Bad drugs, great sport
Dan Glaister
July 28, 2007 10:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dan_glaister/2007/07/great_sport.html
There can have been few more superlative moments in sport. As Michael
Rasmussen fought off the repeated attacks from Tour de France number
two Alberto Contador on the hills of the Pyrenees this week, it seemed
as if the glory days of cycling had returned. The thrill that had long
gone in the polished Armstrong era, when his - and his team's -
tactical acumen bulldozed all before it, ensuring that the leader
controlled all he surveyed, was replaced with a game of cat-and-mouse.
Racing, finally, had returned to the Tour. What had previously been a
procession to a preordained coronation had been replaced with racing,
of all things, two men sparring on a mountainside, pushing themselves
and their bodies to impossible extremes.
The case for a Ron Paul presidency
Justin Raimondo
July 27, 2007 10:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/justin_raimondo/2007/07/the_case_for_ro=
n_paul.html
In trying to figure out how to explain Ron Paul to a British audience,
I looked - in vain - for someone on the current British political
scene to compare him to.
The Conservatives, with their support for the British welfare state,
and their pro-Bush foreign policy, hardly come close, and, even
looking back in history, it is hard to find an approximation. We have
to go all the way back to the nineteenth century, to the antiwar, anti-
imperialist "Little England"-ism of Richard Cobden, John Bright, and
the Manchester School, before we find a halfway apt comparison.
Our economic alchemy
Khaled Diab
July 27, 2007 9:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/khaled_diab/2007/07/our_economic_alchem=
y=2Ehtml
With 325m copies of the Harry Potter books already sold before the
release of the latest (which sold 11m copies in the first 24 hours of
publication) and the movies coming in as the third-highest grossing
film series ever, it can only have been through some mysterious
protective spell that I have remained immune to the magic of the young
sorcerer.
I must admit that I'm generally not interested in children's
literature and having grown up on a diet of JRR Tolkien, from The
Hobbit right through to The Silmarillion, I suspected I would only be
disappointed by the quality of Potter's imaginary world when compared
with the wonders of Middle Earth.
Bad news for Brown
Robert Fox
July 27, 2007 9:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_fox/2007/07/bad_news_for_brown.h=
tml
The social niceties at Gordon Brown's meeting with President Bush at
Camp David this weekend will contrast sharply contrast with the severe
reality check it's likely to give him on his weakest subject: defence,
and overseas security.
Mr Bush will confirm the unwelcome news, already well advertised, that
he expects America's staunchest and most important ally to stick with
it in Iraq and, if anything, to expand the contribution in
Afghanistan. This will not be music to the ears of the new prime
minister, but he finds himself in a dilemma. He can insist on "drawing
down" in Iraq, as some of his military commanders privately advise, in
order to regroup and concentrate British efforts in Afghanistan -
since Afghanistan is regarded by some of our more traditional-minded
soldiers as "the winnable war" (an unfortunate turn of phrase that
could eventually bite them in the tender parts).
The 'right' to discriminate
Richard Silverstein
July 27, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_silverstein/2007/07/the_right_t=
o_discriminate.html
A fixture in the lives of all children who have ever attended Hebrew
school is the blue Jewish National Fund (JNF) pushke (or charity box),
into which parents and teachers encouraged us to throw our pennies,
nickels, dimes and quarters. They taught us to perform a mitzvah by
giving tzedakah to support the building of the Jewish homeland. Thus,
the Jewish National Fund was the Red Cross of Jewish life, a "mom and
apple pie" charity doing nothing but good for our people.
How times change! Last week, the Israeli Knesset passed, on first
reading, the Jewish National Fund bill which allows the JNF to refuse
to lease land to Arab citizens. The JNF is a quasi-public charity
established to raise funds to purchase land for Jewish settlement
within Israel. In 1961, the Israeli government transferred 13% of
Israeli land to the JNF. Included in this were one million dunams
expropriated from Arab residents who fled Israel in 1948.
