Author Maeve Binchy dies aged 72

|| RIP || Maeve Binchy || A TRIBUTE || (Photo credit: || UggBoy♥UggGirl || PHOTO || WORLD || TRAVEL ||)

News for Tuesday 31 July is taken from BBC News

 

Best-selling Irish author Maeve Binchy has died aged 72 after a short illness.

 

Binchy, born in Dalkey, Co Dublin, has sold more than 40 million books. Her works were often set in Ireland and have been translated into 37 languages.

 

They include The Lilac Bus as well as Tara Road and Circle of Friends, which were both adapted for screen.

 

Binchy trained as a teacher before moving into journalism and writing, publishing her first novel – Light a Penny Candle – in 1982.

 

She had written the novel in her spare time from her day job as a journalist at The Irish Times.

 

Fellow novelist Jilly Cooper paid tribute, saying Binchy was “a natural storyteller”.

 

“She was a darling – I’m very, very sad,” she told Radio 4′s Today programme.

 

“She was so kind and funny and captivating, and was a brilliant writer.”

 

Other authors have paid tribute on Twitter, with Ian Rankin tweeting: “Maeve Binchy was a gregarious, larger than life, ebullient recorder of human foibles and wonderment.”

 

Marian Keyes wrote: “I’m so so sad to hear that Maeve Binchy has died. She was so full of life, so funny, so interested in people, so kind and so good to all of us writers, who came after her.

 

“She was a beautiful generous person and a beautiful generous writer.”

 

Cathy Kelly tweeted: “The world is truly a darker place without the golden light of lovely Maeve Binchy. We’ll all miss her genius.”

 

Irish President Michael D Higgins said he was “deeply saddened” by Binchy’s death.

 

“She was an outstanding novelist, short story writer and columnist who engaged millions of people all around the world with her fluent and accessible style,” he said.

 

“She was a great storyteller and we enjoyed her capacity to engage, entertain and surprise us.”

 

BBC Dublin correspondent Ruth McDonald said Binchy’s warm, witty, perceptive stories were read and enjoyed around the world.

 

She said the author was renowned for her generosity and support of others, writing in a guide for aspiring writers: “The most important thing to realise is that everyone is capable of telling a story.

 

“It doesn’t matter where we were born or how we grew up.”

 

In a 2001 interview with the BBC, after she had won the WHSmith Book Award for fiction, Binchy described the five rejections she received for her first novel as “a slap in the face”.

 

She said she was glad she persevered and sent the book to a sixth publisher.

 

“It’s like if you don’t go to a dance you can never be rejected but you’ll never get to dance either,” she said.

 

The author said that her secret was to write the way she spoke.

 

“I don’t say I was ‘proceeding down a thoroughfare’, I say I ‘walked down the road’. I don’t say I ‘passed a hallowed institute of learning’, I say I ‘passed a school’.

 

“You don’t wear all your jewellery at once,” she went on. “You’re much more believable if you talk in your own voice.”

 

In 2000 Binchy was ranked third in the World Book Day poll of favourite authors – ahead of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

 

The writer received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards in 2010, the same year her last novel, Minding Frankie, was published.

 

She published a personal message on her website thanking fans who had praised the work.

 

“My health isn’t so good these days and I can’t travel around to meet people the way I used to,” she wrote.

 

“But I’m always delighted to hear from readers, even if it takes me a while to reply.”

 

Binchy is survived by her husband, the writer Gordon Snell.

 

Related articles

• Bestselling author Maeve Binchy dies (lfpress.com)
• Circle Of Friends and Tara Road author Maeve Binchy dies aged 72 (standard.co.uk)
• Maeve Binchy: In Tributes (newstalk.ie)

Chinese court dismisses fraud charge against rights activist Ni Yulan

倪玉兰 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Monday 30 July is taken from The Guardian

A Chinese court has thrown out a fraud charge against a disabled lawyer in a small victory for the country’s battered rights movement, a day after the US pressed Beijing to improve its human rights record.

Ni Yulan, who has fought for the rights of people forced out of their homes to make way for development, will remain in prison to serve her other conviction for causing a disturbance.

The decision, announced by the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court, means Ni, who uses a wheelchair, will have her prison time reduced by two months.

Ni and her husband, Dong Jiqin, were detained in April 2011 and later convicted of the charges. She was given a total of two years and eight months in jail.

Activists contend the charges were trumped up in an effort to silence the couple.

