Freed Terrorism Suspect Feels 'Victimized' by Australia

By Phil Mercer Sydney 30 July 2007

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Mohamed Haneef, an Indian doctor looks on after he reached his father-in-law's home in Bangalore, India, Sunday, 29 July 2007

An Indian doctor has arrived home from Australia after charges against him linked to the failed car bomb attacks in Britain were dropped. Mohamed Haneef says he understands why he was initially detained in Australia, but says his detention went on for too long. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

In an interview aired on Australian television before his departure, Mohamed Haneef said he was relieved to have been cleared of terrorism offenses, and he strongly denied any links to extremism.

Asked in the paid interview whether he had ever been a supporter of a terrorist group, the 27-year-old Indian doctor said it was not in his nature to ever support or be involved in such activities.

He said he understood why he was questioned - a second cousin of his was allegedly involved in the unsuccessful June 30 attack on Glasgow airport in Scotland, and Haneef's mobile phone SIM card was found in Britain during the investigation into the plot. But Haneef is angry that he was held for almost four weeks, when the case against him was so weak.

He was allowed to leave Australia several days ago and has arrived home in the Indian city of Bangalore. On his arrival, he told well-wishers he had been "victimized" by Australian officials

"It's an emotional moment for me, being with my family and at home," Haneef said. "And with you all here after a long wait of 27 days, going through the trauma of being a victim as I was, being victimized by the Australian authorities."

Haneef was charged with supporting an extremist organization by giving the mobile phone card to his relative in Britain. Australian prosecutors asserted that the phone card was found inside the jeep that was used in the attack on Glasgow airport. In fact, the card was discovered in the English city of Liverpool, several hundred kilometers away.

Terrorism charges against the 27-year-old Indian national were dropped last Friday by Australia's chief prosecutor, who studied the evidence and said a "mistake" had been made in formally charging Haneef.

Haneef's working visa was canceled after he was charged with terrorism offences. He says he would consider returning to work in Australia in the future if the work permit were reinstated, but that does not seem likely.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews is not budging. He says Haneef's departure from Australia - which Andrews calls hasty - has only heightened his suspicions.

"Nothing that I saw in the interview with Dr. Haneef changed my mind as to the suspicions and doubts that I had about the matter," Andrews said.

Opposition politicians are calling on Andrews to resign, and for the government to order a public inquiry into the way Haneef was treated.

But Andrews says he based his decision on "secret" information that might be made public later. And Prime Minister John Howard said Monday that the government "will not be apologizing to Dr. Haneef."

US Ambassador Expects UN Darfur Resolution This Week

By Stephanie Ho Washington 29 July 2007

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Washington's envoy to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, says he expects the world body to agree this week on a resolution to send a combined U.N.-African Union force to the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. VOA's Stephanie Ho has more on the story.

Zalmay Khalilzad (file photo)

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, says the crisis in Darfur, a large province in western Sudan, is a high priority for the Bush administration. "One of the highest. And I went to Sudan myself, with the members of the Security Council to demonstrate how important this was for us," he said.

For four years, pro-government Arab janjaweed militias have been battling ethnic African rebels in Darfur. The janjaweed are accused of terrorizing villagers and committing atrocities including murder and rape. More than 200-thousand people have died in the conflict. More than two million others have been driven from their homes.

The Security Council has been working on a draft resolution to authorize an international peacekeeping force for Darfur that would bolster seven thousand African Union monitors who are already there but have been unable to stem the violence. The U.N. and the African Union would supply a total of 26-thousand troops, a plan the government of Sudan has said it will accept.

Speaking on CNN's Late Edition program, Khalilzad said Security Council members are nearing consensus on a U.N. resolution. I believe that we are very close. I expect that we will get an agreement this week," he said.

President Bush has labeled the fighting in Darfur genocide. Since November, the United States and other western countries have been pressing Sudan to accept an expanded international force in Darfur. Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Khartoum for what she said were stalling tactics holding up deployment of the hybrid force.

