Young sailor starts world voyage

Michael Perham, 16, setting out from Portsmouth to sail around the world

A teenage student attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world has admitted he is "a little crazy" to do it at his age.

Michael Perham, 16, from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire is the youngest person to have sailed across the Atlantic alone.

He set out on his latest voyage from Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, on his Open 50 Racing Yacht on Saturday morning.

He will be alone at sea for over four months and his only contact with family will be through satellite link-ups.

Michael said: "I'm a little bit nervous but otherwise really, really excited.

"It's just the feeling of being completely in control, relaxed and at one with nature. It's just fantastic. But you don't look forward to the fact you are alone for about four months."

A look around Mike Perham's boat

Psychologists have helped prepare him mentally for the challenges ahead and he said his experience crossing the Atlantic would also stand him in good stead.

His mother, Heather, said the family was right behind him: "We're all really excited, we're so proud of what he's going to be doing.

"He's just such an inspiration for other young people - for anyone really - we're just amazed we've got to this point."

His family have also put a pile of gifts and decorations on board his yacht for Christmas.

By then he is expected to be in the South Atlantic, near the Cape of Good Hope off the coast of South Africa.

His parents, Heather, 51, and Peter, 49, and 18-year-old sister Fiona all support him.

Mr Perham, a chartered quantity surveyor and experienced sailor, introduced his son to sailing at the age of seven.

"As a parent there is always anxiety, even he has anxiety.

"But whether he is 16, 26 or 36, as a parent you are always concerned for your children," said Mr Perham.

I couldn't have done what he is doing at his age Peter Perham, Michael's father Meet Michael Perham

"But it will be an amazing achievement. I take my hat off to him completely. I couldn't have done what he is doing at his age.

"Hopefully he will inspire other young people."

He is expected to arrive back in Portsmouth some time near his 17th birthday on 16 March 2009.

The current holder of the youngest non-stop circumnavigator title is 18-year-old Australian, Jesse Martin, who arrived home in Melbourne on October 31, 1999.

To set a new record, Michael's journey must be entirely unassisted and completed under sail by wind and muscle power alone.

His journey will pass the coast of Africa, cross the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, Cape Leeuwin in Australia and Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America.

His adventure does not get him out of school work either.

He is taking assignments with him as part of his BTEC National Diploma in Sport (Performance and Excellence) at Oaklands College in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Money raised from the epic voyage will be donated to Save the Children and the Tall Ships Youth Trust.

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Can a Soccer Star Block Google Searches?

By Uki Goni/Buenos Aires

Diego Maradona.

Argentines clicking on the local version of Yahoo in search of information about their country's most legendary soccer star (and current national team coach) are in for a disappointment. All they'll see is a disclaimer in Spanish stating: "Due to a court order requested by private parties, we find ourselves obliged to temporarily suspend all or some of the results related to this search." The only exceptions are links to major news media sites. Nor is this peculiar result exclusive to searches for Diego Maradona. The soccer star is just one of 110 major public figures in Argentina to have secured a court order restraining the Argentine versions of Google and Yahoo from serving up search results on their names.

What worries the search engines is that the ruling's legal principle effectively holds them responsible for the content of web sites turned up in their searches.

A spokesperson for Google Argentina labeled the lawsuit "completely illogical. It would be like suing the newsstand for what appears in the newspapers it sells. Or demanding the newsstand vendor to tear out offending pages from the newspapers. The lawsuits should be against the websites carrying the information, not us." Google Argentina has appealed the court order, and says it will not filter any links until the appeal has been decided.

The lawsuit is the work of Martin Leguizamon, 48, a Buenos Aires attorney who has taken on the local versions of the two internet giants on behalf of many of Argentina's best-known actors, models, sports personalities and judges. "We started our first lawsuit two years ago," says Leguizamon. "When Maradona found out about what we were doing he came to see me and asked me to represent him as well."

Maradona, widely viewed as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, has had a career of highs and lows. His two goals against England at the 1986 World Cup — one of them scored illegally with his hand, which he famously attributed to "the hand of God" — helped to symbolically avenge Argentina's defeat in the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war, and he went on to lead Argentina to victory over Germany in the final that year. But he was banned from the professional game in Italy in 1991 for cocaine use, and he tested positive for drugs at the 1994 World Cup tournament. He recently reclaimed the public spotlight by accepting the job of Argentina's national coach, although in keeping with his mercurial personality, within a week he was threatening to resign if he couldn't get his way on coaching-staff appointments. (See pictures of the UEFA Euro 2008 Soccer Championships.)

