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Dalai Lama and his allies are out to destroy Olympics, says China

By Clifford Coonan, China Correspondent and Andrew Buncombe in Dharamsala


The Chinese government has defied international anger at its crackdown on Tibetan independence protests, accusing the Dalai Lama and his "splittist clique" of being out to destroy the Olympics and damage China's international reputation.

Ethnic Han Chinese were the real victims of the Tibetan riots, the Beijing authorities say, and its security forces will respond severely. This month's riots were the most intense in 20 years, shaking Lhasa and surrounding areas and leaving Beijing to repair the worst damage to its public image since the tanks rolled in central Beijing in 1989, massacring pro-democracy activists.

"Evidence shows that the violent incidents were created by the 'Tibet independence' forces and masterminded by the Dalai Lama clique with the vicious intention of undermining the upcoming Olympics and splitting Tibet from the motherland," thundered an editorial in the People's Daily yesterday.

The Dalai Lama – who this weekend was in Delhi for a meditation workshop that the actor Richard Gere was due to attend – denies he incited the riots. Last week the Nobel Peace Prize winner suggested he might resign over the unrest, which goes against his professed policy of trying to find a peaceful way of gaining more autonomy for Tibet. He also says he supports the Beijing Games.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader has said he would meet the Chinese leadership, even in Beijing, if he believed there was a concrete indication it was ready to enter dialogue.

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he had been told by Chinese officials that they were prepared to meet the Dalai Lama under certain conditions, but yesterday's blast in the People's Daily appears to signal that there is to be no compromise with him nor with the international attempts at mediation.

Meanwhile demonstrators in Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama's Indian base, continue to protest at the Chinese actions, which they claim have resulted in the deaths of up to 100 people, in contrast to China's official Xinhua news agency, which said 18 civilians and a policeman died in Lhasa. Waving Tibetan flags and carrying banners protesting against the Beijing authorities, the marchers have brought the town to a halt on a daily basis.

"They are not giving back the bodies. That is why no one knows how people are dead," said one protester, Dolma Tsering. On efforts to draw international attention to what has happened, she added: "We have to do something. We have to make a noise." Another protester, Lopsong Dawa, said: "We are only trying for peace, but China is lying. One day we will get our freedom."

Protests in Tibet began on 10 March to mark the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule, amid widespread anger over what Tibetans say have been brutal and repressive policies. Beijing has accused foreign media of anti-China bias in its reporting of the riots, but the true number of deaths may never be known, since China has barred outsiders from the trouble spots.

Hundreds of truckloads of soldiers and armed police have poured into Tibet and other Tibetan areas of China, such as Gansu and Sichuan provinces, and human rights groups have warned of waves of arrests and possible torture of those picked up in the crackdown. Police in Lhasa issued a "most wanted" list of 21 suspects and posted their pictures on the internet.

Footage of ethnic Han Chinese being attacked by Tibetans in Lhasa has dominated state media in China. There have been reports of Lhasa residents mourning Han victims, feel-good stories about Tibetans praising Chinese investment in the Himalayan region and images of Tibetan schoolchildren being taught their native language in schools – one of the biggest criticisms of China has been the way it is damaging local culture. The media also warned Uighur Muslim separatists, in the restive north-western region of Xinjiang, against following the Tibetans' lead.

Xinhua reported that China had broad international support for its "legitimate actions to handle the violence in Lhasa". The English-language China Daily said Western coverage was "biased and sometimes dishonest", aimed at portraying China in a negative light, and accused foreign media of running "untrue" reports.

The crackdown has severely dented hopes of closer ties with Taiwan, which China sees as a renegade province to be taken back by force if necessary, ratcheting up tensions in one of Asia's biggest flashpoints. In yesterday's election there, the Kuomintang, the Communists' civil war enemies, who now favour closer ties with Beijing, returned to power after eight years – the first piece of good news for Beijing this month. However, the victor, Ma Ying-jeou, was forced to take a more sceptical line on closer relations after voters said they were disturbed by the sight of Chinese troops attacking monks in Tibet.

Independent

White House Race: The week the colour issue finally took centre stage

Obama's stirring riposte to preacher controversy had even his critics waxing lyrical. Leonard Doyle reports from Washington



Tears of raw emotion rolled down Charles Carter's cheeks as he sat in his "shotgun shack" in Greenwood, Mississippi, on Tuesday morning, watching Barack Obama give his speech on race in Philadelphia. Only the whimpering of his Alsatian guard dog was allowed to interrupt the 37-minute broadcast.

