From the June 29 globeandmail.com story:

A police attempt to seize true-crime author Derek Finkle's files foundered yesterday when an Ontario judge blasted investigators for casting too wide a net.

"Fishing season is over; the subpoenas are quashed," said Mr. Justice David Watt of the Superior Court of Ontario.

Judge Watt said police and prosecutors in the Robert Baltovich murder case - which will be retried commencing in September - failed to furnish nearly enough specific information to support their request for two separate subpoenas.

He said authorities were also wrong to believe they could sit back and obtain "a breathtaking sweep" of material from Mr. Finkle, and then sift through it for anything that struck them as useful.

It is not enough to believe that there is "a mere possibility" that a seizure might produce relevant evidence, Judge Watt said. Instead, he said, police must show that they are "likely" to turn up material evidence.

The ruling ended a tumultuous year for Mr. Finkle, whose book, No Claim to Mercy, raised questions about Mr. Baltovich's conviction for the 1990 murder of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain.

From the BBC:

A car on fire has been driven at the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport, police have confirmed.

Eyewitnesses have described a Jeep Cherokee being driven at speed towards the building with flames coming out from underneath.

They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car.

Strathclyde Police said two people had been arrested and detained in connection with the incident.

The airport has been evacuated and all flights suspended following the incident at 1515 BST.

A Whitehall spokesman said the incident was not being treated as a national security threat however the prime minister is being kept informed of developments and is expected to chair a meeting of COBRA - the emergency committee later.

They might be saying it's not a national security threat, but it follows after Friday's car bomb threats in London. :(

Update

Actually, the government reconsidered. From the BBC:

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the national terrorism threat level had been raised to its highest level of "critical", meaning an attack was expected "imminently".

Ryerson University j-prof John Miller has some critical words for how the news media covered the 1995 Ipperwash dispute -- and how they can do better in the future.

That is the grim headline on the Guardian's website, regarding the news that two car bombs were found in West London early Friday. They are described as Iraqi-style car bombs.

From the NYT:

The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was warned this month that Islamic militants and Taliban fighters were rapidly spreading beyond the country’s lawless tribal areas and that without “swift and decisive action,” the growing militancy could engulf the rest of the country.

The warning came in a document from the Interior Ministry, which said Pakistan’s security forces in North-West Frontier Province abutting the tribal areas were outgunned and outnumbered and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies.

“The ongoing spell of active Taliban resistance has brought about serious repercussions for Pakistan,” says the 15-page document, which was shown to The New York Times. “There is a general policy of appeasement towards the Taliban, which has further emboldened them.”

The document was discussed by this country’s National Security Council on June 4 while General Musharraf was present, the document notes. It appears to be the first such document to emerge from the Pakistani government formally recognizing the seriousness of the spreading threat here from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a Western diplomat.

From the Manohla Dargis review in the NYT:

The use of Parkour during several fight scenes is particularly tasty, proving that when cinematic push comes to shove, the French, who originated this ultra-cool rough-and-tumble, which finds performers bouncing like balls from wall to wall, rooftop to rooftop and many hair-raising points in between, are definitely in the coalition of the willing.

More evidence -- at least to my mind -- that the parkour showcase film Banlieue 13 is probably the most influential action movie of the decade.

With LFDH and Casino Royale borrowing from it, I wonder if the Bourne Ultimatum will be next.

If you go to see Live Free or Die Hard, keep an eye out for Cyril Raffaelli (Rand), one of the bad guys. He's the one of the stars of Banlieue 13 and did a memorable small turn in Kiss of the Dragon during a fight with Jet Li. You can see some videos of him in action here.

Escape from Suburbia, the follow-up film to The End of Suburbia, premiered tonight at the Bloor Theatre. Click through to see my deep thoughts, but I can tell you right now I had some problems with the film.

From a Newspaper Guild news release: (h/t to Romenesko)

Wall Street Journal reporters across the country chose not to show up to work this morning.

We did so for two reasons.

First, The Wall Street Journal's long tradition of independence, which has been the hallmark of our news coverage for decades, is threatened today. We, along with hundreds of other Dow Jones employees represented by the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, want to demonstrate our conviction that the Journal’s editorial integrity depends on an owner committed to journalistic independence.

Second, by our absence from newsrooms around the country, we are reminding Dow Jones management that the quality of its publications depends on a top-quality professional staff. Dow Jones currently is in contract negotiations with its primary union, seeking severe cutbacks in our health benefits and limits on our pay. It is beyond debate that the professionals who create The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications every day deserve a fair contract that rewards their achievements. At a time when Dow Jones is finding the resources to award golden parachutes to 135 top executives, it should not be seeking to eviscerate employees’ health benefits and impose salary adjustments that amount to a pay cut.

