Global Economics-10:

Cell phones: A huge high-profit market

THE Philippines has been most innovative when it comes to cell phones anywhere in the world.
<http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/nov/09/yehey/top_stories/20081109top2.html>

‘Commercial arrangements’ are cause of high costs – NTC

COMMERCIAL arrangements between telecommunications companies make the cost of cell phone usage “unreasonable” in the Philippines, with subscribers bearing the brunt. <http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/nov/09/yehey/top_stories/20081109top1.html>

Condos with panoramic  view of cityscapes

Developers have taken advantage of everyone’s aspiration to be at the top of things by introducing the penthouse unit, the most prestigious dwelling in a condominium that indeed gives one a sense of having gone up in the world. Besides the esteem associated with such property, penthouse dwellers are afforded the upper-hand advantage of generous views that overlook the rest of the city below. <http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/nov/09/yehey/property/20081109prop1.html>

Nick Davis in Kingston finds out what made some Africans voluntarily make the former slave island of Jamaica their home.

Christopher Columbus landed on the beach at Rio Bueno on Jamaica's north coast in 1494 and forever changed the history of this island.

The Spanish arrived and brought the Africans with them. They imported slaves throughout their 160-year stay and the practice continued under British rule.

Some of my students sometimes don't seem very proud to be called African, they associate the place with poverty, starvation Anthropologist Barry Chevannes, University of the West Indies

Jamaica's national motto is "Out of many, one people" - a description of the island's multi-ethnic background.

But with over 90% of the 2.6m population being black, the country looks African.

But does it feel African?

"It looked like home to me when I first arrived. Sometimes I'd make a mistake and speak to people in my Ghanaian language and then I'd suddenly realise, this isn't a Ghana," says Sophie Dawes who grew up in what was formerly called the Gold Coast, now Ghana. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7711767.stm>

VIEWPOINT
Rod Salm

The colourful world supported by coral reefs is under threat as oceans absorb greater quantities of carbon dioxide, says Rod Salm. In this week's Green Room, he says we must accept that we are going to lose many of these valuable ecosystems, but adds that not all hope is lost.

Imagine all the colour and vibrancy of coral reefs fading away into fuzzy, crumbling greys and browns, and you're left with a coral graveyard that could become the norm

Mine were the first human eyes to see many of the remotest reefs at a time when we really could describe them as pristine.

I would never have dreamed that they were at risk from people, far less than from something as remote then as climate change.

Today, despite the doom and gloom one reads so much about, one can still find reefs that are vibrant, thriving ecosystems.

But sadly, too, there are more and more that look like something from the dark side of the Moon.

These degraded reefs have been ravaged by destructive fishing, bad land use practices that smother them with silt, and pollutants that foster disease and overgrowth by seaweeds.

More alarmingly, there are large areas that are killed off and degraded by warming seas linked to climate change.

We've all read that global warming poses a tremendous threat to our planet, and that coral reefs will face an uphill battle to survive in warmer waters.

Yet the greatest threat to our oceans and to all of its wonders is little known, nearly impossible to see, and potentially devastating. This is not climate change, but does stem from the excess carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7709103.stm>

Finance ministers and central bank presidents from the world's 20 major economies have been meeting at a G20 summit in Sao Paulo in Brazil.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said countries see the need for better coordination towards economic issues.

"All of us know it's a meeting at a time of historic challenge," he said.

"The food and fuel crises of the recent years have now been supplemented by the blow of a financial crisis. Virtually no country has escaped... all countries are moving into a danger zone." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7718277.stm>

By Heather Sharp BBC News, Jerusalem

The violence of the last intifada has waned, but a gloomy picture of the Holy City has emerged during campaigning for Tuesday's mayoral elections.

Jerusalem residents give their views on the Holy City In pictures

Soaring land prices, dirty streets, economic stagnation, job shortages, the flight of the city's young people and secular Jews and the construction of a light rail system that has caused traffic to all but grind to a halt are all common gripes.

It ranked bottom in a recent survey of the quality of life in Israel's 15 largest cities.

The future of Jerusalem, home to some 740,000 people and a pilgrimage site for Muslims, Christians and Jews, is hotly contested.

Israelis see it as their capital, Palestinians want to have theirs here too.

And though many of its residents have great affection for the city, it has a reputation in Israel as a "religious, backwards town", said student Jay Rosen, 27, at a recent debate between the mayoral candidates.

"This is the capital and it needs to start acting like one," said Mr Rosen.

