The web of sex equality
Jenny Watson
June 13, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jenny_watson/2007/06/the_web_of_sex_equ=
ality.html
The Discrimination Law Review is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
look afresh at our anti-discrimination laws and create truly modern
legislation that tackles deep-rooted inequalities. But despite
yesterday's headlines, discrimination in private members' clubs isn't
the biggest challenge women face today. Yesterday's green paper is
about much more than that - the resulting single Equality Act will
form a blueprint for generations to come and the government's
consultation demands a serious response to urge more substantial
change.
Of course changing the law alone is never the answer. But law does
shape culture, so getting it right matters. Thirty years after the Sex
Discrimination Act, and partly as a result of it, our workplaces and
society have changed radically. Many mothers now work and fathers also
want to be more involved at home. Yet, as the Equalities Review
pointed out, women with children face intolerable barriers in
reconciling family and work life, and British men work among the
longest hours in Europe.
Greener pastures
Mick Fealty
June 13, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mick_fealty/2007/06/greener_pastures.ht=
ml
Today a draft agreement will go before a hastily assembled national
convention of Ireland's Green party which, its leadership hopes, will
to take them into office for the first time ever on Thursday.
A Green energy/environment minister in cabinet would bring focus to
important issues like energy security that have been largely neglected
on the Republic's way up the global ladder. It imports all of its oil,
for instance, which as the EU's third highest consumer of oil
represents a considerable economic vulnerability (pdf) in the face of
future rising fuel prices. Besides, a switch in spending priorities
that saw rising investment in public transport would be particularly
popular with gridlocked commuters in Dublin, Galway and Cork.
Got to have faith?
Andrew Copson
June 13, 2007 7:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_copson/2007/06/got_to_have_faith=
..html
Humanists in the last 10 years have watched with alarm the expansion
of the pro-religion agenda of the government and so you can see why
some Labour supporters of a more secular hue might be concerned about
the next 10 years. We do not know yet how the next prime minister will
respond to the difficult issues of religion and society which the
future is bringing, but Labour Humanists have quizzed the candidates
to be his deputy on the key issues, and published the answers they
received on their website.
The questions range from the place of Bishops in a reformed House of
Lords (Jon Cruddas, Hilary Benn, Peter Hain, and Harriet Harman all
favour an all-elected chamber with no Bishops as of right, but Johnson
only sees scope for reducing their numbers, and Hazel Blears wants to
keep them and introduce more religious representatives into the
chamber), to the views of candidates on assisted dying for the
terminally ill (Harman in favour, the others not so sure or not
answering), to the hugely important questions about religion and state-
funded schools.
A city divided
Seth Freedman
June 13, 2007 7:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/06/a_city_divided.ht=
ml
For all that it resembles a ghost town - deserted streets, boarded up
shops, abandoned homes - Hebron makes a hell of a lot of noise.
Whether it's the sporadic thud of tear gas canisters, the deafening
calls-to-prayer from the minarets, or the dirge-like chanting from
yeshiva classrooms, the ancient walls reverberate all day long to the
sounds of a city divided. A city so fractured that it required being
crudely bisected by concrete barricades. A city so holy that it can
never be relinquished by either side.
It was my sixth visit to Hebron in 12 months. For all that I hate the
place in its current form, I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
I've been there in various guises since moving to Israel - as a
religious worshipper, as a soldier, as a leftwing activist (twice) and
also as a tourist looking to buy a cheap carpet. But this time I was
going in undercover, just as I had in East Jerusalem with Jerusalem
Capital Development Fund (JCDF).
Serving justice
Simon Natas
June 13, 2007 6:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_natas/2007/06/serving_justice.html
The post-war Labour government established the four pillars of our
welfare state: the NHS, free education, social security and public
housing. Sixty years on, these institutions are rightly cherished and
any major attempt to reform them can expect to provoke much public and
media controversy.
