It also found physical and emotional abuse and neglect were features of institutions.

Schools were run “in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff”.

The nine-year inquiry investigated a 60-year period.

About 35,000 children were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses up to the 1980s.

More than 2,000 told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse they suffered physical and sexual abuse while there.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said he was “profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions”.

There was no way of avoiding it… I mean, they had access to you 24 hours a day Thomas Wall Abuse victim Child abuse victims seek justice

“This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society,” he said.

“It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children.”

The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders’ paedophiles from arrest amid a “culture of self-serving secrecy”.

It also found that government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

Police were called to the commission’s news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.

Victims campaigners protested at being excluded from the news conference

More allegations were made against the Christian Brothers than the other male orders combined.

The report found child safety was not a priority for the Christian Brothers who ran the institutions, the order was defensive in its response to complaints and failed to accept any congregational responsibility for abuse.

Ritual beatings

The report said that girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said those who perpetrated violence and abuse should be held to account, “no matter how long ago it happened”.

“Every time there is a single incident of abuse in the Catholic Church, it is a scandal. I would be very worried if it wasn’t a scandal… I hope these things don’t happen again, but I hope they’re never a matter of indifference,” he said.

The reformatory and industrial schools depended on rigid control by means of severe corporal punishment and the fear of such punishment Mr Justice Sean Ryan pragmatic style of leadership, one that recognises the need to balance the change he has promised with the Abuse report – at a glance Reaction to Irish abuse report

The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.

“The reformatory and industrial schools depended on rigid control by means of severe corporal punishment and the fear of such punishment,” it said.

“The harshness of the regime was inculcated into the culture of the schools by successive generations of brothers, priests and nuns.

“It was systemic and not the result of individual breaches by persons who operated outside lawful and acceptable boundaries.

READ THE INQUIRY’S SUMMARY Summary of findings from the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse (105Kb) Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you might need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the reader here

“Excesses of punishment generated the fear that the school authorities believed to be essential for the maintenance of order.”

The report proposed 21 ways the government could recognise past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counselling and education to victims, and improving Ireland’s current child protection services.

Its findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions – in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report.

No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

Together with World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan, he is set to ask for commitments over the scale and cost of vaccine production.

There is concern about the global distribution of a possible vaccine after wealthy states pre-ordered large stocks, correspondents say.

Meanwhile, Japan has confirmed dozens more cases of the flu.

The new cases brought the total number of people to have caught the virus in Japan to 173.

Japanese media say the new wave in infections makes Japan the fourth-most infected country in the world, after Mexico, the US and Canada.

‘Debate not happening’

In Geneva, Mr Ban will be looking for a commitment to increase capacity and to produce vaccines at a fair price, the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes reports.

Pharmaceutical companies are committed to producing a seasonal flu vaccine and somehow capacity has to be found to produce an affordable swine flu vaccine as well, she says.

Rich countries like Britain and the US have pre-ordered vast stocks of such a vaccine before a single dose has been produced, leading to concerns about future global supplies.

Michele Childs of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said that wealthy countries were “putting in place these agreements with vaccine manufacturers to basically jump the queue”.

“What needs to be done is all of the countries need to agree how it will be equably shared, based on need, so if one country has got a huge outbreak then they need to be getting the vaccines first,” she said.

“But that debate is not happening.”

In Japan the number of swine flu cases has continued to rise rapidly.

Officials doubled the closures of schools and universities in Hyogo and Osaka on Tuesday, bringing the total to more than 4,000.

Just four cases had been confirmed in Japan as of Friday – people who had returned from Canada.

The first case in someone who had not been abroad – a 17-year-old student in Kobe – was reported on Saturday.

None of the patients in the new wave of Japanese infections were reported to be in serious condition.

The plan will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil by 2016 and be the equivalent of taking 177 million cars off the road, White House officials said.

The rules would aim to cut emissions by 30% and set fuel efficiency at 35.5 miles per gallon (15km per litre).

