HUMAN rights campaigners planning to picket the Israeli ambassador when he comes to Cardiff tomorrow have attacked a university debating society’s decision not to invite any Palestinian representative to an event they have branded a “PR initiative”.
Cardiff Stop the War Coalition have indicated they will be staging a protest when the Israeli ambassador visits the city tomorrow evening to give a speech at Cardiff University Debating Society.

TIM Henman has said the appointment of Leon Smith as Davis Cup captain would be a “steep learning curve” for Andy Murray’s former coach.

The former British number one said Smith could be just the sort of coach that Britain needs right now to head up the team.

But he also criticised the current crop of players below Murray for not “maximising their potential.”

Forking out £5.50 everyday to get home seems extreme but it is a reality hundreds of Welsh people who work across the Severn estuary face on a daily basis.
Since 1966 the Severn Bridge has allowed easy passage between Wales and England and as a result it has connected Wales with the rest of the UK, but this has come with a high price tag for those who use the bridge on a regular basis. In November 2009 an e-petition was started in an attempt to gain support for a campaign to get tolls on the Severn Crossing reduced.

This school year, a new scheme has been set up allowing the youth of Penarth to give something back and dispel the myths associated with their age bracket.

More than 100 commuters an hour could travel from Penarth to Cardiff by boat as a Cardiff company takes the first step towards having regular water bus services.

At 25 minutes, the journeys on a fleet of five £90,000 boats, which would run every 15 minutes between around 7am and 7pm and stop at Cardiff Central station and Bute Park, could be quicker than commuting by car.

Yet company owners have criticised the Cardiff Council-controlled Cardiff Harbour Authority, saying the boats could go twice as fast if speed restrictions on the River Taff were lifted.

A charity night to raise money for a cancer charity will be held in Cardiff tonight.

The evening, which has been put together by a local art student with the help of The Exemplars, a London based volunteer group which puts on events for various charities, will raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

WHEN most people hear the words unlicensed boxing they think of illegal, underground, bare-knuckle bouts like those seen in Snatch or Fight Club.

But on Saturday, 1000 fight fans will descend on the Cardiff City Stadium for the ground’s first boxing event. Like professional boxing, unlicensed boxing has all the same regulations; there is a referee, a round system, gloves and Queensbury rules, the only difference is that it is not covered by the British Boxing Board of Control.

The traditional day of rest could be a thing of the past for a group of Cardiff residents, following an application by their local supermarket to receive deliveries on Sundays.

Lidl in Maindy Road has applied to Cardiff Council to increase its deliveries from six days a week to seven. This could see articulated lorries turning up to the site, which is on a residential road, from eight in the morning until 10pm.

Walking into the dining room of Cardiff’s latest food venture, it is the smell of fresh and rich ingredients which first awakes the senses. Diners are guided into a room adorned with candles and a crystal-decorated table as the centrepiece.
As a gentleman relieves guests of their coats and shows people to their seats, visitors are offered a cocktail of their choosing. However, there is a twist in the tale. This is no ordinary restaurant. It is the grand opening of Cardiff’s first ever secret supper club.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS big and small gathered in Cardiff yesterday to watch a film which was funded by donations from more than 300 people. Film director Franny Armstrong, famous for her film McLibel about a couple who were sued by McDonalds, “crowd-funded” campaign movie The Age of Stupid by raising more than £700,000 from investors. Yesterday environment experts and members of the public gathered at the Channel View Centre in Jim Driscoll Way, Grangetown for the free screening.

THERE is no smoke without fire for a local historian looking to brush up on his family tree.
Genealogy enthusiast and former steam train fireman Graham Williams, 63, is appealing to the descendants of a family of chimney sweeps to come forward and help him with his research.
Mr Williams, chair of the Canton Historical Society, thinks he may have distant relatives in Roath who are descended from his great-great-grandparents, who were Charles Elliott’s family of chimney sweeps.
He said: ”There’s lots of Elliotts in Roath and they are all descendants of these …

A CARDIFF Assembly Member hit out today at suggestions all primary school children should receive free school meals, saying the scheme would be unaffordable for Wales. Jenny Randerson AM slammed a study by trade union GMB which suggested trials of free school meals for all primary school pupils in two English councils should be extended across the UK.

The announcement of 250 jobs created in Cardiff by Barclaycard today has been hailed a “big vote of confidence for Wales” by Welsh Assembly Government’s First Minister Carwyn Jones.

Barclaycard confirmed it will move work from Barclays Partner Finance in Glasgow in the summer, following months of consultations. The jobs will be in the same building as First Plus, another loans company, based in Pontprennau, to the north east of the capital. Roles will include management trainees and customer loan advisers.

