· David Beckham ruptures achilles tendon
· England midfielder's career in doubt

David Beckham's hopes of extending his England career into a fourth World Cup finals are in tatters after the veteran midfielder ruptured an achilles tendon in Milan's 1-0 Serie A victory over Chievo last night, an injury that will rule him out for the season and could curtail his illustrious 18-year career.

The 34-year-old pulled up in the centre circle under no pressure from an opposing player with two minutes of the match remaining in San Siro and, after hopping from the pitch in obvious pain on his healthy right leg, collapsed on the sidelines. He was treated for about five minutes on the touchline before eventually being carried from the arena face down on a stretcher in tears, mouthing, "It's broken, it's broken" to those on the home bench while members of the Rossoneri's backroom staff attempted to comfort him.

Milan later confirmed that Beckham had snapped the tendon in his left leg, with early indications suggesting his rehabilitation could stretch to five or six months. He is due to fly to Finland today where the established specialist in this field, Dr Sakari Orava, is to undertake what is expected to be a two-hour operation to repair the tendon with the reality that the midfielder now faces a fight to prolong his career not lost on the player, Milan or his parent club, Los Angeles Galaxy. The American club will await news from Milan's medical staff before commenting.

A leading doctor, the consultant sports physician Dr Tom Crisp, described the prospects of Beckham featuring in England's first Group C game with the United States in Rustenburg on June 12 as "non-existent". He said: "It's remotely possible he may be running in three months, the chances of him being fit to play for England are non-existent."

The England coach, Fabio Capello, and his general manager, Franco Baldini, who are currently in Zurich at Uefa's fixtures meeting for the Euro 2012 qualification campaign, spoke to Beckham last night to offer their support and commiserations with the national management team understood to have accepted there is little chance of the player, capped 115 times by his country, taking part in South Africa. "He's in a lot of pain," said his Milan team-mate, Clarence Seedorf. "This is a really bad injury."

"We will wait for tests but it looks very serious," said the Milan manager, Leonardo, after the victory over Chievo. "The injury makes us feel terrible. He is an extraordinary guy and his performance in this game proved that yet again. I cannot enjoy this evening considering what has happened to David. But when the tendon goes you feel it straight away and he understood immediately that he had torn it and what that meant."

Beckham – the only man to score for England in three World Cup tournaments – departed the stadium in San Siro on crutches with the reality dawning that, after a spectacular international career that began back in 1996, the likelihood is that he has now played his last game for his country. His last cap came as a substitute in the 3-0 qualifying victory over Belarus at Wembley, although he has been a regular on the bench for Capello throughout the Italian's spell as head coach.

Indeed the national manager had suggested in the wake of the friendly victory over Egypt earlier this month that the former captain still had a role to play in his squad at the finals despite the emergence of Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott andShaun Wright-Phillips on the right of midfield, with the Italian suggesting that Beckham could "play in the middle" if required. Given Beckham's age and the seriousness of the injury, however, it remains to be seen whether Beckham is able to prolong his career even in Major League Soccer.

His absence in South Africa represents another blow for Capello, whose squad is already showing the strains of an exhausting campaign. Ashley Cole, England's first-choice left-back, returned from the south of France last Friday where he had been undergoing treatment on the ankle fractured during Chelsea's 2-1 defeat at Everton last month. The Premier League club are optimistic over his progress and expect him to return to the first team before the end of the season, with Tottenham Hotspur similarly hopefulLennon – who has not played since December and is not yet close to a return – will have recovered from a groin problem in good time to prove his form and fitness before the World Cup.

Yet Capello will be concerned over possible rustiness of those key players and, now robbed of Beckham's calming influence and vast experience, will be anxious the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Glen Johnson – who have been suffering from back and knee injuries respectively – do not suffer relapses over the final three months of the campaign.

• David Beckham
• England
• Milan

Dominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Suggestion comes as the EU's external border agency, Frontex, prepares to assume extra powers

Deportation flights should carry human rights monitors to check on the safety of failed asylum seekers who have been forcibly removed, a senior EU commissioner has recommended.

The suggestion comes as the EU's external border agency, Frontex, prepares to assume extra powers to charter aircraft, buy equipment and explore satellite technology to survey the union's frontiers.

Research by the Warsaw-based agency on the use of drones – unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – to patrol frontiers is being closely followed in Britain, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has confirmed. Although the UK is not in the Schengen agreement, which removed most EU internal borders, it is closely involved with Frontex. The Home Office minister Meg Hillier was present when the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting supported reinforcing the agency's remit.

The research projects and extra capabilities Frontex is taking on include:

· Hiring aircraft to pick up failed asylum-seekers from EU states in order to improve coordination of deportation flights to Africa, Asia and South America.