The cost of new vehicles is expected to rise by at least $1,300 (£842) by 2016.

Mr Obama is expected to make the announcement – which officials described as “historic” – on Tuesday.

‘More consistency’

The BBC’s Jonathan Beale, in Washington, says President Obama has made tackling climate change a priority.

Until now it was only a few individual states, like California, that had been battling to cut greenhouse gas emissions, our correspondent says.

The US auto industry had also resisted change. But facing tougher times and having to rely on government aid it is now backing the new national standards.

“GM and the auto industry benefit by having more consistency and certainty to guide our product plans,” GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a statement.

Mr Obama’s plan would still need the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency and the transport department.

The new measures would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 900 million metric tonnes, officials said.

The increase in mileage is to be introduced gradually, and is expected to add $1,300 to the cost of a vehicle by the time it is fully implemented in 2016.

The measures would begin to take effect in 2012.

Most passenger cars would eventually be required to run at 39 miles per gallon, and light lorries at 30 miles per gallon.

The average mileage for 2009 models in the US is 25 miles per gallon

Sri Lankan leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has declared the country “liberated” from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year war.

Mr Rajapaksa made the announcement in a speech to the country’s parliament, a day after the army said rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed.

Sri Lankan television stations broadcast footage of a body purported to be that of Prabhakaran.

Tamil media outside Sri Lanka have denied the army’s claims that the Tiger chief is dead.

Still from Sri Lankan television
Sri Lankan television showed a body purported to be that of Prabhakaran

After a day of feverish speculation over Prabhakaran’s fate, Sri Lankan army chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka announced on state television that his body had been found.

“A few hours ago, the body of terrorist leader Prabhakaran, who ruined this country, was found on the battleground,” he said, adding that it had been positively identified using DNA testing.

Television pictures showed Sri Lankan troops standing over a bloated, uniformed corpse, whose face closely resembled that of the rebel leader.

The forehead had been covered with a cloth, but the face was exposed, its eyes and mouth open.

The footage also showed a copy of a military ID tag written in Tamil, bearing the number “0:01″, and what appeared to be a Tamil Tiger identity card bearing Prabhakaran’s photograph.

‘Liberation’

VELUPILLAI PRABHAKARAN
Velupillai Prabhakaran
Born November, 1954
1972: Founded Tamil New Tigers (TNT), forerunner of LTTE
Reputation as fearless and ruthless leader
Pioneered use of suicide bombings in guerilla warfare
Wanted in Sri Lanka and India

Obituary: Velupillai Prabhakaran
Winning the peace
Joy and wariness in Sri Lanka

Earlier, in a nationally televised live address, President Rajapaksa hailed “a day which is very, very significant – not only to us Sri Lankans but to the entire world”.

“Today we have been able to liberate the entire country from the clutches of terrorism,” he said. “We have been able to defeat one of the most heinous terrorist groups in the world.”

As he walked into parliament, schoolgirls sang an ancient song of praise, while lawmakers held up the national flag.

After speaking in his native Sinhala, President Rajapaksa switched to the language of the Tamil minority, saying ethnic and religious divisions should end.

“We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities.”

Denial

The army said it killed Prabhakaran on Monday after over-running the last patch of territory held by the Tamil Tiger rebels (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE).

FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE

Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version

More from BBC World Service

It said Prabhakaran, who founded and had led the LTTE since the mid-1970s, was shot dead with two senior deputies as they tried to escape.

There were scenes of jubilation across the country as reports of Prabhakaran’s death spread.

Drivers and motorcyclists sounded their horns, while others waved flags and set off firecrackers.

“We are happy today to see the end of that ruthless terrorist organisation and its heartless leader. We can live in peace after this,” said Sinhalese businessman Lal Hettige.

