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Thứ Tư, 31 tháng 8, 2011

Scientists Discover a Diamond as Big as a Planet

Back in the 1920s, the great Jazz Age writer F. Scott Fitzgerald published a story titled The Diamond as Big as the Ritz — the Ritz-Carlton hotel, that is, which even in those pre-high-rise days was a pretty hefty chunk of real estate. Fitzgerald wasn't a science-fiction writer, so he didn't have to explain how such a thing could possibly exist. Lucky thing too since it couldn't. Not on earth, anyway.
But the universe is a vast and strange place, where all sorts of seemingly impossible things happen routinely. Still, a paper just published in Science seems to teeter on the edge of utter fantasy: 20 quadrillion miles away lies a star more massive than the sun but only 15 miles across, spinning around more than 100 times a second — and orbiting that star is a diamond the size, not of a mere luxury hotel, but of the planet Jupiter. Oh, and the diamond used to be a star too, before it turned into a planet. (See photos of the universe, to scale.)
Surprisingly, perhaps, most of that story is old news to astronomers. The fast-spinning star is a pulsar, a superdense chunk of matter left over when a massive star explodes, then collapses in on itself. If what's left over weighs more than three times as much as the sun, it collapses forever, forming a black hole. But if it's a bit smaller, it turns into a whirling neutron star whose intense magnetic field generates a beacon of radio waves that sweeps across the universe like the beam of a lighthouse — in this case, flashing more than 10,000 times every minute. When pulsars, as they became named, were discovered in the 1960s, they were nicknamed LGM for "little green men." Nobody could imagine a natural force that could generate such a rapid, precisely timed series of radio blasts.
The natural explanation wasn't long in coming though, and astronomers have since found hundreds upon hundreds of pulsars. They've also found that slight variations in the timing of the pulses can be indirect evidence for objects orbiting a pulsar. The gravitational pull of, say, a planet, will make the radio flashes arrive closer together, then farther apart, then closer, in a regularly changing rhythm. In fact, the first planets ever discovered beyond our solar system were found this way in 1992, but thanks to the intense radiation coming off a pulsar, there's no chance life could exist on them.
All of this has long since become a standard part of astronomy textbooks. What's not standard at all is the idea of a star actually turning into a planet — but that, says Matthew Bailes, astronomer at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology and lead author of the Science paper, isn't as crazy as it sounds. He suggests that originally this odd couple was a pair of ordinary stars orbiting each other. One was more or less like the sun, the other perhaps 10 times as massive. The bigger star exploded, leaving behind a neutron star. Meanwhile, the sunlike star aged in the normal way, eventually swelling, blowing off its outer layers and collapsing to the white hot ember known as a white dwarf star. That's just what will happen to our sun in 5 billion years or so.
But the sun isn't right next to a neutron star. If it were, its outer gas layers would have been sucked in by the fierce gravity of its companion. The sun itself — or its white dwarf corpse, anyway — could have spiraled in as well, eventually coming in so close that its "year" was only a little more than two hours long. The neutron star's gravity would now be so powerful that the white dwarf star would lose even more layers, leaving behind only its inner core — about the mass of Jupiter and most likely made largely of oxygen and carbon, two elements that are forged in the nuclear fires at the heart of an aging star. (See iconic images of the earth from space.)
Bailes and his team couldn't actually detect the carbon or oxygen, but given the mass of the "planet" and their understanding of the lifecycle of stars, there's not much else it could be. And because a Jupiter's worth of carbon would have a pretty powerful gravity of its own, it would almost certainly have crushed itself into crystalline form — in other words, diamond. "We can't uniquely say what percentage of the planet would be diamond," says Bailes, since the details of the process aren't absolutely clear. But it would likely be a lot.
Purists might raise their eyebrows at calling the nameless object a planet, given that it once looked just like the sun. But when the International Astronomical Union created its formal definition of the word planet in 2006 — and demoted Pluto by doing it — there was nothing in the fine print about how the object had formed. It's clearly not a star now, and it's about the mass of Jupiter. If it looks like a planet (albeit a very weird one) and acts like a planet, then it probably should be called a planet.
The discovery also raises the question of whether there are other diamond planets studding the Milky Way like jewels on a tiara. And the answer, says Bailes, is an absolute "maybe." "This is the only one like it so far," he adds. But the find was part of a major international search designed to look for and study pulsars across the sky — and that search is far from over.

Excerpt: Against All Odds, a Story of Survival on 9/11

I rush out of our apartment at about 8:30 a.m., annoyed to be running so late but glad, after my disagreement with my husband Greg the previous night, to be on my way to work.
Now, after a kiss for my son, Tyler, a quick hello to Joyce, his nanny, and a barely grumbled good-bye to Greg, I am finally on my way. I walk up Washington Street, where I wait several minutes trying to hail a cab. But soon enough I am riding south, joining the morning crush of cars and trucks inching down toward the World Trade Center. (See a TIME Q&A with Lauren Manning: "A Decade After 9/11, One Survivor's Tales of a Miraculous Recovery.")

I glance at my watch, and again I'm irritated by how late it is. Across the Hudson River, the Jersey City skyline is bright and sharp against a backdrop of dazzling, pure blue sky. The river is a deep gray, its wind-driven swells crisscrossed by the wakes of morning water taxis. I grow impatient when we are caught at yet another red light, but before long we are turning left across West Street to the carport entrance to One World Trade Center. (See photos of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.)
As the taxi pulls under the clear roof of the porte cochere, I pull out my wallet to pay the driver. Two cabs in front of us pull forward, and I ask my driver to move up a bit so I can get out directly in front of the building's entrance. I step out of the cab, thinking how warm it is for September, how just the week before we were still at the beach in Bridgehampton. Heading for the revolving doors, I walk past the security barriers, which are barely camouflaged as large concrete planters. As I approach the building, I look through the glass and see two women standing and talking inside. I smile at them as I push through the revolving doors. Then I move through a second set of doors and enter the lobby, where I am jarred by an incredibly loud, piercing whistle.
I hesitate for a moment. Then I attribute the noise to some nearby construction project and continue toward the elevators. (See photos of the evolution of Ground Zero.)
Directly ahead, elevator banks offer service to floors 1 through 43. To my left, 12 express elevators serve a sky lobby on the 78th floor, where I will catch the elevator to reach my 105th-floor office at Cantor Fitzgerald.
As I veer left toward my elevators, I suddenly feel an incredible sense of otherworldliness. It's an odd, tremendous, quaking feeling, and everything . . . moves. The entire 110-story tower is trembling.
Then I hear a huge, whistling rush of air, an incredibly loud sound: shshooooooooooooo. My adversary is racing toward me, howling in fury at its containment as it plummets to meet me from above the 90th floor.
This is the moment and place of our introduction.
With an enormous, screeching exhalation, the fire explodes from the elevator banks into the lobby and engulfs me, its tentacles of flame hungrily latching on. An immense weight pushes down on me, and I can barely breathe. I am whipped around. Looking to my right toward where the two women were talking, I see people lying on the floor covered in flames, burning alive.
Like them, I am on fire.

