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Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Under a Bridge_Infra Red
Taken with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III converted to InfraRed. Then applied a Kubota action in CS5 (chocolate syrup 2).
© Phillip Wittke
WEBSITE: www.phillipwittkephotography.com
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Un giro di battaglia.
Un giro di battaglia.
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Monday, May 2, 2011
Royal Nuptials Test U.K. Security Force
LONDON—U.K. security forces are preparing for one of their toughest operations yet: a wedding.
Prince William and Kate Middleton's April 29 nuptials will be attended by government officials, foreign heads of state and celebrities as well as the royal family. The wedding will be a high-profile test case for security forces ahead of next year's Olympic Games here. And it comes amid a heightened terror alert in the U.K. and a string of protests in recent months that have turned violent.
Photos: Security Tight in London
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![[SB10001424052748704071704576276742895626396]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uOyPkofNI-S1tLkmvDvbDEQ1cmx2yJsnJ6A3eiWKCE-tB25RHrbum7lAoKPAAFIQImNAYIf4Vy7ftGWA1E58OgWQfAwLJ34o5Jpc0chLs7bRMkGlXSA3Z_p70YHGgUpo458RpQVS0VLe44DUVRkgCO=s0-d)
Anthony Devlin/Getty Images
Metropolitan Police officers carried out security checks on drains and lamp posts along London's Mall ahead of the royal wedding.
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The multimillion-pound security plan for the day is expected to include nearly 5,000 police officers, according to London's Metropolitan Police, known as Scotland Yard. Police will cordon off a chunk of central London stretching from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, and the area will be closed to traffic.
Plans include an aerial sweep by police helicopters before the wedding, to scan hard-to-see areas like rooftops and railway lines. The helicopters will retreat slightly during the ceremony, so the noise of the blades won't disturb the event, but will continue to monitor the area and the crowd dynamics, beaming images back to a special operations room.
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Full Coverage: Royal Wedding | Video
"There is a lot of pressure on the Met," said Dai Davies, former head of Scotland Yard's royal protection unit. "They know the eyes of the world are watching and will be judging not only the police but the coalition [government], who ultimately will take the blame if something goes wrong."
Security in London is stepped up ahead of next week's royal wedding, as Muslim radicals threaten to disrupt the national celebration. Video courtesy of Reuters and photo courtesy of Getty Images.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman directed questions about security to the Metropolitan Police. A police spokeswoman said police have developed plans and tactics from experience of large-scale events over the years, but declined to discuss details. "The royal wedding will be a fantastic day of ceremony and pageantry," she said. "We will take whatever steps are necessary before and during the wedding against those who may want to disrupt this day of national celebration," she said.
A Royal Romance
Track Prince William and Kate Middleton's eight-year courtship -- from St. Andrews to the Ski slopes of Switzerland.
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Leading the police effort is Cmdr. Bob Broadhurst, head of public order at Scotland Yard and an experienced hand at such big events. He is heading operational planning for the 2012 Olympics, and was involved in security for Prince Charles's second wedding, to Camilla, duchess of Cornwall.
Cmdr. Broadhurst has said police may use counterterrorism stop-and-search powers during the wedding to prevent the kind of violent disturbances that the U.K. has experienced recently as part of protests against government austerity measures.
The added burden on police comes as the forces face steep budget cuts. The government has said it will cut police budgets by 20% over the next four years.
Police must be alert to a range of threats, from anarchist protesters to Irish republican terrorists to al Qaeda-inspired extremists. The terrorist threat level in the U.K. is currently set by the government at "severe," meaning that generally "an attack is highly likely."
Mr. Davies, the former policeman, said the threats police must plan for today are far greater than at the time of the 1981 wedding of Prince William's parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. "The world has changed considerably," said Mr. Davies.
Police will be aiming to avoid incidents such as the December attack by campaigners protesting increases in student fees on the car of Prince Charles, heir to the throne, and his wife, Camilla. Protesters, some chanting "Off with their heads!" smashed a window of the prince's Rolls-Royce and splashed paint on the car as it drove through central London. The couple were unharmed but the incident was an embarrassment for security services.
The car is one of two possible vehicles that Prince William and his bride will use at their wedding; a palace spokesman declined to comment on whether the cars had been fortified since that incident.
That protest was one of several recent demonstrations that turned violent. Last month, more than 200 people were arrested in London on suspicion of criminal damage, violent disorder and other offenses during protests against government cuts. Crowds threw missiles and vandalized a number of buildings, including the Ritz Hotel in Mayfair, a Nike store, and several bank branches. Dozens of people were injured, including police officers. Security for those protests involved thousands of police officers and cost more than £2 million ($3.3 million), according to police.
Among other high-profile security breaches involving the royal family was a famous incident in July 1982 when a man twice broke into Buckingham Palace, once to wander through the kitchens and drink some wine, and later to enter the Queen's bedroom where she awoke to find him at the end of her bed and he engaged her in conversation.
