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ELON – The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) today announced the successful resolution of a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of John W. Paylor, a resident of Elon and a 55-year-old grandfather who was shot twice with a Taser by Elon police officers on June 18, 2006. The officers had surrounded the home of Mr. Paylor in order to serve him with a misdemeanor arrest warrant for using profanity on a public highway and for reckless driving. A videotape of the incident shows that Mr. Paylor was unarmed, in his underwear, and presented no threat to the officers. Nevertheless, an Elon police officer shot Mr. Paylor with a Taser, causing him to fall from his porch. Then, while Mr. Paylor was lying on the ground, unable to move from the shock of being tased and from the fall down his steps, the officer tased him a second time. Mr. Paylor has sustained permanent physical scarring from the incident. The ACLU-NCLF filed a lawsuit against the Elon Police Department and the individual Elon police officers involved on behalf of Mr. Paylor for excessive use of force in March 2009.    

A settlement agreement was finalized and executed this morning, and cooperating attorneys for the ACLU-NCLF have filed papers in court ending the lawsuit. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the Elon Police Department will implement measures designed to prevent excessive and unnecessary use of Tasers in the future. In particular, Elon police officers will undergo improved annual training on a new Taser policy and on Elon's more general use-of-force policy.  Elon's new Taser policy must be consistent with policies in place in other North Carolina localities that include protections the ACLU believes are important to safeguard against excessive use of Tasers. For example, these policies prevent the use of Tasers against individuals, such as Mr. Paylor, who are not actively resisting officers. These policies also prohibit the use of Tasers against individuals, such as Mr. Paylor, who could potentially receive a secondary injury resulting from falling off an elevated location, and they also limit the number of times an individual can be tased.  Other settlement terms include the following: (1) the officer who tased Mr. Paylor will undergo additional use-of-force and Taser training at the North Carolina Justice Academy; and (2) the Elon Police Chief will instruct all officers that anyone with a personal interest relating to the subject of a misdemeanor warrant shall refrain from serving such warrant in person, unless safety or exigent circumstances require that person to be present. Additionally, the Elon Police Department made a $50,000 settlement payment to Mr. Paylor for his physical, emotional and constitutional injuries.

"I am happy with this outcome," said John Paylor. "What these officers did to me was wrong, and my hope is that this settlement will prevent others from having to suffer what I suffered at the hands of Elon police."

The lawsuit named as defendants certain individual police officers of the Elon Police Department, including Officer Harold T. Dunn, and contended that the officer used his Taser to retaliate against Mr. Paylor for a verbal exchange that occurred between him and Mr. Paylor the day before. The lawsuit further alleged that the other officers who were present failed to intervene to stop Officer Dunn's unlawful actions and therefore likewise violated Mr. Paylor's constitutional right to be free from excessive force. Finally, the lawsuit contended that the Town of Elon bears responsibility for its failure to properly train its officers in the use of Tasers and for a pattern and practice of permitting its police officers to employ Tasers in an excessive and reckless manner. After the lawsuit was filed, other Elon residents came forward and described instances in which they too had been tased unnecessarily by the Elon Police Department.

"We are happy with the settlement, as this was a flagrant abuse of authority by members of the Elon Police Department," said attorney Mark J. Prak, Cooperating Attorney for the ACLU-NCLF, who represented Mr. Paylor. "John Paylor did nothing to deserve this treatment as the police videotape clearly demonstrates. This was a case of an officer abusing his position as a police officer to satisfy his own ego."

The ACLU-NCLF is a founding member of the North Carolina Taser Safety Project, a coalition of nonprofit organizations advocating for the proper use of Tasers by law enforcement and for better training for officers on the weapons' potential risks. These risks are especially pronounced when used on certain vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, the disabled, obviously pregnant women, and people in certain situations that place them at greater risk of harm, such as people standing atop a flight of stairs – as Mr. Paylor was here – who are at risk of injury from falling if shot with a Taser. The Taser Safety Project produced a report in 2008 which can be found online at http://acluofnc.org/files/NotThereYet.pdf.
 
"Tasers are becoming increasingly common in North Carolina and across the country," said Katy Parker, Legal Director for the ACLU-NCLF. "It is important that as officers employ these potentially deadly weapons, they do so only when necessary and that they exercise restraint. These weapons are not toys."

