World News
04 Sep 2010 Earl downgraded to tropical storm
A weakened Hurricane Earl is downgraded to a tropical storm as it continues up the US east coast towards Canada.
04 Sep 2010 U.S. cartoonist went too far, Mexicans say
An American's cartoon showing the eagle in the Mexican flag dead in a pool of blood is drawing criticism.
04 Sep 2010 7.0 quake strikes near Christchurch, New Zealand
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 has struck near New Zealand, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
04 Sep 2010 Tony Blair gives live TV interview in Ireland
In his only live TV interview since his memoirs were published, he tried to convince the audience of his motivations for the Iraq warTony Blair tried to bury his "toxic legacy" last night by flying to Ireland to appear on The Late Late Show.In his only live TV interview since his memoirs were published, he tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003 because he simply couldn't take decisions "based on those that shout most".Blair was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios – although they were easily outnumbered by the number of squealing teenagers who had gathered for another set of guests on the show – The X Factor twins Jedward.During the interview, he was asked how he felt that morning drinking his coffee in Downing Street, with a million protesters outside."Look it's not them that give you pause for thought. You should have pause for thought all the way through. In the end you have to decide this way or that, there is, unfortunately no third way.""Yes I had to listen to people who were opposed but there were also people in favour of the decision I took including, incidentially many many Iraqis."He denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a "war criminal" showing a flash of exasperation when asked to explain why people thought that he was.Interviewer Ryan Tubridy sought the advice of Jon Snow ahead of the interview but was warned it would be difficult to extract anything 'revelatory' out of Tony Blair.It is believed Blair chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland."When we finally got the whole lot together literally weeks before I left office in 2007 and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley and it was such a strange and extaordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 ICC defends decision to suspend Pakistan cricketers
Cricket council rebuts conspiracy charge as players accused of spot-betting scam are interviewed by police under cautionThe International Cricket Council today defended its decision to charge three Pakistan cricketers under its anti-corruption code.The three men, accused of an alleged betting scam, were today formally interviewed by police under caution and later released without police charges.Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Test captain Salman Butt were interviewed separately at Kilburn police station in north London.Afterwards, their lawyer, Elizabeth Robertson, said they had attended voluntarily and at no time were they under arrest. She said the men would continue to co-operate fully with police and the ICC, which has charged them under its anti-corruption code and provisionally banned them from playing in any match.Despite the ICC charges, police have yet to decide whether there is enough evidence to charge the players with conspiracy to commit fraud. The council's anti-corruption and security unit is conducting its own, parallel investigation.ICC investigators will not question the players until they receive permission from the police. They are finalising an "information sharing protocol" to pool evidence.The police seized money and mobile phones from the players last Sunday and are investigating any possible link between bank notes found in their possession and the money handed to a middle-man as part of the sting by the News of the World, which made the allegations.Before any prosecution, Scotland Yard would have to prove that any money they received from Mazhar Majeed was taken in return for deliberately bowling no-balls. The players have told friends they are prepared to tell detectives they did receive payments from Majeed, but this was entirely proper because he was their agent.Majeed, who was arrested last weekend by police over the News of the World allegations, and by customs over money-laundering allegations, is responsible for organising the three players' sponsorship deals.At least one of them did not have a UK bank account. Majeed has represented members of Pakistan's test side in this role for several years.Last night, the ICC moved to suspend the trio provisionally after charging them with "various offences" under its code of conduct. Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the recently appointed chairman of the anti-corruption unit, and Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, insisted the offences were not "the tip of the iceberg". But Lorgat conceded that the sport faced its worst crisis since the Hansie Cronje match-fixing affair a decade ago.Pakistan high commissioner Wajid Hasan this morning accused the ICC of "playing to the public gallery" by suspending the three cricketers.He said: "I have heard the press briefing by two ICC Representatives today. I have also learnt that ICC has taken Amir's name off from the list of players of the year. What happened to the general principle of law – innocent until proven guilty?"After the shocking, arbitrary and high-handed suspension of the three cricketers through the ICC's uncalled-for action, nothing is coming to me as a surprise. My apprehensions that there is a rat in the whole affair are being strengthened."He said the ICC had "no authority" to intervene and has previously claimed the players were "set up" by the News of the World, which is expected to publish further revelations on Sunday. On the same day, England will face Pakistan in the first of two Twenty20 matches in Cardiff.Lorgat insisted that the proper processes had been followed and denied Hasan's claims." I certainly wouldn't subscribe to the view that there is some sort of conspiracy around Pakistan cricket."This particular incident with the three players is unrelated to the challenge that we've got in keeping Pakistan involved as a full member of the International Cricket Council," he said. The country has been unable to play at home since a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore last year. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 Portuguese TV presenter found guilty of being in paedophile ring
