BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Parents defend bus siege gunman
Parents defend bus siege gunman
Armando Ducat is a hero to some
Parents have pledged support for a gunman who took a busload of pre-school children hostage in the Philippine capital, Manila.
Armando Ducat said he took the action to draw attention to the impoverished conditions in which the children lived.
Prosecutors have filed charges of abduction and illegal possession of firearms against Ducat, and an accomplice Cesar Carbonell.
But without the support of parents a case could be difficult to build.
He was just doing what he thought was right and just for us - the poor
Mirabelle Moreno
Parent
Mr Ducat, who built and owns a pre-school day centre in a Manila slum, on Wednesday held 26 children from the facility and four teachers hostage.
The hostages were only released after Mr Ducat was allowed to appear on television and radio to talk about poverty, and urge the public to unite to fight corruption.
Presidential intervention
President Gloria Arroyo has called for tough action against the pair to deter copy cat action.
The hostages were freed after 10 hours
Her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said she wanted the case against them speeded up.
But he said welfare agencies had also been asked to examine what could be done to help students from poor communities.
Lara Moreno, mother of one of the children, told the Philippine Star daily that parents have "no plans" to file charges against Mr Ducat, a 56-year-old civil engineer.
She said they did not agree with his actions, but viewed him as a good man who had tried to help the poor.
Another parent, Rosita Osita, said Mr Ducat had always been there to help, giving the children free education, food and clothing.
Mirabelle Moreno, whose six-year-old son was on the bus, told the Philippine Inquirer: "We don't want him in jail.
"He was just doing what he thought was right and just for us - the poor."
One of the teachers who was held, Elmer Calleja, told reporters they would rally to demand the men's release because "we respect Ducat's beliefs".
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said the reluctance of the parents to have charges laid would not prevent the state doing so.
Friday, March 30, 2007
BBC NEWS | Americas | Chile riots lead to 800 arrests
BBC NEWS | Americas | Chile riots lead to 800 arrests
Chile riots lead to 800 arrests
Riots in pictures
More than 800 people, many of them of school age, were arrested after clashes in Chile's capital and other parts of the country, officials said.
The violence erupted during an annual left-wing demonstration.
In Santiago, 38 police officers were hurt as they battled stone-throwing protesters, the authorities said.
The demonstration often turns violent but this year tension was increased amid public anger over chaos caused by the capital's new transport system.
The yearly demonstration called Day of the Young Combatant marks the anniversary of the 1985 killing of two students by police during a demonstration against the military government of General Augusto Pinochet.
Parents
Roads were blocked in central Santiago, shops damaged, and in some neighbourhoods flaming barricades were erected.
Riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in the centre of the capital.
It became the day of the young criminal
Felipe Harboe
Deputy Interior Minister
At least 819 people were arrested, the vast majority in Santiago. The authorities said this number was higher than in previous years.
A significant number of those detained were school students, many of them of them under 16 years of age, officials said.
"It became the day of the young criminal," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said.
He said people had been arrested for illegally carrying weapons, attempted robbery and damaging property.
The violence was unacceptable, Mr Harboe said, adding that the authorities would be pursuing parents to pay for the damage caused by their children.
Transport woes
This year's demonstration coincided with protests about the quality of a new public transport system and the speed of educational reforms.
The Transantiago system introduced in February has left large areas of the capital without public transportation.
President Michelle Bachelet, who has seen support for her government fall, sacked four ministers earlier this week and apologised for the chaos Santiago residents have had to endure.
Last year, hundreds when hundreds of thousands of students took to the streets of the capital to call for education reform and lower transport fares.
Chile riots lead to 800 arrests
Riots in pictures
More than 800 people, many of them of school age, were arrested after clashes in Chile's capital and other parts of the country, officials said.
The violence erupted during an annual left-wing demonstration.
In Santiago, 38 police officers were hurt as they battled stone-throwing protesters, the authorities said.
The demonstration often turns violent but this year tension was increased amid public anger over chaos caused by the capital's new transport system.
The yearly demonstration called Day of the Young Combatant marks the anniversary of the 1985 killing of two students by police during a demonstration against the military government of General Augusto Pinochet.
Parents
Roads were blocked in central Santiago, shops damaged, and in some neighbourhoods flaming barricades were erected.
Riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in the centre of the capital.
It became the day of the young criminal
Felipe Harboe
Deputy Interior Minister
At least 819 people were arrested, the vast majority in Santiago. The authorities said this number was higher than in previous years.
A significant number of those detained were school students, many of them of them under 16 years of age, officials said.
"It became the day of the young criminal," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said.
He said people had been arrested for illegally carrying weapons, attempted robbery and damaging property.
The violence was unacceptable, Mr Harboe said, adding that the authorities would be pursuing parents to pay for the damage caused by their children.
Transport woes
This year's demonstration coincided with protests about the quality of a new public transport system and the speed of educational reforms.
The Transantiago system introduced in February has left large areas of the capital without public transportation.
President Michelle Bachelet, who has seen support for her government fall, sacked four ministers earlier this week and apologised for the chaos Santiago residents have had to endure.
Last year, hundreds when hundreds of thousands of students took to the streets of the capital to call for education reform and lower transport fares.
DNA - Mumbai - It’s still not absolutely fair for the fair sex at the workplace - Daily News & Analysis
DNA - Mumbai - It’s still not absolutely fair for the fair sex at the workplace - Daily News & Analysis
It’s still not absolutely fair for the fair sex at the workplaceFriday, March 30, 2007 21:27 IST
To reprint this article, contact 3DSyndication
Sexual harassment in the work place is a common enough occurrence. But seldom is anything done to address this grave issue. Seemaa Kamdar examines the problems associated with this issue, and the laws which offer women some hope
Most of her colleagues dismissed the abusive remarks, but Lavina realised that she had the option of not taking it lying down. Her boss, Peter, had used foul language while undermining her work and she was deeply embarrassed.
A lawyer friend told her a big corporate like hers would have a sexual harassment cell, but she found there was none. On her insistence, a cell was hastily put together to probe such complaints. Though the cell has done precious little, the effort has not been entirely futile: Peter now weighs his words before he speaks.
Many women across organisations — public or private — are confronted with some kind of sexual harassment — explicit remarks, gestures, postures, physical abuse, sexual innuendoes, porn talk, foul language or even gender-discriminatory behaviour such as denial of promotion, difference in pay, etc.
Unlike heinous crimes like murder and rape, sexual harassment at the workplace is a complex phenomenon that creates classic conflicts, as it involves known people in an environment that generates livelihood for both the victim and accused. Given its large canvas of prevalence, the law-makers have now decided to do something about it. The Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2007 expects to resolve at least some of the anomalies of a Supreme Court judgment on the subject and go beyond it.
Odds against woman
Typically, women refuse to talk about workplace woes openly for fear of losing their job or facing discrimination. Sexual harassment, if taken further, can become a case of an individual pitted against an institution, with the odds weighing in favour of the aggressor. In some cases, especially in the private sector, the victim is victimised further.
Recently, a large private hospital in the suburbs terminated the contract of a female doctor who had complained against a senior male doctor. In some cases, the woman is simply transferred out.
“The absence of job security in the private sector deters an aggrieved woman from coming forward,” agrees member-secretary of the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission, Sanjeevani Kutty. That partly explains why the commission and NGOs receive fewer complaints from private companies.
Sexual harassment, as a violation of a woman’s rights, got a shot in the arm with the Vishakha judgment of the Supreme Court in 1997. The judgment — which arose out of the Bhanvari Devi gang-rape case - acknowledged sexual harassment of all types and laid down guidelines to deal with such complaints.
A decade later, complaints are on the rise though the numbers continue to be less than a trickle. Since 1998, the NGO, India Centre for Human Rights and Law (ICHRL) has received around 50 complaints, while the women’s commission has received about 30 in the past two years. A large number of complaints are about verbal abuse. “It’s a highly under-reported phenomenon,’’ contends Anagha Sarpotdar, coordinator of the campaign against sexual harassment cell, ICHRL. Gender bias, denial of seniority and intimidation are the common forms of harassment that most offices don’t bother to blink at. Sexual harassment is prevalent not only in offices but also rampant in educational institutions. A case concerning a PhD guide in Pune is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.
Committee woes
On the brighter side, the victim has got justice in a few cases. “There have been removals, stoppage of increment, reprimand, memos, etc depending on the magnitude of the offence,” says Kutty.
But, even when a woman decides to do something, the problem areas are plenty. To begin with, she has to report it to a sexual harassment complaints redressal committee, formed by her employer. But most employers have decided that the law applies only to public bodies.
“We’re trying hard to create awareness among private companies that having a redressal committee is mandatory for all offices,” says Kutty, that is ‘every employer’, as the Vishakha judgment explicitly states.
But one can’t put together an ad hoc cell. The committee has to follow the Vishakha guidelines: it has to be headed by a woman; at least half of the cell should be made up of women; and there should be at least one NGO on it. Employers, however, commonly rustle up a cell with a man at the top or with fewer women than required or without an NGO, complain activists.
Again, the women on the committee could be a junior person, who cannot probe a complaint against a senior male officer. When this was pointed out in one instance, the corporate threw up its hands, saying it could do little, as there was no woman in the senior rung. The entire exercise comes unstuck if the committee members are insensitive or compromise procedure. “We often find the procedure has not been followed. The committee singles out the woman for a reprimand and believes that she must have done something to deserve it,” says activist-lawyer, Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar.
Recently, a man told the committee that the complainant owed him some money. “That was surprisingly accepted by the committee as excuse enough to misbehave,” says Sarpotdar. The committee is expected to keep the gender equation up at all times even in the absence of a complaint but, largely resentful of this extraneous load on their work time, many members are not keen to even pursue the inquiries.
“Many committees place undue emphasis on evidence. But, how does a woman molested in an elevator provide proof?” demands Sarpotdar. Often, proof depends on the word of her colleagues, who are reluctant to support her.
Coming to the rescue again, the Supreme Court has ruled, in the Apparel Export Promotion Council vs. AK Chopra case 1999, that a sexual harassment inquiry is not supposed to be conducted like a criminal trial. The onus of proof therefore need not overwhelm the committee’s judgement.
The matter does not end here. Even when the sexual harassment committee does get everything right, their bosses may not. Most employers promptly refer a case settled by the committee to yet another department inquiry, which would absolve the accused.
This is a complete no-no. The Supreme Court has issued interim guidelines in the ongoing Medha Kotwal case making it clear that the committee’s word is final. Advocate Vijay Hiremath says, “The committee’s decision overrides that of the disciplinary action committee or any other that looks into the case.”
In the final analysis, as Sarpotdar says, “No matter how progressive our legislation is, it fails if there’s no awareness.”
It’s still not absolutely fair for the fair sex at the workplaceFriday, March 30, 2007 21:27 IST
To reprint this article, contact 3DSyndication
Sexual harassment in the work place is a common enough occurrence. But seldom is anything done to address this grave issue. Seemaa Kamdar examines the problems associated with this issue, and the laws which offer women some hope
Most of her colleagues dismissed the abusive remarks, but Lavina realised that she had the option of not taking it lying down. Her boss, Peter, had used foul language while undermining her work and she was deeply embarrassed.
A lawyer friend told her a big corporate like hers would have a sexual harassment cell, but she found there was none. On her insistence, a cell was hastily put together to probe such complaints. Though the cell has done precious little, the effort has not been entirely futile: Peter now weighs his words before he speaks.
Many women across organisations — public or private — are confronted with some kind of sexual harassment — explicit remarks, gestures, postures, physical abuse, sexual innuendoes, porn talk, foul language or even gender-discriminatory behaviour such as denial of promotion, difference in pay, etc.
Unlike heinous crimes like murder and rape, sexual harassment at the workplace is a complex phenomenon that creates classic conflicts, as it involves known people in an environment that generates livelihood for both the victim and accused. Given its large canvas of prevalence, the law-makers have now decided to do something about it. The Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2007 expects to resolve at least some of the anomalies of a Supreme Court judgment on the subject and go beyond it.
Odds against woman
Typically, women refuse to talk about workplace woes openly for fear of losing their job or facing discrimination. Sexual harassment, if taken further, can become a case of an individual pitted against an institution, with the odds weighing in favour of the aggressor. In some cases, especially in the private sector, the victim is victimised further.
Recently, a large private hospital in the suburbs terminated the contract of a female doctor who had complained against a senior male doctor. In some cases, the woman is simply transferred out.
“The absence of job security in the private sector deters an aggrieved woman from coming forward,” agrees member-secretary of the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission, Sanjeevani Kutty. That partly explains why the commission and NGOs receive fewer complaints from private companies.
Sexual harassment, as a violation of a woman’s rights, got a shot in the arm with the Vishakha judgment of the Supreme Court in 1997. The judgment — which arose out of the Bhanvari Devi gang-rape case - acknowledged sexual harassment of all types and laid down guidelines to deal with such complaints.
A decade later, complaints are on the rise though the numbers continue to be less than a trickle. Since 1998, the NGO, India Centre for Human Rights and Law (ICHRL) has received around 50 complaints, while the women’s commission has received about 30 in the past two years. A large number of complaints are about verbal abuse. “It’s a highly under-reported phenomenon,’’ contends Anagha Sarpotdar, coordinator of the campaign against sexual harassment cell, ICHRL. Gender bias, denial of seniority and intimidation are the common forms of harassment that most offices don’t bother to blink at. Sexual harassment is prevalent not only in offices but also rampant in educational institutions. A case concerning a PhD guide in Pune is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.
Committee woes
On the brighter side, the victim has got justice in a few cases. “There have been removals, stoppage of increment, reprimand, memos, etc depending on the magnitude of the offence,” says Kutty.
But, even when a woman decides to do something, the problem areas are plenty. To begin with, she has to report it to a sexual harassment complaints redressal committee, formed by her employer. But most employers have decided that the law applies only to public bodies.
“We’re trying hard to create awareness among private companies that having a redressal committee is mandatory for all offices,” says Kutty, that is ‘every employer’, as the Vishakha judgment explicitly states.
But one can’t put together an ad hoc cell. The committee has to follow the Vishakha guidelines: it has to be headed by a woman; at least half of the cell should be made up of women; and there should be at least one NGO on it. Employers, however, commonly rustle up a cell with a man at the top or with fewer women than required or without an NGO, complain activists.
Again, the women on the committee could be a junior person, who cannot probe a complaint against a senior male officer. When this was pointed out in one instance, the corporate threw up its hands, saying it could do little, as there was no woman in the senior rung. The entire exercise comes unstuck if the committee members are insensitive or compromise procedure. “We often find the procedure has not been followed. The committee singles out the woman for a reprimand and believes that she must have done something to deserve it,” says activist-lawyer, Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar.
Recently, a man told the committee that the complainant owed him some money. “That was surprisingly accepted by the committee as excuse enough to misbehave,” says Sarpotdar. The committee is expected to keep the gender equation up at all times even in the absence of a complaint but, largely resentful of this extraneous load on their work time, many members are not keen to even pursue the inquiries.
“Many committees place undue emphasis on evidence. But, how does a woman molested in an elevator provide proof?” demands Sarpotdar. Often, proof depends on the word of her colleagues, who are reluctant to support her.
Coming to the rescue again, the Supreme Court has ruled, in the Apparel Export Promotion Council vs. AK Chopra case 1999, that a sexual harassment inquiry is not supposed to be conducted like a criminal trial. The onus of proof therefore need not overwhelm the committee’s judgement.
The matter does not end here. Even when the sexual harassment committee does get everything right, their bosses may not. Most employers promptly refer a case settled by the committee to yet another department inquiry, which would absolve the accused.
This is a complete no-no. The Supreme Court has issued interim guidelines in the ongoing Medha Kotwal case making it clear that the committee’s word is final. Advocate Vijay Hiremath says, “The committee’s decision overrides that of the disciplinary action committee or any other that looks into the case.”
In the final analysis, as Sarpotdar says, “No matter how progressive our legislation is, it fails if there’s no awareness.”
Thursday, March 29, 2007
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | I remember when all this was 'cranky'
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | I remember when all this was 'cranky'
web news history
I remember when all this was 'cranky'
Going back to 1998, when even chancellors looked younger
Journalist Dave Gilbert is hanging up his hat after 13 years working in online news - much of it with the BBC website. But before he goes, he can't help but marvel at how the net has gone from an eccentric side project to being at the heart of all modern news rooms.
I recently discovered that Jay-Zed is nothing of the sort. The popular, long-standing rap star is, of course, pronounced Jay-Zee. My colleagues here at the BBC News website were too helpless with laughter to enlighten me straight away but it left me in no doubt that I had been cast adrift from youth culture.
It's uncomfortable being reclassified as a dinosaur, but on the timeline of internet journalism I really can trace my roots back to the Jurassic period.
