Paul Rincon | Large Hadron Collider | November 20

BBC - Engineers have sent proton particles all the way round the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) machine for the first time in more than a year.

But they still do not have a stable circulating beam; this step is expected to happen after 0600 GMT on Saturday.

The LHC is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel some 100m beneath the French-Swiss border.

- Hey Preacher, Leave those kids alone.
This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards.

"Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a 'Marxist child' or an 'Anarchist child' or a 'Post-modernist child'. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. Guardian

Stephen Castle & Steven Erlanger | Brussels | November 19

NYT - Leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union on Thursday night chose Herman van Rompuy [wikipedia], the Belgian prime minister, as the European Union’s first president, and Catherine Ashton [wikipedia] of Britain, currently the group’s trade commissioner, as its high representative for foreign policy. The vote was unanimous.

Both are highly respected but little known outside their own countries. After an eight-year battle to rewrite its internal rules and to pass the Lisbon Treaty that created these two new jobs, the choice of such unknown figures seemed to highlight Europe’s problems instead of its readiness to take a more united and forceful place in world affairs.

Vanessa mock | Nov 17

The Independent - Flame-haired Latvian Vaira Vike-Freiberga, known as the "Iron Lady of the North", is leading a pack of late contenders who have dashed into the closing round of the race to become the EU's first president.

With so much still to play for, diplomats have warned of a long night on Thursday, when EU leaders meet to decide names over dinner. Some suspect the talks will spill over into Friday; others that a decision may be postponed even beyond that, but the Swedish presidency is determined not to let that happen.

Over the past days, another Baltic colleague, Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has added his name to the growing list of presidential hopefuls, which is now thought to include around a dozen potential candidates. Although Tony Blair's chances still look extremely slim, there has been renewed momentum behind a faltering bid by Luxembourg's premier Jean-Claude Juncker and mentions of Spain's ex-leader Jose Maria Aznar. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who was president of Latvia until 2007 and led the former Soviet state into the EU and Nato, is the only female candidate applying for the newly created job. Known for her charisma and outspoken views, she was an enormously popular leader at home, with thousands of grateful Latvians turning out to lay flowers when she retired.

But she is now nearly 72 and despite a vigorous campaign on Facebook and in a string of European capitals looks unlikely to unseat the current favourite, Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy.

However, her candidacy chimes with growing demands to appoint a woman as either President or EU High Representative, the number two post created by the Lisbon
Treaty.

Jeremy Laurance | Lyon, France | November 16

The Independent - As the old joke has it, men can be turned on with a simple flick of a switch while women require attention to a battery of dials and buttons. Today the debate over how to stimulate female sexual desire is set to be reopened with the discovery of a drug described as “Viagra for women”.

Doctors testing a new anti-depressant found it was useless as a mood brightener - but was unexpectedly effective at boosting the female libido.

Rachel Donadio | Rome | November 16

NYT - The 200 women who answered a Rome modeling agency’s advertisement for tall, attractive party guests thought they would be attending an elegant soirée on Sunday. They were — only the host turned out to be the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and instead of hors d’oeuvres he offered them copies of the Koran and urged them to convert to Islam, the Italian news media reported Monday.

The women, all between the ages of 18 and 35, assembled in a Rome hotel before being screened by both metal detectors and the fashion police, who turned away anyone in a miniskirt or provocative clothing, according to Paola Lo Mele, a journalist for the ANSA news agency, who answered the modeling agency’s request and went undercover to the event. The women were each paid $75 to attend.

Johann Hari writes:

Independent.co.uk - Ever since I started meeting jihadis, I have been struck by one thing – their Britishness. I am from the East End of London, and at some point in the past decade I became used to hearing a hoarse and angry whisper of jihadism on the streets where I live. Bearded young men stand outside the library calling for "The Rule of God" and "Death to Democracy".

Nov 16

Reuters - Greek police have arrested a heavily armed fugitive, Alket Rijai, who embarrassed authorities by twice escaping from prison in a helicopter.

Rijai, a 41-year-old Albanian, was sleeping when policemen stormed his hideout in a village north-east of Athens, a police official said.

"He had no time to use his machine gun, pistols or hand grenades," a police official said.

Another three suspected accomplices were arrested in the same house.

Rijai, who was serving prison terms on multiple counts of murder and robbery, had last escaped the Athens high-security Korydallos prison in February with Greek accomplice Vassilis Paleokostas, who is still at large.

November 16

BBC -
Australian PM Kevin Rudd has apologised to the hundreds of thousands of people, some British migrants, who were abused or neglected in state care as children.

