Global Cultural Contusions and Confusions:

Dorelle Pinch, deputy coroner of New South Wales, said the killings could constitute a war crime.

The two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander, known as the Balibo Five, were killed to stop them exposing the invasion of East Timor, she said.

The Indonesian government insists the group were killed in a crossfire. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7097652.stm>

The battle over mosque reform

By Dominic Casciani BBC News There are more than 1,500 mosques in the UK British Muslim leaders are to tell mosques to reform - but do young Muslims even care? This week began as just another for Britain's mosques. But by the end of it, things could be very different. The four largest Islamic organisations in the UK have, against expectations, agreed professional standards for mosques. It may sound like management speak - but these standards on a mosque's obligations to society are part of a battle for hearts and minds in the face of violent extremism. The unwieldily-named Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (Minab) is seeking signatures on the dotted line. The question is whether any of it will make a difference. The great era of mosque building was in the 1970s and 1980s, led by the first generation immigrants. They copied what they knew and mosques were built as prayer halls largely run on ethnic, cultural or tribal lines. PROPOSED MOSQUE STANDARDS Democratic and accountable Transparent finances Open to women and youth Counter-extremism programmes Inter-faith schemes Work against forced marriage Mosques body targets extremism Today there are at least 1,500 institutions which are broadly independent of one and other. But while they may be about to get a dose of 21st Century management consultancy, tens of thousands of young British Muslims have already drifted away. Many British-born Muslims believe mosques offer them nothing - and so they are looking elsewhere for answers. Navid Akhtar is a commentator and a producer of muslimcafe.tv. It's a polished internet broadcast with guests debating big issues of the day in a media-savvy way. When some Muslim leaders condemned a recent groundbreaking Channel 4 drama about a British Muslim joining MI5 while his sister became a terrorist, muslimcafe.tv was one of the places where British Muslims debated the issues. Complex identities "The communities have changed and the mosques have not kept in touch because they are still run by the first generation," says Akhtar. "Today we have got very complex identities as Muslims living in the West - but the mosque as an institution has not tuned in to that." "People go, they learn the Koran, they do their communal prayers and that's about it. It's the bits that are missing that concern us - people going through divorce, social problems, alienation - people born here but feeling marginalised or betrayed as Muslims. Prayers: But many mosques have little space for women "They look to the mosque for support - but they are desperately inadequate in delivering it." Akhtar tells a story that can be heard time and again among British Muslims who say Mosques have unwittingly played a part in extremism. "If I go to my local imam who is Pakistani, whose identity is Pakistani, to talk this stuff, he will just give a flick of my ear - he is not really concerned about me being British or not. "This is what gave birth to radical organisations - kids came to the mosque and battled with the first generation over cultural issues, like arranged marriages or being forced to learn Urdu. They went elsewhere for answers and found people like the radical preacher Omar Bakri. "Some of the birth of radical Islam in this country came out of these cultural issues that the first generation didn't want to address." Sensitivities It's this accusation that has caused the most tension between the generations in Muslim Britain - and what will make the attempts to modernise mosques so they appeal to the young so difficult. Government is pushing hard for the work to be done because it needs results on extremism. But the communities are scared of becoming being political stooges. Leicester-based imam Ibrahim Mogra is involved in the reform agenda and a leading figure in the Muslim Council of Britain - but he warns against creating a body that does government's bidding. "This won't be a body with any legislative powers where we can police mosques and tell them what to do or dictate what not to do," says Sheikh Mogra. Janmohamed says change must come from within "We're going to be promoting good practice and highlighting where the formulas are extremely successful and encouraging others to buy into that model. The creation of this body is not in response to our so-called 'war on terror' and is not part of the agenda of preventing extremism. It will be a useful tool - but it's not the primary purpose." Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the voice behind Spirit21, an influential blog with readers across the cultural and religious spectrum. Her commentary on Muslim Britain has a following among key government figures. She is typical of growing numbers of Muslim women debating critical issues because they very often find no welcome at the steps of the mosque. "You've got to realise that there are some that are small and run by 'uncles' who, to be frank, would not let a woman within three feet of the mosque. There are others which have large spaces for women. Some mosques sometimes seem to be a bit of a working man's club. And the problem is that many young people leave the mosque behind because there is no social element or relevance for them." Pro-reform Muslims Janmohamed argues that the new mosques body needs to encourage rather than force change and avoid the taint of government interference. The trick, she say, is to get changes like representations for women to happen from within. Only then will mosques start to look like progressive institutions playing an active role in building community ties. And it is community that pro-reform Muslims see as essential to success. If Minab is a success, they believe it will bring Muslims closer to the mainstream because it will help build a sense of what it is to both a British citizen and a Muslim. Hardline islamists see the two as incompatible. In the shadows of the real world and the internet exist extremists ready to identify confused young and women who can be sold a simple story that ends with a bomb being strapped to the body. The fact is that these recruiters will be there for a long time to come. Janmohamed says government needs to change its language so the debate around mosques and improving the lot of Muslims is not automatically and always linked to terrorism. "The really serious individuals intent on violence don't go to the mosques - but if mosques step up to the plate then some may not go down that route. But it's only one part of the answer." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7118503.stm>

By Gary Duffy BBC News, Salvador

Bahia's African heritage on parade

Few places better represent the influence of Africa on Brazilian culture than the streets of Salvador in the state of Bahia.

