Intelligence analyst suspected of passing government secrets to WikiLeaks has undergone a medical and mental evaluation The intelligence analyst suspected of illegally passing government secrets to the WikiLeaks website has been found competent to stand trial, the U.S. Army has said. Spokesman Gary Tallman says a panel of experts completed its medical and mental evaluation of Bradley Manning on April 22, and had informed Army officials of the conclusion. Tallman says no date has been set yet for the initial court hearing, and added that the evaluation board’s findings “have no bearing on the guilt, innocence, or any potential defences of the accused.” Manning’s case is under the jurisdiction of the Army’s Military District of Washington. The Army private is suspected of obtaining hundreds of thousands of classified and sensitive documents while serving in Iraq and providing them to the website. He faces about two dozen charges, including aiding the enemy, that can bring the death penalty or life in prison. Manning was transferred from a Marine Corps prison near Washington last week to a new facility in the Midwest state of Kansas. He passed the lengthy physical and psychiatric evaluation given to new inmates there and received final clearance Thursday to live alongside other inmates, according to the facility’s commander Lt. Col. Dawn Hilton. He had been held at the Marine prison for the eight months after his arrest, and the conditions of his incarceration triggered protests and international inquiries. At that prison, Manning had to surrender his clothes at night and was required to wear a military-issued, suicide-prevention smock. Manning’s attorney and supporters said that was unnecessary and argued his living conditions, including his isolation from other inmates, were inhumane. Pentagon officials consistently said he was being held under appropriate conditions given the seriousness of the charges against him. Bradley Manning US military WikiLeaks United States guardian.co.uk
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Muammar Gaddafi’s army continues shelling port as main clashes centre on area around airport Heavy fighting has erupted on two fronts on the outskirts of the Libyan city of Misrata, with government troops using tanks to try to keep rebel forces at bay. Muammar Gaddafi’s army also continued shelling the port, the besieged city’s lifeline. Nato said its warships had caught government naval forces trying to lay sea mines in the harbour. Brigadier Rob Weighill, the British director of Nato’s Libyan operations, said his force’s ships had intercepted small boats laying mines in the harbour – the only entry point for food and medical supplies into the city. “It again shows his [Gaddafi's] complete disregard for international law and his willingness to attack humanitarian delivery efforts,” Weighill said. Rebels have also used to the port to bring in light weapons from eastern Libya. The main clashes centred on the area around the airport, the last position held by Gaddafi’s forces in the city after they were defeated in the centre. After several days of low-intensity clashes, rebels attacked early in the morning with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Government troops responded with missiles and tanks, setting fire to a shoe factory and spreading a pall of black smoke across the city. “It’s very difficult against tanks,” said Rami Pengharpia, a 21-year-old rebel fighter wounded in the back by shrapnel. “Only Nato can do something against them.” On the western side of Misrata, where rebels have been slowly forcing Gaddafi’s forces back along the road to Tripoli, there was close-quarter fighting near the satellite town of Zawiya al-Majhoub. Several tanks fired at rebel positions and into civilian areas, and mortars were also used. By mid-afternoon, at least 15 rebel fighters and civilians had died, according to doctors in Misrata. Several dozen people were injured. They included three young siblings, two boys and a girl who had colourful flower patterns drawn on her hand. All suffered shrapnel wounds after a shell fired by Gaddafi’s forces struck their house. “They will soon be able to go home, if they still have a home,” said Dr Ahmed Diab, a surgeon at the Hikma Hospital in Misrata. While the rebel losses are mourned, it is the mounting civilian casualties that are causing the greatest distress in Misrata. On Thursday, at least nine people, including two women and three children, were killed when government forces fired mortars into residential neighbourhoods, according to doctors. “Gaddafi knows that he cannot win in Misrata as long as Nato is flying above,” said Dr Khalid Abu Falgha. “But he is still trying to kill as many people as he can by shelling indiscriminately.” Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Nato Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