Under the Child Migrants Programme - which ended just 40 years ago - the UK sent poor children to a "better life" in Australia, Canada and elsewhere. As they were compulsorily shipped out of Britain, many of the children were told - wrongly - their parents were dead. Many parents did not know their children, aged as young as three, had been sent to Australia.

Care agencies worked with the government to send disadvantaged children to a rosy future and supply what was deemed "good white stock" to a former colony.In many cases they were educated only for farm work, and suffered cruelty and hardship including physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

Nov 15

AFP - After a year of soul-searching over the financial crisis that floored Iceland's economy, Icelanders are apparently yearning for the return of old-fashioned qualities like honesty.

Honesty came top on Saturday when 1,500 Icelanders gathered in Reykjavik were asked to discuss what kind of society they wanted.

A grassroots organisation calling itself The Anthill convened a so-called National Assembly of 1,200 people from the age of 18, chosen randomly, along with 300 representatives of organisations and institutions.

They were asked to name the values Icelandic society should be based upon, as well as their vision for the country's future and possible ways of rebuilding the country's economy and society.
..
Halla Tomasdottir, one of the National Assembly organisers, told AFP one of the reasons for the meeting was to try to halt the negativity that has prevailed in Iceland since the start of the crisis.

"We are seeking positive solutions to the situation we find ourselves in. This is a unique opportunity to ask ourselves what kind of a nation we want to be and what kind of a nation we want to hand down to our children," she said.

Katerina Zachovalova | Beroun, Czech Republic | Nov 15

DPA - It was a revolution whose dissident leaders vowed that truth and love would triumph over lies and hatred. Yet Czechoslovakia's 'Velvet Revolution' would not have happened the way it did were it not for what was essentially a lie.

After a bloody crackdown on a non-violent student march in Prague on November 17, 1989, a woman falsely claimed that the riot police had beaten to death her friend, a 19-year-old mathematics student named Martin Smid.

Reports of the alleged death spread like wildfire, rousing ordinary people from their lethargy and igniting the peaceful coup that brought back democracy to Czechs and Slovaks.

Twenty years later, the motivations of the women's false claim - and the role of journalists in spreading it - remains clouded in mystery.

Terry Macalister | Nov 15

The Guardian - Nuclear disposal put in doubt by recovered Swedish galleonThe plan to use copper for sealing nuclear waste underground has being thrown into disarray by corrosion in artefacts from the Vasa

Plans for nuclear waste disposal could be thrown into confusion tomorrow at a summit because of new evidence of corrosion in materials traditionally used for burial procedures.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) says it will keep careful watch on a meeting organised by the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste, which will look at potential problems with copper, designated for an important role in sealing radioactive waste underground.

Concerns have risen from a most unexpected quarter. Examination of copper artefacts from the Vasa, a fifteenth-century galleon raised from Stockholm harbour, has shown a level of decay that challenges the scientific wisdom that copper corrodes only when exposed to oxygen.

November 14

BBC -
Venetians have been taking part in a mock funeral procession to highlight the city's dwindling population. Organisers of Saturday's event say the population has dipped below 60,000, with many native Venetians choosing to live in more affordable areas. City officials have refuted the claims that Venice is simply a "ghost town", filled only with tourists.

The Venetian architect and historian, Francisco da Mosta, told the BBC that the government needed to step in to make the city habitable for its residents. He said Venice is not being run "with intelligence or dignity". The city's population has dropped by two-thirds since the 1950s and much of the blame has been put on tourism. It has driven up food and property prices, forcing many people to move to the mainland.

Residents carried an empty coffin in a procession of boats to the mayor's office.

Giles Tremlett | Madrid | Nov 13

The Guardian - Officials launch campaign to teach young people about 'sexual self-exploration and discovery of self-pleasure'

It is a subject that would make most governments blush, but officials in the Spanish region of Extremadura have launched a major programme to encourage what could be described as a more hands-on approach to sexuality.

The region's socialist government has launched a €14,000 (£12,600) campaign aimed at teaching young people how best to set about "sexual self-exploration and the discovery of self-pleasure" – or to put it less delicately: masturbation.

"Pleasure is in your own hands" is the slogan of a campaign that has sparked political controversy and challenges traditional Roman Catholic views on people having sex, even on their own, for non-reproductive reasons.

Hey, maybe Carrie Prejean can give them hand..

