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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Be interesting to hear the US government railing against censorship in other countries.

Guardian.co.uk

The US was today accused of opening up a dramatic new front against WikiLeaks, effectively "killing" its web address just days after Amazon pulled the site from its servers following political pressure.
The whistleblowers' website went offline for the third time in a week this morning, in the biggest threat to its online presence yet.
Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's committee on homeland security, earlier this week called for any organisation helping sustain WikiLeaks to "immediately terminate" its relationship with them.
On Friday morning, WikiLeaks and the cache of secret diplomatic documents that have proved to be a scourge for governments around the world were only accessible through a string of digits known as a DNS address. The site later re-emerged with a Swiss domain, WikiLeaks.ch.
Julian Assange this morning said the development is an example of the "privatisation of state censorship" in the US and is a "serious problem."
"These attacks will not stop our mission, but should be setting off alarm bells about the rule of law in the United States," he warned.
The California-based internet hosting provider that dropped WikiLeaks at 3am GMT on Friday (10PM EST Thursday), Everydns, says it did so to prevent its other 500,000 customers of being affected by the intense cyber attacks targeted at WikiLeaks.
The site this morning said it had "move[d] to Switzerland", announcing a new domain name – wikileaks.ch, with the Swiss suffix. However, the new address still only points to an IP address, suggesting WikiLeaks has been unable to quickly find a new hosting provider.
The Wikileaks.ch domain name, which only surfaced on Friday morning, is being served by the Swiss Pirate Party. And the routing to it is still being done by everydns.
Late yesterday evening Tableau Software, a company which published data visualisations, pulled one of its images picturing the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables at the request of Senator Lieberman. Writing on the company's blog, Elissa Fink said: "Our decision to remove the data from our servers came in response to a public request by Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, when he called for organisations hosting WikiLeaks to terminate their relationship with the website."
Mark Stephens, the London-based lawyer acting on behalf of Assange, wrote on Twitter after the shutdown: "Pressure appears to have been applied to close the WikiLeaks domain name."
Andre Rickardsson, an expert on computer security at Sweden's Bitsec Consulting, told Reuters: "I don't believe for a second that this has been done by everydns themselves. I think they've been under pressure," he said, apparently referring to US authorities.
A new Germany-based WikiLeaks domain – wikileaks.dd19.de – also appeared on Friday morning, with its data apparently hosted in California. People have also taken to setting up alternative domain names that point to the WikiLeaks address. Robin Fenwick, a UK-based web services director, this morning launched Wikileeks.org.uk – a "joke domain" that points to the WikiLeaks DNS address.
In a statement on its website, the free everydns.net service said that the "distributed denial of service" (DDOS) attacks by unknown hackers – who are trying to knock WikiLeaks off the net – meant that the leaks site was interfering with the service being provided to other users. That in turn meant that WikiLeaks had broken everydns.net's terms of service, and it cut the site off at 3am GMT on Friday (10PM EST Thursday).
DNS services translate a website name, such as guardian.co.uk, into machine-readable "IP quads" – in that case 77.91.249.30, so that http://77.91.249.30 will show the Guardian site. If the DNS fails, the site is only reachable via IP address – but WikiLeaks has not yet provided one via Twitter or other means.
Everydns.net said that the attacks – which have been going on all week, and led the site to temporarily host its services on Amazon's more resilient EC2 "cloud computing" service – "threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites".
WikiLeaks was given 24 hours' notice of the termination, and everydns said: "Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider."
The move comes after several days of WikiLeaks coming under a determined DDOS attack, apparently from hackers friendly to the point of view of the US government, which has disparaged the site's leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
US companies have also come under intense political pressure to remove any connection to, or support for, WikiLeaks. Amazon ended its hosting of the cables on its EC2 cloud computer service earlier this week, but last night insisted in a blogpost that its decision was not due to pressure from Senator Joe Lieberman, who has called for the removal of the data – and who has influenced at least one other US company to withdraw support for WikiLeaks data.
In a blogpost late on Thursday, Amazon said reports that government inquiries prompted it to remove the data were "inaccurate".
Amazon said:
"[Amazon Web Services] does not pre-screen its customers, but it does have terms of service that must be followed. WikiLeaks was not following them. There were several parts they were violating. For example, our terms of service state that "you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content... that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity". It's clear that WikiLeaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy."
It noted that:
"When companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn't rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won't injure others, it's a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere."
But as commentators have pointed out, that stance is contradicted by the fact that Amazon has previously hosted the "war logs" from WikiLeaks which contained data about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Connecting to WikiLeaks is presently not possible until it gets a new DNS service. WikiLeaks itself said on Twitter that the ending of DNS services was allegedly due to "claimed mass attacks" and called for further donations to "keep us strong".