Write to Cassell Bryan-Low at cassell.bryan-low@wsj.com
Online.wsj.com
In Deraa, a Syrian Family Waits for Calm
BEIRUT—When Abdelkadir left his university dorm some 10 days ago and traveled to southern Syria to check on his family in the city of Deraa—where protests were raging—he brought along a copy of an international newspaper.
A week later, after the Syrian military surrounded the city last Monday and launched a relentless and deadly crackdown that has kept most residents cowering in their houses, that newspaper remains the last glimpse the family has had of the outside world.
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Associated Press
In this image made on a mobile phone from the window of a car, two Syrian soldiers and an armed man in civilian clothes stand at a checkpoint in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday.
"We stayed up late last night, talking, thinking—how much longer can we stay like this, and where can they go with it?" said the 25-year-old Abdelkadir, who asked that his last name not be used, to protect the security of his family, who huddled with him around a cellphone early Saturday morning. "Every day, we say, 'Tomorrow it will be over; the military will withdraw.' We woke up to artillery rounds again today."
On Sunday evening, after another weekend in which at least 30 residents were killed and armed troops stormed the city's main mosque, the Syrian government announced the military operation in Deraa was continuing to hunt "armed terrorist groups." There were reports of shelling into the city center during the day. Security forces again fired automatic weapons at the al-Omari mosque, while hundreds were arrested in home raids, activists said.
"I wonder who is left to arrest in Deraa, between the dead and the already detained," one activist said.
Amateur video purportedly shows Syrian troops firing rounds on the streets of Daraa. Video courtesy Reuters.
When the government first sent in tanks and troops on April 25, it said the deployment was at the request of Deraa residents, to save them from what Damascus called terrorist groups. But by the accounting of Deraa residents reached by phone, nearly all of that firepower has been focused on the citizens of the city, which has a population of nearly 80,000.
The al-Omari mosque, with its enclosed courtyard, has become a rallying square for protesters. Streets across the rest of the city—made up of a residential quarter with two-story, black basalt houses, and a district with government and commercial buildings—are deserted, residents said.
Protesters have renamed the area around the mosque Dignity Square. But even the hundreds who used to gather for Friday prayer at the mosque have dwindled to dozens over the past few weeks, as soldiers and snipers scare away the faithful.
Unrest in Syria
Despite the rising death toll from weeks of unrest, people across Syria continue to protest the government of President Bashar al-Assad. See events by day.
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Uprising in the Middle East
Popular demonstrations in Tunisia toppled a president and spread to countries across the region. See photos from protests from Algeria to Yemen.
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Last Friday, about 60 men prayed at the mosque and walked out together chanting "peaceful, peaceful." Troops shot some of them and arrested others, Abdelkadir said. Thousands of protesters marched Friday across most of Syria's other major cities and towns.
On Saturday, newly appointed Prime Minister Adel Safar said the government would set up committees to develop a comprehensive plan for reforms, the state news agency said.
That day in Deraa, tanks and machine-gun-wielding soldiers killed between four and six people at the mosque, according to activist accounts. Security forces shot Osama al-Sayassneh, the son of the mosque's imam, in the courtyard, according to the activists. Another account says Mr. al-Sayassneh was shot outside his home after being pulled out for interrogation on his father's whereabouts. His father, the Imam Ahmad, is understood to have been detained or to have given himself in to security, these activists said.
Abdelkadir, an English literature student at Tishreen University in Latakia, said he isn't a political activist—although he has been held for questioning even before the latest protests began. He described himself as someone who likes to read and "discover life"—and someone who wants "a civil society in Syria," a better constitution, and an independent judiciary. He was proud to be one of the few people with a subscription to an English-language newspaper.
"I want to be a citizen, to be held accountable and be able to hold accountable," he said. "They want to divide us and divide our loyalties so they can rule us."
Deraa, known for wheat cultivation and olive-oil production on the border with Jordan, is where the protests in Syria began seven weeks ago after security forces arrested 25 teenagers for scrawling graffiti on their Ba'ath Party school that echoed antiregime slogans from uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The Ba'ath Party has monopolized political life in Syria since 1963.
On April 25, tanks and troops moved into the city. Electricity and telecommunications were cut, residents said. Only a few international cellphone lines and satellite phones, brought in through the Jordanian border, now allow residents to call outside the city.
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BAP/Abacausa
Amateur video shows Syrian army tank entering Deraa, Syria, April 25.
"I'm in a room with no light. I don't have electricity or water. This international phone line—four neighborhoods come to use this," Abdelkadir said. A handful of satellite phones charged by car batteries are no longer working.
Children here have been out of school for nearly a month. Women sit indoors, praying and hoarding supplies in safe rooms on the bottom floor, as more than one family sometimes crowds into the top floor. "We share supplies and we try to sit together," said one resident. "We chant 'God is great' because there is no one but God looking out for us."
