OT: Black out

[maff]

Black out
Ewen MacAskill
February 18, 2007 2:05 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ewen_macaskill/2007/02/black_out.html

I spoke to Grover Norquist, one of the leading neoconservatives, this
week about the prospects for the Republicans in 2008, but the
conversation quickly turned to Democratic contender Barack Obama.
Norquist questioned the extent of his support among Democrats:
"Liberal Democrats say they are for him so they can say they are
backing a black candidate, but when it comes to the time, they will
vote for Hillary."

He could be right. In the run-up to the 1989 Virginia election that
saw the selection of the first elected African-American governor in
the US, polls repeatedly showed Douglas Wilder ten or more points
ahead. But on election day he barely squeaked out a victory.

Experimental theatre
Marius Maxwell
February 18, 2007 3:04 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marius_maxwell/2007/02/max.html

As a neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and Oxford graduate with three
decades of research experience, I am appalled by the university's
decision to build a new animal laboratory - and by its recent
Orwellian attempts to stifle public debate. How ironic that an
institution that relies on academic freedoms for its very existence is
attempting to silence its opponents. What is the university trying to
hide - besides the fact that non-human primates used in experiments at
Oxford are subjected to painful procedures that cause them to vomit
and have seizures, diarrhoea and tremors before they are killed? And
besides the fact that experimenting on sick, terrified animals
endangers human lives?

An article published in December in the British Medical Journal (the
latest in a long series of similar sceptical studies) suggests that
using animal-based drug testing to predict human outcomes is no more
accurate than tossing a coin. The study found that only half of the
categories examined actually succeeded in predicting the results of
subsequent human trials, and even then, "the quality of the
experiments was poor".

Unconstructive criticism
Dave Hill
February 18, 2007 12:57 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_hill/2007/02/aside_from_islamist_ultras_and.html

Aside from Islamist ultras and nasty nativists, I'd hazard a guess
that the great majority of people in Britain would be perfectly
content if all the Muslims among them were both willing and able to
observe their faith in a manner consistent with the best values of a
liberal democracy. Even hellfire atheists grudgingly accept the right
of citizens to "do God" as long as it doesn't entail them harming
others. And despite the findings of more than one recent survey I
suspect that most Muslims in Britain are largely amenable to the same
sort of largely informal accommodation with secular law and civil
protections as other faiths have reached, notwithstanding recent bids
by Christian leaders to change its terms - Muslims, after all, benefit
from the freedoms that the accommodation helps to guarantee.

How, though, do we strengthen the deal at a time when some seek to
erode it? A good example of how not to was heard on the Today
programme on Tuesday morning when Robert Kilroy-Silk MEP and Halima
Hussain of the UK Muslim Public Affairs Committee clashed over the
issue of Muslim women and British mosques. The encounter came about
because Kilroy-Silk had written to minister for women Meg Munn MP
urging her to extend a recent pledge to tackle sex discrimination in
golf clubs to "mosques in Britain where woman are banned". Hussain was
a good choice of fellow guest. As well as being on the MPAC she was
involved in the Channel 4 Dispatches series programme Women Only
Jihad, shown last October, which exposed resistance among male mosque-
members to female participation of any kind.

Disturbing the peace
Alfred Stepan
February 18, 2007 11:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alfred_stepan/2007/02/senegals_democracy_put_to_the.html

Senegal, a country whose population is 90% Muslim, is one of the
Islamic world's most peaceful and democratic countries. This
tranquillity has been helped by the elaborate "rituals of respect"
that have developed between the secular state and the Sufi orders, and
the excellent relations between the country's Muslim majority and the
Catholic minority at all levels of society.

The secular state and religious groups have cooperated on Aids
prevention - to the extent Aids affects only about 1% of the
population, compared to more than 20% in some African countries. The
secular state, supported by feminist groups and some transnational non-
governmental organisations, banned female genital mutilation in 1999,
without triggering massive Muslim protests.

Chill out
Geoffrey Stone
February 17, 2007 4:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/geoffrey_stone/2007/02/chilling_effect.html

You've decided to participate in an anti-Iraq war demonstration.
Perhaps you've never done such a thing before. But you're troubled by
the way things are going in Iraq and you want to express your concern.
After bundling up against the cold and marching several blocks side-by-
side with your protesting comrades you come upon a platform on which a
burly man wearing a dark blue FBI jacket is videotaping the event.
What is your reaction?

