The Guardian World News

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• Nato units left 61 migrants to die of hunger and thirst
• Key changes to NHS plans agreed
• Alleged details of injunctions tweeted
• US presses Pakistan over Bin Laden
• Egypt promises justice after clashes
• Iran 'helping Syrian crackdown'
• Libyan woman 'raped by troops' flees
• Greece bailout fails to halt debt woes
• Suicide threat advice for Jobcentres
• Salmond offers Scotland vote options
• Israel pressed on Palestinian funds
• Rescued after 49 days in wilderness
• The aid worker who blogged Japan's tsunami
• The pain of playing Shylock
• How do I choose my Twitter photo?
• Court to define miscarriage of justice
• Apple is world's most valuable brand
• Cannes showing for Sarkozy satire
• Extent of 70s 'virginity tests' revealed
• Incoming – review

Nato units left 61 migrants to die of hunger and thirst Posted: 08 May 2011 01:30 PM PDT Exclusive: Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned. A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted. All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying." International maritime law compels all vessels, including military units, to answer distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible. Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths, while the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has called for stricter co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives. "The Mediterranean cannot become the wild west," said spokeswoman Laura Boldrini. "Those who do not rescue people at sea cannot remain unpunished." Her words were echoed by Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest in Rome who runs the refugee rights organisation Habeshia, and who was one of the last people to be in communication with the migrant boat before the battery in its satellite phone ran out. "There was an abdication of responsibility which led to the deaths of over 60 people, including children," he claimed. "That constitutes a crime, and that crime cannot go unpunished just because the victims were African migrants and not tourists on a cruise liner." This year's political turmoil and military conflict in north Africa have fuelled a sharp rise in the number of people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with up to 30,000 migrants believed to have made the journey across the Mediterranean over the past four months. Large numbers have died en route; last month more than 800 migrants of different nationalities who left on boats from Libya never made it to European shores and are presumed dead. Underlining the dangers, on Sunday more than 400 migrants were involved in a dramatic rescue when their boat hit rocks on Lampedusa. The pope, meanwhile, in an address to more than 300,000 worshippers, called on Italians to welcome immigrants fleeing to their shores. The Guardian's investigation into the case of the boat of 72 migrants which set sail from Tripoli on 25 March established that it carried 47 Ethiopians, seven Nigerians, seven Eritreans, six Ghanaians and five Sudanese migrants. Twenty were women and two were small children, one of whom was just one year old. The boat's Ghanaian captain was aiming for the Italian island of Lampedusa, 180 miles north-west of the Libyan capital, but after 18 hours at sea the small vessel began running into trouble and losing fuel. Using witness testimony from survivors and other individuals who were in contact with the passengers during its doomed voyage, the Guardian has pieced together what happened next. The account paints a harrowing picture of a group of desperate migrants condemned to death by a combination of bad luck, bureaucracy and the apparent indifference of European military forces who had the opportunity to attempt a rescue. The migrants used the boat's satellite phone to call Zerai in Rome, who in turn contacted the Italian coastguard. The boat's location was narrowed down to about 60 miles off Tripoli, and coastguard officials assured Zerai that the alarm had been raised and all relevant authorities had been alerted to the situation. Soon a military helicopter marked with the word "army" appeared above the boat. The pilots, who were wearing military uniforms, lowered bottles of water and packets of biscuits and gestured to passengers that they should hold their position until a rescue boat came to help. The helicopter flew off, but no rescue boat arrived. No country has yet admitted sending the helicopter that made contact with the migrants. A spokesman for the Italian coastguard said: "We advised Malta that the vessel was heading towards their search and rescue zone, and we issued an alert telling vessels to look out for the boat, obliging them to attempt a rescue." The Maltese authorities denied they had had any involvement with the boat. After several hours of waiting, it became apparent to those on board that help was not on the way. The vessel had only 20 litres of fuel left, but the captain told passengers that Lampedusa was close enough for him to make it there unaided. It was a fatal mistake. By 27 March, the boat had lost its way, run out of fuel and was drifting with the currents. "We'd finished the oil, we'd finished the food and water, we'd finished everything," said Kurke, a 24-year-old migrant who was fleeing ethnic conflict in his homeland, the Oromia region of Ethiopia. "We were drifting in the sea, and the weather was very dangerous." At some point on 29 or 30 March the boat was carried near to a Nato aircraft carrier – so close that it would have been impossible to be missed. According to survivors, two jets took off from the ship and flew low over the boat while the migrants stood on deck holding the two starving babies aloft. But from that point on, no help was forthcoming. Unable to manoeuvre any closer to the aircraft carrier, the migrants' boat drifted away. Shorn of supplies, fuel or means of contacting the outside world, they began succumbing one by one to thirst and starvation. The Guardian has made extensive inquiries to ascertain the identity of the Nato aircraft carrier, and has concluded that it is likely to have been the French ship Charles de Gaulle, which was operating in the Mediterranean on those dates. French naval authorities initially denied the carrier was in the region at that time. After being shown news reports which indicated this was untrue, a spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesman for Nato, which is co-ordinating military action in Libya, said it had not logged any distress signals from the boat and had no records of the incident. "Nato units are fully aware of their responsibilities with regard to the international maritime law regarding safety of life at sea," said an official. "Nato ships will answer all distress calls at sea and always provide help when necessary. Saving lives is a priority for any Nato ships." For most of the migrants, the failure of the Nato ship to mount any rescue attempt proved fatal. Over the next 10 days, almost everyone on board died. "We saved one bottle of water from the helicopter for the two babies, and kept feeding them even after their parents had passed," said Kurke, who survived by drinking his own urine and eating two tubes of toothpaste. "But after two days, the babies passed too, because they were so small." On 10 April, the boat washed up on a beach near the Libyan town of Zlitan near Misrata. Of the 72 migrants who had embarked at Tripoli, only 11 were still alive, and one of those died almost immediately on reaching land. Another survivor died shortly afterwards in prison, after Gaddafi's forces arrested the migrants and detained them for four days. Despite the trauma of their last attempt, the migrants – who are hiding out in the house of an Ethiopian in the Libyan capital – are willing to tackle the Mediterranean again if it means reaching Europe and gaining asylum. "These are people living an unimaginable existence, fleeing political, religious and ethnic persecution," said Zerai. "We must have justice for them, for those that died alongside them, and for the families who have lost their loved ones." Additional reporting by John Hooper and Tom Kington in Rome, and Kim Willsher in Paris Refugees Libya Nato Middle East Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Key changes to NHS plans agreed Posted: 08 May 2011 04:05 PM PDT Deputy PM tells Andrew Marr show that GPs should not be forced to sign up to new commissioning consortiums David Cameron and Nick Clegg have agreed changes to the government's NHS reforms, allowing the deputy prime minister to launch a ferocious attack on Sunday on the original plans as a "disruptive revolution". As the Royal College of GPs calls for a radical overhaul of plans to hand 60% of the NHS budget to new GP-led consortiums, Tory sources indicated that the Cameron-Clegg negotiations have left Andrew Lansley an isolated figure in the government's "listening exercise". Lansley, the embattled health secretary, who is still resisting some of their demands, has been left briefing colleagues that Clegg has embarked on a U-turn after declaring in January that "funnily enough" the NHS reforms were in the Liberal Democrats' general election manifesto. Clegg gave a taste of the areas of agreement with Cameron on Sunday when he told The Andrew Marr Show that GPs should not be forced to sign up to the new commissioning consortiums and that a 2013 deadline for the changes should be relaxed. The deputy prime minister said: "A lot of people have said to me – and I basically think they're right – they're saying you're going too fast, you're trying to meet artificial deadlines, you're forcing GPs to take on commissioning roles when they might not want to or aren't able to. I basically think they're right. "I think what we should now do is – which is a change – is an evolutionary approach that only happens […] where people are willing and able to take on these new changes. If not, we shouldn't be forcing the pace according to artificial deadlines in a calendar." In a sign of his confidence that real changes will be introduced, Clegg said the health and social care bill, which he praised on the same programme in January as an example of the fusion of Tory-Lib Dem thinking, was deeply flawed. "As far as government legislation is concerned, no bill is better than a bad one, and I want to get this right," he said. "Getting these changes right, protecting the NHS rather than undermining it, is now my number one priority. "I'm not going to ask Liberal Democrat MPs and Liberal Democrat peers to proceed with legislation on something as precious and cherished, particularly for Liberal Democrats, as the NHS unless I personally am satisfied that what these changes do is an evolutionary change in the NHS, not a disruptive revolution." The Liberal Democrats hailed the deputy prime minister's tough language as a sign of a new assertive relationship with the Tories after the drubbing in the elections last week. Clegg himself heralded this new approach when he said the Lib Dems would act as a "moderating influence" on the Tories. He added: "Where we are dealing with new things – the NHS is a prominent example – we need to bring our particular influence to bear in a very clear manner." Lord Oakeshott , a close ally of the business secretary, Vince Cable, went even further. He said: "Andrew Lansley is like a mad professor sitting in a secret laboratory mixing up his own magic potion. It has not been through Nice [the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence]. "We will have to give it a test to see if it is fit to be let loose on the patient." But senior Tories, who were irritated with the tone of Clegg's language, said that most of the policy changes highlighted by the Lib Dem leader had been agreed with Cameron. In a sign that Cameron and Clegg, rather than Lansley, are driving the negotiations, one source said the health secretary has given ground in opening up the GP-led consortiums, though he is still holding out on the role for consultants. "Andrew Lansley is there on all areas apart from two points," the source said. "So we have to work out what substantive areas he will be agreeing." Lansley is indicating to colleagues that he may still be prepared for a fight. He is pointing out that Clegg fully endorsed the health and social care bill in an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show on 23 January shortly before