Today, we expect instant news to be delivered in text, pictures and video to our mobile devices as well as our desktop computers. And you, the readers, have also become newsgatherers, supplying your own material and views to complement our endeavours.
A generation of internet users have never known anything different, but it's a scenario I couldn't have imagined when I began as a cub reporter more than 20 years ago, armed only with a notebook, shorthand and occasional use of a delivery van.
My conversionary zeal was not shared by my colleagues. Most glazed over every time I mentioned the buzzword "internet" and some thought it was a cranky fad
Hot metal - a method of typesetting that dated from the 19th Century - was just being taken out the door, to be replaced with computers and on-screen page make-up.
But that was just the warm-up act for the revolution that was to follow. The first web page I ever saw was a site detailing the paintings in the Louvre. A friend thought I might be interested in seeing what she described as a "deluxe computer messaging system accessible via the telephone network".
The year was 1994 and it was my Eureka! moment. The internet allowed publishers to display words and pictures just like we did on papers, but without waiting for a print run or a painfully slow delivery system. They weren't compromised by lack of space and they were threatening to offer broadcast material - on demand and at any time.
My conversionary zeal was not shared by my colleagues. Most glazed over every time I mentioned the buzzword "internet" and some thought it was a cranky fad.
Good question... still
The shrewdest comments came from the newspaper advertising executives who wondered where the revenue would come from. It's a question some are still asking.
How the web used to be - an early edition of the Telegraph
In 1995 the CNN website was already up and running but rival newspapers the Daily Telegraph and the Times were the first major players in the UK to go online and it was at those embryonic sites I started working.
The broad horizon we gazed at now seems absurdly myopic. At the pioneering Electronic Telegraph we could only use a minimal number of small pictures, and hot-linking was such a novelty that diversionary links sprouted everywhere. These were the days before broadband. Download speeds were glacial.
The idea was to reproduce an online edition of the newspaper but using the medium to provide added value. But with the resources we had, delivering a rolling news service - today a given for any serious online news provider - wasn't possible.
The idea of breaking a news story was a tantalising prospect that seemed just out of reach. In the early days there were only four journalists managing the output, working graveyard shifts next to the obituaries department.
But it was the time of Cool Britannia, London was buzzing with Britpop and we were all energised - aware we were building the first new thing in newspapers since the wishy-washy attempts at colour printing a generation before.
Dated in a decade
Derek Bishton, then editor of the Electronic Telegraph, had a wider vision beyond simply reproducing an online edition of the newspaper and recalls the excitement of the time.
We clocked very early on that it was about a global audience, audience response and encouraging feedback - Web 2.0 in fact
Derek Bishton, former editor of the Electronic Telegraph
"We clocked very early on that it was about a global audience, audience response and encouraging feedback - Web 2.0 in fact," he recalls. "We were doing things that people now take as staples. We were able to experiment in a way that we couldn't now, but we didn't have the technical support and the consumers didn't have the kit."
Today, Telegraph journalists consider the web as an integral part of their job and work in a modern news hub serving both platforms.
When the BBC launched its own news site in 1997, it was a step up to what had gone before but those early stories also look sadly archaic. Just look at this animated graphic on global warming which I helped to prepare, and now looks so dated.
For nearly a decade the BBC news website has been in constant revolution as new ideas and software are exploited, delivering more services to an ever-expanding audience.
Global audience
Our readers have grown with us, seamlessly upgrading their technology, contributing their own pictures and views... and instantly chiding us when we get it wrong.
When I'm asked where it's going next I have to say - and you're not going to like this - I don't really know
Dave Gilbert
The audience has never felt closer or more immediate. People buy newspapers for a host of reasons but reporters never know how many read their own stories.
From our real-time statistics, I know exactly what the audience is reading, and the feedback is almost instantaneous.
We have come to expect that when a story breaks anywhere in the world, someone will have a picture, an eyewitness account or video footage which they can send from their mobile phones.
As Web 2.0 enters adolescence, it feels that the internet really has come of age. Until recently, there seemed to be a natural progression in web evolution. We knew certain developments were going to happen - the only question was how long it would take for the technology, readers or line speed to catch up.
Now all bets are off. Broadcasters use computers to deliver content, TV stations are adding radio stations, newspapers have become broadcasters, and news is being prepared and delivered by relatively new companies.
When I'm asked where it's going next I have to say - and you're not going to like this - I don't really know.
The people who do, and are going to drive this site and its competitors through the next evolutionary step, are those who are ready to embrace change with vigour. And doubtless they'll be more familiar with the popular, long-standing rap star Jay-Z.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
I remember the watershed moment in Internet based news, the 9th of September 2001. I was working in London at the time, and as the news of the first air crash arrived, the first instinct was to turn on the radio, the second to access the BBC news website. All I can remember from that awful afternoon was the news slowly building up about all the things happening in the states.....and being unable to access most news websites, the BBC included. Sky news was the most accessible, even then only sporadically throughout the day. I came to realise that finally the internet had been seen as the news medium it always promised to be, and that millions of people were all realising the same thing at the same time and therefore dragging the news websites down to a crawl. Since then I have never had a problem accessing a news website, whether to witness the Boxing day Tsunami or the 7/7 bomb attacks. The news industry has come to realise that the Internet is it's backbone in up-to-the-minute reporting, and has finally supported it as it deserves.
Kev R, Cheltenham, UK
I too started in the Jurassic era within a rival left-of-centre newspaper's online 'lab'. At that time, the night shift of 4 selected just a few stories from each page. The headlines became the left-hand navigation and each had to be edited to a certain number of characters. The technology and editing tools had progressed to such a level that, by 2000, just four of us were able to upload the entire paper and repurpose all stories with links, graphics and images across the whole network. Unfortunately, the intense production methods led to severe RSI... and for me, that was that!
Andrea, West Yorkshire
I always thought it was Jay-Zed... and I'm only 21...
Edd,
A mere child, my lord: I was in computing in 1962. And yes, I was indeed running a Linotype at the time. Dong - tschiss - splutch - the lead in the air must have had some effect, methinks.
Jel, Swansea
I remember those first editions of the Electronic Telegraph and how glad I was to have news online at last. So, thank you to Dave and his compatriots for pioneering it all back then. And good luck for whatever you wind up doing next.
Rory Choudhuri, UK
Never stop learning, it keeps the heart young despite what the less experienced say. Enjoy and get a few free lunches out of them.
Candace, New Jersey, US
I too have had a similar experience. I started online in 1994, working within BT at Martlesham in Suffolk to spread the gospel of HTML, the intra/internet and all that good stuff. I was sat on the end of the fastest line into the UK - approx 2Mbit/s. I moved away from the coal face for a few years after the tech crash, becoming a content consumer rather than a content creator, but in the last 12 months I have come back to the web as a private project. What I have found has changed beyond all recognition. I'm confronted by Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and a hundred other services that we would have avoided like the plague at the time of the crash. And the days of hacking together a page in notepad are gone too. While I could quite happily code in frames (yuck!) and have roll-over buttons (ooh, funky!), now to get a halfway decent page I've had to download and install blogging software (Wordpress) and apply different styles until I've found one I like. God help me if I ever try to customise it. I suddenly feel very old, and I'm still a few years off 40. Technical experience is worth nothing in the web world, because the web of 1994 - or even 2000 - is of no greater relevence today than the manual typewriter.
Chris, Chester, UK
It is people like your self that drove the web to where it is today...because you understood it as a medium and understood the audience. This is where Web 2.0 comes from...doing it with a feedback loop from users...which is really web 101. Not a slogan but an action. Bring on web 4.0 I say.
Web 4.0, London UK
It is still cranky. After 13 years you still restrict the width to 800 pixels. Cranky, eccentric, or just ignorant of proper design.
,
BBC News has consistently been at the front of the online news world, for quality, content and design. I honestly believe this is the best designed site on the Internet today - the way it can accommodate so many variant users, including many disabled visitors, is superlative, and I've studied many sites during the course of my Internet Technology degree. The Internet is very much the next revolution. Already it's hard imagining a life before this vast conglomerate of information, and it feels like the revolution has hit, but this is just the beginning. For the first time in centuries, information is out from the control of the authorities; content and creation has passed back to the masses, and is shared by us all. We circumvent our leaders and official channels as we communicate with real humans every day; we circumvent multinationals as we spread the content we want to see; and most importantly of all, for the first time since humanity exploded into such a grand scale society, we can circumvent all geographical and natural barriers to become a united race again. The last 100-150 years of entertainment has been a blip, an anomaly as the industries formed. The Internet is what will truly turn us into an artistic civilisation.
Matt Dovey, Skegness, England
I think you'll find that the first, and still the best, UK newspaper website was from the Guardian
Dominic Collard, London
Stop patting yourselves on the back? Who cares that some old hack is leaving your staff? Stop being so far up your own backsides for a change and report real news!
,
It is good to have an opinion/view from someone who has experinced this change in a very central way, and chosen to share his views with us. the change is amazing once u start to think about it!
chris, boston
It's very much thanks to you and your colleagues on the BBC news website that I can read, listen & watch more or less as the news breaks. I also share your look back on how technology has changed in such a short space of time: downloading video by telephone I must have been more patient than I realised. Good luck for the future.
Mike Holliday, Wirral
web news history
I remember when all this was 'cranky'
Going back to 1998, when even chancellors looked younger
Journalist Dave Gilbert is hanging up his hat after 13 years working in online news - much of it with the BBC website. But before he goes, he can't help but marvel at how the net has gone from an eccentric side project to being at the heart of all modern news rooms.
I recently discovered that Jay-Zed is nothing of the sort. The popular, long-standing rap star is, of course, pronounced Jay-Zee. My colleagues here at the BBC News website were too helpless with laughter to enlighten me straight away but it left me in no doubt that I had been cast adrift from youth culture.
It's uncomfortable being reclassified as a dinosaur, but on the timeline of internet journalism I really can trace my roots back to the Jurassic period.
Today, we expect instant news to be delivered in text, pictures and video to our mobile devices as well as our desktop computers. And you, the readers, have also become newsgatherers, supplying your own material and views to complement our endeavours.
A generation of internet users have never known anything different, but it's a scenario I couldn't have imagined when I began as a cub reporter more than 20 years ago, armed only with a notebook, shorthand and occasional use of a delivery van.
My conversionary zeal was not shared by my colleagues. Most glazed over every time I mentioned the buzzword "internet" and some thought it was a cranky fad
Hot metal - a method of typesetting that dated from the 19th Century - was just being taken out the door, to be replaced with computers and on-screen page make-up.
But that was just the warm-up act for the revolution that was to follow. The first web page I ever saw was a site detailing the paintings in the Louvre. A friend thought I might be interested in seeing what she described as a "deluxe computer messaging system accessible via the telephone network".
The year was 1994 and it was my Eureka! moment. The internet allowed publishers to display words and pictures just like we did on papers, but without waiting for a print run or a painfully slow delivery system. They weren't compromised by lack of space and they were threatening to offer broadcast material - on demand and at any time.
My conversionary zeal was not shared by my colleagues. Most glazed over every time I mentioned the buzzword "internet" and some thought it was a cranky fad.
Good question... still
The shrewdest comments came from the newspaper advertising executives who wondered where the revenue would come from. It's a question some are still asking.
How the web used to be - an early edition of the Telegraph
In 1995 the CNN website was already up and running but rival newspapers the Daily Telegraph and the Times were the first major players in the UK to go online and it was at those embryonic sites I started working.
The broad horizon we gazed at now seems absurdly myopic. At the pioneering Electronic Telegraph we could only use a minimal number of small pictures, and hot-linking was such a novelty that diversionary links sprouted everywhere. These were the days before broadband. Download speeds were glacial.
The idea was to reproduce an online edition of the newspaper but using the medium to provide added value. But with the resources we had, delivering a rolling news service - today a given for any serious online news provider - wasn't possible.
The idea of breaking a news story was a tantalising prospect that seemed just out of reach. In the early days there were only four journalists managing the output, working graveyard shifts next to the obituaries department.
But it was the time of Cool Britannia, London was buzzing with Britpop and we were all energised - aware we were building the first new thing in newspapers since the wishy-washy attempts at colour printing a generation before.
Dated in a decade
Derek Bishton, then editor of the Electronic Telegraph, had a wider vision beyond simply reproducing an online edition of the newspaper and recalls the excitement of the time.
We clocked very early on that it was about a global audience, audience response and encouraging feedback - Web 2.0 in fact
Derek Bishton, former editor of the Electronic Telegraph
"We clocked very early on that it was about a global audience, audience response and encouraging feedback - Web 2.0 in fact," he recalls. "We were doing things that people now take as staples. We were able to experiment in a way that we couldn't now, but we didn't have the technical support and the consumers didn't have the kit."
Today, Telegraph journalists consider the web as an integral part of their job and work in a modern news hub serving both platforms.
When the BBC launched its own news site in 1997, it was a step up to what had gone before but those early stories also look sadly archaic. Just look at this animated graphic on global warming which I helped to prepare, and now looks so dated.
For nearly a decade the BBC news website has been in constant revolution as new ideas and software are exploited, delivering more services to an ever-expanding audience.
Global audience
Our readers have grown with us, seamlessly upgrading their technology, contributing their own pictures and views... and instantly chiding us when we get it wrong.
When I'm asked where it's going next I have to say - and you're not going to like this - I don't really know
Dave Gilbert
The audience has never felt closer or more immediate. People buy newspapers for a host of reasons but reporters never know how many read their own stories.
From our real-time statistics, I know exactly what the audience is reading, and the feedback is almost instantaneous.
We have come to expect that when a story breaks anywhere in the world, someone will have a picture, an eyewitness account or video footage which they can send from their mobile phones.
As Web 2.0 enters adolescence, it feels that the internet really has come of age. Until recently, there seemed to be a natural progression in web evolution. We knew certain developments were going to happen - the only question was how long it would take for the technology, readers or line speed to catch up.
Now all bets are off. Broadcasters use computers to deliver content, TV stations are adding radio stations, newspapers have become broadcasters, and news is being prepared and delivered by relatively new companies.
When I'm asked where it's going next I have to say - and you're not going to like this - I don't really know.
The people who do, and are going to drive this site and its competitors through the next evolutionary step, are those who are ready to embrace change with vigour. And doubtless they'll be more familiar with the popular, long-standing rap star Jay-Z.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
I remember the watershed moment in Internet based news, the 9th of September 2001. I was working in London at the time, and as the news of the first air crash arrived, the first instinct was to turn on the radio, the second to access the BBC news website. All I can remember from that awful afternoon was the news slowly building up about all the things happening in the states.....and being unable to access most news websites, the BBC included. Sky news was the most accessible, even then only sporadically throughout the day. I came to realise that finally the internet had been seen as the news medium it always promised to be, and that millions of people were all realising the same thing at the same time and therefore dragging the news websites down to a crawl. Since then I have never had a problem accessing a news website, whether to witness the Boxing day Tsunami or the 7/7 bomb attacks. The news industry has come to realise that the Internet is it's backbone in up-to-the-minute reporting, and has finally supported it as it deserves.
Kev R, Cheltenham, UK
I too started in the Jurassic era within a rival left-of-centre newspaper's online 'lab'. At that time, the night shift of 4 selected just a few stories from each page. The headlines became the left-hand navigation and each had to be edited to a certain number of characters. The technology and editing tools had progressed to such a level that, by 2000, just four of us were able to upload the entire paper and repurpose all stories with links, graphics and images across the whole network. Unfortunately, the intense production methods led to severe RSI... and for me, that was that!
Andrea, West Yorkshire
I always thought it was Jay-Zed... and I'm only 21...
Edd,
A mere child, my lord: I was in computing in 1962. And yes, I was indeed running a Linotype at the time. Dong - tschiss - splutch - the lead in the air must have had some effect, methinks.
Jel, Swansea
I remember those first editions of the Electronic Telegraph and how glad I was to have news online at last. So, thank you to Dave and his compatriots for pioneering it all back then. And good luck for whatever you wind up doing next.
Rory Choudhuri, UK
Never stop learning, it keeps the heart young despite what the less experienced say. Enjoy and get a few free lunches out of them.
Candace, New Jersey, US
I too have had a similar experience. I started online in 1994, working within BT at Martlesham in Suffolk to spread the gospel of HTML, the intra/internet and all that good stuff. I was sat on the end of the fastest line into the UK - approx 2Mbit/s. I moved away from the coal face for a few years after the tech crash, becoming a content consumer rather than a content creator, but in the last 12 months I have come back to the web as a private project. What I have found has changed beyond all recognition. I'm confronted by Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and a hundred other services that we would have avoided like the plague at the time of the crash. And the days of hacking together a page in notepad are gone too. While I could quite happily code in frames (yuck!) and have roll-over buttons (ooh, funky!), now to get a halfway decent page I've had to download and install blogging software (Wordpress) and apply different styles until I've found one I like. God help me if I ever try to customise it. I suddenly feel very old, and I'm still a few years off 40. Technical experience is worth nothing in the web world, because the web of 1994 - or even 2000 - is of no greater relevence today than the manual typewriter.
