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Suzanne Nossel: Closing Guantánamo is just the start in rebuilding US human rights credibility

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:11:19 +0000

Suzanne Nossel: Building US credibility on human rights will be a long-term project - and closing Guantánamo might just be the easy bit

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Timothy Garton Ash: Here, you can feel the power shift. But we all wrestle with the same problems

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:11:57 +0000

Timothy Garton Ash: The people of this vertical meeting place sceptically trade between western and eastern models. We could learn from them

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Michael Jackson to give evidence at British high court

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:11:08 +0000

Michael Jackson to fly to London to give evidence in case involving son of Bahrain King

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California’s Henry Waxman and Michigan’s John Dingell battle for control of powerful energy and commerce committee

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:11:37 +0000

Environmentalists and auto industry watching vote for California’s Henry Waxman or Michigan’s John Dingell

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Fears over US economy weaken world markets

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:11:19 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/60391?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Fears+over+US+economy+weaken+world+marketsch=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Global+recession%2CUS+economy+%28Business%29%2CMarket+turmoil%2CWorld+news%2CJapan+%28News%29%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CToyota+%28Business%29%2CUS+news%2CShares%2CMoneyc5=Personal+Finance%2CInvestments%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CUS+Economyc6=Justin+McCurryc7=2008_11_20c8=1120901c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Global+recessionc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FGlobal+recession” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpThe increasingly precarious state of the US economy sent stockmarkets into retreat today as Asian markets closed sharply down, with Japan’s Nikkei benchmark index falling almost 7%./ppShares also tumbled in Hong Kong, Hong Kong and Australia following another plunge overnight on Wall Street, where fears of recession sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 427 points, or nearly 5%, to its lowest level for five years./ppBritain’s FTSE 100 index was down 90 points at 3915.73 in early trading - a fall of more than 2% - shortly after it opened at 8am, taking it below the 4,000 level. Yesterday it tumbled 5.8%. Other European markets were also in retreat this morning./ppAsia’s slide was seen as inevitable after the US Federal Reserve warned that the US economy would contract through the first half of next year, and concern intensified over the fate of the country’s top three car markers./pp”We’ve gone past the poor sentiment stage,” said Miles Remington, head of Asian sales at BNP Paribas Securities in Hong Kong. “People are looking for any kind of positive and there are just no positives out there. Everyone seems to be united in the depressed global outlook.”/ppThe Nikkei 225 was spooked by new figures showing Japan had registered its second trade deficit in three months as a result of the strong yen and plummeting demand in the key US and European markets for Japanese cars and electronics./ppThe Nikkei dipped 570 points to close at 7703, its lowest since it hit a 26-year low in late October. The index has lost 9% this week and 10% since the start of the month./ppEarlier this week Japan announced it had slid into recession for the first time in seven years after posting two consecutive quarters of economic contraction./ppThe eurozone and Hong Kong are also in recession, and the US is expected to officially join the list by the start of next year./ppGovernment figures released today showed Japanese exporters suffered their biggest decline in seven years last month. Exports dropped 7.7 % in October, the biggest fall since 2001. Exports totaled ¥6.93 trillion (£48bn), while imports amounted to ¥6.99 trillion./ppThere were double-digit falls in sales of cars and electronics, two mainstays of Japan’s export-dependent economy, amid signs that the credit crunch has spread to China, whose huge market helped fuel Japan’s nascent economic recovery after 2002./pp”The fall in exports to Asia reflects that their economies are also taking a blow from weakness in developed economies,” Takeshi Minami of Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo told Reuters./ppThe parlous state of Japan’s exports has forced companies to slash earnings projections, cut production and lay off workers./ppIsuzu, a leading maker of trucks, said today it would cut 1,400 temporary and part-time workers, while Toyota, the country’s biggest carmaker, said it would reduce output at its passenger car in factory due to weakening sales./ppSharp said it was thinking of cutting production in pivotal products such as flat-screen TVs due to weak demand overseas./ppMore than half of Japanese companies have cut their profit forecasts over the past two months, according to the Shinko Research Institute./ppShares in Japan’s megabanks and electronics makers were among the biggest victims of global recession fears./ppMitsubishi UFJ, which suffered a 61 % decline in second-quarter profit, lost 6.1% to close at ¥480, while Sumitomo Mitsui shed 10.4% to ¥281,500./ppCanon fell 7% to ¥2,610, Panasonic by 7.7% to ¥1,350 and Sony by 6.4% to ¥1,826./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/globalrecession”Global recession/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy”US economy/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketturmoil”Market turmoil/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/japan”Japan/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch”Credit crunch/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/toyota”Toyota/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa”United States/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/shares”Shares/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227174721237″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227174721237″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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Flight attendant earns her stripes

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:11:57 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/46445?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Flight+attendant+earns+her+stripesch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Canada+%28News%29%2CAirline+industry+%28business%29%2CTransport+UK%2CUK+news%2CWorld+news%2CBusinessc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CNorth+America+Travelc6=Dan+Milmoc7=2008_11_20c8=1120833c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Canadac13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FCanada” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpA cabin attendant helped to steer a Heathrow-bound passenger plane to safety after the co-pilot suffered a breakdown in mid-air, investigators have revealed./ppThe flight attendant was promoted to the cockpit after the captain of the Air Canada service ordered his colleague to be handcuffed and dragged from his seat. The female attendant, a qualified commercial pilot, came forward after the captain asked the 155 passengers and crew if there were any professional pilots on board. The unnamed attendant sat in the co-pilot’s seat of the Boeing 767-333 jet as the Toronto to Heathrow flight was diverted to Shannon airport in Ireland on January 28./ppThe report by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit said the captain noted that his first officer was “quite harried” before takeoff and later became belligerent and uncooperative, “which convinced the commander he was now dealing with a crew member who was effectively incapacitated”. The unnamed officer was taken to a psychiatric unit and was flown home 11 days later./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada”Canada/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/theairlineindustry”Airline industry/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/transport”Transport/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227174721293″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227174721293″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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Indian frigate destroys ‘mothership’ as raids off Somalia continue

