Experts were revising upwards their predictions of how many will die in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis as Oxfam warned today the figure could reach 1.5 million and foreign secretary David Miliband said the death toll would rise significantly" from the 100,000 currently predicted.

Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, Oxfam's Thailand regional chief Sarah Ireland said the 100,000 deaths talked of by other aid agencies and a senior US diplomat may be dwarfed if areas of Burma are not provided with clean water and sanitation soon.

"With the likelihood of 100,000 or more killed in the cyclone there are all the factors for a public health catastrophe which could multiply that death toll by up to 15 times," she said.

"In the Boxing Day tsunami, 250,000 lost their lives in the first few hours but we did not see an outbreak of disease because the host governments and the world mobilised a massive aid effort to prevent it happening.

Miliband said he would be amazed if the numbers dead were not already 100,000.

"I would be amazed if there hadn't been about 100,000 who had died already … what's more, hundreds of thousands more are at risk", he told the BBC's Politics Show.

He blamed the "malign neglect" of the Burmese regime which was in part turning the disaster in a "humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions".

International development secretary Douglas Alexander also told the BBC's Sunday AM programme that he feared the death toll would rise "significantly" from the 100,000 currently predicted.

He did, however, express cautious optimism that the Burmese government's attitude towards western agencies appeared to be softening, saying there had been "progress" in the past few hours - a British government assessment team had been allowed into the country this morning and that there had been aid flights over night.

In the week since the cyclone struck, the Burmese military government has frustrated the efforts of international aid agencies to provide help. Aid agencies have repeatedly complained that aid is not being distributed quickly enough due lengthy clearance process, and that visas were not being made available to some specialists trained to deal with humanitarian disasters.

On Friday the UN halted flights to the country after the Burmese government impounded two of their aid planes. These were resumed yesterday. A UN road convoy and three Red Cross planes arrived in the country and this morning a Red Cross chartered flight arrived in the largest city Rangoon carrying 35 tonnes of equipment and medical supplies.

This morning, Alexander said British officials in Rangoon had reported that 40 lorries were leaving the city and heading south and aid was starting to reach more survivors.

"There is some evidence that there is more latitude in terms of the NGOs being able to deliver aid in the country" Alexander said.

French humanitarian organisation Medecins du Monde said it had been given permission by the Burmese government to distribute aid inside the country. It said its plane would arrive in the country tomorrow.

At the moment Burma's military government say 23,335 people have died and 37,019 are missing. The UN estimates 2 million people to have been severely affected.

Yesterday Burmese generals were quick to turn the first shipment of aid to political ends – government officials were seen handing it out from boxes on which the names of prominent generals had been written.

Voting booths sprang up in areas that had been destroyed by Cyclone Nargis as the proposed referendum on Burma's constitution went ahead as planned, despite criticism from the international community. Tim Costello of World Vision Australia suggested that Burmese generals had been reluctant to allow international aid workers into the country because they suspected them of spying on the referendum.

Miliband today called Burma's decision to hold a "constitutional referendum in the country during the disaster "bizarre".

Burma is still exporting rice even as it tries to curb the influx of international donations of food bound for the starving survivors of the cyclone that killed up to 116,000 people.

Sacks of rice destined for Bangladesh were being loaded on to a ship at the Thilawa container port at the mouth of the Yangon River at the end of last week, even though Burma's 'rice bowl' region was devastated by the deadly storm a week ago.

The Burmese regime, which has a monopoly on the country's rice exports, said it planned to meet all its contractual commitments.

With rice prices hitting a record high after more than doubling since January, the exports are a valuable source of foreign revenue for the junta and its allies. The fear is that with the rice-growing area in the Irrawaddy delta inundated with salt water from the huge tidal wave, Burma may need to import greater amounts of rice this year. Alarm at the prospect fuelled another spurt in rice prices during the week. The continuing rice sales looked like just another facet of the Burmese regime's insensitivity to the suffering of its own people as it continues to block international relief to cyclone victims and pressed ahead with the constitutional referendum yesterday. The Burmese leader, General Than Shwe, has urged people to vote 'yes' .

