Criticism comes in wake of France's decision to expel illegal Roma immigrants and destroy hundreds of their encampments The European Union was today accused of "turning a blind eye" as countries across Europe carried out a wave of expulsions and introduced new legislation targeting the Roma. Human rights groups criticised the EU for failing to address the real issues driving Europe's largest ethnic minority to migrate in the first place and for choosing not to upbraid countries for breaking both domestic and EU laws in their treatment of them. The criticism came after France announced it would round up and expel illegal Roma immigrants and destroy hundreds of their encampments. Elsewhere, it emerged that the city of Copenhagen had requested Danish government assistance to deport up to 400 Roma, and that Swedish police had expelled Roma in breach of its own and EU laws. In Belgium a caravan of 700 Roma has been chased out of Flanders and forced to set up camp in French-speaking Wallonia in the south. Italy, which in 2008 declared a state of emergency due to the presence of Roma, and evicted thousands of them, mainly to Romania and Bulgaria, is continuing to implement the policy to this day. Germany is in the process of repatriating thousands of Roma children and adolescents to Kosovo, despite warnings they will face discrimination, appalling living conditions, lack of access to education as well as language problems, because many of them were born in Germany and do not speak Serbian or Albanian. In eastern European countries that are EU members, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, accounts are rife of widespread discrimination against Roma, including physical attacks. Amnesty International said the EU had "turned a blind eye" to what it called a "serious breach of human rights" towards Europe's Roma, who are roughly estimated to number about 16 million. "There is a clear and systemic programme of EU governments targeting Roma," said Anneliese Baldaccini, a lawyer at Amnesty's EU office. The Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), which monitors the situation of Roma in Europe, called on the EU to be "much more forthright" in pointing out to member states "the clear requirements of the free movement law". "Poverty, discrimination and a whole host of things make life unbearable for Roma in their countries of origin," said the ERRC's executive director, Robert Kushen. "We would welcome strong EU involvement to address some of these issues," he said. The campaign groups were responding to the European Commission's insistence this week that the issue was one for individual states to handle. "When it comes to Roma and the possibility of expelling them, this is up to the member states to deal with – in this case France – and for them to decide how they are going to implement the law," said Matthew Newman, spokesman for the European justice commissioner, Viviane Reding. French president Nicholas Sarkozy was this week accused of pursuing a "xenophobic" and "discriminatory" crackdown on the country's 400,000 Travellers, Gypsies and Roma – most of whom have French citizenship. Interior minister Brice Hortefeux announced new measures including the dismantling of about 300 encampments and the "quasi-immediate" expulsion to Romania or Bulgaria of Roma with a criminal record. Amnesty said the EU should penalise countries that have persistently failed to uphold the human rights of Roma. Among the harshest measures applicable under the charter of fundamental rights that came into force with the Lisbon treaty last year is the withdrawal of voting rights, or even expulsion from the union. "The EU under the Lisbon Treaty...has the responsibility to address human rights within the 27 member states," said Amnesty's executive officer for legal affairs in the European Union, Susanna Mehtonen. Campaign groups say the EU's failure to intervene calls into question its commitment to the Charter of Fundamental Rights that came into force with the passage of the Lisbon Treaty last year, and was heralded as a "new dawn" for human rights in Europe. They have accused Brussels of cowardice when it comes to the Roma. While the commission has no competence to defend gay rights, either, it has frequently been ready to criticise homophobic legislation in eastern Europe – largely, it is believed, because gay rights are well established in western European countries, unlike the rights of Roma.