every Lib Dem MP present at Westminster, except John Pugh, endorsed the bill at its second reading in the Commons. Asked by Marr whether the reforms were in the manifesto, Clegg said: "Actually funnily enough it was. Indeed it was...We certainly said we were going to get rid of Primary Care Trusts. We said we were going to get rid of strategic health authorities."The prospect of a showdown between Lansley and Downing Street came as GP leaders warned that the reforms would wreck the NHS. In a strongly-worded submission, the Royal College of GPs highlights key "risks" inherent in the bill, which seeks to force healthcare providers to compete. It warns that: • Intensifying competition in the NHS will lead to the service breaking up, drive up costs, damage patient are and less integration of services. • Family doctors and hospitals could start charging patients for certain services as the bill hands the health secretary's longstanding power to impose fees to the planned new groupings or consortiums of GPs. • The NHS's mission since its creation in 1948 to provide healthcare to everyone, irrespective of need or ability to pay, could disappear as the Bill removes the health secretary's historic duty of ensuring the provision of a comprehensive national health service. • The NHS should be "the preferred provider" of NHS services and deeply controversial plans to let "any willing provider" treat patients – including private firms – should be dropped. NHS Health Nick Clegg David Cameron Andrew Lansley Health policy Public services policy GPs Doctors Liberal Democrats Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Nicholas Watt Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Alleged details of injunctions tweeted Posted: 08 May 2011 05:00 PM PDT Pressure intensifies to identify people who have taken out gagging orders to protect their reputations or privacy Pressure to reveal the identities of celebrities protected by injunctions has intensified after Twitter accounts began circulating the names of footballers and performers alleged to have taken out gagging orders. The alleged identities of those who resorted to the courts to protect reputations or privacy were spilled out in a public challenge to the restrictions imposed on reporting and broadcasting. Several Twitter tags led to a sequence of exchanges that delighted in claiming to show that the high court could not silence the more rebellious reaches of social media sites. But later it appeared that the names of the celebrities allegedly involved were removed from one Twitter account. The onslaught follows attempts last week to rewrite the Wikipedia entries of several individuals said to have obtained superinjunctions. In the Commons, two MPs, the Liberal Democrat John Hemmings and the Conservative Matthew Offord, have tried to use parliamentary privilege to question the use of injunctions. Last week Offord claimed that an MP had resorted to the high court for such a purpose. A "superinjunction" technically refers only to those court orders that specifically ban any mention of the fact that an order has been obtained. More recently the courts have tended to grant anonymised orders that prevent virtually every other aspect of any restricted subject from being reported. Among those tweeting on the subject was Jemima Khan, who denied that any of the Twitter reports relating to her were true. There are an increasing number of calls, some reluctant, for parliament to draft a privacy law to set clear guidelines for the courts about where the line should be drawn. Opponents warn that each case has particular circumstances such that only a judge in court can make the fine distinction on what can be allowed into the public domain or deserves protection. Later this month a committee chaired by the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger, will report on the issue of superinjunctions. It is expected to make recommendations for procedural changes but not to call for new legislation. A spokesman for Twitter told the Guardian: "There are tweets that we do remove, such as illegal tweets and spam. However, we make efforts to keep these exceptions narrow so they may serve to prove a broader and more important rule – we strive not to remove tweets on the basis of their content." Later this week, the European court of human rights will publish its findings on what may become a landmark judgment in privacy, the case of the formula one boss Max Mosley. He is seeking a ruling that would require advance notice from the media of any report that deals with any aspect of an individual's privacy. If the court finds in his favour it will change the legal landscape. Privacy & the media Superinjunctions Press freedom Newspapers & magazines Newspapers Max Mosley Twitter Internet Privacy Owen Bowcott Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

US presses Pakistan over Bin Laden Posted: 08 May 2011 05:25 PM PDT Barack Obama raises pressure on Pakistan to investigate whether its people were involved in helping Bin Laden hide Barack Obama has ratcheted up the pressure on Pakistan, demanding that the Pakistani government investigate whether its own people were involved in a network to support Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad hideout. The US president's comments are his most direct yet on the subject of Pakistan's possible complicity with terrorism. He told the CBS show 60 Minutes that Bin Laden must have had "some sort of support network" inside the country. "We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, outside of government, and that's something we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," he said. The president also told the programme he didn't lose sleep over the possibility that Bin Laden might be killed. Anyone who questions whether the terrorist mastermind didn't deserve his fate "needs to have their head examined," he said. Obama's words add to a sustained verbal attack by the US administration on the Pakistani government in the wake of the raid on the al-Qaida leader's lair in the middle of a busy garrison town that is home to three regiments, a military academy and thousands of soldiers. Last week the CIA director, Leon Panetta, told Congress that Pakistan had been "either involved or incompetent".Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, said on ABC's This Week that there was no evidence that Pakistan had knowledge of Bin Laden's presence. But he said the al-Qaida chief "was living, and we now know operating, in a town 35 miles away from Islamabad, a military town. So questions are being raised quite aggressively in Pakistan". Donilon said the US would remain "cool and calm". But he added: "They need to do an investigation." Donilon also said that the US was urging Pakistan to give it access to Bin Laden's three widows. Information from the women, who remained in the house after the commandos killed Bin Laden, might answer questions about whether Pakistan harboured the al-Qaida chief as many American officials are speculating. It could also reveal details about Bin Laden's day-to-day life, his actions since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and the inner workings of al-Qaida. The women, along with several children picked up from the house, are believed to be in Pakistani army custody. One objective of the intensifying pressure on Pakistan is to ensure its co-operation with the CIA and other US investigators into the treasure trove of documents found inside Bin Laden's compound. Most of the materials – amounting to the single largest cache of information taken from a senior terrorist, equivalent in size to a small college library, officials say – were taken away by the US Navy Seals and are being pored over by federal anti-terrorism investigators. But a substantial number of documents were left behind and are now held by Pakistani officials, who are also holding in custody the non-combatants found in the compound, including Bin Laden's three wives and several children. The US wants to be able to question the wives. The pressure from Washington puts the Pakistani government in an awkward position. The fact that Bin Laden was holed up for so long in the middle of the country is a huge embarrassment, but so too is the unannounced US raid inside its sovereign territory. That conflict is reflected in the position of the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, who has announced that he is leading an investigation into what happened. He has warned the US not to try another stealth mission inside the country. Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani, promised "heads would roll" once Kayani's investigation was completed. "If someone is complicit, there will be zero tolerance for that," he told This Week. "If any member of the Pakistan government, military or intelligence service knew were Osama bin Laden was we would have taken action. Osama bin Laden's presence in Pakistan was not to Pakistan's advantage." Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is due to make a statement to parliament, his first formal comments on the Bin Laden issue. Opposition figures have called for his resignation over the affair. Until now most western criticism has been directed at Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies. Some US officials have insinuated that the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence helped harbour Bin Laden. The ISI is hitting back with media leaks. In a move bound to infuriate the US, several Pakistani television stations on Friday named the CIA station chief in Islamabad as Mark Carlton. The stations said he had been given a verbal roasting by the ISI chief, General Shuja Pasha. The naming is sensitive because the previous CIA chief in Islamabad quit his position over security worries last December after being named in a court case and the national media. But a senior Pakistani official insisted the named figure was not the station chief. "There's no Mark Carlton. Someone must have heard a similar-sounding name and leaked it," he said. The Pakistani government has introduced curbs on international media in Abbottabad, ordering television stations to cease broadcasting and some reporters to leave town. On Saturday night the television regulator, Pemra, ordered nine international channels – including the BBC, CNN and Fox – to stop "illegal" broadcasts. It suggested the channels could not broadcast from Abbottabad or anywhere in Pakistan without obtaining a licence, a previously unstated requirement. Officials contacted several British, Australian and American journalists and instructed them to leave Abbottabad because their visas did not permit them to stay. The government also took measures to stop more journalists entering Pakistan. At diplomatic missions in London and New Delhi, Pakistani officials said there was a temporary hold on media visas. The measures appear to be part of a concerted government effort to stem a tide of critical media coverage over Bin Laden. Osama bin Laden al-Qaida Pakistan US foreign policy Obama administration United States Ed Pilkington Declan Walsh Saeed Shah guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Egypt promises justice after clashes Posted: 08 May 2011 11:16 AM PDT Fighting broke out over false rumours that a Christian woman was being prevented from converting to Islam Egypt's transitional government moved quickly to defuse tensions after Muslim-Christian clashes in Cairo left 12 dead and cast a cloud over hopes for peaceful post-revolutionary change. Angry demonstrations erupted in the capital after a Coptic church in the Imbaba neighbourhood was burned down on Saturday night. Military police separated opposing camps at one protest reminiscent of the dramatic events that overthrew the regime in February. Fighting broke out over rumours, which turned out to be false, that a Christian woman was being held inside a church and prevented from converting to Islam. Essam Sharaf, prime minister of the military-backed government, postponed a visit to the Gulf to convene an emergency cabinet session, and announced compensation payments for the dead and nearly 200 injured as well as strict implementation of tough new laws banning gatherings outside places of worship. The government, sensitive to mounting alarm about deteriorating security since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in February, also rushed to announce that all 190 people arrested would be tried