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John Kerry and William Hague fly to Geneva to try to seal Iran nuclear deal
US woman accused of abducting daughter in 1994 found in Australia
JFK: News of a Shooting – TV review
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, by Caspar Henderson – review
Secret Teacher: it seems feminism is still a dirty word in the classroom
Shark kills surfer in latest Western Australia attack
FCC chairman now says he opposes use of cellphones on planes
Tony Abbott endorses Quentin Bryce's right to speak out on republic
Politicians need to 'wake up' to corruption in minority communities
Modern slavery: in an ordinary house | Editorial
Twitter steps up security of users' data
Queensland verging on a one-party state, says corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald
Best pictures of the day - live
US politics: when nuclear deterrence fails | Editorial
Curious tale of the central Asian oligarchs and the City of London
JFK assassination: Dallas marks its darkest day with sober ceremony
JFK: America marks 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination – live
Federal appeals court upholds rulings that stop-and-frisk is unconstitutional
Australia-Indonesia diplomatic crisis: this, too, will pass | Michael Wesley
Mystery of man behind £850m plan for Europe's tallest residential tower
John Kerry flies to Geneva as Iran nuclear deal edges closer
Fifa must address Qatar workers' rights, says Arsène Wenger
Letters: Rally today to bring home Shaker Aamer
Letters: Lesson from Mali
Letters: Philosophers urge support for jailed Pussy Riot protester

John Kerry and William Hague fly to Geneva to try to seal Iran nuclear deal

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:50 PM PST

Final few sticking points believed to be dwindling as officials note 'a strong will to find common ground'

John Kerry arrived in Geneva on Saturday morning to join William Hague and other foreign ministers in negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov arrived on Friday afternoon for talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif.

France's Laurent Fabius also arrived on Saturday morning, where Germany's Guido Westerwelle and China's Wang Yi were expected to join him in what is hoped will be a final push towards a deal that has eluded diplomats for over a decade.

They are also expected to use the weekend for preparations for a Syrian peace conference in Geneva next week.

The presence of so many foreign ministers did not guarantee a nuclear agreement with Iran was ready to be signed, diplomats at the talks cautioned.

The same ministers took part in the Geneva talks two weeks ago but fell short of a deal despite three days of intense and complex negotiations.

But a senior European diplomat told reporters that the foreign ministers would come to Geneva only if there was a deal to sign, Reuters reported.

"We have made progress, including core issues," the diplomat said.

Fabius, who spoke out against a draft deal floated at the 7-9 November negotiating round, appeared guarded on arrival in Geneva, Reuters reported.

"I hope we can reach a deal, but a solid deal. I am here to work on that," he said.

A French diplomatic source urged caution, saying: "It's the home stretch, but previous negotiations have taught us to be prudent."

Announcing Kerry's departure from Washington late on Friday night, after the secretary of state had been to visit the grave of John F Kennedy, the state department said he would fly to Switzerland – not necessarily to clinch a deal – but "with the goal of continuing to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement".

A US official said: "Kerry's not going to wait to see if there is an agreement and then take 10 hours to get here. He wants to get here and help push it along."

However, there was growing hope in Geneva on Friday night that the last remaining obstacles to a deal were in the process of being ironed out.

In Paris before his departure, Fabius said: "You know our position ... it's a position based on firmness, but at the same time a position of hope that we can reach a deal."

China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei as saying the talks had "reached the final moment", Reuters reported.

The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who chairs the talks, held discussions with the Iranian delegation late into the night.

If a deal is reached, it would fend off the threat of a new war in the Middle East and buy six months for diplomacy aimed at a long-term settlement to the long-running and perilous international standoff over Iran's nuclear aspirations.

To that end, the draft deal on the table on Saturday will exchange curbs on Iran's nuclear activity for limited sanctions relief for the six-month period.

Iran would get access to some frozen bank accounts and could start trading again in gold, petrochemicals, vehicle and aircraft parts. In exchange, Iran would stop or reverse different parts of its nuclear programme.

Agreeing on exact terms has so far taken three rounds of talks in Geneva since a reformist president, Hassan Rouhani was elected in Iran.

Officials have consistently said there was a strong will to find common ground on all sides but that decades of distrust and the extreme complexity of the nuclear issue had hampered progress.

There were unconfirmed reports on Friday night that one of the most intractable of the outstanding issues, the question of Iran's right in principle to enrich uranium, had been resolved with the drafting of a form of words in the draft agreement that satisfied both sides.

Sources said the most important remaining obstacle was the extent to which work should be allowed to continue at a heavy water reactor in Arak, which would produce plutonium when completed.

"Yesterday we talked about the issues we don't agree on and naturally delegations needed to consult their capitals. In some cases, we have had results," the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who leads the country's delegation, said.

"In some cases a number of phrases have been added [to the text] and we still need to do some work in other cases. We are dealing with an issue that was the subject of difference for 10 years."

Reza Marashi, a former US state department official now at the National Iranian American Council, said: "If Iran does not get wording on the right to enrich, then the deal is unbalanced in the west's favour. They get verifiable limits and roll-back on every single critical element of the Iranian programme, and Iran would just get access to its own money."

According to sources at the talks, a compromise deal on the Arak heavy water reactor had been written into the text of the draft agreement at the last Geneva round which ended on 10 November.

Under that compromise, Iran would cease work on making fuel rods but would continue other elements at the long-delayed project.

However, on French insistence, the paragraphs on Arak were put back into brackets, meaning they were open to negotiation again. In response, Iran asked for concessions elsewhere to "rebalance the deal".

Earlier on Friday, Britain's ambassador in Washington urged the US Congress not to impose new sanctions on Iran while delicate nuclear negotiations are making progress in Geneva.

Peter Westmacott made his appeal as the latest round of talks entered its third day.

"The deal currently under negotiation would be a meaningful first step, immediately improving our national security and that of our partners in the region. This is, therefore, a critical week for diplomacy," Peter Westmacott wrote in the Washington political website The Hill.

"Many gaps between the parties have been bridged altogether; those that remain have narrowed considerably.

"But further sanctions now would only hurt negotiations and risk eroding international support for the sanctions that have brought us this far."

Julian Borger

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

US woman accused of abducting daughter in 1994 found in Australia

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:11 PM PST

Dorothy Lee Barnett appeared in court in Queensland and faces extradition to the US on kidnapping charges

JFK: News of a Shooting – TV review

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:00 PM PST

This was about how a tragic story was brought to the world, and about how television became the way all stories would get told

JFK: News of a Shooting (More4) is a familiar story, seen from a new angle – the perspective of the reporters covering it. With no Twitter, journalists had to do some work and actually find out stuff for themselves. That day in Dallas, there were plenty of them already on the scene, travelling with the presidential motorcade from the airport into town.