Anyone got one? It is the usual 1 year warranty I think. What is the usual "saving" on a new model? I have read reports that you can hit it very lucky inthat if someone buys a new laptop and changes their mind they can't resell as "new" as the box has been opened.

Wasnt sure If there was a thread worthy of this and I don't think there is so...... What a c**k !

http://www.twitvid.com/S79YB

http://www.twitvid.com/VHG9J

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/dails-halloween-horror-show-upstaged-by-lord-of-the-rings-2397797.html


Now look at the mess we're in, and look at the mess this country is in. Next year the queen is talking about coming to Ireland for a state visit, and maybe we should say to the queen when she comes, 'you know, we have our own independence now, we'll hand you back the country and we'll apologise for the mess that we're after making of it'. Because at least when they were running the country they didn't put it into the mess and the hock that we're in now.

Be interesting to see how "unwell" Darkie Hughes was when giving these interviews.

A number of people are feared dead after a helicopter crash in the Mourne Mountains in County Down on Saturday afternoon.
It is not known how many people were on board but local MLA Jim Wells said he believed that several had been killed.
He added that it had happened in an area known locally as Leitrim Lodge between Hilltown and Rostrevor.
Eyewitnesses reported that an aircraft was in distress in the area at about 1600 BST.
Police are leading the operation assisted by the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team.
A police spokesperson said that the Air Accident Investigation Authority had been informed.

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Ulster-Bank-apologises-in-GAA.6574064.jp

A row between the Orange Order and Ulster Bank has been settled following a "sincere apology" to the loyal order from the company.

Orange Order Grand Secretary Drew Nelson had written to Ulster Bank asking for "sponsorship or support" for next year's Twelfth celebrations, following the company's backing of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Mr Nelson took the step after receiving reports of members of staff at the bank's Castlewellan branch wearing Down GAA shirts while serving customers in the run-up to last month's All-Ireland gaelic football final.

The grand secretary had written to Ulster Bank saying: "As a responsible stakeholder in society the Loyal Orange Institution is keen to encourage local businesses and personalities to become more involved with the local community and its activities.

"With this in mind, and given the recent display of encouragement for the County Down gaelic football team, representatives from the institution would be keen to meet with you to discuss how the bank can also engage with and support the local Orange lodges in the Castlewellan area in terms of community development and sponsorship or support for Mini-Twelfth or Twelfth of July related festivals in the near future."

Mr Nelson said the Twelfth's 500,000-strong audience would provide Ulster Bank with a "unique opportunity to reach a massive community base in one single-day event".

In reply, the grand secretary has now received a letter of apology from a member of the bank's senior management team.

It reads: "I am obviously aware of the discomfort caused to your members as a result of our support for the Down gaelic football team. I can assure you that we had no intention other than to celebrate their success in the All-Ireland championship.

"You will appreciate that Down's first final appearance for 16 years generated a lot of interest, especially since a colleague based in our Newry branch plays for the team."

The letter continues: "If we failed to control our enthusiasm in participating with other businesses in Castlewellan's "red and black" celebrations, then I sincerely apologise. I hope you will accept that our actions were in no way intended to be provocative, and that any offence we have caused is entirely unconventional."

