Women’s groups say doubts cast on chambermaid’s credibility will send wrong message to victims of sexual assault Rape victims around the world may be more fearful of reporting their experiences, as a result of the apparent implosion of the rape case against the against the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn , UK women’s groups warned. Campaigners warned that doubts about the credibility of the New York hotel worker who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault on 14 May could make victims fear that only “perfect victims” could report rape and receive justice, and could lead to fewer women reporting sexual attacks. “The message that this case gives is that, as a society, we still carry notions of a what a perfect rape victim should look like, and what “real rape” is,” said Holly Dustin, manager of End Violence Against Women . “Rape victims can be less than perfect, they can have insecure immigration status, they can be prostitutes – and they can still be raped. This sends the message to women around the world that unless you are a perfect victim the system will eat you up and spew you out.” The case, which centres on allegations that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid after she entered his room to clean, appeared to be imploding after new and damaging stories appeared yesterday in New York newspapers about the woman at the heart of the allegations. Reports on Friday suggested that prosecutors believe they have uncovered lies told by the 32-year-old Guinean-born woman and that she cleaned two rooms, including that of Strauss-Kahn , after the alleged attack, rather than reporting the incident to her supervisor immediately as she originally stated. After Strauss-Kahn hired a team of private investigators allegations also emerged that she made a phone call soon after the alleged rape attempt to a man in prison for drugs violations, in which she talked about possible financial gains to be made from pressing charges and that she had received cash deposits into her bank account over the past two years. Questions were also raised about her asylum application to the US. Dustin said the fallout from the fresh allegations could have a negative impact on potential jurors in rape cases, the media and the general public. “Women will look at how this woman has been treated and think their credibility will be attacked in the same way. It reinforces those notions about what a rape victim needs to be to see justice.” Rapes were already severely under reported, she said. “The vast majority of rapes, around 80-90%, of rapes go unreported in England and Wales, and of those reported rapes only 7% result in convictions.” Fiona Elvines, operations coordinator at Rape Crisis South London said although improvements had been made around the investigation of rape, there was still a lack of understanding of the impact of the crime on women who survived it. “Yet again another message goes out to the thousands of women in this country alone who are currently debating whether or not they should report the violence that has been perpetrated against them, that they will be the ones on trial,” she said. Strauss-Kahn’s bail, which included $1m surety, electronic tags and 24-hour armed guards has been removed since doubts emerged about the hotel worker’s statements. National Rape Crisis helpline: 0808 802 9999. Dominique Strauss-Kahn Rape Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Up to 42,000 gallons of oil from a ruptured pipeline in Montana is surging through a flood-swollen Yellowstone River, creating an environmental mess that is threatening to reach the Missouri River, reports the Wall Street Journal . The Exxon Mobile pipeline, which runs under the Yellowstone River to a refinery…
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Money will help feed 1.3 million people in region experiencing worst drought in decades Britain is to provide £38m in emergency food aid for 1.3 million people in Ethiopia, as parts of east Africa experience the worst drought in decades . The international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, announced extra cash for the World Food Programme’s work in Ethiopia on Sunday. “Through no fault of its own, the Horn of Africa is experiencing a severe drought caused by the failed rains,” he said. “Britain is acting quickly and decisively in Ethiopia to stop this crisis becoming a catastrophe. We will provide vital food to help 1.3 million people through the next three months. “For the response to be effective, we need the most up-to-date, accurate information on the level of need in Ethiopia. The country has made great strides in many areas over the past 30 years and this emergency relief will help to ensure that these gains are not eroded.” Mitchell urged the Ethiopian government to provide latest numbers of those affected in the country’s south so aid agencies could target relief. The international development secretary also unveiled extra help for 329,000 malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Oxfam welcomed the move and said the money could not come soon enough. “There are already critical and life threatening food shortages in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa region,” said Jane Cocking, the charity’s humanitarian director. “Two successive poor rains have left millions of people struggling to get food as hundreds of thousands of livestock have died and crops have failed. Other donors now need to follow suit and increase funding before it is too late.” Save the Children has launched a £40m emergency appeal to for aid to help thousands of Kenyan and Somali children. “Thousands of children could starve if we don’t get life-saving help to them fast,” said Matt Croucher, the group’s regional emergency manager for east Africa. “Parents no longer have any way to feed their children. They’ve lost their