The first Democratic spat
Eric Alterman
July 27, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/eric_alterman/2007/07/the_first_democra=
tic_spat.html
The Democratic race got both more interesting and sillier this week,
as an argument opened up between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over
whether the latter is ""irresponsible and frankly naive" for saying
he'd be willing, as president, to meet with any foreign leader. The
substance of the argument is difficult to countenance. Just "meeting"
with someone can have diplomatic implications, but these don't really
last in the real world unless they are backed up by actual agreements,
whether de jure or de facto, with demonstrable results.
What is interesting about the argument is that in choosing to have it,
both sides are implicitly signaling to separate audiences. Clinton is
playing to her strength. She's the candidate that makes the party pooh-
bahs feel comfortable. (None of the candidates are speaking to the
Democratic Leadership Council meeting this weekend - a first I think -
but Clinton's sending her celebrity surrogate. )
Friends in need
Daniel Davies
July 27, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/daniel_davies/2007/07/friends_in_need.h=
tml
Spencer Ackerman wrote on Wednesday about the position of the local
employees of the American forces in Iraq, but if anything the
situation of Iraqis working for the British forces in the south is
even more desperate. The British garrison is preparing to hand over
control of Basra to the local government in the next few months. Once
it has done that, the British army will no longer be in even titular
control of the streets, and will not be in any position at all to
guarantee the safety of its Iraqi staff. They will probably be killed,
along with their families.
The response of the Home Office to this situation so far has been
either frighteningly complacent or utterly callous. As a recent Radio
4 report showed, even trusted translators of the CPA South have had
their asylum applications turned down, despite having been threatened
by death squads in their homes. The authorities do not seem to be
taking a remotely realistic view of the danger that these people are
in, or of our obligation to them.
The conversion factor
Jonathan Spollen
July 27, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_spollen/2007/07/the_conversion=
_factor.html
Conversion to another religion has traditionally been considered one
of the greatest sins in Islam. Shia Islam, as well as the four main
schools of Sunni Islam - Shafi, Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali - are all
agreed that the punishment for "apostasy" is death. Thus in most
Muslim countries, and within many Muslim communities around the world,
deserting Islam in favour of another religion is strictly forbidden.
In Egypt, a country simmering with sectarian tension, conversion from
one religion to another is seen not only as a religious sin, but as
the ultimate betrayal of one's community. Those who do convert do so
in absolute secrecy, fearing ostracism from their community, or
worse.
On your bike
Jakob Illeborg
July 27, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jakob_illeborg/2007/07/on_your_bike.html
Few can have experienced a more dramatic afternoon than Danish cycling
star, Michael Rasmussen, who two days ago first swept to a glorious
victory on the dreaded Col d'Aubisque stage - seemingly unstoppable in
his quest to becoming an unlikely winner of the Tour de France - only
to be informed hours later by his Rabobank boss, Theo de Roiij, that
he had been sacked from the team and that his quest for the most
prestigious prize in cycling was over.
"I am innocent; I did train in Mexico as I have said all along and my
career and life lies in ruins. I don't know who to turn to, don't know
where to go," a devastated Mr Rasmussen told a journalist last night.
Taxing the poor
David Hencke
July 27, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hencke/2007/07/taxing_the_poor.ht=
ml
"Masters of the Universe unite. You have nothing to lose, not even
your tax bill." This might be new slogan for mega business bosses
following the release of remarkable new policy proposals this week
among the welter of reports showered on an unsuspecting public as
parliament headed for its holidays.
Basically the National Audit Office, Whitehall's auditor, is proposing
that Gordon Brown no longer bother to chase up tens of thousand of
pounds of unpaid taxes from Britain's biggest companies because it is
costing the taxpayer too much money to employ tax inspectors to do the
job.
Gay no more
Simon Fanshawe
July 27, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_fanshawe/2007/07/gay_no_more.html
Oh hell, I have to come out again. Over 50 years after Peter
Wildeblood (how funny he was called Wilde too) became the first man to
say in public "I am a homosexual" at the Montagu trial, I have to
confess: I don't want to be "a homosexual" any more.
