Falling star
Roby Alampay
September 15, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/roby_alampay/2007/09/falling_star_.html
Joseph Estrada, the disgraced former president of the Philippines,
faces the prospect of spending his remaining years in prison after a
special court in Manila found him guilty of amassing around $15m in
bribes and kickbacks. During the 30 months he ruled his country, from
mid 1998 to the start of 2001, Estrada accepted payoffs from gambling
lords and orchestrated (with social security funds) sales of stocks,
channelling much of the profits into his personal aliased account.
Estrada literally defined plunder: as a senator in the early 1990's,
he was a member of the congress that crafted the law under which he
was convicted. For many Filipinos, there is more than enough poetry in
this fact, and certainly more irony than Estrada's action-comedy
movies of the 1960's ever mustered.
Suffering suffrage
Kat Christofer
September 15, 2007 1:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kat_christofer/2007/09/suffering_suffra=
ge.html
In the reputed birthplace of democracy, the Hellenic republic
resembles more of a monarchy, with the same two families of Papandreou
and Karamanlis taking turns on the throne for nearly two decades each
since the second world war. Since there are no term limits, no real
dissent along party lines and immunity from prosecution for anyone
serving in parliament, the theatre of dysfunction and corruption could
go on for a lifetime, passing the same problems back and forth,
blaming the former and never themselves.
Greek citizens could jump to another party, such as the Communist
(KKE), Left Coalition (Synasprismos), Democratic Socialist movement
(DHKKI) or anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-Turk party (LAOS) that
often aligns itself with a violent neo-Nazi group (Golden Dawn). Sound
appealing? It does to some since the latter looks set to win a seat in
parliament, which is an indicator of how desperate people are.
Imaginary gods are really immortal
Andrew Brown
September 15, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_brown/2007/09/imaginary_gods_are=
_really_immo.html
The news that Hindu fanatics have forced the withdrawal of an Indian
government report because it cast doubt on the existence of a deity
will obviously strike most people as a triumph for superstitious
nonsense. The important point, however, is that it's not irrational to
claim that any particular God exists just because it's simultaneously
nonsense. The two things are quite distinct, and sometimes
diametrically opposed.
Superstitious nonsense makes perfect sense if your purpose is to
demonstrate how powerful you are. Power can be demonstrated in many
ways; forcing your opponent to agree to something untrue is one of the
more common ones. But organised religions can do better than that.
They can demonstrate their political power by forcing victims to agree
something that couldn't possibly be true and this is a much more
effective demonstration, as any tyrant knows.
Why did the Hickman cross the road?
Leo Hickman
September 15, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/leo_hickman/2007/09/why_did_the_hickman=
_cross_the.html
"You must be out of your tiny minds."
The scolding tone of Alvin Stardust's voice as he dressed down two
girls for not watching what they were doing when crossing a road still
rings in my ears today. This public information film was on air when I
was learning the Green Cross Code as a young child, and it surprises
me to this day just how deep an impression a man with thick, jet-black
sideburns, wearing one leather glove, can have on a child's sense of
discipline and respect when confronted with a road.
Lamont beats Lieberman!
Michael Tomasky
September 14, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2007/09/lamont_beats_li=
eberman.html
A new poll came out yesterday in America about a political race that's
one of the fascinating polls I've seen in a long time.
Hillary Clinton drubbing Barack Obama? Fred Thompson surging over Rudy
Giuliani? Nope. In fact, this poll is on a race that voters already
decided last year.
From a distance
Conor Foley
September 14, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2007/09/from_a_distance.html
It is a shame that all of the armchair commentators on Iraq and
Afghanistan cannot be made to read Rory Stewart's Occupational Hazards
before they burden the rest of us with their opinions on what has gone
wrong in both countries.
Stewart worked for the post-invasion administration in Iraq, as an
acting deputy governor of two provinces, from September 2003 until
June 2004. This coincided with part of the time that I spent in
Afghanistan and our experiences also seemed to overlap. I recognised
several of the colleagues he mentions, who I have worked with
elsewhere, and also his own motivation in trying to help rebuild a
shattered country. Before stating anything else it seems necessary to
record that most people who take such jobs do it out of a genuine
belief that they can help make the world a better place.
