8 Critical Questions You Should Ask Yourself as a Blogger

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This is a guest post by Rob Rammuny. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

“I’m at a point in my blogging career where I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Every blogger reaches a point in time where they find themselves struggling, it’s normal. However, the challenging part of that struggle is finding out what exactly are you doing wrong and how can you correct it. I’ve watched as thousands of bloggers throw away their blogging career, just because they were unable to answer this kind of question. After being in the blogging industry for about 19 months, I’ve studied blogs and bloggers as well as the points where they go wrong. In my 19 months of being in the industry, I’ve gathered 8 critical questions bloggers forgot to ask themselves.

1. Are you blogging about your passion?

The beauty of blogging is that you have the ability to talk about something you love. If you put hard work and effort into it, chances are you will succeed. But, if you’re not blogging about something you’re passionate about, what’s the point of your blog? Are you blogging with hopes to make money? You can do that with any niche that has people who are interested in what you have to say. So why not make it a niche your passionate about? People will be able to tell if you’re actually passionate about what you do. The desire to over deliver, and give your blog your all can only be done by someone who is truly passionate about what they’re doing.

2. Do you know your audience?

A critical part that will determine your blogs success is how well you know your audience. The better you know your audience, the higher the chances are you can cater to their needs and help solve their problem. Another problem with not being aware of your audience is, how do you really know what they want and don’t want? What about all the posts you’ve been writing, do you really know how many of them your readers find useful? Are you wasting your time writing posts that aren’t benefiting your community?

3. Are you building a community?

Having a strong community can either make or break your blog. If you’re serious about blogging and wanting to better yourself as a blogger (which I assume you do since your reading this post), you should be serious about building a community. A strong community is like having a family; through your ups and downs as a blogger, your community will be there for you. They will love you, support you, and spread the word about your blog.

4. Are you solving your reader’s problems?

When people arrive to your blog and read your posts, are they going to leave with knowing something new? Or are they going to leave your site the same way they entered – confused and wondering what to do next. Take Problogger for example, it’s the world’s most popular blog for blogs about helping others to become a better blogger. If Darren posted about what he ate for dinner, or what he had been doing his entire day, would Problogger be where it’s at today? Absolutely not. He was able to get where he is at today by providing help useful material to new bloggers by finding out what problems his readers were facing and wrote about them.

5. Are you instilling the urge for community response?

What kind of vibe do your posts give off? Do they give the “I don’t care about your input” vibe, or do they give the “This post won’t be complete without your input” vibe. Having a comment section does not instill an urge for community response, your posts are what instill the urge. Try ending your posts off with a “Group discussion” or a “What do you think” section at the end. Ask your readers what do they think about the topic or what would they add to it. Give them a reason to comment, and show them that you want to hear their input. You can also write posts that connect with your readers deeply which will bring will allow you to see a more heart-felt comment. When your readers leave a comment, respond to it. Spark a discussion and share your input on top of theirs.

6. Are you a “thinker” and “planner” instead of a “doer”?

You will always hear someone say “I have a million dollar idea”, but you never see it happen because they don’t take action. Maybe you “plan” for the big day where you will become a six-figure problogger, but are you actually taking the steps to make that happen? A quote I like to think of is “It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with what you know.” The quote has so much meaning behind it, because thinking about something isn’t going to make it happen. Find your idea, write it down and actually do it. If you struggle, don’t give up, learn from your mistake and try again.

7. Are you blogging with a backup plan?

Every blogger should blog with a backup plan in mind, point-blank.

Diversifying your income streams

Having multiple traffic sources

Making sure your blog is being backed up daily

These are all backup plans you need to have. What if you wake up one day and find out that your blog has been hacked and you lost all your files? Do you have a backup of your site? What happens when Twitter dies out and that was your main traffic source? You suddenly lost all your blog traffic. You need to be willing to plan for the unexpected, because it can happen and it can happen to you.

8. Are you striving to over deliver on each one of your posts?

I’ll be blunt here. Being a consistent blogger doesn’t mean anything if you’re not striving to deliver the best on every post you write. If you hit the stage where you’re facing bloggers burnout to the point where you are struggling to find a good post to write about, take a break and ask for guest post submissions. The quality of your posts define the quality of your blog, and most importantly defines the quality of you as a blogger. So make sure you over delivering, or don’t deliver at all.

Are you asking yourself these 8 questions?

I’ve watched thousands of bloggers fail, but I’ve watched only a handful succeed. Ask yourself these questions, and be truthful about your answers. They can only benefit you for the better, so make the most out of it. Are there any self reflecting questions you believe us bloggers should be asking ourselves?

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Poll: Do You Have Email Spam Problems?

Poll: Do You Have Email Spam Problems?: "

Yesterday I was listening to a talk show in the radio, and one guy was talking about Facebook Messages, their new email/messaging system. At one point the show host said something like this:

Let’s hope this new system will solve the spam problem. I believe that over 90% of the email messages people receive right now are spam, right?

And the “tech expert” went like this:

Oh yeah spam is a big problem, and yes filtering through all the spam we receive is one of the biggest challenges right now.

When I heard that I thought to myself: “You gotta be kidding!”.

I agree with the person with the fact that 90% of the email messages flowing around are spam, but filtering them is not a challenge anymore, as Gmail and other clients solved it years ago.

I am not sure about you, but I get almost zero spam on my inbox. If I was to count I guess it would come to 3 or 4 spam messages making it to my inbox every month, which I consider to be a negligible problem (especially because I receive around 3,000 emails per month, so the percentage of spam messages over the total would be 0.1%).

And I don’t use any fancy tactics or software (e.g., spamarrest). I just use a Gmail account, and sometimes I even use my email around the web (e.g., to sign-up for online services, newsletters and the like).

So I don’t get why people complain so much about spam. As long as you use Gmail or another decent client your inbox should be pretty clean. But hey, that is my opinion, and want to hear from you guys. That is why I created a poll, and you can also leave a comment below to expand your thoughts.

Remark: Keep in mind that the definition of spam is an unsolicited message. If you receive messages from services and newsletters you subscribed to (e.g., YouTube, an online store or the marketer who wanted your email address to show you a video), that is not spam. Sure those messages can be equally annoying, but they are not spam technically, so please don’t consider those when answering the poll.

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Best Firefox Add-ons: LastPass Password Manager

Best Firefox Add-ons: LastPass Password Manager: "

If you are a web geek you certainly have dozens of passwords from different services and websites. Gmail, WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, cPanel, GoDaddy, you name it.

On top of that you also need to make sure that each password is unique, and preferably long and complex, else they would become a security risk.

How do you manage all that without going crazy? With a password manager, obviously. Password managers are programs that will store your passwords securely (i.e., with encryption), and you just need to remember the master password.

There are many desktop based managers, but there is also a Firefox add-on called LastPass that gets the job done.

The advantage of using the extension is that you might sync it with different computers, and that you’ll be able to auto-fill login forms, logging into your favorite websites with single click. It works on any operating system where you can install Firefox.

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Best Firefox Add-ons: PrintPDF

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Sooner or later we all need to save web pages locally. Maybe it’s a page with a tutorial for something you’ll need to do in the future, maybe it’s the sales page that you think has great copywriting and are not sure for how long it will stay online.

Regardless of the reason, saving the page as an HTML file is not an effective solution. That is because you’ll need to save both page and the respective files (which usually go in a separate folder), and because when trying to open it again it might be displayed incorrectly on your browser.

A better solution is to use a Firefox extension called PrintPDF. Once installed you’ll be able to save web pages directly into your computer as a PDF file.

It works both on Windows and Linux, and the only missing functionality right now is that links will not be present in the PDF. I believe the developer will be adding this feature soon though.