For many, perhaps most, people, this would generate a sense of
anxiety. Why is he there? What's the point of videotaping the protest?
Sure, channel 6 might do this, but why the Federal Bureau of
Investigation? In all likelihood, you will begin to wonder whether
this might land you in a file. At this point, you might begin to
second-guess your decision to march. After all, whether you protest or
not will have absolutely no effect on national policy. One marcher
more or less is a matter of no consequence. But what if the FBI turns
this photograph over to the Internal Revenue Service, or to your
employer, or to your landlord? The next time someone asks you to march
in a protest, sign a petition, or attend a lecture by a government
critic, you just might think twice.

A woman's touch
Ros Taylor
February 17, 2007 3:02 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ros_taylor/2007/02/those_of_us_who_have.html

Those of us who have been trying to find a reason to support Ségolène
Royal haven't had it easy. There have been the frequently vacuous
soundbites, faithfully chronicled by the anti-Ségo sites. There were
foreign visits during which gaffes were expected and gaffes were duly
made. There was the absence of policy. So I was keen to read the 100-
point manifesto she issued on Sunday, which was a synthesis of what
she had learnt during the "listening phase" of her campaign.

It isn't quite the longest suicide note in French history, and not
just because Royal intends to keep France's nuclear deterrent. There
are some good things in the 26-page document - even though, as
Jonathan Fenby wrote on Cif this week, it lacked a grand vision. It
makes tackling climate change a priority; it lifts the minimum wage
and pensions; it introduces free schooling from the age of three; it
would create classes préparatoires, a prerequisite for getting into
France's top universities, in deprived suburbs as well as city
centres. These might help some of France's more intractable problems.

Once George Bush has got hold of a bad idea he just can't let it go
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2016049,00.html

We watch plans for an attack on Iran unfold even as the official
narrative for the run-up to the Iraq war unravels

Gary Younge
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

On December 20 1954, a woman known as Marion Keech gathered her
followers in her garden in Lake City, Illinois, and waited for
midnight, when flying saucers were supposed to land and save them from
huge floods about to engulf the planet.

Keech had received news of the impending deluge from Sananda, a being
from the planet Clarion, whose messages she passed on to a small group
of believers. Unbeknown to her, the group had been infiltrated by a
University of Minnesota researcher, the social psychologist Leon
Festinger.

Only the closest encounter with the facts will do now
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2016053,00.html

For too long, foreign policy has bent a scant knowledge of other
nations to our preferred version of events

Carne Ross
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Middle East ... the contours of our
crisis in foreign policy could hardly be clearer. Last month, nearly
2,000 people died in Iraq, the worst toll yet. Two million have left
as refugees; the same number are internally displaced. In Afghanistan,
spring is expected to bring heavy fighting in an inconclusive war now
entering its sixth year, while western efforts at nation building have
failed to combat drug production or produce an effective government.
On the narrow measure of our own security, there can be little doubt
that today we are less secure than before these adventures began.
Meanwhile, the human suffering in these countries is on our account.

The failure of rationality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2016052,00.html

Government attempts to ban hybrid embryos for stem cell research will
hobble our medical future

Alok Jha
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

You wonder sometimes if government ministers get special training to
cling to the daftest ideas. The dogged attempts of Caroline Flint, the
public health minister, to ban the creation of animal-human hybrid
embryos for stem cell research is a case in point.

Her opposition, based on a biased public consultation that was
hijacked by lobby groups, presupposes that the public feels ethically
dubious about it. This error would be bad enough, but her
unwillingness to recognise the mistake - despite increasing isolation
from scientific advisers and colleagues, and the possibility that her
ban will prevent urgent medical research - is verging on the
irresponsible. The human stem cells needed by scientists are normally
taken from fertilised embryos left over from IVF treatments, which
have been donated for research. This is a precious resource for those
working on developing treatments for diseases such as diabetes,
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Mission imperial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2016127,00.html

While Iraqis struggled in the chaos of Baghdad after the invasion, the
Americans sent to rebuild the nation led a cocooned existence in the
centre of the capital - complete with booze, hot dogs and luxury
villas. In the first of three extracts from his new book, Rajiv
Chandrasekaran exposes life in the Green Zone.

Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

Unlike almost anywhere else in Baghdad, you could dine at the
cafeteria in the Republican Palace in the heart of the Green Zone for
six months and never eat hummus, flatbread, or a lamb kebab. The
palace was the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA), the American occupation administration in Iraq, and the food
was always American, often with a Southern flavour. A buffet featured
grits, cornbread and a bottomless barrel of pork: sausage for
breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, pork chops for dinner. The cafeteria
was all about meeting American needs for high-calorie, high-fat
comfort food.