The same government established the legal aid scheme (sometimes
described as the fifth pillar of the welfare state) having recognised
that equality of access to justice and the right to representation
before the law were as fundamental to the creation of a just society
as free healthcare and education. The scheme ensured that everyone who
needed a lawyer should have one, regardless of ability to pay.
Why Giuliani gets away with it
Francis Wilkinson
June 12, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/francis_wilkinson/2007/06/why_giuliani_=
gets_away_with_it.html
To the surprise of just about everyone, Rudolph Giuliani has yet to be
struck by the righteous lightning of the Republicans' God wing, a fact
that has led to speculation that the party may be prepared to lay down
arms in the long-running culture war. Giuliani, the former mayor of
New York City, is the first Republican in decades to muster an aura of
viability, if not exactly inevitability, while remaining apostate on
the core Republican values issues of abortion, gay rights and gun
control.
If the gambit succeeds - and it's still a long shot - it will be proof
that, among the Republican faithful, the fear of terrorism, Giuliani's
signature issue, trumps the fear of cultural dissolution. But even a
candidate like Giuliani, who has wrapped himself in 9/11, would not
have been able to retreat from the front lines of the culture war had
the enemy not already fled the field. And the Democrats have.
Calling the shots
Agnes Poirier
June 12, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/agnes_poirier/2007/06/calling_the_shots=
..html
Yesterday, the Times revealed that petanque, an elaborate version of
jeu de boules was suffering from the decline of civil behaviour in
France. Apparently, a new breed of players, the bouliganes, use their
boules to headbutt ("coup de boule" in French) their competitors
rather than beat them elegantly on the sandy pitch.
For me, playing boules only conjures up memories of bored afternoons
in Brittany. I never, for instance, thought of using my boules to
headbutt the seagulls on the beach, which could have, now that I think
of it, provided some excitement.
A preventable tragedy
Rahila Gupta
June 12, 2007 7:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rahila_gupta/2007/06/a_preventable_trag=
edy.html
The police, with unexpected humility, are busy crying mea culpa in the
fallout from the murder convictions of two Kurdish men, Ari and Mahmod
Mahmod, for the brutal strangulation of Banaz, a young woman, who had
"strayed", and therefore dragged her family honour through mud. All
she had done was leave a violent husband, to whom she was forcibly
married at the tender age of 16, and then fallen in love with a family
friend who was not a "good" enough Muslim.
Of course, humility is the only hiding place left for the police. Ever
since the murder of Heshu Yonez in 2002, in chillingly similar
circumstances, the police went on record for saying that the issue of
honour killing must be tackled. Commander Andy Baker of the
Metropolitan police set up a special taskforce to research the issue.
Five years later, we might be forgiven for expecting that the police
would be up to speed and ready for action. Since then, the only action
that has been taken, according to Hannana Siddiqui of Southall Black
Sisters, is the issuing of internal guidance to the force on honour-
based violence and better monitoring of such crimes.
Mission unusual
Ian Black
June 12, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_black/2007/06/mission_unusual.html
Arabs and Israelis are used to well-meaning visitors dropping by to
try to promote peace. So Farid al-Ghadry's mission to Jerusalem this
week is an extremely unusual one: here is an exiled Syrian politician
trying to persuade members of the Knesset not to respond to overtures
from Damascus about re-opening long-stalled negotiations. For there
can, he insists, be no peace with a tyranny, only a democracy.
With a message like that it was hardly surprising that doveish Israeli
MPs, both Arabs and Jews, were less than welcoming. "He came as a
wretched servant of the war-mongering agenda of the extreme right,"
was the trenchant verdict of Mohammed Barakeh. "Filth is bad but this
kind of American filth is the worst."
Disgrace on the Gonzales vote
Marcy Wheeler
June 12, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marcy_wheeler/2007/06/disgrace_on_the_g=
onzales_vote.html
The Republican Party just pissed away its claim to represent the rule
of law.
You can't blame them, really. Had the Republican Senators supported
the Democratic resolution of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales, then George Bush would have been forced to fire Gonzales -
or Democrats would have known they had the numbers to impeach him.