Tied up in constitutional knots
Andrew Duff
September 14, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_duff/2007/09/tied_up_in_constitu=
tional_knots.html
The European Union is being forced into some strange constitutional
contortions because the British government is so intimidated by the
rampant nationalism of the Tory party and its hangers-on in the CBI,
the crustier layers of the civil service and the vast rightwing press.
The sheer laziness of the BBC and the Westminster parliament in
addressing the European dimension also contributes to the wave of
Euroscepticism that has swept the country at large.
Unfortunately, the ostensibly pro-European Liberal Democrats are not
being much help. They have yet to recover from their lapse of
concentration in 2004, which caused them to lead the call for a
referendum on the original constitutional treaty. This is a pity.
Unless pro-EU parties unite against populist sirens, it will be
difficult to settle Europe's constitutional problems. Gordon Brown is
wise, therefore, to follow the example of Nicolas Sarkozy in France
and insist on the parliamentary route to treaty ratification. Ming
Campbell should back him.
Hillary rolls along
Eric Alterman
September 14, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/eric_alterman/2007/09/hillary_rolls_alo=
ng.html
Is the Democratic nomination already Hillary's? Could be. In some
ways, it's a pretty simple calculation. She began with the support of
the Democratic establishment, at least a third of primary voters, a
big advantage with women, who make up the majority of these voters,
and by far the most experienced campaign organization. Though she's
been - rather amazingly - out-fundraised a bit by Barack Obama's
campaign, she's got all the dough she needs.
Last March a friend who's actually supporting Obama and has run many
campaigns marveled at the Clinton's campaign staffers' ability "to
swim in their own lanes." It takes enormous self-discipline for
Democrats to do that because it is a congenital condition of Democrats
(like reporters) to think they know politics better than anyone.
Herd immunity
Anne Perkins
September 14, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anne_perkins/2007/09/herd_immunity.html
This new outbreak of foot and mouth disease (two new cases now
confirmed) is already a drama, but it need not become the crisis as
long as the infection is not allowed to escalate into an epidemic.
Everything is in place to prevent it, but every day a decision is
deferred, the risk increases that the disease will spread to other
farmed animals or, worse still, to the deer that roam over large areas
of Surrey.
In the origins of this outbreak at the Pirbright research site lie the
obvious solution: vaccinate. I agree with Simon Jenkins at least on
that much, although I am less convinced that a vaccination programme
could be agreed on a cooperative basis between farmers with enough
speed and efficiency - while only someone whose soul belongs to the
18th century could so casually dismiss the government's role in
negotiating with the rest of Europe in order to minimise the damage to
agricultural exports.
Face to faith
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2169676,00.html
Thinking about the meaning of Ramadan has made me a better Christian,
says Chris Chivers
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
'You Christians used to fast much more, didn't you?" I was asked the
other day by my Muslim colleague Anjum Anwar, Blackburn Cathedral's
dialogue development officer. "Yes we did," I replied, explaining to
her something of the season of Lent, the 40 days of penitence and
renewal traditionally characterised by the self-denial of fasting:
"giving things up" as the somewhat unhelpful popular slogan puts it.
"We focus fasting in a month and a bit just as you do," I continued.
"But I'm not sure how rigorously people take the fasting itself these
days. They study harder, read the scriptures more systematically, pray
and reflect with considerable zeal, deny themselves luxuries,
chocolate and the like, but the fasting element seems more symbolic
than anything else."
Going, but unlikely to be forgotten - after the presidency, Putin
wants new role in public life
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2169659,00.html
=B7 Seeking third term would 'tinker with democracy'
=B7 Sharp criticism for White House's foreign policy
Jonathan Steele in Sochi and Luke Harding in Moscow
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, created fresh uncertainty
yesterday about who he wants to succeed him next spring when he warmly
praised Viktor Zubkov, the virtually unknown bureaucrat he appointed
this week as prime minister, and failed to mention either of the two
senior figures previously thought to be frontrunners.
