WWF demands full environmental impact assessment before Shell starts work near the Ningaloo marine park, north of Perth Conservation groups in Australia say a decision to allow Shell to carry out exploratory drilling near Australia’s newest world heritage site, Ningaloo marine park, could devastate the area if there was a spillage. “It beggars belief that the government is not requiring a full environmental estimate of this drilling proposal,” said Paul Gamblin of the World Wildlife Fund. Instead, the enrgy giant must abide by certain conditions, including visual observations for whales. The Australian government said Shell’s proposal did not require further assessment. Ningaloo reef, about 750 miles north of Perth, is best known for its whale sharks, the world’s largest fish. The 160m long reef is also home to rare and endangered wildlife including whales, sea turtles and birds. Ningaloo marine park, which includes the reef, was designated a world heritage site last month. The exploration well will be dug 30 miles from the edge of the park, primarily in search of gas. In a statement Shell said it was “mindful of significant biodiversity and heritage values of the Ningaloo region and plan to continue our operations accordingly”. The proposal said in the unlikely event of a spillage travelling towards the reef “there is sufficient time to collect dispersant and boom…to contain any damage.” Several drilling and floating platforms already operate to the north of the reef but conservationists say this well – to the west – would expose a much bigger section of the reef to danger. “One of our main concerns is a spill off the side of the reef because of the way the winds and currents work – there’s only so far for a spill to go before it ends up hitting the reef,” added Gamblin. The area is also prone to cyclones. Two years ago Australia suffered its worst oil disaster in the Montara oil field off the northern coast of Western Australia. It took three months go bring the spill, which led to 2000 barrels of oil spewing into the ocean each day, under control. The government says since Montara it has adopted a “more rigorous approach for the assessment of offshore drilling”. Australia Marine life Royal Dutch Shell Conservation Wildlife Oil Oil and gas companies Alison Rourke guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The early reviews are in for the eighth and final film in the Harry Potter series—and the consensus is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is magical. The last Potter film made its world premiere in London, and British and trade papers are raving about the movie,…
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Islamabad denounces as ‘irresponsible’ comments by Admiral Mike Mullen that it sanctioned Syed Saleem Shahzad’s killing Pakistan has lashed out at America’s top-ranking military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, on Friday, saying that its relations with the US have been further damaged by his remarks blaming the Islamabad government for the killing, torture and murder of a Pakistani journalist. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff shocked Islamabad by saying publicly what US officials had confirmed only in private: that the Pakistani government had “sanctioned” the killing of Syed Saleem Shahzad, the investigative reporter for Asia Times Online whose mutilated body was found on 30 May in a canal 40 miles from the capital. He had been writing about jihadist infiltration of the Pakistani military. Pakistan’s information minister, Firdous Ashiq Awan, told a news conference Mullen had made an “extremely irresponsible and unfortunate statement”. “This statement will create problems and difficulties for the bilateral relations between Pakistan and America. It will definitely deal a blow to our common efforts with regard to the war on terror,” she said, without going into details. The row comes at a time when ties between the two countries have not recovered from the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden on 2 May in the central Pakistani town of Abbottabad. Pakistan’s armed forces are smarting from the humiliation of the special forces mission, which was carried out without their permission or knowledge. After discovering the al-Qaida leader near a military academy in a town full of retired officers, the US remains suspicious that he had been helped by members of the Pakistani government, army or the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. Since the raid, Islamabad announced it was stopping US drone flights launched from its soil, although US officials said the flights, aimed at tracking down and killing al-Qaida members and other militants, had been suspended in April, after a row over Islamabad’s arrest of a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, who shot two Pakistani nationals in Lahore in January. It is unclear whether Mullen’s remarks were approved beforehand by the White House or whether they simply reflected the frustration of a senior officer approaching retirement in two months, who invested considerable time in cultivating relationships with his Pakistani counterparts. US and British intelligence officials believe that apart from a small department dealing with foreign agencies, the ISI’s conduct is beyond the influence of the civilian government in Islamabad and its western allies. Washington and London are anxious the poor human rights record of the Pakistani security services may have helped to entrench extreme jihadism in Pakistani society. The Barack Obama administration has given off-the-record briefings that blame the ISI for Shahzad’s abduction and killing – an allegation the ISI has rejected. In his public remarks at a Pentagon briefing on Thursday, Mullen hwas less specific about the branch of government