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Muammar Gaddafi’s army continues shelling port as main clashes centre on area around airport Heavy fighting has erupted on two fronts on the outskirts of the Libyan city of Misrata, with government troops using tanks to try to keep rebel forces at bay. Muammar Gaddafi’s army also continued shelling the port, the besieged city’s lifeline. Nato said its warships had caught government naval forces trying to lay sea mines in the harbour. Brigadier Rob Weighill, the British director of Nato’s Libyan operations, said his force’s ships had intercepted small boats laying mines in the harbour – the only entry point for food and medical supplies into the city. “It again shows his [Gaddafi's] complete disregard for international law and his willingness to attack humanitarian delivery efforts,” Weighill said. Rebels have also used to the port to bring in light weapons from eastern Libya. The main clashes centred on the area around the airport, the last position held by Gaddafi’s forces in the city after they were defeated in the centre. After several days of low-intensity clashes, rebels attacked early in the morning with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Government troops responded with missiles and tanks, setting fire to a shoe factory and spreading a pall of black smoke across the city. “It’s very difficult against tanks,” said Rami Pengharpia, a 21-year-old rebel fighter wounded in the back by shrapnel. “Only Nato can do something against them.” On the western side of Misrata, where rebels have been slowly forcing Gaddafi’s forces back along the road to Tripoli, there was close-quarter fighting near the satellite town of Zawiya al-Majhoub. Several tanks fired at rebel positions and into civilian areas, and mortars were also used. By mid-afternoon, at least 15 rebel fighters and civilians had died, according to doctors in Misrata. Several dozen people were injured. They included three young siblings, two boys and a girl who had colourful flower patterns drawn on her hand. All suffered shrapnel wounds after a shell fired by Gaddafi’s forces struck their house. “They will soon be able to go home, if they still have a home,” said Dr Ahmed Diab, a surgeon at the Hikma Hospital in Misrata. While the rebel losses are mourned, it is the mounting civilian casualties that are causing the greatest distress in Misrata. On Thursday, at least nine people, including two women and three children, were killed when government forces fired mortars into residential neighbourhoods, according to doctors. “Gaddafi knows that he cannot win in Misrata as long as Nato is flying above,” said Dr Khalid Abu Falgha. “But he is still trying to kill as many people as he can by shelling indiscriminately.” Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Nato Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
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Three men of Moroccan origin posed ‘concrete and imminent danger’ to country, according to officials German police on Friday arrested three suspected al-Qaida members who officials say posed a “concrete and imminent danger” to the nation. Authorities did not say whether the three had planned specific targets and offered few details, but security officials said that all three suspects were of Moroccan origin. They also said that two were arrested were in the western German city of Duesseldorf and one in nearby Bochum. The arrests were based on suspicion they were planning a terror attack, they said. Local media reported that officers had seized large amounts of explosives when the three were arrested. The arrests “succeeded in averting a concrete and imminent danger, presented by international terrorism,” German interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement. They showed “Germany remains a target of international terrorists.” Germany has escaped any large-scale attack by an Islamic terror organisation, such as the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and the London underground attacks of 2005. But Germany’s presence as part of the Nato coalition in Afghanistan has sparked anger and at least two major plots have been thwarted or failed in Germany before they could be carried out. The suspects had been under surveillance since November when Germany increased security across the country in response to heightened terror threat warnings in Europe, but authorities only had enough evidence to launch an official criminal investigation starting 15 April, Friedrich said in a statement. Federal prosecutors said earlier that they had ordered federal police to arrest the trio, but gave no further information about the timing or location of the arrests. Officials were planning a news conference for Saturday. A US official speaking on condition of anonymity said a team picked up three people in a raid on suspicion they were planning an attack with explosives. “Our concerns about threats in Europe had a number of different threads and strands, some of which have been disrupted by good intelligence and law enforcement work by the relevant services,” another US official said. “There have been five disrupted plots in Europe during the past four years including a credible plot in Germany in 2007 all of which demonstrate Pakistan-based al-Qaida’s steadfast intent to attack the US and our allies.” Duesseldorf, a city of 600,000, has one of the largest Moroccan immigrant communities in Germany. It is to host the Eurovision Song Contest on 14 May, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators. Prosecutors said the three alleged terrorists would be brought before a judge Saturday who will decide whether they are to remain in detention pending a trial. Germany raised its security posture in November after receiving information from its own and foreign intelligence services that led authorities to believe a sleeper cell of some 20 to 25 people may have been planning an attack inside the country or in another European nation. Germany Europe Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