God asks us to speak, to record the memories that mark our lives. This is the living testament, then, of the times and places and things I have done that mark my days on earth.
Since 9/11, I have often been asked to share my story, but it is always with a certain awkwardness that I talk about myself or my personal feelings. I am much more comfortable telling a joke, chatting about the headline of the moment, or drawing others in by asking about their lives. My parents frowned on self-congratulation, and so even when my siblings and I had a right to be proud of our accomplishments, we were told to be humble. So telling my story has its challenges. (See photos of Americans celebrating Osama bin Laden's death.)
Here is the simple version of what happened: I went to work one morning and was engulfed by the fires that would bring down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I fled the building in flames, so terribly injured that almost no one held out any hope for me. Yet in the weeks and months that followed, I battled back from the edge of death to hold my child in my arms and intertwine my husband's fingers with what was left of my own. In almost every way, this is the story of a miracle.
I will never know how many others were gravely wounded along with me during the attacks' first moments. The places where my fellow victims stood, more than a thousand feet in the air, have disappeared forever. When the buildings collapsed, they took with them thousands of lives, among them too many of my friends and colleagues. By the smallest of margins, I was given a chance to survive, and I decided, early that morning, that I would never give up the fight to live. I would never surrender.
From the Book Unmeasured Strength by Lauren Manning. Copyright © 2011 by Lauren Manning. Reprinted by arrangement with Henry Holt, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company LLC.

On the Farm of Gaddafi's Son: Lions and Tigers and Bombs, Oh My!

No one seems particularly sure of where the tigers are. Or the lions, or the gazelles, or any of a long list of animals that the rebels say Saif al-Islam Gaddafi reportedly had in his personal zoo. But the cages are there: big, grassy, outdoor enclosures with rocky outcroppings to climb on, and very high walls. The doors are wide open.
"The animals were moved," says one rebel, uncertainly. Another claims they're residing in different cages, in another part of the sprawling and tightly secured, farm on Tripoli's outskirts. There are two peacocks wandering around leisurely and unharmed, which suggests that the big cats might be long gone. Unless, of course, there used to be more peacocks. (See pictures of the fall of Tripoli.)
The farm belonged to Col. Muammar Gaddafi's heir apparent and is one of a growing number of Gaddafi family properties in and around Tripoli that the "Free Libyans" have broken into to explore in recent days, since rebel fighters took control of the capital last week. Some contain bizarre furniture — like golden mermaid couch in the opulent home of Gaddafi's daughter Aisha. His son Saadi kept a set of cages that may have been reserved for misbehaving friends, rather than wildlife. And another son, Mutassim, kept his underground bathrooms outfitted with modernist metal bidets. Ouch.
But unlike the homes of his father and siblings, Saif's farm seems to hold more treasures — and hints of excess — outdoors than it does within. That's because the Moroccan-inspired mansion — which had been equipped with a Moroccan chef — was smashed to pieces by a NATO air strike last Thursday. The missile failed to kill a single Gaddafi, instead collapsing Saif's mansion on two men and a child who had come to visit after hearing the place was abandoned. "The chef here left last Monday, so why was NATO bombing it?" asked Hassan Mohamed al-Ghebli, who had arrived with a team of volunteers and a bulldozer to remove the bodies, one of whom was his brother, a neighbor of the Moroccan chef.
Another house on the property has been thoroughly looted. Furniture too heavy to be carried away has been smashed. Rebels in gun trucks bump enthusiastically over the roads that wind through acres of grape vines and fruit orchards, vegetable and corn plots, eager to find more secrets. The farm covers a predictable subterranean network of tunnels and bunkers, the kind of thing that almost every Gaddafi lair was equipped with. (See pictures from inside the tents of Muammar Gaddafi.)
But the part that seems to have eluded even NATO are the bunkers: outside, above ground, and packed with the materials of war. There are at least 10 semi-cylindrical warehouses set covertly in the grassy hills on a corner of Saif al-Islam's property. And their contents make it clear that when Saif promised in February that the Gaddafi regime would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet" he was very much supplied to do so.
The bunkers are stocked with thousands of new military uniforms, sleeping bags, flak vests, and gas masks — enough to outfit a brigade. Air strikes have torn through some of the bunkers, scattering fatigue outfits and shredding the metal roofs, each of which had been carefully camouflaged by dirt and flora to look like a natural hill.
But there are also bunkers full of untouched ammunition and Kalashnikov rifle clips, with bullets in every size, an armored personnel carrier, and generators for the troops. And in a ditch — out in the open air, but still live and ready to use — are the bombs. (Read "Exclusive: Gaddafi's Son Saif Talks of Victory and Reform.")
Hundreds are marked M120: an Israeli-made mortar system used by the armed forces of Libya's neighbor, Egypt. There are boxes of rockets that were shipped to Tripoli from Ramenskove, a town southeast of Moscow. And there are rocket launcher systems, explosives, and empty boxes marked for large caliber bullets.
Of course the only thing missing from the war arsenal is the eccentric owner, now on the run. Maybe the pet tigers should have been a warning. But the man who the West once thought would bring development and modernity — and international respectability — to Libya, is the one Libyans now fear could help lead an insurgency in the wake of the apparent fall of his clan — if he isn't caught.
Ali Tarhoni, who serves as the Finance and Oil Minister on the rebel's National Transitional Council, told reporters on Tuesday that the NTC knows where Col. Gaddafi is hiding, and that capture is imminent. He didn't give specifics. The NTC may very well have the family's hideout pinpointed. But that boast may be as certain as the rebels conviction that Saif's missing tigers are... somewhere. Either way, Gaddafi and his heir apparent are still missing. But the bombs on the farm leave little doubt of what they were capable of doing.

Ai Weiwei Has The Last Word. For Now

Since his release from detention, Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei has been forbidden to make any political statements, but he can’t help himself. Communicating via social networks, and now a magazine essay, appear to be a matter of inner necessity

At a protest before Ai Weiwei's release (laihiu)

By Kia Vahland
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG /Worldcrunch

Since he was released on June 22 from the six-square-meter cell where he had been held for 81 days, Chinese authorities have been keeping artist and activist Ai Weiwei under surveillance. For one year, he was ordered not to talk to foreign journalists about his detention, make any political statements, or leave Beijing.

So what does he do? First, he tells the Global Times, an English-language paper belonging to the People’s Daily (the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party), that he will “never stop fighting injustice.” Then, via Twitter, he protests against the government’s mistreatment of some of his friends and other political prisoners. And this week, Newsweek published an essay by Ai WeiWei about Beijing, about how Chinese society is being split into haves and have-nots, and his feeling of complete abandonment when he was imprisoned without a trial.