The high point of the speech for Mr Carter was not the loop that would be played endlessly on the news, where Senator Obama condemned the racially inflammatory rhetoric of his Chicago pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Nor was it the moment when he described how he cringed as a young man when his white grandmother made a racially inappropriate remark.

For Mr Carter, who restored and manages six old sharecroppers' shacks for tourists to stay in, the high point came when Mr Obama quoted from the Mississippi writer William Faulkner: "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past."

"So true, so true," he said. "Nobody wants to talk about what went on around here, nobody." What he is referring to is an appalling lynching that took place here in 1955, after a precocious 14-year-old black boy named Emmett "Bobo" Till – down from Chicago on school holidays – had the audacity to say "Bye, baby," to Carolyn Bryant, the married white owner of a shop. He was taken from his uncle's house, brutally tortured – his tongue was cut out – and his body thrown in the river.

In those days such deaths went unpunished, but Emmett's mother insisted on an open-casket funeral back in Chicago, so that everyone could see what had been done to her son. It was a seminal event in the emergence of the civil rights movement, but to this day there is no memorial of it in Greenwood.

A 65-year-old black man, Mr Carter has spent much of his life in the segregated South, and his experiences of racism in America could fill a book. He recalls drinking from "black-only" water fountains. He remembers, as though it were yesterday, the early Sixties, when he was in the air force. The bus taking him off the federally integrated base would stop just outside the gates. "That's when the driver would get up and shout, 'All you ****** move to the back of the bus,'" he told me, the hurt still blazing in his eyes.

For people like Charles Carter, who has registered to vote for the first time in two decades, Mr Obama's candidacy has restored faith in America. But at the beginning of last week, some of the initial fervour was beginning to fade among millions of others whose votes the candidate will need. The constant sniping of Hillary and Bill Clinton at his lack of experience had some effect, as did the fear that his soaring rhetoric might lack substance.

And always in the background was the question: when would race rear its head in the campaign? The Wright issue had bubbled for almost a year, but it was finally forced on to the agenda by a reporter from the right-wing Fox News channel, who simply bought some of the preacher's incendiary sermons from his church's online shop. Again and again viewers could see Wright urging his congregation, which had numbered Barack Obama as a member for 20 years, to sing "God Damn America".

Throughout this election Senator Obama has presented himself as a fusion candidate, the Tiger Woods of politics rather than an angry black man in the mould of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. If he had simply issued a routine repudiation of his preacher, it was possible that his candidacy could have evaporated almost overnight. He would have been asked how he could have listened to such sentiments year after year without saying anything. Surely it meant that he shared the preacher's views?

Instead he made a speech that drew comparisons with Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D Roosevelt, as well as John F Kennedy's 1960 speech on religion. In it he said of Mr Wright: "I could no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I could no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother ... who once confessed her fear of black men who pass her by on the street."

Speaking before eight large US flags, he managed not only to reject the grim vision of his pastor, but offered Americans a more comforting vision of themselves. Race in America is still stained with the original sin of slavery, he suggested, but over the past 50 years the country has moved on, with each generation experiencing race differently.

While older blacks – like Charles Carter back in Mississippi or the Rev Wright– are scarred by their experiences of segregation laws, Mr Obama talked of those who carried a "legacy of defeat" from generation to generation. The result, he said, was an anger "exploited by politicians" that stops blacks "from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition".

He went on: "A similar anger exists within segments of the white community." He referred to the experiences of working and lower middle-class white people who arrived in America with nothing.

So when they were told to bus their children to a school across town, when they heard of someone receiving privileges they never received, and when they were told their fears about crime in urban neighbourhoods were somehow prejudiced, they felt anger towards black Americans. No prominent American politician in living memory has addressed the hurt and anger caused by the country's racial divide in such a thoughtful way.