MAYORAL CANDIDATES Nir Barkat Secular high-tech businessman, leading in most polls Meir Porush Ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Israeli MP since 1996, former deputy housing minister, Barkat's closest challenger Arkady Gaydamak Russian-born tycoon, owner of major Israeli football club, currently on trial in absentia in an arms trafficking case in Paris Dan Biron TV executive-turned-bar owner, left-wing candidate from party seeking legalisation of marijuana Obstacles to peace: Jerusalem Diary: Mayoral poster wars

While many major world cities are swamped with new arrivals, about 5,000 more people leave Jerusalem than move in each year.

Raffi Radovan, 35, says he and about 10 of his close friends are among those who have left because they say the city is becoming too religious.

He now commutes from Tel Aviv to his job managing an art gallery at the Israel Museum.

Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox, or Haredi, community, with its large families and high birth rate, has grown from about a tenth of the city's Jewish population in the 1960s to between a quarter and a third.

But it is its growing influence in the municipality, and the spread of close-knit communities of black-hatted, strictly-observant Haredim into previously secular and mixed neighbourhoods that causes most ire.

I feel less and less that this is my city Raffi Radovan, secular ex-Jerusalemite

Mr Radovan sighs as he talks of the hostile graffiti that appeared on the door of a small artspace he opened and his friend's problems employing Jews in his bar on the Sabbath.

"I feel less and less that this is my city," he says.

Haredim are known for moving en-masse into secular or mixed neighbourhoods by paying above market value for apartments, pushing up prices.

With the new residents come fears that, like in long-standing Haredi neighbourhoods, women dressed "immodestly" (which usually means not covered from neck to ankle and wrist, with trousers considered unacceptable) will be harassed.

They worry too that cars moving on the Sabbath will be stoned, and newspapers and non-kosher food will disappear from the shops - which will be forced to close on Saturdays.

"I just felt that you can't really fight it," said Mr Radovan. "It's them and us - we are all Jewish, but the way we think is different, the way we act, where we shop, it's a totally different culture." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7719845.stm>

In "cybersquatting", likely addresses are bought cheaply in the hope of selling to the businesses involved, or as a medium for advertising.

Domain names for the merged Bank of America/Merrill Lynch as well as for Lloyds TSB/HBOS have been snapped up.

In one case, the domain name has already been listed on eBay, with the site directing visitors to the auction.

As reports of Lehman Brothers' intent to sell itself first surfaced last Friday, cybersquatters had already spotted Barclays, HSBC and Bank of America as potential buyers.

Accordingly, barclayslehman.com, hsbclehman.com, hsbclehmanbrothers.com and bofalehman.com had been acquired.

With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America this week, cybersquatters registered bankofamericamerrilllynch.com and bofaml.com.

There are opportunists out there waiting to pounce on any event Jonathan Robinson

In the UK, speculation surrounding the merger of Lloyds TSB with HBOS prompted yet more cybersquatting, so that now lloydstsbhbos.com and hboslloydstsb.com are owned.

"It shows how there are opportunists out there waiting to pounce on any event," says Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer of NetNames.

"We've seen it in the case of celebrity with David Beckham going to LA Galaxy, we've seen it in the case of tragedy, with Princess Diana's death. There's a subtle twist on the whole thing now, which is the anticipation of the event." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7621647.stm>

By Duncan Bartlett BBC News, Antwerp

It is within the city's Jewish community that most of the jobs have been lost - particularly among the Hasidic Jews who adhere strictly to religious laws.

Out of about 2,000 Hasidic families in Antwerp, 1,000 are now headed by a man who has no job.

Unemployment of 50% would cause great hardship among any group of people. But for Hasidic Jews it brings special problems.

Women do not usually work - they raise large families, with nine children on average - and the children are often given private religious education.

Jobs move abroad

In fact, diamonds still make a lot of money in Antwerp - but it is shared among a small elite.

Setting up as an independent dealer has become almost impossible.

But Alan Majerczyk, a director of the Antwerp Diamond Bourse, denies there is any prejudice against any particular group.

"It's a multi-racial environment and we all get along well - it's an example to the outside world," he says.

"Like any other industry, we couldn't afford to pay the heavy labour costs in Europe, so the polishing moved to India and China, but at a certain stage the goods come back. Antwerp gets 80% of all the rough trade and 50% of the polished diamonds."

Africa, too, has taken some of Antwerp's jobs. Nations where diamonds are mined, like Botswana, now insist the lucrative cutting process is also done within the country.

The use of lasers to cut the diamonds has also reduced the number of jobs.

Most of the Jews who work in the diamond trade are self-employed, which allows them to observe the Sabbath and religious holidays.

