It’s commonplace that news networks keep at least one outspoken personality on hand for the buzz, and it’s been shown to work. Whether it be sports or world news, these newscasters may come across as dumb, have irritating voices, or be completely out of their minds, amongst other things.
Posts Tagged ‘World news’
Berlusconi’s stay in hospital continues
December 17th, 2009 |
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Rome: After a man with a history of psychological problems broke Silvio Berlusconi’s nose and two teeth, the latter is in pain and having trouble eating and will stay in the hospital at least until Thursday.
Berlusconi suffered when a souvenir metal statuette of Milan’s cathedral was hurled into his face at close range at a [...]
Sean Smith joins troop patrol in Helmand
August 4th, 2009 |
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Award-winning photographer Sean Smith joins an Operational Mentor Liaison Team (OMLT) on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan
Guardian Daily: Purdy on assisted suicide
August 1st, 2009 |
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The Guardian’s Maggie O’Kane on evidence of possible collusion by Iraqi government officials in the kidnapping of five British men in Iraq – four of whom are believed dead.
Debbie Purdy on her historic legal victory to get clarification on whether her husband would be prosecuted if he joined her should she wish to end her life.
The Guardian’s Steve Morris joins former solidiers paying their respects to the soldiers who have died in Afghanistan.
And Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is joined by the Guardian’s Stuart O’Connor to talk about his new project and his appearance at this weekend’s BBC Proms.
Iran begins trials of activists who protested election
August 1st, 2009 |
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Up to 100 defendants accused of violence in aftermath of disputed presidential election appear in Tehran court
The first trials of opposition political activists and protesters arrested after June’s disputed Iranian presidential election began today.
Up to 100 defendants were reported by Iranian media to be appearing before a court in the capital, Tehran, accused of violence following the 12 June vote.
The election sparked days of protests as thousands of Iranians took to the streets to denounce the official results, which declared victory for the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The official IRNA news agency said the defendants were charged with rioting, attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system.
Under the country’s Islamic law, acting against national security – a common charge against dissidents – could be punishable by a long sentence or even the death penalty.
Several prominent reformist opposition activists – including the former vice president Mohammat Ali Abtahi, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, a former government spokesman, and Behzad Nabavi, an ex-vice Speaker of parliament – are among the defendants.
The Associated Press said the former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of Iran’s biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, were also facing trial.
Photographs from the courtroom showed a Abtahi and Mirdamadi, wearing prison uniform, sitting in the front row. Many other defendants were handcuffed but were not wearing prison clothes.
Prosecutors read out an indictment outlining what they alleged was a year-long plot by leading pro-reform political parties to carry out a “velvet revolution” – a popular, non-violent uprising to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
The phrase comes from the peaceful 1989 velvet revolution which overthrew decades of communism in Czechoslovakia.
The prosecutor said three of the biggest opposition parties had taken money from foreign non-governmental organisations and sought to use the election controversy as an opportunity to carry out their plot, according to a transcript reported by IRNA.
He claimed Israeli and western officials had spoken in recent years of fomenting revolution in Iran.
“Based on the evidence obtained and well-founded confessions of the defendants, these events had been planned in advance and stages of the velvet revolution were carried out in accordance with a time schedule,” the indictment said.
IRNA did not give information about how many defendants were in court, but the semi-official Fars news agency said more than 100 were present.
State media did not provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end and when a verdict could be expected.
The reformist mowjcamp website denounced the trial, saying defendants had no access to lawyers and there was no jury.
“Do those who organised this show trial think that the nation will remain silent to slaughter the nation’s best?” it asked.
Iran’s opposition maintains Ahmadinejad stole the vote from the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, but demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed, leaving hundreds in prison.
Yesterday, Ahmadinejad said the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was like a father to him.
The president accused his hardline rivals of trying to drive a wedge between him and the man who sits at the top of Iran’s clerical leadership and has final say in all state matters.
On Monday, Khamenei will lead a ceremony formally approving Ahmadinejad’s second term. He will be sworn in before parliament two days later.
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Former Philippines president dies
August 1st, 2009 |
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Obituary: Pro-democracy leader who toppled Ferdinand Marcos
Corazon Aquino, the former president of the Philippines who ushered in democracy after two decades of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos, has died aged 76.
She died after losing a 16-month battle with cancer, her son Senator Benigno Aquino Jr said.
Aquino had been diagnosed with colon cancer and confined to a Manila hospital for more than a month. Her son said the cancer had spread to other organs and she was too weak to continue her chemotherapy. “Our mother peacefully passed away of cardio-respiratory arrest,” Aquino Jr, told reporters in Manila. “She would have wanted us to thank each and every one of you for all the prayers and your continuous love and support. It was her wish for all of us to pray for one another and for our country.”
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is on an official visit to the US, said: “The entire nation is mourning.” She declared 10 days of official mourning and announced a state funeral would be held. Joseph Estrada, another former president of the country, said: “Today our country has lost a mother.” He described Aquino as “a woman of both strength and graciousness.”