Prosecutors said previously Ni had swindled a person out of 5,000 yuan (£500) for “fabricating her identity as a lawyer”.

The court ruled that the contributions to Ni were donations, the couple’s lawyer, Cheng Hai, told Reuters by telephone.

“We’ve won partially,” Cheng said. “It wasn’t easy. But if everyone persists, there’s still hope. The path of the rule of law, no matter how tough it is, is still improving.”

The court did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.

Ni’s imprisonment underscores Chinese leaders’ increasing intolerance of dissent ahead of a tricky generational transition of power at the end of the year, when Xi Jinping, the vice-president, will almost certainly be anointed to take over from Hu Jintao.

On Thursday, the US urged China to address its “deteriorating” rights record, citing Ni’s case among others.

Cheng said Ni told the court she was not guilty in a five-minute speech. Ni, who had to be wheeled into the courtroom for her hearing last December on a stretcher and was hooked up to an oxygen tank, was able to sit upright for two and a half hours, Cheng said.

“In prison, she said the nutrition isn’t very good,” Cheng said. “She’s terribly malnourished.”

About a dozen diplomats gathered outside the courthouse to wait for the verdict, along with a heavy security presence.

Ni’s appeal comes a week after a Chinese court upheld a fine for tax evasion against the country’s most famous dissident, Ai Weiwei.

Prosecutors alleged that Ni and Dong had “willfully occupied” a room at a hotel, according to the court spokesman. Ni had previously called it a “black jail”, where they were forced to stay in 2010 after their home was demolished in 2008.

A black jail is an informal detention site, such as a hotel or government guesthouse, used to hold protesters and petitioners without resorting to legal procedures.

Ni was left disabled by a police beating in 2002 after filming the forced demolition of a client’s home, and was then imprisoned. Ni was again jailed and beaten by police in 2008 for defending the rights of people evicted from their homes to make way for Beijing’s 2008 Summer Olympics.

In February 2011, Jon Huntsman, then US ambassador to China, visited Ni in the hotel, where she said water and electricity had been cut off by the authorities.

Related articles

• US slams deteriorating human rights in China (thehimalayantimes.com)
• “New China Plan a Step Backward For Universal Rights Protection” (thechinahotline.wordpress.com)
• Chinese court upholds Ai Weiwei tax fine (independent.co.uk)

Larisa Latynina: An unbeaten Olympian for 48 years – until now

Larissa Latynina, Russian-Ukrainian and former Soviet gymnast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Sunday 29 July is taken from The Independent

As the legendary gymnast waits to see if her record will fall this time, she tells Emily Dugan about her life, struggle … and Nadia Comaneci

For 48 years Larisa Latynina has been untouchable. The former Soviet gymnast’s record haul of 18 Olympic medals put her far above the reach of any other Olympian.

But this week the 77-year-old is prepared to make way for a new all-time top medallist. Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who already has 16 medals, 14 of them gold, is expected to trump the record she has held on to for nearly half a century.

Pundits believe Phelps should do that comfortably by the middle of this week, because despite competition for gold from his team-mate Ryan Lochte, Phelps only needs to win a medal in three of his seven events during these Games to better Latynina’s record.

She is in London for the next fortnight as the International Gymnastics Federation’s guest of honour, and will be at the poolside for Phelps’s potential record-breaking swim. “I’ll be happy for him if he does it, because he deserves it,” she says, adding an aside that gives a glimpse of the old Cold War rivalries their countries held: “The only sad part is that he’s not from Russia.”

Latynina met Phelps for the first time earlier this year in New York, and proudly shows off a photo in which she is giving a Russian doll to the grinning swimmer. “He impressed me a lot because he was very smiley and charming. I think he’ll get it and I’ll cheer him on,” she says, pausing to consider further. “Of course, if [the Russian swimmer] Evgeny Korotyshkin and Phelps compete, then I’m sorry Michael, but I’ll cheer for Korotyshkin.”

She asked the International Olympic Committee if she could be the one to present his record-breaking medal, but was told it was unlikely. “It would be a real pleasure, really great to give him his 19th medal. I suggested it to the IOC, but I don’t think they want me to. The IOC has got many honoured people and everybody wants to do that.”

Born in 1934 in the Black Sea port of Kherson, when Ukraine was still under Soviet control, Latynina went on to make her Olympic debut in Melbourne in 1956, when she took home four gold medals, one silver and one bronze. The winning streak continued, with another six medals in Rome in 1960 and in Tokyo in 1964. She still wears her Olympic past with pride and is dressed in the Russian team tracksuit.