The boom is over, the price must yet be paid
http://business.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/story/0,,2016376,00.html

The gains in property value have been disproportionate, the problems
permanent

Ashley Seager
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

In some ways the housing market has resembled a drunk standing at the
bar in some back-street boozer.

With every drink he has, people think he must soon stagger and tumble
over. But he doesn't. He keeps drinking and he remains standing. He
stays up for so long that eventually people decide they were wrong to
think he would fall over.

But then, just as they decide he will never fall, he takes the last
drink and finally tumbles to the ground.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/0,,806476,00.html

A warm glow: entrepreneurs start up 'farmers markets without the
draughts'
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2015196,00.html

A suburban shop makes local fresh produce easier to reach, buy and
transport

Angela Balakrishnan
Saturday February 17, 2007
The Guardian

Situated on a bustling high street in south-west London, Farmers' City
Market appears to be just another shop. The only clues to what may lie
within are the two white statues of cows. A glimpse inside and it soon
becomes clear that this is not your average store.

But nor is it your average farmers' market. This is a venture that
aims to provide all the quality and reliably sourced food of other
farmers' markets but without the draughty surroundings and temporary
stalls. More ambitiously, the three founders, Jana Satchi, Stephen
Wilkinson and George Beach, say they want to redefine food shopping.

'Vulture' feeds on Zambia
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2014210,00.html

Ashley Seager
Thursday February 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A so-called "vulture" fund has been given permission by a British
court to enforce a claim for tens of millions of dollars theoretically
owed by Zambia.

The decision was immediately slammed by campaign groups who demanded
that governments of rich countries moved to stop such funds reclaiming
debt from poor countries who had supposedly already had their debts
written off.

The high court ruled that a claim against Zambia by the US company
Donegal International, owned by US citizen Michael Sheehan, for debts
incurred by the impoverished southern African nation more than a
decade ago, was lawful.

Voters' hunger for change threatens Republican dream of eternal power
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2016131,00.html

As anti-Bush sentiment grows, pollsters fear party has lost will to
govern

Ewen MacAskill and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

Republican strategists fear that an increasingly anti-Bush and war-
weary American public could deny the party the White House in 2008,
frustrating the grand design of the party's political mastermind Karl
Rove for a permanent majority.

"I believe Republicans are in a more dangerous position than at any
time since 1974," said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster and
commentator. "Back then you had Watergate. You had economic recession,
a military collapse in Vietnam and had civil unrest. All those same
ingredients are present today."

Peace hopes fade after US and Israel agree to shun new Palestinian
coalition
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2016269,00.html

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

Israel and the US have agreed to refuse recognition to a new
Palestinian coalition government ahead of talks in Jerusalem today,
the Israeli prime minister said yesterday, reducing the already slim
prospects of progress in the peace process.

Ehud Olmert, who is due to meet Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
president, at a meeting chaired by the US secretary of state,
Condoleezza Rice, in a Jerusalem hotel this morning, said that he and
the US had agreed to shun the new Palestinian unity government.

India to open orphanages to take thousands of unwanted girls who would
otherwise be killed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2016275,00.html

· 400 pieces of bones found believed to be female
· 7,000 fewer girls born a day than natural rate

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

The Indian government announced a nationwide series of orphanages for
girls yesterday, alarmed by the inability to stem the widespread
practice of female foeticide.

The news came on the day that police arrested two people near the city
of Bhopal, in central India, after officers recovered almost 400
pieces of bones believed to be of newly born female babies or
foetuses.

The orphanage scheme is a reponse to the deepening crisis over the
country's "missing girls". Renuka Chowdhury, the minister of state for
women and child development, estimates the number of either female
foetuses aborted or newborn girls killed to be 10 million over the
past two decades.

Inner Mongolian herdswomen beat Jolie and Damon to top film prize in
Berlin
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2016196,00.html

· Only one professional actor in Chinese movie
· British black comedy misses out on awards

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

A Chinese arthouse film about the impact of economic growth on the
country's rural community unexpectedly won the top award at the Berlin
film festival at the weekend, beating several Hollywood rivals and big
budget productions to capture the Golden Bear.

Tuya's Marriage, directed by Wang Quan'an, paints a touching portrait
of a female Mongolian herder who attempts to resist the economic
pressures to move from the barren plains of her homeland in northern
China to the city.

