Thursday 25 August 2011


Department of Health & Physical Education

Physical Education is a way of education by means of physical movement. From Molecular Biology to Material Sciences nothing of value can be expected from a society if the teaching and research in Health and physical education is ignored or if it is relegate to a secondary status. Being a natural phenomenon, movement is the essence of life and the entire mechanism of human body is geared to it. Experts believe that exercise is also as important as food. While food provides necessary energy for the body, exercise tones up the human organism so that it can utilize this energy in a better way. Since a healthy body is necessary for a healthy mind, physical education as a discipline is more intimately concerned with human development than educational disciplines.
Physical fitness is not only a concept but it reflects a practical approach to human betterment in terms of health. The survival of a nation is undoubtedly dependent on physical fitness which ensures general proficiency in all walks of life, and is inevitably linked with better economic growth. It is needless to emphasize the importance of physical education as a discipline as it already stands recognized at the university level. All the advanced countries, realizing its virtues and benefits, have included this subject as an essential part of curriculum at all levels of education.
The Department has been working strenuously towards a program of teaching and research to meet the needs of the country in Physical Education & Sports Sciences.

Risks of Canine NSAIDs

When dogs get older, their bones tend to get arthritic. Not all dogs face this problem, but the majority of dogs living a comfortable life in a home will usually end up with some form of arthritis problem. There have been a number of drugs created to help dogs deal with their arthritis, but it seems that the drugs are not all as beneficial as they claim to be.

The majority of the medications used to treat dogs and their arthritis tend to be non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, also known as NSAIDs. These drugs do work to help relieve the pain that a dog may be facing by reducing the swelling in the dog's joints. The effectiveness of the NSAIDs has been proven to help reduce the effects of the arthritis.

The downside to using these anti-inflammatory drugs is that many of these NSAIDs have a number of side effects that can be seriously harmful to dogs. All NSAIDs have a chance of causing adverse reactions or side effects in dogs, and the seriousness of the reaction will vary according to the dog which is given the medication. In order to give dog owners the ability to cope with any negative side effects, it is important to know what the main side effects are.

Minor Side Effects:

There are a number of minor side effects associated with dogs taking NSAIDs. These include:
  • Frequent vomiting
  • The inability to eat or a dog losing its appetite
  • Serious depression
  • Lethargy
  • Chronic diarrhea
These side effects are only the minor ones that dogs may experience from taking NSAIDs, but the majority of the dogs that have a negative reaction to the drugs will usually only have these minor side effects.

Major Side Effects:

The chance that a dog will react strongly to a particular NSAID is not as high as a minor reaction would be, but it is vital to be prepared when administering a drug of this type. The reactions that a dog may experience to one of these drugs include:
  • Liver Problems
  • Serious damage to the kidneys
  • Perforations
  • Painful ulcers
  • Bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract
While none of these side effects are guaranteed to be fatal, they can kill the dog if they are not treated immediately. The risk of these side effects is not as high as the minor side effects, but the consequences are much more serious if a dog has a violent negative reaction to these drugs.

Canine Arthritis Medications:

There have been a number of medications that have had a serious negative impact on dogs, such as:

Rimadyl - Is one of the most popular canine arthritis medications, but it has been proven to be fatal to a large number of dogs. The FDA forced Rimadyl to put this side effect on the label, but it is still one of the most sold drugs.
Metacam - Is a synthetic drug that is used to treat canine arthritis, and this drug has been known to provoke serious diarrhea in dogs. It has also been known to cause ulcers, perforation, kidney toxicity, and liver problems.
Previcox and Adequan (Canine) - Both have caused serious problems in dogs, especially in the circulatory system. These medications reduce the effectiveness of the platelets in a dog's blood, which reduces the ability to form clots. This can cause minor injuries to be incredibly serious, and can even lead to death by internal bleeding. Other side effects include vomiting, breathing problems, kidney and liver disease, and even death.
Deramaxx - Has serious side effects when the dog's body reacts negatively with the medication, which can include organ failure or serious damage done to the organs, lethargy, jaundice, depression, and vomiting.

All of these drugs can react violently with a dog's body, which is why veterinarians recommend that a dog is tested before the drug is applied.

Every dog that will be taking these medications should be tested to determine whether or not a particular drug can have serious side effects in a dog's body. The tests are used to determine baseline blood value before the drug is administered, as well as during the period in which the medication is taken by the dog. This gives veterinarians the ability to monitor the dog to determine if there are any signs of serious side effects or complications caused by the medication.

The last thing Norway needs is illiberal Britain's patronising


The Norwegian tragedy is just that, a tragedy. It does not signify anything and should not be forced to do so. A man so insane he can see nothing wrong in shooting dead 68 young people in cold blood is so exceptional as to be of interest to criminology and brain science, but not to politics. We can sympathise with the bereaved, and with their country in its collective sense of loss. But the tragedy does not signify.

No, Anders Breivik does not tell us anything about Norway. No, he does not tell us anything about "the state of modern society". He tells us nothing about terrorism or gun control or policing or political holiday camps. His avowal of fascism could as well have been of communism or Islamism or anarchism. The desperate, perhaps understandable, search to find meaning in such acts is dangerous. Breivik does not even measure up to the ideological coherence of the nazism he admired. He is plainly very sick.

David Cameron was therefore wrong to leap forward and order "a review of the far right", or of the far anything. The hysteria of the moment may require a knee jerk from those in power, but why the national security council was summoned, or "a review of our security at home" needed, is a mystery. To the victims, the killings were an act of random madness, a terrible accident, a car crash, a catastrophe out of the blue. To seek normality in their abnormality only gives them currency, and probably spurious meaning.

Worst of all has been the confusion of language. That a mass murderer might like to parade as a jihadi, a holy warrior or a Knight Templar does not make him one. That he does something terrible does not make him a terrorist. Cameron's reference on Monday to Britain having also been a victim "of horrific acts of terrorism" made precisely the linkage that Breivik might have wanted.

Terrorism is a specific and rational political form: the use of violence to achieve a multiplier of fear through a civilian population to a particular end. Visiting "shock and awe" by bombing Baghdad in 2003 was terrorism, as were the bombs on the London Underground. Killing Norwegian teenagers (not Muslims) to express some vague hatred for society is not. It is merely deranged.

Nor can I see any purpose in detailed textual analysis of Breivik's so-called manifesto, least of all as a means to make easy partisan points, leftwing or rightwing, out of its garbled horror. We do not need a mass killing in Norway to know that the English Defence League and British National Party are distasteful and xenophobic organisations. The "experts in far-right studies" emerging from British universities to suggest "possible links" merely feed the hysteria, publicising what is best ignored.

No system of security can prevent such incidents. Norway, like Britain, has tough anti-gun laws; its excellent community policing should in theory throw up early warning of antisocial personalities. Like the rest of Scandinavia, it boasts an obsessive "health and safety" culture. But nothing is fool-proof. To demand ever more control of the sale of weapons and ever more espionage of fringe political groups may serve the interest of the security industry in bidding for power and money. But it also puts pressure on government to impose ever more monitoring and surveillance. This sows fear and induces deference to authority. Is that the outcome we want?

Was it pure coincidence that on Monday the government told parliament that it was quietly breaking its clear post-election promise to destroy the stored DNA of people arrested but not charged? This was an outrageous, unjustified, police-lobbied reneging on a central libertarian principle, to which both coalition parties were committed. It is tempting to think that modern British governments will use any excuse to further illiberal repression. This announcement passed almost unnoticed by the press, while editorials were devoted to telling Norway to "show courage and resilience" and "stand up for freedom" in the face of Breivik's attack.

Norway has no need of such admonition. While it might appreciate the world sharing in its collective grief, it can reply that Norway is one of democracy's more alert champions. Nor is it casual or uncritical in its championship.

In 2004 Norway celebrated a century of independence, not with fireworks and self-congratulation but a voluminous study of its constitution's health. It took five years and yielded 50 books, forming an astonishing Domesday survey of democracy in one country. Like apiarists round a beehive, scholars studied every minute facet of political life and party affiliation, every local association, newspaper, lobby and minority group.

The majority of the scholars reached the conclusion that their country's "democratic infrastructure" was in urgent need of repair. The traditional "chain of command", from voters and localities to decisions of central government, had eroded. With just 4.9 million people – a population smaller than Scotland's – Norway faced being run by a self-perpetuating oligarchy of Oslo officials, bankers, lawyers and media. They would be overseen by an ineffective rolling coalition of politicians elected under proportional representation and thus rarely out of office. Norway, since the advent of its oil wealth, was in danger of becoming a nation too comfortable to worry about politics. Democracy was suffering not from a lack of social cohesion but perhaps from too much.

