World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

0 komentar

World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk


Ukraine: Pro-Russian gunmen seize Crimea parliament - live updates

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:46 AM PST

Follow live updates as pro-Russian gunmen take over the Crimean parliament building









Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, visits Britain: Politics live blog

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:42 AM PST

Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of all today's political developments as they happen, including Angela Merkel's speech to parliament and her press conference with David Cameron









Amnesty International accuses Israeli armed forces of possible war crimes

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:16 AM PST

Human rights group says soldiers have killed dozens of Palestinians with virtual impunity in West Bank

Israeli forces are using excessive, reckless violence in the occupied West Bank, killing dozens of Palestinians over the past three years in what might constitute a war crime, Amnesty International said.

In a report entitled Trigger Happy, the human rights group accused Israel of allowing its soldiers to act with virtual impunity and urged an independent review of the deaths.

The Israeli army dismissed the allegations, saying security forces had seen a "substantial increase" in Palestinian violence and Amnesty had revealed a "complete lack of understanding" about the difficulties soldiers faced.

According to UN data, 45 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between 2011 and 2013, including six children. Amnesty said it had documented the deaths of 25 civilians during this period, all but three of whom died last year.

"The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank," said Philip Luther, the director of the Middle East and north Africa programme at Amnesty International.

Amnesty said that in none of the cases it reviewed did the Palestinians appear to be posing any imminent threat to life. "In some, there is evidence that they were victims of wilful killings, which would amount to war crimes," the group said.

After a three-year hiatus Israelis and Palestinians resumed direct peace talks last July, which the Palestinians hope will give them an independent state on territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war, including the West Bank.

Although their decades-old conflict has become a low-intensity confrontation, violence still flares regularly, with Palestinians accounting for the vast majority of casualties.

The 87-page report, published on Thursday, focused only on violence in the West Bank, not the Gaza Strip. It highlighted a number of the deaths, including that of 21-year-old Lubna Hanash, who was shot in the head on 23 January 2013 as she left an agricultural college near the flashpoint city of Hebron.

Amnesty quoted witnesses saying a soldier opened fire 100 metres from where she was standing. A female relative standing alongside her was shot in the hand. Neither had been taking part in any protest.

A few days earlier, a 16-year-old schoolboy, Samir Awad, was shot three times, including in the back of the head, after staging a protest near the Israeli separation barrier that divides his village from its historical farmlands.

A third killing saw Waji al-Ramahi, 15, shot in the back from a distance of 200 metres in December 2013 near the Jalazun refugee camp, Amnesty said.

An Israeli army statement responding to the report did not refer to any specific incidents, but said 2013 had seen a sharp increase in rock-hurling incidents, which had injured 132 Israeli civilians and military personnel.

"Where feasible the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] contains this life-threatening violence using riot dispersal means," it said. "Only once these tools have been exhausted and human life and safety remains under threat, is the use of precision munition authorised."

The IDF said the report had compiled "carefully selected, unverifiable and often contradictory accounts from clearly politically motivated individuals, which it then reports as unquestioned facts."

Besides the numerous deaths, Amnesty said at least 261 Palestinians, including 67 children, were seriously injured by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces in the West Bank over the past three years.

More than 8,000 Palestinians were seriously injured by other means, including rubber-coated metal bullets, since January 2011, the report said.

During this period, just one Israeli soldier was convicted of wrongfully causing the death of a Palestinian – an unnamed staff sergeant who shot dead a Palestinian while he was trying to enter Israel illegally in search of a job.

The staff sergeant received a one-year prison sentence, with five months suspended, and was allowed to stay in the army, albeit at a lower rank, Amnesty said.

Three other investigations over the past three years were closed without indictments, five were closed but their findings were not revealed and 11 are still open.

"The current Israeli system has proved woefully inadequate," Luther said. "A strong message must be sent to Israeli soldiers and police officers that abuses will not go unpunished."

The IDF said it held itself "to the highest of professional standards", adding that when there was suspicion of wrongdoing, it investigated and took action "where appropriate".


theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds








South Korean missionary 'confesses' to spying in North

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 12:44 AM PST

Baptist evangelist Kim Jeong-wook, arrested in October, reads statement detailing anti-government activities

A South Korean missionary arrested in North Korea in October has said he had sought to establish underground churches while operating under the orders of South Korea's intelligence agency.

At a news conference in Pyongyang, Kim Jeong-wook, wearing a dark suit and in apparent good health, read a statement which detailed a number of anti-government activities.

No questions were taken at the event, footage of which was broadcast on South Korean television.