Despite her ill health Aquino, a devout Catholic, had up until very recently kept up public appearances and was a regular at weekend mass.
She came to power after leading a “people power” revolt against Marcos and sustaining democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years.
“I don’t know anything about the presidency,” she said in 1985, a year before she agreed to run against Marcos, uniting the opposition, the business community, and later the armed forces to drive the dictator out. Her decision to run followed the assassination of her husband, Ninoy Aquino. He rose from provincial governor to senator and finally opposition leader. But Marcos, who had been elected president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 to avoid term limits. He abolished legislature and jailed Aquino’s husband and thousands of opponents, journalists and activists without charges. Aquino became her husband’s political stand-in, confidant, message carrier and spokeswoman.
A military tribunal sentenced her husband to death for alleged links to communist rebels but, under pressure from then US president Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed him to leave in May 1980 for heart surgery in America. After three years in exile he returned to the Philippines to regroup the opposition but was shot dead descending the stairs from the plane.
A week later Aquino led the largest funeral procession Manila had seen. With opposition mounting against Marcos, Aquino stood against him in elections and was sworn in as the country’s first female leader on 25 February 1986. The 1986 uprising ended a repressive 20-year regime and inspired non-violent protests across the world, including those that ended communist rule in eastern Europe.
Over time, the euphoria faded as the public became impatient and Aquino struggled to build alliances to push her agenda.Her leadership was labelled indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.
“People used to compare me to the ideal president, but he doesn’t exist and never existed. He has never lived,” she said in 2007.
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Britons arrested in Brazil ‘granted bail’
August 1st, 2009 |
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Two law graduates arrested over allegations they fraudulently claimed to have been robbed ‘have had passports confiscated’
A judge in Brazil has granted bail to two British law graduates who were arrested over allegations that they fraudulently claimed they had been robbed, their lawyer said today.
Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner, both 23, must stay in the South American country as part of their bail conditions and their passports have been confiscated, reports said.
The pair, who both studied at the University of Sussex, were originally denied bail because they were foreigners, their lawyer, Renato Tonini, said.
Following an appeal, Andrews and Turner were told yesterday that they would be released from custody.
Speaking from Rio de Janeiro today, Tonini said: “Yes, they have been granted bail. They will be released today, but I don’t know what time.”
The women are reported to have been transferred from the squalid Polinter jail, south of Rio de Janeiro, to another prison in which they have their own cell.
They had been forced to sleep in overcrowded conditions, with just a blanket on the floor, at Polinter.
The pair told police in the Brazilian city that belongings worth £1,000 had been stolen during a bus journey.
They were taken into custody at dawn on Monday after officers from a specialist tourist support unit apparently became suspicious that they had waited several days before reporting the alleged theft to police.
The Rio de Janeiro state civil police website said the Britons had tried to register a robbery of baggage and documents and claimed they had been attacked.
A subsequent search of their lodgings, in Copacabana, allegedly uncovered some of the belongings they had originally told officers had been stolen.
Tonini said he was “confident” Andrews and Turner would be dealt with fairly by the Brazilian justice system following concerns voiced by Simone Headley, Andrews’s mother, last week.
“We hope the Brazilian justice system will see it as a misunderstanding and the girls will be able to come home safely,” she said.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it had not yet been informed that the women had been granted bail.
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24 hours in pictures
July 28th, 2009 |
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UK and US ready to talk to Taliban
July 28th, 2009 |
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A concerted effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys was outlined yesterday in a significant change in tactics designed to bring about a breakthrough in the attritional, eight-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Senior ministers and commanders on the ground believe they have created the right conditions to open up a dialogue with “second-tier” local leaders now the Taliban have been forced back in a swath of Helmand province.
They are hoping that Britain’s continuing military presence in Helmand, strengthened by the arrival of thousands of US troops, will encourage Taliban commanders to end the insurgency. There is even talk in London and Washington of a military “exit strategy”.
Speaking at the end of the five-week Operation Panther’s Claw in which hundreds of British troops were reported to have cleared insurgents from a vital region of Helmand province, Lieutenant-General Simon Mayall, deputy chief of defence staff, said: “It gives the Taliban ‘second tier’ room to reconnect with the government and this is absolutely at the heart of this operation.”
The second tier of the insurgency are regarded as crucial because they control large numbers of Taliban fighters in Pashtun-dominated southern Afghanistan. The first tier of Taliban commanders – hardliners around Mullah Omar – could not be expected to start talks in the foreseeable future. The third tier – footsoldiers with no strong commitments – are not regarded as influential or significant players.
The change in tactics was revealed as the Ministry of Defence announced that two more British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan. One, from the Light Dragoons, was on patrol in Operation Panther’s Claw; the other, a soldier from the Royal Artillery, was killed on foot patrol in Sangin. Ten soldiers have died in Operation Panther’s Claw.
Mayall is responsible for formulating operational policy in Afghanistan and his remarks gave added weight to interventions by senior ministers yesterday.