The UK interpreter of the Norway study, the Oxford political scientist Stein Ringen, drew from it a controversial set of messages (reported in the TLS in April 2004). They included reform of proportional representation, which was neutering decisive elections; stopping subsidies to political parties, which cut them off from their members; withdrawing from Europe's legal conventions, to make Norway's parliament directly responsible for human rights; welcoming, not suppressing, multiculturalism; and rebuilding local democracy, which was active not passive.

Norway has yet to implement many of these suggestions. But their vitality shows it can debate them, and needs no patronising from more "mature" democracies, least of all ones that react to every threat with another turn of the illiberal screw. If the world is to put Norway in the spotlight, the lesson it should draw is that advocated at the weekend by its prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, for more openness and pluralism. Vigorous argument, not witch-hunts and repression, is the way to entrench democracy, rather than overreacting to a terrible but random act of insanity.


Wednesday 24 August 2011

Norwegian police detonate explosives at Anders Behring Breivik's farm


Police investigating the Norwegian terror attacks that left 76 people dead have detonated a cache of explosives at a farm rented by Anders Behring Breivik.

Detectives believe the 32-year-old made the bomb that killed eight people in Oslo on Friday using fertiliser he purchased under the guise of being a farmer.

The controlled explosion on Tuesday night came after police named four of the victims, including three caught up in the city centre bombing and a 23-year-old shot dead on Utøya island.

Police would not reveal the quantity of explosives found at the farm in Rena, about 100 miles north of the capital, Oslo.

As the investigation continues, security officials have cast doubt on claims made by Breivik that he had accomplices who were still at large. At his first court appearance in Oslo on Monday, he told a closed courtroom that he had links to "two other terror cells".

But Norway's domestic intelligence chief, Janne Kristiansen, said no proof has yet been found to link Breivik to right-wing extremists in the UK or elsewhere.

She told the BBC: "I can tell you, at this moment in time, we don't have evidence or we don't have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells."

Kristiansen added that she did not believe the killer was insane, but calculating and evil, and someone who sought the limelight.

At a press conference in Oslo on Tuesday, Johan Fredrikson, the chief of Oslo police, said that he still had no evidence that there was an accomplice or network behind the attacks despite an international investigation involving British police.

On Wednesday morning, Oslo's main station was closed after a suspicious suitcase was discovered on a bus. All train and bus services out of the centre were halted while police investigated the suspect case, which turned out to be harmless.

Oslo police also caused panic by putting out an alert saying they were looking for a "dangerous and unstable" man who claimed a connection with Breivik. But shortly after releasing the alert, police said they had wrongly connected a mentally ill man with Friday's massacre.

"This has nothing to do with Friday's case," a police official said. "The news release was sent out in error. This is a routine mission by the police."

The police have been criticised for their failure to reach Utøya sooner on Friday after Breivik's lawyer revealed that his client was surprised to have reached the island youth camp without being stopped by police – who took 90 minutes to arrive. It has emerged the nearest police helicopter available was not able to intervene because its pilots were on holiday.

On Wednesday, the leader of Norway's emergency delta force police unit defended its response to the atrocities, claiming the breakdown of the team's boat did not cause any significant delay in efforts to reach Utøya.

Anders Snortheimsmoen told reporters that even though the assigned boat quickly broke down, the team immediately jumped into another, better boat. He says his team arrived at the harbour at the same time as local police and that the boat mishap caused "no delay".

Norwegian investigators have assigned a whole unit to pore over the 1500-page manifesto Breivik emailed to more than 1,000 contacts less than 90 minutes before he launched his attacks.

One paragraph in the diatribe describes a detailed "survivor's kit" which he claimed to be preparing in advance to help him break out of prison, including weapons, ammunition, nutrition, and cash.

The Norwegian tabloid VG reported how Breivik describes plans for another terrorist attack, should he manage to escape from jail, including a "hit-list" of targets.


Anders Behring Breivik: 'It was a normal arrest


Norwegian police have given their most detailed account yet of how Anders Behring Breivik surrendered after killing 68 people on Utøya island and eight in the bomb attack the same day in Oslo.

"When we get closer to the place where there's shooting we started to use our voices yelling 'armed police' to draw the attention to us," Haavard Gaasbakk, the squad leader of the police unit that arrested Breivik, told the press. "We come to a forested area and the suspect stands there right in front of us with his hands high above his head. It was a completely normal arrest."

The Norwegian police have been criticised for their failure to reach the island of Utøya sooner on 22 July, the day of the massacres.

Breivik's lawyer said his client was surprised to have reached the island youth camp without being stopped by any police. Officers were reported to have taken 90 minutes to arrive at the site and it emerged that the nearest police helicopter available could not intervene as the pilots were on holiday.

But Knut Storberget, Norway's justice minister, praised the police and anti-terrorism teams, saying they had helped "limit the tragedy".

The leader of the country's emergency delta force unit, Anders Snortheimsmoen, separately said his officers nearly shot Breivik because they feared that he could have been wearing an explosive belt. A decision was made by a "very narrow margin", he said.

Snortheimsmoen defended his unit's response to the atrocities, claiming the problems with the team's boat caused no significant delay in getting to Utøya. He said that though the boat broke down the team were immediately able to use an alternative vessel. The team arrived at the harbour at the same time as local police.

Earlier, the Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said his country would "not be intimidated or threatened" by the terror attacks, which left 76 people dead. The country would "stand firm" in defending its values and the "open, tolerant and inclusive society", he said on Wednesday. He added: "The Norwegian response to violence is more democracy, more openness and greater political participation."

The horrific and brutal attacks were an assault on Norway's fundamental values, Stoltenberg said. "We have to be very clear to distinguish between extreme views, opinions that it's completely legal, legitimate to have. What is not legitimate is to try to implement those extreme views by using violence."

Norwegian media have suggested police knew Breivik's identity before they reached the island, tracing him through a rental car firm from whom he hired a van in which the Oslo bomb was planted.

Dag Andre Johansen, Scandinavian chief executive of the Avis car rental company, told Associated Press that Breivik had rented two vehicles, including a Volkswagen van. Police contacted the company after the bombing and confirmed Breivik's identity. But Johansen declined to say whether that contact preceded Breivik's arrest on Utøya.

Police meanwhile detonated a cache of explosives at a farm rented by Breivik. Detectives believe the 32-year-old made the bomb using fertiliser he purchased ostensibly for vegetable cultivation.

The controlled explosion came after police named four of the victims, including three caught up in the Oslo bombing and a 23-year-old shot dead on Utøya. Police would not reveal the quantity of explosives found at the farm in Rena, about 100 miles north of the capital.

As the investigation continues security officials have cast doubt on Breivik's claims of having accomplices who are still at large. At his first court appearance in Oslo, on Monday, he told a courtroom he had links to "two other terror cells".

But Norway's domestic intelligence chief, Janne Kristiansen, said no proof had yet been found to link Breivik to rightwing extremists in the UK or elsewhere. She told the BBC: "I can tell you, at this moment in time, we don't have evidence or we don't have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells."

Kristiansen added that she did not believe the killer was insane, but that he was "calculating and evil, and someone who sought the limelight".

At a press conference in the capital, Johan Fredrikson, chief of Oslo's police, said that he still had no evidence of an accomplice or network behind the attacks, despite an international investigation involving British police.

On Wednesday morning, Oslo's main station was closed after a suitcase, thought suspicious, was discovered on a bus. All train and bus services out of the centre were halted while police investigated. The luggage turned out to be harmless.

Oslo police also caused some panic by putting out an alert saying they were looking for a "dangerous and unstable" man who claimed a connection with Breivik. But shortly after releasing the alert police said they had wrongly connected a mentally ill man with the massacre last week. "This has nothing to do with Friday's case," a police official said. "The news release was sent out in error. This is a routine mission by the police."

Norwegian investigators have assigned an entire unit to examine the 1,500-page manifesto that Breivik emailed to more than 1,000 contacts less than 90 minutes before he launched his attacks.

One paragraph in Breivik's diatribe describes a "survivor's kit" containing weapons, ammunition, cash and food, a kit he claimed to be preparing to help him break out of jail. The Norwegian tabloid VG says Breivik described plans for another terrorist attack, following his escape from jail, which included a hit-list of targets.


Norway prime minister urges nation to 'embrace freedom'


The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, has told a remembrance service for the 76 people killed by Anders Behring Breivik that his country had been "struck by evil", but urged his countrymen to respond by embracing democracy and freedom.