SRI LANKA CONFLICT TIMELINE
1976 – LTTE formed
1983 – First attacks by Tamil Tiger rebels; start of ‘First Eelam War’
Feb 2002 – Government and rebels sign ceasefire
2004 – 2008 – Violence mounts
Jan 2008 – Government pulls out of ceasefire agreement
Jan 2009 – Government captures Tigers’ Kilinochchi headquarters
May 2009 – Government declares victory against Tigers

In pictures: Sri Lanka victorious
Sri Lanka press hails ‘victory’

However, the website TamilNet quoted LTTE diplomatic head Selvarajah Pathmanathan as saying Prabhakaran was still alive.

“I wish to inform the global Tamil community distressed witnessing the final events of the war that our beloved leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe,” he said.

Neither sides’ claims have been independently verified because reporters are not allowed into the former conflict zone.

The Tigers had been fighting for a separate state for Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka since the 1970s.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict and thousands displaced.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned civilian casualties and called for an inquiry into alleged war crimes by both sides.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office said he was planning to visit Sri Lanka, but did not provide details.
porno sexsi kizlar sikiş porno izle porno indir porno videolari liseli kızlar hayvan pornosu hayvan sikişi küçük kiz sikişi lezbiye gay pornosu çocuk sikişi azgin pornolar porno sicak sex erotik oyunlar dizi izle film izle sex filmleri porno filmleri sikiş filmi hayvanlar sikiş dizi izle Detainee released

<!–
emp_load.getEmpEmbeddedParams(“emp_8054251″);
// –>

Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version

The BBC’s Charles Haviland on reactions to the Tamil Tiger ceasefire declaration – Video footage provided by Associated Press

Tamil rebels trapped in a tiny enclave of northern Sri Lanka have declared a ceasefire, a rebel spokesman says.

The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) had given up their fight against a major government offensive and “decided to silence our guns”, he said on a pro-Tamil website.

“This battle has reached its bitter end,” said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tigers’ chief of international relations, in a statement on Tamilnet.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already claimed victory in the 26-year war.

A later statement on the Tamilnet website appeared to modify the rebel position.

Mr Pathmanathan said the LTTE was “prepared to silence its guns if that is what needed by the international community to save the life and dignity of the Tamil people”.

“In the past 24 hours, over 3,000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention,” said the statement.

A senior Sri Lankan media spokesman told the BBC the government did not respond to documents posted on Tamilnet or take them seriously.

Lakshman Hulugalle said the government was waiting for an official “request” from the LTTE.

Civilians trapped

In contrast, Sri Lanka military officials said earlier that all the civilians who had been trapped in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone had escaped.

The government rejected the ceasefire calls, saying that as all trapped civilians had now fled from the area of conflict, there was no reason to stop its offensive.

Charles Haviland, BBC News, Colombo The Tamil Tiger statement sounds permanent but there is no use of the emotive word “surrender” nor an explicit admission of defeat. A defiant note is sounded when he says that “no force can prevent the attainment of justice for our people”. But the Sri Lankan government, on the crest of a wave of military success, says the fighting has not finished. The defence minister said the military had yet to clear a small area of jungle where some LTTE members might be hiding, but added that 250,000 people had fled the conflict zone in recent weeks and not a single one had reported seeing the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran inside the area.

Army spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said some 50,000 ethnic Tamils had fled the area over the past three days.

Like all accounts from the war zone, neither claim can be independently verified.

Fighting is still continuing, but there has been no sign of the Tigers’ leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Sri Lankan defence minister told the BBC.

For months, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians have been trapped in the war zone, vulnerable to bombardments as the government and Tamil Tiger rebels fought bitterly.

The United Nations says they were being forcibly kept there by the rebels and that more than 6,000 have been killed since January.

The UN has told the BBC the army figures reinforced its view that Sri Lanka’s authorities were ill-prepared for the huge influx of internally displaced people.

Refugee camps inland are already badly strained accommodating the huge numbers of those who have fled the conflict.