Without mobile phones, the reporters had to run about looking for phone boxes and or other landlines. These weren't so much borrowed as commandeered. And once you got a hold of a phone you had to hang on to it for dear life, fighting off any other hack who wanted to get his grubby hands on it.

There was one way of securing a line. You asked your office to ring you back and told it not to hang up, ever. So that, even if the man from ABC or whatever wrestled your handset from you, replaced the receiver and picked it up again to dial his office, he'd find your editor still sitting, obstinately, on the line. The only news organisation that he could give his scoop to – about whether a priest had given the president the last rites – was yours. Ha.

The CBS anchor Walter Cronkite is the newsman most associated with that day, and that story. But it wasn't he who broke the news of the president's death. It had already been broadcast on the radio. Cronkite was reluctant to report the news until official confirmation came from the White House – even though CBS's own man in Dallas was telling him that Kennedy was definitely dead. Not bold, then, but measured and calm, and never wrong. It's not the kind of story you want to be wrong about. It's how Cronkite became the nation's dad, and would go on to become the most trusted man in America. Just as Huw Edwards is here.

News of a Shooting is a fascinating tale, about how a tragic story was brought to the world, and about how television became the way all stories would get told.

Sam Wollaston

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, by Caspar Henderson – review

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:00 PM PST

There is something lovely about a book that takes on so many disciplines and tackles them with confidence

It was when I realised I had spent half an hour reading about sponges that I realised Caspar Henderson's modern bestiary was more than just a collection of loosely related essays. The Book of Barely Imagined Beings has the elements of a classic miscellany: an A to Z listing of 27 creatures (the letter X gets two species) with gold panels and lettering on the cover, line drawings of fantastical animals and plants on the chapter title pages and burgundy notes in the margins. Along with the narrow columns of text laid out on cream pages, it brings to mind a book that seems older, more canon, than any brand new book has a right to be.

Henderson has taken notes from Jorge Luis Borges's Book of Imaginary Beings, a collection of fictional animals published in 1967. In his introduction, Henderson talks of being riveted by the "bravura display of human imagination" at work describing the Strong Toad of Chilean folklore, Humbaba the guardian of the cedar forest in the epic poem "Gilgamesh" and the kangaroo-like creature imagined by Franz Kafka. Bizarre as they were, these invented animals were hardly stranger than many real ones, he thought. He set about to create a 21st-century bestiary of real creatures but he would choose those animals about whom so little was known that they were "barely imagined".

We start with the axolotl, a "disconcertingly human" salamander with a large head, fixed smile and which has the handy ability to re-grow any limbs that get severed. Given the form of the book, you might expect a natural history essay about the habitats and behaviour of the animal. That does happen, to a limited extent. Instead, Henderson gives us a meandering cultural history of how the axolotl has been become known to zoologists, from ancient Greece to medieval England and many stops besides. One moment we're reading about early, wild theories of the evolution of the "aquatic homunculus" as an explanation for how water-dwelling creatures might have ended up on land; a few pages later Henderson is describing the ravaging effects of smallpox on the native populations of the New World during the Spanish conquest.

The chapter on barrel sponges is a discussion of symmetry, some of the oldest living creatures on Earth and, crucially, what it actually means to be an animal. "We may know that, strictly speaking, they are animals but their lack of eyes, mouths, organs and the power of movement means that they don't really feel like animals," Henderson writes about the barrel sponges, a bunch of tube-like creatures that are often big enough to surround a person should they want to swim inside. Like the previous chapter, we start with a brief description of a fantastical animal and we quickly jump to another place entirely – a gripping story of evolution that leaves us to ponder on the concept of "deep time", the billions of years that life on Earth has evolved and of which humans are the merest fraction of a part. As Henderson puts it: "Human history with respect to life on Earth is as deep as the displacement of the smallest seabird floating on top of a wave over the deepest part of the ocean."

The rest of this modern bestiary continues this pattern of natural history that segues into cultural and philosophical reflection. Henderson jumps smoothly from scientific information to history to fiction to anecdote and uses each creature as a window into the human mission to understand and interpret the world. Chapters on flatworms, leatherback turtles, yeti crabs, starfish and the honey badger all move in unexpected directions.

There is something lovely about a book that takes on so many disciplines and tackles them with confidence. This could have been a list of incomplete and unrelated facts, picked up and dipped into during a bored moment, for animal aficionados only and without an overarching theme. It's to Henderson's credit that he avoids all those things and presents us with something that stays in the memory long after the book is put back on the shelf, a whole that is greater than its parts.

• The winner of the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books will be announced on Monday 25 November

Alok Jha

Secret Teacher: it seems feminism is still a dirty word in the classroom

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:00 PM PST

How can we expect young people to understand equality and gender issues and if we don't openly engage with them on these topics in school?
• More from The Secret Teacher

The F word: frowned upon, hotly contested, and, unfortunately, infrequently used in British secondary schools. I'm talking about feminism, of course.

It seems feminism is still a dirty word in the classroom. As a teacher, I was not particularly shocked by the fact that 17-year-old Jinan Younis didn't feel supported when she started a feminist society at her school. Nor was I particularly surprised when sixth formers from a nearby boy's school responded with a flood of misogynistic abuse on Twitter.

I've also encountered a distinctly derisive attitude towards any mention of gender, let alone feminism, since I began teaching two years ago. In one instance, my senior (female, middle aged) mentor pointed out that the boys in my lessons were contributing a lot more than the girls.

When I mentioned this feedback to my (young, male) mentor I was told that: "she always says stuff like that. She's got a real bee in her bonnet. Just ignore her." Effectively, a completely valid and necessary developmental point was dismissed out of hand for having been tainted with the 'feminist' brush.

It is not just the disdainful attitude of many teachers towards feminism which is denying students an insight into one of the most significant human rights and equalities movements of the last century, it's also the national curriculum.

Across a range of key stage 3 schemes of work and the current national programme of study in history (which I teach), women are far and few between. In the new national curriculum for history, they're referred to implicitly under the rubric of 'society, economy and culture'. Other than that, the role of women as examples of study comes up just twice in the forms of the women's suffrage and the Elizabethan religious settlement. That effectively means that the role of half the population is mentioned directly just twice out of the 38 suggested topics.