Finally, yes I know Mac users can do this by default, so no need to brag about it"

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S. Korea spy chief expects new attacks

S. Korea spy chief expects new attacks:
"As South Korea and the United States wrapped up joint military exercises on the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, South Korea is reportedly planning artillery firing drills next week amid brewing tensions with North Korea."

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Snoring may signal heart risk

Snoring may signal heart risk: "People who snore loudly, have difficulty falling asleep, or often wake up feeling tired may have more to worry about than dozing off at work. A new study suggests they may also be at increased risk of developing heart disease and other health problems down the road."

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WikiLeaks founder on most-wanted list

WikiLeaks founder on most-wanted list:
"Interpol has added WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to its most-wanted list at the request of a Swedish court looking into alleged sex crimes from this year."

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Yahoo's most-searched term in '10 is ...

Yahoo's most-searched term in '10 is ...:
"The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was the most searched term on Yahoo in 2010, the search engine said Wednesday."

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'Cyber Monday' was biggest ever

'Cyber Monday' was biggest ever:
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Cyber Monday."

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Obama bans eastern Gulf drilling 7 years

Obama bans eastern Gulf drilling 7 years:
"President Barack Obama will not be allowing new drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for at least seven years, according to a senior administration official."

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$3 million bail for missing boys' dad

$3 million bail for missing boys' dad: "The father of three missing Michigan boys, held on $3 million bail and facing parental kidnapping charges, is fighting his extradition from Ohio, authorities said Wednesday."

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How My Dad's a Birdman took flight

How My Dad's a Birdman took flight: "

My new children's play began in the depths of a warm South Pacific lagoon and ended up in Newcastle's icy river Tyne

It was 2003, and I was on a book tour in Australia with my family. My stage version of my novel Skellig was to be that year's Christmas show at London's Young Vic theatre. I sat at the window of our Sydney hotel, checking emails. One came from the theatre's artistic director, David Lan: how, he wrote, would I like to write another play, for younger children, to run in the smaller studio theatre, while Skellig played in the main house? I looked across the city. The sun poured down on the bridge, the harbour, the opera house. Weirdly, it all put me in mind of Newcastle, my home town. 'Yes,' I wrote. 'Of course.'

I had only just begun to think of myself as a playwright; until very recently, I'd only written prose. But some of that prose was for children, and they were teaching me a lot. Just after Skellig the novel came out, I read some of it to a primary-school class. Two boys rushed to me afterwards. 'That was brilliant!' they cried. 'We're going to act it out! He's Michael, I'm Skellig! Howay!' And they were off. The first performance of Skellig, in a Newcastle school yard.

Children leap through the artificial boundaries we try to impose on stories. For them, words don't sit still in orderly lines on the page. They move fluently into drama, movement, dance, song.

After the book tour, we took a holiday in the Cook Islands. I sat facing the lagoon, the coral reef, the ocean, and I scribbled a few ideas for the new play. But then we put on masks and snorkels and I swam with my partner and daughter among outrageously beautiful, tender, friendly multicoloured fish. The story began to be released. In the warm lagoon of Rarotonga I saw images of birdmen and birdwomen inside barmy flying contraptions, leaping into the sky above Newcastle in an attempt to fly across the icy River Tyne.

Back at home, the North Sea replaced the Pacific; the Tyne bridge and The Sage replaced Sydney harbour and opera house. I sat in my terraced house, and the play's main characters jumped on to the page: a young girl called Lizzie yelled up the stairs to Jackie Crow, her sleeping dad; Jackie pulled wings out of a cupboard, strapped them on, leapt from the kitchen table; Auntie Doreen flung dumplings at the wall. And here came Benny the Bee Boy, Bouncing Bess, and The Human Helicopter Hubert Hall. They were all heading to Newcastle for the Great Human Bird Competition: fly across the Tyne & win £1,000!

It was a tale with pain and loss at its heart, but it also seemed optimistic, with fast dialogue and funny songs: a story that jumped for joy and danced with hope. My play, called My Dad's a Birdman, was ready. Then came the process of casting, rehearsals, rewrites, previews – when the story is enhanced and reshaped by the visions of actors, director, designer, musicians. All directed to the moment when the story takes the most outrageous and optimistic leap of all, off the stage and into the imaginations of the audience. The audience jumped and laughed and cheered and sighed. They joined in with The Dumpling Song. My daughter, Freya, flapped her arms in the air as she watched, just as she'd swayed them under the sea. And then Christmas passed, and Skellig finished its run, and so did this play. Then came the weird, empty feeling when a play is over and the set is taken down, and everyone goes different ways.

A few months back, David Lan came calling again. He wanted to return the play to the Young Vic, in a bigger production with music by the Pet Shop Boys. Maybe it's not surprising that they've come up with such perfect tunes; Neil Tennant grew up just across the Tyne from me. Maybe our imaginations met in mid-air. So the story's back on stage again, in a new, evolved shape, directed by Oliver Mears: a rather weird story set in chilly Newcastle, but with links to Sydney Harbour and Pacific lagoons and gorgeous fish.

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Jack White defends flipping fightback

Jack White defends flipping fightback: "

Singer dismisses complaints of fan exploitation, saying his decision to sell limited-edition vinyl to the highest bidder cuts out opportunists who profit from secondary sales

There is a rebellion brewing among fans of Jack White's label, Third Man Records, over the company's decision to auction limited-edition releases to the highest bidder. After admitting that Third Man was inspired by profiteers who 'flipped' the label's releases on eBay, White has waded into the debate, telling critics to 'stop all of the whining'. 'We didn't do anything to you but give you what you want,' he wrote. 'Don't want them to be expensive? Then guess what? Don't WANT them.'

Since 2009, White has been issuing limited-edition records on his Third Man imprint, including releases by the Dead Weather, Conan O'Brien and the White Stripes. Many of these are released in runs of 100 or 300 copies, with tri-colour, glow-in-the-dark or oddly sized vinyl. Although these limited editions often resell for hundreds of pounds, Third Man sold them on a first-come, first-served basis through its Nashville headquarters, 'pop-up shops' and a paid members' service, the Vault. With the label's rising profile, and its releases' rising values, Third Man has attracted 'flippers', who buy limited records purely sell online.

This week, Third Man Records decided to beat the flippers at their own game, listing their own limited-edition White Stripes reissues on eBay. Vault subscribers were directed to these auctions, where bids have soared to more than $300 (£193). But many Third Man Records fans are furious about the label's new strategy, taking to the label's message board to complain about 'fan exploitation' and 'FU to Vault members'. White waded in with a series of stern responses.

'We sell a Wanda Jackson split record for 10 bucks, the eBay flipper turns around and sells it for 300,' he explained (via Antiquiet). 'If 300 is what it's worth, then why doesn't Third Man Records sell it for 300? If we sell them for more, the artist gets more, the flipper gets nothing ... We thought we'd let you decide how much they cost this time.'

But what began as a calm explanation soon descended into a tirade. 'You would go so far as to say fuck you to us?' White wrote. 'For what? We didn't do anything to you but give you what you want ... If you don't want [this record], DONT BUY IT. And if you do want it, don't act like you DON'T want it. Get in line like anyone else ... It's you and others wanting them that dictates the price and the entire nature of the idea.'

According to White, 'there's a guy who waits in a black SUV down the block from Third Man who hires homeless people to go buy him tri-colour [records] when they are on sale'. Third Man is simply trying to cut out these opportunists. 'You act like we bury [vinyl] in tunnels in Vietnam for God sakes,' he continued. 'Don't be spoiled, don't insult people who are trying to give you what you want ... Seriously stop all of the whining, because what you communicate to us is that all of the trouble we go to isn't worth it because nothing we do will make you happy.'