A thousand or so miles to the north of Greendale, in an upscale suburb of Richmond, Virginia, Laura DeBusk, 37, a registered Republican voter, was also watching the speech with interest. She is a member of a strange new political tribe: those who, for want of a better name, call themselves Obamacans or Republicans for Obama. Her positive reaction reveals that despite the Wright controversy he still appeals to wavering Republicans and independents. Ms DeBusk's reaction to the speech was all that Obama could have hoped for. "I think a lot of this stuff that's been brought up about him is not what we need to be focusing on," she said. "I still view him as the only candidate that can move this country forward, whether on race relations, or with the [Iraq] war. I think he's the only candidate that is going to be able to get Republicans and Democrats to work together to move forward."

Wright's remarks that Americans are racist and that the government is murderous were "awful and hateful, but I tend to agree with Obama that there is more to that man", she said. The first opinion polls after his speech indicate that most Americans felt the same way, with 63 per cent saying they agreed with Mr Obama's views on race.

Even the right-wing commentariat cheered. Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, said: "Obama's speech was strong, thoughtful and important. Rather beautifully, it was a speech to think to, not clap to." She praised him for not ditching his friend of 20 years. He was, she said, "a man who taught him [Obama] Christian faith, helped the poor, served as a Marine, and leads a community helping the homeless, needy and sick."

There was more to come as commentators, black and white, described on television their experiences of a racially divided America. Chris Matthews, the in-your-face host of Hardball, confessed that during his entire education he never had a single black person in his class. Now he is one of Mr Obama's loudest on-air supporters.

Not even a slightly less well-turned comment by Obama, who described his grandmother as a "typical white person", could undermine the dramatic resurrection of his campaign, even though one right-winger complained: "What he did was throw his grandmother under the bus."

All this was bad news for Mrs Clinton. As the political analysts Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen of Politico.com put it yesterday: "She has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else. People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet."

Even in the coming contests in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where she leads in the polls, Mr Obama regained lost ground with his speech. At the weekend he delivered another coup, when he was endorsed by the US's most prominent Hispanic politician, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. That added another Democratic super-delegate to his widening lead in the delegate count.

Sooner or later Mrs Clinton will have to accept the inevitable, but Mr Obama's battle will have only just begun. He may have given the most eloquent political speech America has heard in at least a generation, but he still has to convince millions of Americans that a black man can be President.

For rolling comment on the US election visit: independent.co.uk/campaign08

It's war, Mugabe says, as opposition prepares for battle

President invokes a final struggle against imperialism but opponents see poll as a fight for the very survival of the nation




A man wears a mask showing president Robert Mugabe and leader of Zimbabwe's ruling party Zanu-PF during a campaign rally in Harare on March 28 2008. Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

To Robert Mugabe, today's presidential election in Zimbabwe is not so much a vote as war. From his campaign slogan - Get Behind the Fist, over a picture of Mugabe waving a firmly clenched fist - to speeches invoking the liberation war against white rule, the president of Zimbabwe has defined his campaign to extend his 28-year rule as the final struggle against British imperialism and its fifth columnists in the opposition.

"We must deliver the final blow against the British on March 29," he told one of his final election rallies. "We are in a war situation. This is a time to fight, not pleasure."

For many of those governed by Mugabe, it is more a war of personal survival. The most important election since independence in 1980 is likely to decide whether Zimbabwe descends into final economic collapse - mirroring countries such as Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire, which fell apart through neglect, corruption and cynicism rather than conflict - or pulls back from the brink.

Desperate voters are grappling with hyperinflation, empty supermarket shelves and worthless money. Eighty percent of the population are unemployed and nearly half chronically malnourished. About 3 million people, a quarter of the population, have left the country in search of work, principally in South Africa.

David Coltart, a parliamentary candidate for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Bulawayo, told voters in a campaign letter that the election is their "chance to change the course of Zimbabwean history for the better". He added: "Zimbabwe is in such a terrible state that we do not have the luxury of making a mistake. Another five years of Zanu-PF rule will completely destroy Zimbabwe.

"In football terms Zimbabwe was in the premier league in 1980 ... Next season we will not even be able to play because the players have no boots, balls or kit. The goalposts have fallen down and the ground is overgrown."

Mugabe's critics say that if he wins today or, as seems more likely, declares victory after rigging the vote, Zimbabweans face an even bleaker future as the economy gives up any sign of life.

Economists say inflation is probably four times the official figure of 100,000% and is likely to escalate further with the government presses furiously turning out cash to pay for its election campaign and salary increases for disaffected soldiers and civil servants whose income has been wiped out by hyperinflation.

