Authorities are searching for the shark and the man’s missing limbs in the Bunker Bay area near Dunsborough A bodyboarder has died after a shark bit off his legs at a popular surfing spot in Western Australia. Authorities were reportedly searching for the shark as well as the man’s missing limbs. The man in his early 20s was bodyboarding with five friends when the shark attacked, a police spokesman said. He died at the scene in the surfing haven known as the Farm, off Bunker Bay near the town of Dunsborough. The beach was closed after the attack. About 30 surfers were in the water when the shark attacked on Sunday, according to a beachside cafe employee, Deb Pickett, who called police and an ambulance after hearing the disturbance. “We had some sharks spotted far out at sea a few months ago, but they never come this close to the shore,” Pickett said. She added that helicopters were still searching the area for the shark late on Sunday, while rescue staff searched for the man’s arms and legs, which she believed had been taken by the shark. Local official Ian Stubbs said it was the first shark attack in the area for more than 20 years. Australia Animals guardian.co.uk
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Rabbi compares ‘vilification’ of Travellers to the discrimination Jews faced in the first half of the 20th century Members of the Jewish community were due to visit Dale Farm Travellers’ camp on Sunday to offer their support to 400 people facing eviction from the green belt site in Essex. On Friday a UN committee called on the government to suspend the “immature and unwise” eviction, saying it would “disproportionately affect the lives of the Gypsy and Traveller families, particularly women, children and older people”. The camp has also received support from Franciscan monks, who last week blessed the site, as well as Anglican and Catholic bishops. Rabbi Janet Burden said: “People may not be aware that the Travellers, along with the Gypsies and a limited number of other groups with similar lifestyle patterns, are officially recognised as ethnic minorities, just like our own Jewish community. As such, they deserve protection under European human rights law.” Burden compared the “vilification” of Travellers to the discrimination Jews faced in the first half of the 20th century. “The language used clearly echoes the rhetoric of antisemitism,” she said. “If you don’t believe this, have a look at the website jewify.org for examples of newspaper articles which substitute the word Jew for Gypsy or Traveller. The results are quite chilling. I believe that the obligation to protect this ethnic minority’s way of life is a human rights issue that, in this particular and unusual case, may need to trump the planning law designed to protect the green belt.” Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, warned last week that there was a great risk of human rights violations if the eviction went ahead. “If they go ahead with the eviction that would be very immature and unwise,” Hammarberg said. “The only way to do this is for the government or the authority in Basildon to appoint people who have trust on both sides to find an agreed solution.” Tony Ball, leader of Basildon council, has repeatedly defended the eviction saying the proposals have been tested through the courts. “Everyone is entitled to their views,” he said last week. “I’m clear that the overwhelming majority of residents of Basildon and in the country support what Basildon council are doing. Local authorities are expected to uphold the law.” Camp residents said representatives from the UN would be visiting the site on 14 September. Jenny Clapham said the growing support for the campaign had given people a boost, but residents were aware they faced an uphill battle to remain on the site. “There is a very serious mood in the camp about the challenges we face if we are going to win this and overturn the eviction decision,” she said. Dale Farm Roma, Gypsies and Travellers Judaism Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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• Farah sprints to victory ahead of Bernard Lagat • Gold goes with silver 28-year-old won in 10,000m Mo Farah won Britain’s second gold of the world championships with a stunning run in the 5,000m. The 28-year-old, who took silver in the 10,000m a week ago, outsprinted Bernard Lagat in the home straight to claim victory in a time of 13min 23.36sec. Ethiopia’s Imane Merga finished third. “I came so close in the 10 and I just wanted to do it in the 5,000,” he said. “I’m very proud, I just can’t believe it. I just had to go out there and do what I did in the 10k but just get it right this time.” Farah’s move to Oregon in the United States to train appears to have paid significant dividends. “I’ve made a lot of sacrifices but I’m glad I’ve made that choice,” he said. Farah, who claimed double gold at the European Championships last year, came into the race as the favourite after leading the world rankings in 2011. But it took all his new-found finishing speed to hold off almost the entire field, with only two of the 16 runners out of contention by the bell. Mo Farah World Athletics Championships 2011 World Athletics Championships Athletics guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Police arrest man in connection with attack that left third woman with serious injuries at house in Thame A man has been arrested after two women were murdered and another left