Category: news

The Irish Republic’s bail-out woes attract the attention of plenty of Monday’s newspapers.

The Daily Mail has done the sums and puts a price on the package – £300 for every family in Britain, it claims.

The paper says saving the Irish economy will land UK taxpayers with an increase in the “colossal debt burden…”.

The Independent’s Mary Ann Sieghart considers what might have happened if Britain, like Ireland, had adopted the euro as its currency.

After a decade of interest rates too low for own our good, she says, the UK property market would have been further inflated, and, “like Ireland, we would now be close to national humiliation”.

The Daily Express says eurosceptics “should take pride in having helped to prevent our country from finding itself in the middle of a similar nightmare”.

Bill Emmott, in the Times, disagrees, saying that the euro had nothing to do with Ireland’s property boom and bust. He accuses eurosceptics predicting the end of the euro of “wishful thinking.”

Meanwhile, bankers will not have to reveal details of their huge bonuses after all, according to the Financial Times.

The papers says Chancellor George Osborne is likely to water down legislation that would compel banks to publish details of £1m-plus payments.

The Daily Telegraph’s headline is: “Cut tax burden for middle classes”.

The call comes from Lib Dem MP and ex-chief secretary to the Treasury, David Laws – who has a book out this week about the formation of the coalition.

The Guardian claims that Operation Trident – the police unit set up to investigate violent crime in London’s black communities – may be disbanded because of government cuts.

The paper quotes an unnamed police source as saying that the unit could be merged with other crime squads.

And the Mirror and Sun tell of a boy who caught a thief by taking his photo and posting it on Twitter.

Alex Wilson, 10, saw the man snatch a phone from a pedestrian in the street.

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Barbara McNally said she was devastated that her brother’s medals had to be sold

The sister of footballing legend George Best has said she was devastated that his medals had to be sold.

The Manchester United and Northern Ireland star’s 1968 European Cup winner’s medal and other pieces of memorabilia were auctioned last month.

Barbara McNally said the decision had been taken by the executor of Best’s will due to liabilities in his estate.

She said she received criticism over the auction – which raised £200,000 – including by Best’s son Calum.

“It was completely out of my control,” she said.

“I had no choice in the matter.”

George Best died in November 2005, aged 59.

The Belfast-born forward made 470 appearances for Manchester United between 1963 and 1974, scoring 179 goals.

The European Cup winner’s medal raised £156,000. It was presented to Best following Manchester United’s 4-1 victory over Benfica, a win which made it the first English team to win the European Cup.

Among the other items sold were a replica of the medal, which was made for Best by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) when he misplaced the original. It raised £9,000.

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A new gold rush is taking place in Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains, home to vast untapped reserves that are difficult to get at due to complex rock patterns.

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Animal welfare is an issue where ordinary citizens’ mass support can make a difference

The EU has a troubled history when it comes to consulting the people. Remember the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, re-run after Irish voters said “No” first time round?

The treaty was bolted together from the wreckage of the European Constitution, which voters in France and the Netherlands scuppered in 2005.

The phrase “democratic deficit”, a favourite of Brussels-watchers, still haunts the EU.

Turnout in last year’s elections to the European Parliament was the lowest ever – just 43%, described by the European Commission as “a real failure for democracy”.

In this age of social networking on the internet, and Obama-style election “crowd-sourcing”, EU institutions are trying to address the image problem, recognising that many voters question their legitimacy.

So, among many other things, the Lisbon Treaty says the EU must create a new tool for direct democracy – under strict EU rules, of course. Next year we will hear a lot more about the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI).

The rules are to be hammered out in the next few weeks – after all, it is nearly a year since the treaty went into force in all 27 member states.

With sufficient support – at least a million signatures across the EU – ordinary citizens should be able to initiate a law or laws in Brussels. The internet has made that kind of mass mobilisation possible.

The absence of rules has not stopped campaigners vying to be among the first to get a hearing for their cause at the Commission.

In early October the environmental group Greenpeace said it had more than a million signatures supporting its call for a halt to the sowing of genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe.

It was a response to the Commission’s authorisation of a GM-type of potato, called Amflora. A variety of maize is the only other GM crop allowed in the EU, amid heated debate – and much uncertainty – about the crops’ effects on living organisms.

If the aim of the ECI is to get ordinary citizens more engaged in European issues the evidence so far suggests that well-connected pressure groups and politicians will still have the loudest voices. They are the ones with the lobbying experience that generates publicity and funding.