North-west region hardest hit as floodwaters wash away roads and bridges, leaving an estimated 400,000 people stranded The death toll in three days of flooding in Pakistan reached at least 430 today, rescue and government officials said, as rains bloated rivers, submerged villages, and triggered landslides. The rising toll from the monsoon rains underscore the poor infrastructure in Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in remote villages. The weather forecast was mixed, with some areas expected to see reduced rainfall and others likely to see an intensification. Pakistani TV showed images of people clinging to fences and other stationary items as water at times gushed over their heads. The north-west appeared to be the hardest hit, and Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the province, said it was the worst flooding in the region since 1929. The highway connecting Peshawar to the federal capital, Islamabad, was shut down after the water washed away bridges and other links. At least 291 people died in various parts of that province over the last three days, said Mujahid Khan of the Edhi Foundation, a privately run rescue service that operates morgues and ambulances across the South Asian country. In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, at least 22 people were confirmed dead last night, the area's prime minister, Sardar Attique Khan, told reporters. The tolls from the deluge were expected to rise because many people were still missing. Poor weather this week also may have been a factor in Wednesday's Airblue plane crash that killed 152 people in Islamabad. In the Swat Valley, residents were forced to trudge through knee-deep water in some streets. A newly constructed part of a dam in the Charsadda district collapsed, while the UN said it had reports that 5,000 homes were underwater in that area. Hussain estimated 400,000 people were stranded in various north-west villages. "A rescue operation using helicopters cannot be conducted due to the bad weather, while there are only 48 rescue boats available for rescue," he said today. Pakistan's poorest residents are often the ones living in flood-prone areas because they can't afford safer land. South-west Baluchistan province has also been hit hard by the recent rains. Last week, flash floods in that region killed at least 41 people and swept away thousands of homes. A UN statement today said 150,000 people were affected there. The UN said Punjab province in Pakistan's east was also hit by some flooding. Crops were soaked in farmlands throughout the country. The UN said the humanitarian community was trying to put together a proper response, but the rains were making many roads impassable, complicating efforts to assess needs.

• Italian premier puts brave face on defection
• Parliamentary majority ebbs away in new crisis Silvio Berlusconi's third term as Italian prime minister was in crisis today after one of his main allies and 33 MPs deserted him, stripping his party of its parliamentary majority. The move by the supporters of Gianfranco Fini to set up a new group cuts the number of Freedom People party MPs to just above 300, short of the 316 required for a majority, meaning that on some controversial policy issues the prime minister may no longer have his way. Fini, the former post-fascist turned liberal conservative who co-founded the Freedom People party with Berlusconi but who has fallen out with the prime minister, notably over ethics within the party, said his group would only vote with the government if measures proposed upheld the party's electoral promises and "the general interest". Berlusconi and his aides were putting a brave face on the defection tonight, promising to retain in government ministers loyal to Fini, and thereby see out the administration's term through to 2013. But the split was a serious blow to Berlusconi, who has been under siege since revelations last year that he hosted parties attended by a prostitute, and more recently by a wave of corruption scandals. "It's always difficult to say for how long artificial respiration can last, but the government is no more," said Pier Luigi Bersani of the opposition Democratic party. "He can't think it is August and everything will end up with wine and roses." "Berlusconi emerges substantially weakened from this row," said Alessandro Campi, a professor of political science at Perugia university. "The government will have serious problems if it has to negotiate the passing of every law in the coming months." Fini has been in dispute with Berlusconi for months over issues ranging from immigration to the prime minister's attempt to restrict the use of police wiretaps and punish journalists who publish transcripts of them. After Berlusconi issued a statement on Thursday describing Fini's views as "absolutely incompatible with the founding principles" of the party, Fini fought back in a hastily called press conference. "Last night, in two and a half hours, without being able to give my views, I was effectively expelled from the