And throughout November, when the community celebrates Black Consciousness, both the spirit of Africa and the traditional exuberance of Brazil have been on display.

The vast majority of people in Bahia are Brazilians of African descent, the legacy of a time when more than 40% of slaves brought to the New World were taken to Brazil.

Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Americas to do so.

The African influence is everywhere - in music, the dance, food and religion - sometimes preserved in a way that is no longer even true in Africa.

It includes Capoeira, a martial art passed down directly from slaves, and Candomble, an African-inspired religion.

That cultural heritage is now drawing African-American visitors from the US to Brazil. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7115411.stm>

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, received 15 days in jail after children in class named a teddy bear Muhammad.

Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi are expected to see Mrs Gibbons soon. They are also due to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the chief justice.

All the words of protest from Gordon Brown and the British government appear to have done little to help Gillian Gibbons in the dusty courtrooms of Khartoum.

Omar al Bashir's government appears to welcome western anger

Sudan's leaders are rather used to the sound of western outrage - and have come to realise that, for them, it rarely amounts to much.

Power in Khartoum rests with the combined machinery of national security, police intelligence and the interior ministry.

For the most part these agencies do not meet with Western diplomats - and they have little interest in improving Sudan's relationship with the West. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7122007.stm>

By Jonathan Head BBC News, Bangkok

Thais say the king exhibits perfect Buddhist qualities

Not much can bring the life of the noisy, traffic-clogged heart of Bangkok to a halt.

But on Wednesday the streets were hushed, the cars and buses banished.

All you could hear were speakers playing the royal anthem, and thousands of flags fluttering in the breeze, held by people of all ages.

Most were dressed in yellow and had waited for hours for a glimpse of a stiff and stern-faced old man passing in a motorcade, on his way to the gilded halls and temples of Bangkok's Grand Palace.

And as it passed they shouted "Song Phra Charoen", "Long Live Your Majesty". Some had tears in their eyes.

What explains this extraordinary bond between people and monarch?

King Bhumibol Adulyadej is accorded an almost divine reverence, with titles like Phra Chao Yu Hua (Lord Upon our Heads) or Chao Chiwit (Lord of Life).

People prostrate themselves on the ground in his presence. Yet there is genuine affection too, and it goes both ways.

Thais talk of their love for him as though he were a cherished member of the family.

In his speeches to the nation he likes to joke and tease them.

Public relations

Pink clothing sales rocketed when the king left hospital in a pink suit

Earlier in his reign when he was younger and travelled a lot, he clearly enjoyed meeting and mixing with people from the poorest rural communities.

People often refer to his long life of service to the nation, to his experiments with agriculture and irrigation, many of them carried out on the grounds of his palace in Bangkok.

The formidable public relations machine which manages the monarchy's image makes much of these experiments, as it does of the king's other talents as a jazz musician and sailor.

But the real measure of these achievements is impossible to know in a country where all criticism of the monarchy is curtailed by the draconian lese majeste law (offence against the dignity of the monarch), and only lavish praise for the royal family can be published.

The reverence for the king seems rooted in something less worldly.

Time after time when Thais are asked about the virtues of King Bhumibol they refer to his proper adherence to the principles of "Dhamma", Buddhist teachings and the Buddhist concept of righteousness.

Our political system has been unstable all the time. So whenever there is a political crisis people expect the King to solve the problem Prof Suchit Bunbongkarn

It is not just his practical deeds they are looking at, but his manner; his modesty, his reserve, his gentleness, and his apparent detachment from the world - qualities he has worked hard to perfect and project.

He is as much a spiritual leader as a worldly one.

During his six decades on the throne Thailand has undergone changes as wrenching as in any other country.

Per capita income has gone up 40-fold. An almost entirely agrarian society has become a substantially urban one. The economy has been swept along by the forces of globalisation.

Political upheaval

There have been other changes as well.

The king's endorsement of the coup was essential to its success

This king has reigned through 17 military coups and 26 prime ministers. The gap between rich and poor has widened, with conspicuous consumption and conspicuous corruption accepted as part of everyday life.

There has been a corresponding decline in traditional community and family values.

Amid this whirlwind, the king has remained a reassuring anchor, a man who embodies Thailand's history but who has also come to embody integrity and detachment from the squalid realities of day-to-day politics and business.