We put the reputation of The Wall Street Journal and the needs of its readers first. That's why we will be back at our desks this afternoon, producing the day's news reports. But we hope this demonstration will remind those entrusted with the future of Dow Jones that our publications' integrity must be protected, and sustained, from top to bottom.

From The Tyee:

For many Canadians this news may fall into the same category as the denominational preference of the Pope and the excretory habits of bears, but we still thought you'd like to know:

A new study suggests that unionized journalists in Canada believe that their bosses put profits before good journalism.

The survey, conducted for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, indicates that Canadian reporters, editors and camera operators are deeply cynical about media owners' commitment to journalism.

The 3,000 journalists who responded to the survey tend to believe that:

• Owners' "values and politics" and "financial bottom lines" affect the editorial agendas of the country's publications and broadcast stations
• Advertisers also influence editorial decisions
• Things have been getting worse over the last decade.

Globeandmail.com posted a CP story about how the CBC/Facebook wish list project got hijacked by special interest groups (something the blogosphere has noted for some time). Can you say "entirely predictable"?

From the BBC:

Iran's top security body has ordered local journalists not to report on problems caused by petrol rationing, a day after its surprise introduction.

Angry motorists have reacted violently to the curbs, attacking up to 19 petrol stations in the capital, Tehran.

There are still long queues outside filling stations.

The authorities switched off the mobile text messaging system in Tehran overnight to prevent motorists from organising more protests.

From the AP story on CTV.ca:

Paris Hilton gets out of jail Tuesday and she won't be on the cover of US Weekly on Friday?

How, short of the Apocalypse, is this possible? "When it came down to it, the staff and I felt what I believe a lot of people in America are feeling. Which is just enormous Paris fatigue," US Weekly editor Janice Min said Tuesday.

As a result, Hilton not only won't be on the cover, there won't even be a mention of her in the magazine.

"I don't think," Min joked, "we even mention the city of Paris."

As a reality check, it's worth noting that People magazine won the rights to the first post-jail magazine interview with the celebutante.

This YouTube clip shows MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski rebelling against the Hilton story.

I like this June 8 Jay Leno clip of MSNBC interrupting its wall-to-wall coverage of Paris Hilton to let its audience know that Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had been dumped.

This Tyee article looks at the CanWest experiment to offer instant translation of its e-paper products into 12 different languages. While that's not a bad idea, critics say the service's translated pages are unintelligible nonsense (make your own joke here).

Long haul fight to defeat the Taleban

THE MOST WANTED TALEBAN Mullah Mohammed Omar: The spiritual leader of the Taleban - a reclusive man currently thought to be in Pakistan. Mullah Berader: The commander who has probably taken over from captured former Taleban Defence Minister Mullah Obaidullah. Akhtar Mohammad Mansour: A Taleban commander responsible for military operations in Kandahar, but based in Quetta. Abdul Rahim: The Taleban's "shadow governor" in Helmand and a key figure in the insurgency. Qari Faiz Mohammad: Chairman of the Taleban military council and a major financier with close links to Mullah Omar. Mullah Mahmood Baluch: Active in Helmand and with links to smugglers, he may have been killed recently. Naim Bareech: a man known to have links with Taleban command structures. Dadullah Mansour: Mullah Dadullah's brother who is believed to be running southern military operations.

Corro Alistair Leithead makes the point that while taking out Taliban leaders is a good thing, it's not enough to defeat the insurgency:

There are few incentives to give up the insurgency and his (Mullah Salam Zaeef, the former Taleban ambassador to Pakistan ) definition of what the Taleban are makes for concerning reading for Western forces.

"The Taleban is not one, they are not two, they are not hundred, they are not thousand, they are not tens of thousands, the Taleban have millions in this country," said Mullah Zaeef.

"The foreigners want to kill them all or to vanish them, but we do not want Taleban to be killed, we are feeling sadness because they are our brothers, and this is not acceptable to us."

So much for reconciliation. This is an insurgency with a life of its own now. While targeting commanders helps, persuading the people to drive the more extremist Taleban leaders out is the only way this insurgency can be beaten.

The Taleban appear to be copying tactics from Iraq - becoming more deadly.

In the propaganda film masked men prepare a homemade bomb the size of a football. It is crude, but lethal - powerful enough to blow apart an armoured vehicle.