Foreigners arrested in North Korea are often required to make a public "confession", which can expedite their eventual release.

"I thought that the [North's] current regime should be brought down and acted … under directions from the [South's] national intelligence service," Kim said.

"I met with North Koreans and introduced them to the NIS," he added.

When Kim was first arrested, the North simply announced that it had captured a South Korean "spy" and ignored repeated requests from Seoul to properly identify the detainee.

It later emerged that he was Kim, 50, a Baptist evangelist who for seven years had been providing shelter and food to North Koreans living in a Chinese north-eastern border city, Dandong.

Fellow activists said he had crossed the Yalu river, on the border between China and North Korea, in October to establish the whereabouts of some North Korean refugees, who had been arrested in Dandong by Chinese authorities and repatriated.

In his statement, which he read seated alone at a small table, Kim said he had told North Koreans he met that statues to the country's ruling Kim dynasty should be smashed, and churches built in their place.

"I also vilified and insulted the North's leadership with extremely colourful language," he said.

The news conference came a week after North Korea arrested an Australian missionary, John Short, 75, after he left a Christian pamphlet in a Buddhist temple.

Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North Korean constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially recognised groups linked to the government.

North Korea is also holding a US citizen, Kenneth Bae, described by a North Korean court as a militant Christian evangelist.

Bae was arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour on charges of seeking to topple the government.

A number of US missionaries have been arrested in the past, with some allowed to return home after interventions by high-profile US figures.


theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds








Morwell mine fire 'beyond comparison', Victoria's health officer says

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 12:35 AM PST

Authorities say health effects are not bad enough to contemplate evacuation, but no prospect fire will be put out soon









If physicists are smarter than social scientists, are religious people dumb? | Sylvia McLain

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 12:35 AM PST

Sylvia McLain: Researchers have just concluded that physicists are smarter than social scientists – but their own arguments display a disturbing lack of cleverness









Murray-Darling Basin deal caps water buybacks to bring all states on board

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 12:11 AM PST

New South Wales signs up to complete a deal hailed as 'historic' by the prime minister and welcomed by NSW farmers









Amtrak offers writers' residencies on US trains

Posted: 27 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Uninterrupted creativity and window-gazing - what an appealing idea. Celebrate your favourite literary train journeys below

What an appealing idea: US rail company Amtrak has begun offering writers residencies on trains, after the author Alexander Chee expressed a wistful longing to write on trains in a recent interview. The writer Jessica Gross tweeted her approval, "because it would allow for uninterrupted creativity and window-gazing", and Amtrak picked up on the idea; Gross has now travelled to Chicago and back, writing about her journey for the Paris Review, and Chee is due to take his own journey later this year. More trips – free, or as low-cost as possible – will follow, Amtrak told The Wire. The eventual goal, said Julia Quinn, social media director for Amtrak, is to "engage with writers several times a month".

What's so great about writing on a train? "I've always been a claustrophile, and I think that explains some of the appeal – the train is bounded, compartmentalised, and cosily small, like a carrel in a college library. Everything has its place," writes Gross in the Paris Review. "The journey is bounded, too: I know when it will end. Train time is found time. My main job is to be transported; any reading or writing is extracurricular. The looming pressure of expectation dissolves. And the movement of a train conjures the ultimate sense of protection – being a baby, rocked in a bassinet."

At MobyLives, Emma Aylor has it that "though there's a kinetic excitement to the setting out, there's also something to the coming home. Taking Amtrak's Northeast Regional from my temporary home in New York to my family home in Virginia last summer, I experienced the reverse of my trip north. Where I had been jittery with anticipation, I was, southbound, a little weepy, watching more and more magnolias pass as I came closer to home. I wrote, and it wasn't any good, but the experience was all."

Here in the UK, in 2012 crime author Julia Crouch was a writer in residence between London and Harrogate, penning the short story Strangeness on a Train, and saying that "working onboard the train seemed like being in a bubble of concentration as I moved through time and space, only being distracted when eavesdropping on the dramas of my fellow passengers as swaths of the countryside flashed past the windows, which were useful distractions".