Speaking as the first funerals were held for victims of Breivik's bomb and shooting attack, Stoltenberg said the 32-year-old's actions were "an attack against political engagement … an attack on our democracy".

He added: "We have memorials in churches and in mosques, in parliament and in the government headquarters, on the streets and in squares … Evil has brought out the best in us. Hatred engenders love."

While the prime minister was speaking, police questioned Breivik for the second time. Officers said they had now identified all of those killed in the bomb and gun attacks, adding a new list of victims would be released later.

Two psychiatrists have been appointed to assess Breivik's mental health.

Investigators believe the 32-year-old acted alone, after years of meticulous planning, and have not found anything to support his claims of being part of an anti-Muslim militant network plotting a series of attacks across Europe.

Breivik was questioned for seven hours last Saturday, the day after the twin attacks, which targeted the government district in Oslo and a Labour party youth camp. He admitted carrying out the attacks but has pleaded not guilty to terror charges, saying he is in a "state of war", according to his lawyer and police.

Police have charged Breivik with terrorism, which carries a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison. However, it is possible the charge change during the investigation to crimes against humanity, which carries a 30-year sentence, Norway's leading prosecutor, Tor-Aksel Busch, told the Associated Press."Such charges will be considered when the entire police investigation has been finalised," he said. "It is an extensive investigation. We will charge Breivik for each individual killing." A formal indictment is not expected until next year

British couple held in Afghanistan over suspected terror plot due home


A British couple captured by special forces in Afghanistan and suspected of terrorist-related activities are expected to be returned to the UK on Saturday where they could be arrested or placed under surveillance.

The case remains highly sensitive because of the legal complexities involved. UK officials last night declined to comment.

The couple were seized by British special forces last week in the western Afghan city of Herat. They were transferred to what the Ministry of Defence called a "secure facility" in Kandahar where they have been held since.

Nato forces can hold suspects for up to four days before releasing them or handing them over to the Afghan authorities. However, the period can be extended "in exceptional circumstances". UK officials have made clear the man and the woman captured in a hotel in Herat constituted a special case.

The Foreign Office said at the time that suspects could be detained for more than 96 hours "in particular where it could provide information that could help protect our forces or the local population".

The couple were seized in what UK defence officials described as a joint operation with the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). However, the Afghan authorities insisted the operation was "UK-led".

Officials familiar with the operation called it "terrorism-related". A key question will be the nature of any evidence against the couple obtained by the British security services.


Peter King's reckless claim of al-Shabaab's menace to the US


This past week, Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House homeland security committee, held the third in a series of highly publicised hearings on the radicalisation of Muslims in the United States and the threat they allegedly pose to the American homeland. King's focus this time around was on Americans who support al-Shabaab, an organised insurgency in Somalia known for its brutal tactics and the ruthless control it exerts over its own members. According to King, the danger this faraway rebellion poses for the United States should not be minimised:

"With al-Shabaab's large cadre of American jihadis and unquestionable ties to al-Qaida, particularly its alliance with AQAP, we must face the reality that al-Shabaab is a growing threat to our homeland."

King claimed to base his findings on an investigation conducted by his staff. His conclusion was that the call of al-Shabaab has placed the American homeland in imminent peril.

Most of the criticism leveled at King has focused on his reckless use of Congress to articulate distrust and fear of Muslims in a way that upends the basic tenets of non-discrimination in the United States. But more to the point, there are numerous factual and interpretive mistakes in King's representation of the Somalia issue. These errors are worth noting, because if left uncorrected, they may propel the United States along another erroneous pathway, both at home and abroad.

First, King misrepresents the magnitude of the exodus of Americans to Somalia. King's figures are correct, but his conclusions are misleading. Since 2009, nearly 40 individuals have been indicted in the United States for providing some sort of support – or wanting to provide some sort of support – to al-Shabaab. According to the terrorism database at the Centre on Law and Security, which I direct, 20 individuals have been indicted for travelling to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab, and an additional five have been indicted for attempting to travel there. Of these, 15 were US citizens. This is hardly a "large cadre of Americans".

Second, King confuses internationalist jihad with nationalist foreign insurgency. In the case of Somalia, the main imperative for fighting is not international jihad; it is the wresting of power from the group now in nominal control of the government, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The individuals who join this insurgency are most often of Somali descent and are fighting to help their former countrymen and their families in a failed state where violence, famine and chronic water shortage plague one the poorest nations on earth. In fact, contrary to King's assumptions, recent research done by Thomas Hegghammer at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment suggests that most foreign fighters do not have terrorist intentions at the outset beyond the nationalist cause they are looking to serve.

Third, King infers that tenuous links between foreign insurgency and jihadi violence will result in terrorism in the United States, once these foreign fighters return, now trained in the tactics of violence. This may, in fact, be a realistic worry for the future. But at present, the statistics show, according to the study done by Hegghammer (who is currently a fellow at the Centre on Law and Security), that "not more than one in eight foreign fighters returned to perpetrate terrorism in the west", once they have left the nationalist cause for which they were fighting abroad. As to facts on the ground in the United States, there are no Somalia returnees who have been charged with planning to attack America. On the contrary, returnees who have been indicted have been charged with attempts to recruit for the struggle abroad.

Fourth, to bolster his conflation of terrorism and nationalist struggle, King misrepresents the strength of the ties between al-Shabaab and al-Qaida. While there may be some connection between some of the leaders, al-Shabaab's mission is very much its own. According to the National Counterterrorism Centre, al-Shabaab's links to al-Qaida have not reached the organisational level; it can therefore in no way be classified as a strong partner in the al-Qaida network. To quote from the NCC's website:

"While most of [Shabaab's] fighters are predominantly interested in the nationalistic battle against the TFG and not supportive of global jihad, al-Shabaab's senior leadership is affiliated with al-Qaida, and certain extremists aligned with al-Shabaab are believed to have trained and fought in Afghanistan."

A summary report by the Council on Foreign Relations concurs:

"Experts say there are links between individual al-Shabaab leaders and individual members of al-Qaida, but any organizational linkage between the two groups is weak, if it exists at all."

These exaggerations and errors suggest that King has fallen prey to three fallacies that have, unfortunately, characterised American counterterrorism policy since 9/11, generating a string of counterproductive policies. King, too, fails to distinguish between the various terrorists threats – that is, the difference posed by Americans who reach out to al-Shabaab, as opposed to AQAP; he risks playing into the worldview of al-Qaida, which is constantly trying to claim inroads into foreign struggles; and finally, he succumbs to fantasy threat-inflation rather than encouraging realistic risk-avoidance – it is one thing to be vigilant about fighters returning from Somalia and quite another to prosecute individuals merely for a desire to fight in the civil conflict there. A more feet-on-the-ground approach would begin with a simple observation: the only Somali American who attempted to commit violence against US targets was Mohamed Osman Mohamud – and he appears to have no links to al-Shabaab or their cause.

The accurate analysis of homegrown terrorism in the United States is yet to be written. But its contours would look something like this: the incidence of terrorism arrests and indictments have gone down precipitously in 2011. Yet the serious nature of terrorism arrests for domestic terrorism has risen in recent years, as illustrated notably by the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, the New York City subway bomber Najibullah Zazi and Major Hassan at Fort Hood. Somalis have not yet emerged as a group with the motivation and capacity to harm Americans at home or abroad.

It is responsible to consider the possibility of what will happen as Somali fighters are exposed to al-Qaida operatives and foreign training; it is not so to make the claim, as Peter King has, that Somali Muslims represent a real and present danger to the United States. Until the United States can have a fact-based discussion of terrorism and look towards threat management, rather than prevention strategies based on guesswork and hyperbole, the excesses of the war on terror – and the harm that it has caused to America's core values – will rage on.
• additional research for this piece was contributed by Susan Quatrone


Chinese police shoot two dead over suspected terror attacks


Chinese police have shot dead two suspects they were hunting in connection with a deadly attack in the troubled north-western region of Xinjiang, say officials.

Police have imposed a nighttime curfew in the centre of Kashgar and armed paramilitary police are guarding major junctions following the weekend's violence.

Officials have blamed extremists trained in camps in Pakistan for Sunday's attack, which left 11 dead. Pakistan, one of China's closest allies, has condemned the violence and pledged support in tackling terrorism.

A police officer said the incident appeared to be linked to violence the previous night – when two blasts and a knife attack left seven dead, including one assailant – but authorities have yet to say who was responsible for that assault.

