SAOIRSE32

Guardian

Simon Jeffery and Matthew Tempest in Edinburgh
Saturday July 2, 2005

The Make Poverty History march on Princes Street in Edinburgh. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Around 200,000 protesters today formed a human chain around Edinburgh city centre in a show of solidarity with the world’s poorest people.

People came from around the world to attend the Make Poverty History rally and march, which is aimed at putting pressure on the G8 leaders meeting at Gleaneagles next week.

Organisers, police and Edinburgh city council agreed that 200,000 people had been at the event, making it one of Scotland’s biggest ever demonstrations.

Most on the march wore white T-shirts, tennis shirts or jumpers and held hands in a human chain - a white band, the symbol of Make Poverty History - during a minute’s silence , when the event reached its climax at 3pm.

At 4pm, people were still queueing to join the march, but had to wait because of the sheer number of people.

“It’s like the welly queue at Glastonbury, times a hundred,” explained Billy Bragg.

The singer, who performed at the rally, said: “In a year’s time, if the G8 haven’t delivered on aid, on trade, on debt, no one’s going to blame Bob Geldof. No one’s going to blame Mariah Carey. They’re going to blame Blair and Brown and Bush.

“So give the government credit and support - they’re talking the talk, we’re all standing behind them, and we’re going to judge them if they fail.

“They’re standing up to Bush. And they’re also standing up to Bush on behalf of the millions of Americans who disagree with their administration but can’t do anything about it.”

The demonstrators massed in Edinburgh’s Meadows for a rally of music, video footage from Live 8 and speeches from celebrities and campaigners.

Many were first-time or infrequent demonstrators. Graham Reeve, who travelled from London, last marched on the million-plus February 2003 protest against the Iraq war.

Although he will be returning south tonight, he insisted his 24 hours in Edinburgh was the right thing to do. “I feel pretty strongly about the issues and it’s an easy way to make your voice heard,” he said.

His companion, Ruth Pegler, agreed. “It’s got to have some effect, do some good and make a difference,” she said.

Speakers at the rally included Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics, his English counterpart, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and the Rev David Lacy, the moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland.

A message from Pope Benedict XVI was read out. “People from the world’s richest countries should be prepared to accept the burden of debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries and should urge their leaders to fulfil the pledges made to reduce world poverty, especially in Africa by the year 2015,” said the pontiff.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said: “I’m showing solidarity with those people who feel so strongly about this that they have come up here. My main hope is that the leaders of governments will listen to the people.”

Cardinal O’Brien said: “I think it will make a difference. It will bring to the attention of world leaders the voice of the people.”

Kumi Naidoo, from South Africa, who chairs the global Make Poverty History campaign, said the white wristband had been chosen as a symbol available for everyone to adopt.

He said that rural women in poor countries were using napkins as their symbol, and added: “We’ve got to keep the pressure going, because at the moment a bureaucrat in the World Bank has more power than a finance minister in a developing country.”

The Senegalese musician Baaba Maal, a UN ambassador and Aids campaigner, said: “It is very important for me, as a black African musician travelling the world, that there is this energy.”

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, spoke at a Christian Aid rally in Edinburgh tonight. He said the anti-poverty campaign had achieved more in the last months than “politicians working alone could have achieved in 100 years”.

“First hundreds, then hundreds of thousands - from Edinburgh to Philadelphia, to Tokyo, Johannesburg, to Rome, Berlin, Paris and Moscow - marching today for justice for people without the strength to march on their own.”

Earlier, trumpets and whistles competed with the sound of African drums as the noisy march made its way past Edinburgh’s historic university. Bystanders waved rainbow flags of peace as the head of the procession made its way through the Old Town.

Scotland’s first minister, Jack McConnell, watched the march as it passed on to Princes Street. He said: “This is fantastic - it is a great carnival atmosphere and it is a message of hope”.

Mr McConnell, who had earlier chaired a meeting of international parliamentarians discussing debt, aid and trade, added: “We hope that the leaders of G8 countries are listening. I hope they will make decisions next week in Scotland of which we can be very proud.”

Socialists with red flags chanted: “Murder, war, poverty, hate! We say shut down G8!” Police helicopters flew overhead to observe the protest, while shopkeepers and cafe workers the momentous day using mobile camera phones.

A heavy police presence was in place at the Scottish parliament and the palace of Holyrood House, both of which were protected by steel fencing.