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President visits wrecked university city of Tuscaloosa in Alabama, the worst hit of seven states where 210 people died Barack Obama has flown to the epicentre of one of the United States’ worst tornado disasters to pledge federal support for recovery after 310 people were killed. The president and his family visited the wrecked university city of Tuscaloosa in Alabama, the hardest hit of seven states that were blasted this week by tornadoes and storms that flattened whole neighbourhoods. It was the worst US natural catastrophe since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In Alabama alone, 210 people lost their lives. Approaching the airport in Tuscaloosa yesterday, Air Force One flew over the tornado strike zone, giving Obama and his family a clear view of a wide brown scar of devastation several miles long and hundreds of meters wide. The president is eager to show that federal relief is on its way and that he is not taking the disaster lightly. His predecessor George Bush was fiercely criticised for what was viewed as a slow response to Hurricane Katrina. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama “wants to put a spotlight for the rest of America on the suffering that a storm like this implies for so many families.” Recovery could cost billions of dollars and even with federal disaster aid it could complicate efforts by affected states to bounce back from recession. It will place an added burden on municipalities grappling with fragile finances. Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the south and midwest, but they are rarely so devastating. Deaths also were reported in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana. The tornadoes ravaged Alabama’s poultry industry – the state is the country’s third-largest chicken producer – and battered at least one coal mine and other manufacturers and industries. The second-biggest US nuclear power plant, the Browns Ferry facility in Alabama, may be down for weeks after its power was knocked out and the plant automatically shut, avoiding a nuclear disaster, officials said. Clothing company VF Designs said one of its jeanswear distribution centres in Hackleburg, Alabama, was destroyed and an employee killed. At first light on Friday, state authorities deployed teams in Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, to help survivors still picking up the pieces after the tornadoes on Wednesday devastated homes and businesses. The twisters, including one a mile-wide that cut a path of destruction, reduced houses to rubble, flipped cars and knocked out power and other utilities. “We are bringing in the cadaver dogs today,” said Heather McCollum, assistant to the mayor of Tuscaloosa, who put the death toll in the city at 42 but said it could rise. She said 900 people were injured. Hundreds of people were left homeless by the tornadoes and stayed in shelters. A curfew would be renewed on Friday night to prevent looting, although there had been almost none, she said. The city has been inundated with offers of help from around the country, McCollum said. McFarland Boulevard, normally one of the busiest streets, was wrecked and largely blocked off and state troopers and city police patrolled its shattered shops and houses. The storms left up to a million homes in Alabama without power. Because of damage to infrastructure and gas stations, Alabama and the neighboring state of Tennessee advised people traveling to affected areas to fill up their tanks with gas. Water and garbage collection services were also disrupted in some areas. Alabama’s Jefferson County, which is fighting to avoid what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history over a $3.2bn bond debt, suffered damage and 19 dead but said the storms would have little direct impact on its finances. “It won’t directly impact us in that the president has declared a national disaster which requires grants,” county commission president David Carrington said. The storm threw into turmoil the University of Alabama. Two students died off campus and administrators canceled final exams and postponed graduation until August. Many students slept in dorm rooms without power overnight and large numbers were heading home on Friday. “Everyone is getting out,” said Katie Bayless, 19, whose parents had driven through the night from Houston, Texas, to collect her. Natural disasters and extreme weather Alabama Barack Obama United States guardian.co.uk