· Harmonising the workings of Automated Border Control (ABC) gates that check travellers' biometric passports, to encourage information sharing between intelligence databases. ABC gates are in use at several UK airports.

· Developing training programmes to "lay the foundation of a culture of border guards" that respects human rights.

· Testing surveillance systems such as UAVs, remote sensing equipment and satellites to forestall illegal immigration.

Frontex, established in 2005, has been active in coordinating naval patrols in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas to intercept boatloads of migrants attempting to enter the EU. Its annual budget is €80m and it has a staff of around 230.

The latest development will see its role enlarged. Frontex liaison officers could be stationed in states such as Turkey that are commonly used by migrants as hopping-off points to enter Europe.

The suggestion that observers be put on board deportation flights is a response to claims by failed asylum seekers that they have been hit or abused by guards.

Unveiling plans to strengthen Frontex, Cecilia Malmström, the Swedish EU commissioner for home affairs, said: "Safeguards [should be] put in place to make sure that [Frontex] return operations are carried out in full respect of fundamental rights. For example, an independent monitor shall be present during such operations and report ... on compliance with EU law."

Some EU states, though not the UK, already allow Red Cross observers to accompany asylum seekers being forcibly returned overseas.

The proposals have to be approved by the European parliament.

The UKBA said it welcomed a greater role for Frontex in coordinating the efforts of EU member states to mount effective returns for failed asylum seekers. Britain has, "on occasion" allowed representatives of the Independent Monitoring Board on board deportation flights as observers. "This is a matter we will keep under review," it added.

In June, Frontext will host a conference and technical demonstration of potential uses of UAV drones for border surveillance. Edgar Beugels, the Dutch head of research and development at Frontex, told the Guardian he expected UK firms and agencies to attend the event, which will be held in Spain. "The UK is very much interested in UAVs," he said.

For the past three years, Frontex has helped coordinate deportation flights of failed asylum seekers. Britain has participated in flights that have removed failed asylum seekers to Nigeria, Pakistan, Kosovo and Georgia.

In its enhanced role, Frontex will be responsible for hiring aircraft for the purpose of joint return operations.

On drones, a UKBA spokesman said: "[We have] followed the development of UAVs for the purpose of border surveillance ... The UK Border Agency has no current plans to use drones but we are always open to examination of the potential of innovative technology and do not rule out the use of drones at some time in the future."

A spokesman for the Stop Deportation campaign welcomed deployment of human rights monitors on flights but added: "Frontex's greater role may push accountability to another level away from national governments. It may make it more difficult to challenge deportations."

• European Union
• Immigration and asylum

Owen Bowcottguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

posted by Neil Not a proper blog -- just a wave. The NZ arts festival was great, everyone was so nice (I saw Guillermo Del Toro and I was shown around the amazingness of WETA and they gave me a Dalek -- it's this one -- and I spent time with Audrey Niffenegger and with Margo Lanagan and met Margo's partner Stephen and did a talk with Margo during a tornado and read a new poem at the Town Hall and signed and signed and signed and signed) and now I'm taking a day off now with Amanda: Hera is looking after us. Tomorrow I head off to Manila for two days, while she plays gigs in Christchurch and Auckland and flies to Melbourne to do a TV thing. Then we meet on Friday at midnight in Poland, spend a couple of days together there while she plays a festival in Wroclaw and I sign in Warsaw, and then she flies to the US to begin Evelyn Evelyn rehearsals and I fly to Moscow. (Still waiting on the details of the Moscow signings or events. If you know them, send them in to the FAQ line.)

Right now getting together with Amanda feels less like spending time together and more like two planes matching speed for a little while. But today is a real day off. She's asleep and I'm meant to be typing introductions, and when she wakes up I'll make her some food and we'll walk on the beach.

(When she's finished with the European leg of the Evelyn Evelyn tour, in mid-May, she has about a week off. I'll be in the UK writing. If anyone has any suggestions for places we could go to take a week together, anywhere in Europe (or even North Africa I suppose) that would be quiet and warm, where she could do some yoga, I would love to hear them. Neither of us have ever really done holidays before, and we're very aware that we don't even know where to start looking.)

Right. Back to introductions.

Also, do not ever ask me to write introductions. This morning's email brought three You Said You Would Maybe Introduce This A Long Time Ago emails. The last four things I wrote were introductions. The next four things I will write will be introductions. Whatever happened to making things up? Labels:  how do people have holidays anyway?, if you ask me to write an introduction for you I will be forced reluctantly to hate you for ever, amanda palmer, new zealand

Tomorrow, the United Nations will be announcing a special Social Media Envoy group that will use the power of social media over the next year to raise awareness for malaria control in African countries.