Among those at the head of the march was the Zimbabwean campaigner Amadou Kanoute.

“We are at the front here today, and that is the right place because Africa has to be put at the front,” he said. “It makes me feel so good to see the solidarity in the people here today.”

As the marchers trooped through the city centre, the rally continued with its mix of public demonstration, political event and summer rock festival.

Edinburgh had prepared for months for today’s march and events in the run-up to the G8 summit. Despite assurances from authorities that today’s event would pass off peacefully, many shops were boarded up. Others displayed Make Poverty History posters in their windows.

Lothian and Borders police mounted a huge security operation, but fears of violence proved unfounded and officers said the day was largely trouble-free.

The comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, one of the comperes, said: “I’m appealing to politicians’ egos. I’m saying to them: ‘Leave a legacy’. We made slavery history - we can make poverty history”.

Hilary Benn, the secretary of state for international development, joined the march.

“A month ago, we met with EU development ministers in Brussels and agreed to double aid to Africa by 2010,” he said.

“Two weeks ago, Gordon Brown negotiated a new debt cancellation that will deliver $55bn [£31bn] worth of debt relief to the poorest countries in the world. On Wednesday, Nigeria got the biggest single debt write-off that Africa has ever seen.

“I don’t think any of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for Britain putting Africa at the centre of the G8 and for the fact there is a growing body of people who want this changed.”

Steve Tibbett, the head of policy at the charity ActionAid, said: “Perhaps 200,000 people are here to demand justice for the world’s poor people.

“The strong feeling coming across is that people are not just here to have fun. They are actually angry and they want something done. They won’t accept any more spin from the G8 leaders.”

Filipino activist Walden Bello, director of the thinktank Focus on the Global South, said: “When the leaders talk of wiping out $25bn of debt, remember they found $30bn for the Iraq war at the drop of a hat.”

csmonitor.com

Posted to republicanarmy by Ernst Techow

A dispute over Irish-only road signs in some towns highlights the language’s weakening grip.

By Ron DePasquale | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

INIS MEÁIN ISLAND, IRELAND - On this tiny, wind-swept island at Europe’s western edge, a shopkeeper makes a proud gesture toward the radio, which blares the midday news in an ancient, dying language.

Irish Gaelic is still the native tongue of some 55,000 people who live mostly along the west coast. But it is under siege. Even Inis Meáin, one of three Aran Islands off the coast of County Galway famed for old-fashioned ways, is no longer a safe haven.

“Irish is in trouble,” says Cuomhán Ó Fátharta, Inis Meáin’s sole shopkeeper. “When I was young, you had to learn English in school because there was no TV. I couldn’t really speak English until I was 12, but now the kids are all picking it up young.”

As Ireland’s mother tongue struggles to survive, the government has stepped up its contentious efforts to save the language, known here simply as Irish.

The European Union (EU) gave Irish a symbolic boost when it recognized it as an official language on June 13, three decades after Ireland joined the union. Road signs in the scattered Irish-speaking towns and islands - known collectively as the Gaeltacht - have posted place names exclusively in Irish since April. And new Gaeltacht housing developments must reserve homes for Irish speakers.

Critics call these tactics costly shenanigans that only engender resentment against a language that schoolchildren must study for 13 years. The minority who become fluent have little chance to speak Irish outside the Gaeltacht.

“For the majority of students, the Irish language now exists for the sake of perpetuating its own death grip on the school system,” columnist Louise Holden wrote recently in The Irish Times.

Yet on Inis Meáin, Mr. Ó Fátharta says the road sign kerfuffle won’t last. Tourists will adapt, he says, and such forceful government action is essential to sustain the language. He points to the success of state-supported Irish-language radio and TV, which have grown in popularity, and the invasion of students who come to County Galway to study Irish every summer.

“People want to learn the language,” he says. “That’s why they keep coming.”

In mostly English-speaking Galway City, pubs serve as a place for people to speak Irish. At Taffees, where traditional Irish bands play every night, an encouraging sign at the bar says, “Irish spoken here.” Yet many native Irish speakers feel uncomfortable speaking their language outside their hometowns, a self- consciousness that experts say prevents the spread of Irish as a spoken language.

Irish has been declining for centuries, since families hoping to better their prospects made children speak English instead of Irish. Hoping to reverse that trend, the nation’s founders made Irish the primary language and a core school subject after independence from Britain in 1921.

