Japanese scientists have discovered mammoth deposits of rare earth minerals, essential in the manufacture of many high-tech devices, at the depths of the Pacific Ocean, reports Reuters. The find could transform the international market for these vital materials. Discovered as deep at 20,000 feet at 78 locations, particularly around…
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Inventory of weapons put beyond use by paramilitaries during peace process will not be made public, says disarmament body The inventory of every gun, bullet, rocket launcher, grenade and explosive put beyond use by the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries will not be made public, the body that oversaw the disarmament process in Northern Ireland has said. In the final report of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning , it said files on the weapons and explosives decommissioned by the paramilitary organisations will instead be held by the US state department in Washington. The commission said part of the reason behind its decision was to avoid discouraging future acts of decommissioning by other terror groups in Ireland. This would include those anti-ceasefire republicans such as the Real IRA who are still engaged in “armed struggle”. The final report published on Monday by the Irish and British governments reflects on the body’s work since it was established in 1997 to facilitate the destruction of weapons and explosives belonging to paramilitary organisations on ceasefire. It provides an account of decommissioning events and a summary of key factors that enabled the commission to deliver its objectives, and highlights the lessons learnt. In a statement, Northern Ireland’s secretary of state, Owen Paterson, said the commission’s task had been difficult and that the commissioners had worked tirelessly to achieve their goal. With the acts of decommissioning secured they had contributed to making the North a more peaceful and stable society, he added. Paterson admitted that despite the destruction of paramilitary arms some organisations still posed a threat. He said: “As the IMC themselves note, while the commission has completed its remit, the security position In Northern Ireland is far from ideal. As the violence in a part of east Belfast recently revealed, there remain those who have rejected peace and politics and who actively work to undermine it. “The government remains committed to doing all it can to end violence and to enable all the people of Northern Ireland to live peacefully and safely as is their right. I am conscious that parliament and the public will wish to be kept informed of progress on a regular basis. I therefore intend to make statements to parliament every six months summarising the threat, in keeping with the timescales on which the IMC used to issue its reports.” Northern Ireland Ireland Europe UK security and terrorism IRA Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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Tristane Banon’s lawyer says she will file lawsuit centred on alleged behaviour of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2002 interview A French writer who claims she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to file a lawsuit on Tuesday against him for attempted rape. Tristane Banon’s lawyer said the legal proceedings would centre on the behaviour of the former head of the International Monetary Fund when she went to interview him in 2002. Banon, who was 22 at the time, later spoke about the alleged assault on French television and described Strauss-Kahn, then a leading member of France’s Socialist party, as acting like a “rutting chimpanzee”. Strauss-Kahn’s name was censored out of the broadcast. The alleged incident went largely unreported in France until Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York in May and accused of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a hotel chambermaid. The 62-year-old politician, who had been widely tipped to become the next French president, denied the charges. His passport was confiscated and he was put under virtual house arrest by a US judge. After questions were raised about the credibility of evidence given by the chambermaid, Strauss-Kahn was released without bail on Friday, but his passport was not returned. The apparent collapse of the case against him has led some colleagues to suggest he could make a political comeback in France. David Koubbi, Banon’s lawyer, had previously said she would not make any official complaint in France until the US case had been resolved, as she did not want to be forced to give evidence in the US. Koubbi said Banon would not respond to an appeal by the chambermaid’s lawyer to testify. Although the writer and journalist was said to be deeply disturbed after the alleged attack by Strauss-Kahn in a Paris flat, she was reportedly dissuaded from taking legal action by her mother, Anne Mansouret, who is a local councillor for his Socialist party. Mansouret later admitted she regretted talking her daughter out of making a complaint. “Tristane Banon will file a complaint Tuesday for attempted rape in Paris,” Koubbi said. “These acts are extremely serious. These events were combined with a violence that was absolutely striking for these kinds of situations.” Koubbi would not say whether the timing was affected by developments in New York. Under French law, attempted rape charges