in military courts. The justice minister, Abdel-Aziz al-Gindi, pledged to "strike with an iron hand all those who seek to tamper with the nation's security". Imbaba, a poor neighbourhood in the north-west of Cairo, was quiet but tense as night fell. The main al-Wahda street was blocked by armoured cars and patrolling soldiers – trusted far more than the police, who were discredited during the revolution. Witness described how several hundred Muslims massed outside St Mina church demanding the woman be surrendered. Gunfire was heard and stones and petrol bombs were thrown before the army and emergency services were able to bring the situation under control. A second church was burned down. Copts, who marched last night to the state TV station, called for national unity but blocked roads and raised tensions. Egyptian media described the Imbaba attackers as Salafis – fundamentalist Muslims who want the imposition of sharia law. The Salafis, often with links to Saudi Arabia, are seen as having become more visible because internal security is less repressive now than before the revolution. It is also widely believed that elements of the Mubarak regime are encouraging them. "It's the previous regime that is responsible for this," one distraught resident told reporters. "We demand that the higher military council punish all those responsible for this crime," said George Ishaq, a pro-democracy activist. "This is a crime – not sectarian strife." The incident was condemned by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main Islamist grouping. "We should crack down on that violence and not let those people ruin what we achieved in the January revolution," said a spokesman, Essam el-Erian. "The Imbaba incident clearly shows that there are some people who are still working behind the scenes to ignite sectarian strife in Egypt." Erian echoed popular feeling in suggesting that attacks may have been encouraged by members of the now disbanded National Democratic Party, which ruled Egypt during the Mubarak era. Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog and a presidential hopeful, called for "urgent measures … to combat religious extremism and intolerance before Egypt slides into the dark ages". Salafis demonstrated in front of the US embassy in Cairo last week after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Last month 13 people died in similar Muslim-Coptic clashes in another Cairo neighbourhood. Copts make up about 10% of Egypt's 80 million people. Over the weekend, democracy activists held a conference to discuss the future of the revolution in advance of landmark parliamentary elections planned for September. The Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the event, saying that the priority was to change the constitution for the post-Mubarak era. Egypt Middle East Islam Religion Christianity Ian Black guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Iran 'helping Syrian crackdown' Posted: 08 May 2011 05:25 PM PDT Claim comes as four women shot dead by security forces in first use of violence against an all-female demonstration Iran is playing an increasingly active role in helping the Syrian regime in its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, according to western diplomatic sources in Damascus. The claim came as Syria's security forces backed by tanks intensified operations to suppress unrest in three new flashpoint towns on Sunday and it was confirmed that four women had been shot dead in the first use of force against an all-female demonstration. A senior western diplomat in Damascus expanded on assertions, first made by White House officials last month, that Iran is advising president Bashar al-Assad's government on how to crush dissent. The diplomat pointed to a "significant" increase in the number of Iranian personnel in Syria since protests began in mid-March. Mass arrests in door-to-door raids, similar to those that helped to crush Iran's "green revolution" in 2009, have been stepped up in the past week. Human rights groups suggest more than 7,000 people have been detained since the uprising began. More than 800 people are said to have died, up to 50 during last Friday's "day of defiance". Last night two unarmed demonstrators were reportedly killed during a night rally in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. "Tehran has upped the level of technical support and personnel support from the Iranian Republican Guard to strengthen Syria's ability to deal with protesters," the diplomat said, adding that the few hundred personnel were not involved in any physical operations. "Since the start of the uprising, the Iranian regime has been worried about losing its most important ally in the Arab world and important conduit for weapons to Hezbollah [in Lebanon]," the diplomat said. Last month White House officials made similar allegations about Iranian assistance for the regime, particularly in terms of intercepting or blocking internet, mobile phone and social media communications between the protesters and the outside world. But the officials did not provide hard evidence to support their claims. Activists and diplomats claim Iran's assistance includes help to monitor internet communications such as Skype, widely used by a network of activists, methods of crowd control, and providing equipment such as batons and riot police helmets. Syria has denied seeking or receiving assistance from Iran to put down the unrest. In a statement issued on Friday, Iran's foreign ministry stressed Syria's "prime role" in opposing Israel and the US, and urged opposing forces in the country to compromise on political reform. US policy towards Syria was based on "opportunism in support of the Zionist regime's avarice", it said. The Assad family, from the Shia Muslim minority Alawite sect, is likely to be nervous about appearing to be helped by its Shia-dominated ally to crush protesters drawn from the 75% Sunni population. Regime forces backed by tanks were in action over the weekend in Homs, in the town of Tafas north of Deraa, and in the coastal city of Banias, activists said. Violence was also reported in the Damascus dormitory town of Zabadani. Along with arbitrary detentions, shootings have continued. Razan Zeitouneh, a lawyer in the capital who is monitoring the protests, said four women were shot dead in the village of Merqeb, close to Banias, and six men were shot dead in Banias on Saturday. Syria Middle East Iran Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Protest Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Libyan woman 'raped by troops' flees Posted: 08 May 2011 11:28 AM PDT Iman al-Obeidi has reportedly been given refuge in Tunis after escaping with help of defecting military officer Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who claimed she was raped by Muammar Gaddafi's soldiers, has reportedly fled to Tunisia with the help of a defecting military officer. Obeidi, who drew worldwide attention when she burst into a Tripoli hotel to describe to foreign journalists her alleged ordeal at the hands of 15 men, has been given refuge in Tunis by western officials. Obeidi told CNN she had entered Tunisia with a refugee document and was considering her next move. She claimed her court case against the soldiers – who she said had seized her at a checkpoint near Tripoli – had barely progressed. After passing numerous checkpoints disguised in a veil that hid her face except one eye, Obeidi passed the Dehebi crossing on Thursday without trouble. Obeidi's story of being brutalised by 15 drunken men over two days – some of whom she claims were close to Gaddafi's inner circle – has become a rallying call for revolution. Her ordeal has been seized upon by members of the revolutionary council in Benghazi. She was dragged away from reporters at the Rixos hotel on 26 March after she started angrily detailing her alleged attack. Government officials promptly labelled Obeidi a prostitute and suggested she may have been a provocateur sent by rebels from eastern Libya, from where part of her family reportedly hails. It is rare in Libyan society for a woman to go public with a claim of rape, which is widely seen as dishonouring the victim and her family, rather than the attacker. Obeidi was initially jailed, but was freed under an order from Gaddafi's son Saadi, and had since been with her family in Tripoli. The vicious standoff between Gaddafi loyalists in west Libya and western-backed rebels in the east shows little sign of ending. Nato jets have been largely absent from the skies since Wednesday. Several regime targets were hit over the weekend in the western mountains, where rebels maintain their only anti-government foothold in the west of the country. In Tripoli, some queues for fuel stretch for several miles. Bread too is in drastically short supply with bakers fled to their native Egypt when fighting erupted in mid-February yet to return. The economic siege of the capital is clearly taking a toll, with many stores in the old city remaining closed and almost all construction sites having ground to a halt. Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Greece bailout fails to halt debt woes Posted: 08 May 2011 11:47 AM PDT Secret talks reveal Greece is unable to meet obligations under last year's €110bn eurozone rescue package The eurozone's first ever bailout of a debt-laden member country is failing and will need to be renegotiated exactly a year after the €110bn (£96bn) rescue package was agreed for Greece. Following secret talks in Luxembourg on Friday between Athens and some of the key EU players, it emerged that Greece will not be able to meet the terms of last year's rescue and is hoping to ask the eurozone for more funds. As Britain made clear it did not want to offer any more support for Greece as part of an EU package or a bilateral loan, investors remain unconvinced of the ability of Athens to sustain its €340bn debt load. Signalling that his government will struggle to finance itself on the bond markets by next year – which was part of the deal struck with the eurozone and the IMF – the Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, said: "We will either go out to markets or use the recent decision by the EU that allows the European fund to buy Greek bonds. The markets continue to disbelieve in our country." His trip to Luxembourg had been kept so quiet in Athens that only the prime minister, George Papandreou, knew about the discussions, which were led by Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister and president of the group uniting the 17 countries using the single currency. Juncker confirmed that the Greek bailout would need to be renegotiated amid alarmist reports that the country was contemplating reintroducing the drachma. After the talks – attended by the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy and Spain as well as Olli Rehn, European monetary affairs commissioner – Juncker said the Greek package needed a "readjustment". Haggling over a new Greek deal is set to dominate the weeks ahead. EU finance ministers will debate the topic next week and the Germans, in particular, are digging in their heels. The chancellor, George Osborne, made clear that Britain felt it had done enough to support Greece. He told the Andrew Marr Show: "We certainly don't want to be part of any bailout of Greece, a second bailout. There are some very difficult questions that Greece has to address now because the whole assumption when the eurozone put together a rescue package last year was that Greece could come back into the market next year and borrow. The market is quite sceptical about that happening, and I suspect a lot of my time over the next few weeks is going to be with other European finance ministers and others talking about how we try and help the Greeks get through this situation." Britain provided a bilateral loan to Ireland last year, but Osborne said: "I can't see us ever writing a cheque directly from the British taxpayer to the Greeks or the Portuguese or indeed anyone else. Ireland was a special case." Over the weekend, tensions mounted in Ireland after the Irish Central Bank governor was accused of contributing to Ireland's financial crisis by woefully "miscalculating" the extent of losses in the country's banks. The attack on Patrick Honohan came amid reports that the IMF-European Union and European Central Bank troika had agreed a behind-the-scenes interest rate cut in Ireland's €85bn bailout