US missile 'kills alleged transatlantic airline plot leader in Pakistan' The suspected British terrorist Rashid Rauf, who allegedly planned the 2006 transatlantic airline plot, is reported to have been killed by a US missile attack in north-west Pakistan today. The Foreign Office was investigating the reports on Pakistan TV. Rauf, who is originally from Birmingham and fled Britain after the murder of his uncle, was said to have been killed along with at least four other militants with links to al-Qaida. Rauf was wanted in connection with the 2006 plot to bring down up to 10 transatlantic passenger jets with liquid explosives. He escaped from Pakistani police custody last year, with controversial ease, after an extradition hearing. "The transatlantic bombing plot alleged mastermind Rahsid Rauf was killed along with an Egyptian a operative in the US missile strike in North Waziristan early Saturday," a senior security official told AFP. An intelligence official in Islamabad told Associated Press that intercepted communications between militants indicated Rauf was among those killed, but cautioned that government agents in the area had not seen his body. The Egyptian was named as Abu Zubair al-Masri. The strike, by a suspected United States drone, killed at least five militants in a house in the volatile North Waziristan region, close to the Afghanistan border. The house belonged to Khaliq Noor, who often sheltered foreign militants, according to AP. Rauf, who is thought to be 27 and to hold both British and Pakistani citizenship, is wanted by West Midlands police in relation to the 2002 murder of his uncle, Mohammed Saeed. Earlier this year, the West Midlands force confirmed it was liaising with both the Home Office and the Foreign Office over attempts to extradite Rauf. After leaving Britain, Rauf is thought to have been radicalised by an Islamist sect. He married a relative of one of Pakistan's notorious militants, Azhar Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad. US forces have launched about 20 missile attacks into north-west Pakistan since August, a sign of frustration at Islamabad's failure to crack down on strongholds from which militants attack American troops in neighbouring Afghanistan. American authorities rarely comment on such attacks. The strikes have angered Pakistan, which says they undermine its efforts to tackle militants.
Rich countries launch great land grab to safeguard food supply Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in developing countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies. The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has warned that the controversial rise in land deals could create a form of "neo-colonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people. Rising food prices have already set off a second "scramble for Africa". This week, the South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics announced plans to buy a 99-year lease on a million hectares in Madagascar. Its aim is to grow 5m tonnes of corn a year by 2023, and produce palm oil from a further lease of 120,000 hectares (296,000 acres), relying on a largely South African workforce. Production would be mainly earmarked for South Korea, which wants to lessen dependence on imports. "These deals can be purely commercial ventures on one level, but sitting behind it is often a food security imperative backed by a government," said Carl Atkin, a consultant at Bidwells Agribusiness, a Cambridge firm helping to arrange some of the big international land deals. Madagascar's government said that an environmental impact assessment would have to be carried out before the Daewoo deal could be approved, but it welcomed the investment. The massive lease is the largest so far in an accelerating number of land deals that have been arranged since the surge in food prices late last year. "In the context of arable land sales, this is unprecedented," Atkin said. "We're used to seeing 100,000-hectare sales. This is more than 10 times as much." At a food security summit in Rome, in June, there was agreement to channel more investment and development aid to African farmers to help them respond to higher prices by producing more. But governments and corporations in some cash-rich but land-poor states, mostly in the Middle East, have opted not to wait for world markets to respond and are trying to guarantee their own long-term access to food by buying up land in poorer countries. According to diplomats, the Saudi Binladin Group is planning an investment in Indonesia to grow basmati rice, while tens of thousands of hectares in Pakistan have been sold to Abu Dhabi investors. Arab investors, including the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, have also bought direct stakes in Sudanese agriculture. The president of the UEA, Khalifa bin Zayed, has said his country was considering large-scale agricultural projects in Kazakhstan to ensure a stable food supply. Even China, which has plenty of land but is now getting short of water as it pursues breakneck industrialisation, has begun to explore land deals in south-east Asia. Laos, meanwhile, has signed away between 2m-3m hectares, or 15% of its viable farmland. Libya has secured 250,000 hectares of Ukrainian farmland, and Egypt is believed to want similar access. Kuwait and Qatar have been chasing deals for prime tracts of Cambodia rice fields. Eager buyers generally have been welcomed by sellers in developing world governments desperate for capital in a recession. Madagascar's land reform minister said revenue would go to infrastructure and development in flood-prone areas. Sudan is trying to attract investors for almost 900,000 hectares of its land, and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has been courting would-be Saudi investors. "If this was a negotiation between equals, it could be a good thing. It could bring investment, stable prices and predictability to the market," said Duncan Green, Oxfam's head of research. "But the problem is, [in] this scramble for soil I don't see any place for the small farmers." Alex Evans, at the Centre on International Cooperation, at New York University, said: "The small farmers are losing out already. People without solid title are likely to be turfed off the land." Details of land deals have been kept secret so it is unknown whether they have built-in safeguards for local populations. Steve Wiggins, a rural development expert at the Overseas Development Institute, said: "There are very few economies of scale in most agriculture above the level of family farm because managing [the] labour is extremely difficult." Investors might also have to contend with hostility. "If I was a political-risk adviser to [investors] I'd say 'you are taking a very big risk'. Land is an extremely sensitive thing. This could go horribly wrong if you don't learn the lessons of history."