Nov 12

The Independent - Our reporter's job swap with his counterpart from the 'Baltimore Sun' has provoked a passionate debate on both sides of the Atlantic

Five days into The Independent's crime exchange with The Baltimore Sun and the series has elicited a remarkable response from readers of both papers. Here we publish a selection – of both good and bad. (related article links at site)

Baltimore Sun links

Cahal Milmo | Nov 9

The Independent - In a quiet corner of Westminster Abbey, away from the crowd gathered at the Cenotaph, Arthur Bright's voice cracked as the 11am tolling of Big Ben approached. Stood in front of rows of small wooden crosses marking the British dead from Afghanistan, the D-Day veteran said: "There was a time not so very long ago when this day was a history lesson. Not today. Young men are getting killed again. And I'm not sure why."

The 85-year-old former infantryman, with a row of five medals glistening on his chest, was one of dozens yesterday whose Remembrance Sunday route through central London to participate in two minutes of silence in Whitehall included a detour to the neat rank of rain-streaked crosses, each adorned with a photograph of one of the 231 soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Music from military bands was relayed across Parliament Square via loudspeakers while tourists mixed with grey-haired veterans and uniformed servicemen and women. But beneath the sombre dignity and pomp of the state occasion, it was not difficult to find the raw emotion caused by the steady stream of British deaths and casualties from Helmand.

Mr Bright, from Chatham, Kent, whose closest friend was killed inches from him during the Normandy landings, said: "When you see something like all these [crosses], it brings it home that there are lots of mothers, brothers and daughters waiting for terrible news again. Seeing this brings back what it was like to be at war. At least we knew what we were fighting for in 1944. We knew if we didn't win, our country would be destroyed. In Afghanistan, these boys are fighting for people who don't even want them there. That must be hard. That's the thing about war, you've got to believe the deaths of your mates are worth it somehow."

Brian Brady and David Randall | Nov 8

The Independent - Plenty of powerful people have an interest in the mercenary behind the 'Wonga Coup' keeping his own counsel

Simon Mann has been urged by Foreign Office officials to remain silent about the coup attempt that left him languishing in an African prison, and settle for a "quiet life" with his wife and family in the UK, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The veteran mercenary returned to Britain last week after he was pardoned by oil-rich Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema – the man he had planned to overthrow five years ago. Mann, with the gratitude of a man sprung 34 years before his sentence was due to run out, apologised for the plot that ended with his incarceration in the notorious Black Beach jail. He swiftly made it clear he wanted revenge on those he believes made him the "fall guy" – notably the Lebanese millionaire, Ely Calil, and Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister.

Mann's friends confirmed yesterday that he wanted "justice" for both men – not only for allegedly leaving him to carry the can for the disastrous coup attempt, but also for failing to look after his wife and children while he was in captivity thousands of miles away.

Yet they also revealed that Mann has already been subjected to government pressure to keep his mouth shut. "The Foreign Office didn't do anything to help get him out of that place, but they have been very quick to try to get him to play ball now he is back," one close friend said. "Simon has been told it would be in everyone's best interests if he could just draw a line under this whole thing. We know the Foreign Office wants to get on-side with EG [Equatorial Guinea] as quickly as possible but, frankly, it is also in their own interests for people to stop asking questions about this whole affair."

After a European court rules against crucifixes in Italian schoolrooms, Italians from across the political spectrum decry an assault on the country's Roman Catholic identity.

Christian Science Monitor, By Nick Squires, November 3

Rome - Italians reacted with outrage on Tuesday after a European court ruled that displaying crucifixes in the country's schools violated the principle of secular education.

Italy's education minister condemned the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the Christian cross was a symbol of the country's Roman Catholic religion and cultural identity.

Milan | Nov 4

Reuters - An Italian judge sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison on Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric in a landmark ruling against the "rendition" flights used by the former U.S. government.

Judge Oscar Magi dropped the case against another three American defendants and the ex-head of the Italy's Sismi military intelligence service, Nicolo Pollari, as well as his former deputy.

Edward Rothstein | Paris | November 3

NYT - Claude Lévi-Strauss, the French anthropologist who transformed Western understanding of what was once called “primitive man” and who towered over the French intellectual scene in the 1960s and ’70s, has died at 100.

His son Laurent said Mr. Lévi-Strauss died of cardiac arrest Friday at his home in Paris. His death was announced Tuesday, the same day he was buried in the village of Lignerolles, in the Côte-d’Or region southeast of Paris, where he had a country home.

Nov 1

BBC - UK: Government to create bank chains

The government is to create three new High Street banking chains by 2015 as part of a major overhaul of the sector.

They will be set up by selling off parts of Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Northern Rock - the banks which had to be bailed out by the taxpayer.