Regular power cuts are likely to give way to no electricity at all, the water supply is drying up and the last of Zimbabwe's factories will close for lack of supplies. Food supplies are scarce and the fields produce only a fraction of Zimbabwe's needs amid a shortage of seeds, fertiliser and irrigation. Many more people will leave the country. Rural areas are already inhabited mostly by the very young who are looked after by the elderly after the intervening generation fled Zimbabwe in search of work.

Those who are unlucky enough to fall ill will continue to die for want of medicines and functioning equipment in the hospitals. For the one-third of the population with HIV, the cost of drugs has just risen 4,000% to 1.3bn Zimbabwe dollars a month, a little more than £20 at the black market exchange rate but more than most people earn.

Life expectancy, already only 34 years for a Zimbabwean woman, will continue to fall. Mugabe, who at 84 has lived two-and-a-half times as long as the average Zimbabwean can expect today, says that another six years in power will be the final victory over a "miserable" colonialist Britain, and that Zimbabwe will flourish again with the "empowerment" of its people through the redistribution of white-owned farms.

But many Zimbabweans say they feel more helpless than empowered, and support for Mugabe appears to have collapsed even in rural areas that were his ruling Zanu-PF party's strongholds.

"We used to have food, we used to have jobs. Mugabe liberated us but then he enslaved us again," said a young man at an opposition rally in Harare. "Why would we vote for him? What can he do for us now?"

Zanu-PF itself is split after a breakaway challenge by Mugabe's former finance minister, Simba Makoni, that transformed the election by eating into the president's remaining support.

The MDC candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, has drawn large crowds in rural areas once regarded as Mugabe strongholds.

But that does not mean Mugabe is relinquishing power. As if to emphasise his view of the election as a military struggle to be won or lost beyond the ballot box, the security forces put on a show of force in Harare by driving armoured vehicles and water cannon through the streets to remind citizens of the consequences of dissent.

Yesterday the country's police chief, Augustine Chihuri, said he would not permit protests or let the opposition declare it had won the election - apparently a move to head off the MDC's plan to issue a parallel count and defend what it says will be an overwhelming victory with Kenya-style mass protests if the numbers are manipulated.

The state-run and belligerently pro-Mugabe Herald newspaper yesterday published a poll giving the president 57% of the vote. If accurate, it would mean support for the president has grown since the last election, when he won with 52%. The opposition says that is not credible and the Herald's figures are an indication of the scale of the fraud Mugabe intends to pull off.

"We're severely worried about rigging," said Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary general. "This is a self-defence election. People are suffering - hungry, jobless, dying. This is an election to defend their lives and to do that they need to defend the vote."

The election will probably be decided in rural areas, where 60% of voters are registered. Mugabe has attempted to win them over with mass distribution of farm implements, from spades for subsistence farmers to tractors and combine harvesters for local leaders, although there is little fuel to run them and few seeds to plant.

Mugabe's election roadshow generally arrives with truckloads of maize for a hungry population. The message is clear: vote Zanu-PF and you'll eat.

But there is a less overt message passed on by Mugabe's officials to village headmen and other leaders: we will know how your area voted and if it goes against the president you won't eat.

Fay Chung, a former education minister in Mugabe's government who is running for parliament as an independent and backs Makoni, said that for all the intimidation the tide had turned against the president. "People want Mugabe retired. They don't want him put on trial but they do want him to go. Every place I've been they're saying that," she said. "But it's difficult to say who they will vote for, Tsvangirai or Makoni."

The Tsvangirai camp, which has drawn large crowds in rural areas, says Makoni has little name recognition in the countryside and no organisation to back him up. Tsvangirai on the other hand has a well-funded and extensive campaign, and has built a reputation for physical courage after beatings at the hands of Zanu-PF forces.

But dissent within the ruling party may help Makoni. His supporters say a whispering campaign on his behalf by disaffected Zanu-PF officials among rural voters may prove a huge benefit.

Tsvangirai is also grappling with a legacy of the last presidential election in which he said he would return much of the land seized from white farmers to its owners.

This time, Tsvangirai, like Makoni, says land redistribution is irreversible, although both also say they will take land from senior Zanu-PF officials who have been awarded several farms that are now unproductive.

But all of that may prove academic. Mugabe has said the MDC will "never, ever" govern "my Zimbabwe".

Chihuri, and the armed forces commander, General Constantine Chiwenga, have said they would not recognise victory by a "puppet" of Britain.

