Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15859869
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Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Dolphins slowed down by pregnancy
Bottlenose dolphins' maximum swimming speed is almost halved by pregnancy, making mothers-to-be much more vulnerable to predators, scientists find.
We're right to question both capitalism and the church | The big issue
Church of England bishops may be right to condemn the coalition for its proposed benefits cuts, but since when were they the true voice of the poor?
The general values and philosophy being promoted by the government are tellingly encapsulated in the Department for Work and Pensions' spokesperson's defence of the controversial welfare reforms, which have rightly been criticised by Church of England clerics ("Bishops unite to condemn coalition cuts on poorest", News, 20 November). The spokesperson said: "It simply isn't fair that households on out-of-work benefits can receive a greater income from the state than the average working household gets in wages. This is why we have proposed a benefit cap of around �500 per week."
What nonsense! Can it really be the case that the welfare state in the fourth or fifth richest economy in the world bases its calculation of benefits for an out-of-work family not on the amount that the family needs to survive, but instead on whether a family fortunate enough to be in work and earn a living wage might think it unfair?
At a time when government can readily find money to wage wars and to waste on renewing the Trident weapon of mass destruction, no wonder more and more people are questioning and challenging the capitalist system.
Dave Esbester
London SW19
When did the Anglican church develop this "commitment and moral obligation to speak up for those who have no voice" . Reading Melvyn Bragg's wonderful book about the King James's Bible would remind those clerics that it was the Methodists and Wesleyans who ventured into the dirty, ugly and poor industrial cities while the leaders of their church were "parachuted into vast vicarages and plump livings" in "the more pleasant, less crowded rural areas". Earlier, Bragg speaks of "the churchly princes and prelates" and "their mistresses and robes of silk, their booty and their immunity from the laws of the land".
Before the Pope, arch- and other bishops start meddling in politics ? who elected them anyway? ? repentance might be in order, not to mention a distribution of the wealth accumulated over many centuries, often from the very poor they so belatedly champion. Gold, with which the churches are inordinately well endowed, is making top dollar and there are plenty of Russian oligarchs who would be prepared to pay well for the palatial properties occupied by the clerics.
Dan Minton Rees
Monnetier-Mornex
France
Sixteen clerics have said they deplore the government's proposal to limit the amount of benefit any family may receive to �500 per week. These bishops have been publicly supported by both the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. If some of the most senior bishops in the Church of England truly believe that a family cannot survive on �500 a week, why do they allow some of their own clergy to live on less than this? As the son of two Church of England clergy, I look forward to my parents getting a pay rise forthwith!
Richard Hyslop
Datchet
Berkshire
I write in response to the clerics who criticise the government's proposed cap of welfare benefits at �500 per week. It seems an interesting use of the phrase "profoundly unjust" to describe a proposal that the taxpayer should no longer pay the workshy an income which would almost put them into the higher tax band if they were silly enough to work.
If these are the poorest in society, then I would love to be poor, too, as I typically work 50-60 hours a week (usually at night) and I can't remember the last time I took home �500 after tax, even in a well-paid and highly responsible job. I choose a lifestyle appropriate to my earning ability. The Bible has a lot to say about hard work and the sluggard, personal responsibility and counting the cost before making commitments.
Do our esteemed clerics not know their Bible or do they insist on treating grown adults like children?
Peter Coates
Yell
Shetland
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/nov/27/observer-bishops-benefits-coalition
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Santa poses with AK-47s at US gun club
Gun club in Arizona offers members opportunity to pose for family photographs with Father Christmas and lots of guns
An Arizona gun club is offering a chance for children and their families to pose for photographs with Father Christmas while holding weaponry such as AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers.
One image shows Santa Claus in a wingback chair with a snowflake background, a Christmas tree behind him and flanked by an $80,000 machine gun and a tripod-mounted rifle. Next to Santa is a man standing behind a boy, who is holding an unloaded AR-15 with an attached grenade launcher.
In another photo, Santa cradles a toddler dressed in camouflage, while a man and woman stand close by with rifles with foldable stocks. In another image, five young women pose with AR-15 and other rifles.
Ron Kennedy, general manager of the Scottsdale gun club, said the business got the idea for the photographs last year when a club member happened to come in dressed as Santa Claus and other members wanted their picture taken with him while they were holding their guns.
"Our customers have been looking for a fun and safe way to express their holiday spirit and passion for firearms," said Kennedy, noting people have used the photos for Christmas cards and Facebook posts. About 500 people showed up to the first of two sittings on Saturday.
Kennedy, whose facility offers guns for sale and to rent and has a 32-lane indoor shooting range, said the event was not aimed at children, but the club supports the right of parents to include children in the photos.
The guns used in the photos are not loaded and have had their firing pins removed, and their chambers are regularly cleared to ensure safety, Kennedy said.
To buy a semi-automatic rifle in the US, a buyer must be at least 18 years old and cannot be a convicted felon. The requirements for prospective buyers of fully automatic machine guns include being at least 21 years old, not being a convicted felon and getting a special license from federal firearms agents.
Democratic state Representative Steve Farley, who proposed an unsuccessful ban on large-capacity gun magazines like the one used in the 8 January mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people and wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others, said the gun club's photo event was inappropriate.
"To involve machine guns and Santa in a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ is the worst kind of heresy I can imagine," said Farley. "I would suggest that the people who created this read some of the New Testament."
Kennedy said the club is simply trying to provide a safe holiday event that's an expression of their passions. "It's more of a celebration of their Second Amendment rights," Kennedy said.
He said the club will continue holding the events in future years if there's a demand from customers for it.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/30/festive-firepower-santa-ak-47-us-gun-club
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In pictures: Tulips from Kazakhstan
Images from the Karatau mountains in southern Kazakhstan, which are home to some of the most stunning and endangered species of wild tulip.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-asia-pacific-13301419
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Conrad Murray gets maximum sentence
- Katherine Jackson's thoughts on Dr. Conrad Murray are in a report prepared for the judge
- Murray's "soft heartedness" led to his troubles, the doctor's mother says
- Murray could get anything from probation to four years in prison Tuesday
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Dr. Conrad Murray, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, will be sentenced Tuesday.
Jackson's mother, Katherine, hopes Murray gets the harshest sentence possible: four years in a state prison.
"I don't believe that he intended for Michael to die," Katherine Jackson said Monday. "He was just taking a chance."
At the sentencing Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor has a choice ranging between probation and up to four years in a state prison. But measures to relieve California prison and jail crowding could significantly shorten his time locked up.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Murray's reckless use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to help Jackson sleep, without proper monitoring equipment, led to the singer's death.
