The Guardian

Fans defend singer's freedom of speech as Philippines protests threaten star's concerts

Christian groups in the Philippines have called for a ban on Lady Gaga's Manila concerts, alleging that her song Judas is an offensive mockery of Jesus Christ.

Youths gathered at a rally outside the mayor's office, chanting "Stop the Lady Gaga concerts", while members of the Biblemode Youth Philippines group called her videos religiously offensive.

In the song, she calls herself a "holy fool" who is "still in love with Judas", singing: "Jesus is my virtue/And Judas is the demon I cling to." In the video, Gaga plays a biker chick riding behind a man wearing a crown of thorns, while longing for another biker with "Judas" emblazoned across his leather jacket.

The singer is due to play the 20,000-seat Mall of Asia tomorrow and on Tuesday, and James Imbong, a lawyer filing a petition to ban the concerts, said Christian groups would not accept a compromise as organisers in South Korea did when Seoul authorities agreed to forbid under-12s from attending instead of cancelling the concert.

"She has a song that suggests that she wants to have sex with Judas and performs it with a dance," Imbong told the news website PhilStar. "Of course, it would be accompanied by a costume that has pornographic elements."

Manila's mayor has issued a statement ordering Gaga not to "exhibit any nudity or lewd conduct which may be offensive to morals and good custom", with the stark reminder that the penal code in the primarily Roman Catholic country of 93 million can convict anyone up to six years for offending race or religion.

Tens of thousands of Gaga fans, from Seoul to Jakarta, are campaigning for the singer's right to freedom of expression, after numerous attempts by Christian and Muslim groups to ban shows during her Born This Way Ball Asia tour, calling her music, persona and style the "work of Satan", "dangerous to youth" and "spreading unhealthy sexual culture".

Indonesian activists called the cancellation of a gig in Jakarta a sign of the country's "Talibanisation" after authorities withdrew permission for her concert on 3 June, making her the first foreign artist to be banned despite selling out a 52,000-seat venue.

The 26-year-old has received an outpouring of support on Twitter, where she has 24 million followers, since the trouble over the tour began last month.

Indonesian human rights activist Andreas Harsono has said the concert ban represents "the Talibanisation [of] Indonesia", while sociologist Ida Ruwaida said it was up to the government to "facilitate different interests without allowing the cultural hegemony of one group over another".

Police denied the singer a concert permit amid claims from hardline Islamic groups that the suggestive nature of her show and lyrics would sabotage the country's moral codes of conduct. "During her concerts, Lady Gaga looks like a devil worshipper," said Suryadharma Ali, the religion affairs minister of the nation of 240 million people, mainly Muslims.

The ministry of tourism added that foreign performers should dress modestly on stage, and the government warned music promoters to consider cultural traditions when planning concerts. The hardline Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) threatened to send 30,000 members to the airport to stop Lady Gaga from getting off her plane. It warned that if she tried to perform, Indonesia "should be prepared for chaos in Jakarta". It said: "We are ready to be thrown in jail and be killed – we will do anything to stop [the show]."

Human rights activists and academics have questioned the government's continued defence of Islamic militants' threats – which have resulted in calls to parliament to ban miniskirts, the banning of beauty pageants and Valentine's Day in some provinces, and the persecution of religious minorities.

Representatives of the country's tens of thousands of Gaga fans have argued that the government's defence of Indonesia's "moral fibre" is dubious given the nation's obsession with dangdut, a form of music known for its provocative dancing and scantily clad singers.

Fans have also questioned the government's worry over Lady Gaga's supposed promotion of homosexuality. "Nothing can stop me from meeting my queen," says Ali, a 26-year-old openly gay banker in Bandung, West Java, adding that the ban would have no impact on homosexuality in Indonesia, because it "will not make gay people turn straight".

The Gaga saga started in April in Seoul, the first stop on her 17-date tour. Calling Lady Gaga's music "the work of Satan", Christian groups held prayer meetings dedicated to banning the concert. Ju-Hyun, a prayer organiser, said the meetings were organised "so that homosexuality and pornography [would] not spread around the country".

Tickets sold to children were eventually refunded after the government rated the concert unsuitable and the Korean Association of Church Communication vowed to take "concerted action to stop young people from being infected with homosexuality and pornography".

It would be a dramatic turn of events if Lady Gaga ended up in jail in Manila this week, but, to quote the lady herself: "In the most biblical sense, I am beyond repentance."

• Lady Gaga
• Pop and rock
• Asia Pacific
• Philippines
• Indonesia

Puglia politicians blame attack on mafia after gas cylinders connected to detonator left on wall outside school in Brindisi

A bomb that killed a teenage girl outside a school in Brindisi on Saturday has been blamed on the mafia by local politicians and condemned as one of Italy's most barbaric acts of violence.

Three gas cylinders connected to a detonator left on a low wall outside the school exploded at 7.50am, killing the 16-year-old and injuring up to 10 others, one seriously, as they arrived for lessons. The blast, which experts said was designed to kill, shattered windows in surrounding buildings and was heard across the southern Italian city.

Mainly attended by girls, the school is named after Francesca Morvillo Falcone, wife of anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone. Both were killed by a mafia bomb in Sicily on 23 May 1992, almost exactly 20 years ago, leading many to suspect a mafia role in the bombing, for which no one has yet claimed responsibility. An anti-mafia march was due to be held in Brindisi.

"You can understand the symbolism of this," said Cosimo Consales, the mayor of the Puglian port town. "This was an attack by organised criminals."

However, interior minister Anna Maria Cancellieri said the attack did not bear the hallmarks of a mafia attack, while Achille Serra, a former Italian police chief, said Italian mafia clans typically killed magistrates and police officers. Targeting schoolgirls, he said, was "unprecedented".

But an assessor with the region of Puglia, Nicola Fratoianni, pointed the finger at Puglia's mafia, the Sacra Corona Unita, which has grown in the shadow of more notorious Italian mafias such as Sicily's Cosa Nostra, the Naples Camorra and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.

Originally specialising in smuggling cigarettes from the Balkans, the Puglian mafia developed protection rackets in Puglia and built an arsenal of weapons thanks to ties with Balkan gangs during the 1990s, but was believed to have been weakened by a series of police operations.

• Italy
• Europe

Chef Jamie Oliver and health experts have been left baffled by education secretary Michael Gove's exemption of nearly half of pupils from healthy eating rules

An exasperated Jamie Oliver has written to every MP demanding a U-turn over nutrition rules in schools after education secretary Michael Gove refused to act on a report that found nine out of 10 academies were selling junk food.

Announcing the move on his website, the TV chef, whose campaign for better food in state schools has lifted standards for millions of pupils, told voters that if their MPs did not act "you can safely assume that they don't care about the wellbeing of our children and the future of our country".

Oliver's move came as public health officials and doctors joined a growing number of education and food organisations in criticising the education secretary. In a move that astonished experts, Gove insisted that he would not apply the nutrition standards that cover all other state schools to academies and free schools – even after a report by the School Food Trust charity found last week that many were selling sub-standard products.

The investigations, initially requested by Gove, showed that 89 out of 100 academies surveyed were selling at least one of the snack foods high in sugar, salt or fat that have been banned in vending machines in other state schools.

Gove insists that academies, which enjoy greater freedom than other state schools, should be left to determine their own nutritional standards because they are run by responsible head teachers.

However, of the 100 academies questioned by the trust, 31 were found to be selling one type of banned fattening food, 33 were selling two and 15 were selling three. Also 82 of the academies sold sweetened fruit juices, which often contain only a small amount of juice and would therefore be banned in maintained schools. The national school food standards stipulate that such products must contain at least 50% fruit juice.

The trust, which was called in after Oliver and others raised concerns last year, concluded that the nutritional standards introduced in 2008 under the Labour government should now cover academies and free schools.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said that despite the report there was no prospect of a change of policy. In a statement the department said: "We trust teachers – the professionals on the frontline – to do what is best for their pupils. Many academies go over and above the minimum requirements and are offering their pupils high-quality, nutritional food."

However, Oliver, urging MPs to back a Commons early day motion from Tory MP Zac Goldsmith which says that academies should be covered by the rules, says in his letter that the government's approach threatens a "massive erosion of everything we have achieved".

"I passionately believe that this is taking a huge step in the wrong direction as far as taking care of our children and the future of this country is concerned," Oliver writes. "His (Gove's) decision means that the one million children attending academy schools no longer have any standards in place to protect the food they eat every day.

"I have written to all MPs asking them to sign Zac Goldsmith's early day motion. If your MP does not support this motion, then you can safely assume that they don't care about the wellbeing of our children and the future of our country."

There are 1,283 secondary academies in England – 40% of the total of 3,261 secondary schools – and a further 10% have applied for academy status. Gove is pressing for still more to convert.

Dr Janet Atherton, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, which represents England's 150 directors of public health in the NHS, said: "The standards were brought in because catering standards in schools weren't as good as they needed to be. They have brought about dramatic improvements in children's nutrition and eating habits.

"They have been proven to be effective. You can see that in children's diets. Some academies are following the standards, but that's not across the board.

"I'm concerned that evidence shows that academies aren't doing what Mr Gove said should happen. It feels that it's moving back to before the standards came in, with confectionery and soft drinks available in schools. The standards should apply in all schools."

Rob Rees, chairman of the School Food Trust and a well-known chef, said: "We have clear evidence that shows standards work for schools when it comes to food and cooking. For the last three years the number of children eating lunches has increased and many children are enjoying the hard work of so many cooks across the country.

"I hope that all schools will value the evidence and realise the benefit good food brings to performance, behaviour and social cohesion."

Last month Gove told the education select committee that he saw no evidence of academies failing to comply with the standards. He said: "All the evidence seems to me to point in the other direction: that schools that have academy freedoms have improved the quality of food they offered children."

The Department of Health said it was a matter for Gove.

• School meals
• Jamie Oliver
• Michael Gove
• Zac Goldsmith
• Academies
• Health

David Cameron risks meltdown with the civil service as blueprint reveals plans to set earnings according to location

David Cameron is facing a complete breakdown in relations with his mandarins as a secret blueprint to break up the civil service is revealed today.