I am half-minded to ditch my responsibilities and hop on board a train myself. Sadly, it's not to be – but in honour of Amtrak's move, I shall content myself with remembering some of my favourite train journeys in literature, from Blaine the deadly riddling Mono train in Stephen King's Dark Tower books ("Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth"), to – of course – Murder on the Orient Express. If you've literary train journeys of your own to cite, then please, do join me on board.


theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds








Qantas dithering puts the government in a bad light when so much is at stake

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:50 PM PST

The Coalition is backing away from a step Labor might support, while touting one it knows cannot get through









Qantas debt guarantee appears unlikely as carrier confirms 5000 job losses

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:43 PM PST

Coalition seeks to focus on changing foreign ownership rules after flagship operator reveals a half-year loss of $252m









Consultant investigating Manus Island unrest insists he is independent

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:17 PM PST

Robert Cornall says 'payment of a fee for professional services does not affect independent judgment'









Greenpeace urges Procter & Gamble to reject harmful palm oil practices

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:15 PM PST

Group pushes for 'no-deforestation' policy after accusing Indonesian suppliers of clearing endangered animal habitat









Tony Abbott’s scientific and business advisers at odds over climate change

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:15 PM PST

Guardian Australia: Chief scientist says it is not an illusion while head of PM's business advisory group refers to 'groupthink'









Qantas to cut 5,000 jobs after posting $252m loss – as it happened

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:12 PM PST

All the political reaction from Canberra as Qantas announces results and the climate authority urges Australia to adopt higher emissions targets









Barbie in Sports Illustrated? Time to challenge gender marketing to children

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

Critics say advertising damages young girls by reinforcing gender stereotypes and sending harmful body image messages

Toy manufacturer Mattel's recent marketing campaign in Sports Illustrated proves nothing quite kicks off an argument on the internet like the subject of children and advertising. Thanks to an advert taken out by Mattel, you can now get your scantily clad swimsuit edition advertised by Barbie.

When you get over the initial shock of a hypersexualised plastic toy selling sun, sex and sand, you start to unpick the symbols behind it. It's creepy. A child's doll – which is no stranger to its own controversy of marketing an unrealistic body image to young girls – is being used to sell a magazine bought by (mostly) men in search of titillation.

Comedian Bill Hicks called on everyone working in advertising or marketing to kill themselves. "There is no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers. Kill yourselves."

Why the hate? There's something of the "social control" model when it comes to marketing to children. For instance, only 5% of US women have the body type portrayed as the ideal in advertising, yet 69% of teenage girls said that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. Contrast this with a Yale University study which found that the more fast food ads children were exposed to, the more likely they were to eat the stuff.

"If you look at TV commercials, you start seeing how product is marketed by gender," begins Jennifer Pozner, a media literacy educator and author of Reality Bites Back: the Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV.

"Boys' products tend to be sold with dark colours, language that stresses immediacy and usually focuses on a lone boy dominating his play world. Girls get lighter colours: the pinks, the lavenders. The language is more about nurturing, friendship, popularity and consumption."

Goldieblox, a new toy unleashed to the US market by engineer Debbie Sterling says it is out to disrupt the "pink aisle" by inspiring young girls to become engineers. The model of play takes the kinetic and building functions of K'nex and other construction toys and ties in a storyline. But wait a moment, if Goldieblox is meant to redress the gender normative imbalances of the toy industry, why is it all in lavender and yellow?

"We're not here to say pink and princesses are bad," says Sterling. "My goal is simply to give young girls the options that I never had, so they might consider pursuing engineering at a much younger age than I did."

So does gender-specific advertising create or reinforce stereotypes about men and women? Research carried out by Professor Judith Blakemore at Purdue University claims that the development of physical, cognitive, academic, musical, and artistic skills occurs more with less gender-typed toys. But marketing experts argue that is down to parenting.

"The critical factor is the adult who buys the product - the shopper," says John Nevens, co-founder of marketing specialists Bridgethorne. "It could be that they want their daughter to focus on an engineering type activity, or that they want to indulge her or they may just buy without any real thought to gender. A brand has to meet the shopper's need, yet so many brands are focused on the consumer."

Erin Simons, a social media consultant at Caliberi, questions the effect of fashion marketing and whether those too young to understand advertising should be targeted by it. Children have "grown up with social media. Inspired by celebrities and fashion models, many young girls feel pressured to upload highly sexualised photos of themselves in order to receive validation from peers. Fashion marketing is no longer restricted to billboards or magazines, but entering into a seemingly personal space where vulnerable young girls look to emulate it. Brands enforce the perceived importance of image and identity among a very impressionable demographic."

Professor Alex Molnar is publications director of the National Education Policy Center and one of advertising's biggest critics. He gives an example of how marketing capitalises on gender identity.

"When the full-page Barbie ad ran, it looked like Barbie was taking on a pro-feminist view. Saying that girls and women are free to be whomever they want, and saying that real women don't wear high heels or appear in swimsuit [magazine] issues is regressively confining women. That kind of thing is something that marketing does very well. And the best marketing is like the best propaganda – it always contains a kernel of truth."