ritimg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:11:39 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/6467?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Indian+frigate+destroys+%27mothership%27+as+raids+off+Somalia+continuech=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Piracy+at+sea+%28News%29%2CIndia+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Xan+Ricec7=2008_11_20c8=1120852c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Piracy+at+seac13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FPiracy+at+sea” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpSomali bandits terrorising the busy shipping routes around the Horn of Africa suffered a rare setback when an Indian warship destroyed a pirate “mothership” after coming under fire in the Gulf of Aden./ppThe Indian Navy said that its frigate, one of the numerous international warships dispatched to patrol the waters around the Horn of Africa, had approached a suspicious vessel on Tuesday evening. It turned out to be a previously captured ship being used by pirates as a base to launch their speedboats far out to sea./pp”The INS Tabar closed in on the mother vessel and asked her to stop for investigation,” an Indian navy spokesman said. “But on repeated calls, the vessel’s threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it approached.”/ppAfter a heavy exchange of fire, the pirate ship was destroyed. Two speedboats escaped. /ppThe naval battle came on a day when pirates seized three other ships: a Greek bulk carrier, a Thai fishing boat and an Iranian-chartered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat from Germany. The hijackings, which followed the capture at the weekend of the Sirius Star, the Saudi supertanker carrying $100m (pound;66m) worth of oil bound for the US, sent a powerful message of the pirates’ potency./ppThe 330-metre oil tanker, the largest ship ever to be captured at sea, is reported to be anchored near the town of Harardheere on Somalia’s eastern seaboard. Its owner, Vela International, a subsidiary of the state oil company Saudi Aramco, yesterday opened negotiations for a ransom payment, according to Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. /pp”I know the owners of the tanker are negotiating on the issue. We do not like to negotiate with terrorists or hijackers. But the owners of the tanker, they are the final arbiters of what happens there,” he said./ppstrongDemands/strong/ppThe ransom sought will almost certainly run into tens of millions of dollars. The pirates in September captured the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, carrying 33 T-72 tanks, and initially wanted $20m, although they later reduced their demand. /ppThe Faina and its crew are still being held hostage near the north-eastern Somali fishing town of Eyl, together with more than a dozen other vessels with about 220 foreign seamen on board./ppAl-Jazeera yesterday broadcast an audio tape featuring what it said was the voice of Farah Abd Jameh, a pirate on the Sirius Star, making his demands./pp”Negotiators are located on board the ship and on land,” he said. “Once they have agreed on the ransom it will be taken in cash to the oil tanker. We assure the safety of the ship that carries the ransom. We will mechanically count the money and we have machines that can detect fake money.” No ransom amount was mentioned, however, and the authenticity of the tape could not be confirmed./ppstrongLaw and order/strong/ppWhile the capture of so many passing cargo vessels makes a mockery of pirates’ claims to be protecting the country from foreign exploitation, complaints about illegal fishing in Somali waters are genuine. The Seafarers’ Assistance Programme in Mombasa says that at any one time there can be hundreds of foreign trawlers, mostly from Europe and the Middle East, fishing within Somalia’s 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. /ppLocal fishermen say their catches are declining as a result. And while some foreign ships do acquire permits, corrupt officials often pocket the money./ppAnalysts say that in the long term the key to ending piracy is establishing an effective authority on land in Somalia. In 2006, when the Islamic Courts Union controlled most of southern and central Somalia for six months, bringing in law and order for the first time since the early 1990s, piracy all but disappeared./ppBut after the Islamists were ousted by invading Ethiopian forces, pirates began to flourish once more. The Transitional Federal Government, headed by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, exercises no authority on the ground or at sea and claims, with some justification, that it can do little to rein in the pirates. /ppIn an interview with the shipping weekly Fairplay, Royal Navy Commodore Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East, explained the difficulties of patrolling Africa’s longest coastline. “The pirates will go somewhere we are not. If we patrol the Gulf of Aden then they will go to Mogadishu. If we go to Mogadishu, they will go to the Gulf of Aden.”/ppSomalia’s prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, said patrols would not stop piracy and said instead that his country needed help in tackling the criminal networks that run within and without Somalia./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/piracy”Piracy at sea/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/india”India/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227174721251″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227174721251″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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New York Internet Marketing Service

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:11:10 +0000

We are coming to New York this weekend for the iNetGlobal/AdPacs Rally. This is our 1st ever New York Internet Marketing Seminar. We will be bring our own brand of Internet Marketing Services to the local market.

We will be in Flushing. Downtown Flushing is the largest urban center in Queens, and home to the second [...]

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[audio] Fit Of Anger Turns Dairy Farmer Into Beef Farmer

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:11:56 +0000

Onion Radio News - with Doyle Redlandimg src=”http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~4/459247311″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Patrick Barkham on Ready and able, a film about disabled people