Testimony during his trial revealed that Murray gave propofol nearly every night in the two months before the singer's death on June 25, 2009, as Jackson prepared for his comeback concerts set for London the next month.
Murray was found guilty three weeks ago.
Katherine Jackson and several of her children will be in court for the sentencing Tuesday, but her grandchildren Prince, Paris and Blanket will not. They'll be at school, she said.
She was uncertain whether anyone from the family would speak in court, but she was interviewed by a probation officer who will include her thoughts in the report to the judge, Jackson said.
Murray's mother, Milta Rush, wrote a letter to the judge asking for mercy, saying "his compassion and his soft heartedness for others led to this dilemma."
Prosecutors are asking for the maximum four years behind bars, and they want Murray to pay Jackson's children more than $100 million in restitution. Defense lawyers want probation, not prison time.
Each side will have a chance to present oral arguments Tuesday, but their positions were detailed in sentencing memos filed with the judge last week.
Murray has "displayed a complete lack of remorse" about Jackson's death, and is, "even worse, failing to accept even the slightest level of responsibility," deputy district attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil wrote.
The prosecutors cited Murray's decision not to testify in his own defense, even while he was giving interviews for a documentary that aired days after the verdict.
"In each of these interviews, the defendant has very clearly stated that he bears no responsibility for Michael Jackson's death," the prosecutors said. "Moreover, the defendant has continued to express concern only for his individual plight and portrays himself, not the decedent, as the victim."
"I don't feel guilty because I did not do anything wrong," Murray said in the documentary quoted by the prosecution.
"Finally, the defendant consistently blames the victim for his own death, even going so far as to characterize himself as being 'entrapped' by the victim and as someone who suffered a 'betrayal' at the hands of the victim," the prosecutors said.
Jackson's death came as he was preparing for a series of comeback concerts in London, which the defense argued pressured the singer to seek sleep or risk having the concerts canceled.
The prosecutors contend in their sentencing memo that Murray should be ordered to pay Jackson's three children restitution for the subsequent "wage and profits lost," as provided under California's "victim's bill of rights" law.
The singer's "estate estimates Michael Jackson's projected earnings for the 50-show O2 concert series to be $100,000,000," the prosecutors said.
With nearly $2 million in funeral expenses and 10% interest added each year, the prosecution is asking Pastor to order Murray to pay Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson more than $120 million in restitution.
While it is doubtful that Murray, who is unlikely to ever practice medicine again, could pay much of that sum, it could prevent him from reaping financial benefits from any books, interviews or film projects in the future.
Defense lawyers, in their sentencing memo, said Murray is suffering "manifold collateral consequences" because of the felony conviction.
The memo included a biography of Murray that described him as "a self-made man of humble origins," who paid his own way through medical school without scholarships or family funds.
"He was raised in a home that lacked indoor plumbing or electricity, and he walked to school barefoot for his first couple years of school," the defense said.
He worked as a doctor for 20 years, with "no prior contacts with the law," and many of his patients were elderly in low-income, underserved communities, the defense said.
"It seems reasonable that the transgression for which he is to be judged should be viewed within the context of the larger life of which it is a part," it said.
The defense challenges the prosecution's contention that Murray is not remorseful.
"Dr. Murray wishes to make it unmistakenly clear to everyone that he deeply mourns the loss of Michael Jackson's life, and he profoundly regrets any mistakes or oversights on his part that may have contributed to it," the defense said.
The judge should also consider "the manifold collateral consequences that Dr. Murray has sustained as a result of his mistake," the defense said, including the loss of his medical career, the public disgrace and loss of privacy.
"Dr. Murray has been described as a changed, grief-stricken man, who walks around under a pall of sadness since the loss of his patient, Mr. Jackson," the defense said.
The defense memo included a letter from Murray's elderly mother, Milta Rush. She sat in court for much of her son's trial, just a few feet away from Jackson's mother.
"I sympathize with Mrs. Jackson as a mother," Rush wrote in a letter to the judge. "I sense she was very close to her son. I really wanted to approach her personally and tell her I am sorry for the loss of her son, but I was unsure if she would be receptive, and I did not want to take the chance of violating court rules. I am sorry for all her loss."
While Murray's mother told the judge her son is "saddened and remorseful" about Jackson's death, she said "his compassion and his soft heartedness for others led to this dilemma."
The defense contends that Murray was trying to help Jackson, who was desperate for sleep so he could be ready for rehearsals. "His compassionate intentions should not be overlooked," it said.
"The victim was a willing recipient of the medications administered," the defense said. "In fact, Mr. Jackson had repeatedly begged Dr. Murray for propofol to overcome his insomnia so that he could sleep."
Murray does not pose a safety threat to the public, it said. "The likelihood of recurrence is essentially nonexistent since Conrad Murray's medical license has been suspended."
Aside from the arguments of what Murray deserves, the defense contends that California's prison and jail crowding mean that "neither the space nor the public funds exist to continue imprisoning nonviolent, nondangerous offenders who do not need to be incapacitated for the sake of public safety."
"Dr. Murray is clearly such a defendant," the defense said. "He is an individual who remained free on bond for more than two years prior to the jury verdict, adhering assiduously to all of the bond conditions that had been imposed."
If Murray takes up a state prison or county jail cell, it "may mean that someone else with higher potential for violence will be released," the defense said.
Instead, the defense proposed that Murray could be sentenced to community service along with probation.
"Though he will perhaps not again be a doctor qualified to make diagnoses, he could educate and counsel patients about heart care and disease prevention," it said. "There are many nonprofit clinics and organizations that would benefit from his participation, if ordered to perform community service as a condition of his sentence and a means of 'putting some water back into the public well.'"
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/KpD0ZFhwLyk/index.html
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Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Leveson inquiry reveals sickening stink but no easy answers
The McCanns and the Dowlers have given evidence that makes good journalists cringe, but it's hard to see an instant fix
Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian made a crucial point in his evidence to Lord Justice Leveson when he observed: "Journalism today is often less of a snapshot and more of a moving picture." So here are a few whirring frames from the inquiry, week two.
Much that is vile ? the treatment of the McCanns, Sienna Miller, the Dowlers ? is enough to make good journalists cringe, especially because the essential facts are established. It stinks, and we know it stinks. Doing nothing is not an option.
Payments of �550,000 from Desmond, �100,000 from News International and �2m from the humbled Rupert already sent to McCanns, Miller, Dowlers. Does that send a loud enough message? If not, what will?