animals, their wells have dried up and food is too expensive to afford.” Thousands of Somalis have left their homes in search of food, with malnourished children walking for days in searing heat and risking conflict to find help. In Kenya, there are reports of people feeding their animals the thatch from the roof of their huts in a bid to keep them alive, leaving families without adequate shelter. Many children are eating just a single bowl of porridge a day, missing out on the basic nutrients they need to survive, says Save the Children. The UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs estimates that 10 million people across the Horn of Africa are facing a severe food crisis following a prolonged drought in the region, with some areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia , Ethiopia and Uganda, experiencing their worst drought conditions in 60 years. The Kenyan government has declared the drought situation a national disaster, with malnutrition mortality rates in northern Kenya exceeding emergency thresholds. UN humanitarian appeals for Somalia and Kenya, each about $525m (£326.6m), are barely 50% funded, while a $30m appeal for Djibouti is just 30%, say UN officials. Ethiopia Africa Drought Famine Kenya Somalia Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
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BBC Trust chairman said BBC managers’ ‘toxic’ salaries were unpopular with viewers and licence fee payers Lord Patten, the BBC Trust chairman, has hinted at pay cuts for senior executives at the corporation. Lord Patten said BBC managers “toxic” salaries were unpopular with viewers and licence fee payers ahead of announcements BBC salaries. “There are four aspects which we will be making announcements about in the next few days,” he said. “First of all there’s the pay level at the very top; secondly there’s the number of people who get more than £150,000 ; thirdly there’s the number of people who are deemed to be senior managers; and fourthly there’s the whole issue of fairness across the board, with senior managers getting some deals which don’t apply to others. “We can deal with all that and if we do so, we will deal with one of the most toxic reasons for the public’s lack of sympathy with the BBC as an institution, even though they like enormously what it does.” Lord (Chris) Patten, Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong and a former Conservative party chairman, hailed research by Will Hutton of the Work Foundation into a government proposal to limit top public servants’ pay to no more than 20 times that of their lowest paid staff. Speaking to BBC1′s Andrew Marr Show, Lord Patten said: “I will be looking very closely at what Will Hutton said about top pay in the public sector – there were some very good ideas.” He added: “You look at the relationship between top pay and median pay and I would like the BBC to be the first organisation in the public sector which gets into implementing some of Will Hutton’s ideas.” Lord Patten took over as chairman of the trust – the corporation’s governing body and charged with protecting licence fee payers’ interests – in May and today said he wanted a “more flexible, leaner” BBC, “aware of the principles on which it was founded”. He said it was “a fantastic organisation”, but said it should “take out a lot of costs” and learn to live within its £3.5bn budget, funded by the £145.50 licence fee. “We are looking at how much we can get through greater efficiencies, through greater productivity and how much will involve us stopping doing things we would like to do but which are probably expendable.” He said channel and station closures were possible, but praised the much-criticised BBC3 which screens shows such as World’s Craziest Fools, Don’t Tell the Bride and Kids Behind Bars. Lord Patten BBC BBC Trust guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Temperatures in Phoenix hit a new high for the day yesterday, reaching a brutal 118 degrees, reports the AP . It was so hot that a local prison ordered thousands of bags of ice for inmates. Nearby storms toppled powerlines, knocking out power—and air conditioning—to some 4,000 homes…
Continue reading …The meltdown of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case is shining a spotlight on Cyrus Vance Jr, the Manhattan district attorney, and the results aren’t pretty. In the 18 months Vance has been DA, the Manhattan office has gone from being the pre-eminent DA’s office in the country to being ridden with…
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Yingluck Shinawatra set to be country’s first female leader as prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva prepares for opposition Thailand’s Democrat government has conceded defeat in Sunday’s election – putting Yingluck Shinawatra on course to become the country’s first female leader, five years after her brother Thaksin was toppled as prime minister in a coup. Preliminary results suggest a remarkable turnaround for Thaksin, a billionaire now living as a fugitive in Dubai. Although Yingluck is putatively leader of the Puea Thai party, she is regarded as his proxy. Yingluck, a 44-year-old businesswoman who entered politics just six weeks ago, cautioned that she was waiting to see the results on Monday. But she added that she had already spoken to the Chart Thai Pattana party, whom she said would take a coalition past the halfway mark in the 500-seat parliament. “We have tough days ahead and all of this is just the beginning,” she said. “I’ll do my best and will not disappoint you.” Five hours after polls closed , the election commission projected Puea Thai would win 261 seats with prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrats taking just 162. An absolute majority would prevent the weeks of horse-trading to form a coalition that many had expected. Hundreds of redshirt