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Protest groups claim Facebook has taken down dozens of pages in a purge of activists’ accounts Activists are claiming that dozens of politically linked Facebook accounts have been removed or suspended by the company in the last 12 hours. The list of suspended pages include those for the anti cuts group UK Uncut, and pages that were created by students during last December’s university occupations. A list posted on the UCL occupation blog site says the Goldsmiths Fights Back, Slade Occupation, Open Brikbeck, and Tower Hamlet Greens pages as no longer functioning. It is not yet known how many websites have been affected in total or why they are not working. Facebook is currently looking into the issue. Guy Aitchison, 26, an administrator for one of the non-functioning pages said, “I woke up this morning to find that a lot of the groups we’d been using for anti-cuts activity had disappeared. The timing of it seems suspicious given a general political crackdown because of the royal wedding.” “It seems that dozens of other groups have also been affected, including some of the local UK Uncut groups.” Earlier, it was reported that the Metropolitan police had invoked special powers to deter anarchists in central London ahead of the royal wedding. Police threw a section 60 cordon around the whole of the royal wedding zone on Friday morning to respond to anarchists masking up at a small gathering in Soho Square in central London. The section 60 order allows police officers to stop and search anyone without discretion. The police also imposed section 60a, which gives them the power to remove masks and balaclavas from anyone within the area. Scotland Yard said the decision was made after individuals were seen putting on masks in Soho Square where a group of anarchists had gathered. The Guardian is awaiting a comment from Facebook. • If your page is affected, please email the Guardian at newseditor@guardian.co.uk or post in the comments below. UK Uncut Activism Protest Crime Facebook Shiv Malik guardian.co.uk
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Diehard royal fans celebrate Kate and William’s nuptials but for most it’s business as usual “He knocked off my fascinating!” cried Laura Martin, 55, in full evening dress complete with enormous jewelled brooch (“Fake – don’t tell the Queen!”) as she glared at a jogger disappearing towards the Hudson River, before stooping down to pick her fasincator off the sidewalk. “It’s a fascinate, Laura,” said her friend, in a similarly implausible outfit for 6am. “Fascinate.” It wasn’t so much a tale of two cities in New York as a tale of two sides of the street. On one side of Greenwich Avenue stores were decked with union flag bunting in preparation for the afternoon’s street party. People took fashion cues from Me and My Girl and Four Weddings and a Funeral queued up outside Lyon restaurant hoping to get inside for the special wedding breakfast with screens set up to allow diners to judge Kate’s dress while they ate fried bread. Any journalist with a British accent was immediately assumed to be a royal expert, even one from the soi-disant republican Guardian. “We’re not going to have to eat English food, right?” fretted one gentleman outside, topped and tailed. “I just wanna see the wedding.” Unfortunately for him they did, as it was fry-ups all round. But New Yorker Elizabeth Lang, 51, who was already inside and sporting a tiara, had reassuring words for him: “You know this isn’t too bad – I was worried as I thought the English food would be a little dicey,” she said as she carefully left her baked beans untouched. “Who’d have thought, a French restaurant doing an English breakfast,” marvelled Ben Mann in a morning suit as he leaned upon his cane, and one of the few Brits to be found. “It’s not the first time the British have invaded and saved France – 1939 and all that,” smirked Sean Cavanagh-Dowsett, the British owner of the nearby English-themed restaurant and shop, Tea and Sympathy, in full pearly king regalia. “It’s our job to be English today,” explained Mann. “It’s such a shame Diana isn’t here,” said Kevin de l’Aigle, an American sporting a union flag t-shirt and Kate’n’Wills badge while he, too, left his baked beans untouched. “But I’m sure she’s here in spirit.” Actually Diana was there, and celebrating with great enthusiasm: Diana Zorek, age 5. “I love the wedding! I love princesses!” she announced, and proved it by wearing a Disney princess outfit. But as “really pretty” as she thought Kate Middleton’s wedding dress was, she hadn’t usurped her favourite princess from the top spot: Ariel from the Little Mermaid. The other side of the street may as well have been a different country. Almost directly opposite the postcard recreation of all things parodically English was a similarly cliched, if more accurate, image of New York: a gym. Young men in various lycra get-ups that would surely permit no ingestion of fried bread jogged on into Equinox gym for early morning workouts, headphones plugged firmly into their ears, blocking out the shrieks from across the street. “No, I don’t care about the wedding at all to be honest,” said Matthew