Fortunately for most history departments, this will mean minimum change to their existing schemes of work. One of my most shameful moments as a teacher was when one of my female year 7 students asked me at the end of the year: "Why do we just study kings in history, miss?" I don't think my school is unusual in waiting to expose students to the role of women in history until Henry's wives crop up, and even then, it is their role as wives that qualify them for this privilege.

Clearly, there are fewer significant political female figures in the medieval and early modern periods than male ones. But that's why academic historians have been so keen to point out that human experience extends beyond the political realm. Our curriculums, in history and other subjects, must present young people with a balanced appreciation of the roles of men and women if their notions of 'man' and 'woman' are to reflect anything approximating equality.

These gendered biases ingrained in our education system occur against a worrying consensus that gender equality has been achieved, or even surpassed in favour of women and girls. This myth has rendered feminism irrelevant and even embarrassing to many. The evidence, however, suggests that gender equality is still a long way off. In the UK today, one in three teenage girls experiences sexual violence from a boyfriend, one in three young women experiences sexual bullying in school on a daily basis, one in five young men worry that porn is influencing their behaviour and nearly a third (31%) of boys believe female politicians are not as good as male politicians.

One of the reasons why feminism has been shunned from our schools is because of the now commonplace – and highly necessary – recognition that on average girls' academic achievement is higher than boys. This year, girls' performance surpassed boys further than at any time since the introduction of GCSEs in the 1980s.

Rather than this constituting a reason to ignore feminism, this achievement differential is screaming out for an approach to teaching and learning which takes account of gendered difference. In my experience, one of the main reasons boys are not achieving as highly as girls is due to a widely idealised version of adolescent masculinity – the 'alpha male'. In other words, the dominant mode of masculinity does not make it cool to behave well, or to show academic interest and enthusiasm.

The educational achievement gap shows how much we need a gendered approach to education – for boys as well as girls. But the importance of feminism in schools goes beyond academic achievement. It is during a young person's school years that their gender and sexual identities are formed. If we want a more equal society then it is vital that schools engage with some of the issues that feminism is concerned with: relationships, body politics, violence against women and girls, sexual health and reproductive rights, pornography and consent.

How can we expect young people to understand that pornography does not represent healthy or commonplace sexual activity, that 'no' means no or that homophobia is not acceptable, if we don't openly engage with them on these issues?

There are, of course, many teachers who are already doing this important work, but far less who are doing so with any explicit reference to feminism. Without connecting these discussions to feminism these conversations lack any sense of the historic movement from which they came. They also deprive students of a vital framework for understanding the gender inequalities in our society, and how they can be challenged.

It is essential that young people are exposed to 'herstory' as well as history and are engaged in conversations about the issues that feminists have been pointing out are essential for the realisation of gender equality. As one activist stated on the Feminism belongs in schools blog: "If boys and girls can learn to talk to each other about their hopes and fears, perhaps men and women will too." Feminism can help this happen in schools.

Perhaps if the boys who'd derided Jinan Younis' feminist society had been exposed to feminism themselves they wouldn't have turned to verbal abuse to deal with something they didn't understand. Perhaps they would also be doing better in school.

This week's Secret Teacher works at a secondary school in London.

• Would you like to be the next Secret Teacher? Got an idea for an anonymous blog post about the trials, tribulations and frustrations of school life? Get in touch: kerry.eustice@theguardian.com.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Looking for your next role? Take a look at Guardian jobs for schools for thousands of the latest teaching, leadership and support jobs.

The Secret Teacher

Shark kills surfer in latest Western Australia attack

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 09:26 PM PST

Man's body found with an arm missing near Gracetown, scene of two previous fatal attacks in the past 10 years

FCC chairman now says he opposes use of cellphones on planes

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:40 PM PST

Tom Wheeler says he is personally opposed, but the decision will be up to airlines if the commission's proposal is adopted

Tony Abbott endorses Quentin Bryce's right to speak out on republic

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 07:03 PM PST

PM says it is 'more than appropriate' for governor-general to express personal views, though not all in his party agree

Politicians need to 'wake up' to corruption in minority communities

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 06:07 PM PST

Attorney general Dominic Grieve cites cases of electoral fraud and singles out Pakistani community

Politicians need to "wake up" to growing problems of corruption involving sections of some minority communities, according to Dominic Grieve, the Conservative MP and attorney general.

Citing electoral corruption as a particular concern and singling out the Pakistani community, Grieve said that the problem was on the rise because some minority communities "come from backgrounds where corruption is endemic".

Many immigrants, he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, "come from societies where they have been brought up to believe you can only get certain things through a favour culture".

"One of the things you have to make absolutely clear is that is not the case and it's not acceptable. As politicians, these are issues we need to pay some attention to."

Grieve, whose constituency has a sizeable south Asian community, said that he was "very optimistic" about the future of the UK, which he said had managed the integration of minority communities better than most countries in Europe.

However, he said, that required the maintenance of the rule of law and democratic institutions, as well as stemming corruption, a problem he claimed was growing due to the backgrounds of some minority communities.

The MP identified Slough, Berkshire, as an example of the type of electoral corruption that he was concerned about. Eshaq Khan, who was a Tory councillor there, was found guilty in 2008 of using bogus postal votes to ensure he was voted in.

More recently, the Electoral Commission called in Scotland Yard after allegations of postal vote scams in the east London area of Tower Hamlets last year, although a police investigation found no evidence of widespread voting fraud.

Asked if he was referring to the Pakistani community, Grieve replied: "Yes, it's mainly the Pakistani community, not the Indian community. I wouldn't draw it down to one. I'd be wary of saying it's just a Pakistani problem."

Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, which studies integration migration and identity, said that problems of electoral corruption involving particular ethnic groups in constituencies appeared to be less of a problem than in the past.

"If electoral fraud and malpractice of this type occurs then it should be thoroughly investigated, although on the whole we are probably seeing less of it.

"There has been a some history of unhealthy relationships, for example, between parties, candidates and sections of communities when it comes to selection processes," he added.

"But we have been seeing a healthy shift away from ethnic block or clan-based politics, which is many ways was a first generational thing, although that is not to say that localised problems may not exist and should be investigated if they are identified.

"In fact, when local parties have continued to involve themselves in this old stuff of ethnic block voting then they are likely to become unstuck, and that may have been the case in Bradford."

Katwala also said that recent research indicated that ethnic minority voters had a strong engagement with and high levels of trust in British democracy.