Good skiing on the moon, says Apollo veteran
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2016149,00.html

· Nasa seeks self-sufficiency at Mars mission base
· Settlers will search for lunar fuel resources

James Randerson, science correspondent
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

Nasa astronauts returning to the moon should be given intensive cross-
country skiing lessons to help them explore the surface more quickly,
according to a former Apollo astronaut.

Harrison Schmitt, who flew with the last manned mission to land on the
moon, said the technique allowed him to glide over the surface faster
than his fellow astronauts, who instead adopted what he called an
inelegant "bunny hop" gait.

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice
caps
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2016243,00.html

David Adam, environment correspondent
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be
inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are
preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and
Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50%
chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided"
because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Such melting would raise sea levels by four to six metres, the
scientists say. It would cause "major changes in coastline and
inundation of low-lying areas" and require "costly and challenging"
efforts to move millions of people and infrastructure from vulnerable
areas. The previous official line, issued in 2001, was that the chance
of such an event was "not well known, but probably very low".

Global study of 1,200 families links new genes to autism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,,2016272,00.html

· Amount of faulty DNA may affect severity of case
· Doctors hope to diagnose and treat condition earlier

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

The world's largest search for genes linked to autism has uncovered
new mutations believed to raise a child's risk of developing the brain
disorder.

Scans of DNA from nearly 1,200 families with two or more children
affected by autism have broadened the list of genes involved with the
condition and will allow doctors to screen more young people for
autism at an early age, when therapies are most effective.

Autism typically disrupts a person's ability to communicate and form
social relationships, leading to serious behavioural problems. The
five-year gene search is the first part of the Autism Genome Project,
a collaboration of more than 120 scientists at 50 institutions around
the world. Part of the study, published in Nature Genetics yesterday,
involved checking for so-called copy number variations, in which there
is either an extra or missing copy of a gene.

Laying Adam to rest: science offers hope in ritual murder case
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2016276,00.html

New DNA techniques developed in hunting for dead boy's birthplace have
helped detectives solve other crimes

Karen McVeigh and Hugh Muir
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

In a quiet child's plot in a London churchyard, four police officers
stood watch as a small pastel blue coffin decorated with teddy bears
was lowered into the ground. More than five years had passed since the
dismembered remains of a boy had been found floating in the Thames,
the victim of a macabre ritual killing.

Now he was being buried. Without a name for him, or relatives to
mourn, it was left to Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly to read
a eulogy.

BNP case may aid reporting of allegations against politicians
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,2016223,00.html

Clare Dyer, legal editor
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian

A libel case between two members of the British National party and the
anti-racist magazine Searchlight, which goes to the court of appeal
this week, could make it easier for the media to report unverified
allegations of misconduct against politicians without ending up in
court.

The BNP members, brothers Christopher and Barry Roberts, are appealing
against a high court ruling last May that the magazine's report of a
feud between party factions amounted to "reportage" on a matter of
public interest. Mr Justice Eady ruled that the report was protected
by "qualified privilege". This means that even if the allegations are
untrue, the publishers cannot be held liable unless they were acting
with malice - knowing they were untrue or reckless as to whether they
were true or not.

Chinese celebrate the lucky swines born in Year of the Pig
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2283920.ece

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Published: 19 February 2007

A rolling barrage of fireworks greeted the Year of the Pig in Beijing
as residents chased away any lingering bad spirits and celebrated the
new moon in boisterous fashion.

Fortune tellers say this is a "golden pig" year, which comes around
once every 60 years, so the Chinese welcomed it in particularly
exuberant style, rattling the windows of downtown apartments and
courtyard homes with the bangs and whistles of millions of fireworks.
Firecrackers are a traditional way of celebrating Chinese New Year and
there were more than 380,000 boxes of firecrackers sold officially,
compared with 240,000 boxes for the same period last year, which was
the first year fireworks were allowed inside Beijing's inner city
area.

Prize-winning children's book offends conservatives
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2283917.ece

By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 19 February 2007

Clearly Susan Patron, a public librarian from Los Angeles, did
something right when she wrote the novel The Higher Power of Lucky
because it won her this year's Newbery Medal, America's highest honour
for children's literature.

But she has also triggered a firestorm among conservative librarians
and schoolteachers because of a certain word that appears on the
book's very first page.

A liberal experiment that is sweeping the world
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2283930.ece

By Leonard Doyle
Published: 19 February 2007

In the shadows of Frankfurt's gleaming glass towers an undistinguished
six-storey building serves as a safe injection area for heroin
addicts.

Along with the heroin room, there is a medical station, a counselling
centre, a crack-smoking room and on the top two floors, a 24-hour
shelter, complete with a cafe run by the addicts.