What is this all about? Can’t he keep a lid on himself, and follow the advice of people he meets when walking in a city park? Writes Ai in the Newsweek essay: ”A few people come up to me and give me a thumbs-up or pat me on the shoulder. Why do they have to do that in such a secretive way? …They always tell me, ‘Weiwei, leave the nation, please.’” At risk of being observed, the people move away quickly after these brief exchanges.

Ai Weiwei has accepted a teaching position at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), but he can’t travel to Berlin because his passport has been taken away from him. He would not in any case have given up his studio and residence in Beijing, because two things fuel his art: freedom of speech and Chinese culture. Unfortunately, it’s virtually impossible to have both in China right now.

This is the conflict of two opposing approaches of the relationship of the individual to society. Recently, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying made a critical remark to Der Spiegel, a German magazine, and through that publication, to Westerners in general: "For you, human rights only exist in connection with individuals who are subversive or break the law." But, she said, the government of China was dealing with 1.3 billion citizens.

On the other side of the issue, Ai Weiwei in his art and writings represents the old Chinese idea of a society made up of many self-aware individuals. He’s fighting mainly for his right to subjectivity, the right to express his own thoughts and feelings. With his sense of who he is, he simply can’t not talk about his imprisonment -- an incarceration that aims at turning human beings into trained circus animals, an imprisonment so harsh that prisoners aren’t even allowed to scratch their head without special permission from the guard.

To talk about the fear and the "total isolation" of his experience to his friends and now very publicly, is apparently less of a moral duty for Ai than a matter of inner necessity. After being held hostage, healing means taking up the reins of one’s own existence again, having the last word against the tormentor.

Seen that way, the Newsweek essay does not constitute provocation or a power game, but an attempt at self-rescue. In what he writes about Beijing, Ai laments a cold society. He writes of “slaves” living in illegal temporary housing without electricity, the migrant workers who build all the bridges and houses, those who when wounded go to the hospital to have themselves stitched up only to have their stitches ripped out if they can’t pay. These people do not exist in the perception of the ones who matter in Beijing: the ones who wear suits, make business deals, and proudly show foreigners the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium.

Ai, a successful architect who at one time was involved in creating plans for that same stadium, identifies with the masses. The city that was once a playground for his aesthetic urban experiments now seems to him like a particularly brutal variation of Kafka‘s Castle: Beijing’s "mental structure" is one of exclusion, ignorance, and institutional violence against those who don’t belong. Ai writes: “I feel sorry to say I have no favorite place in Beijing. I have no intention of going anywhere in the city…Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.”

Ai Weiwei is an individual who wants to conquer the technocracy through empathy. When he was a prisoner, 30 different functionaries were needed to carry out 52 interrogations because he bonded with them and most found him to be such a nice person that they weren’t as hard on him as they were supposed to be. Maybe it was also Ai’s talent for communication and dialogue, which also fuels his art, that spared him from being chained to the metal plank bed in his cell. We’re even hearing that the (still huge) penalty payment for Ai’s alleged tax evasion has been lowered, because he was able to awaken feelings of compassion for his mother so that her house was not seized.

Ai’s need for discussion and self-expression could still put him back in danger. However, maybe the powers that be are beginning to realize that they’re not going to be able to keep 1.3 billion people from speaking freely forever.

Read the original story in German

Photo - laihiu

Who Is The Real Christine Lagarde?

Op-Ed: Is the former French Finance Minister and current head of the IMF a Euro-booster or Euro-skeptic? The truth is that the question is misplaced. Lagarde’s recent alarmist speech about European banks is a reminder that her first objective should be sound economic policy.

Christine Lagarde at the 2011 e-G8 Forum

By François Vidal
LES ECHOS/Worldcrunch

PARIS - Which Christine Lagarde is to be believed?

The Lagarde at French Finance Ministry headquarters less than three months ago who was putting up a reassuring face about the health of European banks; or the Lagarde who, as head of the International Monetary Fund, was declaring this past weekend that immediate measures were needed to recapitalize those same banks, by force if necessary.

One thing is for sure: the new IMF chief’s alarmist speech only adds fuel to the fire of the financial crisis. The fact that this woman, who was one of the strongest supporters of the bank “stress tests” when she was still in France, has now clearly sided with the “Euroskeptics,” can only undermine the already shaky trust in the stability of the banking sector.

Indeed, her words give the feeling that Christine Lagarde is now finally at liberty to talk freely. Now that she is in Washington, she might finally tell the truth and lead the way towards a financial and economic recovery.

This feeling, however, is both wrong and misleading. Wrong, because in substance, the recapitalization of the banks has already started. European banks have raised 60 billion euros between January and June 2011. Whether they did it with their own means or via public support, it is happening right now. The recent announcement of two major Greek banks merging proves it.

Admittedly, the attempt is not very well spread out among the different “actors,” and is undoubtedly too slow. Still, everyone is now convinced that the basic share of stockholder equity must be increased. And not only in Europe.

And it is also misleading because Christine Lagarde’s words -- and the words of all those who campaign for a forced recapitalization of the banks -- can lead some to believe that this piling up of stockholder equity is the singular solution to the crisis, a kind of barrier against which speculators’ attacks will finally be broken.

This is of course a fantasy. When the markets begin to wonder whether France would be able to pay off its debt, we suspect that the banks may never have enough shares to absorb a major run on government bonds. Today the urgency is to find a political solution to the sovereign debt crisis. This can be handled by better governance on both sides of the Atlantic, which must include an end to inopportune declarations.

Read the original article in French

Photo - Roebot

What China’s Culture Ministry Really Thinks Of Lady Gaga

Commentary: The “stiffs” in the government have banned songs from an array of popular singers, though the reasons for the are anything but clear. The only thing we know is that the black list is a nice round number.

Lady Gaga at the Monster Ball 2011 (Tiggerlane)

By Wang Jun
经济观察报E.O./Worldcrunch

BEIJING - Lady Gaga, the goddess of oddness, super sexy Beyonce, Taiwanese singer Lin Yu Jia, hot American band Owl City, evergreen Japanese R&B singer Ken Hirai, not to mention the Backstreet Boys who haven’t been seen in awhile…this would have made up a fantastic lineup for an all-star concert in China, even the “Bird’s Nest” (the National Stadium that held the 2008 Olympic) would have sold out its 100,000 seats in no time. Seeing Gaga strut and Beyonce’ sway, that alone would have guaranteed three months of conversation material for China’s trendy set.

Unfortunately, it’s the Ministry of Culture, not famous for its imagination, that came up with such a creative list – but with a very different purpose in mind .