In the words of the Smashing Pumpkins, "I just want to be me"! I want
to come out of the closet that is "gay". It's 40 years to the day that
parliament partially decriminalised homosexuality. And now, hurrah for
kissing in public, civil partnerships, legal equality and all the
rest. How things have changed even since I came out, in 1976.
Endlessly now, I get asked on to chatshows and debate programmes to
discuss the state of homosexuality. Over a hundred years after the
wonderful Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde termed it "the love
that dare not speak its name", it has become the love that won't
bloody well shut up.
Not so special anymore
Ian Williams
July 27, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/07/brown_needs_a_bit_=
of_gray.html
No one with any sense takes as declarations of war the muted
declarations of independence from George Bush's policies that some of
Gordon Brown's new ministers have expressed.
There is something obsessively dysfunctional about this preoccupation
with a relationship that, rhetoric apart, is not so special at all.
The recent total fixation with it has cost Britain considerable clout
with the rest of the world, in the Middle East, and with the
Commonwealth, while failing to deliver influence in the European Union
commensurate with its size and power. After all, who wants to listen
to the dummy when you can contact the ventriloquist directly in
Washington?
What I will tell my son about cannabis
Horatio Clare
July 27, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/horatio_clare/2007/07/consider_it_from_=
the_plants.html
Consider it from the plant's point of view. At some point in its
evolution, cannabis discovered that giving animals a buzz was a great
way of ensuring the distribution of its seed.
It turns out that no animal likes a buzz as much as humans, who have
employed our legendary ingenuity in amplifying the high and
propagating the weed.
Of finance and philosophy
Harvey J Kaye
July 27, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/harvey_j_kaye/2007/07/francophone_philo=
sophy.html
"France is a country that thinks," Christine Lagarde, the nation's
finance minister, observed recently. But Lagarde did not speak
boastfully. She was not praising France's intellectual prowess or
proclaiming its literary hegemony, but calling her fellow citoyens to
the economic barricades.
"There is hardly an ideology that we haven't turned into a theory. We
have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come," she
insisted. As she sees it, the time has come to stop reflecting, to
stop theorizing: "I would like to tell you," she declaimed, "enough
thinking, enough prevaricating... Roll up your sleeves." Apparently,
the radicalism of the day calls not for fresh ideas, or even a rising
of the sans-culottes, but the mobilisation of the sans-manches.
Credulous intelligence
Clive Stafford Smith
July 27, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/clive_stafford_smith/2007/07/credulous_=
intelligence.html
Yesterday's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report on
renditions was surprisingly damning, in a polite British way, of the
behaviour of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
It is "regrettable", the ISC tells us, that the SIS did not secure
"assurances" from our American allies "regarding proper treatment" of
prisoners. There is a "reasonable probability" that UK intelligence
was used in torture chamber interrogations. And, when in possession of
crucial facts that could exonerate a prisoner, perhaps the SIS should
have revealed them.
Model behaviour from Ed Balls
Matt Foot
July 27, 2007 2:33 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_foot/2007/07/model_behaviour.html
I have to admit I never thought this day would happen - but there it
is, confirmed in the Mirror. Ed Balls, the new children's secretary,
has admitted what all his previous government ministers since 1998
have refused to admit: Asbos are a failure. I know you don't believe
me, so I'll quote him: "It's a failure every time a young person gets
an Asbo. It's necessary - but it's not right ... I want to live in a
society that puts Asbos behind us."
Ed Balls should be careful with such liberal talk. He is liable to
attack from Louise Casey, of the government's Respect unit, for being
a liberal professional who is "not living in the real world".
You can't shut down dissent
Paul Donovan
July 27, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/paul_donovan/2007/07/you_cant_shut_down=
_dissent.html
The audacity of BAA, in seeking an injunction to stop protesters at
Heathrow airport, is a reflection of a growing confidence among those
seeking to shut down dissent altogether.