Yet today, just 43 percent of Irish citizens say they can speak the language, and only 1.4 percent are native speakers.

Michael Faherty, who rents bicycles to tourists on Inis Meáin, says he is realistic about the language’s hold on the young. “They’re turning to English now,” he says as he fixes a bicycle to a background of traditional Irish music. “It’s more fashionable.”

Irish language activists want a bilingual nation. Some blame a curriculum that focuses on grammar and rote memorization, rather than teaching conversational Irish. Others say that the complex language must be modernized, following Israel’s success in reviving Hebrew.

The growth of Irish-language schools, or gaelscoileanna, has lifted hopes for the language’s survival. Outside Gaeltacht areas, 52 Irish-language elementary schools have been created since 1993, bringing the number to 120. And more books are being translated into Irish; students can now read Harry Potter in the old language.

The lucrative field of official Irish translation is also booming, thanks to a law passed two years ago that requires all government documents and services to be provided in Irish. The new EU designation created a need for dozens more well-paid Irish speakers to translate EU documents and interpret at parliamentary and ministerial meetings. Yet the government says it can’t find enough to keep up with the work.

An elderly woman on Inis Meáin, wearing a traditional long dark skirt and shawl, spoke wistfully about her native language.

“I don’t know who will speak the Irish after the old people are gone,” says the 80-year-old woman, who did not give her name. “The youngsters are all learning English, too much English.”

Seven Stars Republican Socialist News

**Posted by ‘Break the Chains’

FROM THE Leonard Peltier Defense Committee HEADQUARTERS

CALL TO ACTION FOR LEONARD PELTIER, #89637-132

This morning, July 1, 2005, Cyrus Peltier, grandson of Leonard went to visit his grandpa as he has for the last 13 years. He was stopped at the visiting area and was told, “He’s gone”. Upon questioning, he was told that Leonard was transferred and after further inquiries, finally found out that Leonard has been moved to USP Terre Haute, Indiana. At this time, Leonard is in the hole and is being kept there indefinitely. NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT.

It is basic procedure to keep transferred inmates in the hole while processing takes place, however we do not know how long that will take. We are asking anyone and everyone to get on the phones and get out their pens and paper. Let’s flood the telephones with calls regarding Leonard! Let’s stuff their mailboxes with letters about Leonard! Urge the prison to allow Leonard to contact his family as soon as possible. Ask how he is, ask where to write, ask if he’s OK, ask about his health, his privileges (phones, letters, visits, religious rights, ability to paint, etc. inquire as to his safety-anything-just keep calling and let the prison know that the entire world is watching and is concerned about Leonard. Please be sure to be courteous and professional, as we do not wish to complicate Leonard’s situation.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Peltier Legal Team and Leonard’s family are working hard to ensure Leonard’s safety and we will keep you informed as things develop.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

LPDC, Inc
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee website

USP Terre Haute
U.S. Penitentiary
4700 Bureau Road South
Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone-812-244-4400
Fax—-812-244-4789
THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20534
202-307-3198
info@bop.gov

Belfast Telegraph

Six jailed for storming Catholic couple’s home

02 July 2005

SIX Carrickfergus men who brought shame on the Co Antrim seaside town last July when they formed a sectarian mob to drive a Catholic couple and a friend from their home have been sentenced to up to four-and-a-half years in jail.

Belfast Judge Babbington in the Crown Court yesterday told the six, who said they were from the UVF and were going to burn the victims from their home, that they were guilty of a “brutal and callous attack which had brought shame on the good people of Carrickfergus”.

The judge said that the men had “formed themselves into a mob, akin to a lynch mob” during the sectarian attack on July 24 last year, in which one man was hospitalised after being thrown through a window.

Prosecuting QC Carl Simpson said in the aftermath of the attack the family and their friend left their Carrick homes that night vowing never to return again.

Given the highest jail term of four-and-a-half years after agreeing to serve a further year on probation was 31-year-old Leonard McCullough of Maple Gardens in the town.

Jailed for four years was 42-year-old Norman Hendry from The Hollies and Philip Wills (26) of Dean Park. Given two-and-a-half years was Robert Barnett (27) of Victoria Street. Two years was given to 21-year-old James Brown of Minorca Drive while 21-year-old Emerson Meeke of Albert Road, was jailed for 12 months.

All but Meeke, who admitted affray, had pleaded guilty to assault and also agreed to serve a year’s probation upon their release.