'We consider ourselves heroes' - a Somali pirate speaks I am 42 years old and have nine children. I am a boss with boats operating in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. I finished high school and wanted to go to university but there was no money. So I became a fisherman in Eyl in Puntland like my father, even though I still dreamed of working for a company. That never happened as the Somali government was destroyed [in 1991] and the country became unstable. At sea foreign fishing vessels often confronted us. Some had no licence, others had permission from the Puntland authorities but did not want us there to compete. They would destroy our boats and force us to flee for our lives. I started to hijack these fishing boats in 1998. I did not have any special training but was not afraid. For our first captured ship we got $300,000. With the money we bought AK-47s and small speedboats. I don't know exactly how many ships I have captured since then but I think it is about 60. Sometimes when we are going to hijack a ship we face rough winds, and some of us get sick and some die. We give priority to ships from Europe because we get bigger ransoms. To get their attention we shoot near the ship. If it does not stop we use a rope ladder to get on board. We count the crew and find out their nationalities. After checking the cargo we ask the captain to phone the owner and say that have seized the ship and will keep it until the ransom is paid. We make friends with the hostages, telling them that we only want money, not to kill them. Sometimes we even eat rice, fish, pasta with them. When the money is delivered to our ship we count the dollars and let the hostages go. Then our friends come to welcome us back in Eyl and we go to Garowe in Land Cruisers. We split the money. For example, if we get $1.8m, we would send $380,000 to the investment man who gives us cash to fund the missions, and then divide the rest between us. Our community thinks we are pirates getting illegal money. But we consider ourselves heroes running away from poverty. We don't see the hijacking as a criminal act but as a road tax because we have no central government to control our sea. With foreign warships now on patrol we have difficulties. But we are getting new boats and weapons. We will not stop until we have a central government that can control our sea.
Trust condemns BBC's failures in Brand row It took a single word - "yes" - and a click of her BlackBerry. With that Lesley Douglas, Radio 2 controller, triggered a row that led to the resignation of Russell Brand and the suspension of Jonathan Ross, and ended her own 22-year career at the BBC. Her one-word message sanctioned the controversial broadcast of Brand and Ross abusing the elderly actor Andrew Sachs and disparaging his granddaughter Georgina Baillie. This crucial detail was revealed yesterday in a BBC internal report that the corporation hopes will draw a line under one of the most controversial episodes in its recent history. Douglas, the woman credited with saving Radio 2 by modernising the once unfashionable station, quit her post last month and Ross will not broadcast again until the new year. The report by BBC management lays bare a breakdown in communication over the offensive messages left on Sachs' phone answering machine and, in some cases, what the BBC yesterday accepted was a "failure of editorial judgment". In the first message, the day after the recording on October 15, the producer Nic Philps raised concerns about bad language with Radio 2 head of compliance Dave Barber: "The problem comes when Jonathan says that Russell 'f*cked' Sachs' granddaughter ... I would say take it out, but it forms the crux of the call and is VERY funny." Barber, who also quit this month, subsequently emailed Douglas, repeating the phrase "it's very funny" and telling her: "Having discussed it with [Philps] and listened to the sequence, I think we should keep it in and put a 'strong language' warning at the top of the hour. I think it's editorially justified in this context and certainly within audience expectations for Russell's show and the slot. Andrew Sachs is aware and is happy with the results which were recorded his end for him to hear. Are you happy with this as a plan of action?" The next day Douglas responded simply: "Yes." In a separate report yesterday, however, the BBC Trust, which oversees the corporation, disagreed and said the transmission during Brand's late-night show was "grossly offensive" and that there was no justification for broadcasting it. The report reveals that nobody at the BBC realised or checked claims that Sachs had made a complaint, with the result that BBC news bulletins reported press office denials that he had lodged a complaint. His agent had emailed Douglas but she was away from the office and did not receive it until October 26, four days later. That was the day the Mail on Sunday ran its story about the October 18 broadcast, which subsequently led to 42,851 complaints to the corporation. The BBC's report also revealed that no compliance form was completed by a BBC executive or producer ahead of the transmission of the Brand show. Despite the report's conclusion that there was a "lack of direct control by Radio 2", the BBC Trust ruled that the sanctions already imposed by BBC management were enough. The BBC Trust also criticised a further incident of bad language involving Ross, but said his three-month suspension without pay was adequate punishment. This means Ross, who is believed to be earning £6.9m over three years, will return to the BBC on January 24. It said an episode of Ross's pre-recorded BBC1 chatshow, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in which the presenter told Hollywood actor Gwyneth Paltrow he "would fuck her" was "gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive". Following complaints, BBC management had originally reviewed the show, broadcast in May, and cleared it, as had the regulator Ofcom. However, the trust yesterday said it disagreed with that judgment, adding that the comment was made in an "overly sexual way" and that it had upheld a number of complaints. In addition, the trust said that BBC management should investigate another incident involving Brand on Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles' show. Moyles and Brand had a conversation live on Radio 1 at 8.23am on October 21, three days after the offensive messages were broadcast on Radio 2 - but before the Sachs affair had become a crisis for the BBC. Brand told Moyles he had met Baillie and said he had "met her brains out". BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "None of the breaches the trust is reporting today should have happened. All of them could have been avoided. The issue which links them is a lack of editorial judgment by those in control." Trustee Richard Tait added that in future "this use of such offensive language must be approved at senior level". He also said the "prime responsibility rests with the BBC and the editorial management responsible". The Sachs row has led to Ross stepping down as host of this year's British Comedy Awards. Yesterday ITV announced that his place would be taken at the ceremony on December 6 by Angus Deayton. Lyons also revealed yesterday that, in the light of the current tough economic climate, the BBC's nine public service executive directors, including Mark Thompson, the corporation's director general, would waive their bonuses next year. Thompson has done so for the past four years.