Portuguese TV presenter among six convicted over child prostitution at Casa Pia state-run orphanages One of Portugal's most famous television presenters and a former ambassador were among six men found guilty yesterday of involvement with a paedophile prostitution ring that exploited children from state-run orphanages.The guilty verdicts handed down to TV presenter Carlos Cruz and the five others exposed the truth of more than three decades of rumours about systematic abuse of young boys at the 230-year-old Casa Pia network of orphanages.It was only when Joel, a former orphanage boy, came forward in 2002 and accused some of the country's best-known names of being involved that Portugal woke up to full horror of the scandal.Members of Portugal's media, civil service and professional elite were alleged to be regular abusers of the boys, some younger than 14. Even well-known politicians were involved, it was initially rumoured. A flood of accusations from boys who had passed through the Casa Pia system followed. Some 32 boys alleged at least 800 crimes.The case pitted the orphanage boys against a group of well-educated, influential people – including a former ambassador to Unesco, a lawyer, a doctor and Cruz. Yesterday, eight years after they dared to speak out, the boys finally won their case.The four men and two former orphanage employees received sentences of between just under six years and 18 years. Carlos Silvino, a 53-year-old Casa Pia worker who confessed to 600 crimes and gave evidence against other defendants was sentenced to 18 years."The court recognised that we were telling the truth," said Bernardo Teixeira, one of the victims. "It's a happy ending for us. The paedophiles are going to jail."The court ruling was hailed as a victory by those fighting for children's rights in Portugal. "The stories that I heard were the most terrible of my life," said Catalina Pestana, who was put in charge of the Casa Pia orphanages after the crimes were first reported in 2002."I think Portugal, the country, all of us, won a lot from this process. Now, when a child accuses an adult, nobody will look with the same lack of attention that they did for many years."The court case lasted six years, bringing additional outrage about the slow way in which Portugal's legal system worked. The case was already in court when three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in the Algarve in 2007. Portuguese police were, at the time, defensive about claims, particularly those made in the British press, that they had a history of mishandling cases involving children.Buried in the case paperwork are allegations that Casa Pia was known to paedophiles internationally and that some flew in to abuse children from the orphanage, according to at least one source familiar with the case.Portuguese media provided live running coverage of the reading of the sentence. The judges said they were giving only an abbreviated version of events, with a much fuller judgment due to be made public next week. The senior member of the three-judge panel, Ana Peres, began by warning those present that the abuse they described would be graphic and shocking. "Some of the accounts could be considered pornographic," she said.Cruz, 68, who was once voted Portugal's most popular man, had paid for sex with a 14-year-old, the judges declared. He also abused at least one other boy. The father of two was known as "Mr Television" after several decades as a national star. He was sentenced to seven years in jail.A doctor, Ferreira Diniz, was also sentenced to seven years and a former ambassador, Jorge Ritto, 74, to six years, and the former Casa Pia ombudsman, Manuel Abrantes, to five. They were found guilty of abusing several young boys.The court found that boys had been regularly taken to a house in the eastern town of Elvas during the 1990s to meet the paedophile clients. Abuse had also taken place in Lisbon.Some of the victims who gave evidence were present to hear the verdicts. Psychiatrists said several of the victims had tried to kill themselves after denouncing the abuse to the police. One threw himself from a second-floor window.Lawyers said their clients would almost certainly appeal. "It seems inevitable that we will have to appeal," said Cruz's lawyer, Antonio Serra Lopes, before the sentence was read out. "This is the first round." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 Tennessee mosque fire 'was arson'
A fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a Tennessee Islamic centre was arson, investigators say.
04 Sep 2010 Earthquake hits south New Zealand
A state of emergency is declared in Christchurch after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake strikes New Zealand's South Island, injuring two people seriously.
04 Sep 2010 Blair in 'radical Islam' warning
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair tells the BBC that radical Islam is the greatest threat facing the world.