Mr. Paylor was represented by Mark J. Prak, Charles E. Coble and Charles F. Marshall of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, L.L.P. in Raleigh, North Carolina, and C. Scott Holmes of Brock, Payne & Meece, P.A. in Durham, North Carolina, as Cooperating Attorneys for the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, as well as by Katherine Lewis Parker, Legal Director of the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation. A copy of the settlement agreement is available upon request.

Labour peer was investigated over claims that she was paid expenses on a flat in Kent that had been unoccupied for years

Lady Uddin, the Labour peer accused of claiming more than £100,000 in expenses for a flat she did not live in, will not face any criminal charges, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed today.

The Labour peer was investigated over claims that she was paid expenses on a flat in Kent that had been unoccupied for years. Uddin has a second home in the East End of London, just four miles away from parliament.

The inquiry has been suspended with no charges made because there was "insufficient evidence" to bring a prosecution alleging that Uddin did not occupy the home in Kent.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said: "The allegation against Baroness Uddin was that she had claimed 'night subsistence' for overnight stays in London, after attendances in the House of Lords, to which she was not entitled. Although she had nominated a flat she owned in Maidstone, Kent, as her 'only or main residence', it was alleged that her 'only or main residence' was in fact a house in east London.

"Evidence in this case was obtained from neighbours of Baroness Uddin and from companies supplying utility services, such as water, gas and electricity to the flat in Maidstone. But after careful scrutiny of all of the available evidence we have decided that, in applying the definition of 'only or main residence' adopted by the House Committee, there is insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Baroness Uddin and we have today advised the Metropolitan police to take no further action."

The decision not to prosecute relied heavily on a ruling by the Lords clerk to allow peers to nominate their first and second homes, and that the definition of a primary home was one which the member visited at least once a month. On the evidence prosecutors had, they could not prove she had spent less time there.

Speaking at her home in Shadwell, east London, Lady Uddin said: "I am relieved this ordeal has finally come to an end and I only wish now to say thank you to everyone who supported me through a very difficult time and I now wish to return back to my professional life."

Uddin will now face an inquiry by the sub-committee on Lords' interests, Michael Pownall, the clerk of the Lords, said today.

He defended the rules around peers' second homes, insisting that they had to stay overnight in a property at least once a month in order to qualify for allowance payments and insisted this had been backed by the house committee.

He said: "The house committee's deliberations did not relate to potential breaches of the criminal law. I had agreed with the Metropolitan police service that I would suspend my internal investigations into the small number of members it was investigating until its investigations were complete.

"At the time I made my recommendation, the MPS was still investigating those members, and their circumstances were not a consideration in my recommendation."

• House of Lords
• MPs' expenses
• Labour

Polly Curtis
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Michael Tomasky calls on elected Democrats to make a stand on healthcare reform

Andy GallagherMichael TomaskyRebecca Lovell

Friday 12 March 2010

Amnesty International calls on the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to release all journalists who are being detained for carrying out their legitimate professional activities, amid continuing harassment of media workers in the region.

Amnesty International has called on the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to release all journalists who are being detained for carrying out their legitimate professional activities, amid continuing harassment of media workers in the region.

The call came after Hamas released British journalist Paul Martin, who was arrested in Gaza last month after being accused of "collaborating with Israel", an allegation he strongly denies.  Paul Martin was held for more than three weeks after travelling to Gaza to testify at the trial of a Palestinian accused of collaborating with Israel.  

Palestinian journalists working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been repeatedly targeted by both Palestinian and Israeli authorities, a number of journalists continue to be detained and harassment of media workers is a common occurrence.
 
"The welcome release of Paul Martin focuses attention on the continuing curbs on media freedom and harassment of journalists working in Gaza and the West Bank," said Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director Malcolm Smart.

"In particular, it is Palestinian journalists that are targeted. Not only are they subject to harassment by Israeli forces but in the West Bank, those considered sympathetic to Hamas are liable to be detained by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces, while in Gaza, those considered sympathetic to Fatah have been targeted by members of the Hamas security agencies.”

In the West Bank last month, Tariq Abu Zaid, a reporter for Al-Aqsa television, seen as affiliated to Hamas, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a PA military court, although he is a civilian. He was charged with “undermining the status of the Authority and resisting the public policy of the Palestinian Authority".  The prosecutor’s office also said Tariq Abu Zaid had been found guilty of incitement, "imparting information" and providing money to parties opposed to the PA. 

Tariq Abu Zaid has been subject to repeated detentions. In 2008 he was held by the Israeli authorities without charge or trial for 11 months. After being released by Israel, he was then arrested by PA military intelligence officials in 2009.