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:11:56 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/46686?ns=guardianpageName=Film%3A+Ready+and+ablech=Filmc3=The+Guardianc4=Film%2CDisability+%28Society%29%2CCulture+section%2CSocietyc5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CHealth+Societyc6=Patrick+Barkhamc7=2008_11_20c8=1120818c9=articlec10=GUc11=Filmc12=Disabilityc13=c14=h2=GU%2FFilm%2FDisability” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpA teenager in a wheelchair rolling off a cliff, two disabled people whacking each other with ping-pong bats - if it wasn’t so funny, there would be plenty of uncomfortable moments in Special People, a low-budget British film that delights in confounding expectations, not least by having its disabled characters played by disabled actors, a revolutionary idea in mainstream cinema./ppTake Sasha Hardway, a 22-year-old who looks like a Hollywood star, and who walks with a very chic stick. In Special People, Hardway plays one of four teenagers given drama lessons by a patronising film director, hoping to use them to revive his flagging career and failed romance. The idea for the movie came from a group of disabled teenagers in Hereford, who improvised it into an award-winning short film with the help of director Justin Edgar (who has a hearing impairment) and able-bodied actor and co-writer Dominic Coleman. “The teenagers really were taking the piss out of Dominic,” says Edgar. “These guys represent a gutsy new generation of disabled young people who won’t take any shit. I found that inspiring.”/ppFor the feature-length version, Edgar found Hardway after his mother spotted her in the pages of the Big Issue. Hardway, who grew up in Essex, was funding her graphic design degree with a bit of modelling. She has a rare condition called dystonia, which has required spinal surgery and a wheelchair. “My mum noticed that other children were running around and I was getting left out,” she says. “So she put me in a rock and pop choir and I got into performing.” Acting seemed closed off to her: “When I was younger, there weren’t any disabled actors. You tried to compare yourself to people on TV and the only person I saw in a wheelchair was on Sesame Street.”/ppHardway appears alongside David Proud, 25, who played a basketballer in the BBC children’s drama Desperados. Proud, who has spina bifida, took A-level theatre studies (thanks to “the world’s coolest drama teacher”) but then settled for working in a job centre because, like Hardway, he couldn’t imagine making a living out of acting. /ppDisabled actors playing disabled characters - let alone winning parts not specifically written as “disabled” - still seems beyond most mainstream film and television, despite 18% of British people recording a disability or long-term health problem in the 2001 Census. Disabled lives are often portrayed as a grim battle against the odds. “It shouldn’t just be about the struggle,” says Hardway. “It should be about what you’re achieving.” In Special People, the teenage characters are, ultimately, just teenagers; they fool around and fall in love./ppHardway and Proud clearly enjoyed making the film, shot in 13 days in Birmingham and the Malvern hills on an initial budget of just pound;35,000. Proud is pragmatic about taking disabled roles, but there aren’t many about: “I’ve got an old Michael Caine quote, ‘Use a difficulty’ - use what you have, in a positive way. If you’re bald, be the best bald actor. You’ve got to establish that first before you break that mould.”/ppWhen it comes to Hollywood’s treatment of disability, that mould is far from broken. The new film by Fernando Meirelles, Blindness, features Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore as blind characters. “Films have won Oscars with stars ‘cripping up’, as they call it: Born On the Fourth of July, My Left Foot, The Piano,” says Edgar. “Why not have somebody with a real learning disability playing someone who’s got a learning disability - rather than Sean Penn in I Am Sam? Alec Guinness got stick for playing an Indian in A Passage to India 20 years ago. We would like to see an age where you can’t get away with an able-bodied actor ‘cripping up’.”/ppStruggling for funds, Edgar found support in an unlikely source: a firm of builders in Birmingham. Why was it so hard to get backing elsewhere? “People in the industry don’t know enough about disability to think it could be a commercial film,” he says. Astonishingly, Special People was given a 12A rating - alongside a warning that it contained “disability themes”./pp”It’s a warm comedy,” says Edgar. “Giving it a ‘disability theme’, as though we have to be warned away from disabled people, is bizarre. You wouldn’t have the film censors saying ‘black themes’ for a Spike Lee film.”/ppThe stars of Special People hope to inspire younger disabled people. “It’s not even just to make them want to act,” says Hardway. “It’s to make them feel better about themselves.” /ppNext up for Edgar is The Hunger House, a film about the Nazis’ treatment of disabled people. “Who knows where looking at the world from a disabled perspective may take us?” he says. “Seeing the world in a different way is what excites me about film”./pp• strongSpecial People/strong is out tomorrow./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/disability”Disability/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Filmcountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030768″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Filmcountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030768″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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Joe the Plumber becomes Joe the Writer after signing book deal

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:11:44 +0000

American values set to be the subject of book by man who challenged Barack Obama’s tax proposals

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Astronaut’s bag joins 9,000 other bits of space debris

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:11:47 +0000

Space-walk to repair joint on solar panel wing takes seven hours after toolbag slips out of a greasy glove

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Carmaker bosses cling to their jets but could lose their aid

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:11:18 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/91670?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Carmaker+bosses+cling+to+their+jets+but+could+lose+their+aidch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=US+economy+%28Business%29%2CAutomotive+industry+%28Business%29%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news%2CBusinessc5=Motoring%2CBusiness+Markets%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUS+Economyc6=Elana+Schor%2CMark+Milnerc7=2008_11_20c8=1120773c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=US+economyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FUS+economy” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpShares in US carmakers tumbled yesterday as it looked like the industry would lose its attempt to secure a $25bn (pound;16.6bn) bail-out from Congress./ppGM’s stock had fallen more than 15% by midday and Ford had dropped 25% as both companies joined the privately held Chrysler to plead for help averting bankruptcy. The battle over aid had been due to reach a Congressional vote yesterday, but insufficient political support appeared to be forcing a postponement/ppHarry Reid, the Democratic Senate leader, pinned responsibility for the industry’s fate on the Bush treasury department rather than Congress. “Although I hope we can pass legislation to aid the auto industry this week, no one should be overly concerned if we are unable to reach agreement to do so,” Reid said./ppIf there is no rescue this week it could undermine shares in the Detroit carmakers even further, with uncertainty also gripping parts suppliers, dealers and other sectors reliant on the health of the three motor companies. US auto sales support nearly 250,000 jobs and about 4% of US gross domestic product./ppAs the chief executives of GM, Ford, and Chrysler begged Congress for aid for the second successive day, Republicans pressed for the release of $25bn in already approved loans to Detroit - although that cash was intended to help the motor industry produce cleaner vehicles. Democrats are resisting that compromise as they believe it would weaken Detroit’s ability to adapt to new fuel-efficiency standards. However, those from the mid-west states, where a carmaker collapse would hit the hardest, are calling for a quick cash injection with little concern for specifics./pp”Are we going to permit a difference over the source of funds for these loans to destroy an opportunity to help an industry so essential to this economy?” asked Carl Levin, a Democratic senator from Michigan./ppSome on Capitol Hill have suggested a compromise that would divert the $25bn to carmakers until Barack Obama takes office next year. The companies would then be required to refund those loans once they recover, even though the economic crisis could forestall that event indefinitely./ppThe three carmakers’ chief executives have faced heavy criticism for their performance at this week’s congressional hearings, where they resisted accepting any blame for difficulties they attributed entirely to the evaporation of credit markets. The executives were also condemned in the press for flying private jets to Washington to ask for public money. When asked by Democratic congressman Brad Sherman to raise their hands if they would sell their company jets to prevent bankruptcy, none of the three did so./pp”I don’t know how I go back to my constituents and say, ‘The auto industry has changed,’” Sherman said./ppThe companies have also faced calls to sell off overseas assets. But GM shrugged off a surprise approach for its German subsidiary, Opel. The solar energy company SolarWorld said it was prepared to offer euro;1bn (pound;840m) for Opel, which employs 25,000 workers in Germany, adding that it aimed to turn Opel into Europe’s first green car company. SolarWorld said it wanted Opel to be separated completely from its US parent and would pay euro;250m in cash and another euro;750m in bank credit lines guaranteed by the German government./ppGM Europe was dismissive. “This is pure speculation. Opel is not for sale,” said a spokesman./ppOpel is seeking euro;1bn in possible aid from the German government because of the threat that it could be caught up in the fall-out from the US. Calls are also mounting for a broader plan to help the European automotive industry. The problems facing the industry will be discussed at a European summit next month./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy”US economy/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/automotive”Automotive industry/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa”United States/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030742″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030742″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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Brazil uses radar to protect isolated tribes