Chris, Chester, UK
It is people like your self that drove the web to where it is today...because you understood it as a medium and understood the audience. This is where Web 2.0 comes from...doing it with a feedback loop from users...which is really web 101. Not a slogan but an action. Bring on web 4.0 I say.
Web 4.0, London UK
It is still cranky. After 13 years you still restrict the width to 800 pixels. Cranky, eccentric, or just ignorant of proper design.
,
BBC News has consistently been at the front of the online news world, for quality, content and design. I honestly believe this is the best designed site on the Internet today - the way it can accommodate so many variant users, including many disabled visitors, is superlative, and I've studied many sites during the course of my Internet Technology degree. The Internet is very much the next revolution. Already it's hard imagining a life before this vast conglomerate of information, and it feels like the revolution has hit, but this is just the beginning. For the first time in centuries, information is out from the control of the authorities; content and creation has passed back to the masses, and is shared by us all. We circumvent our leaders and official channels as we communicate with real humans every day; we circumvent multinationals as we spread the content we want to see; and most importantly of all, for the first time since humanity exploded into such a grand scale society, we can circumvent all geographical and natural barriers to become a united race again. The last 100-150 years of entertainment has been a blip, an anomaly as the industries formed. The Internet is what will truly turn us into an artistic civilisation.
Matt Dovey, Skegness, England
I think you'll find that the first, and still the best, UK newspaper website was from the Guardian
Dominic Collard, London
Stop patting yourselves on the back? Who cares that some old hack is leaving your staff? Stop being so far up your own backsides for a change and report real news!
,
It is good to have an opinion/view from someone who has experinced this change in a very central way, and chosen to share his views with us. the change is amazing once u start to think about it!
chris, boston
It's very much thanks to you and your colleagues on the BBC news website that I can read, listen & watch more or less as the news breaks. I also share your look back on how technology has changed in such a short space of time: downloading video by telephone I must have been more patient than I realised. Good luck for the future.
Mike Holliday, Wirral
BBC NEWS | Americas | Legendary black pilots saluted
BBC NEWS | Americas | Legendary black pilots saluted
HomeNewsSportRadioTVWeatherLanguages
Blacks in World War II
Legendary black pilots saluted
It is not often that servicemen have to fight a double war - one on the home front and one overseas.
Training at the Tuskegee Airfield in Alabama was segregated
But this is exactly what America's legendary Tuskegee Airmen did, more than 60 years ago. While they were fighting the Nazis abroad, they were battling racism at home.
Their double victory has been honoured by Congress, which has presented the survivors of America's first black air squadron with the Congressional Gold Medal.
The medal, which is the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress, can also be awarded to military personnel.
The venue itself, the Capitol Rotunda, was symbolic: once, these men would have been banned from entering because of the colour of their skin.
Desegregation
Now, they have been honoured not only for their outstanding war-time record, but for the groundwork that they helped lay for the civil rights movement.
We proved something different, not only in aviation history but also in American social history
Col Charles McGee
"For all the unreturned salutes ... I salute you for the service to the United States of America," President George W Bush said, as he presented the medal.
Retired Air Force Colonel Charles McGee - now 87 and one of about 350 Tuskegee veterans to make the trip to the Rotunda - told the BBC News website why the medal ceremony meant so much to him.
"It's a great feeling because it's been a great number of years - a little better than 60 years - since our activity," he said.
"It was one that wasn't expected to be successful - but we proved something different, not only in aviation history but also in American social history."
It was partly thanks to the airmen's courage, determination and skill that President Harry Truman signed an order desegregating the army in 1948. This was some 15 years before civil rights leader Martin Luther King marched on Washington.
President George W Bush saluted the Tuskegee Airmen
During World War II, the Army had become the country's largest minority employer. However, units, training and facilities were segregated.
The prevailing view at the War Department was summed up in a 1925 study by the Army War College: that African-Americans "were cowards and poor technicians and fighters, lacking initiative and resourcefulness".
In 1941, however, Congress forced the Army Air Corps to create an all-black combat unit.
The army reluctantly agreed and sent the unit to a remote air field in Tuskegee, Alabama, keeping them separate from the rest of the army. This became the training ground for some pilots - numbering almost 1,000 - navigators, mechanics, and ground crew.
Over the years, some 14,000 people came to serve in what is now called the "Tuskegee Experience".
It took months, however, for the army to let any of them see combat.
Col McGee, born in Ohio and raised in Illinois and Iowa, said the airmen were aware that they were breaking new ground in the struggle for equal rights, although they did not set out to spark a social revolution.
"Clearly we didn't get together to say 'Let's go down to Alabama and set the world on fire'," he said.
"Individuals all across the country were really just very interested in being accepted for who you were, being given an opportunity before being told you couldn't do something just because of your of birth."
'Black Birdmen'
The first group was known as the 99th Fighter Squadron. They flew ground attack missions in North Africa and participated in the destruction and surrender of Pantelleria, off Sicily. They were later joined by other units to make up the 332nd Fighter Group.
HONOURS
744 Air Medals
150 Distinguished Flying Crosses
8 Purple Hearts
14 Bronze Stars
2 Soldier Medals
1 Silver Star
1 Legion of Merit
Source: Tuskegee Airmen Inc
According to military writers, the group were both feared and respected by the Germans, who called them the "Schwarze Vogelmenschen" (Black Birdmen).
And their battles did not end with the Nazis. At home, they challenged institutionalised racism.
One of most citied incidents was in 1942, when a large group of Tuskegee Airmen tried to enter a whites-only officers' club at the Freeman Air Field in Indiana, against direct orders for them to stay out.
One hundred and three officers were arrested, charged with insubordination and ordered to face court martial. The charges, however, were quickly dropped. Some 50 years later, survivors were told that their military records had been purged of any reference to the incident.
According to the website Tuskegee Airmen Inc, after the WWII ended in 1945, the black airmen returned to the United States to face continued racism and bigotry despite their outstanding war record.
It was not until 1949 that the Air Force ended segregation and the Tuskegee Airmen were scattered among other units. Even then their struggle was not over, said Col McGee, who also served in Korea and Vietnam.
It wasn't fun coming home and coming down the gangplank and seeing 'whites this way, blacks that way
Col Charles McGee
"Change often comes about slowly, so there were still those who weren't happy. But as we were able to show technical and leadership abilities, acceptance finally came about and became widespread.
"Had we not been successful, certainly then we would have had the folks saying 'we told you so' - it wouldn't have been an early step in the civil rights movement.
"But [our success] made it possible for President Truman to issue orders mandating all of the service to integrate.
"It wasn't fun coming home [from WWII] and coming down the gangplank and seeing 'whites this way, blacks that way'.
"But we persevered and it's great that the government realised it and we're receiving this honour today."
It was not until the 1970s that the airmen's story began to be told more widely. A film about their exploits was released in 1995 and director George Lucas has been working on a movie about the men called "Red Tails" - after the tails of their aircraft that were painted red.
There is little doubt that their prowess in the skies helped dispel many of the negative stereotypes that were the order of the day.
These were young, mostly college-educated men, who were charismatic in front of the cameras.
And their courage is seen as having helped to change the attitudes of a nation.
HomeNewsSportRadioTVWeatherLanguages
Blacks in World War II
Legendary black pilots saluted
It is not often that servicemen have to fight a double war - one on the home front and one overseas.
Training at the Tuskegee Airfield in Alabama was segregated
But this is exactly what America's legendary Tuskegee Airmen did, more than 60 years ago. While they were fighting the Nazis abroad, they were battling racism at home.
Their double victory has been honoured by Congress, which has presented the survivors of America's first black air squadron with the Congressional Gold Medal.
The medal, which is the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress, can also be awarded to military personnel.
The venue itself, the Capitol Rotunda, was symbolic: once, these men would have been banned from entering because of the colour of their skin.
Desegregation
Now, they have been honoured not only for their outstanding war-time record, but for the groundwork that they helped lay for the civil rights movement.
We proved something different, not only in aviation history but also in American social history
Col Charles McGee
"For all the unreturned salutes ... I salute you for the service to the United States of America," President George W Bush said, as he presented the medal.
Retired Air Force Colonel Charles McGee - now 87 and one of about 350 Tuskegee veterans to make the trip to the Rotunda - told the BBC News website why the medal ceremony meant so much to him.
"It's a great feeling because it's been a great number of years - a little better than 60 years - since our activity," he said.
"It was one that wasn't expected to be successful - but we proved something different, not only in aviation history but also in American social history."
It was partly thanks to the airmen's courage, determination and skill that President Harry Truman signed an order desegregating the army in 1948. This was some 15 years before civil rights leader Martin Luther King marched on Washington.
President George W Bush saluted the Tuskegee Airmen
During World War II, the Army had become the country's largest minority employer. However, units, training and facilities were segregated.
The prevailing view at the War Department was summed up in a 1925 study by the Army War College: that African-Americans "were cowards and poor technicians and fighters, lacking initiative and resourcefulness".
In 1941, however, Congress forced the Army Air Corps to create an all-black combat unit.
The army reluctantly agreed and sent the unit to a remote air field in Tuskegee, Alabama, keeping them separate from the rest of the army. This became the training ground for some pilots - numbering almost 1,000 - navigators, mechanics, and ground crew.
Over the years, some 14,000 people came to serve in what is now called the "Tuskegee Experience".
It took months, however, for the army to let any of them see combat.
Col McGee, born in Ohio and raised in Illinois and Iowa, said the airmen were aware that they were breaking new ground in the struggle for equal rights, although they did not set out to spark a social revolution.
"Clearly we didn't get together to say 'Let's go down to Alabama and set the world on fire'," he said.
"Individuals all across the country were really just very interested in being accepted for who you were, being given an opportunity before being told you couldn't do something just because of your of birth."
'Black Birdmen'
The first group was known as the 99th Fighter Squadron. They flew ground attack missions in North Africa and participated in the destruction and surrender of Pantelleria, off Sicily. They were later joined by other units to make up the 332nd Fighter Group.
HONOURS
744 Air Medals
150 Distinguished Flying Crosses
8 Purple Hearts
14 Bronze Stars
2 Soldier Medals
1 Silver Star
1 Legion of Merit
Source: Tuskegee Airmen Inc
According to military writers, the group were both feared and respected by the Germans, who called them the "Schwarze Vogelmenschen" (Black Birdmen).
And their battles did not end with the Nazis. At home, they challenged institutionalised racism.
One of most citied incidents was in 1942, when a large group of Tuskegee Airmen tried to enter a whites-only officers' club at the Freeman Air Field in Indiana, against direct orders for them to stay out.
One hundred and three officers were arrested, charged with insubordination and ordered to face court martial. The charges, however, were quickly dropped. Some 50 years later, survivors were told that their military records had been purged of any reference to the incident.
According to the website Tuskegee Airmen Inc, after the WWII ended in 1945, the black airmen returned to the United States to face continued racism and bigotry despite their outstanding war record.
It was not until 1949 that the Air Force ended segregation and the Tuskegee Airmen were scattered among other units. Even then their struggle was not over, said Col McGee, who also served in Korea and Vietnam.
It wasn't fun coming home and coming down the gangplank and seeing 'whites this way, blacks that way
Col Charles McGee
"Change often comes about slowly, so there were still those who weren't happy. But as we were able to show technical and leadership abilities, acceptance finally came about and became widespread.
"Had we not been successful, certainly then we would have had the folks saying 'we told you so' - it wouldn't have been an early step in the civil rights movement.
"But [our success] made it possible for President Truman to issue orders mandating all of the service to integrate.
"It wasn't fun coming home [from WWII] and coming down the gangplank and seeing 'whites this way, blacks that way'.
"But we persevered and it's great that the government realised it and we're receiving this honour today."
It was not until the 1970s that the airmen's story began to be told more widely. A film about their exploits was released in 1995 and director George Lucas has been working on a movie about the men called "Red Tails" - after the tails of their aircraft that were painted red.
There is little doubt that their prowess in the skies helped dispel many of the negative stereotypes that were the order of the day.
These were young, mostly college-educated men, who were charismatic in front of the cameras.
And their courage is seen as having helped to change the attitudes of a nation.
BBC ON THIS DAY | 29 | 1971: Manson sent to gas chamber
BBC ON THIS DAY | 29 | 1971: Manson sent to gas chamber
29 March
Death of Hippy cult
1971: Manson sent to gas chamber
Charles Manson and three members of his hippy cult have been sentenced to death in Los Angeles.
They were found guilty of the August 1969 murders of seven people and one unborn child at the beginning of the year.
Their victims included eight-months pregnant actress Sharon Tate - wife of film director Roman Polanski.
You're not nearly as good as me
Charles Manson
None of the defendants heard their verdicts as they were ejected from the courtroom for disrupting proceedings - as they had done several times during the nine month trial.
Manson, 36, was led out after telling the judge and jury: "you don't have any authority over me. You're not nearly as good as me."
His accomplices - Susan Atkins, 22, Patricia Krenwinkel, 23 and Leslie Van Houten, 21 - were dragged screaming from court.
Ms Atkins shouted: "It's gonna come down hard. Lock your doors. Protect your kids."
The prosecution - led by Vincent Bugliosi - depicted Manson as a satanic monster who controlled the women whom he described as "mindless robots".
Jury member Marie Mesmer said: "He was the leader, the worst...I think he's a dangerous influence on society, highly dangerous."
The women - who, like Manson, had shaved their heads - admitted carrying out the killings under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug LSD but denied Manson's involvement.
It took the jury 10 hours to give their verdict in a case that has cost the state of California over £400,000 (over $1m).
As well as the Tate murder Atkins, Krenwinkel and Manson were condemned for killing Polish writer Voyteck Frykowski, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Hollywood hairdresser Jay Sebring and a friend of Sharon Tate's caretaker, Steven Parent.
Ms Van Houten was sentenced for murdering supermarket owner Leno la Blanca and his wife.
Judge Charles Older said he would pass formal sentence on 16 April, when he may reduce the punishments to life imprisonment, but it is considered unlikely he will do so.
Manson is expected to be confined to the notorious 'death row' in San Quentin to wait for the final outcome of his - automatic - appeal.
Your Memories?
Write your account of the events.
E-mail this story to a friend
Watch/Listen
Charles Manson is headed for Death Row after his killing spree
BBC feature on San Quentin jail, where Charles Manson is expected to spend the rest of his days
BBC Radio's Douglas Stuart talks to Manson's cult: "He's the most gentle person anyone would want to meet"
BBC Radio's World Tonight broadcasts Charles Manson: "I'm the product of what I've been through"
In Context
Judge Older confirmed the death penalty in his judgement on 19 April 1971.
It had been one of the longest-running murder trials in US history, with a jury sequestered for longer than ever before - 225 days.
The California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972 and the four were given life sentences.
Manson and four other (male) accomplices were subsequently convicted for the murders of Gary Hinman and Donald (Shorty) Shea.
Charles Manson has endured as a cult figure for various extremist groups and has been the subject of various films and documentaries.
In April 2002 Manson was refused parole for the 10th time and Van Houten had her fourteenth request turned down in June of that year. Atkins and Krenwinkel have also had numerous parole applications refused.
Stories From 29 Mar
1971: Calley guilty of My Lai massacre
1981: Triumph at first London Marathon
1971: Manson sent to gas chamber
1967: Bombs rain down on Torrey Canyon
1999: Hanratty family wins right to appeal
29 March
Death of Hippy cult
1971: Manson sent to gas chamber
Charles Manson and three members of his hippy cult have been sentenced to death in Los Angeles.
They were found guilty of the August 1969 murders of seven people and one unborn child at the beginning of the year.
Their victims included eight-months pregnant actress Sharon Tate - wife of film director Roman Polanski.
You're not nearly as good as me
Charles Manson
None of the defendants heard their verdicts as they were ejected from the courtroom for disrupting proceedings - as they had done several times during the nine month trial.
Manson, 36, was led out after telling the judge and jury: "you don't have any authority over me. You're not nearly as good as me."
His accomplices - Susan Atkins, 22, Patricia Krenwinkel, 23 and Leslie Van Houten, 21 - were dragged screaming from court.
Ms Atkins shouted: "It's gonna come down hard. Lock your doors. Protect your kids."
The prosecution - led by Vincent Bugliosi - depicted Manson as a satanic monster who controlled the women whom he described as "mindless robots".
Jury member Marie Mesmer said: "He was the leader, the worst...I think he's a dangerous influence on society, highly dangerous."
The women - who, like Manson, had shaved their heads - admitted carrying out the killings under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug LSD but denied Manson's involvement.