Three killed as bombings rock southern Thailand
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2283922.ece

By Rungrawee C. Pinyorat, Associated Press Writer
Published: 19 February 2007

A series of bomb explosions last night rocked insurgency-plagued
southern Thailand, killing three people and wounding 53 others, amid
power blackouts and telephone cuts, military and police officers
said.

In what were apparently coordinated attacks, suspected Muslim
separatists struck in four provinces of the deep south, setting off at
least 28 bombs at entertainment venues, power grids and commercial
sites, said Col. Wichai Thongdaeng, a military spokesman.

Eight US soldiers die in helicopter crash in Afghanistan
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2283921.ece

By Noor Khan, Associated Press Writer
Published: 19 February 2007

After radioing in an unexplained loss of power and engine failure, a
military helicopter crashed early yesterday in southeastern
Afghanistan, killing eight US service members. Fourteen survived with
injuries.

Officials immediately ruled out enemy fire as a cause of the crash,
which left charred wreckage of the twin-rotor Chinook scattered on a
dusty, open plain in Zabul province, just 50 metres from the main
Kabul-Kandahar highway.

US piles pressure on Iran as Rice flies into Baghdad
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2281369.ece

As Secretary of State arrives in Iraqi capital, US Senate joins
barrage of criticism of President Bush's troop surge

By Raymond Whitaker in London, Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Angus
McDowall in Tehran
Published: 18 February 2007

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, made an unannounced visit
to Baghdad yesterday to check on the progress of the American-led
"surge" against militia violence in the Iraqi capital - violence which
Washington is increasingly seeking to blame on Iran.

The American commander in Baghdad, Major-General Joseph Fil, said
bloodshed had declined since troops had poured into the streets, but
warned that the lull was unlikely to last: "Many of these extremists
are lying low and watching to see what it is we do and how we do it."

Mystery of the Himalayas solved
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2281376.ece

The world's highest mountains shot up by 2km when a massive slab of
rock anchoring them fell away

By Paul Rodgers
Published: 18 February 2007

The mystery of why the Himalaya mountains and the Tibetan plateau are
the highest in the world has at last been answered, with the discovery
of a gigantic chunk of rock slowly sinking towards the centre of the
Earth.

When the massive slab - up to eight times the area of the UK and as
thick as a dozen Everests on top of each other - dropped off, the
lighter crust above it rebounded upwards like a cork released under
water, geophysicists say. This "sudden uplift" would have raised the
Himalayas by as much as 2km (1.24 miles) to their present height.

Police chief calls for heroin to be available on the NHS
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2283951.ece

By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
Published: 19 February 2007

Heroin should be prescribed to long-term addicts to prevent them from
committing crimes to feed their habits, the head of Britain's police
chiefs has suggested.

Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers,
also admitted that current policing tactics

Museum accused of mutilating Aboriginal bones
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2283981.ece

By David Langton
Published: 19 February 2007

The Natural History Museum has been accused by Tasmanian Aboriginals
of "mutilating" the remains of their ancestors. Native Australians say
the institution has defiled the 17th-century bones by removing parts
for scientific tests.

The dispute centres on 17 skeletons held by the museum in London since
the 1940s. Although it has agreed to return the remains in its
possession, the museum has been collecting samples from skulls and
bones for DNA analysis.

Christians say Hirst exploiting religion to create sensation
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2281384.ece

Skulls, graphic images of Christ, crucifix encrusted with pills ...
and all in an exhibition inside a church

By Martin Hodgson
Published: 18 February 2007

Christians have accused the artist Damien Hirst of exploiting
religious imagery for the sake of controversy in a new exhibition, to
be displayed in a working Anglican church.

The exhibition features graphic photographs inspired by the wounds of
Christ, a crucifix encrusted with pills and a silver heart impaled
with needles and razor blades. Many of the show's works appear to pit
the spiritual against the pharmaceutical: one sculpture entitled The
Eucharist takes the form of an outsized marble Paracetamol tablet.

British Library to display rare sacred scrolls for first time
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2281408.ece

By Marie Woolf
Published: 18 February 2007

The rarest and most elaborate collection of religious manuscripts in
the world, including one of the earliest Korans and a Torah from a
lost community of Chinese Jews, is to be displayed at the British
Library in a unique exhibition on the great religions.

Sacred texts from Christianity, Judaism and Islam are to be displayed
side by side in an exhibition showing what the three great faiths have
in common.