A coalition of Zimbabwean human rights groups, the National Constitutional Assembly, has called on ordinary soldiers and policemen to recognise that the liberation war is long over. "It is not too late to refuse to be used as pawns by those who hold no allegiance to you and your families and whose only interest is in their own personal greed and ambition," the group said.
guardian

PC and nearly gaffe-free: the new Berlusconi

Former PM repackages himself as elder statesman in Italian election campaign.

Outwardly he is much the same, just disconcertingly younger. His facelift has settled down, so he no longer has the stretched look of four years ago. His hair transplant a few months later has endowed him with a thick, slightly unnatural pelt, the human equivalent of Astroturf.

But what Silvio Berlusconi is saying in the campaign leading to Italy's general election on April 13-14 is unrecognisable from even a few months back.

After bursting into politics in 1994, Italy's richest citizen became the embodiment of political incorrectness. It was Berlusconi who told a German politician he reminded him of a concentration camp guard; it was he who reacted to 9/11 by urging westerners to be "aware of the superiority of our civilisation".

But the new 2008 model Berlusconi seeks to give a very different impression - that of a sober, elder statesman who can cure the ills of his troubled homeland far better than his young rival.

"Rubbish sorting," he gravely told a group of journalists on Thursday night, "has to be imported into all the regions of Italy. Of all the systems in use, the one that has most recommended itself to me is the Swiss one."

This from the man who made an obscene gesture behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister at a European summit.

The news agency Adnkronos had invited the Guardian to sit in on a question-and-answer session with the man all polls suggest will be Italy's next leader. For an hour, Berlusconi discussed everything from taxes to Tibet, with scarcely a gaffe.

Well, almost. His Achilles heel is his age. He will be asking voters to return him to power until he is 76. His centre-left opponent, Walter Veltroni, is 52. Yet, asked about the impact of the internet, Berlusconi declined on the grounds of ignorance. With a broad smile, he said: "I always tell my staff: 'They're right when they say I'm too old to govern a modern country.'"

As if realising his mistake, he hastily added: "However, I know how to take advantage of the knowledge of others, those who understand what I don't."

There are two varieties of Berlusconi gaffe: the genuine, foot-in-mouth kind and the outrageous quips which, in his own words this week, he uses "to concentrate the attention of the people who are listening to me on what I am saying".

He allowed himself just one. When the terms of Air France's bid for Italy's debt-laden flag-carrier, Alitalia, were released "out came the French attitude of imposing themselves on others", he said. The terms were "not just unacceptable, but offensive".

That pointed to the other distinguishing characteristic of the new Berlusconi - an even greater emphasis on economic nationalism.

It plays superbly with the voters at a time of deep national insecurity. In December, Italians learned to their horror that their economy had fallen behind that of Spain. They have since learned that they earn less than Greeks. Images of mounds of stinking waste in Naples have this week been superseded by a crisis over dioxin in that most emblematic of Italian exports, mozzarella.

"These days," Berlusconi sighed, "it's pretty difficult to give an international role to an Italy that has suffered - is suffering - a terrible deterioration in its image and credibility." The obvious subtext is that the outgoing centre-left government is to blame.

The Naples refuse crisis had portrayed Italy as "fourth world". "No [international] meeting starts nowadays without the Italian representative being made fun of, and having to explain it's not true that the whole of Italy is awash with garbage, but just one area," he said.
guardian

Cubans to be allowed to buy mobile phones



It did not quite answer calls for freedom and change, but the reform announced yesterday did at least offer freedom from change for calls.

Cuba's government lifted restrictions on the ownership and use of mobile phones, marking a small but significant step away from the Fidel Castro era.

A decree published in the Communist party newspaper, Granma, said the public could have prepaid contracts for mobile phones, a luxury previously reserved for senior party officials and employees of foreign companies.

The decision means less fumbling for change for pay phones and raised hopes that the new president, Raúl Castro, would relax other economic and political controls.

Cuba's telecommunications monopoly, Etesca, made the announcement in a small insert on page two of Granma. "Etesca is able to offer mobile phone service to the public," it said.

Contracts will have to be paid for in Cuban convertible pesos, a parallel currency geared towards tourists and foreigners worth 24 times the peso used by most Cubans.

