Dozens arrested as anti-Muslim English Defence League protestors battle rivals

Simon Alford

Riot police battled to control thousands of rival demonstrators taking part in an ill-tempered city centre protest organised by a controversial right-wing group.

Hundreds of officers, some horse-mounted and armed with batons, separated supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) and members of Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

Two officers were injured following ugly clashes: one fractured a finger, the other was bitten by a police dog. A police helicopter was also dispatched to assist the officers on the ground. There was a total of 67 arrests, 55 of which were UAF supporters and the remaining 12 EDL, police said.

The EDL organised the rally in Bolton, Lancashire, to protest against "radical Muslims" and Sharia law. At its height there were some 2,000 EDL and a further 1,500 UAF protestors.

The main protest took place in front of the town hall, which was boarded up to prevent any damage. Many local pubs and shops closed and taxi firms pulled their drivers off the roads.

Council leaders had met with Home Secretary Alan Johnson earlier this week in a bid to ban the demonstration, but were told there was no power to do so unless it took place on private property.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, who is leading the operation for Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said: "Today in Bolton we have seen groups of people, predominantly associated with the UAF, engaging in violent confrontation.

“It is clear to me that a large number have attended with the sole intention of committing disorder and their actions have been wholly unacceptable. Turning their anger onto police officers they acted with, at times, extreme violence and their actions led to injuries to police officers, protesters and members of the public.

“The police are not and should not be the target of such violence and anger and this protest and the actions of some of the protesters is roundly condemned by GMP and by Bolton Council.

“Were it not for the professionalism and bravery of police officers many others would have been seriously injured".

By late afternoon protestors from both groups had been led away from the main town square. Officers frogmarched EDL demonstrators back towards the railway and bus stations, while they continued to chant: “We want our country back.”

UAF members left, chanting: “Whose streets? Our streets”.

Police will now review CCTV of the incident to identify people involved in inciting or committing disorder.

EDL protester Stuart Rogers, 31, from Bolton, draped in the English flag, said he was there “to support England, against the Taliban bombers”, adding: “All my family are in the Army - my dad, and my brother, who has just done 11 months in Afghanistan. Why are our troops out there when they should be at home?”

Among those arrested were UAF joint secretary Weymann Bennett, who organised the protest, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder, and Martin Smith, who runs the Love Music Hate Racism campaign.

Second World War veteran Bertie Lois, 89, who protested with the UAF, said: “I fought the Second World War against these Nazis. What did I fight for if we let them? The EDL are the enemy. I would say to them ’you are the guys we fought for, what are you doing?’"

Simon Marsden, 37, also supported the UAF. He said: “Something has got to be done about these fascists who come into our town where there is no problem on the streets.

“They have come in trying to cause conflict. There is no room for them in this day and age.”

Louis Kang-Mascarenhis, a 19-year-old student, added: "I was very surprised by the number of EDL. They need to educate themselves. They are trying to stir up hatred by coming into a town with a large Asian population”.

Two UAF demonstrators were taken to hospital, one with a minor head injury and the other with a minor ear injury, police said. A 19-year-old man received treatment for an ongoing health problem and a 16-year-old girl was treated after suffering a panic attack.

The EDL describes itself as a peaceful, non-political group campaigning against “militant Islam”, but a previous rally in Manchester last year turned violent, resulting in 44 arrests and 10 injuries.

Times Online

Sandstorm disrupts life in Riyadh

By MD RASOOLDEEN & RODOLFO C. ESTIMO JR | ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: A number of incoming flights to Riyadh were diverted to Dammam as a result of a major sandstorm that hit the Central Region and Riyadh on Friday reducing visibility to a few meters.

According to officials at King Khaled International Airport (KKIA), outbound flights left the capital as scheduled. The Meteorological and Environmental Protection Administration (MEPA) said visibility was 50 meters in the morning and 100 meters in the evening. Wind speed was 89 km per hour.

A senior official said Friday afternoon that the weather was expected to improve Saturday.

The Janadriya festival started immediately after Friday prayers but turnout was low. It picked up after 4 p.m. when the sandstorm subsided.

Foreign guests returned to their hotels in the capital but came back to the festival where free facemasks were handed out.

The festival was open to schoolchildren and males until 10 p.m. It is open exclusively to women on March 22-23 and families from March 27.

The Sri Lankan Expatriates Society canceled its meeting on its diabetes and cardiac diseases campaign, said the group's president, Andrew Sinnen.