Reinhardt. “If it’s on the TV screens inside I guess I’ll watch it. Maybe it will help me run faster on the treadmill.” Back across the street there was no time for republican scepticism: Sean Cavanagh-Dowsett and his wife, Nicky Perry, were organising the afternoon’s street party where fish and chips, cups of tea and someone from Squeeze who wasn’t Jools Holland would be there, apparently representing some vision of Great Britain. “To us Kate and William are the prince and princess on top of the cake, they’re the happily ever after,” said New Yorker Linda Siciliana in black tie garb, apparently unbothed by the Windsors’ somewhat dubious marital record. “I think this is such a great day,” said Californian Diana Modica from beneath her Kate Middleton face mask. “How can anyone resist this?” But by 7am someone was beginning to resist: Diana Zorek, who announced that she was “SO tired” after having risen so early in the morning. Was she still feeling like a princess? “Yes,” she replied, falling asleep on her father Michael’s shoulder, oblivious to the jogger running right past her. “Sleeping Beauty.” Royal wedding New York Kate Middleton Prince William Monarchy United States Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk
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I am a white Jewish American. My family escaped–often in a sprint, sometimes prostrate on the bottom of a rowboat—Cossacks and communists and Nazis so that I might be here today. Many of them didn’t make it. I live in the middle of Los Angeles. Gay people are everywhere and considered as normal as anyone else. Black people too. Persians, Buddhists, Sikhs, astrologers and witches are ho-hum. My mechanic is Pakistani. I probably run into more Latinos everyday than I do white people. When I grew up, our mayor was black. Today our mayor is Hispanic. No one seems to notice. It is a privilege to live like this. It is lovely. enlarge And obviously I reside in La La Land because yesterday, Birth Certificate Day, punched me in the mouth. I was stricken, paralyzed with rage. To see laid bare the brazen racial hatred coursing through the blood of so many millions of people who also call themselves American, well it actually made me cry. I’d thought, in 2011, that we were better than that. We aren’t. We are still desperately sick. And it made me ashamed before all of those that we continue to torment. I should have known better. About ten years ago, I went to a wedding in Memphis, Tennessee, which included a preliminary lunch at the home of some fantastically polite and generous white people in the suburbs. They fed us lavishly. Laughed at our jokes. Expressed real interest in our pursuits and lives back home. They loaned us their car. They offered us a place to sleep “anytime.” They were basically the nicest people I had ever met in my life. Then the 40-year-old woman who lived in this beautiful house asked what we had planned that night. “We’re going to check out Beale Street,” I answered like a typical tourist. Her face flinched a fraction in disappointment and concern. “Oh,” she said. “Don’t you think it’s a bit dark down there?” “Dark?” I smirked like an idiot. “The whole place is lit up like high noon in neon lights.” And then we elected a black president. I know racism persists. Arizona, “Ground Zero Mosque” and “Mau Mau” are ominous signs of this despicable cancer. But I was not prepared for this buffoon, this nauseating jester of unflagging privilege, to amplify this revolting malice. To feed his ugly sucking egomania, Donald Trump opted to speak for those people in Tennessee and so many others. Black people, he lied again and again, are not good enough to be president. Black people are not good enough for Harvard. Black people are lesser. Illegitimate. Frauds and Conmen. It is high time that these people relearned their place. In short, he raved, “The Blacks” are Not Us. enlarge I have been rejected. I have lost. I have failed. But I cannot imagine what it must feel like to listen to this malignant rebuff, this dehumanizing talk essentially of elimination from the mix of America itself. I realize that at least some of this bile is opportunism. The opposition stokes racial animus not from conviction, but simply to tilt the balance of power. Many don’t mean it. It’s just Nixon and Rove’s amoral and effective tool. But the nakedness of the hate disclosed by Trump and the birthers was stupefying. It floored me. I could not comprehend that at least half of GOP voters and who knows how many more were cheering him on, nodding their odious assent. I wanted to divorce myself from them, from this country that could harbor such repulsiveness on such a wide scale. And most of all, even if it’s meaningless and solely to make myself stop weeping for a second, I wanted to apologize to my fellow Americans whose pain I know I can never know. I’m so sorry. Because if this is how we treat a man as smart and gifted and dignified and accomplished as President Obama, imagine how we treat everyone else? We must do better. The yellowing scrap that is my own birth certificate from Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood demands nothing less.