supporters squeezed into the party’s Bangkok headquarters and crowded outside – chanting, cheering and applauding as results came in. Many waved pictures of Yingluck and Thaksin and some let off firecrackers to celebrate. Moments before Yingluck spoke, Abhisit congratulated the opposition “for the right to form a government”. He said he wanted to see unity and reconciliation, and added that the Democrats were ready for opposition. Analysts have warned that the election could lead to further turmoil in Thailand, after years of intense political conflict. Last year more than 90 people died in clashes as the military cracked down on Thaksin-supporting redshirt protesters in the centre of the capital. Exit polls had predicted a landslide for Puea Thai, but Dr Andrew Walker, an expert on south-east Asian politics at the Australian National University, said even an absolute majority would be remarkable. “If they get [one] they will be only the second government in Thailand’s history to do so, the first being Thaksin Shinawatra’s [in 2005]. It shows this is still a very strong electoral brand,” he said. Earlier, Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University said: “If they win at all it’s a big statement. “[It means] the ideas and policies that made [Thaksin's] original Thai Rak Thai party so electable are unstoppable and indestructible … This is a party that has been dissolved twice; its leading politicians have been banned twice; it’s being led by a deposed exile and former prime minister a six-hour flight away.” Redshirt leaders have warned they will take to the streets again if Yingluck wins the vote but does not become prime minister. They have said they fear that opponents could attempt to mount a legal challenge to her, or even another coup. Analyst Chris Baker said it was likely that opponents of Thaksin had a plan B. “[Most] likely, I think, is that it will look calm for a short time. But there have been several things said in the last week that suggest the Democrats and their supporters will accept this result – but not what it means,” he said. “If Puea Thai do what they say they will – bring Thaksin back and change the constitution – [opponents] will resist that in the same way as before, with street demonstrations and so on. I don’t think we can avoid it … We are in a changing political society and there’s big resistance from the old institutions: the bureaucracy, monarchy, military and a lot of the middle class.” Thaksin told the Thai PBS television station: “I have wanted to come back since yesterday, but I do not want to create problems.” He spoke in a telephone interview from Dubai, where he lives to avoid a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, which he says was politically motivated. Puea Thai leaders have repeatedly indicated they plan an amnesty allowing Thaksin to return to Thailand, though his sister has said it is not a priority and that an amnesty would not be about one person. The billionaire has polarised Thai politics. He draws his support largely from poorer residents in the north and north-east – who see him as a champion – while the Democrats are dependent on the urban upper and middle classes in central Thailand and the south. They regard the former prime minister as corrupt and autocratic. “I have been waiting five years [since the coup] for this moment,” said Sompoon Tamakaew as he watched the results at Puea Thai’s headquarters. “Bangkok is full of the elites and upper classes, so they don’t really understand how much of an impact Thaksin had.” Sompoon, a 50-year-old gardener from the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, added that he was not worried that elites would seek to interfere again. “I don’t think [another coup] will happen, but if it does I will keep fighting,” he added. Police said more than 170,000 officers were on duty throughout the country on Sunday to monitor voting by 47 million eligible Thais. Britain was among the countries warning its nationals of potential violence, urging visitors to avoid demonstrations. Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Quick thinking of woman passerby saves two-year-old girl who had been left unattended in apartment in Hangzhou A two-year-old Chinese girl left unattended fell 10 stories from her family’s apartment window but survived, thanks to a woman passing by, state media reported on Sunday. The toddler was in a critical condition with internal bleeding and other unspecified injuries while the woman who caught her suffered a broken arm, China Central Television and the Xinhua news agency said. The girl, named as Zhang Fangyu but known by her nickname Niu Niu, was in the care of her grandmother on Saturday afternoon when the woman left the 10th-floor apartment outside the eastern city of Hangzhou to run an errand, CCTV said. Neighbours saw Niu Niu dangling from the apartment window for several minutes, Xinhua said, and when the girl fell, Wu Juping “kicked off her high-heeled shoes” and ran to catch the child. “It was so urgent. I saw her when she was about to fall and rushed there, and after tens of seconds she fell off,” CCTV quoted Wu as saying. Wu, a 31-year-old mother, told CCTV that when she saw the little girl she thought of her own seven-month-old son, who had once fallen from a high chair and cut his mouth: “I thought to myself, ‘I should stretch my arms to her. Because I am right here, I must get her.’ Then I made it. I caught her in my arms.” The impact knocked Wu out and broke her left arm, reports said. CCTV quoted an unidentified doctor at Zhejiang children’s hospital as saying that a scan showed no damage to Niu Niu’s brain but that the girl’s abdomen was swollen in a sign of possible injury to organs. China guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Quick thinking of woman passerby saves two-year-old girl who had been left unattended in apartment in Hangzhou A two-year-old Chinese girl left unattended fell 10 stories from her family’s apartment window but survived, thanks to a woman passing by, state media reported on Sunday. The toddler was in a critical condition with internal bleeding and other unspecified injuries while the woman who caught her suffered a broken arm, China Central Television and the Xinhua news agency said. The girl, named as Zhang Fangyu but known by her nickname Niu Niu, was in the care of her grandmother on Saturday afternoon when the woman left the 10th-floor apartment outside the eastern city of Hangzhou to run an errand, CCTV said. Neighbours saw Niu Niu dangling from the apartment window for several minutes, Xinhua said, and when the girl fell, Wu Juping “kicked off her high-heeled shoes” and ran to catch the child. “It was so urgent. I saw her when she was about to fall and rushed there, and after tens of seconds she fell off,” CCTV quoted Wu as saying. Wu, a 31-year-old mother, told CCTV that when she saw the little girl she thought of her own seven-month-old son, who had once fallen from a high chair and cut his mouth: “I thought to myself, ‘I should stretch my arms to her. Because I am right here, I must get her.’ Then I made it. I caught her in my arms.” The impact knocked Wu out and broke her left arm, reports said. CCTV quoted an unidentified doctor at Zhejiang children’s hospital as saying that a scan showed no damage to Niu Niu’s brain but that the girl’s abdomen was swollen in a sign of possible injury to organs. China guardian.co.uk
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Family of murdered British woman will be able to question alleged killer Tatsuya Ichihashi in court The family of the murdered British woman Lindsay Hawker have arrived in Japan on the eve of the trial of the man accused of killing her and burying her body in a bathtub four years ago. “We are here to get justice for my daughter, it’s been a long time coming,” Hawker’s father, Bill, said at Narita airport near Tokyo. “I can’t say much more because the trial is about to start, except to thank the police and everyone who’s been involved in this case. Now we just want to get it over and done with.” Tatsuya Ichihashi has been charged with raping and murdering Hawker, then 22, and disposing of her body at his apartment in Ichikawa, a suburban town in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, in March 2007. Hawker, from Brandon, near Coventry, had been beaten and strangled, and her hands and legs bound with plastic gardening cord. As “victim participants” under Japan’s court system, the Hawkers will be permitted to question Ichihashi during his trial, which opens on Monday with the first of six hearings at Chiba district court. At the court’s discretion, they may also give their opinion on sentencing. Before leaving Heathrow on Saturday, Bill Hawker, who travelled with his wife, Julia, and their two daughters, Lisa and Louise, said: “We’re a strong family and we’re going to see this through to the end.” The court has appointed six members of the public to serve as lay judges at the trial following the introduction of limited trial by jury in 2009. The lay judge system allows members of the public to work alongside professional judges to determine guilt or innocence and decide on a sentence. The presiding judge, Masaya Hotta, is expected to hand down a ruling on 21 July after consulting the lay judges and three professional judges. The verdict could hang on whether the jurors believe Ichihashi intended to kill Hawker after she accompanied him to his apartment following a private English lesson at a nearby cafe. Ichihashi has reportedly said he inadvertently crushed her windpipe while trying to prevent her calling for help. He has admitted disposing of Hawker’s body but denies the rape and murder charges. Ichihashi, a 32-year-old former horticulture student, evaded several police officers when questioned at the entrance to his apartment about Hawker’s disappearance and fled in his socks, dropping a rucksack containing cash. Inside, officers discovered Hawker’s naked and battered body buried in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony. Despite a reward of 10 million yen (£80,000) for information leading to his arrest and 8,000 reported sightings, Ichihashi evaded police for more than two and half years. He spent time in 23 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, found casual work on construction sites and underwent extensive plastic surgery in a bid to evade capture. He was arrested in November 2009 in Osaka while waiting to board a ferry to the southern island of Okinawa. A passenger had contacted port officials after recognising Ichihashi, who was wearing a hat, sunglasses and a paper surgical mask. Ichihashi wrote to the Hawkers while he was in custody apologising for their daughter’s death, but the family dismissed the letter as a ploy to gain a lenient sentence. Earlier this year he published a book , Until I Am Arrested, which detailed his two years and seven months as a fugitive. He described the book as “a gesture of contrition”, adding that he wanted royalties to go to the Hawker family or a charity. Ichihashi does not discuss his alleged crimes in the book, but recounts his daily quest to evade capture. He travelled between Aomori in Japan’s north to Okinawa, a subtropical island in the far south. He described how he had removed a mole from his face to alter his appearance, before having several rounds of plastic surgery, paid for with cash earned during 13 months working on an Osaka construction site. Hawker had arrived in Japan in October 2006 to work at an English conversation school after graduating with a biology degree from Leeds University earlier that year. Japan Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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