According to the latest files leaked to The Guardian newspaper France, Greece and Italy have been the “targets” of US spying operations.
Citing a document by the National Security Agency (NSA), it says America’s non-European allies were also targeted.
The claim follows a report by Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine saying EU offices had been bugged. EU leaders have demanded an explanation from the US.
Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden is said to have leaked the documents.
Edward Snowden – a former contractor for the CIA and the NSA – has since requested asylum from Ecuador. He is currently in Russia, marooned at Moscow’s airport after US authorities cancelled his passport.
In response to the allegations in Der Spiegel, senior EU officials, France and Germany have warned warning that relations with America could suffer.
The NSA said the US government would respond through diplomatic channels and discussions with the countries involved.
According to a 2010 secret document leaked to the Guardian, all in all 38 embassies and missions were described by the NSA as “targets”.
A report by Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine revealed EU offices had been bugged
The paper says the file provides details of “an extraordinary range” of spying methods, including bugs implanted in electronic communications gear, taps into cable and the usage of specialized antennae.
The report mentions codenames of alleged operations against the French and Greek missions to the UN, as well as the Italian embassy in Washington.
The paper adds that the list of targets also includes “a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey”.
The Guardian also cites another leaked report from 2007, which said a bug was placed in an encrypted fax machine at the EU mission in Washington.
According to the document cited by Der Spiegel – which it says also comes from the NSA – the agency spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the 27-member bloc’s UN office in New York.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that if confirmed, the activities would be “totally unacceptable”.
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the alleged US behavior “recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War”.
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, warned that any such spying could have a “severe impact” on ties between the EU and the US.
The European Commission, which plays a key role in trade talks, has officially asked Washington to investigate the allegations.
At least 19 firefighters have been killed battling a wildfire in central Arizona, local officials say.
The firefighters died while fighting the blaze threatening the town of Yarnell, about 80 miles north-west of Phoenix.
The fire was started by lightning on Friday and spread rapidly amid high heat, low humidity and strong winds. At least 200 homes were burned.
Arizona and other parts of the western US – including California – had near-record temperatures over the weekend.
It is the highest death toll for firefighters in a single incident since 9/11.
Arizona Senator John McCain said the families of the dead firefighterswere in the thoughts and prayers of all Americans.
“This devastating loss is a reminder of the grave risks our firefighters take every day on our behalf in Arizona and in communities across this nation. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten,” he said in a statement.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said it could take “days or longer” to reveal how the deaths occurred.
At least 19 firefighters died while fighting the blaze threatening the town of Yarnell, about 80 miles north-west of Phoenix
“This is as dark a day as I can remember,” she said.
“It has been confirmed that 19 wildland firefighters have lost their lives on the Yarnell Hill fire Arizona,” the US Wildland Fire Aviation said in a statement.
The firefighters were part of a specially trained “hotshot” unit who had battled other wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona in recent weeks, officials say.
They were forced to deploy emergency tent-like structures meant to shield them from flames after becoming trapped and “something drastic” happened, said Dan Fraijo, fire chief in the nearby city of Prescott.
“One of the last fail-safe methods a firefighter can do is literally to dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective fire-resistant material, with the hope that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it,” he said.
“Under certain conditions there’s usually only sometimes a 50% chance that they survive. It’s an extreme measure that’s taken under the absolute worst conditions.”
Two other members of the elite unit who suffered severe burns have been flown to a burn treatment centre in Phoenix.
The tragedy is the worst in a wildfire since 1933, when at least 25 firemen died battling a fire in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
Some 200 firefighters are still battling the fast-moving wildfire, which has grown to 1,000 acres. Additional reinforcements have been called in.
The blaze has forced the evacuation of local residents.
An estimated 200 homes were destroyed in Yarnell, the Associated Press reported, almost half the properties in the town.
In recent days, dozens of people across western US states have been treated for exhaustion and dehydration, as the heat wave continues.
Temperatures in some areas were expected to reach 130F (54C), close to the world’s all-time high recorded 100 years ago in California’s Death Valley.
Tamarud, the Egyptian opposition movement that has led nationwide protests against President Mohammed Morsi, has given him until Tuesday to resign.
A statement issued by Tamarud (Rebel) said President Mohamed Morsi would face a campaign of civil disobedience if he did not leave power and allow elections to be held.
Protesters across Egypt have accused Mohamed Morsi of failing to tackle economic and security problems since being elected a year ago
The group said it had collected more than 22 million signatures in support.
The crowds seen in Tahrir Square in the capital, Cairo, on Sunday were the biggest since the 2011 revolution.
In sporadic outbreaks of violence, at least one person was reported killed in an attack on the headquarters of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, while four more died in the central province of Assiut.
Protesters across Egypt have accused the president of failing to tackle economic and security problems since being elected a year ago. Mohamed Morsi’s supporters have insisted he needs more time.
Brazilian protesters have clashed with police during the Confederations Cup final between the host nation and Spain in Rio de Janeiro.
Riot police fired tear gas as demonstrators threw missiles near the Maracana football stadium.
President Dilma Rousseff did not attend the match. She was booed at the opening of the tournament.
The protests started nearly a month ago, sparked by transport fare rises, but quickly encompassed other issues.
The main grievances are over the costs of staging the World Cup, corruption and demands for better health, education and transport.
Brazilian protesters have clashed with police during the Confederations Cup final between the host nation and Spain in Rio de Janeiro
Earlier on Sunday a group of demonstrators tried to storm a Brazilian Football Association (CBF) building in Rio. But police kept them back and the group settled outside the building.
The protesters demanded the resignation of CBF president Jose Maria Marin, who has been accused of incompetence.
In a separate protest, several thousand people marched on Maracana stadium banging drums.
They demanded free public transport, carrying placards reading “FIFA – you pay the bill”. The demonstrators also called for and end to corruption and the resignation of the Rio State governor.
Minutes before the game began, small groups of protesters threw rocks and firecrackers at police lines.
Security forces responded with tear gas and sent armored vehicles to disperse the demonstrators. There were no further incidents during the game – which saw Brazil beat Spain 3-0.
The wave of protests began nearly a month ago in the city Sao Paulo after bus fares were increased by 10%.
But after heavy-handed police action, it spread to other cities and mobilized public opinion.
The rises in Sao Paulo and many other Brazilian cities were revoked after two weeks of protests.
By then, the demonstrations had turned into a nationwide movement for better education, healthcare and transport.
Mumford and Sons have closed this year’s Glastonbury festival, with their first ever headline set on the Pyramid Stage.
The band began in the dark, playing the slow-burning Lovers’ Eyes, which opens with a lone vocal over feedback.
The lights came up for second song I Will Wait – their only UK top 20 hit – and the crowd erupted.
“We came for a party,” frontman Marcus Mumford said.
The set was the band’s first since bass player Ted Dwane had surgery for a blood clot on his brain this month.
They closed their set by playing the Joe Cocker version of A Little Help From My Friends, for which they were joined on stage by Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines and folk singers The Staves.
This year’s Glastonbury Festival has seen 180,000 people descend on Michael Eavis’s Somerset farmstead.
The music has catered to a wide range of tastes with sets from artists such as Laura Mvula, Chase and Status, Rita Ora and Elvis Costello.
Sunday’s line-up included Vampire Weekend, Smashing Pumpkins, Jessie Ware, Bobby Womack and Sir Bruce Forsyth.
Avon and Somerset Police said crime at this year’s festival has dropped dramatically since the last event in 2011.
Crime levels were 33% lower than in 2011, with 220 reported crimes, including drug offences and thefts from tents, since gates to the campsites opened on Wednesday.
Police added that there were no major incidents on site and a total of 154 arrests have been made.
Mumford and Sons’ had said they would have pulled out of the headline slot if their 28-year-old bass player had not made a full recovery.
The band were hit by the news of Ted Dwane’s condition while they were on tour in the US earlier in June. He had been taken to hospital after being described as “feeling unwell” for several days.
His illness forced the band to cancel the remainder of their North American Summer Stampede tour and threw their first headliner slot at Worthy Farm into doubt.
“Nothing was more important than Ted’s health,” said Ben Lovett.
After leaving hospital, Ted Dwane posted a picture of himself bearing surgery scars on the band’s website, accompanied by the caption: “Bear with a sore head!”
