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The holy man businessman

He owns several successful cloth factories - yet he seldom wears any clothes himself.

He is a Hindu holy man, who has renounced the material world - yet he is also a business tycoon who employs thousands of people.

It might sound incredible - but a French citizen in India is living proof that it can be done.

Christian Fabre, or Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta as he is now known, was born in the south of France in 1942.

He became a Hindu holy man, or sadhu, some years ago.

Now he runs an ashram, or a hermitage for holy men, in the south-western state of Tamil Nadu, roughly 400 kilometres from Madras, the state capital.

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A life of death

In the course of his job, Larry Fitzgerald witnessed the execution of 219 people in Texas before announcing their deaths to the world.

Mr Fitzgerald retired in August from his job as public information officer for Huntsville, which has been described as the execution capital of America.

Almost 450 of the 3,500 people currently on death row in American prisons are in Huntsville - and last year half of all executions in the United States took place in Texas.

"You get used to it," Mr Fitzgerald told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"My background is as a reporter, and I always used to make sure I would leave the grisly scenes behind - I didn't take them home with me.

"You've got to remember that nobody likes seeing anybody die. But one also has to remember that this person did something to find themselves in that situation."

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'Rarest insect' breeds in Australia

One of the rarest species of insects in the world has begun breeding at a zoo in Australia.

An egg laid by a female Lord Howe Island Stick Insect has hatched at Melbourne Zoo, nearly seven months after it was laid.

So little is known about the insect that entomologists did not know how long it would take for the baby to be born.

The species was only rediscovered in 2001, more than 80 years after it was believed to have become extinct.

The breeding pair at the zoo are the only adults of the species in captivity.

There are more than 100 eggs still incubating at the zoo.

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Chick-lit becomes hip lit in Indonesia

In the West it's known as chick-lit; here, it's "sastra wangi", or "fragrant literature".

Don't be fooled by the flowery description though. Chick-lit Indonesian style is urban, contemporary, and quite capable of raising a few eyebrows. And it's hot property right now.

Writers like Ayu Utami, Dewi Lestari, and Nova Riyanti Yusuf have tapped into a young and sophisticated market eager to read tales that echo their own lives and aspirations.

Over the past few years a steady stream of young writers have been charting the changes in Indonesian society.

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Sharon disappoints Bombay Jews

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to cut short his historic visit to India has caused bitter disappointment within the roughly 5,000-strong Jewish community of Bombay (Mumbai).

He was responding to a pair of suicide bombings in Israel that killed at least 14 Israelis on Tuesday.

Bombay is the heart of Indian Jewry.

On Wednesday, many Jewish homes in the Indian commercial capital said they had been looking forward to welcoming the "lion of Judah".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Bryson joins heritage body

American author Bill Bryson has been appointed a commissioner of English Heritage, charged with protecting the country's buildings.

One of Bryson's best-selling books, Notes from a Small Island, took a wry look at the eccentrities of Britain.

He has been a UK resident, on and off, for 20 years and classes himself as an Anglophile.

Bryson follows in the footsteps of US TV presenter Loyd Grossman, the first foreigner on the body's board.

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Swapping the sash for botox

Hot tubs and botox have taken on a new meaning for the Orange Order in a County Down town.

For an historic Orange Hall in the heart of mainly nationalist Downpatrick has been sold and is being transformed into a beauty parlour.

The 108-year-old hall in Church Street has a rich history in the Orange Order and unionism.

It was used as a platform for meetings by former Northern Ireland prime minister and East Down MP Brian Faulkner, William Johnston of Ballykilbeg, and former South Down MP Enoch Powell.

But Belfast solicitor Louis Bannon has now bought the property marking the end of an era for the building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Father of the H-bomb' dies

Atomic scientist Edward Teller, widely known as the "father of the H-bomb", has died at the age of 95.

Teller played a key role in US defence and energy policies for more than half a century, championing the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs.

He was also a strong advocate of nuclear power and the Strategic Defense Initiative missile defence system, dubbed "Star Wars".

Teller suffered a stroke and died on Tuesday in Stanford, California, near the Hoover Institute where he served as a senior research fellow, a spokesman for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory said.

(Slow news day, so I'll do News That Matters later today).

As I mentioned previously, I've been doing a fair amount of work to customise the information on the homepage to suit my purposes. Although this has been mostly successful, I do have a couple of complaints about the current options :

1. Section Slashboxes show all stories, ignoring any exclusions that you specified elsewhere in the Preferences. For instance, the BSD Slashbox includes all the announcements of updates to the BSDs and associated projects, whereas I'm more interested in the tangential stories (BSD vs Windows, BSD vs Microsoft, security-related stuff, etc.)

   Can it be that hard to pump out the same set of story-links that I'd get from visiting the Section homepage?

2. The User Space box, which should enable you to include links to your favourite websites, is effectively crippled by a (undisclosed) text limit. This is what I've currently got in mine :

   <A HREF="search.pl?topic=109">MS</a> <A HREF="search.pl?topic=201">Windows</a> <A HREF="search.pl?topic=113">IE</a> <A HREF="search.pl?topic=154">Moz</a> <A HREF="search.pl?topic=107">Apple</a> <A HREF="search.pl?topic=179">OSX</a>

   That's a grand total of six links, and I only managed that by making them local to slashdot.org, abbreviating, and ditching line-breaks. Not terribly useful, as far as I can see.

   I'd suggest scrapping the current set-up with a 'scrapbook' of links, like the ones generated alongside each story, that you can copy into. In fact, stick a little button onto the stories, and next to comments that include links, to make it even easier.

3. Whilst you can easily tell Slashdot what you're not interested in, via the Preferences, there's no real way to tell it what you are interested in. How about a My Topics area on the left, underneath the Sections, where you can stick the topics that you like to read about? Click the link, go to a search on that topic.
4. A message at the top of the screen to tell you if you have new Messages would be nice when you're reading stories.
5. Not specifically to do with the homepage, but how about some extra stats on your User Info box? In particular, the number of Friends/Fans/Foes/Freaks you've got would be great.

Without any knowledge of the Slashcode, I've no way of telling how feasible some of these are. Am I asking for too much?

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Giant lizard terrorises Beirut

Urban sprawl piles on the pounds

Preaching white supremacy in South Africa

New Zealand tackles growing racism
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Giant lizard terrorises Beirut

No, not Godzilla. Apparently, a Komodo Dragon is roaming the neighbourhood, and is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of several pets. The authorities are trying to get photographic evidence of the beast's identity...
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Urban sprawl piles on the pounds

According to a report published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, the average weight of the population of a residential area is linked to the distance of shops and services - the theory being that the closer they are, the more likely you are to walk there rather than take the car. So people in "sprawling" districts are more obese than those living in "compact" district.