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:11:09 +0000

Heat sensors employed to find country’s last remaining indigenous Indians deep in the Amazon

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Crocodile Bites Off Bush’s Arm

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:11:35 +0000

HOMESTEAD, FLmdash;A 14-foot crocodile bit off President Bush’s left arm at the shoulder Monday, a White House memo reported. Bush, who was…img src=”http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~4/458365684″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Stuart Jeffries: The truth about Hitler’s genitals

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:11:56 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/72939?ns=guardianpageName=Media%3A+The+truth+about+Hitler%27s+genitalsch=Mediac3=The+Guardianc4=The+Sun+%28Media%29%2CPress+and+publishing%2CWorld+news%2CMediac5=Press+Media%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weeklyc6=Stuart+Jeffriesc7=2008_11_20c8=1120783c9=articlec10=GUc11=Mediac12=The+Sunc13=c14=h2=GU%2FMedia%2FThe+Sun” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpHitler did in fact have only one ball, the Sun claimed in an exclusive yesterday. The paper claims to have proof he lost it in the battle of the Somme in 1916. “Until now there has never been complete proof Hitler was monorchic,” reports Alex Peake. (Monorchic, you won’t need telling, betokens a male with one testis.) Steady on, Mr Peake. Greater historians than you have claimed things about Hitler that turned out to be false. Maybe, like the Hitler diaries, the story is a load of balls./ppBut, assuming it isn’t, how does the revelation affect the veracity of other claims made in the song that British second-world war-troops sang to the tune of Colonel Bogey? The first verse goes:/ppHitler has only got one ball,/ppThe other is in the Albert Hall, /ppHis mother, the dirty bugger,/ppChopped it off when he was small. /ppIntriguing. It seems unlikely that Hitler’s ball would have made the journey from the Somme to the Albert Hall. (Yesterday no one at the Albert Hall was prepared to confirm my thesis that the testis is under seat J37, which would explain why I was so uncomfortable during the Proms). In another version, sung by Mancunians, it is “in the Free Trade Hall”. A third has “the kitchen wall”./ppIf Frau Hitler did indeed chop of her son’s ball, why would she post it to one of several leading British concert halls? Much more likely, surely, that she put it on her kitchen wall for safekeeping (possibly because she had a presentiment that her son’s body parts would prove posthumously valuable on eBay). It seems that Frau Hitler has been traduced: bad enough to be Hitler’s mother without being a weirdo who posts her son’s knacker to London SW7./ppWe haven’t even considered the possibility that it was Gouml;ring not Hitler who was monorchic - something claimed in another version of the song:/ppGouml;ring has only got one ball./ppHitler’s [are] so very small/ppHimmler’s so very similar/ppAnd Goebbels has no balls at all./ppFascinating. When were Hitler and Himmler’s genitals compared? Are we to suppose both Goebbels’ parents mutilated him? Clearly more research needs to be done. Ideally not by me./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/sun”The Sun/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pressandpublishing”Press publishing/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Mediacountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030788″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Mediacountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030788″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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I’m Not One Of Those ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ Christians

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:11:54 +0000

Everybody has this image of “crazy Christians” based on what they hear in the media, but it’s just not true. Most Christians are normal, decent…img src=”http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~4/458560618″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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Democrats in all-out battle to win remaining two US Senate seats

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:11:40 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/79314?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Democrats+in+all-out+battle+to+win+remaining+two+US+Senate+seatsch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=US+elections+2008+%28News%29%2CDemocrats%2CMinnesota+%28US+elections%29%2CUS+news%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CUS+Electionsc6=Ewen+MacAskillc7=2008_11_20c8=1120746c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=US+elections+2008c13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FUS+elections+2008″ width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpThe congressional elections are over for most of the US, but not in Georgia and Minnesota, where Democrats and Republicans are fighting all-out for the two remaining Senate seats that could shape Barack Obama’s presidency./ppThe election in Georgia, in which neither candidate won more than 50%, is to be re-run on December 2. In Minnesota a recount of votes began yesterday, while in Alaska the Democrats on Tuesday night took the third outstanding seat, although theoretically the Republicans could demand a recount./ppThe Democrats’ win in Alaska over the Republican incumbent Ted Stevens, who has been found guilty of corruption, helps the party close in on the magic 60 seats in the US Senate that would give it a decisive majority in the 100-seat chamber./ppIf the Republicans can deny the Democrats that 60-seat majority they would be able to mount filibusters and other delaying tactics that could potentially create havoc with parts of Obama’s legislative programme. Some moderate Republicans, though, will vote with the Democrats on many issues./ppThe Democrats went into the election with 51 Senate seats and now have 58, including two independents who vote with them./ppIn Minnesota lawyers from both parties are out in force as the two sides argue, in an echo of the 2000 Florida recount, over whether absentee ballots that had been discarded as spoiled should be counted./ppElection officials in Minnesota yesterday began a manual recount of the 2.9 million votes cast on November 4 for Republican incumbent Norm Coleman or the Democrat former comedian Al Franken. They have until December 5 to complete the job. The state canvassing board postponed a decision on rejected absentee ballots. The recount was triggered by the smallness of Coleman’s lead, only 215./ppMeanwhile senior figures from both parties, including Bill Clinton, were heading to Georgia to speak at rallies and other campaign events. The state’s television stations are being swamped with political adverts. Democrats would also like to see Obama make a trip to the state. The president-elect’s campaign team said yesterday that no decision had been made./ppObama spent yesterday in Chicago, working on putting together his cabinet. It was widely reported last night that the former Democratic leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle, had accepted the post of health and human services secretary./ppHealth is one of the most important jobs in Obama’s cabinet, with Daschle having to deliver on Obama’s campaign pledge to move towards universal health care./ppMitt Romney, who was among the Republican candidates seeking the party’s presidential nomination early this year and is likely to run again, is scheduled to visit Georgia tomorrow. John McCain campaigned there last week./ppIn Georgia the Democrat Jim Martin is trying to oust the Republican incumbent, Saxby Chambliss. Neither candidate got 50% of the vote plus one, automatically triggering a re-run. Chambliss won 49.8% of the vote, to Martin’s 46.8%. A libertarian candidate took 3.4 % of the vote, possibly preventing Chambliss securing the 50%-plus he needed./ppThere was a big African-American turn-out in Georgia on November 4 for Obama. Although Obama did not take the state, Martin benefited from the increased turn-out. But the African-American vote may not turn out in such big numbers for the Senate race./ppIn Alaska the Democratic party’s victory could mean the end of Stevens’ career. The six-term senator is the longest-serving Republican in Senate history. His Democrat rival, Mark Begich, claimed victory on Tuesday, even though he had only a 3,724 majority./ppStevens, 85, did not say whether he would seek a recount. He was damaged by being found guilty of concealing $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil company. /pp”I wouldn’t wish what I’m going through on my worst enemy,” Stevens told reporters in Washington on Tuesday before the vote count. “I haven’t had a night’s sleep for almost four months.”/ppCharles Schumer, a New York Democrat who headed the Senate campaign committee, said: “With seven seats added to the Democratic ranks in the Senate, we have an even stronger majority that will bring real change to America.”/pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/uselections2008″US elections 2008/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/democrats”Democrats/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/minnesota”Minnesota/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa”United States/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030630″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030630″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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Syria to share intelligence on terrorism after Miliband visit