Although Mattel and Sports Illustrated have yet to reply to our request for comment, Barbie herself is, if you believe the marketing,"#unapologetic". The Barbie Twitter feed says girls should not be "judged by how she dresses, even if it's in heels".

This more nuanced way of marketing to girls and women contrasts with ads a generation ago that prescribed a woman's role in society as that of a homemaker. The saying that a woman must be a maid in the parlour, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom probably still rings true, but we've convinced ourselves that we're "free" of that. So you can guiltlessly accept marketed gender clichés such as "girls like pink and glittery things" because, you know, feminism.

Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox


theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds








President Reagan exonerated in Irangate scandal: From the archive, 27 February 1987

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

The Tower Commission finds that the President had not been told enough about the affair to cover it up

For the first time since his struggling days in Hollywood, Ronald Reagan was virtually written out of a major script yesterday. He was the tall handsome one who opened the door for the big stars, smiled gamely and then proceeded to fluff the few lines he had before fleeing the scene.

It was not a performance which audiences will remember. Perhaps that was what the President was hoping, but if so he will be disappointed. No sooner was his back turned that the three stars of the Tower Commission acquitted him of an Irangate cover-up on the discreet but unmistakable grounds that the old gentleman had not been told enough to cover it up. Not so much Watergate as snoozegate.

Like all the best nights at the opera, the curtain-up was preceded by undignified conduct among ticket-holders necessitated by the importance of getting seats in the briefing room in the Old Executive Office Building. It houses less important staff next door to the better known property burned down by British contras in 1814.

The queue for copies of the report inside the White House press room was unprecedented - "and I've been here since '52," one old hand said. Even grandees of the big television networks joined the sprint across the grounds and into the lift, copies in hand.

Inside the cinema-like forum, all was concentrated silence punctuated by an occasional profanity or a murmur of "My God, North lied all along" from the readers. Until 11 o'clock sharp. With a "Ladies and gentlemen, the members of the President's review board," the inaptly named former Senator Tower (he is a rotund five foot five) led in his fellow-candidates for the Pulitzer Prize. He called them Ed and Brent, for the style remains Republican Informal, even if the policies nowadays are imperial baroque.

In his dark blue suits and grey ties, Mr Tower looks like a Tory lawyer and remains a Reagan loyalist. But after 25 years in Washington, the Texan is not rich and still carries his State Express 555s in a $10 cigarette case. Here he was about to damn his leader with elaborate southern courtesies.

Mr Tower was to speak of the President being a "big picture" man whose staff should have adapted to his style. This is true. Big pictures, preferably on celluloid, have been Mr Reagan's strength. Big words have been the problem.

But the gnomic all-purpose general, Ed Scowcroft, proved wrong in saying we could not expect the President to change. The chief executive promised on nationwide television to break the habits of a lifetime and read a 304-page work of non-fiction.

"Their work is far too important for instant analysis," declared the convert from a career anchored in the light fiction of Zane Grey, Ollie North and the intelligence reports of Bill Casey. After barely a minute and a "now, John I am sure there will be a few questions for you," the boss fled.

The trio then proceeded to give brief resumes of the good bits and take the first of millions of questions - until 12 o'clock precisely. John, Brent and Ed were circumspect about illegalities, admitted to nothing more than semantic disagreements among themselves ("a lengthy debate on split infinities") and were charitable towards the laid-back habits and memory of King Ronald the First and Last.

But it was damning enough. At 11.28, Mr Tower responded to a challenge on presidential infallibility with the words: "yes, the President made mistakes. That is very plain English." Meanwhile the trio had politely damned everyone of consequence in the upper tier of government - except Vice President Bush whose name was overlooked until 11.53. His luck may not last.


theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds








Girls in Pakistan village given pioneering sex education lessons

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

The lessons, which begin when pupils turn eight, cover puberty, rights issues and self defence

Sitting in neat rows, a group of Pakistani schoolgirls in white headscarves listen intently as their teacher describes how their bodies will change during puberty. When she asks what they should do if a stranger touches them inappropriately, the class erupts. "Scream," says one. "Bite," suggests another. "Scratch really hard with your nails," says a third.

Sex education, common in western schools, is taking place in deeply conservative rural Pakistan, a largely Muslim nation of 180 million people.

Approximately 700 girls are enrolled in eight schools run by the Village Shadabad Organisation. The sex education lessons begin when the pupils turn eight and cover puberty, rights issues, and teaches them how to defend themselves from attack.

"We cannot close our eyes," says Akbar Lashari, head of the organisation. "[Sex is] a topic people don't want to talk about, but it's fact of our life."