04 Sep 2010 Earthquake strikes Christchurch in New Zealand
State of emergency declared after earthquake with magnitude of 7.0 strikes 19 miles west of ChristchurchA powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island last night, causing widespread damage to buildings, although there were few injuries.Christchurch mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after tremors rocked the region, warning that continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings.The quake hit 19 miles west of the city, on the south of the island, at 4.35am local time. Residents reported collapsed buildings and bridges, as well as power cuts. Christchurch, which has a population of around 400,000 people, was then rocked with a series of sharp aftershocks.No deaths have been reported so far but doctors at Christchurch Hospital said they had treated two men with serious injuries. One was hit by a falling chimney and was in intensive care, while a second was seriously hurt after being cut by glass, a hospital spokeswoman said. Other minor injuries have also been reported."There is considerable damage in the central city," police inspector Mike Coleman told New Zealand's National Radio.Police Inspector Alf Stewart told the station that some people had been arrested for looting. "We have some reports of people smashing [shop] windows and trying to grab some property that is not theirs … we've got police on the streets and we're dealing with that," he said.Colleen Simpson, a Christchurch resident, said panicked neighbours ran into the streets in their pyjamas. She said some buildings had collapsed, there was no power and the mobile telephone network had failed. "There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," she told the Stuff news website.Another person from Christchurch, Kevin O'Hanlon, said the jolt was extremely powerful. "I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and 'boom'," he said. "It was like the house got hit. It just started shaking. I've never felt anything like it."Bruce Russell, 50, said that although he lives in Lyttelton, a port town to the south of Christchurch, which is on firmer volcanic ground, the earthquake had been "very alarming"."We were woken up at 4.30am and it swayed like a ship at sea," he said. "It was very alarming. We have no power, which is a problem across [Christchurch]. We're listening to reports on a wind-up radio. It's still very frightening."Russell said he had not experienced an earthquake on this scale before. There have been local reports that some people many have been trapped in damaged houses.Video footage showed some cars crushed by heaps of fallen bricks. Authorities were advising residents to stay inside until given the all-clear.Residents have been asked not to flush toilets because of potential damage to the city's sewerage system which could lead to contamination. Christchurch airport was also closed as a precaution while runways were safety checked.Despite tsunami fears by residents, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said "no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical earthqake and tsunami data".New Zealand lies above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates collide and the country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year – but only about 150 are usually felt. Schoolchildren in the country regularly undertake earthquake drills. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 Phil Disley on the Middle East peace talks
Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas try to breach the wall between them, with the help of Barack Obama's delicately balanced diplomacy
04 Sep 2010 US economy: The recovery that wasn't | Editorial
We have an anaemic recovery at best. And the housing market, where this crisis began, remains in terrible shapeBack in January, US vice-president Joe Biden offered up a huge hostage to fortune. Talking to fellow Democrats about the Obama plan for the economy, he promised: "You're going to see, come the spring, net increase in jobs every month." Yesterday figures showed that a net total of 54,000 workers lost their jobs in August, taking the official unemployment rate to 9.6%. A big dollop of gloomy news just in time for Labour Day weekend.Not that you would have taken it as bad news, going by the immediate reaction. The Dow enjoyed a modest bounce, while Mr Obama described the non-farm payrolls report as "positive news". Which is true, if what you really mean by positive is "not as awful as it might have been". Oh sure, optimists can point out that the job losses were below analysts' estimates. And they can also take heart from the report's scaling down of job losses over June and July – so that a net total of 229,000 posts were lost, rather than the 352,000 previously reported. But consider this: over two and a half years after America's recession officially began in December 2007 (according to the National Bureau of Economic Research), the economy is still only limping along. By this stage, one would normally expect the US to be surging ahead, with companies producing much more, bosses taking on droves of recruits and even the housing market picking up. Instead, we have an anaemic recovery at best. And the housing market, where this crisis began, remains in terrible shape. Sales of new and existing homes are cratering, and the numbers of foreclosures and borrowers falling way behind on their repayments are as bad as they were last summer.Some economists, such as Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, pointed out years ago that this downturn was always going to be worse than a normal recession, simply because banking crises are more crippling and have worse aftermaths. But the White House underestimated the scale of this crash – which is why Christina Romer, the outgoing chair of Mr Obama's council of economic advisers, admitted this week that she and her colleagues "failed to anticipate just how violent the recession would be".Mr Obama promised yesterday that he would unveil "a broader package of ideas" next week. Let us hope they are more action than ideas. Before November's midterms, the president must bring in big measures to encourage job creation and stop the freefall in the housing market. That makes political as well as economic sense. Politicians tend not to win elections by pointing out that things are not as terrible as they might have been. If Mr Obama wants proof of that, he should ask Gordon Brown. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 Letters: Friends for free on the buses
