Her name is Judith - a student who got so drunk after a university party it was only much later she realised that someone had had sex with her.

But when she went to court and accused a fellow student of rape, the result sparked a worldwide controversy over the question of consent.

Judith still finds it hard to believe. It happened in a blur one night in May 2005, after a long night of partying. She remembers being very drunk. Then starting the journey back to her room, a student residence in Aberystwyth, west Wales.

Then being awake, a long time later, in the corridor outside her room and realising that someone was by her, clearly attempting sex. And then later, much later, realising that someone had actually had sex with her.

And knowing that she would not have consented to sex in a corridor. Or at least she did not remember - and if she did not remember, what on earth was someone, anyone, doing having trying to have sex with her? It was rape.   more »

The self-image of the United States as a beacon of freedom and democracy, lighting the way for the rest of the world, is a lie, Chomsky says, and it always has been.

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy* aims to expose the rot of the shining city on a hill, from its foundations to its steeples.

At the book's center is the avowed American mission to spread democracy throughout the world. Chomsky concedes that, rhetorically at least, this has been the nation's goal since Woodrow Wilson, but he insists the words are utterly at odds with American deeds.

In its many foreign interventions, Washington has acted to frustrate the will of the people, often by supporting those engaged in the most chilling violence.

The United States has overthrown democratic governments in Iran, Chile, Guatemala "and a long list of others."

Elsewhere it has paid lip service to procedural democracy while doing all it could to rig the outcome.   more »

The US supreme court yesterday rolled back the sweeping powers appropriated by the Bush administration in the war on terror, ruling it could not order military trials for Guantánamo detainees without the protections of the Geneva convention and American law.

The 5-3 decision in the case brought by Salim Ahmed Hamden, Osama bin Laden's driver, was seen as a rejection of the central premise that Mr Bush, as wartime president, has legal authority that exceeds the powers of international treaties, US courts, and Congress.

In compelling the administration to comply with the Geneva convention at its war crimes trials, the court also implicitly outlawed some of the other controversial practices in the war on terror, such as torture and rendition, lawyers for the 460 detainees at Guantánamo said.

Some lawyers said the ruling places limits in other arenas of the war on terror, such as Mr Bush's order authorising the National Security Agency to monitor the email and telephone calls of Americans without court oversight.

The lawyers said the direction from the court for the Bush administration to comply with Geneva convention safeguards for humane treatment would apply not only to Guantánamo, but the dozens of US detention centres around the world.   more »

We've made valuable discoveries about how gender helps determine vulnerability to illness and, ultimately, the timing and causes of death. But I now believe that we doctors and researchers may have focused too much on women.

What emerges when one studies male biology in a truly evenhanded way is the realization that from the moment of conception on, men are less likely to survive than women. It's not just that men take on greater risks and pursue more hazardous vocations than women.

There are poorly understood — and underappreciated — vulnerabilities inherent in men's genetic and hormonal makeup. This Father's Day, we need to rededicate ourselves to deepening our knowledge of male physiology.

Men's troubles begin during the earliest days in the womb. Even though there are more male than female embryos, there are more miscarriages of male fetuses. Industrial countries are also witnessing a decline in male to female birth ratios, and we don't know why.

Some scientists have argued that the probability of a male child declines as parents (especially fathers) age. Still others have cited the prevalence of pesticides, which produce more birth defects in male children.   more »

Here in Peru, China's Shougang steel company bought the Marcona iron ore mine in 1991 — one of the largest in Latin America — along with a Pacific deep-water port. But it is located next to a natural bay, loaded with wildlife.

Shougang has regularly made it into the Peruvian press, accused of dumping effluents into the bay and not treating its workers well.

The amount of press it gets here, though, "is nowhere near what a North American company receives," a U.S. consultant in Peru said to me. And none of this makes news in China.

One good sign is that the Chinese oil company Sapet, which the Peruvian government recently awarded a permit to explore for oil on some pristine land inhabited by some of Peru's indigenous people, has approached local environmentalists to consult on how to proceed.

"It is too early to tell whether their environmental performance will be up to the best international practices or not," said Alfredo Ferreyros, who heads the Peru office of Conservation International and took part in the meeting. "But the indigenous peoples are already opposed."

Alas, it took 20-plus years for Western companies and countries to understand and manage their footprint on the natural world. A few days ago, I was in a rain forest on the Tambopata River where Mobil Oil once explored. It did it in a way, though, that left no trace today.

But we don't have 20 years to wait for China to figure this out. There needs to be a broad dialogue with China now — by governments, environmental groups, companies — on how to make its global footprint green.   more »

Israel widened its assault on the Gaza Strip last night by shelling the north of the territory and dropping leaflets warning residents of a pending attack by tanks and troops, as the government seized on a crisis over an abducted soldier to take on Palestinian armed groups.

It also held more than 1 million ordinary Palestinians responsible for 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shilat's continued capture and promised "extreme action" to secure his release.

The defence minister, Amir Peretz, authorised a second invasion of Gaza in as many days after the seizure by troops early yesterday of an area in the south near the Rafah and Khan Yunis refugee camps.

The army believes that Cpl Shalit is being held in the crowded warrens of the camps controlled by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Residents of both camps were bracing themselves for an attack after Israeli forces moved back into the territory for the first time since Jewish settlers were pulled out last autumn.   more »

A resurrection is haunting the British media, the bizarre apparition of "benevolent empire". It takes the form of documentaries and discussions steered towards the conclusion that colonialism was not such a bad thing after all and that something of a celebration is in order.

Trouble is, to get there, some creative reworking of the facts is needed. After a recent brouhaha about Britain's imperial history on Radio 4's Start the Week - in which I took part - the presenter Andrew Marr worried that the debate had been "pretty biased" against empire.

There was a lot of enthusiasm and a "warm nostalgia" for empire, he suggested in the subsequent phone-in, even in former colonies, "still something there, absolutely".

Only the desire to recover some imaginary good from the tragedy that was empire can explain the elevation of the neoconservative ideologue Niall Ferguson to chief imperial historian on the BBC and now Channel 4.   more »

29 JUNE

The Pornification of Culture: Whatever Happened to Real Sex?

Live8: One Year on...Exposed as Farcical Theater for a Western Audience

The Bush Regime: A Two-Bit Dictatorship

Bill Gates: Charity Capitalism...He Makes Me Want to Throw Up

American Barbarians Full of Hate

Bob Herbert The Wreckage in the China Shop...Fear, Hate and Terrorism

Israel Unleashes Its Bloodlust for Vengeance Against the Palestinian People