He has lived the myth of the virtuous monarch so well that almost the entire population believes in it and takes comfort from it.

And it gives him a unique moral authority. When he speaks, people listen.

They may, and often do fail to act on his advice. But he has been able to use that authority to settle a number of political crises.

I want to be making suits for him when he is 90 years old, when he is 100 - longer even." Sompop Louilarpprasert Kinh Bhumibol's tailor

"If the country were in good shape politically, then the role of the constitutional monarch is not very difficult," explains Suchit Bunbongkarn, professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University.

"But in the case of Thailand it is not easy because our political system has been unstable all the time. So whenever there is a political crisis people expect the king to solve the problem."

Former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun describes King Bhumibol's authority as "reserve power" that, because it has been used judiciously and sparingly, has been decisive in maintaining the country's stability.

This power, he says, has been accumulated through a life of dedication to his job. It cannot, he points out, be inherited or passed on.

Fears and superstition

There is quiet concern about the abilities of the heir to the throne

That explains the acute anxiety now over the king's fragile health. Few imagine that any future monarch can match this one.

There are many reservations about the capabilities of his presumed heir, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, although these cannot be expressed publicly because of the lese majeste laws.

The succession itself is not completely clear, with the constitution leaving considerable powers to designate an heir to the 19-member Privy Council of senior advisors to the king.

The opacity that has preserved the mystique of monarchy in Thailand makes it impossible to discuss, let alone plan for the succession.

So Thais prefer not to think about it.

When I saw his tailor, Sompop Louilarpprasert, and asked him about the king's recent spell in hospital, he brushed it aside.

"I want to be making suits for him when he is 90 years old, when he is 100 - longer even."

It was Sompop who made the dazzling pink blazer the king wore when he came out of hospital.

Within hours, pink shirts were been sold in their thousands across the country, and there are days when some streets are a sea of pink.

In this superstitious country they now associate pink with the king's recovery. It will bring him good fortune, they say.

By wearing it they are literally willing him to stay alive for them. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7128935.stm>

Robert Pickton, 58, was being tried for the murders of six women whose remains were found on his Vancouver farm.

Under Canadian law a murder conviction leads to an automatic life sentence. Pickton must wait 10 years for possible parole. He pleaded not guilty.

Pickton is charged with killing 26 women. A trial date for the other 20 murder charges has not been set.

He was found guilty of killing Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury and Georgina Papin.

Most of the women he is accused of murdering were prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighbourhood.

The verdict followed a week of deliberations by the jury, and 10 months of gruesome testimony and evidence.

Pickton's head was bowed as the verdict was read out. Two female jurors wept, and members of victims' families cheered. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7135661.stm>

By Stephanie Holmes BBC News

Robert Pickton denied all charges against him Reaction to verdict

Found guilty by a Vancouver court of murdering six women, he is charged with the killing of a further 20.

The women are among dozens who disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s from Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, a district famed as "Canada's poorest postcode".

For years, police refused to open murder cases, labelling the women simply as missing.

No charges were pressed against the 57-year-old pig farmer until February 2002, when police stumbled across some of the women's possessions while searching his property for firearms.

'Horror movie'

Pickton, who ran a pig farm on the edge of the small Vancouver suburb Port Coquitlam, told police he was an ordinary farmer, "just a pig man".

But when they began examining outhouses and sifting deep through the soil on the 10-acre farm, they found blood-stained clothes and pieces of human bone and teeth, amassing enough evidence to charge him with 26 murders.

More than 100 forensic specialists were involved in searching the farm

The judge who presided over the trial - the most expensive in Canadian history - compared the case to a horror movie.

Some of the bodies had been fed to the pigs.

"These women have been victimised multiple times," former Vancouver police official Kim Rossmo - the first to suspect a serial killer was at work - told the BBC News website.

"By Pickton, by the system and the police because of the lack of response and, in some ways, they are being victimised in some interaction between the families and the media," he added.

'Invisible women'

Many were drug addicts, working in the sex trade to fund their habits - part of a transient and disenfranchised community.

There were 27 on the missing list, going back to 1995. That was a cluster. That was way too many missing people Kim Rossmo Professor of Criminology

According to Mr Rossmo, now a criminology professor at Texas university, the low social status of these women, many of whom were of aboriginal origin, contributed to the police's lack of concern.

"If these women had been from the affluent Westside of Vancouver, you can count on the fact that it would have been a very different response," he said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7114682.stm>

By Torin Douglas Media correspondent, BBC News

In some countries people do not trust the media

World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service.

Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society.

But 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.

Pollsters interviewed 11,344 people in 14 countries for the survey.

In most of the 14 countries surveyed, press freedom (including broadcasting) was considered more important than social stability.

The strongest endorsement came from North America and Western Europe, where up to 70% put freedom first, followed by Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa, with over 60%.