Ben Quinn

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Modern slavery: in an ordinary house | Editorial

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 04:57 PM PST

A society that experienced the Jimmy Savile caseload should not make rash assumptions that current events are a one-off

Even in the light of the rescue of three allegedly enslaved women in south London, many of us struggle to grasp that slavery is not something that was purged from our society two centuries ago but is something that exists here in Britain, now, in our midst, and not even always behind locked doors. Yet grasp it we must, since the case of the three south London women, however remarkable it may be because of the length of their captivity, may even be the tip of a larger iceberg of captivity that modern society has proved disturbingly unable and perhaps unwilling to spot. The UK Human Trafficking Centre identified nearly 2,300 cases in 2012. Numbers appear to be rising steadily. A society that has experienced the ever-expanding Jimmy Savile caseload should not make rash assumptions that the current events are a one-off.

The details of the south London case remain sketchy. But they took place, in the police's haunting phrase, in "an ordinary house in an ordinary street". It seems that three women, aged 30, 57 and 69, were imprisoned for up to three decades – for the entirety of her life in the youngest's case. The women are reported to have been beaten, though whether and how their labour was exploited is not yet clear. It follows that much more detail will be required before the full policy implications can be reliably assessed.

The known details nevertheless suggest that this case falls both inside and outside some of the stereotypical myths about modern slavery. These myths, according to a Centre for Social Justice survey in March, include the assumption that modern slavery always involves the trafficking of human beings across borders – when internal trafficking is a substantial problem too. Nor should it be assumed, as it sometimes is, that modern slavery only involves women and children – when a 2011 study suggests that 40% of cases involve males. Modern slavery is not just another term for prostitution either. Cases are not confined to the sex industry. Victims can be exploited for forced labour of all kinds, as well as street crime, benefit crime and for outright domestic captivity.

The positive news is that this case will be another wake-up call in neighbourhoods as well as social agencies and government. Yesterday, the Freedom charity, which helped secure the south London women's freedom, was reportedly deluged with more calls for help. Frank Field, the Labour MP who is working with the government, is compiling evidence for a new bill. If the south London case can increase the momentum for modern awareness of slavery and modern prevention, then perhaps some good will come of this appalling event.

Editorial

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Twitter steps up security of users' data

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 04:32 PM PST

Introduction of 'perfect forward secrecy' ensures protection of encrypted data even if another party obtains decryption keys

Twitter has announced a significant increase in its data security as it moves to protect users from attacks by the "apex predators" of the internet.

An internal team of security engineers have spent several months implementing "perfect forward secrecy", which adds an extra layer of security to widely used HTTPS encryption deployed by online banking, retailers and, increasingly, consumer web services.

Google, Facebook, Dropbox and Tumblr have all implemented forward secrecy already, and LinkedIn is understood to be introducing it in 2014.

Users may not immediately notice any difference, other than a barely perceptible time lag as they use the service across desktop, mobile and through third party services, but for Twitter the move asserts its credentials as a company fiercely protective of its users' data.

That data includes not only messages that users choose to publish publicly, but also direct, private messages, protected tweets and data on what users say, who they comment on and who else they read. Collectively, large datasets, such as those of Twitter's 218 million users, can be analysed to identify connections between people, locations and interests.

Announcing the new implementation, which has been running as a trial since 21 October, a detailed post on Twitter's engineering blog encouraged other sites to "defend and protect the users' voice" by implementing HTTPS and forward secrecy.

Documents released by Edward Snowden, a former contractor to the US National Security Agency, have shown that the agency and its affiliates are storing vast amounts of encrypted consumer data so that it can later attempt to decrypt it, either by accessing unencrypted data or by using specific court orders to force data owners to hand over the private SSL keys. But forward secrecy means that data would still be secure, even if the agency obtained the keys to the encrypted data.

First developed in 1992, perfect forward secrecy creates a new, disposable key for each exchange of information, which means the key for every individual session would have to be decrypted to access the data.

Twitter engineer Jacob Hoffman-Andrews said that implementation on Twitter was complex because of its scale, which meant that extra work was done to ensure the process did not slow the site. He wants to encourage smaller sites to introduce forward secrecy and said it could take as little as two weeks to implement. "We are trying to create a new norm for what it means to be a secure website," he said. "It makes it harder for anyone attempting a large-scale cryptographic attack, but this is not just about the NSA. There's more than one apex predator on the internet, including terrorists and groups outside of government – anyone well-funded could use the same techniques."

Fellow engineer Jeff Hodges said Twitter's policy of asserting its users' right to privacy marked it out from other services, and that the Snowden revelations had a big impact inside the company. "It was a big surprise, and it inspired a lot of work," he said. "There's a gap to be bridged between what developers know to be the correct thing to do next, and that becoming policy at companies so that they invest the time to make it happen. But that process is percolating up."

Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at software security firm Sophos, said that several mainstream consumer sites have moved to improve security of user data in the wake of the Snowden revelations, but doubted that the move was due to consumer demand.

"The people working on the next generation of web standards are considering making encryption of all web traffic the default," he said. "Most of the movement towards improved security and privacy is long overdue. For a couple of years now, Google redesigned parts of its networks to offer HTTPS encryption for all of its services, and Yahoo! announced it will begin using [the secure protocol] HTTPS everywhere they can from 2014. The public pressure is welcomed by those of us who are concerned about the privacy of the average individual. It is simply unfortunate that it took a leak like this for companies to do the right thing."

Jemima Kiss

Queensland verging on a one-party state, says corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 04:28 PM PST

The former judge says the Newman government is in danger of replicating the scandals he uncovered in the Bjelke-Petersen era

Best pictures of the day - live

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:53 PM PST

The Guardian's photo team brings you a daily round up from the world of photography

US politics: when nuclear deterrence fails | Editorial

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:40 PM PST

The 'nuclear' option of banning the filibuster has to be judged against how irradiated the atmosphere in Washington already is

The endurance of John F Kennedy's memory, when that of other US presidents has faded, is only partially explained by the manner of his death, of a charismatic leader cut down in his prime and the thought of what might have been. Kennedy carried with him the hopes of a generation, but the mood of America then has few parallels today. It was optimistic, internationalist and, by today's standards, illiberal. Had he lived, what JFK might have done on civil rights, the defining struggle of his decade, is a matter of debate. He lacked Lyndon Johnson's understanding as a southerner or his sense of urgency. Public opinion at the time thought JFK was pushing too hard, too fast.