Instead of confronting America's firepower head on, the Taleban are attacking more exposed targets, like unarmoured vehicles belonging to the Afghan army, police stations, government buildings.

From the BBC:

Alan Johnston has been held since 12 March

The kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston have renewed their threat to kill him if their demands for Muslim prisoners to be freed are not met.

The message comes a day after a video was released in which Mr Johnston wore what he said was an explosives belt.

In the tape, the reporter said his captors had promised to detonate it if force was used to try to free him.

Mr Johnston was abducted in Gaza on 12 March by the previously unknown radical Islamist group, The Army of Islam.

"The demands are very clear," Tuesday's statement from the militants said - listing the names of prisoners it wants released.

They include Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-born Islamic cleric who is suspected of having close links with al-Qaeda and is held by the UK government as a threat to national security.

"There is no discussion or bargaining in this issue," the statement said.

From toronto.ctv.ca:

Consumers in the Toronto area are being asked to reduce their energy use as the city bakes under a heat wave.

The Independent Electricity System Operator is asking residents to conserve energy during peak times over the next two days to prevent brown outs.

CTV's Tom Brown reported the mercury is expected to rise into the mid-30s with humidex readings reaching mid-40s today; the hottest day of the year.

Despite the high temperatures, despite the incredibly heavy load on the electricity system (coal is the go-to source for surge power in Ontario), despite the smog, keep your eyes open today and see how many visible signs of energy and cooling wastage you can see this afternoon.

My guess? You'll be able to find lots and lots.

There is a serious disconnect in people between concern over climate change and actual action.

From the BBC:

Five journalists and a teacher have been found guilty of insulting Mali's president over a school essay.

All were given suspended jail terms at a closed door trial in the capital.

Teacher Bassirou Kassim Minta asked his final-year secondary school class to write a humorous essay about the mistress of a fictional African leader.

He was arrested, along with a journalist who wrote about the task. The arrests have been condemned by press freedom organisations.

I have no personal insights, but here's a snippet of a June 21 Ouimet posting:

Last night at the Drake Antonia Zerbisias explained to a packed room why she won't be writing a column on media criticism any more. It was all off the record but from what I understand it was a cracking good monologue and she also talked about media concentration and the big boys telling you what to think and do.

And so, today she starts her Living column and that's it for media criticism in Canadian newspapers.

Incidentally, the headline on Zerbisias's last media column was Diversity in TV ownershp protected, at least for now.

Addendum

I found this from a March 14, 2007 Tyee article, talking about why Zerbisias's blog was put on hiatus:

Lesson one: she's not the one who pulled the plug on her blog for the Star, which ground to a mysterious halt last Christmas. No, she's simply "on hiatus" -- although she took a 10-week leave of absence because of family issues.

It's the new administrative arrangement that is to blame.

"The current management doesn't see the economic value in it," she explains, noting the paper's bigwigs want to focus on the printed newspaper over the electronic one -- a bizarro business strategy given Zerbisias is read by practically everyone who cares to stay informed about media issues in Canada. So, among other things, she's keeping herself to a print column these days.

"It's been awkward," she says. "It's kind of ludicrous that the media columnist for the biggest newspaper in Canada -- in 2007 -- doesn't have a significant online presence."

Lesson two: Zerbisias has suffered bouts of blogger fatigue. Not because posting multiple times a day is gruelling, but because many of the denizens of the digital universe can be, well, a big pain in the ass sometimes. Especially in the comment threads.

"A lot of things got hijacked," she says of her now-defunct blog. "It seemed like 10 comments in, we always ended up on Israel. It was ridiculous."

Refusing to pull punches, Zerbisias was met with a torrent of ruthless abuse from determined attackers, the kind of stuff that went far beyond anything she'd experienced in her career as a print journalist.

"I felt like I was being targeted by certain people who just live, you know, to come and troll on certain pet peeves and certain pet topics."

Like many, Zerbisias couldn't refrain from replying to the crudest and most ignorant commenters. She spent hours answering all her hate mail, where she put clever ploys into action to try and irritate her attackers (like telling them the Star was paying her a nickel per response, which was of course a lie).

"I would just mock them, you know, 'Thank-you very much for your trenchant comments.... You know, whatever.'"

Tony Long, copy chief for Wired News, defends the thesis of Web 2.0 critic Andrew Keen; namely, the Internet is a refuge for "mediocrity and dilettantism." (thanks, Kevin!)

From the BBC:

Fans of MySpace and Facebook are divided by much more than which music they like, suggests a study.