At a meeting at his summer residence with the Guardian and a group of
foreign academics and journalists yesterday Mr Putin praised Mr
Zubkov, describing him as a "brilliant administrator and true
professional". He also said his friend and former colleague from his
days in St Petersburg could be a candidate for the presidential
elections in March, something Mr Zubkov has said is a possibility.
Proxy war could soon turn to direct conflict, analysts warn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2169797,00.html
US strikes on Iran predicted as tension rises over arms smuggling and
nuclear fears
Julian Borger and Ian Black
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
The growing US focus on confronting Iran in a proxy war inside Iraq
risks triggering a direct conflict in the next few months, regional
analysts are warning.
US-Iranian tensions have mounted significantly in the past few days,
with heightened rhetoric on both sides and the US decision to
establish a military base in Iraq less than five miles from the
Iranian border to block the smuggling of Iranian arms to Shia
militias.
Bhutto names day for return to Pakistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2169684,00.html
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
The former Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, said yesterday
that she would return home on October 18, ending eight years of exile
and adding a fresh frisson to the country's turbulent political scene.
At a rowdy Islamabad press conference Bhutto officials struggled to be
heard over fireworks as supporters threw rose petals and chanted "Long
live Bhutto! Prime minister Benazir!"
People Who Are Unhappy head for China. But will Les Mis be lost in
translation?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2169646,00.html
=B7 Impresario to takes West End hits to Beijing
=B7 Mandarin productions of musicals planned
Jonathan Watts in Beijing, and Maev Kennedy
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Britain gets the Terracotta Army, China is to get Les Miserables, Cats
and Mamma Mia! - let the world judge who got the better bargain. On
Monday in Beijing, the impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh will announce
that another revolution will be staged near Tiananmen Square; only
this time they'll be singing.
Having stormed every barricade in the western world, his production of
Les Miserables, based on Victor Hugo's novel set in 19th-century Paris
- which has been running in London for 21 years, and seen by an
estimated 51 million people in 38 countries - is heading east.
However, The Glums, as the show is known among theatre folk, will
become Bu Gao Xing de Ren - the people who are unhappy.
Articles of faith
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2169838,00.html
When two eminent US scholars wrote about the 'Israel lobby' they were
vilified by colleagues and the Washington Post. This week Barack Obama
joined the attack. Ed Pilkington hears their story
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Given the reception John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt received for
their London Review of Books essay last year on what they called the
Israel Lobby, it would have been understandable had they crawled away
to a dark corner of their respective academic institutions to lick
their wounds. Their argument that US foreign policy has been distorted
by the stultifying power of pro-Israeli groups and individuals was met
with a firestorm of protest that has smouldered ever since.
Sarkozy invites top architects to help shape presidential legacy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2169807,00.html
=B7 Leader invites world's best to museum opening
=B7 Speculation centres on =CEle Seguin in the Seine
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
His critics dismiss him as a philistine who watches American
blockbusters, listens to Elvis on his iPod while jogging and worships
the ageing French rocker Johnny Hallyday.
But Nicolas Sarkozy is to make his first grand gesture to the cultural
elite on Monday when he invites the world's top architects to advise
him how to leave his mark on France's modern landscape.
The British architect Norman Foster, whose landmarks range from
Berlin's Reichstag dome to London's "Gherkin", and Richard Rogers, who
co-built Paris's Pompidou Centre, will join 15 international stars
such as the Iraqi-British Zaha Hadid and France's Jean Nouvel to brief
the president on stamping his imprint on his cities' skyscapes.
He was as God to us, woman tells court at sect leader's rape trial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2169732,00.html
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
The key witness in the trial of the American polygamist sect leader
Warren Jeffs has testified that she had been indoctrinated to believe
she must obey church leaders to preserve her place in heaven. "We were
to follow them obediently as though we were led by a hair," she told
the court.
Jeffs is being tried in St George, Utah, on charges of rape as an
accomplice. If convicted he could spend the rest of his life in
prison.
'Expert' who made up interviews is exposed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2169698,00.html
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
American and French media yesterday were taking a second look at the
work of a so-called terrorism expert who faked his academic
credentials - and entire interviews with some of the world's most
prominent figures.