Like Kennedy, Barack Obama also started out as a genuinely inspirational president. His list of achievements, however, must all be qualified: on the one hand, the withdrawal from Iraq and what will become a partial pullout from Afghanistan; on the other, a commander in chief who has ordered more drone strikes than any other, and presided over the most intrusive internet and telephone surveillance operation ever. Mr Obama's liberalism is directional. Step out of the allotted vectors of progressive action and this president turns out to be flawed in his own ways. The Affordable Care Act is a huge achievement – if they can actually get it to work. But Mr Obama's White House can not be understood without factoring in the conservative forces determined at all costs to stop this administration from working.

The right's horror towards Senate Democrats' move this week to end the filibuster for most nominations by presidents must, for instance, be weighed against the frequency with which that wrecking ball has recently been swung by Republicans. As the Senate majority leader Harry Reid said, half of all the filibusters in the history of the republic occurred in the last five years. Further, 20 of the 23 district court nominees filibustered in the history of America were nominated by Mr Obama. Were they so unfit for office? Patently no. Were Republicans in the Senate so intent on obstructing everything that emanates from this presidency? Patently yes. So the "nuclear" option of banning the filibuster has to be judged against how irradiated the atmosphere in Washington already is.

There are valid arguments to be had about changing a legislative chamber which has afforded more rights to its minority than any other in the world. Judicial appointments are for life so, unlike legislation, judges cannot be repealed by the next administration. There are, too, concerns about how Republicans would behave if the tables were turned. The move marks the formal end of a policy that featured large in Mr Obama's first term of office – the search for bipartisan solutions. But let us face it. That search was doomed from the start. He was rightly criticised for feeding the crocodile: when you run out of chickens to throw it, it takes your arm.

The problem with high-minded reflections on the partial end to the filibuster is that it was nothing more than an effective political tool. Without it, America would now have the legislative means to curb its carbon emissions. The Affordable Care Act would have had a public option to curb the excesses of private health insurance companies. Without it, Mr Obama would not have had to file down the tip of many of his arrows. Republicans cannot complain about the political nature of the Democrats' move, without acknowledging how politically they behaved in the first place.

Of course, their mandate is to oppose. How they do it, however, is their responsibility. The cure for Republican extremism is a substantially reduced mandate in the mid-term elections next year from an electorate fed up with their actions in Congress. Only once they have been brought low will the Republicans, paradoxically, become electable again.

Editorial

Curious tale of the central Asian oligarchs and the City of London

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:34 PM PST

Mining firm ENRC bids farewell to the Stock Exchange but its Uzbek and Kyrgyz creators are here to stay

It is May 2010 at Monaco's vast Le Sporting banquet hall, where 800 guests have responded to an invitation from one of central Asia's most powerful, and secretive, oligarchs.

The host has packed the venue's gardens with white roses and arranged for entertainment from the singer Jennifer Lopez and French DJ David Guetta.

Several guests execute an impromptu lezginka, a traditional dance from the Caucasus, and a crowd forms to shower them with $100 and €100 bills, a sign of the donors' respect, which is then paid to the musicians.

The grand celebrations have been arranged to mark the wedding of one Sabir Chodiev, the son of Patokh Chodiev, 60, an Uzbek businessman whose then £1.85bn fortune had largely been secured with two Kyrgyz business partners in resource-rich Kazakhstan.

The timing of the wedding just about coincided with the zenith of the worldwide boom in commodity prices and the whole event is estimated to have cost Chodiev around £6m, a fifth of which went on Lopez's one-hour turn.

Those were better times in the world of Patokh Chodiev – plus his two business partners, Alexander Machkevitch, 59, and Alijan Ibragimov, 60 – a trio who largely became known in the City because of their links to a painful hit to many UK savers' pension pots.

After floating their mining company, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), on the London Stock Exchange in 2007, the company's shares were quickly propelled into the FTSE 100 and, therefore, into many British pension funds.

But the past two years have seen persistent allegations of corruption against the company, along with a string of corporate governance rows, and the shares have crashed, prompting the trio to take the company private again. When the stock market closed on Friday evening the shares, which have fallen by 85% from their peak, were traded publicly for the last time.

So is London bidding farewell to the trio, whose company was dubbed "more Soviet than City" by Ken Olisa, a former non-executive director who was ousted by the three founders? Probably not.

ENRC may be disappearing from the London Stock Exchange, but the professional and personal lives of the tycoons link them inextricably to the UK.

One of their main businesses, private firm International Mineral Resources (IMR), is run out of London, several of their legal scraps are still being fought here, while ENRC continues to be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for "fraud, bribery and corruption".

Lavish properties in the most exclusive parts of the capital continue to be owned by the businessmen, while among the diverse collection of London names touched by the oligarchs are Miriam Gonzalez, the lawyer and wife of deputy prime minister Nick Clegg; the steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal; and the British artist Damien Hirst.

The tycoons' partnership was conceived in Kyrgyzstan, one of central Asia's poorest countries to the south of Kazakhstan, where Machkevitch and Ibragimov grew up.

The pair are thought to have met at a wedding in 1971 but pursued separate careers, as Chodiev worked in Japan for the Soviet ministry of foreign trade.

But by the late 1980s, in a move that has never been explained, they came together during the early stages of perestroika. Machkevitch and Ibragimov are believed to have moved to Moscow in 1987 to trade everything from scrap metal to iron ore, aluminium and oil.

Chodiev joined them two years later, with much of the trio's business being conducted in Kazakhstan, a market they knew well.

From there, they gained control of newly privatised chromium, alumina, and gas operations in Kazakhstan, creating partnerships (and eventually feuds) with some of the pioneers of early post-Soviet capitalism, including the London-based Reuben brothers and the metals trader Lev Chernoy.

Quite how this transformation was achieved remains unclear. Observers of the period say anybody could succeed in Kazakh business if they enjoyed powerful sponsorship, which explains the tales of alleged sweetheart deals with Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and of charging "special commissions" to the Mayfair-based Mittal for acting as intermediaries to the Kazakh elite.

A spokesman for the trio would not comment on the payments, while Mittal's spokeswoman has denied the payment was a commission.

What is known for certain, however, is that from the chaos of the 1990s, the trio grew a substantial business, part of which became ENRC.

But by the time that company floated in 2007, some of their wealth had already arrived in Mayfair. In 2005 a British Virgin Islands-based company associated with Machkevitch paid £14.5m for a palatial three-storey Georgian mansion in one of London's most opulent squares.

Five years earlier, Chodiev bought his £10m penthouse in a glass-fronted development near London's Vauxhall Bridge, that boasts a 24 hour concierge service, residents' gym and secure underground car park.

Two Mayfair properties are registered to a company run by Chodiev's daughter Mounissa Chodieva, head of ENRC's investor relations.