An Orange Order spokesman said Mr Nelson had accepted the bank's apology, and would now be seeking a meeting about sponsorship.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vincent-hogan/vincent-hogan-lsquoirsquom-trying-to-fight-a-winning-battle-but-irsquom-nearly-certain-irsquom-not-winningrsquo-2366495.html

Paul McGrath peers out across his perfectly manicured lawn to the closed electric gates that, simultaneously, comfort and imprison him.
A high sun dusts Monageer in wan, honeyed light and the view from his living room is all sweeping fields and rippling foliage. We are maybe an hour into the interview and I have just asked him maybe the only pertinent question remaining in the story of a 50-year-old grandfather still running from himself.
Do you understand why people fear where this will end, Paul?
"I worry myself," he sighs quietly after a pause. "I think of Alex (Higgins) and, obviously, George (Best). I even think of Paul Gascoigne. Because I do wonder to myself how long more I'm going to get through this.
"When I close those gates, I sometimes think that I may as well be in prison. For me, it's like being trapped. But it's a trap I've set myself. Now I'm saying to myself: 'The amount of damage that you've done outside.'
"Then again, in other ways, I've loved closing those gates behind me ... "
A set of dumb-bells glistens on the table as a kind of vain, redemptive statement. Upstairs, there is a bench-press for the days he's not feeling ruined. Visually, he looks well but Paul's appearance can -- routinely -- be a lie. Just climbing the stairs, he says, thieves his breath now. Often in the interview, he talks of not having "the energy" of old.
Chaos

His honesty reaches into deep recesses of chaos and dysfunction. Recently, he stood in court listening to the jigsaw of a black, drunken night being pieced together. The case resulted in him losing his driving licence for three years, a wholly compassionate penalty in the circumstances.
Only the kindness of a neighbour probably separated Paul from a custodial sentence. Two days after the incident, the 65-year-old victim had called to McGrath's house saying he would not press charges on the worst of what had occurred to him that evening.
Then he added something that cut Paul to the very core. "You know you were one of my heroes!"
Later this week, Paul will be in Dublin to launch a warts-and-all DVD of his story, 'Paul McGrath, My Life and Football'. There is a moment in it where he admits that he has been to "something like 13 or 14 rehabs" but that "a lot of times, within weeks, I'm drinking again".
And, ostensibly, it is hard to escape a sense of fecklessness in the alcoholic who lapses so habitually and easily. McGrath understands why people might think that way. Repetition eventually wears away all sympathy.
"Look, I've lost patience with myself," he sighs now. "Because I haven't really got the energy to do this anymore. I know people will say: 'Well just stop drinking! Don't pick it up. Hold your head high and do your walks.'
"Of course people are going to lose patience. But it just doesn't seem that easy for me. Even walking out that door now, I feel so self-conscious about some of the things that I've done. These people have really rallied round me, but I've tormented them up and down this road.
"I'm amazed they're still so supportive, but I could understand them thinking: 'Paul, enough is enough.' I basically kn**ker things up every time I come out."
He continues: "I know that I can't do too many more (rehabs). A lot of the fight is gone out of me. I seem forever drawn to this thing of 'I'll just get one last bottle from somewhere and that'll be it ... '
"Then I'll take one tablet too many or a drink on a tablet too many and I lose the plot. That's what's hurting me at the moment. Because I was told that this is what could happen. But I never thought I'd be up in front of a court for assaulting someone or taking a car.
"Drunk and disorderly maybe. But that? In all the scrapes I've had, I ended up on the floor most times. And when this man had the kindness to come up to my house and say the things he said, I just thought: 'This can't be right anymore ... '
Tiring