Rise of BNP is politicians' fault - Blears The British National party has made advances because mainstream political parties, including Labour, have abandoned sections of the white working class, ignoring people's needs while taking their votes for granted, a government minister admits today. Writing in the Guardian, the communities and local government secretary, Hazel Blears, warns that politicians must work hard at grassroots level to win back the trust and confidence of people alienated from mainstream political life. With the BNP's areas of strongest support revealed this week by the posting of the party's secret membership list on the internet, Blears also calls upon her Labour colleagues to take their opposition to the far right to the streets in those places. "We must continue to campaign vigorously against the BNP: demonstrate, picket, leaflet and argue," she says. In a strongly worded piece, Blears argues that demonstrating against the BNP is not enough, however. "Shouting 'Nazi' is not the answer," she writes. The government, Blears insists, must devise a long-term strategy to bring different communities together, working with councils and different community groups; some Labour backbenchers have blamed the party's drive to capture middle class votes for the rise of the BNP in some areas that were previously Labour strongholds. Blears writes: "We must recognise that where the BNP wins votes, it is often a result of local political failure." She adds: "Estates that have been ignored for decades; voters taken for granted; local services that have failed; white working-class voters who feel politicians live on a different planet. In such a political vacuum, the BNP steps in with offers of grass-cutting, a listening ear and easy answers to complex problems." Blears acknowledges that the BNP, under Nick Griffin, has a "cunning strategy", and that it has "started a process of detoxification". Using websites, blogs, newsletters and petitions, it has reached thousands and "played on people's apprehensions". It has peddled, she says, "pernicious but plausible lies". She points out that support for the far right remains small, but says a revival of mainstream politics is paramount in those areas where the BNP is now known to be at its strongest. Her comments echo what some Labour backbenchers and rank-and-file party members have been saying about the BNP's strategy for several years. There have been warnings that BNP activists have targeted neighbourhoods where few people vote in local or general elections, and introduced themselves on doorsteps as representatives of "a party that's like Labour in your parents' days". Blears is one of the most senior Labour figures to voice such concerns, and in such forthright terms. Her wake-up call came as the fallout from the posting of the membership list continued to be felt by the BNP. Police forces across the country were continuing to scour the lists for the names of serving officers - who are banned from joining the party. But the General Medical Council said it would not be taking action against any medical practitioners found to be members of the party. In West Yorkshire, police investigating the petrol bombing of a car outside the home of a man whose name appears on the list were trying to establish whether it was the result of a vigilante attack. The petrol bomb exploded on Thursday night in Liversedge. The Peugeot 206, which belonged to a neighbour of the man named on the BNP list, was destroyed.