Critics claim the referendum is designed to cement the generals' hold on power as it reserves 25 per cent of the seats in parliament for the military. They say it should have been postponed because of the disaster.

Many of the cyclone's victims have received little aid. International relief from the UN and other agencies has been blocked, and disaster management experts barred from entering even though there has been little evidence that the Burmese military is alleviating the suffering.

A spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP) said two planes containing humanitarian supplies had 'not been released' by the Burmese authorities after arriving in Rangoon airport yesterday.

The planes contained 'critically needed supplies and equipment' provided by the WFP, UNHCR and other aid organisations. While the sacks of rice for export were being loaded on to the freighter at Thilawa last Friday, cyclone survivors from surrounding villages said they had received only hand-outs of spoiled rice from the port's warehouse, where the storm had soaked 40 per cent of the stored rice.

The cyclone, which hit Thilawa early on Saturday morning, blasted the port so severely that one of the three enormous container cranes toppled and was left crippled. In the nearby village of Thamalone, just 15 miles from Rangoon, the only aid has come from the Free Family Funeral Association which usually provides coffins for poor families but used its trucks to deliver rice to villagers.

For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. 'If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,' he said with no trace of remorse.

Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city's Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.

Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said. (Really? Pretty fucking strange idea of honour if you ask me!)

Rand, who was studying English at Basra University, was deemed to have brought shame on her family after becoming infatuated with a British soldier, 22, known only as Paul.

She died a virgin, according to her closest friend Zeinab. Indeed, her 'relationship' with Paul, which began when she worked as a volunteer helping displaced families and he was distributing water, appears to have consisted of snatched conversations over less than four months. But the young, impressionable Rand fell in love with him, confiding her feelings and daydreams to Zeinab, 19.

It was her first youthful infatuation and it would be her last. She died on 16 March after her father discovered she had been seen in public talking to Paul, considered to be the enemy, the invader and a Christian. Though her horrified mother, Leila Hussein, called Rand's two brothers, Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, to restrain Abdel-Qader as he choked her with his foot on her throat, they joined in. Her shrouded corpse was then tossed into a makeshift grave without ceremony as her uncles spat on it in disgust.

'Death was the least she deserved,' said Abdel-Qader. 'I don't regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,' he said.

Sitting on a chair by his front door and surrounded by the gerberas and white daisies he had planted in the family garden, Abel-Qader attempted to justify his actions.

'I don't have a daughter now, and I prefer to say that I never had one. That girl humiliated me in front of my family and friends. Speaking with a foreign solider, she lost what is the most precious thing for any woman. 'People from western countries might be shocked (Huh! understatement of the century) but our girls are not like their daughters that can sleep with any man they want and sometimes even get pregnant without marrying. Our girls should respect their religion, their family and their bodies.

'I have only two boys from now on. That girl was a mistake in my life. I know God is blessing me for what I did( Yeah, right...Satan maybe...but God????)' he said, his voice swelling with pride. 'My sons are by my side, and they were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who just brought shame to ours.'

Abdel-Qader, a Shia, says he was released from the police station 'because everyone knows that honour killings sometimes are impossible not to commit'. Chillingly, he said: 'The officers were by my side during all the time I was there, congratulating me on what I had done.' It's a statement that, if true, provides an insight into how vast the gulf remains between cultures in Iraq and between the Basra police the British army that trains them.

Sources have indicated that Abdel-Qader, who works in the health department, has been asked to leave because of the bad publicity, yet he will continue to draw a salary.

And it has been alleged by one senior unnamed official in the Basra governorate that he has received financial support by a local politician to enable him to 'disappear' to Jordan for a few weeks, 'until the story has been forgotten' - the usual practice in the 30-plus cases of 'honour' killings that have been registered since January alone.