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Erin Brockovich town's second battle

Erin Brockovich town's second battle: "

Residents of Hinkley, made famous by Julia Roberts film, fight to stop history repeating itself over contaminated water supply

Ten years ago the small town of Hinkley shot to international attention with the release of Erin Brockovich – the movie starring Julia Roberts that dramatised the town's battle over its contaminated water supply. Now the community of fewer than 2,000 people in California's Mojave Desert is fighting again to try to stop history repeating itself.

Tempers among residents are set to run high tonight at a meeting with water board officials, representatives of California's largest utility company PG&E and Brockovich herself.

Just as they did two decades ago, PG&E's men with thick chequebooks are circling the town, and have written to 100 landowners in the Hinkley area, offering to buy up homes on land where groundwater may be affected by pollution in the water supply.

PG&E says it is committed to cleaning up the area but residents are sceptical. Norman Diaz, whose family has been in Hinkley for six generations, said: "The meeting is going to be a circus. It's going to be like a scene out of a movie, it's not going to be productive at all. PG&E is using this to play us, because anything useful that we ask for doesn't get accomplished. This is just another kick in the teeth for Hinkley."

Between 1952 and 1966, Hinkley's groundwater was turned toxic by hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen used to prevent rust in the cooling towers at the natural gas compression station nearby. The run-off from the towers, which shimmered in the heat of the Mojave Desert, ended up in unlined holding pools that allowed the toxic chemicals to leach into the town's drinking water.

After the scandal became public thanks to Brockovich's class action, PG&E was ordered to contain the toxic plume to prevent it spreading through the town's second and deeper aquifer. The remaining residents went back to their ranches, and drilled deeper to a second aquifer they were told was uncontaminated.

But recent data from monitoring wells in the lower aquifer have shown high levels of chromium six. Analytical data collected in May this year from one well showed a 4,600% increase from 2005 levels of chromium 6 in the lower aquifer. Monitoring data also revealed that the plume, now 2.8 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, appears to be spreading alarmingly fast at about one foot a day.

Carmella Gonzalez, a Hinkley resident who raised concerns about the spread of contamination to the Lahontan Water Board, said: 'When I found that it had gone to the lower aquifer, I was beside myself. That was always the safe water, and we were always told drill down deeper to the lower aquifer, it's clean and not contaminated. They have allowed this plume to spread and it just sickens me.'

A PG&E spokesman said the company was working hard on improving the water supply. "There is absolutely nothing more important to PG&E than the health and safety of the people of Hinkley and we are completely committed to cleaning up the area. But this is something that takes time. We will be here to clean it up to that level."

The utility company has been ordered by the water board to contain the plume and reduce chromium 6 levels to 3.1 parts per billion, well below the California state standard of 50 parts per billion. But even PG&E's own feasibility study shows that natural attenuation to reduce chromium levels to background levels would take up to 1,000 years.

The prospect of Hinkley becoming a ghost town horrifies some in the community. Diaz said: "There are a lot of families who have been in the area five or six generations and we don't want to go anywhere... We want PG&E to invest in infrastructure instead of destruction. Build us something that shows that they're a good neighbour and they're going to be with us for another 100 years."

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Tate Britain's rehang is a terrible idea

Tate Britain's rehang is a terrible idea: "

By relegating most of its pre-20th century art to the storerooms, the gallery shows a scandalous lack of regard for national treasures – and British history

Tate Britain has been suffering an identity crisis for a decade, and is embarking on yet another round of therapy. The latest rehang of the collection is being billed as the beginning of an entirely new approach, scheduled to culminate in 2013 when a building programme gives it expanded gallery space and the entire collection will be displayed in chronological order. Yet if that sounds like a cure, the immediate arrangement pulls the patient to the very brink of catastrophe.

Like those of some hapless royal in search of a 'role', Tate Britain's troubles over what exactly it's for boil down to the quarrel of ancients and moderns. Does this British part of the Tate empire exist to celebrate and display the history of British art since the Renaissance, or is it just a showcase for contemporary British art? The new displays lurch towards the latter, but in a dull way that drags the original young artists of the 90s into an establishment history of British modernism – when in fact they deserve to be seen with British greats like Hogarth and Turner.

Surely I can't be the only visitor who, entering a museum billed online as 'the home of British art from 1500 to the present day', expects to see just that: a rich array of British art from Rubens' oil sketch for the Banqueting House ceiling – saved for the Tate Collection after a public appeal in 2008 – to the latest young artists.

Yet room after room of the new display reveals more and more British 20th-century art – the good, the bad and the indifferent. Last time I checked we were in the 21st century, and it makes no more sense to insist on the relevance of the period 1900-2000 than to dedicate the entire museum to, say, the 16th century. Though it seems there's fat chance of the latter. The Tate press office insists that a third of the art on display is still pre-1900, but most of such older works as are visible will be crammed into one big room of 'iconic' paintings or shoved into the Clore gallery, which is supposed to be dedicated to Turner. Using the press office's own figures, that means four-fifths of the collection (ie, 1500-1900) gets just a third of the space.

Even if the new displays are the aperitif to a great new museum in 2013, it is simply wrong to put so many works of deep historical and often aesthetic interest into storage for three years, or two years, or one year. There are plenty of iconoclasts in the wings asking why public collections don't sell off a few old paintings, and frankly this lack of regard for national treasures gives them credence.

Are we all supposed to simply forget British history for the next couple of years? If I were a teacher, I'd take my class to the V&A instead, where the past, present and future all flourish, as they should in any museum worthy of the name.

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US soldier accused of killing prisoner

US soldier accused of killing prisoner: "

Private David Lawrence, 20, shot Taliban detainee because he wanted to 'kill the bad guys', court told

A US soldier was so eager to 'kill the bad guys' in Afghanistan that he shot dead a Taliban member who was sleeping in a cell, according to military prosecutors.

The accusation came during a court hearing to determine whether Private First Class David Lawrence, 20, should be court-martialed for murder.

Lawrence's lawyer, James Culp, says his client is not mentally fit to stand trial because he is taking medication for schizophrenia and depression.

Culp objected to holding the hearing before the completion of an inquiry into Lawrence's mental health, arguing his client was being rushed into the military justice system.

Major George Brauchler, prosecuting, said Lawrence's depression stemmed from his disappointment at not being transferred to a combat unit, and that an eagerness to 'kill the bad guys' led him to shoot the Taliban detainee.

Two soldiers, who gave their testimony by phone from Afghanistan, and who guarded Lawrence after his arrest, said Lawrence told them that he and his lawyer might 'play the crazy card'.

Lawrence appeared to fall asleep repeatedly during the hearing, prompting prosecutors to ask a sergeant to sit next to him to keep him awake. At one point, he started to walk away before Culp pulled him back.

Private Dimitri Andre Jenkins, a medic in Lawrence's platoon, said the accused had acted strangely before the shooting. Jenkins said Lawrence was sometimes quiet and withdrawn; at other times laughing and joking. He said Lawrence had been upset about a friend in the US who had died.

Jenkins told the court he spoke to his superiors about his concern for Lawrence, who was serving with the 1st brigade combat team of the 4th infantry division.

Lawrence was then sent to an army combat stress centre for a few days. When he returned to his unit, he was assigned to guard duty, which included guarding the captured Taliban member in his cell.

The army said it was not sure of the name of the detainee because he had several aliases.

Jenkins said he became alarmed when Lawrence told him he was going to do something that had to be done. 'I felt like it was going to be some kind of murder-suicide,' the medic said.

Lawrence's guards, Sergeant John Miller and Private Aaron Rederstorf, told the court Lawrence was smiling and laughing before his first judicial hearing in Afghanistan. He appeared 'almost cocky', Miller said.

They said Lawrence became subdued after the hearing, and at one point appeared to be crying. The guards said they were not at the hearing and did not know what transpired.

Sergeant Jaroslab Diaz, Lawrence's former platoon leader, testified that two other soldiers told him Lawrence was having homicidal and suicidal thoughts before the shooting. Diaz said Lawrence later admitted to shooting the Taliban prisoner.