An internet campaign to prevent the EU from levying direct taxes is led by a Belgian MEP, Derk-Jan Eppink, of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

“The citizens are paying more than enough taxes already. They don’t want additional tax bills from Brussels,” he says.

A Danish Social Democrat MEP, Dan Jorgensen, is gathering signatures to stop the practice of transporting live animals for several days. He wants the EU to set an eight-hour limit on such journeys.

Dan Jorgensen MEP and Diana Wallis MEP talk about the European Citizens’ Initiative

The Lisbon Treaty says an ECI has to have support in a “significant number” of member states, to make it a genuinely European initiative. The Commission defines that as a minimum of nine countries – one-third of the EU states. The parliament’s chief negotiators say six countries is enough.

The Commission, which drafts EU laws, will have the power to vet the initiatives. But MEPs argue that a public hearing is the appropriate filter to decide initially whether an ECI has a chance of becoming law.

Disgruntled EU citizens can already petition MEPs to act on an issue. The parliament’s petitions committee assesses the merits of the case and can then press for EU action.

Many petitions are local in nature – for example, complaints from UK citizens resident in Spain who object to certain building projects in their area.

But the ECI is a different beast – it is intended both to widen public debate on issues concerning Europeans in general and, where necessary, to trigger new legislation.

Yet will the EU manage to strike the right balance – engaging citizens in important policy areas without strangling them with red tape?

EU Administration Commissioner Maros Sefcovic says the method for gathering signatures must be “simple and user-friendly”.

Verification of signatures is crucial to prevent fraudulent initiatives. But some citizens – perhaps many – will not want to submit personal data, however worthy the cause. The controls will have to avoid compromising personal privacy.

The ECI may appear too feeble for those who want fundamental change in Brussels – it will not give ordinary citizens the power to change treaties.

Those who want to stop the parliament’s regular, very expensive trips to Strasbourg will be disappointed.

The liberal, anti-discrimination values enshrined in EU treaties may also block a planned ECI from far-right groups led by the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe), who want to stop Turkey joining the EU.

Stephen Booth, an analyst at the Open Europe think-tank, says the new citizens’ tool “won’t tackle any of the really big issues such as agriculture, budget spending”.

“It’s good to get citizens to engage more… but it takes governments to reform the big things,” he told the BBC.

According to Mr Booth, the pan-European spirit of the ECI also conflicts with “subsidiarity” – the EU principle that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the citizen, in many cases at local level.

Speaking on the BBC programme The Record Europe, Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis warned against over-hyping the ECI.

“It’s not a Swiss-style system of initiatives and referendums. It’s dipping the toe in the water of participatory democracy… an opportunity for European citizens to push the legislative button.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

One text book details the Sharia punishment for thieves

The government says it will not tolerate anti-Semitic and homophobic lessons being taught to Muslim children in the UK.

BBC Panorama found that more than 40 Saudi Students’ Schools and Clubs are teaching the official Saudi national curriculum to about 5,000 pupils.

One text book shows how the hands and feet of thieves are chopped off.

The Saudi government said it had no official ties to the part-time schools and clubs and did not endorse them.

However, a building in west London where Panorama obtained one of the text books is owned by the Saudi government.

The director of education for the Saudi Students’ Schools and Clubs said the Saudi Cultural Bureau, which is part of the embassy, had authority over the network.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said there was no place for the Saudi teachings with regard to Jews or homosexuals in Britain: “To my mind it doesn’t seem to me that this is the sort of material that should be used in English schools.”

He said in light of the BBC’s findings, the school inspectorate Ofsted was looking into the possible regulation and inspection of out-of-hours schools and clubs. At present, part-time schools do not fall within Ofsted’s mandate.

“Ofsted are doing some work in this area, they’ll be reporting to me shortly about how we can ensure that part-time provision is better registered and better inspected in the future,” Mr Gove said.

One of the text books asks children to list the “reprehensible” qualities of Jewish people. A text for younger children asks what happens to someone who dies who is not a believer in Islam – the answer given in the text book is “hellfire”.

Another text describes the punishment for gay sex as death and states a difference of opinion about whether it should be carried out by stoning, burning with fire or throwing the person over a cliff.

In a book for 14-year-olds, Sharia law and its punishment for theft are explained, including detailed diagrams about how hands and feet of thieves are amputated.

FIND OUT MORE

Panorama, BBC OneMonday 22 November at 8.30pmThen on BBC iPlayer

In a written response, the Saudi embassy said such materials were often taken out of context and often referred to historical descriptions.