Fix yourself first
Emily Bell
June 12, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/emily_bell/2007/06/the_counter_cultural=
_view_of.html
The counter-cultural view of Tony Blair's lecture (pdf) painting the
picture of a degenerate media needing urgent fixing, would be to say
he has a point. Indeed, my colleagues Martin Kettle and Michael White
think he has. But whilst Blair talks about "life's greys" not being
represented in the black and white media world, he seems to be veering
into a universe where the collective noun for anecdote is "data".
Let's leave aside the fact that the only three people who have
directly lost their jobs as a result of untruths over the Iraq war are
the director general of the BBC, the chairman of the BBC and the
editor of the Daily Mirror (I can imagine Messers *****, Davies and
Morgan would have preferred the luxury of naming their own departure
date and delivering valedictories). There are still some areas where
accountability in public life and the media are strangely at odds.
Over to you, Sir Gus
Chris Ames
June 12, 2007 5:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/chris_ames/2007/06/over_to_you_sir_gus.=
html
Dear Sir Gus,
I hope you don't mind, but I thought that Gordon Brown's announcement
that you are to learn the lessons of the Iraq dossier debacle and
ensure that intelligence is, in future, protected from political
interference might be a good time to recap our recent correspondence.
You will remember that I first contacted you on April 18 over the
cabinet office's ludicrous suggestion that there might be intelligence
assessments of Iraq's ability to produce a nuclear weapon that had
fallen down the back of a filing cabinet, along with any record of
their existence. You will remember I observed that, implausible as
this claim was, it was perhaps designed to conceal a more disturbing
truth: that Tony Blair's claim to Parliament in September 2002 that
Iraq could get the bomb within "a year or two" was made up.
Laying down arms
Symon Hill
June 12, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/symon_hill/2007/06/laying_down_armsl.ht=
ml
There are many people who insist that campaigning never makes a
difference. Some seem especially keen to say this about issues of
peace, war and the arms trade. This month, they were proved wrong.
The top academic publisher Reed Elsevier has announced that it will
ditch its subsidiary business running arms fairs. This is in response
to a range of campaigning co-ordinated by Campaign Against Arms Trade
(CAAT) and involving academics and authors who write for Reed's
publications. Every media report of the decision attributed it to
campaigning. There can be no pretence that this is a result of
anything else. But this is not only a victory for grassroots activism.
It is a symptom of growing opposition to the arms trade amongst nearly
all sectors of British society.
Why women make better drivers
Carrie Gibson
June 12, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/carrie_gibson/2007/06/when_i_tee_off_fo=
r=2Ehtml
When I tee off for a round of golf, I know deep down that I will not
break a score of 100 for my 18 holes, and it is with the same weary
certainty that I brace myself for the response "you play golf?!" upon
mentioning to anyone that I actually enjoy the sport.
In a world where 17-year-old Michelle Wie can whack a ball better than
most men - on average 280 yards - and where female celebrities such
Catherine Zeta Jones show off their swing in charity tournaments
should it really come as a surprise that young women might like to get
their clubs out?
When the giving is easy
Linda Grant
June 12, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/linda_grant/2007/06/when_the_giving_is_=
easy.html
Late last Sunday night, feeling a little insomniac, I was reading the
news on the BBC website and found a report on the women's five-
kilometre fun run, Race for Life, in aid of Cancer Research UK.
Looking at the pictures, I thought: "I could do that." After all, you
didn't have to run the whole way or anything. I don't run, I have
never run, but recently my cousin Joy Pond died of breast cancer after
a long and remarkably cheerful battle with the illness and I felt that
it was the least I could do to have a go. So I signed up for 11 am, 21
July, in Regent's Park.
Brown's bane will be getting dragged into an American attack on Iran
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101440,00.html
If he is not going to suffer Blair's fate with Iraq, his most
important foreign policy task will be dissuading Washington
Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
In the deserts of Iraq on Monday, Gordon Brown was coy: he would give
no clue as to when British troops would be coming home. On current
plans, their number will fall to 5,500 by midsummer, but after that?