"It's very tiring and I honestly don't know where it's going to end up. But that incident threw me completely. I can only thank God he was so decent about it. I'm sure a lot of people are judging me now, wondering how I could have turned into 'that thing'.
"People, I suppose, will either understand or they won't."
It is four years since we collaborated on his autobiography, 'Back from the Brink', a publication that would prove the most successful Irish sports book in history. Paul's candour astonished many at the time and, in the months immediately after its success, he would describe doing 'Back from the Brink' as a cathartic experience.
Yet there has been little resolution since to any of the issues that made the book such a remarkable read. If anything, McGrath's life continues to lurch and wheel with increasingly destructive force. And he doesn't much like what he sees himself becoming.
"Something snapped in me that night that led to the court case," he says. "And I'm very concerned about that. Very much so. I mean I've been warned so many times in rehab that this doesn't get better. It gets worse. And here I am now, knowing that it is getting worse.
"When I did the book, everything felt hunky dory. But the last two years probably, I haven't been great. I have felt that I'm slipping back into my old ways.
"I don't like the way I've been acting lately. I'm becoming a person that I don't like. I'm upsetting people. Someone offers you 'a swift one' and, suddenly, you're in a group for the night.
"You don't know them and, to be fair, they don't know the likely consequences. Maybe they get their photograph taken with you. They don't know what I've become. It's why I like to stay behind the gates now. You might notice the garden's looking okay!"
Eight weeks ago, the birth of Talia conferred grandparent status on McGrath. He describes the little daughter of his eldest boy, Chris, as "absolutely gorgeous" and is looking forward to their first visit. "I want to be around to see her growing up," he says. Yet an inevitable anxiety lingers over how she will come to know her Irish grandfather.
"I'm genuinely trying to fight a winning battle," he reflects, "but I'm nearly certain I'm not winning it. People ask me will I go for a game of golf and I'll always go: 'Yeah, yeah, Jesus, love to ... ' and I know for a fact that I won't go 'cos I think to myself, that's out among the public again.
"If I'm being honest about it, I've never been that comfortable in people's company. And that hasn't changed. If anything, it is escalating. Something is not computing too well in my brain, I feel.
"And I've been taking things for so long that my brain is so used to the chemicals, I feel I almost can't function without them. The problem I have, I suppose, is that 80pc of the time I can carry it off.
"People who are close to me will know immediately if I've taken something. But most people would look at me with the suit on and be thinking: 'He's not doing too bad ... '
"I'm getting fed up with that. But mostly I'm fed up of being sick. I mean, I never believed drinking was an illness. I always thought it was just a weak person who couldn't say no, who wanted the bottle rather than look after his kids. Who wanted it to help him get through a game.
"I never believed that I couldn't beat it at some stage. I always thought there'd be a certain point where I'd just say: 'That's it, I've had it with this!' because my body, obviously, has taken a hammering.
"But then, in my mind, it's like I'm taking on the challenge too. I've got this good angel, bad angel on the shoulder type of thing. Bad angel saying: 'You're still a strong lad, you can carry this off. Pop a pill, have a quick drink. You'll dress up nice and neat.
"That's all very well for the first hour or hour and a half. But then ... "
He once went 14 months clean with the help of the late Dr Patrick Nugent and recalls those months as "the best time of my life". Yet, he is loath to use Patrick's death as any glib justification for his recidivism since.
"Look, I've been given every opportunity to make a decent life for myself," he says, intolerant of the very thought. "And, to be fair, I have found one or two people since Patrick died who have been a huge help."
His last spell in rehab ended the week before his annual golf tournament in aid of Cystic Fibrosis last July. He was professionally advised to give the occasion a wide berth but felt his obligations to the event were simply too personal to retreat from it. So he immediately immersed himself back in the organisation and, true to form, lapsed.
Without access to a car now, he has considered the idea of moving back to Dublin, though he has no intention of selling the house in Wexford. He will be at the Aviva for Friday night's European Championship qualifier with Russia and continues to get sporadic coaching work from the FAI.
"They have been brilliant to me," he says. "The girls in the FAI often ring asking if I need anything. John Delaney has been different class."
Yet, Paul knows the only help that -- ultimately -- saves an addict is self-help. "I hate spoofing to people," he acknowledges. "When you're an alcoholic and you wake up after one of these benders, especially when you've taken other stuff as well, you feel absolutely rotten.
"It's bad. But I've been doing it now for 20-odd years. I get out of bed in the morning and I walk like an old man. And I'm saying to myself: 'You're not strong enough to do this anymore.'"
I finish the interview with a simple question. Where does Paul McGrath see himself at 60?
"Well the Chelsea job should be opened up by then!" he smiles a little weakly. "Ah no, seriously, I want to see myself sitting on this couch with my granddaughter, watching TV. I'd love to be just someone who potters around his garden, goes for walks, plays a bit of golf, has a few friends.
"I suppose I'd just love to be around, to be here. That would be a God-send. To be still around and for all my kids to be healthy."
Paul will be signing copies of his DVD on Friday in HMV, Grafton Street (1.0) and on Saturday in Tesco, Clarehall (12.0) and Heatons, Blanchardstown (3.0).
- Vincent Hogan