Maybe this isn't as blindingly obvious over there... :-)
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Preaching white supremacy in South Africa

Nearly a decade on from the end of apartheid, some people still hanker for the past. Like Reverend Willie Smith, founder of the church of Lewende Hoop (Living Hope), and his congregations.

"We know that we are God's people, he forbid us to mix with other nations, to marriage with other nations, to live on the same level as they are. We see this ANC government as punishment [for abandoning apartheid]," says Reverend Smith.

However, offering his support to the 22 people currently standing trial for plotting a bombing campaign against government targets isn't going to endear him much to the majority of South Africans...
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New Zealand tackles growing racism

Clean, green - and racist? New Zealand's image is taking a beating with new research showing that 70% of its citizens think that Asians face significant discrimination.

This is not a new phenomenon - similar opposition faced migrants from the Pacific islands in the 1970s.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES :

First black woman joins Queen's guard

Harley-Davidson revs up 100 years

Romans in footwear style shocker!

Egypt bans foreign belly dancers

Canada signs Indian land deal

Japan economy *really* in trouble...

Pink sees red over prince's 'hunt'
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First black woman joins Queen's guard

Janna Scantlebury, 19, from Bow, in the east of London, has been selected to join the ranks of the mounted guards working around Buckingham Palace.
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Harley-Davidson revs up 100 years

It was founded in 1903 when 21-year-old William S. Harley joined his 20-year-old friend, Arthur Davidson, to make a racing bike in a 10 foot by 15 shed on which was scrawled "Harley-Davidson Motor Company".

Oh, and apparently it's not just a man's machine :

Increasingly, the bikes are becoming a vehicle of choice for young, professional women who like the tough image.

And the company does now sell bridal wear including, according to its website, a "women's leather bustier", a "women's bridal hat - lace trimmed" and a "silk bandana".

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Romans in footwear style shocker!

Evidence for what, by modern standards, would be considered a lack of style has been uncovered at a major archaeological dig in south London, where a foot from a bronze statue appears to be adorned with both socks and sandals.

The discovery was made during the excavation of a three-acre Romano-Celtic temple complex at Tabard Square in Southwark.

Last month, a 2,000-year-old pot of cream, with its contents still intact, was found at the site.

The horror! :-)
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Egypt bans foreign belly dancers

A top belly dancer commands around ($3,145) £2,000 a night - a price the foreign dancers have been happy to undercut.

I hope we don't see this logic being extended to other danceforms - only Spaniards can do Flamenco, only Cubans can do Salsa, etc.
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Canada signs Indian land deal

The deal sees the Tlicho Nation - formerly the Dogrib First Nation - assume control over 39,000 square kilometres (15,210 square miles) of land between Great Slave and Great Bear lakes in northern Canada.

[That's about the size of Switzerland!]

[...]
It will give them the chance to exploit the natural resources of the territory, including Canada's two diamond mines.

Plenty of puff from Jean Chretien to mark the occasion. No quotes, though, from the tribe's reclusive leader, AldyGrauniad*... :-)

* Anagram of well-known Canuck of this locale, is case you need a hint.
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Japan economy *really* in trouble...

Plans are afoot to recruit homeless people to sell the Big Issue in Tokyo and Osaka. But will the Japanese accept it, or try and ignore it?
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Pink sees red over prince's 'hunt'

The PETA poster-grrl has written to Prince William, offering to play at his 21st birthday party - if he will publicly renounce blood sports.
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This was originally posted as a comment to one of Em's recent rants, but I'm reposting it here so I can get some feedback from you guys (and gals)...

I've gone to the Homepage Preferences, and done the following :

1. Checked the boxes for all Sections except Articles, Features and Polls.
2. Checked all the Topics that I'm not particularly interested in.

In my case, I've been pretty ruthless about stuff I've turned off :

• All games console topics.
• All Linux-related topics.
• Most Open-Source related topics.
• Most Apple-related topics.

I have since unchecked the Section bars for Apache and BSD, as those are low-volume and do have the occasional interesting article.

Going to the individual sections to look for stuff isn't that hard - well, unless you have a fit when you seen the Games section colour scheme, that is. :-)

Obviously, your choices will probably be different from mine.

Oh, and I do meta-mod regularly, so there's less chance of me missing out on an article that I might not otherwise see...

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TODAY'S HEADLINES :

A babe in arms - literally

Mental blocks to peace in the Middle East

Chinese tiger cubs given hunting lessons - in South Africa
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A babe in arms - literally

Private Damien Kenny and Private Jonathan Hunt were searching a house in Basra in the south of the country after rounding up five terror suspects when they made their amazing discovery.

There, in a dusty 3ft-long padlocked metal box and nestling among rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK47s and ammunition, was little Rose.

Tightly swaddled and barely two days old, she was no longer breathing.

Putting down their own weapons, the squaddies began giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

A few minutes later they were rewarded for their quick thinking when Rose - named by the soldiers after the red rose of their Lancashire regiment - squeezed Private Kenny's finger.

Happily, they were able to find her mother, and the two were reunited.
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Mental blocks to peace in the Middle East

By the side of a path on a hillside north of Jerusalem hangs a sign offering a blunt riposte to those who harbour plans to tamper with the fate of the land.

"Only the Bible is the roadmap of the Jewish people," it says in a message directed far beyond the itinerants who pass by.

It is here, in what the settlers call the Judean hills, that the roadmap, the US-backed blueprint for peace, has few takers and will face its sternest test.

They don't have much time for Mr Sharon, their former champion, either...
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Chinese tiger cubs given hunting lessons - in South Africa

The two South China tiger cubs were born at Shanghai Zoo, but lack of both space and trainers has hampered efforts to teach them to hunt for themselves. So they are travelling to South Africa, where they will live in a 30-square-kilometre enclosure, and be able to stalk the wildlife. A similar program helped two Bengal tigers to improve their kill-times from 40 minutes to 20 seconds.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES :

In Ex-Soviet Georgia...

Vatican told bishops to cover up sex abuse in 1962
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In Ex-Soviet Georgia...

The BBC have a special report from the now-independent republic of Georgia, where elections are due in November - these will help decide who replaces current President Eduard Shevardnadze (remember him?) when he steps down in 2005. Unfortunately, this is one part of the world where America and Russia have most definitely not been bestest buddies...

But why should Washington be interested in tiny distant Georgia?

The answer is oil, geo-politics and the changed world after 9/11.

The United States has invested huge political and financial capital in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a vast project that will take Caspian Sea oil from Azerbaijan, via Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.

The project provides the US with a massive alternative source of energy in the event of instability in the Middle East.

Put simply, it wants to ensure that its investment is protected.

That means a commitment to stability and democracy in Georgia that goes beyond occasional words of support.