Few will initially be able to afford the opportunity - there was no scramble for mobile phones yesterday - but the decree was welcomed as evidence that the authorities were serious about addressing longstanding grievances.

"This shows there is a change in mentality at the top and recognition that Cuba has to move into the 21st century," a young computer technician, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Some Cubans have a mobile phone service in the name of foreigners or their companies, but the island still has the lowest mobile phone use in Latin America.

Etesca, which operates as a joint venture with the Italian communications company Italcom, said it would invest revenues in improving its network and eventually offer a mobile phone service in the commonly held pesos.

"In coming days the population will be informed about the procedures for changing the title of Cuban citizens who until today have acquired [mobile phones] indirectly and the start of the new contracts for natural-born Cubans who are interested," the statement said.

Since the ailing Fidel resigned last month, Raúl, 76, has made cautious efforts to ease the material hardships which make daily life a grind and erode confidence in the government. The new president, who is deemed less ideological than his charismatic brother, has promised to focus on competence and service delivery and to reduce bureaucracy.
guardian

Security stepped up as German theatre breaks taboo by staging Satanic Verses


Kate Connolly in Berlin


A German theatre is to stage the world premiere of the controversial Salman Rushdie novel The Satanic Verses, breaking a long taboo and prompting fears of a backlash by local Muslims.

The Hans Otto theatre in Potsdam, south-west of Berlin, is due to begin an eight-week run of the stage adaptation of the 1988 novel on Sunday, aiming, said its director, to expose it to a new audience.

Police authorities in the city said security at the theatre and in Potsdam would be increased for fear of attacks by Muslim fundamentalists.


Muslims were offended by what they regarded as blasphemous references in the book, causing Iran to issue a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill the writer. As a result, Rushdie has spent many years largely in hiding.

The Satanic Verses was adapted for the stage by writer Marcus Mislin and Uwe Laufenberg, the head of the theatre who is also directing the play. "I wrote Salman Rushdie an in-depth letter a year ago to ask for the rights to stage the book, and it only took him until the following day to give us the go-ahead," said Laufenberg.

He said he wanted to expose more people to the book, which was well-known as a controversial novel but not for its contents. "Almost everyone has heard of the book, but hardly anyone has read it, which is why I wanted to bring it to the stage. It's quite self-explanatory," he said.

But the head of Potsdam's security, Mathias Tänzer, said the theatre had not properly prepared authorities for the play. "When we discovered the play was in the theatre's programme, we asked them what security measures they had in mind, but they wanted neither police protection nor checks of people at the door," he said. "We're monitoring the situation, and if any concrete threats are received we'll advise the theatre to cancel."

Turkish actor Oktay Khan, who was due to take part, withdrew his consent after receiving threats that he would be attacked if he took part.

But German Muslim leaders called for calm yesterday. "This material has not lost its ability to offend," said Aiman Mazyek, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. "But freedom of opinion and the arts is of a high value and most Muslims are against censorship."

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, a film depicting an anti-Islamic tirade by a Dutch MP sparked condemnation across the Muslim world yesterday. But there was a muted response in the Netherlands, despite fears that the long-awaited film would spark religious violence.

The 15-minute film Fitna, which means strife in Arabic, was launched on the internet late on Thursday by Geert Wilders, the populist and controversial Dutch politician who denounces Islam as a form of fascism. The film portrays the Qur'an as a manifesto for violence, terror and oppression, urges Muslims to tear out its pages and depicts the prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber.

The film claims the Netherlands is being overrun by Muslim immigrants, and captions footage of 9/11 and the Madrid bombings with quotations from the Qur'an.

Hundreds of Muslims staged demonstrations across Pakistan yesterday, and the governments of Pakistan, Indonesia and Iran lodged protests with the Dutch government and called on the European Union to ban the film.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Slovenia accused Wilders of "inflaming hatred", and the Dutch government acted to limit the damage.
guardian

The tearful secretary and the cash scandal that could bring down Ahern





By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent


The spectacle of Bertie Ahern's secretary reduced to public tears has inflicted substantial political damage on the Irish Prime Minister, whose personal finances are being investigated by a tribunal in Dublin.

The secretary's near-breakdown under cross-examination produced both a wave of public sympathy for her and a surge of anti-Ahern feeling, the allegation being that she had been pushed to carry the can for her boss. Now her discomfiture and the legal drama is having political repercussions, with Mr Ahern's coalition partners, whose support he relies on to stay in power, demanding he explain glaring discrepancies in accounts of his finances.