A six-month research project has revealed a sharp division along class lines among the American teenagers flocking to the social network sites.

Sometimes justice does prevail! From the Washington Post:

The D.C. administrative law judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaner for $54 million over a pair of lost pants found out today what he's going to get for all his troubles:

Nothing.

In a verdict that surprised no one, except perhaps the plaintiff himself, a D.C. Superior Court judge denied Roy Pearson the big payday he claimed was his due.

Delivering her decision in writing, Judge Judith Bartnoff in 23 pages dissected and dismissed Pearson's claim that he was defrauded by the owners of Custom Cleaners and their "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign.

It was a pointed rebuke of Pearson's claim, and it may not be the end of his troubles.

Financially, Pearson could soon be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees incurred by the owners of Customer Cleaners, and professionally, Pearson could find himself out of his $96,000-a-year job as an administrative law judge for the District government.

But for the moment all he's out of is the tens of millions of dollars that he demanded when he filed suit in 2005 against Soo Chung and her husband, the owners of Custom Cleaners.

The Guardian's Glastonbury 2007 home page.

BBC Online - Glastonbury 2007 (includes video of sets)

BBC News - Festival season 2007

The Independent - Sure it's a bit corporate at Glastonbury. So what? (commentary, Mark Ellen, editor, The Word magazine)

From the BBC:

Nato has said it needs to do better in its operations in Afghanistan, after coming under criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai accused Nato and US-led troops of failing to co-ordinate with their Afghan allies, thereby causing civilian deaths.

A Nato spokesman said Mr Karzai had a right to be "disappointed and angry" over the scale of civilian casualties.

It came after a week in which up to 90 Afghan civilians were killed.

More civilians have been killed this year as a result of foreign military action than have been killed by insurgents, correspondents say.

From a Saturday Globe and Mail story on the drought hitting the southern and southwestern United States:

Worst of all for some, the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn., has warned it may have to reduce or suspend production, because the iron-free spring waters on which it relies are flowing as much as two-thirds below normal.

Here is what a Chattanooga, Tenn. TV station reported on June 15:

We visited the distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee to ask the Master Distiller, Jimmy Bedford what exactly was going on. He says that the rumors of stopping production are totally unfounded. The cave spring still has PLENTY of water to make the distinct flavor of Jack Daniels whiskey.

The Jack Daniels distillery is located in southern Tennessee, in rolling hill country that was beautifully lush and green when I visited there in 1992 (I always thought it would be an awesome area for a bicycle or motorcycle vacation -- winding roads and gorgeous scenery. Even the apparent sighting of a goat in somebody's living room off one backroad had its charms).

I went on a tour of this icon (stopped in at the Jim Beam distillery in Kentucky too), and I would highly recommend it to anyone passing through the area. The tour guides were hilarious in a southern, deadpan way.

The guy took us to the fabled springs. "We tried to find the source of it," he said, then listed the many techniques they used, including the use of dyes. All attempts failed. "Then we thought, 'What does it matter, so long as it keeps comin'?'" he said to chuckles all around.

Well, what if it doesn't keep coming at some point? That wasn't an issue 15 years ago. The big question is, will it be one 15 years from now?

PS

While I like their whiskey, the obnoxious links policy on the Jack Daniels website has me feeling snarly with respects to the corporate entity behind it.

The JD website doesn't address the water supply issue. Just lots of soothing, brand-enhancing bromides.

From the NYT:

While the networks tussled over which would land the first interview with Paris Hilton after her release from jail, the upstart Web site TMZ.com was breaking most of the news.

On June 3, TMZ.com was the only media outlet to capture on video Ms. Hilton’s surrender at the Los Angeles central jail for men, while other outlets waited outside the Lynwood women’s jail for her to arrive there. When Ms. Hilton was released early by the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca, and when Judge Michael T. Sauer ordered the sheriff to take her back to court, TMZ.com was first to report that Sheriff Baca had initially refused to follow the judge’s order.

TMZ.com has so dominated the coverage on Ms. Hilton that Larry King, who is scheduled to interview her on CNN Wednesday night, will turn over tonight’s one-hour show to TMZ.com’s anchor and managing editor, Harvey Levin, the man who may represent the future of celebrity journalism.

And as a result, some French journalists are feeling the chill breeze of self-censorship blow across the backs of their necks.

From the BBC:

The kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston have released a new video of him in which he is wearing what he says is an explosives vest.

In the tape, Mr Johnston says his captors have said they will detonate the vest if force is used to try to free him.