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:11:41 +0000

Deal breaks years of isolation following accusations of involvement in assassination of Lebanese premier

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If Only Someone Had Written A Song Describing The Bittersweet, Cyclical Nature Of The Father-Son Relationship

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:11:48 +0000

Over the years, music has covered a wide range of human emotions. But one aspect of the human condition that has never been evoked by a single…img src=”http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~4/458365682″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

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President for 60 more days, George Bush tearing apart protection for America’s wilderness

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:11:05 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/78155?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+President+for+60+more+days%2C+Bush+tearing+apart+protection+for+America%27s+wildernessch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=George+Bush+%28News%29%2CConservation+%28Environment%29%2CUS+news%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CClimate+change+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CWorld+newsc5=Environment+Conservation%2CClimate+Change%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=Suzanne+Goldenbergc7=2008_11_20c8=1120820c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=George+Bushc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FGeorge+Bush” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpGeorge Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America’s wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January./ppWith barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America’s wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste./ppIn the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office./ppThe timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them./pp”There are probably going to be scores of rules that are issued between now and January 20,” said John Walke, a senior attorney at the National Resources Defence Council. “And there are at least a dozen very controversial rules that will weaken public health and environment protection that have no business being adopted and would not be acceptable to the incoming Obama administration, based on stances he has taken as a senator and during the campaign.”/ppThe flurry of new rules - known as midnight regulations - is part of a broader campaign by the Bush administration to leave a lasting imprint on environmental policy. Some of the actions have provoked widespread protests such as the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to auction off 20,000 hectares of oil and gas parcels within sight of Utah’s Delicate Arch natural bridge. /ppThe Bush administration is also accused of engaging in a parallel go-slow on court-ordered actions on the environment. “There are the midnight regulations that they are trying to force out before they leave office, and then there are the other things they are trying not to do before they go. A lot of the climate stuff falls into the category of things they would rather not do,” said a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency./ppOther presidents have worked up to the final moments of their presidency to impose their legacy on history. But Bush has been particularly organised in his campaign to roll back years of protections - not only on the environment, but workplace safety and employee rights./pp”This is Bush trying to leave a legacy that supports his ideology,” said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, an independent Washington thinktank that monitors the White House office of management and budget. “This was very strategic and it was in line of the ideology of the Bush administration which has been to put in place a free market and conservative agenda.”/ppThe campaign got under way in May when the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, wrote to government agencies asking them to forward proposals for rule changes. Bolten had initially set a November 1 deadline on rule-making. The White House denies that the flurry of rule changes is politically motivated. “What the chief of staff wanted to avoid was this very charge that we would be trying to, in the dark of night in the last days of the administration, be rushing regulations into place ahead of the incoming, next administration,” Tony Fratto, the White House spokesman, told reporters./ppBut OMB Watch notes that the office of management and budget website shows 83 rules reviewed from September 1 to October 31 this year - about double its workload in 2007, 2006 and 2005. /ppMeanwhile, the Bush administration cut short the timeframe for public comment. In one instance, officials claimed to have reviewed 300,000 comments about changes to wildlife protection within the space of a week./ppThe new regulations include a provision that would free industrial-scale pig and cattle farms from complying with the Clean Water Act so long as they declare they are not dumping animal waste in lakes and rivers. The rule was finalised on October 31. Mountain-top mining operations will also be exempt from the Clean Water Act, allowing them to dump debris in rivers and lakes. The rule is still under review at the OMB. Coal-fired power plants will no longer be required to install pollution controls or clean up soot and smog pollution./ppYet another of the new rules, which has generated publicity, would allow the Pentagon and other government agencies to embark on new projects without first undertaking studies on the potential dangers to wildlife. /ppAnnouncements of further rule changes are expected in the next few days including one that would weaken regulation of perchlorate, a toxin in rocket fuel that can affect brain development in children, in drinking water./ppThe Bush strategy has prompted a fightback from environmentalists, the Democratic-controlled Congress, and members of the Obama transition team./ppJohn Podesta, who is overseeing the transition, has said that Obama will review the last-minute actions, and will seek to repeal those that are “not in the interests of the country”./ph2Pollute, baby, pollute/h2pThe last-minute rules passed during the “midnight hours” of the George Bush presidency differ from his predecessors because they are basically a project of deregulation - not regulation. Among the most far-reaching:/pp• Industrial-size pig, cow and chicken farms can disregard the Clean Water Act and air pollution controls./pp• The interior department can approve development such as mining or logging without consulting wildlife managers about their impact./pp• Restrictions will be eased so power plants can operate near national parks and wilderness areas./pp• Pollution controls on new power plants will be downgraded./pp• Mountain-top mine operators could dump waste into rivers and streams./pp• 2m acres of land in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado opened to development of oil shales, the dirtiest fuel on Earth./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/georgebush”George Bush/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/”Conservation/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa”United States/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife”Wildlife/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climatechange”Climate change/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030709″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030709″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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Riches galore, but president’s wasteful ways leave country in economic mess