The free travel pass is a great boon to many older people, but serious questions have to be raised as to whether it should be a universal benefit at 60. We are now in an era of huge cuts in public funding and there are more urgent social care needs among the poorest and most vulnerable older people than a free pass which can and is used by people who are still at work, such as Keith Ludeman, chief executive of Go-Ahead (Let pensioners pay one-off fee for bus pass, says Go-Ahead, 3 September). There are serious questions as to whether it is the poorest older people who benefit most from the universal free pass, or whether, as in so many other cases, it is of more value to the wealthier people. Rather than go down a means-testing route, though, one answer may be to raise the age of eligibility for a pass.Leon KreitzmanChair, Age Concern Lewisham & Southwark, London• A one-off payment for bus passes would, indeed, cut the £1bn annual cost, but it would seriously affect the poorest pensioners. A better solution would be to make all benefits received by pensioners (bus passes, winter fuel allowances, free TV licences and NHS prescriptions) taxable so better-off pensioners contributed according to their means.John HowesLondon• The greatest benefit of the bus pass is that pensioners who have lost their cars through ageing and ill health can still get about without worrying about the cost. They meet neighbours on board who become friends that help each other when needed, and save the social services far more money than the obnoxious Ludeman complains about.Brian Robinson Brentwood, Essex• Transport for All's attack on London Underground's staffing proposals (Letters, 30 August) is based on a misunderstanding. Our proposals have come about because ticket sales at stations have dropped significantly since the introduction of Oyster, so that now only one in 20 journeys starts with a visit to a ticket office, and some stations sell fewer than 10 tickets each hour. Under our plans, every station that has a ticket office now will continue to have one, and staff will remain in every station in exactly those areas that Transport for All want them to be: in ticket halls and on platforms where they can help customers, not hidden away behind under-used ticket office windows. Staff will still help with any problems and provide a reassuring presence across the network – including for older and disabled Londoners, many of whom receive a Freedom Pass which requires no interaction with either ticket offices or machines.Mike Brown Managing director, London Underground guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 Letters: A mystery wrapped in an enigma
Stephen Hawking assumes that the big bang started from "nothing" (Universe not created by God, says Hawking, 2 September). I would like to know what his definition of "nothing" is. It is no answer to point to the emergence of positron-electron pairs that appear from "nothing" as each of these have energy and this energy must have existed beforehand. It is difficult to think of a universe in which there is "nothing" because nothing means just that, no mass, no energy and therefore no means of making anything in this or any other related universe. This is the crucial phrase: how can anything be born of absolutely nothing? If we accept this definition then the universe has existed for ever – and will continue for ever. If anyone wishes to call this infinitely long existence "god", then fine, but it doesn't solve anything, it still leaves all the questions of existence that all organised religions fail to explain. Such as: if the gods created the big bang then what were they doing before then? And since it is impossible to make absolutely nothing from something, what will they do after Armageddon – start all over again?Professor AB TurnerUniversity of Sussex• Spontaneous creation, "something from nothing", is puzzling coming from a physicist. No-thing means no physical reality, but all reality is logically the realisation of possibility; ergo possibility is meta ta physica: beyond the physical.If one considers nature as two interdependent domains: the universe of physical reality, and the metaphysical realm of logical possibility, then some-thing does indeed arise from no-thing. Physical nature arising from metaphysical nature makes a supernatural explanation for reality entirely unnecessary. That doesn't disprove the god hypothesis, of course, but it does offer arguably a more probable explanation for our existence. Mathematics is a form of logic by which possibility is reduced by a process of entertained argument to a hypothetical conclusion, which while logically consistent is not necessarily true. So M theory, by which the metaphysics of logical possibility is used to argue an explanation for physical reality, without the mind of god, is only one of many possibilities. The only truly definitive conclusion arises when there is only one possibility left, the end of the current universe and a new "big bang" nature of possibility and reality.John StoneThames Ditton, Surrey• The capacity for self-delusion of the enormously gifted and intelligent seems to be as limitless as that of the rest of us.If Stephen Hawking thinks that everything will be explained by the laws of gravity and physics, well, what explains the existence of the laws by which everything is explained? Why and how should there be any laws of gravity? How did they happen to exist even before matter came into being?His theory just leaves yet another question begging. Even if we did come from nothing, where did the nothing come from? The existence of nothing is surely just as mysterious and inexplicable as the existence of anything.Hawking's theory is not a satisfactory answer even for an atheist like myself. There probably never will be a full explanation for our existence. To explain A in terms of B simply leaves B to then be explained, and so on down an infinite alphabet.Alex ShearerBackwell, Somerset• God, gods, whomever, may well have become tired of the arguments about his/her/their existence (In praise of… God, 3 September). Two thousand years ago, the Epicureans maintained that, while the gods certainly existed (well, obviously), the Immortal Ones had no interest whatsoever in mankind; much, I suppose, as interstellar travellers feel about defective species generally.Tom DraneMitcham, Surrey• Professor Hawking's new book is called The Grand Design. Doesn't a design require a designer? Without one, it is "A Grand Accident". It's curious how atheists cannot help resorting to religious language.Rev Richard HaggisOxford guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
04 Sep 2010 How Madame Bovary became a Bunny Girl (at the age of 154)
Shock horror: bored doctor's wife becomes a Bunny Girl at the age of 154.