The plans put the country's 434,000 civil servants into four geographical pay zones, with those living in the south-west, on the south coast, Wales, much of the Midlands and the north-east earning least. Those in inner and outer London will be highest paid, followed by civil servants working in a corridor stretching from Bristol to the Thames estuary, and those in pay "hotspots" in Manchester and Birmingham.

The Cabinet Office's Reward, Efficiency and Reform Group (Rerg), assisted by the Hay Group private consultancy, has drawn up a "local pay map" that will form the basis for how civil servants' pay is set for the next three years. It is understood ministers are working on estimates that show average earnings in the north-east are 10% lower than the UK average, 6% lower in the West Midlands, and 7% lower in Yorkshire and the Humber.

However, the plans threaten to push relations with the civil service – already strained over the reform agenda – to breaking point.

Ian Watmore, 53, who was in charge of cutting costs across departments and headed Rerg, quit last week, six months after he became permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, following a series of disagreements with his minister, Francis Maude.

Huge consternation has followed the leaking of details last week of a fiery meeting between Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the civil service, and the prime minister's director of strategy, Steve Hilton, who was reported to have voiced his frustration at the "failure" of the bureaucracy to implement his more radical ideas.

Hilton, who left Downing Street last week, is reported to have proposed that 90% of the work done by civil servants could be outsourced to thinktanks, charities and private companies.

Kerslake tweeted on Saturday: "Back in Sheffield after an interesting week. I am a champion of change in the civil service but I will also defend what is good about it. We need to hang on to [civil service] values – integrity, honesty, objectivity, impartiality." Lord Turnbull, former head of the civil service, was also critical of Hilton's views. He said: "I have no problem with supplementing with special advisers and consultants, but as a replacement it is based on a very oversimplified view."

Sir Andrew Cahn, who headed the government's UK Trade and Investment department until 2011, said ministers should stop briefing against civil servants, who he claimed had reacted well to the challenges set by the government. He said: "What the ministers are saying to the civil servants is 'we want radical change at the same time we want radical downsizing'. That is a big ask, but it is a legitimate and proper ask and it's unhelpful if ministers go public and start criticising civil servants."

On Saturday, the shadow cabinet office minister, Gareth Thomas, said the government was in danger of losing any remaining goodwill and appeared to be "waging war on the pay of hard-working, often lowly paid, public servants".

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said his union would fight the plans because regional pay threatened to stifle rather than stimulate growth in the poorest parts of the country.

"What we can now see is that, on top of a pay freeze, it would be permafrost for public servants in Wales and most of the rest of the UK, with no prospect of a pay rise for years," he said. "This is a very crude, but calculated, plan to cut public sector pay even further, and will do nothing to help low-paid workers in the private sector or local economies crying out for investment."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Regionalising pay will deal local economies a further damaging blow, risk causing recruitment problems in our public services outside London and the south east, and won't help local businesses take on new staff either."

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "We don't comment on leaks. In the civil service, pay is usually set on a 'one size fits all' basis at a national level, whereas in the private sector pay is set in accordance with local labour markets. This means civil servants are often paid more than private sector workers in similar jobs in the same area, which has the potential to hurt private sector businesses."

• Civil service
• Public sector pay
• David Cameron
• Public services policy
• Economic policy
• Trade unions
• Mark Serwotka

Refugee Council claims that many child asylum seekers are being classsified as adults, allowing them to be detained

A report by the Refugee Council to be published this week accuses the immigration service of continuing to detain child asylum seekers by wrongly classifying them as adults.

The report, Not a Minor Offence, has been welcomed by other groups working with refugees and asylum seekers who are growing increasingly concerned by the numbers of age dispute cases. Last year one child spent almost three months locked up before it was finally accepted that he was not an adult.

Evidence that children were being psychologically damaged by their experiences in the asylum system led the government to announce an end to the controversial practice of keeping under-18s in detention centres two years ago this weekend. Yet the practice is continuing and no one knows how many children have been illegally deported as adults.

Guessing someone's age is controversial, but the Refugee Council believes officials are not erring on the side of caution. In many cases agencies find out about a child whose age is disputed only when another detainee inside a centre reports their concerns about an unaccompanied child being locked up.

Faisal was only 15 when he arrived in the UK. Judged to be an adult, he spent several days in police cells and was left to sleep rough on the streets before finally spending a month in a detention centre.

Talking about his experience still causes him acute distress. "I was 15. I didn't have any documents but I know my age. I didn't understand why it was so important.

"The immigration officer was banging his fist on the table saying 'No, this is not your age'. By the end I was so tired and upset that I said OK, I will be whatever you want me to be. When I was first in the police cell I was crying because I couldn't believe it. They came and banged on the door and shouted at me. One policeman drew his finger across his throat. They would all say 'You're going back, we'll be sending you back' and point at me and laugh. At the detention centre they locked me in a room by myself. I didn't know anyone. I was very scared I was to be sent back to Afghanistan. I would rather die."

The number of unaccompanied child asylum seekers arriving in the UK is dropping – from 3,645 in 2007 to 1,277 in 2011 – but no one knows why.

Judith Dennis, advocacy officer at the Refugee Council and author of the report, admitted the detention of children on the grounds that their age was in question had not changed, but said that establishing someone's age was not easy. "It's a difficult task but we should be erring on the side of caution. The official guidelines for unaccompanied children state they should not be detained unless 'their physical appearance and/or demeanour very strongly indicates that they are significantly over 18'.

"That is clearly not what's happening. All children should be referred to a social worker so that a proper assessment can be made. It's not something you can decide in a few minutes, and I think it's quite worrying this is what seems to be happening in a lot of cases.

"Given that it's well established the harm the experience of being locked up can and has caused children, and that the government has accepted it's unacceptable to lock up children, why are we not taking this more seriously?"

Hashi Syedain, of the independent monitoring board at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, said the problem was serious. "It bears repeating again and again – in 2012 the UK is locking up children in Harmondsworth in what is effectively an adult male prison. They can remain there for weeks on end because the system doesn't care enough to stop it happening.

"It is true that some young people who are over 18 claim to be younger in the hope of being allowed to stay in the UK, but this does not excuse the UK Border Agency's failure to prevent children from ending up in detention.

"Another year passes in which nothing changes and children continue to find themselves in detention. It is not good enough."

For Faisal, the intervention of Refugee Council workers meant he is at college and living in semi-independent hostel accommodation, but the trauma of his teenage years is far from over. When he turns 18 he may still be sent back to Afghanistan. "I try to study, but it's hard to think of the future," he said. "I feel very hopeless. I'm scared they will come for me and put me back in detention or deport me. I cannot go back to Afghanistan. If I had not left I would have been dead. If I go back, I will die."

• Immigration and asylum
• Children
• Human rights

Plane with Chinese human rights activist on board touches down in Newark a month after his dramatic escape from house arrest

The blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has arrived to begin a new life in the United States – the final leg of a dramatic, month-long escape from house arrest in rural China.

His flight, United Airlines UA88, had departed for Newark almost two hours late from Beijing international airport as a thunderstorm rolled in – a suitably tempestuous climax to one of the most remarkable chapters of courage and injustice in recent Chinese history.

After beatings, imprisonment, injury, embassy refuge and diplomatic wrangling between the two superpowers, Chen's departure has stirred a mixture of relief and dismay among activists in China, who are glad Chen is safe but worried that their cause could lose one of its most influential advocates.

He is now due to enrol at New York University in Greenwich Village to study as a fellow at the School of Law, the institution said.

Chen said: "Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind. I am requesting a leave of absence and I hope that they [his supporters] will understand."

Last month, Chen escaped 19 months of extrajudicial house arrest in his rural home in Shandong province. He and his family had been beaten and harassed as Dongshigu village in Linyi was turned into a virtual prison manned by plainclothes guards and filled with security cameras. This followed more than four years in prison on charges – denied by his lawyers – that he roused a crowd to disrupt traffic and damage property.

Earlier still, he had been abducted from the streets of Beijing by Linyi officials when he tried to expose their illegal use of forced abortions and sterilisations to meet family planning goals.

Chen escaped in the night, stumbled across farm fields and met a supporter who drove him to Beijing, where he sought the protection of US diplomats.

After bilateral talks, the two governments thrashed out a deal for him to stay in China with greater protection against the Linyi thugs. But this arrangement collapsed within hours as Chen heard that his lawyer, brother and nephew had been beaten while he was left alone in the Beijing hospital where he was being treated for colitis and a broken foot sustained during his escape.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who was visiting Beijing, intervened and helped to arrange permission for Chen, his wife and daughters to travel to the US to study.

His lawyer Liu Weiguo said it was unlikely he would be allowed to return any time soon: "The chance for him to come back is small. I fear the Chinese government won't allow him to come back. This kind of thing has precedents." Chen is also said to be unhappy about leaving relatives behind in a village controlled by Linyi's notoriously violent local authorities. But Liu said he did not blame Chen.

"We should look at this from his perspective. He's mentally and physically exhausted now, and has been tormented for so many years. For the Chinese rights movement, he has done more than enough. We can't ask him to do any more. Now he needs time to rest."

Prominent human rights lawyer Teng Biao said he was happy for Chen and his family: "His safety and freedom are the priority. Whether this is a good thing for the rights movement is secondary now."

Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch said Chen's departure was no cause for celebration as his family are still under pressure and there may now be less incentive for the central government to investigate the wrongdoing by the local authorities.

More importantly, Bequelin said it raised questions about the wider environment for activists.

"This is a reflection that there is no room for human rights defenders in China. We don't know if this will turn into a temporary stay or exile, but in either case, it begs the questions why someone like Chen Guangcheng cannot freely operate in China. What is it that stops the authorities from tolerating or even embracing someone like Chen?"

The situation remains grim for those left behind. Dongshigu, where Chen's mother and other relatives remain, is still under lockdown.

His brother has described being beaten for three days after the activist escaped and his nephew Chen Kegui is to be tried for attempted murder after fighting off intruders with a knife. Independent lawyers have been denied permission to represent him. Several say they have been beaten, intimidated and told not to speak to the foreign media.

• Chen Guangcheng
• China
• Asia Pacific
• United States
• Human rights

Shadow ministers urge leader to put pressure on Cameron by promising EU membership poll if Labour win general election

Ed Miliband is being urged by a growing number of shadow cabinet members and senior allies to promise a dramatic in-out referendum on Britain's future membership of the European Union if Labour wins the next general election.