The special envoy is made up of well-known figures from both the social web and broadcast media, including Mashable’s own Pete Cashmore. Those that have joined the group have pledged to take one “social” action — such as a tweet or a Facebook post — every month for the next year starting from World Malaria Day on April 25, which last year saw Malaria No More also use Twitter for the cause.

The hope is that the tweets, posts and other social actions will inspire and motivate social media audiences in support of malaria control. The UN’s goal is to provide all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010, working towards the aim of near-zero deaths from malaria by 2015.

We’re very happy to see the UN enlist the power of social media in the fight against Malaria. The disease kills one million people each year with over 90% of the world’s malaria deaths occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. Universal bed net coverage is the UN’s chosen prevention tool to fight the diseases; it has delivered over 192 million insecticidal mosquito nets since 2007, covering nearly 400 million people.

However, there is more money to be raised and more work to be done. We hope that the social media envoy will go even farther than their commitment to one social action per month, because Malaria is a battle where every little bit helps.

The 2010 Social Media Envoys

* Derrick Ashong, Musician, Social Activist & Oprah Radio host
* Veronica Belmont, Host of “Tekzilla” and “Qore” and Internet Personality
* Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey
* Sarah Brown, of MillionMums.org and wife of Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister
* Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of “Mashable
* Anderson Cooper, CNN Anchor of “Anderson Cooper 360″
* Dennis Crowley, Co-founder of Foursquare
* Anil Dash, Director of Expert Labs and Partner at Activate
* Justine Ezarik, “iJustine”, Internet Personality
* Jack Gray, CNN Producer/Writer for “Anderson Cooper 360″
* Arianna Huffington, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post; www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
* Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder of Alltop.com
* Larry King, CNN Host of “Larry King Live”
* Loic Le Meur, Founder and CEO of Seesmic
* Alyssa Milano, Actress
* Dave Morin, Former Facebook executive- responsible for Facebook Connect and Platform
* Jeff Pulver, Founder of 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) and Co-founder of VoIP (Vonage)
* Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg
* Chris Sacca, Founder of Lowercase Capital
* Ryan Seacrest, Founder, Ryan Seacrest Productions
* Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter
* Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco
* Jon Wheatley, Co-founder of DailyBooth.com
* Randi Zuckerberg, Director of Marketing, Facebook

You can show your support for the UN’s cause by following these “Social Media Envoys” and find out more about the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria at its dedicated site.

Tags: facebook, malaria, social good, social media, social news, twitter, United Nations, world malaria day

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The Chinese embassy in Cameroon said earlier that a fishing boat was hijacked off the coast of Cameroon. Seven Chinese fishermen were kidnapped in the incident, which happened on Friday, and a group called the "Africa Marine Commando" claimed responsibility, according to an embassy official.

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Last time I was in India I wrote about the amazing business model innovation that had allowed telecom operators in India to make money on a paltry $6 a month per average user. That compares to a desired average monthly payment of $50 or more in the U.S.

The results have been phenomenal—550 million people in India have phones, and it has transformed the poorer service economy by giving them an affordable way to be reached and arrange jobs. Just last month, nearly 20 million new mobile accounts were opened. That’s more than double the people than have high speed Internet in the entire country. Even in slums where people live on less than $2 a day, everyone has a phone. If “Slumdog Millionaire” was more accurate, Jamal wouldn’t have had to go on TV to find Latika. He could have just called her, or worst case, called a few friends until he found her number.

It’s unequivocally India’s most successful infrastructure achievement —despite some mounting concerns about the effects of all those towers dotting nearly any urban rooftop that can hold one. And a host of exciting applications are being built on top of this invisible thread that connects a disparate country with a vast terrain and even bigger gulfs in language, literacy, income, religion, language and living standards

But amazingly, when Rajiv Mehrotra (pictured below) looked at the existing telecom penetration in India, he saw failure. What about the people who can’t afford $6 a month or live too far to get service? Don’t they deserve to be connected as well? The result was VNL, a company that’s already gotten a good deal of press and acclaim for its dead-cheap, low-maintenance, Ikea-like easy-to-assemble, solar-powered base stations that extend existing mobile footprints into rural villages for a fraction of the price, allowing the remotest, poorest villages to have mobile phones in every household at drop-dead low prices. “We are the bottom of the bottom,” boasts Mehrotra, practically daring competitors to try to play his low-cost, super-durability game.

The World Economic Forum named it one of 26 Technology Pioneers, and just last month VNL won the Mobile World Congress’s Green Mobile Award. Time called it a “Tech Pioneer that Will Change your Life” and Fast Company named it one of the world’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in the world.

