Once Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola announced he was retiring, the season ending Copa del Rey final was set up as a fitting send-off for the most successful trainer in the club’s history. That the game was against an Athletic Bilbao side overseen by his friend and mentor Marcelo Bielsa seemed just right. All seemed set for a memorable shared football occasion between two of La Liga's most storied clubs.Then news started circulating that Athletic and Barcelona fans groups (i.e. Basques and Catalans) were planning to whistle the Spanish national anthem before the game. This was not a huge shock, as you can’t follow Spanish football for long without learning that clubs work as containers of and symbols for local culture and pride. Foreign football writers ... Continue reading →

Taken by Elaine Snowden near the James Joyce Bridge, Dublin, this morning. Thanks Aaron McAllorum This entry was posted in Misc and tagged Instagram, Luas by Bodger. Bookmark the permalink. Continue reading →

Four awards In the first year of the Prize, awards will be given in four separate categories. Each award consists of € 10,000. 1. The Editing Award – For the editor who the judges believe has contributed most to public debate and public understanding; 2. The Commentator Award – For the feature writer, columnist or commentator who has done most to illuminate vital issues for his readers; 3. The News Reporting Award – For the reporter or specialist expert whose work has made a decisive impact; 4. The Innovation Award – For the outstanding innovation of the year – in print or via digital: anything that makes a significant contribution to journalism’s future. First awards in January 2013 Entries for year one of the awards ... Continue reading →

This Sunday, exasperated farmers and citizens will travel to a field near Harpenden to uproot a crop of genetically modified wheat. They have been denounced in purple prose by pro-GM commentators, as science haters, "Nazi book burners" and vandals. But what else can concerned citizens do when the company conducting the GM wheat trial, Rothamsted Research, presses on recklessly with an open field experiment that has the potential to contaminate neighbouring farmers' crops and trigger unpredictable impacts on other species? Recent Swiss research shows that some GM wheat varieties can cross-pollinate with crops more than 2.75km away, and that in the field, they cross-pollinate six times more than conventional varieties. Yet in contamination incidents involving long-grain rice in the US and flax in Canada, GM ... Continue reading →

23 May 2012 Last updated at 21:00 ET Sicily honours murdered anti-Mafia campaigner, 60 years on By Alan Johnston BBC News Corleone has given rise to some of the most infamous Mafia leaders in Italy More than 60 years ago, union leader Placido Rizzotto was killed after standing up to the Mafia in his hometown of Corleone. After campaigning by friends and relatives, he will finally be given a state funeral. One evening, way back in March 1948, Placido Rizzotto emerged from his office in a small town in Sicily. He stopped briefly to chat outside a bar on the main street. Then he walked on into the night, and was never seen again. But nobody had any doubt what had happened to him. The ... Continue reading →