Several figures in the party are pushing the Labour leader to make the pledge well before the next European elections in 2014 to outmanoeuvre David Cameron, who is under heavy pressure to commit the Tory party to a national vote on the issue. The Observer has been told that, after discussions with shadow cabinet members, Miliband is leaving the door open to a referendum – although he is keen to stress that the short-term focus and discussion must be on how to end the current euro crisis.

Allies of the Labour leader say pressure on him to make what would be a historic, high-risk pledge will increase following the appointment of Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, as Labour's policy chief.

Cruddas, a long-time opponent of the euro but otherwise pro-EU, is strongly in favour of an in-out referendum as a means of ending divisive arguments on Europe once and for all. Before his appointment, Cruddas told the People's Pledge campaign for a referendum that the issue was one of "democracy", and said a referendum pledge should be made "immediately, or as quickly as we can". Cruddas is understood to think that such a move would help define Miliband's leadership as bold and distinct from the New Labour years of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

A ComRes opinion poll for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror showed how Europe is emerging as an issue that could be pivotal at the next election. The poll showed that 26% of Tories now say they will consider voting for the anti-EU Ukip compared to 11% of Labour supporters and 14% of Liberal Democrats. It also showed the extent of anti-EU hostility Labour would need to overcome if a referendum were held now, with 46% of voters saying they would vote to leave the EU compared with 30% who would vote to stay in.

If Labour did commit to a referendum, the party leadership would campaign vigorously in favour of a vote to stay in – a stance that would be supported by most Labour members.

A referendum would, however, leave the Tories divided, with the party leadership certain to campaign for a vote to remain in the EU, while many MPs and grassroots Conservatives would want to leave. One shadow cabinet member said: "We should have the confidence to say we think we can win this and get on with it. There are issues of timing, about when we make the decision and when one would be held. But it certainly is no longer heresy to talk about it."

A spokesman for Miliband did not deny that the option was being considered, stressing merely that "our position is that we don't think this is what Europe needs at the moment".

Last week, in a sign that the Labour party is gradually preparing the ground for a referendum pledge, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said there could be a case in future, for calling a national vote when the current euro crisis was over and the shape of the new Europe was known. This followed similar comments from former cabinet minister and European commissioner Lord Mandelson.

On Thursday Peter Hain, a former Europe minister who stepped down from the shadow cabinet last week but who remains loyal to Miliband, said on BBC1's Question Time that he believed the British people would deserve a say when the time was right. "I think the way things are going people in Britain probably want to make up their minds about whether to stay in Europe or not," he said. "I don't think we should be frightened about giving people a vote."

Sources said that Hain would never have spoken out on the EU issue had he felt such remarks would have been unhelpful to Miliband, or significantly out of kilter with the Labour leader's own views.

Miliband is said to be genuinely undecided and cautious – not least because of the possibility that the country could vote to leave the EU. He is also being advised by some that the move could be seen as crudely opportunistic at a time of crisis in the EU.

Others say that it could put off Liberal Democrats who might otherwise come over to Labour.

Labour enthusiasts for a referendum stress, however, that it would not in any way amount to a watering down of Labour's commitment to the EU. On the contrary, it would be an opportunity to argue the positive case for membership during a national campaign – one that would also help the party build alliances with pro-EU elements of the business community.

While a minority of Labour MPs might want to leave the EU, highlighting divisions within Labour, they say a referendum would cause far deeper splits in the Tory party.

The People's Pledge, which draws support from all political parties, has announced it will hold more local referendums in three Greater Manchester constituencies, Withington, Cheadle and Hazel Grove, asking people if they want a national vote.

The seats, one in Manchester and two in Stockport, are all represented by Liberal Democrat MPs: John Leech, Mark Hunter and Andrew Stunnell, respectively. This follows its local referendum in Thurrock last month where 89.9% of people who voted backed a referendum.

Ian McKenzie, director of the People's Pledge, said: "The people of Thurrock set the pace last month by voting in huge numbers for a referendum. Voters in Manchester Withington, Cheadle and Hazel Grove now have the chance to quicken that pace towards a national referendum for the rest of us."

• Ed Miliband
• European Union
• Jon Cruddas
• Labour
• Conservatives
• Europe

• Didier Drogba slots the winner in a dramatic shootout
• Game went to penalties after extra-time finished on 1-1
• Tom Jenkins's pictures from the Champions League final

These are the moments Chelsea will always cherish and never forget. They gave everything and finally, when it was all done, they had the European Cup in their possession and a night that will go straight in at No1 in their list of great triumphs from the Roman Abramovich era.

It was a rare form of euphoria on a night when, just like Moscow four years ago, it came down to the gut-wrenching drama of a penalty shootout. At one stage Bayern Munich were leading 3-1 and the Chelsea players stood in line, heads bowed, fearing the worst. Juan Mata's effort had been saved by Manuel Neuer and at that point Roberto Di Matteo's players knew they were on the brink of walking past the European Cup and not being allowed to touch the silver.

What happened next was extraordinary and went against everything we know about the efficiency of Bundesliga clubs and penalties. Petr Cech started the turnaround by saving from Ivica Olic and with Bayern's next effort Bastian Schweinsteiger's shot came back off the post. David Luiz, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole had all beaten Neuer and suddenly, almost implausibly, it was left to Didier Drogba with probably the last kick of his last match for the club. What a parting gift the Ivorian may have left considering that it was also his 88th-minute goal that had dragged this final into extra time, just as Thomas Müller's goal looked like giving Bayern their fifth victory in this competition.

The trophy was being adorned with red and white ribbons by the time Drogba headed in the equaliser and when it was all over the Bayern players were on their knees. Arjen Robben could barely be lifted from the turf and Schweinsteiger's personal grief had started even before Drogba began the long walk from the centre circle to the penalty area. High in the stands Abramovich could be seen doing that little uncoordinated hop and skip, reminding us that for all the money in the world here is no possible value that can be put on this kind of occasion. Chelsea's owner held Di Matteo in an emotional clinch that makes you wonder how he could possibly now move on the Italian this summer.

This may not be the most exhilarating Chelsea team but nobody can dispute their resolve because those final dramatic moments told only part of the story on a night when Cech also saved Robben's penalty in the first period of extra time. Chelsea's goalkeeper seemed to fill the entire goal at times and probably had legitimate claims to be recognised as the most heroic figure. There were, however, plenty of contenders.

What should not be overlooked is that Bayern are formidable opponents on this ground, with only two home defeats here in the Bundesliga, 49 goals scored and six conceded. They played with great adventure, attacking from the flanks. On one side, Robben was an indefatigable opponent, picking up the ball from deep positions and driving forward. On the other, Franck Ribéry was a constant menace until he was injured in the foul by Drogba that gave Robben the chance to win the game against his former club. It was a silly trip from Drogba and Robben struck his penalty cleanly enough, low to Cech's left. Cech smothered the shot and was first to the loose ball and for the first time you could detect the nerves from the end where Bayern's most beery, boisterous fans had produced a banner before kick-off describing the cup as unser pokal – our trophy.

Chelsea had to endure some intense pressure. Not quite as relentless as the two legs of their semi-final against Barcelona but fairly unremitting all the same. Once again, they had to defend with great togetherness and commitment and their opponents were left to wonder how on earth they had not turned their superiority into goals. With some better finishing, the game would never have reached extra time. Even then, Olic will wonder how he missed the chance that fell to him, unchallenged, after 108 minutes of mostly one-sided action.

Chelsea, in stark contrast, rarely threatened the opposition's goal but it was probably inevitable when two-thirds of the stadium was bedecked in red and their opponents had so many accomplished players. This was a patched-up side in many ways, with John Terry watching from the stands, another three players suspended and two centre-backs coming back from month-long layoffs. David Luiz and Gary Cahill were outstanding. Cole showed, once again, that he is one of the great big-game footballers and behind them they had a goalkeeper delivering a giant performance.

Chelsea may not have offered a great deal going forward but they played as though affronted by the suggestion that Terry's absence would play a critical part.

Their tactics were epitomised by Ryan Bertrand's involvement on the left of midfield, often doubling up with Cole so that Chelsea effectively had two full-backs in close proximity to Robben. In midfield, Lampard curbed his natural attacking instincts to play a more conservative role alongside John Obi Mikel. Di Matteo had set up Chelsea to play very much as the "away" team, meaning Drogba was often isolated in attack. In the end, you would have to say the manager got it spot on.

Their resistance broke only once, on 83 minutes, when Müller stole in behind Cole to score with a stooping header. A lesser side would have hoisted the white flag but what has become very apparent since Di Matteo took over from André Villas-Boas is that is not the way of this Chelsea team. Mata's corner was whipped across the penalty area and Drogba was fast and decisive, flashing his header into the top corner.

Then the penalties arrived and with their first three attempts, Philipp Lahm, Mario Gomez and, remarkably, Neuer, all scored. At that stage who could have imagined Terry would be walking up the steps to help Lampard lift the trophy?

• Champions League 2011-12
• Bayern Munich
• Chelsea
• Champions League

US and France succeed in putting promotion of growth at top of communique despite Germany's resistance to stimulus package

Barack Obama and the other G8 leaders wrapped up their negotiations on the European crisis at Camp David on Saturday with a pledge to keep Greece in the eurozone and to promote growth.

The communique, which had the growth promise at the top, represents a victory for Obama and the new French president, François Hollande, over German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has resisted calls for a stimulus package.

But it may be shortlived. The communique was short in detail and Merkel could re-establish her dominance next week at an informal European meeting.

The eight leaders meeting at the US presidential retreat in Maryland issued a communique declaring in its opening paragraph: "Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs."

It added: "The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist. Against this background, we commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognising that the right measures are not the same for each of us."

The communique was issued after almost four hours devoted to the eurozone crisis, which could have a negative impact on the US economy and Obama's re-election chances in November.

Obama favours Europeans adopting a stimulus package similar to the one he instigated in the US in 2009, as does Hollande. They both also favour keeping the eurozone intact, including Greece, though this may in the end prove difficult.