These singers were cited for their “undeclared” songs, and music downloading websites were ordered to purge the playlist. It is already the third list of this kind issued this year by the Ministry, which announced that “the content of this Internet music has not been examined or recorded... (and) it should be cleaned up and treated according to the law.” If you are Chinese, you understand right away what this means.

The consequences of non-declaration are considered serious, and can mean “interfering with the order of the online music market, and endangering national cultural security.” The question is why such a serious accusation is not explained clearly? Does it mean some poison is hidden in these songs so that they will truly jeopardize the well-being of our national culture? Besides, there are lots of English songs on these three lists, so which country’s security in the end are we talking about?

Are these undeclared songs pornographic, violent, or proclaiming independence in some politically incorrect way? I had a close listen to Lin Yu Jia’s Good Night, Chang Huei Mei’s My Dearest, both from Taiwan, and several of Lady Gaga’s songs. They are so “healthy” that one can’t even find a word like “kiss.” Moreover, they are the epitome of purity if you compare them to those TV advertisements selling bras late in the night.

Gaga v. Bjork

In Gaga’s Marry the Night, she sings “I'm gonna marry the dark, gonna make love to the stars…” Is that pornographic? Only if you have a pornographic mind! In my opinion, it is poetry. What is intriguing is that the singer Bjork, who yelled “Tibet! Tibet!” when she sang Declare Independence in her Shanghai concert, is not on this list.

The list also includes the song, I Want It That Way, by the Backstreet Boys, who the post-1990 generation doesn’t even know. There are also singers like Wawa who has disappeared totally from the scene, or unheard of singers like Tata and Lin Zi Xi. In fact, the list turns out to be so much like a large publicity campaign that it intrigues the audience’s rebellious psychology, and now they are all going on the net to check out these artists.

Viewing the list, I pity the poor comrade who had to work so hard to come up with a lineup that is so painfully balanced in its content. From golden oldies to 90’s kitsch to the latest hits, singers of all horizons and all ages are all included.

And the most interesting and most important of all, each of the three lists contains exactly 100 songs. Since it is well demonstrated that the stiffs in the Ministry of Culture love round numbers, it was considerate of these undeclared artists to match their output with the working habits of the Ministry.

I can’t help wonder how Lady Gaga would react if she ever learns how things work here. Perhaps, she’d hand over her reputation as the modern master of parody to China’s Ministry of Culture?

Read the original article in Chinese

Photo - Tiggerlane

The Secret Of Israel’s High-Tech Success

Technion in Haifa turns out 75% of Israel’s engineers and 70% of its start-up founders. The 100-year-old university is a source of both newfound entrepreneurial energy and the intellectual hardware for the country’s national security arsenal.

Technion Campus, Israel (tyomitch)
By Laurent Zecchini
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch
HAIFA - The campus of Technion sits atop one of the hills overlooking Haifa Bay. Below lies Israel’s Silicon Valley, where Matam High Tech Park brings together Israeli start-ups and top American firms like Microsoft, Intel, Google, Yahoo and IBM. From this vantage point, one can see the source of Technion’s power, not to mention job destinations for its students.
Facts speak for themselves: 75% of Israeli engineers come out of Technion’s faculties, research centers and labs, as do 70% of start-up founders. Technion also spawned two winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, world-reknown discoveries such as rasgiline, a drug that treats Parkinson’s disease, new eco-friendly electricity production and water desalinization technology, recognized know-how in microsatellites building, and more.
Technion alumni are the lifeblood of Israel’s society and economy, especially in fields like defense and Information Technology, but also in medicine, nanotechnology, civil and electrical engineering, management and architecture. And the list goes on: its 12,849 students can choose amongst 18 different faculties.
Medical Professor Peretz Lavie, Dean of Technion, says that “there is no other example abroad of a university with such a contribution to its country’s economy.” Professor Benjamin Soffer, a specialist in technology transfers, explains the secret to Technion’s success: “twenty years ago, generals were the heroes of Israeli society. Today, the heroes are entrepreneurs.”
Case in point: people at Technion are quick to point out that the reason 52% of Israel’s exports are concentrated in high-tech is that Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech start-ups outside of Silicon Valley. There is another, more political reason: beyond R&D, Israel’s isolation from its neighbors makes trade challenging, forcing it to seek partnerships far beyond its borders, in particular in the US.
Technion’s story began in Basel, Switzerland, in 1901, during the fifth Zionist Congress. The decision to create a Jewish university deep inside the Ottoman Empire was not a natural one, but its first stone was laid in April 1912, almost a century ago.
Military resource
On more than one level, Technion served as a resource for the Israeli army, which for decades hired specialists from here. This relationship continues to play a major part in the success of Israel’s first Science and Technology University, which is also the country’s largest applied research center.
The army, more specifically, the obligatory national military service, aids in another way: Israeli students start university at a later age, which is a strength for Technion. “After a three-year service (two for girls) and a year spent traveling, students are at least 23 when they enroll,” explains Physics Professor Eric Akkerman. “They are more mature and are more motivated than their European and American counterparts: they have no time to waste, they are here to work and to succeed.”
But the student-soldier path also has its challenges. Some 1,500 students were drafted in 2006, during the second Lebanon War. It’s also not unusual for people to go on reserve duties mid-studies. “Returning to civilian life can be difficult because of psychological and emotional challenges,” says Sarak Katzir who runs Technion’s team of psychologists.
The campus does well compared with Stanford or MIT, which Technion students consider their main reference points. One clear difference with its American counterparts is that Technion’s121 hectare closed-campus area is under strict surveillance. Tuition, however, is much lower than in the US ($16,000 compared to $40,000).
Salaries are fixed by the government, making “brain drain” possibly the most acute challenge for Technion. Once their thesis is completed, many students pursue post-doctorate programs in the US, where a growing number wind up staying, since salaries are two or three times higher.
More than 70% of Technion’s operating budget is covered by public funds, but the University relies on its large alumni network to find additional resources. Jewish communities around the world provide donations via “Technion Societies,” to support labs, but also to purchase equipment, support student grants or construct new buildings. Professor Lavie puts it this way: “the Jewish diaspora sees Technion as a cornerstone of Israel’s independence and security.”
Read the original article in French
Photo - tyomitch
All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with Le Monde

Thứ Ba, 30 tháng 8, 2011

Between the Lines: Wave of independent journalism breaking over Vietnam Read more: http://azdailysun.com/news/opinion/editors-column/between-the-lines-wave-of-independent-journalism-breaking-over-vietnam/article_2a4a715e-16f9-5453-a6ff-7af22963588a.html#ixzz1WZjtv6v6