Billions more wiped off Citigroup shares Shares fall to $3, but US banking giant continues to deny any liquidity problems Publ.Date : Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:40:41 GMT
30,000 jobs at risk as Woolworths teeters on the brink More than 30,000 retail jobs were at risk last night as Woolworths fought to avoid collapse and the fashion discount chain MK One crashed into administration for the second time in a year. Woolworths' future was hanging in the balance after its bankers objected to a management rescue plan to sell the loss-making 800-store chain to Hilco, which specialises in restructuring distressed companies. The 99-year old retailer, which is a mainstay of town and city centres across the country, is now in last-ditch talks with its lenders in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy. But a source close to the negotiations said the talks had reached "an impasse" and "are not looking good". Some 25,000 staff work in Woolworths stores and another 5,000 for two other businesses in the Woolworths group: EUK and 2entertain. The group also has 10,000 pensioners and pension fund members. EUK distributes DVDs, CDs and books to major supermarkets including Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons and if the distributor is forced into administration alongside the Woolworths stores it could threaten the supermarkets' supplies in the vital Christmas shopping weeks. 2entertain is a joint venture with the BBC which produces and distributes BBC programmes on DVD and has had big successes with shows such as Little Britain and Top Gear. MK One, which operates 125 stores aimed at young women and teenagers, has 1,400 staff jobs at risk. The latest potential job losses come amid vast cutbacks in the retail industry, which is slashing staff costs by reducing workers' hours. Argos, for instance, has cut workers' hours by 20%. The specialist magazine Retail Week yesterday reported that across the high street such cutbacks now equal 100,000 full time jobs vanishing in the last year. The retail sector employs 10% of the UK workforce. The stock market fell sharply again yesterday as investors worried about the effects of a recession on the corporate sector. Leading UK shares suffered their third worst week on record with the FTSE 100 slipping to 3,780, its lowest level since April 2003. Woolworths has been battered by other retailers for years, but in recent weeks it has also been squeezed by the economic downturn and the impact of credit insurers - who protect suppliers from non-payment of invoices in the event of a retailer going bust - withdrawing cover to Woolworths' suppliers. That has left the chain having to pay suppliers on delivery - or have empty shelves. Woolworths bosses have tried to sell the chain for a year in order to protect the other two businesses, but without success. A possible offer from Iceland supermarket boss Malcolm Walker in the summer fell apart when Baugur, the Icelandic investor backing his approach, ran into its own, credit crunch-related, problems. Earlier this week Woolworths confirmed it might sell the stores, which are all leasehold, to Hilco. The US-owned group would have also taken on £265m of Woolworths' £380m of debts. Woolworths wanted the other £115m of debt to be transferred to EUK and 2entertain, which last year made profits of more than £40m before interest and tax. In normal banking circumstances, such an arrangement would be commonplace, but a source familiar with the situation said: "The banks just won't let it happen. They seem to want to put the whole lot into administration to get all their money back immediately. The banks have the whip hand here." Woolworths has a range of lenders, and many have been hit hard by the credit crunch. Its lead lenders are GMAC, of the US which is applying to the American bank bail-out fund for support, and Burdale, part of the deeply troubled Bank of Ireland, which yesterday said it had received a takeover approach. Woolworths' other lenders include Barclays, which is raising £7bn from Middle East investors, the American bank Wachovia, which has just been taken over, and GE, which has had two profits warnings this year. A spokesman for Burdale, one of the lead lenders, refused to comment on the discussions with Woolworths. The crisis at Woolworths and MK One will increase fears that other ailing retail chains could collapse in the coming weeks. Casualties - and a fresh round of job losses - had been expected in the new year, when the Christmas winners and losers emerge. But lenders and suppliers had been thought unlikely to force stores into bankruptcy in the run-up to Christmas, when they should be raking in cash. Woolworths, for instance, normally makes 90% of its profits in the six weeks before Christmas. However, in the first six months of this year it crashed £100m in the red. Woolworths shares closed last night at just 1.43p, down 32%, valuing the entire business at just £25m - equal to about three days' sales.
Job cuts this week
Monday Citigroup, London 2,400 Avis, Hayes, Middlesex 100 Hoover, Merthyr Tydfil 337Tuesday Wolseley, nationwide 2,000 National Express, East Anglia 200 PSL Energy Services, Aberdeen 50Wednesday SIG, nationwide 900 Fidelity International, London 300 Deutsche Bank, London 450Thursday Rolls-Royce, Derby 140 AstraZeneca, Macclesfield 250 BAE Systems, nationwide 200 Daily Mail and General Trust 400 Tughans, Northern Ireland 20 Total 7,747
£120bn debt shock a headache for Darling The chancellor, Alistair Darling, is preparing to admit that tax will need to rise after the next election as borrowing projections emerged showing the public finances in a worse state than previous estimates had shown. Darling will use his pre-budget report on Monday to say that "adjustments" will have to be made, though it is unclear whether these will be slated for 2010 or 2011. Yesterday the Treasury refused to deny reports that its officials were putting borrowing in the region of £120bn, with one aide saying the figure was "not far off the mark". The new figure is much more than the £90bn many thought Darling would announce in his report. Treasury officials are reported to have described the effect the £120bn would have on the economy as a "mammoth shock" as tax revenues continue to plummet and the costs of increased unemployment are borne by the state. On Monday, Darling will have to show that the government has a strategy for controlling annual borrowing to soothe international markets and remove conditions that might otherwise see the Bank of England feel the need to raise interest rates. A Treasury aide told the Guardian: "What Alistair will do on Monday is announce a fiscal stimulus package and lay out how he's going to pay for it." The chancellor's admission may also serve to claim for the government some of the intellectual territory the Conservative leader staked this week when he ended a year-old commitment to match Labour party's spending plans for the year 2010-2011. Explaining his position on Tuesday, David Cameron said he believed the British people would be suspicious of tax cuts and public spending programmes