party I helped found," he said. Explaining his rift with Berlusconi, Fini said the party's defence of scandal-hit members of the government "too often meant an expectation of impunity." Fini added that he was fighting for legality "in the fullest sense of the word, that is fighting crime as the government is meritoriously doing, but also public ethics, sense of state and playing by the rules." Fini also railed at Berlusconi's bid to force him to resign his post as speaker in the lower house. Among the supporters of Fini who have joined the new parliamentary group, called Future and Freedom for Italy, are European Affairs minister Andrea Ronchi and deputy Giulia Buongiorno, a lawyer who gained notoriety defending former prime minister Giulio Andreotti against mafia charges and Italian student Raffaele Sollecito against charges of murdering British student Meredith Kercher. As chairwoman of the lower house justice commission, Buongiorno has been instrumental in battling Berlusconi's wiretapping clampdown, which will now be voted on after the summer break. "With the wiretap vote coming up in the autumn, Berlusconi has got a month to find 10 or so deputies," said James Walston, a political analyst at the American University of Rome. "He will be going on a shopping spree with the Union of Christian Democrats in his sights." The small UDC party is led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, a former Berlusconi ally. Alessandro Campi traced the break-up between Fini and Berlusconi to a shouting match the two had at a conference in April, which culminated in Fini demanding "What will you do? Get rid of me?" "Berlusconi probably never forgave Fini for challenging him in public," he said. Berlusconi: The highs and lows March 1994 Berlusconi's Freedom Alliance wins election. Falls after seven months. June 2001 His Forza Italia party returns to power. May-June 2003 Berlusconi put on trial on corruption charges but granted immunity from prosecution. January 2004 Berlusconi's immunity ruled unconstitutional and trial resumes in April December 2004 Berlusconi is cleared of corruption after a four-year trial. April 2005 A resounding defeat in regional polls leads to the coalition's fall and Berlusconi's resignation, but after receiving a presidential mandate he forms a new government. November 2006 Berlusconi collapses at a rally. He is fitted with a pacemaker. April 2008 Berlusconi wins general election, securing a third term as premier. May 2009 Berlusconi's second wife says she wants a divorce after revelations about his antics with other women including 18-year-old Naomi Letizia June 2009 Tape recordings of Berlusconi and escort girl Patrizia D'Addario are released to the press. October 2009 Constitutional court overturns a law which granted Berlusconi immunity while in office.   December 2009 Berlusconi suffers two broken teeth and a fractured nose after being hit by a souvenir model of Milan's cathedral during a visit to the city.   March 2010 Berlusconi's coalition does well in local elections, winning four areas from the opposition.

Eleven others wounded as warplanes target five sites across terrirory in biggest attack since three-week offensive in 2009 Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed a Hamas commander and wounded 11 other people. Warplanes fired missiles at five targets across Gaza, including Gaza City, last night for the first time since Israel's three-week offensive in the territory ended 18 months ago. Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory, said the man killed was Issa Batran, 42, a commander of its military wing in central Gaza and a rocket maker. Eight of its supporters and three civilians were also injured. The air raids came after a Palestinian rocket attack struck the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday, causing no casualties but damaging buildings and cars in the city. The city's mayor said the attack was the most serious since the end of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive that left around 1,400 Palestinians dead, in January last year. Renegade militant groups have fired dozens of rockets and mortars into southern Israel since then, although most of those attack have been ineffective, with rockets mostly landing in open fields. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, earlier said he took the rocket attack on Ashkelon, which lies seven miles north of Gaza, "very seriously". No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The cross-border violence has raised concerns of further escalation. A Hamas spokesman said the group would avenge Batran's killing. "Hamas will not be quiet over the blood of its martyrs," said Hamad al-Rakabi. "Israel is opening all the gates of fire. This blood will cascade into rage and fire." The targets hit in last night's air strike included a military training camp in Gaza City, smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border and Batran's shack, on the outskirts of the Nusseirat refugee camp, according to Hamas security officials.