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, yesterday held out the prospect of reconciliation between the Afghan government and Taliban fighters prepared to renounce violence.
For more than a year, British intelligence officers have been instigating contacts with Taliban commanders and their entourage. But their task has been very delicate given the sensitivities of the Karzai administration in Kabul.
The situation has been complicated further by the influx of hardline and ideologically motivated fighters joining the Taliban and other insurgent groups from across the Pakistani border.
But the fact that senior ministers and military commanders seized on the apparent success of Operation Panther’s Claw to highlight the possibility of talks with the Taliban reflects their concern about the lack of progress so far in Nato’s counter-insurgency. Significantly, and as if to counter public aversion to talks with the Taliban, ministers and military commanders alike compared the current campaign in southern Afghanistan to anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland.
A ComRes poll in today’s Independent suggests most people now believe British troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan. Most of those who responded (58%) said the Taliban could not be defeated militarily, and 52% of those surveyed said troops should be withdrawn immediately. This compares with a Guardian/ICM poll earlier this month which showed that 42% of those surveyed wanted troops to be withdrawn immediately.
America’s priorities in Afghanistan will be spelled out in a briefing paper drawn up by General Stanley McChrystal, the new US commander in the country, due to be handed to Barack Obama tomorrow.
He will emphasise the need for speeding up the training of Afghan troops, according to defence sources. He is also expected to ask for more troops from Nato allies. British military commanders are drawing up contingency plans to increase the number of British forces to more than 10,000 from the current 9,000.
Asked whether he needed more troops, Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of British troops in Helmand, replied: “I have enough forces to do what I set out to do in Panther’s Claw.”
The number of British troops that might be deployed in future was “out of my hands”, he said. But he added that as the number of Afghan army recruits increased, the number of Nato forces required to train them also increased.
Miliband’s call for talks with more moderate Taliban elements was echoed later by Gordon Brown, who said: “Our strategy has always been to complement the military action that we’ve got to take to clear the Taliban, to threaten al-Qaida in its bases – while at the same time we put in more money to build the Afghan forces, the troops, the police.”
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Mediation urged to stop G20 violence repeat
July 28th, 2009 |
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Independent negotiators should settle disputes between police and protesters to stop a repeat of the violence at the G20 summit where thousands of demonstrators were contained for hours using the controversial tactic of kettling, a parliamentary inquiry proposes today.
The report, by the joint committee on human rights, says police and demonstrators were to blame for failure to communicate in advance of the protests in the City of London in April.
It calls on the government to consider introducing a system of independent mediation – modelled on Acas, the body which settles industrial disputes – to improve dialogue in the run-up to protests.
The Met’s handling of the G20 protests has been under sustained criticism since the death of Ian Tomlinson, the 47-year-old newspaper vendor, who collapsed after being attacked by an officer who was not wearing his badge number. The committee said it noted “with concern” that the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is still investigating Tomlinson’s death, has received 277 additional complaints about the Met’s operation.
The report said trust in the police could be “seriously damaged” if officers were not held to account. Wearing of police badge numbers was “crucial to ensuring that the police are accountable for their actions”, and should be made a legal requirement, it said.
In recent weeks, the Met has been criticised by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, the official police watchdog, which said in its interim findings that there should be a national overhaul of the public order guidance given to police forces, and the home affairs select committee, which suggested the G20 protests exposed how officers had not received sufficient training.
All three inquiries have found serious failings in the Met’s containment of protesters using the tactic known as kettling, near the Bank of England. They also noted that the technique had been recently ruled lawful by the law lords in some circumstances. That decision is being appealed against at the European court of human rights.
Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the home affairs committee, will today come out against the use of kettling for the first time, saying it is “a very worrying tactic” that is potentially dangerous and should be abandoned.
“I personally am against it because I think the containment of people in those circumstances will lead to situations where either the public, somebody who is ill wants to come out of the kettle, or members of the press who have I think a right to be wherever they want to be in a protest of this kind, can’t come out,” he says in today’s episode of BBC Radio 4′s The Long View. Asked by the presenter, Jonathan Freedland, if he wanted to see the back of it, Vaz replies: “I would”.
Today’s report refers to evidence from Tom Brake MP, who attended the protest as a legal observer and witnessed police refusing to give permission to leave to a man who needed to care for his 83-year-old mother and a diabetic who needed to get insulin. The committee said facilities such as food and water were not available to protesters who, when leaving the kettle, were searched and asked for their details. While kettling could be “useful and lawful in some circumstances”, the implementation of the tactic at the G20 “did not give sufficient weight” to the human rights of individuals being contained, it said.
Andrew Dismore MP, the committee’s chairman, said: “I think police just saw this protest as trouble, not a demonstration that they had a legal obligation to try and facilitate. “There were obvious problems with this policing operation. While kettling may be a helpful tactic, it can trap peaceful protesters for hours.”
He added there was “huge mistrust” between police and protesters in the days leading up to the demonstration, and an independent broker could in the future help resolve disputes.
