Human rights in Iraq: a case to answer

Revealed: How Lord Goldsmith advised Army chiefs to deny detainees 'full' legal protection

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 29 May 2007

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is facing accusations that he told the Army its soldiers were not bound by the Human Rights Act when arresting, detaining and interrogating Iraqi prisoners.

Previously confidential emails, seen by The Independent, between London and British military head-quarters in Iraq soon after the start of the war suggest Lord Goldsmith's advice was to adopt a "pragmatic" approach when handling prisoners and it was not necessary to follow the " higher standards" of the protection of the Human Rights Act.

That, according to human rights lawyers, was tantamount to the Attorney General advising the military to ignore the Human Rights Act and to simply observe the Geneva Conventions. It was also contrary to advice given by the Army's senior lawyer in Iraq, who urged higher standards to be met. continue...

\Pakistani same-sex couple jailed for 3 years on perjury charges

By Asif Shahzad, Associated Press Writer
Published: 29 May 2007

A same-sex couple who sought legal protection from harassment were separated and sentenced to three years in jail yesterday for lying to a Pakistani judge that surgery had turned one partner into a man.

The case of Shumail Raj, who was born female but had two operations to remove her breasts and uterus 16 years ago, and Shahzina Tariq has made waves by raising issues of homosexuality and transsexuality that are taboo in the conservative Muslim society. continue...

Astronomers eagerly await potential birth of 'super' sun

  By Simon Baker and Martin Hickman
Published: 29 May 2007

Astronomers have pinpointed two massive stars, orbiting close to each other in space, that could merge to create a "super" sun, 100 times bigger than our own. continue...

Student, 62, sets masters record

By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Published: 29 May 2007

Many people would consider studying for just one master's degree in their retirement quite an achievement. Not Tom Norton. The 62-year-old former civil service librarian, who took early retirement a decade ago, is about to take his eighth. continue...

Help educate the media about what's really going on in Israel

Help tell the world about Hamas rockets from Gaza Your generous donation allows The Israel Project to provide facts to the media and the world about Israel. Help stop these rocket attacks. Please give now.

May 29, 2007

An Israeli woman was just killed by a Palestinian rocket from Gaza. If you haven’t heard about this tragedy, you’re not alone. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Palestinian terrorists have fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel — on a recent Tuesday alone, 24 rockets hit Israel, wounding 30 people.

Yet these attacks go largely unreported by the international media.
We know that the media usually decides that “if it bleeds, it leads” and “good news is no news.” The body count in Iraq and Lebanon is high and tragic. Yet how many more Israeli women need to be killed and how many more Israeli children wounded before the press starts to report on these unprovoked attacks?

That’s why I am writing you today.
The Israel Project (TIP) needs your help to educate the media about what is really going on in Israel, Gaza and the Palestinian territories. Please give today at www.theisraelproject.org/sderot .

Last week, as rockets fell onto Sderot, Calev Ben-David, who heads our office in Israel, was there on the ground with a bus full of journalists—who heard and saw the effects first-hand. The stories they reported reflected the terrible reality of the situation.

Meanwhile, Leah Soibel, one of our in-house terrorism experts, worked out of a Sderot bomb shelter — emailing facts to journalists around the world.

At the same time, with me in New York, Jennifer Packer, Michal Slawny, and others from our staff and board hosted Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, at a press luncheon with more than 80 reporters. Ambassador Gillerman gave reporters the facts and context they needed to get the story right.

TIP’s French and German speaking staff went into overdrive to make sure that reporters in Europe——a frontline area of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism — had the facts they needed to accurately cover the Sderot story.

But much more must be done!  Donate now at www.theisraelproject.org/sderot.

During the Second Lebanon War, TIP set up media centers in Northern Israel to provide journalists with sources, press briefings, background research, transportation, information on lodging and anything else they needed. Press coverage of the war was seen worldwide.  And according to public opinion research, Israel was portrayed as defending herself and her citizens. Support for Israel in the United States increased. But with harmful media coverage, that support can once again wane. 

Today we need to do much more in Sderot, the town being bombarded by rockets from Hamas, an Iranian-backed organization openly bent on Israel’s destruction. We need to act now to make sure Israel is again seen as defending her citizens against terror from the sky. International support is critical to Israel’s security.

Almost daily, Sderot suffers under a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza into civilian centers. But the world is mostly unaware because they don’t hear about these attacks on the news. Yet, when Israel does take action to defend herself, it’s on the front page of the paper and “breaking news” on television. If the world doesn’t know about the relentless terror attacks on Israeli civilians, then Israel will be seen as an aggressor and will once again be unfairly judged. Israel has learned this hard lesson too many times. We must not allow that to happen again.

We need to immediately get new media services set up in Sderot and around the world. But we can’t do it without you.

Your gift of $1,000, $500, $360, $100, or whatever you can afford, to The Israel Project will make a difference. Your gift will allow The Israel Project to get this story out and educate the world’s media.  

www.theisraelproject.org/sderot

With your support TIP will:

• Staff Sderot med ia services
• Host press briefings and conferences not only covering the rockets being shot into Sderot, but also on the root causes including the Palestinian culture of hate and the long arm of Iran
• Helicopter top journalists over the attack area so they can see Israel’s intense security challenges
• Train international victims of the rocket attacks to speak to the media, in multiple languages, so that the world can understand their suffering and the need to protect the people of Israel
• Shoot video and photos for journalists to use in their stories
• Take and distribute photos to illustrate newspaper articles
• Provide researched background information hourly to help journalists meet their deadlines

Today there are huge and deadly fights between Hamas and Fatah. The Lebanese army is fighting radicals on its own soil. And Palestinian terrorists want nothing more than to draw Israel into their fight so they can use the media to manipulate world opinion against Israel.