The rationale for such action is to be found in the "war on terror", a
phrase that seems to be wheeled out every time an excuse needs to be
found to curtail civil liberties. There can be little doubt that BAA
has seen its chance to once again conjure up the spectre of terrorism
with the recent attack on Glasgow airport. What better excuse to
provide the background mood music for getting an injunction to ban a
legitimate airport protest?
Money worries
Angela Balakrishnan
July 27, 2007 1:32 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/angela_balakrishnan/2007/07/money_worri=
es.html
While yesterday's panic selling and plunges in world stocks made for
good headlines, the turmoil in financial markets was not a unique
event by historical standards.
The drops in the FTSE 100 and Dow Jones were certainly some of the
largest in terms of a one-day fall for five years. However, compared
to the 1987 market crash and May last year, when 500 points were wiped
of the value of shares in the FTSE 100 over a period of 10 days,
yesterday's events seemed merely a hiccup.
Gordon Ramsay's big fish heralds a new cynicism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2136604,00.html
It's entirely accidental, but the current bonanza of fakery may bring
unexpected benefits to the average punter
Marina Hyde
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Late afternoon, somewhere off the Devon coast, and a wetsuited Gordon
Ramsay emerges from the sea carrying a spear gun and a hefty fish.
Breathlessly, he grins at the camera, declaring: "I feel like a
fucking action man." Although I positively refuse to pick an absolute
favourite moment in the wave of fakery scandals rocking our fragile
nation, the discovery that this clip was a load of tripe would make
the top five.
Bush now must lay out the least worst options for Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2136613,00.html
The surge is not working, yet full-scale withdrawal would be
protracted and bloody. The search is on for a compromise
Martin Kettle
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
In the pre-Iraq years, attitudes to war on both sides of the Atlantic
were commonly framed by one of two radically opposed mythic
experiences. A supportable war was the sort embodied in Britain's
defiance of Hitler in 1940, whose lesson was that the right people
would win if they stood firm against evil. An unsupportable war was
encapsulated in America's rout in Saigon in 1975, whose lesson was
that conflicts were more complicated in practice.
Playtime for prejudice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2136612,00.html
From popular culture to politics, it's a great time to be gay - unless
you are still at school
Paul Flynn
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
It is a good time to be gay in Britain. Forty years on from the
legalisation of homosexuality, this country has very nearly embraced a
culture of acceptance. Say what you like about Tony Blair's legacy on
any number of international issues, under New Labour the nation has
moved steadily towards a radical equalisation of homosexual and
heterosexual rights. The change came in three critical instalments:
the reduction of the age of legal consent to 16; the scrapping of
Section 28; and the Civil Partnership Act, which confirmed that
homosexuality was not simply about sex, but also about love and
commitment.
Malcolm's final act
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2136614,00.html
I have no doubt my husband wanted his last moments to be filmed - for
the greater good
Barbara Pointon
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
If he had been able to speak, Malcolm would have said "go for it". All
his life he believed decisions must be based on the greatest good for
the greatest number. It is nonsense to suggest that the filming of my
husband's last moments meant his privacy was invaded - he had been
filmed for years in the past. Paul Watson's first film with us, which
documented the early effects of Alzheimer's, had been seen worldwide
eight years ago. Malcolm's story is in the public domain already.
The really bad girls
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2136606,00.html
Those who collude in the public degradation of gifted young women are
beneath contempt
Bidisha
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Who doesn't love to speculate about good girls gone bad? Well, people
who like and respect women don't. Nor do people who recognise that the
rules prescribing what constitutes a "good" female are bigoted and
hypocritical. A good girl is charming and comely, and never does
anything to upset the status quo. A good girl does not dare to
challenge the position society has put her in. A good girl is the
ideal helpmeet for a man, with neither a hair nor a thought out of
place.
Face to faith
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2136624,00.html
Studying the Inquisition can help to distinguish between the best and
worst of religion, says Toby Green
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
The Inquisition holds an odd place in the history of human
institutions. Virtually everyone has heard of it. It has become a
byword for barbarism, arbitrary cruelty and injustice. Yet it is also
one of those subjects which everyone seems to know of, but which few
people seem to know much about.
