Vatican makes attempted ordination of women a grave crime

Revised Catholic rules put female ordination in same category of crime under church law as clerical sex abuse of minors



Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announces the revised Catholic laws. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP
The Vatican today made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.

The new rules, which have been sent to bishops around the world, apply equally to Catholic women who agree to a ceremony of ordination and to the bishop who conducts it. Both would be excommunicated. Since the Vatican does not accept that women can become priests, it does not recognise the outcome of any such ceremony.

The latest move, which appeared to bar and bolt the door to Catholic women priests, came at a time when the Church of England moved in the opposite direction, to a step closer to the ordination of female bishops.

The Vatican's reclassification of attempted female ordination was part of a revision of a 2001 decree, the main purpose of which was to tighten up the rules on sex abuse by priests in reaction to the scandals that have been sweeping through the church since January. The most important change is to extend the period during which a clergyman can be tried by a church court from 10 to 20 years, dating from the 18th birthday of his victim.

The new rules introduce speedier procedures for dealing with the most urgent and serious cases; allowed for lay people to form part of church tribunals that judge such cases; put abuse of the mentally disabled on a level with that of minors, and introduced a new crime of paedophile pornography.

The pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, stressed that the changes applied solely to canon, or church, law. They had no bearing on whether suspected offenders should be reported to the civil authorities.

He said that issue had already been dealt with earlier this year in instructions making it clear to bishops that they must report cases promptly.

The Vatican was working on further instructions "so that the directives it issues on the subject of sexual abuse of minors, either by the clergy or institutions connected with the church, may be increasingly rigorous, coherent and effective," he said

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US hands over last Iraqi prison under its control

Iraqis take charge of Camp Cropper as US military winds down presence in country before full withdrawal by end of next year

Major General Jerry Cannon, right, and Iraq's justice minister Dara Nur al-Din sign documents during the handover ceremony of Camp Cropper from US forces to the Iraqi government. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
The US transferred the last detention camp under its control in Iraq today as it continues to wind down its military presence in the country.

Iraqi authorities are to rename Camp Cropper Karkh prison.

Major General Jerry Cannon, the head of US detention facilities in Iraq, said the US would continue holding 200 detainees – out of 1,500 prisoners – including eight former regime members. They will be held in a separate area of the prison known as compound five.

Yesterday Iraqi officials said the US had turned over 55 former senior officials, including former foreign minister Tariq Aziz, to Iraqi custody since last year.

The transfer of Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport, comes amid concerns about sectarian tensions spilling over into the prison system. Inmates in Iraqi prisons have repeatedly complained about torture and beatings by the police, as well as overcrowding and poor conditions.

Camp Cropper, established in April 2003 as a "high value" detention site, was named after Sergeant Kenneth Cropper, a member of the Maryland National Guard who died during physical training in 2002 at Fort Myer, Virginia.

The camp, which held Saddam Hussein until his execution in 2006, was supposed to have been a "holding centre" or temporary camp for up to 300 detainees who would be held for no more than a few days.

After being processed, prisoners were supposed to be moved to other locations in Baghdad and Iraq. This proved unworkable as most prisons in Baghdad were badly damaged by looting after the fall of Saddam's government.

Camp Cropper has a troubled history. Five prisoners were shot during a riot in 2003. After the closure of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and the transfer of prisoners to Camp Cropper, it too was criticised for alleged mistreatment of detainees. In 2006 three prisoners died. One died from injuries inflicted by fellow inmates and the other two from natural causes.

In 2007, Lieutenant Colonel William Steele, who was in charge of Camp Cropper was sentenced to two years in prison for "unauthorised possession of classified documents, and behaviour unbecoming an officer for an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter and failing to obey an order".

Camp Cropper is the last of three US prisons handed over to Iraqi control. Camp Bucca was transferred last September, and Camp Taji, a detention facility at an airbase north of Baghdad, in January. The handover of Camp Cropper comes as the US is preparing to pull out all combat forces by September, leaving a force of some 50,000 before a full withdrawal by the end of next year

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Real BP Gulf oil disaster is still to come

Hurricane season could bring petroleum-filled storms – but what if oil is belched out for another hundred years?


BP is yet to predict the worst-case scenario over the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Dave Martin/AP
Despite BP fighting valiantly to keep reporters and photographers away from the affected areas, the oil is still erupting out of the sea bed, making the waters of the Gulf of Mexico heavy with petroleum and smearing the coastline with black goo.

So what is going to happen now the hurricane season has arrived? The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration claims there won't be any oil droplets in any hurricane's precipitation. But Jeff Masters, the founder of Weather Underground, from the University of Michigan, disagrees. In fact, he claims that the oil droplets in the hurricane-force winds might actually cause "explosive deepening" of hurricanes in the Gulf.