Mumford and Sons have closed this year’s Glastonbury festival, with their first ever headline set on the Pyramid Stage
The band took to a stage still vibrating from the barnstorming set from Saturday night’s closing act – The Rolling Stones.
The veteran rockers received five-star reviews in most of the Sunday papers.
Some fans in the audience, however, felt the sound was too quiet and there were scattered chants of “turn it up” during the band’s performance.
Mumford and Sons were among those watching the gig, as they had with Friday night headliners the Arctic Monkeys.
Ben Lovett said the shows had made him worry that his banjo-brandishing band did not have quite enough hits to fill their show.
“We’ve only got two albums, so we’ve got to write more,” he laughed.
“But we’re match fit. We wouldn’t perform if we didn’t think we could do a great job.
“We’re confident and we’re looking forward to it.”
The Grammy and Brit-winning band are the biggest stars of the nu-folk scene which emerged from West London five years ago.
Their contemporaries Noah And The Whale, who played on The Other Stage on Saturday, said the headline slot was a coming-of-age moment.
“It’s funny,” said frontman Charlie Fink.
“Every time things get a bit bigger, you think <<I can’t believe it’s got to this stage>> and then something else happens.
“But I think it’s amazing. It’s crazy everything that’s happened to people we know and that genre of music.”
Another oldie making his debut was 85-year-old Bruce Forsyth, who emerged on the Avalon Stage to the Strictly Come Dancing theme and introduced himself as “The Rolling Stones 2”, before playing a set of music hall standards, including Gershwin’s Funny Face.
The turn-out for Sir Bruce Forsyth was so large that security officers shut down the Avalon field for 20 minutes, as hundreds of fans spilled out of the tent into the field beyond.
The notorious Sunday afternoon “Glastonbury legend” slot – which has played host to the likes of Shirley Bassey and Johnny Cash – was filled by country star Kenny Rogers.
“I was told it was a special slot but I don’t always believe everything my manager says when he’s trying to get me to do something,” admitted the singer.
Kenny Rogers added he was unsure whether the Glastonbury audience would be familiar with hits such as The Gambler, Coward Of The County and Islands In The Stream.
“But I think any time you get that number of people together, percentage-wise I should have enough people who know my music to carry the rest of them.
“I’m convinced now that my audience falls into two categories: Either born since 1980 and their parents played my music as child abuse, or they were born before 1960, and can no longer remember the 60s.”
The 74-year-old, who is the seventh-biggest-selling artist in US history, also said he was hoping to see Mumford and Sons.
“I saw them on a Country Music Television show in the States, and I thought they were excellent.
“You know, my first 10 years, I played upright bass and sang in a jazz group – so I can really appreciate what they’re doing melody-wise and time-wise.
“It’s great to hear a group like that be so successful.”
Germany and France are urging the US to come clean over claims that its intelligence services have been spying on key European Union offices.
A report in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine said EU offices in the US and Europe had been bugged.
Other “targets” included the French, Italian and Greek embassies in the US, according to leaked documents later mentioned by the Guardian newspaper.
Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden is said to be the source of the leaks.
Edward Snowden – who was also a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) – has since requested asylum in Ecuador. He is currently believed to be staying at Moscow’s airport.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that if the allegations carried by Der Spiegel were confirmed, such US activities would be “totally unacceptable”.
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the alleged US behavior was reminiscent of the Cold War.
“If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War,” she was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
“It is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies.”
Meanwhile, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz said he was “deeply worried and shocked” by the allegations.
He said any such spying could have a “severe impact” on ties between the EU and the US.
According to the document – which Der Spiegel says comes from the NSA – the agency spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the 27-member bloc’s UN office in New York.
The document also allegedly refers to the EU as a “target”.
Edward Snowden is believed to be currently staying at Moscow’s airport
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that – according to one leaked report – 38 embassies and missions had been targeted.
The Guardian said the list included the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey.
It is not known what information US spies might have got, but details of European positions on trade and military matters would have been useful to those involved in negotiations between Washington and European governments.
There was particular concerns over claims a building used by ministers in Brussels had its phones tapped and internet hacked by US security services.
The European Commission, which plays a key role in trade talks, has asked Washington to investigate Der Spiegel‘s report.
“We have immediately been in contact with the US authorities in Washington DC and in Brussels and have confronted them with the press reports,” it said in a statement.
“They have told us they are checking on the accuracy of the information released yesterday and will come back to us.”
The US government has so far made no public comments on the allegations.
Der Spiegel quoted Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn as saying: “If these reports are true, it’s disgusting. The United States would be better off monitoring its secret services rather than its allies.”
Edward Snowden is believed to be currently staying at Moscow’s airport. He arrived there last weekend from Hong Kong, where he had been staying since he revealed details of top secret US surveillance programmes.
The US has charged him with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Each charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
In an interview with ABC television, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dismissed remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry that people could die as a result of Edward Snowden’s revelations.
“We have heard this rhetoric. I myself was subject to precisely this rhetoric two, three years ago. And it all proved to be false,” he said.
Raffaele Sollecito, Amanda Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend, has told of their “intense” relationship claiming he felt he had been “hit by a thunderbolt” when they first met.
Speaking to reporters in New York, where he and Amanda Knox were reunited earlier this week, Raffaele Sollecito said he was horrified by the Italian Court’s decision to reopen the case into the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox were found guilty of murdering 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in 2009 and were jailed for 25 and 26 years respectively.
They were freed on appeal in 2011, but Italian judges have now ordered them to return to court for retrial.
Raffaele Sollecito told The Sun: “Meeting Amanda was like being hit by a thunderbolt. Our relationship got very intense, very quickly.”
He said he felt great sorrow over the death of Meredith Kercher and added that he would one day like to visit her grave in Mitcham, Surrey.
Raffaele Sollecito said: “I will never forget Meredith. It was terrible what happened. But I am not responsible for her death.
“It makes me sad when her family say they still believe other people were involved. Rudy Guede is in prison for her murder and his DNA was all over the scene.”
He described the reopening of the trial as like a “horror movie where they keep making sequels”, and continues to deny having anything to do with Meredith Kercher’s death.
The court ruled that Meredith Kercher’s death was a “s** game gone wrong” and have ordered Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox back for trial.
This has resulted in Raffaele Sollecito launching a desperate $500,000 online appeal for donations to fund his retrial.
The computer studies graduate said he was hard up and needed the cash for “legal expenses” but added he would donate anything raised above the target “to a research foundation”.
In an appeal posted on his Facebook page, Raffaele Sollecito wrote: “Well Guys, the problem for me now is pretty though.
Raffaele Sollecito, Amanda Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend, has told of their “intense” relationship claiming he felt he had been “hit by a thunderbolt” when they first met
“I’m deeply concerned not just for the issue I’m facing and most of you already know about, but also because I don’t have resources anymore to fight this injustice.
“I badly need to be able to hire experts, when needed, or pay my attorney fees, documents fees, and so on when the new appeal will start.
“I hope to not bother you, but I need your collaboration to face this ordeal. Otherwise I don’t want to forced to give up just for financial reason.
“I hope you will understand. I’m just asking if you, buddies, know how to build up a non-profit raising funds foundation. Big Hugs, Raffaele Sollecito.”
Raffaele Sollecito is thought to have been paid $1million for U.S. TV news interviews and an advance on his book Honor Bound: My Journey to Hell and Back with Amanda Knox, which was published last year.
However, a sizeable proportion of that was swallowed up in legal fees to his team of lawyers including Italy’s high flying Giulia Bongiorno who is said to have the highest fees in the country.
On Tuesday, the High Court issued its written reasoning for doing so. Meredith Kercher’s body was found in November 2007 in her bedroom of the house she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia, a central Italian town popular with foreign exchange students.
Amanda Knox, now 25, and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 29, were initially convicted and sentenced to long prison terms, but a Perugia appeals court acquitted them in 2011, criticizing virtually the entire case mounted by prosecutors.
The appellate court noted that the murder weapon was never found, said that DNA tests were faulty and that prosecutors provided no murder motive.
A young man from Ivory Coast, Rudy Guede, was convicted in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence.
In the 74-page Cassation ruling, the High Court judges said they “had to recognize that he [Rudy Guede] was not the sole author” of the crime, Italian news agency LaPresse reported. The judges though said he was the “main protagonist”.
