Human Rights Watch has welcomed the reported detention of a UAE royal who was captured on video tape as he physically tortured an Afghan businessman. The torturer has been identified as Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a half brother of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The video tape that shows Issa beating a man with a cattle prod and nailed board, before burning his genitals and driving his Mercedes over him, created a scandal in the U.S. where it was played on major U.S. TV news channels.

The scandal deepened after it became clear that Issa was assisted by a uniformed police officer who literally poured salt on the open wounds of the victim, an Afghan grain dealer accused of cheating the UAE royal.

In its initial reaction the UAE government appeared to defend police involvement in the torture by stating that all proper procedures had been followed. This prompted a furious response from Human Rights Watch. Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director, said, 'It's a scam and a shame,' adding, 'they are acting under the cover of the law and they are representing the government.'

The torture tape has so far delayed the ratification of a civil nuclear deal between the UAE and Washington with some members of the U.S. Congress calling for a review of bilateral contacts.

Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern, co-chair of the congressional Human Rights Commission, described the tape as 'horrific' and said he had written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express his 'outrage, horror and revulsion.' Since then the UAE authorities have issued a statement deploring the contents of the tape. Issa is also said to have been placed under house arrest.

Describing Issa's detention as a 'significant development', a spokesman for Human Rights Watch commented, 'The report of the arrest was reassuring, but now the government needs to make the details public. Secretive prosecutions will not deter further abuses and torture.'

Drinking water crisis

Indian, Chinese, American and British scientists are behind a joint international declaration calling for a carefully planned and coordinated response to future water shortages and related hazards.

They say melting glaciers, weakening monsoon rains, less mountain snowpack and other effects of a warmer climate will lead to significant disruptions in the supply of water to highly populated regions of the world.

These warnings about a future threat to world water security come from a group of scientists brought together by the University of Cambridge in UK and the University of California San Diego in California.

Some two dozen international water experts participated in the 'Ice, Snow, and Water: Impacts of Climate Change on California and Himalayan Asia' workshop held at UC San Diego. It was coordinated by UC San Diego's Sustainability Solutions Institute (SSI) and Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies (CCES) based at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

Workshop experts represented the United Nations World Climate Research Programme, the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the British Antarctic Survey, the California Department of Water Resources as well as several American universities.

The experts commented on heavy rains in Indian deserts, a recent drought in what is typically one of the wettest places on earth along the foot of the Himalayas, and other extreme weather events in recent decades.

Major rivers in both regions, like China's Yellow River and the Colorado River in the southwestern United States, routinely fail to reach the ocean now.

These extremes are signs of the climate and societal-induced stresses that will be exacerbated in the future under continuing climate changes, threatening massive and progressive disruptions in the availability of drinking water to more than a billion people in the two regions.

The workshop seeks to use the intellectual resources generated by these and other universities — ranging from climate change research at Scripps to the computing power of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), and bringing social sciences together with physical and biological sciences — to promote solutions to the world's most pressing sustainability issues.

'Solutions to immense problems have small beginnings and we began here,' said Sustainability Solutions Institute Senior Strategist Charles Kennel. 'I continue to be impressed by what a small group of dedicated people can achieve.'

The country that counts

China's economic growth continues to cause 'shock and awe' in the rest of the world following the publication of government statistics that show the country's industrial production increased by 7.3 per cent in the year ending last April.

These statistics are modest by China's standards (rates for the year before were 8.3 per cent), but they are mind boggling compared to what the rest of the world has been able to achieve with most western countries struggling to show any growth at all in the current economic climate.

India's annual growth rate has also plunged to less than six per cent with industrial output increasing at between four and five per cent for the previous 12 months.

Although China has been affected by the cutback in U.S. and European consumer demand, Beijing has tried to shield the blow of lower exports by unveiling a U.S. $570 billion economic stimulus package that will result in massive investment in railroads and other infrastructure projects.

The impact of the stimulus, which is meant to boost domestic demand, resulted in higher retail sales last April of such items as home appliances and furniture. Vehicle sales, which hit a record high of 1.11 units last March, higher than in the U.S. for the third straight month, suggests that China may now be the world's biggest car market.

FAW-Volkswagen alone, the country's leading auto producer, sold 513,000 vehicles in 2008.

Western economists say China has accounted for a third of global economic growth since 2000 and Chinese goods exported all over the world make the country the world's second largest exporter.

Hardly surprising then that western politicians like Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer have called for renewed efforts to build stronger bilateral trade ties between his country and China.

Darling who revealed that Britain is the largest European investor in China said in a recent comment, 'We have a strong record of exporting services to China, selling more than £1 billion a year in their markets. But we must do more. That is why we are working towards a bilateral trade target of £60 billion by 2010. We want to move the focus towards aerospace, environmental infrastructure, biological technology, pharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing. We must seize the opportunities.'

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has gone one step further, describing China as the 21st century's 'indispensable power' and predicting that in the decades to come China would become one of the two powers that count, along with the U.S.

Spendthrift MPs of Asian origin

Asian-origin MPs figure high in the list of British parliamentarians currently in the public eye because of their high and colourful expenses claims.

Like their white counterparts, the Asian MPs have denied any wrongdoing but they remain the focus of interest after the enforced suspension of Pakistani-origin Justice minister who has been accused of failing to declare he paid a subsidised rent.

Shahid Malik, the highest ranking Asian in the government led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who earlier defended his right to some £66,000 expenses claimed over a three year period, was also revealed to have spent taxpayers' money on a home cinema and massage chair.

It is his alleged claim to a discounted rent for his constituency family home that prompted an inquiry and led to his suspension from office. Taking advantage of such subsidised rents is against the British government's ministerial code of conduct.

Malik, who is now the subject of an official inquiry, said, 'I would like to make it clear that this inquiry has nothing whatsoever to do with my expense claims but relates to an allegation regarding my rent which, if true, would breach the ministerial code.

'I am confident that there has been no such breach and look forward to the findings of the inquiry so that I can continue to serve my constituents as their MP and the country as a minister with my head held high.'
Malik's alleged breaching of the rules is small beer compared to some of the flagrant abuses that have come out in the British media. At least one MP is revealed as having claimed thousands of pounds in expenses for a home mortgage that had been paid off several years ago.

Media interest is now focused on Bangladesh-born Baroness Uddin, a Labour member of the House of Lords, who is revealed as living in low cost social housing in London while owning a palatial family mansion back in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh home decorated with Italian marble was built after Uddin became a peer in 1998. According to the Sunday Times newspaper, there are still unanswered questions about £83,000 of Uddin's expenses claims for staying in London between 2001 and 2005 because she claimed her main residence was outside the British capital.

A third Asian-origin MP has raised eyebrows after it was revealed that he had claimed tens of thousands of pounds for a London property, even though his family home was just 12 miles away from the centre of the British capital. He claimed another £16,000 for his Leicester constituency home, including more than £480 on 22 cushions.

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