can be brought up to 10 years after an alleged attack, whereas sexual assault charges expire after three years. In the television programme, broadcast in 2007, Banon accused Strauss-Kahn of leaping on her, wrenching open her bra and trying to unbutton her jeans. The writer, who was a close friend of Strauss-Kahn’s daughter Camille, said she was forced to fight him off. “It finished badly … very violently … I kicked him,” she said. “When we were fighting, I mentioned the word rape to make him afraid, but it didn’t have any effect. I managed to get out.” Explaining why she had not pressed charges, Banon said “I didn’t want to be known to the end of my days as the girl who had a problem with the politician.” Mansouret told journalists she regretted having dissuaded her daughter from legal action, but had done so because she believed Strauss-Kahn’s behaviour had been out of character and because of close links with his family. Strauss-Kahn’s second wife was Banon’s godmother. She said he was “an otherwise warm, sympathetic and extremely talented man”, but the attack had left her daughter depressed and traumatised. “My daughter, despite the passing years, is still shocked by these facts. Her life was completely upset by this affair and she was depressed for a long time.” Before Koubbi’s announcement, France was divided on whether it wanted Strauss-Kahn back in public life. A poll released on Monday found that 51% of French people thought Strauss-Kahn no longer had a political future, versus 42% who thought he did. Another poll published on Sunday in Le Parisien showed 49% wanted Strauss-Kahn to return to French politics. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe Kim Willsher guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The bride who didn’t look all that excited over the weekend to wed Monaco’s Prince Albert tried to flee the ultra-luxe wedding not one but three times, sources now say. Charlene Wittstock was reportedly stopped by cops just last week at an airport in France, where she was about to…
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• Deleted voicemails gave family false hope • Hacking interfered with police hunt • Family lawyer: actions ‘heinous and despicable’ The News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance, an investigation by the Guardian has established. Scotland Yard are investigating the episode, which is likely to put new pressure on the then editor of the paper, Rebekah Brooks, now Rupert Murdoch’s chief executive in the UK; and the then deputy editor, Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as the prime minister’s media adviser. Milly’s family lawyer this afternoon issued a statement in which he described the News of the World’s activities as “heinous” and “despicable”. Milly Dowler, then aged 13, disappeared on her way home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey on 21 March 2002. Detectives from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting, are believed to have found evidence of the targeting of the Dowlers in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World. During the last four weeks the Met officers have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those involved in the original inquiry, who were concerned about how News of the World journalists intercepted – and deleted – the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler. The messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly’s disappearance so as to free up space for more messages. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly that she might still be alive. Police feared evidence may have been destroyed. The Guardian investigation has shown that, within a very short time of Milly vanishing News of the World journalists reacted by engaging in what was then standard practice in their newsroom – they hired private investigators to get them a story. Their first step was simple, albeit illegal. Paperwork seen by the Guardian reveals that they paid a Hampshire private investigator, Steve Whittamore, to obtain home addresses and, where necessary, ex-directory phone numbers for any families called Dowler in the Walton area. The three addresses which Whittamore found could be obtained lawfully, using the electoral register. The two ex-directory numbers, however, were “blagged” illegally from British Telecom’s confidential records by one of Whittamore’s associates, John Gunning, who works from a base in Wiltshire. One of the ex-directory numbers was attributed by Whittamore to Milly’s family home. Then, with the help of their own full-time private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World started illegally intercepting mobile phone messages. Scotland Yard are now investigating evidence that they hacked direct into the voicemail of the missing girl’s own phone. As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World were listening and recording their every private word. But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly’s voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the News of the World intervened – and deleted the messages which had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it. The Dowler family then granted an exclusive interview to the News of the World in which they talked about their hope, quite unaware that it had been falsely kindled by the newspaper’s own intervention. Sally Dowler told them: “If Milly walked