Although people in Britain value freedom of the press, when we asked about the media's truth and accuracy, respondents were critical Chris Coulter, pollster The fight for press freedom Viewpoints: Free speech

In India, Singapore and Russia, by contrast, more people favoured stability over press freedom.

In those countries, around 48% of respondents supported controls over the press to ensure peace and stability.

Around 40% expressed the view that press freedom was more important.

READ THE FINDINGS BBC World Service Poll: World Divided on Press Freedom [1MB] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

People were also asked to rate how free the press and broadcasters were in their country to report the news truthfully and without undue bias.

Perceptions varied widely among developing countries, ranging from 81% giving a high rating in Kenya, to 41% in Mexico.

In India, 72% of respondents thought their media were free, compared with just 36% in Singapore. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7134918.stm>

FREE TO SPEAK Series marking the BBC World Service's 75th anniversary will include Global poll on attitudes to the media Personal tales of people caught up in the news Viewpoints from leading thinkers Focus on media restrictions in Cuba and Egypt

The main theme will be the freedom of speech, and freedom of the media and information.

Here, three thinkers offer some occasionally surprising views on the role of journalists, the arguments for unconditional media freedom, and the pros and cons of giving preachers free rein.

The views expressed below should not be taken as the BBC's.

"Our problems - ranging from climate change to species extinction to failed states - are global and require global co-operation to solve them." Jeffrey Sachs Director of Columbia University's Earth Institute "Any search for truth needs structures and disciplines. It's undermined by casual disregard of accuracy or evidence. Unconditional freedom just is not optimal for truth-seeking." Onora O'Neill Philosopher "It is time that the worst construction is placed on all forms of discrimination that claim a divine mandate, especially those that transgress against the entitlements of others to a secular dispensation." Wole Soyinka Poet and Playwright <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7127423.stm>

By Roy Greenslade Professor of Journalism, City University

Press freedom may appear to be a straightforward concept - but it defies easy definition, even within the liberal democracies that proclaim its enjoyment.

FREE TO SPEAK Series marking the BBC World Service's 75th anniversary will include Global poll on attitudes to the media Personal tales of people caught up in the news Viewpoints from leading thinkers Focus on media restrictions in Cuba and Egypt

Seen from a global perspective, press freedom is a relative term, differing in degree from country to country.

In those countries where it exists by virtue of a written constitution or a bill of rights, or by parliamentary custom or legal precedent, its boundaries are continually being tested - sometimes by debate, sometimes through the law.

In countries such as totalitarian states where there is no political freedom, press freedom remains an ambition yet to be realised.

It is also an ambition that leads people to the loss of their liberty and, increasingly, to their deaths.

Violating freedom

Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), a French-based press organisation that acts as a worldwide journalistic watchdog, produces an annual index that records the state of press freedom in 169 countries.

Egyptian journalists protest at co-workers being jailed

In its latest report, it names Eritrea in last place, while Iceland and Norway sit jointly at the top.

The index is not based solely on how many reporters are killed in each country - though murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats do make up one component.

What matters as much is the degree of freedom that journalists and news organisations enjoy, and the efforts made by the authorities to guarantee respect for that freedom.

Importantly, the index includes the degree of impunity enjoyed by those who are responsible for violating freedom. It also measures the level of self-censorship in each country and the ability of the media to investigate and criticise.

HAVE YOUR SAY The fight for freedom in all its forms must persist or all is lost Spiro, Greece Send your comments

Recent assessments have also looked at whether people can access information freely on the internet. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7132665.stm>

By Dan Collyns BBC News, Ayacucho

The Andean city of Ayacucho is famous for its sunlit plazas and many ornate churches. It is also renowned for its melancholy music and colourful dances.

Angelica Mendoza's son "disappeared" 24 years ago

But many Peruvians also know the Ayacucho region as the heartland of the brutal Maoist guerrilla group, Sendero Luminoso, or the Shining Path, which began its armed struggle against the Peruvian state in 1980.

Here too, the Peruvian military fought terror with terror. Hundreds of young men, suspected of being guerrillas, were plucked from the street or dragged from their homes and taken to Los Cabitos military base on the outskirts of the city.

They were "disappeared". Most were tortured and executed and have never been found.

The imminent trial of the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, is likely to bring the memories of Peru's 20-year internal war - a murky period of atrocities and disappearances - flooding back.

Mr Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000, is charged with ordering a paramilitary death squad to carry out two massacres in the early 1990s.

But in total there were more "disappearances" during the 1980s than the 1990s. Most of the victims were poor peasants from the central highlands. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7132375.stm>

The offenders were either placed on probation or given suspended sentences for the 2005 rape in the Aurukun settlement, in northern Queensland.

In her ruling, Judge Sarah Bradley told them that the victim "probably agreed to have sex with all of you".