Public discussion about sex is taboo in Pakistan. Few institutions provide organised sex education, and in some places it has been banned. However, the teachers operating in Johi village, in poverty-stricken Sindh province, say most residents support the scheme.

Lashari says most of the girls in the village used to reach puberty without realising they would menstruate; some married without understanding the mechanics of sex.

The lessons teach the girls about marital rape – a revolutionary idea in Pakistan, where forcing wives to have sex is not a crime. "We tell them their husband can't have sex with them if they are not willing," Lashari said.

The lessons are taught alongside more traditional subjects, and parents are informed about the curriculum before their daughters enrol. None has objected and the school has faced no opposition, Lashari says.

The eight schools received sponsorship from BHP Billiton, an Australian mining company that operates a nearby gas plant, but Lashari says sex education was the villagers' idea.

Sarah Baloch, a teacher whose yellow shalwar kameez brightens up the dusty schoolyard, says she hopes to help girls understand what growing up means. "When girls start menstruating they think it is shameful … [they] don't tell their parents and think they have fallen sick," she says.

Baloch teaches at a tiny school with just three brick classrooms. Three girls cram into each seat made for two and listen attentively. Baloch holds aloft a flashcard which shows a girl stopping a man from touching her leg. Others encourage girls to tell their parents or friends if someone is stalking them. The girls are shy but the messages are sinking in.

"My body is only mine and only I have the rights on it. If someone touches my private parts I'll bite or slap him in the face," says Uzma Panhwar, 10.

The lessons also cover marriage. "Our teacher has told us everything that we'll have to do when we get married. Now we've learned what we should do and what we should not," says Sajida Baloch, 16.

Many of Pakistan's most prominent schools, including the prestigious Beaconhouse school system, have been considering the type of sex education practised in Johi. "Girls feel shy to talk to their parents about sex," says Roohi Haq, director of studies at Beaconhouse, one of the largest private school networks in the world.

But there is certainly great demand for such knowledge. A Lahore-based doctor, Arshad Javed, has written three books on sex education and says he sells about 7,000 copies each year. None, however, have been bought by schools.

Not everyone agrees with sex education lessons, partly because tradition dictates that young people should not have sex before adulthood. Recently, the government forced the elite Lahore grammar school to remove sex education from its curriculum.

"It is against our constitution and religion," announced Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which represents more than 152,000 institutions nationwide. "And besides, what's the point of knowing about a thing you're not supposed to do? It should not be allowed at school level."

In neighbouring India, many government schools formally offer sex education, but Pakistani government schools have no such plans. Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the education minister for Sindh province, was shocked to hear of the lessons. "Sex education for girls? How can they do that? That is not part of our curriculum, whether public or private," he said.

But Tahir Ashrafi, who leads the Pakistan Ulema council alliance of moderate clerics, says such lessons are permissible under Islamic law, as long as girls are segregated and the teaching confined to theory. "If the teachers are female, they can give such information to girls within the limits of sharia law," he adds.


theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds








Unpaid school fees lead to 700 arrest warrants in South Australia

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 10:30 PM PST

Education department says warrants are issued to parents who fail to attend court hearings or obey court orders



Australia holds up changes to royal succession laws

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 10:25 PM PST

The 16 Commonwealth realms must all pass an identical law to end the practice of sons taking precedence over daughters









Tony Abbott won't budge on parental leave scheme 'I deeply believe in'

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 10:14 PM PST

Commission of audit reportedly thinks scheme too generous, but PM insists 'this policy is very good for the economy'









Armed men seize Crimea parliament and hoist Russian flag

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 10:04 PM PST

Ukraine crisis escalates after Tatar leader says Crimea's parliament building has been occupied by gunmen









Icac inquiry: former Railcorp boss denies doing favour in return for loan

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 09:52 PM PST

Joseph Camilleri borrowed $66,000 from a colleague, saying it was to help his gambling-addict daughter









Cocktails: five recipes to quench your thirst

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 09:36 PM PST

To mark the Melbourne food and wine festival, cocktail bars from around the country will be collaborating with the city's bar tenders. Here are five of the heady concoctions they'll be serving









Daniel Morcombe jury sees video of accused describing what happened

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 09:28 PM PST

Court hears how schoolboy was offered a lift to his local shopping centre but was taken to an abandoned house and killed









Julie Bishop faced unprecedented rudeness from China, says diplomat

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 09:22 PM PST

Foreign minister's comments criticising China over islands dispute sparked surprising rebuke, says foreign affairs figure











Posting Komentar