Maj. Abdulrahman Al-Muqbel, director of the Riyadh Traffic Department, said: "As of 3 p.m. Friday, there was no reported cases of accident. As soon as the storm came, we sent patrol cars to monitor the traffic flow".

The sandstorm started at dawn, said Abdulaziz Arakkal, who works with Arabian Food Supply.

Robert Fernandez, a member of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, said: "I had to drive slowly because I could hardly see cars ahead of us while we were on our way to see somebody off at KKIA".

In Al-Rass, Qassim, Saudi teacher Saleh Harequi said that a sandstorm with strong winds also blanketed the region. "A blinding sandstorm blanketed Qassim Thursday night. But visibility had improved by Friday afternoon but it was still windy," he said.

Joaquin de la Pena, a Filipino community leader in Buraidah, said the sandstorm was raging when he left Riyadh early Friday afternoon. "When I was in Majma, the sandstorm had not abated but the weather was better when I reached Buraidah by 5:15 p.m.," he added.

Arab News

Ecuador will not forget China's "mistreatment": president

AFP - Ecuador will not forget the "mistreatment" by China in failed talks to finance a hydroelectric station, President Rafael Correa said Saturday, threatening to seek financing from Taiwan.

Correa said that he "unilaterally ended" talks on Wednesday with the Chinese bank Eximbank "due to the mistreatment and the rudeness" that the Ecuadoran negotiator endured.

"We will not forget this," Correa said in his weekly broadcast presentation.

Correa said that there were "many alternatives" to obtaining financing for the hydroelectric project, including from Taiwan.

"We have shown much solidarity towards China, supported the policy of one China, have supported China, but we will not forget how they treated us," said Correa.

Correa's leftist administration considered "unacceptable" China's conditions for a 1.7-billion-dollar loan to build the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant.

Eximbank had demanded that Ecuador's Central Bank put its assets up as collateral for the loan. "Never before," said Correa, had anyone made such requests, which in any case are forbidden by law.

If the Chinese "are going to treat us like another transnational corporation, with more rigor than the International Monetary Fund ... we will seek financing elsewhere. We are not going to surrender our sovereignty, even to a country as beloved as China," he said.

The comments came after Ecuador and China signed 4.7 billion dollars' worth of cooperation agreements in November during a visit by Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

France24

Moscow chief firefighter dies in business center fire

Moscow's chief firefighter has been killed in the fire that broke out at a business center in northern Moscow on Saturday, a senior emergencies ministry official said.

Colonel Yevgeny Chernyshev went missing three hours ago after he entered the building to evacuate people.

"We have just found the colonel's body," Mikhail Verzilin told reporters.

According to preliminary information, Chernyshev was killed when the building's roof collapsed.

Some 25 firefighting units and 30 fire engines were extinguishing the blaze at the former hydraulics plant built in the 1940s. The fire, which spread to 1,000 sq m, has been put out.

Some 30 people were evacuated from the building but no one was seriously injured.

Yevgeny Bobylev, the local emergencies ministry spokesman, said flammable materials had been used during the building's renovation in 2009.

"We also do not understand why the fire alarm did not work and if it ever existed," he said.

Oleg Mitvol, the prefect of Moscow's northern district, told RIA Novosti that the last fire inspection of the building took place in 2007 and a new check was scheduled for 2010.

MOSCOW, March 20

RIA Novosti

Architect’s carving stolen from gardens

Jack Grove

A STONE statue carved by an award-winning architect before he succumbed to dementia has been stolen from a Cambridge hospital.

Christophe Grillet, co-founder of Cambridge architects firm Lyster, Grillet & Harding, and his wife Kate had loaned the four-sided stone statue to the Friends of Fulbourn Hospital for its sculpture trail round the mental health hospital’s gardens.

But the artwork has now gone missing from its plinth in the grounds.

Kate, who is depicted on one of the faces of the striking sculpture, is now calling for its return.

She said: “It was a real shock to see it was missing. It was the last carving that Christophe was able to complete. 

“He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1994 and found learning to carve a difficult and emotional journey, but it helped his self-esteem and feelings that he could still be creative. He took part in several exhibitions and was very proud when two pieces were bought for the Iris Murdoch Centre in Scotland.

“It’s awful that it has gone missing. It’s a very heavy object and would need at least two people to lift it and carry it away.

“It’s a very personal work. We think the head with glasses was Christophe, the woman’s head was me, and on the two other sides are beautiful mermaids.

“It might be quite decorative for someone else, but it won’t have the same value that it has for his family.