The report also said the media and not police were at fault for “talking up the prospect of violence and severe dirsuption” ahead of the protests, and called for the Met to release its report into the death of Blair Peach, who is widely believed to have been killed by Met officer at a demonstration in 1979.
The Met and the Association of Chief Police Officers said they were reviewing their approach to policing protests and would take note of the report.
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World will warm faster than predicted
July 28th, 2009 |
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New estimate based on the forthcoming upturn in solar activity and El Niño southern oscillation cycles is expected to silence global warming sceptics
The world faces record-breaking temperatures as the sun’s activity increases, leading the planet to heat up significantly faster than scientists had predicted for the next five years, according to a study.
The hottest year on record was 1998, and the relatively cool years since have led to some global warming sceptics claiming that temperatures have levelled off or started to decline. But new research firmly rejects that argument.
The research, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, was carried out by Judith Lean, of the US Naval Research Laboratory, and David Rind, of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The work is the first to assess the combined impact on global temperature of four factors: human influences such as CO2 and aerosol emissions; heating from the sun; volcanic activity and the El Niño southern oscillation, the phenomenon by which the Pacific Ocean flips between warmer and cooler states every few years.
The analysis shows the relative stability in global temperatures in the last seven years is explained primarily by the decline in incoming sunlight associated with the downward phase of the 11-year solar cycle, together with a lack of strong El Niño events. These trends have masked the warming caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
As solar activity picks up again in the coming years, the research suggests, temperatures will shoot up at 150% of the rate predicted by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Lean and Rind’s research also sheds light on the extreme average temperature in 1998. The paper confirms that the temperature spike that year was caused primarily by a very strong El Niño episode. A future episode could be expected to create a spike of equivalent magnitude on top of an even higher baseline, thus shattering the 1998 record.
The study comes within days of announcements from climatologists that the world is entering a new El Niño warm spell. This suggests that temperature rises in the next year could be even more marked than Lean and Rind’s paper suggests. A particularly hot autumn and winter could add to the pressure on policy makers to reach a meaningful deal at December’s climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen.
Bob Henson, of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, said: “To claim that global temperatures have cooled since 1998 and therefore that man-made climate change isn’t happening is a bit like saying spring has gone away when you have a mild week after a scorching Easter.” Temperature highs and lows
1998
Hottest year of the millennium
Caused by a major El Niño event. The climate phenomenon results from warming of the tropical Pacific and causes heatwaves, droughts and flooding around the world. The 1998 event caused 16% of the world’s coral reefs to die.
1957
Most sunspots in a year since 1778
The sun’s activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle. The late 1950s saw a peak in activity and were relatively warm years for the period.
1601
Coldest year of the millennium
Ash from the huge eruption the previous year of a Peruvian volcano called Huaynaputina blocked out the sun. The volcanic winter caused Russia’s worst famine, with a third of the population dying, and disrupted agriculture from China to France.
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Guardian Daily: New UK torture claims
July 27th, 2009 |
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Huddersfield businessman Alam Ghafoor claims that British intelligence were complicit in his torture in Dubai. Helen Carter reports.
Senior sports figures cast doubt over London’s Olympic legacy, as the Guardian’s sports news correspondent Owen Gibson explains.
A new report by the House of Commons transport committee says rail companies are taking passengers for granted. Transport correspondent Dan Milmo has the details.
Ed Pilkington in New York discusses the future of Sarah Palin as she steps down as the governor of Alaska.
And arts correspondent Mark Brown on a rare Peter Sellers film.
Militant group issues threat over Bruno film
July 27th, 2009 |
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A Palestinian militant organisation that was ridiculed in the new Sacha Baron Cohen film has threatened to “respond in the way we find suitable” against the London-born satirist.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, has condemned the film, Bruno, in which Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashionista, as “part of a conspiracy” against them. There was no comment from Cohen.
In the film, Cohen attempts to get himself kidnapped and arranges a meeting with Ayman Abu Aita, who, it is claimed, is a leader in the Martyrs Brigade, which is designated as a terrorist group in the US and European Union. While promoting the film, Cohen spoke of the clandestine meetings at shadowy locations and bodyguards required to set up the scene.
Cohen tells Abu Aita: “I want to be famous, and I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me,” before adding: “Al-Qaida are so 2001″. He then advises Abu Aita to shave off his moustache, “because your King Osama looks like a kind of dirty wizard or homeless Santa”.
According to Abu Aita and the Martyrs Brigade, Abu Aita is not a member of the organisation, although he reportedly has had links in the past. He is a political representative for the Fatah party in Bethlehem and a board member of the Holy Land Trust, a non-governmental organisation promoting Palestinian rights with a commitment to non violence. He said it took a couple of phone calls for Cohen to locate him, and that the meeting was held in a private section of a popular restaurant.
While Abu Aita is pursuing legal action, the Martyrs Brigade issued a statement, through Jerusalem-based journalist Aaron Klein, of the WorldNetDaily website, saying: “We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man. The movie was part of a conspiracy against the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
“According to what we checked, there was no meeting about the real context of the film. This was a dirty use of our brother Ayman.” The statement added Abu Aita was not a member of the Brigades. “And we don’t accept that the name of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is part of the film”.