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201010/goodfellas-making-of-behind-the-scenes-interview-scorsese-deniro

Long read but well worth it.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/poor_idea_bono_bsUzJMfT2mBJbqyXgp6YoO#ixzz10AdTHKdI


Nothing says, "Wipe out AIDS and poverty" like Band-Aids and a black-and-white cookie.
That's what Bono's $15 million nonprofit the ONE Campaign -- which gives only a pittance of proceeds to its hunger and health causes -- bombarded New York newsrooms with last week to get press for its push for billions in African AIDS funding from President Obama.
The items were part of a pricey pile of puzzling loot, which also included a $15 bag of Starbucks coffee, a $15 Moleskine leather notebook, a $20 water bottle and a plastic ruler.
The stash came in four, oversized shoe boxes, delivered one at a time via expensive messenger. The boxes were timed to arrive for the UN "Summit on the Millennium Development Goals," which kicks off in Manhattan today.
Caitlin Thorne Hersey ONE' BIG WASTE: Bono's ONE Campaign blew cash on cookies, water, rulers, leather notebooks, coffee, Band-Aids and pens for media mailings.
Kimberly Hunter, spokeswoman for DC-based ONE, declined to say how much money the organization shelled out for the publicity blitz.
"Sometimes it's pretty hard to get through to reporters with the information about the lives of the world's poorest people," Hunter said. "We think it's important enough to try and break through the clutter . . . That's why we sent the boxes."
The boxes included a small tin of Band-Aids and two syringe-style pens -- along with a pitch challenging Obama to fork over $6 billion to the UN's Swiss-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.
Caitlin Thorne Hersey
Another container held the oversized cookie and water bottle in an odd pitch for funds for clean water and "sustainable sources of food."
Poverty-stricken African kids live on less than $1.25 a day -- "about the cost of the cookie in this box," ONE contended.
The leather-bound journal and ruler urged education funding in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Starbucks brew -- made with Ethiopian beans -- came with a suggestion to drum up support for investing in African agriculture.
Charity watchdog Daniel Borochoff of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago called the p.r. move a "risk."
"There could be recipients -- or donors -- who might think that the money they spent could have instead been donated to help their cause," he said.
Hunter countered that ONE "does advocacy work, not charity work." Caitlin Thorne Hersey
ONE gives only a pittance in direct charitable support to its causes -- something Borochoff said the average donor might not realize.
The Bono nonprofit took in $14,993,873 in public donations in 2008, the latest year for which tax records are available.
Of that, $184,732 was distributed to three charities, according to the IRS filing.
Meanwhile, more than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries.