Too much ? from Coogan, Rowling, Grant ? is heartfelt, but may or may not be the full story. Accusations like this delivered in a courtroom setting need proper interrogation. That's why Leveson's running order is too often the wrong way round. Allegations first, proof later (if at all).
Facts, true facts, matter; but Leveson's own lead counsel, the lawyer Mark Lewis and Hugh Grant are instantly embroiled in straight conflicts of evidence. Anyone ? report, anyone ? can make a mistake.
The timescale of incidents raised is stretched over decades ? 20 years in the case of the Watson family. Would a parallel inquiry into, say, medical ethics start with Harold Shipman? If the problem is now, shouldn't the weight of testimony be now?
Rowling, Miller, Coogan, Grant, Mosley ? they're all celebs, so none of what they complain about infringes US privacy laws, operating an online millisecond away. No wonder Leveson is looking vexed. No PCC or successor can stop paparazzi selling pictures to the EU or, vitally, the huge US market. No lawyer can do that either.
What law, in a world of "citizen photographers" with mobile phone cameras, can prevent people having their pictures taken in the street?
Showbiz lawyers don't like the PCC because it's quick and cheap. It would be good to hear what the PCC thinks of showbiz lawyers.
The Daily Mail's CEO says he expects a �1m bill for his inquiry legal representation alone. Not cheap, not quick.
Leveson's lack of a tabloid adviser looks ever less sensible. Witness after witness cites enormous tip-off fees and exclusive confession rates. But look at red-tops' shrinking profits and slashed budgets ? and wonder about reality.
Next week, further testimonies for the prosecution. Expect to feel more anger and revulsion. Then take a little time to think. There's a sickening stink, but no instantly easy answer (accept fines, arrests, trials, prison sentences and shutting more papers: as now).
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/27/leveson-inquiry-pressandpublishing
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'Poorest have been abandoned': fears tax credit hit will push children into poverty
George Osborne diverts money from Britain's poorest families to pay for public building projects and a fuel duty freeze
When George Osborne stood up to deliver his "emergency" budget in June 2010, he proudly announced that despite the drastic austerity measures the Treasury was taking to tackle the deficit, he would keep up the battle against child poverty. On Tuesday he abandoned that pledge, dipping into the pockets of some of Britain's poorest families to pay for a rash of public building projects and a fuel duty freeze.
By the time it left office, Labour was off track to hit its totemic target of eliminating child poverty by 2020. The Conservative-led coalition came to power claiming to be equally committed to helping the poorest families. That was why Osborne pledged to increase the child element of the working tax credit ? the bit that goes to families ? by �110 above inflation.
That promise was reversed on Tuesday, saving the government about �1bn a year and prompting Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, to claim "Britain's poorest families have been abandoned today and left to face the worst". Osborne had already announced he would freeze the basic element of the working tax credit; yesterday he said the lone parent and child elements would also be frozen instead of uprated in line with inflation, saving the Treasury �290m a year by 2013.
Analysis by the Resolution Foundation shows that the burden of these changes will fall overwhelmingly on the bottom end of the earnings distribution, with the poorest 30% bearing as much as half of the cost.
Osborne stressed that because of the higher-than-expected level of inflation in September, the child tax credit will still have increased by �390 since the coalition came to power last May. But the Treasury itself conceded that the package was likely to increase the number of children in poverty by up to 100,000.
"Warnings of a bleak future of rising child poverty have not just been ignored, the government has actively decided to let child poverty rise," Garnham said.
Tax credits, Gordon Brown's favoured method for boosting the incomes of the lowest paid, have never been popular with the Conservatives, and they are due to be superseded by Iain Duncan Smith's universal credit in 2013.
The Lib Dems prefer their own plan, wrested from the Conservatives as part of the coalition agreement, of raising the personal income tax allowance across the board. In his speech, Osborne said "the best way to support low-income working people is to take them out of tax altogether".
The Lib Dems were also pleased to have fought off proposals to uprate out-of-work benefits by less than September's 5.2% rate of inflation on the CPI measure.
But welfare experts warned that freezing tax credits at a time when inflation is running at 5% will erode living standards for some of the poorest people in the country at an extremely tough time ? and could trap some in poverty by eroding the incentive to take a job.
Kayte Lawton, senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: "Now is the time that we want all the incentives focused on work, as much as we can."
Some economists also questioned the macroeconomic rationale for the attack on the budgets of low income families. The cash saved will be used to pay for a freeze on fuel duty to placate exasperated motorists; a cap on rail fare rises; and to help fund scores of infrastructure projects, from the Kettering bypass to a new bridge across the Thames.
Ian Mulheirn, of the Social Market Foundation, said: "For a government that's keen to burnish its fiscal credibility, caving in to the motoring lobby seems like an unfortunate use of the �1bn savings."
The decision to allow the value of tax credits to be eroded fits with a wider government narrative that boosting families' income is not the only way to improve life chances for poor children.
One of the few spending announcements was an expansion of free childcare places for two-year-olds from the poorest 20% of families to the poorest 40%.
Nick Clegg and his Lib Dem colleagues believe that this approach, of early intervention for the children of low income families, is a more effective one than giving handouts.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/29/poorest-abandoned-tax-credit-children
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GPS backpacks track NZ hedgehogs
Hedgehogs are the smallest mammal to ever be tracked by GPS, following a study by scientists in New Zealand.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9469000/9469456.stm
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Channel 4 News remains the Jon Snow show, for now
Jon Snow still rules the roost at C4 News but the show must plan for a future without its revered anchorman
The Spectator is getting an unlikely petition together. Save Jon Snow! Don't let Matt Frei and Cathy Newman, the two new recruits to Channel 4 News, drive poor old Jon, 64, out into the cold. Keep our national treasure in his rightful, commanding place.
But Snow's warm admirers should sit comfortably amid such fuss. There's no thought and no sinister plan to so much as pull a thread on Jon's famous ties. Maybe Channel 4 News needed a bit of a makeover. Newman and Frei make the programme less of a one-man band. But Jon Snow is still its heart and soul.
Yet don't confuse admiration (going on adulation) present with future possibilities. Any gruelling TV news show dependent on a presenter/reporter in his 65th year has to think transition, ponder the when and the if. And any outfit buying Matt Frei from the BBC will naturally have succession in mind. What does "eventual" mean this context? Watch the primaries and the main events in the US election next year. Snow has always loved getting out on the US campaign trail. Frei is the natural Mr America for coverage purposes. Who'll win the fight to be top boy on the bus? Or will it be a split decision?