Latynina heralded an era of Soviet dominance in sport at a time when athletic prowess was used as a propaganda tool for the country’s Communist ideology. These days, her family’s lifestyle is more typical of a capitalist modern Russian elite. Ordinarily she lives on an estate in the countryside outside Moscow, but I meet her at her daughter Tatyana’s mansion in Sevenoaks, Kent. Tatyana moved to Britain two years ago with her husband, the Russian billionaire restaurateur Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Blanco, to be closer to their son, at school nearby.

Sitting in her daughter’s opulent water garden – stocked with fat koi and tended by hired hands – she has come a long way from the struggle of her childhood. Resistance to Stalin’s collective farming had left widespread famine in Ukraine and things became even tougher when her father was killed at Stalingrad in 1943. Athletic success was one of the few ways to rise in society, and her mother did two jobs to scrape together the money to send her daughter to choreography school, to study ballet. It was only after the school closed that Latynina discovered gymnastics and transferred to Kiev for specialist training.

She was so dedicated to her sport that she even competed at the 1958 World Championships in Moscow while four months pregnant. She took home five gold medals. “I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t even say to my coach, Alexander Mishakov, that I was pregnant,” she says. “Even now when I see those medals, I think they’re hers, too. When journalists used to come to our house and she was little, she’d take out the medals and say, ‘These are the ones I won with Mummy.’ “

Her success, she says, is partly down to the fact that she was always ruthlessly competitive. This was even evident as a small child running races in the playground. She recalls: “When I was about six, we wanted to find out who was the fastest runner, so the boys drew a finishing line on the pavement in chalk. We started to run and I realised about two seconds before the finish that I wasn’t going to be first. I decided to jump and dive forward with my hands outstretched, so they crossed the line first. There was glass on the pavement and I cut my hands to shreds,” she says, gesturing to a deep scar still on her finger. “My finger was bleeding, but I was jumping around shouting, ‘My hands were first, I’ve won, I’ve won.’ “

Despite giving Phelps her blessing, her competitive spirit has not gone away. In 1992, there was an award for the greatest gymnast of the 20th century, which went to the Romanian Nadia Comaneci, who in 1976 became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 out of 10 in an Olympic event.

The rejection still smarts. “When they were deciding who it should go to, Comaneci had a very good PR. She only had four gold medals. Gymnastics is a very subjective sport. If a runner runs fastest, he gets the best time – that’s objective, but in gymnastics it’s just decided by judges. To be honest I was upset. These were the awards for the best gymnast and I was surprised because I was expecting it. The results were unfair, but at the time of the award I congratulated her.”

Now, though, she wants to let the medals do the talking. Pointing to a London 2012 brochure which has a picture of her at the top of a list of the biggest medal winners of all time, Latynina says mischievously: “See, there’s no Comaneci there.”

Related articles

• Nick Zaccardi, Gennady Fyodorov: With her all-time record set to fall, little-known Latynina looks back (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• Phelps having more fun this time around at Olympics (nypost.com)

London Games are first to include women from every country

Olympic Games Message (Photo credit: chooyutshing)

News for Friday 27 July is taken from Women’s Views on News

In the London 2012 Games there will be, for the first time in the history of the Olympics, a female athlete sent from every participant nation.

The last few nations to abstain from sending sportswomen were Qatar, Brunei and, the most publicised of the three, Saudi Arabia.

As has been pointed out on WVoN, however, the matter of Olympic equality is all but resolved. The IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) threat to ban Saudi Arabia from the Games entirely unless they included women has been mollified, but this does not mean that the state will now encourage women to participate, or work to diminish the stigma put upon women athletes.

Qatari swimmer Nada Arkaji has benefited from the use of Doha’s substantial sporting facilities. Qatar is seemingly now doing its utmost to include women, since establishing a Women’s National Sports Committee in 2001.

Saudi runner Sarah Attar, on the other hand, trains in California, where she lives and grew up, and covers her hair and limbs only while representing her country. She has spent only a small amount of time in Saudi Arabia.

She may be an example of an impending transitory phase in women’s sport in the country, where initial participants will hail from diasporic communities while the training infrastructure is established.

However this might be wishful thinking as there is still considerable resentment towards the idea of women’s sports within Saudi Arabia.