It took the jury 10 hours to give their verdict in a case that has cost the state of California over £400,000 (over $1m).
As well as the Tate murder Atkins, Krenwinkel and Manson were condemned for killing Polish writer Voyteck Frykowski, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Hollywood hairdresser Jay Sebring and a friend of Sharon Tate's caretaker, Steven Parent.
Ms Van Houten was sentenced for murdering supermarket owner Leno la Blanca and his wife.
Judge Charles Older said he would pass formal sentence on 16 April, when he may reduce the punishments to life imprisonment, but it is considered unlikely he will do so.
Manson is expected to be confined to the notorious 'death row' in San Quentin to wait for the final outcome of his - automatic - appeal.
Your Memories?
Write your account of the events.
E-mail this story to a friend
Watch/Listen
Charles Manson is headed for Death Row after his killing spree
BBC feature on San Quentin jail, where Charles Manson is expected to spend the rest of his days
BBC Radio's Douglas Stuart talks to Manson's cult: "He's the most gentle person anyone would want to meet"
BBC Radio's World Tonight broadcasts Charles Manson: "I'm the product of what I've been through"
In Context
Judge Older confirmed the death penalty in his judgement on 19 April 1971.
It had been one of the longest-running murder trials in US history, with a jury sequestered for longer than ever before - 225 days.
The California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972 and the four were given life sentences.
Manson and four other (male) accomplices were subsequently convicted for the murders of Gary Hinman and Donald (Shorty) Shea.
Charles Manson has endured as a cult figure for various extremist groups and has been the subject of various films and documentaries.
In April 2002 Manson was refused parole for the 10th time and Van Houten had her fourteenth request turned down in June of that year. Atkins and Krenwinkel have also had numerous parole applications refused.
Stories From 29 Mar
1971: Calley guilty of My Lai massacre
1981: Triumph at first London Marathon
1971: Manson sent to gas chamber
1967: Bombs rain down on Torrey Canyon
1999: Hanratty family wins right to appeal
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Many planets may have double suns
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Many planets may have double suns
Science Mystery: double suns
Many planets may have double suns
In the film Star Wars, Luke Skywalker gazed at a twin sunset from his desert homeworld
Enlarge Image
The dual suns that rise and set over Luke Skywalker's homeworld in the film Star Wars may be more than just fantasy, according to data from Nasa.
In a classic scene from the 1977 movie, the hero gazes into the distance as two yellow suns set on the horizon.
Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope has found that planetary systems are as common around double stars as they are around single stars, like our own Sun.
Details of the research have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
The number of potential sites for planets has just increased enormously
David Trilling, University of Arizona
In the study, a team of researchers used an infrared camera on the Spitzer telescope to search for so-called dusty discs around binary, or double, stars.
Dusty discs are made from the leftover debris of planet formation.
"We knew the stars would be there, the question was whether there was a planet to be the place where you could stand and see these sunsets," said Karl Stapelfeldt, a scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
"The inference is getting stronger now that there must be such planets based on what Spitzer has found."
The presence of planets in dusty discs is thought likely, but is by no means certain.
Click here to see which binary systems might have planets
"In our Solar System, asteroids collide with each other and produce showers of dust and that is, we assume, what we're seeing in these other discs - the dust produced by the collision of two bigger bodies," lead author David Trilling, from the University of Arizona, told BBC News.
"We can infer that there are bigger bodies like asteroids. The next logical leap is that if there are processes that formed these bigger bodies like asteroids, those same processes may also have formed planets."
Planets could be commonplace around binary stars
The team looked for dusty discs in 69 binary systems between about 50 and 200 light-years away from Earth.
The data show that about 40% of double systems had dusty discs - slightly higher than the frequency for a similar sample of single stars.
This finding suggests that planetary systems are at least as common around these binary stars as they are around single stars like our Sun.
In systems where stars are 50-500 astronomical units (50-500 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun) apart, dusty discs circle one of the pairs of stars.
Close-knit stars
But the researchers found no discs in binary systems where stars were 3-50 astronomical units (AU) apart.
In these double systems, Dr Trilling suggests, gravitational forces may kick debris out into deep space, preventing the formation of planets.
Nasa's Spitzer infrared telescope
More details
When the team looked at even more closely spaced binary stars - positioned at three to zero astronomical units distance - they were surprised to find that dusty discs were common, occurring in about 60% of cases.
In these systems, a dusty disc circles both stars, rather than just one. Any planets orbiting these close-knit star systems would experience sunsets similar to the one depicted on the fictional desert world of Tatooine in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
"The number of potential sites for planets has just increased enormously, because now we know these multiple star systems may be commonly associated with planetary formation," said Dr Trilling.
Habitable zones
Dr Trilling said that if planets did exist in dusty discs around these binaries, they might be at distances where the conditions could be hospitable for life.
"The Luke Skywalker picture is science fiction. But I don't see anything that's astronomically incorrect about it," said the University of Arizona researcher.
"With some of our systems, you could play with the geometry, put a planet there, get the temperatures right and make it look just like [Tatooine]."
"Of course, we don't know anything about planets in these systems - it's all imagination - but it looks fine."
Science Mystery: double suns
Many planets may have double suns
In the film Star Wars, Luke Skywalker gazed at a twin sunset from his desert homeworld
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The dual suns that rise and set over Luke Skywalker's homeworld in the film Star Wars may be more than just fantasy, according to data from Nasa.
In a classic scene from the 1977 movie, the hero gazes into the distance as two yellow suns set on the horizon.
Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope has found that planetary systems are as common around double stars as they are around single stars, like our own Sun.
Details of the research have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
The number of potential sites for planets has just increased enormously
David Trilling, University of Arizona
In the study, a team of researchers used an infrared camera on the Spitzer telescope to search for so-called dusty discs around binary, or double, stars.
Dusty discs are made from the leftover debris of planet formation.
"We knew the stars would be there, the question was whether there was a planet to be the place where you could stand and see these sunsets," said Karl Stapelfeldt, a scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
"The inference is getting stronger now that there must be such planets based on what Spitzer has found."
The presence of planets in dusty discs is thought likely, but is by no means certain.
Click here to see which binary systems might have planets
"In our Solar System, asteroids collide with each other and produce showers of dust and that is, we assume, what we're seeing in these other discs - the dust produced by the collision of two bigger bodies," lead author David Trilling, from the University of Arizona, told BBC News.
"We can infer that there are bigger bodies like asteroids. The next logical leap is that if there are processes that formed these bigger bodies like asteroids, those same processes may also have formed planets."
Planets could be commonplace around binary stars
The team looked for dusty discs in 69 binary systems between about 50 and 200 light-years away from Earth.
The data show that about 40% of double systems had dusty discs - slightly higher than the frequency for a similar sample of single stars.
This finding suggests that planetary systems are at least as common around these binary stars as they are around single stars like our Sun.
In systems where stars are 50-500 astronomical units (50-500 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun) apart, dusty discs circle one of the pairs of stars.
Close-knit stars
But the researchers found no discs in binary systems where stars were 3-50 astronomical units (AU) apart.
In these double systems, Dr Trilling suggests, gravitational forces may kick debris out into deep space, preventing the formation of planets.
Nasa's Spitzer infrared telescope
More details
When the team looked at even more closely spaced binary stars - positioned at three to zero astronomical units distance - they were surprised to find that dusty discs were common, occurring in about 60% of cases.
In these systems, a dusty disc circles both stars, rather than just one. Any planets orbiting these close-knit star systems would experience sunsets similar to the one depicted on the fictional desert world of Tatooine in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
"The number of potential sites for planets has just increased enormously, because now we know these multiple star systems may be commonly associated with planetary formation," said Dr Trilling.
Habitable zones
Dr Trilling said that if planets did exist in dusty discs around these binaries, they might be at distances where the conditions could be hospitable for life.
"The Luke Skywalker picture is science fiction. But I don't see anything that's astronomically incorrect about it," said the University of Arizona researcher.
"With some of our systems, you could play with the geometry, put a planet there, get the temperatures right and make it look just like [Tatooine]."
"Of course, we don't know anything about planets in these systems - it's all imagination - but it looks fine."
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Court blocks Indian quota plans
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Court blocks Indian quota plans
Rich Justice
Court blocks Indian quota plans
India's colleges and quotas
Despair of the Dalits
India's Supreme Court has put on hold controversial plans to boost places for lower-caste and other disadvantaged people in colleges and universities.
Under the government's affirmative action plan the lower castes' share of places in educational institutions would more than double to nearly 50%.
Correspondents say the move has split the country, with many arguing it could hurt India's rapid economic rise.
But it has the support of millions of students from underprivileged groups.
The plan to increase affirmative action quotas has been bitterly opposed by students at some of the country's best-known professional colleges
The court told the government to put the programme on hold until August.
It said the government needed to provide fresh data on lower castes - also known as Other Backward Castes or OBCs in official language - because it said it found the present data too old.
The 27% seat allocation is based on the population of OBCs in India, according to the census carried out in 1931.
Correspondents say the ruling is likely to provoke strong emotions among the people who support reservations and rejoicing among those who have been campaigning against the government attempts to introduce the measure.
Fruit of growth
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said his government is committed to removing iniquities so that everyone can enjoy the fruit of India's economic growth.
The government has recently pushed a bill through parliament in which places at some of the country's best-known professional colleges are set aside for students from lower-caste and disadvantaged communities.
And it is considering asking the private sector to institute some kind of affirmative action and also extend the benefit to the country's Muslim minority.
A recent study suggested that India's Muslims were economically and socially worse off than Dalits.
But the move is being opposed by many who feel that it will lower standards and endanger India's economic growth.
Rich Justice
Court blocks Indian quota plans
India's colleges and quotas
Despair of the Dalits
India's Supreme Court has put on hold controversial plans to boost places for lower-caste and other disadvantaged people in colleges and universities.
Under the government's affirmative action plan the lower castes' share of places in educational institutions would more than double to nearly 50%.
Correspondents say the move has split the country, with many arguing it could hurt India's rapid economic rise.
But it has the support of millions of students from underprivileged groups.
The plan to increase affirmative action quotas has been bitterly opposed by students at some of the country's best-known professional colleges
The court told the government to put the programme on hold until August.
It said the government needed to provide fresh data on lower castes - also known as Other Backward Castes or OBCs in official language - because it said it found the present data too old.
The 27% seat allocation is based on the population of OBCs in India, according to the census carried out in 1931.
Correspondents say the ruling is likely to provoke strong emotions among the people who support reservations and rejoicing among those who have been campaigning against the government attempts to introduce the measure.
Fruit of growth
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said his government is committed to removing iniquities so that everyone can enjoy the fruit of India's economic growth.
The government has recently pushed a bill through parliament in which places at some of the country's best-known professional colleges are set aside for students from lower-caste and disadvantaged communities.
And it is considering asking the private sector to institute some kind of affirmative action and also extend the benefit to the country's Muslim minority.
A recent study suggested that India's Muslims were economically and socially worse off than Dalits.
But the move is being opposed by many who feel that it will lower standards and endanger India's economic growth.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan 'brothel woman' released
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan 'brothel woman' released
Pak Students moral policing
Pakistan 'brothel woman' released
The students want action against "immoral acts" in the capital
A woman seized and held captive by Pakistani religious students after being accused of running a brothel has been freed unharmed.
Two of her female relatives abducted by students from the Islamabad madrassa, were also freed, as were two policemen.
Before her release, the alleged brothel owner read a statement confessing she had committed immoral acts. She later said it had been made under duress.
Girls from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa say they have won a victory over liberals.
The BBC's Navdip Dhariwal in Islamabad says the local administration had bowed to the Taleban-style demands of the students.
She says the fear among liberal Pakistanis is that Islamic rule is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the capital.
'Repents'
The woman, known as "Aunty Shamim", made a statement before being released. She said she repented of her actions.
They dragged us off like animals to the madrassa
"Aunty Shamim"
Profile: The red madrassa
Inside the Jamia Hafsa
She appeared to be under immense pressure as she spoke, our correspondent says.
"I apologise for my past wrongdoing and I promise in the name of God that in future I will live like a pious person," the woman said before reporters.
She renounced prostitution but she refused to admit she had been running a brothel.
She later said she had not made the statement of her own free will and accused the students of mistreating her.
"I don't think Islam allows anyone to beat a woman and drag her through the streets like a dog," the Associated Press news agency quoted her as saying.
She told the BBC's Urdu service about 30 women from the madrassa had abducted her, helped by a similar number of men.
"They tied me, my daughter and daughter-in-law and my six-month-old grand-daughter up with rope," she said.
She denied running a brothel but said she had rented a room to a woman, and could not be held responsible for anything she might have done.
The vice-principal of the school had given her three options, she said - that police register a case against her, that she face an Islamic court in the school, or that she repent of her sins.
'Moral policing'
Religious students from Jamia Hafsa raided the house on Tuesday night.
President Musharraf has kept a hands-off policy on the issue
Later men from the madrassa kidnapped two policemen after the arrest of four teachers. The officers were freed earlier on Thursday.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Jamia Hafsa's administrator, had earlier said the school had no personal problem with the woman.
"We only want her to refrain from spreading obscenity in future," he said.
Jamia Hafsa and its adjoining madrassa, Jamia Faradia, are part of the Lal Masjid (red mosque) complex.
Lal Masjid has long been a problem for the capital city administration and Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf.
It has often criticised his policies in the "war on terror" and called for Islamic law to be enforced in Pakistan.
The brothel incident comes amid concerns over the increasing "Talebanisation" of parts of Pakistan.
Pak Students moral policing
Pakistan 'brothel woman' released
The students want action against "immoral acts" in the capital
A woman seized and held captive by Pakistani religious students after being accused of running a brothel has been freed unharmed.
Two of her female relatives abducted by students from the Islamabad madrassa, were also freed, as were two policemen.
Before her release, the alleged brothel owner read a statement confessing she had committed immoral acts. She later said it had been made under duress.
Girls from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa say they have won a victory over liberals.
The BBC's Navdip Dhariwal in Islamabad says the local administration had bowed to the Taleban-style demands of the students.
She says the fear among liberal Pakistanis is that Islamic rule is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the capital.
'Repents'
The woman, known as "Aunty Shamim", made a statement before being released. She said she repented of her actions.
They dragged us off like animals to the madrassa
"Aunty Shamim"
Profile: The red madrassa
Inside the Jamia Hafsa
She appeared to be under immense pressure as she spoke, our correspondent says.
"I apologise for my past wrongdoing and I promise in the name of God that in future I will live like a pious person," the woman said before reporters.
She renounced prostitution but she refused to admit she had been running a brothel.
She later said she had not made the statement of her own free will and accused the students of mistreating her.
"I don't think Islam allows anyone to beat a woman and drag her through the streets like a dog," the Associated Press news agency quoted her as saying.
She told the BBC's Urdu service about 30 women from the madrassa had abducted her, helped by a similar number of men.
"They tied me, my daughter and daughter-in-law and my six-month-old grand-daughter up with rope," she said.
She denied running a brothel but said she had rented a room to a woman, and could not be held responsible for anything she might have done.
The vice-principal of the school had given her three options, she said - that police register a case against her, that she face an Islamic court in the school, or that she repent of her sins.
'Moral policing'
Religious students from Jamia Hafsa raided the house on Tuesday night.
President Musharraf has kept a hands-off policy on the issue
Later men from the madrassa kidnapped two policemen after the arrest of four teachers. The officers were freed earlier on Thursday.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Jamia Hafsa's administrator, had earlier said the school had no personal problem with the woman.
"We only want her to refrain from spreading obscenity in future," he said.
Jamia Hafsa and its adjoining madrassa, Jamia Faradia, are part of the Lal Masjid (red mosque) complex.
Lal Masjid has long been a problem for the capital city administration and Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf.
It has often criticised his policies in the "war on terror" and called for Islamic law to be enforced in Pakistan.
The brothel incident comes amid concerns over the increasing "Talebanisation" of parts of Pakistan.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy bishops face gay rights row
BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy bishops face gay rights row
Church against Gays
Italy bishops face gay rights row
The divisive issue has seen pro-gay campaigners take to the streets
Italy's interior minister has accused Roman Catholic bishops of trying to weaken the government by opposing new rights for unmarried and gay couples.
Giuliano Amato said the Church was meddling when it issued a directive at a bishops' conference calling a new bill "unacceptable and dangerous".
Recent polls show most of Italy's Catholics are in favour of changes to the law, despite Church opposition.
About 500,000 unmarried Italian couples are without shared rights or benefits.
They miss out on social benefits, property or inheritance, a situation that is now at odds with many countries in Europe.
When Prime Minister Romano Prodi came to power last year he promised his supporters that the government would bring in new laws to protect cohabiting couples.