A notice posted on the Xinjiang regional government website said police shot Memtieli Tiliwaldi, 29, and Turson Hasan, 34, who had been hiding in fields on the outskirts of Kashgar. Police had issued a reward of 100,000 yuan (£9,400) for information leading to their arrest, believing they were among a group who stormed a restaurant on Sunday, killing the owner and waiter and setting fire to the building. The assailants then hacked to death four people on the street and wounded 12 more. Police shot dead five suspects at the scene and arrested four others.

Authorities later said the group's leaders received firearms and explosives training at terrorist camps in Pakistan run by the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

The region's Communist Party boss, Zhang Chunxian, has ordered a crackdown on "illegal religious activities" in the wake of the attacks, the state news agency Xinhua added.

It is less than a fortnight since officials said 18 people were killed in an attack on a police station in Hotan, another city in the region. Uighur exiles disputed that account.

Exiled Uighur leader Rebiyah Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said she opposed violence but blamed the Chinese government for Sunday's attacks.

Kadeer said in a statement: "I am saddened that Han Chinese and Uyghurs have lost their lives. At the same time, I cannot blame the Uighurs who carry out such attacks for they have been pushed to despair by Chinese policies. I condemn the Chinese government for the incident.

"The Chinese government has created an environment of hopelessness that means it must take responsibility for civilian deaths and injuries caused by their discriminatory policies."

She added that the congress was sceptical of claims the attackers had connections to international terrorist groups.

The Uyghur American Association said in a statement that it feared Uighurs could face arbitrary detention and torture.

"Chinese officials have sown the seeds of instability in East Turkestan through the repressive measures they have enforced since the unrest of July 5, 2009", added president Alim Seytoff.

Xinjiang has been under tight security since the ethnic riots in the capital Urumqi, which killed almost 200 mostly Han Chinese people.

Professor Rohan Gunaratna of Singapore's International Centre for Violence and Terrorism Research said he believed the weekend's attacks were carried out by ETIM or people inspired by the group.

He added that ETIM – which he believes is the same organisation as the Turkestan Islamic Party – had been in decline since its leader was killed in 2003. Its size and influence was further reduced by the death of a new leader in a US missile strike in Waziristan last year.

Gunaratna said ETIM now numbered a few dozen members and relied on overseas terrorist groups for training because it did not have its own infrastructure.

While there is evidence of links between al-Qaida and ETIM, some experts question whether the contacts were substantial and how long they lasted. There are also disputes about whether ETIM is a group as such, or little more than an umbrella term.

Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "The reason the Chinese government always points at foreign involvement in violent incidents in Xinjiang is to take the focus off local discontent."

Many in the large Uighur Muslim population are angered by religious and cultural controls, economic discrimination and large-scale Han migration.


Pentagon to monitor social networking sites for threats


The Pentagon is planning to use social networking sites to tackle threats such as cyberterrorism and to identify where a major event like the Arab revolutions might next take place, reports in the US say.

The US department of defence is offering $42m (£25m) to fund research into monitoring social networks to track the formation, development and spread of ideas, and identify misinformation and attempts to foment unrest. The move by Darpa, the defence advanced research projects agency, comes in the wake of use of social networks by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq and by home-grown threats such as Anonymous. Darpa did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Times.

Darpa is also seeking to identify people involved in such activity, what their intentions are and the impact of online campaigns to shape opinions or gather support on an issue, according to a document presented at the offices of the military contractor System Planning Corporation.

US efforts to monitor or manipulate social media have generally focused on non-US-language operations in the Middle East. However, other online groups are starting to be classified as threats by wings of the military. The new proposals also seek to further efforts by the US government to automatically generate social media content through fake accounts, or bots. In March this year it was reported that US Central Command (Centcom) had awarded a contract to develop software that generates so-called "sock puppet" accounts – fake identities used to promote a particular view while hiding the user's true identity.

Internet commentator Jeff Jarvis dismissed previous efforts at implement such technologies as "appalling and amusing".


Pakistan naval officers face court martial over Karachi airbase attack


Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Karachi naval airbase, which came three weeks after US navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden. Photograph: Shakil Adil/AP

Three senior Pakistani naval officers are facing court martial over an attack on a naval airbase in Karachi in May.

The assault on the PNS Mehran base embarrassed the military and raised doubts about its ability to protect its facilities after a similar raid on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009.

"We had set up a board of inquiry, and after its report, court martial proceedings have been initiated against three officers," a senior navy official told Reuters.

The officers being tried include Commodore Raja Tahir, the commander of the Mehran base who was relieved of his command two days after the attack. At that time, the navy had insisted that it was a "routine and scheduled" transfer.

However, the naval official said that the trial – a rare sign of public accountability within Pakistan's powerful military establishment – does not mean that the officers were in some way connected with the attack. "They are being tried because they were at a responsible position, and were responsible for the security and other affairs of the base," he said.

Pakistani security officials had earlier detained a former navy commando and his brother in connection with the raid. A naval spokesman in Islamabad could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Mehran base attack came nearly three weeks after US navy Seals killed al-Qaida chief, Osama bin Laden, in a secret raid in the northwestern Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad on 2 May.

Pakistani Taliban, allied with al-Qaida, have vowed revenge for Bin Laden's death.

As few as six militants infiltrated the Mehran base, the headquarters of the navy's air wing, killing 10 security forces and wounding 20.

The militants, who besieged the military facility for 16 hours, also destroyed two US-made P-3C Orion aircraft, crucial to Pakistan's maritime surveillance capabilities.

The daring raid was another humiliation for the military, which had already been unable to explain how Bin Laden hid in the country for years or how the Americans could launch the attack deep inside their territory.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Mehran base, but many analysts believe they had inside help.

Pakistan has faced a wave of assaults over the last few years, many of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban and other al-Qaida-linked militant groups.

In October 2009, a small group of militants attacked the army's general headquarters in Rawalpindi, taking 42 people hostage, including several officers. By the end of the day-long siege, nine gunmen, 11 soldiers and three hostages were dead.


The secret interrogation policy that could never be made public


Government ministers were extraordinarily sensitive about the contents of the secret MI5 and MI6 interrogation policy document when the Guardian became aware of its existence two years ago.

Initially, its purpose was to permit the questioning of prisoners being held at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, despite it being clear that these men were being severely abused by members of the US military.

In time, the policy developed into one governing the conduct of British intelligence officers who were questioning terrorism suspects held by some of the world's most notorious security agencies.

As a number of these men began to emerge from captivity, some bearing clear signs of having been tortured, the ministers became even more nervous. The disclosure of the contents of the document helps explain why.

Tony Blair evaded a series of questions over the role he played in authorising changes to the instructions in 2004, while the former home secretary David Blunkett maintained it was potentially libellous even to ask him questions about the matter.

As foreign secretary, David Miliband told MPs the secret policy could never be made public as "nothing we publish must give succour to our enemies".

Blair, Blunkett and the former foreign secretary Jack Straw also declined to say whether or not they were aware that the instructions had led to a number of people being tortured.

The head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said that, in the post 9/11 world, his officers would be derelict in their duty if they did not work with intelligence agencies in countries with poor human rights records, while his opposite number at MI6, Sir John Sawers, spoke of the "real, constant, operational dilemmas" involved in such relationships.

Others, however, are questioning whether, in the words of Ken Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, "Tony Blair's government was guilty of developing something close to a criminal policy".

The Intelligence and Security Committee, the group of parliamentarians appointed by the prime minister to assist with the oversight of the UK's intelligence agencies, is known to have examined the document while sitting in secret. However, it is unclear what – if any – suggestions or complaints it made.

Paul Murphy, the Labour MP and former minister who chaired the committee in 2006, declined to answer questions about the matter.

A number of men, mostly British Muslims, have complained that they were questioned by MI5 and MI6 officers after being tortured by overseas intelligence officials in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Some are known to have been detained at the suggestion of British intelligence officers.

Others say they were tortured in places such as Egypt, Dubai, Morocco and Syria, while being interrogated on the basis of information that could only have been supplied by the UK.

Some were subsequently convicted of serious terrorism offences or subjected to control orders. Others were returned to the UK and, after treatment, resumed their lives.

One is a businessman in Yorkshire, another a software designer living in Berkshire, and a third is a doctor practising on the south coast of England.

Some of the men have brought civil proceedings against the British government, and a number have received compensation in out-of-court settlements. Others remain too frightened to take action.

Scotland Yard has examined the possibility that one officer from MI5 and a second from MI6 committed criminal offences while extracting information from detainees overseas, and detectives are now conducting what is described as a "wider investigation into other potential criminal conduct".

A new set of instructions was drafted after last year's election, published on the orders of David Cameron, on the grounds that the coalition was "determined to resolve the problems of the past" and wished to give "greater clarity about what is and what is not acceptable in the future".