Abu Aita has said he does not carry weapons, and the person who accompanied him to meetings with Cohen was not a bodyguard but the American manager of the Holy Land Trust.
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US choreographer Merce Cunningham dies
July 27th, 2009 |
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New York choreographer Merce Cunningham crossed artistic barriers and stretched the parameters of dance
Merce Cunningham, the iconoclastic choreographer whose career spanning more than six decades crossed artistic barriers and stretched the parameters of dance, has died in New York aged 90.
As news of his death on Sunday spread, he was hailed as one of the towering figures in art of the 20th century. The New York Times dubbed him the “greatest living artist since Samuel Beckett”.
Cunningham founded his Manhattan-based dance company in 1953 and continued as an influential figure until weeks before his death. He appeared in every performance of the company until he was 70, and last danced on stage aged 80.
Earlier this year, at the occasion of his 90th birthday, he presented a new 90-minute work, Nearly Ninety, with music by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.
Working with his long-term collaborator and partner, John Cage, who died in 1992, he set about freeing dance from its restrictive conventions. He detached his choreography from music and from story lines, letting it stand in its own right.
At times he would throw coins or dice to decide the flow of movements, and ended the unwritten convention that dancers face the audience.
He also took dance out of its box, linking it to other mediums, notably contemporary art. He worked closely with Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.
Shortly before his death he established a trust in his name. Last month, he explained: “My idea has always been to explore human physical movement. I would like the Trust to continue doing this, because dancing is a process that never stops, and should not stop if it is to stay alive and fresh.”
Trevor Carlson, director of the Cunningham Dance Foundation, said “Merce saw beauty in the ordinary, which is what made him extraordinary. He did not allow convention to lead him, but was a true artist, honest and forthcoming in everything he did.”
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Swine flu could fuel rise in litigation
July 27th, 2009 |
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• Experts warn workers who contract virus could sue
• Businesses have been advised on staff welfare
Businesses could face a spate of legal claims from employees hit by swine flu, experts warn, as concerns mount that firms are not prepared to deal with legal issues arising from affected staff.
Personal injury, health and safety, and negligence claims are all likely, according to employment lawyers, as litigation has continued to rise during the recession.
“I can absolutely see claims in personal injury being brought by employees who say they contracted swine flu at work,” said Stephen Robinson, partner in employment law at Davies Arnold Cooper.
Caroline Doran, partner in employment law at Sprecher Grier Halberstam, said: “If employers don’t take some steps to consider what will happen if someone is affected, there are a myriad of health and safety and duty of care regulations that would come into play.”
Employers are already seeing increasing litigation by employees, with almost 190,000 employment tribunal claims last year, an increase of 43%. Lawyers say people most vulnerable from the pandemic – including pregnant women and those suffering disabilities – are particularly likely to sue if they can show adequate precautions, such as flexible working, were not offered by their employers.
“Once an employer knows an employee is pregnant, it has a duty to conduct a risk assessment and make arrangements to protect her safety and the safety of her baby whilst she is at work,” said Claire Dawson, employment lawyer at Russell Jones & Walker.
Last month the Cabinet Office organised a business advisory network for flu, with representatives from 130 business and groups warning of the likely rates of absenteeism as the pandemic spreads.
The news comes as lawyers warn that compared with ordinary seasonal flu outbreaks, the scale of the swine flu pandemic places a high duty of care on employers to take precautions for their staff. The government, however, said it had fully advised businesses about such measures.
“We have certainly done everything we can to provide information to business on what they can do to avoid the pandemic,” a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said. “We have stressed the importance of contingency planning but operational decisions are up to individual businesses.”
The effects of swine flu on businesses have already caused alarm among many, with the chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, John Wright, predicting a 5% fall in GDP this year. The news comes as a campaigning organisation said that new European regulations limiting doctors’ hours should be suspended to help the NHS deal with swine flu.
“Millions have been spent on staff call-centres using non-medical staff to diagnose and prescribe,” said Richard Marks, head of policy at Remedy. “But at the same time they are reducing doctors’ working week by one full day. It’s probably the worst time in living memory to do this.”
The Department of Health said there would be flexibility if necessary. “Healthcare staff can work longer hours when they need to. During national emergencies there are special provisions … for emergency situations,” said a spokesman.
The Conservatives claimed that there is “huge variation” around the country in the number of collection points for antiviral drugs. In 10 primary care trust areas, there are more than 30, they said, while in 47 PCTs, there is just one. The shadow health minister, Stephen O’Brien, said the figures raised questions about the government’s handling of swine flu.
The Department of Health said the number of collection points was increasing rapidly, from 330 when the pandemic flu service opened on Thursday, to 1,149 yesterday. “People in need of antivirals are able to get them quickly and conveniently and it is freeing up GPs to look after patients in risk groups as well as those with other illnesses,” said a statement.