Such treatment seems common in Basra, where militias have partial control, especially in the districts on the outskirts where Abdel-Qader lives.

While government security forces and British troops have control over the centre, around the fringes militants can still be seen everywhere on the streets or at the checkpoints they have erected. And they have imposed strict laws of behaviour for all the local people, including what clothing should be worn and what religious practices should be observed. There are reports of men having their hands cut off for looting and women being killed for prostitution.

Homosexuality is punishable by death, a sentence Abdel-Qader approves of with a passion. 'I have alerted my two sons. They will have the same end [as Rand] if they become contaminated with any gay relationship. These crimes deserve death - death in the name of God,' he said.

He said his daughter's 'bad genes were passed on from her mother'. Rand's mother, 41, remains in hiding after divorcing her husband in the immediate aftermath of the killing, living in fear of retribution from his family. She also still bears the scars of the severe beating he inflicted on her, breaking her arm in the process, when she told him she was going. 'They cannot accept me leaving him. When I first left I went to a cousin's home, but every day they were delivering notes to my door saying I was a prostitute and deserved the same death as Rand,' she said.

'She was killed by animals. Every night when go to bed I remember the face of Rand calling for help while her father and brothers ended her life,' she said, tears streaming down her face.

She was nervous, clearly terrified of being found, and her eyes constantly turned towards the window as she spoke. 'Rand told me about the soldier, but she swore it was just a friendship.

'She said she spoke with him because she was the only English speaker. I raised her in a religious manner and she never went out alone until she joined the university and then later when she was doing aid work.

'Even now, I cannot believe my ex-husband was able to kill our daughter. He wasn't a bad person. During our 24 years of marriage, he was never aggressive. But on that day, he was a different person.'

The mother is now trying to raise enough money to escape abroad. 'I miss my two boys,' she said. 'But they have sent a message saying that I am wrong for defending Rand and that I should go back home and live like a blessed Muslim woman,' said Leila, who is now volunteering with a local organisation campaigning for better protection for women in Basra.

One of those running the organisation, who did not want to be identified, said that Rand's case was similar to so many reported in Basra, with the only difference being she was in love with a foreigner, rather than an Iraqi.

'There isn't too much to say. Rand is dead. It is a tragedy and will be a tragedy for many other families in Iraq in the days to come.

'According to information we have been given, some from Rand's colleague, we have doubts that her love was reciprocated. We have the impression that Rand was in love, but the English soldier wasn't. But, for a girl to be paid nice compliments about her beauty and her intelligence, it was enough for her to think she was in love.

'She isn't here any more for her mother to ask any of the questions she would like to. Rand's case had repercussions because she fell in love with a foreigner. But what about the other girls murdered through "honour" killings because they fell in love with some of a different sect, or lost their virginity, or were forced to become prostitutes?'

Rand's mother used to call her 'Rose'. 'That was my nickname for her because when she was born she was so beautiful,' she said.

'Now, my lovely Rose is in her grave. But, God will make her father pay, either in this world ... or in the world after.'

It's stuff like this that makes me want to close our borders to immigration to everyone. I don't want scum that think like this in my country. I know I may be getting narrow-minded and intolerant, but to think that there are people like this who think nothing of murdering their children because they "offended their faith" (so to speak). God preserve us from such a so-called religion.

Polygamy laws may end up in B.C. appeals court

Updated Wed. Apr. 23 2008 9:01 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

B.C.'s Attorney General says he will speak to a special prosecutor next week about the possibility of taking polygamy laws to the province's appeals court.

If Wally Oppal follows through with court action, the case could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Politicians in B.C. say they are concerned about a polygamous community in Bountiful, B.C., tucked in the southeast corner of the province. Premier Gordon Campbell told The Canadian Press Wednesday that the community "poses a vexing problem.'"

"I'm as upset by what I understand is happening in Bountiful as I think most British Columbians are," he said.