While the common conception is that Saudi Arabia’s reservations are down to religion, many Saudi commentators are keen to point out that it is less an issue of dogma and more so of cultural norms.

Often left unsaid by the media, the more extreme of these contentions are perhaps exemplified by Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Zuhayyan, an academic in Riyadh. His primary concern is the hymen.

“Saudi families equate a broken hymen with the loss of virginity, and a girl losing her virginity/hymen by any means other than legitimate marriage, such as participating in strenuous activity, damages the family’s honour. For this reason… saving girls’ virginity is deeply entrenched in their culture, and this tradition should be respected.”

Citing the claimes from various groups that human rights of Saudi women were being violated by their exclusion, Al-Zuhayyan offers a rebuttal.

“[The] Saudi government would not force its citizens, specifically, parents, to let their girls participate in the Olympics against their will. In fact, by doing so, it would be in clear violation of their human rights… Also, complete disregard of culture and tradition is a violation of human rights.”

He further claims that “cultural and structural conditions are not conducive for Saudi female athletes to present an impressive performance, or win an Olympic medallion,” therefore, by pressuring Saudi Arabia to include female athletes, international organisations such as the IOC are “intentionally and knowingly subjecting the entire Saudi population, particularly these female athletes and their families, to a degrading treatment in front of billions of people around the globe. This is also a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 5.”

“Thus,” he concludes, “one can easily discern that Saudi women’s participation in the Olympics is against human rights.”

Related articles

• Saudi Olympian told to ditch hijab (lfpress.com)
• Saudi Women’s Olympics Debut ‘Means Very Little’ for Gender Equality, Experts Say (usnews.com)
• Breaking the Olympic gender barrier in Muslim Qatar (cbc.ca)

Argentina’s former first lady Evita Peron honoured on 100 peso note

News for Thursday 26 July is taken from The Independent

Argentina’s iconic former first lady Evita Peron has been honoured in song, in film and currently on Broadway. Now her face will grace the nation’s currency.

President Cristina Fernandez revealed the new 100 peso note on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the death of Evita Peron – the first woman to appear on any Argentine banknote.

Ms Fernandez, whose party was inspired by Evita’s husband, strongman Juan Peron, said the initial printing will be commemorative, but she said she wants all new 100 peso notes to eventually carry the former first lady’s image, replacing that of Julio Argentino Roca, a 19th century president.

“After 200 years it’s the first time that a woman appears on a bill, and if you have to honour the gender, who better than the figure of Eva?” she asked.

Peron was a controversial figure, but one who fought with passion for society to be more equal and just, Ms Fernandez said.

“It’s not that Eva was a saint. It’s not that she didn’t make mistakes… She was a humble woman of the people,” the president said.

“Honouring her with this bill is a way of recovering justice.”

Related articles

• Evita Peron remembered 60 years after her death (dailystar.com.lb)
• Evita fits the bill – Eva Perón to become first woman on Argentinian banknotes (guardian.co.uk)
• Argentina’s leader unveils new 100-peso Evita note (miamiherald.com)

Pregnant Malaysian shooter eyes Olympic gold

The Royal Artillery Barracks, where Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi will compete.

News for Wednesday 25 July is taken from BBC News

It is one of the first events of the London Olympics on Saturday morning, but the 10-metre women’s air rifle could also be among the most sensational.

Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, a shooter from Malaysia, will compete at the Royal Artillery Barracks while eight months pregnant.

At least three expectant mothers have competed at the Olympics before, but Suryani, as she likes to be known, will easily be the most pregnant athlete to have taken part.

“Since I started shooting in 1997, I’ve been dreaming of going to the Olympics,” she said, after a morning training at Malaysia’s National Shooting Range on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

So when in January Suryani discovered that she was pregnant, her first thought was that her London ambitions were over.

But after talking to her husband and praying, she changed her mind. If “everything is in order”, she would still try, she told me.

Two days later, she qualified for the Games in the 10-metre air rifle, and has not looked back since.

Dressing ordeal

Despite an early period of morning sickness, Suryani’s now thinks that pregnancy might even give her a small advantage.

“Now I have balance at the front and the back,” she said, with a smile. “So the stability is there.”

With her stomach bulging, just getting in and out of the thick suit she uses for shooting is something of an ordeal. It is with a sigh of relief that she unbuckles her belt to allow herself to sit down and talk to me.

Not everyone in Malaysia is backing her decision to take part, but beneath the smiles, it is clear that there is steely determination to the 30-year-old naval officer.