Why British women go off sex (unlike the French and Germans)
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2281390.ece

Britain's middle-aged women don't think an active sex life is
important, but on the Continent they consider it essential

By Roger Dobson
Published: 18 February 2007

Middle-aged women in Britain are more likely to have a low sex drive
than women in other European countries, a study shows. One in three
British women in their late 40s and early 50s doesn't think an active
sex life is important.

Forty-seven per cent of British women reported a tail-off in their sex
drive, compared to 21 per cent in Switzerland and 32 per cent in
Italy. For the study, in the European Journal of Obstetrics &
Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology, researchers in Italy and the
Netherlands interviewed 1,800 women in six European countries.

Generation X: The slackers who changed the world
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2276189.ece

They were supposed to be a 'lost generation' - cynical, alienated
kids, doomed to live forever in the shadow of their Baby Boomer
elders. Now, as Generation X nudges towards middle age, author Patrick
Neate argues that it's time to admit just how much we owe to his
unsung, over-achieving peers

Published: 18 February 2007

We often try to put ourselves d-down (talkin' bout my generation)

Wearing clothes too young and a perma f-frown (talkin' bout my
generation)

Things we do look awful c-cold (talkin' bout my generation)

Hope I never die, let alone get old (talkin' bout my generation)...

(With apologies to Pete Townshend)

Your reaction to my crass bastardisation of The Who's lyrics probably
depends on your, umm, generation. You might, for example, regard it as
a careless key scratched down the pristine paintwork of your vintage
nostalgia (whether one careful owner or bought at an eBay premium to
salve your burgeoning mid-life crisis). On the other hand, your
response to The Who may simply be "the who?" And you'll shake your
head and turn The Killers up full blast on your Nokia N91 before
slipping it into the back pocket of your skinny jeans.

News analysis: Trust me, I'm a doctor...or am I?
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2281368.ece

Are all our most popular therapists what they seem? Gillian McKeith
has been told to stop calling herself 'doctor' in ads. New rules are
being prepared to regulate the gurus who tell us how to live - so how
qualified are they really?

Published: 18 February 2007

Doctor, doctor, I've got a problem: I don't know who to trust. There
are all these people giving out advice on how to stay healthy, eat
right and live well, but some just aren't what they seem.

Take that fearsome Gillian McKeith, who goes on television staring at
people's stools and terrifying the, ahem, life out of them. You Are
What You Eat is the name of her book, and at least a million people
agree enough to have bought it. She is a doctor, after all - it says
so on the cover of the book and no fewer than 36 times on the home
page of her website, drgillianmckeith.com. But last week the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told her to remove all mention
of her title in print ads for her future products.

Despite Iraq, we must still be ready to intervene elsewhere
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2015648,00.html

As a new crisis brings misery to Chad, memories of past failures
should now strengthen our resolve to be the agents of peace

Paddy Ashdown
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

Whatever your view on invading Iraq, as we move into the end game,
there is one thing we can all agree on. Building the postwar peace has
been a catastrophe. This is going to sharply influence what the world
might look like post-Iraq. Western leaders are now going to be less
enthusiastic, their domestic populations less supportive and the wider
international community less biddable in providing legitimacy for such
enterprises in future.

Open the gates and free people from Britain's ghettos
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2015638,00.html

Will Hutton
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

Britain was never communist, but all round the country, there is a
physical tribute to communist thinking. This is the country with the
one of the biggest concentration of vast council housing estates in
the world, rivalling even the former Soviet Union and China in the
sheer scale of the dismal concrete sheds in which we collectively
house the poor.

Last week, there was an all too typical debate about the social
condition of Britain, sparked by the spate of teenage murders in south
London and the Unicef report in which the country ranked bottom in a
world league table of children's well-being. For David Cameron and the
right, it is proof positive of the consequence of the collapse of the
family and 'respect'; for the left, it is a sign that we should spend
even more on building and policing so-called 'communities'.

Right-wing humour? What a joke
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2015643,00.html

Stephanie Merritt
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

As an exemplary oxymoron, it's up there with 'journalistic integrity';
tonight, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel will launch its very own
'conservative satire' comedy show as a direct counterblast to Comedy
Central's hugely popular The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Half
Hour News Hour will feature topical spoof stories and political
mockery from a right-wing perspective because, according to the show's
producer Joel Surnow in an online interview last week: 'One of the
things that's definitely not out there is a satirical voice that skews
to the right as opposed to the left.'