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:11:24 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/94195?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Riches+galore%2C+but+president%27s+wasteful+ways+leave+country+in+economic+messch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Iran+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+Blackc7=2008_11_20c8=1120744c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Iranc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FIran” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpTehran’s metro system is a relief from the Iranian capital’s polluted, car-choked streets. Fast and efficient, it has stations named after the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution or the eight-year “imposed” war against Iraq. Each Chinese-built train has a carriage reserved for women who wish to use it./ppStill, Imam Khomeini station, where the underground’s only two lines meet, teems in the afternoon rush hour. Three more lines are under construction but progress is painfully slow, adding to the crippling congestion in this city of 14 million. And the fact that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a PhD in traffic management only fuels commuters’ anger at the permanent gridlock./pp”The traffic is a metaphor for politics in Iran,” said Mohammad Atrianfar, a magazine publisher and one of many scathing critics of the president. /ppAhmadinejad is best known in the west for his stance on Israel and the Holocaust, defiance of American hegemony and pursuit of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which he insists are peaceful. Barack Obama’s lukewarm response to his letter of congratulations was a reminder of his semi-pariah status on the world stage./ppBut at home he is far more often blamed for the economic mismanagement that is the result of his spendthrift populism. And now his chance of re-election for a second term may be under threat - and with it, his enemies hope, the three-year ascendancy of Iran’s hardline conservatives and clerics. /ppIt should have been easy to finance the Tehran metro and other big projects. Iran has the world’s second largest oil and gas reserves, and with oil prices peaking at $147 a barrel in July the state’s oil stabilisation fund should have been overflowing with spare cash./ppBut prices are now down to about $55 - a red line for the government. And the kitty is all but empty after an estimated $200bn windfall was squandered on imports ranging from fruit and other staples to the petrol the country has to buy abroad because of a lack of refineries. “The oil party is over,” one MP said./pp”Ahmadinejad has been a total disaster,” said Sadegh Zibakalam, a Tehran University political scientist. “With falling oil prices it’ll be interesting to see how he is going to survive.”/pp”Whatever he touches is ruined,” said Ahmed, a 50-something taxi driver who complains that he still does not own his own home and has seen his graduate son following him into unskilled work. Unemployment is officially 10% but among the under-35s it has hit 20% or more. Inflation, officially 30%, has hurt the poorest hard. /ppstrongPrice controls/strong/ppParamilitary Basij volunteers, operating under the Revolutionary Guards Corps, have been used to enforce price controls. At least 14 million Iranians live below the poverty line./ppWith revenues from oil (80% of total state income) in such sharp decline, it will be necessary to raise more cash from the public. But last month bazaar traders such as carpet seller Javad Abdi went on strike to protest against a new value-added tax, forcing the government to postpone implementation. “Why should we pay taxes when we have oil?” the burly Azeri shrugged as women in black chadors fingered the silky Tabriz rugs in his tiny shop./ppTwo central bank governors have been sacked in recent months after protesting against Ahmadinejad’s policies, one of them complaining of the “looting” of state assets. Last week the president was lambasted by 60 leading Iranian economists and condemned for scaring off the kind of foreign investment the Tehran metro and other projects so desperately need./ppYet although all this looks like a Farsi version of “it’s the economy stupid”, Ahmadinejad’s troubles may not be terminal. He is popular in the countryside and small towns for the projects and cheap loans he has funded with oil money, just as he promised. What plays badly in affluent north Tehran is applauded in rural Baluchistan, where his views on Jews or “global arrogance” are no more than plain speaking from a man who sounds like “one of us”./ppNow, with crucial presidential elections approaching next June, his plan for direct payments to replace subsidies is under attack as brazen vote-buying. “This is not economics, its politics and propaganda and it can only be for the short term,” warned economist Mohammad Khoshchehreh. “It’s like what Chaacute;vez did in Venezuela.”/ppNone of this muttering means that the regime is under threat. Nearly 30 years after the revolution, Iranian politics is still dominated by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has cautioned against rapprochement with the US and, unlike Ahmadinejad, is neither standing for election nor is the butt of irreverent jibes./ppIt is possible, though, that the economic crisis could make the country more vulnerable if the Obama administration managed to galvanise international support for tougher action over the nuclear issue. With petrol already rationed, causing long queues on garage forecourts, an embargo would cause chaos. The economists who attacked the president noted that billions of dollars were being lost because UN sanctions forced Iran’s trade to be conducted mostly through intermediaries./ppstrongSanctions/strong/ppAmir, a microbiologist who used to import medical diagnostic kits, has seen his company collapse and hospital laboratories become paralysed because of sanctions blocking “dual-use” equipment. “The government persists in enriching uranium but I’m not clear why,” he said. Like many of his friends and other educated Iranians, he is considering emigrating./ppAnecdotal evidence also shows objections to the money spent on supporting militant groups abroad - Hizbullah and Hamas - when there are so many pressing needs at home. “We elected a president to deal with the problems of Iran and not other people’s,” said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president./ppThe big question is who will challenge Ahmadinejad. The great hope of the reformists is the former president Mohammad Khatami, though there are doubts over whether he will stand - and whether he could win without a unprecedented turnout. Many analysts argue that a reformist victory is a near impossibility and that a more pragmatic conservative would have a far better chance of unseating the incumbent./ppAtrianfar believes the economy will be the dominant election issue. “Iranian citizens say ‘I live in a rich country with oil but I don’t have a job or money and I don’t see a future for my child’. People need to get used to paying taxes - holding their government to account for what it does. If people have to pay significant taxes they will not let someone like Ahmadinejad be their president. If he doesn’t cheat he can’t win the election. And he can and will cheat.”/pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran”Iran/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030658″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030658″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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The rise and fall of Rachida Dati