Whoever said that newspapers are dying hasn't been to Vietnam lately.
I'm just back from two weeks of training young journalists in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and not only print media but the profession in general is thriving.
This may come as news to those who equate a relatively closed political system with a compliant and monotonal press.
But in Vietnam, as in China, another doctrinaire communist state, the move toward a market economy has made rigid censorship impossible. There are just too many businesses and other groups that need the free exchange of information to compete in the global economy. And once the genie was out of the free press bottle, there was no putting it back.
The result has been a surge of small to medium-sized newspapers in Vietnam, many sponsored on paper by provincial governments or state-backed agencies but in practice operating semi-autonomously off ad sales and circulation.
Universities in Vietnam are just starting to professionalize their journalism and communications disciplines, and the graduates are going right to work covering the biggest stories of the day: rampant inflation (14 percent this year), the nearly overwhelming surge in foreign investment, a gold-buying fever that is hotter than in the U.S., rampant official corruption, and a host of other issues that come with a young market economy expanding much too fast for its physical, educational and administrative infrastructure to handle.
The central government has no choice but to move in the same circles as western businesses and diplomats if it hopes to modernize the economy. Ministry officials now hold press conferences and release reports that previously circulated only internally. Those who still retreat into silence only make the new generation of Vietnamese journalists work that much harder to get the information.
I was there as a Western journalist to share tips about gaining access to government sources and documents, decoding financial statements, avoiding financial conflicts of interest, and conducting investigations -- among the many topics we covered in each of the five-day courses.
We also worked on new ways to present and write the stories once the information was in hand. Providing context, multiple points of view, critical analysis, authentic voices, and an honest assessment of the possibility for change and progress are challenges for journalists around the globe. The Vietnamese journalists -- nearly 40 in all -- were uniformly enthusiastic about tackling those challenges head-on.
This was even more impressive the more I learned about their working conditions. They faced not only brick walls at some of the ministries, but editors protective of top party officials and a legal code that could haul them into criminal court if they couldn't provide solid proof for contested official statements. Many earned less than $300 a month, and they raced to interviews and meetings by weaving on their motorbikes through streets that appeared to the untrained eye to be tied up in one continuous traffic jam.
They took the time, however, to give me a tour of both cities, toasted me at several lunches, showered me with gifts and were unfailingly patient and courteous as I struggled to find just the right word for my diligent translator. The courses were organized by a dynamic journalist-turned-professor who has dedicated herself to professionalizing the journalism in her country by tapping her global network of friends and colleagues (I met Dinh Thi Thuy Hang at a conference nearly a decade ago, when she had just begun to reinvigorate the Vietnam Journalists Association).
With that kind of leadership at the top and enthusiasm at its grassroots, a professional, independent brand of Vietnamese journalism is beginning to make its mark. It was personally inspiring to be part of that movement. Contact me for more information if you are interested in getting involved.
Randy Wilson is editor of the Arizona Daily Sun. He can be reached at rwilson@azdailysun.com or 556-2254.

Japan's life expectancy 'down to equality and public health measures'

Diet is by no means the only factor that leads a girl born in Japan today to expect to live to 86, a new analysis finds

Sarah Boseley, health editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 August 2011 22.05 BST
Article history

Elderly Japanese people exercise in the grounds of a Tokyo temple. Public health campaigns seems to contribute significantly to life expectancy. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

It's not just the sushi – and it's definitely not the sake. Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world but the reasons, says an analysis, are as much to do with equality and public health measures as diet. A baby girl born in Japan today can expect to live to 86 and a boy to nearly 80. But it has not always been so. According to a paper in a Lancet series on healthcare in Japan, this is a rise of 30 years from the expected lifespan in 1947. While Japanese diet has contributed, it is far from the only factor. The remarkable improvement in Japanese health began with the rapid economic growth of the late 1950s and 1960s. The government invested heavily in public health, introducing universal health insurance in 1961, free treatment for tuberculosis and cutting childhood deaths through vaccination and treatment of intestinal and respiratory infections. Following the control of infectious diseases, Japan tackled its high death rate from stroke with salt reduction campaigns and the use of drugs to control blood pressure. But beyond the government's initiatives, there are attitudes and cultural practices among the people of Japan that have also helped, says the article by Professor Kenji Shibuya, of the department of global health policy at the University of Tokyo, and colleagues. "First, Japanese people give attention to hygiene in all aspects of their daily life," they write. "This attitude might partly be attributable to a complex interaction of culture, education, climate [eg humidity, temperature], environment [eg having plenty of water and being a rice-eating nation] and the old Shinto tradition of purifying the body and mind before meeting others. "Second, they are health conscious. In Japan, regular check-ups are the norm. Mass screening is provided for everyone at school and work or in the community by local government authorities. A systematic check-up of the whole body, referred to as a human dry dock, is another type of health screening, which is popular amiong business people - they stay at clinics or hospitals for several days to undergo thorough physical examinations. "Third, Japanese food has a balanced nutritional benefit and the diet of the Japanese population has improved in tandem with economic development over the past five decades." The downside of Japan's success in keeping its people healthy is that the population is unbalanced and becoming more so. At the moment, 23% of the population is over 65 but by 2050, that will rise to 40% in a population shrinking from 127 million to 95 million. Other problems include drinking and smoking among overworking business people and a high suicide rate partly attributable to rising unemployment. Unless these issues are tackled, the paper suggests, Japan could lose its position at the top of the longevity table.

Wayne Rooney doubts Owen Hargreaves can get back to best

By Phil McNulty
Chief football writer Owen Hargreaves

Hargreaves managed just four appearances in three seasons

Wayne Rooney fears former team-mate Owen Hargreaves will find it difficult to get back to his best if he signs for Manchester City.

Hargreaves, 30, who was released by Manchester United this summer, had a medical at City on Tuesday.
After further talks, if stringent checks come back all clear, Hargreaves will sign an appearance-related deal.
"He worked really hard and got back last season, played one game and then got a hamstring injury," Rooney said.
"He's been out for a couple of years. I think it will be difficult for him to get back to his best. I hope he can do so.

Click to play

Rooney backs Hargreaves City switch

"From an England point of view he was a type of midfield player that we hadn't really had before.
"If he can get back that would be great but it will be difficult for him."
Hargreaves was released by Sir Alex Ferguson after four injury-blighted years at Old Trafford.
He had been linked with West Brom before emerging as a shock target for Man City coach Roberto Mancini.
City keeper Joe Hart was visibly stunned when the news of Hargreaves' possible arrival as a new team-mate was revealed to him during a media briefing while he was on England duty ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Wales.
He responded when told of the deal: "Pardon? Is he? Wowzers. Where's that come from? Really? I don't know what to make of that. That's been put right on my toes.
"It could be a massive signing. You can tell how important he was.
"I've never been involved with him but I saw a lot of him before and how highly he was regarded when he was at Bayern Munich and at Manchester United.
"He's a huge player and if he's fit and a part of Man City, he'll be another great signing."
Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott added: "Owen is an experienced player, he has played in the Champions League, is an international. It is only going to be good for the City squad if he signs.
"People ask if it represents a gamble but the club know what they are doing, Owen knows what he is doing. He is still a good player.
"If we can get him fit, I'm sure it won't be very long before he is back to his best. He will be a player with a point to prove after his injuries."