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/27/channel-4-news-jon-snow
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Monday, 28 November 2011
Abelisaurs
Abelisaurs were the top of their time replacing the earlier . They ruled the southern hemisphere, while the mighty reigned in the north. Not as big as the they were still a force to be reckoned with. These giant killers would have torn flesh from the local , or even each other, as did.
Skulls have been found with some interesting ornamentations including bony crests and horns above the eyes, pits and grooves. These were possibly for the purposes of . The forelimbs of abelisaurs such as Carnotaurus were short and may not have been used. Fossils from this family of have, so far, only been found in South America, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent.
Skulls have been found with some interesting ornamentations including bony crests and horns above the eyes, pits and grooves. These were possibly for the purposes of . The forelimbs of abelisaurs such as Carnotaurus were short and may not have been used. Fossils from this family of have, so far, only been found in South America, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Abelisauridae
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Network Rail electric lines await chancellor's green light
George Osborne is expected to announce extra funding for electrification of trans-Pennine railway line
George Osborne is considering bringing forward the �250m electrification of the Manchester to Leeds rail route as part of his Treasury infrastructure spree.
It is understood the chancellor is preparing to sanction extra funds for Network Rail, owner of Britain's rail tracks and stations, to electrify the north trans-Pennine route. An announcement could come in his autumn statement on Tuesday.
If Osborne approves the work it would be an early victory for the rail industry's pitch for the network's next five-year plan, which runs from 2014 to 2019. Their proposals, published in September, contained a number of electrification schemes, including the Cardiff Valley and the Midland Mainline route from Bedford to Sheffield.
Unlike their diesel-powered counterparts, electrically powered trains do not carry heavy fuel and can accelerate more quickly, as well as being less prone to breakdowns. That argument convinced the previous government, which announced electrification schemes in the 2009 pre-budget report.
Osborne has already backed a reduction in planned rail fare increases, which would have seen season tickets rise by an average of 8%. Instead, fares will rise by 6%. The reduction also applies to the London Underground network, boosting the capital's mayor, Boris Johnson, as he prepares to enter an election year.
There are hopes he will also announce measures to guarantee jobs at Britain's last remaining train factory in Derby, owned by Canada's Bombardier, which is seeking contracts for new trains on the CrossCountry and Southern franchises.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/28/network-rail-green-light-electrification
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Egyptians flood polling places
A man prepares flags for sale at an entrance to Tahrir Square on Sunday in Cairo, Egypt.
- NEW: "This is the first time in 55 years that I (can) vote," one man says.
- NEW: Throngs line up in Cairo to vote in parliamentary elections
- Several stages of voting will take places between now and March
- An analyst predicts spiraling unrest if the elections are perceived as illegitimate
Cairo (CNN) -- Egyptians headed to the polls Monday to cast their vote in the first election held since an improbable revolt toppled one of the world's longest-serving rulers.
Hundreds of people lined up on one street in downtown Cairo, all waiting patiently to vote in the country's parliamentary elections.
"This is the first time in 55 years that I (can) vote," said Sharif Shinawi, a 55-year-old businessman. "It was never in the history of Egypt, since Adam and Eve, that we've had this opportunity. I am willing to wait 10 hours, or until tomorrow morning if I have to, but I will vote."
Polls opened at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. ET ) for the first of many rounds to decide who will sit in the upper and lower houses of parliament. Egyptians have dozens of political parties and thousands of independent candidates to choose from in what, for many, will be their first election.
"I have never voted in any election because it was totally corrupted and it was not called election. It was called forgery. Why ... vote if you're 100% sure that you won't be respected, you won't be counted," said Mohamed Ali, a tour guide.
He spoke in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where protesters have demanded change since early this year. They ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak in February -- a major victory in the Arab Spring uprisings -- and are now calling for his military replacements to step aside.
Like many Egyptians, Ali is torn between the ballot box and a revolution he feels is incomplete. But for the first time in his life, he will vote.
"The election -- it's the chance now," Ali said. "I'll go (vote) -- and (then) I'm back in the square."
'At a critical crossroads'
Egypt set for historic elections On the eve of Monday's election, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces urged Egyptians to vote and warned of "dire consequences" if the nation's political crisis continues, state-run Al-Masriya TV reported.
Egypt on edge ahead of elections Some 50 million people are eligible to take part in the historic election.
American student jailed in Egypt talks "Please go and vote because we want a parliament that is well balanced from all the parties and groups. The elections will not be successful until everyone who has a right to vote participates. Egypt is at a critical crossroads. It either succeeds, or Egypt will face dire consequences," said Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Elections for the lower house are scheduled to take place in three stages, the last one of which is set for January. Upper house elections will run between January and March and be followed by a presidential vote.
Egyptians have dozens of political parties and thousands of independent candidates to choose from.
The once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, one of the nation's largest organizations, is expected to perform well in the election, which is taking place against the backdrop of demonstrations calling for an immediate end to military rule. Some protesters have said they will boycott the vote.
At least 42 people have been killed in the recent demonstrations, including at least 33 in Cairo. An additional 3,250 have been wounded, according to the health ministry.
U.S. student arrested in Egypt: I fainted from fear
"I fought for these elections in Tahrir Square and even got shot, but I am boycotting them completely. I don't trust the military one bit ... It's a farce and more people will die in the next two days," said Omar Ahmed, a taxi driver.
Others expressed confidence and said they are excited about the opportunity to help decide the country's direction. The streets are full of election banners -- a strong sign of democracy in a country ruled for 30 years by Mubarak's iron fist.
"I believe the election is a good thing. ... If we are lucky, maybe we'll get rid of Tantawi," said Ashraf Nagi, an activist.
'Will never turn back'
Like Ahmed, analysts have warned of increased violence if the vote is not considered legitimate by most.
The elections in Egypt are being closely watched as the nation is the most populous country in the Arab world and a major player in regional politics. Whatever becomes of the revolution here will have wider repercussions.
"It is easy to imagine a spiraling of unrest and violence if elections are perceived as illegitimate by a significant number of Egyptians or, worse, delayed altogether," Shadi Hamid, an analyst at the Qatar-based branch of the Brookings Institution, wrote recently.
"Since its revolution, Egypt has not had even one national body with real legitimacy. Legitimacy requires elections, which is why the upcoming polls are so critical for both Egyptians and everyone else who wishes to see Egypt move toward democracy and some modicum of stability," he said.
The country's military rulers recently appointed Kamal Ganzouri, who served under Mubarak, to his former role as prime minister. He was chosen after then-Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his government quit en masse, extending months of upheaval and instability.