Prosecuting QC Carl Simpson said the attack happened after a man went to a friend’s home in Thomas Street with his sister looking for “sanctuary” after being confronted outside an off licence.

Shortly afterwards there was “unfriendly knock on the door” and when opened, McCullough and the others forced entry, attacking the householder and his friend.

The friend was punched and kicked to the ground and had a TV, video, beer cans and a chair thrown at him, before being thrown out the front living room window.

Mr Simpson also revealed that while he had his legs trapped in the window blinds attempts were made to stamp his face into the broken glass outside. He managed to run off, but was set upon again before he eventually made his escape.

The man’s sister, who tried to phone police, had her mobile snatched from her and during the attack McCullough was heard to shout they were from the UVF and that the family were to be burned out and had ten minutes to leave.

Mr Simpson said once police arrived they had to escort the family from their home to safety.

Belfast Telegraph

By Brian Hutton
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
02 July 2005

POLICE chiefs were today criticised for their handling of last night’s Orange parade in Belfast which ended with minor disturbances.

Witnesses claimed that a group of youths in the nationalist Markets area, some with hurling sticks, threw stones at cars leaving the “mini-Twelfth” parade in the east of the city.

There were reports that two children had to be hospitalised for minor injuries after a window was smashed in the car they were travelling in.

There were also claims that a police officer had been injured, but a PSNI spokeswoman said today that it had received no complaints or reports of any injuries.

She said that a few cars were damaged and a number of windows were broken during the incident at the junction of East Bridge Street and Stewart Street at around 8.30pm.

East Belfast DUP councillor and District Policing Partnership member Jim Rodgers criticised the “over-policing” of the parade.

“I counted 30 Army and 10 police Land Rovers as I was travelling on the Sydenham By-pass on the way to the march,” he said.

“These then moved into the area where the parade was, yet 200 yards away (in the Markets area), where there have been repeated attacks in the past, there was only one Land Rover.

“The police are not getting this right. There is a massive presence in one area and very little in the other.

“Part of the problem is that police officers don’t know the area,” he added.

Belfast Telegraph

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Jonathan McCambridge, Crime Correspondent
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
02 July 2005

THE murder of Jameson Lockhart could spark the latest in a series of bloody loyalist feuds which have ignited tensions across Northern Ireland.

It is feared the east Belfast shooting could restart the bitter vendetta between the LVF and UVF that led to a spate of shootings and bombings in 2003.

Earlier this week, tensions within the UDA also resurfaced after a former associate of Johnny Adair was cleared of murder.

Wayne Stephen Dowie left Ulster within hours of being cleared of the murder of UDA feud victim Jonathan Stewart on Thursday.

He travelled alone, taking an afternoon flight to England following furious scenes in court.

Earlier this week the UDA moved to wash its hands of a loyalist fanatic, after he was convicted of trying to blow up one of Adair’s aides.

Stanley Curry from Liverpool, although not a member of the UDA, had planted a bomb under the car of John ‘Fat Jackie’ Thompson. Thompson survived because the bomb failed to detonate properly.

Adair himself made a surprise visit to the Shankill earlier this year and has vowed to return again. It is thought in some circles that the Twelfth period would be an ideal time for another publicity stunt to infuriate his UDA enemies.

Yesterday’s killing took place at the site of a pub owned by former UDA boss Jim Gray, but is believed to involve tensions between the UVF and LVF.

Loyalist sources indicated yesterday that Mr Lockhart had been a target of the UVF for some time. He had escaped one previous shooting attempt.

Tensions between the two groups erupted in 2003 following the UVF murder of LVF man Brian Stewart at Montgomery Road in east Belfast.

It led to a spate of revenge bomb attacks and shootings.

Earlier this year tensions boiled over again following a series of attacks on a taxi firm owned by former PUP man Jackie Mahood.

Mr Mahood, who was shot in the head by the UVF four years ago, accused the terror group of trying to put him out of business.

Only weeks ago there was mayhem in a Belfast court when rival loyalist gangs brawled minutes before a judgment was due to be delivered in the case of murdered Red Hand Commando drug dealing supremo, Jim Johnston.

RTE

02 July 2005 15:52

The campaign for the release of the five men who were jailed for their opposition to a controversial Shell gas pipeline in Co Mayo, is continuing over the weekend.

There are to be further demonstrations planned for today and tomorrow. The largest which will take place in Castlebar tomorrow.