One of Khartoum's main defenders is China, which has veto power in the Security Council and is Sudan's largest foreign investor. Beijing has opposed harsh economic sanctions, but earlier this year helped persuade Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers.

On Friday, though, China again called for patience on the Darfur issue. Beijing's special envoy for Darfur, Liu Guijin, told the official China Daily newspaper that coercion, in his words, "will lead us nowhere." He added that other parties must, also in his words, "learn to deal with the Sudanese government" as a "legitimate government that deserves respect."

Beijing next month celebrates the one-year countdown to its hosting of the Olympic Games. Foreign activists have warned they will call the international sporting event the "genocide games" unless China uses more leverage to help bring peace to Darfur.

Chinese Authorities Prevent Multinational AIDS Rights Conference

By Daniel Schearf Beijing 29 July 2007

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Chinese authorities have banned activists and experts from holding a multinational conference in southern China on the legal rights of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. As Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing, although Chinese officials have become more supportive of AIDS prevention efforts, discrimination against people with HIV is common, and authorities are still suspicious of activists.

The conference was to bring together Chinese and foreign activists this week in the southern city of Guangzhou to discuss AIDS discrimination. They also were to consider establishing a legal aid center in China for people with HIV and the activists who support them.

Fifty participants from South Africa, India, Thailand, and Canada had planned to attend.

But on Thursday authorities told organizers the conference would not be allowed.

Asia Catalyst, a New York organization that works with activists in Asia to promote human rights, social justice and environmental protection, co-organized the conference. Its partner was China Orchid AIDS Projects in Beijing.

Sara Davis

"We were contacted by authorities, who told us that the combination of AIDS and law and foreigners was too sensitive and that the meeting had to be canceled," Sara Davis, the founder and director of Asia Catalyst.

China has in recent years moved from officially denying having an HIV problem to supporting AIDS education and prevention campaigns.

Last year, China outlawed discrimination against people with HIV or AIDS. Officials have also promised anonymous testing and free treatment for poor people infected with the disease.

But AIDS activists are still harassed, and Davis says discrimination remains common.

"If their identity becomes known they risk being evicted from their homes, they lose their jobs, their children are refused access to education, are turned away from schools, and perhaps worst of all are often refused treatment from hospital workers," said Davis.

Davis says a legal aid center is needed to help people infected with HIV when their rights are violated.

She says despite the canceled conference, she is optimistic her group will be able to continue working with Chinese AIDS activists.

However, Chinese authorities have recently shown less tolerance for foreign activists who support the work of Chinese groups.

Earlier this month officials ordered the closure of China Development Brief, a well-respected publication run by a British national that reported on China's social development and civic activity.

VOASE0729_This Is America

29 July 2007

Critics Praise Three American Playwrights
Sarah Ruhl, Neil LaBute, and Suzan-Lori Parks are writing plays with great creativity and energy.

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. This week we tell about three American writers whose fresh and imaginative plays are receiving great critical praise. Sarah Ruhl, Neil LaBute and Suzan-Lori Parks have very different histories and styles. But all three are adding great energy and creativity to the American theater.

(MUSIC)

A scene from "Dead Man's Cell Phone" at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

VOICE ONE:

At the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. the new play “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” has been a big success this summer. Sarah Ruhl wrote "Dead Man's Cell Phone." The play is both funny and serious. It deals with death, family, and, well, cell phones. It tells the story of a lonely young woman named Jean. The play starts at a restaurant where Jean is eating and reading quietly. The cell phone of the man at the table next to her starts to ring.

(SOUND)

Then it rings again.

(SOUND)

The cell phone keeps ringing and starts to interfere with her reading. Finally, Jean stands up to ask the man to answer his phone. But she discovers that he has died.

Jean (talking on his phone):

“I think that there is a dead man sitting next to me.

(Pause)

I don’t know how he died. I’m at a café.”