But Neal Robinson, an expert in the Koran, said the context in which the materials are presented comes with risks.

“To present it cold, as it seems to be here, just part of the teaching of Islam, no it’s not wise. In the wrong hands I think it is… ammunition for anti-Semitism.”

The use of these materials in Britain comes three years after a BBC investigation found a Saudi-funded school in west London was using texts that referred to Jewish people and Christians in derogatory terms. That prompted assurances at the highest diplomatic levels that the materials would be removed.

Panorama has also found evidence of extreme views on some private, full-time Muslim school websites, including messages that state: “Our children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition to almost everything Islam stands for” and “We need to defend our children from the forces of evil”.

MP Barry Sheerman, former Labour chairman of the Children, Schools and Families parliamentary committee, said politicians had avoided the issue of controversial teachings in some Muslim schools.

“There are some very good Muslim schools but there are some Muslim schools that give me great cause for concern that is often around the ethos of the schools, the focus of the school and the kind of ideology that is concerning.”

Dr Usama Hasan, an Islamic scholar and part-time imam in east London, warned of the dangers of segregating young Muslims in Britain, particularly the seminaries where the next generation of imams are being educated.

“They don’t interact with people who are not Muslim… they don’t learn the ingredients of the western world, so it’s very easy for them to read the medieval texts which were written at a time when Islam was under attack and say non-believers are our enemies and we have to fight them.”

Panorama: British Schools, Islamic Rules, BBC One, Monday, 22 November at 2030GMT then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.

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The former Congolese rebel leader, Jean Pierre Bemba, is to go on trial in The Hague.

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Mr Aamer’s fourth child was born after he was sent to Guantanamo Bay

The government must act to ensure the last UK resident held in Guantanamo Bay is tried or released, Amnesty International has said.

Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, 43, has been held at the US detention centre for almost nine years without charge.

The human rights group urged Foreign Secretary William Hague to agree a timetable with the US for his return.

Mr Hague said he had raised the case with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington last week.

Last week it emerged that the UK government was paying compensation to 16 men who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay. The BBC understands Mr Aamer is one of those men.

Mr Aamer had been living in the UK since 1996 when he was captured by the US after travelling to Afghanistan in August 2001.

The US claims he was fighting with the Taliban.

At the time of his capture, he was applying for British citizenship and had indefinite leave to remain in the UK. He lived in London with his British wife and three children. A fourth child has been born since his detention.

He was one of the detainees who claimed he was tortured in Afghanistan, including by US officials while British personnel were present.

Amnesty’s UK director, Kate Allen, wrote to Mr Hague asking for him to make a public statement calling for Mr Aamer to either be “charged and fairly tried or released”.

She also asked him to make it clear that the UK was willing to accept Mr Aamer on his release.

“When it announced financial settlements for former Guantanamo detainees last week, the government said it wanted to ‘draw a line’ under cases involving detention and alleged abuse overseas, yet Shaker Aamer is still languishing in a cell at Guantanamo,” she said.

“Dealing with what the government calls ‘legacy issues’ in the ‘war on terror’ must mean ensuring justice for Shaker. William Hague should make it a priority that he is returned to his family in Britain.”

Following his meeting with Mrs Clinton in Washington last week, Mr Hague said he “reiterated our position that we would like to see this gentleman returned to the United Kingdom and that is under consideration by the United States”.

Announcing the compensation package on Tuesday, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said it was confidential but necessary to avoid a legal battle which could have cost up to £50m.

The coalition government made it clear in the summer that it wanted to avoid a lengthy court case that also would have put the British secret intelligence services under the spotlight.

A “fully independent” investigation, chaired by former Appeal Court judge Sir Peter Gibson, is now due to look at claims that UK security services were complicit in the torture of terror suspects.

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Catholic priests in Poland consecrate their own huge statue of Jesus, which they say is even bigger than Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer

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Mr Yanagida’s resignation comes at a bad time for the prime minister

Japan’s justice minister says he is resigning after causing outrage for joking about how easy his job was.

Minoru Yanagida said the only two phrases he had to remember in parliament were: “I won’t comment on individual cases,” and “I’m acting in accordance with the law and the evidence.”

Opposition conservatives said he deserved to be fired for the gaffe.

The move may make it harder for Japan to pass a key budget, analysts say.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan gave Mr Yanagida a severe warning for the remarks, which were made earlier this month during a private gathering in his home constituency in Hiroshima Prefecture.