“Some people say that I’m crazy. Some people say I’m too selfish. But I just ignore what others say. I just concentrate on what I want to do and what I dream of.”

And that dream currently involves picking up Malaysia’s first-ever gold medal at lunchtime on Saturday.

‘No kicking’

Currently ranked 47th in the world, it would be a considerable upset if Suryani did make it onto the podium. But to her credit, she already has a solid tournament record, with a gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2010, and a bronze at the Asian Games.

If she is to come out on top, she will need her unborn daughter to play her part and not kick at a crucial moment.

“On the morning of the competitions, normally, I will say to my baby, ‘Mummy’s going to compete today so I need you to calm down, and then afterwards if you want to be active and you want to kick a ball or something that’s OK!’”

Outside the indoor shooting range, JJ Raj, the secretary general of the National Shooting Association of Malaysia, and Muzli Mustakim, Suryani’s manager, joins us.

As they share a farewell drink by the swimming pool, JJ Raj says he knows that Malaysia’s prime minister will be taking a special interest in her event.

Luckily, Suryani is unflappable and shrugs it off.

If she happens to get a medal, she says she would share it with her daughter, but if not, she would settle for sharing the memories.

“When the baby is born, I will tell her you are very lucky,” she said. “You were not born yet, but you competed with me in the Olympic games.”

Related articles

• Olympics: Pregnancy No Barrier to Malaysian’s Olympic Journey (nytimes.com)
• Meet the Most Pregnant Woman to Ever Compete in the Olympics [Olympics] (jezebel.com)
• Women to Watch in London 2012: Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi (persephonemagazine.com)

Heather Watson becomes British tennis number 1

Heather Watson, aged 20

News for Tuesday 17th July was taken from The Independent

Heather Watson is set to go into the Olympics as the British No 1 and with her first WTA title under her belt. The 20-year-old who will be playing doubles but not singles at the Olympics, climbed to No 71 in the world singles rankings yesterday, just 24 hours after partnering New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic to victory in the doubles at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University in the US.

Watson and Erakovic, playing together for the first time, had already knocked out the No 2 and No 3 seeds before beating Vania King and Jarmila Gajdosova, the top seeds, 7-5, 7-6 in the final. “It’s such a nice feeling getting to the end of the week and being the last ones here,” Watson said.

The updated WTA rankings list sees four Britons in the top 100 for the first time for 21 years. Watson heads Anne Keothavong (No 76), Laura Robson (No 91) and Elena Baltacha (No 100). The last time Britain had four women inside the top 100 was in 1991, when Jo Durie (No 62) was joined by Sara Gomer (No 89), Sarah Loosemore (No 93) and Monique Javer (No 100).

The rankings could change again next Monday as three of the four are in action over the course of this week.

The four British women will all take part in the Olympic tournament at Wimbledon. Keothavong and Baltacha will compete in the singles and as partners in the doubles, while Watson and Robson will join forces in the doubles.

Related articles

• Four British women in top 100 for the first time in 21 years (guardian.co.uk)
• Double success for Briton Watson (bbc.co.uk)
• Heather Watson claims first WTA Tour title (itv.com)
• Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong to team up at London Olympics (guardian.co.uk)

African Union chooses first female leader

Southern African Development Community headquarters building in Gaborone, Botswana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Monday 16th July was taken from The Guardian

A South African politician has become the first female leader of theAfrican Union (AU), ending months of bitter deadlock at the continental body.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa‘s home affairs minister, was elected chair of the African Union Commission on Sunday at a summit of heads of state and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Cheering broke out at the AU’s headquarters as supporters of Dlamini-Zuma, 63, celebrated her victory over the incumbent Jean Ping ofGabon.

“We made it!” a grinning Zimbabwean delegate shouted, reflecting the strong support Dlamini-Zuma’s candidacy received from fellow members of the Southern African Development Community.

The South African president, Jacob Zuma, former husband of the winning candidate, emerged from the conference hall where the voting had taken place to announce that “Africa is happy!” Her victory would empower women, he added.

Dlamini-Zuma is the first woman to lead the continent since the Organisation of African Unity, later the AU, was founded in 1963. She is also the first from southern Africa. She faces the challenge of revitalising a body often criticised for its slow and ineffective response to crises such as those in Ivory Coast and Libya last year.

Dlamini-Zuma’s victory was far from certain. She had stood against Ping in elections in January, which ended in a stalemate that extended Ping’s term in office by a further six months until a fresh ballot could be held.