A review of sexual abuse sentences in Aboriginal Queensland has been ordered.

Sentencing seven of the accused in Cairns in October, Judge Bradley told them that the girl involved was not forced into sex, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.

She placed six of the offenders, who were minors at the time of the rape, on probation for 12 months, local media said.

The three other defendants were handed suspended six-month prison sentences.

Judge Bradley later defended her sentencing, telling The Australian that the sentences were "appropriate" because they were the penalties sought by the prosecution.

'No excuse'

But Australia's newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has spoken out against the ruling, saying he was "appalled" by the verdict after it was revealed in the Australian press on Monday.

"I am horrified by cases like this, involving sexual violence against women and children. My attitude is one of zero tolerance," he told reporters in Queensland, his home state.

I am not prepared to just write this off as an unusual one-off case Anna Bligh Queensland Premier

Boni Robertson, an Aboriginal activist in Queensland, said there could be no excuse for the judge's decision.

"There is nothing culturally, there is nothing morally, there is nothing socially and there is definitely nothing legally that would ever allow this sort of decision to be made," she said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7136269.stm>

MILF joining welcome rites for Libyan leader's son in Manila

By Robin Lustig BBC radio presenter

Even in countries where there is no official censorship, all reporters know there will always be some restraints on what they can say - editors need to be persuaded, owners need to be kept happy, the law has to be obeyed.

FREE TO SPEAK Series marking the BBC World Service's 75th anniversary will include Global poll on attitudes to the media Viewpoints from leading thinkers Personal tales of people caught up in the news Focus on media restrictions in Cuba and Egypt

Where there is official censorship - where, for example, it is a crime to "bring the government into disrepute" or to publish material which "insults the dignity of the head of state" - the problems are all the greater.

No freedom is absolute, yet some media are a great deal freer than others.

In the Arab world, in general, the media have been heavily politicised.

Governments have tended to control the main media outlets - the main daily newspaper, the main TV and radio networks - and where independent media have been allowed, they have often been owned by opposition parties or by businesspeople with clear links to political organisations. (The establishment of the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV news station was a rare special case.)

But then, one day, along came the internet. And it was as if someone had blown open a few million doors.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7139622.stm>

By Elizabeth Blunt BBC News, Addis Ababa

Most mobile users got out of the habit of sending text messages

A new range of mobile phones has just gone on sale in Ethiopia, with the onscreen menu in Amharic, and the ability to send SMS text messages in the Geez script - used for Amharic and other languages in the region.

This is something of a breakthrough in a country where until recently text messaging was not allowed in any language.

As the clock approached midnight on the Ethiopian New Year's Eve in September, just before the start of the year 2000 in the Ethiopian calendar, mobile phones across Addis Ababa started to bleep with the first text message their owners had received for two years.

"I wish you Happy Ethiopian Millennium," it read in English. "SMS service will be launched shortly."

And it was signed by the head of Ethiopian Telecom, the country's one and only telephone operator.

This was as near as the company ever came to an acknowledgement that it had been blocking the service. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7138128.stm>

By Stephanie Holmes BBC News

Schoolchildren in Caracas will be waking up in daylight this week following a decision by the country's president, Hugo Chavez, to shift the entire country into its own unique time zone.

Second time around: Venezuela was in a unique time zone 1912 - 1964

The move to put the clocks back half an hour adds Venezuela to a small club of nations out of sync with global standardised time.

These states - which include India, Iran, Afghanistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and parts of Australia and Canada - operate in what are known as fractional time zones.

A string of 10 Pacific islands east of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, are even more exceptional - being an eccentric 45 minutes out of sync.

So are Nepal and a strip of Western Australia which, although home to just 200 people, has its own, unofficial time zone - Central Western Time - some eight-and-three-quarter hours ahead of GMT.

Pastor David Brash, 62, a Baptist minister from Warrington, Cheshire, was killed by hitmen hired by his Filipino wife, Manila's Inquirer reported.

Analyn Batalyer Brash, 23, is now in police custody and is to be charged later, the paper said.

South Korean officials said Raymond Poeteray and his wife gave up the child because she had failed to integrate.

But Mr Poeteray told Dutch media that the couple had parted ways with their daughter because of ill health.

The case has triggered strong reactions in the Netherlands, South Korea, and Hong Kong - where Mr Poeteray works.

The couple adopted the girl, Jade, at four weeks old.

When they decided to put her in foster care in Hong Kong seven years later, Mr Poeteray said they were acting on the advice of medical specialists and social workers.

But the decision attracted outrage in some sections of the public and the media, both in the Netherlands and South Korea.

The Dutch daily De Telegraaf said Jade had been discarded like "a piece of household rubbish". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7144553.stm>

By Ian MacWilliam BBC News

The government hopes some Santa publicity will boost tourism

Kyrgyzstan is to name one of its mountains in honour of Santa Claus.