For six years Alexis Debat, who falsely claimed to have earned a PhD
at the Sorbonne and worked as an adviser to the French defence
ministry, operated as an expert on national security in the world of
Washington thinktanks, US network television and French intellectual
journals.
Bashir agrees to truce for talks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,2169679,00.html
Ian Black, Middle East editor
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Sudan is ready to observe a ceasefire when long-awaited peace talks on
Darfur open next month, President Omar al-Bashir pledged yesterday -
apparently meeting a key demand of rebel groups.
It was the first time that Mr Bashir had called for a ceasefire since
the announcement of UN-backed negotiations in Libya at the end of
October. "We have announced we are willing [to put in place] a
ceasefire coinciding with the start of the negotiations to create a
positive climate," the president said after talks in Rome with the
Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi.
'Dingo' mother backs parents
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2169824,00.html
Australian wrongly convicted of murdering baby sees 'mirror image' of
her ordeal
Esther Addley, Giles Tremlett and Brendan de Beer in Praia da Luz
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, the Australian woman wrongly convicted of
murdering her baby after telling police it had been snatched by a
dingo, has spoken out in support of the parents of the missing
Madeleine McCann, claiming they could suffer a similar miscarriage of
justice to her own.
Ms Chamberlain-Creighton, now 59, was jailed for life in 1980 after
her account of the disappearance of her two-month-old daughter,
Azaria, during a camping trip in the outback was dismissed by
Australian investigators. No body was ever found, but she was
convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence. The conviction was
overturned in 1988 after some of Azaria's clothing was discovered.
"What that couple are going through sounds like a mirror image to what
happened to me," she said yesterday. "Lie and tell us you did it, and
you can go free, tell us the truth and you can't, the police will be
saying."
Scientists recruit worms for fight against asthma
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/sep/15/healthandwellbeing
* James Randerson, science correspondent
* The Guardian
* Saturday September 15 2007
It sounds like something a medieval physician would prescribe to clear
up the pox, but 21st-century medical scientists are using
bloodsucking, parasitic worms to treat patients with asthma.
The researchers hope the worms could even prove effective against
conditions such as Crohn's disease, hay fever and multiple sclerosis,
in which the immune system overreacts. It is thought that, to save
themselves, the worms tone down the inflammatory part of the body's
immune response - and so may help counteract the symptoms of such
diseases.
Confronting the beast
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169200,00.html
David Grossman grew up in Israel in the 1950s, a place of whispers,
silences and people screaming in their sleep. From the moment he
decided to be an author, he knew he had to write about the Holocaust
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Despite the close relationship between Israel and Germany today - and
between Israelis and Germans, between Jews and Germans - even now
there is a place in one's mind and in one's heart where certain
statements must be filtered through the prisms of time and memory,
where they are refracted into the entire spectrum of colours and
shades. I was born and raised in Jerusalem, in a neighbourhood and in
a family in which people could not even utter the word "Germany". They
found it difficult to say "Holocaust", too, and spoke only of "what
happened over there".
Through the keyhole
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169214,00.html
In its 300-year history, the Society of Antiquaries has built up an
invaluable collection of artefacts. Loyd Grossman, a Fellow, on
changing views of the past
In pictures: A glimpse of the collection
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
In his famous Rede lecture of 1959, the scientist, civil servant and
novelist CP Snow lamented that scientists and humanists neither talked
to nor understood each other, and that the consequent "two cultures"
were damaging society. "I felt I was moving among two groups who had
almost ceased to communicate at all, who in intellectual, moral and
psychological climate had so little in common that instead of going
from Burlington House or South Kensington to Chelsea, one might have
crossed an ocean," he said.
The end of the world as we know it
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169201,00.html
Naomi Klein's critique of neo-liberalism, The Shock Doctrine, is both
timely and devastating, says John Gray
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
by Naomi Klein
576pp, Allen Lane, =A325
Over the past few decades, many of the ideas of the far left have
found new homes on the right. Lenin believed that it was in conditions
of catastrophic upheaval that humanity advances most rapidly, and the
idea that economic progress can be achieved through the devastation of
entire societies has been a key part of the neo-liberal cult of the
free market. Soviet-style economies left an inheritance of human and
ecological devastation, while neo-liberal policies have had results
that are not radically dissimilar in many countries. Yet, while the
Marxist faith in central planning is now confined to a few dingy
sects, a quasi-religious belief in free markets continues to shape the
policies of governments.