But it's not only Maradona and other celebrities who are looking to protect their image by joining Leguizamon's suit; the litigants also include three important judicial figures, among them high-profile judge Maria Servini de Cubria, many of whose rulings have been questioned in the blogosphere and even in the mainstream media. "She is a public official," said the Google Argentina spokesperson. "Where do we draw the line? What should we do regarding critical articles about her in the major online newspapers? Should we block those too? Her presence in the list of lawsuits has made this a political question concerning freedom of information."

To find a way around the ruling, users of Yahoo Argentina, which has complied with the ruling, need only go to the international version of the search engine (not covered by the ruling). Even entering an alternate spelling, such as "Maradon," still turns up a massive number of links to actual Maradona articles.

Google Argentina says it wants to cooperate with the courts, but that it cannot put in place a "wholesale blockage of a name search; it would be absurd, especially because the information would still be available on the web and on other search engines that are not being sued."

Leguizamon argues that the search engines do not discriminate between links to appropiate material and links to pornographic sites that use the images of some of the models he represents. Maradona claims to have seen images of himself on porn sites linked to by Google.

Although Google Argentina denies it has started filtering any links to sites with Maradona content, Leguizamon claims that in the last two months many offending links no longer appear. But the lawyer is not content merely to shut down what he deems offensive searches; he is seeking compensation both for any damages resulting from those searches and even for innocent pictures of Maradona turned up by Google's "Images" search. The lawyer says these are at odds with Argentina's legal restrictions on unauthorized commercial use of photographic portraits. Although Leguizamon would not disclose the amounts being demanded in court, sources close to the case say that the compensation being sought in each case is between 100,000 and 400,000 pesos ($30,000-$120,000), although in Maradona's case the amount is certain to be much higher.

Leguizamon says he wants to see big search engines such as Google and Yahoo filtering all their results for pornographic or other content offensive to his clients. "Search engines have the capability of doing that, and we want to see it implemented," says Leguizamon. "Without the link in Google or Yahoo," he adds, "nobody would even know these sites exist."

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More than 50,000 migrant workers move into Olympics borough

By Andrew Pierce

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Newham, which will host the games, has had the biggest surge in new National Insurance numbers than any other part of Britain since the 2012 decision was made in 2005.

The 51,000 surge in migrant workers into Newham, where the Stratford Olympic stadium and village is situated, is the equivalent of a town the size of Keighley, the Yorkshire town, being added to the impoverished London borough. Most of the foreign workers have come from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Last year there were 20,500 new registrations in Newham compared to 13,000 for Birmingham, Britain's Second City, and 11 million for Manchester.

The revelation has sparked fears that any jobs boom generated by the £9.4 billion Olympics budget will not benefit the local workforce in a borough which is one of the most deprived in the country. In a week in which unemployment surged to 1.8 million there are now 12,000 unemployed in Newham, or 10.7 per cent, the second highest in London.

The revelation that 50,000 migrant workers have poured into Newham in the last three years came after Tessa Jowell the Olympics minister, said Britain would not have bid for the games if the government had known that there was a recession approaching.

Labour MP Frank Field, said: "This is the biggest public expenditure programme in the history of the country yet the benefits appear to be going abroad. The extraordinary number of national insurance registrations in Newham suggest it is not providing much additional employment for British people. This is not what we were told when we secured the Olympic games."

Mr Field suggested, however, that the deepening recession might bring a silver lining to London 2012. "It must now be perfectly reasonable for the government to strike a much harder bargain on contracts to reduce the cost," he said.

"It should not be £9.4 billion; it should come in much lower as we know there are hardly any orders being placed in the construction world. We should also try to ensure at the same time that the additional jobs go to British workers."

Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham, said that the statistics on foreign workers were deeply depressing. "I am absolutely determined to ensure that the residents of Newham benefit from the 2012 Games.

"As the employment market becomes ever more competitive, no one in Newham or anywhere in Britain can assume they will be first in line for jobs and opportunities. We have to show that we have the skills and the energy to rise to grasp the opportunities that the Games will bring.

"There are many reasons why some people do not work, and I believe it is rarely because they are idle. But it may be that the benefits system will leave them worse off if they take a job; it may be that they lack the necessary skills; it can simply be a matter of psychology some individuals lack confidence and drive because they have little or no experience of work. Unless we face those realities we can never help people to realise their full potential."

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