without obvious funding. It was not clear what form the tax rises might take but a Treasury aide described as "rubbish" a suggestion that VAT might rise from 17.5% to 22.5%. This week the prime minister's efforts in tackling the economic downturn were reflected in improved polling figures, leading to speculation that No 10 was gearing up to call an election. Speaking on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme yesterday, Gordon Brown refused to be drawn on his improved standing and batted away talk of a election. There has been talk of a poll in the spring when the weather improves or in June 2009 when local and European elections are scheduled. Yesterday Brown said all speculation could be "discounted". Downing Street has been quick to nip the rumour in the bud, with ministerial special advisers briefed this week by senior No 10 aides that an election was not "remotely on our minds". They are keen to prevent a rerun of last summer which saw Brown's political standing damaged by his decision not to call an election after weeks of speculation. In the same interview, Brown admitted that he had been wrong to promise an end to "boom and bust." Asked if the pledge, had been a mistake, he said: "Yes. Of course politicians make mistakes and I've got to be honest that we've made mistakes." But he insisted the current downturn was different to that experienced under the last Conservative government. "The boom and bust we were talking about then was 15% interest rates - and actually at one point interest rates went to 18%. We've got a quite different set of problems now. "We've got low inflation, low interest rates and we've got a downturn and we need confidence to be rebuilt in the economy. That's why I'm trying to get the banks to start lending again." Pressure was piled on the Treasury team drawing up Monday's plan by confirmation yesterday of poor October public sector net borrowing figures. Public sector net borrowing increased in the last month by £1.4bn. Borrowing was £3.1bn higher this year than in October 2007. The figure for public sector net debt rose to £640.9bn or 42.9% of GDP largely down to the government's takeover of Bradford and Bingley at the end of September. Net borrowing has reached £37bn already - nearly as much as the £43bn forecast by the Treasury for the whole of the year. Government spending was higher than in the same month a year ago.
Acid attacks and rape: growing threat to women who oppose traditional order They were walking to school in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn. Her friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school. It was not an isolated incident. For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening - and those women who dare to publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives. The Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai receives regular death threats for speaking out on women's issues. Talking at her home in central Kabul, she closed the living room door as her three young daughters played in the hall. "You can't imagine what it feels like as a mother to leave the house each day and not know if you will come back again," she said, her eyes welling up as she spoke. "But there is no choice. I would rather die for the dignity of women than die for nothing. Should I stop my work because there is a chance I might be killed? I must go on, and if it happens it happens." Barakzai receives frequent but cryptic warnings about planned suicide attacks on her car, but no help from the government. Officials advise her to stay at home and not go to work, but offer nothing in the way of security assistance, despite her requests. She said warlords in parliament who received similar threats were immediately provided with armoured vehicles, armed guards and a safe house by the government. Afghan women are feeling increasingly vulnerable as the security situation worsens and a growing number of western and Afghan officials call for the Taliban to join the government. "We are very worried that, now the government is talking with the Taliban, our rights will be compromised," said Shinkai Karokhail, an outspoken MP for Kabul. "We must not be the sacrifice by which peace with the Taliban is made." Under Taliban rule, up until 2001, women were not allowed to work and were forbidden from venturing outside the home without a male escort. Afghan women who defy traditional gender roles and speak out against the oppression of women are routinely subject to threats, intimidation and assassination. An increasingly powerful Taliban regularly attacks projects, schools and businesses run by women. Six weeks ago, Lieutenant-Colonel Malalai Kakar was assassinated in her car on her way to work in Kandahar. She was Afghanistan's highest-ranking female police officer and a fierce defender of women's rights. Only five feet tall, she was known to have beaten men she found to be abusing their wives. Another senior female police officer was killed in the province of Herat in June. Safe house Talking to the Guardian at a safe house on the outskirts of Kabul, Mullah Zubiallah Akhond, a Taliban commander from the southern province of Uruzgan, said the group's attacks on women were always political and not based on any desire to target or punish women specifically. He condemned the acid attack on the group of schoolgirls in Kandahar, and insisted the Taliban were not involved. "We support the education of girls, but separate from boys. We would not attack schoolgirls. We only target those working with the government." The Taliban's regional commands have varying attitudes toward women, but all those fighting under the Taliban banner are committed to enforcing their interpretation of sharia law, which forbids women from working or leaving the house without a male escort. The Islamist group is just one of the many threats facing Afghanistan's few outspoken female MPs. "Our parliament is a collection of lords," said Barakzai. "Warlords, drug lords, crime lords." In parliament, she says, she is often greeted with screams of "kill her" when she stands up to speak, and she has had no shortage of personal threats from fellow MPs. They visit her privately to tell her she will be killed if she continues to speak out on such issues as the right of a woman to have a personal passport (separate from the standard "family passport") or against compulsory virginity tests for young women, and the right of a man to have custody of a child at two years old. It is not only men who oppose women in parliament - both Barakzai and Karokhail have faced obstruction from other female MPs on key women's issues. Karokhail said that, of the 68 women in the 249-strong parliament, only five were vocal on women's issues. The majority of women in parliament vote in favour of more traditional legislation that often rules against women's rights. Some women now fear the parliament is becoming more conservative towards women. "Talibani ideas are natural among our people, particularly their vision about women," said Barakzai. According to Afghan commentators, President Hamid Karzai, desperate to win next year's