Read my labels
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169203,00.html
Veronica Horwell gorges on Dana Thomas' Deluxe, an investigation into
the modern attitude to luxury
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Deluxe
by Dana Thomas
376pp, Allen Lane, =A320
Now and again in this hectic, strident account of "how luxury lost its
lustre", there are descriptive passages with power. They're very
quiet. Dana Thomas remembers how in 1982 she shopped in Christian
Dior's old Avenue Montaigne store in Paris for perfume, which the
sales clerk "silently wrapped in sheets of matte grey paper without
tape or glue and tied up with white ribbon". She recounts a recent
visit to the Herm=E8s workshop in a Paris suburb to watch the assembly
of a Kelly bag, again in silence: one pair of skilled hands, two
needles, metres of linen thread, a skin of Crocodylus porosus from
Australia, or niloticus from Zimbabwe, or Alligator mississipiensis
raised on the firm's Floridan farm, two inspections of the finished
object. And there's a more conventional story of a raid by Chinese
cops on a tenement workshop in Guangzhou, to round up pathetic kids
pasting together fake bags: phoney Versace labels stashed in a tin, a
wordless child who punches his timecard on the way out, still hoping
to get paid.
Flab grab
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169204,00.html
Raj Patel illuminates the failures of the global food system in
Stuffed and Starved, says Felicity Lawrence
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the
World's Food System
by Raj Patel
438pp, Portobello, =A316.99
Unless you are a corporate food executive, the food system isn't
working for you. If you are one of the world's rural poor dependent on
agriculture for your livelihood - and roughly half the global
population of 6 billion fall into this category - you are likely to be
one of the starved. If you are an urban consumer, whether an affluent
metropolitan or slum-dwelling industrial labourer, you are likely to
be one of the stuffed, suffering from obesity or other diet-related
ills.
Joined-up solution
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169208,00.html
Martin Woollacott is impressed by Ghada Karmi's eloquent argument for
a single Israeli-Palestinian state, Married to Another Man
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Married to Another Man
by Ghada Karmi
315pp, Pluto Press, =A314.99
This is an important book that demonstrates with relentless lucidity
how terribly exhausted the diplomatic and political pursuit of a two-
state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become. The
title is taken from an 1897 report to the rabbis of Vienna on the
prospects for a Jewish state in Palestine. The report concluded that
"the bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man".
Palestine's spouse was of course the Palestinian society rooted in its
soil. The existence of any significant number of Palestinians within
the Jewish state, or under its authority, Ghada Karmi argues,
ultimately threatens a Zionist unravelling. Hence the Zionist dilemma:
how to keep the territory without the people or to keep it while
somehow negating the people.
Holy order
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169210,00.html
Stephen Bates's examination of religious influence on US politics,
God's Own Country, is an essential read, says Jonathan Bartley
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
God's Own Country: Tales from the Bible Belt
by Stephen Bates
400pp, Hodder & Stoughton, =A312.99
Stephen Bates's analysis will be a huge disappointment to those hoping
that when George Bush departs the Oval Office, religion will accompany
him.
At the last presidential election, whether a person regularly attended
a church was more important in determining which way they would vote
than age, gender, income or where they lived. Many have offered
explanations for this rise of the religious right. Others have studied
the formative role of Christianity in US history. This book combines
the two to uncover the characteristics found deep in the American
psyche that help to explain the dominant position religion occupies in
US politics today.
Saddam: my part in his downfall
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2169206,00.html
Richard Norton-Taylor on General Sir Mike Jackson's forthright but
patchy memoir, Soldier
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
Soldier: The Autobiography
by General Sir Mike Jackson
400pp, Bantam, =A318.99
This is a very readable, personal account by a man who rose to the top
of the army and gained a reputation for being a "no-nonsense"
commander. A towering figure, looked up to by the squaddies, Mike
Jackson had his feet firmly on the ground. In perhaps the most
dramatic episode of his career, recounted here with characteristic
verve, he told Wesley Clark, Nato's supreme commander: "Sir, I'm not
going to start world war three for you".