The communique said: "We welcome the ongoing discussion in Europe on how to generate growth, while maintaining a firm commitment to implement fiscal consolidation to be assessed on a structural basis. We agree on the importance of a strong and cohesive eurozone for global stability and recovery, and we affirm our interest in Greece remaining in the eurozone while respecting its commitments."

After three years of facing European leaders committed to deficit reduction, Obama has a new ally in Hollande. Speaking at Camp David, Hollande said European leaders were trying to balance the competing aims of reining in their budgets while stimulating their economies: "As President Obama noted, we need to pursue these two goals simultaneously: budgetary solvency and maximum growth."

Obama and David Cameron clashed with Merkel on Saturday, demanding she drop her G8 resistance to setting out a clear path for Europe out of its crisis. Measures resisted by the Germans included a looser monetary policy for the European Central Bank that would enable quantitative easing similar to that deployed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.

• G8
• Greece
• Europe
• United States
• Barack Obama
• US foreign policy
• Eurozone crisis
• François Hollande
• Angela Merkel
• European Union
• European monetary union
• Economics
• European banks
• Financial crisis
• Euro

Author of The God Delusion says providing free Bibles to state schools is justified by its impact on the English language

It sounds like one of the most unlikely alliances of recent years. Richard Dawkins, arch-atheist and scourge of the praying classes, has announced support for education secretary Michael Gove's plan to send free King James Bibles to every state school.

The proposal aims to help pupils learn about the Bible's impact "on our history, language, literature and democracy" and will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the authorised version's publication, Gove said earlier this year. Church leaders have approved, but the plan has fallen foul of most non-believers. An online Guardian poll showed an 82% opposition, while the National Secular Society said the £375,000 proposal wasted money and favoured Christianity in multi-faith state schools. Nevertheless, several rich Tory party donors agreed to back the plan and the first Bibles were sent out last week, to the derision of secularists – with the exception of their most prominent and pugnacious recruit: Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and critic of all things clerical.

As Dawkins reveals in today's Observer, support for the Bible plan is justified on the grounds of literary merit and he lists a range of biblical phrases which any cultivated English speaker will instantly recognise. These include "salt of the Earth", "through a glass darkly", and "no peace for the wicked". Dawkins states: "A native speaker of English who has not read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."

Rapprochement would seem to be in the air – until Dawkins's thesis is studied more closely. While Gove believes the Bible is a guide to morality, Dawkins is sure it is not. "I have heard the cynically misanthropic opinion that without the Bible as a moral compass people would show no restraint against murder, theft and mayhem. The surest way to disabuse yourself of this pernicious falsehood is to read the Bible itself," he says.

In fact, its pages are riddled with the advocacy of murder, slavery and theft. Hence his support for Gove's plan: opening the Bible is the surest way to put young minds off its contents. From this perspective, the Dawkins-Gove alliance looks dead before it started.

• Richard Dawkins
• Michael Gove
• The Bible
• Religion
• Christianity
• Religion

Republicans hope campaign will woo fastest-growing demographic in the US away from Barack Obama

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney has launched an aggressive campaign to woo Hispanic voters away from Barack Obama.

A Spanish-language version of a campaign ad will air this week in key states – the first political ad produced by the Romney campaign since his last Republican rival dropped out of the race.

The ad is called Día Uno, which means day one in English, and features Romney speaking a Spanish-language version of the "I approve this message" tagline that all American presidential candidate put on official TV ads. "Soy Mitt Romney y apruebo este mensaje," the former governor of Massachusetts says stiffly.

The move comes only days after the latest figures released by the US Census showed that for the first time there are more Hispanic and black and other minority babies being born in America than white ones.

Among US minority groups Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing, now making up more than 50 million people, which is one in six Americans. Romney's campaign is keen to make inroads into the demographic group, often stressing socially conservative issues such as opposition to abortion and gay marriage that chime with the Republicans' traditional white base as well as often devoutly Roman Catholic Hispanics.

There are also some senior Hispanic figures in the party. Marco Rubio is a junior senator in Florida of Cuban background. He is popular with the Tea Party base and often cited as an example that the Republican's conservative message can resonate with Hispanic groups.

In lists of Romney's possible vice-presidential picks, Rubio is frequently mentioned and seen as a way of attracting Hispanic voters. Another possible running mate would be Susana Martinez, the Republican governor of New Mexico. The party has also appointed Hispanic outreach directors in six battleground states. Romney himself even has personal links to Mexico as his father, George Romney, was born there.

But the task facing Romney is not going to be easy. In 2008 Obama won 67% of the Hispanic vote compared with Republican John McCain's 31%. A Pew Research poll found that Romney's position had weakened, with his support at 27% while Obama's remained steady at 67%. A Quinnipiac University poll found Romney's support even lower at 24%.

Those figures show that a socially conservative message, based on faith and traditional families, is not quite enough for Republicans to do well in Spanish-speaking America. "There is a faith-based small "c" conservatism that could make Hispanics into natural Republicans. But the problem for Republicans is that Hispanics are also liberal on issues such as social welfare and the role of government," said Professor Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside.

But an even bigger issue for the Romney campaign when it comes to wooing Hispanic supporters is immigration. During the nomination race Republican leaders jockeyed with each other to come up with the strictest plans for a border fence until Herman Cain even suggested building an electrified fence.

"There was some crazy stuff coming out," said Bowler. In eventually winning the contest, Romney tacked far to the right, opposing a law that would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants to go to college, praising a controversial Arizona law that many critics have said is racist, and urging illegal immigrants to "self-deport" from America before a planned crackdown on benefits they can claim.

None of those sentiments will have endeared him to Hispanic voters. Indeed they even infuriated Martinez, who criticised Romney in an interview with Newsweek. "Self-deport? What the heck does that mean?" she told the magazine. She went on to say Republicans needed to change their language and adopt more nuanced policies on the issue. "I have no doubt Hispanics have been alienated during this campaign. But now there's an opportunity for Governor Romney to have a sincere conversation about what we can do and why," she said.

It will not be easy. Any softening of Romney's hard line on immigration will see him anger his Tea Party base. However, many experts believe the long-term demographic trends of America mean the Republicans will have to work out a way of appealing to Hispanic voters eventually or potentially face a permanent exile from the White House.

"The Republican party is becoming older, whiter and more Protestant at a time when America is becoming younger, browner and less Protestant," said Bowler.

• Mitt Romney
• Republicans
• US elections 2012
• United States

Barack Obama and David Cameron want German chancellor Angela Merkel to set out a clear path forward for Europe

Barack Obama and David Cameron have clashed with the German chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 summit in Camp David, demanding she set out a clear path for Europe to emerge from its current crisis.

The German leader resisted pressure for fresh measures that would include looser monetary policy for the European Central Bank, enabling quantitative easing similar to that deployed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.

Obama and Cameron discussed their joint position at a G8 summit in Camp David during a 7am meeting held on a treadmill, possibly the first UK-US bilateral to be conducted in a gym.

With pressure growing for world leaders to come up with a decisive plan for solving the crisis, it emerged the Germans were resisting the inclusion of details in the final communiqué about the best course of action for the eurozone.

The so-called sherpas, appointed by national leaders to draft summit communiqués, were at work until 4am on Saturday trying to forge a common position that said something specific about the euro crisis. It was being suggested that the Germans, partly due to their isolation at the summit, were pressing for specifics to be deferred to an informal EU council later this week, arguing it was not the business of the G8, including Canada, Russia, Japan and the US, to tell the EU states how to handle their economy. Cameron's aides took the view that it would look distinctly odd if the communiqué did not highlight solutions.

Following a heated two-hour discussion, the final communiqué does refer to the crisis, saying "a strong and cohesive eurozone is important for global stability", and adds "Greece should remain in the eurozone". British sources were saying it was absurd that Merkel had tried to keep any reference of the euro crisis out of the communiqué and that the two-hour discussion had underlined to her the need for urgency.

The discussion on the global economic crisis at Camp David was opened at the request of Obama by the Italian prime minister Mario Monti, seen as the power broker in Europe between austerity and growth factions.

Britain, although outside the single currency and committed to a hardline deficit reduction programme at home, would like to see the ECB be more interventionist and stimulate demand through capital spending.

Referring on CNN to the austerity and growth divide, Monti said: "I think these two positions need to be bridged. If it is demand to remove bottlenecks in the supply of goods and services – so, broadly, investment demand – then I think we regard it more positively than the most conservative European authorities do.

"On the other hand, if it is an across-the-board crusade for more demand, then I believe that the German reluctance to that is not entirely unfounded."

He also pointed out that for the US, as a reserve currency, it was easier to be relaxed about big expansions of demand. Cameron, speaking after his 35-minute workout with Obama, said: "What is required is a sense of urgency, but then clear action for strong banks and strong contingency plans for whatever might happen. The strengthening of the banks, governments and firewalls, all of those things need to take place very fast."

He said Merkel was right to say every country needed strong deficit plans. "Growth and austerity are not alternatives," he said, adding that the eurozone needed to follow the UK monetary policy, a reference to quantitative easing.

Suggestions that the G8 might advocate using strategic oil reserves to drag down the oil price appear premature, partly due to the recent fall in oil prices, and concerns that Obama would be seen to be putting US security at risk. The G8 will instead saying they will keep the idea under review.

• G8
• Euro
• European Union
• Economics
• David Cameron
• Barack Obama
• Angela Merkel
• Germany
• Eurozone crisis
• United States

As the social network floated on the stock market, its employees marked the occasion with discretion … and onion rings

The guests wore jeans and T-shirts. The venue was a sports bar. The menu was buffalo wings, mini-burgers, pizza and beer. The entertainment was a mechanical bull, which bucked in a corner, and screens showing basketball and football. Welcome to a hundred-billion dollar party, Facebook-style.

It looked like college kids out for a typical Friday night, but the scene in the Old Pro, an unremarkable bar tucked off a sidestreet in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, was the celebration of a cultural and financial milestone which mesmerised the world.

"Yeah, it's been a big day," grinned a lanky software engineer. "So we're here chugging a few." He checked his watch. "Still happy hour."

He and his colleagues clinked beers, manifestly happy. Facebook had just completed its first day as a public company after one of history's most frenzied share sales valued it at $104bn. The trading took place in New York but the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, stayed with 2,000 employees at their colony in Palo Alto, the capital of social media.