On 12 January 2010, the Palestinian High Court of Justice ordered Abu Zaid’s immediate release but the Palestinian security police did not comply with the court order.

Another journalist, Mustafa Sabri, formerly of al-Risala newspaper, was released earlier this week after been detained without charge or trial for more than two months by PA security forces. Mustafa Sabri, who is also an elected member of Qalqiliya council for the “Change and Reform” list, has been repeatedly arrested by the Palestinian security agencies in the West Bank despite decisions by the Palestinian High Court on each occasion for him to be released.

Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities recently detained Omar Bladi, owner and presenter of the Palestinian radio station Kul al-Nas.  Omar Bladi’s detention was set by an Israeli military court at 50 days in prison and he was fined 1,500 shekels (US$400), although he has not been charged with a recognizable criminal offence.

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed its concerns about freedom of expression for journalists working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  Both the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas de facto administration in Gaza have curtailed media freedom and taken action against media and journalists who criticized them.  Israeli forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories frequently harass and use excessive force against Palestinian journalists. 

British reporter Paul Martin was released but several Palestinian journalists are still held

More than half a million travellers to be hit by successive weekend walkouts, with the first beginning on 27 March

More than half a million British Airways passengers face strike disruption this month after the Unite trade union announced walkouts over two consecutive weekends, prompting BA to withdraw a last-ditch peace offer.

Unite has called a series of strikes by up to 12,000 flight attendants, beginning with a three-day walkout on 20 March and then a four-day stoppage from 27 March.

Brief hopes of a reprieve for the 525,000 passengers affected by the strike action were extinguished this afternoon when the BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, withdrew a compromise offer after hearing that Unite had set dates for the first cabin crew strike in 13 years.

BA said the offer, which included a partial repeal of staffing cuts, was conditional on Unite not setting strike dates.

Walsh told the BBC that the two sides were "not close at all" to reaching an agreement and described Unite's counter-offer of a 2.6% pay cut for staff as "morally wrong". He said passengers already booked on to flights from 19 March to 31 March could apply for a refund or reschedule their journeys.

A BA spokesperson said: "Our offer to Unite was conditional on the union not naming strike dates. Because strike dates have been announced, Unite has invalidated the offer. It is no longer on the table."

BA's move means strikes are certain to go ahead next Friday unless the tentative lines of communication between both sides, described as "slender" by one source close to the talks, yield a new compromise.

This morning Unite said it would put the BA proposal out to a consultative ballot with the result due next Wednesday. However, the simultaneous announcement of strike dates angered BA, which said it had offered Unite an extension to its strike mandate.

Speaking before BA's move, Len McCluskey, Unite's chief negotiator and assistant general secretary, said he was willing to keep talking. "There are no negotiations [planned] but of course we remain open to meeting with BA anytime, anywhere."

The two sides are haggling over a £62.5m target for cost savings in the annual cabin crew budget, which BA has achieved by unilaterally cutting staffing levels on flights by at least one person. This followed a voluntary redundancy programme that saw 1,100 flight attendants leave the company. Unite wants the majority of those positions reinstated and has offered a 2.6% pay cut this year to help fund the move.

The industrial action has been timed to cause maximum disruption to BA, with the airline facing a struggle to reinstate a normal timetable between strikes.

BA normally carries about 75,000 passengers a day on 650 services. Walsh has said he hopes to operate a substantial proportion of the airline's Heathrow airport long-haul operations and a good number of short-haul flights during the strikes.

The airline has pledged to break the strike with 1,000 volunteer flight attendants drawn from the ranks of its non-cabin-crew workforce, and is preparing to hire 23 aeroplanes complete with their own trained crew.

BA has said it will operate its entire schedule from London City airport during the industrial action and has claimed more than two-thirds of its Gatwick-based crews will work normally.

Informal channels of communication are still open between BA and Unite via the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber.

According to BA's withdrawn offer, the airline was willing partially to repeal the staffing cuts at the heart of the dispute and would consider putting around 184 cabin crew positions back on its 239-plane fleet. However, Unite wants 700 positions returned to BA aircraft and has proposed about £60m worth of cost savings to fund the proposal. BA says the figures are significantly short of its cost-cutting target.

Unite is also threatening to hold a consultative ballot over proposed changes to baggage handlers' contracts. If union members vote against BA's proposals an industrial action ballot will be held, although that move is several weeks away.