They said the new appeal process would serve to “not only demonstrate the presence of the two suspects in the place of the crime, but to possibly outline the subjective position of Rudy Guede’s accomplices”.
The high court faulted the Perugia appeals court for “multiple instances of deficiencies, contradictions and illogical” conclusions.
The new court must conduct a full examination of evidence to resolve the ambiguities, it said.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito denied wrongdoing and said they weren’t even in the apartment that night, although they acknowledged they had smoked marijuana and their memories were clouded.
Raffaele Sollecito was given a 25-year jail term while Amanda Knox was given 26 years but in 2011 the verdicts were overturned and they were released on appeal.
However, three months ago Italy’s highest court ruled there should be a fresh trial for both of them.
It wouldn’t be the Fourth of July in New York City without the Annual Macy’s Fireworks, now in its 37th year.
The iconic display will take place over the Hudson River, so the optimal viewing spots are going to be on 12th Avenue between 23rd and 42nd streets, but anywhere with a decent view of the Hudson will work.
It wouldn’t be the Fourth of July in New York City without the Annual Macy’s Fireworks
If you plan on heading to where the action is, aim to be there by 5 p.m. to snag a good spot.
For this mother of all pyrotechnic displays, Macy’s will explode more than 40,000 fireworks choreographed to a 25-minute patriotic score.
Pop-music fans, take note: this year’s show was curated by Usher and features performances by Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey and Selena Gomez.
NASCAR driver Danica Patrick says she doesn’t care that Kyle Petty thinks she’s better at getting attention than driving because she’s heard it all before.
But if Kyle Petty’s going to attack her, the NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie believes he should at least get his facts straight.
On Friday, Danica Patrick responded to Kyle Petty’s comments a night earlier on Speed’s “Race Hub” program, in which the former Sprint Cup driver called her a “marketing machine” rather than a race car driver. Kyle Petty also doubted that Danica Patrick, 31, would become a driver and insisted that she doesn’t race as well as she qualifies.
Danica Patrick’s statistics suggest otherwise. On average she’s finishing almost six spots higher (25.8) than she starts (32nd), which she noted by saying: “Those who watch know I can’t qualify for crap. The race goes much better.”
That likely won’t stop Kyle Petty, the 53-year-old son of seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty and an eight-time race winner on NASCAR’s premier circuit, from criticizing Patrick.
Now an analyst for TNT and Fox/Speed, Kyle Petty has periodically taken jabs at Danica Patrick, a former IndyCar Series driver who now drives the No. 10 Chevy for Stewart-Haas Racing. Danica Patrick is 27th in points in her first full Cup season, which follows an open wheel career highlighted by a fuel-mileage victory in 2008 in Motegi, Japan.
On Thursday night, Kyle Petty seemed to elaborate on his views during the show. While he understands the mass appeal of Danica Patrick, who has been featured in racy TV ads for sponsor Go Daddy and was IndyCar’s most popular driver for several years, her driving skills don’t justify the hype in his opinion.
Danica Patrick says she doesn’t care that Kyle Petty thinks she’s better at getting attention than driving
“That’s where I have a problem, where fans have bought into the hype of the marketing, to think she’s a race car driver,” he said.
“She can go fast, and I’ve seen her go fast. She drives the wheels off it when she goes fast.”
Asked if she has learned to race, Kyle Petty continued: “She’s not a race car driver. There’s a difference. The King always had that stupid saying, but it’s true, <<Lots of drivers can drive fast, but very few drivers can race>>. Danica has been the perfect example of somebody who can qualify better than what she runs. She can go fast, but she can’t race.”
Danica Patrick won the pole and finished eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500 but has admittedly struggled this season. She said she’s working toward that point where things level out but isn’t there yet.
The main thing is keeping her team, sponsor and fans happy – not giving a second thought to Petty’s comments.
“I really don’t care,” she said during a news conference at Kentucky Speedway. “It’s true that there are plenty of people who say bad things about me. I read them. People want me to die. At the end of the day, you get over that stuff and trust you are doing a good job.”
Asked what it will take to quiet her critics, Danica Patrick’s response brought some laughs.
“Do you think I will silence my naysayers?” she asked.
“You don’t. I’m sure everybody has them. You know who believes in you. That’s what matters.”
Former boss Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shown his faith in Patrick, giving her a chance to transition to stock cars over three years in the Nationwide Series at JR Motorsports. Dale Earnhardt Jr. defended Danica Patrick and called her a tough competitor who works hard and said she wouldn’t have a ride if she couldn’t stay with the pack or finished last every week.
“I have to disagree with Kyle,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
“She has run some really good races. On every occasion she is outrunning several guys out on the circuit. If she was not able to compete, I think you might be able to say Kyle has an argument.
“But she’s out there running competitively and running strong on several accounts. I think that she has got a good opportunity and a rightful position in the sport to keep competing and she just might surprise even Kyle Petty.”
Selena Gomez wore patriotic red, white and blue during a pre-taped concert at Liberty State Park for Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular.
Selena Gomez – who turns 21 next month – flaunted her cleavage, midriff and long legs in a red-braided top and bridal-white cascading skirt.
Selena Gomez wore patriotic red, white and blue during a pre-taped concert at Liberty State Park for Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular
She finished off her patriotic ensemble with blue eyeshadow, an iridescent microphone and white gladiator heels.
The 37th annual event will air live on NBC Thursday with performances from Selena Gomez, her BFF Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey and her husband Nick Cannon.
Selena Gomez will officially kick off her own Stars Dance Tour on August 14 at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.
And her album of the same name, already available for presale, officially hits shelves on July 23.
Selena Gomez, who has confirmed she is “absolutely available in every way”, spent last Wednesday hanging out with singer Austin Mahone at Disneyland.
Glastonbury Festival has survived riots, fires, mud swamps in its action-packed 43-year-history.
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.
From humble hippyfest to music megabrand – Glastonbury has exploded into one of the world’s biggest and best-loved festivals.
It has survived riots, fires, mud swamps and the wrath of the local council throughout the years, to become an institution on the British summer calendar.
When Michael Eavis, a Somerset farmer, organized the first festival in 1970, he was inspired by the psychedelic delights of the Bath Blues Festival. In an attempt to create an even better event, Michael Eavis combined typical pop festival culture with a more traditional fair and harvest-type event.
The festival takes place in south west England at Worthy Farm between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle in Somerset, six miles east of Glastonbury, overlooked by the Glastonbury Tor in the “Vale of Avalon”. The area has a number of legends and spiritual traditions, and is a “New Age” site of interest: ley lines are considered to converge on the Tor. The nearest town to the festival site is Shepton Mallet, three miles north east, but there continues to be interaction between the people espousing alternative lifestyles living in Glastonbury and the festival. The farm is situated between the A361 and A37 roads.
Michael Eavis stated that he decided to host the first festival, then called Pilton Festival, after seeing an open air Led Zeppelin concert at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970; fourteen people invested everything they had to build the stage.
At the first Glastonbury in September 1970, around 1,500 people paid just £1 ($1.5) to see Marc Bolan and T-Rex headline the event, accompanied by free milk; just one detail that marks Glastonbury’s individuality from its start.
The first festival was influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement. The festival retains vestiges of this tradition such as the Green Fields area which includes the Green Futures and Healing Field. After the 1970s the festival took place almost every year and grew in size, with the number of attendees sometimes being swollen by gate-crashers.
A second festival was organized a year later, but this time the date was moved to coincide with the Summer Solstice in June. The first Pyramid Stage was built on the Glastonbury Stonehenge leyline for the event, which added a cosmic, mythical allure to the festival.
It was funded, in Michael Eavis’s words, by “rich hippies”, who wanted to ensure no one would miss out on the delights of Glastonbury simply because they could not afford to get in. That year, David Bowie played in front of 12,000 people, who had not paid a penny for the privilege. Characteristically, this festival came with only three rules: no alcohol sales, vegetarian food only, and no amplified music past midnight.
However, not everyone was happy with the new invasion of free-spirited souls descending on the rural communities surrounding Michael Eavis’s farm.
