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City bankers bow to pressure dress down

Bankers in London head to work in casual attire. Many city workers have been urged to dress down to avoid attention from protesters.
Suits were swapped for jeans and sneakers throughout London’s financial district today, as bankers heeded warnings to dress down to avoid the potential wrath of G-20 protestors.

“Only about 20 percent of people probably just refused to dress down. Everybody else is in jeans,” said Jesse Feldman, a banker at French investment bank, Société Générale. All week banks and investment firms located in London’s City neighborhood have been advising employees to not dress in regular business attire. “Staff are permitted to wear casual clothing — jeans/trainers — commencing March 30. Avoid briefcases/branded bags/computer cases: Put materials in rucksacks or carrier bags where possible,” U.S. bank, J.P. Morgan told employees in an email statement last week quoted on City news Web site Hereisthecity.com. Employees at Rothschild investment bank in London were told simply not to bother coming into work at all today. Among those who did commute to the office, bystanders said that the bankers are still easy to spot, conspicuously reading UK newspaper The Financial Times or dressing in a uniform business casual look. “On the tube this morning I thought it was ridiculous because all these bankers couldn’t have looked more like bankers trying to dress down,” Feldman told CNN. Instead of jackets, ties and Oxford shoes, polo shirts, khakis and loafers now fill the streets around the City and much of central London. “I saw two bankers wearing matching baby blue sweaters, tight jeans and Church’s — ridiculous,” Feldman added, referring to the up-scale brand of traditional English shoes. One Web site that covers news and gossip in the City has been tracking the banker backlash to the warnings. “It’s a mixture: people are falling into two types. The banks and the funds are certainly encouraging the staff to wear casual dress, but some are determined they won’t cower to protestors and are still showing up in suits,” said Vic Daniels, a spokesperson for Hereisthecity.com.

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On Monday, Bloomberg quoted one City professional, Graham Williams, 66, who said: “We’re not pansies … most of us have played rugby or boxed. “If any of those guys do get violent against us individually because we are wearing a suit, we will take action.” The site also offers humorous advice for bankers to respond to protestors by dumping “large blocks of ice” to “render them harmless,” and encouraging bankers to “find your inner G20 [sic] spot.” Despite the jokes, precautions proved valuable Wednesday as thousands of angry anti-capitalist protestors converged on the City for demonstrations to coincide with the G-20 summit.

By midday protestors had started smashing windows at a branch The Royal Bank of Scotland. Earlier in the day 11 people were arrested after being stopped in an armored personnel carrier. Thousands of police are continuing to patrol the streets in anti-riot gear.

FBI: Thousands of Puerto Ricans victims of ID theft

As many as 12,000 Puerto Rican schoolchildren, teachers and school administrators are believed to be victims of an identity-theft ring that sold stolen personal documents to illegal immigrants in the mainland United States, according to the FBI.

Obama, Brown call for tough moves against economic crisis

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, left, and President Obama speak in London, England, on Wednesday.
World leaders meeting at the Group of 20 summit "cannot afford half-measures" as they try to hammer out ways to address the global financial crisis, President Obama said Wednesday.

Speaking after a morning meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama said G-20 delegates have “a responsibility to act with a sense of urgency” and come up with “tough new rules” for managing the world economy. “We’ve passed through an era of profound irresponsibility,” Obama said at a joint news conference. “Now, we cannot afford half-measures and we cannot go back to the kind of risk-taking that leads to bubbles that inevitably burst. So we have a choice: We either shape our future or let events shape it for us.” Leaders from the G-20, which represents the world’s leading industrial and emerging economies, will be meeting Thursday in London for a summit with financial chiefs. Watch Obama, Brown talk about global crisis » Obama, on his first overseas trip as president, said the summit cannot solve all the world’s problems, but it can make “real and unprecedented progress.” Brown and Obama praised the continuation of the “special relationship” between Britain and America, with Brown calling it resilient and constant. “Ours is not an alliance of convenience — it’s a partnership of purpose,” Brown said.

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Brown called on world leaders to cooperate in achieving five tasks at the one-day summit, starting with restoring growth to emerging market economies and agreeing to “clean up” the global banking system. There will be no sustainable recovery until a new regulatory system for the banks is put in place, Brown said. Leaders must also commit to whatever is necessary to bring about the resumption of growth, Brown said. They must kick-start global trade and resist protectionism, he said, and lastly, they must make sure that economic recovery is sustainable and keeps carbon dioxide emissions low, so as to protect the environment. “We have some tough negotiations ahead,” Brown said. “It will not be easy, but … the world does want to come together.” Obama called on leaders to reject protectionism, support emerging markets, and put in place a sustainable financial structure.