Unite argues it has been bypassed by BA despite holding talks about the baggage handler contracts. Steve Turner, the Unite national officer for civil aviation, said: "It is hugely concerning that BA feel that management by imposition is their preferred approach. Very soon no worker at the airline will feel that either their job or their terms and conditions are safe. This instability cannot be healthy for the airline."

A BA spokesman said: "We are consulting with our ground-handling staff at Heathrow about potential changes to improve the way in which we work. Any talk of a ballot for industrial action is speculative and premature."

• British Airways
• Airline industry
• Air transport
• Transport
• Trade unions

Dan Milmo
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Source: AFP - WASHINGTON — Climate change is pushing some bird species "towards extinction," US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned Thursday as a new report on the threats facing North American birds was released.

Source: USA Today - Eight Nobel-prize winning economists and scientists have joined more than 2,000 others in signing a letter today that urges the Senate to take swift action on climate change.

Source: New York Times - Enhanced oil recovery -- a technique that stimulates aging wells -- combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS) could slash U.S. petroleum imports if there is a strong price on carbon, according to a report commissioned by an environmental group and released yesterday.

Source: Reuters - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated and more people doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll.

Source: Channel News Asia - SINGAPORE: Singapore's National Climate Change Secretariat is to be strengthened. It will now come under the Prime Minister's Office and be headed by a Permanent Secretary, said Senior Minister S Jayakumar.

Source: Baltimore Sun - Johns Hopkins University says it plans to cut the school's carbon dioxide emissions in half over the next 15 years. University officials released the plan Thursday saying they will invest more than $73 million in conservation and efficiency measures. The plan also calls for creation of an Environment, Sustainability and Health Institute.

Source: PhysOrg.com - The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" along the world's coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than just local waters.

Source: Environmental Finance - London, 11 March: A climate fund proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 has won support from climate change economics guru Nicholas Stern.

Source: Reuters - SAN FRANCISCO, March 11 (Reuters) - As U.S. prospects for a national climate change bill fade, five U.S. states and Canadian provinces are on track to start a cap-and-trade market for carbon dioxide in 2012, say officials who see fading federal momentum boosting regional efforts.

Source: ISRIA - In a lecture at the Freie University of Berlin, President Mohamed Nasheed has said the climate deniers are obstructing the momentum on tackling climate change, and the global leadership on climate change is ebbing away.

Anna Arrowsmith's previous profession is not my cup of tea, says Lib Dem leader, hailing her as no cardboard cut-out Westminster politician

A former porn director who has been selected as a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats would be a passionate campaigner for her local area, Nick Clegg insisted today.

Clegg said Anna Arrowsmith's previous profession was "not exactly my cup of tea", and she was certainly no "cardboard cut-out Westminster politician".

But he said it was important that "people like her" who care about their local areas put themselves forward.

Clegg told GMTV he had "just read the reports" about Arrowsmith, who is managing director of adult entertainment company Easy on the Eye Productions and will stand for election in Gravesham, Kent.

Clegg was speaking ahead of the Lib Dems' weekend spring conference, which begins in Birmingham tonight as the party seeks to rally activists ahead of the general election.

The party unveiled its election slogan, "Change that works for you. Building a fairer Britain", as Clegg promised there would be "no backroom deals" with other parties in preparation for the possibility of hung parliament.

The past career of Arrowsmith, a prospective parliamentary who works under the pseudonym Anna Span, came under the spotlight today as Clegg was asked to give his views on her career, which has seen her direct more than 250 raunchy scenes, as well as write a book to guide couples in how to make homemade porn.

Clegg told GMTV: "It's not exactly my cup of tea what she's been doing before she has put herself forward in parliament but I also think it's really important that people like her who really care a lot about her local area are encouraged to come into politics. You can't accuse her of being a cardboard cut-out Westminster politician."

Asked if he had an issue with somebody involved in the pornography industry representing his party, he said: "I don't know exactly what she's been doing in the past. She's not done anything illegal and she cares passionately about her area. She has been chosen to be the candidate for that area. Let's see. I think all the indications are that she's going to be a really, really strong voice for that local area."

Yesterday, the 38-year-old, who is married and lives with her husband Tim and their dogs in Groombridge, near Tunbridge Wells, insisted she was ready to win the seat at the general election, which is currently held by Adam Holloway for the Conservatives.