Howard Jacobson: When I argue on the side of Zionism, it is because it
seems intellectually right to do so
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/howard_jacobson/article2964=
526.ece
I take exception, ofcourse, to the idea that a Jew can think and feel
only one way about Israe
Published: 15 September 2007
"As a Jew," a reader from London W6 writes to tell me, "you can't be
expected to take a dispassionate view of the State of Israel." Nice of
him to be so understanding of my predicament. "But the fact is," he
goes on to explain, "that Palestine was stolen from the Arabs."
Thereby showing me what a dispassionate view looks like.
I take exception, of course, to the idea that a Jew can think and feel
only one way about Israel. There are examples in plenty of Jews who
think and feel differently from me, as indeed I often think and feel
differently from myself. I also take exception to the assumption that
a Jew holds the view he does only because he is a Jew. For one thing,
it predetermines the argument, making anything a Jew says on the
subject suspect. For another, it discounts the possibility, all round,
of arguing disinterestedly.
Terence Blacker: Capitalism v conservation: there's only one winner
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/terence_blacker/article2961=
236.ece
Published: 14 September 2007
Wildness is quite the thing right now. On TV, suburban makeover shows
have been supplanted by a new, hairier kind of fantasy in which man -
represented by Ray Mears, Bear Grylls or Bruce Parry - pitches his
wits against nature. Meanwhile, in the bookshops, the needs of
armchair adventurers are being answered by two new books, Roger
Deakin's Wildwood and Robert Macfarlane's The Wild Places, both of
which are selling briskly.
The demand for what are know as "Survive in the Wild" weekends has
never been higher. Yet by a process which is now so familiar that it
should have formal title - the Hypocritical Paradox, perhaps - fantasy
and reality are moving in diametrically opposite directions. The more
we dream about wildness, the more we allow it to be gobbled up by
development and human greed.
Robert Fisk: In the Colosseum, thoughts turn to death
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2964521.ece
Published: 15 September 2007
At midnight on Thursday, I lay on my back in the Colosseum and looked
at a pageant of stars above Rome. Where the lions tore into
gladiators, and only a few metres from the cross marking the place of
Saint Paul's crucifixion - "martyrdom", of course, has become an
uneasy word in this age of the suicide bomber - I could only reflect
on how a centre of cruelty could become one of the greatest tourist
attractions of our time. An Italian television station had asked me to
talk about capital punishment in the Middle East for a series on
American executions and death row prisoners. Two generators had melted
down in an attempt to flood the ancient arena with light. Hence, the
moment of reflection.
Readers with serious money may also like to know that it costs =A375,000
to hire the Colosseum for 24 hours, a cool =A310,500 just for our little
night under the stars. Yet who could not think of capital punishment
in the Colosseum?
Iraqi government has made no progress, US concludes
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2964471.ece
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 15 September 2007
The White House yesterday issued a new report admitting Baghdad had
made almost no new progress in achieving stability and reconciliation
between the country's feuding factions, just hours after President
Bush argued on national television for a continuing massive US troop
presence in Iraq.
The report suggests that over the last two months the Iraqis had
advanced on just two of the 18 so-called "benchmarks" to that end. As
such, the document underlines how difficult it will be for Mr Bush to
convince Americans that political progress is being made in Iraq -
claims already undermined by the murder, shortly before he spoke, of a
prominent tribal leader in Anbar province allied with the US against
al-Qa'ida.
Mystery deepens over Israeli strike on Syria
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2964474.ece
By Donald Macintyrein Jerusalem
Published: 15 September 2007
Israel is still maintaining official silence a week after Syria
complained that Israeli aircraft invaded its airspace in a mysterious
incident which raised tensions and triggered a welter of US media
speculation about possible targets for the operation.
Explanations - for what anonymous US officials have said was a strike
inside Syria - range from suggesting it was aimed at the shipment of
weapons to Hizbollah from Iran, to saying Syria may be building a
nuclear facility with North Korean help.