What will happen when an oil-powered hurricane hits New Orleans and splatters its streets and buildings with crude oil? What will happen when it's not just pelicans and turtles that are plastered in black stuff but people? What about when rice and sugarcane are covered in oil? How will BP keep the reporters and photographers out of it then?

But BP is aware of the possibility of impending disaster a hurricane might bring. On the BP oil leak response website, Mike Utsler, the BP incident commander, based in Houma, tells us: "It's an area that we've put tremendous planning and preparation, from everything in terms of how we would respond to moving people, first and foremost, to safety, but how we would also protect and manage the equipment that's so vital to our operations …"

So that's all right then. BP is going to move everybody out of the way of any carcinogenic, petroleum-filled storms that hit the mainland.

But wait a minute! Mike Utsler isn't talking about the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. He's only talking about the people and equipment involved in the cleanup. "How do we do and manage our people," he says "in such a way that their safety is paramount."

In fact, BP apparently has a weather team working in conjunction with "the area command weather experts, as well as of course the hurricane centre, and our NOAA colleagues" so when a hurricane hits New Orleans and plasters the streets and buildings with crude oil, at least BP will have predicted it.

But what it's not predicting, at the moment, is the worst-case scenario.

BP doesn't actually know how big the oil field they drilled into is. They're drilling into lower tertiary (Paleogene) rock that was laid down at the same time mammals and birds were coming into being: 65-23m years ago. It is one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry, so as you can imagine, they're feeling their way in all this.

Appearing before a House subcommittee in Washington, Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, estimated that there might be a modest 2bn gallons down there, which could mean it could go on belching out oil for another four years. On the other hand, when BP originally announced their discovery of the "giant" find at its Tiber Prospect, experts estimated the size at 42bn gallons. And since they were talking about "recoverable oil" (which could be only 20% of the actual oil in the site) it would mean the site may hold as much as 210bn gallons. In other words, it could go on belching out oil for another hundred years.

Could that be enough time for the oil slick to reach the Mediterranean? Or, heaven forbid, Brighton

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BP oil spill cap ready for testing

Faulty hose has been replaced and technicians are moving towards finally closing off flow into Gulf of Mexico, say official

Image from a BP video shows oil flowing from a valve before a leak stopped tests on the containment cap in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: AP
BP engineers trying to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico have fixed a leak in the new containment system and are preparing to start critical pressure tests of the cap, the company has said.

Kent Wells, BP's senior vice-president of exploration and production, said the team had replaced the defective hose and would launch the test later today.

"We landed it this morning," Wells said of the replacement hose. "I'm expecting that we'll start up (the test) here later this morning, sometime today."

The cap, installed on Monday, is a crucial step toward a four-vessel oil capture system that is hurricane-ready and can collect up to 80,000 barrels a day. The first of two relief wells is expected to intercept and plug the leak by mid-August.

It represents the best hope yet of stopping the oil from leaking into the sea since the 20 April Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 people.

The company has come under increasing pressure in the United States amid reports that it lobbied the British government for the release of the Lockerbie bomber in what is being called an oil-for-terrorist deal.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, pledged to consider Congressional demands for an investigation into the charges that BP pushed for the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to help it clinch lucrative drilling contracts off the coast of Libya.

Tests of the latest containment attempt began with BP shutting off pipes that were funnelling some of the oil to ships on the surface, meaning the full force of the gusher went up into the cap. Deep-sea robots began slowly closing three openings that let oil pass through. Ultimately the flow of crude will be blocked entirely.

Engineers watched pressure readings to check whether the well was intact. The first two are simple on-off valves. The third – the one with the leaking hose – is closed gradually and takes longer.

Retired coastguard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the government response to the disaster, said a committee of scientists and engineers would monitor the results and assess them every six hours. The test would end after 48 hours to evaluate the findings.

"I was gung-ho for this test and I remain gung-ho for this test," he said.

If the cap works it will enable BP to stop the oil from gushing into the sea, either by holding it back like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channelling some through lines to as many as four collection ships.

The cap was lowered on to the well on Monday. But before BP could test it the government intervened because of concerns about whether the buildup of pressure from the gushing oil could rupture the walls of the well and make the leak worse.

Allen said: "We sat long and hard abo

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George Steinbrenner: the biggest loser in baseball

The New York Yankees owner was a cruel and petty bully, who does not deserve the eulogies following his death this week



George Steinbrenner … devoid of humility and class. Photograph: Chris O'Meara/AP
George Steinbrenner was a loser. While insisting that nothing less than wining was acceptable, Steinbrenner owned the New York Yankees during the team's longest World Series drought since its first appearance in 1921, a dry spell directly attributable to Steinbrenner's insistent mismanagement.