Arrowsmith faces a tough fight in a constituency, where the Lib Dems trailed in third place on just 10.7% of the vote in 2005 and where political watchers expect a tough two-way fight in a seat where Labour had just 654 fewer votes than the Conservatives at the last poll.

Arrowsmith, who has an MA in philosophy, said she was spurred into standing for election by the MPs' expenses scandal and a belief that women are under-represented in parliament.

She said: "If people don't know what I do for a living then they would never know. The local party and the local people who I have so far met have seen that I'm very driven."

She added: "When people get to see me, they will realise that I'm used to project managing and that I'm driven to achieve change rather than just promising it."

Named best director at the 2008 and 2009 UK Adult Film and Television Awards, she describes herself as a keen campaigner for women's rights and anti-censorship issues and says she has spent 12 years trying to make the adult industry more female-friendly.

Her first commercially-released programme was on Television X, titled Eat Me/Keep Me, which led to further X-rated shows and her becoming chair of the Adult Industry Trade Association.

Clegg has pledged to double the number of Lib Dem MPs within two general elections. The party currently has 63 MPs.

Clegg, who will address Lib Dems at the conference rally this evening and make a keynote speech on Sunday, said today there would be "no backroom deals" with the other political parties ahead of the general election.

With recent polls suggesting the country is heading for a hung parliament at the election, expected to take place on 6 May, Clegg repeated the four tests he would set for Labour and the Conservatives if they were to seek his party's support.

He said whichever party had the clearer mandate from the voters would have the "moral right" to govern, "either on its own or with others".

"There are no backroom deals between the political parties," he said.

"If a party has got more support and has got a clearer mandate from the British people than any other party, even if they don't have an absolute majority, then I think we live in a democracy, that party has got the moral right to seek to govern, either on its own or with others.

"I've been much clearer than Gordon Brown or David Cameron in saying that, as far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned, in terms of us exercising our influence we will focus on the really big things that matter to us."

The four big issues for the Lib Dems are fairer taxes, so people do not pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn; Better schools, with more one-to-one tuition and smaller class sizes; making sure that our economy is no longer "held hostage" by the banks; and clean, fair politics in the wake of the expenses scandal, including giving people the right to sack their MPs if they have been shown to be corrupt.

The Lib Dem leader said his party was delivering a "copper-bottomed guarantee" that whatever happens in the election, "the one thing you can predict is that the Liberal Democrats will deliver those four steps to a fairer Britain".

• Liberal Democrats
• General election 2010
• Pornography
• Nick Clegg
• Conferences

Hélène Mulholland
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A selection of the best images from around the world

Murcia residents start Facebook campaign to attract global coffee chain – possibly for the muffins, the wifi or the mugs!

Murcia is one of the fastest growing cities in Spain, the proud capital of the country's south-eastern market garden region. But the coffee guzzling citizens of Murcia say it still lacks the one thing that would prove they have made it onto the global map of cities that count: the green, white and black sign of a local Starbucks.

Now the city's cappuccino and mocha starved citizens have mounted a Facebook campaign to join the list of 16,000 places on the planet with a Starbucks.

"They have got it everywhere but here," complains Alicia Delgado, a recent contributor to the Starbucks campaign wall. "It is about time we had one too."

Enrique Marhuenda agrees: "The day we have a Starbucks, Murcia will be an important city."

Although Spaniards have long had a variety of good quality coffee on hand at almost every street corner cafe, Starbucks has already established 76 outlets in Spain and continues to expand there while it shrinks elsewhere in the world.

But do the people of Murcia, who can get Spanish carajillos, cortados, cafes solo and cafes con leche at the dozens of cafes doted around each neighbourhood, really know what they would be getting?

Some who have had the Starbucks experience insist they would kill for a muffin and a frappuccino. Others admit that the coffee is often better (not to say cheaper) elsewhere – but say that is not why they want their Starbucks. "The coffee is not really up to much," admits Maria Esther Ser. "But the muffins, the seats, the powdered chocolate and the cinammon are good – and the iced coffees too."

The Murcia fans are also organising an email campaign, hoping the firm will pay attention to the severity of their Starbucks starvation when bombarded by mails. The owners of the Starbucks brand in Spain, Grupo VIPS, were not available for comment.

Some Facebook users are not convinced that their fellow campaigners are only interested in the wifi, sofas and cherry mocha. "Admit it, what you really want is to steal those mugs," says Luis Vallejo.