Culp questioned several soldiers about an apparent suicide attempt by Lawrence, who was being hospitalised for an evaluation after his arrest.

Sergeant John Murphy, who was guarding Lawrence, said the suspect tried to pull an intravenous drip out of his arm and then pumped his fist to hasten blood flow through the opening. He said Lawrence relented when he was told he would be revived if he passed out. Murphy said he did not believe it was a serious suicide attempt."

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Portugal's borrowing costs jump

Portugal's borrowing costs jump: "

Buyers at today's auction of government debt demanded a much higher rate of return – 5.3% from 4.8% two weeks ago

Portugal saw its cost of borrowing jump significantly this morning as it paid the price for the ongoing eurozone debt crisis.

Although there was relief that Portugal found buyers for the €500m (£418m) of 12-month bonds on the table, buyers at this morning's auction demanded a much higher rate of return. The debt was sold at an average yield – or effective interest rate – of 5.281%, up from 4.813% at a similar auction two weeks ago.

The auction was held just hours after Standard & Poor's ratcheted up the pressure on the Lisbon government by warning that it may cut Portugal's credit rating. Analysts had predicted that Portugal would have to pay a steep premium to find buyers for its debt today. Traders were very unwilling yesterday to buy the bonds of peripheral eurozone members, reflecting fears that Portugal, Spain or even Italy could need to tap the EU's rescue funds.

Last night, S&P announced that it had put Portugal's debt on negative credit watch, and may downgrade its A- rating in three months. The agency said there were "increased risks" to the Portuguese government's creditworthiness, and warned that its austerity cutbacks would harm economic growth.

"In 2011, Portugal's minority government is set to implement an ambitious fiscal austerity programme with an emphasis on reducing expenditures. However, we see the government as having made little progress on any growth-enhancing reforms to offset the fiscal drag from these scheduled 2011 budgetary cuts," said S&P's credit analyst Frank Gill.

'As a consequence of the Portuguese economy's structural rigidities and the volatile external conditions, we project that the economy will contract by at least 2% in 2011 in real terms.'

Portugal's central bank warned yesterday that the country's financial sector faced 'intolerable' risk unless the government's planned austerity measures were implemented. Last week, a general strike shut down much of the country's transport network.

The eurozone's weaker members were given some early respite from the financial markets this morning, after Jean-Claude Trichet – head of the European Central Bank – hinted at closer European harmonisation to address the crisis.

The yield, or rate of return demanded by investors, on Portuguese 10-year bonds fell slightly to 6.90% this morning, from 6.93% yesterday. The spread between the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds and their German equivalent, which hit an all-time high yesterday, also fell this morning.

It also emerged last night that the US is sending a special envoy to Europe to discuss the crisis.

Lael Brainard, the undersecretary for international affairs, will hold meetings with senior government officials in Madrid, Berlin and Paris over the next few days to 'discuss economic developments in Europe as well as our longer-term work to advance our shared agenda on strong and sustainable global growth,' the Treasury said in a statement yesterday."

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Call for WikiLeaks culprit to be executed

Call for WikiLeaks culprit to be executed: "

Republican presidential hopeful wants the person responsible for the WikiLeaks cables to face capital punishment for treason

The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has called for whoever leaked the 250,000 US diplomatic cables to be executed.

Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination at the last election but is one of the favourites for 2012, joined a growing number of people demanding the severest punishment possible for those behind the leak, which has prompted a global diplomatic crisis.

His fellow potential Republican nominee Sarah Palin had already called for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be 'hunted down', and an adviser to the Canadian prime minister has echoed her comments.

Huckabee said: 'Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.'

He added, according to Politico: 'They've put American lives at risk. They put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk. They knew full well that they were handling sensitive documents they were entrusted.

'And anyone who had access to that level of information was not only a person who understood what their rules were, but they also signed, under oath, a commitment that they would not violate. They did … Any lives they endangered, they're personally responsible for and the blood is on their hands.'

Bradley Manning, a US army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the diplomatic cables, is currently being held at a military base. He has been charged with transferring classified data and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source. He faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison.

The 23-year-old was arrested after boasting in instant messages and emails to a high-profile former hacker, Adrian Lamo, that he had passed the material to WikiLeaks along with a highly classified video of US forces killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

Kathleen McFarland, who served in the Pentagon under the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, concurred with Huckabee. 'It's time to up the charges,' said McFarland, now a Fox News national security analyst. 'Let's charge him and try him for treason. If he is found guilty, he should be executed.'

It is not just the Americans who are demanding blood. Tom Flanagan, a senior adviser to the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, issued what has been described as a fatwa against Assange, on the Canadian TV station CBC.

'I think Assange should be assassinated, actually,' he said. 'I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something.' Flanagan chuckled as he made the comment but did not retract it when questioned, adding: 'I wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange does disappear.'

Revelations directly relating to Canada have been few and far between so far, although there was some embarrassment for Harper in the leak of a US embassy note from one of the French president's key foreign advisers. It explained that Harper was invited to last year's D-day commemorations in Normandy only because his government was in trouble.

Assange is facing growing legal problems around the world.

The US has announced it is investigating whether he has violated its espionage laws, and his details have been added to Interpol's worldwide wanted list, based on an arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors in connection with rape allegations.

On Monday, Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook: 'He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders?' "

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Cancún climate talks 'vital to UK'

Cancún climate talks 'vital to UK': "

Caroline Spelman, the UK's environment secretary, says we are already feeling the effects of climate change and must adapt fast

• Cameron: UK is prepared to act on its own over climate change

As representatives from almost 200 countries meet in Cancún, Mexico, this week to discuss a global deal on reducing emissions, last month's floods in Cornwall reminded us at home why this is such an important goal.

Visiting Cornwall I saw for myself the devastating damage the flooding caused to homes and businesses alike. I saw too that, despite the valiant efforts of communities themselves, the Environment Agency and many insurers, it will be months before life returns to normal.

It may not be possible to tell whether climate change was the cause of this particular flood, but the latest UK Climate Projections show that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions will only lead to more of the same.

Lessons from Copenhagen have been learned – developing economies must be supported in their transition to economic growth, social development and environmental protection. The UK government's commitment to international climate finance alone stands at nearly £3bn over the next five years.

Without this kind of support, climate change will have even greater impacts in developing countries and the UK will feel pressure on our food supplies and the trade networks that support our economy.

But whatever is eventually agreed, either at Cancún or subsequently, we are already feeling the effects of climate change and we must adapt to them – now and for the future.

Nine out of the past 10 years have now brought serious flooding to the UK. In its 2004 report, A Changing Climate for Insurance (no longer online), the Association of British Insurers pointed out that claims from storm and flood damages doubled to more than £6bn between 1998 and 2003 – with the prospect of this tripling by 2050.

The summer floods of 2007 alone left a bill of more than £3bn of insured damage. But the impacts of climate change, of course, are not limited to flooding.

The past decade has been the warmest on record, and this summer saw the National Farmers Union warn that the driest first six months in almost 70 years has hit domestic wheat production particularly badly.

UK temperatures are now an average of 1c higher than they were just 40 years ago. That doesn't sound like much, but the 2003 heatwave which caused the premature deaths of up to 2,000 in the UK was only 2c hotter than the summer average. These risks need to be managed.

Part of my job is making sure the UK adapts to these challenges and becomes more resilient to them. How radical we need to be in the longer term depends largely on how successful we are in reducing emissions and stabilising temperatures. That's why efforts such as those being made in Cancún are so important – without a global deal to halt rising temperatures the work we'll need to do will be more extreme and cost us more.