in a serious condition after being attacked in a house in the early hours of Sunday. Officers were called to Ireton Court in Thame, Oxfordshire, at 2.20am where two women were found with fatal injuries, Thames Valley police said. A third was taken to hospital but her condition is not thought to be life-threatening. A man was arrested on suspicion of murder shortly afterwards and he was being questioned at Abingdon police station. A police spokesman nobody else was being sought for questioning. Police and forensic investigators were at the scene of the murder on Sunday as neighbours spoke of their shock. One Ireton Court resident, who did not want to be named, said: “All the police have told us is that it’s a major incident. Neighbours are saying it is a domestic … I heard a helicopter flying overheard but I presumed there had been a car accident. It had its searchlight on and, thinking about it now, they must have been looking for someone. People haven’t been allowed to take their cars out and that’s all I know.” The ages of the victims have not been released. Crime Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Up to 300,000 take part in Tel Aviv, 50,000 in Jerusalem and 40,000 in Haifa in Israel’s biggest ever demonstration Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday night in Israel’s biggest ever demonstration to demand social justice, a lower cost of living and a clear government response to the concerns of an increasingly squeezed middle class. About 430,000 people took part in marches and rallies across the country, according to police. The biggest march was in Tel Aviv, where up to 300,000 took part. There was an unprecedented 50,000-strong protest in Jerusalem, and 40,000 marched in Haifa. There were smaller protests in dozens of other towns and cities. It had been billed as the “March of the Million” but organisers said a turnout matching the 300,000-strong demonstrations four weeks ago would be a triumph. Israel’s population is 7.7 million. Saturday’s demonstrations followed 50 days of protests that have rattled political leaders and led commentators and analysts to ask whether a new social movement would transform Israeli domestic politics for the next generation. The movement, which has the support of about 90% of the population according to opinion polls, began when a small group of activists erected tents in Tel Aviv’s prosperous Rothschild Boulevard in protest at high rents and house prices. Tent cities mushroomed across the country and protesters rallied behind the slogan: “The people demand social justice.” Among the issues raised were the cost of housing, transport, childcare, food and fuel; the low salaries paid to many professionals, including doctors and teachers; tax reform; and welfare payments. The government established a committee led by the economics professor Manuel Trajtenberg to examine the protesters’ demands, which is due to report later this month. Demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday night blew whistles and banged drums as they marched in a carnival atmosphere to a large square for a rally. Residents hung banners from balconies and cheered as they passed. “We are the new Israelis,” the student leader Itzik Shmuli told the rally. “And the new Israelis want only one simple thing: to live with dignity in this country.” He added: “Tonight we make history again. The people are supporting a protest started by the young people and, a week after the protest was proclaimed over, we are on the verge of breaking another record. From now on the government knows that at any given moment Israelis can return to the streets and must therefore deliver the goods.” Daphni Leef, one of the organisers of the original tent protest, said: “This summer is the great summer of the new Israeli hope born of despair, alienation and impossible gaps … The Israeli society has reached its red line, and has gotten up and said ‘no more.’ This is the miracle of the summer of 2011.” Under a homemade banner saying “Walk Like an Egyptian”, Ruti Hertz, 34, a journalist, said that until this summer people had been privately ashamed of their inability to make ends meet. “Each person was lonely in their situation, thinking it’s my own problem.” That had changed with the protests. She said that she and her teacher husband, Roi, were living on the same income as when they met 10 years ago. “We don’t ask for much, just to be able to finish the month without taking from our parents.” Roi’s monthly take-home pay of 5,500 shekels (£940) went on nursery fees for their two young daughters, she said. Vered Cohen Nitsan, a primary school teacher from Netanya, said she had joined the march “to protest, to support the people of my country and [because] I wish my children will have an easier life in the future”. She added: “For years, you think you just have to work harder and struggle. And now people start to talk to one another and you see it’s not your personal problem.” At a rally in Haifa, Shahin Nasser, an Israeli-Arab, said: “Today we are changing the rules of the game. No more coexistence based on hummus and fava beans. What is happening here is true coexistence, when Arabs and Jews march together shoulder to shoulder calling for social justice and peace. We’ve had it.” The protests have been criticised by some on the left for not paying more attention to the discrimination suffered by Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20% of Israel’s