through the door, I don’t think we’d be able to speak. We’d just weep tears of joy and give her a great big hug.” The deletion of the messages also caused difficulties for the police. It confused the picture at a time when they had few real leads to pursue. It also potentially destroyed valuable evidence. According to one senior source familiar with the Surrey police investigation: “It can happen with abduction murders that the perpetrator will leave messages, asking the missing person to get in touch, as part of their efforts at concealment. We need those messages as evidence. Anybody who destroys that evidence is seriously interfering with the course of a police investigation.” The newspaper made little effort to conceal the hacking from its readers. On 14 April 2002, they published a story about a woman who was allegedly pretending to be Milly Dowler and who had applied for a job with a recruitment agency: “It is thought the hoaxer even gave the agency Milly’s real mobile phone number … The agency used the number to contact Milly when a job vacancy arose and left a message on her voicemail … It was on March 27, six days after Milly went missing, that the employment agency appears to have phoned her mobile.” The newspaper also made no effort to conceal their activity from Surrey police. After they had hacked the message from the recruitment agency on Milly’s phone, they informed police about it. It was Surrey detectives who established that the call was not intended for Milly Dowler. At the time Surrey police suspected that phones belonging to detectives and to Milly’s parents also were being targeted. One of those who was involved in the original inquiry said: “We’d arrange landline calls. We didn’t trust our mobiles.” However, they took no action against the News of the World, partly because their main focus was to find the missing schoolgirl and partly because this was only one example of tabloid misbehaviour. As one source close to the inquiry put it: “There was a hell of a lot of dirty stuff going on.” In a statement today, the family’s lawyer, Mark Lewis of Taylor Hampton, said the Dowlers were distressed at the revelation: “It is distress heaped upon tragedy to learn that the News of the World had no humanity at such a terrible time. The fact that they were prepared to act in such a heinous way that could have jeopardised the police investigation and give them false hope is despicable.” During the last four weeks, officers from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone-hacking, Operation Weeting, have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those who were involved in the original inquiry. Two earlier Yard inquiries had failed to investigate the relevant notes in Mulcaire’s logs. The News of the World’s investigation was part of a long-running campaign against paedophiles championed by the then editor, Rebekah Brooks. Labour MP Tom Watson last week told the House of Commons that four months after Milly Dowler’s disappearance, the News of the World had targeted one of the parents of the two 10-year-old Soham girls, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, who were abducted and murdered on 4 August 2002. The behaviour of tabloid newspapers became an issue in the trial of Levi Bellfield, who last month was jailed for the rest of his life for murdering Milly Dowler. A second charge, that he had attempted to abduct another Surrey schoolgirl, Rachel Cowles, had to be left on the file after premature publicity by tabloids were held to have made it impossible for the jury to reach a fair verdict. The tabloids, however, focused their anger on Bellfield’s defence lawyer, complaining that the questioning had caused unnecessary pain to Milly Dowler’s parents. Surrey police referred all questions on the subject to Scotland Yard, who said they could not discuss it. Milly Dowler Phone hacking News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Crime Rebekah Brooks Privacy & the media Privacy Andy Coulson News Corporation News International Nick Davies Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Deleted voicemails gave family false hope • Hacking interfered with police hunt • Family lawyer: actions ‘heinous and despicable’ The News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance, an investigation by the Guardian has established. Scotland Yard are investigating the episode, which is likely to put new pressure on the then editor of the paper, Rebekah Brooks, now Rupert Murdoch’s chief executive in the UK; and the then deputy editor, Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as the prime minister’s media adviser. Milly’s family lawyer this afternoon issued a statement in which he described the News of the World’s activities as “heinous” and “despicable”. Milly Dowler, then aged 13, disappeared on her way home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey on 21 March 2002. Detectives from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting, are believed to have found evidence of the targeting of the Dowlers in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World. During the last four weeks the Met officers have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those involved in the original inquiry, who were concerned about how News of the World journalists intercepted – and deleted – the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler. The messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly’s disappearance so as to free up space for more messages. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly that she might still be alive. Police feared evidence may have been destroyed. The Guardian investigation has shown that, within a very short time of Milly vanishing News of the World journalists reacted by engaging in what was then standard practice in their newsroom – they hired private investigators to get them a story. Their first step was simple, albeit illegal. Paperwork seen by the Guardian reveals that they paid a Hampshire private investigator, Steve Whittamore, to obtain home addresses and, where necessary, ex-directory phone numbers for any families called Dowler in the Walton area. The three addresses which Whittamore found could be obtained lawfully, using the electoral register. The two ex-directory numbers, however, were “blagged” illegally from British Telecom’s confidential records by one of Whittamore’s associates, John Gunning, who works from a base in Wiltshire. One of the ex-directory numbers was attributed by Whittamore to Milly’s family home. Then, with the help of their own full-time private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World started illegally intercepting mobile phone messages. Scotland Yard are now investigating evidence that they hacked direct into the voicemail of the missing girl’s own phone. As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World were listening and recording their every private word. But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly’s voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the News of the World intervened – and deleted the messages which had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it. The Dowler family then granted an exclusive interview to the News of the World in which they talked about their hope, quite unaware that it had been falsely kindled by the newspaper’s own intervention. Sally Dowler told them: “If Milly walked through the door, I don’t think we’d be able to speak. We’d just weep tears of joy and give her a great big hug.” The deletion of the messages also caused difficulties for the police. It confused the picture at a time when they had few real leads to pursue. It also potentially destroyed valuable evidence. According to one senior source familiar with the Surrey police investigation: “It can happen with abduction murders that the perpetrator will leave messages, asking the missing person to get in touch, as part of their efforts at concealment. We need those messages as evidence. Anybody who destroys that evidence is seriously interfering with the course of a police investigation.” The newspaper made little effort to conceal the hacking from its readers. On 14 April 2002, they published a story about a woman who was allegedly pretending to be Milly Dowler and who had applied for a job with a recruitment agency: “It is thought the hoaxer even gave the agency Milly’s real mobile phone number … The agency used the number to contact Milly when a job vacancy arose and left a message on her voicemail … It was on March 27, six days after Milly went missing, that the employment agency appears to have phoned her mobile.” The newspaper also made no effort to conceal their activity from Surrey police. After they had hacked the message from the recruitment agency on Milly’s phone, they informed police about it. It was Surrey detectives who established that the call was not intended for Milly Dowler. At the time Surrey police suspected that phones belonging to detectives and to Milly’s parents also were being targeted. One of those who was involved in the original inquiry said: “We’d arrange landline calls. We didn’t trust our mobiles.” However, they took no action against the News of the World, partly because their main focus was to find the missing schoolgirl and partly because this was only one example of tabloid misbehaviour. As one source close to the inquiry put it: “There was a hell of a lot of dirty stuff going on.” In a statement today, the family’s lawyer, Mark Lewis of Taylor Hampton, said the Dowlers were distressed at the revelation: “It is distress heaped upon tragedy to learn that the News of the World had no humanity at such a terrible time. The fact that they were prepared to act in such a heinous way that could have jeopardised the police investigation and give them false hope is despicable.” During the last four weeks, officers from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone-hacking, Operation Weeting, have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those who were involved in the original inquiry. Two earlier Yard inquiries had failed to investigate the relevant notes in Mulcaire’s logs. The News of the World’s investigation was part of a long-running campaign against paedophiles championed by the then editor, Rebekah Brooks. Labour MP Tom Watson last week told the House of Commons that four months after Milly Dowler’s disappearance, the News of the World had targeted one of the parents of the two 10-year-old Soham girls, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, who were abducted and murdered on 4 August 2002. The behaviour of tabloid newspapers became an issue in the trial of Levi Bellfield, who last month was jailed for the rest of his life for murdering Milly Dowler. A second charge, that he had attempted to abduct another Surrey