Others believe Starbucks will destroy local cafe culture. "If I get back to Murcia this summer and find a Starbucks I will turn my back on my birthplace," said Marcos Campillo Supongo.

"In the US the Starbucks coffee is awful and priced like gold. A lot of people only drink it because 'it's Starbucks and it makes me feel cool.'"

Meanwhile, teachers on the Murcia university marketing master's course have already set their pupils the task of putting together a marketing plan for a local Starbucks.

For the moment, those who go to the Starbucks store locator screen and enter "Murcia" will continue getting the following message: "There are no stores matching your search parameters. Please try a different search."

The nearest one the Guardian could find was 140 miles away in Valencia.

• Spain
• Starbucks
• Coffee
• Social networking
• Facebook
• Food & drink
• Food & drink industry

Giles Tremlett
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Rollers left cheesed off as event stopped due to overcrowding, but organisers are trying to find a solution

It has long been regarded as one of the most curious – and hazardous – of English springtime pastimes. Competitors chase a large round of cheese down a steep hill in Gloucestershire, risking ridicule and broken limbs.

But it emerged today that the annual cheese-rolling event at Cooper's Hill above Brockworth has become the latest victim of health and safety concerns.

This year's event has been cancelled, not because organisers fear that those taking part will hurt themselves, but because the competition has become too popular and is attracting unmanageable crowds.

The organisers said: "The attendance at the event has far outgrown the location where it has traditionally been held for several hundred years: last year, more than 15,000 people tried to attend, which is more than three times the capacity of the site."

It goes on to reassure disappointed competitors that the committee is working with local authorities and the police to try to find better ways of controlling the crowds, stop the roads from getting clogged up and make sure that ambulances can get through when, almost inevitably, a competitor is injured.

The announcement, however, has caused dismay among the adventurous types that like to take part in the May event.

Robin Hammond, of the Really Exciting Adventure Club, said: "I do understand the issues about the crowd, but wish that the local authorities had worked harder to ensure that we don't lose another part of our English culture to issues of crowd health and safety.

"Admittedly, last year had a record turnout to the event, which only goes to show how great this event is, with it being watched and talked about worldwide. I am sure that the local area benefits from the custom the crowds bring, so surely the local authorities have had time enough to consider the health and safety of this event."

The event has become a tourist attraction. Sally Baker wrote on the organisers' website that she was travelling from Australia to the UK in the spring and "top of my itinerary" had been to "attend the cheese rolling".

Others wrote that they would turn up even if there was no official event. "I say we do it anyway. They can't stop us," wrote Dan Stone. "I will bring the cheese," said Gemma Bailey.

James D wrote: "I can't believe that such an important sport to Gloucestershire has been abandoned due to health and safety. Hopefully they will roll a single cheese in memory of the great tradition, which has now become lost to continued absurd heath and safety issues. RIP Coopers Hill."

Mike Smith added: "Dreadfully disappointed with the news. As a cheese-roller of many years, I look forward to the chance to really injure myself each year. I have no idea how I'll hurt myself this year now."

• Heritage
• Gloucestershire
• Food & drink

Steven Morris
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Other hot tickets for the 17th South By Southwest film festival include MacGruber, Get Low and Cyrus

Rarely has an opening night movie sounded more like a mission statement. The South By Southwest film festival kicks off in Austin tonight with the world premiere of Kick-Ass, the tale of a teenage superhero, an enigmatic vigilante and his pint-sized killer daughter. Based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, Kick-Ass is directed by Matthew Vaughn (also responsible for Layercake) and stars Aaron Johnson (last seen in Nowhere Boy), Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz.

Organisers are doubtless hoping that the film's boisterous antics will set the tone for the event as a whole. Ahead of the curtain-raiser, the mood was cautiously optimistic with registrations – an early guide to overall attendance – up a reported 25% on 2009. This year's festival showcases 134 features, including 64 world premieres. There are also 125 shorts on offer.

Potential hot tickets include the Saturday Night Live-inspired action comedy MacGruber and American: The Bill Hicks Story, a documentary about the late US comic. Robert Duvall and Bill Murray star in the funeral comedy Get Low, while the Duplass brothers return with the mumblecore outing Cyrus. Quentin Tarantino, Ed Norton, James Franco and Robert Rodriguez are among the guests expected to attend.

The 17th edition of the South By Southwest film festival runs 12-20 March.

• Festivals
• Nicolas Cage
• Action and adventure

Xan Brooks
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