The Independent Mayo TD, Dr Gerry Cowley, who is organising the march and rally, said the mood of abhorrence at the jailing of the five men was growing nationwide.

He called on Shell to reach a compromise on its plan to construct the high-pressure pipeline and the onshore terminal and cited fears for health and safety.

Shell Ireland has denied that the pipeline presents a hazard to the north Mayo area and has said it has no intention of suspending its work on the Corrib Gas Project or of withdrawing from Mayo.

Five TD’s visited the men, who spend a second night in Clover Hill Prison last night.

The men told the TD’s there was no question of them abandoning their opposition to the pipeline being laid on their land.

Guardian

Frank O’Connor - photo from here

Frank O’Connor’s imaginative sympathy and gift for eavesdropping prompted Yeats to describe him as Ireland’s Chekhov. But, writes Julian Barnes, O’Connor was also an obsessive rewriter

Saturday July 2, 2005
The Observer

‘I first came to Frank O’Connor by way of a possessive pronoun. The fiction shelves of a secondhand bookshop in Dublin proposed an antique orange Penguin: author’s name in white, title in black, no strident capitals on the spine, and the cover taken up with what was in those days a come-on - a blurry author photo. It was not this, or the distinctly familiar name that made me buy it (the original 3/5d now having become six euros), but the title. My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories. It was the slyly inviting “My” that did it. A lesser writer might have settled for “The”, and the book would have stayed on its shelf.’

>>>Read article

Read Frank O’Connor’s short story My Oedipus Complex

——————–

BreakingNews.ie
02/07/2005 - 12:22:28

Please use these links to make your prayer requests to the sisters:

http://www.ursulines.ie/prayer_request.htm

www.ursulines.ie

For anyone feeling in need of some divine intervention, a new online service means a praying nun is only a click away.

One of Ireland’s longest established teaching orders has launched a prayer request page on its website.

Those who log a request get a response from a nun in the order, who then prays on their behalf.

Sister Moya Hegarty from the Ursuline order says the service is designed to give people someone to turn to.

“It’s an opportunity to connect with somebody whose role is to notice what the prayer is and to pray specifically for that person,” Sister Hegarty said.

The nuns acknowledge the prayer request and it is then “brought in prayer before God”, said Sister Hegarty.

Guardian

Simon Jeffery and Matthew Tempest
Saturday July 2, 2005

Tens of thousands of protesters today formed a human chain around Edinburgh city centre in a show of solidarity with the world’s poorest people.

In one of Scotland’s biggest ever demonstrations, around 120,000 - 20,000 more than predicted - arrived in the city for the Make Poverty History rally and march, aimed at putting pressure on G8 leaders meeting in Scotland next week.

Protesters, dressed in white, linked arms at 3pm and remained silent for one minute as the event reached its climax.

Trumpets and whistles competed with the sound of African drums as the march made its way past Edinburgh’s historic university. Bystanders waved rainbow peace flags as the head of the procession made its way through the Old Town.

Socialists with red flags chanted “murder, war, poverty, hate, we say shut down G8″ as the thousands made their way along the tree-lined avenue.

Police helicopters flew overhead to observe the protest, while shopkeepers and cafe workers recorded the momentous day using their mobile camera phones.

Among those at the head of the march was the Zimbabwean campaigner Amadou Kanoute.

“We are at the front here today, and that is the right place because Africa has to be put at the front,” he said.

“It makes me feel so good to see the solidarity in the people here today.”

As the marchers trooped through the city centre, the rally continued with its mix of public demonstration, political event and summer rock festival.

The comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, one of the comperes, said: “I’m appealing to politicians’ egos. I’m saying to them: ‘Leave a legacy’. We made slavery history - we can make poverty history.”

Scotland’s first minister, Jack McConnell, watched the march as it passed on to Princes Street. He said: “This is fantastic - it is a great carnival atmosphere and it is a message of hope”.

Mr McConnell, who had earlier chaired a meeting of international parliamentarians to discuss debt, aid and trade, added: “We hope that the leaders of G8 countries are listening. I hope they will make decisions next week in Scotland of which we can be very proud.”

Graham Reeve, who travelled from London, last marched on the million-plus February 2003 protest against the Iraq war.

Although he will be returning south tonight, he insisted his 24 hours in Edinburgh was the right thing to do. “I feel pretty strongly about the issues, and it’s an easy way to make your voice heard,” he said.