schoolgirl, Rachel Cowles, had to be left on the file after premature publicity by tabloids were held to have made it impossible for the jury to reach a fair verdict. The tabloids, however, focused their anger on Bellfield’s defence lawyer, complaining that the questioning had caused unnecessary pain to Milly Dowler’s parents. Surrey police referred all questions on the subject to Scotland Yard, who said they could not discuss it. Milly Dowler Phone hacking News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Crime Rebekah Brooks Privacy & the media Privacy Andy Coulson News Corporation News International Nick Davies Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Deleted voicemails gave family false hope • Hacking interfered with police hunt • Family lawyer: actions ‘heinous and despicable’ The News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance, an investigation by the Guardian has established. Scotland Yard are investigating the episode, which is likely to put new pressure on the then editor of the paper, Rebekah Brooks, now Rupert Murdoch’s chief executive in the UK; and the then deputy editor, Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as the prime minister’s media adviser. Milly’s family lawyer this afternoon issued a statement in which he described the News of the World’s activities as “heinous” and “despicable”. Milly Dowler, then aged 13, disappeared on her way home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey on 21 March 2002. Detectives from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting, are believed to have found evidence of the targeting of the Dowlers in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World. During the last four weeks the Met officers have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those involved in the original inquiry, who were concerned about how News of the World journalists intercepted – and deleted – the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler. The messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly’s disappearance so as to free up space for more messages. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly that she might still be alive. Police feared evidence may have been destroyed. The Guardian investigation has shown that, within a very short time of Milly vanishing News of the World journalists reacted by engaging in what was then standard practice in their newsroom – they hired private investigators to get them a story. Their first step was simple, albeit illegal. Paperwork seen by the Guardian reveals that they paid a Hampshire private investigator, Steve Whittamore, to obtain home addresses and, where necessary, ex-directory phone numbers for any families called Dowler in the Walton area. The three addresses which Whittamore found could be obtained lawfully, using the electoral register. The two ex-directory numbers, however, were “blagged” illegally from British Telecom’s confidential records by one of Whittamore’s associates, John Gunning, who works from a base in Wiltshire. One of the ex-directory numbers was attributed by Whittamore to Milly’s family home. Then, with the help of their own full-time private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World started illegally intercepting mobile phone messages. Scotland Yard are now investigating evidence that they hacked direct into the voicemail of the missing girl’s own phone. As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World were listening and recording their every private word. But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly’s voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the News of the World intervened – and deleted the messages which had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it. The Dowler family then granted an exclusive interview to the News of the World in which they talked about their hope, quite unaware that it had been falsely kindled by the newspaper’s own intervention. Sally Dowler told them: “If Milly walked through the door, I don’t think we’d be able to speak. We’d just weep tears of joy and give her a great big hug.” The deletion of the messages also caused difficulties for the police. It confused the picture at a time when they had few real leads to pursue. It also potentially destroyed valuable evidence. According to one senior source familiar with the Surrey police investigation: “It can happen with abduction murders that the perpetrator will leave messages, asking the missing person to get in touch, as part of their efforts at concealment. We need those messages as evidence. Anybody who destroys that evidence is seriously interfering with the course of a police investigation.” The newspaper made little effort to conceal the hacking from its readers. On 14 April 2002, they published a story about a woman who was allegedly pretending to be Milly Dowler and who had applied for a job with a recruitment agency: “It is thought the hoaxer even gave the agency Milly’s real mobile phone number … The agency used the number to contact Milly when a job vacancy arose and left a message on her voicemail … It was on March 27, six days after Milly went missing, that the employment agency appears to have phoned her mobile.” The newspaper also made no effort to conceal their activity from Surrey police. After they had hacked the message from the recruitment agency on Milly’s phone, they informed police about it. It