involvement, but left no doubt over who he thought was culpable. “It was sanctioned by the government,” he said. “I have not seen anything to disabuse the report that the government knew about this.” He added that he thought Shahzad’s killing was part of a pattern of eliminating troublesome journalists. “His [death] isn’t the first. For whatever reason, it has been used as a method historically”, adding that it raised worrying questions about Pakistan’s future. “It’s not a way to move ahead. It’s a way to continue to, quite frankly, spiral in the wrong direction.” The Pakistani government has set up a judicial commission to investigate Shahzad’s death. It has requested copies of the journalist’s email and mobile phone records and has summoned the assistance of 16 “prominent personalities” from the media and human rights organisations. Pakistan US military United States Journalist safety Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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Former prime minister delivers harshest verdict yet on his successor and warns party to avoid ‘politics of protest’ Tony Blair has delivered his most damning verdict on Gordon Brown’s government to date, claiming New Labour died when he left office in 2007 and that the party “lost its driving rhythm”. The former prime minister said the 13-year Labour government should be remembered in two phases – his and Brown’s – and there was “no continuity” between the two. In a speech in London to the New Labour thinktank Progress, Blair also advocated a “pick and mix” of policy that did not adhere to old narratives of left and right. He urged the party to let go of some of its old ideologies in order to arrive at the “right” policy decisions. He said: “I remain unremittingly an advocate of third-way, centre-ground, progressive politics that came to be called New Labour. From 1997 to 2007 we were New Labour. In June 2007 we stopped. “We didn’t become old Labour exactly. But we lost the driving rhythm that made us different and successful. It was not a government of continuity from 1997 to 2010 pursing the same politics. It was 10 plus three.” It is the most comprehensive analysis Blair has made distinguishing between his and Brown’s premiership. He also stressed his support for the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, but warned that the party could not indulge in the “politics of protest”. He said: “Parties of the left have a genetic tendency to cling to an analysis that they lose because the leadership is insufficiently committed to being left, defined in a very traditional sense. There’s always a slightly curious problem with this analysis since usually they have lost to a rightwing party. But somehow that inconvenient truth is put to the side. “This analysis is grasped with relief. People are then asked to unify around it. Anything else is distraction, even an act of disloyalty. This strategy never works.” Recalling his government’s policies to introduce academies, more patient choice in the NHS, asbos and university top-up fees, plus its pro-business stance – all of which were controversial on the left of the party – he said: “Some of these policies could be supported by people who don’t vote Labour. That’s not a bad thing. “In the real world of the 21st century there will be some pick and mix of policy. Sometimes it will be less left v right than right v wrong. Above all today, efficacy – effective delivery, motivated of course by values – matters as much if not more than ideology. Don’t fear it. Embrace it. It liberates us to get the correct policy.” He argued that Labour should make the economy its priority. “I still think we need to focus a lot on the micro side: targeted policies that support business, jobs, that allow that large amount of cumulative reserves in business to be invested and that also gives us an opportunity to regain, which I think is very important to us, our relationship with business.” Tony Blair Labour Gordon Brown Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Modern technology didn’t prevent the theft of a priceless 12th-century manuscript from a Spanish cathedral. The Codex Calixtinus—known as “Europe’s oldest travel guide” because it contained a guide to walking routes for pilgrims—is believed to have been stolen by professional thieves from an safe in the archives of…
Continue reading …America’s ambassador visited to Syria visited one of the cities worst-hit by the crackdown against anti-government protesters yesterday reports CNN . Robert Ford went to the city of Hama “to make absolutely clear with his physical presence that we stand with those Syrians who are expressing their right to speak for…
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Minister’s suggestion of a mandatory rest day for all domestic workers reignites a long-running debate over workers’ rights If you’re a domestic maid in Singapore, there’s no such thing as the weekend. Since employers are not legally bound to grant days off, the weeks never end. In the country that officially works the longest hours in the world, where one in six families has domestic help, the legal right to a day off has long seemed unthinkable for maids. But a government minister’s suggestion that a mandatory rest day could minimise stress has reignited a long-standing debate in Singapore over workers’ rights. Halimah Yacob, Singapore’s minister for community development, health and sports, says domestic workers need one day a week to “rest and recuperate”. The government has said it is “studying the suggestion”. But no legal right to a day off isn’t the only problem for Singapore’s 201,000 domestic workers, for whom there is, perhaps not surprisingly, no minimum wage either. It’s the attitudes of their employers – and indeed the country at large – that stands