Brown wasn't saying. There will be high-minded, constitutional reasons
for his reticence. For 14 more days it's not his decision to take. But
it was politically convenient too. This way the Labour left is allowed
to nurse the hope that Brown is going to do a Zapatero - and, like the
Spanish leader, announce a dramatic, rapid pullout from Iraq, thereby
drawing the sharpest possible line between his new government and the
old. It's an appealing thought - but almost certainly a false one.
Who exposed this colossal bribery? Why, the feral beast
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101424,00.html
In any honest country the al-Yamamah participants would be in jail.
Blair might ponder this when he next attacks the press
Simon Jenkins
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Remember, any government scandal always turns out worse than first it
seems. Remember too that if it involves an assertion by the attorney
general, Lord Goldsmith, race to the kitchen and count your spoons.
I thought that little more could be squeezed from the Guardian's BAE/
Saudi corruption story until the BBC's revelation on Monday that long-
denied bribes had actually been countersigned by the Ministry of
Defence. Those who jeer at the ethical standards of foreign
governments should understand that these officials, were they in
Washington, would now be in handcuffs.
The Afghans are sick of our armies killing their people
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101419,00.html
The scale of civilian casualties at the hands of British and US forces
is losing us the war - as I know from experience
Leo Docherty
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Last year in Afghanistan, while serving with the British army, I sat
on the rooftop of our patrol base in the middle of Sangin, a small
town in Helmand province. Surveying the skyline of flat-roofed mud
homes and barren hills, I took stock of the situation. We had seized
and occupied Sangin a few days previously, wresting control of the
town from the Taliban. During our advance an 11-year-old boy was
killed in the crossfire, shot in the head accidentally by our allies,
the Afghan national army. Despite this we established our base in a
local government building, the district centre, and patrolled the
bazaar every day. We bought mangos and chatted to the locals - who
seemed ambivalent about our presence.
The emperor has spoken
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101420,00.html
His support for Kosovan independence exposes Bush's naked Balkan
ambitions for all to see
Neil Clark
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
So that's that, then. After a meeting with the Italian prime minister
Romano Prodi at the weekend, President Bush announced that it was time
to bring the issue of Kosovan independence "to a head". In other
words, Kosovo should become independent even without the approval of
the UN security council. Now the emperor has spoken, is there really
any point discussing the future of the disputed Serbian province any
further? Well yes, actually, there is.
Blair still doesn't get it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101423,00.html
The prime minister grossly underestimates the role of politicians in
changing media coverage
Peter Wilby
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
If Tony Blair needs a new career, he could possibly cut it as a media
columnist. His speech to the Reuters Institute yesterday, in which he
analysed how the media now cover politics, echoes points frequently
made by myself and other commentators. It is indeed true, as Blair
says, that the media face intense competitive pressures; that
commentary trumps facts; that a politician's error always becomes part
of a venal conspiracy; and that hidden meanings matter more to the
media than what a politician actually says.
It's better in the flesh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101418,00.html
Social networking sites don't foster meaningful communication. They
are a complete waste of time
Zoe Williams
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
The young are doing it, so it must be worth doing - join Facebook! You
put your little face in, or not, if you can't work out how to do it.
Other people who've done the same can now claim you as a "friend".
Facebook emails you, to ask if they're really your friend. Depending
on your mood, you can accept or reject these tendrils of
companionship. Upon accepting, the person might message you with some
sort of goodwill and you'll chat away, and then realise you've had
their email address for ages anyway, so if you wanted to chat that
much, why not just email each other?
We won't help disabled people by forcing them to change jobs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2101661,00.html
The Remploy factory closures will narrow options for those wanting to
return to work, says Ray Fletcher
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Your leader column stated that the recently announced plan to close
Remploy factories would "widen access", and asked whether this was
really "bad news" for disabled people who want to work (Disability in
the workplace, May 28).