“We have a responsibility to coordinate our actions and find a common ground, not to focus on our differences,” Obama said. Watch where else Obama will go on European trip » The president added he is “absolutely confident” the meeting will reflect “enormous consensus” about the steps that are needed.

Smokers feeling abused as federal tax hike hits

Coloradan Larry Jukes says he's upset about the hike but doesn't expect it will persuade him to quit smoking.
Larry Jukes said he remembers when he could buy 10 cigarette packs for $2.50.

But he’d now take the days when — just last month — he could buy his carton of choice for $49. Thanks in part to the largest-ever federal cigarette tax increase — a nearly 62-cents-a-pack hike that starts Wednesday but was reflected in many prices earlier — Jukes on Tuesday paid more than $58 for a 10-pack carton at the Cigarette Store in Denver, Colorado. That same store was selling it about $9 cheaper weeks ago. Jukes and other shoppers there said they feel stuck and taken advantage of. “They’re picking on us poor people, the ones that smoke,” Jukes, a 65-year-old who has been smoking since he was a teen, said of the government. “They have been for years.” Watch Jukes argue smokers are unfairly targeted » The cigarette excise tax that tobacco companies must pay the federal government rose Wednesday by 61.6 cents per pack, or $6.16 per carton. The tax now comes to about $10.10 per carton, or $1.01 per pack. But major tobacco companies began incorporating that increase into their prices to wholesalers in March. And the companies, wholesalers and retailers in many cases gave prices a boost beyond the tax increase, in part to make up for an expected drop in sales caused by the hike, some of them said. “We don’t anticipate another raise for Wednesday. The [March increase in prices] was the raise,” said Mary Szarmach, vice president at Colorado-based Cigarette Store Corp., which operates 85 stores in five states. “The manufacturers took what they needed beyond [the tax increase] to maintain their profit margin and take care of what they think will be diminishing sales. … “And to maintain gross profit margin, retailers in general tacked on a little, too.” Watch how and why the tax hike was instituted » If the increase does scare off customers, 83-year-old Gloria Egger isn’t likely to be one of them, she said. She said she’s upset at the government for raising the tax, but Egger, who has been smoking since she was 18, isn’t likely to quit. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the tobacco tax increase “I think it’s ridiculous. … They’re picking on smokers,” Egger said at the Denver store, where she bought two cartons Tuesday. “I think they’re trying to run the tobacco companies out of business. “As old as I am, I’m not going to quit smoking, regardless of what they do.” See other reactions to the tax hike » Federal taxes also are going up Wednesday on other tobacco products, including cigars. Federal per-cigar taxes, which vary based on weight and price, used to be capped at 4.9 cents but now are capped at 40.26 cents. The tobacco tax hikes, which President Obama signed into law in February, will be used to finance an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The expansion, which will cost $35 million over five years, is expected to secure federally funded health care for an additional 4 million children. Before the expansion, SCHIP covered almost 7 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid — the federal health insurance program for the poor — but can’t afford private insurance. Dave Bowersox, who bought a box of Prime Time Little Cigars at the Denver store Tuesday, said he’s fine with the tobacco tax increases. “I think tobacco, alcohol, that kind of stuff should be taxed instead of gasoline and food — things that are necessary for people to survive,” Bowersox said. But near Orlando, Florida, cigar smoker Leah Fuller called the hikes “ridiculous.” “There are [other] things that you could be targeting in the U.S. right now. Why the tobacco industry” Fuller said. “I, personally, smoke cigars to relax. Why am I being punished for it” Jeff Borysiewicz, founder of Orlando-based Corona Cigar Co., said he believed the federal tax hike will cause cigar sales to drop. And he said the increase comes as Florida is considering a $1-per-cigar state tax hike. iReporters debate whether the change in price is fair » Cigarettes, too, have been hit by state excise tax increases. Since January 2002, the average state cigarette tax has increased from 43 cents per pack to $1.21 per pack, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. A conservative estimate for the average per-pack cigarette price in the U.S., based on data collected from states and territories at the end of 2008 and adjusted for the federal tax increase, is $4.80, the group’s Eric Lindblom said. Tobacco company Philip Morris USA raised list prices for its major brands by about 71 cents per pack last month “in direct response to the tax increase,” said Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip Morris’ parent company, Altria. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. on March 16 raised its cigarettes’ list prices by 41 to 44 cents per pack and, in many cases, reduced discounts to retailers, basically keeping “our pricing in line with the competition,” spokesman David Howard said. “The federal tax increase was the primary driver,” Howard said. Both companies said they expect a decrease in sales, with Howard noting industry analysts have estimated a drop of 6 percent to 8 percent. One factor in Philip Morris’ decision to increase list prices beyond the tax hike was the company’s expectation that the new tax level will decrease sales, Phelps said. Not all U.S. sales declines would be due to smokers quitting, Phelps said. “Tax increases create an incentive for people to bring cigarettes into the country illegally — [from places] where they don’t have to pay that higher tax,” Phelps said. Nick Hamad, a tobacco store owner in Seattle, Washington, said he thinks the tax will ruin the American tobacco industry. “If we lose the sales, the state will lose the revenue,” he said. “We will be hurt, the state will be hurt and eventually the consumers are being hurt.”