First Minister Jones said: “I welcome the announcement by Barclays of …

The Welsh Assembly decision on whether electronic pet training devices should be outlawed may raise support for a simultaneous campaign against cruelty to greyhounds today.
The vote to decide on the Assembly Government’s proposal, put forward by Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones last month, to ban the use of collars administering electric shock to dogs or cats, will be held this afternoon.
Ms Jones AM said: “The legislation I am bringing before the National Assembly for Wales today will, if approved, ban the use of electric shock collars in Wales.
“This has not …

The tapping of laptop keys is a sound which has come to characterise cafés such as Starbucks, as freelance workers and entrepreneurs settle themselves in these spaces as an alternative to forking out high prices for their own offices. But accountant Mark Hooper is turning this culture on its head.
Mr Hooper has brought the growing craze of co-working, which has become massive in America, to Cardiff as an alternative to working alone in cafés.
Indycube is a concept Mr Hooper has been developing for the past five years, but the space itself has been situated in the ITV media centre at Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff, for the past six months.

Its rich, enticing aroma gives the whisky a lot to live up to in the flavour column, but it does not disappoint. Harsh and peaty yet enjoyable on the tongue, Ardbeg possesses a sweetness and depth which is difficult to quantify.

PROPERTY investors who have benefited from a 50 per cent council tax discount have targeted Butetown and Grangetown as prime locations for purchasing second homes in Cardiff.

The two districts south of the city centre have more than a quarter of the capital’s unoccupied furnished properties. Butetown has 553 and Grangetown 295. At the other end of the scale, St Mellons and St Fagans have only 11 and six second homes.

Up to now these second homes and those properties unoccupied between lets have been eligible for a 50 per cent reduction in their council tax. But from next month the city’s 2,795 unoccupied furnished properties will be liable for the full amount.

Lilo Grill House
City Road, Cardiff
*****
A smoky haze hangs, heavily laden with the aromas of garlic and the chargrill stove in the Cardiff’s Lilo Grill House. The Lebanese restaurant on City Road has a reputation for its delicious, tender shish and friendly atmosphere. Lebanese food pretty much coins everything from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and can be a winner due to its simplistic approach of skewered meats, flatbread and fresh flavours of lemon juice and cracked black pepper.
Perhaps one of the most enticing smells around is that of meat, …

On the hunt for a recipe to reflect Cardiff’s rich multicultural diversity, I headed to one of the capital’s most vibrant areas, Grangetown. The spiralling whiffs of ginger, garlic and myriad spices streaming out of the door of Lahore Kebabish in Penarth Road brought me straight back to the seething streets of south India, where supper was viewed as more of a challenge than a foodstuff.
Owner and chef Khalid Hussian, 51, moved to Grangetown from Pakistan 22 years ago, and his sons and cousins all help out in the eatery.
I …

A CARDIFF shop owner’s new alcohol delivery service has drawn criticism from charities and local residents.
Arjuna Gunesekera, 23, will launch the Bargain Booze delivery service on Friday with the aim of selling alcohol in the city’s Cathays area.
The scheme, which is the first Bargain Booze has ever run, will target central Cardiff’s large student population and deliver cheap alcohol as late as 4am. This has led to criticism from safe drinking campaigners.
Mr Gunesekera owns Bargain Booze in Splott Road, but will move his business to Cathays to target its large …

St Patrick’s Day celebrations began early in Cardiff city centre as world champion Irish dancers took to the streets with staff from O’Neill’s pub to raise money for local Welsh charity LATCH.
Cardiff is one of four cities taking part in the national “Join the Jig” campaign, which is one of many fundraising activities taking place across the 62 O’Neill’s pubs in the UK in the run up to St Patrick’s Day on Wednesday.

Two Cardiff men are embarking on a new venture to connect local businesses in Cardiff and give something back to local charities through a new online business directory with a twist.
Cardiff Business Online will launch at the end of March and is the first part of a three-stage-plan to help connect Cardiff-based businesses. The online directory will offer businesses the opportunity to place their profile online for just £10 a month and advertise to consumers in a new way through the use of Twitter.

Unstaffed tanning salons could soon be outlawed after a proposal by Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan today moved a step closer to becoming law.

The Sunbeds (Regulation) Bill would also make it illegal for people under the age of 18 to use sunbeds, with a fine of up to £20,000 for any salons caught breaking the law.

Shopkeepers in Penarth have shown their support for a new loyalty card scheme, which residents and organisers alike hope will help keep trade in the town.

Cardiff councillors charged the taxpayer over £30 every day in travel expenses during the last financial year.