The community has come under focus recently because of a high profile raid of a polygamous compound in Texas. There were allegations that children in the compound, which was run by a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon faith, had been abused. Hundreds of the children remain in state custody, while authorities try to figure out if the children will be safe if they're returned to their parents.

The fundamentalist Mormon Bishop of Bountiful, Winston Blackmore, says he was troubled by the Texas raid and claims of abuse. He says nothing like that would happen in his community.

But Blackmore wouldn't say how many children he has or how many wives. One of the children on his property said there are 116 Blackmore children.

Blackmore told CTV News that he has "plenty enough" children. When it comes to the number of wives, he said he has "just enough, so I don't chase anybody else's."

"I have married several very young wives in my life," he said.

The 51-year-old Bishop also told CTV News he has never been married to anyone underage.

Police have investigated the Bountiful community and have conducted interviews with dozens of men and women. But there has not been a single complaint of abuse or single charge recommended.

________________

So...fingers crossed that the government will get their collective finger out. I hope someone in the Attornet general's office read this article:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-creamer_23edi.ART.State.Edition1.4616d8a.html

WELLINGTON (AFP) — A dolphin guided two stranded whales to safety after human attempts to keep the animals off a New Zealand beach failed, a conservation official said Wednesday.

"I've never heard of anything like this before, it was amazing," Conservation Department officer Malcolm Smith said.

The actions of the dolphin, well known locally for playing with swimmers at Mahia beach on the east coast of the North Island, probably meant the difference between life and death for the whales, Smith told AFP.

Smith had been working for over an hour and a half to save the two pygmy sperm whales which had repeatedly become stranded despite his attempts to push them back out to sea.

A bottlenose dolphin, named Moko by locals, appeared and guided the whales to safety after apparently communicating with them, Smith said.

The whales, a three-metre (10-foot) female and her 1.5 metre male calf, were apparently confused by a sandbar just off the beach and could not find their way back to open water.

Smith had been alerted at daybreak on Monday by a neighbour about the two stranded whales on Mahia beach near his home.

"Over the next hour and a half I pushed them back out to sea two or three times and they were very reluctant to move offshore," Smith said.

"I was starting to get cold and wet and they were becoming tired. I was reaching the stage where I was thinking it's about time to give up here, I've done as much as I can."

In that situation, whales are often humanely killed to end their suffering.

Smith said Moko arrived on the scene and he could hear the whales and the dolphin making noises, apparently to one another.

"The whales made contact with the dolphin and she basically escorted them about 200 metres (yards) parallel with the beach to the edge of the sandbar.

"Then she did a right-angle turn through quite a narrow channel and escorted them out to sea.

"There's been no sign of the whales since Monday, they haven't restranded."

"What the communication was I do not know, and I was not aware dolphins could communicate with pygmy sperm whales, but something happened that allowed Moko to guide those two whales to safety."

Moko has become famous for her antics at Mahia, which include playing in the surf with swimmers, approaching boats to be patted and pushing kayaks through the water with her snout.

Such close interaction with humans is rare among dolphins but not unknown. "She's become isolated from her pod obviously for one reason or another, but obviously made Mahia home just at the moment."

Mahia gets up to 30 whale strandings a year, most of which end with the whales having to be put down.

"I don't know if next time we have a whale stranding we can get her to come in again. She certainly saved the day for us and the whales this time."

Feb 6 2008 by Alan Oliver, Evening Chronicle

KEVIN KEEGAN has assured Alan Smith he is very much part of his plans – on the day England take on Switzerland without him.

The 27-year-old former Leeds and Manchester United man was conspicuous by his absence when Fabio Capello named his first England squad for tonight’s friendly at Wembley.

And that after being very much a key part of Capello’s predecessor Steve McClaren’s squads.

Smith was in the England Under-21 set-up when Keegan was in charge of the national team, and he clearly rates his fellow Yorkshireman.