VOICE TWO:

Jean keeps the dead man's cell phone and gets involved in his life. She answers the phone when his friends, family and business contacts call him. She meets some very unusual people.

VOICE ONE:

Sara Ruhl

Sarah Ruhl studied to be a playwright at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Her teacher was the well-known American playwright Paula Vogel. At first, Miz Ruhl studied poetry, but Paula Vogel influenced her to study theater. Sarah Ruhl knew theater well. She grew up going to play rehearsals in Chicago, Illinois with her mother who was an actress.

VOICE TWO:

Sarah Ruhl is only thirty-three years old, but she has already had extraordinary success. Her play “The Clean House” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in two thousand five. The next year she won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship for her work. This organization gives five hundred thousand dollars to people in the arts and sciences who show great skill and creativity in their work.

VOICE ONE:

“The Clean House” is also a play that is very funny as well as serious. It tells about a controlling doctor named Lane who employs a Brazilian woman to clean her house. But Matilde does not like to clean. She says if the floor is dirty then one should look up at the ceiling because it is always clean.

Lane has a sister named Virginia who is lonely. Her favorite activity is cleaning. Virginia thinks it is an honor to clean your own house. She loves dust. She says dust always makes progress. Then when she removes the dust she knows she has made progress.

A scene with Virginia and Matilde from "The Clean House" at Wooly Mammoth Theatre

VOICE TWO:

Virginia secretly goes to Lane’s house and cleans all day while Matilde does her own favorite activity, creating jokes. The order of Lane’s life further falls apart when her husband, also a doctor, falls in love with a patient. In the end, this play is about loving and learning to help and forgive others.

VOICE ONE:

Sarah Ruhl has another new play being performed in New York City called "Eurydice". The play re-imagines an ancient Greek story with modern characters and visual effects. Eurydice dies on her wedding day. She must travel through the underworld and struggle to retain the memories of her lost love, Orpheus. Critics praised the play. They say it provides a fresh look at a timeless love story.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Neil LaBute studied theater at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He writes plays as well as movies that test the fine line between good and bad actions. His stories can be painfully honest in their examination of human relationships. Mister LaBute has said that a good relationship between people equals a bad story. He thinks that the common building material for a play is conflict. And he says his job is to look for ways to ruin a perfectly good day for people.

VOICE ONE:

A good example of a LaBute play is “The Shape of Things.” It was first performed in London in two thousand one. It tells about two university students, Adam and Evelyn, who meet at a museum. Adam is a museum guard who meets Evelyn while she is trying to ruin a piece of art at the museum to express her radical ideas. They soon fall in love. But Adam’s friends Phil and Jenny notice that something is not right about Adam and Evelyn. Evelyn slowly starts to change Adam’s physical and mental qualities. By the end of the play he is a completely new person. Then Evelyn reveals her terrible secret about her plan for Adam.

After London, the play was performed in New York City. Neil LaBute later directed and produced a movie version of “The Shape of Things” using the same actors. Here is Evelyn talking with Jenny about her studies:

Evelyn: So everything is good?

Jenny: Yeah, you know, OK. You?

Evelyn: Pretty great actually. Just studying…working on my art.

Jenny: Right., You‘ve got that big thing that you are doing.

Evelyn: Thesis project, for my degree.

Jenny: And it’s going well?

Evelyn: Yeah.

Jenny: What was it again?

Evelyn: I never said.

Jenny: Oh, well that’s why.

Evelyn: Right. It’s this sculpture thingie.

Jenny: Nice. I think what you have done with Adam it’s really great.

Evelyn: What I have done?

Jenny: Just, you know, he’s changed.

Evelyn: That’s right HE’s changed.

Jenny: Of course, I didn’t mean that you…

Evelyn: I know, I am just saying, you know, he did the work.

Jenny: Right.

