Latest news with #PanAm103
Scottish Sun
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Exact date iconic Glasgow venue to reopen after major £30million revamp
Read on to find out when the venue will reopen IN THE LIMELIGHT Exact date iconic Glasgow venue to reopen after major £30million revamp AN iconic Glasgow venue is set to reopen next month following a major £30million revamp. The Citizens Theatre in the Gorbals previously closed in 2018 for a refurbishment, and work was originally planned to take three years. Advertisement 4 The Citizens Theatre is set to reopen next month after seven years Credit: John Gunion 4 The old theatre has undergone a huge £30million revamp Credit: Getty But the project faced a series of setbacks due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The major revamp of the building, which first opened its doors in 1878, was planned due to it falling into disrepair. Bosses said it was no longer fit for purpose and wanted to regenerate it for the 21st century, while keeping its unique Victoria charm. The theatre will boast a new foyer, improved accessibility, a new 150-seater multi-purpose studio theatre. Advertisement There will also be a new bar area and social spaces, with enhanced backstage facilities for performers. And on August 23, a community-led parade will officially mark the reopening of the theatre after seven years, The Glasgow Times reports. Everyone is invited to a weekend of free creative workshops, events and behind-the-scenes tours on August 23 and 24. Bookable events such as workshops, introductory tours and creative session will be available from August 28 to September 5. Advertisement The first production will be Small Acts of Love from September 12 - a major new work about the bonds formed between families on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of the Pan Am 103 atrocity in Lockerbie. And in October, the brand new 150-seat Studio Theatre is opened with two productions by the theatre's Participate groups. Oscar-nominated Toni Collette spotted dancing in Glasgow theatre as fans hail 'legend' In addition, the theatre's longstanding commitment to its Gorbals neighbours will continue through a new Gorbals Pass giving access to tickets for just £5 for locals with a G5 postcode. The theatre's Participate director Catrin Evans said: "This homecoming is inspired by our fantastic new building that we know so many people are keen to get inside - but it's also about so much more. Advertisement "It's about reconnecting with our neighbours, welcoming new voices and celebrating creativity itself as a form of community-building. "We're offering a range of activities so that everyone and anyone can step into the Citizens Theatre, try something new, take themselves on a journey and feel that this space belongs to them. "Whether it's your first time through the doors or you've been part of the Citz story for years, we can't wait to welcome you home." Advertisement We previously told how there will be a number of road closures around the venue as it prepares to reopen to the public. As the historic venue gets ready to welcome back audiences, Glasgow City Council has announced several streets will be shut. The road closures will take place between August 22 and 23. Gorbals Street will be shut between Ballater Street and Cumberland Street from 3pm on August 22 until 3.30pm on August 23. Advertisement During these hours waiting, loading and unloading will be prohibited. On August 23, traffic will not be allowed to flow along Gorbals Street between Ballater Street and Cumberland Street from 9am until 3.30pm. Cleland Street and Cleland Lane will also be closed to vehicles during these hours. 4 The major revamp of the building, which first opened its doors in 1878, was planned due to it falling into disrepair Credit: Alamy Advertisement
The National
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Actress to share personal tragedy of Lockerbie bombing in Fringe play
Annie Lareau was studying theatre at Syracuse University in 1988 when she came over to London with her fellow students for a semester abroad. Her classmates were booked onto Pan Am 103 to travel home for Christmas. Lareau – who was booked onto a plane the following day – desperately tried to book herself onto the same flight, having wanted the comfort and company of her friends following a series of panic attacks and nightmares about flying. Having had an expensive weekend in Paris, she was unable to afford the flight change and so instead waved off her friends – of which there were eight including her best friend Theodora Cohen – for what turned out to be the last time. Thirty-five students from Syracuse University were on the flight in total. READ MORE: Edinburgh Fringe 2025 programme launches with 3350 shows across 265 venues More than 30 years on from the tragedy which saw Pan Am 103 explode over Lockerbie following a terrorist attack, Lareau is now bringing her play called Fuselage to the Edinburgh Fringe stage to tell her story. She said it meant a great deal to be able to debut the play in Scotland where she said she feels 'safe and understood'. 