Click to play

Lescott backs England manager Capello

Hargreaves was England's star performer at the World Cup in Germany in 2006. He joined Manchester United from Bayern Munich for £18m the following year.
Hargreaves played in the 2008 Champions League final victory over Chelsea in Moscow but then began to suffer with knee problems, restricting him to four appearances in three seasons.
He lasted just 10 minutes of his comeback against Wolves last September and United opted not to renew his contract as a result.

Thứ Hai, 29 tháng 8, 2011

The Cut-Throat Chinese Way, Even In The Air

By Tang Jiachen
经济观察报E.O./Worldcrunch

BEIJING - A group of people are lining up for the toilets. One of them is clutching his abdomen and asks the people in front of him if he can go ahead. If his request is denied, if you hear responses such as: “I’m in even more of a hurry than you are,” or “Me, I’m going to wet my pants!” then, in all likelihood, you have bumped into Chinese people!

It’s not that I'd been feeling particularly down about my fellow countrymen. But I just happen to have read a news item making the rounds these days that sounds strikingly similar. Only this time, it happened in the skies.

A few days ago, a Qatar Airways flight had only five minutes of fuel remaining. The air traffic control personnel at Hongqiao Airport, Shanghai, responded by following the emergency landing procedures. Yet the pilot of a flight from the Chinese-run Lucky Airlines, already ahead in the landing queue, refused four times to follow the give-way instructions. The pilot replied to the controller: “My aircraft has got only four minutes of fuel left”.

It was reported that the Lucky Airlines flight did not give way until the Qatari pilot issued the “Mayday” signal, the highest alert level for help. In the last few days, Chinese bloggers and Internet commentators have sarcastically declared that the Chinese airline has once again “won glory for the country”, and “has created yet another hundred-year miracle in the history of aviation.”

In my opinion, Lucky Airlines won “dangerously” by one minute over Qatar. Rather than calling it a miracle, I’d rather say it simply accords with “customary Chinese conditions.”

“Conditions” are mysterious things. Anything one cannot explain can be used to end quarrels. Nobody dares to help an old man up when he falls down on the street. This is a Chinese condition. When the deadly earthquake and mine explosion struck, the victims’ family were said to be “in steady emotion”. (This is Xinhua news’ standard expression of reporting). When a person dies in custody with his body covered in wounds, it’s because he has drunk himself to death with water, or because he played hide-and-seek with other cellmates, and knocked himself. These are also certainly Chinese conditions.

Don't ever give in

So it is only logical when Lucky Airlines insists on Chinese core conditions – to fight rather than give in, even if it defies standard international flight rules, aviation conventions, and any pilot’s basic professional ethics, by lying about his aircraft’s fuel status, even if this might have led to the loss of hundreds of lives.

In fact, the choice to fight back than give in is common practice in Chinese people’s daily life. Perhaps it’s because every Chinese has to face hundreds of millions of competitors once he is out of the womb. “Lagging behind merits a beating” is the ultimate consensus in our teaching. The fear of lagging behind is a universal social psychosis. When the risk of lagging behind is exaggerated, an individual’s choice of behavior is naturally motivated to fight to be the first. To achieve the goal, universal values like ethics, morality, and a sense of order quickly become secondary.

This is a behavioral logic that can send a chill up one’s back, yet it has been internalized as part of the Chinese people’s national character. We are all scrambling along this road. In an extreme way, the “contest” of Lucky Airlines v. Qatar reflects the usual chaos in our daily life.

According to news sources, both aircraft finally landed and were inspected. The Qatari really did have only fuel left for another five minutes of flight, while the Lucky Airlines aircraft had fuel for at least another hour.

The information is to be confirmed by the authorities. But frankly speaking, I’m sure anybody who understands a bit about Chinese conditions wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

Indeed, Chinese civil aviation experts have a more detailed explanation for what was happening in the Lucky cockpit. Certain domestic airlines have set up an incentive “bonus” to encourage pilots to economize fuel. The bonus is awarded in proportion to how much fuel is left after each flight. When the Lucky Airlines pilot gave in to the Qatar flight, it meant he had to turn his plane around, spend more fuel in circling for another turn at landing… and jeopardize his bonus. Lagging behind, indeed.

Read the original story in Chinese

Photo - Ed-meister

Modern Crime Lesson #1: If You’re Boyfriend’s In The Mob, Be Careful On Facebook

Worldcrunch NEWSBITES

LA STAMPA

MARBELLA - By now, most of us know to be extra careful when posting personal information on Facebook. A compromising picture might jeopardize your friendships, your marriage, your career… and if you happen to be among Italy’s most wanted mobsters, even your freedom.

Italian and Spanish police have arrested alleged top boss Salvatore D’Avino, whose whereabouts were traced thanks to snapshots posted on Facebook by his pregnant girlfriend.

D'Avino, 39, had been on the run since 2003. He is accused of being a key member of the bloody Giuliano clan of the Camorra crime syndicate of Naples. Italian police had issued arrest warrants for him in 2003 and 2007 on charges of drug trafficking and mafia activity. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

According to Italian authorities, D’Avino had gone into hiding in Tangier, Morocco where he started a relationship with a Moroccan woman. When she got pregnant, the couple moved to the Spanish town of Marbella, on the Costa del Sol.

But with the impending arrival of the offspring, the future mother made a kid’s mistake. She posted on Facebook two photographs of herself, proudly pregnant, so her friends and relatives could see. The problem is that in one photo she was posed in front of a sign for a very-well known beach in Marbella, and the other is shot in front of a bronze statue of a lion outside a popular local Italian restaurant.

With that head start, the police were able to locate her whereabouts. Later, monitoring her e-mail, they moved in after she sent a message to D’Avino saying that the birth was imminent.

When the mobster arrived, the police were there, and placed him under arrest. One negative postscript, however, from the police point of view: the Spanish authorities who actually made the arrest were not pleased with their Italian colleagues for describing how the suspect was traced – they fear that when other criminals hear the story, they will remember to be careful on Facebook.

Top Libyan Rebel Leader Has Deep Al Qaeda Ties

Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who leads the rebel forces in Tripoli, was a founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and is believed to have been close to bloodthirsty head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Belhadj spoke last week to Al Jazeera

By Jean-Pierre Perrin
LE TEMPS/Worldcrunch

For U.S. intelligence services, the man who led the rebel assault on Tripoli, and is now the de facto military governor of the capital, is an old acquaintance. The CIA had tracked down the accused jihadist, and eventually captured him in Malaysia in 2003. The agency is believed to have then transferred him, in total silence, to a “top secret” prison in Bangkok.