Mr Yanagida announced his resignation at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday morning.

The opposition had called his comments an insult to the legislature, and was preparing a censure motion against him.

Plenty of Japanese politicians have been felled by gaffes before, says the BBC’s Roland Buerk in Toyko, including a tourism minister who resigned just four days into his job for saying the Japanese did not like foreigners.

But the latest resignation comes at a bad time for the prime minister, adds our correspondent.

There is widespread public discontent with the struggling economy.

Falling support for the centre-left government has complicated efforts to enact the crucial $61bn (£38bn) stimulus package, which the government hopes will stimulate the economy.

Support for Mr Kan has also been undermined by criticism of his handling of territorial rows with China and Russia.

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EastEnders was praised for its portrayal of bipolar disorder with the character of Stacey Slater

Many depictions of mental illness on TV are frightening and misleading, a government-backed report says.

The study, commissioned by the Department of Health, found nearly half of all mentally ill characters were portrayed as dangerous to others.

Its author said the “axe-wielding maniac” stereotype should be ditched.

Mental health charity Mind said progress had been made in dramas such as EastEnders and Shameless, but more improvement was needed.

Television and films have been using the “madman” as a dramatic device for decades, but in reality, the vast majority of people with mental health problems pose no risk to others.

The Glasgow Media Group, working on behalf of a Department of Health campaign called “Shift”, examined dozens of popular dramas and comedies to see how mental illness was presented to the viewer.

It found that most references to mentally ill people were insulting, examples being the terms “crackpot”, “basket case” or “a sad little psycho”.

In addition, 45% of storylines involving people with mental health problems found them posing some kind of risk to others.

Recent examples were a character in ITV soap Emmerdale who drugs the village vicar, or a schizophrenic killer in the popular US show CSI: Miami.

Even in BBC One soap EastEnders, which was praised for a realistic portrayal of bipolar disorder with character Stacey Slater, had the same character eventually commit murder.

Professor Greg Philo, who led the research, said: “Fictional film characters like Hitchcock’s Norman Bates in ‘Psycho’ have long established the idea of the ‘mentally ill’ as crazed and dangerous in the public mind; television has been doing the same thing for decades.

“Great progress has been made in recent years, but we’ve some way to go before we see more of the everyday realities of living with a mental health problem properly represented and stereotypes like the axe-wielding maniac take a back seat.”

Almost half of programmes did offer sympathetic portrayals, although these often showed the character as a “tragic victim”, the researchers said.

The depiction of another character with bipolar disorder on Channel 4’s Shameless won praise for accuracy and sensitivity.

Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, said that improvements over the past decade had been due to the willingness of scriptwriters and programme producers to involve people with personal experience of mental health problems while carrying out research.

He said: “It is also clear, however, that there is still much work to be done until we are at a stage where accurate depictions are the norm rather than the exception.

“I hope this report will encourage programme makers to follow these examples of good practice to create accurate, well-rounded characters that can improve perceptions of mental health.”

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The Rosser’s sac spider hunts down its prey rather than spinning a web

A spider that was feared extinct in the UK has been photographed for the first time after a new colony of the species was found.

The Rosser’s sac spider, which had not been seen for 10 years, has been discovered at Chippenham Fen in Cambridgeshire.

It makes its home in wetland areas and had been found only once before, at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk.

Fears were growing that the spider had died out due to loss of habitat.

The light brown spider was first discovered in the 1950s, but the draining of the fens and changing farming practices since the World War II had put it under threat.

Spider enthusiast Ian Dawson spotted a Rosser’s sac spider in September at the Cambridgeshire site, and a further search in October revealed 10 spiders.

He said: “I was extremely surprised to find the first one and then when we went back a month later it was great to find more of them.

“If we’ve managed to find 10 of them, I think there must be quite a sizeable population of Rosser’s at that particular site.”

The first photographs of live Rosser’s sac spiders were taken by Peter Harvey, who took part in the second survey.

Matt Shardlow, chief executive of insect conservation charity Buglife said: “This spider is globally endangered.

“It’s fantastic that it’s still creeping around in the British countryside and we’re ecstatic that people can now see what it looks like for the first time in history.

“If we want future generations to be able to see the live animal, we will need to take great care of the tiny remaining fragments of wild wetlands in this country and reinstate large areas of lost fen.”