As the largest shareholder Zuckerberg, 28, ratcheted up a paper fortune of $20.4bn. An estimated 88 employees saw the value of their individual holdings exceed $30m. The extraordinary sums, the website's mercurial rise and its role in connecting more than 900 million people made the initial public offering (IPO) an event watched far beyond Wall Street.

Had they received this windfall, Russian oligarchs might have celebrated by buying Manchester United. Investment bankers might have bought bigger yachts and jets. The lords of tech munched onion rings. "The taste that can't be beat," according to the bar's website.

"This town, it's a very unusual place," said David Batista, manager of the Palo Alto Creamery, a cafe where Zuckerberg used to map strategy over milkshakes. "You could be sitting beside a billionaire and not know it. A day like today and where do they go? A sports bar. It's all very low key."

Internet revolution, Hollywood movie, global impact on human interaction, byword for self-promotion – few outsiders consider Facebook to be discreet. But employees are exactly that.

"You might think as soon as they make a million they buy a house in Palo Alto, but a lot of these guys live in apartments, don't have girlfriends and bicycle to work. And they work all the time," said Alan Dunckel, an estate agent. Those who did buy houses – $1,000 per square foot – did not flaunt wealth, he said. "They wear T-shirts and hoodies." Many sellers, said Dunckel, had withheld properties in hopes of a boom. "Expectations are huge." Facebook has promised $1.1m to Menlo Park's cash-starved authorities to fund capital projects, prompting hopes more will follow.

The employees' celebration at the Old Pro, however, was muted. Whereas non-Facebook groups booked tables with their names on them, Zuckerberg's troops clustered in anonymous little knots. They had been drilled by headquarters not to speak to the media. Ostensibly it was to avoid spooking the markets at a delicate time but it followed a company tradition of reticence – opacity, critics say – ironic given concern over Facebook users' privacy guarantees.

"Sorry, buddy. Normally I'm really interesting to talk to but I just can't right now," one employee, drinking an ale, smiled sheepishly. Others recoiled as if questions were radioactive. One confirmed a rumour that Zuckerberg was hosting a party for some staff that night at his home – a relatively modest $7m house – several blocks away.

Blink on the highway and you could miss the company's Menlo Park headquarters, a nondescript complex of two and three-storey buildings which employees of the previous occupier, Sun Microsystems, nicknamed San Quentin, after the jail. An entrance billboard with the familiar thumbs-up icon is Facebook's only concession to marketing.

Instead of trumpeting its historic day the company rebuffed interview requests and corralled television crews in a car park across the street. While the Observer interviewed an employee's mother inside the grounds – "a historic day for the way the world is going", she was saying, beaming – security guards swooped, complaining about trespass, and threatened to summon police.

Friday's bounty was preceded by austerity. On Thursday night employees made a round-the-clock "hackathon" of writing code. They wore newly printed T-shirts which said: "Stay focused & keep hacking."

Some emerged early Friday for a ceremony at the centre of the complex known as Hack Square, where Zuckerberg rang the opening bell to start the Nasdaq stock market's trading. Then they returned to their computers.

Canteens with free gourmet food and outstanding coffee keep staff inside the complex, disappointing nearby restaurants and cafes. Hairdressers like Nina Phana, however, who runs a salon two blocks down, say the techies emerge for the occasional trim and blowdry. "They tip good."

A hundred billion dollars is a gargantuan sum for a company started eight years ago in a college dorm, and the fact that Friday's frenzied trading ended with shares at $38.23, just a fraction over the opening price, stoked claims the company was overvalued.

Ali Ghotbi, an executive at Box, a cloud computing developer, shrugged off concerns of another dotcom bubble. "Back in the 90s it was, oh, you have a website, here's a million dollars. Now it's more controlled, more selective."

A colleague, Tom Cochran, predicted Box would be Silicon Valley's next big thing. "Our chief executive, Aaron Levie, is a genius like Mark Zuckerberg. But with charisma."

The rate of startups in this corner of San Francisco bay – renovated premises filled with newly arrived geeks with Harvard and MIT baseball caps – suggests widespread confidence. Or hubris.

• Facebook
• Internet
• Internet IPOs
• IPOs
• Social networking
• Mark Zuckerberg
• California

Dr Robert Spitzer apologises for 'fatally flawed' study, published in 2001, which claimed gay people could be 'cured' if properly motivated

One of the most influential figures in modern psychiatry has apologised to America's gays for a scientific study which supported attempts to "cure" people of their homosexuality.

The survey, published in 2001, looked at "reparative therapy" and was hailed by religious and social conservatives in America as proof that gay people could successfully become straight if they were motivated to do so.

But Dr Robert Spitzer has now apologised in the same academic journal that published his original study, calling it "fatally flawed". "I believe I owe the gay community an apology," his letter said. "I also apologise to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works."

Spitzer's letter, which was leaked online before its publication in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, is sure to cause delight among gay civil rights groups and stir up anger among social conservatives, who have used the study to combat the acceptance of homosexuality as a normal part of human society.

Reparative therapy is popular among Christian conservative groups, which run clinics and therapy sessions at which people try to become heterosexual through counselling. Gay rights activists condemn such practices as motivated by religious faith, not science, and call them "pray away the gay" groups.

Spitzer's study looked at the experiences of 200 people undertaking the therapy, including subjects that had been provided by religious groups. He then asked each person the same set of questions, analysing their responses to the therapy and their feelings and sexual urges afterwards. He concluded that many of them reported feelings of changes in their sexual desires from homosexual to heterosexual.

Spitzer's stance was notorious, because in 1973 he had been instrumental in getting the American Psychiatric Association to stop classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder in its diagnostic manual: a move seen at the time as a major victory for gay rights.

His 2001 study caused a huge stir because many people felt that it was not rigorous enough for publication. The central criticism was that Spitzer had not paid enough attention to the fact that subjects might lie about their feelings or be engaged in self-deception.

For more than a decade Spitzer shrugged off the attacks and stood by his work, but he has now admitted that his critics were right. "I offered several (unconvincing) reasons why it was reasonable to assume that the subject's reports of change were credible and not self-deception or outright lying. But the simple fact is that there was no way to determine if the subject's accounts of change were valid," Spitzer wrote.

In an interview with the New York Times last week, Spitzer, who is 79 and suffers from Parkinson's disease, described how he had written his letter of recantation in the middle of the night after agonising over the study's impact.

He had also recently been visited by a gay magazine journalist, Gabriel Arana, who had described to him his own experience going through reparation therapy and how damaging it had been and how it had led to thoughts of suicide. "It's the only regret I have; the only professional one," Spitzer told the New York Times, which described him as being almost in tears as he talked about his decision to admit he was wrong.

"In the history of psychiatry I don't know that I've ever seen a scientist write a letter saying that the data were all there but were totally misinterpreted. Who admitted that and who apologised to his readers. That's something, don't you think?" Spitzer told the newspaper.

Gay rights group Truth Wins Out published the full text of the letter on its website and hailed the moment as a major step forward. "Spitzer's apology to the victims of 'pray away the gay' therapy … marks a watershed moment in the fight against the 'ex-gay' myth," the group said.

• Gay rights
• United States
• Sexuality
• Health

Ricardo Vaz Te scored the vital goal in the dying minutes to send West Ham United back to the Premier League

Good afternoon. How are those nerves? Blackpool v West Ham United. Ian Holloway v Sam Allardyce. They say form goes out the window in a cup final but for the Championship play-off final it is logic that is told to do a runner. But what else can you really expect from a game that is measured not so much in terms of glory or achievement, but in value?

The monetisation of the Championship play-off final is an unstoppable modern football clap-trap and whether this match is worth £10m, £20m, £30m or £100m to the eventual winners is not of concern – at least not today on the pitch or in stands. All that matters is that all the work put in over the last nine months does not turn out to be wasted.

"Where no hope is left, is left no fear," wrote Milton, and while he probably had more existential matters in mind that a play-off final, there are few more tortured souls as West Ham fans and so his theory raises interesting questions about a game of this magnitude. Many pundits will say that the team which sheds its fear and relaxes will be most likely to prevail but perhaps, as Milton suggests, a little fear is a good thing for it brings with it hope and possibility - the emotion that can cause a player to find that extra yard needed at that crucial moment. On the other hand Michael Chabon wrote about 'lives ruined again and again by hope'. It's hard to know where to turn

So who will emerge blinking into the bright light cast from the Premier League gold? Will West Hams pragmatism triumph over Blackpool's, eh, slightly less pragmatic approach? The bookies seem to think so and have Sam Allardyce's side down as odds-on favourites. They've taken six points off Ian Holloway's side in their two league fixtures this season scoring eight goals in the process - a 4-0 win at Upton Park in October followed by a 4-1 victory at Bloomfield Roan in February. Recently, both sides have been in pretty impressive form with West Ham unbeaten in eight (six wins, two draws) and Blackpool unbeaten in nine (five wins, four draws). In short, it's impossible to call. The Championship play-off final wouldn't have it any other way.

The teams have been named and there is one big piece of breaking team-news – the Blackpool striker Gary Taylor-Fletcher is out and so 109-year-old Kevin Phillips plays but presumably will not last the 90 minutes, West Ham are as expected.

Blackpool: Gilks; Baptiste, Evatt, Eardley, Crainey; Ferguson, Martinez; Ince, Dobbie, M.Phillips; K.Phillips.
Subs: Southern, Sylvestre, Cathcart, Dicko, Bednar

West Ham: Green; Demel, Reid, Tomkins, Taylor; Noble, Nolan, O'Neil; Collison, Cole, Vaz Te.
Subs: Henderson, Faubert, McCartney, Lansbury, Maynard

Referee/Scapegoat: Howard Webb

2.35pm: Sky are examining Big Sam, his ways and methods. Sam talks about "the passing game" West Ham have as their heritage with so much suspicion and disdain in his voice he may as well be discussing Berlin's avant-garde fashion scene. "The club had no soul and had no heart," says Big Sam. "We've turned it around and are 90 minutes away from the best league in the world."