His companion, Ruth Pegler, agreed. “It’s got to have some effect, do some good and make a difference,” she said.

Edinburgh has been preparing for the march and other events in the run-up to the summit for months.

Despite reassurances from authorities that today’s event would pass off peacefully, many shops were boarded up, but others displayed Make Poverty History posters in their windows.

A heavy police presence was in place at key locations including the Scottish parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, both of which were protected by steel fencing.

Speakers at the rally include Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics, his English counterpart, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and the Rev David Lacy, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

A message from Pope Benedict XVI will be read out.

“I’m showing solidarity with those people who feel so strongly about this that they have come up here,” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said. “My main hope is that the leaders of governments will listen to the people.”

Cardinal O’Brien said: “I think it will make a difference. It will bring to the attention of world leaders the voice of the people.”

Kumi Naidoo, from South Africa, who chairs the global Make Poverty History campaign, said the white wristband had been chosen as a symbol available for everyone to adopt.

Rural women in poor countries were using napkins as their symbol, he said. “We’ve got to keep the pressure going because, at the moment, a bureaucrat in the World Bank has more power than a finance minister in a developing country.”

The Senegalese musician Baaba Maal, a UN ambassador and Aids campaigner, said: “It is very important for me, as a black African musician travelling the world, that there is this energy.”

Hilary Benn, secretary of state for international development, also joined the march.

“A month ago we met with EU development ministers in Brussels and agreed to double aid to Africa by 2010,” he said. “Two weeks ago, Gordon Brown negotiated a new debt cancellation that will deliver $55bn [£31bn] worth of debt relief to the poorest countries in the world.

“On Wednesday, Nigeria got the biggest single debt write-off that Africa has ever seen.

“I don’t think any of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for Britain putting Africa at the centre of the G8 and for the fact there is a growing body of people who want this changed.”

Steve Tibbett, the head of policy at the charity ActionAid, said: “Perhaps 200,000 people are here to demand justice for the world’s poor people.

“The strong feeling coming across is that people are not just here to have fun. They are actually angry and they want something done. They won’t accept any more spin from the G8 leaders.”

And the Filipino activist Walden Bello, the director of the thinktank Focus on the Global South, said: “When the leaders talk of wiping out $25bn of debt, remember they found $30bn for the Iraq war at the drop of a hat.”

RTE

02 July 2005 15:36

The main concert in the Live8 series of global events designed to raise awareness of African poverty is underway in London’s Hyde Park in front of a crowd of over 150,000 people.

Performing at the spectacular are Sir Paul McCartney, Madonna, Coldplay, Sir Elton John, Robbie Williams and U2.

The events from London, South African, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, the US, Canada, and Edinburgh are expected to attract a global television audience of two billion.
Advertisement

In London, Paul McCartney and U2 opened the show with a rendition of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

US software billionaire, Bill Gates, also made a surprise appearance at the London concert to back the campaign.

Organiser Bob Geldof said his aim was to force leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialised nations, meeting in Scotland next week, to do more to alleviate poverty, particularly in Africa.

Meanwhile, an estimated 120,000 people have gathered for the Make Poverty History rally, which is under way in Edinburgh.

Marchers are due to form a human chain round the city centre.

A 2,000 strong police security operation is in place although police say they are hopeful there will not be any trouble.

BBC

Three coach loads of anti G8 protesters from Belfast were stopped at Stranraer and held by Scottish police for more than an hour.

Barbara Muldoon from the Anti-Racism Network said they were held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. She said those on board were photographed and had their bags searched.

“We condemn the detentions and the flagrant abuse of our rights not to mention the heavily weighed PTA to carry it out,” she said.

BBC

The unidentified man was found in a soaking wet suit

Hospital officials trying to discover the identity of the so-called Piano Man are looking into the possibility he could be from Norway.

The virtuoso pianist has not spoken since being found in a soaking wet suit in Sheerness, Kent, in April.

A Norwegian speaker has been trying to communicate with the man, who is in his 20s or early 30s, after he was shown a map and pointed to Oslo.

A ship from Norway was thought to have been in the area when he was found.

The man is being cared for in a secure mental health unit in Dartford, Kent.

Various interpreters

He stunned carers with a four-hour concert-standard piano performance after producing detailed pencil drawings of a grand piano soon after he was found on 7 April.

There have been few clues as to his identity since.