which could save the country £400m a year. Experts from the troika are arriving in Athens amid heightened urgency over the handling of the crisis. The Greek government had hoped that the announcement of a mid-term fiscal plan, whose centrepiece is a €50bn privatisation program, would help assuage the criticism of the socialist government's recent performance in implementing a draconian programme of fiscal consolidation. The normally cool Papaconstantinou appeared uncharacteristically glum after the meeting where sources said Greece had used the occasion to press ahead with its request that eurozone member states soften the terms of the agreement reached on the bailout loans by further extending repayment deadlines. Adding to the ever growing sense of a government under siege Papandreou slammed critics at the weekend saying: "I call upon everyone in Greece and abroad, and especially in the EU, to leave Greece alone to do its job in peace." European debt crisis Greece European banks European Union Ireland bailout Ireland Financial crisis Global recession Banking European Central Bank Europe Europe Ian Traynor Helena Smith Nicholas Watt Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Suicide threat advice for Jobcentres Posted: 08 May 2011 12:42 PM PDT Employees 'receive six-point plan telling them to take each threat seriously' as clamp on benefits takes effect Staff working for jobcentres and other Department for Work and Pensions contractors have been given guidelines on how to deal with suicide threats from claimants as the squeeze on benefits takes hold. A document sent to jobcentre staff in April details what it calls a "new policy for all DWP businesses to help them manage suicide and self-harm declarations from customers". The guidelines include a "six-point plan" for staff to follow which says: "Some customers may say they intend to self-harm or kill themselves as a threat or a tactic to 'persuade', others will mean it. It is very hard to distinguish between the two … For this reason, all declarations must be taken seriously." The internal document was sent to the Guardian by a senior jobcentre employee who has worked for the DWP for more than 20 years. It was accompanied by a letter from the source that said: "Absolutely nobody has ever seen this guidance before, leading staff to believe it has been put together ahead of the incapacity benefit and disability living allowance cuts." The employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "We were a bit shocked. Are we preparing ourselves to be like the Samaritans? The fact that we've dealt with the public for so many years without such guidance has made people feel a bit fearful about what's coming." The DWP said that the new guidelines were not related to any recent policy changes and had been in development since 2009. "This guidance is about supporting our staff and ensuring we can help our customers. "It is right that a customer-facing organisation that serves over 20 million, including the most vulnerable in our society, has guidance such as this in place." The team leader said the guidance had alarmed people in their team: "We've suddenly got this new aspect to our job. The bigger picture is people here are wondering how savage these cuts are going to be. And we're the frontline staff having to deal with the fallout from these changes. " Julie Tipping, an appeals officer for Disability Solutions, represents claimants who try to overturn decisions made following work capability assessment tests that they are fit for work. She says that in the last year, two of her clients have made "real attempts" at suicide after a decision was made that they were fit for work. Both were taken to hospital and subsequently sectioned. "It's real and true. A lot of people think these people are crying wolf to get their money, but that's not the case. They are suffering from real problems and can't face it any more." Tipping said the pressure on vulnerable clients was "the cumulative effect of all these welfare changes. The test is simply not fit for purpose for assessing mental health problems. That's on top of moving people on to jobseeker's allowance, and all of the conditionality and risk of sanctions that goes with that." The Guardian revealed last month that some jobcentres were setting targets for advisers to stop people's benefits for not meeting conditions attached to their jobseeker's allowance. A whistleblower said that the pressure on staff was leading to vulnerable claimants being targeted for sanctions. The targets have since been removed. But thousands of claimants of incapacity benefit and employment support allowance are being reassessed to see if they should be considered fit for work and moved on to jobseeker's allowance. Another jobcentre adviser said: "People have been coming off sickness benefits and thrown onto jobseeker's allowance. It's problematic because some customers are clearly not fit to work, and they are clearly very distressed. When you sense this you feel really upset because the system is allowing them to get like this and you feel part of the processing machine."Eleanor Lisney, of Disabled People Against Cuts, said that the thought of being moved on to jobseeker's allowance was like a sword hanging over the heads of disabled groups and she feared an increase in related suicides. Unemployment Job hunting State benefits Pensions Disability Public sector cuts Public finance John Domokos guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Salmond offers Scotland vote options Posted: 08 May 2011 06:13 AM PDT Alex Salmond says he is prepared to compromise and offer more choices than a simple yes or no vote for Scottish people Alex Salmond is prepared to compromise on the Scottish independence referendum by including an extra question on giving Holyrood much greater financial freedom while remaining part of the UK. The Scottish first minister said on Sunday he would talk to other parties about offering the voters a second choice known as "fiscal autonomy" within the UK, rather than a straight yes or no vote on Scotland moving to complete independence. Speaking on the BBC's Politics Show, Salmond indicated he would work with opposition parties and other interest groups on the alternative question. "I'm very open to discussion and dialogue. Just because we got a majority in the Scottish parliament doesn't mean we've got a monopoly of wisdom," he said. "I will listen to what people have to say. I don't just listen to the SNP." His offer came as a deep split emerged in the Tory party after senior Conservatives, including the Scotland Office minister David Mundell, said Salmond should be forced into staging a snap referendum rather than dragging out the debate for another four years. Mundell was joined by Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish party, and Lord Forsyth, who was Scottish secretary in the previous Conservative government, in questioning a promise by David Cameron this weekend that the UK government would not interfere in Salmond's referendum plans. Mundell, the only Tory MP in Scotland, said Westminster could get involved if an early referendum was rejected by the Scottish parliament. "Westminster obviously has a direct interest in this matter and could always get involved. I think it is perfectly legitimate for a referendum to be brought on," he said. But Michael Moore, the Scottish secretary in the UK cabinet and Mundell's boss at the Scotland Office, immediately ruled out any prospect of the coalition government calling a snap referendum. Cameron told Salmond on Friday night that Westminster would not interfere with the Scottish parliament or raise legal or constitutional barriers to the plebiscite. Moore said: "As a UK government we will not be putting obstacles in the way of any referendum." Forsyth, one of the fiercest Tory critics of devolution, said he had told Cameron about his strong reservations and would put down an amendment to the Scotland bill going through Westminster for a vote in the autumn. "I have been arguing for years that we should pick up Alex Salmond's challenge and get an independence referendum out of the way for a generation, rather than let Alex Salmond determine the vote," he told the Mail on Sunday. Officials in the last Labour government insisted a referendum would breach the Scotland Act 1998, which established the devolved parliament, since the constitution is reserved to Westminster. Salmond is adamant that as the referendum will be consultative, and not legally binding, it is lawful. He has been given complete command of the referendum process after the SNP's unprecedented landslide victory in last week's Holyrood elections, winning 69 seats and an overall majority of the 129-seat parliament. For the first time, a Scottish government does not have to form a coalition or run a weak minority government, as the SNP did in its first term in power after securing a one-seat advantage over Labour in 2007. Despite the clamour from his Tory opponents, Salmond again dismissed any prospect of the Scottish government holding the referendum immediately, saying he would wait until the latter stages of the five-year term. He said this was a "democratic point", adding: "That's the plan we outlined to the Scottish people very clearly in the election campaign. We did so consistently and we have been backed overwhelmingly by the Scottish people on that prospectus." The re-emergence of the so-called "devolution max" option – staying in the UK but with significant autonomy for Scotland – confirms that Salmond wants to give the referendum as much political legitimacy as he can, allowing him to kill off a unified, cross-party opposition campaign. His proposal could attract opposition parties such as the Liberal Democrats, who favour federalism and are now desperate to regain political credibility in Scotland. That would dilute the anti-independence campaign both Cameron and Moore have said they will join. It also allows the SNP to offer sceptical voters a potentially more attractive middle way in case his attempts to build up greater popular support for independence over the next four years fail to secure a majority. Despite Salmond's victory last week, opinion polls have repeatedly shown that less than a third of Scots favour full independence. Social attitudes surveys show instead that most Scots want to remain in the UK, but with much greater powers for Holyrood. Ed Miliband, speaking on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show, said he believed Salmond would lose an independence referendum. But he conceded that Labour had suffered a "very, very bad result" in Scotland because it had failed to set out a "compelling and clear alternative" to the SNP's plans. "I think what he is proposing is dangerous in terms of separatism," Miliband said. "I actually don't think that the majority of people in Scotland want independence or separatism. Now we've got to argue strongly against it if there is a referendum. I'm convinced we can win that argument." Poll of polls The AV referendum proved a disaster for electoral reformers – but a triumph for the Guardian's pollsters, ICM. The Guardian's final poll of the campaign, published online as the country prepared to vote, was spot on to one decimal point – making it possibly the most accurate poll ever. The published figures, after rounding the percentages, put the no camp on 68% against yes on 32%. ICM's actual prediction was no 67.9%, yes 32.1%. The Electoral Commission's final calculation was identical. Chance must have helped — but in this case the result was in before the first ballot paper had been counted. Scottish politics Scotland Alex Salmond Scottish National Party (SNP) Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Israel pressed on Palestinian funds Posted: 08 May 2011 09:41 AM PDT Ban Ki-moon and Norway lead calls for Israel to hand over tax revenues withheld over Palestinian reconciliation agreement Israel is under pressure to release tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA) which it has blocked in response to the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and an umbrella group of countries that make donations to the PA have urged the Israeli government to hand over a sum of around 300m shekels (£53.1m). The income is used to pay the salaries of PA employees and to provide services. The EU announced an extra €85m (£74.3m) in aid to the Palestinians after a request from the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, to cover salaries and welfare payments. "This decision renews our commitment to support the most vulnerable among Palestinians," said the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. "It is important that access to essential public services remains uninterrupted and the right to social services is respected." Norway, which chairs the committee of donor states to the PA, has made an official request to Israel to unblock the tax funds. It has offered to form a "firewall" to ensure that the money does not reach Hamas. The funds come from VAT and customs revenues due to the PA, which are collected by Israel under the Oslo accords, amounting each year to around 3.6bn shekels (£630m). Israel has blocked tax revenues to the PA in the past, once during the second intifada and again after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. After the resulting government collapsed, Israel forwarded the funds with interest. After the reconciliation agreement was signed last week, Israel raised concern at the prospect of the Islamist party Hamas forming a government with the more moderate Fatah. The Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said: "It's Palestinian money but we can't transfer it to a terrorist organisation." He said a monthly meeting to authorise the transfer had been postponed. "No decisions have been taken but there have been preliminary discussions," Regev said. Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, opposed withholding the funds. "These funds belong to [the PA] according to international agreements," he was quoted in the Israeli press as saying. Twenty-nine US senators have written to Barack Obama demanding that aid to the PA be frozen if Hamas members join the government. Such a move, they said, "threatens to derail the Middle East peace effort". The US is scheduled to give $550m (£335m) to the PA this year. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, is expected to revise a speech he is due to deliver to the US Congress later this month in the light of the Palestinian unity agreement. He is preparing to say there is no chance of any peace deal with the Palestinians unless Hamas recognises Israel and renounces violence, according to Israeli media reports. Israel Palestinian territories Hamas Fatah Ban Ki-moon United Nations Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Rescued after 49 days in wilderness Posted: 08 May 2011 09:22 AM PDT Chretien rescued after seven weeks surviving on trail mix and creek water – but search for her husband, Albert, continues A Canadian woman whose van got stuck in canyon territory in Nevada has been found alive after surviving for seven weeks on water and tiny amounts of trail mix. Rita Chretien, 56, is being treated in hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho after she was discovered by hunters taking advantage of the first good weather in Nevada following an extreme winter. She had lost 30 pounds in weight but is likely to make a full recovery. The search now turns to her husband, Albert, 59, who she last saw on 22 March. After their vehicle got stuck in the mud, he set off on his own on foot armed with only a GPS unit in an attempt to find help, and has not been seen since. The couple set off from their home in Penticton, British Columbia, close to the US border, on 19 March and drove south en route to a trade fair in Las Vegas. Their son, Raymond, who has spoken to his mother, told the Oregonian newspaper that they decided to take a scenic route along back roads. But their 2000 Chevrolet Astro van got stuck in mud on a logging road in north-east Nevada. The remote area has no mobile phone coverage. "I don't believe they were prepared for winter weather. They don't go camping," Raymond said. Left on her own in the van, Rita survived on water from a nearby creek, and trail mix which she ate sparingly over the 49 days before she was discovered. She was severely malnourished when she was found by hunters on all-terrain vehicles and was unable to keep down the food they gave her. When she first talked to her son she said she was sorry for the worry she had put the family through. "She felt extremely bad for us all. She was extremely apologetic," Raymond said. When the couple first went missing, a search was launched in Oregon with the help of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but it was hampered by heavy snow and the rugged terrain, and was called off two weeks ago. Raymond said the family was amazed to hear of his mother's survival. "We're stunned. We haven't fully digested it. This is a miracle." Rescue efforts are being stepped up for Albert, for whom hope is slim. Raymond said his mother was not optimistic about finding her husband: "He didn't have shelter. It's her belief that he didn't make it." Canada Nevada United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The aid worker who blogged Japan's tsunami Posted: 08 May 2011 12:29 PM PDT An anonymous blog written by a Japanese nurse as she cared for victims of the tsunami has given strength to survivors and fellow relief workers Few aid workers could have imagined the scenes that awaited them as they set out for north-east Japan in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami in March. For days after the waves destroyed vast stretches of the Tohoku region's coast, patients filled the corridors of hospitals deprived of heat and water, and doctors examined thousands of patients, knowing essential drugs had been swept away by the walls of muddy water. And while they waited for supplies, they watched helplessly as elderly patients who had survived the tsunami succumbed to hypothermia. When aid workers arrived, they were greeted by scenes of devastation that would not look out of place in a war zone. But this tragedy was being played out in one of the world's wealthiest countries, fewer than 200 miles from the neon-lit opulence of its capital, Tokyo. One of them, a nurse who was part of an emergency medical team dispatched from Tokyo, has written about her experiences in a blog that offers one of the most detailed accounts yet of the tsunami's toll on the tens of thousands who survived. Thanks to an anonymous translator, every word of her online journal is available in English. The blog has received scant coverage in the mainstream Japanese media. But it has generated thousands of online comments, most of them messages of gratitude from evacuees and fellow aid workers, and others who simply drew strength from her words. The nurse has declined potential book and interview requests, and clung to her anonymity, as has the blogger who translated her journal into English in a single sitting. Painstakingly tapped into the nurse's mobile phone at the end of exhausting days touring evacuation zones and hospitals, the blog chronicles eight days that begin with trepidation and end with a reluctant return to Tokyo. In between, there are moments of despair and optimism, even humour. And floods of tears. The blog opens with the nurse preparing for her imminent assignment to Rikuzentakata, a town in Iwate prefecture where 2,000 of the 23,000 residents died and 80% of its 8,000 homes were destroyed. Before they leave, she and her fellow medical workers are told what they can expect to find, and warned to keep their emotions in check. The team leader tells them: "The situation over there is beyond your worst imagination. If any of you have signed up with optimistic outlooks or [out of] a spirit of volunteerism, please leave the team now. "No matter what happens at the site, DO NOT CRY. We are not going there to express our sympathy. We are going there to provide nursing and medical care. If you think YOU want to cry, think about how much the people there want to cry. The tears of a rich medical team from Tokyo will only be bothersome or even insulting to them." The nurse describes the moment she arrives in a snowbound Rikuzentakata, her nose irritated by a "sharp, burnt odour", the only sound that of military and media helicopters circling a town that, aside from a few gutted buildings, no longer exists. Her journey on foot to an evacuation site is punctuated by pauses to clasp her hands in prayer as troops pull yet another body from the rubble. She spends the first of many nights sleeping on the floor, "packed like sardines, regardless of gender" in a prefabricated hut located next to a makeshift mortuary. At the end of that first night, exhausted but unable to sleep, she begins her chronicle, pausing occasionally in a futile attempt to seek comfort in browsing old photos and messages from friends: "I'd held in my tears all day, so I wrapped myself in a bath towel and cried until morning came." On her walks through ruined neighbourhoods she encounters residents in shock and eager to share their experiences with someone from the outside: "They tell us that a pitch-black tsunami about 15 metres high went back and forth and swallowed everything whole. There were many people who were washed away while preparing to run or even while running away after the call for evacuation was made. "We have religious ceremonies several times a year to pay respect to the ocean, and we've always lived feeling grateful . . . for the ocean, and still . . . our guide was shedding tears as we walked. "I was already on the verge of crying myself, but I promised not to cry no matter what, so I turned my eyes away from reality and watched the clouded sky instead. "As the wind blows, a sepia-colored photograph and a new year's greeting card with a picture of someone's baby come flying to my feet. And at every step or two, there is a red flag fluttering in the wind. A whole slew of flags – too many to even begin to count. These red flags are standing to mark places where bodies have been found. "An old lady is standing in front of one of the flags. She might be about the same age as my own grandmother. 'Dear nurse from Tokyo, there was a house here that my husband worked so hard to build after the war. He never got sick once but now he's dead.' "It was impossible not to cry." The extraordinary speed with which tens of thousands of troops cleared rubble from the roads through Rikuzentakata and dozens of other communities was a symbolic, yet ultimately cosmetic, sign of recovery. Beneath the ruins, the human tragedy was still unfolding: "The streets have been fixed, and much heavy machinery has finally come into Rikuzentakata. And as the rubble is cleared, many dead bodies have emerged. "Beneath the rubble, I heard the ringtone of a cell phone that finally had reception since the system recovered the day before. It was very difficult . . . painful when the body of a pregnant woman came out." Her moments of self-doubt – she muses on the futility of applying bandages to people suffering deep emotional trauma – are offset by small triumphs: the appearance of the sun after days of snow, the arrival of medical supplies, and a "gourmet" meal of rice balls, bread and Yakult. The unannounced return of lighting to one shelter is greeted by spontaneous applause: "When everyone's effort takes shape in a visible form like this, it makes me feel like I've been pushed forward to work harder than ever before." The nurse witnesses firsthand the two most painful threads running through Japan's post-tsunami narrative: the large number of elderly victims, and the displacement of tens of thousands of children. Police figures released last week show that more than two-thirds of the 11,000-plus victims identified so far were aged 60 or over – and that 90% of them had drowned. The advanced age of many of those who died has come to be a defining characteristic of the tsunami. Japan has one of the greyest societies on earth; in the Tohoku region, the over-64s make up almost a third of the population. They also comprise a large proportion of the shelters' inhabitants. In the first week after the tsunami, Japanese media carried a report about troops arriving at a hospital in Futaba, 10km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, to find 128 elderly patients, some of them comatose, who had apparently been left to fend for themselves. Fourteen later died, including two who did not last the bus journey to an evacuation centre. No one knows for sure yet how many children have lost both parents, although the official count is already more than 100. They include a four-year-old girl now living with her grandmother, and a teenage brother and sister who were taken in by their dance instructor. In one of her most emotional posts, the nurse writes about her friendship with an "adorable" six-year-old girl named Luna, whose mother's body was pulled from the rubble clutching her daughter's favourite dolls and books. In another passage, she recounts talking to a young boy who is poring over a mud-spattered comic about Doraemon, a blue cat with magical powers: "I talked to a boy who had a fever and a loss of appetite. He showed me a Doraemon book covered in mud. I asked him what his favourite was of all of Doraemon's tools. 