Many people, when pressed, fall back on the Monty Python sketch -
nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. This is no accident, for the
Inquisition was long subjected to a propaganda campaign among Anglo-
Protestants, as symptomatic of all the evils that the dreaded
"papists" had to offer. This began in the 16th century, when Spain was
the most powerful nation on Earth and greatly envied. Protestant
Europe's campaign to demonise Spanish power put the Inquisition at
centre stage. In this light, the ridicule of Monty Python becomes the
companion to moral outrage.
Chewing over Chomsky
John Freeman
July 27, 2007 1:24 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/chewing_over_chomsky.html
When all the hullabaloo over Harry Potter dies down chances are
Americans won't be reaching for Philip Pullman in large numbers. No:
if trends continue, they'll probably pick up a book of political
nonfiction instead.
As someone rightly pointed out in the comments on my last blog, more
and more readers have turned to nonfiction to undo the abracadabra of
official spin in Washington. In fact, for the past eight years,
current events and politics have led sales growth (with double digit
gains) at mega-chain store Barnes & Noble.
White House says to traders - don't panic
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2136510,00.html
Larry Elliott, economics editor
Friday July 27, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The White House tonight made a concerted attempt to inject fresh
confidence into the world's battered stock markets as share prices
suffered a fresh day of falls on fears that a looming credit crunch
will end an era of cheap funding for corporate takeovers.
With Wall Street down 100 points in early trading following Thursday's
311-point plunge, president Bush and his Treasury secretary, Hank
Paulson, downplayed fears of contagion from the crisis-ridden American
real estate market and claimed that the US economy was strong.
Blow for Virgin space programme as prototype rockets go up in smoke
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jul/28/spaceexploration
=B7 Propulsion system for hybrid craft blows up
=B7 Three workers killed and three wounded in blast
Ed Pilkington in New York and James Randerson
The Guardian Saturday July 28 2007
Richard Branson's plans to run the first commercial space flight
service were thrown into disarray yesterday after an explosion during
a test of the rocket's propulsion system left three workers dead and
three seriously wounded with shrapnel injuries and burns.
Witnesses at the world's first commercial spaceport at Mojave in
California, said the explosion was accompanied by a blast that sounded
like a 500lb bomb.
Suicide bomber kills 13 after Punjab police fire tear gas at
protesters near Red Mosque
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2136615,00.html
=B7 50 hurt in attack on day building opens after siege
=B7 Demonstrators pledge to start Islamic revolution
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
The shredded mustard uniforms and shrapnel-pocked helmets suggested
the Punjab police were the target of the blast that ripped through a
busy Islamabad market yesterday.
At least 13 people died and 50 were wounded in the attack, the latest
of a wave of bombs and sieges that have killed 300 people in the past
month.
Foetuses aborted and dumped secretly as India shuns baby girls
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2136618,00.html
Grim finds highlight issue experts say has led to loss of 10m girls in
20 years
Randeep Ramesh in Nayagarh, India
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
A hundred yards from a school playing field on the edge of Nayagarh, a
small town in eastern India, is an innocuous damp circular patch
covered with what appears to be sticks and stones.
A closer look reveals that the debris is shards of tiny skulls and
bones, all that remains of more than 40 female foetuses - aborted
because of their sex and then dumped in a disused well.
The secret tragedy of being conceived female in India burst into the
open this week with the grim discovery of the well, dug on land
earmarked for a private hospital - the Krishna clinic owned by an
obstetrician, Nabakirshora Sahu, and his wife, Savitha. The latter is
in custody but the medic is on the run.
Outrage as Kenya's MPs seek =A345,000 payoffs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2136605,00.html
=B7 End of term cash for 222 members will cost =A310m
=B7 Almost half of population lives below poverty line
Xan Rice in Nairobi
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Kenya's famously well-paid MPs have again provoked outrage with a plan
to pay themselves nearly =A345,000 each when their terms end in
December.