2.46pm: It seems the public are behind West Ham, or at least the members of the public who support clubs playing in the Championship next season, as Steven Hughes explains: "I hope that West Ham do it today. I'm renewing my season ticket next week and I don't want 4.35% of that outlay going towards entrance to another deadly dull visit by West Ham and their doltish long ball shtick. No thank you. Up the Hammers!" I'm not sure Championship chairmen would agree.

2.50pm: Championship play-off survivors: is it really the most nervous you've ever been as a fan? Of course, what we can expect to see today is groups of fans anxiously biting their nails until the moment the realise their mugs are up on the big screen at which point they immediately forget that they're bricking it in order to wave maniacally at the camera.

2.55pm: Here's the view from the greatest league in the world, courtesy of Matt Dony: "Having no investment in the Championship, my decision on who to support comes down to whether I'll be more entertained by which manager on MOTD. The self-(deluded)-confidence of Allardicchio, or the sheer, joyful, bonkersness of Holloway. Can both not go up?"

2.56pm: The teams are lined up on the pitch now for the national anthem sung by a girl in a black dress. They really shouldn't have the national anthem before the play-off final. Just because it's at Wembley is no reason to go through with all the formality of a cup final. It is, effectively, a battle for third place. Anyway, that's enough of my grumbling. Here's Ryan Dunne's step-by-step guide for neutrals:

"Delighted that my favourite (and so,plainly, Objectively Best) MBM oficiator is being rewarded with today's Big Game! ;) I, too, would rather see West Ham over Blackpool in the Premiership, for the following reasons:

i) They might be just the 6th most famous team in London, but everyone's heard of West Ham, and there are I'm sure lots of instances of them bringing something exciting to the Premiership table (off the top of my head - and I am, Glorious Glasgow Rangers aside, a neutral: that 8-1 Man U game when Scholes scored from the corner, beating Man U in the FA Cup at Old Trafford, the prelapsarian Joe Cole etc)

ii) Ian Holloway's schtick got very old, very quickly, last time Blackpool were in the Premiership.

iii) I like Karen Brady on The Apprentice."

2.59pm: We're just about to get underway. There are an awful lot of empty seats in the Blackpool sections of the ground.

Peeep! West Ham get the game underway, in their traditional claret and blue playing from left-to-right. Blackpool are in white shirts and orange shorts, West Ham go long from the off straight towards Carlton Cole. Here we go.

1 min: A first chance for West Ham to force an effort on goal but Kevin Nolan puts far too much on a through ball to Cole and Gilks comes and gathers. "Are Blackpool still the lovable greenhorn no-hopers who nevertheless gave it a terrific go, like they were last year?" asks Brinda. "If that's so, seeing who's on the opposite bench, a neutrals decision has never been easier."

2 min: First attack from Blackpool - Dobbie pings a pass down the right flank for Tom Ince to chase. Ince is booed by the West Ham fans on account of something his father, Paul, did 15-odd years ago. Young Tom tries to jink into the area but bodies are back and hold up the attack.

3 min: A great chance for Blackpool and Dobbie who breaks through the offside trap and hits a powerful shot from a tight angle. Green stays big and his arm is strong, blocking the drive before the ball bounces off the outside of the post and away top safety. This is a good start from Blackpool.

7 min: West Ham's game plan is clear - get it forward quickly to Cole to lay-off to Nolan, Noble or O'Neil who will try and find the runs of Jack Collison or Ricardo Vaz Te.

9 min: The game may have started but many of you are still sorting put exactly where your allegiances lie. Paul Morris says: "As a Liverpool fan, I'm torn as to whom I want to see go through. I've always had a soft spot for West Ham, particularly after that stonking 2006 FA Cup Final (although at the time I remember pulling my hair out and cursing the day Paul Konchesky was born ... glad that didn't come back to haunt me), but I can't stand Allardyce and that film Green Street was crap. On the other hand, Blackpool sold us Charlie Adam. It's quite the quandary."

10 min: Stephen Dobbie is looking really lively for Blackpool. You have to hand it to Holloway - nobody turns up a rotund Scottish playmaker quite like him. At the other end, the peacock-resembling Ricardo Van Te slaloms down the left wing but shanks his cross behind goal when he had options in the middle.

14 min: Another great chance for Blackpool but it's probably fallen to the wrong Phillips - Matt rather than Kevin. It was lovely crisp build-up play involving Dobbie yet again. He threaded a pass through a very high West Ham line to the onrushing Phillips who didn't get the ball out from his feet and fired straight at Green.

15 min: Another great chance for Matt Phillips but again it's wasted. It was a terrible mistake from Guy Demel who dawdled and Phillips pounced, weaved inside Reid and try to bend his shot into the corner but sent it past the post with Green beaten. That's three big opportunities for Blackpool. They can't afford to waste many more.

18 min: Wasted Blackpool chances before West Ham grind out a win - this game is being mapped out already, isn't it? Liam Blizard has no allegiance issues: "As a bitter blade, no such confusion here. West ham don't belong in the Premier league. Blackpool all the way!"

19 min: A first real chance for West Ham and Cole collects a clipped pass inside the area, lays off to Noble who finds Vaz Te who shoots into the side-netting. "Katy Perry rooting for Blackpool," toots Joe Pearson. "Surely, after her divorce from Russell Brand. Probably dyed her hair tangerine today, if she's up yet."

23 min: West Ham are starting to get on top now - Big Sam loves being on top. Meanwhile Glenn Hoddle - yes that Glenn Hoddle - writes: "I too am struggling to find allegiances in this game. Blackpool's traffic cone orange is pretty hideous, but on the other hand it's been nice to have a season free of "I'm forever blowing..."

27 min: West Ham will be the happier team now that the game has lost a bit of its rhythm - Jack Collison has just made his first contribution, cutting in from the right and trying to bend a shot with his left foot which he gets all wrong - all wrong - and it sails high and wide.

30 min: Matt Taylor makes his first marauding run down the left and is found by Nolan. He fizzes the ball across goal and it's put behind for a corner. Nobles take it, Gilks comes but is unconvincing and it's put behind by Baptiste on the other side. Taylor takes this one and again it's headed behind. The third corner earns a fourth which Noble takes and Tomkins keeps it alive at the back post, heads back across goal but Kevin Phillips heads clear. Dangerous moments for Blackpool.

Goal! Blackpool 0-1 West Ham United (Cole, 34) West Ham have the lead and it's come out of nowhere. Tom Ince felt he was fouled deep into the West Ham half, Matt Taylor countered but seemed to lose possession. It fell back into his path and he pinged a crossfield ball towards Cole. The rest was brilliant. Cole brought the ranging pass under control with one touch before clipping past Gilks with his second.

37 min: Blackpool need to get their heads together quickly or this is going to be out of reach. It's a great chance for Vaz Te who ran on to another angled pass, this time from the right. He really should have hit the target but fired his left-footed shot wide.

39 min: "An unfamiliar sight here in Jakarta," says Pangeran Siahaan. "A bunch of local West Ham fans crammed in an Irish pub singing I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles and one of them is literally blowing bubbles all over the pub. If it's not enough information for you, this event is organized by someone who's said to be David Gold's cousin." Who, other than David Gold's cousin would claim to be David Gold's cousin?

41 min: Blackpool have really lost their way since that third opportunity was wasted by Matt Phillips. And now, as they try to force their way back into the game, they are resorting to long balls aimed towards Kevin Phillips. Angel Martinez picks up the loose ball when one such long ball is half-cleared but he fires high over the crossbar. "Blackpool all the way," says Jijin. "Haven't you heard the quotable stuff that comes out of Ian Holloway? How can you not want Blackpool to go up? Besides it will be fun to see
Big Sam lording it over the Venkys after destroying them. Or even losing to them. It's win(hyphen) win. I can't figure out how to type a goddamn hyphen on this phone." I'm neutral here, people. Apart from the bet I had on Blackpool.

45 min: *adopts stadium announcer voice* There will be one added minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half.

Half time: The whistle goes and West Ham are halfway there. It's been an even 45 minutes and Blackpool had three glorious chances to take the lead before the 'Ammers muscled their way back into contention and took the lead through Carlton Cole's fine strike. In eight of the past nine finals the team who has scored first has won the final. Now you think about that and nothing else while I fetch a cup of tea.

Half time emails: "So, Evan,' says Alan Cooper. "It seems to be the usual New Wembley experience: loads of empty seats in prominent places and a poor pitch that is causing the players to slip all over. Sigh."

"Afternoon Evan," says Simon McMahon. "In other news Hibs have pulled a goal back to trail 2-1 to city rivals Hearts at half time in the Scottish Cup Final. Never mind West Ham and Blackpool; who'd be a Hibs fan? They haven't won the Scottish Cup since 1902!"

In more Scottish news Billy Williamson has a boine to pick with Ryan Dunne ...

"I am, Glorious Glasgow Rangers aside, a neutral"

"Does that mean you're pro- or anti-Rangers? Either way, you should know they're not Glasgow Rangers, they're just Rangers. For as long as we continue to exist, anyway. John Fleck of not-Glasgow-just-Rangers is nowhere in the Blackpool squad - injured or not good enough or just room for the one tubby Scot? And Danny Wilson, ex of not-Glasgow-just-Rangers - where is he? Tweeting his employer about who his next boss should be?"

Peep!! We're underway in the second half - no changes on either side.

Goal! Blackpool 1-1 West Ham United (Ince, 47) Tom Ince has scored against West Ham. It's an almost identical goal to West Ham's. Carlton Cole lost it on halfway, Matt Phillips hit a raking pass into the path of Ince who slotted first time past Green in the West Ham goal. Lovely finish from Ince.

49 min: Matt Taylor clears off the line but it's another great chance for Blackpool. Kevin Phillips scoops a ball over the top - Baptiste is a defender in theory but he races on to it, lift it over Green and Taylor thumps clear. What a start to the second half for Blackpool.

53 min: Dobbie finds space and is found by a lovely clipped ball from Ferguson. He should head straight for goal but tries to skip inside Reid onto his right foot but loses the ball. "Out of curiosity," Ian Copestake writes, "which two players did Blackpool bring in the fill their Charlie Adam shaped hole?" Just one Ian. Stephen Dobbie. He's of the same, ahem, proportions as Adam.

54 min: José Allardyce makes his first tactical change as George McCartney comes on to deal with the threat of Tom Ince. Gary O'Neil goes off with Matt Taylor pushing into midfield.

