The 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release reminds us of the need to compromise in politics | The Independent | The Independent It was a balmy afternoon on Nelson Mandela’s day of liberation, February 11, 1990. I rolled down the back window and stretched out an arm to have my hand slapped again and again […]
We sat on a balcony that overlooked the city of Jenin, soon after Zakaria Zumbeid had attacked and ransacked the office of the Governor of Jenin, his home town. The Governor was from the Palestinian Authority, which paid him and his men their salaries — though Zubeidi felt they were being underpaid and disrespected. “!Whhen […]
Dogs who helped rescue people from the collapsed Twin Towers at Ground Zero or sniffed out the injured and the dead received huge publicity and universal praise. One Minnesota couple even sent “dog boots” to help protect the heroic canines from the sharp rubble. But there was another, less-publicised drama going on: to rescue pets […]
An extraordinary interview was filmed with Aicha El Wafi at her home and in a park in Narbonne, France, before her son Zacarias Moussaoui was jailed for life. It’s still relevant today – full not only of her personal pain, but also of insights into very mixed-up minds.
Of all the war criminals and mass murderers I have encountered in 40 years of reporting in conflict zones, Ratko Mladic was the most chilling. The United Nations ex-Yugoslavia Tribunal’s final verdict — life imprisonment for genocide — brings back memories that even a hard-bitten war reporter finds hard to erase. ** Dead children’s graves […]
United Nations judges have sentenced Ratko Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, to life in prison for genocide and other war crimes. As this is in a final judgment, there can be no further appeal. Mladic, now 78, sat without a mask in the war crime tribunal’s dock behind a sheet of glass. He […]
Here’s a story about how I found and ‘bought’ a Weapon of Minor Destruction — a missile — in the heart of Baghdad. Going fast in Iraq: the £300 rocket grenade launchers that can bring down a helicopter Paul Martin, Baghdad… which Alameen bought the RPG underlines the problems American forces face in restoring order […]
A sign on the desert road south of Baghdad, curiously in English not Arabic, pointed to what it described as an “Engineering Factory”. It was the only hint that there was something unusual to be found just off the beaten track. Until days before, this “Engineering factory” had been nothing less than Saddam Hussein’s project […]