A two-mile stroll north to Portman Square brings you to the offices of Amre Youness, who runs the trio's private mining business IMR.

Youness has married into the Heinz family, and so is related by marriage to US secretary of state John Kerry.

But despite his high-level links, IMR's private status has meant the company has been far less visible than ENRC.

Even so, the firm has attracted controversy. It sold ENRC a business that the listed company's former lawyers say may have made "cash payments to African presidents", while IMR is accused in the Dutch courts of "blatant fraud, exacerbated by bribery" by Russian fertiliser group EuroChem. IMR denies the accusations. ENRC and the trio deny all allegations of bribery and corruption.

Meanwhile, the oligarchs are furious at how they believe they have been treated by the City, arguing they have spent millions on lawyers and bankers in order to meet London compliance standards, only for their shares to slump. One close associate says: "They've been mugged by the City."

That anger is being played out against Dechert, the law firm that raised the allegations about payments in Africa, which ENRC is suing for allegedly overcharging for an internal corruption investigation.

The lawsuit names Clegg's wife, Gonzalez, who worked on the project. Dechert did not comment.

That case follows ENRC's pursuit of its former director, the City grandee Sir Paul Judge, who it accuses of leaking company information to the media. Judge denies this and is suing for libel.

Meanwhile, potentially embarrassing details about the tycoons and their families are set to be aired elsewhere in London's high court, as ENRC's former head of corporate finance, Kirill Stein, is suing the trio for £17m in bonuses and interest he says they reneged on paying.

Stein also names as defendants three of the oligarchs' children – Chodieva, Alla Machkevitch and Dostan Ibragimov – all of whom have London connections.

Alla, along with her sister Anna, is a director of the London-based Machkevitch Foundation.

Anna is said to be one of the largest collectors of Damien Hirst: she has acquired pieces including butterfly wing mosaics, cabinets of manufactured diamonds and the signature Hirst "dots".

All of which means that – for now – London and the trio remain bound.

Simon Goodley

Mark Hollingsworth

JFK assassination: Dallas marks its darkest day with sober ceremony

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:56 PM PST

Commemorations at Dealey Plaza and Arlington National Cemetery to observe 50th anniversary of president's death

Tom Dart

JFK: America marks 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination – live

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:35 PM PST

• Dallas memorial ceremony proceeds under rain
• Obama on JFK: 'He stays with us'
• Read a digest of JFK news and analysis

Tom McCarthy

Federal appeals court upholds rulings that stop-and-frisk is unconstitutional

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST

Move seen as New York's last chance to reverse ruling against controversial policing policy before arrival of mayor De Blasio

Australia-Indonesia diplomatic crisis: this, too, will pass | Michael Wesley

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:15 PM PST

Michael Wesley: Australia and Indonesia will weather the ongoing diplomatic storm. Despite their occasional spats, both countries need each other

Michael Wesley

Mystery of man behind £850m plan for Europe's tallest residential tower

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:33 PM PST

Developer Tom Ryan, who intends to build 75-storey Hertsmere House on Canary Wharf site, has mixed business record

The post is piling up at Ryan House, a smart, four-storey Georgian townhouse in the heart of Dublin's office district. An employee of the solicitor's firm which moved in three months ago explains they don't have a forwarding address for Tom Ryan or the businesses he once ran from this address. "It's been a bit of a problem. We've had a lot of mail piling up, though it's started to become less lately."

Almost unknown in the close-knit Irish business world, Ryan shot to attention 10 days ago when it was reported that he had paid £100m for a site on Canary Wharf's north-west corner to build a 75-storey tower of luxury flats to be called Hertsmere House.

His plan, it is said, is to knock down a 1980s office block, currently occupied by Barclays bank, and erect in its place Europe's tallest residential tower, an £850m development designed to cater to the insatiable appetite for prime London addresses among the world's super-rich. Penthouse residents would enjoy unparalleled views from a vantage point seven metres higher than the pyramid-topped One Canada Square landmark.

The news set the property world in London and Dublin abuzz with one question: who is Tom Ryan? "We have no idea," said Jill O'Neill at Sherry Fitzgerald, one of Ireland's largest estate agents. "Ireland is such a small place and people tend to know everyone, so it is unusual."

The news had broken on the front page of the Financial Times and was repeated by news outlets around the world. But there is scant information on the Ryan Corporation UK Limited, Ryan's investment vehicle for the Canary Wharf project.

A Guardian investigation into the mysterious Ryan reveals a man with a history of mixed business success, the subject of three tax judgments secured by the Revenue since 2011. His business partners have included a convicted fraudster, the owner of a lap-dancing club and an ex-adviser to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Official company and gazette filings have variously described Ryan's occupation as "management consultant", "company director" and "gentleman". He has been ordered to pay €2.9m (£2.4m) in late taxes and bad debts by Irish courts since 2009. Last month alone, a court ordered Ryan to pay €1.6m to the Irish Revenue.

In January Ryan was ordered to pay Lombard Ireland, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, almost €770,000 after failure to repay a debt. A smaller sum of just over €7,000 was owed to Blackrock Clinic in 2009.

The Irish tax authorities have also fined Ryan for failure to file income tax and VAT returns on several occasions. In fact, so common have Ryan's tax judgments and late fees been that his exotic business activities have become a regular fixture in Ireland's irreverent satirical news magazine, the Phoenix.

The businessman's reputation in the US, meanwhile, is much closer to what might be expected of a wealthy property tycoon. David O'Sullivan, executive director of the Ireland-US Council, said Ryan had been a member of the non-profit business group for around 15 years, but went to events only occasionally. He said Ryan had "inherited his wealth" and was "doing different things in aviation and real estate".

On St Patrick's Day 2007 Ryan was reportedly invested into the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an exclusive Irish-American club, at an event witnessed by the Clintons, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, prominent figures in the upmarket property industry contacted by the Guardian in the UK and Ireland were unfamiliar with Ryan. The British-Irish Chamber of Commerce said: "He has not crossed our radar screen." Frank McDonald, a Dublin-based journalist on the Irish Times who has taken a particular interest in property development and written a bestselling book on the sector, The Builders, said: "I have never heard of him."

Neighbours of Ryan, who lives close to the Lansdowne Road stadium in the desirable Dublin seaside village of Sandy-mount, also expressed surprise at the businessman's latest venture. "Tom? Really?" said one neighbour, visibly taken aback by the news of the near-£1bn project. "I didn't know he was involved in anything like that. He comes and goes a lot. I haven't seen him for a while."