For years, a judicial investigation has been trying to trace the trail of Mr Ahern's money in the 1990s when he often operated without bank accounts.

The Taoiseach's secretary, Grainne Carruth, had a nightmare time in the witness box as bank records were produced to contradict her sworn evidence that she had not lodged cash for Mr Ahern while serving as his constituency assistant.

The Prime Minister, too, has already testified that the lodgements, including an amount of £15,000, were his pay cheques.

Mr Ahern's Fianna Fail party, which legendarily values loyalty above almost all else, is so far not joining in the agitation about his finances. But it is noticeable that most ministers, far from providing the familiar chorus of support, have said little or nothing, apart from Noel Ahern, the Taoiseach's brother, who has dismissed the various allegations as "all innuendo". Events at the tribunal have heightened speculation that Mr Ahern, who won a third successive term in 2007, may step down sooner rather than later.

In the witness box, Ms Carruth broke down and admitted her evidence was "factually incorrect" after she was threatened with jail and shown incontrovertible evidence that she had made the lodgements. She said she "shook for two hours" after being shown the documentation, adding: "I can't dispute it. It's here in black and white in front of me. I don't recall it but it is here in black and white in front of me." Fighting back tears, she said: "I'm hurt and I'm upset." Asked by the tribunal chairman if she wished to consult her solicitor, she replied in a whisper: "I just want to go home."

Ms Carruth's public humiliation and distress have rebounded badly on Mr Ahern. Her emotional reactionstarkly contrasted with the performance of many wealthy individuals who had been asked to explain donations to Mr Ahern. Some brazened it out with versions of events which seem suspicious and implausible. A widespread perception is that some of them care little whether or not they are believed, so long as wrong-doing cannot actually be proved against them.

Several cloudy episodes have not been explained satisfactorily. Mr Ahern, who cast himself as a politician uninterested in amassing wealth, has been involved in various large transactions. For instance, other tribunal sessions have been told of a Manchester-based Irish businessman bringing £28,000 in sterling notes to Mr Ahern in a briefcase.

Mr Ahern has staunchly defended his actions on television, in the Irish parliament and at the tribunal. He is to appear again at the tribunal within weeks, when he can expect to face the closest of questioning .

His coalition partners are for the first time expressing concern , after opposition taunting that they had been strangely silent. On Thursday Mary Harney, of the Progressive Democrats said: "There is considerable public disquiet as a result of Grainne Carruth's evidence and that public disquiet needs to be dispelled quickly."

The Green party leader, John Gormley, added: "There is evidence of growing public interest in this issue and there are concerns. More information from the Taoiseach would help here. I think he knows it's in his best interest and that of his party and the country at large that a clarifying statement is made."

The Labour leader, Eamon Gilmore, said: "The country is now being swept by a tide of public scepticism and disbelief that has robbed Mr Ahern of all political credibility and authority."

Opposition leader Phil Hogan, said: "The public concern with these issues did not begin the day the Taoiseach shamefully hid behind his constituency secretary and forced Grainne Carruth into an impossible position."
Independent

Death knell for a despot: Mugabe's evil rule could be up ... as his own thugs FINALLY turn against him Mail

Drunk, violent, promiscuous... a U.S. view of British youth as seen on the cover of Time Magazine Mail

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Ricky Martin campaigns in Cambodia


Ricky Martin meets victims of sexual exploitation in Cambodia

Pop star Ricky Martin has taken his fight against child trafficking to Cambodia.

Martin, who arrived in the country on Wednesday, met with Interior Minister Sar Kheng and visited various projects run by non-governmental organisations fighting child trafficking and sexual exploitation.

"This is a fact-finding mission for us," Angel Saltos, executive director of the Ricky Martin Foundation, told The Associated Press. "He wanted to see for himself."

Martin learned of Cambodia's child trafficking problems in February during a three-day UN conference in Vienna. He joined Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak and other dignitaries in calling for action.

Some 2.5 million people are involved in forced labor as a result of trafficking, and 161 countries - on every continent and in every type of economy - are affected by the crime, the UN said.

Most victims are between the ages of 18 and 24, and an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, UN figures show.

The Ricky Martin Foundation does most of its work in Latin America.
Metro

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