Jack Wilshere in the second half.

Arsenal fans were furious at referee Mike Dean’s decision to send off Koscielny, and the free-kick that led to Milner’s goal, but both decisions were proved to be correct.

The Kompany dismissal will reignite the debate over tackling as he won the ball, but under the current interpretation, the challenge with both feet off the ground was bound to attract the referee’s attention.

The game turned on Koscielny’s dismissal in the ninth minute, after he crudely dragged Dezeko to the ground in what amounted to a rugby tackle.