Human rights groups pointed to what they said were serious loopholes that could permit MI5 and MI6 officers to remain involved in the torture of prisoners overseas.

The issue of alleged torture in custody continues to haunt political, military and intelligence elites on both sides of the Atlantic. On Thursday a judge in America allowed a former military contractor who claims he was imprisoned and tortured by the US army in Iraq to sue the former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally for damages.

The man, an army veteran whose identity has been withheld, was working as a translator for the US marines in the volatile Anbar province when he was detained for nine months at Camp Cropper, a US military facility near Baghdad airport dedicated to holding "high-value" detainees.

The US government says he was suspected of helping to pass classified information to the enemy and helping anti-coalition forces enter Iraq. But he was never charged with a crime, and he says he never broke the law.

Lawyers for the man, who is in his 50s, claim he was preparing to return to the US on annual leave when he was detained without justification and that his family were told nothing about his whereabouts or whether he was still alive.

Court papers filed on his behalf say he was repeatedly abused, then released without explanation in August 2006. Two years later, he filed a suit in Washington arguing that Rumsfeld personally approved torturous interrogation techniques on a case-by-case basis and controlled his detention without access to the courts, in violation of his constitutional rights.

Alleged victims

Binyam Mohamed, 33, returned to Britain in 2009 after his release from Guantanámo Bay. An MI5 officer was alleged to have been involved in an interview with Mohamed in Pakistan and to have seen him three times while he was being held in Morocco.

Faisal Mostafa, 47, a chemist from Stockport, was repatriated from Bangladesh last summer after being detained in Dhaka in 2009. He is said to have been hooded, strapped to a chair and questioned about the UK while a drill was driven into his shoulder and hip.

Alam Ghafoor, 40, from Huddersfield, said he was held on a business trip in the United Arab Emirates after the London 7/7 bombings. The Foreign Office insisted he had not been detained at the request of the UK. Released after signing a false confession.

Zeeshan Siddiqui, a British citizen detained by the Pakistani security services and tortured while they accused him of being a member of al-Qaida. He returned to the UK and was placed under a control order. He absconded and is still missing.


Gunmen kill four members of government-backed Iraqi militia


Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms have killed four members of the government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia after dragging them from a mosque near Baghdad after Monday night prayers, security sources said.

The killings followed bombings across the country in which at least 68 people died in apparently co-ordinated attacks. The authorities blamed Sunni Islamist al-Qaida affiliates intent on a show of force before the withdrawal of US troops by the end of year.

"Individuals from the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), wearing army uniforms, entered al-Tawab mosque and called names of people from a list. They took worshippers and shot them," Qasim al-Hamdani, a former Sahwa militia member, said.

An interior ministry source said the gunmen left a note near the bodies in which they claimed to belong to the ISI

The killing happened in Sayafiya, 12 miles (20km) south of Baghdad. Evening prayers are particularly associated with the holy month of Ramadan, which began two weeks ago.

"The army brought us four bodies of Sahwa members and three wounded. At the beginning we thought the three wounded were also killed because they were badly injured," a policeman who works in a hospital in a nearby town said.

The Sahwa militia, or Awakening Council, is made up of former insurgents from the Sunni minority who turned against al-Qaida. It was formed in late 2006 – mostly by Sunni tribal sheikhs, with the help of the US military – during sectarian bloodshed in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

Al-Qaida managed to regroup forces in the southern parts of Baghdad, forcing many Sahwa fighters to leave amid fears of reprisals, Hamdani said.

"We sacrifice our lives and put our families in danger, but we've got nothing in return from the government," he added. "Leaving Sahwa was my best choice to spare myself a bullet in the head."

Sahwa militia members work with Iraqi forces in manning security checkpoints in the mainly Sunni areas across the country.

The integration of former Sahwa fighters into the government is widely considered a key to stabilising Iraq amid concerns that the new Shia-led government is not carrying out a promise to hire them.

Last week, ISI warned members of Sahwa to rejoin the insurgent ranks or face consequences.

Al-Qaida in Iraq has suffered severe blows to its लीडरशिप

Gas attack plotarrest before Pope's visit to Madrid


A Mexican chemistry student in Madrid is accused of plotting a gas attack against protesters who don't want the city paying for the Pope's visit. Photograph: Andrea Comas/Reuters

Spanish police have arrested a man suspected of planning a gas attack on marchers protesting against Pope Benedict's visit to Madrid, which begins on Thursday.

José Pérez Bautista, a 24-year-old Mexican chemistry student, was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday. Police said he had declared on the internet that he intended to attack the march.

He planned to use "suffocating gases" and other chemicals, and tried to recruit others to help him, police said.

Bautista, from Puebla state, near Mexico City, was one of hundreds of volunteers recruited to help pilgrims arriving for World Youth Week, a festival organised by the Catholic church. He is a student at Spain's Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain's national scientific research organisation, and according to police had access to chemicals that could have been used in an attack.

A pen drive and notebook containing information about chemical processes not related to his studies were found in his flat, police said.

Police refused to say whether they believed Bautista was capable of mounting the attack, but said officers had been forced to taken online threats more seriously following the Norway shootings in July. Anders Behring Breivik boasted of his plans online before killing 77 people in Europe's worst mass killing outside of war.

The protest march on Tuesday evening in central Madrid was organised by an association that included secularists, atheists and freethinkers. The visit is said to be costing the city some €60m (£53m) at a time when Madrid faces high unemployment and austerity measures.

The protesters complain that the government is contributing €25m to the cost of a religious festival. Although the majority of Spaniards are nominally Catholic, Spain has no official state religion.

Two hundred white confessional booths have been installed in Madrid's Buen Retiro park as pilgrims from more than 100 countries descend on the city.

The archbishop of Madrid, Antoni María Rouco Varela, has urged pilgrims to join the priesthood in order to stem the tide of "rampant relativism". He gave mass from an altar adorned with an image of the Virgin of Almudena, the patron saint of Madrid, and a flask of Pope John Paul II's blood. The late pope, Benedict's predecessor, was beatified in May.


Libya: echoes of Afghanistan


Libya's Colonel Gaddafi is looking increasingly vulnerable as rebel forces, backed up by Nato, proceed with a well-planned campaign to surround and isolate his powerbase in Tripoli. The key towns of Zawiyah and Surman to the west of the capital and Garyhan to the south have already fallen into rebel hands. The apparent defection of interior minister Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah - who arrived in Egypt over the weekend with nine family members – is another serious blow to the regime. Gaddafi is besieged, exhausted and looking for a dignified way out.

It is only a matter of time, then, before the Libyan regime concedes defeat. But what happens next? The west is losing faith in the Transitional National Council (TNC), which seems incapable of uniting and controlling the diverse elements within the rebellion, which not only can't get along but appear to be on the brink of fighting each other. The Islamist element among the rebel forces is strong, well-armed (thanks to raids on the regime's munitions dumps) and implacably opposed to Nato. The main Islamist militia – the Abu Ubaidah bin Jarrah Brigade – has refused to fight under the "infidel" banner against Gaddafi's forces but maintains "internal security". These are the most likely culprits for the 28 July assassination of the rebels' commander-in-chief General Abdul Fatah Younis, who had defected from the Gaddafi regime in the early stages of the uprising. Younis was Gaddafi's interior minister and presided over a particularly brutal suppression of an Islamist uprising in the mid-90s.

The various other explanations for Younis's assassination are all feasible and offer a good illustration of the chaos and infighting that characterises the opposition. One camp has it that Younis was not a genuine defector from the Gaddafi camp but a spy for the regime who was killed by the TNC; meanwhile the Islamist February 17 Martyrs' Brigade, led by cleric Ismail al-Sallabi, claims that Younis was killed by Gaddafi infiltrators; CIA associate and former Libyan army colonel Khalifa Hifter – who had openly clashed with Younis for control of the TNC's military umbrella, the Union of Revolutionary Forces – has also been accused of the murder.

Under pressure from the powerful Obeidi tribe, to whom Younis's family belong, as well as from the February 17 Coalition (a group of legal professionals who are concerned about the growing influence of the Islamists), TNC chair, Abdel Mustafa Jalil, sacked the entire cabinet last week with the exception of the prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril.

The move was also intended to assuage mounting alarm among the TNC's western backers. While the leaders of the US, Britain and France were aware of an Islamist element within the rebel forces, they thought it was containable. The worry now is that it will prevail in a full-blown civil (and tribal) conflict between the secular rebels and Islamist groups, some of whom have close ties to al-Qaida.