Steinbrenner, who died on Tuesday at age 80, was a bully and a brat, devoid of humility, class, and civility, born on third base, deluded that he'd hit a triple, and convinced he had to tell the whole world how he'd done it. Famed for his bombast and for making himself bigger than his players and team, tolerated only because he had money and power, this Yankee Doodle Dandy born on the Fourth of July paved the way for America to become a loser by his example.

Just about every bit of praise eulogising Steinbrenner is 180 degrees wrong. The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, called him "a quintessential New Yorker" despite Steinbrenner hailing from Cleveland (Bloomberg's from Boston, weekends in Bermuda), living in Tampa, and blackmailing New Yorkers with threats to move the Yankees out of town to get a new $1.5bn (£1m) stadium that embodies his penchant for vulgar excess. He was a terrific businessman, a daring capitalist who insisted he needed public handouts for his billion-dollar family company; taxpayers underwrote the bonds for that new Yankee stadium and renovated the previous one, and have been rewarded with ticket prices that top out at $2,500.

Steinbrenner was a laughable figure in the comedy series Seinfeld with nothing funny about him. He was a generous man whose many donations we never heard about – as anyone who follows baseball has heard about constantly for the past 35 years – who was breathtakingly cruel and petty. He was a great sportsman, suspended twice from baseball for breaking the rules and convicted for breaking the law. He was a great Yankee who infuriated and alienated the team's players and fans and insulted the Yankees' traditions and greatest legends.

Days before Steinbrenner, the beloved Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard died. Yankee fan websites are abuzz with variants on the theme that Steinbrenner had clung to life to wait for Sheppard to announce his arrival in heaven. Believe me, if there is a heaven, George Steinbrenner won't be there.

I covered the Yankees as a wire service reporter during the 1980s at the height – or depth – of Steinbrenner's reign of error. He spent lavishly, as always thanks to lavish team income, to assemble the best team money could buy, but the Yankees didn't win any titles.

With his American football mentality – if he hadn't gotten rich from the family business, he would have become an itinerant assistant coach, wearing out his welcome at high schools across America after a year or two – Steinbrenner couldn't understand that baseball is a marathon, with a season of 162 games, not 16, and that no team can win every day.

Steinbrenner's impatience led to bad choices, and his megalomania forbade him from taking responsibility for them. So he fired managers, general managers and even public relations directors, with comic frequency. He dismissed the Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra 16 games into the 1985 season, breaking an explicit promise that Berra had demanded before accepting the thankless manager's job. Berra, who played on a record 10 Yankee championship teams, refused to associate with the team until Steinbrenner apologised. He did – 14 years later.

Leading baseball's salary explosion, Steinbrenner believed that paying players like supermen would make them play that way. When they failed – and even the best hitters fail more than 60% of the time – Steinbrenner assumed the right to berate and humiliate them. One late afternoon in the Yankee clubhouse in 1988, the captain, Don Mattingly, the quiet centre of team turbulence, launched a spontaneous outburst against Steinbrenner. "All they give you here is money," he said, bemoaning the lack of respect, courtesy and dignity on offer

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Equality watchdog warned on spending

Government will not tolerate further waste of taxpayers' money, auditors tell Equality and Human Rights Commission



Chair Trevor Phillips has met with the home secretary. Photograph: David Levene
The Equality and Human Rights Commission was warned today that the government will not tolerate continued waste of taxpayers' money, as auditors identified irregular expenditure for the second year running.

The National Audit Office said it was unable to approve the EHRC's annual accounts, because of "serious failings" in the way it had procured contracts.

The NAO's warning comes as the government makes plans for a radical reshaping of the body, which is to become "smaller and more tightly focused".

The home secretary Theresa May, said: "The EHRC has a track record of not being careful enough with taxpayers' money, and these accounts show that problems there persist. Failure to deliver will not be tolerated by this government – we will look at further sanctions if the problems highlighted by the auditors are not dealt with."

She said: "The government is totally committed to creating a more equal society for everyone, but we're also committed to cracking down on waste and failure."

The EHRC has already been fined £508,000 – in the form of reductions to its grant – to compensate for excessive pay rises granted to staff that went beyond government-agreed maximum limits, the NAO report said. It was fined a further £200,000 last month after failing to meet a deadline to produce guidelines on how to implement the Equalities Act, forcing the government's Equalities Office to pay another body to produce the guidance.