'I used to like the ozashiki tsuribori (indoor fishing mat), but now my favorite is the taimu furoshiki (wrapping cloth of time). I want to wrap up the whole city with the taimu furoshiki and make it go back to how it was before the earthquake." By the time the nurse returns to Tohoku in the summer, the medical focus will have shifted from the acute to the chronic phase, as people run the risk of succumbing to illnesses associated with life as evacuees: blood clots, stress-induced ulcers, pneumonia, high blood pressure and depression. Children will require counselling to overcome the trauma of seeing their homes and, in some cases, relatives and friends swept away. In April , many began a new academic year in schools with too many empty desks. Health workers are bracing themselves for a dramatic rise in the number of people with mental health problems, particularly among those who face months living in cramped shelters. Long-term care will require efforts as heroic as those that earned Takeshi Kanno, a 31-year-old doctor in Minamisanriku who saved countless lives on the day of tsunami, a place in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people. "For a lot of people who up until this point have been able to ignore reality and what actually happened, as they get back on their feet they realise that their house is gone, or their children are dead, and they're being forced to confront these facts," said Toru Hosada, a volunteer doctor in Yamada, a port town in Iwate prefecture. "A lot of them are extremely uncertain as to what they can do." Meanwhile, the anonymous nurse's blog seems to have brought comfort to many readers. "On behalf of the people of Iwate and the whole Tohoku region I want to express my appreciation for your work. Thank you," says one. Another, who has family in Rikuzentakata, writes: "There are many people whose homes have been swept away, their relatives swallowed up by the sea or saved. Knowing that you are there makes me feel better about not being there myself. It might make you angry to hear this, but please shed tears for all of those who have died. Thank you so much. It's dangerous underfoot there, so please take care." As she prepares to return to Tokyo on 23 March, the nurse is no longer troubled by the minor deprivations of life in the field. She "bathes" with baby wipes, stops fretting about her "sticky hair" and cleans her "dirty, makeup-less face" using tissues moistened with oolong tea. And as for the town she entered with such foreboding just over a week earlier: "Rikuzentakata has become my second home, and I wish for the restoration of my homeland with all my heart . . . "The truly hard times are still ahead of us. As news about the disaster begins to disappear from the TV and other media outlets, everyone else will start to forget, and the problems faced in the affected areas will only increase. More people falling ill, more sadness. It is of course a good thing that the rest of us make an effort to be cheerful and strong and return to our usual lives as best we can, but we must never forget about March 11." Read blog in English jkts-english.blogspot.com or Japanese blog.goo.ne.jp/flower-wing Japan disaster Japan Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The pain of playing Shylock Posted: 08 May 2011 01:31 PM PDT What's it like to play Shakespeare's most controversial character? As a new RSC production opens, Patrick Stewart, Antony Sher and other former Shylocks reveal all Patrick Stewart Bristol Old Vic, 1963; Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978-9; stars in new RSC production Each time I come to Shylock, I come with a different perspective. The last time I played him, it was as a very brutal and angry man, a man not overly sensitive to the world around him, to his daughter, to Antonio. This time, I have found an individual who is more open and sensitive, still vengeful and angry but with seemingly more options. One thing that has been the same in every experience is that somehow, in the company of actors, you find yourself being treated as an outsider: I've never been teased and made fun of more than I have on those occasions. People gang up on you when you play Shylock. But what keeps you coming back to him is that he has some of the most interesting, colourful and idiosyncratic language in Shakespeare. Nobody else speaks like Shylock. It sets him apart. And this was the brilliance of Shakespeare: he was the first writer to create character out of language. Antony Sher Royal Shakespeare Company, 1987-1988 If you're Jewish, you can't avoid being interested in Shylock: it's a terrific part in a very difficult play. Shakespeare writes him in three dimensions: the great "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech is a wonderful cry of pain from an oppressed man, but when he flips, and becomes unreasonable in the trial scene, the man who has been persecuted becomes the persecutor. That is a syndrome that has fascinated me all my life because of my South African upbringing. The opening scene with Antonio, where Shylock has to be polite to this person who despises him and whom he despises, reminded me of growing up in apartheid South Africa, the way black people would have to hold in their true feelings when dealing with their white "masters". In rehearsal, we used apartheid as an example of violent prejudice. Although I had encountered mild antisemitism in my own life, I found it much stronger than anything I had experienced as a Jew. Our production really emphasised the antisemitism of the Christians: they abused and spat at Shylock. I had an awful lot of other actors' saliva in my beard, and when it's your own beard you really want to shampoo it all off. So there was no question of the play itself being antisemitic – because you could see how badly this Jewish man was being treated. You saw him being pushed to a level of revenge that is understandable, even if it is ugly. Desmond Barrit Chichester Festival Theatre, 2003 My first thought when I was asked to play Shylock was, "But I don't look Jewish!", which is bizarre. We all have our ideas of what a Jewish person should look like, and probably most of those ideas are antisemitic. Then I got my costume, the items of dress that orthodox Jewish men wear. I looked in the mirror and thought: "I'm Jewish." I realised that Jewish men are defined by what they're wearing, as opposed to what they look like themselves, and that "uniform" is at the root of antisemitism. But I don't think it's an antisemitic play. It's the opposite: it's the loner against the rest of the world. Shylock is in the minority and he's being victimised. Such is the nature of the piece that, when we started rehearsing, I felt outside of everything. I felt that I was being alienated by the rest of the cast, that I wasn't being included in social activities. It was the nearest I've got to feeling everything about a character during the rehearsal period. Henry Goodman National Theatre, 1999 It's important to understand that the play is set in a mercantile environment, hence all the issues it raises about money and what is of value in life. One of the necessities of capitalism is that everybody needs everybody else to do business. Playing Shylock, I was made alert to his humour: he has a carapace of surface geniality, which comes from hiding a lot of hate, frustration and bile; but his civilities are also an attempt not to let the people around him destroy his faith in himself and his religion. He is a dysfunctional human being, but I don't think he is aggressive on a daily basis. When pushed, the horrors that are deep inside him come out, because of the way he's treated socially and because of the flaws within himself. What's exciting in a role like this, as with Lear or Richard III, is to try to show that this man is capable of tenderness and compassion, but has good reason to behave appallingly. If you try to make him sympathetic, you won't show the ugliness of his behaviour. Paul Rider Derby Theatre, 2011 You play Shylock with trepidation, because there is so much inherited baggage. The pound of flesh that Shylock demands is central to your understanding of the play, but why does he pursue that to the bitter end? As I worked on it, I found I understood: he's a widower; his daughter steals from him and marries a gentile; and he's left with this void, which he fills with the most negative of emotions, revenge. It didn't make him any more pleasant a man, but a very human man, subject to all the fallibilities that humans are prey to. I think the play is antisemitic, because of all the things that are said to him as a Jew and done to him as a Jew; but the more vile the Christians are in their behaviour towards Shylock, the more that reflects back upon them. In the "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech, Shylock compares himself to the Christians. The great tragedy is that he chooses to behave as badly as they have towards him. He's a charismatic character who lets himself down. Angus Wright Royal Shakespeare Company, 2008 My preconceptions of Shylock were overturned by playing him. I realised the "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech isn't a pleasant manifesto for living together. It's not about an equality of liberal humanism – it's about an equality of revenge. I found that darkness in him fascinating. How do you play the part honestly, without pandering to liberal sensibilities? The challenge for an audience, since the Holocaust, is to deal with a villain who is a Jew, and that isn't easy. Shylock should really be a small part – he's in only five scenes – but he breaks the confines of the play. There is something about his language, about the way he expresses himself in the face of incredible opposition and hatred and disgust, that makes an audience prick up its ears. Royal Shakespeare Company William Shakespeare Theatre Maddy Costa guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

How do I choose my Twitter photo? Posted: 08 May 2011 12:59 PM PDT But that shouldn't stop us discussing Kate's wardrobe (in 140 characters or less) I have recently been lured in by the siren call of Twitter. How do I choose my photo for it? And is it acceptable to change my photo occasionally? Brian, London "The siren call", you say, Brian? To those of us who have, amazingly, managed to resist the temptation to share our every passing thought about what's happening on the telly with thousands of "followers", and be bombarded by the thoughts of thousands of others doing the same, it is indeed a siren call, albeit not a Greek temptress siren but a screeching ambulance one that makes me want to put my hands over my ears and run in the opposite direction. Well, de gustibus non est disputandum, as I never say (because my taste is always right and everyone who disagrees is wrong): if you're determined to be a twit, then I cannot stop you. But you raise an interesting point with the photo and you're quite right that it is a tricky decision, mainly because no one seems certain what Twitter is for: is it a means of spreading news? Encouraging political revolution? Telling the world what you think about the death of Osama bin Laden? Ascertaining what Paris Hilton thinks about the death of Osama bin Laden? Self-promotion? One-liners about Kate Middleton's wedding dress? Starting feuds with other people in your industry purely for procrastination purposes? Yes, yes, and five more times, yes. But the myriad of purposes requires not just a careful calibration of tones, but a very special photo. After all, a photo that suits, say, a disquisition on the naffness of Eurovision does not, perhaps, work so well when one is proclaiming the generation-changing nature of Bin Laden's death (in 140 characters or less.) And no, you cannot hide behind what I guess is called the Twitter egg: that merely looks