So when the Georgians asked for US help against Chechen and al-Qaeda forces operating in Georgia's lawless Pankisi Gorge, Washington was quick to oblige.

[...]

Georgia has good reason to be well-disposed to Uncle Sam.

Washington has propped up its fragile independence to the tune of one billion dollars plus.

That makes Georgians the second biggest per capita recipients of US aid after the Israelis.

It also gives Washington an increasing stake - and say - in the political future of the country.

The US ambassador is described by many here as minister extraordinary to President Shevardnadze's government.

Needless to day, the Russians have decided that they need to have more of an influence on the behaviour of their neighbour...

The gas giant, Gazprom, has acquired a virtual monopoly over the supply and distribution of Georgian gas, and the Russian energy company, UES, has just bought a controlling stake in the electricity system.

It is Russia now - or Russian companies - who will determine the price of gas and electricity in Georgia.

And those are important considerations in an election year.

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Vatican told bishops to cover up sex abuse in 1962

The Observer newspaper in the UK have obtained a 40-year-old document (which the newspaper made available as a PDF file) from the Vatican's archives, which has particular relevance to the ongoing sex-abuse cases against the Catholic Church in the USA and elsewhere.

The 69-page Latin document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII was sent to every bishop in the world. The instructions outline a policy of 'strictest' secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and threatens those who speak out with excommunication.

They also call for the victim to take an oath of secrecy at the time of making a complaint to Church officials. It states that the instructions are to 'be diligently stored in the secret archives of the Curia [Vatican] as strictly confidential. Nor is it to be published nor added to with any commentaries.'

The document, which has been confirmed as genuine by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, is called 'Crimine solicitationies', which translates as 'instruction on proceeding in cases of solicitation'.

The Catholic Church has denied this there has been an organised cover-up, and have accused lawyers of taking the documents out of context and distorting them. However...

Lawyers point to a letter the Vatican sent to bishops in May 2001 clearly stating the 1962 instruction was in force until then. The letter is signed by Cardinal Ratzinger, the most powerful man in Rome beside the Pope and who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the office which ran the Inquisition in the Middle Ages.

I expect there will be a lot of analysis of what this documents says over the next few days in the media...
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Just a note for those of you who don't know. Mr Blackhat, of this digital locale, has been running small daily selections of links to news items (with free texttoon!) in his Journal the last few weeks. His posts are a lot more concise than mine. So now you have not one but two sources of News that Matters here on Slashdot, you lucky so-and-sos... :-)

This has been a Public Service Announcement. Thank you.

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TODAY'S HEADLINE :

• How to rebuild police forces in war zones
• Dads can't keep up with techno-sons
• Council bans 'lover-ly' welcome

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How to rebuild police forces in war zones
BBC News Magazine has the story of Inspector David Atraghji, of London's Metropolitan Police, who spent a year in Kosovo helping to train a new police force.

What amused me and frustrated me was how the corrupt culture of policing from the old regime had stuck. Some recruits' aspiration was to join the traffic police because they thought that was where the money was. That's the way they'd lived under Serbian rule; because the police service was so poorly paid, officers augmented their salaries with bribes.

Another hurdle was the use of force. During self-defence classes it became obvious that they were used to the previous police force being... brutal is not quite the right word, but a lot more physical.

[...]

We had to tell the recruits that any disputes or clashes due to ethnic tensions wouldn't be tolerated and they'd be summarily dismissed. Over the 12 weeks, each contingent drew together and there was camaraderie there.

While I was there, we had the first joint passing out ceremony - they call it graduation - which was a really big deal. Previously only ethnic Albanians would attend; the Serbian recruits felt they couldn't because of the hostility that could be there.

So the first multi-ethnic ceremony was a potential flashpoint and a big security operation. It went off really well - we had Serbian and Albanian recruits shaking hands and congratulating each other. I wouldn't be as soft to say it was moving but it was a landmark.

We can only hope that a similar miracle can be worked in Iraq in the coming months...
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Dads can't keep up with techno-sons

A survey in the UK by Stuff Magazine examined the attitutes of kids and their fathers towards new technology. No surprise to learn that the older generation has problems getting to grips with things like MiniDisc and MP3 players.

In comparison, sons aged 16 to 24 are more likely to try out new technology and think broadband internet is the greatest invention of the 21st century.

The most techno-savvy young men in the country live in the Midlands, with MP3s topping their list of favourites.

But when it comes to entertainment, dads joined sons in citing Sony's PlayStation 2 as their preferred games console.

Some dads still cling to hazy retro memories. The survey found that the Sinclair Spectrum ZX was their third favourite gaming device, even though it is long extinct.

Since I can remember the ZX Spectrum (BBC typo? Whatever next!), I suspect this means I officially qualify as the older generation, even though I have no kids. Fortunately, my Dad at least half-understands things like Broadband, the Internet, MP3 and computers, having worked in television for many years and been exposed to computer systems and digital video during that time. I just help fill out his understanding now and again...
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Council bans 'lover-ly' welcome

Bristol City Council has decided, for reasons unknown, that council workers should not greet visitors using Bristolian names like 'dear', 'love', 'babby' or 'treasure', but should instead stick to 'sir' or 'madam'. But residents say the Council is being silly in trying to tone down the local dialect.

"I think they should be encouraging it, not banning it," said Pat Dallimore.

"We get people from America coming to visit us with out quaint old English accent - that is good for the city.

"It is stupid - how can they ban people from talking?"

As a former part-time resident of the county of Somerset (or Zummerzet, in Wurzel *grin*), to the south of Bristol, I think they've got a point. I suggest dunking the official who came up with the idea in a large barrel of cider until s/he see the error of his/her ways... :-)
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TODAY'S HEADLINES :

Ads for 'Six Feet Under' buried by UK watchdog

Anand Patwardhan, alone against India's nuclear nationalism

Argentina overturns amnesty laws

On This Day...

The Estonian Jews, the British, the Nazis and Uncle Joe
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Ads for 'Six Feet Under' buried by UK watchdog

For those who don't know about it :

Six Feet Under is a comedy drama set in a Californian funeral parlour.

Channel 4 in the UK is currently running this show, and had placed ads in newspapers and magazines, and online, promoting the show using pictures of death-related beauty products. For instance :

One advert showed a man's naked shoulders and head. In the foreground is a labelled "In Eternum + embalming fluid" and next to the caption "skin to die for".

Similar ads were produced by the show's US producer, HBO, to promote the first series.