Victims group, Families Acting For Innocent Relatives (Fair) has had more than £800,000 in European Union grants revoked.
It follows an investigation into the organisation's tendering process.
Fair director Willie Frazer said there were some paperwork errors but every penny went straight to victims.
The Special EU Programmes Body said there were "major failures" in Fair's ability to adhere to the conditions associated with its funding allocation.
It said had no option but to revoke all financial assistance.
More than £800,000 was allocated to Fair over three years.
Mr Frazer plans to fight the decision by the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB) to revoke its funding.
"We would not dishonour our loved ones by misappropriating funding, the SEUPB has admitted that there is not a penny missing, that there are no financial irregularities whatsoever," he said.
"It certainly doesn't mean the end of the organisation, but it will have a major impact, because you cannot do things with people without having resources.
"And this may be blowing our own trumpet, but we have fought for years within the victims' sector and if anybody stands back and looks at the victims' sector there probably wouldn't be one if it hadn't been for the work put in by Fair and other groups."
Mr Frazer said he felt Fair had been "hammered" because it was not "politically correct".
In a statement, SEUPB said that after a "thorough audit" of the tendering and administration procedures used by Fair it had uncovered "major failures in the organisation's ability to adhere to the conditions associated with its funding allocation".
"The SEUPB is charged with ensuring the proper use of public money and as such has no option but to revoke all financial assistance, (amounting to approximately £880,000), that has been offered to the organisation," the statement added.
"Fair has been given every opportunity to respond to and address these issues.
"The decision to revoke and recover all financial assistance given to the project has not been taken lightly, however, given the seriousness of the issues no other recourse is available."

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/14/half-special-needs-children-misdiagnosed]

Obviously some children have special needs but it seems these days any child that is "difficult", is ADHD or has some other condition.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/14/half-special-needs-children-misdiagnosed


As many as half of all the children identified as having special educational needs are wrongly diagnosed and simply need better teaching or pastoral care instead, a report published today finds.

About 1.7 million schoolchildren in England are regarded as having some form of special needs, ranging from physical disability to emotional problems.

While the number with the most severe challenges has gone down since 2003, the number identified as having milder problems has risen from 14% to 18% of all pupils in England in the past seven years.

The Ofsted review of special needs provision recommended that schools should stop identifying children as having special educational needs (SEN) when they simply needed better teaching and pastoral support.

In one primary school visited by inspectors, where a large number of service families had children, Ofsted said pupils were "inappropriately" identified as having special needs because their fathers had been deployed to Afghanistan.

The report said: "This group was ... vulnerable to underachievement because their fathers were all serving in Afghanistan. However, although these pupils had additional needs for a period of time, this should not have required special educational needs to have been identified."

Ofsted also visited a high school which identified all year 11 students – 15-16-year-olds – who were at risk of falling short of their expected GCSE grades as having special educational needs. All the students got additional mentoring from senior staff.

"This led to a doubling of the numbers of such pupils between years 10 and 11," the report said. While the additional support was valuable for many of them, the identification of special educational needs was "inappropriate".

Ofsted found that about half the schools and nursery providers visited used low attainment and relatively slow progress as their principal indicators of SEN. In nearly a fifth of these cases very little further assessment took place.

Inspectors also saw some schools that identified pupils as having special needs when their requirements were no different from those of most others.

They were underachieving, but this was sometimes simply because the school's mainstream provision was not good enough, and expectations for them were too low.

The report said: "Some pupils are being wrongly identified as having special educational needs and ... relatively expensive additional provision is being used to make up for poor day-to-day teaching and pastoral support. This can dilute the focus on overall school improvement and divert attention from those who do need a range of specialist support."

In areas where school funding was linked to the proportion of children with special needs, this provided an "obvious motivation for schools to identify more such children", the review said.

Some schools Ofsted visited believed that identifying more pupils with SEN could boost a school's contextual value-added score, a measure of how much pupils are improving which takes into account the challenges they face.

Pupils with special needs or a disability are disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds, much more likely to be absent or excluded from school and achieve less than other children both at a given age and in terms of their progress over time, the report noted.

The number of pupils with a statement, given to those children who require intensive support, has declined slightly from 3% to 2.7% since 2003. But the proportion of those identified as requiring "school action", which means they get extra help such as tuition in small groups, has risen.

Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector, said: "With over one in five children of school age in England identified as having SEN, it is vitally important that both the way they are identified, and the support they receive, work in the best interests of the children involved.

"Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs."

Parents told inspectors that under the current system they needed to "fight for the rights" of their children.