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With Zen axed because of the slew of male detectives cluttering up BBC1, it’s time for the ladies to step forward – in the footsteps of these classic female crime-fighters Fans of Inspector Zen, the Italian detective played by Rufus Sewell, will be disappointed: the BBC has axed the show , with controller Danny Cohen citing concerns that there are too many male detectives cluttering up BBC1. A slew of female-led detective shows are due to grace our screens this year, including The Body Farm, a spin-off from Waking the Dead . But these shows will be following in the footsteps of some iconic female investigators. Here is my top 10 list of female characters who broke boundaries and helped redefine the image of the investigator. Who would be on your list? 1. Nancy Drew The original, the iconic teenage detective, any list of female detectives inevitably starts with Nancy Drew , who has been solving mysteries for more than 80 years, with Hilary Clinton and Sonia Sotomayor among the high-profile women to cite her as an inspiration. The character may still be a teenager, but she has evolved over time – notably some of the early stories were rewritten to expunge the racism of the original versions. 2. George George (emphatically, not Georgina) from Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books, is similarly essential. These books similarly show many signs of their age to a modern reader. But George, the brave, tousle-haired tomboy, was still an alternative and important role model for young readers. 3. Miss Marple Agatha Christie’s amateur detective Miss Marple conceals a sharp intelligence in a visage which our culture sees as the epitome of the unthreatening: an elderly “spinster” living in the English village of St Meade’s. She has been reimagined repeatedly in TV and film adaptations. Confoundingly, Disney is about to remake the character yet again, casting Jennifer Garner as Miss Marple in her younger days. 4. Precious Ramotswe It’s notable that the rest of the detectives in this list are white women, either American or European. Representations of black female investigators are still thin on the ground, but Precious Ramotswe from Alexander McCall Smith’s series, The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, has helped redefine the image of the detective. The adaptation by the BBC and HBO, starring Jill Scott as Precious, has also won praise for its positive representation of Botswana. 5. Jane Tennison DCI Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) from the ITV series Prime Suspect set the mould for police procedurals and female cops struggling in the male-dominated workplace. She’s tough, she gets the job done. Tennison could be back on our screens again soon, in the form of a US remake , relocating the show from London to New York, and starring Maria Bello. 6. Veronica Mars In the mid-2000s, the teenage girl detective evolved into Veronica Mars (Kristin Bell), the hero of the eponymous American TV series. Mars is witty, tough and a brilliant investigator. But she’s not bulletproof: in the first episode, we learn Mars was roofied and sexually assaulted at a party. The case is dismissed by the police; she must go back to high school with the boys who assaulted her. 7. Lis Salander Much has been written about whether Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy is feminist or misogynist . Lis Salander is the strongest argument in the books’ favour: her extreme hacker skills are crucial to getting to the bottom of the crime and corruption in the books. She’s an unusual character in this genre: while most amateur detectives work in tandem with the police, or do their job for them, Salander has been a victim of state violence, she has her own agenda and she works to her own moral code. 8. Sarah Lund In the first episode of the winding Danish detective series The Killing, we’re introduced to Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl). She’s meant to be moving to Sweden with her boyfriend and son, it’s her last day on the police force. But Lund quickly realises she can’t leave her less competent replacement to solve her last case, the murder of a teenage girl. The success of the show has led to it being remade in the US . 9. Temperance Brennan Temperance Brennan is the hero of a series of detective books by Kathy Reichs, then very loosely adapted for television in the US series Bones, where she puts her skills as a forensic anthropologist to use on current-day murder cases with FBI partner Seeley Booth. Spiky and socially awkward, Brennan is brilliant at everything except interacting with other humans. 