As for Jukes, higher prices probably won’t force him to quit smoking, he said. “I’ve been smoking about 50 years,” Jukes said.

Crunch-hit tycoon loses bid to cut divorce payout

A Lebanese newspaper ran a caricature last year of two opposition leaders hugging in light of April Fools' Day.
A British court Wednesday told a business financier he would still have to pay a $13.6 million divorce settlement despite losing a fortune in the credit crunch.

It’s April Fools’ Day — when media outlets around the world take a break from the serious business of delivering news and play fast and furious with the facts. No one quite knows when the practice began, but any journalist will point to what is undoubtedly the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled: A 1957 BBC report that said, thanks to a mild winter and the elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. The segment was accompanied by pictures of farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees — and prompted hundreds of viewers to call in, wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. While not as elaborate, the pranks that media outlets harvested this year have been quite rich: The Guardian in London ran a story Wednesday announcing that, after 188 years as a print publication, it will become the first newspaper to deliver news exclusively via Twitter. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, allows users to post updates that are 140 characters long. In keeping with the limitation, the newspaper said it had undertaken a mammoth project to retool the newspaper’s entire archive.

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For example, Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 flight from New York to Paris, France, was condensed to: “OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise … sigh.” The news isn’t always black and white. The Taipei Times, one of three English-language dailies in Taiwan, fooled many readers with a report that two pandas donated by China to the Taipei Zoo were, in fact, brown forest bears dyed black and white. To render a whiff of authenticity to the story, editors made a reference to China’s tainted-milk scandal that sickened 300,000 people last year. But the story contained enough outrageous lines to clue in readers. Among them, a quote from a souvenir stand operator who worried the panda deception would affect sales of her “stuffed panda toys, panda T-shirts, panda pens and notepads, remote-controlled pandas on wheels, caps with panda ears on top, panda fans, panda flashlights, panda mugs, panda eyeglass cases, panda face masks, panda slippers, panda wallet and panda purses.” Sometimes, of course, the pranks backfire. In Australia, the Herald Sun newspaper drew hundreds of angry comments Wednesday after a story on its Web site said a Chinese construction firm wanted to buy naming rights to the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Many readers did not realize the story was a hoax — despite a quote from a spokeswoman named April Fulton. iReport.com: Share your best April Fools’ office pranks and jokes Geoffrey Davies, the head of the journalism department at London’s University of Westminster, said such pranks do not particularly affect the credibility of a news organization. “They are done in a way that you know it’s a joke,” he said. “In the Guardian story, for example, the clue is in the name of the journalist [Rio Palof] — which is an anagram for April Fool. People look out for them really, and therefore, you kind of open the paper trying to spot the spoof story.” Of course, news outlets aren’t the only ones who hoodwink readers on April 1. The town of Rotorua, a popular tourist stop in New Zealand, said a rotten egg smell that permeates the town is such an aphrodisiac that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner wants to build a mansion there. Microsoft Corp. said it is releasing a new Xbox 360 video game, “Alpine Legend,” which will do for fans of yodeling what “Guitar Hero” did for rock music. And car manufacturer BMW announced in ads in British newspapers that it had developed “Magnetic Tow Technology.” “BMW Magnetic Tow Technology is an ingenious new system that locks on to the car in front via an enhanced magnetic beam,” the ad said. “Once your BMW is attached you are free to release your foot from the accelerator and turn off your engine.” Steve Price, features editor of the Taipei Times, said such hoaxes are not only good for a laugh but serve a purpose. “It highlights an important aspect of media that readers and viewers should keep a critical mind when they read stories or watch TV,” he said. “I think that is especially true with the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of blogging.” The origins of pulling pranks on April Fools’ Day is unclear. Some believe it dates back to the time when the Gregorian calendar was first adopted, changing the beginning of the year to January 1 from April 1. Those who still held on to the Julian calendar were referred to as “April Fools.” Traditionally, the pranks are pulled before noon on this day. But a wildly successful prank this year was conceived and executed much earlier. Millions of Web users fell for a video that claimed to be the first flying five-star hotel in a converted Soviet-era helicopter. The 37-second clip, which was posted online Thursday, was an elaborate computer-generated hoax by the airport hotel chain Yotel. If you were one of the many who fell for the prank, hold your disappointment. You can still reserve rooms on the moon through Hotels.com or book flights to Mars through Expedia.com for $99. But hurry. The offers end Wednesday.