elections, has been bringing former mujahideen commanders into parliament in the hope they will support him at election time. Most of these former jihadi commanders share the Taliban's ideas about women and are expected to support legislation that will once again limit women's freedom. In addition, according to the Taliban commander, the group has a growing number of MPs in parliament lobbying for their policies. In much of the country, especially rural areas, women remain subservient to the men in their family and rarely venture out of their homes. Even in the relatively liberal capital, Kabul, it is common to see women robed in blue burkas trailing five paces behind their husbands. It is difficult to gauge how the worsening situation in the country is affecting women, but according to a recent study by the UN, some 87% of them suffer abuse in the home. Afghan human rights groups are documenting cases of "honour" killings, forced abortions and rape, and a database is now being constructed by the UN. Najla Zewari, who works for the UN's gender and justice unit, believes violence against women is increasing, fuelled by growing frustrations caused by the economic crisis and lack of security. She said there had also been a sharp increase in rapes by men who claimed they could not afford to pay the dowry needed to marry. After the public shame of an attack, the victim is usually outcast and the rapist is then the only man who will have the woman as his wife. It is crimes like this that make many Afghans nostalgic for the harsh justice of Taliban rule. Barakzai countered: "Women were safe, in one sense, under the Taliban - but they were kept as slaves, they were not allowed to do what they wanted even in their own home." As the Taliban strengthen, the future for women in Afghanistan looks bleaker. Barakzai said women's rights, once heralded as the great success of post-invasion Afghanistan, had been sidelined and might suffer more in the struggle to find a solution to the fighting. Last week, a council of 400 women politicians met in Kabul to discuss this possibility and prepare ways to counter it. Karokhail said: "Our biggest fear at the moment is that the return of Talibani ideas to government will wind back the gains we have made in these last years."
People who fail to tell authorities of amendments to personal details will face civil penalty fines People who fail to tell the authorities of a change of address or amend other key personal details within three months will face civil penalty fines of up to £1,000 a time when the national identity card scheme is up and running, according to draft Home Office regulations published yesterday. The Home Office made clear that repeated failures to keep an entry on the national identity register up to date could ultimately be enforced by bailiffs being sent round to seize property. But yesterday's detailed regulations to implement the national identity card scheme make clear that they intend to avoid the creation of ID card "martyrs", by levying no penalty on those who refuse to register for the national identity card database in the first place. The Liberal Democrat peer, Lady Williams, is amongst ID card "refuseniks" who have said they are prepared to go to jail rather than sign up for the scheme. But the regulations show that the main sanction they are likely to face is being barred from leaving the country when it is time to renew their passport. The regulations confirm ministers' intention to make passports a "designated document" which means anyone applying or renewing their passport will be automatically issued with an ID card at the same time. Ministers claim that this does not amount to compulsion but ID card critics disagree. The consultation on the fine detail of how the ID card scheme will work in practice published yesterday also makes clear: • The £30 initial fee for a standalone ID card valid for travel in Europe only is capped for the year 2009/10 when it will be compulsory for airport workers and on a voluntary basis for students. The regulations allow for this fee to be "modified" in future years including by 2012, when it is anticipated that mass rollout will take place with 5-6 million combined passports/identity cards a year expected to be issued. Passport fees will be on top of this basic charge. • If it necessary to change any of the details held on the card, such as name or fingerprints which entail a new card being issued, a further £30 will be charged. Changes of address or other details which do not appear on the card will not be charged. • Transgendered people: those "moving from their birth gender to an acquired gender" will be able to apply for two ID cards - one for each gender. The second ID card will use a different name, signature and photograph although they will be linked as one entry on the national ID card register. Nevertheless they will be charged two fees for the privilege of holding two cards. • Homeless people and others who live "transient lifestyles" will also be able to register under the scheme. The Home Office expects to be able to agree with homeless people a suitable place to be registered as their residence - presumably even if it is only a railway arch. Those who move around frequently for work will be able to register their principal residence without notifying each move. But the draft regulations also set out in detail the escalating series of fines for those who fail to keep their ID card register entry up to date or fail to correct errors on it. The kind of details that must be provided within three months are a change of address, a change of name perhaps because of marriage or by deed poll, a change of nationality, a change of gender, or a significant change in an individual's face or their fingerprints perhaps because of an accident. The Home Office say they will not need to police this aspect as it will soon become apparent when somebody tries, for example, to get on a plane with a ID card/passport with an out of date address that does not match that the bank debit/credit card they used to book the flight. They say they may well find themselves not being allowed to travel. Those who lose their ID Cards or have them stolen will have to report the loss within a month. Fines for failure to update the register start at £125 going up to £1,000 for repeatedly failing to comply. As a civil penalty the bailiffs may be sent in to enforce payment. The shadow home secretary, Dominic Grieve, said the scheme was truly the worst of all worlds - expensive, intrusive and unworkable. "The home secretary has confirmed the worst element of the scheme - a single, mammoth and highly vulnerable database exposing masses of our personal details to criminal hackers. "Worse still, she has magnified the scope for fraud by allowing spot fines to be issued by email," he said. The NO2ID campaign say that in just four weeks in 2005, more than 10,000 people pledged online to refuse to register for an ID card. "It is possible that refusal could be made a crime but the government has shied away from that so far. If enough people say no, it will be impossible," said a campaign spokesman.