We must apply the just war tradition to our analysis of the conflict in Afghanistan. Otherwise, we risk disaster Two things this week have made the hellishness of military violence painfully clear. The first, WikiLeaks' Afghanistan war logs, describes in detail the horror of civilian casualties and "friendly fire" incidents. The second, from the same theatre, is Sean Smith's chilling video of American marines in southern Helmand. Faced with these portraits of war, empathy for the people caught up in it has been unavoidable. But empathy alone is not enough. If you're not a pacifist, you accept that war is vile, but at times an inevitable part of life on Earth. The question is when and how it can be morally justified. Hence the importance of the just war tradition. Thinkers like the theologian Thomas Aquinas sought a way of containing war, by thinking through the desperate feelings that combat does and should evoke. The aim is to keep a steady view on the demands of natural justice, even when the fog of war threatens to blur everything. The war logs in particular afford us a steady view on this current conflict, and what's as unsettling as the tragedy they reveal is the possibility that we lost sight of those demands, at least on occasion. The crucial issue is whether that's happened. An answer can be found by thinking about the relationship between jus ad bellum and jus in bello – the justification for the war itself, and the principles that should operate during the conduct of war. Both matter. Let's assume the war in Afghanistan is justified, and focus on the jus in bello. One of Aquinas's major contributions was the notion of proportionality: how to assess the bad consequences of otherwise well-intended military action. Michael Walzer, a leading modern just war theorist, notes that simply not to intend the death of civilians is not enough. That's "too easy". Instead, there must be a positive commitment to saving civilian lives, rather than just killing no more than is militarily necessary. "Civilians have a right to something more," he concludes. "And if saving civilian lives means risking soldiers' lives, the risk must be accepted." This highlights a further painful question: how much extra risk must soldiers bear in order to save civilian lives? It's not a balance that can be determined ahead of time. Individual cases must be considered, as the Afghanistan war logs afford, and again give rise to concern. It's with the use of heavily armed drones that this comes into particularly sharp focus. In Wired for War, Peter Warren Singer notes that "going to war" has become not so different from "going to work" for many robot operators, in the sense that the risk they face is virtually zero. They might be destroying a target at 4.30pm from the office, and be home by 6pm to read the kids a bedtime story. Soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan face grave risks. That too is devastatingly obvious. But their sacrifice is undermined when jus in bello is not considered in the round. For what distinguishes war from mass murder is precisely respecting the rights of civilians. Has due care been taken? Have all feasible precautions been made to protect non-combatants, even when the Taliban and al-Qaida erode the distinction between civilians and military by placing combat facilities in residential areas? What the war logs confirm is that remote aerial bombardments cannot always verify targets. Jus in bello is under threat. This isn't just an abstract argument. As civilians die, so conflict deepens interminably. To ignore the just war tradition now is to run the real danger that automated 21st-century conflict will turn into perpetual war.

Talks between ISI officials and UK security experts called off after David Cameron accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency has cancelled planned talks with British security experts in protest at David Cameron's comments that elements within the country are responsible for exporting terrorism abroad, it was reported last night. ISI officers were due in London for discussions on counter-terrorism co-operation with British security services. But the talks have been scrapped after the prime minister's remarks while on a visit to India on Wednesday, the Times reported. "The visit has been cancelled in reaction to the comments made by the British prime minister against Pakistan," an ISI spokesman was quoted as saying. "Such irresponsible statements could affect our co-operation with Britain." Cameron sparked outrage in Islamabad when he said: "We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India, whether to Afghanistan, or to anywhere else in the world." The comments were made during a visit to Delhi. Neither Downing Street nor the Foreign Office would comment on the reported decision by the ISI, which also comes days before a UK visit by the Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari. He is expected to stay with Cameron at his country retreat, Chequers. Last night, officials said that Zardari's visit was still expected to take place. "Our understanding is that the visit is on," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. Following Cameron's remarks, Pakistani politicians pointed to the country's offensive against militants on the border with Afghanistan and the many victims of terrorist bombs in Pakistan. Cameron defended his comments a day later, saying: "I don't think the British taxpayer wants me to go around the world saying what people want to hear."