was Surrey detectives who established that the call was not intended for Milly Dowler. At the time Surrey police suspected that phones belonging to detectives and to Milly’s parents also were being targeted. One of those who was involved in the original inquiry said: “We’d arrange landline calls. We didn’t trust our mobiles.” However, they took no action against the News of the World, partly because their main focus was to find the missing schoolgirl and partly because this was only one example of tabloid misbehaviour. As one source close to the inquiry put it: “There was a hell of a lot of dirty stuff going on.” In a statement today, the family’s lawyer, Mark Lewis of Taylor Hampton, said the Dowlers were distressed at the revelation: “It is distress heaped upon tragedy to learn that the News of the World had no humanity at such a terrible time. The fact that they were prepared to act in such a heinous way that could have jeopardised the police investigation and give them false hope is despicable.” During the last four weeks, officers from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone-hacking, Operation Weeting, have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those who were involved in the original inquiry. Two earlier Yard inquiries had failed to investigate the relevant notes in Mulcaire’s logs. The News of the World’s investigation was part of a long-running campaign against paedophiles championed by the then editor, Rebekah Brooks. Labour MP Tom Watson last week told the House of Commons that four months after Milly Dowler’s disappearance, the News of the World had targeted one of the parents of the two 10-year-old Soham girls, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, who were abducted and murdered on 4 August 2002. The behaviour of tabloid newspapers became an issue in the trial of Levi Bellfield, who last month was jailed for the rest of his life for murdering Milly Dowler. A second charge, that he had attempted to abduct another Surrey schoolgirl, Rachel Cowles, had to be left on the file after premature publicity by tabloids were held to have made it impossible for the jury to reach a fair verdict. The tabloids, however, focused their anger on Bellfield’s defence lawyer, complaining that the questioning had caused unnecessary pain to Milly Dowler’s parents. Surrey police referred all questions on the subject to Scotland Yard, who said they could not discuss it. Milly Dowler Phone hacking News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Crime Rebekah Brooks Privacy & the media Privacy Andy Coulson News Corporation News International Nick Davies Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …No porn in prison? That’s against the Constitution—or so says one brazen bank robber in Michigan, who’s suing the governor and the state over Macomb Country Jail’s no-porn policy, calling it cruel and unusual punishment. In a five-page, handwritten lawsuit, the 21-year-old prisoner says not having smut creates a…
Continue reading …Call it Harry Potter and the Spurned Literary Agent of Doom . Christopher Little, the agent who discovered JK Rowling, pulling her first Harry Potter book from the slush pile and turning her into one of the world’s most successful authors, is considering suing Rowling over her newest magical venture, the…
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Oil and mineral deals mean money and jobs, but Inuit leaders are concerned about the lack of a national debate on industrialisation and what it means for the traditional way of life “I certainly have seen the benefits that can come from [oil] royalties. Schools are better. There are swimming pools, gymnasium, cars – and jobs – all the result of billions of dollars.” Patricia Cochran, a former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council from Alaska, expresses the view of many indigenous people on industrial development in the Arctic. Vast oil and mineral wealth have brought huge benefits to some communities. But her own conflicted feelings about development neatly sum up the dilemma that indigenous leaders in the region face. In Barrow – Alaska’s oil capital – there are also high rates of suicide and depression, while offshore drilling is a threat to subsistence whaling and the hunting of seals and walrus, she points out. So despite the benefits, Cochran is personally quite negative about industrial development and questions the wider benefit to society. “I personally have a problem with it. I was raised in a traditional way and regard it as my job to be a steward of the land. I see this [industrialised] world of hedonism and consumption as a sign we have lost our moral compass.” And there are fears that the vast sums on offer can sometimes be too tempting. Aqqaluk Lynge, former president of the council, says the wave of money that big multinationals bring to their lobbying “overwhelms” local community organisations. “We have questions about how the democratic process is gone about and how decisions are reached,” he said. “How can we survive as a people under the pressure that comes from oil companies whose daily income can be higher than our annual budget? “Arctic people themselves must have the time to look into [proposed industrial projects] to ensure we are not risking losing our country, self-rule or livelihoods.” Lynge, a continuing activist based in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, is most