"I think we've had peaks and we've had downs. Right now, we're having another peak. Unfortunately, maybe it's not the peak we hope for at a time like this," said Mohamed Ghoneim, another activist.
But, he added: "I definitely think the wheel that has gone in motion ... will never turn back."
CNN's Ben Wedeman, Ivan Watson and Dana Ford and journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/_ySl0iUxO0M/index.html
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King penguin
King penguins are extraordinary parents. While one parent is guarding the chick, the other makes a trip of up to 400km (250 miles) in search of food. When the young are old enough, they are left with other juveniles so both parents can search for food. The adults return to the sea during the winter, leaving the chicks alone, and they are rarely fed during this time.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/King_Penguin
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Hatzegopteryx
As flying animals go they don't get much bigger than Hatzegopteryx. It was a of gigantic proportions, standing over five metres tall with a wingspan of at least ten metres. This would have made Hatzegopteryx one of, if not the, largest animal ever known. The robust skull was three metres long and among the largest of any non-marine animal.
The massive lower jaw was found to have a groove that would have allowed for an impressively wide gape. Hatzegopteryx's heavily built skull was in contrast to other skulls that were made up of lightweight plates. The necessary reduction in weight being achieved by the skull bones internal structure. Hatzegopteryx would have been flying the skies 65 million years ago above what is now Europe.
The massive lower jaw was found to have a groove that would have allowed for an impressively wide gape. Hatzegopteryx's heavily built skull was in contrast to other skulls that were made up of lightweight plates. The necessary reduction in weight being achieved by the skull bones internal structure. Hatzegopteryx would have been flying the skies 65 million years ago above what is now Europe.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Hatzegopteryx
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Sunday, 27 November 2011
PICTURES: Spider webs cocoon trees
Have a look at this amazing side effect from last year's Pakistan floods: trees completely cocooned in spiders' webs.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_9440000/newsid_9443200/9443220.stm
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Deathly ice finger caught on film
A bizarre underwater "icicle of death" is captured on camera for the first time by BBC filmmakers.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15835017
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'Just who are the attackers this bill is meant to protect us from?'
The letter sent by the Nobel prize-winning novelist Nadine Gordimer on new secrecy laws in South Africa
The stated purpose and claimed validity of the Protection of State Information Bill is the protection of the state and its people. We come unavoidably, inevitably, to the question: Who, and by what means, threatens the safety of the state: who wants to "invade" us? An invasion by sibling countries of our parent African continent? We are the most powerful militarily.
Globally, we are honourably represented in ? thereby supported by ? worldwide bodies; we are now even the attached letter 'S' to the acronym BRIC. Who else threatens us? The old bogey, communism? Is Cuba going to send an invasive force to bring to power our small Communist party (now somewhere in the ideological mix among the crowd in the African National Congress majority government)?
Invasion financially? Infiltration is the successful means; if China wants to take the chance, a modest start already more or less peaceably accepted in the clothing industry.
Left over from colonial political intercourse, we remain the stepchild of international financial crises ? there is no independence fought and died for by which the Protection of State Information Bill could save our state.
The most immediate stun under which we South Africans are reeling is without question the most important: the result of such a bill on the press, which means all forms by which we are kept informed ? print on paper, electronic or visual ? of what affects the conduct of our lives, our right to live as we decide so long as we do not distort, damage or constrict the lives of others.
Freedom of expression. That's the title to our rights this bill strikes out as a danger to the state in that we have the right to know and think: the right of the human condition.
The bill affects writers other than journalists, in a less immediate, obvious way. We poets, novelists, playwrights ? workers in all literary modes ? will be subject to the bill through our fictional characters' actions and opinions, alive in our books, the dialogue in theatre, the inference of images, even abstract, in painting ? all that makes the arts a force in human consciousness.
I speak from the experience under apartheid. Three of my own novels were banned, among the fiction of other writers South African or authors worldwide. An anthology of poems by black South African writers I collected and for which I found a brave local publisher was also banned. It seems we in South Africa are going Backward To The Future.
I sign off with a quotation from Edward Said. "Who is to uncover and elucidate the contests, challenge and hope to defeat the imposed silence and normalised quiet of power?"
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/27/nadine-gordimer-letter
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Night-flowering orchid discovered
A "remarkable" night-flowering orchid, the first of its kind known to science, has been described by a team of botanists.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-15818662
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Arctic poppy
Arctic poppies are one of the most northerly growing plants in the world. Covered in black hair they are hardy and tough, with some surprisingly delicate yellow or white petals. These continually turn to face the sun, tracking its progress across the sky, and attracting
to the centre of the bloom. Arctic poppies are found growing in meadows, mountains and dry river beds. They thrive among stones that both absorb the sun's heat and provide shelter for the roots. Within their range they are most common in the Nunavut region of Canada.
to the centre of the bloom. Arctic poppies are found growing in meadows, mountains and dry river beds. They thrive among stones that both absorb the sun's heat and provide shelter for the roots. Within their range they are most common in the Nunavut region of Canada.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Papaver_radicatum
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Saturday, 26 November 2011
Good to meet you: Christine Alker
A reader with an interest in climate change and South America explains her long-standing appreciation of the Guardian
The Guardian has always been part of our family. My father would have liked to have been a reporter; he always said that if we read journalists such as Neville Cardus we would learn how to write. It was treated with respect. For me, the Guardian still has that quality ? its writing, its investigative journalism and its political stance are all good reasons for me to read it daily. I am also slightly addicted to Sudoku; I like the hard ones best.
I was trained as a youth and community worker and I have worked with young people, both professionally and as a volunteer, for most of my working life. I am particularly concerned about climate change, and I act on it through Christian Aid's campaigns. Reading George Monbiot gives me encouragement and material for campaigning.
I enjoy gardening. I do the fruit and veg; Adrian, my husband, does the flowers. So I also love reading Alys Fowler in Weekend magazine, especially when she is writing about her own vegetables and herbs.
There is not much I would change about the Guardian. I get a bit annoyed when I see all the very high-priced clothes, and some more news about the South American continent would be welcome. We are good friends with a Colombian family who live in Bogot�. We visited them there and saw an amazing project they founded for street children. We forget how populous and important South America is ? we need to be reminded regularly.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/nov/26/good-to-meet-you-christine-alker
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SC zeroes govt options on NRO
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was heading a17-member bench, delivered the verdict on the federation�s pending pleas for review of certain aspects of Dec 16, 2009 judgement of the SC wherein the court had struck down the contemptuous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
The four lines judgment said: �The court from Nov 21 to Nov 24, 2011 heard the federation counsel Dr Babar Awan at length and considering all the aspects of the review petitions filed under Article 188 of the Constitution of Pakistan to revisit the judgment. The counsel (Babar Awan) failed to make out a case (and) as a result the review petition is dismissed.� The court directed the relevant authorities to comply with the judgment in letter and spirit without any further delay.