in the way of progress. “Are maids really that overworked?” asked schoolteacher Low Ai Choo, in a letter to the local Straits Times . “My maid has a day off once a month. Every time she comes back from her outings she appears even more tired and listless, and needs to recuperate from her outing. “My maid is the one who goes to bed by nine every night and my husband and I are the ones still up way beyond nine to tuck in our children and catch up with school work.” Low is one of many employers reacting angrily to Yacob’s suggestion, which came after the International Labour Organisation (ILO) agreed last week to give domestic workers a day off every week, as well as other basic labour rights. Singapore, along with the UK, was among 63 member states that abstained from the vote. For some domestic employers such as Choo, the real issue lies in Singapore’s “workhorse” mentality, whereby everyone – not just maids – could do with more time to relax. Singaporeans work the longest hours in the world according to the ILO, clocking up an average of 46.6 hours a week. New parents often struggle with the work-life balance, as statutory maternity leave in Singapore is limited to 16 weeks and there is no right to paternity leave. In the UK new mothers can take up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave and fathers up to two weeks. Many domestic workers in Singapore are hired as live-in cooks, cleaners and nannies, and some agencies, such as Best Maid, capitalise on Singapore’s strong work ethic. “In Singapore, [a] maid is not a luxury, but a necessity,” reads the company’s website. But not everyone can afford domestic help. On top of the salary, employers are required to pay a £2,500 security bond on their maid, as well as a monthly fee of around £135 throughout the standard two-year contract. Such rules can encourage employers to be less concerned about the welfare of their workers than “getting value for money”, says Vincent Wijeysingha of the charity Transient Workers Count Too. “Unlike more liberal countries where your rights are protected by law, here it all comes down to the personal goodwill of the employer, he said. “Many think, ‘I already pay so much for her, I don’t want to let her out of the house where she might find a boyfriend, get pregnant and make me lose my security bond.’” While physical abuse of domestic workers has decreased in recent years, psychological abuse is very common, says Bridget Tan of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, which counsels some 1,000 runaway domestic workers every year. “Newcomers usually have their mobiles taken away, aren’t allowed to communicate with family or neighbours and get no day off. The working conditions here are making people go crazy.” Domestic helpers – nearly one-third of which come from the Philippines – work an average of 14 hours a day, with only 12% given one day off per week, according to a new report. Employers negotiate contracts directly with their workers, with many offering a monthly payment of around £25 if no rest day is taken. Salaries range from around £125 to £350 a month, although many workers receive no pay for the first six to 11 months of their contract due to agency fees. Mandatory rest days are already enshrined in employment law in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it seems Singapore’s domestic employers may soon have to follow suit in allowing their employees some relaxation time, says Edmund Pooh of Universal Employment Agency. “It will be difficult for them to attract good workers if they don’t.” For Filipina worker AJ, 40, who uses her weekly day off to attend computer classes and socialise with friends, more time to rest can only be a good thing. “I came here for a better life – we all did,” said the former agricultural worker. “But you cannot work from 6am to 9pm every day with no rest and so little pay. Sometimes I really do think they just consider us a commodity, like we are for sale.” Singapore Employment law Work-life balance Work & careers guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Minister’s suggestion of a mandatory rest day for all domestic workers reignites a long-running debate over workers’ rights If you’re a domestic maid in Singapore, there’s no such thing as the weekend. Since employers are not legally bound to grant days off, the weeks never end. In the country that officially works the longest hours in the world, where one in six families has domestic help, the legal right to a day off has long seemed unthinkable for maids. But a government minister’s suggestion that a mandatory rest day could minimise stress has reignited a long-standing debate in Singapore over workers’ rights. Halimah Yacob, Singapore’s minister for community development, health and sports, says domestic workers need one day a week to “rest and recuperate”. The government has said it is “studying the suggestion”. But no legal right to a day off isn’t the only problem for Singapore’s 201,000 domestic workers, for whom there is, perhaps not surprisingly, no minimum wage either. It’s the attitudes of their employers – and indeed the country at large – that stands in the way of progress. “Are maids really that overworked?” asked schoolteacher Low Ai Choo, in a letter to the local Straits Times . “My maid has a day off once a month. Every time she comes back from her outings she appears even more tired and listless, and needs to recuperate from her outing. “My maid is the one who goes to bed by nine every night and my husband and I are the ones still up way beyond nine to tuck in our children and catch up with school work.” Low is one of many employers reacting angrily to Yacob’s suggestion, which came after the International Labour Organisation (ILO) agreed last week to give domestic workers a day off every week, as well as