All but one of the men are said to have passed through a network based in London.The men – Mourad Benchellali, 25, Nizar Sassi, 26, Brahim Yadel, 34, Imad Achab Kanouni, 29, Khaled Ben Mustapha, 34, and Redouane Khalid, 38 – were released from Guantanamo into French custody in 2004.All but one have since been released They appeared in court on bail, yesterday. France is the first western country to try citizens released from Guantanamo. The case, expected to last two weeks, will become partly a trial of US anti-terror policy but also of France’s decision – alone among European countries – to pursue legal action against former detainees in the US camp in Cuba.
The six men are accused of the catch-all offence of “associating with wrong-doers in connection with a terrorist undertaking”. Six French citizens who were once inmates of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre went on trial in Paris yesterday accused of “associating with terrorists”. Similar protests against the decree removing the virtual monopoly status of local taxi drivers’ federations were held in Milan, Genoa and Turin.
The Economic Development Minister, Pierluigi Besani, said he was willing to meet leaders of taxi drivers’ unions to discuss the decree and said they had overreacted to a measure unlikely to threaten their livelihoods.Mr Prodi has also announced measures that would cut red tape and boost competition among lawyers, pharmacists and other professional groups protected by associations which give them privileged positions in the market place. Critics branded the decree “Blairite” and noted that the changes had been promised by the former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who spent much of his term passing laws to promote his business interests.The planned reforms will allow private companies to run public transport services and supermarkets to sell painkillers while lawyers will be permitted to work on a no-win no-fee basis..

Some 200 taxi drivers from Rome caused severe traffic jams between the capital and the Leonardo da Vinci airport by driving up and down the motorway at a speed of just 20mph and cabs for tourists arriving by air were unobtainable. This vision should be based on a belief in democracy and good governance, but, just as strongly, in a passion for equality, justice and the desire to use globalisation as a force for good.”. Italy’s notoriously surly taxi drivers went on strike yesterday in the first of a series of planned protests against a “Blairite” decree law introduced by the centre-left government of Romano Prodi to liberalise the economy by depriving various trades and professions of restrictive market privileges. Those of us in progressive politics must be clear about our vision of how we want to live and describe Britain’s relationship with the world. “To persistently communicate the wider perspective and explain the linkages that bind people globally, in mutual dependence, as citizens.”The report, 2025: What next for the Make Poverty History generation?, was commissioned by the Fabian Society, the Labour-affiliated think-tank, and will be launched today by Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary.

Tom Hampson, the society’s editorial director, said: “The question this generation wants answered is whether protest and politics ever really get us anywhere. Public cynicism, disappointment and disillusionment now could put the progress made last year at risk. “The challenge for all stakeholders is to shake up the consumer myopia,” she said. The other possible outcome is The Good Life, where community involvement grows and politicians come under under increasing public pressure to focus on global social and environmental justice. Green issues would be part of mainstream politics and climate change at the top of the agenda.Michelle Harrison, who carried out the Henley study, argued that British attitudes to the world will be crucial to the fight to eliminate global poverty. She said the four scenarios showed how “social ideals” were vulnerable and that people could shift their priorities as consumers quickly. International development would be low on the agenda.Another scenario, called The Puritans Return, would see people focusing much more on local issues, a rise in self-righteousness, the poor regarded by the masses as undeserving and the government expected to set a “moral” agenda at home.According to the Henley study, all is not lost for campaigners who hope the spirit of Live8 will remain entrenched.

Most people would have “personal home stylists” who would refresh their wardrobes, kitchen and interiors every four to six weeks.In another, called My Home, My Castle, Britons would look inward, be suspicious of each other and encourage the Government to concentrate on British rather than global issues. It found that there was no guarantee that the values of the “Live8 generation” would be in the ascendancy.In three of the four likely scenarios for 2025, selfishness appears to outweigh caring about others. One is called Choice Unlimited, in which today’s consumerist culture would become stronger, ethical consumption less mainstream and people would engage with international issues only sporadically. A new study suggests that consumerism and individualism may prove a more dominant force by 2025 than caring about the problems of poverty at home and abroad. It found that, for the first time since 1994, Britons regard looking after themselves as more important to quality of life than looking after their communities.
The respected forecasting group Henley Centre Headlight Vision tested public attitudes to help it guess what kind of a society Britain might be in 20 years’ time. His weapon is a case stuffed with hundreds of venomous snakes – vipers, adders and, yes, those muscle-bound, fang-bearing constrictors. New Line, for reasons that will become apparent, decided to give exclusive rights to air the promo not to television channels or even to cinema chains, but to the internet site, Yahoo! Before reading any further, fire up your computer, call up the site and take a look.

The thing is all of 30 seconds long and features the requisite gravelly voiceover and scenes involving the star, Samuel L Jackson, in mega-testosterone mode.
Now, most of you will probably have reached a similar conclusion: “Good Lord, this film [it opens on 18 August] looks to be the worst load of Hollywood hog-wash ever put on screen. What were New Line thinking when they commissioned this from director David Ellis?” A few of you, however, may have been tickled by a second instinct. The concern about global poverty shown by the British people during Live Aid in 1985 and Live8 last year may not last another 20 years. The face is painted as if an effigy, in apparent anticipation of his imminent death.Modigliani and his Models, at the the Royal Academy, opens on Saturday and runs until 15 October Admission £8.. I’m sure he loved them both in different ways.”The exhibition includes one self-portrait from 1919, which was probably his last work, painted not long before his death. He painted her 25 times and she was so distressed by his death that, while pregnant with their second child, she committed suicide two days after his death.Norman Rosenthal, the exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy, which has previously presented the artist’s drawings, said what was striking about the paintings was their “painterliness”.He said: “When you see him reproduced, you see him very much as a linear artist, but when you look at them, there’s something almost tactile about them.”You can see that he’s not only a worthy successor to Botticelli but also to Titian.