'The American forces cannot even protect their great ally'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2964470.ece
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published: 15 September 2007
The customers at the Shah Bandar caf=E9 were sombre and anxious as they
watched the news on television and talked about the repercussions of
the killing of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha.
The common consensus was that violence will escalate even further and
there was little chance of peace in the foreseeable future.
Rape trial of 'Polygamy Prophet' kicks off in USA
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2964476.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 15 September 2007
The leader of a fundamentalist Mormon sect, who is believed to have
more than 70 wives, yesterday denied being an accessory to rape when
he arranged the marriage of an unwilling 14-year-old girl to a man who
was already married. The trial of Warren Jeffs, the self-style
"prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Church of Latter Day
Saints, is the first concerted effort by officials in Utah and Arizona
to crack down on the culture of polygamy and anti-modernist teachings
which thrive in a bizarre community on the border between the two
states.
Jeffs succeeded his father as the leader of the sect in the twin towns
of Hilldale and Colorado City in 2002. He quickly fell foul of the law
because of his strict authoritarian rule and his extreme version of
the old Mormon belief in polygamy, which was abandoned by the
mainstream church as official policy years ago.
The case of the Guantanamo lawyer, the detainees and the illegal pairs
of pants
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2961328.ece
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 14 September 2007
For more than five years lawyers representing terror suspects at
Guantanamo Bay have been pressing the American government to disclose
the evidence against their clients.
Well now they have. And it doesn't make pleasant reading.
Tuareg rebels attack US plane as insurgency in Mali intensifies
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2961307.ece
By Claire Soares
Published: 14 September 2007
Tuareg rebels have opened fire on a United States military aircraft
that was flying in supplies for beleaguered Malian troops, pinned down
on the fringes of the Sahara Desert.
Mali's forces have been battling a Tuareg insurgency in the north of
the country in recent weeks after a spate of raids and ambushes. The
United States, worried that West Africa might become a haven for al-
Qa'ida and other Islamic militant groups, has been sending military
experts across the lawless unpoliced deserts of the Sahara for several
years to provide counter-terrorism training but this is believed to be
the first time the US military has lent a helping hand in a domestic
operation.
Saudi women to put their foot down on driving ban
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2961300.ece
By Terri Judd
Published: 14 September 2007
Women in the only country in the world which still bans women from
driving want to put their best foot forward - on the accelerator.
Saudi Arabia's newly established League of Demanders of Women's Right
to Drive Cars plans to deliver a petition to King Abdallah Bin Abd Al-
Aziz Al Saud, calling for their "stolen" entitlement of free movement
to be restored.
Kashmir's glacier opens to climbers as tensions thaw
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2961303.ece
By Jason Overdorf in Delhi
Published: 14 September 2007
Kashmir's treacherous Siachen glacier, battleground for the high-
altitude standoff between India and Pakistan - sometimes termed "the
coldest war" - is now set to become a tourist attraction.
In what has been pitched as a vote of confidence in a ceasefire that
began in 2003, the Indian army announced yesterday in Delhi that it
plans to open the 72 kilometre-long Siachen glacier to civilian
trekking expeditions.
Living off scraps: The West Bank's bitter harvest
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2961305.ece
To Israeli settlers on the West Bank, it's just the dump where their
rubbish ends up. To many Palestinians, it's the key to their families'
survival. Donald Macintyre reports from Ad Deirat
Published: 14 September 2007
The stench from the refuse dumped by the trucks arriving every four or
five minutes is pervasive, yet the men and boys sifting methodically
through the rubbish hardly even notice the acrid smell any more. They
are too busy looking through the discarded water bottles, bags soggy
with food remains and near-empty family-sized hummus cartons. For
along with discarded clothing it's the tin, steel and aluminium - cans
mostly, but also, when their luck is in, the odd rusting car axle or
broken toy bicycle - that earns the dozens of scavengers from the
southern West Bank town of Yatta what little living can be made here
by finding scrap saleable to dealers: often no more than 15 shekels
(or just under =A32) but on the best days up to 30.
