Apologies, blog updates have been rather lax last term, here are all the brilliant articles from all the fantastic shows we aired....

24th February

RAG week 2010 started on Saturday, with Newcastle students dressed in assorted fancy dress and fluorescent clothes braving the cold and damp in the name of charity once again. This year’s campaign has chosen five charities to support: Tyneside Cyrenians, whose aim is to help re-integrate all socially excluded people, Whizz-Kidz, a disabled children’s charity, Terrence Higgins Trust, a HIV and sexual health charity providing testing, counseling and support, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and SCAN, Student Community Action Newcastle, based in the union and providing a wide variety of volunteering opportunities for students.

NSR spoke to RAG officer Holly Hardaker who explained why they chose these charities.

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Holly also rounded up some of the RAG events left before the final Silent-Disc-glo at Tiger Tiger on Thursday, including tonight’s slave auction.

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And also Holly talked about why student participation in charitable events was so important as well as the heart all the volunteers have put in.

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Coinciding with RAG week this year is the national fair-trade fortnight campaign, which aims to raise awareness of fair-trade products and in particular to get people to switch from regular to fair trade. Here’s one of the union’s ethics and environment officers Tom Delamere to explain more about Fair Trade Fortnight and how the Newcastle University Union is getting involved.

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With fair-trade events going on up and down the country, the Fair-Trade foundation is also encouraging people to register what they’ve swapped online to prove the UK’s public demand for widespread fair-trade products.

by Alex Bishop

11 European passports, including 6 British passports, were used last month to enter Dubai in order to assassinate Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas official on the 19th January. The Dubai police chief feels "99% if not 100% certain" of Mossad's involvement, and called on Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli chief, Meir Daga.

Due to the seriousness of this event, Britain, Ireland and France are demanding explanations, however Israel are refusing to cooperate. Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to London, told the Guardian he was "unable to add information on the matter". The Serious Organised crime agency have arrived in the United Arab Emirates to investigate the misuse of British passports, whilst MI6 is collecting further evidence on Israel’s involvement.

Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel, responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations including paramilitary activities. Over the past 40 years they have also been responsible for numerous assassinations in Europe and across the Middle East often posing as foreigners. In 2004 the authorities in New Zealand disclosed that Mossad was securing their country’s passports through the Israeli Embassy in Australia. During a trial in Auckland, allegations also surfaced that Mossad was using Canadian passports. Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli Prime Minister, alluded to a report in The Times on Saturday that Mossad was waging a covert war of assassinations across the Middle East, targeting Hamas and Iranian officials.

According to the Police in the Gulf state, of the 11 suspects, 6 were travelling with British passports and 3 with Irish passports. A French and German passport were also used. It was also been found that American registered credit cards were used in order to buy the plane tickets. Officials have stated that none of the passports were reported stolen as sophisticated clones containing only the passport numbers were used with different photos and signatures. Dubai’s chief of police, Lieutenant-General Dhafi Khalfan, told the Times that “We have no doubts that it was 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel documents of friendly countries.”

One former Mossad agent confirmed to the Times that the organisation regularly used foreign passports for travel abroad on secret missions as an Israeli passport always raises a red flag.

British officials are of yet to speculate on what measures Britain might take against Israel if the government remained uncooperative. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, told the Guardian "Israel is a strategic partner and a close friend to the UK. We are determined to protect and develop these ties". Sir Richard Dalton, Britain's ambassador to Iran from 2003-2006 however worries that "all this just says how pathetic and ludicrous the claim is that Israel is Britain's strategic partner".

by Katie Sibson

A series of recent attacks on Internet search engine Google have allegedly been traced back to two Chinese schools, though the parties implicated have denied all knowledge of the strikes.

News reports have suggested that intelligence services have traced the attacks, known as Operation Aurora, to Shanghai Jaio Tong University and Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong province.

Both schools are well renowned for their prominence in developing computer skills.
A flaw found within Internet Explorer was used to orchestrate the attacks, which aimed to reveal personal details of Chinese rebels and to steal parts of Google’s software.

Whilst Chinese authorities have failed to comment on the reports, a female member of staff from Lanxiang has spoken out; denying the reports and expressing her concern that this may worsen US-China relations, since reports seemed to suggest that pupils were being taught to hack American targets.

This string of attacks harkens back to a spate of similar strikes in 2007, attributed to a group of Chinese hackers called Titan Rain. The activities of the group were linked to raids on Western governments, including the Foreign Office, Houses of Parliament., and US Defence Department.

These recent events are the latest chapter in a long-running feud between Google and China, and may serve only to put a further strain on relations between the two parties. In response to the attacks, Google has threatened to cease the censorship of search results in China, a measure that is supported by the US government. Due to censorship measures put in place by the Chinese government, a cease of censoring would most probably see Google completely expelled from China.

by James Willows-Chamberlin

A man crashed a plane into an IRS building containing 190 staff in Austin, Texas, last Thursday in an apparent protest at ‘draconian’ US tax laws, accountants and the Inland Revenue Service. At 9:56 local time, Joseph Stack intentionally piloted his light aircraft into the Echelon office block, killing himself along with one other man, and injuring thirteen.