Official says masseuse and her attorneys were uncooperative, and witnesses could not remember anything unusual Former vice president Al Gore has been cleared of allegations that he groped and assaulted a masseuse in a Portland hotel room in 2006. After a four-week investigation that included interviews with Gore, the masseuse, her acquaintances and hotel staff, authorities said there was no basis for prosecution. Senior deputy district attorney Don Rees cited "contradictory evidence, conflicting witness statements, credibility issues, lack of forensic evidence and denials by Mr Gore". Rees also said the masseuse and her attorneys were uncooperative, witnesses could not remember anything unusual, and that the masseuse failed a polygraph examination and would not say whether she was paid by a tabloid newspaper for her story. "Mr Gore unequivocally and emphatically denied this accusation when he first learnt of its existence three years ago," spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said. "He respects and appreciates the thorough and professional work of the Portland authorities and is pleased that this matter has now been resolved."

Three years after losing his legs in Helmand province, Private Derek Derenalagi is training for the 2012 Paralympics In the few seconds it took for the numbness he felt after the explosion to turn to pain, Private Derek Derenalagi knew he had lost his legs. He thought he was going to die. He briefly did die, he later learned, on the operating table at Camp Bastion, and again when his heart stopped beating on the operating table at Selly Oak. In the hours after the blast that threw him from his Land Rover and sent him 30ft in the air, broke his back and blew off his legs, his heart stopped three times, medics began preparations to zip him into a body bag. "The last time my heart stopped I was pronounced dead," said Derenalangi, 35. But medical staff detected a faint pulse and he was resuscitated. He was flown to Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, and spent eight days in a coma. Just two weeks on, Derenalagi was demanding to use the gym. "I told people: One day, I will walk," he said. Now, three years after his injury, in Helmand province, he has already broken records in shot put and aims to be on the podium at London 2012.

Panel's chairman defends portrayal of 'curdled love' as reviews range from excitement to criticism of 'unbelievable misogyny' Christos Tsiolkas's Man Booker-longlisted novel The Slap opens with a bang when a man at a suburban barbecue hits another parent's child. But while some readers including, evidently, the Booker judges speak excitedly of the Australian author's bravery in tackling uncomfortable truths, others criticise the word-of-mouth hit as "offensive" and say it is full of "unbelievable misogyny". The Slap is turning out to be the most divisive Booker novel in years. Although reviews from newspaper critics have been positive – "riveting from beginning to end," said the Guardian ; "Tom Wolfe meets Philip Roth," said the Los Angeles Times – readers posting reviews online have far more mixed opinions. "Dull, boring and offensive," wrote one Amazon reviewer. Another criticised its "constant obsession with bodily functions, sex, and the f-word"; another wrote that "it had no heart, such terrible cynicism … I feel soiled after reading it". The writer India Knight said she hated the book. "The whole novel has this ludicrous, comedy-macho sensibility – you get the feeling that if he'd been forced to read 'literary' fiction, Raoul Moat would have gulped it down in one sitting," said Knight. "It's also unbelievably misogynistic, and I say that as someone who loves Flashman and Philip Roth ... There is no joy, no love, no hope, no beauty, just these hideous people beating each other up, either physically or emotionally." The Slap is a bestseller in Australia, and UK sales are already rumoured to be colossal. A publishing insider said the novel had sold 23,000 copies even before the Booker announcement, an almost unheard-of figure for new literary fiction from a relatively unknown author. The novel also won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of the Bookseller, said that there "hasn't been a divisive book on taste grounds" in the Booker lineup for years. The last time readers were really split over titles selected by judges was in 2003, when Martin Amis's Yellow Dog and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time were both longlisted for the award and DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little went on to win it. The former poet laureate Andrew Motion, who is chairing this year's Booker panel, defended The Slap, saying "quite unusually for a Booker book, the copy I read already had international bestseller written across it, which means that not everyone thinks it's a hateful misogynistic book". He also took issue with Knight's comment that the novel was loveless, suggesting instead that "it's curdled love ... It's more complicated than being hate-filled. It's full of love that's gone wrong". However, he admitted that he could "see why people might think it is misogynistic, in that the whole story is triggered by an act of male violence".