ritimg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:11:57 +0000

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/30327?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+The+rise+and+fall+of+Rachida+Datich=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=France%2CWomen+and+women%27s+interests%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CWomenc6=Angelique+Chrisafisc7=2008_11_20c8=1120790c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Francec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FFrance” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpRachida Dati, petite in her trademark black suit and high heels, bursts into the gilded dining room of her justice ministry, late for breakfast. She beams her famous “Plexiglass smile” - polite but guarded - and flashes a look that says, “I’m not finished yet.” Dati is a French icon, Nicolas Sarkozy’s hand-picked symbol of change: the first Muslim woman to hold a major government post. She adores appearing on magazine covers but is defensive in briefings, bristling at critics and, when cornered, she repeats her unfailing devotion to her mentor Sarkozy and his right-wing policies. She doesn’t like being constantly reminded of her improbable rise from poverty against all the odds of French discrimination, and hates being called the Cinderella of the housing estates. But she keeps her family close. At one of Sarkozy’s early Elyseacute;e parties, as Dati mingled wearing haute couture, I met her father, Mbark, a retired Moroccan builder, sitting at the edge of the grand Salle des Fecirc;tes observing the great and the good sip champagne. Dati’s brother, Jamal, had recently been jailed for dealing drugs and Dati Sr, a severe disciplinarian, was torn between the huge disappointment at his criminal son and joy over his daughter, the justice minister. “I think of Rachida, not Jamal,” he said. /ppDati has been hailed as the nearest thing France’s fractured society has to Barack Obama. The French justice minister was raised in poverty on a housing estate in deepest Burgundy. Sarkozy said appointing her sent a message “to all the children of France that with merit and effort everything becomes possible”. He also hoped it would neutralise the bad feeling after the riots on the run-down housing estates and his comment likening the wayward youths to scum./ppDespite scepticism that this “window-dressing” at the top did little to change the discrimination poisoning French society, Dati immediately became one of the most popular figures in France. The speed of her rise has been staggering. But that of her fall could be too. The Dati fairytale has started to go spectacularly wrong. /ppThis autumn, aged 42 and single, Dati announced that she was pregnant and would not name the father or elaborate on her “complicated” private life, which in recent years has seen her linked to two millionaire businessmen. The former Spanish prime minister, Joseacute; Mariacute;a Aznar, and the French junior sports minister and former rugby coach, Bernard Laporte, denied the child was theirs. It was seized on by international celebrity magazines and has become the stuff of satire and low jokes in Paris political circles. /ppDati’s baby is due in January and her pregnancy has coincided with another major crisis at her justice ministry. Magistrates have taken to the streets in protest at what they see as botched reforms and government interference in the independence of the judiciary. Yesterday, in an unprecedented move, over 500 magistrates and judges signed a letter to Dati attacking her “incoherent policies”. France’s dire prisons are so overcrowded and fetid that murder and suicide are rife. Prison wardens have threatened action and a succession of Dati’s advisers have quit. There has been speculation that Dati could use the birth of her child as an excuse to leave politics, or that she could be moved by Sarkozy, who some sense, has left his proteacute;geacute;e to hang out to dry. But sacking a minister on maternity leave is out of the question. And Dati is so much part of the president’s image and so deeply entwined in his own complicated private life, that to demote her would also damage him.Privately she says she wants to stay and fight on in the justice ministry, dismissive of the Elyseacute;e intrigues and what she feels are attacks by the white, conservative elite. Maternity leave, she says, is for wimps. She will be back at her desk within three weeks of the birth. /ppDati grew up on the outskirts of the provincial town of Chalons-sur-Saocirc;ne. She was the second of 12 children born to Mbark and Fatim-Zohra, an an illiterate Algerian. Her parents struggled to make ends meet, sewing their children’s clothes out of curtain fabric that Rachida complained made them look like they were in a cult. The first building site Mbark worked on in France was a Catholic convent school. He went to the headteacher and asked if his two oldest daughters, Malika and Rachida, could be admitted. The mother superior was astonished but agreed, cautioning that he would have to pay the modest fees. It was here that Dati forged her fierce will to succeed. Anything less than top of the class was seen as a failure. She would help adults in her council block write letters and fill out forms, order children to stop playing and do homework: she would give presentations about Islam to her Catholic class. From 16, she stacked up a dizzying number of part-time jobs to help support the family: selling Avon beauty products door to door, selling sausages, working at a service station and on a supermarket checkout. When she left for university in Dijon to study economics she worked nights as a hospital assistant, sending money home./ppDati’s friends call her a consummate networker. As a student, she scoured newspapers, picking out business leaders and politicians and bombarding them with letters asking for advice, internships and jobs. It worked: she soon had a job as an auditor in Paris and a posse of supportive business leaders and even cabinet ministers mentoring her. At 27, she briefly returned to Burgundy to marry an Algerian engineer chosen by her family. In the ceremony at the town hall, when asked for her “I do”, her mumbled answer was unintelligible and three years later she persuaded the courts to annul the marriage on the basis of lack of consent. Her escape from that mysterious arrangement - on which she refuses to elaborate - would later further endear her to the French republican elite wedded to the stereotype of Muslim women held in bondage by their men and their faith./ppOn the advice of her new mentor, Simone Veil, the revered holocaust survivor and former minister, she trained as a magistrate and practised for a short period until she focused on her most important networking target: Sarkozy. In 2002 he became minister of the interior and she deluged him with letters. He was astonished at her tenacity and ordered his team to find her a minor advisory post./pp”At the start, I said, ‘What are you doing with Sarkozy?’ He was on the right, it wasn’t the obvious choice of someone from our background,” says Morad Aiuml;t-Habbouche, Dati’s best friend. “She said, ‘He’s surprised me, he’s very active on changing things, on diversity.’ Her career is really tied up with Sarkozy. She says her destiny is linked to his. They are similar in some ways - he has some immigrant roots, although it’s always easier to be from Europe than the Magreb.” /ppAiuml;t-Habbouche became friends with Dati during one of her early networking drives. He was one of the very few French TV reporters with an Algerian name and she wrote to him saying she liked what he stood for. They both grew up with discrimination, no public role models, and the dead weight of the war in Algeria still hanging over French society. Together, they founded the 21st Century Club, a networking group for young people from diverse backgrounds. “Rachida never wanted to go into politics,” he says. “I always thought she had all the qualities to be one of the first MPs with immigrant roots, but she said no. Then she met Sarkozy and decided he was the right person to follow.” /ppDati’s attempts to emulate Sarkozy even extends to the president’s trademark jogging. /pp”She got into running when she went on holiday with his family. She started doing 30-minute stints, now she can do two and a half hours. She’s got amazing strength,” says Aiuml;t-Habbouche. He used to run with her in Paris, where, like a Parisian Rocky, she’d race up the steps of the Trocadero. /ppDati was drawn to Sarkozy by his “rage”. “There’s something in me that echoes with him, a mirror effect. Like me, he can’t bear to be humiliated,” she has said. Both feel themselves to be outsiders, her because of her background, him because of the foreign-sounding Hungarian surname he says haunted him and the fact that he didn’t study in Paris’s elite graduate schools. He also feels deeply self-conscious about his absent father following his parents’ divorce when he was a child, which set him apart from his bourgeois peers in western Paris. /ppIt was Sarkozy’s first wife, Ceacute;cilia who suggested he pluck Dati from the obscurity of her post as a little-known ministry adviser and appoint her spokeswoman for his presidential campaign at the end of 2006. Without experience of working within Sarkozy’s UMP party or ever having run for elected office, Dati was thrust forward as his main spokeswoman on TV. Her appointment wrong-footed the French left’s white elite. Dati was a huge media success, arguing Sarkozy’s rightwing views from carefully prepared scripts. She was also given the job of improving Sarkozy’s image on the housing estates, despite growing up in provincial France with a private convent education that bore little resemblance to the crowded high-rise ghettos outside Paris. Tarik Mouadane, then 25, the son of a Moroccan cleaner from troubled Argenteuil, attended meetings with her at the ministry in Paris. “She always said to me, never forget where you came from,” he says. “It was difficult for her. She cried over people in the party who felt she shouldn’t have been where she was.” /ppFrom the start, however, Dati was at the heart of the Sarkozy’s soap opera of a marriage to Ceacute;cilia - something that would later undermine her. She built a close friendship with Ceacute;cilia, who called her “my sister”. Dati stayed faithful to Ceacute;cilia during the couple’s first public split before the election campaign, and then enjoyed Ceacute;cilia’s public backing on her return. When Sarkozy won the presidency and made Dati justice minister, she initially continued to be associated in the public eye with the Sarkozys’ expensive tastes and social life. She went on holiday with the couple to Wolfeboro in the US. She appeared on the cover of a celebrity magazine on the arm of the Dior designer John Galliano. She posed in Dior dresses on the cover of Paris Match. “She even went to film-wrap parties,” said one insider on the Paris scene./ppWhen the Sarkozys’ marriage began to break up, Dati went on every official presidential trip as a kind of surrogate first lady. She was lampooned in France for her ostentatious outfits, such as a floor-length Dior gown and fur at the White House, where she was the only minister allowed to follow Sarkozy into the main entrance. Why do you go on all these trips, I asked her at her ministry one morning when criticism of her jet setting was mounting. “I like seeing the world at the highest level,” she shot back. /ppWhen Ceacute;cilia finally filed for divorce, Dati was left vulnerable. The sniping began almost immediately. One of the first books about Sarkozy’s whirlwind courtship of his third wife, Carla Bruni, described how Bruni once passed the bedroom of the Elyseacute;e palace with Dati and said: “You would have liked to occupy it, wouldn’t you?” Bruni would later reportedly ask Dati not to call her husband early every morning./ppWith Dati now distanced from Sarkozy’s inner circle, she has nowhere to hide. With little money at her disposal, and a raft of tough law and order bills to push through, the justice ministry was always going to be a fraught post. France was already reeling from a miscarriage of justice scandal, and UN Human Rights Committee and Council of Europe reports accusing prisons of being dirty, degrading and inhumane. Some have twice as many inmates as they were designed for, with many prisoners forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor. There have been more than 90 suicides in prisons this year./ppYet Dati sees herself as Sarkozy’s “little soldier”, faithfully carrying out his zero-tolerance policies. She has implemented Sarkozy’s plan to shut a series of provincial courts and cut costs. She has pushed through his drive to clamp down on reoffenders, recommending stiffer sentences to judges. But relations between her and magistrates are now so bad that Sarkozy was forced to take over and meet the magistrates’ union himself. “Rachida Dati meets us, but she doesn’t listen to us,” said Christophe Reacute;gnard, a magistratewho leads the biggest union. “When you put things to her, she says simply, ‘No, that’s not true.’ When you say the Council of Europe has said it, she still says, ‘No, that’s not true.’ It’s not possible to work like that.”/ppSarkozy does not feel let down by Dati as a minister - she has implemented his reforms, and more quickly than most of her colleagues. “He’s more let down by the fact she hasn’t succeeded in imposing herself politically,” says Bruno Jeudy, co-author of Sarkozy and His Women, which explores the Sarkozy-Dati relationship. “It’s as if she climbed to power too fast with no political grounding.” /ppIn France, it is common for presidents to pluck ministers from non-political life, such as the former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, who had never held elected office. But it makes these ministers vulnerable. This year, Sarkozy encouraged Dati to run as mayor for his centre-right party in the safe, chic seventh arrondissement on Paris’s left bank. He felt it would give her elected legitimacy. Despite the safe seat, she did not win the expected vast majority and was only elected on the second round. /ppDati, like her mentor Sarkozy, attacks when she feels wronged. She says that opposition to her at the justice ministry comes from a reactionary, conservative white ruling class who resent her presence. Her place in the French cabinet is undoubtedly a historic moment in the political life of a country still riven by racial discrimination. Mainland France currently has only one non-white MP and, in a recent poll, 80% of French people said they might vote for a black person at president, but only 58% could bring themselves to vote for one of millions of the French citizens of Algerian, Moroccan or Tunisian descent. As a role model, Dati is perhaps not the easiest person to warm to. But her appointment under the patronage of Sarkozy, and more importantly her survival, which now rests entirely on his whim, shows the real depths of the problem for minorities in France, who feel they are not being allowed to rise of their own accord. Fadela Amara, another woman of Algerian parentage whom Sarkozy appointed as a junior minister, says an Obama would have got nowhere in France. “It couldn’t happen in France unless Sarkozy turned emperor and appointed a black president himself,” she says./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/france”France/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women”Women/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030800″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227146030800″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/acopy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

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40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

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