population, or Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. Weekly demonstrations, whose turnout had been steadily building, were suspended for two weeks after an attack by militants near the Egyptian-Israel border in which eight Israelis were killed. Some commentators suggested that the movement had lost its momentum. Protest organisers said the tent cities would be dismantled but the movement would continue with other actions. Many tent-dwellers had already left as the Israeli summer holidays ended. Israel Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Former IMF chief faces uncertain political future after New York prosecutors drop charges of sexually assaultinghotel maid Dominique Strauss-Kahn has returned to France for the first time since attempted rape accusations by a New York hotel maid dashed the former International Monetary Fund chief’s chances for the French presidency. New York prosecutors dropped their case against Strauss-Kahn because of questions about the maid’s credibility, but the affair cost him his IMF job and exposed his personal life to worldwide scrutiny. On Sunday, smiling and waving silently, Strauss-Kahn stepped off an Air France flight at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport to face an uncertain political future. Four months ago, he was the favourite to beat Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections, but few now expect Strauss-Kahn to make a swift return to French politics His wife, respected former TV personality Anne Sinclair, was at his side, beaming widely. Riot police protected him and the area. The two then drove to one of their homes, on Paris’ Place des Vosges. The crush of reporters was so thick that they had trouble reaching and opening the front door. Strauss-Kahn’s supporters have eagerly awaited his return after three months of legal drama in the US that they saw as unfairly hostile to him. “I’m moved, I always believed in his innocence. I wanted very much for this to be over,” Michelle Sabban, a fellow Socialist party member, told i-Tele television. The last time he tried to take an Air France flight out of JFK, Strauss-Kahn was pulled out of first class by police investigating claims that hours earlier, Strauss-Kahn had forced the maid to perform oral sex and tried to rape her. He quit his job, spent almost a week in jail, then under six weeks of house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the country before prosecutors dropped the case last month, saying they no longer trusted the maid, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo. Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a civil case. Strauss-Kahn denies the allegations. Strauss-Kahn faces another attempted rape investigation in France due to accusations by French novelist Tristane Banon. He calls the claim “imaginary.” Banon’s mother, Anne Mansouret, told the Associated Press that Strauss-Kahn’s return “is a good thing for my daughter’s complaint because he will have to answer to police.” Banon says she didn’t file a complaint after the 2003 incident because her mother, a regional Socialist official, urged her not to. Mansouret, who has said she regrets that decision, called it “profoundly indecent” that Strauss-Kahn’s homecoming was like that of a “star.” The Socialists are now embroiled in a fierce campaign to choose their candidate for the April and May presidential elections. The frontrunners, while relieved that the New York case was dropped, are not keen for Strauss-Kahn to play a role in the campaign. The eloquent economist and former French finance minister has retained hi popularity in France. One belted out an ode to Strauss-Kahn in a performance at the Paris airport Sunday morning, accompanied by a Verdi opera played on a portable stereo, before police officers asked him to stop. “Dominique! Dominique!,” shouted Gregoire Vandevelde, who said he was a former student of Strauss-Kahn’s at a prestigious economic institute. “I support him completely,” Vandevelde said. “He is extremely brilliant, full of humor and very competent, warm with his students.” Dominique Strauss-Kahn IMF France Europe New York United States guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …“Washington speechwriter sick of submerging his comic identity in alpha politicians seeks job in film television. Willing to move to West Coast!” So might Jon Lovett’s classified ad read, if Hollywood worked like Craigslist. But the Obama speechwriter and standup comic will have to actually move to LA, ride studio…
Continue reading …A growing number of US high school students will be encouraged not to hit the books this year, because a gleaming new iPad awaits them in the classroom. More than 600 school districts will give out iPads for each student in at least one class, Apple says, and now a…
Continue reading …Environmentalists are reeling today after President Obama backed away from a plan to enact stricter ozone pollution standards on Friday. First, the State Department approved a pipeline slated to carry tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast from Canada—and now this. “There is shock and chaos here,” said a…
Continue reading …Sarah Palin kept her presidential ambitions under wraps today in a 40-minute speech to thousands of very wet Iowans who had diligently waited for her in steady rain, the Des Moines Register reports. “We’re here because America is at a tipping point,” Palin said at the Des Moines Tea Party…
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