Since the adverts first appeared, there have been more than 100 complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), based in part on the fact that at no point did the adverts make clear that they were, in fact, promoting 'Six Feet Under'. (I have seen one of the ads myself, and I was scratching my head for a while, until I saw a trailer for the show and made the connection). Needless to say, the ASA has banned further use of the adverts, and told Channel 4 not to do it again.
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Anand Patwardhan, alone against India's nuclear nationalism

Anand Patwardhan is India's most distinguished director of documentary films, but he is also the most controversial.

His convictions are at odds with much of modern India and his latest film, War and Peace, is no exception in its criticism of the Indian Government.

In a country where religious fundamentalism is on the rise and political rhetoric reaches hysteria, he is afraid the quiet voice of reason and peace is being overwhelmed by the drum-banging of xenophobia and violence.

Patwardhan is, in essence, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and that means he is a pacifist, a believer in equality between sexes, classes and creeds and an intolerant believer in tolerance, particularly in tolerance between religions.

This makes him a lonely figure in today's India.

His latest work looks at the nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan, and was banned by the Indian goverment for nearly two years. The BBC are showing a condensed version of the film (produced in collaboration with Mr Patwardhan) tonight, and there is a short interview onlineto accompany the screening, in which he discusses why he made the film.
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Argentina overturns amnesty laws

In a packed chamber just before midnight, the Congress effectively opened the book on one of the most painful and brutal periods of the nation's history - the military dictatorship of 1976-1983.

Until now that book had been locked shut because of two laws which pardoned officers accused of human rights abuses and protected them from future prosecution.

But Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner came to office earlier this year promising to end impunity.

Public opinion seems to have swung solidly behind him. As Congress finally declared the laws annulled, a crowd of supporters gathered outside the building erupted in applause.

But, as the article points out, this is only the beginning of the quest to find out the fate of the 'disappeared', and bring to account those responsible...
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On This Day...

...in 1961, Berliners woke up to the sight of the newly-erected Wall.

...in 1985, three-year-old Jamie Gavin became the world's youngest heart and lung transplant patient.
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The Estonian Jews, the British, the Nazis and Uncle Joe

A High Court judge in the UK has ordered a judicial review of the case of Jakob Kaplan, whose father and uncle were deported to Siberia during World War II, and whose assets were seized due to Estonia being declared an enemy of Britian during the war. Mr Kaplan's application to the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel, set up in 1999, was turned down on the grounds that they only dealt with those who had been persecuted by the Nazis. But Mr Kaplan's lawyer argues that, thanks to the non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin that operated between 1939 and 1941, under which Russia occupied Estonia and the other Baltic states, the claim was indeed valid.

As the article points out, 'over the last two decades, some of the lessons of history have been learned not in universities, nor even on television, but in courts of law'. There is a lot of information about the pact between Hitler and Stalin, and Estonia's history (did you know it once belonged to Sweden?) included.
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Looks like I spoke too soon yesterday - the official hottest place in the UK was Gravesend, in Kent, at 38.1C. Regardless, the bookies finally had to pay out on all the weather bets placed last week!
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TODAY'S HEADLINES :

The Big Political Story in the UK gets started...

Bali bomb suspect 'happy to die'

Pupils 'could bypass GCSEs'

R.I.P - Gregory Hines, actor, 1946-2003

The man who can pick his nose with his toes...

Calcutta prostitutes turn to Kama Sutra to promote safe sex

The Nuremburg Trials, coming soon to the World Wide Web

Cut off toes to fit your shoes

On This Day, in 1982 - Krays let out for mother's funeral

Heide Fleiss does an Iron Mike on her ex-boyfried...

Steven Seagal's former business partner admits Mafia extortion plot

Japan-China talks marred by reminders of World War II
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The Big Political Story in the UK gets started...
from BBC News Online

The inquiry into the events surrounding the death of the weapons expert David Kelly is due to begin taking evidence.

Dr Kelly apparently committed suicide after being named as the source of a BBC report claiming the government had exaggerated a dossier on Iraq's weapons capability before the war.

A friend and colleague of Dr Kelly, Terence Taylor will be the first to give evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Other witnesses due to give evidence to the inquiry this week include officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, Foreign Office and key figures within the BBC, including Andrew Gilligan, the defence correspondent whose story is at the centre of the affair.

Mr Taylor, from the Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, worked with Dr Kelly as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq.

He is likely to be asked about his friend's expertise and about a conversation he had with him a few days before he died.

He will be followed by Richard Hatfield, personnel director at the Ministry of Defence and Dr Kelly's line manager.

It is likely Mr Hatfield will be asked to give greater details about the extent of Dr Kelly's role in drawing up last September's dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

He is expected to be questioned on the way Dr Kelly was treated after he admitted meeting BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

Mr Gilligan will be one of the first week's key witnesses.

Government officials - some closely involved in assessing intelligence information - will also give their accounts.

Eleven witnesses have been called to give evidence over the next four days.

They will be questioned only by counsel to the inquiry, but some might be recalled later for cross-examination.

Ahead of the inquiry, Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith called for Tony Blair to apologise for comments made by his spokesman about Dr Kelly.

Last week Downing Street spokesman Tom Kelly admitted comparing Dr Kelly to fictional fantasist Walter Mitty.

The spokesman apologised unreservedly for his remarks, made off-the-record to journalists, but Mr Duncan Smith said that was not enough.

Lord Hutton has ruled the inquiry will not be televised, following an appeal from broadcasters Sky and ITN.

The 59-year-old's body was found in woods at Harrowdown Hill, Longworth, on 18 July.

An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned three days later at Oxfordshire Coroner's Court.

His funeral was held last Wednesday close to his Oxfordshire home.

Even without the spectre of live TV coverage of ministers being interrogated, this inquiry could seriously damage the Government, and Tony Blair in particular. There was another off-the-record remark made at the weekend from a 'senior source within Westminster', claiming that the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, is to be made the sacrificial victim for this inquiry, but the opposition parties are saying that if anyone goes, it should really be the Prime Minister...
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Bali bomb suspect 'happy to die'
from BBC News Online

A key Bali bomb suspect has begun his defence plea in an Indonesian court by thanking prosecutors for demanding a death sentence for him.

Imam Samudra - accused by police of being the mastermind of last year's attack which killed 202 people - said death would bring him closer to God.

Last week, another key suspect, Amrozi, was convicted and sentenced to execution by firing squad for his part in the Bali attack.

Amrozi's lawyers are expected to lodge their appeal against the verdict later on Monday.

Dressed in a pristine white shirt and Muslim cap, Imam Samudra entered the courtroom, shouting "God is great" in Arabic.

Imam Samudra, a 33-year-old computer expert, than began his statement by reciting verses from the Koran in front of the five-judge panel.

"I'd like to say thank you to the prosecutor team, which has demanded the death sentence. Because in death we live peacefully, and in death we draw near to God," he told the court.

Then speaking in the local Balinese language, Imam Samudra apologised to the people of Bali.