The apex court in its Dec 16, 2009 order had declared the NRO as �void ab initio�, �ultra vires� and in violation of certain articles of the constitution, saying that the ordinance issued in 2007 by Musharraf�s dictatorial regime must �be deemed non est from the day of its promulgation�. All the cases, disposed of because of the controversial ordinance, were revived as of Oct 5, 2007 position. In addition, the court had ordered the government to write to the Swiss authorities for reopening cases against NRO beneficiaries including, President Asif Ali Zardari.
Babar Awan on Nov 19, 2011 filed an application in the Supreme Court insisting on grant of permission to represent the federation in the review petition. He on Nov 24 (Thursday) prayed the court that he wanted to submit some documents.
It is settled principle of law that ordinarily at the review stage, a document is not allowed to be produced unless it is very much relevant to do complete justice. Therefore, initially the court declined the request but after a second thought formed the opinion that the learned counsel could produce and read out the documents to the court. The court during Thursday�s proceedings directed Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwarul Haq to convey the message to Babar Awan to appear before the court. Despite the SC direction Babar did not appear on Friday. Advocate on Record Mehmood A Sheikh requested the bench to adjourn the case but the worthy court denied it.
The court then asked Law Secretary Masood Chishti, who was present in the court, to read out the documents saying it was he who had filed the petition on behalf of federation, adding that the bench did not expect the case to be argued and that a simple reading would suffice.
The Law Secretary requested the court that let Babar Awan come on Monday in the court and he would read the documents, but the court rejected his plea. The absence of Babar Awan annoyed the court. The chief justice remarked that Babar Awan was a senior lawyer but 17 senior judges are sitting in the court, therefore he should have attended the hearing.
Chishti refused to comply with court orders, saying that he is not in a position to do so. When the chief justice asked him �Can�t you read English?� Chishti read out only one page and refused to read further. He said he realises he will face contempt of court charges and is prepared to go to jail as he is �not interested� in this job.
The court ordered the AGP to read the document through-and-through pertaining to cases of Asif Ali Zardari, late Benazir Bhutto and others. During the Nawaz Sharif period there was a correspondence between the law ministry, Ehtesab Bureau and Swiss officials regarding Zardari�s money laundering case. The court questioned as to how the documents from 1997 to 1999 were relevant to the case as NRO was promulgated in 2007.
Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa remarked that so much fuss was created that heavens may fall, if the documents would be read in the court. He said the court did not like to stop the way of justice therefore Babar Awan was allowed to read them in the court.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said the only reason they did not like that documents be read in the court was that there were names of dignitaries of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), including PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. They did not want people should know those names, he added. The court then dismissed all the petitions for the NRO review, ordering that its NRO verdict should be implemented in letter and spirit.
The court later hearing the petition of Syed Nasir Shah, former Solicitor General at the Law Minister, pardoned him. He was issued notice for not cooperating with the court during the NRO proceedings. Appearing before the bench Nasir sought unconditional apology and said: �I throw at the mercy of the court.� The court accepted his plea and discharged the case.
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Retailers leaving 'wrong' locations
Many high streets around the country have become second-class shopping areas, eclipsed by larger stores in malls
Sir Philip Green set off alarm bells this week when he warned that up to 260 shops in his Topshop-to-BHS fashion empire Arcadia could close.
It was further bleak news for the UK's high streets, where one in seven shops already lies empty and a spate of retail collapses from Habitat to TJ Hughes has left fresh scars.
Like other chains such as Marks & Spencer, Dixons and Mothercare, Arcadia has too many Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Miss Selfridge outlets on the "wrong" high streets as the internet and huge malls redraw the shopping landscape. Green has nearly 300 loss-making stores on his hands.
But he is in the advantageous position of being able to get rid of many of them, as leases on almost 500 shops in his portfolio expire in the next three years, making him the envy of rival chains who are bound by long leases that lock them into year after loss-making year.
Retailers follow the money and customers increasingly demand bigger stores, more choice, and preferably the chance to park right outside ? and that means out-of-town retail parks rather than high-street parades.
This inexorable shift means there is a now a mismatch between supply and demand with a quarter of the UK's estimated 271,000 shops surplus to requirements, according to Matthew Hopkinson at Local Data Company, which tracks shop openings and closures around the country.
Hopkinson says Rochdale, with its surfeit of betting shops, pound shops and pawnbrokers is typical of the many high streets around the country that have become second-class shopping areas, eclipsed by the options in nearby larger cities.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/25/high-street-retailers-closing-stores
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Teenage football fan stands up to Scotland's sectarian thugs
John Hynd, 16, received death threats after speaking out against the rising incidence of hate crime in Scotland, where the religious divide goes far beyond the Old Firm terraces
John Hynd has received death threats simply for joining a website campaigning against the sectarian divide in the west of Scotland. "I used to be a bigot," he says. "I'd go to the game ? I'm a Rangers fan ? and happily be singing Billy Boys along with my dad and his friends. Then I just thought, 'Hold on a minute. I've got Catholic friends. I'm going out with a Catholic. I don't want to be up to my knees in Fenian blood like the song says. I don't want this.'"
His stand has not only estranged him from his staunchly Protestant family but, after posting his phone number in a message on the site, he received calls from a man threatening to kill him. Hynd is only 16.
New figures released this weekend by the Scottish government show that religious hate crime in Scotland rose by 10% in the past year, with 60% committed by under-30s. A third of the charges related directly to football and 58% were against Catholics, 37% against Protestants.
On Tuesday the Edinburgh parliament will begin to debate controversial new legislation, nicknamed the "Football Act", which will give police more powers to clamp down on the sectarian chanting at matches that has landed both Rangers and Celtic in trouble with football's authorities this year.
On Monday two men will appear at Glasgow's high court accused of sending explosive devices to three people, including the Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, and to the Glasgow offices of Cairde Na h'�ireann (Friends of Ireland).
Defending one of the men is Donald Findlay, one of Scotland's leading lawyers, who had to resign as a director of Rangers after being filmed singing the sectarian song The Sash, and who has faced censure from his professional governing body over sectarianism.