They work in this isolated place from early morning, arriving seven or
eight to a car that has used the dirt roads to avoid the police
because it is so grossly overloaded and has no licence plates; or
walking the seven kilometres from the town; or by donkey. Once, says
Ali Lamoor, 19, he was so tired at the end of the day that he lay down
instead of going home and slept till morning, undisturbed by the
howling of the hyenas that, he says, prowl these arid and rocky hills
at night.
Fury as Mugabe, the unlikely pop star, storms the charts
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2961309.ece
By Ian Evans in Cape Town
Published: 14 September 2007
His country may be starving and the infrastructure collapsing, but the
83-year-old President, Robert Mugabe, has become an unlikely pop star
in Zimbabwe.
The embattled leader's voice has been sampled on a new record called
"Beitbridge" by an artist named Nonsikelelo, which state radio
stations have been told to play.
US blames 'outrageous' killing on al-Qa'ida
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2961319.ece
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 14 September 2007
Facing growing public anger over the Iraq conflict, George Bush
continued to insist last night that the surge against insurgents and
al-Qa'ida was working and that some US troops would be home for
Christmas. "Our success in meeting these objectives now allows us to
begin bringing some of our troops home," the President said in an Oval
Office address to the nation. "The more successful we are, the more
troops can return."
However, the assassination of Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha undermined
the assertion that security was improving. The killing was condemned
by the White House as an "unfortunate and outrageous act" in which al-
Qa'ida had a hand. "This is a sheikh who was one of the first to come
forward to want to work with the US," said White House spokeswoman
Dana Perino. "Remember, al-Qa'ida was killing some of the sheikhs'
children and put them in a cooler to deliver to the sheikhs."
The Big Question: Was Byron a 19th-century giant - or just an early
exponent of celebrity hype?
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2961242.ece
By Paul Vallely
Published: 14 September 2007
Why are we asking this now?
A new collection of writings and artefacts relating to the poet opened
yesterday at the John Rylands Library in the University of Manchester.
It is billed as the first cross-disciplinary attempt to assess Byron's
impact on European literature, music, art and politics. Its director,
Dr Alan Rawes, made some extraordinary claims at the opening.
The man who has been vilified as an over-sexed Regency dandy was in
fact, with the possible exception of Napoleon, "the most important
European in the first half of the 19th century". He was, Rawes said,
"bigger than Shakespeare".
2,000-year wait is over for Terracotta Army fans
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2961289.ece
By Arifa Akbar and Mark Hawey
Published: 14 September 2007
The queue appeared to have historic proportions. The visitors who had
gathered on the steps of the British Museum yesterday had come from
far and wide to be among the first to glimpse the ancient treasures
from the tomb of China's first emperor.
These were the stalwart Terracotta Army fans, including many who had
bagged a ticket for "The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army", when
they went on sale in February. Others had arrived empty-handed, in
hope to buy one of the extra 500 tickets being sold every day.
An audience with Putin, the leader who insists his work is nearly done
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2964468.ece
Speculation is growing that the Russian president will seek a third
term in office. It's nonsense, he tells Mary Dejevsky, in an audience
at his summer residence
Published: 15 September 2007
Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, sought to dispel once and for all
speculation that he might seek a third term in office, despite
mounting public pressure for him to do so. He also quashed
expectations that he would name - or even indicate - a favoured
successor, stressing that he intended to use every last second of the
last six months of his term to accelerate national infrastructure
projects.
He said that the new Prime Minister, Viktor Zubkov - whose appointment
was confirmed by the Russian parliament yesterday - was free to stand
for the presidency if he wanted to, but stressed that if he did, he
would be one of at least five candidates.
Switzerland naturalisation system attacked as racist
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2961294.ece
By Claire Soares
Published: 14 September 2007
The path to becoming Swiss is one paved with prejudice and racism,
according to a new study, and if you're Muslim or from the Balkans
then you face even more of an uphill struggle to call the Alpine
nation home.
A report from Switzerland's Federal Commission on Racial
Discrimination (CRF) found the naturalisation system to be flawed and
recommended wide-reaching changes.
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