like you can't be bothered and don't care about the needs, expectations and entertainment of your followers. So somehow, you must find the perfect photo that suits all moods and proclamations. As if that wasn't pressure enough, you'd better make sure that when you do choose a picture that it is the perfect one because you cannot change it. A change of photo suggests vanity and a deliberate attempt to change one's image that is somehow forgivable on Facebook but not on Twitter. Twitter, you see, is supposed to be above such things, as you'd expect of a medium used to start revolutions (and express opinions on Kate Middleton's dress). So you need to find the perfect photo, one that expresses wit, solemnity, intelligence, thunderous anger and awe-inspiring insider knowledge; a mash-up, if you will, of Christopher Hitchens, Paul Krugman, Stephen Colbert, David Remnick and Dorothy Parker, but also one that makes you look, you know, young and hot. And if you're finding this stressful, wait until you realise that your devastatingly witty observation about David Cameron's face hasn't been retweeted once. Really, isn't life hard enough? So we've all seen the wedding dress. Do we still have to care about how Kate Middleton dresses? Sarah, by email Oh my stars, yes. Now more than ever! But as with the Twitter, no one quite seems to know why because no one knows what the royal family is for (and, one might add, were one feeling particularly sarcastic, perhaps this in turn suggests that the confusion comes from the fact that the royal family and Twitter alike are not for anything at all. But let's not start the week on the grumpy note we know it will end on). Even before Cinderella married Prince Charming, one writer hilariously came over all Dowager Countess of Grantham, despite writing for the most downmarket tabloid ever produced and she huffed and puffed like the big bad wolf over Kate's shocking gumption in buying clothes from the – gasp – high street! "Staggeringly normal, mind-bogglingly cheap and disappointingly pedestrian," sniffed the scribe, which is funny because that middle term is just what some of us think of the jibes thrown by this tabloid at la Middleton. And yet, insanely, Kate, somehow failed to follow this writer's advice and continued to wear high-street clothes even after the wedding, prompting one American fashion blog to headline the photo, "Kate Middleton Steps Out in an $89 Polyester Zara Dress the Day After the Wedding." The story itself was (sort of) positive, the superfluous reference to polyester was not. And so, in order to help the duchess, I have the perfect outfit that she should wear to satisfy one and all of her subjects: a Disney princess costume, which is just how princesses are supposed to dress. They appear to be only £20, true, but only Kate gets to have all of her dreams come true. Fashion Kate Middleton Twitter Internet Blogging Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Court to define miscarriage of justice Posted: 08 May 2011 12:34 PM PDT Millions of pounds in compensation for people wrongfully convicted hinges on decision by nine judges Britain's most senior judges will decide this week whether hundreds of people whose wrongful convictions have been quashed by the court of appeal are truly innocent. In a landmark ruling, the supreme court will define the meaning of a miscarriage of justice and decide when individuals are entitled to official compensation. Millions of pounds in compensation are at stake in a case triggered by government refusal over the last five years to pay financial redress to victims of miscarriages of justice, many of whom have spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Andrew Adams, 41, who spent 14 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murder, is the lead appellant in the case, which lawyers say is the most important constitutional decision to be made by the supreme court to date. His murder conviction was quashed in January 2007 on the grounds that his defence team did not use crucial evidence available to it. A year later he was refused compensation by the Home Office, a decision he has been fighting ever since. Other appellants are Barry George, who was refused official compensation after being acquitted at a retrial of the murder of the BBC presenter Jill Dando, and two men whose convictions for membership of the IRA and murder at the Diplock courts in Northern Ireland have been quashed. The ruling, on Wednesday, will have reverberations throughout the legal world and will determine whether compensation should be paid in several high-profile miscarriage of justice cases, including that of Sîon Jenkins, whose conviction for killing his foster daughter, Billie-Jo Jenkins, was overturned after juries failed to reach verdicts in two retrials. Lawyers for Adams told all nine supreme court judges that it was unlawful of the justice secretary to refuse in January 2008 to award Adams statutory compensation as a victim of a miscarriage of justice. Daniel Machover, who represents Adams, said: "We hope that the ruling will outline definitively what a miscarriage of justice is. It is a fact that a person is entitled to a presumption of innocence if they have their conviction overturned on the basis of a new or newly discovered fact. "The question is whether that presumption of innocence is enough to say, this is therefore a miscarriage of justice and everyone who has suffered a miscarriage of justice is entitled to compensation. That is what we are arguing: that the presumption of innocence equals the right to compensation." The case focuses on the Gogovernment's refusal to pay compensation to individuals who have applied since 2006, when changes were made to the system. Lawyers have told the supreme court that the government is wrongly adopting a narrow definition of miscarriage of justice which requires claimants to prove clear innocence in order to receive compensation. Schedules suggest up to 200 individuals could be affected. On average, around 40 individuals who have had convictions quashed or been acquitted at retrials have applied for official compensation each year since 2006. In the past year, only one out of 37 who applied was awarded the money. Nick Baird, for Barry George, said: "This will be the most important constitutional decision handed down by the supreme court. What the Ministry of Justice says is that for there to be a miscarriage of justice the person convicted and acquitted needs subsequent to that to prove their innocence in order to be entitled to compensation. "We say, how do you do that? How do you prove a negative? It is contrary to everything that I have learnt is embodied in the criminal justice system." George spent eight years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of Dando's murder in April 1999. He won his second appeal and the court ordered a retrial, at which he was acquitted. The Ministry of Justice has continued to argue that a miscarriage of justice occurs only where someone is eventually found to be "clearly innocent". "This is an ongoing legal matter," an MoJ spokeswoman said. "We will not be making any comment until the judgment is given." UK supreme court UK criminal justice Jill Dando murder Crime Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Apple is world's most valuable brand Posted: 08 May 2011 04:05 PM PDT Apple catapults to the summit of top 100 global brands with an 84% increase in its estimated value to $153bn (£93bn) The launch of the iPad helped Apple topple rival technology company Google in 2010 to become the world's most powerful brand, according to a survey. WPP-owned research company Millward Brown puts Apple at number one in its annual top 100 global brand power list, Brandz, up from third place in 2009, with an 84% increase in its estimated value to $153bn (£93bn). Apple ended Google's four year run at the top of the global brand power list, in a year when social media darling Facebook also made its debut in the top 100. However, the fallout of the Deepwater Horizon disaster dogged BP, which was one of the biggest fallers, down 30 places to 64th with a 27% drop in its brand value to $12bn. "It is really the iPad that has driven [Apple's growing brand value], although the iPhone has continued to do magnificently too, and the development of apps," said Peter Walshe, global director of the Brandz report. Millward Brown's report, which balances brand power with financial performance, shrugged off the potential impact of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' medical leave, instead focusing on the seemingly endless production line of must-have products Apple churns out. Walshe added that on measures examined within the report such as "desirability", Apple scores in the top 10 in the world and on a "buzz" scale – taking in mentions on blogs, message boards and tweets – it comes fourth behind Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Facebook made it onto the Millward Brown list for the first time – this is the sixth year the report has been published – having been held back in previous years by poor evidence of financial clout. The social networking service, which has attracted a valuation of $70bn and is expected to float next year, was ranked 35th with a 246% increase year-on-year in its estimated brand value from $5.5bn to $19bn. "Facebook had a staggering year," said Walshe. "Time will tell if the financial part of the estimate is stable or not." The most valuable brand in the UK was once again telecoms company Vodafone, which ranks 12th on the global list, with a value almost flat year-on-year at $43bn. Toyota, which was hammered in the 2009 Brandz report, with its brand value plummeting 28% after the mass recall of faulty cars, bounced back to be the most valuable car marque, up 11% to $24bn in 27th place. Amazon also moved up a place to 14th to pass Walmart, down two spots to 15th, and become the highest ranked retailer on the list. Amazon increased by 37% in brand value last year to $37bn. Chinese search engine Baidu rocketed 46 places to 29th with a 141% increase in brand value to $22bn. Top fallers included Nokia, which has embarked on a restructuring programme after failing to keep step with rivals Apple and Google, down 38 places to 81st with a brand value of $10.7bn, down 28% year-on-year. Nintendo dropped 47 places to 79th with a 37% fall in brand value to $11bn. TOP 10 Most Valuable Global Brands 1. Apple $153bn 2. Google $111bn 3. IBM $100bn 4. McDonald's $81bn 5. Microsoft $78bn 6. Coca Cola $73bn 7. AT&T $70bn 8. Marlboro $67bn 9. China Mobile $57bn 10. GE $50bn Apple Nokia Facebook BP Google Toyota Automotive industry Mobile phones Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Cannes showing for Sarkozy satire Posted: 08 May 2011 07:02 AM PDT Inspired by British satire In The Loop, first French film to tell story of a serving president breaks last taboo It threatens to be so true to life that it's more like a documentary than a feature film. "I'm surrounded by cretins!" shouts a stack-heeled, would-be French president at his terrified advisers. "Remember, I'm a Ferrari. When you open the bonnet, you use white gloves." When the Cannes film festival opens next week, it will break the last taboo in French film. La Conquête, a scathing portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power - the first French feature film brave enough to tackle a serving president - will be shown on La Croisette after a row over whether officials wanted to sideline it to spare the Elysée's blushes. Inspired by the merciless British satire In the Loop, and subtitled "The man who won the presidency, but lost a wife", it hopes to skewer Sarkozy's rage, ambition and problems with women. But it faces the same problem as Italian director Nanni Moretti's Berlusconi-inspired The Caiman: how do you parody a man who has already become a parody of himself? This year's Cannes is already displaying an unprecedented Sarkozy theme. The first lady, Carla Bruni, will appear in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, while the French director Pierre Schoeller's L'Exercice de l'Etat fictionalises the personal sacrifices of a government minister. Sarkozy, record-breakingly unpopular one year before a tough battle for re-election, cannot risk appearing on the red carpet himself, nor can Bruni. It would send the wrong message about lavish partying to cash-strapped France. But the Elysée is already on a damage-limitation