Another neighbour said she was also surprised. "I didn't know he was involved in anything like that large. I didn't think he was into that sort of deal. I just knew he was a businessman."

She would not say any more about her famous neighbour, other than that he "comes and goes, he travels abroad a lot", and that he drives a BMW. A brand-new top-end BMW five series, apparently leased from Avis, was parked on the curb outside the house.

Back at Ryan House, his former Dublin office address, a brass intercom plate by the door still reads: "Ryan House, Ryan International Corporation, Corporate Headquarters". However, the office is now leased to the firm of solicitors who say they have no connection with Ryan, who they believed to be the previous tenant. "We only kept the plaque because it has the buzzer in it," said an employee.

In the UK he is equally hard to pin down. His Ryan Corporation UK, based in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, according to Companies House and believed to be the company behind the residential tower, is listed as inactive. Company records show Ryan had been a director of five companies in Ireland, all but one of which was dissolved before filing accounts. Among them were a helicopter company, which folded with debts outstanding to Lombard Ireland. Several were jointly owned by Ryan and Paddy Duffy, a former spindoctor for Ahern. A little more is known of Ryan International Corporation (Liqueur) Ltd, a business set up to market a Bailey's-style liqueur called Ryan's Irish Cream.

A fundraising brochure described Ryan as having "a range and level of experience which includes corporate life, public affairs, public relations, television, government services, international investment, property development, and the drinks manufacturing/marketing industry". Ryan International Corporation was set up with "operating offices in Dublin, Paris, New York and Los Angeles", it says.

Ryan was "appointed to develop current affairs departments for the new government-legalised radio stations" and "headhunted by the BBC" before returning to PR, with clients such as Apple, GPA, Aer Lingus and British Airways, it adds. In the end, the liqueur project never went into production.

Ryan's partners in the liqueur venture turned out to be Chris Kelly, well known for his lap-dancing clubs in Ireland, and Ron Wiesz, who runs a controversial lending business. In 1995, Wiesz was reportedly convicted in New York of fraudulently acquiring a bank loan.

Ryan Corporation and Commercial Estates Group, which sold the Hertsmere House site, declined to comment.

Simon Bowers

Jennifer Rankin

John Kerry flies to Geneva as Iran nuclear deal edges closer

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:26 PM PST

Russian and Chinese foreign ministers join their negotiating teams as sources say draft deal is close to being signed

US secretary of state John Kerry is rejoining weekend talks in Geneva over Iran's nuclear weapons programme, amid signs that negotiators are on the verge of a historic peace deal.

Diplomatic sources in Washington said Kerry flew to Switzerland on Friday afternoon, as hopes rise that remaining disagreements over Iranian enrichment technology and a heavy water reactor capable of producing plutonium are close to being resolved.

"After consulting with EU High Representative [Catherine] Ashton and the negotiating team on the ground, Secretary Kerry will travel to Geneva … with the goal of continuing to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

If language to limit the use of such technology can be found that is acceptable to Tehran and the group of six international powers leading the talks, negotiators expect to provide limited relief from economic sanctions that would allow further discussions aimed at a permanent end to Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

Hawks in Congress, who side with Israel in suspecting that Iran is being rewarded too readily, have created a brief window of opportunity for such a deal to be struck by agreeing to hold off on further sanctions legislation until after the Thanksgiving holiday. Kerry was criticised by Republicans in Washington after his previous intervention in the Geneva process failed to secure a deal. Those close to US diplomatic strategy expect he would not have returned so soon unless negotiators had arrived at acceptable language.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Li Baodong, China's deputy foreign minister, also arrived on Friday at the talks venue, a central Geneva hotel. Lavrov's spokeswoman said Lavrov would meet the UN special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, while in Switzerland, though details of the meeting had yet to be arranged. The main reason for flying to Geneva, she said, was to take part in the Iran talks.

The flurry of raised expectations came on the third day of the third round of intense and detailed nuclear talks with Iran since the election of a reformist president, Hassan Rouhani. The talks are aimed at securing a deal that would defuse tensions in the Gulf and push back the threat of a new war in the Middle East.

Diplomats in Geneva said talks had whittled down the number of sticking points to a small handful. There were also unconfirmed reports that one of the most intractable issues, the question of Iran's right to enrich uranium, had been resolved with a form of words in the draft agreement that satisfied both sides.

Sources said the most important remaining obstacle was the extent to which work should be allowed to continue at a heavy water reactor in Arak, which would produce plutonium when completed.

"Yesterday we talked about the issues we don't agree on, and naturally delegations needed to consult their capitals. In some cases, we have had results," said the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who leads the country's delegation. "In some cases a number of phrases have been added [to the text] and we still need to do some work in other cases. We are dealing with an issue that was the subject of difference for 10 years."

The draft deal on the table is intended to buy six months for further negotiations aimed at an enduring settlement. Iran would get access to some frozen bank accounts and could start trading again in gold, petrochemicals, vehicle and aeroplane parts. In exchange, it would stop or reverse parts of its nuclear programme.

"If Iran does not get wording on the right to enrich, then the deal is unbalanced in the west's favour. They get verifiable limits and roll-back on every single critical element of the Iranian programme, and Iran would just get access to its own money," said Reza Marashi, a former US state department official now at the National Iranian American Council.

According to sources at the talks, a compromise deal on the Arak heavy water reactor had been written into the text of the draft agreement at the last Geneva talks, which ended on 10 November. Under that compromise, Iran would cease work on making fuel rods but would continue other elements of the long-delayed project. However, on French insistence, the paragraphs on Arak were put back into brackets, meaning they were open to negotiation again. In response, Iran asked for concessions elsewhere, to "rebalance the deal".

Earlier in the day, Britain's ambassador in Washington urged Congress not to impose new sanctions on Iran while negotiations are making progress.

"Many gaps between the parties have been bridged all together; those that remain have narrowed considerably. But further sanctions now would only hurt negotiations and risk eroding international support for the sanctions that have brought us this far."

Earlier on Friday, US secretary of defense Chuck Hagel met with Israeli minister of defense Moshe Ya'alon on the margins of a security conference as part of ongoing efforts to reassure Israel over the direction of the Geneva talks. Pentagon officials said the Iranian nuclear issue was one of a number of topics raised between the two at the conference in Canada, where they also discussed cooperation to provide Israel with new, advanced military capabilities, including the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

Julian Borger

Dan Roberts

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

Fifa must address Qatar workers' rights, says Arsène Wenger

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:12 PM PST

• Arsenal manager concerned about 2022 World Cup workers
• 'It is down to Fifa to make those rules changed,' he says

Arsène Wenger has added his voice to the growing concern about conditions for migrant workers in Qatar, the host nation of the 2022 World Cup. The Arsenal manager has urged Fifa to put enough pressure on the Qatari government to address the kafala system, which ties workers to their sponsors and has been heavily criticised from a human rights perspective. "Fifa has made an investigation and hopefully will sort that out," said Wenger. "It is down to Fifa to make those rules changed."