“We loaned it to the hospital because it showed that people with mental health problems could be creative and lead positive lives. It’s terrible to see it has gone”.

Mr Grillet was a highly respected architect, and founded his practice in Cambridge in 1958.

He designed many buildings for Newnham and Homerton Colleges, as well as creating the Needham Research Institute, in Sylvester Road, which specialises in East Asian science and medicine.

Anyone with any information about the missing statue should call police on 0345 4564564.

Cambridge News

Nepalese ex-leader Girija Prasad Koirala dies

The former Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has died in Kathmandu, his aides and state TV say.

Mr Koirala, 86, served four terms as PM with the Nepali Congress Party and led protests that brought down King Gyanendra's authoritarian rule.

Thousands of supporters had gathered outside his daughter's house where he was taken after being in hospital for several days.

Mr Koirala's political career spanned seven decades.

He first came to prominence as a union leader in the late 1940s, and he was imprisoned, exiled or detained on numerous occasions for championing the cause of democracy against various autocratic regimes.

Leadership stints

In 1960, he was jailed for eight years for his pro-democracy views.

G P Koirala, as he was popularly known, first became prime minister in the country's first democratic elections in 1991.

His government lasted three years, and collapsed after a no-confidence vote.

He played a key role in public demonstrations in the early 1990s to end the absolute powers of the king.

In 2000 he returned as prime minister, heading the ninth government in 10 years.

It was during that term that in 2001, King Birendra was murdered by his son - along with nine members of his family.

By July 2001 Maoist rebels had stepped up a campaign of violence, prompting Prime Minister Koirala to quit over the violence.

Peace agreement

Five years later he was appointed prime minister by King Gyanendra who reinstated parliament following weeks of violent strikes and protests against direct royal rule.

He was too sick to attend rallies celebrating the resumption of parliament, having suffered from respiratory problems for years.

In May 2006 Parliament voted unanimously to curtail the king's political powers.

The same month, the government and Maoist rebels began peace talks, the first in nearly three years, resulting in a peace accord by November 2006.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) declared a formal end to a 10-year rebel insurgency.

Mr Koirala was also acting head of state in 2008 before the election of Nepal's first president.

Mr Koirala's body will lie in state at the national stadium on Sunday, with his funeral later in the day at the Pashupatinath Hindu temple in Kathmandu, his aide Gokarna Poudel said, according to AFP news agency.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed condolences.

"Koirala spent his entire political life championing the cause of the people..." Mr Singh said.

"Koirala was a mass leader and a statesman, whose knowledge and wisdom guided the polity of Nepal in the right direction at critical junctures in the country's history".

BBC News

Third suspect in poker game robbery arrested

Police said on Saturday they arrested a third suspect in the armed robbery at a high-stakes German poker tournament in Berlin two weeks ago. The man reportedly presented himself to the authorities at the city'sTegel airport after returning to Germany.

Police said the suspect’s lawyer called investigators prior to the 20-year-old’s arrival. Authorities would not confirm the suspect’s location prior to departure. 

“We are confident that the fourth suspect will also be arrested soon,” police spokesman Frank Millert said. 

The 20-year-old Mustafa U. is the third of four suspects now in police custody. On Monday, a 21-year-old German turned himself in to police and provided the names of his accomplices. 

He told police he would return his share of the €242 million, which stolen after the armed robbers raided Germany’s biggest poker tournament at Berlin’s Grand Hyatt hotel. 

Two days later, a second suspect was arrested without resistance during a routine security check. 

According to a report published Saturday in daily newspaper Bild, the fourth fugitive robber is reportedly in Lebanon and has been in contact with Berlin police.

DDP/DPA

The Local | Germany

FASHION TSAR KARL LAGERFELD ON SEX "I don’t like sleeping with people I really love"

Some people can’t imagine sex without love, but Karl Lagerfeld can't imagine sex WITH love!

The fashion tsar spoke about homosexuality, love and sex in an interview with 'Vice' lifestyle magazine.

Lagerfeld (76) is against gay marriage: “In the 60s they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life”.

And how is the fashion designer’ssex life? “I personally only like high-class escorts. I don’t like sleeping with people I really love”.

He added: “I don’t want to sleep with them because sex cannot last, but affection can last forever. I think this is healthy”. That’s possible for the rich – the rest of the world needs porn!

The fashion icon also treasures multi-millionaires and admires porn and porno producers: “I also think it’s much more difficult to perform in porn than to fake some emotion on the face as an actor”.

And Lagerfeld has never had sex with someone older than him: “No. It never went that far”.

Bild.com