Often they saw an SEN statement as a guarantee of additional support for their child. But inspectors found that the identification of a special need or disability did not reliably lead to appropriate support for the child concerned. The review team found that children with similar needs were not being treated similarly and appropriately, and parents' perception of inconsistency was well-founded.

Claire Ryan, a mother of three children with autism, said she had fought for her children to be properly diagnosed and supported in school. "[My daughter] has got a specific learning difficulty, although she is very bright. I have been telling the school since she was in the infants, I think she is dyslexic.

"It was not until she was in year five – 10 years old – that she was diagnosed. The report says parents are fighting for statements to ensure their child's future – that is exactly what I've done. If teaching was better and schools understood and were willing to work with parents, we could get these things into place at such an early age."

Across education, health services and social care, assessments were different and the thresholds for securing additional support were at widely varying levels. In some cases, repeated and different assessments of a child threw up a time-consuming obstacle to progress rather than a way for effective support to be provided, the report said.

Ministers launched a review of special needs provision last week to look at how to ensure parents can send a child with SEN to their preferred choice of school. A green paper to be published in autumn will aim to overhaul the system and look at early assessment, funding and family support as well as school choice.

The children's minister, Sarah Teather, said yesterday: "Children with SEN and disabilities should have the provision they need to succeed and parents should not feel they have to battle the system to get help. Improving diagnosis and assessment will be central to our commitment to overhaul the system to ensure families get the appropriate support."

Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of TreeHouse, the autism education charity, said families often faced "immense barriers" when trying to access services and support. "One of these barriers is getting that initial statement of SEN. But a statement alone is not enough and at TreeHouse we are calling for a greater understanding of special needs such as autism and more collaboration with young people and their families to deliver effective services which really support the family involved."Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, said: "The key to success is investment in good teaching and support. So I hope the present government will maintain the same level of funding and support for training teachers and support staff to ensure that children with SEN continue to remain a priority and that the focus on how best to maximise children's development and learning is maintained."

 

FROM PROF.BENNO. J. NDULU



Dear Friend,



With due respect to your person and much sincerity of purpose, I make this contact with you as I believe that you can be of great assistance to me. My name is Prof.Benno Ndulu, from Ouagadougou Republic of BURKINA FASO, West Africa . Presently i work in the bank of  African (B.O.A ) as telex manager. I have been searching for your contact.



I do not know whether this is your correct email address or not because I only used your name initials to search for your contact .In case you are not the person I am supposed to contact, please see this as a confidential message and do not reveal it to another person but if you are not the intended receiver, do let me know whether you can be of assistance regarding my proposal below because it is top secret.



I am about to retire from active Bank service to start a new life but I am sceptical to reveal this particular secret to a stranger. You must assure me that everything will be handled confidentially because we are not going to suffer again in life.



It has been 10 years now that most of the greedy African Politicians used our bank to launder money overseas through the help of their Political advisers. Most of the funds which they transferred out of the shores of Africa were gold and oil money that was supposed to have been used to develop the continent. Their Political advisers always inflated the amounts before transfer to foreign accounts so I also used the opportunity to divert part of the funds hence I am aware that there is no official trace of how much was transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being closed after transfer.



I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the politicians and when I discovered that they were using me to succeed in their greedy act; I also cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files and no one cared to ask me because the money was too much for them to control. They laundered over $5b Dollars during the process .As I am sending this message to you, I was able to divert thirty five million united state dollars ($35m) to an escrow account belonging to no one in the bank. The bank is anxious now to know who the beneficiary to the funds is because they have made a lot of profits with the funds.



It is more than Eight years now and most of the politicians are no longer using our bank to transfer funds overseas. The ($35) Million Dollars has been laying waste but I don't want to retire from the bank without transferring the funds to a foreign account to enable me share the proceeds with the receiver. The money will be shared 60% for me and 40% for you.



There is no one coming to ask you about the funds because I secured everything. I only want you to assist me by providing a bank account where the funds can be transferred. You are not to face any difficulties or legal implications as I am going to handle the transfer personally. If you are capable of receiving the funds, do let me know immediately to enable me give you a detailed information on what to do.