VOICE TWO:

Another LaBute play is called “Fat Pig.” It tells about the relationship between Helen and Tom. Tom loves Helen but he does not like his friends' criticism of her because she is very overweight. His concern about other people’s opinions of Helen’s appearance finally ruins his relationship with her. The play is fiercely honest and at times upsetting. Neil LaBute’s plays are among the most emotionally demanding and morally shocking in current theater.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Suzan-Lori Parks from studiotheatre.org

Suzan-Lori Parks started writing while studying at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She first studied chemistry, then later changed to English and German literature. She said she started to hear voices in her head that led her to write down what they were saying. Suzan-Lori Parks read one of her stories in a class taught by the famous writer James Baldwin. He asked her if she had ever considered writing for the theater.

VOICE TWO:

The plays of Suzan-Lori Parks usually deal with black culture, American history and family relations. Her nineteen ninety-nine play, “In the Blood,” is a modern version of the nineteenth century novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The play tells about a homeless woman named Hester as she cares for her five children. It gives an intense and honest vision of motherhood, poverty and suffering.

Miz Parks does not limit herself to writing plays. In two thousand three she wrote the book “Getting Mother’s Body.” She has also written screenplays for movies, including “Girl 6” directed by Spike Lee.

VOICE ONE:

In two thousand one, Miz Parks won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. The next year she won the Pulitzer Prize for her play “Topdog/Underdog.” She became the first black woman to ever receive the award.

“Topdog/Underdog” tells the story of two African-American brothers, Lincoln and Booth. Lincoln works at a game center as a target for a shooting game. To be the target, he dresses up like President Abraham Lincoln. His brother Booth plays card games to win money. Their parents left the brothers when they were young children and they have depended on each other to survive. The play is a striking exploration of their many emotions and the tense competition between the two men.

VOICE TWO:

Miz Parks recently put into action one of her largest projects yet. In two thousand two, she decided to write one play a day for a year. The published collection of these plays is called “365 Days/365 Plays.” Here are the first few lines of “2- For-1” performed by the American Theater Company of Chicago.

(SOUND)

Writer: “Is the rule that I have to keep writing until I think of a play?”

Editor: “There are no rules”

Writer: “What if my mind is blank?”

VOICE ONE:

From November thirteenth of last year until November twelfth of this year, these plays are being performed every day all over America. More than seven hundred colleges, performance organizations and theater groups are performing the works. One goal of the project is to bring together a worldwide theater community. For more on this special event, visit www.365days365plays.com.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for This is America in VOA Special English.

VOASE0729_Development Report

29 July 2007

Working With Clay: A How-to Guide
Clay is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Clay is found almost everywhere in the world. It is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years. The rocks change in both chemical and physical ways. Chemically, elements like potassium and aluminum are added and taken away. Physically, the rocks break down into smaller and smaller pieces. After a long time, some of the rock changes to clay.

Clay is important because it is used around the world to make containers of all kinds. Potters add water to soften the clay. This makes it easier to form into shapes by hand or by machine. Then it is fired in an extremely hot stove. The result is a container with a hard surface that will last for many years.

In many countries, clay was formed from volcanoes. This kind of clay usually contains many minerals. So the fires to make containers from volcanic clay must be hotter than those used for non-volcanic clay. The fires may be as hot as one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius.

It is also important to dry the clay containers slowly. This means that the highest temperature should not be reached too fast.

You can add materials to clay to gain desired results. For example, you can add sand to prevent tiny breaks or lines from forming in the finished product. But you should not use sand from the coasts of oceans. Instead, you should use sand from rivers or from other areas of land that are not near the sea.

You can usually find good clay in low areas of islands or land, especially if volcanoes helped form the land. Clay often exists in fields covered with some water. The clay will be found about one meter below the ground. River banks often also have clay about one meter or less under the surface.

You can recognize clay because it is very shiny when it is wet. You can also perform a test. Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread. Then press it in your hand until it is about the size of an egg. It is probably clay if it holds together instead of falling apart when you stop pressing.

You can learn more about working with clay from publications that can be ordered online from EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The address is enterpriseworks.org. Click on the "Publications" link under "News & Resources."

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Gary Garriott. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.