Bread is smuggled in carts from the surrounding villages or on horseback, if they can dodge the constant gunfire and sporadic artillery that has pounded the city for a week, residents said. Water tanks, destroyed by the military, are empty. Infant formula and insulin for diabetics started running out a few days ago, they said.
Bodies of those killed, some of which were left out on the street for two days because few dared to run out to grab them, have been dragged inside homes, residents said. More than 80 bodies lie in makeshift morgues around the city, with more than 100 people killed since the military siege began, human-rights activists said.
Abdelkadir's neighbors, mostly construction workers, had never seen a military tank in real life, he said. "And then there is my little nephew, who runs out into the living room and tells us, 'I want to be a martyr.' " His sister, a teachers' assistant at a school in the city, said she hasn't been in contact with the teachers for more than a week and doesn't know whether school will open again.
Abdelkadir's cousin, who didn't want to give her name, said she was confused by President Bashar al-Assad's response to the protests that have taken over her hometown. She wants the president to seize power from the security and intelligence forces who actually rule Syria, she said.
"The army has to stand with the people. They need to let the protesters come out, without violence. Everyone needs to express themselves and leave the regime room to make reforms. We don't want Syria to be destroyed," she said.
Syria's multilayered security apparatus is invasive and discouraging, she said. After following in Abdelkadir's footsteps and taking English courses at an institute, she was constantly questioned. "Why are you studying English? Why do you go to Jordan so much?" she said they would ask her.
"We don't want the mukhabarat [intelligence services] to rule us," she said. "We need comprehensive reform in the regime. We need a new education system and an entirely new school curriculum, so we don't all come out in the same mold."
She continued: "We love Bashar, but the people below and around him aren't listening to him anymore."
Mr. Assad came into power in 2000, following his father's 30-year rule, promising economic and social reforms, which mostly didn't happen. Since protests started in mid-March, he has replaced his government, signed into effect the end of a decades-old emergency law and abolished a state security court used to try political prisoners. The measures didn't appear to appease protesters.
As gunfire shots sounded in the background, she handed the phone to Abdelkadir and said she was running upstairs, adding quickly, "But the security forces, they only speak the language of bullets."
Write to Nour Malas at nour.malas@dowjones.com
Online.wsj.com
Sault Ste. Marie at TC West
Sault Ste. Marie at TC West - April 2011
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British boxing world pays tribute to the late Sir Henry Cooper
British boxing world pays tribute to the late Sir Henry Cooper
The world of British boxing united in tribute to Sir Henry Cooper on Saturday night, as heavyweight champion David Haye acknowledged the late 76 year-old’s profound influence upon his own career.
Muhammad Ali and Sir Henry Cooper pose together in Windsor in 2009 Photo: AP
By Oliver Brown 11:49PM BST 01 May 2011
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“He’s a guy who put Muhammad Ali on the canvas,” said Haye, much affected by the replays of ’Enry’s ’Ammer, the left hook that floored Ali - then known as Cassius Clay - at Wembley in 1963.
“The left hook that he hit Ali with, I've never seen one thrown as perfectly as that. That one shot forever will be remembered in boxing history.
"Muhammad Ali is known as the greatest ever boxer, and Henry Cooper put him down very badly while he was young, fresh and at his peak.
“He has so much knowledge that he has passed on to so many people. He was at all the charity dinners and he would wish me luck, give me his opinion on what he thought I should do. It was always sound advice.”
Amir Khan, Britain’s light welterweight champion, remembered Cooper as a figure far removed from the enmities that mark the build-up to most modern marquee fights - Haye’s bout with Wladimir Klitschko in July being a prime example.
“Nowadays you get a lot of trash talking,” the 24 year-old said. “But Henry was known for one thing: when he was inside the ring he was like an animal, but when he was outside the ring he had a lot of respect for his opponents and for his fans.”
Promoter Frank Warren explained the secret to Cooper’s unparalleled popularity. “The British public really held him close to their hearts,” he said. “He was one of the true gentleman of sport.
“He transcended boxing. He never actually won a world title, but he was a guy the public could associate with. He wasn’t loud-mouth, he was just an old-school British guy who had done his best and tried as hard as he could in whatever fight he was in.
" Once he lost four fights in a row and had to go abroad, but he showed true grit and determination, and got himself back into contention to fight for world titles.”
Des Lynam, who first worked with Cooper on British television in the 1970s, added: “I first got to work with Henry on Sports Report. He was a lovely man, understated, and one of British sport’s first celebrities.
"When he was introduced to crowds at big fights, he would often be given a bigger cheer than the fighters.”
Former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan, who lived close to Sir Henry in Kent and became a close friend of his, claimed he never recovered from his wife Abina’s death in 2008. The couple were "devoted to each other,” he said.
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Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum
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