Glastonbury Festival has survived riots, fires, mud swamps in its action-packed 43-year-history
Some complained that they wandered around with seeming disregard for locals, with claims of people wearing nothing but a top hat at times. Michael Eavis also became increasingly concerned about the impact it was having on his livestock and business, so he vowed to end it for good. But it could not be stopped, and after a six-year break, an “impromptu” event was held in 1978, after 500 travellers arrived from Stonehenge for a virtually unplanned event. The stage was inventively powered by an electric motor in a caravan with the cable running to the stage.
The following year, the Glastonbury Fayre – as it was then known – returned as a three-day festival, but continued to lose the organizers money. In order to save the event, Michael Eavis persuaded the Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to help run the festival in exchange for any profits: £20,000 was raised, with tickets at only £8.
A new permanent pyramid stage was built, which would double up as a cow shed for the rest of the year, as the festival’s organization was stepped up. The event was to be a turning point in Glastonbury’s colorful history as it made a profit for the first time, which was handed over to a grateful CND.
The situation was not totally fixed though. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Michael Eavis faced yet more challenges from unwanted revellers and his fed-up neighbors, which again threatened to end the event.
However, the performers were ever more interesting, with people such as Van Morrison, The Smiths, The Pixies and The Cure making the event increasingly popular. For the first time in the festival’s history, he had to apply for a license from the local Mendip Council to stage the festival after a change in the law in 1983. Refused permission in 1986, 1987 and 1989, Michael Eavis took the authority to court and won each time.
Since 1981, the festival has been organized by Michael Eavis, through his company Glastonbury Festivals Ltd.
In 1990, on the festival’s 20th anniversary, travellers rioted with security staff after attempting to loot the empty site. Police made 235 arrests and the festival had to be cancelled the following year.
Nevertheless, it returned in 1992, having learned some tough lessons, and went from strength to strength – attracting bigger names and bigger crowds. The Pyramid Stage burned down in 1994, but a replacement stage was quickly provided by a local company as the event was televised for the first time. By 1997, tickets were £75, with 90,000 revellers.
In more recent years, the festival site turned into a giant mudbath in 1997, 1998 and 2005 – thanks to torrential rain and thunderstorms.
A £1 million “superfence” was finally erected in 2002 to beat the fence-jumpers and to boost security. After a one-year hiatus, 2007’s festival returned with new security features.
More than 140,000 people supplied ID photos for their tickets in an attempt to kill off the touts, who had grown rich off the booming demand for black market tickets. The festival failed to sell out in 2008 – which some put down to the fear of poor weather and a controversial line-up. But the brand bounced back in recent years and has repeatedly sold out with weeks to spare.
In 2010, Glastonbury celebrated its 40th year, a milestone dampened only by England’s painful World Cup defeat on the Sunday. Glastonbury has grown staggeringly over the years, with a huge range of performers making it the diverse and renowned institution it is today.
Glastonbury 2012 has been cancelled due to a lack of Portaloos and police officers caused by the London Olympics.
Michael Eavis ran the festival with his wife Jean until her death in 1999, and is now assisted by his daughter Emily Eavis. Since 2002, Festival Republic (a company consisting of both Live Nation and MCD) has taken on the job of managing the logistics and security of the festival through a 40% stake in the festival management company. Each year a company, joint owned by Glastonbury Festivals Ltd and Festival Republic, is created to run the festival, with profits going to the parent companies. Glastonbury Festivals Ltd donates most of their profits to charities, including donations to local charity and community groups and paying for the purchase and restoration of the Tithe Barn in Pilton.
Most people who stay at Glastonbury Festival camp in a tent. There are many different camping areas, each with its own atmosphere. Limekilns and Hitchin Hill Ground are quieter camping areas, whereas Pennard Hill Ground is a lively campsite. Cockmill Meadow is a family campsite and Wicket Ground was introduced in 2011 as a second family-only campsite. A disabled campsite is also available in Spring Ground. Campsite accommodation is provided in the cost of a standard entry ticket but festival-goers must bring their own tents.
Campervans, caravans and trailer tents are not allowed into the main festival site. However the purchase of a campervan ticket in addition to the main ticket allows access to fields just outside the boundary fence; and the cost includes access for the campervan or towing vehicle and the caravan; the car, or other vehicle used to tow the caravan, may be parked alongside it but sleeping is only authorized in the campervan/caravan and connected awning, not in the accompanying vehicle. One additional tent may accompany the caravan/campervan if space within the plot allows. Some people choose to bring or hire a motorhome, though drivers of larger vehicles or motorhomes may have to purchase a second campervan ticket if they cannot fit within the defined plot. The 2009 festival saw changes to the campervan fields; commercial vehicles were no longer classed as “campervans”, all campervans had to have a fitted sleeping area and either washing or cooking facilities, and caravans and trailer tents were allowed back at the festival. Prior to this only campervans were allowed on site, caravans and trailers being banned in the early 1990s after a number were stuck in the mud and abandoned.
Prince Harry attended this year’s Glastonbury Festival and managed to sneak into the UK’s biggest music event unnoticed to party with friends until the early hours.
The festival’s organizer Michael Eavis said today he had chatted with Prince Harry last night and recommended he stayed to sample the nightlife.
Prince Harry’s on-off girlfriend Cressida Bonas was pictured enjoying the sunshine at the Worthy Farm site in Somerset yesterday, but the prince managed to evade photographers as he partied the night away.
Michael Eavis, 77, said Prince Harry had watched the Rolling Stones performing at the Pyramid Stage last night and also enjoyed music at the Park and John Peel stages.
The organizer said: “Prince Harry was great actually. I recommended that he should go on into the night, because the nightlife is what Glastonbury is all about. At three o’clock in the afternoon, you don’t get it.
“I told him to get his taxi driver to come back at five o’clock in the morning and do you know what? He lasted until four in the morning.
“His friends were all having a great time. He didn’t want to make a formal thing of being here.”
Glastonbury Festival has attracted celebrities including Kate Moss, Wayne and Colleen Rooney and Katherine Jenkins over the weekend.
Backstage today, actress Sienna Miller, singer Florence Welch and presenter Dermot O’Leary were spotted.
Michael Eavis said he did not join Prince Harry for a pint of cider as he abstains from drinking from two months before the festival until after everyone has left the site.
He added that the Rolling Stones had been the festival’s best-ever headline set and that their two-hour performance – complete with fireworks and a burning phoenix on top of the stage – was worth the wait.
He had tried to secure the band, celebrating their 50th anniversary, for years and said he was not sure how next year’s headliners, who have already been booked, would live up to the Stones.
“It was 43 years in the making, 50 years for them, and we’ve finally come together. We’re on the same page at last,” Michael Eavis said, on the third day of music at the festival.
Prince Harry attended this year’s Glastonbury Festival and managed to sneak into the UK’s biggest music event unnoticed to party with friends until the early hours
He said: “It’s the whole razzmatazz of the occasion – the two of us finally getting together at long last.
“I had to prove myself to them. We were a bunch of hippies; it’s hardly a Rolling Stones set up, is it?”
The capacity of the Pyramid area was expanded for the first time for the Stones, meaning a festival record of 100,000 people saw Mick Jagger strutting his stuff.
Mick Jagger led the band through their classics, starting with an energetic Jumpin’ Jack Flash and ending with a soulful You Can’t Always Get What You Want, before crowd-pleaser Satisfaction.
Sir Mick was said to have been concerned about sound quality ahead of the gig, but his fears were unfounded.
“Musically, they were absolutely brilliant,” said Michael Eavis, who claimed the band were number one in his top 10 of headliners, above Radiohead, U2 and Oasis.
“Mick Jagger’s energy leading that band with such a passion and so much style – he was absolutely amazing.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s quite remarkable to think he can go like that, at his age.
“I’m a bit older and I couldn’t keep going. His legs and his arms and his movement – he was going for it like his life depended on it.”
The mechanical phoenix created by Joe Rush, which came to life during Sympathy For The Devil, was a labor of love, with health and safety officials voicing concerns, Michael Eavis said.
He laughed as he claimed the ornate moving sculpture had cost almost the same as the Stones’ fee for their set.
Bands have already been booked for next year’s key Pyramid Stage headline slots. Asked if there were any veteran rockers on a par with the Stones, Michael Eavis smiled and said: “Ever so slightly, yeah.”
He joked that there were now very few acts left on his wish list, and pondering how many more festivals he will organize, said: “Another 10, do you think?”