That’s why it is so important that you send in your contribution today. The media are already coming to Sderot and Gaza to cover this story. And your support will make sure they get the facts they need to present the truth.
Please help fund our media services by donating at www.theisraelproject.org/sderot .

Sincerely,

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi
Founder and President
The Israel Project

P.S. Make your contribution of $1,000, $500, $360, $100 or whatever you can afford at at www.theisraelproject.org/sderot  today. Your gift will allow TIP to continue to educate the media on this and other stories and will give valuable support to Israeli families under the threat of attack from terrorist rockets.

On the horizon: news from the frontiers of science

Scientists forecast solar outbursts, why ants are selfless road workers, and how farmers can benefit birds.

By Peter N. Spotts

How to forecast a solar outburst
Powerful eruptions from the sun can trigger magnetic storms on Earth that can cause power blackouts and disrupt radio communications. And they can also trigger radiation storms in space that may damage satellites and threaten astronauts.

Now, a team of scientists has found that these powerful outbursts, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), emit telltale radio signals. The signals travel at the speed of light – far faster than the billions of tons of hot, electrically charged gas that CMEs hurl through space. As a result, the signals can be used to provide earlier warnings of impending magnetic or radiation storms. The lead time can range from tens of minutes to a few hours, according to Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who led the team.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p17s01-stgn.html

The scar of Hariri's murder will never heal in Lebanon

Published: 01 June 2007

They were handing out white roses where the bomb went off. On 14 February 2005, ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed there and the 20ft bomb crater has remained a scar on the surface of Beirut history ever since.

But yesterday, as the Lebanese learned that there would indeed be a United Nations tribunal to condemn his killers, the crater - from which vital evidence was removed by Syria's friends in the security services - was filled in and the road resurfaced and the flowers handed to motorists by young men in T-shirts bearing Hariri's portrait. continue...

Chicken Sales Nuggets

Companies hire political strategists to market products – including, in this writer's imagination, chicken in the shape of presidential faces.

By Peter Grier

News item: Political veterans are bringing their sophisticated campaign techniques into the corporate world, reports The Wall Street Journal. That's because the best political marketers may now be as good as – or even better than – top business strategists, due to the high pressure and high stakes of elections. continue...

83% say texting while driving should be illegal

  Survey finds young adults most likely to oppose a 'DWT' ban � and 66% of those age 18-24 send text messages while behind the wheel

The vast majority of Americans said they would support a ban on texting while driving, but younger adults � by far the most likely to be sending text messages while behind the wheel � are not LOL, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows.

This could be bad news for anyone who sends a quick text message to friends while waiting at a red light or responds to a question from work by typing a few keys on their PDA while in traffic. Communicating while commuting could soon get you into trouble with the law, as some states consider bans on texting while driving � a move supported by 83% who said typing text messages while driving should be illegal. Just 12% are against the state imposing restrictions on texting while driving.

The survey is featured in the June issue of Zogby�s American Consumer newsletter, now available at www.zogby.com. The Zogby Interactive poll of 2,246 adults nationwide was conducted May 9-10, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 2.1 percentage points. continue....

Why restrict immigration at all?

Barrie Maguire

The Constitution and the laws of economics compel us to welcome all immigrants.

By Becky Akers and Donald J. Boudreaux

New York and Fairfax, Va. - Just in time for summer, the Senate is heating things up with immigration reform. The bill it's debating aims to shore up border security and start some 12 million illegal aliens on the path to citizenship. Despite passionate disagreement, voices across the political spectrum concur on two points: They insist the federal government should do something about immigration, and they're sure immigrants threaten American jobs.

People assert these claims as though they're self-evident. But they aren't, as even a basic understanding of the US Constitution and the principles of economics shows. And that means most of the premises about immigration are confused. continue...

Enabling Environment Conference

Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at The Enabling Environment Conference in Kabul, Afghanistan
June 4, 2007

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Your Excellency President Hamid Karzai
Your Excellencies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great pleasure and honour to be with you all today. We extend our warmest thanks to all those whose dedication has made this conference possible, most especially to President Karzai and the Government of Afghanistan for their central role - as well as to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who will attend tomorrow's closing session. continue...

Bloodshed is spreading across Afghanistan, warn aid workers

By Chris Sands in Kabul
Published: 06 June 2007

Bloodshed is spreading to previously stable provinces of Afghanistan, threatening aid efforts as humanitarian workers contend with growing numbers of attacks from insurgents and criminals.

Aid workers involved in redevelopment are not only worried that the rising insecurity is jeopardising projects, but fear it is pushing disgruntled Afghans into the hands of the Taliban and adding fuel to a guerrilla war that now rages across much of the country. continue...

Brown promises Britons first refusal on jobs

By Colin Brown
Published: 06 June 2007

Gordon Brown yesterday promised his union backers for the leadership of the Labour Party that as Prime Minister he will ensure British people get first refusal on jobs in Britain.  continue...

Publish new books one chapter at a time

Idea A Day
Where Ideas Are Free

Welcome to Day 2484

Publish new books one chapter at a time. If the book is good enough, readers will buy the next chapter. If not, they haven't wasted a larger sum of money for something they will never read.

day 2484 by Anya Thorsteinsdottir

comment on this idea

Contact the author directly

Blair announces plan to tighten scrutiny of university courses in Islamic studies

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 05 June 2007

Tony Blair insisted that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan should not be viewed as anti-Muslim yesterday as he appealed to the "true voice of Islam" to make itself heard.

The Prime Minister announced that more imams would be trained in British universities in an attempt to combat extremism and unveiled a £1m programme to reform Islamic studies after a government-ordered inquiry by the leading scholar Dr Ataullah Siddiqui found that they focused too narrowly on the Middle East and failed to reflect the reality of modern life in multicultural Britain. continue...