Unless we boost our efforts to mitigate and adapt, our future could involve thousands of roads being resurfaced to cope with higher temperatures or dug up to provide bigger storm drains while offices close at noon because the heat is too intense. Far fetched? Not really – the experiences of other countries show that extreme measures sometimes need to be taken if temperatures are not brought under control.

That's why supporting a strong and sustainable green economy – resource efficient and resilient to climate change – is one of my department's key priorities. That's also why we're putting climate change at the heart of the forthcoming white papers on the natural environment and water, and carrying out the UK's first climate change risk assessment.

And we'll have an even better idea of the future challenges to our food systems when the Foresight project on Global Food and Farming Futures – sponsored by the Department for International Development and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – reports early next year.

The time for speculation about climate change is over. Its impact– and the escalating costs of adapting to it – await us down the road if we don't, together, make it a priority now.

Whatever happens at Cancún, we need to speed up the pace of adaptation at home. Mitigating the causes of climate change and adapting to its effects are now two sides of the same coin."

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Manics on Strictly: out of step?

Manics on Strictly: out of step?: "

The one-time Generation Terrorists performing on prime-time TV could be a riot. But I fear they are putting record sales before their reputation

The announcement yesterday that Manic Street Preachers will follow the likes of Robbie Williams, James Blunt and Pandre by appearing on Strictly Come Dancing's results show was met not with a gulp of disbelief but a sigh of exasperation.

The Manics are a band who demand unerring loyalty from fans. Those old enough to have followed them since their early days have found themselves having to grit their teeth through a series of highs and lows that would test the mettle of any fan. Such a TV appearance wouldn't really matter if the band hadn't propelled themselves to glory by offering a genuine alternative to the staid mainstream culture of the early-90s. You have to ask why they're doing this. And the answer can only be: record sales matter more than reputation.

Strictly Come Dancing is a place where good taste goes to die and careers are reborn. Ideally the Manics would use this as an opportunity for some Situationist mischief-making or a chance to take Ann Widdecombe to task over some of the draconian opinions she has expressed in recent years (her stance against homosexuality, denial of climate change and disgust at the ordination of women) but it's not going to happen.

The Manics' recent acclaimed album, Postcards from a Young Man, was billed as their "last shot at mass communication", yet few have pointed out that they are already deeply embedded in mainstream culture. That happened when they stopped dressing like Tiger Bay tarts and starting wearing cagoules and trainers. Which is fine: bands must evolve, change, mature.

You suspect the Manics will spin their Strictly appearance as a subversive act, but what is subversive about a mainstream band appearing on a mainstream TV show, even if one of them is wearing a dress? This is the era of Grayson Perry, after all.

Such an appearance prompts questions about where the line is drawn between a rock band subverting the norm and killing off any final traces of credibility. Would having a song featured on Glee be considered too much? An appearance on The X Factor? What if Sean Moore ate kangaroo penis on I'm a Celebrity ...?

True acts of televisual subversion or spontaneity by underground bands are rarer than hen's teeth. The Sex Pistols' swearing was subversive because it changed the way we consider language, as was Jerry Lewis tearing it up in 1964, KLF joining forces with Extreme Noise Terror at the Brit awards and At the Drive-In murdering their latest single on Later with Jools Holland. But perhaps, like a riot, such moments can only ever be spontaneous.

So who knows what the Manics may have in store. It could be great – I certainly hope so. Nicky Wire may break his bass guitar twice in the same song, as he did on The Word in 1991. Perhaps singer James Dean Bradfield will dust down the balaclava that he wore on Top of the Pops in 1994, but this time with Bruce Forsyth's toupee on top. Or maybe they'll just play their new single and smile sweetly for the cameras.

I suspect this is the more likely outcome"

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Climate aid must be loans, says EU

Climate aid must be loans, says EU: "

Cancún climate change summit campaigners say negotiations are a 'complete mess'

• Caroline Spelman: Cancún climate talks are vital to the UK

Europe was accused of taking unfair advantage of poor countries last night when senior officials said that it was better to make them pay for loans to reduce climate emissions rather than give them grants.

Aid campaigners and developing nations have also condemned as a 'complete mess' the differences between rich countries in how they account for aid pledges. They say donors are double-counting climate aid and using 'creative accounting' to make climate pledges look more impressive.

Artur Runge-Metzger, the EU's chief climate negotiator, made the case for loans rather than grants at the lunch of an EU climate finance progress report at the UN climate summit in Cancún. 'It's a win-win situation,' he said.

'When it comes to mitigation actions you find that … consumers can repay loans, in other words, finance can be used like a revolving fund. In that way funds can be repaid and used by others. You don't need grants. It would be a waste of money because the individual pays for itself. You have to make best use of peoples' money.'

But developing countries and aid agencies countered that loans were not acceptable on principle. 'Climate money for developing countries must come from grants, not loans – [loans] will simply shackle developing countries with more debt,' said Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth's International climate campaigner.

The row surfaced as countries began to negotiate a new Green Fund to help channel climate finance to developing countries after 2012.

Until now, rich countries have pledged $30bn of 'fast-start' climate cash to the poor between 2010-2012 to meet their short-term needs. Of this, the EU has committed €7.2bn ($9.4bn at current rates), the US $1.7bn and Japan more than half, with $15.4bn.

But analysis of the money, which is supposed to be 'new and additional' to existing aid money, shows that most has been in the form of loans, and large amounts have been raided from existing aid budgets or has been recycled.

According to an analysis by the G77 group of developing nations, some countries have double-counted pledges and recycled money offered previously.

This has left developing countries angry and confused and led to deep distrust between rich and poor countries, said Tim Gore, Oxfam's senior climate change policy adviser. In bitter exchanges, China has accused the US of double-counting its climate money, Britain has been charged with counting money put aside for other climate funds, and France has counted money that accumulates from green investments.

'All 27 EU members states use different ways to account for their climate pledges. It's a complete mess,' said one negotiator of a developing country who asked not to be named.

'Countries are definitely using creative accounting to cover up for their shortfalls,' said Gore. So far only 30% of the EU's funds has been directed at adapting to climate change as opposed to reducing emissions, despite a commitment in the Copenhagen accord that funds must be balanced between adaptation and mitigation.

Developing countries believe that rich countries are deliberately confusing the situation to avoid their commitments. They are pressing at the talks for a common set of accountancy rules. Unless countries agree to new ways of counting pledges, there is likely to be massive confusion and corruption when climate cash to poor countries is scaled up to $100bn a year from many different sources by 2020.

'Standard rules are needed urgently. We need common accountancy standards and baselines,' said Gore. In addition, concern is growing that the bulk of climate money pledged by rich nations has been directed at mitigation of the effects of climate change rather than helping communities adapt and reduce their emissions.

China, India, Brazil and other powerful, developing countries have cornered the vast amount of the UN's clean development mechanism cash, with Africa and least-developed countries attracting very little. While this has been addressed in principle, very little climate money has been made available to the poorest and there is consensus that the system be reformed.

• This article was amended on 1 December 2010. The original gave $7.2bn as the EU's promised Sure Start contribution. This has been corrected."

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N Korea will attack again, says South

N Korea will attack again, says South: "

South Korea's intelligence chief tells MPs that attacks are a 'high possibility' as China's foreign minister calls for restraint

North Korea is highly likely to attack again, South Korea's intelligence chief has told MPs, according to Seoul-based media.

His remarks come a week after an artillery bombardment killed two civilians and two soldiers on Yeonpyeong island – and hours after the South announced fresh military manoeuvres.

Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, warned: 'There is a high possibility that the North will make another attack.'

He said the shelling had come amid domestic pressure in Pyongyang, telling a closed session of a parliamentary committee that 'internal complaints are growing about the North's succession for a third generation, and its economic situation is worsening'.

Won also said a wire tap in August had indicated an attack in the West Sea, according to Yonhap news agency.

Pyongyang said last week's bombardment was a response to the South's live-fire drill.