04 Sep 2010 Indians fail drugs tests in new blow for Delhi Games
In an embarrassing blow to India's sporting hopes a month before it hosts the Commonwealth Games, eight of its athletes have been suspended after failing drugs tests.
04 Sep 2010 Castro's return to full uniform sparks rumours
Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.
04 Sep 2010 Too chicken to change? Satirists taunt Mugabe
He has sparked fury among Muslim theologians, been sued by a furious President Jacob Zuma and dared to poke fun at the father of the nation, Nelson Mandela.
04 Sep 2010 UN agency calls emergency summit over soaring global food prices
A United Nations agency has called a special meeting to discuss the recent spike in food prices, responding to fears of a repeat of the shortages that led to riots in parts of the world two years ago.
04 Sep 2010 25 cartel gunmen killed in army raid
Soldiers have killed at least 25 suspected members of a drug cartel in a clash near the US-Mexican border.
04 Sep 2010 40 killed by suicide bomb linked to Pakistani Taliban
A suicide bomber struck at a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, killing around 40 people.
04 Sep 2010 Let us drill – or we may not have cash to pay Gulf claims
With the permanent sealing of its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico perhaps just days away, BP is warning that it may not have the money to pay the colossal clean-up bill if Congress passes a law that would stop it obtaining permits for offshore drilling in US waters.
04 Sep 2010 Whisper it, but Netanyahu may just be the man to make history
Whatever else two days of high-octane schmoozing in Washington may have achieved, it has failed, at least as far as the outside world is concerned, to answer one of the great diplomatic riddles of the times.
04 Sep 2010 Guilty after six-year trial, Portugal's high-society paedophile ring
To most people Portugal's state-run orphanages seemed like a safe haven for thousands of children who had been robbed of their parents. They were called the Casa Pia, or Houses of the Pious.
03 Sep 2010 UPS cargo plane crashes near Dubai
A cargo plane has crashed in an uninhabited area near the Dubai airport, according to the official WAM news agency in the United Arab Emirates.
03 Sep 2010 US cargo plane crashes in Dubai
A UPS cargo plane crashes at an air force base shortly after take-off from Dubai airport, killing two crew members on board.
03 Sep 2010 BP blowout preventer 'removed'
BP removes the blowout preventer that failed to stem the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well and says it has paid $8bn (£5.2bn) in damage costs.
03 Sep 2010 Earthquake strikes New Zealand's South Island
Quake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale hits west of Christchurch, with residents reporting collapsed buildingsA powerful earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale struck New Zealand's South Island tonight.The quake hit 19 miles west of Christchurch, on the south of the island, at 4.35am local time. It shook a wide area with some residents reporting collapsed buildings, bridges and power cuts.Christchurch, which has a population of around 400,000 people, was also rocked with a series of sharp aftershocks. Minor injuries have been reported but no deaths.Colleen Simpson, from Christchurch, said panicked residents ran into the street in their pyjamas. She said some buildings had collapsed, there was no power, and the mobile telephone network had failed. "There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," she told the Stuff news website.Another person from Christchurch, Kevin O'Hanlon, said the jolt was extremely powerful."I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and 'boom'," he said. "It was like the house got hit. It just started shaking. I've never felt anything like it."Bruce Russell, 50, said that although he lives in Lyttelton, a port town to the south of Christchurch, which is on firmer volcanic ground, the earthquake had been "very alarming.""We were woken up at 4.30am and it swayed like a ship at sea," he said. "It was very alarming. We have no power, which is a problem across [Christchurch]. We're listening to reports on a wind-up radio. It's still very frightening."Russell said he had not experienced an earthquake on this scale before.There were local reports of looting on one of Christchurch's commercial shopping streets and police were advising residents to stay inside until given an all-clear.The geological agency GNS Science said the earthquake struck at a depth of 21 miles below the Earth's surface and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said "no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical earthqake and tsunami data".New Zealand lies above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year – but only about 150 are usually felt. School children in the country often undertake earthquake drills. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
03 Sep 2010 Mexico's drug war: the new killing fields