'The reason I was drawn to doing it in Edinburgh first is because Scotland is very embedded in this story,' she told the Sunday National. 'It is part of your history. It's in your bones as it is in mine. 'In my country [Pan Am 103] has been usurped by 9/11. People don't remember it. 'I feel like it's a great gift to do this show in Scotland first because I feel safe and understood. Annie Lareau and Theodora Cohen (Image: Supplied) 'I also think it's very important we don't forget because this remains the biggest terrorist attack on UK soil. It was the first time American civilians were targeted in the US. Many things were changed in how we deal with terrorism because of it in both countries.' The Lockerbie bombing – more commonly referred to in the US as Pan Am 103 – has come into sharp focus this year with two docudramas on Sky and the BBC telling the story of the ongoing search for the bomber. But since Lareau, now 57, began writing a memoir in 2019 following the 30th anniversary of the disaster, she has been keen to share her more personal story of losing people she loved so suddenly. It was in 2019 that she also visited Lockerbie for the first time, a place she says she now feels 'intricately connected to' after striking up friendships with people involved in the aftermath. 'It took 30 years to happen, but my story and their story are the same, even though we are across the pond. Our grief is similar in the fact that we are forever connected,' she said. While both the Sky docudrama Lockerbie: A Search for Truth and the BBC series The Bombing of Pan Am 103 both focused on the who bombed the plane and the geopolitics of the time, Lareau said she wanted to focus on the humans who were lost and the opportunities that were taken from them. READ MORE: Palestinian artists to take to the stage at Edinburgh Fringe Lareau said: 'For me it's such a personal story. I lost eight friends, I've lived through the aftermath, and I have to live it every time I see one of those documentaries. 'I was really motivated to write the memoir to tell the story of the people, the human lives we sometimes forget. We get desensitised in our world by the news, we just see a roll call of names. 'What I want people to remember is them [her friends] and our story and how it's all so relatable because we all lose people throughout our lives and mine just happened to be in the lens of an international tragedy. 'It's about trying to remind people of the vibrancy of the people we come into contact with in our lives and how precious and how fragile they are and how we should cherish them while we have them because you never know when they are going to disappear.' (Image: GIAO NGUYEN) It was a 'flicker of fate', as Lareau calls it, that had led to her not being on the flight herself. Incredibly, she had had premonitions of planes exploding prior to her own flight home and her best friend Theodora encouraged her to try and change her flight to be with them. In the aftermath she said she took a 'deep, dark dive' mentally as she battled with a huge sense of guilt. She had to face the agony of packing up her best friend and roommate Theo's belongings back at Syracuse, with the media banging on her door. She said while she will likely never find complete closure, she has healed gradually over the years and part of that has been making the most of the 'gift' she was given. 'When we got back to university and graduated, we wasted no time in trying to do what we wanted to do because we knew the gift we had been given,' she said. READ MORE: I'm a performer at the Fringe - here's why I'm having to CAMP in Edinburgh 'There was no being afraid of going to auditions or becoming Broadway producers – which two of them have become. They were just willing to take the risk because there was an understanding we were lucky and we had to do it not only for us but for them, who lost that opportunity to do what they wanted with their lives.' The show Fuselage brings Lareau's story together with the story of those in Lockerbie who watched as the plane wreckage crashed down on their town, killing 11 people on the ground alongside the 259 people on board. 'I take you back to 1986 and the start of university where you meet my friends,' she said. 'I take you through the process of meeting them and that becomes intertwined with the story of 2019 when I go to Lockerbie for the first time in 30 years and I meet Colin Dorrance and Josephine Donaldson who were both involved in the situation. 'It switches back and forth and how those stories meet. 'Then I take you through the aftermath, what happened in Lockerbie, what happened for me, and how my time in Lockerbie in the following years sort of healed us all.' Lareau added: 'I absolutely hope it will tour, and I can show it to other people across the UK and Europe and the US, and I hope someone will publish by memoir, but if none of those things happen, I will be okay with just performing in Scotland, because that is the most important thing to me.' Fuselage will be performed throughout August at Pleasance Courtyard. For tickets click here.