Despite their justified concerns about the TNC, Britain, the US and 28 other nations have recognised it as the legitimate government of Libya. Last week, despite the ongoing absence of a cabinet, the TNC were invited to take over the Libyan embassies in London and Washington. Envoys for the beleaguered Gaddafi, meanwhile, have been actively seeking acceptable exit scenarios. An increasingly persistent theme, in a bid to combat the Islamist influence, involves an accommodation between Gaddafi and the rebels, potentially leading to a unity government. Gaddafi representatives met with TNC delegates on the Tunisian island of Djerba last weekend and were joined on Monday by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon's Libya envoy – an indication that this is a preferred scenario. French president Nicolas Sarkozy is, reportedly, organising a Paris conference between the two sides for next month.

Ironically, the main impediment to this outcome is Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, who has decided to endorse the Islamists, presumably in a bid for personal power. He has held a series of well-publicised talks with Islamist leaders and told the New York Times in a recent interview that a post-Gaddafi Libya should be an Islamic state.

Libya is in danger of ending up with a Nato-backed, weak and undemocratic central government led by a compliant president besieged by Islamist militants. Just like Afghanistan

David Letterman threatened in jihadist online forum



David Letterman threatened in jihadist online forum

CBS talkshow host insulted al-Qaida leaders, claims contributor to website

David Letterman has been targeted by a prominent jihadist internet forum which has called on radical Muslims to "cut the tongue of" the popular US late-night comedian.

A contributor to the shumukh al-Islam online forum claimed Letterman had insulted Osama bin Laden and another senior al-Qaida leader Ilyas Kashmiri in a skit on his late night CBS show.

The contributor, who called himself Umar al-Basrawi, made the online comment in response to a gesture he claims that Letterman made where he "put his hand on his neck and demonstrated the way of slaughter" during a comedy skit.

Letterman is supposed to have made the gesture on his show following the announcement on 5 June that a drone strike in Afghanistan had killed Kashmiri.

"Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi," Al-Basrawi wrote on the forum, referring to the man convicted of the 1990 killing of Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League. "To cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?"

The call to attack Letterman, who is not Jewish, was discovered by The Site Monitoring Service, a private intelligence network that advises the US government on threatening online material.

The shumukh al-Islam forum is a popular online destination for radical Muslims and is often used by al-Qaida, said Adam Raisman, analyst at The Site Monitoring Service.

The FBI said it was taking the threat seriously. Executives at broadcaster CBS and a spokesman for Letterman both declined to comment on the threat.

Letterman has been the target of criminal threats in the past. A former CBS News producer was jailed for trying to extort $2m from Letterman in 2009 by threatening to expose the host's sexual dalliances with members of his staff.

A former painter at Letterman's ranch in Montana was jailed following a 2005 plot to kidnap the TV funnyman's nanny and son.

A radical Muslim group last year warned the creators of South Park they could face violent retribution for depicting the prophet Muhammad in a bear suit on the Comedy Central cartoon.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".a


    Pakistan mosque bomb kills at least 40


    • News
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    • Pakistan

    Pakistan mosque bomb kills at least 40

    Explosion during Friday prayers at mosque in Khyber region wounds 100 in first major attack in Pakistan during Ramadan

    • guardian.co.uk,
    • Article history
    • One of the victims of a bomb attack on a mosque in Ghundi, in Pakistan's Khyber region
      A Pakistani man injured in an explosion during prayers at a mosque near Jamrud in the Khyber tribal area receives hospital treatment in Peshawar. Photograph: Arshad Arbab/EPA

      A bomb ripped through a crowded mosque in Pakistan's tribal belt, killing at least 40 people who had gathered for Friday prayers and injuring more than 100.

      The suspected suicide blast was in a village near Jamrud, the main town in the Khyber tribal region, close to the Afghan border. The first major attack in Pakistan during Ramadam, it is thought to be the work of extremists linked to al-Qaida. Some reports put the death toll at more than 50.

      Locals speculated that the bombing was a revenge attack by the Pakistani Taliban after clashes between militants and tribesmen in recent days. Most of Khyber is not under the control of the Taliban or other militant groups, unlike much of the tribal area.

      The injured were ferried to hospitals in Peshawar, about a 30-minute drive away, mainly in private cars as few ambulances were available locally. Between 300 and 400 people were at the mosque, which would have been packed for Ramadan – normally a time of piety and quiet contemplation.

      "I don't know what happened or where the bomber came from," said a dazed Mustafa Kamal Shinwari, who was injured in the blast, speaking from his hospital bed in Peshawar. "Just poor people come to the mosque. Is this any way for Muslims to behave? Who-ever did this cannot be a Muslim, no matter what they say."

      Inside the mosque blood was splattered across the floor and covered prayer caps and prayer mats. The walls and roof were scarred by shrapnel, the telltale sign of a suicide vest, which is usually packed with ball-bearings, nails and other metal projectiles.

      Zahid, a resident who wished to remain anonymous, said the bomber was to one side of the mosque, against a wall. "If he had stood in the middle of the congregation, the carnage would have been to all sides and he'd have killed maybe a hundred," he said.

      The bomb exploded in an area inhabited by the Kukikhel tribe. Earlier this month, Kukikhel militiamen blew up vehicles carrying a group of Pakistani Taliban in the Tirah valley, a remote and dangerous part of Khyber. More recently locals repelled an incursion by the Taliban. "The message here from the Taliban is that we can attack you at your home," said Zahid.

      Most of the Nato supplies passing through Pakistan for soldiers fighting in Afghanistan go through Khyber, the most developed part of the tribal area.

      A local official, Iqbal Khan, said the bomb detonated as worshippers were leaving after offering prayers. Bombs at mosques and other public places are usually not claimed by extremists, so as not to damage their image, leaving a vacuum in which wild conspiracies flourish about who's behind them.

      "If this was a suicide attack, then they should do it in Afghanistan, against American or British soldiers. We are Muslims, so why target us?" said Saeed ur Rehman, who lives close to the blast site. "But I don't believe it was a suicide bombing. This was a (US) drone attack on the mosque."

      Separately, a missile fired from an American drone killed four suspected militants on Friday in South Waziristan.


    Al-Megrahi cancer release defended by Scotland two years on


    he Scottish government says its decision to release the Lockerbie bomber exactly two years ago has been vindicated.

    The release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from Greenock Prison on the grounds that he had just three months to live has proved controversial as he is still alive two years after returning home to Tripoli.

    On the second anniversary of his release, two US senators have demanded his extradition from Libya. New Jersey senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg want the rebel-led transitional Libyan government to send Megrahi to the US.

    But a spokesman for Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said the government stood by the decision. In a statement, the spokesman said the decision "was taken on the basis of Scots law" and was not influenced by economic, political or diplomatic factors.

    "We stand by it, and aaal-Megrahi is dyiang of terminal prostate cancer."

    Megrahi is the only man convicted over the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people, mostly Americans, when it exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

    He was freed on 20 August 2009, after prison doctors said he had prostate cancer and likely had only three months to live.

    Last month he appeared at a televised rally in Tripoli alongside Muammar Gaddafi.a


    How New York will mark the 9/11 anniversary


    o understand the complex human machinery that runs New York, one thing is abundantly clear: the strength of our city comes from its diversity. Our city united to respond to the tragedy of 11 September 2001, and the rebuilding process, while long, is revitalising the downtown area. Many of us came together, again, to respond to the bigotry and fear-mongering that sought to turn the reasonable desire of the Muslim community to have a community centre in Lower Manhattan into a recruitment tool for profoundly un-American anti-Muslim racism.

    In the past year, New Yorkers have learned lessons that have saddened us. We have been simultaneously alerted to a disturbing vitriolic strain in our body politic while our resolve to protect the religious freedom that has been a proud hallmark of our country since its earliest settlement has been strengthened. The more information that is provided about the planned downtown Islamic centre, called Park51, the more it becomes apparent that there was nothing to fear there and much to encourage. Educators at the 9/11 Memorial's visitors centre will tell you that people often ask where on the World Trade Centre site "the mosque" is going to be built. Visitors' reactions are first disbelief, and then anger, when they understand where Park51 is actually located and that they have been so deliberately misled.

    For the past 18 months, Muslim religious services have been held at Park51 without incident – as they have been held for years in two other locations in Lower Manhattan. Park51 has sponsored films, panels, exhibits, yoga classes for kids, performances and discussions, to provide examples of the sorts of programming it sponsors. These activities are designed to provide a venue where Muslims and non-Muslims can meet, discuss, get to know, learn from and understand each other. Only those who, due to fear, ignorance or opportunistic political self-interest, want to prevent New Yorkers from meeting Muslim-Americans and learning firsthand about them as people and about their religion would want to stop these activities.