Yonhap reported that South Korea planned to hold further artillery training exercises next week, including some in an area close to its disputed maritime border with the North. Analysts warned that could increase tensions.

China's foreign minister called for restraint and said all parties should avoid any actions that could 'inflame the situation'.

'Our general goal is for all sides to exercise calm and restraint and to make every effort to avoid such incidents recurring,' Yang Jiechi said.

He said that China, North Korea's main ally, did not seek to 'protect any side' and would not 'pour oil on the flames', according to the country's official Xinhua news agency.

Yonhap said the military had issued an advisory notice to local vessels for a six-day period from next Monday. Daecheong island – just south of the disputed Yellow Sea border – is included, although Yeonpyeong is not, according to officials from the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration.

The news agency cited government sources as saying separate artillery drills would take place in waters off Yeonpyeong soon. Reuters said the defence ministry would not comment.

A South Korean joint chiefs of staff officer said Seoul and Washington were discussing whether to conduct more joint military drills this month or early next month.

Analysts believe the most likely outcome of the current standoff is further negotiations, and that North Korea's actions are in part intended to push Seoul and Washington back towards talks based on giving the North aid in exchange for a pledge on scaling back its nuclear capabilities.

The US has described its participation in this week's manoeuvres as a deterrent, while the South's defence minister warned there was an 'ample possibility' of a provocation by the North following the departure of US warships.

But some analysts warned that more military drills could escalate a delicate situation.

'The overall situation might be intensified and a new crisis might be brought by doing this,' said Professor Chu Shulong, an expert on international security at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

He added: 'Because of the Cheonan incident in March and the shelling in Yeonpyeong, [South Korean] people are angry and their anger has not been addressed yet. They are not happy with the reaction of the government.

'At the same time, South Korea cannot attack North Korea. They can only express their anger through military drills; it is their only way to show the determination to defend their country and to warn the North.'

Dr Leonid Petrov, an expert on the North at the University of Sydney, added: 'Conservatives in Pyongyang and Seoul are driving the situation to a new extreme.'

He added that the 'responsible' course for the US would be to talk to the North.

Beijing – under pressure to rein in its ally – threw the ball back into Washington's court by calling for an emergency meeting of the six nations involved in the stalled aid-for-denuclearisation talks.

But the US, South Korea and Japan have snubbed that proposal, instead planning to hold trilateral talks next week.

Japan sent its envoy to the nuclear talks to China today. The senior North Korean leader Choe Thae Bok is currently in Beijing and China's state councillor Dai Bingguo is expected to travel to Pyongyang shortly.

A Russian nuclear envoy, Grigory Logvinov, will meet officials in Seoul to discuss the attack, the six-party talks and other issues, said South Korea's foreign ministry"

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Ask Tom: going Dutch

Ask Tom: going Dutch: "

Lonely Planet's expert Tom Hall answers this week's questions about restrictions on Amsterdam's coffee shops, travel in and around Johannesburg and group accommodation in Cuba

Amsterdam has long been one of my favoured travel destinations and I've heard rumours that 'coffee' shops are due to be prevented from selling 'coffee' to non-Dutch nationals. Could you confirm the truth of this ugly rumour please? Also, as I have one child (well an adult now) born in Zaandam to a Surinamese lass holding Dutch nationality might I have a get-out clause, so to speak?
Cellarman

Both this question and the one below were asked during last week's live chat and I've had the chance to follow them up in the meantime. Next week we'll be going live again, and then doing so fortnightly with our regular blog in the weeks in between.

For the latest on coffee shops I asked the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, who must be fed up of talking about this subject. They confirmed that the new coalition government in the Netherlands has recently announced its intention to introduce restrictions for usage of coffee shops in Holland. This may mean that in the future foreign tourists will be unable to access coffee shops. These measures have been proposed in order to reduce the use of soft drugs among young people as well as cutting down crime and street nuisance near coffee shops. Dutch MPs will decide upon the suggested proposals in the near future. How such a ban would be enforced is not clear.

Frankly I'm at a loss as to why anyone would spend any time in these places, which are by quite some distance the least interesting thing about Amsterdam and tend to be tourist traps. Bars such as House of Bols (houseofbols.com) and MiNiBAR (minibaronline.com) are more reflective of the nightlife agenda in Amsterdam.

There's always something interesting going on in the city, including many cultural and musical events. Of particular note are the lounge evenings at the Van Gogh museum every Friday during which lounge chairs, video projections, live music, DJs and a bar transform the museum's central hall into a relaxed place to meet. Moreover, with the opening of the Hermitage Amsterdam in 2009 and the reopening of the Stedelijk Museum in 2011 and Rijksmuseum in 2013 the art scene in Amsterdam, already rich, will be going into overdrive.

I'm hoping to travel to South Africa in September next year and really want to visit the fossil fields at Sterkfontein. I'm not sure whether to stay in Johannesburg or out at the site. Finding accommodation at the site is difficult but I am concerned about staying in Johannesburg. Any advice?
Tom Marshall

Johannesburg has a fearsome reputation in some quarters, but the story is very different from many of those who live there or have visited the city. Yes, you need to be on your guard and yes, crime does happen, but most visits there are trouble free and plenty of people love the place. Have a read of this post from the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree and also mug up on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's travel advice for South Africa which has some good general safety tips.

One thing that rarely gets noted about Johannesburg is how close it is to some wonderful attractions, with Sterkfontein being a case in point. Sterkfontein's fossil fields are known locally as the Cradle of Humankind (cradleofhumankind.co.za), a 47,000-hectare area that forms one of the world's most important paleontological zones. The Sterkfontein Caves, where the remains of more than 600 hominid fossils have been found, are a must-see. You'll find half and full-day tours easy to arrange from Johannesburg if you decide to stay in the city but there's also enough to justify an overnight stay, but you'll need a car to get around. For that reason a tour from Johannesburg may be a better bet.

Many visitors opt to stay in the suburbs of Johannesburg, and aiming for somewhere a little way away from the city centre is a good idea as you can get settled and get local advice on where to head to and where to steer clear of. If you're on a budget, Brown Sugar Backpackers (brownsugarbackpackers.com) is a good place to meet other travellers and also has a useful tour agency attached. Alternatively, if you'd rather stay in a guesthouse with a variety of rooms, pool and garden, Sunbury House (sunburyhouse.com) in Melville is a short walk from the bars and restaurants of this area of Johannesburg.

We are a mature group and are going to be travelling around Cuba for two weeks in Jan/Feb. We'd like to stay in casa particulares but they appear to only ever rent out two rooms. We need three – a double, a twin and a single. Do you have any idea how we might find places really near each other without my pouring over a street map for every place we intend to visit?
Gail Romanes

Legally Cubans with a licence to operate casa particulares have for many years only been allowed to rent out two rooms, with no more than two people in each one. You won't generally find any Cubans prepared to break the terms of this agreement. There are rumours that this legislation is being relaxed, but the most recent chatter I can find on this point is inconclusive. You're best off keeping an eye on Cuba sites such as Cuba Junky (cuba-junky.com) but it's unlikely anything is going to change by the time you travel. You could try searching at casaparticularcuba.org which lists some establishments with more than two rooms, but these tend to be more upmarket options than traditional. In smaller towns you'll have to split up or stay in hotels rather than casas."

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What it's like to 'win' Bad Sex prize

What it's like to 'win' Bad Sex prize: "

I can't say I was thrilled to get this travesty of a literary award, but at least it's working hard to publicise my novel

Last Monday I was in Paris when the Literary Review emailed me with the irritating news that I was the favourite to 'win' the 2010 Bad Sex award. 'Quel honneur' I quipped , relieved there was an international frontier, a channel of water, and 950 years of bad blood between me and this unwelcome dishonour. Emails of increasing desperation followed, culminating in the news that I was in fact the … er ... winner.