Wenger was mindful that the living and working conditions, and the problems with exit visas which are controlled by the companies that sponsor immigrant workers, has been discussed at the highest levels lately. The European Parliament, who passed an emergency resolution condemning the practice, and an Amnesty International report which highlighted the issues, have increased pressure in the past week.

He has also been in touch with the family of Zahir Belounis, the French footballer who has been trapped in Qatar while his dispute over unpaid wages has been unresolved. "I have been contacted by somebody from the family who asked for help," said Wenger. "But what I've heard in France is that the French government is involved and they are in a much stronger position than anybody else to help out. I am just surprised he cannot get out of the country and I don't know why really."

Belounis wrote an open letter to Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola in search of support for a system he described as "slowly killing me". He has been suffering depression as he and his young family have been unable to leave the Gulf state, with no exit visa forthcoming while he contests his case for unpaid earnings. The Belounis camp has heard positive signs that an end could be in sight to his predicament. They are hopeful for news within the next few days.

Amy Lawrence

Letters: Rally today to bring home Shaker Aamer

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST

Can anyone deny that Shaker Aamer is being abused and tortured in Guantánamo after hearing him call out to CBS reporter Leslie Stalh on Newsnight on 18 November? "Either you leave us to die in peace – or tell the world the truth. Let the world hear what is happening … you cannot walk even half a metre without being chained. Is that a human being? That's the treatment of an animal." This is a man who has been incarcerated in Guantánamo for 12 years without charge. Six years ago he was cleared to leave by the unanimous decision of six US security agencies, including the CIA and the FBI. David Cameron has said the UK government wants him released and returned to the UK as a matter of urgency. So why is Shaker still in Guantánamo? Please protest to President Obama and support the demand for Shaker's immediate return. Tell your MP to press for the release of this brave British resident. We have to act now, to stop this gross injustice. The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign is marching in Battersea today to demand Shaker's return to his home and family in London. We will be marking the day in November 2001 when Shaker Aamer was unlawfully abducted in Afghanistan and his nightmare in US custody began.Will he live to see it end?
Joy Hurcombe
Worthing, West Sussex

• Over the past eight years, I have used every legitimate method, including a five-day hunger strike, to highlight the abuses and torture Shaker Aamer has faced. Organisations from Amnesty to the Vatican have labelled Guantánamo a disgrace – yet all politicians lack the ability to close it. There are many difficult areas in politics, but surely releasing a man you have cleared for transfer, Mr Obama, has to be one of the easier ones?

This week also marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, delivered by Barack Obama's hero, Abraham Lincoln. Mr Obama should reread Lincoln's words: "A new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." These fine words which heralded the beginning of America's long road to deal with its slave past are especially poignant for a man like Shaker, held as a 21st-century slave. Lincoln was a true leader who brought his country from being a slave state to an abolitionist one.

The question is whether Obama has Lincoln's courage to lead his country to do the right thing. Sadly in the over six months since his most recent announcement to speed up prison transfers, we have seen precious little action by the president on this matter. That is why I, along with others, will march and rally today to call for Shaker's immediate release to his family in south London. Yes, you can, Mr Obama. Yes, you can release Shaker.
Dr David Nicholl
Hagley, Worcestershire

Letters: Lesson from Mali

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST

In your report of prime minister's questions (Cameron's crack at Labour's liaisons, 21 November), Michael White refers to the question I asked the prime minister and opines that I "had read somewhere that UK business investment lagged behind Mali and Paraguay. If you can believe that, you can believe anything. Meacher does. Cameron's contempt was understandable". The source I had quoted was the Economist. On 6 July it ran an article headed: "Britain's economy: Let's try to catch up with Mali: Why being 159th-best at investment is no way for a country to sustain a recovery." The magazine also appended a table showing British investment levels just behind Mali, Paraguay and Guatemala, exactly as I had stated. Politicians have a lot to answer for in making PMQs no longer fit for purpose in its present form, but sketch-writers carry responsibility too by obsessing on the trivial and the personal.
Michael Meacher MP
Labour, Oldham West

Letters: Philosophers urge support for jailed Pussy Riot protester

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST

For singing a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Nadia Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, of the collective Pussy Riot, were sentenced in August 2012 to two years' detention in a "prison colony" for "vandalism motivated by religious hate". After having denounced the inhuman prison conditions and begun a hunger strike, Tolokonnikova, 24, mother of a five-year-old girl, was transferred 4,000 kilometres from Mordovia to the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot's prison letters to Slavoj Žižek, 16 November).

According the Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Loukine, "serving her sentence in this region would contribute to her resocialisation".

Now there is language we had not heard in Russia since the Soviet era and its hunt for all deviants. In fact, the singer of Pussy Riot has become a symbol of those repressed by the regime: gays hounded in the name of the now legalised struggle against homosexual "propaganda", immigrant workers exploited and brutalised on the construction sites of Sochi and elsewhere, penalisation of anti-religious speech, significant ecological damage caused by construction projects undertaken without consulting local residents, the opposition muzzled, NGOs persecuted. In the face of these increasingly numerous human rights violations, Europe has remained shockingly silent.

In a letter addressed from her prison cell to the philosopher Slavoj Žižek, Nadia Tolokonnikova criticises the complacency of western governments towards Vladimir Putin's repressive and freedom-destroying policies. In particular, she writes in Philosophie magazine (November 2013): "The boycott of the Olympic Games at Sochi, in 2014, would be perceived as an ethical gesture." As called for by Philosophie magazine, we, European intellectuals, call on our governments and all of Europe to break with their attitude of culpable tolerance and put pressure on the government of Vladimir Putin to immediately release Nadia Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina.

Russia is a constitutional republic and permanent member of the UN security council. It has signed the European convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. With the Olympic Games approaching this February, it is time to give them a reminder.
Elisabeth Badinter, Pascal Bruckner, Alain Finkielkraut, Marcel Gauchet, André Glucksmann, Agnès Heller, Axel Honneth, Claude Lanzmann, Edgar Morin, Antonio Negri, Hartmut Rosa, Fernando Savater, Richard Sennett, Bernard Stiegler, Gianni Vattimo, Slavoj Žižek

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