The NAO said that the commission's spending practices had begun to improve, but warned that a number of the weaknesses highlighted in the report were "deep seated and longstanding", and said it was "likely that these problems may have continued beyong 2008-09", the year that the accounts cover.

Neil Kinghan, director-general of the EHRC, said that since 2009 a new finance director had been appointed, and stronger accountability mechanisms had been put in place. "I regret that the commission made mistakes in its first 18 months, and accept the NAO's decision to qualify our accounts as a result," he said.

A letter sent by the home secretary last week to the commissions chair, Trevor Phillips , following a private meeting to discuss the body's accounts, appears to confirm that the EHRC will survive the quango cull, but indicates that the organisation will be reformed and streamlined.

In the light of the structural changes expected to be announced in late autumn, May asked Phillips to halt interviews for a new chief executive, a post which has remained unfilled for the past year.

"We agreed that the commission is about to enter a period of significant change from which it is likely to emerge smaller and more tightly focussed," May wrote in the letter, seen by the Guardian. "The recruitment process should be halted, and a new process launched once we have a clearer idea about what the reformed organisation will look like."

The EHRC's budget has already been cut by £7m, to £53m, but officials expect further, deeper cuts. Staff numbers will be cut from 525 to a maximum of 400, and will probably go lower than that, a source said.

The body is undergoing an internal review, aimed at establishing which of the different strands of equality (race, gender, age, sexual orientation, belief, disability, transgender status) should be prioritised, and has commissioned research to assess which of those issues are most pressing, and where least progress is being made. Its conclusions will influence the commission's
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Trip along the Congo River reveals artistic treasures from central Africa

Paris exhibition traces link between works of Bantu speakers spread along the banks of African waterway


A Kota reliquary figure from the Congo River, arts of central Africa exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly. Photograph: Vincent Everarts/EPA
On finally reaching the entrance to the Congo River exhibition, on the upper ground floor, we caught sight of masks that, even from a distance, looked amazing, and equally attractive statues. But we resisted the temptation and headed for a map, in the hope of grasping the ideas underpinning the show, which aims to be much more than just a selection of works from the Congo River basin.

Two arrows on the map show how the Bantu languages spread out from their place of origin in Nigeria from about 3,000BC. One arrow follows the Atlantic coast south, as far as the mouth of the Congo river, arriving there about 2,000 years later. This branch corresponds to the western Bantus. The other arrow heads east towards the great lakes, also reached in about 1,000BC, bending southwards then turning west to follow the Congo and its tributaries. The two branches rejoined in the area now covered by Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The two branches thus circumscribe a vast area, consisting of the river basin and a swath of equatorial forest. To plot the routes, linguists studied successive offshoots of the original Bantu language, identifying the links between the dialects that evolved through time and migration.

This preamble is necessary because François Neyt, who curated the exhibition (until 3 October), makes ample use of the data. He seeks out visible forms of continuity in the statues and masks, and in the religious concepts they reflect. Much as the language, there is unity in the art despite the distances. The subtitle of the exhibition is essential: Correspondence and Mutation of Form.

The show is divided into three parts. It looks first at a specific style of heart-shaped face thought to be common to several peoples – the Kwele, Vuvi and Lega – who also worked with wood or ivory, regardless of whether they were living on the shores of a river or in the depths of the forest.

The second section focuses on the reliquaries associated with specific ancestors fashioned by the Mbede or Fang peoples. Some are made of polished black wood, others are covered with pieces of brass. In some cases, the form is extremely simple, while others accumulate so many votive studs and adornments as to suggest some fantastic anatomy. What is essential in all of them is their magical force: they must contain a power or a spell.

The third part concentrates on the representation of women, the exaltation of their beauty and motherhood among the Punu, Luluwa and Kongo peoples. Here again, the centres of population are often far apart. This section is less convincing, as Neyt has stretched his point here.

The works themselves are splendid though, inventive and beautifully executed, leaving an overall impression of perfection. But different peoples place more emphasis on certain aspects than others. Fang designs are particularly simple, whereas the Songye figures are magnificently overdone.

When the presentation brings together several examples of a single type of object or figure (standing male figures with a closely trimmed beard from the Boyo-Bembe area, or the Kota's geometrical reliquaries) it is fascinating to see the persistence of a prototype and the variations from one workshop to the next. It is equally delightful to see how styles meet and combine, or how the statues and masks of a particular ethnic group are related, but without slavishly applying the same solutions in their representation of faces.

The exhibition feels inexhaustible. This is particularly the case for French-speaking visitors. Belgium having colonised and exploited the Congo, many of the finest pieces created in this region have found their way to collections there. They are represented here in large numbers, to demonstrate the ideas underpinning the show but also to show off the magnificence of what was once known as art nègre

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