The house owned by Stack in Austin was reportedly set ablaze on the same morning, and eyewitness reports claim that his wife and daughter were seen escaping their burning home. Mrs Stacks has since offered her ‘sincerest sympathy’ to the victims of her husband’s attack, in a statement read out by the family’s spokesperson.

Mr Stacks also posted a rambling six-page suicide note onto the internet before going through with his attack, which criticised many aspects of his country’s government, and its tax legislation in particular.

‘Here we have a system,’ he wrote, ‘that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand.’

Stacks also condemned politicians and the Catholic Church, saying with regard to the former group that ‘there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind’, and branding the latter ‘vulgar’ and ‘corrupt’.

He concluded his manifesto with a call for a violent revolt, writing:

‘Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. I saw it written that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.’

by Marcus Bryan

Are children growing up too fast? Conservative leader, David Cameron, has voiced his concern for the inappropriate sexualisation of children, saying that children in our society are “missing out on their childhood”.

It seems that the boundaries between childhood and adulthood have become blurred. Supermarkets sell padded bras and lacy lingerie in children’s sizes. Girls as young as three are wearing make up, carrying a handbag and wearing high heels. In our shops and on the internet, fashion is readily available to children, making it easy for them to purchase the sexual image which is presented in the media.

In 2006, a third of young girls said that they saw Jordan as a role model; their influence is a topless model, who moves from one relationship to another, swearing overtly and wearing revealing clothes. Children are experiencing a society where sexualisation is prevalent.

Celebrity role models are surely to blame. Girl groups, such as The Pussycat Dolls, target their music towards young children whilst presenting an image which is damaging to them. David Cameron has admitted banning his six year old daughter from listening to Lily Allen. Cameron has deemed her music unsuitable for children due to its bad language, tales of clubbing and sexual relationships.

The influence of the media has a huge impact on young children. David Cameron recognises that parents cannot shield their children completely from the modern world but he told the BBC that “we can stop inappropriate things from being put in front of them from an early age.”

Magazines present a glamorised sexual image of girls. Glamour Magazine, for example, is read by young teenagers but has pages dedicated to sex and relationships, topics which are unsuitable for thirteen year olds. Magazines, unlike films, do not have age restrictions and therefore young people cannot be stopped from buying a magazine which is explicitly sexual.

When an eight year old wants to dress like a member of The Pussycat Dolls, it is clear that child sexualisation is a problem in society. Music videos usually show half naked girls dancing promiscuously; this gives children the impression that there is no other way to behave. From a young age, girls are led to believe through the media that women have one role; they are only supposed to be sexy, skinny and confident in their appearance.

However, some would argue that this new sexual confidence amongst girls is actually positive. Girls are no longer timid and underpowered through sex. The fact that women have the same sexual needs as men is recognised. Is there something admirable in this form of feminism? The fact that girls are able to dress lustfully without being considered particularly immoral or shocking is perhaps a declaration of liberation. If children see glamour model, Jordan, as a role model, they must admire the way she portrays the female body as unapologetically sexy. Is Jordan celebrating girls’ new sexual freedom or presenting a sexualised image which degrades women?

Phil Hilton, the launch editor of Nuts Magazine, supports the idea that women are liberated through sexualisation. He told The Sunday Times “This raucous, fun-loving working-class culture, this take-me-or-leave-me attitude, it’s really taken off. It’s the women who are driving this. Once glamour modelling might have been about some fat sinister guy with a cigar tricking young girls into taking their clothes off, but now women are queuing up to do it – they’re as drunk and lairy as the guys.”

Despite Hilton’s claim that women are acting on their new sexual freedom, the real danger is that it is impossible for young children to avoid this sexualised image. It may be important for young women to realise that they have a new sexual freedom but surely it is inappropriate to present this persona to children at a young age.

Cameron proposes a number of ideas to prevent the sexualisation of young children. Firstly, he promises to set up an online complaints procedure in the form of a website. Furthermore, Cameron wants to punish companies who try to use offensive marketing tactics by preventing them from bidding for government contracts for three years. Cameron declares that there will be “no more profits by damaging childhood.” He also told The Belfast Telegraph “I think children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood without being forced in to early adulthood before their time.”

In my opinion, the heart of the problem is that children are not offered an alternative image. The only role models presented to young girls in the media are glamour models and popstars, focusing on a sexualised image rather than intelligence and academic achievement. If children cannot escape this image then they cannot be expected to aspire to anything else. Cameron believes that parents have a responsibility to enforce better values onto their children but can parents really compete with a society where the media is a force to be reckoned with?

by Bethany Sissons