The proposed payments come on top of annual packages of at least
=A370,000, making them among the best-remunerated politicians in the
world.
Nearly half of Kenya's population lives below the poverty line.
Essential workers such as teachers and nurses are poorly paid.
The planned severance pay for the 222 MPs will cost the country more
than =A310m. Under the deal senior cabinet ministers, whose pay is
swelled by generous allowances and perks, stand to receive as much as
=A365,000 when they leave office.
Judges summon De Villepin after new evidence in smear scandal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2136669,00.html
=B7 Ex-PM repeats denial of smear plot against Sarkozy
=B7 Formal investigation into role in affair begins
Kim Willsher in Paris
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
The former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin was placed
under formal investigation yesterday over his alleged attempt to smear
rival Nicolas Sarkozy before the recent presidential election.
Mr de Villepin, 53, is accused of "complicity in making false
accusations" by judges investigating the scandal known as the
Clearstream affair. He was mis en examen, the first step towards
criminal charges, after evidence suggested he was responsible for
leaking false information claiming Mr Sarkozy had a secret bank
account in Luxembourg.
Southern Europe scorched as rain batters north
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2136601,00.html
=B7 Continent divided by two differing summer climates
=B7 Heat and floods both spell disaster for farmers
John Vidal and Kate Connolly
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Huge swaths of central and southern Europe were this week engulfed in
record temperatures, as other areas recorded their heaviest summer
rainfalls and farmers across the continent warned of impending food
shortages and price rises.
This summer Europe has been split by climate. Above a line roughly
running from the Pyrenees to Bulgaria, three humid months have been
punctuated by violent storms and enormous cloudbursts; but to the
south there has been a succession of heatwaves, each more intense than
the last.
US accuses Saudis of telling lies about Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,,2136687,00.html
=B7 First time administration has made concern public
=B7 Claims royal family is financing Sunni groups
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
The extent of the deterioration in US-Saudi relations was exposed for
the first time yesterday when Washington accused Riyadh of working to
undermine the Iraqi government.
The Bush administration warned Saudi Arabia, until this year one of
its closest allies, to stop undermining the Iraqi prime minister,
Nouri al-Maliki.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence
secretary, Robert Gates, are scheduled to visit Jeddah next week.
Reflecting the deteriorating relationship, the US made public claims
that the Saudis have been distributing fake documents lying about Mr
Maliki.
Six in 10 US BlackBerry users check emails in bed, survey findsEd
Pilkington in New York
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/28/blackberry
The Guardian Saturday July 28 2007
They're doing it in bed, in the bath and in the back of cars.
America's CrackBerry addiction has got worse.
A survey by AOL and Opinion Research of 4,025 Americans over the age
of 13 found that almost six out of 10 used their mobile email gadgets
in bed. Four out of 10 said they kept them nearby as they slept so
they could hear incoming mail. A similar proportion said they had
replied to emails in the middle of the night. A further 37% responded
to emails when they were driving.
Qatar VIP protest delays BA flight for three hours
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ba/story/0,,2136611,00.html
John Hooper in Rome
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
A row over the seating of the wives of a Gulf VIP held up a British
Airways flight from Milan for almost three hours, resulting in some 50
fellow passengers missing connections.
The trouble began when a party of seven from Qatar boarded BA's 3.55pm
flight from Linate airport to Heathrow. According to Italian media,
they consisted of two men, the three wives of the head of the group, a
cook and another servant.
All men over 50 should take drug to lower cholesterol, says heart
expert
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2136543,00.html
=B7 Blanket prescription of statins 'would save lives'
=B7 Caution urged by British Heart Foundation
Polly Curtis, health correspondent
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Every man over the age of 50 should be on a daily medication of
cholesterol-lowering drugs to protect against heart disease and
stroke, the government's heart tsar said yesterday.