I met with Mehrotra at the company’s headquarters in Gurgoan during my November trip to India. This time I wanted to see its technology live in villages and hear first hand what the impact had been. I traveled to a village that had now had phones for about seven months to see how the technology had changed their lives. Of the 500 families spread across this area, almost all of them had a phone—and most for the first time.

The majority of the people I spoke with said the first calls they made were to family members, and that the biggest impact was the ability to stay in touch with family, to know when there was an emergency and be able to respond quickly.

But there have been business effects too. One man (pictured here) has a business operating several trucks traveling between this village and Delhi and before he’d have to ride on a bike between them to coordinate them. Now he can sit at home and just call the drivers. He installed one of VNL’s small base stations on his roof, and he said it had increased his standing among his peers—he is frequently the one called on to settle disputes now. And now they can just call him. Similarly wives will call husbands out in the fields when its time to come in and eat, rather than trudging out to get them, allowing them to focus on kids and the housework.

Another woman (pictured to the below) I spoke with was a widow with six kids and 21 grandchildren. (So many, she actually had to ask someone else how many she had.) As grandkids clambered in and out of her lap, she explained that she gets pension checks from the government, but the delivery used to be spotty. Before her phone she had no recourse but to travel to Delhi to inquire about it. Not exactly something she relishes, having lived her whole life in this village and only been to the big city twice. Now she can call the office and gives them an earful. Not surprisingly, the checks have started to come more regularly.

Another man (pictured to the right) told me he felt more connected to the rest of India as a result of having a phone. This village is surrounded by mountains, and he said that he felt “imprisoned” and cut off, despite being just a few hours drive from Delhi. Now he has a renewed interest in politics and what’s happening in other villages and the country at large. This man had only had his phone for six months, but he expected it would change his life in ways he couldn’t articulate or imagine. “Since the day I got this, my life has already changed,” he said through an interpreter.

Indeed, Mehrotra says it’s already having a ripple affect on the politics of Rajisthan—the state between Pakistan and India where VNL did its first installations. Politicians come through and make promises and villagers demand their cell phone numbers and call to check up on whether those promises are kept. “They have to be accountable,” Mehrotra says. “They can’t wriggle out.”

These phones are not just a nice-to-have, they’ve quickly become a must have for these villages, deeply tied to the way they make money, participate in their government and retain closely important family relationships. And these ripple effects are only now beginning. Think of what the impact will be when there are better programs for marketing crops, saving money and even learning and game playing rolled out on these very basic phones. Life will always be different in a village or a city, but India can at least gain some basic common denominators between the two.

Mehrotra is a big believer in the Ghandian mantra: Change the villages and you change India. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has already built businesses rolling out satellite TV and landlines to rural areas, but he thinks this company will have a bigger impact than anything else he’s done and is the one with the real potential to go global. It bears noting that he’s invested all of his own money in the project—and it’s taken far more than he expected.

This is not a cheap venture—Mehrotra has invested more than $100 million in the last five years and is still investing more. But I’m not sure it could be built any other way. I don’t think there’s the venture capital appetite or risk profile in India to fund something like this and most of the mobile equipment companies Mehrotra talked to back when he started thinking about this insisted it couldn’t be done. Once he built it he’d take equipment and operator executives out to see it and they still couldn’t believe it. They were making calls to test the quality from different areas of the village trying to find pockets without a signal. “They were climbing on the antenna and shaking it like monkeys trying to break it and they couldn’t,” Mehrotra says.

From a business point of view, the operators love VNL because it cheaply expands their existing footprint. The equipment operators aren’t so sure. In theory, VNL isn’t competing with them because they’re not going into the cities. Now that VNL has proved this model works, could a larger established vendor steal the market? The best chance of that would likely come from a Chinese powerhouse like Huawei. That said, any vendor that builds such a low cost solution that’s too good will risk eroding his higher priced systems designed for urban areas. “They’ll say ‘Give it to me in the city too.’ ” Mehrotra says.

All these awards aside, this is the year for VNL to prove it’s really a viable business. And Mehrotra says there are some surprises in store. In terms of market, VNL is already rolling the technology out in other countries and in terms of product they’re not done with just simple mobile access. The countries are likely in Africa and perhaps Latin America, and my guess is the new functionality will entail turning on some kind of Internet access through the existing base stations. Expect much more on this newly minted international do-gooding darling in 2010.

Lured by the vast natural resources of the Black Continent, Washington decided to set up AfriCom. But the GI deployment to Africa does not coincide with any needs in particular: everything is up for grabs. Seizing a windfall opportunity, they first went into Somalia militarily in the early 1990's. Their simple presence being enough to fuel popular uprisings, they can extend their counter-insurgency operations at will. The U.S. war is not only endless in time; it is also boundless in terms of the territorial space it besieges.