A group of Kyrgyz mountaineers will climb the appointed peak on Christmas Eve as part of an official ceremony.

The move comes after a Swedish logistics company suggested the Central Asian nation was the most logical place for Santa to deliver presents from.

Kyrgyzstan has been working to boost its tourism industry and the authorities have spotted what could be a good opportunity.

The country is arguably the most picturesque of the Central Asian republics, but with its remoteness from established tourism destinations and recent political instability, it has been struggling to attract foreign travellers.  <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7152664.stm>

By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Yangjiang, Guangdong province

The Nanhai 1 was lifted from the seabed by a crane in two hours

Chinese archaeologists have raised a merchant ship which sank in the South China Sea 800 years ago while transporting a cargo of precious porcelain.

The Nanhai 1 treasury ship, built during the Song dynasty which ruled China from 960-1279, is believed to contain one of the biggest discoveries of Chinese artefacts from that period.

"It's the biggest ship of its kind to be found," said professor Liu Wensuo, and archaeologist from Sun Yat-sen University.

"It lay in about 25m (82ft) of water and was covered in mud - perfect conditions for preservation. Both the ship and its contents are in exceptionally good condition."

The salvage team began building a massive steel cage around the 30m (98ft)-long vessel in May in order to raise it and the surrounding silt.

The cage was made up of 36 steel beams, each weighing around 5 tons. Together with its contents, the cage weighed more than 3,000 tons.

The heavy lifting began a day earlier than expected at 0900 on Friday due to favourable weather conditions. It was completed two hours later and placed on a waiting barge.

As many as 6,000 artefacts have already been retrieved from the 13th Century vessel, mostly bluish white porcelain, as well as personal items from crew members, including gold belt buckles and silver rings.

A further 70,000 artefacts are believed to be still on board, many still in their original packing cases. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7156581.stm>

His wife and children are already Catholic and there had been speculation he would convert after leaving office.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who led the service to welcome Mr Blair, said he was "very glad" to do so.

Last year, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops into Iraq.

And one of Mr Blair's final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican in June where he met Pope Benedict XVI. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7157409.stm>

By Justin Webb BBC News, Washington

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church protest at a memorial to soldiers killed in combat

"Hiding in plain sight", the Americans call it, and the expression came to my mind as I sat in Kansas City airport waiting for an ice storm to pass.

Hiding in plain sight in this state is a revolution in American Christendom, a change of heart that could see American Protestant churches looking increasingly like their European equivalents. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7154551.stm>

By Katya Adler BBC News, Gaza City

Palestinian Christians are known as Nasserine - the people of Nazareth

Manawel Musallam - priest, headmaster and Gazan - is a rotund, avuncular man, fond of wearing berets.

I have come to his office to ask how Christians in Gaza were faring on this, their first Christmas under the full internal control of Hamas.

"You media people!" Father Musallam boomed at me when I first poked my head around his door.

"Hamas this, Hamas that. You think we Christians are shaking in our ghettos in Gaza? That we're going to beg you British or the Americans or the Vatican to rescue us?" he asked.

"Rescue us from what? From where? This is our home." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7154134.stm>

A POINT OF VIEW By Lisa Jardine

Once again a listener has set me off on a productive train of thought. A small correction has prompted me to reflect on the way that we historians, in the very act of reaching out to recover the forgotten connections between ourselves and our forebears, run the risk of overlooking what is right under our noses. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7155903.stm>

Back to Mecca: Pilgrims crowd into the mosque for the final rituals

I'm exhausted - completely shattered.

It's day five of Hajj and it feels as if I have been here a month.

In the weeks leading up to the pilgrimage, I spent my free time preparing myself mentally and spiritually for its rites and rituals.

What I hadn't anticipated was the physical stamina these past few days would require.

Since Monday pilgrims have travelled from Mecca to Mina, Mina to Arafat, Arafat to Muzdalifa, Muzdalifa to Mina, Mina to Mecca and then back to Mina.

With about three million people trying to do the same thing at the same time, journeys which should take only 30 minutes by car can take up to 12 hours.

But it's not just the travel, stifling heat, eye-stinging dust, choking exhaust fumes and ever-present crush of people making each day harder than the last.

It's the rituals. There are many and they are not easy.

After declaring the intention to perform the Hajj at the Great Mosque in Mecca, day two took us to the mount of Arafat, where we stood praying in the full glare of the hot sun for hours - a reminder of the Day of Judgement.

After sunset, we walked to Muzdalifa, to spend the night outdoors, sleeping rough.

Day three was spent on the road to Mina, ending in a long walk deep into a valley to the site of the Jamarat.

This pilgrimage isn't just a spiritual journey it's one that requires strength, patience and courage. It's tested me to my core and has taught me nothing is possible with out my faith What is the Hajj?