Would an Anglican split have mattered?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2015655,00.html

A schism has been avoided after the American wing of the church gave
in to African demands that it installs no more gay bishops

The Observer panel
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

Karol Sikora

It's almost farcical how these trivial issues, far from the core
business of any church, can split an institution. Inability to cope
with changing attitudes and the self-importance of its own 'leaders'
will bring about their marginalisation, as people seek better outlets
for their spiritual needs. Most Anglican congregations are dwindling
and their average age is increasing. There are far too many grossly
underused church buildings; some could become community centres. No
other consumer organisation, except the NHS, would deal with this
crisis by wasting so much time debating issues of such little
consequence.

Karol Sikora is a cancer specialist.

Michael and Steve - the ghosts in their machines
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2015390,00.html

Simon Caulkin, management editor
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

In 2005, I wrote a piece singing the praises of the computer company
Dell, along the lines that although Apple's far sexier machines
garnered all the hype, the real thing of beauty was Dell's 'direct
business model'. By cutting out the retailer and delivering direct to
the customer, this refined supply chain seemed destined to pull the
company steadily away from its rivals. In the long term, therefore,
the better bet was Dell.

Ambitious geeks floating away with new tech bubble
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2015397,00.html

John Naughton
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

You may have noticed that there's a new technology boom under way. Let
us call it TechBubble 2.0. It revolves around two axes.

One is Google, which currently dominates everything it touches. It has
also caused investors to lose what remains of their marbles. On 31
January, for example, the company announced fourth-quarter profits
that had nearly tripled ($1.03bn profit on a 67 percent jump in
revenues to $3.2bn) This indicates a year-on-year growth rate of 70
per cent. And yet the main consequence of the announcement was a 2 per
cent drop in the share price to $494, which suggests that investors
had expected even better results. If this isn't bubble thinking then I
don't know what is.

Army and police desert beleaguered Mugabe
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2015618,00.html

Officers walk out as inflation hits 1,600 per cent - but the
president's £1m birthday party goes ahead

Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

Widespread desertions from Zimbabwe's army and police are weakening
Robert Mugabe's security forces as large strikes loom because of the
country's deepening economic collapse.

With inflation now at a global record of 1,600 per cent, The Observer
can reveal that soldiers and police officers who cannot feed their
families are leaving their posts in large numbers.

Flyers of army officers who have gone missing are posted in the
hallways of the King George VI headquarters in Harare and the 1
Commando quarters near the airport, according to journalists.

Brutal reality of battle for hearts and minds
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2015610,00.html

Sniper fire, ambushes, unseen enemies ... the US fight to win the
trust of ordinary Iraqis is taking place in dirty alleys and ruined
police stations Watch our audio slideshow

Peter Beaumont in Burhiz
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

In Baqoubah, in the Iraqi province of Diyala, unpleasant questions get
answered very quickly. There is a startling pop, and then: 'Who fired
that shot? Did you fire that shot?'

One of the American soldiers of Bravo Company of the 1/12 Cavalry is
shouting at the accompanying Iraqi army troops, hoping against hope,
it appears, that a weapon has been accidentally discharged. We are
standing in a narrow dirt street lined with single-storey houses. In
places sewage has pooled in oily green puddles on the road's surface
and there is a nasty smell.

A practical lesson in US democracy
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2015763,00.html

Anyone can run for public office - so a young teacher did. And now
she's being played by Halle Berry

David Smith
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

It began as a classroom dare. In a lesson on early democracy in
Greece, 11-year-old Heather Faanes raised her hand and said that,
while it might have worked for the ancients, in modern America only
millionaires got to be powerful politcians. Her teacher disagreed and
set out to prove the little girl wrong - by running for the US
Congress herself.

The remarkable story of Tierney Cahill, a teacher who came from
nowhere to challenge a Republican congressman with the help of 11 and
12-year-old campaigners, is to be told in a Hollywood film starring
Oscar-winning Halle Berry. It is likely to be released next year, just
as another woman, Hillary Clinton, builds momentum in her bid for the
presidency.

End of the world - in close-up
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2015509,00.html

Thousands of light years away this remarkable image, captured by the
Hubble telescope, shows the death of a star and gives a dramatic
foretaste of the time when our own Sun will expire and swallow up the
Earth

Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

Astronomers have captured the death throes of a star identical to our
own Sun. In the image - taken last week by the Hubble space telescope
- vast clouds of superhot gases can be seen hurtling through the
depths of space. The remnant of the star is a tiny white dot at the
centre of the image.