At that time, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, identified under the name of Abu Abdallah al-Sadek, born May 1, 1966, was already known for his long history as a jihad operative. This career began in 1988 in Afghanistan, like many other Islamist activists.

However if the CIA wanted him, it’s first because he was one of the founders, and even the “emir” of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a small highly radical organization, which prior to Sep. 11 had two secret training camps in Afghanistan. The CIA was extremely interested in one of them, Shahid Cheikh Abu Yahya, about 19 miles north of Kabul, where the LIFG welcomed volunteers who had links with Al Qaeda.

Osama Bin Laden’s organization had many Libyans among its leading members, including Abu al-Laith al-Libi, one of Al-Qaeda’s military chiefs who was killed in Afghanistan in 2008. In 2007, the LIFG was given the seal of approval by Ayman al Zawahiri, then Al-Qaeda’s number two, and current successor of Bin Laden at the helm of the network. The LIFG then called on Libyans to rebel against Gaddafi, the U.S. and the other “infidels” of the West.

After Afghanistan, Belhadj traveled to Pakistan and Iraq. In Iraq, where the Libyans are the second most numerous group of Islamist volunteers after the Saudis, he was said to be close to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda’s chief in that country until his death in 2006. In Bangkok, in 2004, after having long been questioned and possibly tortured by the CIA, he was handed over to the Libyan secret services.

From jail to uprising

In 2009, the Libyan regime, under the direction of Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son and heir apparent, initiated an unexpected policy of reconciliation with the LIFG. The leaders of the group then published a 417-page document called “the corrective studies” (in French “les etudes correctrices”), in which they stated that holy war against Gaddafi was outlawed, since it was only allowed in Muslim countries that had been invaded (Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine).

The document may have been a way to avoid further torture. Nevertheless, it eventually allowed Belhadj to get out of prison -- and he didn’t keep his word for long. Indeed, he joined the rebel forces and took the lead of the movement in western Libya to lead them to victory in Tripoli.

Has Belhadj distanced himself from Al-Qaeda? It’s a thorny question when considering that the man has already perjured himself twice. It’s difficult not to see him involved in the recent murder of former Ministry of Interior Abdul Fatah Younis who had rejoined the rebels. According to a Libyan expert, the explanation is rather clear. “Younis used to lead the special forces and he conducted a merciless battle against the LIFG between 1990 and 1995 in eastern Libya.”

It is thus no accident that former members of the LIFG now hold the most important military jobs: Belhadj in Tripoli, Ismail al-Salabi in Benghazi, Abdel Hakim al-Assadi in Derna. Among the members of the Libyan National Transitional Council, one can find Ali Salabi. In 2009, on behalf of Saif al-Islam, he was the one who handled negotiations on the release of LIFG prisoners in exchange for them renoucing armed operations. Events in Libya have come full circle indeed!

Read the original story in French Photo – Al Jazeera via youtube

'Now Pakistan and America have some problems. So they're taking it out on me'

Tensions between Pakistan and the US often made life tricky for Matthew Barrett, a young man from Alabama living in Islamabad, but when he was arrested in May, things went from bad to worse, as he has revealed in a letter smuggled from his jail cell

- Declan Walsh
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 August 2011 21.00 BST
- Article history