Michael Eavis said the ticket holders, of which there were 135,000 this year, were what kept him going.
A BBC Two spokesman said its coverage of The Rolling Stones peaked at 2.5 million viewers, compared to the peak of 2.1 million for U2 who headlined on the Saturday night at the last Glastonbury Festival in 2011.
Other highlights of the weekend have included Friday night’s headline set from the Arctic Monkeys, Portishead on the Other Stage and an early morning performance from Liam Gallagher’s band Beady Eye.
Michael Eavis said he had particularly enjoyed Elvis Costello’s Saturday afternoon gig, and taking part in a karaoke session on the same day.
“It fills me with so much confidence because people love it so much,” he said.
“The people are so thrilled to be here. So that’s my energy, really.”
Police said crime at this year’s Glastonbury Festival has dropped dramatically from the last time the event was staged.
Avon and Somerset Police said crime levels were 33% lower than in 2011, with 220 reported crimes since gates to the campsites opened on Wednesday.
Those crimes included 61 drug offences and 106 thefts from tents. There were no major incidents on site and a total of 154 arrests have been made.
Inspector Shirley Eden said: “We are very pleased with how the festival has gone. It’s been a fantastic event, the atmosphere has been brilliant and crime is low.
“We would like to thank the majority of festival goers for their cooperation, good festival spirit and for being sensible with their property.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown looked like she was back to her best as she enjoyed a morning run in Georgia this weekend.
Whitney Houston’s daughter looked in high spirits as she stretched her legs in the summer sunshine.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 20, wore a running vest and bottoms, and had the tricky task of juggling a bottle of water, mobile phone and a banana in her hands.
She and her on-off boyfriend and “brother” Nick Gordon were said to be the subject of at least ten different noise complaints, leading up to her moving out of her previous abode in Georgia earlier this month.
A friend of a neighbor also revealed on Reddit that Bobbi Kristina Brown left an angry note for her neighbors following the supposed eviction in which she labeled them “s*** on the bottom of our shoe”.
Bobbi Kristina Brown looks happy and healthy as she went for a jog and appears to be putting her problems behind her
The friend revealed: “My friend and his family live in the apartment under Bobbi Kristina Brown.”
“After 6 months of complaints, she was finally kicked out. He found this on his door today.”
However, Bobbi Kristina Brown took to Twitter to deny she had been forced out of her home.
“Awoke2CrazyNeighborStory(:” she wrote, adding: “Ichoose2move(: THEY were the nightmare.”
But neighbor Joshua Morse disagreed, saying he and his wife have filed at least ten different complaints about the noise coming from Bobbi Kristina Brown’s apartment, as well as revealing the existence of the note.
Bobbi Kristina Brown wrote: “Thank You for making a hard year harder. You are a miserable couple and always will be.
“You were honored to have us living above you and you couldn’t stand such a young beautiful couple far more successful than you ever will be.”
President Barack Obama has toured South Africa’s Robben Island – the jail in which Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years.
Barack Obama said he and his family were “deeply humbled” to visit the prison once inhabited by Nelson Mandela – who remains critically ill in hospital.
The US president went on to give a speech at the University of Cape Town and launch a multi-billion-dollar electricity initiative.
Barack Obama did not visit Nelson Mandela, but met the Mandela family in private.
Security is likely to have been strengthened during this final Cape Town leg of his time in South Africa following clashes on Saturday between riot police and anti-Obama protesters in Soweto.
Barack Obama and the first family visited Nelson Mandela’s bleak cell as well as the lime quarry – overlooked by a concrete watchtower – where anti-apartheid fighters including Mandela were forced to undertake hours of back-breaking labor.
Nelson Mandela was at the prison for 18 years and his long history of lung problems can be traced to the tuberculosis he contracted there – which he attributed to the dampness of his cell.
President Barack Obama has toured South Africa’s Robben Island, the jail in which Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years
Later, Barack Obama wrote in the guest book in the prison courtyard: “On behalf of our family, we’re deeply humbled to stand where men of such courage faced down injustice and refused to yield.
“The world is grateful for the heroes of Robben Island, who remind us that no shackles or cells can match the strength of the human spirit.”
Barack Obama also visited a community project before delivering a keynote address at the University of Cape Town.
It was the same venue where 47 years ago, US Senator Robert Kennedy gave his famed “ripple of hope” speech, which gave inspiration to those fighting the racially divisive policies of apartheid rule and linked their struggle with that of the US civil rights movement.
Barack Obama paid tribute to South Africa’s achievements over the past two decades but urged young Africans to fulfill Nelson Mandela’s legacy.
“Nelson Mandela showed us that one man’s courage can move the world,” he said.
More needed to be done to tackle poverty and disease, he said, adding that fear too often prevailed in Africa. For as long as war raged, democracy and economic opportunity could not take hold, he said.
Barack Obama also announced a $7 billion five-year initiative to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership with African countries and the private sector.
He arrived in South Africa from Senegal on Friday evening. On Monday, he will continue his African tour in Tanzania.
Nelson Mandela’s family heir, Mandla, has said he will oppose a court action brought by the rest of the family, seeking to exhume the bodies of his father, Makgatho, two of Mandela’s daughters and two other relatives.
The rest of the family want the remains to be reburied in Qunu, where the former South African president wants to be laid to rest, while Mandla, an ANC MP, wants them to stay in the nearby village of Mvezo, Nelson Mandela’s birthplace, where he is building a museum dedicated to his grandfather.
South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper quotes local chiefs in the area as saying that Madiba, as Nelson Mandela is known in the country, will not be at peace until this issue is resolved.
On Friday, a court granted an interim action saying the bodies could be exhumed and reburied but Mandla Mandela says he was not aware of the case until it was reported in the media and he is now opposing it.
A Saudi court has sentenced seven cyber activists to between five to 10 years in prison for inciting protests, mainly by using Facebook.
The men were arrested in September last year, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), and their trial began in April.
The activists were charged with posting online messages to encourage protests in Saudi Arabia, although they were not accused of directly taking part in demonstrations.
It is seen as the country’s latest move against online political dissent.
The New York-based rights group HRW said the case was heard in an anti-terrorism court.
The longest sentence of 10 years was reportedly given to an activist who set up two Facebook groups allegedly explaining the best protest techniques.
A Saudi court has sentenced seven cyber activists to between five to 10 years in prison for inciting protests, mainly by using Facebook
The rights group said the men had all admitted contributing to Facebook pages supporting the leading Shia cleric Tawfiq al-Amer, who was held in February 2011 after calling for a constitutional monarchy.
His arrest provoked anti-government rallies inspired by a wave of popular revolt in the country’s Eastern Region, where much of its crude oil is sourced.
The seven men were sentenced on June 24 for “allegedly inciting protests and harming public order, largely by using Facebook”, HRW said.
The court also barred them from travelling for additional periods.
Several of the defendants said they had been tortured into signing confessions, according to HRW.
The case contained two elements that the Saudi authorities are particularly sensitive about – political criticism expressed online and protests staged by the Shia minority in the east of the country.
Several Saudi human rights campaigners have recently been imprisoned. Two women were jailed earlier in June for allegedly inciting a woman against her husband, after they tried to help a Canadian who had complained of abuse by her Saudi husband.
HRW urged European Union officials to condemn the latest convictions ahead of a meeting with Gulf leaders on Sunday.
“Sending people off to years in prison for peaceful Facebook posts sends a strong message that there’s no safe way to speak out in Saudi Arabia, even on online social networks,” Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said.
Michael Jackson allegedly spent $35 million to at least two dozen young boys he abused over 15 years.
According to Sunday People, whichhas published explosive “secret FBI files” suggesting Michael Jackson molested children from at least 1989, despite his insistence he was just spending time with them.
The damning files claim Michael Jackson assaulted a boy, molested a famous child star and groped another child whose mother wasn’t “bothered” by it.
Jackson family lawyers have to date insisted the King of Pop has only paid off the family of Jordan Chandler, 13, who he allegedly abused in 1993.
However, a sleuth hired by Anthony Pellicano – a celebrity private eye Michael Jackson allegedly hired to make the claims go away – has claimed the star was a “serial child predator” who paid out scores of children he allegedly abused at his Neverland Ranch.
Sunday People says it has evidence to back the investigators claims.