It is absolutely correct to highlight the positive steps this
government has taken in promoting the rights and inclusion of disabled
people in society and in the labour market. The article was also right
to point out that "a quiet revolution may have begun, but is still
very far from complete". Much more needs to be achieved, though,
before we can say that every disabled person who wants to work is in a
job.
A state of ill health
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2101446,00.html
Sicko, Michael Moore's latest film, lambasts the failures of America's
overwhelmingly private healthcare service. As the cases highlighted
here by Ed Pilkington further show, if you're poor or lack insurance,
you'll find yourself at the mercy of the world's most expensive
medical system
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
This is a public health warning. If you are the chief executive of the
Humana or Aetna health insurance companies, if you are a medical
lobbyist on Capitol Hill, oh, and if you are Hillary Clinton, you have
just two more weeks of normal life left.
Michael Moore is coming to get you. Flush from the hurricane of
devastation that the film-maker wrought on General Motors (Roger and
Me), the gun lobby (Bowling for Columbine) and the Bush administration
(Fahrenheit 9/11), his next target is the American health service, or
what passes for one. Sicko will blast its way across the United States
on June 29. Judging from the reception it received at Cannes last
month, it promises to be explosive.
Dishonourable acts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2101449,00.html
Banaz Mahmod was murdered by her family. Each year, 12 British women
like her die in 'honour' killings. Why aren't we doing more to save
them? By Emine Saner
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Unlike many women under the threat of "honour" violence, Banaz Mahmod
didn't suffer in silence. In December 2005 and January 2006, this 20-
year-old Kurdish-born woman from south London told police at least
four times that threats had been made on her life. She had left an
abusive arranged marriage and started a relationship with another man,
and, as a result of this, she believed her father wanted to kill her.
She even wrote a list of young Kurdish men she suspected he had hired
to carry it out.
Secret UN report condemns US for Middle East failures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2101677,00.html
Envoy's damning verdict revealed as violence takes Gaza closer to
civil war
Read Alvaro de Soto's end of mission report
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem and Ian Williams in New York
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
The highest ranking UN official in Israel has warned that American
pressure has "pummelled into submission" the UN's role as an impartial
Middle East negotiator in a damning confidential report.
The 53-page "End of Mission Report" by Alvaro de Soto, the UN's Middle
East envoy, obtained by the Guardian, presents a devastating account
of failed diplomacy and condemns the sweeping boycott of the
Palestinian government. It is dated May 5 this year, just before Mr de
Soto stepped down.
Villagers revolt as Bohemian hilltop set to be eyes and ears of 'star
wars'
Pentagon space shield plan raises stakes with Russia - and local
Czechs
Ian Traynor in Brdy
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
When empires come to the Czechs, their armies invariably come to Brdy.
The sprawling closed military area of 266 hectares (660 acres) in the
rolling hills of western Bohemia is used to unwelcome visitors. Hitler
pronounced this stretch of central Europe a Nazi "protectorate", and
the Wehrmacht used the Brdy training ranges as a playground, expelling
many local people.
The Red Army invaded what was then Czechoslovakia in 1968, setting up
camp deep in the forests of Brdy. And when the cold war turned warmer
in the Euro-missiles crisis of the 1980s, the Kremlin trundled its
SS-20 nuclear-tipped rockets around Brdy while it mulled over which
western European cities to aim for, for a spot of mutually assured
destruction.
Australia hosts theatre of war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2101653,00.html
Barbara McMahon in Sydney
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
A record 27,500 American and Australian troops, along with a carrier
battle group, 30 ships, two nuclear submarines and more than 100
aircraft, are gathering in Queensland for a massive military exercise.
Exercise Talisman Sabre, which will see troops in land, sea and air
operations, has already attracted the ire of peace and environmental
activists. Military sources said the three-week exercise would test
airborne operations, amphibious landings and new military equipment,
including communications as well as lightweight combat backpacks for
women.