After throwing stones at pillars representing the Devil, the men shaved their heads and women cut off a lock of hair.

But there is no time to rest, as we then headed back to Mecca to perform Tawaf, walking around the Kaaba seven times, and Saai, jogging between the hills Safa and Marwa, also seven times.

Both rituals took hours, required lots of walking and jogging - leaving me exhausted, with sore, bruised feet.

But there were extraordinary times.

At Arafat, standing in that immense crowd in the heat of the midday Saudi sun was an incredibly unifying experience.

I stood beside people of all races, cultures and classes - all Muslims praying before God.

In Muzdalifa, where pilgrims spend the night outside in the open, that hardship made me realise what a pampered life I lead.

The stoning of the Jamarat, which takes seconds to perform, but hours of waiting and walking, is deeply emotional and draining.

Pilgrims cast their sins away with every toss of a stone.

The Tawaf in the Great Mosque in Mecca that completes the Hajj is so crowded you hardly have an inch of space to yourself.

The only way to get through the endless circuits was for me to ask God to give me the strength to do so.

I don't think I would have made it were it not for my commitment to Allah and what I see as His commitment to me. I finished the Tawaf, barely.

It's easy for me to whinge about how knackered I am, how little sleep I've had over the past few days and how much more pleasant Hajj would be if you could get a decent iced cappuccino.

The reality is, there's no place on earth I'd rather have been, no other thing I'd rather have been doing.

This pilgrimage isn't just a spiritual journey - it's one that requires strength, patience and courage.

I'm sad it's soon coming to an end. It's tested me to my core and has taught me nothing is possible without my faith.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7155610.stm>

The BBC's Jonah Fisher is on a Greenpeace ship tracking the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. You can follow his travels for the next two months on the Ten O'clock News, and in this diary.

News that the humpback whale had been spared came just 24 hours after solo yachtsman David Taylor set off on his lone protest to Antarctic waters.

Guide to the humpback Japan's point of view

A week previously I had been to speak with the 54-year-old New Zealander and do a feature on him in the eastern city of Tauranga.

David Taylor

As we sailed around the harbour in his yacht the Ann Marie, David told me that his prime motivation to go to Antarctica was the inclusion of 50 humpback on Japan's lethal research list.

Having swum with and studied humpbacks he said he had no choice but to embark on a two-month solo voyage to find the Japanese off the coast of Antarctica and make his protest.

Ever since the news of the humpback's reprieve came through I have been trying to contact David to find out if he had heard the news and what it meant for his trip.

Risky pursuit

Would he be still be risking his life in the world's roughest seas now that his favourite whale had been saved?

This afternoon he emailed me from his boat.

"Good news about humpbacks, but at this stage I feel I should continue with protest," it said.

"Family understanding about the need to continue. Government suggested I just sail round New Zealand." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7154508.stm>

My friends in the UK say I must be mad to stay here, and my family would love us to return.

But it's not that simple. We can't just pack up our stuff and go. My kids have spent most of their lives here - my eldest was only two when we left Britain.

So we stay. We hope. We pray.......

.................. They need to start putting society back together - from the bottom up. People need the basics to be back in place - like electricity.

But there are signs of progress. Everyone seems to be using mobile phones now.

Bizarrely, you can also find internet cafes everywhere. Even in poor areas there are these little oases of knowledge and connection.

Whenever I see young people they're chatting online, on Facebook.

Young people really want to grow up and be part of the world. So there is hope. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7127466.stm>

The 1,500-year-old statues disappeared from an airport warehouse hours before they were to be flown to Paris for an exhibition at the Guimet Museum.

Interpol has been asked to help track them down.

One consignment of items had already been sent to France when the theft occurred on Saturday.

A government spokesman told Reuters news agency that the artefacts already in Paris would have to be returned to Bangladesh.

"The Guimet Museum would be informed, regretfully, that it would not be possible to go ahead with holding the exhibition of the items as planned," a Bangladesh government statement said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7160080.stm>

Journalists locked up Labour Minister Mervin Silva after one of his aides allegedly assaulted a news director.

Furious journalists refused to let the minister leave until he had apologised.

Mr Silva was splattered with red paint. He also needed treatment for a minor head wound apparently caused by a fall as he was escorted from the building.

Mr Silva had gone to the state-run Rupavahini television to complain that it had not covered a speech he gave on Wednesday marking the re-opening of a bridge destroyed by the 2004 tsunami.

If my action is considered as a wrong act, I would like to apologise to the employees Mervin Silva Sri Lanka labour minister

"A henchman of the minister forcefully pulled the news director and all employees are protesting demanding an apology," Rupavahini's director-general said.

The news director's shirt was ripped open, reports said.

In a statement interrupting regular scheduling the TV said the minister was being held in an office by the staff - and pictures showed Mr Silva in a small room flanked by police.