57 min: Guy Demel is down getting treatment which gives West Ham some breathing space. "So happy for Tom Ince after all the abuse his dad's gotten from Hammers fans throughout the boy's life," says Daniel Edward Young. Indeed. Demel is going to have to come off and Julien 'I once played for Real Madrid' Faubert comes on.

57 min: Some Scottish news courtesy of Simon. Scottish Simon. "Five minutes gone in the second half and the wait for Hibs fans goes on. They are now 4-1 behind and down to 10 men. Dont think they can turn that around even if they bring on Sergio Aguero."

59 min: Matt Taylor's delivery means that West Ham always have a chance. He whips in a really dangerous cross from the left. Collison turns the ball goalwards but it's over the top. Collison lands awkwardly on his problematic shoulder but seems to be able to play on. In some ways this half has started exactly like the first with Blackpool well on top, except this time they managed to put away one of their chances.

61 min: And here comes to West Ham fightback. Nolan drives through the middle and finds Cole. He plays it to Vaz Te who tees up Collison but his shot is weak. Taylor then stabs the ball away from goal in one of the more bizarre attempts at kicking a ball you will see on a football pitch and then the flag is raised against Vaz Te who was trying retrieve the loose ball.

64 min: Great save from Gilks who went full length to his right to claw away Carlton Cole's effort on the turn. It was a smart short from Cole who took one touch on the edge of the area the spun and hit the shot goalwards. Take him to the Euros, Mr Roy.

65 min: "Will either of these sides be able to cut it in the best league in the world?" asks Ben Dunn. "Or will they lower the level of super silky skill on display game-after-game with the most elite players ever to have hoofed a ball into touch?"

66 min: A huge chance for Blackpool and they should be in the lead. Evatt (I think) cuts the ball back from the right. It rolls past a couple of players in the area but Dobbie is perfectly positioned, eight yards out in the centre of the goal, but completely scuffs his shot and the ball trickles wide. This is exactly like the first half. Get your money on a 2-1 West Ham win.

70 min: Blackpool are piling on the pressure now. Dobbie's shot from the edge of the area is deflected over the top. From the corner the ball pinballs around the area, Noble stabs it away off the line, before Baptiste fires over. They need to make this count.

71 min: Ian Holloway makes his first change with Sylvestre replaces Kevin Phillips. Stephen Dobbie pushes up top.

73 min: "Gilks plays for Scotland," says cstewart of my "take him to the Euros, Mr Roy" comment earlier which was actually directed at Carlton Cole. Don't take Gilks to the Euros, Mr Roy. He's Scottish.

74 min: This is lovely possession football from Blackpool who are working the ball patiently from side to side. If there was one criticism it's that they don't can't really find a way through the heavily populated West Ham defence and so Dobbie is forced to shoot from distance and Green has go low to his right to claw behind.

77 min: It's all Blackpool at the minute but I'm not sure Big Sam will be unduly concerned. One set piece and all that. In the Scottish Cup Final its now Hibs 1-5 Hearts. Just look at those bragging right, eh.

81 min: West Ham hit the crossbar and it would have been one of the great Wembley goals. Matt Taylor clips in a cross from the left and Kevin Nolan meets it with a dipping volley off his instep which beats Gilks and crashes off the crossbar. The replay shows that Gilks got the slightest touch so it goes down as yet another smart save.

82 min: For a very brief moment it opens up in front of Collison inside the area but he can't get his shot away. Adam Levy writes: "It's 3.37am here in New Zealand, where I am listening to the game via the internet. Surely such dedication deserves a West Ham win." Mmmm.

83 min: Blackpool have a free kick a long way out. It's touched to Dobbie who shoots low and Green makes a straightforward save. West ham go straight up the other end and win a corner. Here we go ...

84 min: ... Blackpool defend it well at the near post before Vaz Te juggles the ball into the area - a piece of skill that is brought to an abrupt halt by Evatt's uncompromising challenge.

85 min: West Ham launch another free kick into the area. James Tomkins wins it easily in the air and probably should have done more with it than plant his header onto the roof of the net.

Goal!!!!! Blackpool 1-2 West Ham United (Vaz Te 87) It was destined to happen. How many chances could Blackpool waste? West Ham have surely won it now. Nolan threaded a pass from the left into Carlton Cole who bundled his way past a challenge and collided with Gilks. The ball fell loose inside the area and Vaz Te hammered it (pun intended) into the roof of the net. Blackpool feel Gilks was fouled by Cole as he stretched for the ball but I don't think they have a case.

88 min: Blackpool go straight up the other end and for a second the ball looks like it's going to fall to Crainey at the back post but he can't get a touch.

89 min: Double change for Blackpool: Martinez and Dobbie go off, Bednar and Dicko are on.

90 min: *adopts stadium announcer voice* Four minutes of stoppage time.

90+2 min: Blackpool launch the ball into the area but James Tomkins meets it with a fine clearing header.

90+3 min: West Ham have it in the corner, which is where they'd have for most of the game if Big Sam had his way.

90+4 min: Baptiste is fouled in the centre circle but Webb waves play on. He threads a pass to Dicko who is eased off the ball. Ferguson then knocks it long but it evades everyone and that should be that.

Full time: Blackpool 1-2 West Ham United. West Ham United are promoted to the Premier League.

4.53pm: Ricardo Vaz Te has sent West Ham back to the Premier League and while it's hard to say that they deserved the win on the balance of play, taking chances is a part of football and Blackpool wasted so many opportunities in both halves that you can't really say that they were unlucky. "I told you it was going to be difficult," Allardyce says. "Blackpool were equally as good as us today but it's about taking your chances and never more so than on a day like today. Funnily enough in 49 games this season that's the first time we've won a game in the last few minutes."

4.57pm: So West Ham are about to get handed their trophy for coming third which I'm not even going to dignify by covering. If you followed my advice earlier in the game you will be a wealthy individual at this stage. Unfortunately, as always, I ignored my own advice so I'm going to sit in a dark corner and contemplate my life choices up until this point. Congratulations West Ham and commiserations to Blackpool. Big Sam is back in the big time. Thanks for your emails. There's another match taking place in Munich later. Rob Smyth will be bringing you the minute-by-minute of that. Bye!

• Championship 2011-12
• Blackpool
• West Ham United
• Championship

Political tensions have escalated again between the UK and Spain over a territory eager to prove once more that it is 'more British than the British'

In Gibraltar, said chief minister Fabian Picardo, children learn history fast. "They can say 'the treaty of Utrecht' when they are around a year old," laughed Picardo, an Oxford-educated socialist with a picture of the Queen in his office. "We start them young."

It was that agreement, signed in 1713, that granted the 426m-high rock jutting out where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic to the British "in perpetuity". And as Gibraltar swathes itself in red, white and blue to celebrate the Queen's jubilee, it is revelling in its reputation for being "more British than the British".

"It's about the symbolism, really," said taxi driver Eddie Castle. "We do like to irritate the Spanish when we can. But they get their own back: whenever there is a row, they get their own back by making things very difficult for people at the border."

The queues of cars waiting to cross from the tiny 2.6 sq mile territory into Spain have lengthened dramatically in the last week, as Spanish border patrols have been ordered to make things more difficult for motorists and workers, increasing security checks in a move condemned by Picardo as "childish".

The latest row in the centuries-old fractious relationship between Gibraltar, London and Madrid is, as many have been over the years, about royalty.

On Friday, the Queen held a jubilee lunch for the world's monarchs at Windsor Castle – the largest gathering of crowned heads in over 50 years, with 24 kings and queens in attendance. The one notable absentee was Queen Sofía of Spain, distantly related to both the Queen and Prince Philip, who pulled out after her government said her attendance would be "inappropriate" in view of a forthcoming trip to Gibraltar by Prince Edward and his wife.

The British ambassador was called into Spain's foreign ministry to hear of the ruling party's "disgust and upset" at the Count and Countess of Wessex's visit. So it must have been with a certain mischief that Picardo told the Observer it was a "great pity" that the Queen herself was not also coming to the island.

"She would be very welcome here. I like to think she has not come because she has been so busy. In Gibraltar, people will celebrate the jubilee whether they are from republican families or monarchist families. It's not really about that here. The royal family transcends those arguments – the Queen is a figurehead of Britishness, an important symbol for us, and I say that as the grandson of a republican."

It was the Queen's visit in 1954 that triggered General Franco's anger at the British retention of a symbol of Spanish nationalism. He called it a "dagger in the spine of Spain" and in 1969 launched the blockade of the Rock that lasted until 1985. The intention of Charles and Diana to begin their honeymoon there in 1981 resulted in the King of Spain boycotting their wedding.

"We are not an island, but we consider ourselves one," said Picardo, who believes many of the rows have been diversionary tactics. "There are tensions: generally they arise when the Madrid government has trouble and strife it doesn't want people to concentrate on. I have great sympathy for them at the moment with the financial crisis.

"When we say here 'the Spanish' in a derogatory fashion, we tend to mean your chap in Madrid, the institutions; we have no problems between ordinary people, at the human and personal level."

But there is a problem at sea: a row over Spanish fishing boats in effect breaking Gibraltar's "no net" marine protection laws while fishing in waters that Spain claims for its own. The row has had politicians scurrying back through old treaties and legal entitlements and citing everything from Napoleonic "cannon shot" rules to UN conventions, but Picardo says he is now a "hair's breadth" from creating a mechanism to try to resolve the dispute with a cross-border working party.

"We don't believe that we should just turn a blind eye to that. If we accommodate these fishermen, then we would have to change our law. Spain has 8,000km of coastline, we have three," he said.

In the Gibraltar Bookshop – its windows a tribute to the Queen's 60-year reign and displaying a poster declaring "Keep Calm and Rule Britannia" – owner Jackie Scriven is looking forward to the jubilee street party and other celebrations planned. "We have to have the Spanish respect us, from our territorial waters to our Queen," she said. "When we remember what the Spanish did to us during the blockade, it was horrendous. They didn't let us have water, blood supplies, even the sacramental wine for the churches. We had to watch the ships sailing past us with food for Morocco, we couldn't get in or out except by boat.

"We've been British for 300 years and we are really loyal subjects. Even the younger generation are enthralled: more and more they are speaking English on the streets."