Forty per cent of the bill came from taxi charges after councillors argued the public transport in the city, including the council-owned Cardiff Bus, was not good enough.

City life can be stressful and exhausting. The daily nine to five work routine can wear anyone out, so if life’s pressures are getting too much, we have picked out two Welsh holiday retreats for you to get out of Cardiff and away from it all.

Heartspring (www.heartspring.co.uk) retreat in Llansteffan, Carmarthen, is in the heart of the Welsh countryside and set among acres of stunning coastal scenery. It provides nurturing mini-breaks to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life and has everything you could possibly want to reconnect with your inner self and relax.

A senior Cardiff councillor spoke in support today of a steep pay cut proposed for Cardiff council’s highest-earning members. Plaid Cymru executive member for transport Delme Bowen said he supported cutting cabinet members’ maximum allowances by 9.1 per cent, as recommended in yesterday’s annual report by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales.

Musing on “How we came to live in unforgiving despair,” the incomparable stylings of Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip effortlessly produce the thought-provoking social commentary many have failed to elucidate.

A decade-old empty building on a housing estate was demolished on the request of Cardiff Council this week, despite protests from its owner and a petition with more than 150 signatures from nearby residents to save it.

Cardiff Council could be in line for a major shake up following draft proposals to redraw ward boundaries, in a move which one councillor labelled “gerrymandering”.

A newly-married couple who were threatened with a knife when their shop was burgled last week are moving back to India because they are too frightened to stay in Cardiff.

Deep in the heart of the South Wales countryside, a handful of men gather once a month at what they like to call the headquarters of the Welsh space agency. But this secret location is not an underground bunker, or a darkened room filled with maps. It is the Rose Inn in Redwick. This quiet village pub is home to the country’s top rocketeers.

A Cardiff Bay sports centre has had to put up new fencing after a spate of break-ins resulted in more than £12,000 worth of equipment being stolen, including a tandem bike. The Cardiff Bay Water Activity Centre in Jim Driscoll Way, Grangetown, has been broken into three times in the last month. Five Raleigh mountain bikes and four black Ridgeback NX3s worth £300 each and a silver tandem bike worth between £500 and £600 were stolen in the early hours of March 1.

Twenty-eight illicit mobile phones and thirty SIM cards were seized from patients in Cardiff Prison in the last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Justice.

Nearly one in six first class letters failed to arrive on time in Cardiff due to strike action last year, according to figures by Royal Mail. Only 84.3 per cent of first class letters arrived in Cardiff, the valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan the day after they were posted between September 7 and December 6, below the national target of 93 per cent.

A wheelchair basketball club in Cardiff is looking for new members. Cardiff Celts, who have two teams in the second and fourth divisions of the GB National League, are playing their next match on March 27 against the Essex Outlaws at the Eastern Leisure Centre, Llanrumney Avenue, and want to find new recruits.

A tax consultant from Cardiff has written a novel in a bid to become an independent MP. Alun Mathias, 49, distributed 1,200 free copies of his book Vicky and the Pit to homes in Cathays at a personal cost of nearly £3,000.

Cardiff Devils head into the biggest game of their season tonight riding on a wave of confidence after their late comeback against Newcastle Vipers on the weekend.

The Devils play Nottingham Panthers in the second leg of the Challenge Cup final and they must battle back from two goals down, after a 4-2 first leg defeat.

But they are full of confidence after beating the Vipers 7-4 on Sunday, despite being 3-0 behind eith 21 minutes to play.

Two of Penarth’s most prominent sports clubs have received a welcome boost with the news that their long-term future looks to be secure.
Both the Penarth Gymnastics and Boxing clubs were facing uncertain futures, but they will now be housed in St Paul’s Church on Arcot Street.
The Gymnastics Club which is run by 75-year-old former Olympian, Gwynned Lingard faced being left homeless as a result of the Pavilion Project which is coming into fruition. The club, which was set up by Mrs Lingard in 1961, has been based in the Grade II listed building on Penarth’s Pier for the last 10 years. But with the redevelopment of the Pavilion, the club was facing an uncertain future.
Dave Nebitt, the Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council’s Operational Manager for Leisure and Tourism, said: “We’re at an exciting time in terms of the Penarth Pavilion development and the art centre there.
“But obviously that means the Gymnastics can no longer be there. St Paul’s Church is now vacant and housing the gymnastics club there is an option, with the possibility of including the boxing club in this.”
The Penarth Boxing Club has been housed at the church, which overlooks the Billybanks housing estate, for more than 35 years, and used to run alongside a martial arts club, whic has subsequently moved on.