Any planets near the star, known as NGC 2440 and more than 4,000 light
years away, would have been vaporised by this eruption, a fate
scientists predict will befall Earth. One day the Sun will also hurl
out its superheated contents as it implodes, though humanity may well
not be around to witness it. The Sun still has another three or four
billion years of normal, sunny behaviour, it is predicted.

Where Dolly went astray
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2015688,00.html

Ten years ago the first mammal cloning seemed to herald a new era of
medicine - then nothing happened. Robin McKie, who broke the story,
meets the pioneer who says Britain let another breakthrough slip away

Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

It was a breakthrough decades ahead of its time. On 23 February, 1997,
the world learnt that British scientists Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell
had created the first clone of an adult mammal. 'They have taken a
cell from a sheep's udder and turned it into a lamb,' ran The
Observer's front-page story. Dolly the Sheep had arrived.

The creation of Dolly - at the Roslin Institute, the agricultural
research centre near Edinburgh - opened up the prospect of an era of
new medicines and treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's. It also triggered a fierce debate about the prospects of
cloning humans and creating armies of Saddam Hussein doppelgangers.

Tea tree oil faces ban over health fear
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2015729,00.html

Scientists say even small amounts could provoke rashes and allergies

Amelia Hill, culture and society correspondent
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

Tea tree oil, the increasingly popular remedy for everything from
spots to insect bites and vapour rubs, is under threat of being banned
by the European Union. The EU has said that even small amounts of the
undiluted oil could be unsafe and unstable after clinical trials found
users risked rashes and allergies.

Cosmetic products, such as shampoo and bath oils, that use the oil in
concentrations of less than 1 per cent are safe. But the toiletries
and cosmetics firms that produce the neat form of the natural remedy
have been given until June to convince a panel of scientists that the
oil is safe to sell to the public.

If Christian soldiers really are on the march, where's the evidence?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2015342,00.html

Chris Hedges's American Fascists charts the rise of the Christian
Right

Rebecca Seal
Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
by Chris Hedges
Jonathan Cape £12.99, pp272

Twenty-five years ago, at around the time Pat Robertson and his fellow
TV evangelists were becoming famous and infamous, Chris Hedges heard
his ethics professor, James Luther Adams at Harvard Divinity School,
claim that by the time his audience reached his age - around 80 - they
would be fighting Christian fascists.

This comment by a man who had fled the Gestapo and Hedges's experience
as a foreign correspondent in the Balkans and Middle East have led him
to believe that we are now witnessing the growth of a movement with
awful similarities to the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy, the
ethnic violence of the former Yugoslavia and Islamic fundamentalism.

Is the American Right ready for Rudy?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2012260,00.html

Rudy Giuliani's instinctive leadership made him the hero of Ground
Zero. Five years on, New York's former mayor has hit the front in the
race for the Republican nomination. But now 'Rudy the Rock' is under
fire from his own side - for his pro-choice agenda and his gay
friends. Paul Harris joins the campaign contender in the fight of his
life

Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

In post 9/11 America, seeing Rudy Giuliani in the flesh can feel like
meeting a living saint. That day in early September 2001 is sacrosanct
in the national psyche and Giuliani is the holy symbol of American
resilience; American defiance; American courage.

As the tall, angular Giuliani walks on to a stage in front of a
business crowd in Miami Beach it is impossible not to think back to
the fall of the World Trade Center. As he waves at the thousand-strong
audience, every person is thinking of its famous totems: the falling
towers, the billowing debris cloud and the mayor who refused to be
defeated.

Iran's troubled rise
Paul Salem
February 19, 2007 9:43 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/paul_salem/2007/02/irans_troubled_rise.html

America's decision to target Iranian agents in Iraq who may be
involved in supporting violent militias is but another sign of the
massive influence Iran is exercising in that troubled country. But the
United States in fact facilitated Iran's growing influence by toppling
Saddam Hussein's regime and that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus
removing two factors that had kept the Iranian regime hemmed in for
the last two decades. Moreover, high oil prices have filled the
national treasury, and Iran is benefiting from the opportunity created
by America's being bogged down in Iraq and the growing international
weight of Russia and China.

Iran is also reaping the returns of long-term investments. It has
supported Iraqi Shia groups since the early 1980s and has an equally
long-standing alliance with Syria. In Lebanon, Iran helped create
Hizbullah, which recently survived a head-on war with Israel and is
the leading opponent of the anti-Syrian, western-backed government.
Iran's investment in Palestine is more recent, but its backing for the
Hamas-led government, which has been frustrated elsewhere, is no less
significant. A country of 70 million, Iran also has potential
influence with Shia communities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and
the United Arab Emirates.