Binosche Barrett, Matthew's wife, with their two children. Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Plagued by old resentments, accusations of infidelity and violent squabbles that end in the diplomatic equivalent of plate-smashing, Pakistan and the US have long been compared to a crisis-stricken married couple. It is a forced marriage, officials like to say, or an unhappy Catholic one: terrible rows with no prospect of divorce. But what if it were an actual marriage? On May 12 2011 Matthew Barrett, a 27-year-old American from Huntsville, Alabama, bumped down a quiet country road about 20 miles west of Islamabad in his custom-built Land Rover Defender. He halted before a large sign that read: "No foreigners beyond this point." Beyond lay Fateh Jang, one of the most sensitive places in Pakistan. Once part of the country's secretive nuclear weapons complex, Fateh Jang is today home to an advanced military research facility that produces long-range missiles and depleted uranium tank ammunition. The district is not, generally speaking, frequented by foreigners, much less Americans, and particularly 10 days after the Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, 50 miles to the north-west. Stopped before the forbidding sign, Barrett realised he had a problem. He phoned his wife, Binosche, for help. They had met four years earlier, during Barrett's travels across Asia; now they lived in a smart Islamabad suburb with their two young children. Speaking in Urdu, Binosche asked a guard at a nearby checkpost to direct her husband back to Islamabad. "He said 'don't worry, your husband is our guest'," she recalls. But according to Barrett, in an account smuggled from prison and obtained by the Guardian, the situation quickly soured. An intelligence official turned up, firing a barrage of questions. The official confiscated Barrett's passport, then his phone and finally the keys to his car. Barrett was taken into a nearby building where, he says, intelligence officers accused him of being a CIA spy, made "racist comments" about Guantánamo Bay, and attempted to cuff him and place a black hood over his head. Barrett resisted, kicking one man in the behind and mocking his captors as they beat him. Barrett was released after five hours, hobbling back to Islamabad in a damaged car (the Pakistanis had ripped open the driver's door, apparently in search of espionage devices). Then the real trouble started. Stories surfaced in the press, attributed to the military's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, accusing him of "scoping out nuclear facilities". The interior ministry cancelled his visa and declared he had been blacklisted. Finally, in early June, nine police officers burst into Barrett's home, pushed past his wife and screaming children, and led him off to jail. Since then Barrett has been imprisoned at Rawalpindi's notorious Adiala jail, held with men accused of blaspheming against the prophet Muhammad, forbidden visitors and refused the most basic privileges. His wife has not even been allowed deliver food parcels, a common practice in Pakistani prisons. US officials, meanwhile, say Barrett faces imminent deportation. Yet little has been resolved. Is the young American really a CIA operative, part of a covert team such as the one that tracked Bin Laden, or others that are trying to inventory Pakistan's nuclear stockpile? Or is he simply a young romantic who fell in love with the right woman from the wrong country, an unwitting victim of the geopolitical spy wars between two countries who cannot bear to be friends nor enemies? That is certainly Barrett's version. In a letter smuggled from prison, he says, "I am a traveler that [sic] happened to fall in love." After a recent court appearance, he made an impassioned appeal to the press. Sitting in the back of a police van, his hands shackled and a baseball cap turned backwards on his head, the young man – trim build; goatee beard; bright flashing eyes – called out to the cameras. "I've been living here three-and-a half years. Now, all of a sudden, Pakistan and America have some problems," he says. "So they're taking it out on me." Barrett had landed in Pakistan four years earlier, a restless 23-year-old with a tragic past. His parents had died when he was a child, killed in a car crash that the five-year-old survived. Raised by his grandparents in Huntsville, a prosperous southern city, he grew into a non-conformist, stubborn teenager. After high school he spurned college in favour of seeing the world – in particular countries where "Americans aren't supposed to go", says childhood friend Elliott Williams. "Matt was one of those people who didn't like to be told where to go and what was safe. He wanted to prove them wrong." Financed by an inheritance, he meandered through Europe and Asia, hooking up with other backpackers in hostels or finding friends through couch-surfing websites. In June 2007, having crossed over 50 countries, he wound up in central Islamabad, standing outside the Red Mosque with two companions. Binosche Khan, a 20-year-old Pakistan aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières, spotted them and told her father to stop. "I was worried; they were in the wrong place," she says. She was right: weeks later, bubbling tensions between the government and extremists holed up inside the mosque would explode into a bloody siege that ended with the deaths of 100 people. Binosche's father, a human rights lawyer named Abdur Rehman, directed the backpackers to a cheap hotel. But before leaving Barrett managed to get his daughter's phone number. They met several times for lunch, discreetly, before Barrett continued his travels into the Himalayas. He emailed friends to say had fallen in love. "He said he met this woman with a wonderful face," recalls Aly Vellani, a Canadian who had travelled through Europe with Barrett earlier that year. Six months later, Barrett returned to Pakistan; two weeks after that they were married. It was a low-key ceremony. The couple made their vows before a cleric in a city apartment, they wore ordinary clothes with a few of Binosche's siblings in attendance; security guards recruited off the street served as witnesses. Despite unconventional beginnings, they quickly settled down. A child, Michael, arrived after 10 months, followed by a girl, Rose, last September. Barrett stayed home to look after the children while Binosche worked at the Finnish embassy. Back in Alabama, Barrett's elderly grandparents worried for his safety. Barrett, on a short trip home, assured them all was well. "He was real quick to tell everyone that Pakistan wasn't the horrible place they thought it was," says Williams, his friend. In truth, it was more complicated. Police visited his house, demanding copies of his passport and visa. In a country rife with anti-American hostility, Barrett struggled to make friends. He brought suspicion on himself when, on a trip to Khyber tribal agency to buy vehicle spare parts, he was detained by Peshawar police and held for three days. (Finding nothing suspicious, they released him.) Binosche was reported to military intelligence by someone at the Finnish embassy who said she had Israeli sympathies. "Married to an American in Pakistan, you have to put up with a lot of crap," she sighs. There was also trouble from the US authorities. The Barretts ran into a thicket of red tape at the Islamabad embassy, with long delays for visas (it took Binosche more than two years) and passports for their children. Barrett grew angry. After one heated exchange, an embassy official challenged him to a fistfight, Binosche says. On another they were left sitting for more than an hour in a room with pictures of al-Qaida fugitives. The couple believed the room was bugged. Meanwhile, in Alabama, Barrett's friends and family also faced scrutiny. FBI agents arrived on their doorsteps with questions about his life in Pakistan; a high-school friend was shocked to face queries during a security check for a government job. Some of the FBI's questions focused on Barrett's relationship with Islam (he had to convert to marry Binosche). "It really caught us off guard but there were no direct questions about anything bad," Williams says. "They were just fishing for what kind of guy he was." Amid the delays and frustrations, early this year Barrett concocted a fresh plan to leave Pakistan. He bought a secondhand Land Rover for £1,500, intending to drive thousands of miles through western Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. It was an ambitious, some say foolhardy, plan – kidnap is common in western Pakistan – but he pressed ahead, hiring Pakistani metalworkers to construct a caravan to house his young family on the journey. But the jeep needed work, so he made several journeys to a workshop in Swabi, north of Islamabad, for repairs. But on 10 May, with the work almost done, he did something unusual. Instead of taking the motorway he turned on to the old Grand Trunk Road and, instead of heading north to Swabi, turned west towards Fateh Jang. Moments later he hit the "No foreigners" sign. Barrett's timing couldn't have been worse. US-Pakistan relations, always fragile, plunged last January after a CIA contractor called Raymond Davis shot dead two people in Lahore. The death of Bin Laden – and subsequent revelations of an extensive CIA surveillance operation leading to his capture – triggered an unprecedented crisis. Humiliated, angered and facing allegations of collusion with Bin Laden, the ISI has mounted an intensive sweep to flush out the CIA's covert operatives inside Pakistan. US officials have been refused visas; US citizens inside Pakistan have come under intense scrutiny. Some have been harassed and detained, others deported, the State Department complained recently. Two weeks ago kidnappers snatched Warren Weinstein, a veteran US contractor, from his Lahore home; his fate remains unknown. In Adiala jail, Barrett said in the smuggled letter, he has been beaten and suffered a broken tooth. Yet his own embassy appears indifferent to his plight. "They have been rude to my wife, even complaining about how hard it was to get permission to see me," he wrote. One official told Binosche that "we have enough difficulty keeping our own people out of trouble". In court, Barrett has been charged with entering a restricted area in Fateh Jang and, under an arcane law, "insulting the good name of Pakistan". The media, quoting ISI sources, trots out allegations of espionage. To those who know Barrett, they are risible. "Ludicrous," says Vellani, the former fellow backpacker. "There's no way in the world Matt could be a spy," says Williams. Binosche is fighting hard to save her husband from deportation. She has lodged an appeal with the country's supreme court, but so far it has shown little interest. She is supported by her father Abdur Rehman, a fiery human rights lawyer who has embraced his son-in-law. Having survived the 2005 earthquake when a house collapsed on his head, he is not a man to mince his words. Over an iftar dinner to mark the breaking of the Ramadan fast, he rails against Pakistan's military establishment, which he calls a "fascist, feudal, Nazi network". If his son-in-law comes to harm in prison, he warns, he will take tribal-style revenge. "I am a Pakhtun. I cannot be afraid," he declares. His daughter is less certain. She rages courageously against the hidden spies she believes to be behind her husband's persecution. "Somebody has to stand up to these people," she says. Other times, however, she crumbles – unable to sleep, beset with anxiety, writing poems to her husband. "The idea Matt is some sort of James Bond is ridiculous," she says. "He's the kind of person who speaks for people's rights. Not this." At her parents' house, she leads me outside. The black Land Rover is still there, parked in front of a cricket pitch. The LCD screens fitted to entertain their children have been damaged, the door barely closes. Behind it stands the caravan – painted black, with two small windows, resembling a mobile library. Inside, it is unbearably hot and cramped, with bare metal seats, a basic sink and a musty smell brought on by rain leaking through the roof. Nobody is certain when this ill-fated vehicle will get moving again, or in which direction – much like the bigger, troubled relationship between the two countries.