More than 200 names have been put forward and are being investigated by the West Kent NHS Trust in conjunction with the police and the National Missing Persons Helpline.

However, the man was reportedly more responsive when a Norwegian speaker was brought in, although it is understood he still did not say anything.

A spokesman for the trust told the BBC that various interpreters had been used, and Norway could “logically be looked at as an option”.

BBC

Live 8 concerts hope to tackle world poverty

The BBC is screening a Live 8 concert broadcast in Belfast on Saturday.

A 40-metre screen in Custom House Square, Laganside, will beam out the London charity concert.

The BBC hopes to enable audiences to text messages in to the broadcast and to a special website and swap messages with other screen sites.

The London concert is one of 10 Live 8 gigs taking place on Saturday - one in each of the G8 nations, one in South Africa and a smaller gig in Cornwall.

On Friday, a series of events to highlight Northern Ireland’s solidarity with the poorest nations of the world were staged.

A giant white band was stretched around one of the tallest buildings in Belfast - the Riverside BT Tower.

Another measuring 150 metres was wrapped around the Lanyon building at Queen’s University.

Saturday’s concerts have been timed to coincide with the G8 summit of world leaders in Scotland on 6 July and will call for more aid for Africa, debt cancellation and fairer trade.

A further concert will take place on 6 July in Edinburgh as the summit begins.

Telegraph

By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 02/07/2005)

The forensic evidence [pdf]

Documents from the National Archives used to substantiate claims that British intelligence agents murdered Heinrich Himmler in 1945 are forgeries, The Daily Telegraph can reveal today.

It seems certain that the bogus documents were somehow planted among genuine papers to pervert the course of historical study.

Himmler: Forgeries implicated Churchill in his ‘murder’

The results of investigations by forensic document experts on behalf of this newspaper have shocked historians and caused tremors at the Archives, the home of millions of historical documents, which has previously been thought immune to distortion or contamination.

The allegation that the SS leader was murdered, with the knowledge of Churchill and War Cabinet ministers, appeared in Himmler’s Secret War, published in May.

What made the claim stand out from other allegations over the years was that it referred to specific documents in the National Archives at Kew - usually an absolute guarantee of validity.

But after The Daily Telegraph, like other newspapers, was approached to publicise the book, the documents began to raise suspicions.

The improbability of allegations that flatly contradict the accepted fact that Himmler killed himself and the use of language in documents that read more like excerpts from a spy thriller than dry civil service memos prompted this newspaper to raise concerns with the National Archives.

Officials gave permission for documents to be taken to the laboratories in Amersham, Bucks, of Dr Audrey Giles, one of the foremost forensic document specialists.

She discovered that letterheads on correspondence supposedly written in 1945 were created on a high-resolution laser printer, technology not developed until at least 50 years later.

Signatures supposed to be those of Brendan Bracken, the minister of information and head of the Political Warfare Executive, which aimed to subvert the German war effort, were found to be written over pencil tracings.

Dr Giles also found that it was almost certain that letters from two different government departments were written on the same, authentically contemporary, typewriter.

She concluded that at least four of the five suspect documents were forgeries and probably the fifth.

The findings were communicated to the National Archives this week, where a spokesman said: “We are very concerned and have commissioned an official forensic examination of these papers.”

Asked if there would be a police investigation, he said: “We are taking this one step at a time, but we are taking it very seriously.”

There is no suggestion that the Archives could have prevented papers being smuggled in.

The forged documents suggest that Himmler was killed by a PWE agent called Leonard Ingrams, the father of Richard Ingrams, the former editor of Private Eye.

The assassination was the supposed idea of two senior Foreign Office men, John Wheeler-Bennett and Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart.

But it was allegedly supported by Bracken and the Earl of Selborne, the head of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the sabotage organisation set up by Churchill with the order to “set Europe ablaze”.

Prof M R D Foot, the SOE official historian, said: “This story was twisting history and it will not do.

“It was obviously bogus, but I am very grateful that it has been proved to be so.”

The findings of Dr Giles’s examination were put yesterday to Martin Allen, the book’s author. There is no suggestion that he was anything but a fall guy for the forgers.

“I think I have been set up,” he said. “But I do not even know by whom. I am absolutely devastated.”

He denied having anything to do with the creation of the documents.

See also: De-bunking Speer as ‘good’ Nazi

BBC: ON THIS DAY

2 JULY 1992

The bodies were discovered by a roadside in South Armagh

The IRA has admitted killing the three men found by the army at different roadsides in South Armagh last night.