DNA database agreed for police across EU
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,2101686,00.html
=C2=B7 New law heralds world's biggest biometric system
=C2=B7 Police to share information on visa applicants
Ian Traynor in Luxembourg
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
A battery of police data-sharing and electronic surveillance measures
to tackle trans-national crime and immigration issues was agreed
yesterday by governments in Europe, 15 of which also gave the green
light to a scheme for the world's biggest biometric system.
The system will store and allow sharing of data such as the
photographs and fingerprints of up to 70 million non-EU citizens
applying for visas to enter Europe,
Interior ministers from all 27 EU countries also agreed on automatic
access to genetic information, fingerprints, and car registration
details in police databases across the union.
Bush loses track of timepiece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2101639,00.html
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
"Street crime is fairly common ... Criminals do not deliberately
target US citizens or other foreigners, but seek targets of
opportunity and select those who appear to have anything of value.
Pick-pocketing is widespread." The US state department's advice for
travellers to Albania is presumably not intended for the leader of the
free world being escorted by a phalanx of bodyguards.
But yesterday, it appeared that what was meant to be the crowning
moment of George Bush's trip to Europe for the G8 summit - a chance to
meet and greet, to glad-hand the crowd in a rare sympathetic corner of
Europe - had been spoiled by an ordinary thief.
Serb leader receives 35 years in jail for crimes against humanity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/serbia/article/0,,2101528,00.html
Ian Traynor, Europe editor
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
A former policeman who became the leader of the Serbian insurgency in
Croatia in the 1991-95 war was sentenced to 35 years' jail yesterday
for overseeing the murder of hundreds of elderly people and civilians
and bombing a hospital.
Milan Martic, a Serbian rebel leader from Croatia who became
"president" of the breakaway Serbian Krajina Republic, was found
guilty at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on 16 counts of war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
Air force looked at spray to turn enemy gay
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2101644,00.html
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Make love not war may be the enduring slogan of anti-war campaigners
but in 1994 the US air force produced its own variation on the
philosophy.
What if it could release a chemical that would make an opposing army's
soldiers think more about the physical attributes of their comrades in
arms than the threat posed by the enemy? And thus the "gay bomb" was
born. Far from being the product of conspiracy theorists, documents
released to a biological weapons watchdog in Austin, Texas confirm
that the US military did investigate the idea. It was included in a CD-
Rom produced by the US military in 2000 and submitted to the National
Academy of Sciences in 2002. The documents show that $7.5m was
requested to develop the weapon.
Water stops flowing for Rome's fountains
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2101612,00.html
Tom Kington in Rome
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Rome's most important fountains are drying up after the 2,000-year-old
Roman-built underground aqueduct that supplies them was smashed by
workmen laying foundations for a garage.
The 18th century Trevi fountain and Bernini's Fountain of the Four
Rivers in Piazza Navona are no longer being fed by the 13-mile
"Virgin" aqueduct after concrete foundations laid in the city's
exclusive, outlying Parioli district crashed into a buried section of
the ancient channel, creating a three-metre gash and blocking it with
rubble.
Sudan's breathtaking migration
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,2101666,00.html
Scientists find vast herds of antelope and gazelle in what could be
one of the greatest natural events on Earth
Ed Pilkington in New York
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Scientists believe they have discovered the biggest migration of wild
animals on Earth, with an aerial survey revealing vast herds of
gazelle and antelope on the move in southern Sudan in a region which
had been assumed to have been denuded of its wildlife by years of
civil war.
The Wildlife Conservation Society, together with the autonomous
government of South Sudan, announced at a press conference in New York
yesterday that a study of the area's fauna had revealed an abundance
of antelope, particularly of white-eared kob, in breathtaking numbers.
Flying over an area of about 590,000 sq kilometres, scientists
witnessed a column of animals in their seasonal migration through
grasslands and swamps that was 50 miles (80 km) long and 30 miles
across.
Ethnic minority jurors favour black defendants 'to level playing
field'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,2101628,00.html
=C2=B7 Perceived bias of court system provokes leniency
=C2=B7 Individual views do not alter verdicts, study finds
Sarah Hall
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian
Black and ethnic minority jurors show more leniency to black
defendants than their white counterparts in court, research
commissioned by the Ministry of Justice revealed yesterday.