How annoying, I thought. Here was my novel The Shape of Her, highly commended in review by literary heavyweights such as the Guardian, Irish Times , Economist and many of them, including the respected Boyd Tonkin of the Independent, pointing to the treatment of sex in the work as of particular merit … and yet here was a tiny magazine, hardly known beyond this award, deciding to make me infamous as a writer who couldn't write about sex.

It's a hard pill to swallow. It takes years to write a novel and, if you are serious about what you do, quite a lot of sacrifice. Furthermore, despite the excellent reviews, The Shape of Her had not sold well: to be honest it had disappeared. No, the last thing I was going to do was throw myself into a pit of baying toffs – the magazine started by Auberon Waugh is renowned for drawing its staff from the upper classes – and add public humiliation to my disappointment.

In October, well before the shortlist was announced, an article by Susana Rustin in the Guardian had quoted me criticising the Bad Sex award: 'It reminds me of a bunch of sniggering sixth-formers in the back of the class. There's a kind of English notion of sexuality that I wish we could get away from, it's Benny Hill, it's page 3 …'

Despite the magazine's assertion that 'it's only a bit of fun' there's an atmosphere of bullying peculiar to public schools about the whole thing. If you decline to show up, like the excellent Sebastian Faulks, they harangue you for years. But we all know what you have to do with bullies, so I got on the train and presented myself at the Army and Navy Cub in St James's Square on Monday night at 8pm.

A palatial room with excessive chandeliers was stuffed to the brim with champagne swilling revelers. I was welcomed by the editor of the mag (a person whose view on sex in literature is that it 'just doesn't work, I don't think there are any cases where it works') and introduced to the genuinely charming Alexander Waugh who congratulates me for having the pluck to turn up and assures me that there's to be no humiliation. Moments later, I find myself in front of a stage where he and a couple of actresses are entertaining the audience, mawkishly reading out the sex bits in the shortlisted novels.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas gets a particularly good drubbing, complete with mock-Australian accents, and then an extremely brave passage from Jonathan Franzen's Freedom is pulled out of context and held up to the hilarity of not quite all. These happen to be two of my favourite novels and I am glad the authors aren't here to witness the unjust pillorying.

They have a great time with my novel, belting out a compilation of sex from the whole work with leering innuendo. I'm announced as the winner and I shake hands with a frail Michael Winner and face the audience. I have in mind a few words to say to the audience about what a travesty the whole thing is … but as I survey the faces before me , it's clear it's a waste of time. They are just people out for a good night, no more or less. So instead I say: 'There's nothing more English than bad sex, so on behalf of a nation, I thank you,' and leave the stage smiling.

My novel has lots of sex in it because it is about sex. Its real title was Sex That Lasts For Years but the publishers wouldn't allow it. Despite appearing to be a love story, it's really about how the scars of childhood abuse affect later relationships and it's based on two people's real experience – so it's been quite hard to see lines wrenched out of context and picked up by the press around the world. I do not blame the personable Alexander Waugh or the editors of the Literary Review who judge the prize, as I am aware that most of them had not read the book and their publication survives on the publicity this award generates.

But let's be frank … this ridiculous award had put my novel in newspapers and websites across the world and although, when the deputy editor of the mag emailed me to ask if I'd enjoyed the party, I replied 'as much as a televised visit to a proctologist', I don't think the publicity is going to do me, or the book, any harm either. So although it surprises me to say it, I am very grateful to them."

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London bike hire opens to tourists

London bike hire opens to tourists: "

'Boris bikes' have been a huge success, with more than 1.8m journeys in four months. But will there be enough to go round?

• Bike podcast: London's cycle hire scheme
• Interactive: Where to hire bikes in London

On a warm summer morning four months ago, Boris Johnson stood in the shadow of the London Eye and unveiled the flashiest project of his mayoralty: a £140m public bike hire scheme that would, he said, provide 6,000 bicycles for rent across the capital. It was, he conceded cheerfully, a 'deeply communist' idea, and what larks that it had taken a Tory politician to make it happen. Never mind that it was Ken Livingstone's brainchild and Boris was riding away with the glory.

On Friday, the scheme will finally be open to casual users so that anyone with a credit card can rent a bike for £1 – more if they keep the bike for longer than 30 minutes on any journeys within a 24-hour period.

The expansion is a poke in the eye for sceptics who said it would never work; the fleet would end up at the bottom of the Thames and paramedics would spend the summer scraping novice riders off the capital's streets. Londoners would never go for it, tutted the naysayers: they hate looking each other in the eye; they'll never share saddles with a stranger.

And yet, against considerable odds, the scheme has proved an enormous success. What's more, it is a triumph so synonymous with the bed-headed mayor that the bicycles are widely referred to as Boris Bikes – to the chagrin of Barclays, which paid £20m to have its name associated with the scheme.

Despite major teething problems including rampant overcharging and chronic shortages of bikes and parking spaces, more than 108,000 people have signed up for a £3 membership key to use the bikes. No one has died and just 10 bikes have gone missing – and two of those have been returned, according to Transport for London (TfL). More than 1.8m journeys have been made, including about 20,000 every week day.

On Friday, the already overstretched scheme will face its biggest challenge yet when it is opened up to casual users.

Current users already complain that they frequently have to queue for bikes during rush hour, or arrive at their destination only to find that every docking station nearby is full. There are reports of fierce arguments breaking out at some of the most popular locations – around Bank, Liverpool Street and Waterloo stations.

TfL admits that there have never been 6,000 bikes on the roads, and that even now, days before the scheme expands, there are just 5,000. And of the promised 400 docking stations, 346 are in operation. This is a tiny number given the popularity of the scheme: in Paris, there are more than 17,000 bicycles and about 1,200 docking stations.

Kulveer Ranger, the mayor's transport advisor, told the Guardian the scheme was still bedding in. And he claimed that an influx of tourists and casual users would help rather than hinder matters.

'Currently, because only members can use the bikes, they tend to be commuters, going from mainline stations to their places of work, where they are often not used much during the day. Visitors to London will not be travelling so much during rush hour but they will be riding between museums, shops and sights in the centre, redistributing bikes as they go,' he said.

At mayor's question time last month, Johnson was forced to admit that there appeared to be a huge gender imbalance among the scheme's users. TfL does not request gender information when registering members, but of the titles selected by customers registering for the scheme, some 74% chose to be Mr, 23% plumped for Mrs, Ms or Miss, and 3% did not specify a title.

Dawn Foster, a London-based cycling blogger, said she didn't believe women weren't using the bikes because they were worried about 'helmet hair' or getting sweaty. Safety was the big issue, she said.

'Most docks are placed next to roads, meaning nervous first-time cyclists have to start pedalling next to aggressive Zone 1 traffic, and there are huge stretches of central London that don't have dedicated cycle lanes,' she said.

A TfL spokeswoman said it was doing 'everything possible' to encourage women to cycle. 'We know that women's two main concerns when choosing to travel by two wheels are safety and changing facilities; that's why we are working extremely hard to make sure both of these continue to improve,' she said.

The safety initiatives include cycle training, new mirrors on the roads to improve visibility and awareness campaigns targeted at lorry drivers, said the spokeswoman.

The hire scheme will expand further east in time for the 2012 Olympics, said TfL, making bikes available throughout the borough of Tower Hamlets as well as north Shoreditch in Hackney.

When completed, the expanded scheme will cover 40 miles (65km) of the capital and about 8,000 hire bikes will be available from 14,400 docking points at hundreds of locations across central and east London.

"

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Activist on trial for World Cup blasts

Activist on trial for World Cup blasts: "

Al-Amin Kimathi, who exposed secret renditions, is among 17 standing trial for World Cup bombings

A Kenyan human rights activist who exposed a secret renditions operation involving African governments and the US is to stand trial in Uganda for alleged involvement in the July suicide bombings that killed 76 people.