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Amnesty condemns Nicaragua abortion ban
July 27th, 2009 |
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Amnesty report details shocking effects of country’s penal code which criminalises abortions in all cases
Nicaragua’s ban on all abortions, even when a woman’s life is at risk, is compelling incest and rape victims to give birth and contributing to an increase in maternal deaths, according to a report from Amnesty International.
Delegates from the human rights charity, who recently visited the predominantly Catholic country, say young girls subjected to sexual violence by family or friends are forced to give birth even when they are carrying their own brothers and sisters.
The report also says the law has led to a recorded rise in pregnant teenagers committing suicide by consuming poison.
Official figures show 33 girls and women died in pregnancy in the past year, compared to 20 in the previous year, it says. But the numbers are feared to be greater as the government itself has acknowleged incidents of maternal deaths are under-recorded.
Abortion was a key issue for the 2006 presidential election, won by former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. The former revolutionary, who once supported abortion rights, mobilised his supporters behind a campaign for a blanket ban on terminations, which was signed into law just before he took office.
Previous to that, “therapeutic” abortions were allowed in certain circumstances where continuation of the pregnancy was life-threatening.
The new penal code, introduced in July last year, enshrined the criminalisation of abortion, regardless of circumstance, with prison sentences for women who undergo abortions, and the medical staff who help them.
It also introduced criminal sanctions for doctors and nurses who treat a pregnant woman or girl for illnesses such as cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids or cardiac emergencies if such treatment could cause injury to or lead to the death of the embryo or foetus.
“There is only one way to describe what we have seen in Nicaragua ‑ sheer horror,” Kate Gilmore, Amnesty International’s executive deputy secretary general, told a press conference in Mexico City. “Children are being compelled to bear children. Pregnant women are being denied essential life saving medical care.”
She added: “What alternatives is this government offering a 10-year-old pregnant as a result of rape? And a cancer sufferer who is denied life-saving treatment just because she is pregnant, while she has other children waiting at home?”
Amnesty said the law goes as far as punishing girls and women who have suffered a miscarriage, as in many cases it is impossible to distinguish spontaneous from induced abortions.
The charity is calling for the immediate repeal of the penal code, and a guarantee of safe and accessible abortion services for rape victims and women whose lives or health would be at risk from the continuation of pregnancy. It also wants protection for those who speak out against the law, and “comprehensive” support to be given to women and girls affected by it.
The report, The total abortion ban in Nicaragua: Women’s lives and health endangered, medical professionals criminalised claims the law is in conflict with the Nicaraguan obstetric rules and protocols issued by the ministry of health, which mandates therapeutic abortions in specific cases.
The church has been seen as a powerful force behind the ban in a country where an estimated 85% of the population is Catholic. Just 3% of the world’s countries, including El Salvador and Chile, have such an absolute ban in place.
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New claim of UK torture complicity
July 27th, 2009 |
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Papers suggest intelligence service knew men were being mistreated
A businessman who was held and mistreated in the United Arab Emirates following the London bombings believes he has evidence that British consular officials asked permission from the UK’s own security services to visit him while he was detained.
Heavily redacted documents seen by the Guardian appear to indicate that the request to visit Alam Ghafoor was made to an unidentified British intelligence officer and not to officials in the UAE.
Ghafoor is one of several British men who allege there has been British complicity in their detention and torture while abroad. The businessman, who is 38 and from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was detained and tortured while on a business trip to Dubai following the London bombings in July 2005.
Ghafoor and his business partner, Mohammed Rafiq Siddique, flew to the UAE on 4 July. They were dragged out of a restaurant as they dined on 21 July. The two British Muslims say they were threatened with torture, deprived of sleep, subjected to stress positions and told they would be killed and fed to dogs.
Ghafoor has obtained copies of correspondence from consular officials to the Foreign Office in London while he was in custody that show those officials were asking someone other than the UAE authorities for permission to see him. Who that person is, and who they represented, is unclear, as their name was censored before the copies were handed over. Some of the reports were so heavily redacted by the time Ghafoor received them that the only words not blanked are his name.
In one email, dated 25 July, 2005, a consular official wrote: “Today I phoned [name withheld] trying to get permission to see them. First [...] told me that there was no need because they would be deported soon. I asked if we could see them today or tomorrow. [...] told me that [...] would check with the UAE authorities… and would let me know. I didn’t hear from [...] since then. Tomorrow I’ll speak to [...] again.”
Ghafoor, who was released without charge on 30 July, is convinced that the individual to which consular officials were turning for permission to see him was a British intelligence officer. At the time of his interrogation, Ghafoor was told that British security services had requested his questioning.
MI5 and MI6 officers who question terrorism suspects they know are being tortured, are acting in line with a secret government interrogation policy, drawn up after the 9/11 attacks. The policy states: “we cannot be party to such ill treatment nor can we be seen to condone it” and that “it is important that you do not engage in any activity yourself that involves inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners.” It also advises intelligence officers that if detainees “are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene” to prevent torture.