Premier League: Outspoken Gallas stripped of Arsenal captaincy William Gallas' hold on the Arsenal captaincy was over last night and his very future at the club in jeopardy after he did not travel with the rest of the squad to the north-west for today's Premier League fixture against Manchester City. The controversial Frenchman had followed his attack on an unnamed team-mate on Wednesday — that player is known to be Robin van Persie — with further outspoken comments about another of them yesterday. Once again he did not name the player, identifying him only as "S" and saying that he played in midfield, but it is understood he was referring to Samir Nasri, his France team-mate who joined Arsenal from Marseille in the summer. In his newly released autobiography, he criticised him for his "insolence". Arsène Wenger, the manager, was concerned by Gallas' comments and had given serious thought to stripping him of the captaincy. He informed Gallas of his decision to do so and the explosive result was that Gallas stayed behind in London as his team headed to Manchester. He was also reported to have been fined two weeks' wages of around £180,000. On Wednesday, Gallas had spoken of the dressing room being disrupted by one player who "insults us", an attack on Van Persie, while he also said that his young Arsenal team-mates were "not brave enough in battle", that there had been a row at half-time during the recent 4–4 home draw with Tottenham Hotspur and that the reason he was speaking out was because "there are things that can't be said and can't be tolerated". Wenger has defended his outspoken and emotional captain, whose methods have been under scrutiny since his bizarre sit-in protest at Birmingham City last February. Gallas found himself in the headlines again when he was pictured with a cigarette on a night out. Yet Wenger has been pushed too far by Gallas and acted for the sake of dressing-room unity. He will be without one alternative captain at Eastlands as Cesc Fábregas is suspended and will probably be missing Kolo Touré, who is described as a "major doubt" after he injured his calf in midweek. The goalkeeper Manuel Almunia is expected to wear the armband. Wenger will publicly address the subject of Gallas after the game and, in the meantime, he simply wants his players to pull together and do their talking on the pitch. Despite four Premier League defeats already this season, he believes that they have the mental strength and ability to rouse themselves. The club's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, was critical of Gallas' outburst. "If there is a problem of that sort it is very much better to be kept private. Baring all these things in public is really no help." Gallas was the victim of unfortunate timing as much as anything else with his latest comments from his book, which was released yesterday. His row with Nasri took place in the heat of the moment during France's failed Euro 2008 campaign and the pair promptly made their peace. What Gallas said to his biographer some months ago about the flashpoint, however, is insightful about his problems with the new generation of young players. He said they "seem cheeky — they think they know everything but they know nothing". He added: "I too was 20 years old once. I would never have allowed myself to speak in such a way to a player older than me. We respected the veterans. We shut our mouths." Gallas said that he was stunned when the young player he argued with took Thierry Henry's seat on the France team bus. He described the young player as "insolent" but said that he finally moved. Gallas had scolded the player in training: "Are you speaking to me? Who do you take yourself for? You're only 20 ... I am not your friend," Gallas said. "I'm not your friend either," the player responded. "Straight away, I see red," added the 31-year-old. Arsenal, meanwhile, will pursue the Football Association for compensation over the shoulder injury Theo Walcott sustained while on England duty this week, which will rule him out for at least three months.