The new crime statistics mean that almost 3,000 people have been charged with religiously-motivated crime since 2003. The Catholic church has described "entrenched hostility" to its members ? 16% of Scotland's population.
Others have blamed the church for keeping Scotland's schools segregated along faith lines. But while the political debate rages, a grassroots fightback is quietly gaining traction.
At Hynd's school, Calderside Academy in Blantyre, a town eight miles south of central Glasgow, Yvonne Donald, 26, is showing him and his classmates a photograph of another 16-year-old, Mark Scott.
"Mark was walking home from a game, not an Old Firm game, at 5.15 in the afternoon," she tells them. He had tucked his Celtic scarf into his jacket as his mum had told him to. It wasn't enough to stop a group of Rangers fans heckling him. Then one of them cut his throat through to his spine in an unprovoked attack. The next picture is of Mark's white-faced schoolfriends carrying his coffin.
Mark's killer, Jason Campbell, now 37, who was released from jail this year, came from a family steeped in hatred ? his father and uncle had both served prison sentences for their involvement in a Ulster Volunteer Force explosives conspiracy in Glasgow.
"This is a full-on example of sectarianism," says Donald, an education officer with the anti-sectarian charity Nil By Mouth. "For Mark it all ended because of that shirt." Nil By Mouth was founded by Mark Scott's friend Cara Henderson in 1999 as the only charity dedicated to fighting sectarianism. It almost closed due to lack of funding last year.
Its campaign director, David Scott, is optimistic, however, about the impact they can have. "Two centuries of sectarianism in Scotland and it took a 15-year-old schoolgirl to stand up to it. That's something and it is the young who will change this."
Scott talks to the class briefly before Donald asks if they think he is a Catholic or a Protestant. All hands go up for him being a Protestant. "He's just got that look about him," says one boy.
It's the kind of response that Alison Logan knows well. "You will ask children, what is a Catholic? What is a Protestant? And we've had answers like, 'A Catholic is ginger and aggressive,' and, 'Protestants are people who don't go to church,'" said Logan, social inclusion officer at Glasgow City Council's Sense Over Sectarianism project, aiming to unpick religious bigotry through twinning between denominational and non-denominational schools as well as drama and art workshops. "They are astonished when they go into each other's schools and find the classrooms look the same. Suddenly they realise they can be pals."
Football shirts feature in their work too. "We get them to try on the other team's shirt, and you do get situations where they'll say, 'I'm not wearing that,' with adults as well as kids. So it's about showing them it's just a shirt, showing them that when you're too busy screaming abuse at the other team's fans you've forgotten to support your own team."
Logan is optimistic about the future. "Teachers and parents are seeing a difference. When we started we were told sectarianism isn't a problem in Scotland; it's people like you stirring it up. It was a big taboo that we kept a lid on. Scotland remained one step behind in dealing with its bigotry, perhaps 10 years behind where we are with racism.
"Now there are debates happening up and down the country. There's guys talking about it in the pubs. We're having the conversation about the rights and wrongs. There's a real change. There's a real growing commitment, a groundswell of grassroots behaviour."
Hynd believes that his generation can bring change . "People that are spouting all this nonsense, they're just following their dad, who's following their grandfather, who's following his. Football is football. I love Rangers, but I'm not up to my knees in anyone's blood."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/20/teenage-football-fan-sectarian-violence
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Attorney: U.S. students freed in Egypt
Three American students are still being held in Egypt, despite word Thursday that they would be released.
- NEW: The father of one student says his son was "falsely accused"
- The three students are headed to the airport to return home, a lawyer says
- An Egyptian-American filmmaker has been released, her lawyer says
- She was reportedly arrested while filming close to the interior ministry
(CNN) -- Three American college students detained in Cairo since Monday night were released from police custody Friday and were headed to the airport to return to the United States, an attorney for one of the men said.
The men will board three separate commercial flights to return home, according to Joy Sweeney, the mother of Derrik Sweeney.
Theodore Simon, an attorney for the family of Gregory Porter, told CNN that "his parents anxiously await his return."
The three -- Porter, Sweeney and Luke Gates -- were arrested after being accused of throwing Molotov cocktails in the unrest that has rattled the country since last week. Their release was ordered Thursday.
Joy Sweeney said earlier Friday that the paperwork to release the men had been completed. Derrik Sweeney's father, Kevin Sweeney, told CNN his flight is scheduled to leave Cairo at 10:30 a.m. Saturday (3:30 a.m. ET) and he will arrive in his home state of Missouri on Saturday night.
"He's extremely excited," Kevin Sweeney said of his son. The family was planning to hold a belated Thanksgiving meal Sunday.
Joy Sweeney said her son told her Wednesday in a telephone call that "they had done nothing wrong." All had been attending American University in Cairo on a semester-long, study-abroad program.
Sweeney, 19, is a Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Missouri; Porter, 19, is from Glenside, Pennsylvania, and attends Drexel University in Philadelphia; and Gates, 21, of Bloomington, Indiana, goes to Indiana University.
Adel Saeed, the general prosecutor's spokesman, said Wednesday that a bag filled with empty bottles, a bottle of gasoline, a towel and a camera had been found with the three American students.
"They denied the bag belonged to them and said it belonged to two of their friends," Saeed said.
Kevin Sweeney said Friday that his son had been "falsely accused."
"He was there observing something that was definitely a phenomenon of the culture," he said, noting that Derrik, with a dual major in Arabic and psychology, had gone to Egypt "not just to learn the language -- he wanted to learn the culture."
Now, Sweeney said, his son does not plan to return to Egypt.
"This semester is over for him, whether he's able to finish it remotely or writes it off," he said. "He really does not want to be in Egypt right now."
Sweeney declined to discuss any possible injuries his son sustained while in police custody. He was not aware of the conditions of the other two men.
Also Friday, an Egyptian-American filmmaker arrested amid ongoing protests in Cairo was released, her lawyer said. There were no immediate details about the release of documentarian Jehane Noujaim, which was confirmed by her lawyer, Ragia Omran.
Film producer Karim Amer said Wednesday that Noujaim -- whose works include "The Control Room," about Al-Jazeera and the United States during the early days of the Iraq War -- was arrested while filming near the Interior Ministry building in Cairo.
CNN's Hussein Saddique and Michelle Cumbo contributed to this report
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/ftK8ZSqWMFc/index.html
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Friday, 25 November 2011
In pictures: Chernobyl wilderness
BBC Nature has exclusive access to the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with a team of scientists studying the effects of radiation on wildlife there.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14325323
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'Police put the phone down on my complaint over Twitter racial abuse'
Action is taken when Premier League stars suffer online attacks but when I was in the line of fire officers 'terminated' my call for justice
When is it permissible for men to claim publicly that a respectable woman from an ethnic minority is an immigrant prostitute?