In the first of a three-part investigation, Rory Carroll reports from the gateway to America, at the centre of drug cartel violence that has claimed 28,000 livesThe events which have no name scythe through the valley like invisible reapers. They slice east to west, west to east, a homicidal pendulum. No one sees anything.The pair of human heads left in a coolbox on the corner of the plaza? A mystery. The 18 houses burnt in a single night? An enigma. The doctor and his family who disappeared? A rumour.This much residents do tell you: Juárez valley stretches along the Rio Bravo and used to grow cotton. It roasts by day, shivers by night. Lob a stone over the river and it lands in Texas.Beyond that, conversation tends to dry up. Of the slaughter, of the reason this has become one of the deadliest places on the planet, residents have little to say. At most they refer to "the situation", "the things happening" or, simply, "it".Manuel Robles, curator of the valley museum in the hamlet of San Agustín, can talk about dinosaur fossils and Apaches but not unfolding history. Pressed, he rubs rheumy eyes, gazes out the window and falls silent. Finally he says: "If I tell you, tomorrow I won't be here. They'll kill me."It's as close as you get to an acknowledgment that this valley of a dozen villages and towns, once home to 20,000 people, has detached from Mexico and entered a realm beyond any map. There is no state here, no rule of law. There are killings and beheadings and burnings and no one sees anything.The official explanation is that the Sinaloa cartel is challenging the homegrown Juárez cartel for a venerable gun and drug trafficking route to the United States. Just as Billy the Kid coveted this trail, so do modern outlaws.It is perhaps the loneliest corner of what is termed Mexico's drug war. More than 500 people are estimated to have died here in the past four years, a per capita toll far worse than Iraq or Afghanistan. Nationwide 28,000 have died.As violence raked up and down the valley, exterminating entire families, an exodus began. By the time a church was torched and anonymous notes warned of an imminent bloodbath most were gone, leaving blackened, boarded-up ghost towns. Nature, at least, is thriving: weeds festoon carcasses of abandoned pick-up trucks.The cemetery outside Guadalupe, the biggest town, is a scorched, desolate place with fresh mounds. "Four in the past week, all young ones," says Ignacio Montes, 66, the gravedigger. A cloth hangs from his baseball cap.He indicates a family plot: Omar Amaya, mayor, killed in 2006, aged 33; his father, Apolonio, also mayor, killed in 2007, aged 59; Omar's sister Aglae, aged 29, and mother, Maria, aged 57, both killed in 2008."They go after the relatives, you see," says Montes. During a burial in 2008 gunmen ambushed mourners, killing the dead man's daughter and wounding his granddaughter. "It doesn't stop," says Montes. He recently found a 16-year-old boy's battered body dumped on a grave.Victor Luque, 53, is the acting mayor of Guadalupe. His predecessor was assassinated two months ago, the town's fourth murdered mayor. Urbane, courteous and elegant in a white guayabera, Luque agrees to an interview.What is going on in the valley? "I really don't know." Who is doing the killing? "I really don't know." Who is responsible for security? "I really don't know." How many people have fled? "I really don't know." The mantra almost becomes a joke. The mayor shrugs, smiles. He knows this exchange is ridiculous. He floats a metaphor. The "situation", he says, is "a perfect storm". There is a local expression: "Hasta que el viento tiene miedo". Even the wind is afraid. In this town hall, with its black ribbons, bleached peach paintwork and near-empty offices, terror is in the heavy stillness.Momentarily dropping the charade, Luque mentions he has no bodyguard. "What would be the point? If they decide to kill you then there would be two bodies instead of one." Who would "they" be? The mayor smiles again. "I really don't know."But someone knows a lot about the valley. During the Guardian's tour there was barely another vehicle or soul in sight. Yet the next day the guide's family received an anonymous phone call detailing our entire itinerary – who we met, what we discussed, even places where we slowed but did not stop – with precision.Mexico's agony is ritually explained as a turf war between drug cartels. Group A versus Group B versus Group C. A savage conflict, but the mayhem, according to authorities, is a sign of cartels' desperation. Slowly but surely the state is prevailing thanks to brave soldiers and police. "My government is absolutely determined to continue fighting against criminality without quarter until we put a stop to this common enemy and obtain the Mexico we want," President Felipe Calderón, who declared war against cartels in 2006, said in recent newspaper advertisements.Juárez valley suggests otherwise. It is proof of profound failure, says Gustavo de la Rosa, the state human rights commissioner. "It is abandoned, a land without law." One reason, he says, is a lack of political will. "There are few votes there so politicians ignore it. The place has gone back to the 1880s."In fact the state is present in the form of the army, which has cameras and checkpoints with sandbags