According to Philippe Sands, QC, one of the world’s leading experts in international human rights law, the policy almost certainly breaches international human rights.
When Ghafoor asked why he had been picked up, he was shown a photograph and told he resembled one of the 7/7 suicide bombers and must be related to him. His business partner, Siddique, who was also detained and tortured, says he was told he must have been involved in the bombings – not only did he share a name with the bombers – but he lived in Dewsbury, the same Yorkshire town.
Ghafoor said his interrogators questioned his sexuality, as he is not married, and insulted him because he was unable to wash, saying he smelled. He was also punched in the groin.
One interrogator said to him: “In the morning you will be thrown into a pit and the dogs will tear you to bits and I will watch it and enjoy it.”
Eventually, he agreed to sign a false confession admitting he was a friend of the bombers and had organised the London attacks. “I wrote a false confession and put crazy things in it like ‘I have constant contact with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’,” he said.
He was told he would be shot by a firing squad the following morning.
When Ghafoor returned home, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His relationship with his partner broke down and he suffered nightmares, anxiety and paranoia.
Ghafoor is furious that there has been no explanation for his treatment, nor an apology. “I would like to know why I was put through this hell and I would like someone to be accountable.”
Clive Stafford-Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, a not-for-profit human rights organisation, said: “It is impossible for the victims of torture to move on without truth and reconciliation, yet the British government seems intent on covering up what it has done.”
He added: “Until recently, the British security services were told to effectively turn a blind eye to torture.”
The Foreign Office said in a statement that Ghafoor and Siddique were not detained at Britain’s request. “British consular staff visited them on July 30, 2005 to ensure their welfare needs were being addressed. Their detention was a matter for the Dubai authorities … they were not detained at the request of the UK government. We do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose.
“Wherever allegations of wrongdoing are made, they are taken seriously and investigated as appropriate.”
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Kenya to build £533m windfarm
July 27th, 2009 |
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With surging demand for power and blackouts common across the continent, Africa is looking to solar, wind and geothermal technologies to meet its energy needs
One of the hottest places in the world is set to become the site of Africa’s most ambitious venture in the battle against global warming.
Some 365 giant wind turbines are to be installed in desert around Lake Turkana in northern Kenya – used as a backdrop for the film The Constant Gardener – creating the biggest windfarm on the continent. When complete in 2012, the £533m project will have a capacity of 300MW, a quarter of Kenya’s current installed power and one of the highest proportions of wind energy to be fed in a national grid anywhere in the world.
Until now, only north African countries such as Morocco and Egypt have harnessed wind power for commercial purposes on any real scale on the continent. But projects are now beginning to bloom south of the Sahara as governments realise that harnessing the vast wind potential can efficiently meet a surging demand for electricity and ending blackouts.
Already Ethiopia has commissioned a £190m, 120MW farm in Tigray region, representing 15% of the current electricity capacity, and intends to build several more. Tanzania has announced plans to generate at least 100MW of power from two projects in the central Singida region, more than 10% of the country’s current supply. In March, South Africa, whose heavy reliance on coal makes its electricity the second most greenhouse-gas intensive in the world, became the first African country to announce a feed-in tariff for wind power, whereby customers generating electricity receive a cash payment for selling that power to the grid.
Kenya is trying to lead the way. Besides the Turkana project, which is being backed by the African Development Bank, private investors have proposed establishing a second windfarm near Naivasha, the well-known tourist town. And in the Ngong hills near Nairobi, the Maasai herders and elite long-distance athletes used to braving the frigid winds along the escarpment already have towering company: six 50m turbines from the Danish company Vestas that were erected last month and will add 5.1MW to the national grid from August. Another dozen turbines will be added at the site in the next few years.
Christopher Maende, an engineer from the state power company KenGen, which is running the Ngong farm and testing 14 other wind sites across the country, said local residents and herders were initially worried that noise from the turbines would scare the animals.
“Now they are coming to admire the beauty of these machines,” he said.
Kenya’s electricity is already very green by global standards. Nearly three-quarters of KenGen’s installed capacity comes from hydropower, and a further 11% from geothermal plants, which tap into the hot rocks a mile beneath the Rift Valley to release steam to power turbines.
Currently fewer than one-in-five Kenyans has access to electricity but demand is rising quickly, particularly in rural areas and from businesses. At the same time, increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and the destruction of key water catchment areas have affected hydroelectricity output. Low water levels caused the country’s largest hydropower dam to be shut down last month.
As a short-term measure KenGen is relying on imported fossil fuels, such as coal and diesel. But within five years the government wants to drastically reduce the reliance on hydro by adding 500MW of geothermal power and 800MW of wind energy to the grid.
Not only are they far greener options than coal or diesel, but the country’s favourable geology and meteorology make them cheaper alternatives over time. The possibility of selling carbon credits to companies in the industrialised world is an added financial advantage.
“Kenya’s natural fuel should come from the wind, hot underground rock and the sun, whose potential has barely even been considered,” said Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme. “After the initial capital costs this energy is free.”