According to DS Steve Worthington, of London's Paddington Green police station, any time is a good time, especially if the accusations are expressed in the kind of knockabout vernacular favoured by poisonous mobs. Lots of us have Twitter accounts nowadays, and there is nothing better than a bit of racist misogyny to liven up those dull in-between moments, is there?
Disturbing as it may sound, these were the conclusions I drew after reporting a hate crime to Scotland Yard this month. I had received a few abusive tweets too many on the social networking site, and decided to do something about them: not because I am a spoilsport or humourless, but because I object to family and friends reading comments about me which are not just wicked, but against the law.
My complaint ? which I'll outline shortly ? appeared a certainty for a swift investigation and prosecution. In the past few weeks alone, no fewer than three Premier League footballers have instigated police action against offensive tweets. Sunderland striker Fraizer Campbell was called a "big fucking nigger". The n-word was also aimed at Newcastle forward Sammy Ameobi.
Commendably, Northumbria police investigated immediately, even though the tweeters were using "anonymous" accounts (the holders did not use their real names). Two 17-year-olds have been arrested in connection with the Ameobi case and now face prosecution. Both were traced relatively easily through their internet service provider.
Proving that London forces are as concerned for the welfare of 6ft-plus multi-millionaire footballers as those in the north-east, detectives traced a tweeter who called Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand a "fucking black cunt". This, of course, was linked to a high-profile case in which England captain John Terry is accused of abusing Ferdinand in person. Nothing like a couple of household-name sportsmen to get the Met agitated, is there?
I am by no means a celebrity, or even vaguely well-known, though do appear on TV occasionally as a journalist specialising in Anglo-French affairs, Islam and the Arab world. I am in my early 30s, from a cosmopolitan background, and well educated enough to hold well-informed views on a number of contentious issues. In short, I am just the kind of woman who becomes an immediate hate figure to a particularly vindictive type of male internet warrior.
When I first started receiving critical messages from people ? via email, underneath my articles on the internet, or on sites like Twitter ? I replied. The democratisation of the global media has created a hugely dynamic debating forum, and the majority of those participating are as courteous as they are articulate. I grew up on a council estate renowned for its lawlessness and have reported from war zones. I know exactly how to stand up for myself in fraught situations and will debate anything with anyone.
But when a "whore" hashtag (the device used to signal a discussion on Twitter) appeared against my name, everything changed. What distinguished the two men using the word (and its variations) was not that they wanted an argument, but that they wanted to attack me as viciously as possible. They spiced up their principal insult with as many sexual allusions as they could fit into the 140 characters that Twitter allows.
The senders were not difficult to track down. One has delivered more than 2,000 tweets to date and is linked to a London university. The other is a Conservative party activist from the home counties. He has only 68 followers after sending more than 4,000 tweets, but that is not the point. Both men are conventionally "respectable", but consider it permissible to fabricate obscene claims about women they have never met, and to re-tweet them to as many of Twitter's 200 million users as possible.
I recognised the style and content of the tweets as being similar to posts about me that had been flagged up to moderators on other sites. The language was clumsy, and often pompous, but underpinned by extreme personal loathing. Their lies were not only sent directly to those closest to me, but also to my employers.
These men are Brave In Cyberspace, or BIC, as I now refer to them. Their world view ? formed as it is in front of a computer screen rather than by interaction with real people ? is dogmatic and extreme. I doubt my tormentors have ever met, but they post self-congratulatory guffaws and exclamations as they praise each other's writing. They are self-styled masters in inciting hatred or worse against allegedly inferior types, especially women from foreign backgrounds. They are as persistent and menacing as any kind of stalker.
Not that the Met cares. When a colleague first called the Yard on my behalf, he was told that stations in London were "very busy with tourists" but that someone would get back to him within 48 hours. When making his first reminder phone call, three days later, he learned that police officers now routinely use the expression "if you carry on, I am going to terminate this call", especially to those expressing anxiety that a crime has been committed.
After numerous false starts, police arranged for me to visit Paddington Green, where I met station officer Tony Beach. He was polite but largely dismissive, admitting that he did "not really understand Twitter". This seemed odd, considering that almost every force in Britain now uses it as a crime-fighting and public information tool. He did not take a single note, and told me that he would "discuss the matter with a senior officer to see if it was worth pursuing" and get back to me.
This was where DS Worthington came in. Five days later he called and curtly told me that the case was being dropped before anyone had even begun investigating. Not only did he consider that calling a woman a whore might not constitute a criminal offence (speculation I found particularly disgraceful, especially as he seemed to have formulated it in around 30 seconds), but that it would "take weeks" and "mounds of bureaucracy" to deal with the matter.
He pointed to the possibility of the posters saying they had not sent the tweets in the first place and had been hacked (such a defence is absurd, as the men have to date made no effort to remove the criminal tweets, and are clearly posting as themselves).
In short, Worthington did not believe that the 1988 Malicious Communications Act covers relative unknowns like me. The legislation, which makes it an offence to send any material likely to cause stress and anxiety, can earn offenders a six-month prison sentence. Worthington thought there would be too much work involved, and that the criminals might lie to try to get out of trouble.
When I suggested that all of the above was part and parcel of crime detection, and that his colleagues would undoubtedly have taken action if I was playing for QPR, Worthington adopted an ominously officious tone: "I know all about the footballers. You are challenging my authority."
I was doing anything but. I know lots of people ? and not just women working in the media ? who are abused daily on the internet. Both the technology and legislation are there for these so-called trolls to be found and punished.
If the police started to deal with this increasingly unpleasant problem quickly and fairly, it could be stigmatised in the way that abusive phone calls have been.
Instead, my exchange with Worthington made it clear that his force's view of internet hate crimes extends solely to famous people. If prosecutions supporting much-vaunted anti-racism initiatives attract politically correct headlines, so much the better. Ordinary people, meanwhile, are ignored.
"If you carry on, I'm going to terminate this call," said Worthington, as I tried to discuss all this with him. He duly hung up on me, bringing my complaint to an abrupt halt.
Worthington's message was clear and unambiguous. If you are racially abused or suffer similar attacks on a social networking site, and think that you might be entitled to some Premier League justice, just remember this about the police: they won't give a tweet.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/20/nabila-ramdani-twitter-abuse
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