In this first contest, neither candidate managed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for an outright win but Ping garnered slightly more support than his opponent.

Many observers felt it would be difficult for Dlamini-Zuma to overcome thewidespread discontent with South Africa for breaking the unwritten convention that the five largest contributors to the AU budget – Nigeria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and South Africa – should not contest the commission’s highest office.

Both Nigeria and Egypt, whose strategic interests would not have been served by a South African victory, were strongly in the Ping camp. There are concerns that South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, will use its position as AU chair to further its efforts to secure a permanent African seat on an expanded UN security council.

There had also been widespread scepticism in the South African press, which branded the country’s campaign “quixotic”.

But hard lobbying from the South African government and its regional partners turned the tide for Dlamini-Zuma. The campaign became personal towards the end of the contest with tempers flaring on both sides. Ping made an angry riposte to allegations in the South African press regarding his candidacy and campaign financing last week that lost him critical support.

His chances of victory were further undermined by the absence of two of his key champions – the continued threat of attack from Islamist militants kept the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, at home, while Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister and the summit’s host, has yet to make an appearance at the meeting and is rumoured to be seriously ill and receiving treatment in Europe.

As in January, the election went the distance. In the first round, Dlamini-Zuma had a narrow advantage, beating Ping by 27 votes to 24. In the second she extended her lead, gaining two more votes. By the third she was just one vote short of the 34 needed to secure a two-thirds majority. She contested the fourth and final round alone and managed to succeed where Ping had failed, winning support from 37 out of the 51 eligible member states.

Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, welcomed the result, believing Dlamini-Zuma will be a strong advocate for the continent. “We are used to diplomats and bureaucrats,” he said. “Her background as a freedom fighter, this is value addition.”

He felt that the rifts exposed by the election had been healed “because we agreed” on Dlamini-Zuma.

Zuma concurred. “I think the AU has done the right thing,” he said. “Southern Africa is happy but the whole of Africa is happy.” The appointment of Zuma’s ex-wife removes her as a potential focal point for opposition to his candidacy before elections in South Africa in 2014.

Before the vote rumours spread of a compromise third candidate. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, a former president of the west African regional block Ecowas, and Joaquim Chissamo, the ex-president of Mozambique, were among those named.

Erastus Mwencha, a Kenyan, the vice-chairman of the AU commission, was re-elected to serve a second term. His support was almost unanimous, with 50 out of a possible 51 votes, and his victory breaks another unwritten convention that dictates that the chair and vice-chair are held by one francophone and one anglophone country. At a press conference before the election, Dlamini-Zuma said that if appointed chair she would assess “what is not working well and what can be strengthened”.

Related articles

• African Union chooses first female leader (guardian.co.uk)
• Dlamini-Zuma’s election elates Zambia (times.co.zm)
• South Africa’s Dlamini-Zuma Elected AU Commission Chairperson (voanews.com)
• South African elected first woman for top AU job (capitalfm.co.ke)

Girl Guides Australia drops oath of allegiance to Queen

Girl Guides Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Friday 6th July was taken from BBC News

Girl Guides in Australia will no longer have to pledge allegiance to the Queen and God and will instead promise to serve the community and Australia.

They will also pledge “to be true to myself and develop my beliefs”.

Leaders said the move, which follows a two-year survey of members, was designed to make Guiding more modern and relevant and boost membership.

Scouts Australia, which lets members pledge to do their duty to the Queen, says it has no plans to follow suit.

‘Long process’

Under the changes, unveiled this week, Girl Guides in Australia will continue to wear sashes with badges, but pledges of duty to God, the monarch and obedience have been dropped.

The updated pledge reads: “I promise that I will do my best; to be true to myself and develop my beliefs; to serve my community and Australia, and live by the Guide Law.”

Girl Guides Australia director Belinda Allen said the consultation had been “a long process” and that the decision to change the wording of the promise had not been taken lightly.

“The actual fundamental values and principles of our promise have not changed it is just the way we express them that has changed,” she said.

“Our community comes from about 200 different countries.

“We need to be able to reflect our community and have wording in our promise that’s meaningful and relevant to the girls of Australia in the 21st Century.”

But Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, said Girl Guides Australia was wrong to believe it would attract more members by removing any reference to the Queen and God.

“It seems to be an oxymoron that this misguided organisation removes mention of the Queen at a time of her great popularity and when polls are showing an increasing majority of Australians wanting to remain a constitutional monarchy,” he said.