Glasgow Times
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow's Citizens Theatre returns with Lockerbie story
The Citizens Theatre will reopen later this year with "Small Acts of Love" after being out of use since June 2018 due to major redevelopment work. The new production, commissioned by artistic director Dominic Hill, will be the first to be performed on the theatre's home stage. Dominic Hill (Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan) It centres around the bonds formed between the residents of Lockerbie and the American relatives of the Pan Am 103 tragedy victims in 1988. The production will premiere on September 12. Read more: Woman, 63, arrested after protesters gather at Glasgow venue 'Phenomenal': Glasgow flower shop named best in Scotland at top awards Willowbank schoolgirl's artwork chosen for NHS report front cover Mr Hill said: "To be announcing our cast for Small Acts of Love today is an exciting and pivotal moment in our journey home. "Ranging from some of the most experienced and well-known actors in Scotland to newly graduated stars of the future, this cast and this production announce the ambition and quality of the new Citizens Theatre. "With only a few weeks to go until the start of rehearsals, the whole company is preparing to welcome artists and audiences to our fantastic new building for the first time in seven years.' Ricky Ross, Frances Poet, and Dominic Hill (Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan) The production's story follows two communities over 36 years as they forge connections in the aftermath of tragedy. It is based on meticulous research and interviews with families and individuals directly impacted by the Lockerbie bombing. A cast of 14 actors, featuring seasoned stars and emerging talents, will bring these stories to life. Mr Hill added: "We're pleased to continue supporting early-career artists through initiatives like our Graduate Actor roles and our partnership with Birkbeck's MA in Theatre Directing." The production, in association with the National Theatre of Scotland, is also a musical collaboration between playwright Frances Poet and Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue, who has composed an original score. The live soundtrack will be performed by a five-piece roots band.
The Herald Scotland
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
No wonder Iran doesn't trust the US. Neither should we
America restored the tyrannical Shah to power. He lived in opulence and lavished enormous sums on vanity projects while his people struggled to afford the basics of life. Eventually, disparate Iranian groups from all across the political spectrum came together and drove the Shah out in 1979. Tragically, the ensuing power vacuum was filled by the clerics: Ayatollah Khameini is in power in Iran today because of what the US did over 70 years ago. Don't forget, either, isolated acts of brutality inflicted by America's powerful military. On 3 July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes was in Iranian territorial waters when its captain, William Rogers, ordered his crew to shoot down an Iranian airliner that was en route to Dubai; there were 290 fatalities, 20 more than caused by the bombing of Pan Am 103 a few months later. Subsequently, Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer… from April 1987 to May 1989". You can see why that might stick in the craw of those affected and why Iran distrusts America, as should we all while President Trump remains in office. Doug Maughan, Dunblane. Read more letters • Once again the Middle East has rapidly descended into the maelstrom of conflict. Britain must at this time studiously avoid supporting any of the protagonists. The times that we have previously intervened in Iran, the outcomes were not good. Back in 1953 both America and Britain decided to engineer the removal of the democratically elected President of Iran, Mosadeggh. He had courageously proposed that Iran's oil belonged to Iran and that Iran should control the marketing of it. However, the British and American oil companies did not see this as desirable. So they supported the imposition of the Shah on the Iranian people who was eventually overthrown. Apart from the Iranian intervention should Britain be supporting Benjamin Netanyahu, who seems to have no respect for the tenets of international law in regard to the conflict with the Palestinians? Sir Keir Starmer needs to show the world that Britain is prepared to take a moral stand in the Middle East. The first action must be to forbid the sale of weapons to any of the protagonists. This takes courage but he needs to show leadership on this matter. Ed Archer, Lanark. • When asked whether he had decided whether the US would be invading Iran, President Trump replied that he had not yet decided, adding: "Nobody knows what I'm gonna do". And we should be worried about an Iranian finger on the nuclear button? Tina Oakes, Stonehaven. A deliberate distraction Benjamin Netanyahu's war with Iran is a deliberate distraction from his Gaza war of mass murder, deliberate starvation and ethnic cleansing of civilians and children. The moment Iran retaliated against Israeli attacks, every western government which had begun voicing token criticisms and issuing token sanctions on Israel switched to saying they would help defend Israel if Iran attacked it. Keir Starmer has moved US military assets to the Middle East and refused to rule out 'defending Israel'. Why should we help a government that is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza feel immune to the results of its own actions, ensuring it will continue both wars, when neither Hamas nor Iran could ever pose a credible military threat to Israel? The Ayatollahs are certainly a dictatorship, and hostile to Israel. But Israel and the US are massively militarily stronger than Iran. And the story that if the Ayatollahs get a nuclear weapon they'll immediately fire it at Israel, ensuring that all of them and their entire country will be wiped out in either the Israeli or US nuclear or conventional counter-strikes, is ludicrous. Certainly they praise 'martyrs' including suicide bombers. They're not so keen on personal or national suicide . Duncan McFarlane, Carluke. Our reputation is at stake Countries, like people, are often judged by the friends they keep. How then has the