The first study to look at how race affects verdicts in this country
has found that black and minority ethnic (BME) jurors are
"significantly less likely" to convict a black defendant than a white
defendant on a non-race-related charge.
Explosions destroy Shia shrine minarets
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2652413.ece
PA
Published: 13 June 2007
Insurgents today blew up the two minarets of the famous Golden Dome
Shiite shrine in Samarra, where a 2006 bombing unleashed a wave of
sectarian violence that bloodied Iraq for more than a year.
The attack occurred at about 9 am local time, despite a police
presence at the site, officials said.
Bali bombings terror leader arrested in Indonesia
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2652162.ece
AP
Published: 13 June 2007
Indonesian police have arrested the alleged leader of Jemaah
Islamiyah, the south-east Asian terror group blamed for the 2002 Bali
nightclub bombings and a series of other attacks in recent years.
Abu Dujana, Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militant, was detained
along with seven other suspected terrorists in raids on the country's
main island of Java over the weekend, said police spokesman Sisno
Adiwinoto.
Hamas seizes Fatah base as bloody battles push Gaza towards civil war
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2651057.ece
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 13 June 2007
The fate of the increasingly powerless Palestinian national unity
government was hanging by a thread last night after another day of
brutal fighting between the two main factions in Gaza brought the two-
day death toll to at least 36.
Hamas said it had seized control of the northern Gaza headquarters of
the large Fatah-dominated national security force. A protracted and
bloody battle was fought between 200 of its gunmen, firing mortars and
grenades, and up to 500 security force members holed up inside left.
At least 12 were killed and 30 injured. More than two dozen jeeps
carrying Fatah reinforcements to the battle failed to get through
roadblocks manned by Hamas gunmen.
The defiant Afghan women promised a better life who refuse to be
victims
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2651049.ece
By Terri Judd in Lashkar Gah
Published: 13 June 2007
In a filthy corner of a clinic in Lashkar Gah, a heavily pregnant 12-
year-old lies wailing at a curt, dismissive doctor. Down the road some
of the thousands of widows in the area beg in the mud. In the local
hospital, women lie recovering from the horrific burns of failed
suicide attempts. The brave new world promised by Tony Blair,
President George Bush and Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai,
appears not to have reached the women of Helmand.
When asked whether life was better now than under the Taliban, Fowzea
Olomi, 40, the director of the women's centre, laughs: "The Taliban
have gone?"
Embassy calls time on mystery of Bush's missing watch
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2651273.ece
By Helen McCormack
Published: 13 June 2007
The people of Albania so revere George Bush that they prepared for his
recent visit by awarding him the country's highest medal, renaming a
street, giving him honorary citizenship and mobbing him on arrival.
And then one, it seems, stole his watch.
Video footage has emerged showing the President on a recent visit amid
a rapturous crowd, gleefully shaking hands with surely one of the most
enthusiastic foreign audiences he had met in some time, during which
his watch mysteriously disappears from his left arm.
Barak claims poll victory for Labour leadership
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2651058.ece
By Donald Macintyre
Published: 13 June 2007
The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak claimed victory last
night in the race to lead the Labour Party after exit polls predicted
a narrow victory.
Although the polls, showing Mr Barak gaining narrow majorities of 50.5=C2=
=AD
52 per cent, were within a margin of error, early results showed him
ahead of his rival, the former intelligence chief Ami Ayalon.
Race for the White House: Could a latter-day Reagan save the
Republican party?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2651048.ece
Faced with defeat in Iraq, America may be tempted to turn to a
presidential candidate whose straight-talking tough-guy persona they
admire - a latter-day Ronald Reagan. Who cares if he's an actor so
long as he's convincing? Leonard Doyle reports from Washington on the
rise of Fred Thompson
Published: 13 June 2007
On 16 July 1973, with a nation glued to its TV sets, Fred Thompson, a
young lawyer with a Tennessee drawl, asked the damning question at the
Watergate hearings that would ultimately drive Richard Nixon from the
White House in disgrace: "Are you aware of the installation of any
listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?"