Dozens of staff could be seen protesting in the corridors, refusing to let him leave pending an apology.

Commandos and police with tear-gas were deployed around the television station as the stand-off continued.

"If my action is considered as a wrong act, I would like to apologise to the employees," the minister said, in front of a battery of cameras.

Journalists jeered as the security forces led him out of the building.

By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Istanbul

In a corner of 21st Century Turkey, a congregation still worships in the language of Christ.

Aziz and Semso Demir dreamed of returning from Europe

At an early morning Sunday church service, chanting in Aramaic fills the air together with the sweet scent of incense.

Men pray standing, their palms open to heaven. Most of the women are behind a wooden lattice at the back, their heads covered in scarves.

These people are Assyrians and the region they know as Tur Abdin was once the heartland of their ancient Christian church.

At the turn of the last century an estimated 200,000 Assyrians still lived here. Today there are fewer than 3,000 left.

But recently, there have been signs of a possible revival. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7156590.stm>

A campaign in underway to press for Farhan's release

They blog to give voice to their thirst for change - or just to escape isolation and boredom.

The blogging boom of the last two or three years has given young Saudis a new means of self-expression in a hitherto closed society.

One of the best known is Fouad al-Farhan, who is 32 and runs a small IT company in Jeddah.

Unusually, he blogs under his real name. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7167936.stm>

The fee for renewing the licence has risen to 1 million kyat ($800, £400), far beyond the reach of most people.

There was no announcement about the rise, and people only learnt about it when they went to renew their licences.

The media is tightly controlled in Burma, and many people get their news from foreign satellite channels.

The cost of renewing a satellite licence has risen by 167%, from 6000 kyat ($5, £2.50) to 1 million kyat, three times the average annual salary. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7167911.stm>

By James Reynolds BBC News, Beijing

The Tiananmen Square clock began a one-year countdown in August

In the entirely unlikely event of anyone in China happening to forget the importance of 2008, there is a large digital clock next to Tiananmen Square to remind them.

The clock counts the days, hours and minutes to the start of the Olympic Games in August next year.

To say the games are important to China is a bit like saying that oxygen is important to staying alive.

Many Chinese people are trying to out-do each other with shows of Communist-style devotion to the games.

One man has spent three years recording the history of the Olympics onto a scroll 2008m (6,600ft) long.

But, sadly for him, he may be outdone by the acupuncturist who has promised to insert 2008 silver needles into his head to welcome the Olympics.  <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7154274.stm>

By Mark Ward Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

So say security professionals predicting what net criminals will turn to in 2008 to catch people out.

The quasi-intimate nature of the sites makes people share information readily leaving them open to all kinds of other attacks, warn security firms.

Detailed information gathered via the sites will also help tune spam runs or make phishing e-mail more convincing.  <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7156541.stm>

By Roland Pease BBC radio science unit

The experiment promised to tame the power of the Sun - or the hydrogen bomb - and to make it possible to generate electricity using hydrogen from the sea, in 20 years according to most of the papers.

Journalists had been invited to the UK's nuclear research establishment AEA Harwell just days before to see the miraculous Zeta for the first time.

A hollow aluminium doughnut, or torus, three metres across, Zeta had been running in secret since the previous summer, heating gases to 5 million degrees, a third of the temperature at the centre of the Sun, in the hope of creating nuclear fusion reactions.

I think what the press couldn't get their heads around was the fact that the scientists didn't know Alan Gibson, Zeta scientist

Currents of 200 000 amps were used to heat the gases, in pulses lasting just a few thousandths of a second.

The experiments looked like a great success, and the fanfare that followed was tremendous, spiced up by a utopian belief in the power of science - largely untainted by the cynicism that developed in the 1960s - and by national pride. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7190813.stm>

Research suggests it may be more prevalent among the gay community - the gay San Francisco district of Castro appears to have been hardest hit.

So far only two cases of the new form of the USA300 strain of the bug have been recorded in the UK.

It is not usually contracted in hospitals, but in the community - often by casual contact.

We do know that the USA300 strain is extremely good at spreading between people through skin-to-skin contact Professor Mark Enright Imperial College

The new strain is resistant to treatment by many front-line antibiotics.

It causes large boils on the skin, and in severe cases can lead to fatal blood poisoning or necrotising pneumonia, which eats away at the lungs.

Researchers say the bug has so far been 13 times more prevalent in gay men in San Francisco than in other people.

In the Castro district - where more gay people live than anywhere else in the US - about one in 588 people are carrying the bug.

In the general San Francisco community the figure was around one in 3,800. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7188741.stm>

Fischer's 1972 match was Cold War battle

I ate children's hearts, ex-rebel says

Video game review: Lawyers, doctors, chefs get a chance for game glory

Bishop scores healing priest, stops sessions in Pangasinan