The United boss told me today: “Alan Smith is one of those players around the football club that are just a delight to have.

“These are the sort of guys you build the club spirit on. He may not play every week, but he can play in different positions.”

Smith started up front against Middlesbrough on Sunday, and he found the going tough as United huffed and puffed at St James’s Park.

He was eventually replaced by fit-again Mark Viduka, and Keegan admits it is tough taking a player like Smith off, given that they sweat blood on the football field.

Keegan added: “I had to take him off because I felt I needed to make a little change.

“But you feel bad taking people like that off because you know they’re 100% committed.

“It hurts them when you bring them off, even if they understand the reasons why.”

<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v498/valkyrie17/?action=view&current=smithy3500.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/valkyrie17/smithy3500.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

This terrifies me. How can people be so unaware of history? "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it".
..............................................

LONDON (AFP) - Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real. 

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people
(Yahoo)

No one would dispute that Texas City, Texas, is a very long way from St. James’s Square. It is a rough-and-tumble blue-collar town on the Gulf Coast, where people know all too well that refinery work is often life threatening but just as often the only work available. On March 23, 2005, something went very wrong at BP’s Texas City refinery, the third largest in the U.S. An aging tank used to separate gas and fluid overflowed, filling the air with flammable vapor. A driver unwittingly left his truck running, igniting a fireball that by the end of the day had killed 15 people and injured more than 200. Not surprisingly, the blast led to the launch of hundreds of multimillion-dollar lawsuits and several investigations, including one by a commission that former secretary of state James Baker headed. A probe by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board specifically blamed BP’s closed culture for the explosion. In 2006, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $21.3 million, the largest penalty of its kind ever issued.

That wasn’t all that would befall BP. The next several months brought a cascade of problems, almost all blamed on lax oversight and poor management. In March, 200,000 gallons of crude leaked out of a BP pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, forcing the company to partially shut down a major field. The pipe, it turned out, hadn’t been cleaned in years. In April, the U.S. Department of Labor fined BP for unsafe operations in an Ohio refinery. Also during this time, the company was unable to capitalize on its Thunder Horse offshore oil platform—the world’s largest—which was damaged during Hurricane Dennis in 2005. And in June, the government charged some of BP’s traders in Houston with trying to manipulate the price of propane in the Midwest and Northeast.

All these incidents inevitably prompted this question: How could a company that was supposed to be a model of corporate citizenship have gone so wrong? The answer that emerged was simple, and the weakness of Browne’s highly praised policy of acquiring big companies and instituting massive cost cuts was suddenly, fatally exposed. Instead of putting excess cash into maintenance and safety, the executives in London had ordered the company to “bank the savings.” But as plaintiffs’ attorneys have alleged, a rubber band can be stretched only so far before it breaks. BP led the industry in refinery deaths from 1995 to 2005. For 10 years, there was a fire a week at the Texas City plant, and many were afraid to work there, fearing that disaster was imminent. As an employee explained in a survey, “No one here in management cares. . . . We have been very lucky so far with this.” At the same time, the arrogance of BP executives was easily recognizable. One memo, prepared for a meeting held before the Texas City explosion, insisted on cost cuts, a familiar refrain at the plant: “Which bit of 25 percent don’t you understand??? We are going to be wasting our time on Monday unless you come prepared to commit to a 25 percent cut.”

Even after the explosion, not much changed. An executive suggested that the refinery’s problems would soon be eclipsed in the press by the concurrent Terri Schiavo controversy, while ­another complained bitterly about having to visit the accident site during his vacation. “I arrived in Texas City at 3 a.m. with Lord Browne and we spent the day there—at the cost of a precious day of my leave,” read the email, which surfaced in a lawsuit filed after the ­explosion. Brent Coon, a Beaumont, Texas, attorney representing people ­injured in the explosion, says, “BP’s conduct questions whether it has a moral compass.” BP officials and Browne himself declined to comment on internal company matters.
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