Roger Boyle said that blanket prescribing of statins should also apply
to women from 60 or 65 to reduce the hundreds of thousands of deaths a
year from cardiovascular diseases. He acknowledged that such a move
would lead to accusations of a "nanny state" and that people would
resist being medicalised from the age of 50 or 60.
The battered dream
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2135053,00.html
With Zimbabwe on the brink of collapse, opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai is pinning his hopes on election strategies and democratic
development. But can that ever really be enough? Oliver Burkeman asks
him
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
When a country's inflation rate reaches 4,500%, things begin to happen
that are so surreal, so Alice In Wonderland, that for those looking on
from abroad, it's almost possible to forget that they are also
desperately tragic. A banana in Zimbabwe now costs as much as several
large houses did seven years ago. Some of the nation's poorest people
are multimillionaires: a night watchman, for example, might earn two
million Zimbabwean dollars a month, but that's too little to feed a
family - and in any case, four-fifths of adults have no job in the
legitimate economy. The elite still get to go golfing, but they pay
for their drinks before they start, because the price might have
rocketed by the end of the round. "What does 4,000% even mean? It's
hard to imagine," says Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition
leader, as if he can't quite grasp it himself. "It means that the
cooking oil you bought today, within three days may sell for three
times what you paid for it. That's what it means. And for the ordinary
person, who has no means? It means death. The kiss of death."
Watching the sun set
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2136136,00.html
The imposing figure of Churchill dominates Peter Clarke's The Last
Thousand Days of the British Empire, writes Jan Morris
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire
by Peter Clarke
560pp, Allen Lane, =A325
In July 1944, Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain,
proposed a meeting of the Big Three, the Anglo-American-Soviet
triumvirate that was presently to be victorious in the war against
Nazi Germany. His idea was that he, Roosevelt and Stalin should each
sail in his own battleship to an anchorage off Invergordon in
Scotland, where each would be provided with his own mansion on shore,
and the King of England could entertain them all at Balmoral.
The killing fields
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2136135,00.html
Michael Hodges' AK47 traces how the weapon became the Coca-Cola of
small arms, says Nigel Fountain
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
There was a hint, I thought, or wished, of a Russified Jack London in
the childhood and adolescence of Mikhail Kalashnikov. The expanses of
Siberia standing in for the Pacific north-west perhaps; there was an
old rifle for hunting in the woods; the mysterious gift of an American
Browning revolver, to be wondered at, taken apart and cherished; an
artisan's fascination with mechanical things; and even an epic trek,
500 kilometres from Nizhnyaya Mokhovaya back to Kalashnikov's
birthplace in Kurya, near the Kazakhstan border.
As the crow flies
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2136133,00.html
Andrew Motion finds poetry in Crow Country, Mark Cocker's attempt to
rehabilitate one of nature's most maligned birds
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Crow Country: A Meditation on Birds, Landscape and Nature
by Mark Cocker 216pp, Cape, =A316.99
The Brits have always loved birds, but rarely so much or so obviously
as now. Several newspapers - including this one - have recently
published handy identification charts; an amateur guide has appeared
in the bestseller lists; TV twitchers have taken to promoting seasonal
garden watches; the RSPB is flourishing. Why the sudden surge of
interest? It's partly a response to our increasingly urbanised lives:
wings over a city, let alone across the countryside, remind us of
ancient freedoms and connections. And it's partly a proof of larger
anxieties about the environment as a whole. Wherever we train our
binoculars, our focus is sharpened by a melancholy sense of
foreboding. If even that most commonplace small brown one - the
sparrow - is disappearing from some areas, what does that mean for
blackbirds and thrushes, wrens and robins? What familiar emblems of
home will we be left with?