For me, I have not stolen the money from anyone because the other people that took the whole money did not face any problems. This is my chance also to grab my own but you must keep the details of the funds secret to avoid any leakages as no one in the bank knows about the funds.

Please get back to me if you are interested and capable to handle this project.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7937219/JetBlue-flight-steward-arrested-after-deploying-emergency-chute-in-confrontation-with-passenger.html

You have to have lived through it (So Ross4life it is the 90's or noughties for you). As a Liverpool fan there were actually league championships, plus -

• Karate Kid
• The A Team
• Antrim in an All Ireland final
• Joshua Tree album
• Patrick football boots

Sweet child o'mine? See it and raise you "All you need is love".

[Death toll in Kyrgyzstan '10 times higher' than claimed.]

I thought there would have been a thread about this but seemingly not.



Death toll in Kyrgyzstan '10 times higher' than claimed.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article2561914.ece


The interim leader of Krygzstan admitted today that at least 2,000 people had been killed in ethnic warfare in the south of the country as she visited the devastated city at the heart of the violence.

President Otunbayeva wore a bulletproof vest as she landed by helicopter in central Osh to see streets of burned-out businesses that had belonged to the city's Uzbek minority. Surrounded by bodyguards, she pledged that the Government would "do everything to rebuild this city".

But she was not due to visit Uzbek neighbourhoods in Osh, where Kyrgyz gangs burned thousands of people out of their homes in an orgy of looting and murder that witnesses described as a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Most streets into Uzbek districts remain blocked off by barricades that were hastily erected by surviving residents to prevent fresh attacks.

Ms Otunbayeva played down the level of animosity between the two groups, despite allegations that police and soldiers joined with Kyrgyz mobs determined to drive out Uzbeks from Osh and nearby Jalalabad. She insisted: "We have always lived together and we always will live together."

But she acknowledged in an interview with Kommersant newspaper that the official death toll of 191 from last week's violence was completely inaccurate because of the speed with which many victims were buried.

"I would multiply by ten times the official figures. There were very many deaths in the countryside and our customs dictate that we bury our dead right away, before sunset," she said.

Ms Otunbayeva's visit had been unannounced and only a handful of residents were in the main square when she arrived in Osh from Bishkek. She said: "I came here to see, to speak with the people and hear first-hand what happened here."

She rejected criticism that the government had done too little to halt the slaughter after the United Nations estimated that 400,000 people, 8 per cent of the population, had been forced from their homes by the violence.

"Leave us some hope! Stop saying that we are not working. Our forces say that they are coping," she said. Osh was largely quiet overnight, though sporadic shooting was heard during the military curfew that remains in place.

The interim Government succeeded President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was overthrown in a popular revolt in April. Ms Otunbayeva has accused his family of inciting the violence in the south, the former president's heartland, to wreck plans for a referendum on June 27 to approve a new constitution.

The deputy head of the Government, Azimbek Beknazarov, said that officials feared that supporters of the ousted president were plotting to provoke violence in the capital. Police were put on high alert and roadblocks were strengthened on roads leading into Bishkek.

At least 100,000 Uzbek refugees have fled to neighbouring Uzbekistan, where aid agencies have rushed emergency supplies of tents, food and medicines to help local authorities to cope. The US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake travelled to inspect temporary camps on the Uzbek side of the border.

He was surrounded by a crowd of women, many in tears, at one camp set up by the UN. Mr Blake told them: "It is important to establish peace for your safe return. An investigation should be carried out to prevent this in the future."

Thousands of Uzbeks remain trapped on the Kyrgyz side, too afraid to return to homes that no longer exist, after Uzbekistan closed the border. Many refugees in Osh and Jalalabad told The Times that they had received no help and they accused local Kyrgyz officials of deliberately depriving them of humanitarian aid delivered into the region.

 Hopefully Bayern will save football tonight after defeating the evil and anti-football that is FC Inter.