A nod and a link: April Fools’ Day pranks abound in the news

A Lebanese newspaper ran a caricature last year of two opposition leaders hugging in light of April Fools' Day.
If you happen to browse upon a news story that’s too odd to be true Wednesday, hold your outrage and check the calendar.

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G-20 Site: "A Cesspool, Bubbling With the Foul Products of Decomposition"

G-20 Site: A Cesspool, Bubbling With the Foul Products of Decomposition

If you were looking for monuments to global trade, you could do worse than the site in east London playing host to the G-20 summit this week. To the south of the ExCel conference center, where the meeting will take place, lie the vast Royal Victoria docks, built on marshland in 1855 to accommodate the biggest ships of the day and boost the city’s capacity for maritime trade. Look to the west, and you can’t miss the towers of Canary Wharf, totems to London’s more recent role as a global financial capital.

Walk a few blocks from the summit site, though, and the symbols of globalization quickly make way for gloom. Canning Town and Custom House, as the neighborhoods around the ExCel center are known, may have played spectator to the city’s trade-driven growth, but they have seen little of its benefits. Dogged by poverty, poor health, and low education, both neighborhoods rank among the most deprived areas in Britain. Almost a fifth of the local working-age population receives welfare benefits. Half have no formal qualifications. For leaders of the world’s most advanced economies, the area offers a stark reminder: the short-term aim of the G-20 summit might be to revive the global economy, but the longer-term goal needs to be making it fairer.

Past governments have had their chances. Lured by good rail and river links, new industries poured into Canning Town in the mid-19th century. The Thames Ironworks Ship Building and Engineering Co. opened a 30-acre site at Bow Creek in 1846, bashing out ships for much of Europe. Eager for jobs, workers from all over the country poured in. The seasonal or casual work on offer meant few could afford comfortable places to live, though; landlords, well aware of the fact, threw up cheap housing without toilets, bathrooms and oftentimes drinking water. The over-crowding and disease appalled visitors. Behind one row of houses, Charles Dickens noted “a cesspool, bubbling and seething with the constant rise of the foul products of decomposition.” The grubby, “consumptive-looking ducks” swimming upon it, he wrote in 1857, resembled “the human dwellers in fould alleys as to their depressed and haggard physiognomy.”

A short walk from the site of the one-time cesspool, Lewis Calado’s well-kept home, with its bushy pot plants and white flowering tree out front, stands out on a grotty housing estate littered with boarded-up properties. Life on the estate has improved in recent years, he says — still sporting the luminous vest from one of the two truck driving jobs he holds down to meet his mortgage payments — although petty crime remains a blight. The windows of his neighbor’s new car were smashed recently. “You can’t leave anything inside,” Calado says. “Even a GPB 3 pair of sunglasses.”

Just ask DHL. Bosses at the courier company’s local depot halted deliveries in the area in 2005, for fear of drivers being set upon by local youths. On Stephenson Street, around the corner from the depot, houses thrown up in the time of Dickens have long since made way for barbed wire-laced industrial units, the grinding of saws behind closed doors drowning out the faint crackle of the power lines overhead. Inside a tiny corrugated iron shell, the air thick with the smell of fried eggs and sausage, Ahmet Yucetan’s café relies on the local laborers for its trade. Business is down 30% in recent weeks, and he’s already laid off one member of staff. But he’s holding out little hope for help from the G-20. “People,” the burly 50-year-old says, “are left to fight for themselves.”

