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Thursday, 9 August, 2007

  • Kirsty Wark
  • 9 Aug 07, 06:15 PM

Cattle graze on a farm close to Pirbright in SurreyFoot and mouth
We begin tonight with an extraordinary discovery made by the Newsnight team investigating the foot and mouth outbreak. The disease may have been contained by culling, and the ban on cattle movement relaxed, but the Pirbright site could still be vulnerable to another outbreak, and will be so until radical action is taken. We'll explain all tonight and are hoping to put our findings to a government minister.

Krishna Maharaj
The 68-year-old British businessman Krishna Maharaj spent 15 years on death row in Florida, and has been in prison there for more than twenty - convicted of a double murder he insits he did not commit. Jack Straw believes him, so too does Harriet Harman, Peter Hain, the former Attorney Generals Lord Goldsmith and Lord Lyall, London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Dholakia and 300 politicians on both sides of the House who are calling for a retrial. Most importantly, having spent months investigating the case, the Foreign Office says it believes there is "prima facie evidence of a miscarriage of justice." Today Krishna Maharaj, armed with six alibi witnesses, begins his final appeal for clemency. Newsnight's Tim Samuels, who has visited Mr Maharaj in jail many times over the years, interviews him about his last chance for freedom. Read Tim's .

Pakistan
What is going on in Pakistan? General Musharraf . Was it a smokescreen for domestic problems and an attempt to delay elections and the introduction of civilian rule? Was it also an excuse for staying at home rather than attending a jirga hosted by President Karzai to talk about dealing with Taliban and Al Qaeda violence, one consequence of which is the deaths of British and US soldiers in Afghanistan? Today President Bush told the Pakistani leader he expected him to take swift action to crack. Our Diplomatic Editor Mark Urban gives us his take on what is probably the most critical region in the world today.

Role models
As a points the finger at rap artists for providing bad role models for black kids, we'll be dissecting who exactly produces rap, who listens to it, and what effect it really has.

Arctic
Who owns the Arctic sea bed? Canada scoffed at the legal significance of Russia's planting of a flag on the oil rich bottom of the Arctic - , attempting to complete an undersea map. The estimates 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas lies in the Arctic. So who does it belong to? We hope we'll be able to tell you tonight.

Comments  Post your comment

Why do we have places like Pirbright smack bang in the middle of countryside that is most at risk to this sort of 'incident'. Why not transport the whole kit and kaboodle and stick it in a desert or the arctic? Oh sorry, forgot Russia owns the Artic.....

  • 2.
  • At 07:36 PM on 09 Aug 2007,
  • Bob Goodall wrote:

Dear Newsnight

its perhaps owned in the legal rather than moral sense by whoever makes up the 'rules'?
ie with North Sea oil I'm sure a lot of Norwegians etc could have thought of different rules which might have allowed them to have had a bigger share of the oil?

the oil in the Artic rightfully belongs to the whole world not just to those happen to be in the vicinity but who also have the biggest stick to wave at the others in the neigbourhood

might does not mean right?

best wishes

Bob

  • 3.
  • At 08:18 PM on 09 Aug 2007,
  • Brian J Dickenson wrote:

So the kids do not have the correct role models and this is why they are worried about joining gangs or being shot.
Let me say that sixty years ago in my home city of Liverpool, although we were not shot, we could be beaten up or even stabbed for having the wrong role model. If one gave the wrong answer to the question of which football team one supported, or whether one was Catholic or Church of England.
Then the trouble started, I have little doubt that if firearms had been freely available we would have used them.
People do not change, only technology.

My experience of growing up in the London slums of Deptford and Lewisham
70 years ago were totally dissimilar to those of BJ Dickenson (postNo3).
I do not recollect any interest in gang membership or one's religious persuasion: nor was there much overt crime, apart from petty theft. The Kray bros. of East London were perhaps the notable exception, but my brothers and our mates were free to play street games without any of today's fears. The stabbings and shootings that now dominate life in such under-privileged areas come through the importation of the so-called 'respect' culture, enforced with guns and knives and encouraged by other society-destroying importations such as gangsta-rap, drug peddlers and the 'we welcome diversity'lunacy. BJD's closing phrase 'people do not change'is hardly appropriate for a country that has allowed the importation of millions of immigrants with alien cultures and values,

  • 5.
  • At 10:42 PM on 09 Aug 2007,
  • Mark wrote:

Britain's government seems bent on meddling in the internal legal affairs of America. I don't know the details of the Maharaj case except what was reported here and I cannot accept 大象传媒's report as fair and balanced, there must be much more to the story than 大象传媒 is telling. This brings up an interesting twist, the UK government is trying to win the release of 5 captives of GITMO who aren't even British citizens but just happened to live in Britain at one time. I can't say what effect political pressure will have on the GITMO case, probably none but it will if anything be counterproductive in the Marahaj case if the pressure is at all public and strenuous. American courts will not look favorably at being coerced, not even by a domestic appeal let alone a foreign government. If there is to be any clemency at all, it will be on strictly legal grounds as they apply to the laws of the State of Florida, not Vienna. Frankly, very few appeals courts or governors exercise the power to overrule a jury. From what 大象传媒 reported, Maharaj was not without considerable financial means at the time of his arrest and trial and should have had a very good lawyer. Why alibi witnesses weren't brought up at trial, why they haven't made any difference in the intervening years of appeals, and whether or not they are even credible is for the courts and ultimately the governor to decide. High profile international appeals in such cases only serve to make Americans resentful.