on the only road in and out. The soldiers' presence, however, prompts the question: why did they watch thousands of residents flee – convoys of furniture-packed trucks – and do nothing. "What's the point of them?" says José Sereseres, 84, a lone soul in a cowboy hat on the main street of Caseta village.If there is a pattern to the slaughter it is that Sinaloa is exterminating suspected Juárez cartel members and their relatives. Rocio Gallegas, an editor at Juárez's main newspaper, El Diario, says the security forces must have intelligence about what is happening. "It's not possible that they don't know."Authorities did catch José Rudolfo Escajeda, the Juárez cartel's valley enforcer, but a Sinaloa commander, nicknamed Quitapuercos – pig killer – is believed to remain free. It suggests, say some, that the army is tacitly backing Sinaloa.A similar pattern emerges in Juárez city. On the surface things looks normal. Shops and schools are open, there is rush-hour traffic and fast-food restaurants are packed at lunchtime. The scythe, however, is busy. More than 6,000 have been murdered since 2008, a shocking total for a city of just 1.3 million. Last month was the bloodiest yet: 363 dead, according to El Diario's count.It is less immediately obvious than in the valley, but the city is ebbing away. Many offices and houses are empty and have "for sale" signs outside. About 10,670 businesses – 40% of the total – have shut. A study by the city's university found that 116,000 houses have been abandoned and 230,000 people have left.Juárez is the main gateway between Mexico and the US. Railways and roads converge here, as do smugglers. "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States," the dictator Porfirio Diaz observed in the 19th century. With the US the world's biggest market for illegal drugs the quip still holds.Just as in the valley, security forces in the city are an oxymoron. Their absence breeds insecurity, their presence breeds insecurity. They prey on the population, kidnapping and extorting in cahoots with criminal gangs, according to multiple complaints filed to the human rights commission. In an opinion poll published last week 39% of people cited official corruption as the main driver of violence. Narco-trafficking – despite government claims and media echoes – was cited by a mere 14.6%.It is a disturbing finding. Here in the broiling desert heat the boundary between warring criminal groups and the state, a comforting delineation within the drug war, blurs and shimmers. Soldiers and police – and elected officials – fight with, as well as against criminal gangs. "Our security forces are infiltrated and there are links between criminal groups and certain politicians," says De La Rosa, the human rights commissioner. "The way they work is to strengthen each other and the phenomenon is getting worse. There are some politicians who flaunt their connections."A large man with a rumpled shirt, snowy beard and hair pulled into a ponytail, the commissioner resembles a hippy Santa Claus but is a tough, shrewd operator. He investigates human rights abuses with a small team of young assistants; one of the few state agencies credited with working as it should.For protection De La Rosa sleeps across the border in El Paso and travels to Juárez every day with 12 bodyguards. In between fielding phone calls on the latest atrocities and rumours he coaxes testimony from frightened families.He is an outspoken critic of a government strategy that, he says, allows crooked politicians and financiers to go free. "There are untouchables."When thousands of army troops deployed in 2008 the violence briefly abated. A well-placed source from city hall, a sophisticated, cultured man, smiles at the memory. "It was a cleaning. And it worked." What he means is death squads took out mid-ranking narcos, including crooked police.The campaign has never been officially admitted. "But the cleaning stopped after a few months," rued the official. "That was a mistake." The authorities did not anticipate how quickly criminal gangs would rebound and co-opt security forces, he said.Police have replaced the army on the streets. They are seen as ineffectual at best, predatory and murderous at worst. Business owners who spoke on condition of anonymity accused officers of treating the city as booty. "If you don't pay, you risk disappearing, that's the game," said one car showroom manager.Despite shake-ups, municipal and state police are still regarded as loyal to the homegrown cartel, a tradition going back decades. Federal police, outsiders brought in for the drug war, have become linked with the Sinaloa interlopers. Last month 250 officers roughed up and arrested their own commanders, accusing them of siding with narco-traffickers. A mutiny of the honest, say optimists; a row over "cuota", the levy the force charges on civilians, say others.Arrest statistics fuel suspicions of favouritism. Of 81,128 drug-related arrests until the end of July some 24% were from Sinaloa, the oldest and mightiest cartel. The motive, apart from pay-offs, supposedly would be to end turf wars by promoting one cartel's hegemony. Calderon indignantly