The local government has plans for a big overhaul, a $5.3 billion regeneration of Canning Town and Custom House over the next few years that will provide 10,000 new homes — some on the estate of Calado’s — transform the two town centers, and create jobs and community facilities. In a new pink and green building nestled next to the concrete flyover launching traffic into central London, locals can view competing designs for Canning Town’s next town center. The building also offers locals help with job searches, skills training and a weekly police surgery.

Back at the ExCel center, official posters tacked near its entrances tempt passers by with the bold words “STABILITY, GROWTH, JOBS”. But for anyone looking for a way out of the blight, it’s another disappointment. The local footbridge to the center will be shut during the meeting of the world’s most powerful. Once again, Canning Town will find itself cut off from what lies beyond.

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Protesters always early adopters of technology

Headlines proclaiming that G-20 activists and police are following each others’ activities on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites may give one the impression that a new age of surveillance and political activism has dawned.

But activists’ use of technology is nothing new. Though Twitter and Facebook might be today’s must-have gadgets in campaigners’ toolboxes, some say they’re simply the latest chapter in a long tradition of activists’ use of technology to champion change. University of Manchester political philosopher Martin O’Neill, who works on equality and social justice, told CNN that activists have a reputation for being early adopters of technology. O’Neill explained that the arrival of the printing press made broad dissemination of information possible. By the 17th century, English campaigners for civil and religious liberty were using print to spread their message, muster support and create their own ideology. “They were not just discussing ideas in print,” O’Neill said. “They used print to shape the image of the movement. “The Chartists, who pushed for universal suffrage in the 19th century, did the same but also used mass subscriptions to fund election candidates. You can see the parallels with the Obama election campaign.” More recently, activists have been quick to exploit communications technologies to disseminate information, connect with each other and gather en masse. From film in the mid-20th century to email in the early 1990s, new technologies have been seized and adopted by campaigners. Even the humble fax machine had its moment, disseminating information for organizations such as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in the latter part of the century. See a timeline showing activists’ use of technology in campaigning » But it is the rise of the Internet that has allowed campaigners to connect and mobilize to an unprecedented — indeed, global — extent. Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes Everybody” and an expert on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies, told CNN that the “seminal event” for online campaigning was the 1999 WTO protest in Seattle, where tens of thousands of activists descended on the city. “It was really that collection of protests that pioneered the new, diffuse and hard-to-defend-against violent protests that we’ve now seen,” he said.

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That’s because Internet technologies — particularly mobile technologies — have made it dramatically easier to organize groups of people in protest — and far harder for police to know where to target their defensive efforts. “[Protesters] have made it impossible for the defenders to adopt a cut-off-the-head-and-the-body-will-die strategy,” he told CNN. “[Technology] has made the idea of a frontline of protests almost completely amorphous.” These flat networks of groups, as opposed to one hierarchical structure, allow instant, on-the-ground, mass communication using mobile devices. That was apparent at the 2005 G-8 protests, as Steve McGookin, writing in Forbes magazine at the time, pointed out. “The use of cheap, ubiquitous hardware — walkie-talkies, pagers, cell phones and other PDA-type devices — has transformed the organizational abilities of every potential demonstrator,” he wrote. It was also on show at the 2007 G-8 protests in Heiligendamm, Germany, when, as Clay Shirky puts it, “groups of people acting as a giant distributed sensor network” identified a security breach in the police cordon. Within seconds, the breach had been broadcast to nearby protesters, enabling them to outmaneuver police and make a dash for the secure area. What’s different now, though, is that campaigning is no longer restricted to a hardcore of interlinked global activists. While sites such as Indymedia have allowed campaigners to connect online for a decade, it’s the arrival of mass-social-media networks like Facebook and Twitter that have brought large-scale, multi-way communication to the mainstream. Simply put, far more people are digitally connected. That means it’s easier than ever for groups to coalesce — and dissipate — quickly. Political protests are gaining traction online — most successfully on single-issue campaigns when organizers can reach people who may not have a history of political engagement. These days, no cause is complete without an accompanying clutch of Facebook groups. For the most part, large-scale protests organized on mainstream social networks have so far been peaceful. The 2006 anti-immigration-policy protests in the United States (MySpace), the protests at the Myanmar government’s crackdown on Buddhist monks’ calls for democracy (Facebook) and worldwide anti-FARC demonstrations last year (Facebook), which saw 4.8 million people take to the streets in Colombia alone, have come off without incident. But WTO, G-8 and G-20 protests have a history of turning violent. So, as the police cordon around East London tightens and police brace themselves for the expected influx of protesters, Shirky says that “increasingly totalitarian defense cordons coupled with increasingly violent protests” are ultimately unsustainable.