KRISHNA MAHARAJ

Was irony intended when Krisha Maharaj commented on the corruption in the American Judicial system, followed instantly by Lord Goldsmith (the man who declared 鈥 at the second attempt 鈥 Tony鈥檚 war to be legal)?
Might this be the 大象传媒 doing a bit of 鈥渟equencing鈥 again?

  • 7.
  • At 12:11 AM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • DaveH wrote:

What was going on tonight? Kirsty Wark kept talking about the "Artic" - that's a big lorry! The northern polar region has an additional "c".

To make matters worse, the researcher needs a kick uop the bnackside too - all that rubbish about the Economic Zone extending 200 miles beyond the shelf. The principle under UNCLOS (which I studied a year after the treaty was agreed in 1982) is that the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) extends 200 miles from the coastline UNLESS the continental shelf extends further than that, in which case it too can be exploited exclusively by that nation. It is not a concept of ownership, but more importantly, it is precisely this extension of the shelf, which is the key issue as the Russians are trying to show that the area around the pole is part of their continental shelf. Kirsty's comment suggested that the shelf had ended long before - in which case Russia had no claim anyway.

  • 8.
  • At 12:53 AM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • Dillon wrote:

I was delighted to see that Newsnight has kept up with its concerns and reports of the case of Krishna Maharaj. Tim Samuels piece was first rate and I would like to applaud Newsnight for it. I hope true justice prevails soon.

On an slightly irrelevant note...the main piece of music that was repeated during it has been played a lot recently. Does anyone know what it was.
Thank you

  • 9.
  • At 07:27 AM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • Fanta wrote:

The foot and mouth outbreak happended long time ago . At that time , we had many methods to solve the proplem . Many organization took part to share the thing . And it was radically terminated .
But now , Everything turn back , every thing are vulnerable . Anh we start at the begining again . How can ?
Why don't we prevent it by periodic works such as : medicine , test...

  • 10.
  • At 09:06 AM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • steve wrote:

Sir, So the Russians want to claim a bit of the Arctic, a hundred years ago we claimed three quarters of the planet for the 'Empire' and we plundered most of the mineral wealth for the 'wealthy' back in Blighty. So, please, no lessons to the Russians...especially from us, maybe they are only copying us so I suppose we taught them somfink. Sincerely, Steven Calrow.

  • 11.
  • At 11:00 AM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • Nigel wrote:

Just a thought on the whole issue of role models: You can't tell someone who their role models should be, just as a person can't choose whether or not they are seen as a role model.

  • 12.
  • At 12:16 PM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • csharp wrote:

Don't believe the new EA flood maps. About 5 years ago i got a letter from the insurers saying i was in a flood zone. This area has never flooded. My next door neighbour whose family has lived in the house since they were new built over 100 years ago and herself over 90 says this area has never flooded.

There is something wrong with the EA flood computer program that designates areas that have never flooded since the houses were built over 100 years ago as flood zone.

Given that example it may be highly likely that there are lots of new areas in EA flood zones that never flooded or are likely to ever flood.

So the EA are costing me more per year in insurance just because their flood map software is gibberish.

  • 13.
  • At 02:42 PM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • M.Lin wrote:

Re: Krishna Maharaji

Mark, (at comment 5, above), seems to be suggesting that if Americans get 'resentful', this 'resentment' overrides the correct and proper functioning of their institutions.

The British Government therefore would seem to have more faith and trust in these institutions and their reason for existing, than does Mark.

Even if one were to accept the definition of the-world-according-to-Mark, it would still seem that by engaging with the remaining conduits apparently available in this sorry case, at the very least, the British Government is expressing respect for the hope that these American Institutions function contrary to Mark's apparent expectations.

Like Dillon, (at comment no 8 above), I sincerely trust that "true justice" is brought to 'prevail' through the very people and means (i.e. the Americans and their Institutions) in which Mark seems to have so very little faith.
Thank you.

  • 14.
  • At 03:54 PM on 10 Aug 2007,
  • Larry Wiswell wrote:

I think the United Nations should control the oil rights that are outside the normal commonly recognised coastal boumndaries. The UN could use the revenue to promote world peace, fund a variety of ecomonic and health improvement programs and support relief efforts in areas of natural disaster.

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