“If the Girl Guides think they will achieve greater numbers by removing the very essence of what they are, then I feel they are sadly mistaken.”

The Girl Guides movement has 10 million members worldwide and involves girls aged between four and 25.

Girl Guiding has existed in Australia for more than a century, and there are currently about 28,000 members in the country.

Related articles

• Australian Guides drop royal oath (bbc.co.uk)
• Girl Guides Australia Promoting Secular Values (martinspribble.com)
• Girl Guides in Australia drop reference to ‘God’ from oath [Culture Wars] (io9.com)

Reed Kessler jumps the equestrian age barrier

Aged 70, Hiroshi Hoketsu is the oldest show jumper competing in the games. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Thursday 5th July was taken from BBC News

In a sport better known for the longevity of competitors who reach the Games well into their 50s, 60s or even 70s, Kessler is 17 and one of the best showjumpers in the United States.

“The publicity for the sport has definitely been growing,” Kessler tells BBC Sport. “I have a public Twitter account  and I’ve had thousands and thousands of people, young kids, reach out and say they’ve just started riding and my story is inspiring.

“I think it’s fantastic and people say I’ve done so many interviews, don’t I get tired? But it’s so good for the sport, I’m happy to do them.”

That’s the other thing: Kessler is switched on. As one Canadian newspaper phrased it under the heading “American phenom”, she is a “smart cookie”. When she speaks, it is with the conviction and self-assured clarity of someone in their mid-30s, not a teenage Olympic debutant.

“A million people have already asked me about it, it’s alright,” she laughs as the subject of her age is broached. “It’s been like that my whole life – ‘Oh my God, you’re only insert-age-here’ – I’m used to it.”

Equestrian sports demand more athleticism from the horse than they do the rider so, while competitors must be fit, age is not as detrimental to an equestrian’s career as it usually proves for gymnasts or sprinters.

In turn, that means the elite circuit is home to riders carrying decades of experience at the highest level. To be 17 and among the handful of riders, in a country the size of the United States, that warrant an Olympic place is already an achievement, before the Games have even begun.

“In showjumping my parents have been riding for about 30 years, so I’ve always wanted to ride too and it’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” says Kessler.

“I have pictures of myself at six months old, in a basket on my pony, learning to steer with my stuffed animals.

“I only started at senior level in January,” she adds, casually. “It’s a big transition. My horse had never jumped on that level either so it was both of us finding our feet.

“I couldn’t do the biggest-money classes, the highest level, but I have been doing senior divisions for the past two years. I’ve competed against all of these riders at a lower level.

“We had our last Olympic trial and it’s kind of like going to a mock Olympics. Most people, their first time doing the Olympic trial, it’s meant to be a struggle – but my trainer was very confident, she said I was going to finish in the top three and make the team. I had no idea, until the end, that I could.

“Our chef d’equipe eventually called me and when the phone rang – the phone had rung a million times that day – for some reason I knew it was him. He told me I was ranked third in the shortlist and it was amazing, I was speechless.”

Selection to the team makes Kessler the youngest Olympic showjumper in United States history and is accompanied by two things: a leap in the world rankings from 169th to 81st, and a tidal wave of media attention.

By the time Kessler speaks to us, she has made a break for the UK and is holed up with her British boyfriend - Tim Gredley, also a showjumper – in Newmarket, far from the madding crowd. The break gives her a chance to regroup ahead of the biggest event of her young life.

“I’ve been constantly watched and televised for the past four or five months. So many silly things can go wrong in such a long span of time, it’s a lot of pressure to keep the horses feeling good and keep performing,” she says.

“Now that we’ve finished as strong as we started and been selected, it’s a big load off. When it was over, I slept for 14 hours – I was exhausted.

“Obviously my story is big publicity for the sport so I’ve done a million interviews. The horse has had a few days off so I thought I’d take some time for myself. I’m not over here very long, just a little vacation after all this drama of the past few months.

“Now that I’ve made the team, I’ve got to work even harder. I expect us to bring home medals, that’s what being selected for the team is all about. Making the team is just the beginning – it’s going to the Games, representing our country and winning.”

Related articles

• In 2012, a Host Country With an Equestrian Tradition (london2012.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Kessler impresses (lfpress.com)
• Saudi showjumper Dalma Rushdi Malhas to miss Olympics (guardian.co.uk)