Brain food
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2136134,00.html
Tom Jaine whets his appetite with Feast, Martin Jones's social and
evolutionary history of our eating habits
Saturday July 28, 2007
The Guardian
Feast: Why Humans Share Food
by Martin Jones 364pp, Oxford, =A320
While the archaeologists of our imagination used once to dig up pots
and pans, or hoards of coins and shimmering artefacts, today their
work revolves around the almost forensic analysis of bones, plant
remains and residues. It is breathtaking what they can learn from
these investigations, whether about the vegetation current at one
point in time, the ambient temperature over millennia, the likely diet
of any creature (whether a human, or indeed his prey whose bones were
discarded at the fireside), or the nutritional and medical history of
any subject careless enough to leave his or her skeleton lying about.
Pentagon backs down in row with Clinton over troop withdrawal
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2811638.ece
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 28 July 2007
The Pentagon has made its most explicit acknowledgement to date that
it is working on plans for an eventual drawdown of American troops in
Iraq as a matter of priority.
The admission, which followed pressure from Senator Hillary Clinton,
was contained in a conciliatory letter penned by the Secretary of
Defence, Robert Gates, and delivered by courier to Mrs Clinton. The
Pentagon has been embroiled in a week-long feud with Mrs Clinton and
it remains to be seen whether the letter will be enough to ease
tensions between them.
Spielberg may quit Games role over Darfur
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2811664.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 28 July 2007
Hollywood's most visible film director, Steven Spielberg, is
considering resigning his position as artistic adviser to the 2008
Olympic Games in Beijing unless China does more to distance itself
from the genocide in Darfur.
Spielberg has been working for several months to help put together the
opening ceremony for the Games, which are widely seen as a sort of
coming-out party for China's emergence as a world power. For several
months, too, he has come under pressure from Darfur activists, who
have accused him of cosying up to the country most directly involved
in trade with the Sudanese masterminds of the slaughter.
Gandhi & son: A family tragedy
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2811639.ece
As saintly father of the Indian nation, he is almost universally
venerated. But Mahatma Gandhi also knew bitter failure as a father.
Now, to widespread outrage, a new film is about to shed light on his
relationship with his first-born child, Harilal.
By Andrew Buncombe
Published: 28 July 2007
India is a country richly littered with sacred monuments, honoured
traditions and shrines to the many gods worshipped by its people. But
few things are held in such reverent awe as the memory of Mahatma
Gandhi, the father of the nation and the man rightly credited more
than any other with achieving the country's independence.
On the occasion of his death, in 1948, Albert Einstein said of the man
(whom he had never met but whose picture hung from his study wall):
"Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one
as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
Ministers are urged to reveal Burma links
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2811658.ece
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Published: 28 July 2007
Ministers are coming under increasing pressure to reveal which British
companies import goods from Burma amid a growing clamour of protest at
the appalling human rights abuses carried out by the country's
military dictatorship.
Campaigners, trade unionists and MPs demanded that the Treasury
release details of imports from the south-east Asian state, insisting
that consumers have a right to know whether goods, from gems to
clothing, come from the troubled country.
Venice holds its breath as the bridge to the future makes its first
appearance
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2811645.ece
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 28 July 2007
The boldest public works project to be tackled in Venice for many
decades came a big step closer to completion last night when the two
great side buttresses of Santiago Calatrava's new bridge for the city
were hauled up the Grand Canal.
While the city slept, a huge, purpose-built barge carried the two
prefabricated sections of the city's new bridge up the Grand Canal,
which was closed to all other traffic throughout the night. Each of
the two sections is 15 metres long and weighs 100 tons.
Hermione Eyre: Another helping of fried hamster? Yes please!
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2811627.ece
We British used to be stereotyped as cautious eaters when we went on
holiday abroad. Not any more
Published: 28 July 2007
Going on holiday is an art. It is not something we traditionally do
very well. But the caricature of the Brit Abroad is changing. Certain
of our qualities are timeless and set in stone, such as our facility
for acquiring sunburn almost instantaneously, our gift of ineloquence
in any language but our own, and our ability to fall off a camel
before we have even got on.
But in other ways the Brit Abroad has evolved radically. We are now,
according to a new survey (forgive me, folks, for those dread words,
but it is almost August), rated as the holidaymakers who are the most
adventurous eaters.
.
|