    As the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack approaches, we know that the eyes of the world will be on the World Trade Centre and on our city. New Yorkers are determined that the world will see our city this year as we actually are: strong, diverse and multifaceted. With the completion of the national 11 September Memorial in time for the anniversary, we expect that the real way in which New Yorkers commemorate the tragedy will be apparent – in contrast to the sensationalist hysteria of last year.

    That's why New York Neighbours for American Values, a diverse coalition of New York organisations and individuals that works in New York City to promote and defend the American values of religious freedom, diversity and equality, has launched an online calendar. The website, NYNeighbors911.org, provides a centralised listing of events so New Yorkers and visitors can easily choose how they will commemorate the anniversary. The extraordinary range of activities that are taking place around the tenth anniversary show that the politics of fear – which have too frequently led to a polarising public debate – are not representative of how most New Yorkers want to move forward from 9/11. Events run the gamut from the NY Fire Department's Symposium, Rebuilding After 9/11, the Run to Remember on Governor's Island, the 9/11 Peace Story Quilt at the Metropolitan Museum, to Subway Music in the Light of 9/11, and various commemorative concerts and exhibits.

    These events show that the ways people are responding to the anniversary are much like New York itself: diverse, passionate, representative of myriad cultures and perspectives, and focused on building a better future.


    Tuesday 23 August 2011

    Vogue Italia accused of racism for 'Slave earrings' feature


    Jewellery has always flirted with circular shapes, especially for use in making earrings. The most classic models are the slave and creole styles in gold hoops. If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern Unites [sic] States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom. Colored stones, symbolic pendants and multiple spheres. And the evolution goes on."

    But within hours of being published, the feature faced stinging worldwide criticism, the strongest of which claimed Vogue Italia was guilty of a "disgraceful" attempt to "glamourise slavery".

    Vogue Italia stay ahead of the curve

    One blogger called Chezney, wrote "There is absolutely nothing fashionable about the history of enslaved Africans."

    Angry readers mounted a campaign where followers could tweet Italian Vogue to register their fury.

    Demanding a full apology and the withdrawal of the feature it continued: "In this latest example by Vogue Magazine, we want the ad removed immediately and we want a specific apology to Black women because Black womens' supposed slave narratives were used in the promulgation of the ad."

    Marianne Smith wrote: "Are you serious? I hope that you get truly humiliated for this worldwide vogue. This is disgraceful. You should be ashamed. Since when does an African design for earrings become a "slave" design. This will backfire on you badly and I'm going to make sure that happens."

    Other angry posters put up the private email address of Vogue writer Anna Bassi.

    The Telegraph contacted Vogue Italia's editor in chief Franca Sozzani, who also writes a blog for the vogue.it website. She told us: "We apologise for the inconvenience. It is a matter of really bad translation from Italian into English. The Italian word, which defines those kind of earrings, should instead be translated into "ethnical style earrings". Again, we are sorry about this mistake which we have just amended in the website".

    Sozzani is famed for tackling the controversial topics which orbit the fashion world head-on.

    The July 2008 issue of the magazine was entirely dedicated to black girls and their website hosts a 'V Black' section dedicated to black models, celebrities and bloggers; alongside 'V Curvy' aimed at plus-size women.

    Sozzani also fronts an online campaign 'Vogue.it Against Pro-Anorexia Websites' which petitions to shut down sites offering advice and encouragement to girls who want to stop eating. The campaign already has 9,424 signatures.

    In a recent Vogue.it blog post, Sozzani tackled the issue of racism in the fashion industry.

    "It is true that there are very few black models around," she wrote pointing out that there is however "a new generation of models coming from Tunisia and Morocco. Northern Africa. Their skin is amber-colored and not precisely black."

    "There are many black beauties around and there would be even more if agencies would choose to scout in those countries. Instead, all agencies go to Eastern Europe, as if it were the only breeding ground for models."

    "Involving racism is totally inappropriate and also an easy choice. Finding real solutions is more challenging and burdensome. We try to do our best through Vogue Italia and the website, with a dedicated channel, so why can't others do the same instead of complaining or, worse, condemning?"

    She ends by pointing out that the present issue of Vogue Italia's sister publication, L'Uomo Vogue, featured Beyoncé on the cover, following cover turns by Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Snoop Dogg.

    Michelle Obama evening dress sparks race row over 'nude' description

    The fashion world may have to rethink other accepted terminology. Bracelets worn on the upper arm are traditionally referred to as 'slave bangles', while America's First Lady, Michelle Obama, inadvertently kicked off a race row last year after a fashion pundit from Associated Press referred to her Naeem Khan dress as a 'nude strapless gown'.

    The news agency was compelled to revise its reference to the dress colour from "flesh" to "champagne" after one fashion editor objected, asking: "Whose flesh? Not hers."


    Double vision: luxury fashion by the Olsen twins


    But Ashley had more resources than most students, so she employed a factory in Los Angeles to work with her and create what she had in mind.

    It took a year and a half, on and off, but eventually she and her twin sister, Mary-Kate, got something they felt was right not only for their petite frames, but also on all the other women of various ages and sizes they tried it on.

    The secret, they say, is the French seam running down the back. 'It's cut from one piece of fabric,' explains Ashley, who is the older by a few minutes, and tends to take the lead when discussing business. 'It's about the drape and the fabric. And finding the balance between the two.'

    'It's made on a lingerie machine,' adds Mary-Kate, fingering the silky, diaphanous sample that is hanging on a rail behind us. 'A lot of thought has to go into it.'

    Having put in so much effort, they decided to try to sell this T-shirt, and came up with the concept of The Row, a high-end, luxury clothing label based in New York, manufactured mainly in America but also in Italy, and named to evoke the kind of quality tailoring and fit synonymous with London's Savile Row.

    Ashley Olsen: She wears it well

    'I did feel there was a need for luxurious basics, to wear with couture,' explains Ashley, who at just over 5ft 1in is slightly taller than her sister. 'When you're small like I am, you need things to break it up, or not look like you're in the full look. So it started with that concept, and just kind of grew from there. It's pieces that we feel are missing, or that we want. We make the best quality, things that we would shop for, that we appreciate and find beautiful.'

    On paper, the past few years haven't been the best time to launch a luxury label. But despite the high-end prices - that basic T-shirt sells for £195 on Net-a-Porter, a camel wool coat is nearly £2,000, with a pretty lace shirt at £995 and dresses for £1,500 and upwards - since its launch in 2006 The Row has grown quietly, organically, into a force to be reckoned with.

    Last month it was shortlisted for the New Talent award at America's prestigious CFDA Fashion Awards, and in April the label had a major feature in US Vogue and also received the endorsement of First Lady Michelle Obama, who wore its pleated skirt for an appearance on television.

    The Row appeals to a clientele that is, on the whole, older than its 25-year-old designers: working women who are willing to spend money on quality, but don't necessarily want to shout about it with loud logos. With understated, classic pieces that fit beautifully, feel good against the skin and won't look dated after one season's wear, it has thrived through the recession, building a loyal following of repeat customers.

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    'It's not fast fashion,' Mary-Kate confirms. 'We pay so much attention to the fit and the quality and the details.'

    And having started, it seems they couldn't stop. Soon after starting The Row, the sisters launched the more bohemian, West Coast-styled label Elizabeth and James (named after their younger sister and older brother), aimed at a slightly younger, edgier customer. For a more casual, weekend look there is now also Elizabeth and James Textile, and they are reaching out to the mass market with Olsenboye, a competitively priced line for teens created in partnership with the US chain JC Penney.

    On the afternoon I meet the Olsens in the bustling Manhattan office that they are already outgrowing, Josh Berman, one of the founders of MySpace, is also visiting. He runs the e-commerce site that is partnering the Olsens on their latest venture, StyleMint, where users answer an online quiz to determine their style profile, and are then emailed suggestions of Olsen-designed T-shirts, which they can buy for $29.99 apiece. That would be just under £19 if you could buy from outside the USA, which as yet you can't - although the Olsens are hoping to bring both this and Olsenboye to the British market, as well as expanding their outlets for their more upmarket brands here.

    To have an operation of this size is quite an achievement at the age of 25, especially when you consider the twins were also at college while they were establishing it. But then Ashley and Mary-Kate did launch their first mass-market fashion label - a partnership with the retail giant Wal-Mart - when they were 12. They have worked steadily since they were nine months old, they point out matter-of-factly, and have always gone to school as well, so combining business with their studies at New York University was nothing new. 'It takes a lot of discipline,' Mary-Kate says. 'But we've always been very driven, and we enjoy what we do. It's what we know.'