UK ended up being counted as an ally by the mad dogs of the Middle East, Israel, and insisting on our knees that we have a Special Relationship with the mad dog of the West, the USA under Donald Trump? These relationships are taken to extremes, with a willingness to pitch in with America's follies like the second Iraq war and unwillingness to call out unequivocally Israel's slaughter of Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians, and to go along with the destruction by Mr Trump in his first term of the workable compromise with Iran on nuclear issues engineered by Barack Obama and supported by us. This cannot stand well with our international reputation, for the blood of other peoples does not seem to matter much to us. We should be grateful for an earlier Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who despite pressures from America, had the guts to keep us out of the disaster of America's Vietnam war. James Scott, Edinburgh. Donald Trump (Image: Getty) Labour's hypocrisy In January, when the Tories put forward proposals for a national inquiry to be held into the grooming gangs scandal, Sir Keir Starmer voiced his disapproval and accused those calling for one of jumping on a "far-right" bandwagon. When the submission went before the House of Commons, Joani Reid voted against. Just over a month ago, based on the review carried out by Baroness Casey, Sir Keir changed his mind and ordered that an inquiry be held. Lo and behold, the MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven changed hers as well and suddenly became an enthusiastic advocate for an inquiry. So much so that she made the following press statement: "If the Scottish Government does not intend to hold its own dedicated inquiry, we need some clear reasons why, not the vague responses we've had so far." This may sound like double standards to you and me but after all the broken promises to deliver change we should be used to rank hypocrisy on the part of the Labour Party by now. Alan Woodcock, Dundee. A dubious guarantee I note your coverage of the concept of a Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) as a way of achieving the laudable aim of abolishing poverty. Gaby McKay explains the idea and gives some idea of the costs involved, Russell Gunson follows, enthusiastically promoting this benefit ("Call to move toward minimum income guarantee 'urgently'" and "There should be an income level below which nobody is allowed to fall", The Herald, June 18). However, as ever, the devil is in the detail. Firstly, although the word "poverty" is bandied around, what actually constitutes poverty? Mr Gunson defines it as living in a household where income is less than 60% of the UK average. To take an extreme example, if the average UK income was £100,000 per year, then as long as this 60% criterion applied, the poor would always be with us. Secondly, how would it be paid – what mechanisms would have to be set up to ensure its equitable and economical distribution? Thirdly, how would the MIG relate to other sources of income, such as other benefits, paid employment, pensions, dividends and interest? Would it be taxable, or set against these funds? In fact, could it be regarded as the Personal Allowance? I can see Rachel Reeves rubbing her hands with glee if she can start taxing people once their income passes £11,500, rather than the current £12,570. Fourthly, in their desire to talk up the positive aspects of MIG, I wonder if your writers have considered the possibility that the achievement of a modestly comfortable standard of living might, in some cases, reduce the incentives to seek paid employment? Finally, the cynic in me wonders how long it will be before the cry "it's not enough!" goes up, particularly when other figures regarding subsistence have been bandied around, such as the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, which advises a minimum standard of retirement living requires an income of £13,400 (£15,800 for London dwellers) per year Christopher W Ide, Waterfoot.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Lockerbie bombing trial in the US delayed until next year
The trial of a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed an American airliner over Lockerbie has been delayed until spring next year. Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was due to face a jury in Washington last month but the starting date was postponed due to his poor health and the complexity of the case. At the request of the prosecution and defence, the trial will now get under way next April. Masud has denied priming the explosive device which brought down Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people. The explosion killed 259 passengers and crew and a further 11 people in the Dumfries and Galloway town when wreckage of the Boeing 747 fell on their remains the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United who is in his early 70s, is described as a joint citizen of Libya and has been receiving treatment for a non-life threatening medical a joint status report to the US district court for the District of Columbia last month, both parties referred to the "complex, international nature" of evidence in the case, adding that a pre-trial schedule would be "atypical".Lawyers also requested an early deadline for motions to "suppress the defendant's statement," presumed to be an alleged confession Masud made while in jail in Libya in claim, which is said to be of "importance to the [US] government's case," alleges that Masud admitted working for the Libyan intelligence service and confessed to building the device which brought down the aircraft. It is also alleged he named two accomplices, Abdelbasset Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah was convicted of murdering the 270 victims and died in Tripoli in 2012 after being freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Amin Khalifah Fhimah, his co-accused in the trial at the Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, was found not and US prosecutors first named Masud as a suspect in the case in 2015 following the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in was charged five years later by then-US attorney general William Barr with the destruction of an aircraft resulting in was taken into US custody in 2022 after being removed from his home by an armed militia.