Ministers and the European Competition Commissioner are in talks over the move, which would go some way to recoup the public money invested in the banks.

There is speculation that buyers might include Tesco and Virgin.

The new chains will be standard retail banks concentrating on deposits and mortgages.

In order to boost competition, they will only be sold to new entrants to the UK banking market and not to existing financial institutions.

Ministers say that creating more competitors on the High Street in this way will invigorate the mortgage market and ultimately lead to a better deal for customers.

Graham Keeley & Richard Owen | Madrid / Rome | October 31

The Times - When Victoria Romero, 6, dressed up as a witch for a Hallowe’en party this week she could hardly have imagined that she was provoking the wrath of God by attending a celebration akin to a Black Mass — at least in the eyes of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church in Spain.

Wearing skeleton suits, dressing up as vampires, witches or goblins or slapping on fake blood is not far removed from communing with the Devil, according to the country’s bishops.

However, the bishops, with Vatican backing, have reserved their venom for the millions of parents who allowed their children to celebrate this “pagan” festival.

Ian Black | Oct 28

The Guardian - Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister during the Gaza war, would probably face arrest on war crimes charges if he visited Britain, according to a UK lawyer who is working to expand the application of "universal jurisdiction" for offences involving serious human rights abuses committed anywhere in the world.

Neither Olmert nor Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister during the Cast Lead offensive, and a member of Israel's war cabinet, would enjoy immunity from prosecution for alleged breaches of the Geneva conventions, predicted Daniel Machover, who is involved in intensifying legal work after the controversial Goldstone report on the three-week conflict. Neither are ministers any longer.

Prosecutions of Israeli political and military figures remain likely despite the failure to obtain an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the defence minister, when he visited the UK earlier this month, he said. In the Barak case a magistrate accepted advice from the Foreign Office that the minister enjoyed state immunity and rejected an application made on behalf of several residents of the Gaza Strip.

"This needs to be tested at the right time and in the right place," Machover said. "One day one of these people will make a mistake and go to the wrong country and face a criminal process — and then it'll be a matter for the courts of that country to give them a fair trial: that's what the Palestinian victims want."

Reed Stevenson | The hague | Oct 27

Reuters - Radovan Karadzic led a campaign to make Bosnian Muslims "disappear from the face of the earth" and carve out a mono-ethnic state for Bosnian Serbs, war crimes prosecutors told a U.N. tribunal on Tuesday.

In opening statements, prosecutors painted a picture of the former Bosnian Serb leader as a supreme commander single-mindedly pursing a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Their statements were delivered to empty chairs on the defendant's side of the court as Karadzic boycotted the trial for a second day.

"The Supreme Commander explained in October 1991 what was coming for Sarajevo: 'Sarajevo will be a black cauldron where Muslims will die. They will disappear, that people will disappear from the face of the earth'," Prosecutor Alan Tieger cited Karadzic as saying.

He was referring to the 43-month siege of Sarajevo that began in 1992 and killed an estimated 10,000.

The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s saw Serbs, Croats and Muslims fighting for land. More than 100,000 people were killed.

"The supreme commander had directed his forces in a campaign to carve out a mono-ethnic state within his multi-ethnic country," Tieger said, calling him a "hands-on leader who maintained direct contact".

Robert Booth | Oct 27

The Guardian - • Restaurant critic says he felt urge to be a primate killer
• Animal campaigners attack 'indefensible' action

Animal welfare groups voiced outrage today after the restaurant critic AA Gill said he shot a baboon on safari "to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone".

In a Sunday Times column, Gill recounted in detail how he shot the creature from 250 yards while hunting in "a truck full of guns and other blokes" in Tanzania. He said he felt the urge to be "a recreational primate killer" before shooting the animal through the lung.

"This is morally completely indefensible," said Steve Taylor, a spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports. "If he wants to know what it like to shoot a human, he should take aim at his own leg. When man interacts with animals he owes a duty of care. If you are killing to eat, that is a different matter. This is killing for fun".

Gill wrote: "I took him just below the armpit. He slumped and slid sideways. I'm told they can be tricky to shoot: they run up trees, hang on for grim life. They die hard, baboons. But not this one. A soft-nosed .357 blew his lungs out."

Claire Bass, wildlife manager at the World Society for the Protection of Animals: "It's hard to say what's sadder – the unnecessary death of a healthy baboon or that he has so little regard for the life of another creature. The vast majority of visitors to the Serengeti have a fantastic time shooting with cameras, not guns. We condemn the killing and the crude portrayal of it as 'entertainment' in Gill's column."

What an ass!