Mike Taylor, of Natural England, which manages the Chippenham Fen reserve, said: “Rosser’s sac spiders spend their days hidden in tubular silken retreats, often in a folded leaf, a bit like a sleeping bag.

“It’s a member of the clubionid family of spiders who like to hunt their prey rather than catch them in a web.

“We were delighted that they have been spotted recently.”

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Latvia’s government appeals to the Irish authorities to clamp down on human trafficking.

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Residents of up to 30 houses are evacuated in Londonderry while army technical officers examine a suspicious object.

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John Key: “We are going to do everything we possibly can to get the men out alive”

There is “every chance” the 29 men missing after Friday’s coal mine explosion in New Zealand are still alive, says Prime Minister John Key.

There has been no contact with the men since the blast at the Pike River mine near Greymouth on the South Island.

Families are still waiting for the rescue to begin, but the presence of toxic gases are making it too dangerous to enter the mine.

Meanwhile, drilling has started on a 15cm (six inch) wide ventilation shaft.

Rescuers hope to send a camera down once the hole is finished to see if the men are nearby. They also hope to test gas levels.

Mr Key said he had been advised the miners – who include 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African – may have found refuge in a ventilated spot and could still be rescued.

“The advice I have is that there is oxygen in the mine and there is every chance that those miners have managed to get to a pocket of that oxygen flow and therefore that they are alive,” Key told Sky News.

Officials have released names of those missing. The youngest of the miners, 17-year-old Joseph Dunbar, was reportedly on his first underground shift at the mine when the blast occurred. The oldest is Keith Valli, aged 62.

Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn told Reuters that a robot was also being prepared, which will be sent into the mine later to check if there is a clear path for rescuers.

Tearful families members were taken on a tour of the site of the Pike River coal mine on Sunday, in an effort to help them understand the dangers keeping rescuers at bay and to show them the rescue drills that are under way in preparation for an eventual operation.

Families were taken to the site on Sunday to see rescue preparations

“There was a lot of emotion on the site… there were some very poignant things up there for them, cars still parked and other things, and they were very emotional,” said Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall, according to AFP news agency.

He said that – 48 hours after the men were trapped – the families were “starting to be very concerned and want as much information as they can”.

Laurie Drew, whose 21-year-old son Zen is among those trapped, told New Zealand’s TV3 network that seeing a board with the men’s name tags missing was “hard”.

There were packed Sunday services at churches close to the mine as locals prayed together for the men to be found alive.

Tests at the mine show there are still a dangerous level of poisonous or potentially explosive gases in the mine, including carbon monoxide and methane, which rescue officials say make it unsafe for crews underground.

But Superintendent Gary Knowles, the head of the rescue effort at the Pike River coal mine said he remained positive about finding them alive.

Supt Knowles said there was no “quick fix”, but that rescue workers were doing all they could to find those missing.

Mr Knowles denied suggestions rescue teams were showing a lack of urgency because they believed the chances of finding the miners alive were low.

“I find that really repugnant,” he told a news conference on Sunday.

“We’re talking about people’s lives here… My decision is made based on safety and what experts are saying.”

The authorities are facing increasing pressure to clear the way for rescue teams to enter the mine, our correspondent says.

But they have repeatedly stressed the need to wait until it is safe – their great fear is that searching the mine could spark a second explosion, he says.

Each miner carried 30 minutes of oxygen, enough to reach oxygen stores in the mine that would allow them to survive for several days.

Fresh air is also being pumped into the mine through a shaft.

The men would have been carrying flasks of water, reports say, but there is no food underground.

The explosion at the mine, near the coastal town of Greymouth, is thought to have happened at around 1530 (0230 GMT) on Friday.

Russell Smith told Zealand’s TV3 network how he survived the blast – courtesy 3news.co.nz

Two workers who walked out of the mine have been treated in hospital for moderate injuries but have since been discharged.

One of them, coal cutter Russell Smith, told New Zealand’s TV3 network he had been late for work and so was not as far into the mine when the explosion hit.

Nevertheless, he said he had been knocked unconscious by the strength of the blast.

He said he saw a flash and then felt a series of shockwaves come down the mine.

“My hat was … torn off me,” he told TV3. “I remember struggling for breath.”

He said he had been very lucky.

“I could have been blown to bits,” he said.

He was found about 15m away from his vehicle and together with Daniel Rockhouse eventually found his way out of the mine.

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Hundreds of Tube workers are to be balloted for strikes in a row over allegations of victimisation against two union members.

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