The economics of Gibraltar have little to do with patriotism. Its tax status means the island has more registered companies than inhabitants. Marriages can be arranged quickly for non-residents – John Lennon married Yoko Ono here and Sean Connery married here twice – and it is a hub of offshore banking and online gambling, but Gibraltar has the air less of a European Las Vegas and more of a Torquay-by-Andalucía. Its efforts to establish itself as a telecommunications base have been hampered by Spain's refusal to recognise its dialling code.

Tentative efforts by British leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to broker a joint sovereignty deal have been foiled by two no votes in referendums, in 1967 and in 2002. It remains UK policy that Gibraltar's status will not change without its people's consent.

Meanwhile the cold war with the mainland goes on. Ships that have visited Gibraltar are not allowed to go into Spanish ports. Spain does not recognise the Gibraltar government and refers to Gibraltarians as "transients", on the grounds that the legitimate population was expelled in the 18th century.

Out on a main street bristling with bunting – where pubs sell British grub and M&S advertises "UK prices" next to little shops selling T-shirts saying "Proud to be British" – political views are generally relaxed. Schoolgirls in white and burgundy uniforms crowd into Top Shop chattering in a mix of Spanish and English. "I'm Gibraltarian, or maybe English, both," said Catherine, 14. "My dad would kill me if I didn't say British but I think, for me, Gibraltarian," said Rose, 14.

"Are you kidding me?" said a 15-year-old boy in designer sunglasses with a Spanish surname, when asked if he feels linked to Spain. "Nobody hates them or anything, but it's a different world in Gib." And as far as the majority of the inhabitants are concerned, it's a case of bring on the jubilee.

• Gibraltar
• Queen's diamond jubilee
• Monarchy
• The Queen
• Spain
• Europe

Obama and French president Hollande in step over possible growth package but gulf remains between European leaders

The eurozone crisis is set to dominate the Group of Eight (G8) talks Saturday, with President Barack Obama pledging leaders' commitment to a compromise package of growth measures and fiscal responsibility.

Obama, speaking at the opening of the session, confirmed they will focus on measures to prevent the break-up of the eurozone, in particular the potential exit of Greece.

But there remains a huge gulf between the European leaders over how to kick-start the economy, a clash between the pro-growth French approach and the deficit-cutting approach of the Germans.

"All of us are absolutely committed to making sure that growth and stability and fiscal consolidation are part of an overall package," Obama said today.

As he spoke, German chancellor Angela Merkel and British prime minister David Cameron nodded in agreement.

Cameron, after meeting the US leader early Saturday morning, said there has already been good progress on the euro issue and a "a sense of urgency".

Obama met the G8 leaders at his presidential rural retreat Camp David on Friday night, hosting a dinner that was dominated by Iran, Syria and other international issues.

The bulk of the agenda Saturday is being given over the euro crisis, with the new French president François Hollande lined up with Obama in favour of a stimulus package and Merkel holding out.

Also attending are Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, the Japanese prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, and the Russian prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev, who is attending in place of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. There are also two European Union representatives.

At the dinner of Friday night, there was broad agreement over forthcoming talks on dealing with the Iranian nuclear stand-off.

Following the private event, Obama told reporters that all those gathered were "firmly committed" to continuing with sanctions alongside diplomatic efforts to pressure Tehran.

He added: "Our hope is that we can resolve this issue in a peaceful fashion that respects Iran's sovereignty and its rights in the international community, but also recognises its responsibilities."

The US, Britain, Germany and France, along with Israel, have been putting the squeeze on Iran, claiming it is engaged in a covert attempt to secure a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran denies this.

The group said they did not expect all the issues to be resolved at the forthcoming meeting in Baghdad but they hoped the Iranians realised they would need to take concrete steps.

Leaders also discussed Syria, ruling out military intervention and instead agreeing to stick with a plan drawn up by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Obama said G8 countries were "supportive of the Annan plan", but added that it "has to be fully implemented".

They also expressed a determination that, with a death toll of 6,000 already in Syria, there has to be a move towards political transition from the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Russia, a traditional ally of Syria, has been resisting tougher international action but Medvedev acknowleged at the meeting there would have to be transition.

The differences are over how to achieve that.

• G8
• United States
• Eurozone crisis
• Europe
• François Hollande
• Angela Merkel
• Barack Obama
• Maryland
• US foreign policy

Wreckage discovery dashes hopes that Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22, were able to board liferaft before vessel sank

Coastguards have stopped searching for two missing fisherman after their vessel and liferaft were discovered on the seabed.

A survey ship, Odyssey Explorer, discovered the wreck of the Purbeck Isle lying 10 miles off Portland, in Dorset, at a depth of 50 metres. It was reported missing at 5.30pm on Thursday.

The body of skipper David McFarlane, 35, was found on Friday but there has been sign of two more crewman – named locally as Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22.

Desperate efforts to find his two companions continued amid hopes that Prowse and Craig could have taken to the liferaft of the 36ft "potter" boat when they ran into difficulty. But the raft was discovered onboard the wreck at 11am on Saturday.

Portland coastguard's rescue co-ordination centre manager, Mark Rodaway said: "After a prolonged and extensive three-day search, sadly, the time has now passed when we could have hoped that the two remaining crew members from the Purbeck Isle would be found alive.

"Our final area of investigation was to search for the missing liferaft in the hope that they had been able to board it before the vessel sank, but sadly this new information means that this search will now be terminated," he said.

Mogul says News Corporation is 'firmly committed' to its papers including the Sun, Times and Sunday Times

Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that News Corp is considering spinning off its British newspapers to protect the rest of his media empire from criminal scandals.

The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times newspapers said executives at the company were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, published by its News International unit.

However, Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp, said in a statement: "News Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses, including News International, and any suggestion to the contrary is wholly inaccurate. Publishing is a core component of our future."

British police are examining claims that journalists at the News of the World – a paper shut by Murdoch last July – routinely hacked into the phones of hundreds of celebrities, politicians and victims of crime to generate front-page stories.

They are also investigating whether staff hacked into computers and made illegal payments to public officials, including the police, to get ahead in their reporting. Rebekah Brooks, a former senior executive of News International and editor of the News of the World, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The Daily Telegraph and the FT said News Corp was discussing putting the News International titles into a trust.

A News International spokeswoman denied the report, saying in a statement: "There are absolutely no plans to put News International into a separate trust."

Selling the newspapers to one or more wealthy individuals was another option under consideration, the FT said, quoting two people familiar with the company.

They noted no decisions had been made and a spin-off or a sale might not happen, the FT added.

The Daily Telegraph said a proposal to go into a joint venture with a media partner was also on the table, without citing its sources.

• Rupert Murdoch
• News Corporation
• News International
• The Sun
• The Times
• Sunday Times
• Phone hacking
• Newspapers & magazines
• National newspapers
• Newspapers
• Media business

Charges against suspected dissident republicans follow one of biggest security operations since IRA's 1994 ceasefire

Seven people have appeared in two Northern Ireland courts facing serious charges including directing acts of terrorism after one of the biggest security operations involving MI5 and police against republican paramilitaries since the IRA's 1994 ceasefire.

In one court case in Omagh it was claimed on Saturday that four alleged dissident republicans were linked to a terrorist training camp in County Tyrone.

A detective from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) told the court there was evidence connecting the four accused to a secret firing range near Formil Wood in Tyrone.

Among those in court was Sean Kelly, a former IRA prisoner who was freed early under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. He and a woman arrested in the MI5-PSNI operation were both charged with directing acts of terrorism.

The hearing on Saturdayopening of the non-jury trial also revealed the extent of the security forces' covert and prolonged monitoring of the suspects using electronic surveillance.

The PSNI detective told the court that conversations had been recorded between another of the accused, Sharon Rafferty, and Kelly from 2011 until April 2012, in which they allegedly discussed targeting police officers and senior prison officers, firearms training, recruiting, acquiring firearms and providing finance for an organisation.

He told the court that the pair were recorded discussing the penetrative power of a .22 rifle on a human being, "army business" and "active service units".

The two other accused in the Omagh court case are Terence Aidan Coney and Gavin Coney, both from Omagh. All four were alleged to be linked via DNA traces to bullet casings and other material found at the firing range in Tyrone.

The court heard that approximately 200 rounds were heard being fired at the site in Formil Wood on 30 March 2012, and bullet casings had been recovered from the area.

The PSNI officer giving evidence said Gavin Coney's house had been searched, revealing balaclavas, rubber gloves and four sets of waterproof clothing.

It also emerged that all four refused to speak during seven days of police interviews. They were remanded in custody although Rafferty, a 37-year-old single mother of one, applied for bail.

The four accused will appear again via videolink from prison in the Omagh court on Tuesday.

The case heard in Omagh is linked to a parallel court case in Co Antrim, where a cousin of the prominent Co Armagh republican Colin Duffy faces charges of directing acts of terrorism.

Flanked by armed police in riot gear inside Lisburn magistrates court, Paul John Duffy was charged with directing a terrorist organisation.

Appearing alongside the 47-year-old were his brother Damien, 42, and cousin Shane, 41. All three men were charged with collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause an explosion.

A PSNI detective told the court he could connect the defendants to the charges.

Colin Duffy, who was cleared of murdering two British soldiers outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim town three years ago, was in court along with 20 other supporters of the accused.

A defence solicitor said the Duffy family felt they were being "persecuted" by the PSNI. Under cross-examination by the Duffys' lawyer a PSNI detective declined to say which branch of the security services were involved with the police in targeting and raiding the homes of the Lurgan men. The solicitor also alleged in court that police officers involved in searching the Duffys' homes had inflicted degrading treatment on children living there by recording them on video cameras during the raids.

The detention and arraignment in two courts of seven republicans suspected of terrorism is the single biggest arrest operation against any republican faction since the 1994 IRA ceasefire.

The use of legislation on directing acts of terrorism is rarely deployed in Northern Ireland since the IRA and loyalist ceasefires, and was used this time, the PSNI said, only after advice from the Public Prosecution Service.

The last prominent paramilitary to be successfully prosecuted for directing a terrorist organisation was Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, the UDA leader on Belfast's Shankill Road.

• Northern Ireland
• UK security and terrorism
• Police
• Ireland