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    The Olsens started their professional lives almost by accident. Twins are in demand in the television and film industries because the number of hours youngsters can spend in front of the cameras is strictly regulated: having two children able to play the same character doubles the amount of shooting time. At a friend's suggestion, the twins' mother, Jarnette, took them to an audition for a saccharine new TV sitcom called Full House, and because they were the quietest babies when handled, they were chosen to share the role of Michelle Tanner, the youngest of three girls being raised by three men. It was a hit, and as the sisters grew into cute-looking toddlers, they stole the show and stayed on for its entire eight-year run.

    Living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, David Olsen, an estate agent, and Jarnette, a full-time mother, were far from pushy stage parents. 'They never forced anything on us,' Ashley says. 'And it's not like we were going on auditions or anything. Everything was just a natural progression - I mean, not natural, but… natural to us.'

    'There was no hunger, never a goal to get into anything,' Mary-Kate adds. 'It was just part of our life, we never knew anything else. Work, school, then after-school activities - the basketball team, soccer, volleyball.'

    But the Olsens did get good legal advice, and set up a company, Dualstar, to protect the girls' interests, wisely keeping copyright on almost everything they did. By the age of six, the girls were getting production credits on their spin-off films. They went on to make more than 50 of these, most of them shot in a couple of weeks during school holidays in places they wanted to visit - Paris, Rome, Hawaii - and sold straight to their loyal fan-base on video and later DVD.

    They fronted two further TV series after Full House, recorded 10 pop albums, published millions of books based on their film characters' adventures, and had merchandising including dolls that were second only to Barbie in terms of US sales. Pretty, perky, with huge blue-green eyes and sun-kissed blond hair, the sisters connected with the emerging - and, as it turned out, lucrative - tween market worldwide. They weren't only actors, or even a marketing phenomenon. They were a brand, and at one point Dualstar was reported to have a turnover of more than $1 billion.

    From the start, the sisters sat in on meetings, learning the language of partnerships, synergy and branding. 'We were always involved in the conversation,' Mary-Kate says. 'We worked so much that they wanted to make sure that we knew exactly what was happening and why - and our opinions mattered.'

    Fashion was always a big part of their working lives. With few labels then producing childrenswear, they often had adult clothes from labels such as Chanel cut down to fit. 'We loved it!' Ashley says. 'We'd go through racks and racks of clothes, and hours of fittings. When you cut something down that small, it has to be precise. So we've always been really interested in fit. And over the years we've become more educated in fabrics and make, and appreciating those small details. That's where we start from now, always - what feels right.'

    They say they have sketched clothes they wanted, and had them made up, 'since we could draw'. When they were 14 and filming in Rome, for instance, they both drew leather jackets and had them made to order by Italian craftsmen. So, when they launched the tween fashion line with Wal-Mart, they were involved from the start, choosing fabrics and making suggestions. 'There weren't really celebrity fashion brands at the time,' Ashley observes. 'And we were very young, but it was definitely a reflection of our own style.'

    When they were 18, Ashley and Mary-Kate took full control of Dualstar, went off to college in New York, and began to show themselves to be sophisticated young women with impeccable taste and interests in architecture, contemporary art and photography. In their glossy 2008 coffee table book Influence, for instance, they interviewed cutting-edge creatives from John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld to the photographer Terry Richardson and the artists Richard Prince and George Condo. They were well-travelled, they point out, and when filming overseas time was always made to take them to galleries and cultural events.

    But this new maturity wasn't what was expected of them, and the American tabloids liked to photograph them going to college, coming out of coffee shops and - the horror! - frequenting clubs or bars, labelling their layered, funky mix of designer and vintage clothes as 'trashcan chic' and speculating that their lives were falling apart as all child stars' are supposed to. For the sisters, however, this was a time of reassessment, and Ashley says it was less about going off the rails than changing track completely.

    'It was about taking a step back and reflecting on our past, all the things that we'd learnt, then deciding how we take all the knowledge that we have from the range of businesses that we've been in, and do it the way that we want to do it.'

    Their last film was New York Minute in 2004, which failed to set the box office alight. By then, Ashley especially knew her heart wasn't in it. They have since taken a few drama classes, just to gain a fresh perspective, and Mary-Kate played a handful of cameo roles in an indie film and on television before deciding to concentrate on the fashion empire. If they ever go back to that world, she says, it is likely to be as producers. Now it is their little sister, Elizabeth, who is gaining kudos as an actor: 'We're so proud of her!' Mary-Kate says. 'She's working really hard.'

    When launching The Row, they made a conscious choice not to use their names to sell it. 'We didn't want people to know that we were behind it,' Ashley says, adding that for a while they even considered hiring a front man. 'We'd learnt so much about building brands and talking to a specific customer. We did it with our faces at the beginning, and we knew we didn't want to do that any more. It's far more fun this way.'

    Ashley and Mary-Kate have never stopped being famous. Their films are still enjoyed by tweenage girls, and in a multi-channel world where dead sitcoms enjoy a seemingly eternal afterlife of re-runs, even Full House is still showing on American TV. 'Four- and five-year-old kids come up to us and they're like, "I don't understand, because you're so big now, and I watch you on Full House and you're a baby!"' Ashley laughs.

    But it is not something either of them feels comfortable with, and they choose to live in New York rather than LA now, because it gives them anon­ymity. With every relationship they have subjected to forensic scrutiny, they drily say it is no wonder they are both single. They don't go out a lot, and the only red-carpet events they attend are fashion shows.

    'It got out of hand, and I think it still is out of hand - the way people are handled,' says Ashley, who says she feels vulnerable, with her tiny build, walking down the street surrounded by big men with cameras. 'I just feel the only way that I could understand it would be if I stepped really far back from it. We've now been dealing with that for 25 years. And when you think about how much it's changed… We've been a part of that evolution.'

    They do, however, find it funny when the media fails to tell them apart. They are fraternal twins, and although they still look similar there are clear differences. Ashley is the one with the huge, doll-like blue-green eyes, the perkier speaking voice and the more classically chic style, dressed the day we met in a shift dress from The Row and an oversized sweater.

    Mary-Kate reminds me a lot of Kate Moss at that age: she is slightly edgier, more rock'n'roll in her style, with a huskier voice and fingers laden with gorgeous oversized vintage rings. Yet when I wonder if it is annoying to be still talked of as a single unit, they look horrified. 'But we are a unit!' Mary-Kate says, leaning in towards her sister. Though they have lived in separate apartments since they were

    19 and take separate holidays, she adds, 'We still probably spend more time together than we're apart. The only time we really don't see each other is when we're sleeping, I guess.' There are arguments, sometimes. 'Usually when we're both saying the exact same thing, but we're coming at it from different sides,' Ashley says. But they can't imagine a time when they won't work together. 'We both have the same goals.'

    I ask where they see themselves in 10 years' time, and they say they really don't think that way. 'My answers are always sarcastic to this,' Mary-Kate laughs. 'I always say taller.'

    But they do have plans, lots of plans. They want to be a luxury lifestyle brand, selling globally. They are about to launch handbags for The Row, and then for Elizabeth & James. They want to do shoes for The Row, and although they have temporarily shelved a foray into menswear for the label, they plan to revisit it later. And eventually they will open their own stores. 'When the time is right, we definitely want some sort of home where we display it the way we want to,' Mary-Kate says.

    Towards the end of our time together, Mary-Kate slips out for a cigarette and I ask Ashley to talk me through the samples from The Row's autumn/winter collection made in their small atelier upstairs. She starts with the bias-cut dresses, a perfect pea coat, a gorgeous white jacket, and I nod dutifully until she realises I'm just not getting it.

    'You have to feel it, really,' she instructs, and suddenly my hands are brushing trousers in fine wool fabrics that would not so much cover your legs as caress them, butter-soft leather jackets, and my head is telling me how much I really, really want this stuff. There is a robe in a nice shade of blue, the sort of thing you would throw on at the beach or while lounging at home without looking at all ostentatious. But touch it and you realise it's made of a superfine cashmere and silk mix you could live in for ever, and Ashley says that's one of the items they made very much with themselves in mind.

    I'm still admiring it when Mary-Kate returns, and as we settle back down to talk, she slips off her vintage leather jacket and snuggles into the robe instead. 'My favourite!' she grins.

    Perhaps, in the end, this personal touch and taste is the key to The Row's success. There are still only a handful of women working at this level in fashion, and fewer still who have packed the experience the Olsens have into their 25 years. They have, Mary-Kate says wearily at one point, already had a few lifetimes. And although this should be a story that is over, meeting these extraordinary young women, you realise it has only just begun.