Despite £1.2 million being channelled into providing homes with free fire alarms, more than 62 per cent of household fires tackled in South Wales last year did not have a working fire alarm or had no alarm at all.

Of the 1041 house fires attended to by the fire service last year 113 of the homes had no working fire alarm and 533 no fire alarm.

The figures obtained by Cardiff Evening News under a Freedom of Information request raise serious questions about the effectiveness of the Welsh Assembly Government-backed scheme to provide households with free fire alarms.

THE FIGHT over the future of a Cardiff green space will continue tonight at a potentially-fractious public meeting.
The Rumney Recreation Ground has been the subject of much vitriol over the past two years, with battle lines being drawn between the community and the council.
The council want to build a new school at the site, knocking down Rumney and Llanrumney high schools in the process, while the residents of the area have been battling to oppose the plans.
Chairman of the Rumney Recreation & Eastern Leisure Centre (REEL) Action Group has accused …

A HISTORIC Cardiff pub is to be demolished to make way for a Tesco, an industry insider has revealed.
The Carpenters Arms, in Newport Road, Llanrumney, was originally built in 1872 as a coach house and has been a pub since the 1960s.
Since being shut down more than a year ago it has been the subject of intense speculation among residents.
Although the company handling the sale, Horace John, Forse & Co, have only dealt with the buyer’s representative, a sales negotiator at a nation-wide estate agent has confirmed Tesco have finalised …

Hidden between the close-knit terraced roofs of inner-city Cardiff are the white domes of a cultural gem.

Prayers at the Shree Swaminarayan temple in Merches Place, Grangetown, begin at sunrise just after 7am. Step into the long prayer room, a former nightclub floor, and you hear the jangling of bells and musical chanting.

The temple is the third biggest for the Swaminarayan (corr) Hindu denomination in Britain, after two in London, and the only one of its kind in Wales.

VERBAL volleyball between Councillor Neil McEvoy and former councillors at a community meeting suggested the new code of conduct is not working.
At a Police and Community Together (PACT) meeting on Wednesday, Coun McEvoy and former Labour councillor Michael Michael argued over the issue of whether the council had or had not gritted the streets and pavements of Fairwater during the recent cold period.
Coun McEvoy defeated Mr Michael at the last council elections in May 2008, and since then signs of their acrimonious relationship have regularly been on display at PACT …

THE CARDIFF Devils scored six times in the final period to end a hat-trick of consecutive defeats as they beat Newcastle Vipers 7-4 last night.

Goals from Max Birbraer, Tylor Michel (2), Ryan Finnerty, Matt Miller, Phil Hill and Mark Smith helped cement their fourth-place position, and widen the gap with Sheffield Steelers who are now eight points below them in the Elite League.

Devils fight back to defeat Vipers in thrilling final period – See Full Match Report here
6:02:56 PM: Cardiff Devils v. Newcastle Vipers live blog. Your commentators tonight are Tom Mooney and David Edward. http://myloc.me/4y6C6
6:08:16 PM: Decent crowd in at the Tent, Devils desperatly need some momentum ahead of Tuesday’s cc final 2nd leg http://myloc.me/4y6Yq
6:10:31 PM: Domish gets two mins for delaying. Quiet start. http://myloc.me/4y77T
6:15:15 PM: Goal! Kralj. Squeezes it past Lyle. Assists by Tinsley and Horde. 1-0 VIPERS http://myloc.me/4y7r2
6:18:05 PM: Latiluppe and Towe go close for Devils but Robinson stands …

Jamie Hayes enjoyed some extra game-time during last week’s clash with the Sheffield Steelers and the Devils youngster has set his sights on progressing further in the Welsh Capital.

“It’s been really good getting some time on the ice and I’m really enjoying it,” said Hayes.

The 19-year-old has come through the ranks at the Devils and is relishing the opportunity he has been given in his first full season as a professional.

Children from schools across Cardiff visited their local libraries this week to celebrate World Book Day.

And these year five pupils from St Paul’s Church in Wales Primary School, Grangetown, were one of 19 groups set loose in Grangetown Library, Havelock Place.

Just days after Llandough Hospital was subjected to a damning report from the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), diasbled Penarth councillor Alun Roberts has hit out at transport links to the hospital.

A LIBRARY which will celebrate its 50th birthday this summer has been promised a £150,000 upgrade by the deputy leader of Cardiff Council. But the funding has not yet been secured.

Councillor Neil McEvoy told residents at a Partnership and Communities Together (PACT) meeting at Pentrebane Community Centre they would see a refurbishment of Faiwater library in Doyle Avenue over the coming year. But the council budget for 2010-11 shows the funding for Coun McEvoy’s announcement has not yet been approved.