The Dutch consortium behind the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project has leased 66,000 hectares of land on the eastern edge of the world’s largest permanent desert lake. The volcanic soil is scoured by hot winds that blow consistently year round through the channel between the Kenyan and Ethiopian highlands.
According to LTWP, which has an agreement to sell its electricity to the Kenya Power & Lighting Company, the average wind speed is 11metres per second, akin to “proven reserves” in the oil sector, said Carlo Van Wageningen, chairman of the company.
“We believe that this site is one of the best in the world for wind,” he said. If the project succeeds, the company estimates that there is the potential for the farm to generate a further 2,700MW of power, some of which could be exported.
First, however, there are huge logistical obstacles to overcome. The remote site of Loiyangalani is nearly 300 miles north of Nairobi. Transporting the turbines will require several thousand truck journeys, as well as the improvement of bridges and roads along the way. Security is also an issue as the region is known bandit country, and many locals are armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
LTWP also has to construct a 266-mile transmission line and several substations to connect the windfarm to the national grid. It has promised to provide electricity to the closest local towns, currently powered by generators.
The greening of Africa
At the end of 2008, Africa’s installed wind power capacity was only 593MW. But that is set to change fast. Egypt has declared plans to have 7,200MW of wind electricity by 2020, meeting 12% of the country’s energy needs. Morocco has a 15% target over the same period. South Africa and Kenya have not announced such long-term goals, but with power shortages and wind potential of up to 60,000MW and 30,000MW respectively, local projects are expected to boom. With the carbon credit market proving strong incentives for investment other types of renewable energy are also set to take off. Kenya is planning to quickly expanding its geothermal capacity, and neighbouring Rift Valley countries up to Djibouti are examining their own potential. As technology improves and costs fall, solar will also enter the mix. Germany has already publicised plans to develop a €400bn solar park in the Sahara.
“Ultimately for Africa solar is the answer, although [costs mean] we may still be decades away,” said Herman Oelsner, president of the African Wind Energy Association.
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Sarkozy leaves hospital after tests
French president spent the night undergoing further tests on his heart following a dizzy spell while jogging
Nicolas Sarkozy was tonight resting at his country retreat after he was released from hospital following a collapse while jogging.
While the French president’s political allies insisted that he was on the mend, political commentators questioned his hyperactive lifestyle. The French president emerged from a military hospital in Paris on Monday morning looking tired but smiling, waving at onlookers and shaking hands with doctors, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
He had been rushed in for tests on Sunday after a fainting episode at the end of a 45-minute midday run in temperatures of more than 30 degrees in the park of the Palace of Versailles.
Although the president’s entourage said he had continued to liaise with political staff from his hospital bed, a trip to Normandy’s Mont-Saint-Michel on Tuesday was cancelled after doctors ordered the president to take some “relative rest”.
The Élysée said doctors had found no signs of heart or neurological trouble and the 54-year-old president’s minor fainting episode was down to his heavy workload and over-exertion.
“The diagnosis is a faintness from a sustained physical effort in great heat,” the Élysée said, pointing out that the president “had not lost consciousness” and the incident came “in a context of fatigue stemming from a heavy workload.”
The health of France’s jogging-fanatic president appeared intact but many questioned whether his action man image as “Speedy Sarko” would be damaged. He has carefully crafted a “Super Sarko” media image as a youthful, deliberately hyperactive president who refuses to delegate and likes to be seen as a workaholic and a super-fit, testosterone-fuelled runner and cyclist. He regularly goes on long runs clutching his mobile phone, inviting TV crews to follow him.
Newspaper Le Monde said it was “unlikely” that Sarkozy’s self-styled image as the omnipresent “president who governs – alert and dashing, present on all fronts and exhausted by nothing” would leave hospital intact.
One political colleague told the paper how Sarkozy had been affected by the heat on a visit to the Tour de France last week: “The problem is that he does too much, he’s overworked.” A minister added that his health scare was “unavoidable” given his “way of life”. Patrick Balkany, a centre-right mayor and family friend of the Sarkozys, said the president was on a strict diet and exercise regime and this incident was a warning to slow down.
Others in Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party defended his image. Patrick Devedjian, Sarkozy’s minister for economic recovery, told French radio: “He’s hyperactive, everyone can see that … He imposes a very heavy work load on himself. He likes to say: “Sometimes people criticise me, saying I do too much, but I think I don’t do enough.”
Sarkozy, currently resting at La Lanterne, his weekend hunting lodge in the grounds of Versailles, is expected to chair the last cabinet meeting of the political season on Wednesday before taking three weeks’ holiday at his wife’s family retreat on the Cote d’Azur.
His ruling centre-right party boasted that the Elysee had been totally transparent in telling the nation about the health scare, contrary to France’s tradition of shrouding leaders’ health problems in secrecy.
But in reality, the Elysee had little choice: Sarkozy had been jogging past tourists in Versailles and there were numerous witnesses to his fainting episode, including one French radio journalist who said he had seen him looking tired and barely able to drag his legs along at an earlier stage in his run.