When Anthony Pellicano was investigated in 2002 for bugging Hollywood stars, the FBI seized his files, including many about Michael Jackson.
These included case files CADCE MJ-02463 and CR 01046 which Sunday People claims it has access to.
The files were allegedly not passed on to prosecutors in Michael Jackson’s controversial 2005 molestation trial.
The shocking revelations come after Michael Jackson’s daughter, 15-year-old Paris, recently tried to kill herself.
In further scandal, his family is also trying to sue gig promoter AEG Live who they claim hired Dr. Conrad Murray who prescribed Michael Jackson his last fatal drug dose.
AEG Live denies hiring Conrad Murray, who is currently serving a four-year jail term for involuntary manslaughter.
The investigator, who spoke to Sunday People on the condition of anonymity, said he decided to finally come forward after Michael Jackson’s former child friend Wade Robson revealed he was abused by the star.
Michael Jackson’s family lawyers have to date insisted the star has only paid off the family of Jordan Chandler, 13, who he allegedly abused in 1993
Australian-born Wade Robson, a dancer and choreographer, recently launched a major lawsuit against the Jackson estate, saying he was regularly molested at Neverland in the 1990s.
Sunday People claims it has seen files confirming Robson’s claims.
While Anthony Pellicano is now in jail for racketeering and wire-tapping, his investigator told Sunday People he was hired to help dig the dirt on Michael Jackson and make potential problems disappear.
The investigator said he kept copies of FBI documents naming 17 boys – including five child actors and two dancers – Michael Jackson targeted for abuse.
These included a European boy and the sons of a screenwriter.
The sleuth said at least three boys were paid to stay silent, with the family of a famous film actor given about $596,300 not to talk to the media.
He said a Neverland maid was allegedly paid $2 million after accusing her boss of molesting her son, while another woman who knew her son was being assaulted “turned a blind eye to it because if it didn’t bother him, it didn’t bother her”.
The files on the alleged victims were reportedly compiled when lawyers drew up a list of “potential threats” to Michael Jackson’s image in the early 1990s, when he was on a world tour.
But after the father of Jordan Chandler publicly claimed his son had been abused, other similar accusations began flooding the media.
Jordan Chandler was paid a hefty sum to stay out of the limelight.
“His [Michael Jackson’s] actress friend Elizabeth Taylor encouraged him to hire Pellicano because she had used him to stop dirt on her drug problems being released in the media,” the investigator, who spent two years on the case, alleged.
“Pellicano had links to key figures in the US media and made them dance to his tune.
“With the help of people like Pellicano, the world and his fans never heard what took place at Neverland over 15 years.”
While Michael Jackson was found not guilty of abusing a 13-year-old boy in 2005, the private eye insists the boxes of evidence he helped to collect showed “Jackson was a serial child predator”.
The investigator said he didn’t come forward to upset Michael Jackson’s children, but to finally make public that authorities have shocking information on the dead star that has never been released.
However, long-time Michael Jackson lawyer and friend Brian Oxman said he thought only Jordan Chandler had been paid off, but admitted the “gift list on Michael’s income tax returns was astounding”.
Kim Kardashian’s been strangely enigmatic since giving birth to her daughter North West and now she has shown up on Khloe’s Facebook page looking exhausted and enjoying a nap with Khloe and Lamar Odom’s boxer pup, Bernard.
Khloe Kardashian, 29, accompanied the picture with the caption: “I love my lil baby so much,” in an obvious reference to Bernard.
She didn’t make it clear when the picture was taken.
Kim Kardashian finally broke her silence on Thursday – and it wasn’t about her baby.
Kim Kardashian has shown up on Khloe’s Facebook page looking exhausted and enjoying a nap with boxer pup Bernard
The new mother accompanied her greeting with photos of them together from the past and the present.
First she tweeted a collage of photos showing the Kardashian siblings when they were little, including a family portrait of them with their late father Robert.
“Then- @khloekardashian The birthday girl! I love you so much!!!!” Kim Kardashian wrote.
Kim Kardashian then tweeted a collage of photos showing her with her siblings with the caption: “Now- @khloekardashian. The most loyal & supportive person on the planet! Life wouldn’t be the same without you Kokes!”
Kim Kardashian, 32, and her boyfriend Kanye West, 36, are ensconced in Kris Jenner’s six-bedroom Hidden Hills, California, mansion after making a middle-of-the-night escape from the Cedars-Sinai hospital on Friday.
While the first-time parents are spending every second with baby daughter North – affectionately known as Nori – they have also employed the services of a 24/7 nurse, according Us Weekly.
“Kim can’t believe how maternal she is on her own,” a source told the publication, adding: “She is breastfeeding constantly… [it] is working for her and she already feels she has bonded with Nori.”
The new World Health Organization guidelines for HIV treatment could see millions more people in developing countries getting life-saving medicine.
The WHO is recommending that patients start taking medication at a much earlier stage of the disease.
The WHO says the guidelines, which are being launched at an international Aids conference in Kuala Lumpur, could help avert an extra 3 million AIDS deaths by 2025.
The charity MSF welcomed the move – but said extra investment would be needed.
A single pill combining three drugs will be given to people who are HIV positive much earlier, while their immune systems are still strong. Algeria, Argentina and Brazil are already doing this.
Not everybody who needs the medicine currently receives it, although big strides have been made in recent years in widening access to HIV treatment.
The WHO says these guidelines represent a “major shift” in policy, and will result in the number of people in developing countries who are eligible for drug treatment rising from 16 million to 26 million, or 80% of the total who are thought to have HIV.
It is thought the guidelines will add 10% to the $23 billion overall cost of treating HIV/AIDS in developing countries.
WHO recommends HIV/AIDS patients start taking medication at a much earlier stage of the disease
WHO believes global donors and the affected countries themselves will be convinced that the idea is cost-effective.
It agreed the policy after a year-long consultation, in which evidence about the role earlier treatment can play in reducing transmission of the virus was considered.
The WHO’s HIV/AIDS director, Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall, said: “It will be very difficult to end AIDS without a vaccine – but these new guidelines will take us a long way in reducing deaths.
“We’re recommending earlier treatment – and also safer, simpler medicines that are already widely available.
“We also want to see better monitoring of patients, so they can see how well they’re doing on the treatment.
“This is not only about keeping people healthy and alive – the anti-retroviral drugs block transmission, so there is the potential for a major impact in preventing epidemics within different countries.”
Five companies make the daily combination pill, which can cost about $127 for a year’s individual treatment in countries where price reductions have been negotiated.
The WHO says there is an “encouraging trend” of countries using their own finances to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic such as Zimbabwe, which has successfully used a levy on mobile phones.
The new recommendations also include providing drugs to all children under five with the virus, all HIV-positive pregnant and breastfeeding women and to people whose partner is uninfected.
In all of these cases, treatment would start regardless of how far the condition has damaged their immune system.
Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall added: “We are still seeing young children lagging behind in terms of access to treatment. Two-thirds of adults that need anti-retroviral drugs get them, but only a third of young children.”
The Global Fund – set up to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria – welcomed the guidelines as “very timely”.
Its executive director, Dr. Mark Dybul, said: “This is an example of how the Global Fund and the WHO work together to support countries as we move towards removing HIV as a threat to public health.”
MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders) warned extra political and financial support would be needed for implementing the recommendations, which it said were “ambitious but feasible”.
MSF medical co-ordinator in South Africa Dr. Gilles van Cutsem said: “With these new guidelines our collective goal should now be to scale up without messing up: to reach more people, retain them on treatment, and with an undetectable viral load.
“There’s no greater motivating factor for people to stick to their HIV treatment than knowing the virus is <<undetectable>> in their blood.”
Dozens of people across western US have been treated for exhaustion and dehydration, as the region is continuing to bake in a heat wave.
A man in Las Vegas is believed to have died from a heat-related illness.
Air-conditioned “cooling centres” have been set up in California, Nevada and Arizona, as officials warn the heat could be life-threatening.
Temperatures in some areas are expected to be near 130F (54C) – close to the world’s all-time record.
Several parts of California – including the desert town of Palm Springs – saw record highs on Saturday.
There are fears of wildfires, as the heat could last for several days.
More than 34 people were taken to hospital after attending an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, officials said.