"If I've made mistakes I'm sorry. If the victims of the bombs were Indonesians and Muslims, I'm sorry," he said.

"But if the victims came from countries which are allies of the United States, then I'm pleased."

Imam Samudra has admitted involvement in the Bali bombing, but has denied masterminding the plot.

He is accused of planning the bombings, picking the targets and assigning Amrozi to buy bomb-making chemicals and a van to carry a bomb.

I have to wonder, after reading this, if the guy is really serious about defending himself against the charges, given his reaction towards the proposed punishment? I daresay his defence lawyer must be thinking the same thing...
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Pupils 'could bypass GCSEs'
from BBC News Online

Pupils should not take GCSEs if schools think they are a waste of time, the government's exam watchdog has said.

Head teachers should decide if students go straight to AS exams as part of A-level courses, said Dr Ken Boston, head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

Education Secretary Charles Clarke has asked former chief inspector of schools Mike Tomlinson to review qualifications for 14- to 19-year-olds.

Pupils take too many exams between 16 and 18 with GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels, Dr Boston told the Times.

"If a school wants to offer only a few GCSEs or not take them at all and go straight to A-level and AS then that is perfectly open to them," he said.

He said he did not believe young people should have to take three examinations in three consecutive years.

"It is a matter for schools to determine."

His comments come days before this year's results are due to be published.

An education department spokesman said: "GCSEs continue to prove their worth and any reform must build on their success."

But teachers' leader David Hart said it signalled the end of the GCSE in the long term.

Schools where pass rates at 16 are close to 100% could ditch GCSEs in favour of A-levels, said Mr Hart, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers.

"Although A-levels are very much regarded as being an examination system of high quality, it is not in our view delivering the goods and it certainly is not producing students with a well-rounded education," he said.

The Conservatives meanwhile have said they would make the QCA independent from government.

Shadow education secretary Damian Green told the Daily Telegraph the change was needed to restore confidence after last year's A-level marking fiasco.

The then Education Secretary Estelle Morris sacked QCA chief William Stubbs.

Mr Green told the paper: "When you get to a stage where schools with highly academic pupils are saying that the main exams they take are a waste of time, it is no exaggeration to say that confidence has collapsed."

He was speaking after it emerged university applications could be delayed until after students receive A-level results.

Government adviser Professor Steven Schwart believes this would help less confident pupils whose schools do not encourage them to aim high.

And Sir William Stubbs said on Monday: "The delaying of application until actual results and the making of the application on the basis of marks rather than grades would be a huge step forward."

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was less confident about removing GCSEs, as more than half of young people leave school at the age of 16, meaning they had no external assessment.

"That [change] would be a very big step and I think any secretary of state would think very carefully and very long and hard about that."

Oh great, yet more changes to the education system. Given that AS- and A-Level courses are supposed to be more rigorous that their GCSE equivalents, will this mean that brighter students risk getting burned by the pressure to get good results at an earlier age? This is a very real possibility, since the plans to delay university applications until after A-Level results are known will require a rething of the entire UCAS course placement system, and the universities are, reportedly, not too keen on the idea...
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R.I.P - Gregory Hines, actor, 1946-2003
from BBC News Online

Actor Gregory Hines, who starred in films such as White Nights and The Cotton Club, has died of cancer at the age of 57.

Hines, who was also a Tony-winning tap dancer, died on Saturday in Los Angeles, his publicist announced.

He was best known for his roles in films such as The Cotton Club (1984), based around the seminal 1920s New York jazz club, in which he played Sandman Williams.

He was also cast alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov in the thriller White Nights (1985), and alongside Billy Crystal in the comic cop thriller Running Scared (1986).

Hines was an accomplished dancer whose roles in 1980s films often featured his dancing. He was also a respected choreographer.

In 1992 he won a Tony, US theatre's equivalents of the Oscars, for his part in the musical Jelly's Last Jam.

Hines began his entertainment career in the tap dancing act Hines, Hines and Dad, alongside his brother Maurice and his father.

Born in New York in 1946, his mother had urged him to become a tap dancer as a way of getting out of poverty. He started tap as a toddler, learning the dance moves his older brother had been taught in dance class.

At the age of six, he was performing at the Apollo Theatre for two weeks with Maurice.

"I don't remember not dancing," Hines said in a 2001 interview. "When I realised I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance."

The two brothers danced in the musical revue Eubie! in 1978. The brothers later performed together in Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies, and then in The Cotton Club. Dozens of film and TV roles followed.

He had his own TV show, The Gregory Hines Show, in 1997, and was also a regular guest star on comedy Will and Grace.

Now you have no excuse for saying 'Who?', as most people of Fark were yesterday...
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The man who can pick his nose with his toes...
from BBC News Online

A keen angler has had two toes transplanted onto his hand by plastic surgeons, so that he can carry on fishing after an horrific accident.

Colin Thomas, 58, from Swansea, south Wales, lost all eight fingers when both his hands were caught in a roller at a steel plant.

He feared his fishing days were over because he could not hold a rod, nor could he reel in his catch, without fingers.

But surgeons came to the rescue in a 13-hour operation to take a toe from each foot to transplant onto his right hand.

Colin is absolutely delighted with the result. "I'm just so thrilled that the surgeons were able to give me the chance to go fishing again," he said.

"I just love the sport - but it is impossible without fingers. The toe transplant means I can be out there with my rod again.

"I never dreamed surgeons could do something like this. The doctors were just amazing. "It means I can bait the line, grip the rod and reel in the catch."

Colin, from Cockett, has bought a boat from the £100,00 compensation he got from steel giant Corus for the accident.

His hands were trapped in a roller, and he lost all his fingers but kept both thumbs.

The father-of-two was in hospital for seven weeks recovering from his terrible injuries and had to have more than 20 operations.

Plastic surgeons Philip Sykes and Hamish Laing amputated the toes next to the big toes on each foot and transplanted them into his right hand.

Doctors told him he was the first person in Britain to have two toes transplanted onto his hand.

Toe-to-hand surgery is one of the most technically demanding microsurgical operations - and the blood vessels were joined up with 12 tiny stitches using fibres narrower than human hair.

Colin, a keen angler since he was nine-years-old now goes out fishing almost every day in his new £20,000 boat called Chorus Girl, fishing mainly for bass just off the Gower coast.

He is able to hold the rod steady with his left hand even though he has no fingers on it.

He has made a kind of a glove which attaches to a Velcro pad on the rod, allowing him to keep control, while the thumb and two toes on his right hand give him enough control to bring in the catch.

"I'm enjoying my fishing again but I always need one of my mates to go out with me," Colin explained. "I couldn't cope with the boat on my own if there was an emergency. "People stare at me but I've got used to that - and I always joke that I'm the only man who can pick his nose with his toes."