It is the second such video released since Mr Johnston was abducted in Gaza on 12 March. ...

In the tape, posted on a website used by militants, Mr Johnston is seen wearing a device around his torso and attached to shoulder straps.

"The situation now is very serious. As you can see I have been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there was any attempt to storm this area," he says.

Mr Johnston appeals for a peaceful resolution to his situation, saying talks had reached an advanced stage.

"Captors tell me that very promising negotiations were ruined when the Hamas movement and the British government decided to press for a military solution to this kidnapping."

Earlier, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Mr Johnston's captivity could not carry on.

WASHINGTON, DC—In a nationally televised address reminiscent of President Kennedy's historic 1961 speech pledging to put a man on the moon, President Bush responded to the global warming crisis Monday by calling for the construction of a giant national air conditioner by the year 2015.

Concept art shows how the 800-mile-wide device would function on a "high cool" setting.

"Climate change is real and it demands a real solution," Bush said. "Therefore, I am committed to dedicating all of the technology, all of the brainpower, and all of the resources we need in order to keep America cool and comfortable well into the 21st century." 

The National Air Conditioner Initiative is expected to be the largest public works project in the nation's history. Because technology capable of creating an air conditioner that can fulfill the cooling needs of a continental land mass does not presently exist, the president estimated that research and development alone will require at least $100 trillion in both federal and private sector funds.

"The challenge of building an air conditioner for all Americans will be the greatest we have ever faced," Bush said. "But we must face it. We must act now to ensure that our children and our children's children can live in a world where they don't get sweaty and have to change their shirts all the time."

From The Onion

Actually, there are some outside-the-box ideas for cooling the Earth.

From the Chicago Sun-Times: (h/t to Romenesko)

A liar is a liar -- and Black didn't know?

Yeah, Radler's a liar -- a sneak and a rat, too -- just ask my colleagues

June 20, 2007

BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist

Conrad Black's lawyers say David Radler is a liar. If they said it once Tuesday, they said it a hundred times. I couldn't keep count.

Sometimes they would just interrupt whatever else they were talking about to say it again.

"He's a liar. He's a liar. He's a liar," repeated Edward Genson, the venerable Chicago defense attorney who doubled up with Black's powerhouse Canadian counsel Edward Greenspan to deliver the closing argument Tuesday at Black's fraud trial -- just in case the jury got tired of hearing only one person calling Radler a liar.

Yes, he's a liar all right. Even the prosecutors have admitted Radler is a liar, while granting him a plea deal to provide testimony against Black and three co-defendants for allegedly ripping off Hollinger International, the Sun-Times' former parent company.

Besides being a liar, Radler is also a sneak and a rat, and if I were to survey the people on the 9th and 10th floors at 350 N. Orleans -- the home of the Sun-Times since Black and Radler sold our old building on Wabash to Donald Trump -- I'm sure I could elicit enough pejoratives to fill the rest of this column.

It hardly comes as news to the people in this company that someone would think that Radler, our former CEO and publisher, is a liar.

Which begs the question: how is it that this comes as news to Conrad Black?

Ouimet, the anonymous CBC insider, had these thoughts on the looming departure of CBC editorial honcho Tony Burman:

Tony is going and many people found his style somewhat irritating, but he was in many ways, from what I heard in several meetings, at least in the first year after the end of the lockout, the defensive line against Richard Stursberg, one man, not the front four in football.

Note: Ouimet must not work in sports. The offensive line protects against the other side's defensive line, who are on the attack. There are five people on an offensive line and between three and four on the defensive line. Anyway, Ouimet could have chosen a better metaphor. Onward we go ...

I don't know exactly what happened in the fall of 2006, but it appears that something changed across the top levels of CBC at that time, not only with Burman, but with Sue Gardner and other managers who have left or are about to leave (there are more coming) but that is when a lot of senior people decided "it's not fun any more." ...

How often have we heard "time for change" in the past few months as manager after manager who are not on Stursberg's "team" has left? I know other managers and the boomers across the Corpse are counting the days until early retirement. With the current turmoil among the private broadcasters, all the rest can do is knuckle their foreheads to Mr. Scrooge/Stursberg--at least for now.

Actually, the private sector (where I work) looks like an oasis of tranquility compared to the upper reaches of the Corpse these days.

The usual statistic has been that China is building a coal-fired power plant every week to 10 days to meet surging demand. New findings indicate that China is tossing up two per week, and has probably already passed the United States as the world's biggest total GHG emitter.