denies favouritism, but the nature of violence in Juárez suggests local commanders – with or without approval from Mexico City – have cut deals with Sinaloa.The Juárez cartel, fearing extinction, has lashed back at the black-uniformed "federales" who allegedly back their rivals. An urban guerrilla onslaught has killed about 40 officers since April. The campaign includes drive-by shootings, kidnappings, car bombs – and a surreal request to the FBI to investigate their Mexican counterparts.On a particularly hot morning last week a patch of asphalt on Bulevar Ampliacion Cuatro Siglos revealed a new cartel tactic: it started with a bloodied, naked foot, continued with chunks of leg, then a trunk, then arms, hands and finally, 200 metres further, a head on the bonnet of a black Nissan. The quartered remains of federal police officer Hector Mendoza Guevara, aged 25. There was a placard: "This is what happens to those who help Chapo." Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is the boss of Sinaloa.Any police force would be shaken by the sight, but the grisly tableau's arrangement seemed designed to instill terror in young officers from parts of southern Mexico where superstition and belief in sorcery are common. Those at the scene were ashen. "Get away! Fuck off!" one screamed at onlookers.In Juárez good news passes for this: the federales are so busy trying to stay alive that they recently suspended their extortion rackets, according to business owners. The force spokesman declined interview requests for this article.With killings averaging about a dozen a day, and businesses fleeing, the city edges ever closer to the Hobbesian dystopia of the valley 50 miles east. Each day brings fresh horrors. Two men stabbed and left to die face-down in a dump. Six people incinerated in a van. Two cyclists gunned down on the street. A child shot on the family porch. That was just one day. Before lunch."It amuses me when various experts in the US or Mexican government, or in the media, try to explain what's going on," said Charles Bowden, a veteran chronicler of the border and author of Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields. "The thing about Juárez is you can't see a pattern to the violence anymore. Killings are everywhere. They cross all class lines. You can't make sense of it."There are an estimated 500 gangs in the city, many drawn from slums where parents work in sweatshop factories that pay $40 (£26) a week. Some gangs are independent, some work for the cartels, some work for the police and some have no idea whom they work for. They just take orders over the phone from unknown bosses.Few murders are investigated let alone solved. Even when suspects are arrested and paraded before TV cameras they are, according to numerous media investigations, often freed days later for want of evidence, prison space or judicial will. "It's like a war in which no one remembers how it started. No one controls the killing now, it's got a life of its own," said Bowden.Unable to staunch the flow of blood, Calderón has sought to redefine it, claiming that 90% of those killed are involved in narco-trafficking. A general urged the media to report each death not as another murder victim but "one less criminal". Given so few homicides are properly investigated it is unclear how the president, general or anyone can know such things.Miguel Morales has no doubt he would have been classified as a criminal. The 24-year-old, who would only speak under a pseudonym, was, after all, a thief and a junkie and haunted street corners where gangs peddled drugs. As his fixes progressed from pills to cocaine to heroin his body weight shrivelled to 50kg, a spectre. One of Juárez's estimated 80,000 addicts, his death – he had numerous scrapes with gangs and police – would have caused not a blip. He recounts all this in a matter-of-fact tone at a rehabilitation centre which has become his home.Then his eyes blaze. "My story would have been buried with me." What angers him is not the prospect of dying so much as dying anonymous, forgotten. "Everyone has a story." This is his. Morales was from a middle class home but, shy and awkward, with a clumsy body and goggle eyes, jealous of a brother's effortless success, he started smoking cannabis at 14 to get through weekends. He progressed to harder drugs, dropped out of business college, lived rough, begged, stole, got high. Somehow he found a way back and now, clean, lives in the rehab centre. He mops the floors and gives talks to new arrivals. "It's not much of a story is it?" he smiles. "But I'm glad I can tell it."In numbers: Four years of bloodshed28,000+ Number murdered since Felipe Calderón launched his crackdown on cartels in 200684,000Number of weapons confiscated$400m+Amount of suspected drugs money confiscated963Number of clashes between security forces and drug gangs (nearly one a day)50,000+Troops and federal police involved in the operation$13bnEstimated annual profit made by Mexican drug traffickers90%Proportion of cocaine consumed in the US that comes from Mexico guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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