Wife Lynne, 54, said: "He was in deep despair after the accident but the transplant operation went so well that he has been given a new lease of life." Fishing friend Roger Gore said: "When I spoke to him soon after the accident he said he didn't think he would pull anchor for me again.

"Now all his mates think he is fantastic for overcoming this terrible injury and start fishing again."

Plastic surgeon Mr Laing said: "We were pleased we were able to perform this transplant and enable Colin to get on with his life.

"It was good team work by the operating team and Colin was a very good patient."

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Calcutta prostitutes turn to Kama Sutra to promote safe sex
from BBC News Online

The government in India's West Bengal State is supporting a programme that offers prostitutes an ancient solution to modern concerns about safe sex.

"Kama Sutra has many postures that can give men the highest pleasure without consummation and that is what the prostitutes are being taught.

"They are learning something very useful," says Rajyashree Choudhuri, chief of the Institute of International Social Development (IISD), who designed the project.

Until now, thousands of Calcutta's sex-workers have tried to force customers to use condoms.

Their powerful organisation, Durbar Mahila Samannoy Samity, has decreed that all their members perform safe sex and customers trying to force sex workers to have intercourse without condoms are thrown out of brothels.

But what happens if a customer refuses to use condoms?

The prostitutes lose business, which they can ill afford.

That is a situation the IISD is teaching them to avoid.

In a conference hall in the posh southern locality of Gariahat, the IISD is running its "safe sex" workshop, with backing from the West Bengal Aids Control Society.

Sex-workers from the city's major red light districts are joining up in droves.

"We will back any programme on safe sex. The number of HIV patients in West Bengal is increasing and we want to control it at any cost," says Sachinanda Sarkar, assistant director of the Aids Control Society.

Last year, 1,137 HIV cases were reported in the state. More than 600 cases have been reported this year.

Dozens of prostitutes turn up for the workshop and are taken through the voluminous Kama Sutra, India's most famous ancient treatise on sex.

The training lasts for two to three hours.

"They are specifically taught foreplay and other poses that will give men a high degree of pleasure," said Rajyashree Choudhury.

"We teach the girls the art of ensuring a premature but very satisfying discharge by tactfully avoiding intercourse. The Kama Sutra is a treasure house for all that."

A large percentage of HIV/Aids patients in India acquire the virus through unprotected sex.

Ironic that a text that has long fascinated the Western world is being 'rediscovered' in the land where it was first written...
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The Nuremburg Trials, coming soon to the World Wide Web
from BBC News Online

One million pages of documents from the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals will be made available on the internet if Boston's Harvard University can find the necessary money.

Harvard's Law School has already posted 7,000 pages on one of its own web sites but it says it needs as much as $7m to make the entire Nuremberg archive available.

The massive project to put the one million pages of transcripts from the Nuremberg trials onto the internet is likely to take 10 years to complete.

The pages have been accessible to the public for the past 50 years though only a few people - academics and hunters of war criminals - have sifted through the mountains of material.

But the papers are now becoming very fragile and the idea to put them onto the internet came about as part of an effort to preserve them.

Seven thousand pages - a volume which covers only a third of the first 13 trials held between 1946 and 1949 - were posted on a Harvard website but then the money to continue ran out.

The university is now looking for financial grants and gifts to continue.

No startling new information about the Holocaust is expected to come to light if the massive internet archive is completed but scholars have welcomed the move.

They say it will make the Holocaust more immediate to readers and will also make the study of areas such as slave labour, the torture of prisoners-of-war and medical experimentation on humans more accessible.

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Cut off toes to fit your shoes
from Sydney Herald-Sun

SEXY power shoes are an essential female accessory, but they can be torture to wear. So women are resorting to an extreme solution - surgery.

Kelli Richards, 31, spent $US10,000 ($15,300) on a foot operation when she could no longer stand the agony. "I'm fashion-conscious and I want to wear what's out there, but my bunions used to stick out," she said. "My feet ached so much I was having to wear flip-flops instead of dressing up and going out."
Ms Richards, from Philadelphia, is a fashion victim of the cult for Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo shoes that often narrow to a sharp tip. Once strictly for evening wear, they became must-have items for professional women to squeeze into.

The surgeon shortened Ms Richards's second toe by removing a piece of bone, straightened her little toe and cut off a bunion. Her operation took place in February so she could enjoy the summer in peek-a-boo sandals.

Deborah Wilton from New Jersey endured the same. She felt her feet were so ugly she would bury them in the sand on the beach. "When people would see my feet they'd say, 'Oh my God, look at your toes!"' After surgery to shorten her second toe, she rejoiced: "I am wearing open-toed shoes for the first time in my life."

Stephen Smith, a Californian podiatrist, said he turned away at least 50 patients a year who wanted extreme operations. "We have people come in and say: 'My foot is too wide. Can you get rid of my little toe?"'

Suzanne Levine, who operated on Richards, is known as the "foot facelift doctor". She performs about 300 foot operations a year, a phenomenon she ascribes to the reluctance of women to accept middle age.

Foot surgery often draws the same clients as plastic surgery. "I've had people ask for toe liposuction. I tell them to go see a therapist," she said.

Expect a child foot-binding revival any day now....
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On This Day, in 1982 - Krays let out for mother's funeral
from BBC News Online

The notorious east End gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray have been allowed out of prison for the funeral of their mother.

Violet Kray, 72, died of cancer last week.

It was the first time the Krays, 49, had been seen in public since being sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 1969.

Security was tight for the funeral service in east London.

The brothers arrived separately - both were handcuffed to a prison guard and flanked by police officers.

Ronnie Kray was brought from Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane in Berkshire where he has spent the last four years.

His brother travelled from Parkhurst Prison in the Isle of Wight where he is still held as a maximum security Category 'A' prisoner.

The service was attended by a number of celebrities and underworld figures known to the twins from the days when they ran one of London's biggest criminal operations.

Among them was actress Diana Dors who arrived wearing a black dress and sunglasses and carrying a bouquet.

The brothers were not allowed to attend the graveside service at Chingford Mount cemetery in Essex where their mother was interred in the family burial plot.

For those of you about to say 'Who?' again, here's the background...

Ronnie and Reggie Kray graduated from juvenile crime in London's east End to running one of the capital's biggest crime rackets with their elder brother, Charlie.

They were jailed for the murders of George Cornell who called Ronnie 'a fat poof' and that of Jack 'The Hat' McVitie a year later.

A film about their lives in 1990 fuelled a campaign to get them released.

But successive home secretaries refused to free them.

Ronnie died of a heart attack in prison in 1995.

However, Reggie was released on compassionate grounds a month before his death from cancer in October 2000.