But with only a razor-thin majority in the Senate, Mr Prodi needs the full support of all sides of his coalition, including the Catholic MPs in the centre, and that looks increasingly unlikely, says the BBC's Rome correspondent Christian Fraser.
A defeat on this controversial bill will divide his coalition and could ultimately lead to the collapse of the government, our correspondent says.
Political divide
Mr Amato spoke out after the Italian bishops' conference issued a statement saying that legal recognition of unwed couples was "unacceptable as a principle and dangerous on a social and educational level".
Legalising unions between people of the same sex, it added, was an even more serious problem.
"This is something that happens in societies we criticise as Islamised," Mr Amato said.
He was supported by Piero Fassino, the leader of Italy's largest left-wing party, the Democratic Left.
But Catholics on both sides of the political divide applauded the bishops' statement.
Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi said the Church had a right to speak out on the issue.
Justice Minister Clemente Mastella who leads a Catholic party in Mr Prodi's coalition, said: "Now we are not alone."
Recent polls showed that most Catholics in Italy are in favour of changes to the legislation despite Church opposition.
Church against Gays
Italy bishops face gay rights row
The divisive issue has seen pro-gay campaigners take to the streets
Italy's interior minister has accused Roman Catholic bishops of trying to weaken the government by opposing new rights for unmarried and gay couples.
Giuliano Amato said the Church was meddling when it issued a directive at a bishops' conference calling a new bill "unacceptable and dangerous".
Recent polls show most of Italy's Catholics are in favour of changes to the law, despite Church opposition.
About 500,000 unmarried Italian couples are without shared rights or benefits.
They miss out on social benefits, property or inheritance, a situation that is now at odds with many countries in Europe.
When Prime Minister Romano Prodi came to power last year he promised his supporters that the government would bring in new laws to protect cohabiting couples.
But with only a razor-thin majority in the Senate, Mr Prodi needs the full support of all sides of his coalition, including the Catholic MPs in the centre, and that looks increasingly unlikely, says the BBC's Rome correspondent Christian Fraser.
A defeat on this controversial bill will divide his coalition and could ultimately lead to the collapse of the government, our correspondent says.
Political divide
Mr Amato spoke out after the Italian bishops' conference issued a statement saying that legal recognition of unwed couples was "unacceptable as a principle and dangerous on a social and educational level".
Legalising unions between people of the same sex, it added, was an even more serious problem.
"This is something that happens in societies we criticise as Islamised," Mr Amato said.
He was supported by Piero Fassino, the leader of Italy's largest left-wing party, the Democratic Left.
But Catholics on both sides of the political divide applauded the bishops' statement.
Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi said the Church had a right to speak out on the issue.
Justice Minister Clemente Mastella who leads a Catholic party in Mr Prodi's coalition, said: "Now we are not alone."
Recent polls showed that most Catholics in Italy are in favour of changes to the legislation despite Church opposition.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Ankara restores Armenian church
BBC NEWS | Europe | Ankara restores Armenian church
Ankara restores Armenian church
The church had long been neglected
Turkey has renovated a 1,100-year-old church in the east of the country, in what is seen as a gesture to improve ties with neighbouring Armenia.
The ceremony on Akdamar island on Lake Van was attended by senior Armenian officials, despite the two countries' lack of diplomatic ties.
The mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 left profound scars and bitterness.
About 70,000 Armenians live in Turkey today. The church will now be a museum.
Plea for worship
Patriarch Mesrob II, spiritual leader of Turkey's tiny Armenian Orthodox community, told several hundred people at the ceremony that the government should open up the restored church for worship at least once a year.
The church has fine carvings of saints on its facade
He said the move would help reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.
"If our government approves, it will contribute to peace between two communities who have not been able to come together for years," he said.
Turkish Culture Minister Attila Koc said Ankara would consider the request.
But the head of Armenia's Apostolic Church, Garegin II, declined Ankara's invitation to attend the ceremony because the church will no longer function as a place of worship.
So far Turkey has ignored calls to place a cross on the conical roof.
Future projects
The Church of Surp Khach - or Holy Cross - is one of the finest surviving monuments of Armenian culture in the region. Its location is called Akhtamar in Armenian.
It had long been left empty and neglected, its intricate wall carvings depicting biblical scenes crumbling.
The Turkish government spent $1.5m (£763,000) on its restoration, which took 18 months to complete.
The 20-strong Armenian delegation of architects, engineers and archaeologists attending the ceremony was headed by Deputy Culture Minister Gagik Gyurjyan.
Mr Gyurjyan said they were not in Turkey just to witness the renovation of the church, which was built between 915-921.
"We think we can discuss new projects regarding the future," he said, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency.
"Our experts can co-operate in many areas including archaeology, architecture and industry."
Border closed
But relations between the two countries remain tense.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in the 1990s to support Azerbaijan in its dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. To get to Akdamar, Armenian officials had to travel via Istanbul or Georgia.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I, either through systematic massacres or through starvation.
More than a dozen countries, various international bodies and many Western historians agree that it was genocide.
Turkey says there was no genocide. It acknowledges that many Armenians died, but says the figure was below one million.
Police reportedly detained five trade unionists who staged a demonstration on a jetty on Lake Van to protest against the church's restoration.
The protesters carried Turkish flags, pictures of modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and a banner reading: "The Turkish people are noble. They would never commit genocide", Anatolia news agency said.
Ankara restores Armenian church
The church had long been neglected
Turkey has renovated a 1,100-year-old church in the east of the country, in what is seen as a gesture to improve ties with neighbouring Armenia.
The ceremony on Akdamar island on Lake Van was attended by senior Armenian officials, despite the two countries' lack of diplomatic ties.
The mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 left profound scars and bitterness.
About 70,000 Armenians live in Turkey today. The church will now be a museum.
Plea for worship
Patriarch Mesrob II, spiritual leader of Turkey's tiny Armenian Orthodox community, told several hundred people at the ceremony that the government should open up the restored church for worship at least once a year.
The church has fine carvings of saints on its facade
He said the move would help reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.
"If our government approves, it will contribute to peace between two communities who have not been able to come together for years," he said.
Turkish Culture Minister Attila Koc said Ankara would consider the request.
But the head of Armenia's Apostolic Church, Garegin II, declined Ankara's invitation to attend the ceremony because the church will no longer function as a place of worship.
So far Turkey has ignored calls to place a cross on the conical roof.
Future projects
The Church of Surp Khach - or Holy Cross - is one of the finest surviving monuments of Armenian culture in the region. Its location is called Akhtamar in Armenian.
It had long been left empty and neglected, its intricate wall carvings depicting biblical scenes crumbling.
The Turkish government spent $1.5m (£763,000) on its restoration, which took 18 months to complete.
The 20-strong Armenian delegation of architects, engineers and archaeologists attending the ceremony was headed by Deputy Culture Minister Gagik Gyurjyan.
Mr Gyurjyan said they were not in Turkey just to witness the renovation of the church, which was built between 915-921.
"We think we can discuss new projects regarding the future," he said, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency.
"Our experts can co-operate in many areas including archaeology, architecture and industry."
Border closed
But relations between the two countries remain tense.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in the 1990s to support Azerbaijan in its dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. To get to Akdamar, Armenian officials had to travel via Istanbul or Georgia.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I, either through systematic massacres or through starvation.
More than a dozen countries, various international bodies and many Western historians agree that it was genocide.
Turkey says there was no genocide. It acknowledges that many Armenians died, but says the figure was below one million.
Police reportedly detained five trade unionists who staged a demonstration on a jetty on Lake Van to protest against the church's restoration.
The protesters carried Turkish flags, pictures of modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and a banner reading: "The Turkish people are noble. They would never commit genocide", Anatolia news agency said.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Vietnam dissident priest on trial
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Vietnam dissident priest on trial
Priest against Communism
Vietnam dissident priest on trial
By Chris Xia
BBC News
Father Ly was placed under house arrest in late February
A Catholic priest is to go on trial in Vietnam accused of disseminating information to undermine the state and forming an illegal political party.
Father Nguyen Van Ly is a prominent pro-democracy activist who has been under house arrest since last month.
Father Ly, 59, has already spent 14 of the past 24 years in prison for his opposition to Communist Party rule.
He was last jailed in 2001 after he urged the US to link its trade policy with Vietnam's human rights record.
He was released in 2005 and soon resumed his dissident work.
Father Ly is a founding member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy movement launched last April. He is also a member of the Progression Party.
Leading members of both groups have been detained in recent months, in what appears to have been a concerted drive against opponents of the communist government.
An envoy from the Vatican raised the case of Father Ly with the authorities during a visit to Vietnam earlier this month.
But the envoy would not say what Vietnam's response was.
State media has accused Father Ly and other pro-democracy activists of trying to undermine the Communist Party by forming illegal parties to field candidates in National Assembly elections in May.
Only the Communist Party is allowed to stand, although a small number of seats are reserved for non-party members.
Priest against Communism
Vietnam dissident priest on trial
By Chris Xia
BBC News
Father Ly was placed under house arrest in late February
A Catholic priest is to go on trial in Vietnam accused of disseminating information to undermine the state and forming an illegal political party.
Father Nguyen Van Ly is a prominent pro-democracy activist who has been under house arrest since last month.
Father Ly, 59, has already spent 14 of the past 24 years in prison for his opposition to Communist Party rule.
He was last jailed in 2001 after he urged the US to link its trade policy with Vietnam's human rights record.
He was released in 2005 and soon resumed his dissident work.
Father Ly is a founding member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy movement launched last April. He is also a member of the Progression Party.
Leading members of both groups have been detained in recent months, in what appears to have been a concerted drive against opponents of the communist government.
An envoy from the Vatican raised the case of Father Ly with the authorities during a visit to Vietnam earlier this month.
But the envoy would not say what Vietnam's response was.
State media has accused Father Ly and other pro-democracy activists of trying to undermine the Communist Party by forming illegal parties to field candidates in National Assembly elections in May.
Only the Communist Party is allowed to stand, although a small number of seats are reserved for non-party members.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Vietnam dissident priest on trial
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Vietnam dissident priest on trial
Priest against Communism
Vietnam dissident priest on trial
By Chris Xia
BBC News
Father Ly was placed under house arrest in late February
A Catholic priest is to go on trial in Vietnam accused of disseminating information to undermine the state and forming an illegal political party.
Father Nguyen Van Ly is a prominent pro-democracy activist who has been under house arrest since last month.
Father Ly, 59, has already spent 14 of the past 24 years in prison for his opposition to Communist Party rule.
He was last jailed in 2001 after he urged the US to link its trade policy with Vietnam's human rights record.
He was released in 2005 and soon resumed his dissident work.
Father Ly is a founding member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy movement launched last April. He is also a member of the Progression Party.
Leading members of both groups have been detained in recent months, in what appears to have been a concerted drive against opponents of the communist government.
An envoy from the Vatican raised the case of Father Ly with the authorities during a visit to Vietnam earlier this month.
But the envoy would not say what Vietnam's response was.
State media has accused Father Ly and other pro-democracy activists of trying to undermine the Communist Party by forming illegal parties to field candidates in National Assembly elections in May.
Only the Communist Party is allowed to stand, although a small number of seats are reserved for non-party members.
Priest against Communism
Vietnam dissident priest on trial
By Chris Xia
BBC News
Father Ly was placed under house arrest in late February
A Catholic priest is to go on trial in Vietnam accused of disseminating information to undermine the state and forming an illegal political party.
Father Nguyen Van Ly is a prominent pro-democracy activist who has been under house arrest since last month.
Father Ly, 59, has already spent 14 of the past 24 years in prison for his opposition to Communist Party rule.
He was last jailed in 2001 after he urged the US to link its trade policy with Vietnam's human rights record.
He was released in 2005 and soon resumed his dissident work.
Father Ly is a founding member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy movement launched last April. He is also a member of the Progression Party.
Leading members of both groups have been detained in recent months, in what appears to have been a concerted drive against opponents of the communist government.
An envoy from the Vatican raised the case of Father Ly with the authorities during a visit to Vietnam earlier this month.
But the envoy would not say what Vietnam's response was.
State media has accused Father Ly and other pro-democracy activists of trying to undermine the Communist Party by forming illegal parties to field candidates in National Assembly elections in May.
Only the Communist Party is allowed to stand, although a small number of seats are reserved for non-party members.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
NDTV.com
NDTV.com
Moral brigades oppose sex education
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Also Read
Sex education in schools needs makeover
Soft porn films on a decline
Sex education: India can learn from West
SC to deliver order on OBC quota
Rubina Khan Shapoo, Anjali Doshi
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 (Mumbai, Bhopal)
The latest threat to India's culture has come from the country's moral police, who are worried that sex education, that's actually part of an anti-AIDS course, is threatening the moral fabric of India's youth.
It's a crusade that has united from Islamic radicals in Maharahstra to BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, who want no sex education.
It's not the most sophisticated course - the emphaisis of the UNCIEF-backed course material meant as part of an AIDS awareness project - is a little too biological for today's sexually aware young adults.
But the argument against it is equally absurd.
"The need is for value-based education, for training in yoga, for culture-based education. That's why we are not going to give sex education anymore. We don't need it. We need yoga," said Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh.
In Madhya Pradesh, Khajuraho - a temple of love in its most erotic form - is the USP of the state tourism. But ironically sex education in school is a complete no no.
AIDS patients
The protests leave little room for facts - 40 per cent of AIDS patients in Madhya Pradesh are young in the age group of 21 and 30.
But who cares about facts, when Indian culture is in peril!
"The BJP has always been influenced by the Sangh Parivar. And Sangh Parivar has always invariably misunderstood the Indian culture. This is Sangh Parivaar talking, not the education department," said Anil Sadgopal, educationist, Madhya Pradesh.
But it's not just Sangh morality. Across the border in Maharashtra, the same course has sparked the same debate, bringing together an unlikely coalition of protestors.
The Islamic radicals in the state say the course will encourage AIDS.
"This course doesn't encourage good moral behaviour. It encourages AIDS," said Firoze Patel, Students' Islamic Organisation of India.
"If you're telling children about terrorism you don't actually teach them how to hold a weapon and face a terrorist. So in this sexual education programme, why should they say use a condom?" said Pratiba Naitthani, Professor, St Xavier's College.
The NCP has also come up with the most compelling logic.
"Children will become curious. Nobody will want to study history, geography or math. They'll only want sex education," said Vidya Chavan, NCP activist.
Moral brigades oppose sex education
Rate the Story
SMS NDTV
For latest headlines SMS NEWS to 6388 (in India & UAE), to 63880(in UK)
Also Read
Sex education in schools needs makeover
Soft porn films on a decline
Sex education: India can learn from West
SC to deliver order on OBC quota
Rubina Khan Shapoo, Anjali Doshi
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 (Mumbai, Bhopal)
The latest threat to India's culture has come from the country's moral police, who are worried that sex education, that's actually part of an anti-AIDS course, is threatening the moral fabric of India's youth.
It's a crusade that has united from Islamic radicals in Maharahstra to BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, who want no sex education.
It's not the most sophisticated course - the emphaisis of the UNCIEF-backed course material meant as part of an AIDS awareness project - is a little too biological for today's sexually aware young adults.
But the argument against it is equally absurd.
"The need is for value-based education, for training in yoga, for culture-based education. That's why we are not going to give sex education anymore. We don't need it. We need yoga," said Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh.
In Madhya Pradesh, Khajuraho - a temple of love in its most erotic form - is the USP of the state tourism. But ironically sex education in school is a complete no no.
AIDS patients
The protests leave little room for facts - 40 per cent of AIDS patients in Madhya Pradesh are young in the age group of 21 and 30.
But who cares about facts, when Indian culture is in peril!
"The BJP has always been influenced by the Sangh Parivar. And Sangh Parivar has always invariably misunderstood the Indian culture. This is Sangh Parivaar talking, not the education department," said Anil Sadgopal, educationist, Madhya Pradesh.
But it's not just Sangh morality. Across the border in Maharashtra, the same course has sparked the same debate, bringing together an unlikely coalition of protestors.
The Islamic radicals in the state say the course will encourage AIDS.
"This course doesn't encourage good moral behaviour. It encourages AIDS," said Firoze Patel, Students' Islamic Organisation of India.
"If you're telling children about terrorism you don't actually teach them how to hold a weapon and face a terrorist. So in this sexual education programme, why should they say use a condom?" said Pratiba Naitthani, Professor, St Xavier's College.
The NCP has also come up with the most compelling logic.
"Children will become curious. Nobody will want to study history, geography or math. They'll only want sex education," said Vidya Chavan, NCP activist.