other basic labour rights. Singapore, along with the UK, was among 63 member states that abstained from the vote. For some domestic employers such as Choo, the real issue lies in Singapore’s “workhorse” mentality, whereby everyone – not just maids – could do with more time to relax. Singaporeans work the longest hours in the world according to the ILO, clocking up an average of 46.6 hours a week. New parents often struggle with the work-life balance, as statutory maternity leave in Singapore is limited to 16 weeks and there is no right to paternity leave. In the UK new mothers can take up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave and fathers up to two weeks. Many domestic workers in Singapore are hired as live-in cooks, cleaners and nannies, and some agencies, such as Best Maid, capitalise on Singapore’s strong work ethic. “In Singapore, [a] maid is not a luxury, but a necessity,” reads the company’s website. But not everyone can afford domestic help. On top of the salary, employers are required to pay a £2,500 security bond on their maid, as well as a monthly fee of around £135 throughout the standard two-year contract. Such rules can encourage employers to be less concerned about the welfare of their workers than “getting value for money”, says Vincent Wijeysingha of the charity Transient Workers Count Too. “Unlike more liberal countries where your rights are protected by law, here it all comes down to the personal goodwill of the employer, he said. “Many think, ‘I already pay so much for her, I don’t want to let her out of the house where she might find a boyfriend, get pregnant and make me lose my security bond.’” While physical abuse of domestic workers has decreased in recent years, psychological abuse is very common, says Bridget Tan of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, which counsels some 1,000 runaway domestic workers every year. “Newcomers usually have their mobiles taken away, aren’t allowed to communicate with family or neighbours and get no day off. The working conditions here are making people go crazy.” Domestic helpers – nearly one-third of which come from the Philippines – work an average of 14 hours a day, with only 12% given one day off per week, according to a new report. Employers negotiate contracts directly with their workers, with many offering a monthly payment of around £25 if no rest day is taken. Salaries range from around £125 to £350 a month, although many workers receive no pay for the first six to 11 months of their contract due to agency fees. Mandatory rest days are already enshrined in employment law in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it seems Singapore’s domestic employers may soon have to follow suit in allowing their employees some relaxation time, says Edmund Pooh of Universal Employment Agency. “It will be difficult for them to attract good workers if they don’t.” For Filipina worker AJ, 40, who uses her weekly day off to attend computer classes and socialise with friends, more time to rest can only be a good thing. “I came here for a better life – we all did,” said the former agricultural worker. “But you cannot work from 6am to 9pm every day with no rest and so little pay. Sometimes I really do think they just consider us a commodity, like we are for sale.” Singapore Employment law Work-life balance Work & careers guardian.co.uk
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Yemurai Kanyangarara was stabbed in the neck after getting off a bus in south-east London last week A third teenager has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 16-year-old on a busy high street in London. Yemurai Kanyangarara was stabbed in the neck seconds after getting off a No 96 bus in Welling, south-east London, last Friday. He was attacked outside the Superdrug store in Upper Wickham Lane, and taken to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich where he died. Today a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody. Two other boys – one aged 15 and the other 14 – have already been charged with murder and appeared at Camberwell youth court on Thursday. They were remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday. Kanyangarara came to the UK from Zimbabwe as a toddler and was living in nearby Belvedere. He was a pupil at St Columba’s Catholic boys’ school in Bexleyheath and had recently finished his GCSEs. His father Kelton left a message on his Facebook page that read: “My boy is gone it is so painful – my heart is bleeding. RIP my boy I will always love you.” London Knife crime Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Yemurai Kanyangarara was stabbed in the neck after getting off a bus in south-east London last week A third teenager has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 16-year-old on a busy high street in London. Yemurai Kanyangarara was stabbed in the neck seconds after getting off a No 96 bus in Welling, south-east London, last Friday. He was attacked outside the Superdrug store in Upper Wickham Lane, and taken to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich where he died. Today a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody. Two other boys – one aged 15 and the other 14 – have already been charged with murder and appeared at Camberwell youth court on Thursday. They were remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday. Kanyangarara came to the UK from Zimbabwe as a toddler and was living in nearby Belvedere. He was a pupil at St Columba’s Catholic boys’ school in Bexleyheath and had recently finished his GCSEs. His father Kelton left a message on his Facebook page that read: “My boy is gone it is so painful – my heart is bleeding. RIP my boy I will always love you.” London Knife crime Crime guardian.co.uk
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