Speaking at a gathering of FSB officials, the Kremlin leader accused Ukraine of resorting to “acts of terrorism” after “failing to inflict a strategic defeat against Russia on the battlefield.”
Former US ambassador Peter Mandelson has been released on bail after his arrest over claims he committed misconduct in public office during his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Police have been investigating allegations that he leaked Downing Street emails and market-sensitive information to the disgraced US financier during his time as business secretary. Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s head of national news Archie Bland – watch on YouTube
Continue reading...Campus clashes provide uneasy backdrop to third round of talks on nuclear programme in Geneva
Plainclothes police and security forces, many of them armed, have tried to flood Iran’s remaining open universities in an attempt to crush a fourth day of student protests against the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Running battles were reported on some campuses, with videos showing fistfights between the Basji state-backed militia and students at the University of Science and Technology in Tehran. Pick-up trucks with machine-guns were photographed parked outside the University of Tehran, with demonstrations also in Mashhad.
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It’s not been the best time for Turkish football in recent months, what with the suspension of 149 match officials and more than 1,000 players relating to a betting scandal. Ouch. But events in a seventh-tier match at the weekend brought some much-needed moral goodness back to the game there when a player revived a seagull that had been struck down by a flying ball. Yep, you read that right. Let’s start at the beginning shall we. Istanbul Yurdum Spor goalkeeper Muhammed Uyanik picked the ball up in the 22nd minute of a fierce battle with Mevlanakapi Guzelhisar, with the winner taking home the league title. Seeing no short options available, he went route one, pinging the ball high into the air only to see his clearance thud against a low-flying gull that spiralled in the air like a downed fighter-jet before dropping to the floor with a sickening thud.
Sorry it’s a bit late, but have been away for a week and just caught Ken Muir’s letter regarding Invergordon FC and their league win possibly relating to a close distillery (Football Daily letters, 17 February). It reminded me instantly of a summer long ago when I and fellow members of Thames Ditton Wanderers CC undertook a tour of Yorkshire. Our first game was against Tadcaster and their captain invited us for a pre-match lunch and tour of the Sam Smiths Brewery. Our team of various waifs and strays from around the commonwealth accepted the hospitality provided in the tap room. Needless to say the home side enjoyed a comfortable win. Has this tactic ever been more successful at a higher sporting level?” – Mark Bennett.
Not wishing to turn this into an English language pedants column [bit late for that – Football Daily Ed], but … in yesterday’s letters, Charles Antaki responded to David Bolam’s criticism of the phrase ‘centred around’. Just below, David Livesy used tautology when describing himself as an ‘unmarried bachelor’. This may be diverting the column from being centred around/on football but felt a compelling urge to point this out” – James Harvey.
Yikes! If Barry Glendenning included himself in the ‘universal admiration and [liking of]’ James Milner, then his views on players less difficult-to-hate must be borderline unprintable. It can’t be easy being paid millions to play five minutes of football once or twice a week, Barry” – Rowan Sweeney.
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Continue reading...Underestimated for too long, Wylie is now wanted by galleries worldwide and her giant, wild, witty paintings – of Hollywood stars, soccer greats, black swans and flying bombs – fetch huge sums. We visit her relaxed studio in Kent
The Royal Academy is billing Rose Wylie as a “rebel artist” for her forthcoming show and at 91, she finds there’s still a lot to rebel against. An establishment that has long underrated women’s work, for one: astonishingly, hers is the first solo show by a British woman to occupy all the academy’s main galleries. Being pigeonholed is another: her giant canvases – with their bold colours, painted texts and wild juxtapositions (Nicole Kidman meets ancient Egypt at a Kent community centre) – have been compared to the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Philip Guston. But she does not identify with any one movement and dislikes art that is “up your arse”.
For more than 60 years now, Wylie has lived in her low-slung, 17th-century house in Sittingbourne, Kent, where she rebels against conventional domesticity. Jasmine grows in a tangle through the kitchen ceiling and bouquets of dead flowers crowd another room. A ceramic horse given to her by the actor James Norton, a collector, lies by the windowsill. Next to the sink, two plates of petrified cakes are fuzzy with cobwebs. “I bought that biscuit in Costa two years ago,” says Sara, who works at Wylie’s London gallery, pointing to one of them. She thinks there’s a Battenberg buried somewhere upstairs in the studio.
Continue reading...KYIV (ANP/RTR) - Oekraïne verwerpt de Russische aantijging dat het land met hulp van het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Frankrijk kernwapens of onderdelen daarvoor probeert te verkrijgen. Eerder beweerde de Russische buitenlandse inlichtingendienst dat die landen Kyiv zouden willen voorzien van kernwapens. Volgens Kremlinadviseur Joeri Oesjakov heeft dat gevolgen voor de Russische positie in de vredesonderhandelingen met Oekraïne.
"Russische functionarissen, bekend om hun indrukwekkende leugens, proberen eens te meer hun 'vuile bom'-nonsens de wereld in te helpen", aldus een woordvoerder van het Oekraïense ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken. "Oekraïne heeft dergelijke absurde claims keer op keer verworpen en we verwerpen die bewering nu opnieuw. We vragen de internationale gemeenschap om deze bom aan valse informatie te verwerpen en te veroordelen."
Een van de verdachten van een schietpartij vorig jaar in Rotterdam-West is door Marokko uitgeleverd aan Nederland. Het gaat om een 30-jarige man uit Spijkenisse. Hij blijft voorlopig vastzitten. Dat heeft de rechter-commissaris dinsdag besloten.