By a twist of fate, Hillary Clinton, also a lawyer, was also in the
room working for Nixon's impeachment. Nearly 34 years later, the two
lawyers, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, have every chance of
being their party's nominees for the 2008 US presidential election.
Civilians in remote areas suffer most from rising violence, says Red
Cross
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2651050.ece
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Published: 13 June 2007
Escalating violence in Afghanistan is having an increasingly deadly
impact on civilians caught in the fighting, according to the Red
Cross.
Five and a half years after the overthrow of the Taliban by US-led
forces and the election of Washington-backed President Hamid Karzai,
civilians in the country are more than ever at risk from insurgents'
roadside explosions and suicide attacks and bombing raids by coalition
forces.
Legal Opinion: Iraqi civilians must be granted British justice
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2650963.ece
The House of Lords will today rule on the application of the Human
Rights Act in Iraq. Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, considers the
differing legal opinions
Published: 13 June 2007
The Government will find it more difficult to resist calls for a full
and independent inquiry into the war in Iraq should the House of Lords
today uphold the Court of Appeal judgment that the Human Rights Act
applied to cases of Iraqis killed in British custody.
Human rights lawyers believe that such an inquiry will need to
consider the legal context of the war and the subsequent legal advice
given to British soldiers during the occupation.
Poland threatens to dig in over revised EU treaty
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2651065.ece
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 13 June 2007
Poland warned yesterday that it would block any attempt to impose a
"quick fix" replacement for the de-railed European constitution in
Brussels next week.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Polish Prime Minister, said that he wanted to
start lengthy new talks on voting rights. This was one of the most
bitterly contested issues in the negotiations on the draft
"constitution", blocked by the French and Dutch two years ago.
Claim that =C2=A31m El Cid sword is a forgery provokes a duel of words
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2651055.ece
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
Published: 13 June 2007
The modern-day clash over a sword that once belonged to Spain's
medieval hero El Cid may become as legendary as the warrior's fighting
skills.
Authorities in the knight's home region recently snapped up La Tizona
- not just a weapon, but a potent national symbol - from a Spanish
aristocrat for a steely =E2=82=AC1.6m (=C2=A31m), planning to put it on sho=
w next
to El Cid's tomb in Burgos cathedral.
Simon Kelner: Would you be saying this, Mr Blair, if we supported your
war in Iraq?
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2651061.ece
'Opinion and fact should be clearly divisible. The truth is, a large
part of the media today not merely elides the two but does so now as a
matter of course. In other words, this is not exceptional. It is
routine. The metaphor for this genre of modern journalism is The
Independent newspaper. Let me state at the outset it is a well-edited,
lively paper and is absolutely entitled to print what it wants, how it
wants, on the Middle East or anything else. But it was started as an
antidote to the idea of journalism as views, not news. That was why it
was called The Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper, not
merely a newspaper. The final consequence of all this is that it is
rare today to find balance in the media.'
Tony Blair, Prime Ministerspeaking yesterday
Published: 13 June 2007
Most days The Independent speaks for itself. We like to think that we
do our little bit to make sense of an often bewildering world. But
today is different: our editorial approach, and the values that
underpin it, have come under attack from the Prime Minister, Tony
Blair.
In a wide-ranging speech on politics and the media, he singled out
this newspaper as a metaphor for the corrosive relationship between
the public and the body politic, and on behalf of our journalists, and
more particularly our readers, we felt it would be wrong to let his
assertions go unchallenged. The Independent, he said, "is absolutely
entitled to print what it wants, on the Middle East or anything else.
But it was started as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views,
not news. That was why it was called The Independent. Today it is
avowedly a viewspaper, not merely a newspaper. The final consequence
of this is that it is rare today to find balance in the media."
.
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