Al-Amin Kimathi, head of the Muslim Human Rights Forum in Kenya, was among 17 co-defendants whose cases were sent to a high court in Kampala yesterday. They have been charged with murder and terrorism related to the twin bombings in July that targeted football supporters watching the World Cup Final. The Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

A further 17 accused were released after charges against them were dropped, although three were subsequently rearrested for separate offences.

The prosecution alleges that Kimathi provided cash used to rent a safe house in Kampala for one of the bombers before the attacks. But his lawyers say the case against him is a 'fabrication', and is being used to punish him for his work defending Muslims unfairly targeted by security agencies in the region.

Local and international advocacy groups echo that view, with Human Rights Watch expressing concern that Kimathi's prosecution 'is really an effort to muzzle a well-known critic of government abuses in the fight against terrorism in East Africa'.

Kimathi first angered regional governments in 2007, when he lifted the lid on a clandestine operation that saw dozens of men, women and children who crossed the border from Somalia into Kenya sent back to Mogadishu and then on to secret detention centres in Ethiopia, where they were interrogated about alleged links to al-Qaida. Kimathi has since had several run-ins with the Kenyan government over the treatment of Muslims by police.

Immediately after the Kampala bombings, Kimathi issued a statement condemning the 'heinous, barbaric and senseless murder of innocent people'.

But he soon grew concerned by the response of security forces, especially in Kenya, where eight Muslims were detained for alleged involvement in the attacks and driven to Kampala, where they were handed to police. No judicial process was followed in Kenya, and the high court in Nairobi later ruled the renditions were illegal.

Together with Mbugua Mureithi, lawyer for the Muslim Human Rights Forum, Kimathi travelled to Kampala to assist the men. Mureithi said on 15 September he and Kimathi were lured to a hotel by members of Uganda's elite rapid response unit. With police shouting 'Al-Qaeda! Al-Shabaab!', the men were bundled into the back of a van, blindfolded and shackled, and driven around the countryside for most of the next 24 hours.

They were then interrogated by Ugandan and Kenyan intelligence officers. Mureithi said an American man was also present, though not directly involved in questioning. Other people arrested in connection with the bombing claimed to have been interrogated by the American, Mureithi said. The US openly assisted the Ugandan authorities in the investigation into the bombings because an American was killed in the attacks.

Mureithi was released and deported after four days. He said the Ugandan authorities made it clear Kimathi was in for a long stay. 'They said he was a supporter of al-Qaida. But al-Amin is not a terrorist. He just wants to ensure that the law is followed and that counterterrorism cases conform to local and international standards.'

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Twitter denies silencing students

Twitter denies silencing students: "

• Social networking site rejects interference claims as 'absurd'
• Twitter users say accounts were unavailable during protests

Twitter has rejected as 'absurd' the notion it suppressed or interfered with the accounts of student protesters or co-operated with the police in monitoring tweets about demonstrations.

Much of the organising of the marches and occupations at universities and colleges over recent weeks has been organised through social networking sites, particularly Twitter and Facebook, something which has hampered police efforts to keep abreast of protesters' plans.

In recent days several Twitter users involved in the demonstrations against education cuts and higher tuition fees, notably a group of students occupying part of University College London (UCL), have complained that their Twitter accounts were unavailable. The UCL students were forced to change to a new @UCLocc after UCLOccupation failed to work for several hours.

Separately, there have been allegations – mainly on Twitter – that the failure of the #demo2010 Twitter tag to show at the top of popular 'trending' lists indicated it had been suppressed.

Matt Graves, a spokesman for Twitter, said there was 'absolutely no truth' in any of the claims and said the site had not been approached by police or any other official groups.

'Twitter has not been contacted by UK authorities or by any UK police force regarding the use of Twitter by student protesters,' he said. 'Any suggestion that we have suspended or interfered with the Twitter accounts of protest groups or with hash-tags related to the protests is absurd.

'Twitter is committed to fostering the open exchange of information because we passionately believe it can have a positive global impact. When people can exchange information freely and publicly they are able to accomplish great things.

He added: 'We have seen people use Twitter to help each other during fuel shortages, track the spread of wildfires, check in during earthquakes, organise major charitable events, spread urgent news efficiently around the world, and – quite famously – to organise political protests around the world. We have not, and will not, do anything to stand in the way of people using Twitter for the open exchange of information. Period.'

Twitter has proved invaluable for student activists to organise groups of protesters, particularly to stay mobile and avoid being penned in by police.

During yesterday's marches the biggest demonstration, in London, split repeatedly to avoid police kettling tactics. Although spontaneous, the tactic was also organised on Twitter.

Other large demonstrations took place in Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Oxford. In London, 153 people were arrested. Of those, 136 were detained after police kettled and then arrested activists refusing to leave Trafalgar Square at nightfall.

The use of kettling has proved controversial, and Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the Metropolitan police authority, has requested evidence from protesters about police methods during recent protests.

The Education Activist Network said today another day of action would be held on 11 December, when parents and teachers would be urged to join students opposed to the government's plans for a sharp increase in tuition fees.

A spokesman, Mark Bergfeld, paid tribute to students who took part in the demonstrations yesterday. He condemned police for making so many arrests, describing the protests as 'absolutely brilliant'.

He said: 'We are building on recent protests and it is clear the movement is growing. More and more young people are displaying their anger at the government's plans and we now want to get parents and teachers involved.'

A large protest is being planned for the day MPs vote on tuition fees, expected before the end of the month.

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Wildlife plan for Tamil stronghold

Wildlife plan for Tamil stronghold: "

Scene of heavy fighting in civil war to be cleared of hundreds of thousands of landmines and used to help protect elephants

Sri Lanka is to create a wildlife sanctuary in a swath of heavily mined jungle that was once the stronghold of the Tamil Tigers separatists, an official said today, a year and a half after the country's 25-year civil war ended.

More than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) in the northern Mullaitivu district will be used to conserve wildlife, including elephants.

The densely jungled area, which was the setting for key rebel bases during the civil war, is however an unlikely site for a nature reserve.

It was the scene of heavy fighting last year during the final stages of the conflict. Human rights campaigners have claimed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians were killed in indiscriminate bombardments in the last days of the fighting.

Tamil villagers interviewed by the Guardian in Sri Lanka this year confirmed that many non-combatants had been killed as shells fired by government artillery landed among crowded refugee encampments.

Since the end of the war the area – which was under Tamil Tiger rule for much of the past two decades – has remained without significant investment.

However, today a wildlife department official said the area would be declared a sanctuary 'shortly' – but first it will have to be cleared of hundreds of thousands of landmines buried by the rebels. Many of these have been cleared by the Sri Lankan army and a range of international NGOs, but it is estimated that 1.5m landmines remain in the country's northern region.

A government statement said the sanctuary would also help solve a growing conflict between humans and wild elephants, which enter villages in search of food as deforestation destroys their natural habitats. Elephants killed 50 people last year, while villagers killed more than 200 of the animals by shooting or electrocuting them. Between 10,000 and 15,000 elephants roamed wild in Sri Lanka a century ago, but today only about 3,000 remain, largely due to poaching and habitat loss.

The Sri Lankan government is banking on rapid economic growth to solve local environmental and political problems. Incomes in the island nation are predicted to double or even triple over the next five to 10 years.

One strategy, officials say, is to attract a smaller number of high-spending tourists to Sri Lanka who will have less impact on the environment than mass package tourism but contribute more to the economy.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, currently on a visit to the UK and due to speak at the Oxford Union tomorrow night, is also relying on improved living standards to head off any resentment among the minority Tamil population, who are concentrated in the poorer north and east of the country. Rajapaksa remains popular with the Sinhala majority in Sri Lanka, particularly in rural areas and in the south.

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