It’s been seen at the 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, when anti-globalization activist Carlo Giuliani died from a police gunshot wound — but Shirky says we may not have seen clashes between police and protesters peak yet. “I fear it’ll happen when it turns deadly and protesters are killed, because this escalating cat-and-mouse game is unsupportable,” he said. “That’s the nightmare scenario, with the cat eating a bunch of the mice.”

Rare dolphins discovered deep in jungle

The Irrawaddy is considered to be one of the world's rarest species of freshwater dolphin.
The Irrawaddy, one of the world’s rarest species of freshwater dolphins, have been found in surprisingly large numbers deep in the waterlogged jungles of Bangladesh.

Conservationists thought the Irrawaddy had dwindled in number to just a few hundred, but they have now counted almost 6,000 of them in the Sundarban mangrove forests and the adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal. The forests of the Sundarban — Bengali for “beautiful forest” — lie at the delta of the Ganges and two other rivers on the Bay of Bengal. Until now, little mammal research had taken place in the area. “Every time we had done a study to look into the population (elsewhere), they came out critically endangered,” said Brian Smith of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, who led the study. “It was a very pleasant surprise and a shock to find that Bangladesh supports such a large number (of dolphins).” The discovery is noteworthy because scientists do not know how many Irrawaddy dolphins remain. The next step, they say, is to ensure the mammal’s survival. One rare dolphin species — the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji — is extinct. Another, the Ganges River dolphin, is critically endangered. Some of the threats affecting the Irrawaddy are man-made. The construction of dams has reduced the flow of fresh water in many parts of Bangladesh. And the population is dwindling because the dolphins sometimes get caught in fishermen’s nets. The dolphin, which has a large, rounded head, can grow up to 8 feet in length and is related to the orca, or killer whale. It is found in large rivers, estuaries and freshwater lagoons in south and southeast Asia. In Myanmar, the dolphins help herd schools of fish toward fishermen’s boats and nets. In Bangladesh, fishermen hold them in high regard, Smith said. “There is no market for dolphin products,” he said. “In a country like Bangladesh, with protein deficiency and where food is scarce, there is a real cultural prohibition against harming them. It gives us hope because it means fishermen are very receptive to working with us.” The results of the study were shared Wednesday at a conference for marine mammal protected areas in Hawaii, and published in the winter issue of the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. Conservationists are now working with the Bangladesh government to establish a protected area for the dolphins. “There are so many bad news (stories) coming out of the conservation community that this is a real sort of positive story,” Smith said.

Reports: Shearer set to manage Newcastle United

Alan Shearer pictured taking part in a charity football match at Wembley in September 2008.
Alan Shearer is to make his keenly awaited return to Newcastle United in a bid to save the Premiership club from being relegated, UK media have reported.

An announcement confirming the appointment is expected from St. James’ Park Wednesday, according to reports. Newcastle, who are currently third from bottom in the Premiership, have seen several changes of management during the past two seasons, including Sam Allardyce, who parted company with the club earlier this year, and former Newcastle and England international Kevin Keegan. Do you think Shearer can save Newcastle Tell us what you think Chris Hughton is currently the club’s caretaker manager, with Joe Kinnear, interim manager, still away from St James’ Park following a heart operation. Shearer, regarded as a legend by Newcastle fans, has had his name frequently linked to a management role at the club since his playing career ended in April 2006. A former captain of England, he was transferred from Blackburn to his native Tyneside, northern England in 1996 for a then world record of £15 million, going on to score more than 200 goals for the club. Newcastle, despite being one of England’s best supported clubs, have conspicuously failed to win a major trophy for decades — they last topped Division One, the forerunner to the Premiership, in 1927, with their last FA Cup victory in 1955. Newcastle’s next match is a home game against Chelsea, third in the Premiership, on Saturday.