Rebels ‘cornered’

Both the UN and Western governments have called on Sri Lanka to exercise restraint in its pursuit of a military victory over the Tigers.

INSURGENCY TIMELINE 1976 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam form in the north-east 1987 India deploys peace-keepers to Tamil areas but they leave in 1990 1993 President Premadasa killed by Tiger bomb 2001 Attack on airport destroys half Sri Lankan Airlines fleet 2002 Government and rebels agree ceasefire 2005 Mahinda Rajapakse becomes president 2006 Heavy fighting resumes 2009 Tigers call for ceasefire after army takes main rebel strongholds, confines Tigers to small coastal enclave

Despite President Rajapaksa’s claim of military victory on Saturday, senior officials told the BBC that fighting was still continuing in the area where the LTTE leaders were said to be cornered.

A military spokesman has told the BBC the last remnants of the rebels are trapped in 1.5 square kilometres of jungle. Again, his assertion cannot be verified.

More than 70,000 people have died in the bitter war for a Tamil homeland.

Sri Lanka’s army said earlier 70 rebels had been killed trying to escape from a tiny enclave where they are holed up in the island’s north-east.

The army says it has cut off rebel access to the sea.

Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said a “process of identification” was going on to identify the 70 rebels killed while trying to cross a lagoon in six boats.

President Rajapaksa is expected to give a nationally televised news conference in parliament on Tuesday, when reports suggest he may officially declare the war over.

Mr Boumediene was arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and was held for seven years. He was cleared for release in November.

He won a landmark Supreme Court case granting Guantanamo inmates the right to challenge their confinement.

The release comes on the same day that US President Barack Obama announced that he was reviving military trials for some detainees.

Earlier this month, France offered to accept Mr Boumediene, 42, after he was cleared of any wrongdoing in November by a US judge who ruled he had been illegally detained.

Mr Boumediene was flown from the US naval base in south-eastern Cuba to waiting relatives in France.

He had been on hunger strike since December 2006 and was force-fed twice a day through a nose-drip, the AFP news agency reported.

His wife and two daughters, who went to Algeria after his arrest, will also be taken in by France, it said.

Landmark case

Mr Boumediene was among six men arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and charged with plotting to attack the US embassy in Sarajevo. They were formally exonerated by Bosnian prosecutors in 2004.

All six said they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, which involved prolonged isolation, forced nudity, and sleep deprivation.

Mr Boumediene was one of two detainees who won a case before the US Supreme Court last June on behalf of 37 foreign nationals at the US-run prison camp.

The ruling gave Guantanamo prisoners the long-standing habeas corpus right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts.

Since then, federal judges have ordered the release of 25 prisoners, including three of Mr Boumediene’s fellow Algerian nationals.

The men were transferred to their adoptive home of Bosnia in December, becoming the first Guantanamo inmates to be released by the former Bush administration under a judge’s orders.

pragmatic style of leadership, one that recognises the need to balance the change he has promised with the reality he has inherited. porno sexsi kizlar sikiş porno izle porno indir porno videolari liseli kızlar hayvan pornosu hayvan sikişi küçük kiz sikişi lezbiye gay pornosu çocuk sikişi azgin pornolar porno sicak sex erotik oyunlar dizi izle film izle sex filmleri porno filmleri sikiş filmi hayvanlar sikiş dizi izle Detainee released

Reports say that police smacked the boy, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, with a bamboo stick before ordering him out.

The authorities claim he and other families were squatting on land that was owned by the government.

He played a younger version of one of the main characters in the film, which scooped eight Oscars.

“We are homeless, we have nowhere to go,” Azharuddin said after the demolition.

The family lived in a temporary makeshift shelter made up of plastic sheets over bamboo sticks, in a slum near Bandra East in Mumbai.

He said he had been fast asleep when the demolition squad came and asked them to leave, later tearing down the entire row of tents pitched on the land.

The family claim they had not been informed about the planned demolition.