concerned about the decision by the government there to allow British-based oil explorer, Cairn Energy , to drill last summer and again this year . But he is also worried about moves by Canadian metals group, Alcoa , to try to press ahead with plans to build a massive aluminium smelter on the island. The Inuit leader accepts Greenland ministers have the democratic right to negotiate and to reach agreements with companies. But he says the consultation process is still fatally undermined by the imbalance between the financial resources of Cairn and the like, compared to that available to local indigenous communities. Greenland, whose population is 80% Inuit, has recently won a measure of self-rule from its traditional colonial masters, Denmark. The new government in Nuuk is desperately keen to win complete independence and understands this is impossible while the country is dependent on financial handouts from Copenhagen. But Inuuteq Holm Olsen , Greenland deputy foreign minister, says that environmental concerns should be balanced against economics. “We welcome focus and attention on environmental issues … What we don’t welcome is the notion that there should not be any industrial development in the name of environmental protection.” Lynge says he realises that Cairn and Alcoa may offer a get-rich-quick route for Greenland and therefore a fast-track to political self-determination. But he says that rushing into oil and mineral exploitation deals risks drowning out a proper debate within the country about the pros and cons of industrialisation which could further undermine the traditional Inuit way of life based around fishing and hunting. “We don’t have the proper democratic infrastructure in place for a public hearing mechanism. So Cairn can knock on one [government] door and win agreement for their plans. This is a problem. “We are not against development in general as such but what we really want to see is sustainable development that will enable us to live in the future in the way we have for hundreds of years around fishing. We know oil and gas is not ultimately sustainable because it will run out.” Other concerns are more particular – such as where the kind of skilled workforce will come from to deal with any oil or other largescale industrial schemes. Greenland’s workforce is just 32,000 people. If large numbers of workers are brought in from outside, indigenous people risk becoming a minority. There is also a fear that big business can use its financial muscle to buy off opposition while not having its own track records fully investigated. “Propaganda can be done in simple ways. Promises to give lots of work or money to local communities: people tend to say ‘yes’ to these things without necessarily thinking them through the consequences,” said Lynge. Inuit in Canada have 40 years’ experience with oil so have found their own way of accommodating change. But even there, local leaders of indigenous people have mixed views about who is really benefiting. And overall the “community” representing indigenous people is split down the middle over the issue. Certainly the big oil companies that have been active in the seas off Alaska since the late 1980s are keen to be seen consulting local people. Robert Blaauw, the Anglo-Dutch company’s spokesman on the Arctic said: “Many coastal native communities depend on fishing and hunting of sea mammals not only for survival but also to keep alive a cultural centrepiece that has thrived for centuries. With that experience comes a deep knowledge of the Arctic environment … We continue to be humbled by what we don’t know and we are constantly looking for ways to incorporate traditional knowledge into our operations. Not just for the advancement of our project, but out of respect for those who will live off the ocean long after we are gone.” Ove Gudmestad , a professor of marine and Arctic technology at the University of Stavanger in Norway, carries out academic research which is useful to oil companies, and has travelled widely in the far north region. He believes there are practical problems and a fundamental lack of trust between indigenous people and the oil industry. “Of course it is important to take local knowledge into account, but it is hard to speak local languages. Whether it is in the US or Norway, fishermen do not trust the politicians or the NPD [ Norwegian Petroleum Directorate ] – never mind the oil companies.” Gudmestad said local people were rightly wary that they could get sucked into a legal dispute that could last for decades and for which the oil companies are far better prepared and resourced. “Just remember that in the US for every petroleum engineer being trained there are 200 lawyers,” he jokes. Lynge would like to see a more holistic look at the future for the Arctic in the light of climate change which already threatens some coastal communities with flooding and dislocation. “I don’t like the way that the debate seems to be framed around the industrial opportunities created by global warming. I would rather see a much better study about how climate change will affect fish stocks and renewable energy sources to see what we can survive on in future.” Polar regions Mining Land rights Energy Fossil fuels Oil Oil Commodities Mining Arctic Greenland Alaska United States Indigenous peoples Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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