NDTV.com
NDTV.com
Sex education: India can learn from West
Quote
“ Sexual activity is being practised at a younger age, which is why we are seeing an increase in the number of STDs and HIV infections ”
- Dr Chander Puri, Director, NIRRH
Rate the Story
SMS NDTV
For latest headlines SMS NEWS to 6388 (in India & UAE), to 63880(in UK)
Also Read
Sex education in schools needs makeover
Soft porn films on a decline
Moral brigades oppose sex education
SC to deliver order on OBC quota
Akhilesh Patel, Noopur Tiwari, Anjali Doshi
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 (London, Paris, Mumbai)
The Indian government could do well to borrow a leaf or two from sex education manuals being taught abroad in countries like England and France.
Sex education in these countries starts early and doesn't shy away from the hard realities of sex, both its perils and pleasures.
The government has not woken up to the need for sex education but many others have.
Concerned by the rise in adolescent sex and teenage pregnancy, countries like UK have made sex education compulsory for children between 11 and 14 years.
Classes on reproductive health and general sexual health are must, though and sex and relationship classes are optional.
French classrooms are even more progressive with three courses - biological, social and pyscho-emotional - on sexuality must for middle school.
The courses detail French laws on contraception and sexuality. Teachers are given clear guidelines on how to approach the subject.
And apart from the obvious topics they also discuss homosexuality, sexual violence, incest, prostitution, and even sex tourism.
Early awareness of sex and early initiation into sex has their perils, which are dogging countries in the West too. But they are trying to cut the damage with a sex education that's contemporary and informal.
In India our moral brigade continues to fight it. They say sex education promotes free sex.
So how then, say in a city like Mumbai where there is no sex education, 15 per cent of adolescents have unplanned pregnancies? Not just that, 50 per cent of children in India are sexually abused.
Half-baked knowledge
Studies say most of them don't talk about it because their parents or schools don't ever discuss anything sex-related with them. They, in fact, discourage it.
"Sexual activity is being practised at a younger age, which is why we are seeing an increase in the number of STDs and HIV infections," said Dr Chander Puri, Director, NIRRH.
At the end we are left with a young India unaware about sex and unsafely so. According to available sex data in India:
17 per cent teenagers have premarital sex
33 per cent college-going students have premarital sex
33 per cent are unaware of 'unsafe' sex
50 per cent don't use condoms
75 per cent Indians learn about sex from friends and porn films
Half-baked knowledge has become a curse.
Sex education: India can learn from West
Quote
“ Sexual activity is being practised at a younger age, which is why we are seeing an increase in the number of STDs and HIV infections ”
- Dr Chander Puri, Director, NIRRH
Rate the Story
SMS NDTV
For latest headlines SMS NEWS to 6388 (in India & UAE), to 63880(in UK)
Also Read
Sex education in schools needs makeover
Soft porn films on a decline
Moral brigades oppose sex education
SC to deliver order on OBC quota
Akhilesh Patel, Noopur Tiwari, Anjali Doshi
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 (London, Paris, Mumbai)
The Indian government could do well to borrow a leaf or two from sex education manuals being taught abroad in countries like England and France.
Sex education in these countries starts early and doesn't shy away from the hard realities of sex, both its perils and pleasures.
The government has not woken up to the need for sex education but many others have.
Concerned by the rise in adolescent sex and teenage pregnancy, countries like UK have made sex education compulsory for children between 11 and 14 years.
Classes on reproductive health and general sexual health are must, though and sex and relationship classes are optional.
French classrooms are even more progressive with three courses - biological, social and pyscho-emotional - on sexuality must for middle school.
The courses detail French laws on contraception and sexuality. Teachers are given clear guidelines on how to approach the subject.
And apart from the obvious topics they also discuss homosexuality, sexual violence, incest, prostitution, and even sex tourism.
Early awareness of sex and early initiation into sex has their perils, which are dogging countries in the West too. But they are trying to cut the damage with a sex education that's contemporary and informal.
In India our moral brigade continues to fight it. They say sex education promotes free sex.
So how then, say in a city like Mumbai where there is no sex education, 15 per cent of adolescents have unplanned pregnancies? Not just that, 50 per cent of children in India are sexually abused.
Half-baked knowledge
Studies say most of them don't talk about it because their parents or schools don't ever discuss anything sex-related with them. They, in fact, discourage it.
"Sexual activity is being practised at a younger age, which is why we are seeing an increase in the number of STDs and HIV infections," said Dr Chander Puri, Director, NIRRH.
At the end we are left with a young India unaware about sex and unsafely so. According to available sex data in India:
17 per cent teenagers have premarital sex
33 per cent college-going students have premarital sex
33 per cent are unaware of 'unsafe' sex
50 per cent don't use condoms
75 per cent Indians learn about sex from friends and porn films
Half-baked knowledge has become a curse.
Indian-born wins Math Nobel Prize -Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
Indian-born wins Math Nobel Prize -Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
Indian-born wins Math Nobel Prize
AGENCIES[ TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2007 01:00:34 PM]
OSLO: Indian-born mathematician, Srinivasa S R Varadhan has been awarded the Norwegian Abel Prize or the Nobel Prize for mathematics.
According to the jury, Varadhan was cited for his ‘fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for a unified theory of large deviations’.
Varadhan currently teaches at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and his theories have proved useful in a broad range of fields, including quantum field theory, statistical physics, population dynamics, econometrics and finance, and traffic engineering.
The prize money amounts to $8,50,000 and will be conferred on him at a ceremony in Oslo later this year.
Chennai born Varadan has been in the US for the last four decades. Vardhan spoke to a private Indian television channel after winning the award saying that his passion for mathematics came through Ramanujam.
"I come from south India, and Ramanujan's name is extremely well known there. Even in high school our teachers talked about him, as somebody from a different generation of course, but who reached exalted heights. He was a role model for me," said Vardhan.
The Abel Prize was created in 2002 to commemorate the 200th centenary of the birth of Niels Henrik Abel. The Norwegian is acknowledged as one of the great names in mathematics although he died only aged 26.
Indian-born wins Math Nobel Prize
AGENCIES[ TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2007 01:00:34 PM]
OSLO: Indian-born mathematician, Srinivasa S R Varadhan has been awarded the Norwegian Abel Prize or the Nobel Prize for mathematics.
According to the jury, Varadhan was cited for his ‘fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for a unified theory of large deviations’.
Varadhan currently teaches at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and his theories have proved useful in a broad range of fields, including quantum field theory, statistical physics, population dynamics, econometrics and finance, and traffic engineering.
The prize money amounts to $8,50,000 and will be conferred on him at a ceremony in Oslo later this year.
Chennai born Varadan has been in the US for the last four decades. Vardhan spoke to a private Indian television channel after winning the award saying that his passion for mathematics came through Ramanujam.
"I come from south India, and Ramanujan's name is extremely well known there. Even in high school our teachers talked about him, as somebody from a different generation of course, but who reached exalted heights. He was a role model for me," said Vardhan.
The Abel Prize was created in 2002 to commemorate the 200th centenary of the birth of Niels Henrik Abel. The Norwegian is acknowledged as one of the great names in mathematics although he died only aged 26.
DNA - India - Refusing intercourse is mental harassment: SC - Daily News & Analysis
DNA - India - Refusing intercourse is mental harassment: SC - Daily News & Analysis
Refusing intercourse is mental harassment: SC
Rakesh Bhatnagar
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 23:16 IST
To reprint this article, contact 3DSyndication
NEW DELHI: In a major ruling which might positively affect matrimonial disputes hinging on mental cruelty, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that undergoing vasectomy or sterilisation operation by either of the spouses without the other’s consent is a strong reason for the aggrieved partner to allege mental cruelty and seek divorce.
Similarly, “a unilateral” decision of refusing to have intercourse for “considerable period” without any “physical incapacity or valid reason” may also amount to mental cruelty, a bench observed, while upholding the divorce plea of an IAS officer.
In their 71-page verdict, the court upheld the plea of the prosecution that “he felt like a stranger in his own family and that the marriage was but an eye-wash.”
The case was filed by Samar Ghosh from the 1980 IAS batch, who sought to separate from his wife Jaya, also an IAS officer. The trial court had granted a divorce decree to Ghosh, but the Calcutta High Court that quashed the order.
The HC had said Jaya’s refusing to visit her husband in the hospital when he underwent heart surgery and not cooking food for him despite his heart condition, did not amount to mental cruelty.
Rejecting these observations, the SC upheld Ghosh’s argument that “there was imposition of rationing in emotions in the arena of love, affection, future planning and normal human relations.”
Ghosh had also claimed that he was deprived of loving Jaya’s child from her first marriage. The SC observed that Jaya’s decision not to sleep in the same bed with her husband was mental cruelty.
The judges researched several judgments from different countries and observed: “The consequences of preservation in law of a marriage which has long ceased to be effective are bound to be a source of misery for the parties.”
Conceding that there can’t be any “comprehensive” definition of the concept of “mental cruelty”, the judges cautioned that “no court should even attempt to give such a definition”.
Refusing intercourse is mental harassment: SC
Rakesh Bhatnagar
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 23:16 IST
To reprint this article, contact 3DSyndication
NEW DELHI: In a major ruling which might positively affect matrimonial disputes hinging on mental cruelty, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that undergoing vasectomy or sterilisation operation by either of the spouses without the other’s consent is a strong reason for the aggrieved partner to allege mental cruelty and seek divorce.
Similarly, “a unilateral” decision of refusing to have intercourse for “considerable period” without any “physical incapacity or valid reason” may also amount to mental cruelty, a bench observed, while upholding the divorce plea of an IAS officer.
In their 71-page verdict, the court upheld the plea of the prosecution that “he felt like a stranger in his own family and that the marriage was but an eye-wash.”
The case was filed by Samar Ghosh from the 1980 IAS batch, who sought to separate from his wife Jaya, also an IAS officer. The trial court had granted a divorce decree to Ghosh, but the Calcutta High Court that quashed the order.
The HC had said Jaya’s refusing to visit her husband in the hospital when he underwent heart surgery and not cooking food for him despite his heart condition, did not amount to mental cruelty.
Rejecting these observations, the SC upheld Ghosh’s argument that “there was imposition of rationing in emotions in the arena of love, affection, future planning and normal human relations.”
Ghosh had also claimed that he was deprived of loving Jaya’s child from her first marriage. The SC observed that Jaya’s decision not to sleep in the same bed with her husband was mental cruelty.
The judges researched several judgments from different countries and observed: “The consequences of preservation in law of a marriage which has long ceased to be effective are bound to be a source of misery for the parties.”
Conceding that there can’t be any “comprehensive” definition of the concept of “mental cruelty”, the judges cautioned that “no court should even attempt to give such a definition”.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indian in 30-year 'bonded labour'
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indian in 30-year 'bonded labour'
Indian in 30-year 'bonded labour'
By Sunita Nahar
BBC News, Calcutta
Officials in India's Bihar state have begun an inquiry into reports a man has been repaying a loan of 40kg of rice with nearly 30 years of bonded labour.
Authorities in the eastern state said that it was a rare case and that the landlord would be prosecuted.
But Anti-Slavery International says such practice is widespread in India.
It says that although bonded labour was outlawed in India in 1976, millions of men, women and children are enslaved by the system.
Jawahar Manjhi, a farm labourer, lives in the Indian village of Paipura Barki with his wife and four sons.
Twenty-seven years ago, he took 40kg of rice on loan from a local landowner for a family wedding and in exchange it was agreed he would work in the lender's field - one day of work for 1kg of rice - to pay off his debt.
But since then he has taken out more loans of rice and does not know exactly how much he has paid back.
Jawahar says he was told he would be freed if he paid more than $100 (£51), but that is an amount far beyond his reach.
The landowner was contacted but was not available.
The district's magistrate, BB Rajendra, said he was looking into the case and, if true, action would be taken.
Beth Herzfeld of Anti-Slavery International said she welcomed his assurance.
But she said that even though bonded labour has been illegal in India for 30 years, there have been few prosecutions and no convictions so far against those who use it.
Indian in 30-year 'bonded labour'
By Sunita Nahar
BBC News, Calcutta
Officials in India's Bihar state have begun an inquiry into reports a man has been repaying a loan of 40kg of rice with nearly 30 years of bonded labour.
Authorities in the eastern state said that it was a rare case and that the landlord would be prosecuted.
But Anti-Slavery International says such practice is widespread in India.
It says that although bonded labour was outlawed in India in 1976, millions of men, women and children are enslaved by the system.
Jawahar Manjhi, a farm labourer, lives in the Indian village of Paipura Barki with his wife and four sons.
Twenty-seven years ago, he took 40kg of rice on loan from a local landowner for a family wedding and in exchange it was agreed he would work in the lender's field - one day of work for 1kg of rice - to pay off his debt.
But since then he has taken out more loans of rice and does not know exactly how much he has paid back.
Jawahar says he was told he would be freed if he paid more than $100 (£51), but that is an amount far beyond his reach.
The landowner was contacted but was not available.
The district's magistrate, BB Rajendra, said he was looking into the case and, if true, action would be taken.
Beth Herzfeld of Anti-Slavery International said she welcomed his assurance.
But she said that even though bonded labour has been illegal in India for 30 years, there have been few prosecutions and no convictions so far against those who use it.
BBC NEWS | Europe | French railways win WWII appeal
BBC NEWS | Europe | French railways win WWII appeal
French railways win WWII appeal
The Wall of Names in Paris, showing the French deportees
A French court has overturned a ruling that ordered the state railway to compensate the family of World War II Jewish deportees.
Appeal judges in Bordeaux ruled administrative courts could not decide the liability of the operator SNCF.
Last June a court ruled SNCF must pay 61,000 euros ($81,300; £41,400) to the Lipietz family, whose members were taken to a camp near Paris in 1944.
SNCF had received 1,800 compensation requests since June's ruling.
Cattle wagons
The Lipietz case was brought by family members, including Alain, a member of the European parliament.
Georges Lipietz, his father, was taken at the age of 21 to the Drancy camp but was spared transportation to death camps by the Allied victory. Three other family members were similarly transported to Drancy, the lawsuit says.
It's a way for the administrative justice system to kick the issue into touch
Gerard Boulanger, lawyer
The case was launched in 2001 and has continued despite Georges Lipietz's subsequent death.
It was taken to the administrative courts, which rule on lawsuits brought against the state.
But Tuesday's ruling said SNCF was an entity in its own right and should be covered by the traditional judicial system.
A lawyer for some of the plaintiffs against SNCF, Gerard Boulanger, said: "It's a way for the administrative justice system to kick the issue into touch."
SNCF has not yet commented.
It earlier argued it had no choice but to do as it was ordered by the Vichy government in collaboration with the German occupying army. Those who refused faced being shot, it said.
Records show SNCF billed the French state for third-class journeys, even though families were transported in cattle wagons.
The Lipietz family said it would now go to the highest administrative court, the State Council.
Other plaintiffs will have to go to criminal or civil courts, legal experts say.
However, a similar case in 2003 against SNCF in a civil court was thrown out as the 30-year statute of limitations had expired.
Between 1942 and 1944 some 76,000 Jews were deported from France.
French railways win WWII appeal
The Wall of Names in Paris, showing the French deportees
A French court has overturned a ruling that ordered the state railway to compensate the family of World War II Jewish deportees.
Appeal judges in Bordeaux ruled administrative courts could not decide the liability of the operator SNCF.
Last June a court ruled SNCF must pay 61,000 euros ($81,300; £41,400) to the Lipietz family, whose members were taken to a camp near Paris in 1944.
SNCF had received 1,800 compensation requests since June's ruling.
Cattle wagons
The Lipietz case was brought by family members, including Alain, a member of the European parliament.
Georges Lipietz, his father, was taken at the age of 21 to the Drancy camp but was spared transportation to death camps by the Allied victory. Three other family members were similarly transported to Drancy, the lawsuit says.
It's a way for the administrative justice system to kick the issue into touch
Gerard Boulanger, lawyer
The case was launched in 2001 and has continued despite Georges Lipietz's subsequent death.
It was taken to the administrative courts, which rule on lawsuits brought against the state.
But Tuesday's ruling said SNCF was an entity in its own right and should be covered by the traditional judicial system.
A lawyer for some of the plaintiffs against SNCF, Gerard Boulanger, said: "It's a way for the administrative justice system to kick the issue into touch."
SNCF has not yet commented.
It earlier argued it had no choice but to do as it was ordered by the Vichy government in collaboration with the German occupying army. Those who refused faced being shot, it said.
Records show SNCF billed the French state for third-class journeys, even though families were transported in cattle wagons.
The Lipietz family said it would now go to the highest administrative court, the State Council.
Other plaintiffs will have to go to criminal or civil courts, legal experts say.
However, a similar case in 2003 against SNCF in a civil court was thrown out as the 30-year statute of limitations had expired.
Between 1942 and 1944 some 76,000 Jews were deported from France.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma extends Suu Kyi's detention
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma extends Suu Kyi's detention
In house prison for freedom Aung san Suu KyiBurma extends Suu Kyi's detention
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003
Burma's military rulers have extended the detention under house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government officials have said.