10. Marge Gunderson In the Coen brothers’ film Fargo, Frances McDormand plays the chief of police, Marge Gunderson, who carefully unpicks the homicides that are occurring in the small American town. She comes into the film 31 minutes in, only to steal the show. Seven months pregnant, she defies the image of the lone and lonely hard-boiled detective, an oasis of common sense, competence and good humour. Crime drama Crime fiction Television Alexander McCall Smith Stieg Larsson The Killing Gender Jess McCabe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …With Zen axed because of the slew of male detectives cluttering up BBC1, it’s time for the ladies to step forward – in the footsteps of these classic female crime-fighters Fans of Inspector Zen, the Italian detective played by Rufus Sewell, will be disappointed: the BBC has axed the show , with controller Danny Cohen citing concerns that there are too many male detectives cluttering up BBC1. A slew of female-led detective shows are due to grace our screens this year, including The Body Farm, a spin-off from Waking the Dead . But these shows will be following in the footsteps of some iconic female investigators. Here is my top 10 list of female characters who broke boundaries and helped redefine the image of the investigator. Who would be on your list? 1. Nancy Drew The original, the iconic teenage detective, any list of female detectives inevitably starts with Nancy Drew , who has been solving mysteries for more than 80 years, with Hilary Clinton and Sonia Sotomayor among the high-profile women to cite her as an inspiration. The character may still be a teenager, but she has evolved over time – notably some of the early stories were rewritten to expunge the racism of the original versions. 2. George George (emphatically, not Georgina) from Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books, is similarly essential. These books similarly show many signs of their age to a modern reader. But George, the brave, tousle-haired tomboy, was still an alternative and important role model for young readers. 3. Miss Marple Agatha Christie’s amateur detective Miss Marple conceals a sharp intelligence in a visage which our culture sees as the epitome of the unthreatening: an elderly “spinster” living in the English village of St Meade’s. She has been reimagined repeatedly in TV and film adaptations. Confoundingly, Disney is about to remake the character yet again, casting Jennifer Garner as Miss Marple in her younger days. 4. Precious Ramotswe It’s notable that the rest of the detectives in this list are white women, either American or European. Representations of black female investigators are still thin on the ground, but Precious Ramotswe from Alexander McCall Smith’s series, The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, has helped redefine the image of the detective. The adaptation by the BBC and HBO, starring Jill Scott as Precious, has also won praise for its positive representation of Botswana. 5. Jane Tennison DCI Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) from the ITV series Prime Suspect set the mould for police procedurals and female cops struggling in the male-dominated workplace. She’s tough, she gets the job done. Tennison could be back on our screens again soon, in the form of a US remake , relocating the show from London to New York, and starring Maria Bello. 6. Veronica Mars In the mid-2000s, the teenage girl detective evolved into Veronica Mars (Kristin Bell), the hero of the eponymous American TV series. Mars is witty, tough and a brilliant investigator. But she’s not bulletproof: in the first episode, we learn Mars was roofied and sexually assaulted at a party. The case is dismissed by the police; she must go back to high school with the boys who assaulted her. 7. Lis Salander Much has been written about whether Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy is feminist or misogynist . Lis Salander is the strongest argument in the books’ favour: her extreme hacker skills are crucial to getting to the bottom of the crime and corruption in the books. She’s an unusual character in this genre: while most amateur detectives work in tandem with the police, or do their job for them, Salander has been a victim of state violence, she has her own agenda and she works to her own moral code. 8. Sarah Lund In the first episode of the winding Danish detective series The Killing, we’re introduced to Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl). She’s meant to be moving to Sweden with her boyfriend and son, it’s her last day on the police force. But Lund quickly realises she can’t leave her less competent replacement to solve her last case, the murder of a teenage girl. The success of the show has led to it being remade in the US . 9. Temperance Brennan Temperance Brennan is the hero of a series of detective books by Kathy Reichs, then very loosely adapted for television in the US series Bones, where she puts her skills as a forensic anthropologist to use on current-day murder cases with FBI partner Seeley Booth. Spiky and socially awkward, Brennan is brilliant at everything except interacting with other humans. 10. Marge Gunderson In the Coen brothers’ film Fargo, Frances McDormand plays the chief of police, Marge Gunderson, who carefully unpicks the homicides that are occurring in the small American town. She comes into the film 31 minutes in, only to steal the show. Seven months pregnant, she defies the image of the lone and lonely hard-boiled detective, an oasis of common sense, competence and good humour. Crime drama Crime fiction Television Alexander McCall Smith Stieg Larsson The Killing Gender Jess McCabe guardian.co.uk
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