Municipal official, Uma Shankar Mistry, who was present during the demolition, told the BBC that the authorities only razed temporary and illegal homes which had recently been erected next to the slum.

He said the houses were in an area that was meant for a public garden.

Housing promise

The mother of the child actor said that she did not know what would happen to her family now and that the help promised by local authorities and by the film’s makers had not materialised.

“Our house has been broken down by officials. We have not been given any alternate accommodation. Earlier the authorities had said they would give us a house. But I don’t think that will happen any more,” Shamim Ismail told the BBC.

The families of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and co-star Rubina Ali, who played a younger version of the film’s female lead, had been promised new accommodation by a local housing authority.

But a decision about whether or not this will go ahead is still pending.

Film director Danny Boyle has strongly denied charges of exploitation.

The film’s makers have set up funds to pay for their education and they have been enrolled in school for the first time.

They also recently announced that they will donate £500,000 to a charity which will help children living in the slums of Mumbai.

The film has made more than $200m (£140m) in box office takings around the world.

Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council, warned these hormone-disrupting chemicals were “feminising” boys in the womb.

He linked them to raising rates of birth defects and testicular cancer and falling sperm counts.

Campaigners called for action to address the problem.

They warned that while exposure to a single chemical may cause no harm, the cumulative effect could be profound.

HORMONE DISRUPTORS
Chemicals in consumer products and food that have been reported to disrupt the sex hormones include:

Phthalates: Found in vinyl flooring, plastics, soaps, toothpaste

Bisphenol: Found in babies’ bottles, food can linings. mobile phones, computers

Pesticides: Including pyrethroids, linuron, vinclozolin and fenitrothion

Professor Sharpe’s report was commissioned by the CHEM Trust, a charity which works to protect humans and wildlife from harmful chemicals.

There is evidence that male reproductive health is deteriorating, with malformations of the penis becoming more common, rates of testicular cancer rising, and sperm counts falling.

It is thought that all these conditions – collectively called Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS) – are linked to disruption of the male sex hormone testosterone.

Professor Sharpe concludes that exposure to a cocktail of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment is likely to be at least partly to blame by blocking the action of testosterone in the womb.

His latest report highlights animal studies showing that testosterone-disrupting chemicals can cause TDS-like disorders.

In addition, de-masculinisation effects due to chemical pollutants in the environment has been reported in many species of wildlife.

The direct evidence of an effect in humans is so far less compelling – but is beginning to mount.

Minimise exposure

Professor Sharpe said: “Because it is the summation of effect of hormone-disrupting chemicals that is critical, and the number of such chemicals that humans are exposed to is considerable, this provides the strongest possible incentive to minimise human exposure to all relevant hormone disruptors, especially women planning pregnancy, as it is obvious that the higher the exposure the greater the risk.”

New EU chemicals legislation, called REACH (Registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals) puts the onus on the chemical industry to prove that its products are safe.

Campaigners say it could be used to reduce exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals.

Elizabeth Salter Green, CHEM Trust director, said; “Chemicals that have been shown to act together to affect male reproductive health should have their risks assessed together.

“Currently that is not the case, and unfortunately chemicals are looked at on an individual basis.

“Therefore, government assurances that exposures are too low to have any effect just do not hold water because regulators do not take into account the additive actions of hormone disrupting chemicals.

“It is high time that public health policy is based on good science and that regulatory authorities have health protection, rather than industry protection, uppermost in mind.”

Ms Green advised pregnant women to keep cosmetic use to a minimum and avoid DIY.

A government spokesperson said the report would be studied with interest, and that the risks to health of hormone-disrupting chemicals were regularly reviewed by the Scientific Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT).

“The Food Standards Agency and the Health Protection Agency are also currently involved in work relevant to this issue. We will continue to consider any new evidence that emerges.”

A statement from the COT in 2006 concluded there was no clear link between data from animal experiments and trends in humans – but it was an important area for research.