Ms Suu Kyi's latest period under house arrest expired on Saturday, raising hopes that she would be released.
The pro-democracy leader has been held since May 2003, and has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest.
On Friday UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to the head of Burma's military junta to free Ms Suu Kyi.
"I am relying on you, General Than Shwe, to do the right thing," Mr Annan said, addressing the head of the junta.
But within hours Burma said Ms Suu Kyi, 60, would remain in detention.
Anniversary
Security around her home in the capital Rangoon was stepped up ahead of the announcement and remained in place after Ms Suu Kyi's continued detention was confirmed.
Officials would not say how long her house arrest has been extended for.
This is a big disappointment and a major setback to national reconciliation
Nyan Win
National League for Democracy
Members of her National League for Democracy are preparing to mark the 16th anniversary of their party's landslide election victory, which falls on Saturday.
However the victory was never recognised by the junta, which has ruled the country - which it calls Myanmar - since a coup in 1962.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the party, admitted the news from the junta was a blow to their hopes: "This is a big disappointment and a major setback to national reconciliation," he said.
Government ministers from Thailand and Malaysia also expressed their disappointment with the decision.
"We would like to see Myanmar back in the realm of the international community, so progress in national reconciliation is something of importance," said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon.
Ms Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while still under house arrest.
In house prison for freedom Aung san Suu KyiBurma extends Suu Kyi's detention
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003
Burma's military rulers have extended the detention under house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government officials have said.
Ms Suu Kyi's latest period under house arrest expired on Saturday, raising hopes that she would be released.
The pro-democracy leader has been held since May 2003, and has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest.
On Friday UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to the head of Burma's military junta to free Ms Suu Kyi.
"I am relying on you, General Than Shwe, to do the right thing," Mr Annan said, addressing the head of the junta.
But within hours Burma said Ms Suu Kyi, 60, would remain in detention.
Anniversary
Security around her home in the capital Rangoon was stepped up ahead of the announcement and remained in place after Ms Suu Kyi's continued detention was confirmed.
Officials would not say how long her house arrest has been extended for.
This is a big disappointment and a major setback to national reconciliation
Nyan Win
National League for Democracy
Members of her National League for Democracy are preparing to mark the 16th anniversary of their party's landslide election victory, which falls on Saturday.
However the victory was never recognised by the junta, which has ruled the country - which it calls Myanmar - since a coup in 1962.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the party, admitted the news from the junta was a blow to their hopes: "This is a big disappointment and a major setback to national reconciliation," he said.
Government ministers from Thailand and Malaysia also expressed their disappointment with the decision.
"We would like to see Myanmar back in the realm of the international community, so progress in national reconciliation is something of importance," said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon.
Ms Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while still under house arrest.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma's new capital city unveiled
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma's new capital city unveiled
Naypyidaw
Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 12:53 GMT 13:53 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Burma's new capital city unveiled
By Jonathan Head
BBC News,
Journalists caught a rare glimpse of Burma's military leader Than Shwe
Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world.
The new city, called Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, is being built about 460km (300 miles) north of the old capital, Rangoon.
Until now few outsiders were allowed to go there, but the foreign media has been invited to the capital to watch the huge Armed Forces Day parade.
However, it is still not clear why the generals have moved here.
The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give way to smooth eight-lane motorways as you approach the new capital.
In pictures: Capital on parade
Capital confusion
Naypyidaw is being built on a vast and extravagant scale in hundreds of square kilometres of tropical scrubland.
Shining new buildings rise out of tropical scrub like a mirage, separated by miles of broad highways and boulevards.
Hardline message
Everywhere there is construction going on, much of it being done by manual labour.
But even after two years all that has been finished are the ministry buildings, hotels and some clusters of pastel-coloured apartment blocks.
The apartments are being developed for all government employees, who were forced to uproot from the former capital Rangoon and move here a year-and-a-half ago.
There is reliable electricity and water.
But they complain that the city lacks shops and restaurants. Many have refused to bring their families.
The military has built itself a fortress-like complex to the east. This is where Burma's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe, now lives.
This morning we had a rare glimpse of him reviewing thousands of parading troops on Armed Forces Day.
He appeared frail but delivered a familiar, hardline message warning the soldiers to be ever vigilant against foreign powers he said were bent on weakening the country - a reference to US and European pressure for democratic reform.
Secure in its remote new capital, the military still shows no signs of loosening its grip on Burma.
Naypyidaw
Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 12:53 GMT 13:53 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Burma's new capital city unveiled
By Jonathan Head
BBC News,
Journalists caught a rare glimpse of Burma's military leader Than Shwe
Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world.
The new city, called Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, is being built about 460km (300 miles) north of the old capital, Rangoon.
Until now few outsiders were allowed to go there, but the foreign media has been invited to the capital to watch the huge Armed Forces Day parade.
However, it is still not clear why the generals have moved here.
The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give way to smooth eight-lane motorways as you approach the new capital.
In pictures: Capital on parade
Capital confusion
Naypyidaw is being built on a vast and extravagant scale in hundreds of square kilometres of tropical scrubland.
Shining new buildings rise out of tropical scrub like a mirage, separated by miles of broad highways and boulevards.
Hardline message
Everywhere there is construction going on, much of it being done by manual labour.
But even after two years all that has been finished are the ministry buildings, hotels and some clusters of pastel-coloured apartment blocks.
The apartments are being developed for all government employees, who were forced to uproot from the former capital Rangoon and move here a year-and-a-half ago.
There is reliable electricity and water.
But they complain that the city lacks shops and restaurants. Many have refused to bring their families.
The military has built itself a fortress-like complex to the east. This is where Burma's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe, now lives.
This morning we had a rare glimpse of him reviewing thousands of parading troops on Armed Forces Day.
He appeared frail but delivered a familiar, hardline message warning the soldiers to be ever vigilant against foreign powers he said were bent on weakening the country - a reference to US and European pressure for democratic reform.
Secure in its remote new capital, the military still shows no signs of loosening its grip on Burma.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma's new capital city unveiled
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma's new capital city unveiled
Naypyidaw
Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 12:53 GMT 13:53 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Burma's new capital city unveiled
By Jonathan Head
BBC News,
Journalists caught a rare glimpse of Burma's military leader Than Shwe
Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world.
The new city, called Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, is being built about 460km (300 miles) north of the old capital, Rangoon.
Until now few outsiders were allowed to go there, but the foreign media has been invited to the capital to watch the huge Armed Forces Day parade.
However, it is still not clear why the generals have moved here.
The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give way to smooth eight-lane motorways as you approach the new capital.
In pictures: Capital on parade
Capital confusion
Naypyidaw is being built on a vast and extravagant scale in hundreds of square kilometres of tropical scrubland.
Shining new buildings rise out of tropical scrub like a mirage, separated by miles of broad highways and boulevards.
Hardline message
Everywhere there is construction going on, much of it being done by manual labour.
But even after two years all that has been finished are the ministry buildings, hotels and some clusters of pastel-coloured apartment blocks.
The apartments are being developed for all government employees, who were forced to uproot from the former capital Rangoon and move here a year-and-a-half ago.
There is reliable electricity and water.
But they complain that the city lacks shops and restaurants. Many have refused to bring their families.
The military has built itself a fortress-like complex to the east. This is where Burma's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe, now lives.
This morning we had a rare glimpse of him reviewing thousands of parading troops on Armed Forces Day.
He appeared frail but delivered a familiar, hardline message warning the soldiers to be ever vigilant against foreign powers he said were bent on weakening the country - a reference to US and European pressure for democratic reform.
Secure in its remote new capital, the military still shows no signs of loosening its grip on Burma.
Naypyidaw
Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 12:53 GMT 13:53 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Burma's new capital city unveiled
By Jonathan Head
BBC News,
Journalists caught a rare glimpse of Burma's military leader Than Shwe
Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world.
The new city, called Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, is being built about 460km (300 miles) north of the old capital, Rangoon.
Until now few outsiders were allowed to go there, but the foreign media has been invited to the capital to watch the huge Armed Forces Day parade.
However, it is still not clear why the generals have moved here.
The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give way to smooth eight-lane motorways as you approach the new capital.
In pictures: Capital on parade
Capital confusion
Naypyidaw is being built on a vast and extravagant scale in hundreds of square kilometres of tropical scrubland.
Shining new buildings rise out of tropical scrub like a mirage, separated by miles of broad highways and boulevards.
Hardline message
Everywhere there is construction going on, much of it being done by manual labour.
But even after two years all that has been finished are the ministry buildings, hotels and some clusters of pastel-coloured apartment blocks.
The apartments are being developed for all government employees, who were forced to uproot from the former capital Rangoon and move here a year-and-a-half ago.
There is reliable electricity and water.
But they complain that the city lacks shops and restaurants. Many have refused to bring their families.
The military has built itself a fortress-like complex to the east. This is where Burma's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe, now lives.
This morning we had a rare glimpse of him reviewing thousands of parading troops on Armed Forces Day.
He appeared frail but delivered a familiar, hardline message warning the soldiers to be ever vigilant against foreign powers he said were bent on weakening the country - a reference to US and European pressure for democratic reform.
Secure in its remote new capital, the military still shows no signs of loosening its grip on Burma.
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | The birth of modern campaigning
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | The birth of modern campaigning
Antislavery movementThe birth of modern campaigning
By Brian Wheeler
Political reporter, BBC News
If you have ever signed a petition, worn a charity wristband or taken part in a demonstration you owe something to Thomas Clarkson.
Make Poverty History was part a tradition stretching back 200 years
The preacher's son from Cambridgeshire is one of the great unsung heroes of the fight to abolish slavery and the slave trade.
But what is even less well known is the extent to which Clarkson and his fellow abolitionists set the template for all future protest movements.
Every modern campaigning technique - from celebrity endorsement to political lobbying and consumer boycotts - was pioneered by the abolitionists more than 200 years ago.
The growth of their movement went hand in hand with the birth of Parliamentary democracy and the idea that if enough people band together around a common cause they can change the law of the land.
Everything that followed - from the Suffragettes to the US civil rights movement in 1960s to Live Aid and Make Poverty History owes a debt to the abolitionists.
And there is still much that today's campaigners can learn from their techniques.
Lobbying
The abolitionist movement began in the Quaker meeting houses of the 1770s, with the establishment of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
We totally copy those methods
Sarah Green, Amnesty International
In Depth: Abolitionists' tools
At that time, the slave trade was seen as a legitimate, profitable and even "genteel" profession.
The pro-slavery lobby attempted to dehumanise Africans by claiming they lived like savages and were grateful for the opportunity to escape Africa. They were said to enjoy the crossing and enjoy good living conditions on the plantations.
The abolitionists, led by Clarkson, set out to provide evidence that none of these things were true.
Clarkson was adept at getting decision makers to take up the slavery issue. He worked in the same way that political lobbyists do today.
He helped to persuade MP William Wilberforce to become the parliamentary spokesperson for the campaign.
Celebrities
He helped organise a 300,000 strong boycott of slave-harvested sugar, in the first known example of consumer protest.
The celebrities of the day also queued up to lend their support.
Thomas Clarkson was adept at lobbying MPs
Actors, cartoonists and artists like JMW Turner and William Blake provided visual representations of slavery that reached audiences in ways the written word could not.
In 1787, Josiah Wedgwood designed a seal for the campaign, the forerunner of today's campaign logos.
The image depicts an African man kneeling in supplication, or perhaps in prayer, under the slogan 'Am I not a man and a brother?'
The image would probably alienate many potential supporters if used today.
But in the late 1700s it pushed all the right buttons, particularly among Christians who felt slavery went against God's teachings.
Moral exhortations
The abolitionists were also pioneers of investigative journalism.
The first campaign logo?
Clarkson interviewed sailors, ships' doctors and traders in London, Bristol and Liverpool to document the treatment of enslaved people.
He bought shackles, thumbscrews and a device for force-feeding slaves who went on hunger strike, to provide physical evidence of abuse and confirm the testimonies he collected.
But - in another forerunner of today's campaigning techniques - Clarkson would present the evidence in a rational, dispassionate way, free from the moral exhortations and blood-curdling rhetoric often seen on religious pamphlets of the day.
The abolitionists also knew how to appeal to the self-interest of their target audience, for example producing statistics to show that almost as many British sailors as Africans died on slave ships.
And they made the subject real to their audience by holding public meetings where freed slaves would tell harrowing stories of brutality and abuse.
'Inspiration'
The abolitionists also showed how it is possible to influence the political agenda through more subtle means.
If you can get the middle classes talking about an issue at dinner parties, it is not long before it is being discussed in Parliament.
Today's campaigns owe much to the abolitionists
"We totally copy those methods," says Sarah Green, of Amnesty International, who says the abolition movement continues to be an "inspiration".
"It shows that if you set your objectives clearly, to be clear and singular about what you want and go about it in a cunning and creative way, you can achieve what you want to achieve."
The abolitionists were the first membership organisation to campaign for political change, forming local groups and sending out newsletters to keep members updated on progress.
Perhaps the biggest difference with today's campaigns was in the speed of transmission.
Public attitudes
Today's campaigners can spread their message around the world at the click of a mouse, but it would take Clarkson two years to complete a book tour of Britain.
About 50% of Britain's population were also illiterate in the late 18th Century, so the anti-slavery campaigners had to use visual imagery to get their message across.
One picture, showing a cross-section of the slave ship 'Brookes' packed with 482 enslaved people was reproduced on 7,000 posters around the country and remains one of the most enduring images associated with the slave trade.
Nevertheless, it only took the abolitionists 20 years to fundamentally change public opinion - and the law - on slavery.
"It was an incredible achievement. Even today it can take decades to change public attitudes," says Mike Kaye of Anti-Slavery International.
The difference is that today there are many single-issue campaigns competing for public attention.
But the size of the public response to campaigns such as Make Poverty History or the Stop the War and Countryside Alliance marches shows that there is still a huge public appetite for mass membership protests.
"I don't think there is any reason to be pessimistic or to fear that we have lost our campaigning edge," says Mr Kaye.
Antislavery movementThe birth of modern campaigning
By Brian Wheeler
Political reporter, BBC News
If you have ever signed a petition, worn a charity wristband or taken part in a demonstration you owe something to Thomas Clarkson.
Make Poverty History was part a tradition stretching back 200 years
The preacher's son from Cambridgeshire is one of the great unsung heroes of the fight to abolish slavery and the slave trade.
But what is even less well known is the extent to which Clarkson and his fellow abolitionists set the template for all future protest movements.
Every modern campaigning technique - from celebrity endorsement to political lobbying and consumer boycotts - was pioneered by the abolitionists more than 200 years ago.
The growth of their movement went hand in hand with the birth of Parliamentary democracy and the idea that if enough people band together around a common cause they can change the law of the land.
Everything that followed - from the Suffragettes to the US civil rights movement in 1960s to Live Aid and Make Poverty History owes a debt to the abolitionists.
And there is still much that today's campaigners can learn from their techniques.
Lobbying
The abolitionist movement began in the Quaker meeting houses of the 1770s, with the establishment of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
We totally copy those methods
Sarah Green, Amnesty International
In Depth: Abolitionists' tools
At that time, the slave trade was seen as a legitimate, profitable and even "genteel" profession.
The pro-slavery lobby attempted to dehumanise Africans by claiming they lived like savages and were grateful for the opportunity to escape Africa. They were said to enjoy the crossing and enjoy good living conditions on the plantations.
The abolitionists, led by Clarkson, set out to provide evidence that none of these things were true.
Clarkson was adept at getting decision makers to take up the slavery issue. He worked in the same way that political lobbyists do today.
He helped to persuade MP William Wilberforce to become the parliamentary spokesperson for the campaign.
Celebrities
He helped organise a 300,000 strong boycott of slave-harvested sugar, in the first known example of consumer protest.
The celebrities of the day also queued up to lend their support.
Thomas Clarkson was adept at lobbying MPs
Actors, cartoonists and artists like JMW Turner and William Blake provided visual representations of slavery that reached audiences in ways the written word could not.
In 1787, Josiah Wedgwood designed a seal for the campaign, the forerunner of today's campaign logos.
The image depicts an African man kneeling in supplication, or perhaps in prayer, under the slogan 'Am I not a man and a brother?'
The image would probably alienate many potential supporters if used today.
But in the late 1700s it pushed all the right buttons, particularly among Christians who felt slavery went against God's teachings.
Moral exhortations
The abolitionists were also pioneers of investigative journalism.
The first campaign logo?
Clarkson interviewed sailors, ships' doctors and traders in London, Bristol and Liverpool to document the treatment of enslaved people.
He bought shackles, thumbscrews and a device for force-feeding slaves who went on hunger strike, to provide physical evidence of abuse and confirm the testimonies he collected.