offensive over La Conquête. In recent days, Sarkozy has been brandishing a three-page handwritten letter from the actor who plays him. Denis Podalydès is one of France's biggest theatre stars, a leftwinger whose line in Shakespearean figures like Richard II has set him up well for playing right-winger Sarkozy's 2007 rise to power. He recently wrote to Sarkozy explaining his role in the film, which the president has taken as an admission that the film isn't too cruel. But the Elysée is clearly irked by the film. Several Sarkozy advisers have dismissed the trailer as "a ridiculous charicature". Producers said French TV channels self-censored and refused to contribute funding for the "dangerous and risky project" and the script was leaked, perhaps reaching as high as the Elysée. Rachida Dati, the former Sarkozy protégée and minister, reportedly tried to contact the actor playing her, but was brushed off. This week Carla Bruni admitted she was "worried" about the film, which depicts Sarkozy's split from his previous wife, Cécilia. She said: "It's a period that I experienced like everyone else, observing the presidential candidates from the outside. I would really like to watch this film with that same sense of distance, but I'm not sure I can." Even the film poster has made the political class cringe. Designed by the English team who worked on In the Loop, it shows a pair of short legs in stacked heels, dangling off a high stool, echoing a scene in the film where the diminutive Sarkozy throws a tantrum that his chair is too high. Podalydès has described his Sarkozy character as both "endearing and insufferable", "mature and immature", someone totally "animal" who cares little about philosophy. He recently met Sarkozy at the Elysée and said the president told him: "I don't like power, but I like exercising it." The script is based on an analysis of Sarkozy by the political historian and documentary maker, Patrick Rotman. But French critics have warned they want more than just accurate Sarkozy-mimicry and hunger for a piece of fiction that explores the president's narcissistic yet unfathomable personality. Le Figaro's Sebastien Le Fol said he wanted the emotional resonance of British films like The Queen or the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown drama, The Deal. "La Conquête will only win us over if it allows us to enter the unconscious of a man of state and reveal the workings of power." Other key Cannes films The Tree of Life The reclusive American film-maker Terrence Malick's family drama with mysterious cosmic element. It's only his fifth feature in 40 years. Melancholia A sci-fi, apocalyptic wedding drama, from the Danish maverick director Lars Von Trier who shocked Cannes with the film Antichrist in 2009. This Must Be The Place Sean Penn plays a 50-year-old ex-rocker who travels across the US on the trail of a Nazi war criminal. The Skin I Live In Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's creepy revenge saga about a plastic surgeon. Death of a Samurai Japanese director Takashi Miike's honour and revenge story is billed as the first 3D film to be shown at Cannes. We Need To Talk About Kevin Lynne Ramsay's family drama based on the novel about middle-class parents struggling to make sense of a high-school massacre is Britain's competition hope. France Europe Cannes 2011 Cannes film festival Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Extent of 70s 'virginity tests' revealed Posted: 08 May 2011 11:01 AM PDT Home Office files suggest that at least 80 female migrants from subcontinent may have undergone such tests When a 35-year-old teacher arrived at Heathrow on 24 January 1979, she planned to marry her fiance, a British resident of Indian descent. Instead she found herself at the centre of a "virginity testing" row that led to headlines in Britain and India, and an immediate debate over whether her experience was an isolated incident or general immigration practice. Immigration rules at the time meant that a woman coming to Britain to marry a fiance did not need a visa if her wedding was to be held within three months. However, internal Home Office papers from the time show that the immigration officer at Heathrow justified the order for a "virginity test" on suspicions that she might already be married, given her age, and the fact that she was travelling with her fiance. If they were already married, she would have needed a visa. The immigration service told Home Office ministers: "It appears that the passenger asked for a lady doctor but was told that there was not one on duty, that even if she went to Hillingdon hospital, the gynaecologist on duty might be a man, and that if she wanted to have a woman doctor it would be necessary for her to wait. "She elected to have the examination done immediately." However, the woman told the Guardian she consented only because she was frightened she would be sent back to India. The Guardian's exclusive disclosure of the tests led to front-page stories in every leading Indian newspaper, with the incident denounced as "an outrageous indignity" and "tantamount to rape". The Home Office initially confirmed that her referral for a medical examination "to see whether she was, in fact, a bona fide virgin or fiancee" but said it was an isolated incident. The files, however, show that this line alarmed the British immigration entry clearance officers working in India. A confidential cable from the British high commission in New Delhi to the Foreign Office says they not only had to deal with the impact of the Heathrow incident in India but also to defend their policy and practice: "For this purpose the comments of the Home Office spokesman are not altogether helpful," read the cable. "In framing our defence, you will no doubt take account of the fact that in accordance with the requirement that they should satisfy themselves with an applicant's bona fides, entry clearance officers here, in Bombay and presumably other ports seek medical opinion on the marital status of some female applicants. In Delhi all such examinations are carried out by a woman gynaecologist." The row over the scale of virginity testing, particularly at British immigration posts on the Indian subcontinent, was stirred by the intervention of Alex Lyon, a former Labour immigration minister. Lyon said that he had discovered that "virginity tests" were being used in Dhaka, Bangladesh, while he was at the Home Office and had ordered in 1975 that the practice be stopped in Britain and at entry clearance posts worldwide. But the Home Office files reveal that the order was not implemented outside Islamabad: "Mr Lyon's instructions arose from a single case in Islamabad [not Dhaka], where in the course of a general medical examination of a fiancee the doctor noted in her report that she had detected signs of marriage although the applicant claimed to be unmarried," notes one official. But perhaps the clearest evidence that the practice was widespread comes in a draft Foreign Office reply for the then Labour prime minister, Jim Callaghan, to a protest from his Indian counterpart, Morarji Desai. It says that the then foreign secretary, David Owen, felt it necessary to acknowledge that other cases had taken place. "The facts, as far as India is concerned, are that since October 1975 (the date of Alex Lyon's instruction that medical evidence should not be used to refuse an applicant) there appear to have been nine cases in Bombay and 73 in New Delhi where it is possible that a vaginal examination might have taken place." The Foreign Office tries to portray these as routine medical tests. But two other later Home Office briefing papers clearly refer to cases in Delhi of "some adult daughters applying for settlement who were referred to an Indian lady gynaecologist with questions about their marital status". It is this evidence that suggests that at least 80 women went through such "virginity tests" in the late 1970s. In their study of the cases, Australian legal academics, Dr Marinella Marmo and Dr Evan Smith, say that immigration officers justified the use of the tests on the stereotype of south Asian women as "submissive, meek and tradition-bound" and on the "absurd generalisation" that they were always virgins before they married. They also point out that the tests were useless: not every woman has a hymen. Callaghan was keen to close down the whole matter. He sent a message to Desai telling him that "as soon as we heard of it we made sure it would not happen again" and assured him that it was never general practice to ask women to undergo such examinations. However, it was not enough to prevent India going to the UN commission on human rights and raising the use of immigration practices that seemed to "reflect prejudices dating back to the dark ages". For more, see: E Smith and M Marmo, Uncovering virginity testing, Gender and History, April 2011. Immigration and asylum India Pakistan Alan Travis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Incoming – review Posted: 08 May 2011 06:00 AM PDT The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk Given that Andrew Motion is a poet, novelist and biographer, it's surprising it has taken him so long to get round to writing a play. But, prompted by an invitation from Halesworth's admirable Hightide festival, he has come up with a 70-minute play on the impact of the Afghan war on a single family. It is a good, honourable work that shows that Motion has a gift for drama. It would be even better if he were less cautious about revealing his own anger towards the conflict. In Motion's play, Danny, a soldier, has been killed in Helmand; his wife, Steph, is about to leave the family home. Each is alive in the other's memory. Each needs to tell a story. Danny relives the experience of frontline conflict – the concern for "your mates" rather than any patriotic principle, the horror of lugging a scorched colleague on your back, the dreamlike sensation of the moment of death. But while Danny is cynically realistic about his own role in a dubious war, Steph needs to feel that her husband died a hero, that the war has had a purpose and that the Wootton Bassett funeral was something more than an example of the English gift for "glorious sadness". Motion's play is at its best when it gets down to brass tacks and when the dead and the living offer radically divergent views of the Afghan conflict. Danny has a powerful speech in which he attacks the way war has its own unstoppable momentum: having gone to Afghanistan supposedly to curb the Taliban and al-Qaida and to stop people fighting, he feels that, by his death, he is "now part of the reason it goes on". I wanted Motion to develop the anti-war argument. But the domestic setting prevents him from pointing out that, according to General Petraeus, there are only 100 al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan. And, while Steph vividly recalls the heartless way she was told of Danny's death, nothing she says is as effective as his account of the way war is fuelled by the endless desire for retaliation. I'm also sceptical about a coda where Danny talks to his son, Jack. The idea of father and son conferring only after death was done more movingly in JM Barrie's first world war play A Well-Remembered Voice. But, in Steven Atkinson's production, Motion's piece is strongly acted by Christian Bradley and Penny Layden as Danny and Steph, and Timon Greaves as the son. And, even if Motion fights unduly shy of didacticism, he has written a good enough play to make you hope there is more to come. The real revelation at Hightide, however, was Nicked, a musical about Nick Clegg that has now been expanded to include the AV debacle. The first half, dealing with the coalition's formation, is interesting; the second half, part showing Clegg in power, is utterly compelling. What emerges is less Clegg's hubristic vanity than his political ineptitude as Cameron and Osborne run rings round him, especially over tuition fees. Richard Marsh's rhyming book and lyrics are on the button, Natalia Sheppard's snazzy score brings the sound of "urban" music into the theatre, and Jason Langley conveys all of Clegg's narcissistic naivety. Clegg may be dead in the water politically, but this musical, suitably trimmed, definitely has legs. Rating: 3/5 Theatre Andrew Motion Michael Billington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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