They also said that an elderly resident was found dead in a house with no air-conditioning. The man suffered medical problems, but his condition is believed to have been aggravated by the heat, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Dozens of people across western US have been treated for exhaustion and dehydration, as the region is continuing to bake in a heat wave
In Los Angeles, California, a number of people were treated for heat stroke and dehydration.
Shelters for homeless in Phoenix, Arizona, added extra beds as temperatures in the city were expected to hit 122F (50C).
The Running with the Devil Marathon in the Mojave Desert outside Las Vegas – which had been scheduled for Saturday – was later cancelled because of extreme heat.
The National Weather Service earlier issued a heat warning for several parts of the region until Monday morning.
Temperatures in Death Valley in the California desert are forecast to reach 130F (54C). The highest-ever temperature on Earth -134F (56.7C) – was recorded there on 10 July 1913.
The heat wave comes after one of the driest winters on record, and there is a fear of wildfires.
Energy suppliers are expected to be pushed to the limit in the next few days.
Weather officials say the extreme weather is caused by a high-pressure system stuck over the area.
The US Border Patrol’s rescue unit has added extra personnel this weekend as the threat of exhaustion and dehydration rises for those attempting to cross the US-Mexico border illegally on foot.
At least seven migrants were found dead in Arizona’s desert last week in lower temperatures. Border officials in Tucson, Arizona, rescued more than 170 people suffering from the heat during a thirty-day period in May and June.
Martin Schulz, the head of the European Parliament, has demanded “full clarification” from the US over a report that key EU premises in America have been bugged.
Martin Schulz said that if this was true, it would have a “severe impact” on ties between the EU and the US.
The report, carried by Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, cites a secret 2010 document alleging that the US spied on EU offices in New York and Washington.
Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked the paper, Der Spiegel says.
Edward Snowden – a former contractor for the CIA and also the National Security Agency (NSA) – has since requested asylum in Ecuador.
According to the document – which Der Spiegel says comes from the NSA – the agency spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the 27-member bloc’s UN office in New York.
The document also allegedly referring to the EU as a “target”.
It is not known what information US spies might have got, but details of European positions on to trade and military matters would have been useful to those involved in negotiations between Washington and European governments.
In a statement on Saturday, Martin Shultz said: “On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations.”
The European Parliament has demanded full clarification from the US over a report that key EU premises in America have been bugged
Der Spiegel also quotes Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn as saying: “If these reports are true, it’s disgusting. The United States would be better off monitoring its secret services rather than its allies.”
The US government has so far made no public comments on the Spiegel’s report.
Edward Snowden is believed to be currently staying at Moscow’s airport. He arrived there last weekend from Hong Kong, where he had been staying since he revealed details of top secret US surveillance programmes.
The US has charged him with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Each charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
On Saturday, US Vice-President Joe Biden and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa held a telephone conversation about Edward Snowden’s asylum request.
According to Rafael Correa, Joe Biden had “passed on a polite request from the United States to reject the request”.
The left-wing Ecuadorian leader said his answer was: “Mr. vice-president, thanks for calling. We hold the United States in high regard. We did not seek to be in this situation.”
If Edward Snowden ever came to “Ecuadoran soil” with his request, he added, “the first people whose opinion we will seek is that of the United States”.
Quito earlier said it was willing to consider Edward Snowden’s request but only when he was physically in the Latin American country.
Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said only that Joe Biden and Rafael Correa had held a wide-ranging conversation.
The Rolling Stones made their Glastonbury debut at Pyramid Stage – 43 years after the festival first took place.
The band opened with Jumping Jack Flash, with Mick Jagger prowling the stage in a green sequinned jacket.
Mick Jagger thanked the fans and, after It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It), joked that organizers had “finally got round to asking us” to play.
They are set to play for two-and-a-half hours, with tens of thousands of fans stretching up the hill to Worthy Farm.
Organizers are expecting the festival’s biggest ever audience for a single act. The capacity for the main stage was increased to 100,000 this year.
Michael Eavis has been trying to book the band almost since the first Glastonbury in 1970. The Rolling Stones last had a UK number one single a year before that, with Honky Tonk Women.
An opening tape featuring Michael Eavis saying “we waited a long time”, and the familiar rhythm track of Sympathy For The Devil warmed up the crowd, who spontaneously broke into the familiar “whoo whoo” backing vocals.
“It’s great to be here doing this show, doing this festival,” said Mick Jagger after It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It).
“After all these years they finally got round to asking us,” he added.
Drummer Charlie Watts gave the joke a desultory cymbal crash.
And five songs into their set, Mick Jagger introduced a new song, written for a girl he claimed to have met at the festival last night.
An uptempo country-rock number, it featured the refrain “Waiting for my Glastonbury girl”.
After 90 minutes, Sympathy For The Devil got a full airing, as flares turned the sky red and the mechanical phoenix rose from atop the Pyramid stage.
Mick Jagger said: “We’ve been doing this for 50 years or something. And if this is the first time you’ve seen a band, please come again.”
Meanwhile, at the Acoustic tent, the Bootleg Beatles played a Stones riff and commented: “Sign of a good band – you’ve got to know when to split up.”
The Rolling Stones made their Glastonbury debut at Pyramid Stage
Earlier on Saturday, as the sun beamed down on Somerset’s Worthy Farm, familiar riffs from Stones hits Start Me Up and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction rang out from the festival’s main stage, as technicians prepared for the show at 21:30 BST.
Proceedings started with Malian musician Rokia Traore, whose upbeat blend of African roots, blues and jazz gave early risers a chance to dance off the fug of a late night.
A headliner at this year’s Womad festival, Rokia Traore was offered a Glastonbury slot as a gesture of solidarity with Mali, where Islamic militants have all but banned music in some areas.
Billy Bragg got into the spirit of the day by playing classic Stones track Dead Flowers during his set, while soul singer Laura Mvula welcomed the sun by breaking into a sing-a-long rendition of Bob Marley’s One Love.
She said the cover had been suggested by her musical director, Troy Miller “whose last appearance here was with Amy Winehouse, so he knows what he’s talking about”.
Laura Mvula, who only released her debut album Sing To The Moon in March, said stepping out on the festival’s main stage was overwhelming.
“Let me tell you something, there’s nothing like it. A sort of nervousness I’ve never experienced before.
“It was like a mental battle – the goal was to get through it and enjoy as many moments as possible”
Other acts on Saturday’s line-up include Elvis Costello, rap pioneers Public Enemy and psychedelic rockers Primal Scream.
Prince Harry was also rumored to have been spotted backstage at the John Peel tent, where the bill includes Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and electropop band Hurts.
The Rolling Stones, currently celebrating their 50th anniversary, have kept their plans for the festival a closely guarded secret.
“I’m not saying what we’re doing at Glastonbury,” Mick Jagger told Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday morning.
“I can’t tell you the set list.”
Guitarist Keith Richards was similarly cagey, but said he was excited by the prospect of the show.
“I’m looking forward to it because it is an iconic gig and it’s an iconic band and finally the two meet at last,” he told Radio 1’s Newsbeat.
“In a way it’s kind of weird that at last we’ve made it to Glastonbury. It’s like building Stonehenge right?”
Despite the press attention, Glastonbury is far from being the biggest show of the Stones’ career – they played to more than a million people on Rio’s Copacabana Beach in 2006.
For Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily, however, the appearance is an ambition achieved.
“It’s one of those things you thought might never happen,” said Emily Eavis.
“We were very pleased to get them.
“For my dad, it’s been a lifetime of really wanting them to play, so he’s really thrilled.”
Although The Rolling Stones drive a notoriously hard bargain when it comes to fees and ticket prices, Emily Eavis was adamant they had not received any special favors.
She said: “At Glastonbury we have a certain kind of deal which everybody gets, and everyone’s getting the same. So we’re very happy with that.”
Protesters are gathering in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on the eve of a mass rally to demand the resignation of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi.
As darkness fell, thousands of people could be seen milling in the square, focus of the protests which brought down his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
Sunday is the first anniversary of Mohamed Morsi’s inauguration as president.
Tensions has been high ahead of rally. At least three people – including a US citizen – died in unrest on Friday.
Washington has warned Americans not to travel to Egypt.
Protesters are unhappy with the policies of the Islamist president and his Muslim Brotherhood allies.