But - in another forerunner of today's campaigning techniques - Clarkson would present the evidence in a rational, dispassionate way, free from the moral exhortations and blood-curdling rhetoric often seen on religious pamphlets of the day.
The abolitionists also knew how to appeal to the self-interest of their target audience, for example producing statistics to show that almost as many British sailors as Africans died on slave ships.
And they made the subject real to their audience by holding public meetings where freed slaves would tell harrowing stories of brutality and abuse.
'Inspiration'
The abolitionists also showed how it is possible to influence the political agenda through more subtle means.
If you can get the middle classes talking about an issue at dinner parties, it is not long before it is being discussed in Parliament.
Today's campaigns owe much to the abolitionists
"We totally copy those methods," says Sarah Green, of Amnesty International, who says the abolition movement continues to be an "inspiration".
"It shows that if you set your objectives clearly, to be clear and singular about what you want and go about it in a cunning and creative way, you can achieve what you want to achieve."
The abolitionists were the first membership organisation to campaign for political change, forming local groups and sending out newsletters to keep members updated on progress.
Perhaps the biggest difference with today's campaigns was in the speed of transmission.
Public attitudes
Today's campaigners can spread their message around the world at the click of a mouse, but it would take Clarkson two years to complete a book tour of Britain.
About 50% of Britain's population were also illiterate in the late 18th Century, so the anti-slavery campaigners had to use visual imagery to get their message across.
One picture, showing a cross-section of the slave ship 'Brookes' packed with 482 enslaved people was reproduced on 7,000 posters around the country and remains one of the most enduring images associated with the slave trade.
Nevertheless, it only took the abolitionists 20 years to fundamentally change public opinion - and the law - on slavery.
"It was an incredible achievement. Even today it can take decades to change public attitudes," says Mike Kaye of Anti-Slavery International.
The difference is that today there are many single-issue campaigns competing for public attention.
But the size of the public response to campaigns such as Make Poverty History or the Stop the War and Countryside Alliance marches shows that there is still a huge public appetite for mass membership protests.
"I don't think there is any reason to be pessimistic or to fear that we have lost our campaigning edge," says Mr Kaye.
BBC NEWS | UK | Archbishop's sermon in full
BBC NEWS | UK | Archbishop's sermon in full
Rowan Willimas sermon on slavery
Archbishop's sermon in full
The Archbishop of Canterbury has delivered a sermon at a Westminster Abbey service to mark the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Abolition Act.
Dr Williams said historic and modern slavery were crimes
Human beings are born free, yet everywhere they are in chains. A great and inspiring slogan for progressive thinking in the last two centuries; but the very fact of this act of commemoration should make us question it.
We are born into a world already scarred by the internationalising and industrialising of slavery in the early modern period, and our human inheritance is shadowed by it.
We who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity; those who are the heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse.
Slavery is not a regional problem in the human world
It is true that other nations, in the Middle East and South Asia, share something of the same inheritance, similar shadows cast on their history by various sorts of slavery.
The situation of bonded child labour among the lowest castes in India for example remains a painful scandal, crying out for resolution - though the Church's own record in its relations with the caste system is far from straightforward.
Slavery is not a regional problem in the human world; it is hideously persistent in our nations and cultures.
But today it is for us to face our history; the Atlantic trade was our contribution to this universal sinfulness.
Modern mindset
Human beings are born into an inheritance of one kind or another, and it is a fiction to speak as though we could be free of this.
Let us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another, says St Paul.
One of the strangest aspects of our modern mindset is the assumption that we needn't think truthfully about where we came from, how our cultures and habits were formed, how we collectively got into the nets and tangles that frustrate our best intentions.
What greater grieving of God's Spirit could there be than slavery?
Christian thinking has always traced this back to the very first twist in the human consciousness towards selfishness, at the very beginning of human life; it is what we call original sin.
No; we are not born free. But we are born for freedom.
We are born with a task before us.
We are to learn how to be free; and that means to learn how to be free by facing the legacy we inherit without fear, excuse or untruthfulness.
Often, so often, that means asking others to tell us the truth we can't see for ourselves - we ourselves are the 'neighbours' who need to hear the truth, in St Paul's terms.
That is why, in this service, and in the act of repentance and restoration last Saturday, Christians of British descent invited others to join them and to speak to them some of the necessary words of judgement and of mercy.
And our readings today remind us that this task of becoming free by listening for the truth is more than any of us can manage just in our human strength.
We need the Spirit of the Lord upon us and within us.
That Spirit is the Spirit that, in the Bible, hovers over the beginnings of creation, the Spirit that gives strength for the making of beauty and order in the world, the Spirit that descends into the body of Mary to bring to birth the Spirit-filled Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and death and resurrection break through the tangles of inherited guilt and responsibility and unfreedom, the Spirit that creates a community in which each takes responsibility for all as they become 'members of one another'.
What Paul calls 'grieving the Spirit' must therefore include all those aspects of our human behaviour that destroy beauty and order, that unravel the bonds of creation, that seek to block out the good news that there is a God whose purpose is always to set men and women free.
Inhuman behaviour
What greater grieving of God's Spirit could there be than slavery?
Whether in the forms that Wilberforce and Clarkson and Equiano denounced or in the forms in which it is still around today, debt slavery and sex-trafficking and forced labour and child abduction and exploitation, it is an offence against the created order of equality, an offence against the dignity of humans as called to share in some measure in God's own creative responsibility, an offence against the interdependence that makes it impossible for any one truly to flourish at the expense of any other person whatsoever.
The Queen joined the 2,000-strong congregation at Westminster Abbey
So have we good news to tell the world today, or only the grim recognition of just how deeply addicted human beings are to inhuman behaviour?
Yes, we have good news; without it, we cannot hope for the transformation of this nation and world, the kind of transformation achieved through the witness of those like Equiano and Wilberforce who woke up the conscience of an entire civilisation.
Yes, because the Spirit of which Jesus speaks in his 'manifesto' in the synagogue at Nazareth is of inexhaustible power and eternal energy, God's own person and act.
More human
Slavery was taken for granted by Christians and non-Christians and irreligious people for centuries if not millennia; humanistic scholars and atheist liberals alike accepted it no less than the majority of religious believers in all faiths.
Yet the Spirit that spoke in Jesus was a Spirit contemporary and alive for those who, two hundred years ago and more, refused to take it for granted because they saw something of the truth about God and about humanity.
Is that Spirit contemporary and alive for us?
If so, we shall indeed have the courage to face the legacies of slavery - the literal degrading slavery of the millions who, then and now, are the victims of the greed of others, and the spiritual slavery of those who oppress and abuse, and so wreck their own humanity as well as that of others.
We shall have the courage to turn to each other and ask how, together, we are to make each other more free and more human.
May that Spirit be upon us and in us in our struggles.
Rowan Willimas sermon on slavery
Archbishop's sermon in full
The Archbishop of Canterbury has delivered a sermon at a Westminster Abbey service to mark the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Abolition Act.
Dr Williams said historic and modern slavery were crimes
Human beings are born free, yet everywhere they are in chains. A great and inspiring slogan for progressive thinking in the last two centuries; but the very fact of this act of commemoration should make us question it.
We are born into a world already scarred by the internationalising and industrialising of slavery in the early modern period, and our human inheritance is shadowed by it.
We who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity; those who are the heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse.
Slavery is not a regional problem in the human world
It is true that other nations, in the Middle East and South Asia, share something of the same inheritance, similar shadows cast on their history by various sorts of slavery.
The situation of bonded child labour among the lowest castes in India for example remains a painful scandal, crying out for resolution - though the Church's own record in its relations with the caste system is far from straightforward.
Slavery is not a regional problem in the human world; it is hideously persistent in our nations and cultures.
But today it is for us to face our history; the Atlantic trade was our contribution to this universal sinfulness.
Modern mindset
Human beings are born into an inheritance of one kind or another, and it is a fiction to speak as though we could be free of this.
Let us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another, says St Paul.
One of the strangest aspects of our modern mindset is the assumption that we needn't think truthfully about where we came from, how our cultures and habits were formed, how we collectively got into the nets and tangles that frustrate our best intentions.
What greater grieving of God's Spirit could there be than slavery?
Christian thinking has always traced this back to the very first twist in the human consciousness towards selfishness, at the very beginning of human life; it is what we call original sin.
No; we are not born free. But we are born for freedom.
We are born with a task before us.
We are to learn how to be free; and that means to learn how to be free by facing the legacy we inherit without fear, excuse or untruthfulness.
Often, so often, that means asking others to tell us the truth we can't see for ourselves - we ourselves are the 'neighbours' who need to hear the truth, in St Paul's terms.
That is why, in this service, and in the act of repentance and restoration last Saturday, Christians of British descent invited others to join them and to speak to them some of the necessary words of judgement and of mercy.
And our readings today remind us that this task of becoming free by listening for the truth is more than any of us can manage just in our human strength.
We need the Spirit of the Lord upon us and within us.
That Spirit is the Spirit that, in the Bible, hovers over the beginnings of creation, the Spirit that gives strength for the making of beauty and order in the world, the Spirit that descends into the body of Mary to bring to birth the Spirit-filled Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and death and resurrection break through the tangles of inherited guilt and responsibility and unfreedom, the Spirit that creates a community in which each takes responsibility for all as they become 'members of one another'.
What Paul calls 'grieving the Spirit' must therefore include all those aspects of our human behaviour that destroy beauty and order, that unravel the bonds of creation, that seek to block out the good news that there is a God whose purpose is always to set men and women free.
Inhuman behaviour
What greater grieving of God's Spirit could there be than slavery?
Whether in the forms that Wilberforce and Clarkson and Equiano denounced or in the forms in which it is still around today, debt slavery and sex-trafficking and forced labour and child abduction and exploitation, it is an offence against the created order of equality, an offence against the dignity of humans as called to share in some measure in God's own creative responsibility, an offence against the interdependence that makes it impossible for any one truly to flourish at the expense of any other person whatsoever.
The Queen joined the 2,000-strong congregation at Westminster Abbey
So have we good news to tell the world today, or only the grim recognition of just how deeply addicted human beings are to inhuman behaviour?
Yes, we have good news; without it, we cannot hope for the transformation of this nation and world, the kind of transformation achieved through the witness of those like Equiano and Wilberforce who woke up the conscience of an entire civilisation.
Yes, because the Spirit of which Jesus speaks in his 'manifesto' in the synagogue at Nazareth is of inexhaustible power and eternal energy, God's own person and act.
More human
Slavery was taken for granted by Christians and non-Christians and irreligious people for centuries if not millennia; humanistic scholars and atheist liberals alike accepted it no less than the majority of religious believers in all faiths.
Yet the Spirit that spoke in Jesus was a Spirit contemporary and alive for those who, two hundred years ago and more, refused to take it for granted because they saw something of the truth about God and about humanity.
Is that Spirit contemporary and alive for us?
If so, we shall indeed have the courage to face the legacies of slavery - the literal degrading slavery of the millions who, then and now, are the victims of the greed of others, and the spiritual slavery of those who oppress and abuse, and so wreck their own humanity as well as that of others.
We shall have the courage to turn to each other and ask how, together, we are to make each other more free and more human.
May that Spirit be upon us and in us in our struggles.
BBC NEWS | UK | Protest disrupts slavery service
BBC NEWS | UK | Protest disrupts slavery service
Protest disrupts slavery service
Toyin Agbetu condemned Africans for taking part in the service
A lone protester has interrupted a commemorative service at Westminster Abbey marking the 200th anniversary of the act to abolish the slave trade.
The event, attended by the Queen and Tony Blair, was almost over when human rights campaigner Toyin Agbetu began shouting: "This is an insult to us."
He condemned African Christians for taking part and told them to walk out.
The service resumed minutes later after security guards led him outside. He was arrested and is being held in custody.
Mr Agbetu, 39 - a campaigner for Ligali, an African-British human rights organisation - did have a valid ticket for the service, according to the abbey.
"He came through security checks, the scanners. I'm convinced we did everything correctly," said Maj Gen David Burden, the abbey's receiver-general.
The heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse
Dr Rowan Williams
Archbishop's sermon in full
In pictures: slavery service
In such cases they would let the man speak before leading him out, he said. "It was not the place to manhandle someone," he added.
Once outside, Mr Agbetu spoke briefly to the media, saying the Queen had to say sorry for her ancestors, before police detained him for a public order offence.
"The monarch and the Government and the church are all in there patting themselves on the back," he said.
The event was held to commemorate the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act which became law in March 1807.
The brief disturbance came just ahead of a minute's silence that was followed by the sounding of horns traditionally used to warn of slave trader raids.
'Ravaged communities'
Earlier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, described slavery as an offence to human dignity and freedom and "the greatest cause of grief to God's spirit".
Dr Williams told the congregation that slavery was not a regional problem in the world, but was "hideously persistent" in our nations and cultures.
"We, who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past, have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity," he said.
The Queen was among those attending the service
"Those who are the heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse."
Lady (Kate) Davson, the great-great-great grand-daughter of William Wilberforce, who led the abolition movement, read a House of Commons speech made by her ancestor.
Later the Queen laid flowers on his memorial and the Innocent Victims' Memorial, in honour of all those affected by slavery.
To conclude the national service, all 10 bells at the abbey rang out, with 200 tolls of the tenor bell to mark the 200th anniversary of the Act of Parliament.
'Sorrow and regret'
Linda Ali, of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, said the day was about returning dignity to the slaves and acknowledging their contribution to the British economy.
She also called on Tony Blair who has expressed "deep sorrow and regret" at Britain's role in the slave trade, to go a step further.
"I don't see what is so very difficult about apologising for what is such a great crime against humanity," said Ms Ali.
Lady Davson said she too thought Mr Blair should apologise.
"Slavery is one of the largest pieces of our wounded history, our worldwide wounded history, and...[has] to be confronted in order to get peace in our world."
The prime minister did not speak at the service. His deputy, John Prescott, unveiled a restored memorial fountain to anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Fowell Buxton at Victoria Tower Gardens in London.
Chancellor Gordon Brown, London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Home Secretary John Reid and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell also attended the event.
Protest disrupts slavery service
Toyin Agbetu condemned Africans for taking part in the service
A lone protester has interrupted a commemorative service at Westminster Abbey marking the 200th anniversary of the act to abolish the slave trade.
The event, attended by the Queen and Tony Blair, was almost over when human rights campaigner Toyin Agbetu began shouting: "This is an insult to us."
He condemned African Christians for taking part and told them to walk out.
The service resumed minutes later after security guards led him outside. He was arrested and is being held in custody.
Mr Agbetu, 39 - a campaigner for Ligali, an African-British human rights organisation - did have a valid ticket for the service, according to the abbey.
"He came through security checks, the scanners. I'm convinced we did everything correctly," said Maj Gen David Burden, the abbey's receiver-general.
The heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse
Dr Rowan Williams
Archbishop's sermon in full
In pictures: slavery service
In such cases they would let the man speak before leading him out, he said. "It was not the place to manhandle someone," he added.
Once outside, Mr Agbetu spoke briefly to the media, saying the Queen had to say sorry for her ancestors, before police detained him for a public order offence.
"The monarch and the Government and the church are all in there patting themselves on the back," he said.
The event was held to commemorate the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act which became law in March 1807.
The brief disturbance came just ahead of a minute's silence that was followed by the sounding of horns traditionally used to warn of slave trader raids.
'Ravaged communities'
Earlier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, described slavery as an offence to human dignity and freedom and "the greatest cause of grief to God's spirit".
Dr Williams told the congregation that slavery was not a regional problem in the world, but was "hideously persistent" in our nations and cultures.
"We, who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past, have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity," he said.
The Queen was among those attending the service
"Those who are the heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse."
Lady (Kate) Davson, the great-great-great grand-daughter of William Wilberforce, who led the abolition movement, read a House of Commons speech made by her ancestor.
Later the Queen laid flowers on his memorial and the Innocent Victims' Memorial, in honour of all those affected by slavery.
To conclude the national service, all 10 bells at the abbey rang out, with 200 tolls of the tenor bell to mark the 200th anniversary of the Act of Parliament.
'Sorrow and regret'
Linda Ali, of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, said the day was about returning dignity to the slaves and acknowledging their contribution to the British economy.
She also called on Tony Blair who has expressed "deep sorrow and regret" at Britain's role in the slave trade, to go a step further.
"I don't see what is so very difficult about apologising for what is such a great crime against humanity," said Ms Ali.
Lady Davson said she too thought Mr Blair should apologise.
"Slavery is one of the largest pieces of our wounded history, our worldwide wounded history, and...[has] to be confronted in order to get peace in our world."
The prime minister did not speak at the service. His deputy, John Prescott, unveiled a restored memorial fountain to anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Fowell Buxton at Victoria Tower Gardens in London.
Chancellor Gordon Brown, London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Home Secretary John Reid and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell also attended the event.
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