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Heide Fleiss does an Iron Mike on her ex-boyfried...
from The Daily Mirror (UK)

FORMER Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss tried to bite off the ear of her Black Hawk Down star boyfriend Tom Sizemore, a court has heard.

Sizemore, who was also in Saving Private Ryan, denies charges of domestic violence.

Boogie Nights actor Thomas Jane told the Los Angeles court how he saw a fight between the couple while at his friend Sizemore's Hollywood Hills home.

He said: "Heidi burst in screaming. She ran and jumped on him, trying to beat him up.

"Tom said, `She's biting my ear'. He stood up and threw her off his back. She fell on the drive, hitting her head.

"I put some ice on her head and mopped up the blood. Tom screamed, `Get that bitch out of my house'.

"She didn't want to leave, she was acting so irrational and I had to chase her around my car to get her in."

Fleiss, 37 - who used to organise call girls for the stars - claimed the row broke out after she confronted Sizemore with claims that he cheated on her with prostitutes.

Earlier tapes were played of Sizemore, 41, threatening to kill Fleiss and put her in jail.

The trial continues.

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Steven Seagal's former business partner admits Mafia extortion plot
from BBC News Online

The former business partner of action film star Steven Seagal is to admit his part in a mob plot to extort money from the actor, a federal prosecutor has said.

Jules Nasso is to plead guilty to charges that he joined members of the Gambino crime family in demanding more than £100,000 from the star, according to prosecutor Andrew Genser.

Terms of the plea bargain were not disclosed.

Seagal, 50, who starred in Under Siege and Exit Wounds, had testified that he was threatened by the men in a dark upstairs dining room of a Brooklyn restaurant two years ago.

The actor's lawyer, Martin Pollner, said Seagal was "pleased that justice is being pursued and that his name is now clear".

Prosecutors said they had recordings of the mobsters laughing at how scared the actor was during the meeting.

Nasso, who served as a producer on some of Seagal's most popular films, had said he was seeking repayment for a £300,000 loan to the Hollywood star.

Lawyers for the producer, who was set to go to court next month, had repeatedly called Seagal a "pathological liar".

Nasso is expected to formally enter his guilty plea in a New York court next Wednesday.

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Japan-China talks marred by reminders of World War II
from CNN.com

(CNN) -- A visit by top Japanese politicians to Beijing to mark the 25th anniversary of a peace treaty between the two nations has been marred by China's deep-rooted resentment over Tokyo's wartime atrocities.

A spate of Japanese ministers have visited Beijing in the past days, not only to commemorate the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, but also to lobby for a bullet train service and help set up talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

But despite moves by Japan to bolster ties, many Chinese are still upset over what they see as Tokyo's refusal to admit to the full extent of its atrocities in China during World War Two, diplomatic analysts say.

The long-standing animosity over Japan's wartime antics was given new fuel this month after 36 Chinese fell ill from chemical weapons left over by the Japanese army in Qiqihar city in Heilongjiang Province.

The poisonous material -- stored in five metal barrels -- was unearthed at a construction site in China's northeast.

China's official media has urged Tokyo to fully compensate the victims as well as their relatives.

That call comes as Beijing falls back on "the lesson of history" to urge Tokyo not to boost its military capacity amid the North Korean nuclear crisis.

During a meeting with Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda in Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said both countries should "look to the future while drawing lessons from history."

Fukuda arrived in Beijing on Saturday and is set to stay through Monday for talks with Chinese leaders to help defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis.

President Hu Jintao met former Japanese prime ministers Ryutaro Hashimoto and Tomiichi Murayama over the weekend, where he said both countries should be "more aware of the historical responsibilities ... when they review the lessons from history."

In the past year, China's official press has run dozens of stories about the surge of right-wing, "militaristic" sentiments in Japan.

In an article in the Global Times last week, Japan analyst Liu Linli wrote Tokyo was fomenting a "North Korean threat theory" so as to "take advantage of the opportunity to develop nuclear weapons."

Diplomatic analysts have warned that Beijing's concern about Japanese remilitarization might detract from the good will generated as East Asian nations pile pressure on Pyongyang to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who is visiting Japan, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday to talk about the nuclear standoff.

Strong anti-Japanese sentiment is shared among ordinary Chinese. Tens of thousands have signed a Website petition urging their government against using Japanese technology to build a rail link between Beijing and Shanghai.

Japan is anxious to secure the bullet train contract, and sources close to Beijing say that because of its history and lower costs, the Japanese Shinkansen, or bullet train, offers advantages over the magnetic levitation model pushed by the Germans.

Earlier this month, Japan Transport Minister Chikage Ogi traveled to Beijing to lobby for the $20 billion Beijing-Shanghai rail link.

But such moves have set China's Internet chat rooms abuzz, stirring anti-Japanese sentiment among many Chinese.

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Mother Teresa festival drops film

Malaysia delays Carrey movie

All over for blogs?

Escape to Colditz
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Mother Teresa festival drops film
from BBC News Online

A Channel 4 documentary that criticised Mother Teresa has been dropped from a festival in Calcutta celebrating her beatification.

The film Hell's Angel questioned her acceptance of donations from former Haitian ruler Jean-Claude Duvalier and US financier Charles Keating.

The documentary, based on a book by journalist Christopher Hitchens, accused her of consoling and supporting the wealthy and powerful - while preaching to the poor that they should accept their lot.

It has now been withdrawn after objections from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa to care for the poor, sick and dying.

The order has also objected to the showing of French author Dominique Lapierre's film In The Name Of God's Poor, starring Geraldine Chaplin as Mother Teresa - however, this film will still be screened.

A 1969 documentary, Something Beautiful for God, will also be shown.

The festival will be held as Mother Teresa is beatified at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on 19 October.

The ceremony will be shown live in downtown Calcutta, which Mother Teresa made her home in 1929. She died there in 1997, aged 87.

In December, the Pope approved a miracle attributed to her - the reported healing of a woman's tumour - which paved the way for her beatification.

According to Roman Catholic belief, a second miracle would make her eligible for sainthood.

Needless to say, my opinion of the Catholic Church just went down another notch...
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Malaysia delays Carrey movie
from BBC News Online

Government censors in Malaysia have postponed the release of the Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty.

Authorities are concerned the film, in which Carrey gets to play God for a day, is offensive to Muslims and are considering banning the film.

The film was due to be released on Thursday but the Film Censorship Board is now rethinking its earlier decision to approve it.

"We have not decided whether to ban it, but we have instructed distributors not to show it until a decision is made," said board secretary Lukeman Said.

In Bruce Almighty, Carrey is challenged by God to take over the running of the world to see if he can do a better job of it.

Earlier government minister Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin called for a ban because the theme was "not appropriate".