From the BBC:

Thousands of BBC staff around the world will observe a vigil on Wednesday marking 100 days since the kidnapping of Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston.

Colleagues at the Glastonbury festival, on drama sets and in newsrooms in the UK and beyond will pause at 1315 GMT.

Mr Johnston's parents will release 100 balloons marking the days passed since a group calling itself The Army of Islam abducted the reporter.

On Monday a deadline for his release, set by Hamas, passed without progress.

Johnston was the only Western reporter permanently based in Gaza, and his abduction has triggered appeals for his release from lawmakers and rights groups around the world.

Several foreigners have been seized in Gaza in recent years and all have been released unharmed, but none has been held as long as the BBC reporter.

Here's Johnston on the art of journalism.

From CBC.ca:

Tony Burman, editor in chief of CBC's English-language news, current affairs and Newsworld divisions, announced Tuesday that he is leaving after nearly 35 years with the public broadcaster.

In a note to staff, Burman announced that he will be leaving July 13.

"As CBC's editor in chief, I have done this job longer than I had planned, longer than anyone else at the CBC in decades and as long as any single individual should. It's time for a change … and I really look forward to directing my energy, my enthusiasm and my ideas to new projects," Burman said in his note.

The story was written rather weirdly. After reading it, I couldn't definitively tell if Burman, 59 years old and a CBC lifer, was leaving his current position or the Corpse altogether (which is what I surmised) or if these "new projects" to which he wants to direct his energy, enthusiasm and ideas would be executed within the public broadcaster.

A post on Inside The CBC indicated he was leaving the CBC. This excerpt from Burman's note was included:

Since so much of my life has been connected with the CBC, I obviously have mixed emotions about this, but mostly I have feelings of elation. And - can I say it? - liberation.

For other recent, executive-level departures, see this post.

Update

InsideTheCBC has an exit interview with Burman.

Ouimet has the entire memo.

Some snippets from the CP story:

(Burman) added the position he's vacating is an exhausting one.

"The reality of this job is that it's 24/7 and it has its toll. I really want to regroup and re-energize and focus on something other than: 'What do I do if the plane hits the tower?' " ...

Last year, Burman oversaw CBC News's introduction of a new look and attitude on all its platforms in response to demands that the public broadcaster try to be hipper and cooler. A survey of Canadians found that parts of the CBC News operation didn't appeal to young people.

Ian Morrison of the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said Burman's departure could be cause for concern.

"He was a bulwark of independence of the news service," Morrison said Tuesday.

"(His) position as chief journalist is the most senior protector of the independence of the radio and television news service from political interference from the senior management at CBC ... His departure makes the organization more vulnerable to that type of interference."

Last year, Burman oversaw CBC News's introduction of a new look and attitude on all its platforms in response to demands that the public broadcaster try to be hipper and cooler. A survey of Canadians found that parts of the CBC News operation didn't appeal to young people.

Ian Morrison of the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said Burman's departure could be cause for concern.

"He was a bulwark of independence of the news service," Morrison said Tuesday.

"(His) position as chief journalist is the most senior protector of the independence of the radio and television news service from political interference from the senior management at CBC ... His departure makes the organization more vulnerable to that type of interference." ...

Burman was coy about what his next move might be, declining to say whether he would make a leap to a private broadcaster like CTV. But he did say his heart was with public broadcasting.

"I am a public broadcaster of incredible passion," he said.

An internal report offers a 12-point plan for the BBC to counter what is seen as "liberal groupthink" in news and programming decision-making.

From The Independent:

The Earth today stands in imminent peril

 ...and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 19 June 2007

Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.

They also implicitly criticise the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for underestimating the scale of sea-level rises this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets.

Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is in "imminent peril".

In a densely referenced scientific paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, some of the world's leading climate researchers describe in detail why they believe that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the "gravest threat" of climate change.

"Recent greenhouse gas emissions place the Earth perilously close to dramatic climate change that could run out of control, with great dangers for humans and other creatures," the scientists say. Only intense efforts to curb man-made emissions of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases can keep the climate within or near the range of the past one million years, they add.

The researchers were led by James Hansen, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who was the first scientist to warn the US Congress about global warming.

The other scientists were Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha and Gary Russell, also of the Goddard Institute, David Lea of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mark Siddall of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York.

John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs editor, offers some observations and thoughts on whether the West can help secure Afghanistan against the Taliban. He's not optimistic. And if NATO forces ever leave ...

Hamas set a deadline for the captive BBC reporter's release. Will his captors listen?