Jailed fraudster Conrad Black asks for clemency from Bush Conrad Black, the disgraced British peer serving a 6½-year sentence in Florida for defrauding millions from his former media empire, has asked President Bush to grant him clemency before leaving the White House. The US justice department has confirmed that it is considering the request. An agreement by the president could involve either pardoning the offence, which would erase the criminal record, or commuting it. Black, 64, was chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger International the third largest media empire of its day, for eight years. It included titles such as the Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post and the New York Sun. He quit the company in 2003 after he was found to have received millions of dollars in unauthorised payments. In 2007 he was convicted, with three other Hollinger executives, of four counts of fraud amounting to $6.1m (£4m) and of obstructing the course of justice. He began his sentence in March at a prison in Coleman, Florida. The Sun-Times Media Group, the company that emerged from Hollinger International, has been taken aback by the clemency application, because Black always insisted he would not make any such request. The firm was even more surprised when lawyers acting on behalf of the jailed tycoon submitted legal bills to his former business asking for it to pay for costs incurred in the clemency plea. One unnamed source at the company told the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper: "We try to draw the line at outrageous things, and this is sort of one of them." More than 5,000 applications for pardon and commutation are waiting to be processed by the justice department. Black told the Globe and Mail this month that he was "horrifyingly busy with one thing and another" in jail. When the paper asked what was taking up all his time, he replied: "Writing and reviewing legal initiatives, as well as dealing with my students" - an apparent reference to the history seminars he is said to be running.
Shias stage protests against Iraq-US pact Tensions rise among supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr over 2011 exit date for US troops Publ.Date : Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:38:36 GMT
Wife's call saves sailor after nights on liferaft A British sailor survived on a liferaft for three nights in a storm-tossed sea without food or drinking water after his boat sank off Spain's Balearic Islands. Jayesh Patel, 43, said he had a miraculous escape from the 44ft (13-metre) yacht Umbalika as it went down at night after taking on water near Mallorca. He and a Belgian colleague were thrown into the sea before they struggled aboard their liferaft and begun a three-day battle against fear, hunger, thirst and the storms that continued to lash the Mediterranean Sea. "It was a very, very frightening experience. There were 40-50mph winds, waves of two to three metres," he said. "We had no food. "The boat went down so fast - in a matter of minutes. We didn't have time to grab anything. We made a Mayday call but for some reason it didn't get through." Patel, an experienced yachtsman with a commercial captain's licence, said he was putting out the Mayday call when it became clear that the water was about to fill up the cabin on the Umbalika. "I had to swim out along the cabin roof," he said. When he had finally fought his way out, he was forced up to the surface and found himself beside the man who had been helping him sail the boat towards mainland Spain. They grabbed a liferaft before jumping ship but had no time to find flares, food, water or extra clothes. "We were in the sea for about 15 to 20 minutes because we had problems getting the liferaft inflated," said Patel. Patel said he realised that it would take a while before rescue services were warned. "We were due in [mainland] Spain on the Thursday and I didn't think anyone would raise the alarm for at least 20 hours when we hadn't arrived," he said. Attempts to attract a passing helicopter failed and Patel tried to propel the liferaft to a nearby island. The men also tried to row using a pair of trainers as oars. On the third night Patel began to get worried as winds were driving them away from the area where passing ships might find them. He began dreaming about food and water. His wife Louise, who lives in London, became worried when he had not called to say he had arrived safely. "No one was aware of the problem until the sailor's wife dialled 999," a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said yesterday. "They were eventually rescued after four days and three nights in the liferaft and after an air-sea search covering 20,000 sq km." Mrs Patel raised the alarm on November 13. The men were rescued two days later. Her husband was barely able to move his legs when the Spanish rescue ship pulled alongside. Once on board the vessel,he dragged himself up to the bridge so he could call and let his family, including his two children Balram, 15, and Ulrika, 12, know that he was safe.
Video: Can the Mongoose last four rounds against the Cobra? Heavy-hitting Carl 'The Cobra' Froch is unbeaten as he heads for a world title fight against Jean Pascal in December. First, he has to see off Mark 'The Mongoose' Hudson. Read the full story in Observer Sport Monthly this Sunday Publ.Date : Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:04:47 GMT
In the director's chair: Fernando Meirelles City of God and The Constant Gardener director Fernando Meirelles talks to Jason Solomons about his new film Blindness, working with cinematographer César Charlone and his dream of making a hopeful, funny film Publ.Date : Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:08:16 GMT
Guardian Daily podcast: Falling oil prices; plus the British Library’s book vandal Economics editor Larry Elliott explains why oil prices have fallen to below $50 a barrel. As retailers feel the chill winds of recession, Martin Wainwright gauges the mood among shoppers in Sheffield city centre. Farhad Hakimzadeh, a 60-year-old Iranian academic, is being sentenced today at Wood Green magistrates court in north London after admitting damaging priceless and rare books at the British and Bodleian libraries. The British Library's head of collections, Dr Kristian Jensen, assesses the damage to the books. Immigration minister Phil Woolas talks tough on immigration. But what's the reality behind the rhetoric? Our home affairs editor Alan Travis explains. Diplomatic editor Julian Borger looks at a report from the US National Intelligence Council on the long-term foreign policy challenges facing the new American president. Publ.Date : Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:17:07 GMT
Video: Bird migration over Mexico Winter in Veracruz is the time when 4.5 million birds of prey begin their annual migration, the largest in the world, watched by enthusiasts and conservationists Publ.Date : Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:35:33 GMT