Egyptian protesters are unhappy with the policies of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood allies
Thousands of supporters of Mohamed Morsi, who was elected by a small margin, rallied in the capital on Saturday.
President Barack Obama has said America is “looking with concern” at the situation.
Opposition activists say more than 22 million people have signed a petition seeking a snap election. They have urged the signatories to come out on Tahrir on Sunday.
Flags and tents form a base camp on the square from where protesters plan to march President Mohamed Morsi’s office.
Amr Riad, 26, told Reuters news agency: “We’re peaceful but if those who come at us are violent we’ll defend ourselves.”
Speaking in South Africa, Barack Obama urged “all parties to make sure they are not engaging in violence and that police and military are showing appropriate restraint”.
“We would like to see the opposition and President Morsi engage in a more constructive conversation about [how] to move their country forward,” he said.
Reports say that Cairo International Airport has been unusually busy as both expatriates and Egyptians leave the country.
On Friday, US national Andrew Pochter and another man were killed in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria as protesters stormed an office of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Andrew Pochter, who was in the country to teach English to children and improve his own Arabic, was killed apparently while using a mobile phone to take pictures.
His family said in a statement that he had been stabbed by a protester while observing demonstrations.
The other fatality in Alexandria on Friday was an Egyptian man who was shot dead, according to medical sources.
Another man, said to be a journalist, was killed by an explosion in Port Said and five other people were injured.
President Mohamed Morsi earlier this week offered a dialogue – a move rejected by his opponents.
Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt’s first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair.
His first year as president has been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a top Islamist in Somalia, has arrived in the capital Mogadishu amid reports of a split in the al-Shabab group.
He was flown from the northern town of Adado, escorted by government security forces, but it is unclear whether he has surrendered or defected.
The UN says he gave himself up to government allies after infighting but clan elders deny this.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is considered a terrorist by the UN and the United States.
Regarded as the elder statesman of Somali Islamists, he has been on a US list of people “linked to terrorism” since shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
A new UN-backed government in Mogadishu is trying to regain control of the country from al-Shabab after more than 20 years of conflict.
Supported by some 18,000 African Union soldiers, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s administration is the first in more than two decades to be recognized by the US and the International Monetary Fund.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a top Islamist in Somalia, has arrived in the capital Mogadishu amid reports of a split in the al-Shabab group
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was flown by plane from Adado, a town about 310 miles north of the capital.
“If he renounces violence, then we can start the discussion about the options available,” government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman told Reuters news agency, without describing the options.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys left al-Shabab territory after factions within the al-Qaeda linked group clashed last week – the first deadly infighting since it launched an insurgency in 2006.
Al-Shabab, which means “The Youth”, is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia – and despite being pushed out of key cities in the past two years still remains in control of smaller towns and large swathes of the countryside.
It was as a radical offshoot of the now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts, which was led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and for much of that year controlled Mogadishu and many southern and central areas.
The exact cause of the al-Shabab split is not known, but there has been a long-running internal power struggle between its leader Ahmed Abdi Godane and those seen as more moderate who oppose links with al-Qaeda, analysts say.
There are conflicting reports about the fate of the second-in-command – Ibrahim Afghan, the al-Shabab founder – following last week’s fighting.
Initially, sources said he had been captured and was in al-Shabab detention; subsequent reports in local media say he has been executed.
US Vice-president Joe Biden has talked to Ecuador’s leader Rafael Correa by phone about fugitive Edward Snowden’s bid for asylum.
Joe Biden held talks with President Rafael Correa on Friday, the two countries confirmed.
According to Rafael Correa, Joe Biden asked him to reject the request but Washington gave no details.
In a new development, a German magazine says a document leaked by Edward Snowden shows the US bugged EU offices.
Spiegel magazine says a September 2010 “top secret” document of the US National Security Agency (NSA) outlines how the agency bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the UN. The document explicitly referred to the EU as a “target”, the magazine reports.
Edward Snowden is believed to be staying at a Moscow airport, having arrived nearly a week ago from Hong Kong, where he had been staying since he revealed details of top secret US surveillance programmes.
The US has charged him with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Each charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
US Vice-president Joe Biden has talked to Ecuador’s leader Rafael Correa by phone about fugitive Edward Snowden’s bid for asylum
Ecuador has said it is willing to consider Edward Snowden’s request but only when he is physically in the Latin American country.
Rafael Correa said on Saturday that Joe Biden had “passed on a polite request from the United States to reject the request”.
He said he had told Joe Biden: “Mr. Vice-president, thanks for calling. We hold the United States in high regard. We did not seek to be in this situation. Do not get the idea that we are anti-American, as some ill-spirited media outlets are doing.”
If Edward Snowden ever came to “Ecuadoran soil” with his request, he added, “the first people whose opinion we will seek is that of the United States”.
The Ecuadorean president, a leftist economist who received a doctorate in the US, denied he was seeking to disrupt relations and said he had “lived the happiest days of my life” in the US.
White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said only that Joe Biden and Rafael Correa had held a wide-ranging conversation.
Edward Snowden’s father has said he believes his son would return to the US under certain conditions.
Lon Snowden asked for “ironclad assurances” his son’s rights would be protected in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
He asked his son not be held before trial nor subjected to a gag order, and be able to choose where he was tried.
Professor Jean Twenge from San Diego State University has dismissed the theory that once women pass 30 they will immediately begin to suffer fertility problems.
Psychologist Jean Twenge has controversially claimed that there’s not really a difference between trying to get pregnant in your late 20’s and your late 30’s.
She has refuted statistics that claim there is a significant difference in the odds of getting pregnant in your late twenties.
Prof. Jean Twenge claims that many women are reading statistics based on outdated records, taken from a time before antibiotics, electricity and advanced medical treatment were in use and the quality of life was much lower.
Writing in The Atlantic, the author – who has written the book The Impatient Women’s Guide to Getting Pregnant – says that she too feared she would be left childless as she had not tried for a baby and had passed 30.
She said: “Most books and websites I read said that one in three women ages 35 to 39 would not get pregnant within a year of starting to try.
“The first page of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s [ASRM] 2003 guide for patients noted that women in their late 30s had a 30 per cent chance of remaining childless altogether.
“The guide also included statistics that I’d seen repeated in many other places: a woman’s chance of pregnancy was 20 percent each month at age 30, dwindling to five per cent by age 40.
“Every time I read these statistics, my stomach dropped like a stone, heavy and foreboding.”
She counsels that there is a just a marginal difference between falling pregnant at 27 and 39 – despite what the majority of websites and books say.
Instead, Dr. Jean Twenge says that some statistics widely touted today are actually based on data from French birth records from 1670 to 1830.
Psychologist Jean Twenge has controversially claimed that there’s not really a difference between trying to get pregnant in your late 20’s and your late 30’s
She also rubbishes the widely cited statistic that one in three women ages 35 to 39 will not be pregnant after a year of trying, which is based on a 2004 article in the Human Reproduction journal, which used the historical record as its source.
She says that women are now basing their pregnancy plans on these antiquated reports, and should focus on modern studies, that show a more encouraging outlook when it comes to getting pregnant.
Prof. Jean Twenge said a 2004 study in Obstetrics & Gynecology studied the chances of pregnancy among 770 European women, and found positive results.
The study, led by David Dunson, discovered that of the subjects who had intimate relations at least twice a week, 82% of 35-to-39-year-old women conceived within a year, compared with 86% of 27-to-34-year-olds.
This showed that the fertility rates of women in their late 20s and early 30s was almost identical – which will bring considerable relief to worried women who fear that their chasing other priorities has wiped their chances of motherhood.
The author seeks to calm the panic many women feel, using herself as an example – she had three children and all after the age of 35.
She says fertility problems are not solely based on a woman’s age, and points to endometriosis and blocked fallopian tubes for causing difficulties in conceiving.
But her comments have been met with criticism from other experts, who insist that age does significantly affect fertility.
Lord Winston, The Times reports, claims that medical data collated over 20 years shows a definite decline in fertility with age and, while warning doctors from urging women to have children at a young age, says that there is good evidence of a decline with age.
The newspaper also reported that consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Valentine Akende said that generally, women’s fertility rates began to slip at 31, dropped at age 37 and sharply fell after age 41.
But despite Prof. Jean Twenge’s reassurances, it would seem that the statistics have had a lasting impact on women’s views of motherhood.