They claim the men were informers for MI5 and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch and they had been tried and killed by the IRA.

The victims were from Portadown, County Armagh and have been identified as Gregory Burns, 33, John Dignam, 32, and Aidan Starrs, 29.

In a style typical of IRA ritual killings the bodies were found in ditches, naked and hooded with evidence of beatings and single bullets through the backs of the heads.

The IRA tried to justify the murders in an unusually detailed statement, outlining the intelligence work of the three and linking them to the murder of civil servant Margaret Perry, 26.

Her body was found on Tuesday in a shallow grave over the border in Mullaghmore, County Sligo after she disappeared on her way to work in Portadown over a year ago.

The IRA claim that Ms Perry was having an affair with one of the dead men, Mr Burns, but says she had threatened to expose the group’s intelligence links to the IRA, so they had kidnapped and murdered her.

All three men disappeared from their homes a few days ago and their bodies were dumped close to the border within 10 miles of each other, at Newtownhamilton, Bessbrook and Crossmaglen.

The army left them overnight in case they had been booby trapped.

These are the first killings in Northern Ireland in eight weeks, and come in the wake of recent progress at talks in Stormont, Belfast and London.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister John Major said, “The IRA’s actions demonstrate yet again the true nature of terrorism”.

In Context

The three men were buried within days of their discovery, along with Margaret Perry, in Portadown.

The exact truth behind their activities and deaths remains unclear, but letters written by the men shortly before their disappearances suggest that they knew they were going to die.

Some evidence suggests that at least one of them was involved in the recovery of Ms Perry’s body.

Peace talks at Stormont continued until December 1993 when Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds and British Prime Minister John Major agreed The Downing Street Declaration.

It laid the foundations for future multi-party talks and aimed to achieve self-determination based on consensus in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Indymedia Ireland

by Ógra Shinn Féin
Friday, Jul 1 2005, 8:19pm

Dublin Ógra Shinn Féin activists shut down the Statoil filling station on Usher’s Quay, Dublin, at half six this evening. They were carrying out a solidarity protest with the Rossport Five and the local community in their struggle against Shell and Statoil.

An attempt to seize the office and shop of the filling station was repulsed so activists contented themselves with locking the shop closed and shutting down the petrol pumps.

Drivers were leafletted as they entered the station and the reasons for shutting it down were explained.

With one or two exceptions the overwhelming majority of drivers were supportive. A number of drivers expressed surprise that Statoil was involved in the pipeline with Shell and stated they wouldn’t be using the company in future.

While the station Manager notified the police as the activists arrived a number of police cars that drove by during the protest made no attempt to intervene.

After keeping the station closed for just under 90 minutes the protest ended peacefully and the locks were lifted.

An Ógra Shinn Féin activist said: “Ógra Shinn Féin will continue to carry out these actions at times and places of our choosing until the five men are released and the demands of the people of Erris met.

“We know we will be joined in this by people of other parties and none who will put aside political differences to concentrate on a simple goal; shut these companies down”.

BreakingNews.ie

01/07/2005 - 20:44:35

The Department of Justice intervened this evening to prevent Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams from visiting the five Mayo men jailed on Wednesday for breaching a High Court injunction.

The men were jailed for obstructing the building of a Shell gas pipeline through their lands at Rossport in County Mayo.

Gerry Adams had planned to visit the men at Clover Hill prison tomorrow but that has now been ruled out by the Department of Justice - a decision described by Sinn Féin as “bizarre”.

Mr Adams described the move – and the jailing of the men – as “appalling”.

BBC

Cars were attacked after leaving parade

Two children have been taken to hospital after stonethrowers attacked cars in the Markets area of Belfast.

They were covered in glass after the window of the car they were in was smashed. However, they were not seriously injured.

Eyewitnesses said a crowd of youths, some armed with hurling sticks, attacked several cars.

The driver of the car - who did not want to be identified - said it had been a frightening experience.

He said his 10-year-old child was sitting beside the window which was smashed.

He said those involved in the attack were aged about 10 or 11, but said older people were standing nearby with hurling sticks.

The vehicles were being driven by people leaving the mini Twelfth parade in east Belfast.

There was a major security presence for the march - particularly at the flashpoint area near the Short Strand- but it passed off peacefully.

Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey said there was no excuse for the attack on the cars.