"We cannot equate ourselves with God almighty even as a joke," he said.

The predominantly Muslim country has a history of outlawing American films, or censoring scenes on moral or religious grounds.

The award-winning film The Hours saw several scenes cut that depicted kissing between two women to protect the "interests of the country and people from bad influences and negative elements shown in films".

And the big screen adaptation of the comic book hero Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck, was also outlawed because of "excessive violence".

The cartoon Prince of Egypt, an animated epic about the life of Moses, was deemed "insensitive for religious reasons", while Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me featured too much sexual innuendo for Malaysian censors.

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All over for blogs?
from BBC News Online

Blogs have been seen by some as a new wave of internet development but are they losing their appeal, wonders technology analyst Bill Thompson.

"One of the most useful things about being away from home - I'm writing this in Venice and then I'm off to California - is that it gives you an opportunity to reflect on the sources of information you really need and trust.

After all, if I wanted to I could be as connected from my little apartment as I am from home.

I've got my laptop with me, even if it does only have a rather creaky dial-up connection over a GSM mobile since I've been unable to get the local GPRS service to recognise that I might possibly want data from a server in another country.

But I can easily use one of the many friendly cyber cafes in the city, charging reasonable rates for a fast service.

Away from the net, there is the TV and, of course, international editions of the UK papers. Or I could listen to the radio.

Yet I have hardly taken notice of any of them. I use my mobile connection to send some e-mail, and I go into a cyber cafe to download the torrent of spam and occasional useful message.

But apart from a brief glance at a couple of news sites to check that no major disasters have befallen the world - and the hottest day on record in London doesn't count - I have hardly used the web at all.

The TV remains switched off, the radio is silent and the papers are on the newsstands. I am largely unaware of all the many things that have happened in the wide world since I left the UK 10 days ago.

I am also, it must be admitted, unaware of what is being said on the various e-mail lists I subscribe to, or on the regular round of blogs that I read when I have time.

I should feel guilty about this, and I am sure that I'll get back into it when I am home and in my normal routine again.

And it is not that there isn't occasionally something of interest to be found in discussions of the future of journalism, government plans on ID cards, the impact of the internet on democratic politics, or the nature of community in a digital society.

It is just that none of it seems essential, so I am giving it a miss. Instead I have been spending time thinking about the net's future and how we can make sure it serves people's needs and not those of business.

In fact, I had stopped paying careful attention to the lists and the blogs even before I left the country. It seemed to me that the number of useless postings and blog entries was starting to increase and there was less and less there that was really of interest.

This could be the sign of a worrying phenomenon. Perhaps the blogs, after a brief time when they were seen by some as a wholly new wave of internet development, are losing their appeal.

The earliest bloggers have been at it for two years now - how many days can someone keep on posting to their LiveJournal site, or visiting Blogger to add more details about their cat's mysterious illness?

Or it may be that the blogs are going through the same thing as UseNet, the internet's original bulletin board system."

What do you think? Read the rest of the article, then add your comments at the end...
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Escape to Colditz
from BBC News Online

With two new films about it in the pipeline and a youth hostel about to open there, now might be just the time to pay a visit to Oflag IVc, better known as Colditz castle, the world's most famous prisoner of war camp.

Colditz. The name conjures up so many different images: a vast dark castle towering over a tiny German hamlet, Bond director Guy Hamilton's stirring 1955 film starring John Mills and Eric Portman, the 1972 TV version with David McCallum and Anthony Valentine and the oddly addictive board game, Escape from Colditz.

And the castle has also entered popular usage, "It was like being sent to Colditz" holds its own with "Who do you think you are: Stirling Moss?"

But today, this 1,000 year-old schloss, some 26 miles from Leipzig in the former East Germany - now served by the Irish budget airline Ryanair - is transforming itself into a holiday destination after a £9m refit.

Dr Manfred Gergs, the castle manager, is proud of Colditz. "We have lots of visitors from all around the world, especially to the Escape Museum," he says.

"The State of Saxony - which owns the castle - has just renovated the attics and one of the courtyards and 2004 will see the opening of a European Youth Hostel in another courtyard."

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'Move over Segway, I'm planning the C6'
By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Online

It was rumoured to be powered by a washing machine motor, was lusted after by pre-adolescent schoolboys and risked vanishing under a heavy goods vehicle without the driver noticing.

When it was unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1985, the Sinclair C5 was the last word in futuristic transport. Ten months, and £6m of investment, later it was consigned to the commercial scrapheap.

Now its inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair, is working on a "C6" - a top-secret follow-up to the ill-fated C5, to be unveiled next year.

[...]

He stayed tight-lipped about his new project, describing it only as a "new product designed at getting people around town". It is being developed in tandem with a British-based engineering company which specialises in compact electric motors and drive systems.

But if all goes to plan for Sir Clive, the Segway will be squaring up to some British competition next year.

He is convinced there is a gap in the market for his new invention, declaring the Segway unsuitable for British streets. The device weighs about 40 kilos and, unlike the C5, was designed to be used on pavements.

"In London there are lots of people milling around - a heavy vehicle like that, it's a lot of weight and doing 15mph, if you hit someone it would just knock them for six.

[...]

He has worked long and hard at re-inventing personal transport, launching the Zike - an mini electric bike - in the early 1990s, and the Zeta - an electric engine that fits onto an ordinary bike.

Does he think the humble but enduring push bike can ever be topped? "Just wait," he cautions, "until next year."

Out of the (voluminous) mouth of the PM's wife, a possible UK number 1 single? Could be! BBC News reports that some cheeky-chappy DJ-types have sampled Cherie's inpromptu rendition of the Beatles song 'When I'm 64' (delivered to students in Beijing, where the Blairs were visiting, when Tony got asked to sing a song*) and have turned it into a dance tune which is finding favour out on the dancefloor of the Mediterranean isles of Ibiza and Cyprus.

Music experts predict it could storm the UK's pop charts.

A spokesman for Radio 1 in Ibiza told the Independent newspaper: "The sample has serious novelty value.

"It's a catchy tune and an eccentric performance.

"When people realise it's Mrs Blair, it is difficult to know how they will react, but it is set to be red hot this summer."

The Balearic island of Ibiza and the resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus are at the forefront of the European dance scene.

Popularity on the dance scene often leads to mainstream chart success.

Which leaves me in the unusual position of wishing Cherie the best of luck with her (admittely unplanned) attempt to keep the top spot free of manufactured boy- and girl-bands during the remainder of the summer... :-)

* Small factoid for you - before entering the political arena, Tony Blair played in a rock band. This gave his a modicum of 'street-cred' in the run-up to the General Election in 1997. However, with the advancing years and considerable dip in his popularity, it is more of a liability now, as it just reminds people just how un-hip he's become.