Nowadays, though, the industry is increasingly dominated by huge businesses like de Beers, which made nearly $500m (£280m) profit last year.

Some of the Jewish men who have been left without work are now starting to retrain in other professions.

Sam Friedman believes it is vital for men from his Hasidic community to gain new skills, and so he offers them night classes in accounting, languages and computers.

"Training and education are very important for the Hasidic people to get a job, because in the Jewish schools they only learn about Jewish law and Jewish history but not about general things," he says.

"So it's very important after religious school to train some more so that you can find a job."

Cultural clash

Even among other Orthodox, non-Hasidic Jews, there is a major debate over education.

Tradition-minded parents often do not let their children go to university, partly for fear that its secular environment will taint their religious beliefs.

Marcel Engelstein is a successful businessman in Antwerp who believes the changes in the diamond industry present an opportunity for positive change.

"We have here a community connected to Israel - which has developed a lot of hi-tech businesses. We can use our brain power to bring the companies here," says Mr Engelstein.

"The Hasidic and Orthodox people are using their brains all the time when they are learning the Talmud [religious law and history].

"So it's very easy to teach them new things. They need a bit of guidance and a bit of will power, of course, but I think we can really get them to do that."

Some people already have learned new skills - like Daniel Verner, a young man who is making a name for himself locally as an architect.

His father used to work in diamonds and his brothers still do. But he decided to go to university and then set up his own business.

"Twenty years ago people would proclaim you crazy for not going into diamonds, and today it's just the opposite," he says.

"When people try to look for jobs outside diamonds they gain respect, because everybody knows the situation is much more difficult today than it was back then."

Mr Verner believes that loosening the links between the Jewish community and the diamond trade will transform the society.

Intel rolls out computer chip with six brains 

Intel on Monday rolled out its first chip with six brains, unveiling a "multi-core" microprocessor that boosts computing muscle while cutting back on electricity use.

The world's leading computer chip maker's new Xeon 7400 series microprocessor is tailored for businesses that want to boost server performance while conserving on space and energy.

Intel executives say the Xeon 7400 is part of an "incremental migration" toward chips with limitless numbers of "cores" that seamlessly and efficiently share demanding computer processing tasks.

Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices have two-core and four-core chips on the market.

The six-core chip delivers 50 percent more performance than its quad-core predecessor while using 10 percent less electric power, according to Intel enterprise group vice president Tom Kilroy.

Electricity and cooling expenses can account for nearly half the cost of running company computer servers.

"It isn't just performance and energy efficiency but the use models," Kilroy said of the boon promised by increasingly powerful chips. "One of the major ones is virtualization."

Multi-core chips are boons to computing trends including high-definition video viewing online; businesses offering services applications on the Internet; and single servers running many "virtual" machines.

"There is a realization that we will be able to bring things to market that weren't feasible four years ago," MySpace vice president of technical operations Richard Buckingham said while discussing the new chip's potential.

MySpace is among a growing number of Internet companies using "virtualization" to essentially multiply the usefulness of computing hardware with software that creates simulated computers complete with operating systems.

"When developers ask you for something you can pull it out of the air, literally," VeriSign  engineering director John Bosco said of virtualization made possible by multi-core chips.

Multi-core chips basically allow computers to divvy up tasks to work on simultaneously instead of having a single powerful processor handle a job in a linear style from start to finish.

"It helps keep things exciting. Our development community has embraced the multi-core era," Bosco said.

The move comes four weeks after the Competition Commission said BAA may have to sell three of its UK airports because of market dominance concerns.

Several firms are said to be interested in buying Gatwick, which has been valued at £1.8bn by regulators.

Potential bidders include Australian company Macquarie, Germany's Fraport, and the owners of Manchester airport.

Virgin Atlantic said it would also be interested in bidding as part of a consortium.

"We are delighted that BAA has ended the uncertainty over Gatwick's future," said Steve Ridgway, Virgin Atlantic chief executive.

"Virgin Atlantic would relish the opportunity to bid for Gatwick as part of a consortium and inject our customer service expertise into any future running of the airport."

However there were misgivings at the Unite trade union, whose national officer, Steve Turner, said: "It simply beggars belief that a 'For Sale' sign can be hung across the country's second largest airport.

"Gatwick is a core component of the national infrastructure and an essential part of the UK's aviation sector, yet it is to be flogged off with little care for the wider social impact." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7620293.stm>

The findings, outlined in the magazine History Today, suggest the telescope's creator could have been a spectacle-maker based in Gerona, Spain.

The first refracting telescopes were thought to have appeared in the Netherlands in 1608.

But the first examples may actually have been made for Spanish merchants.

The inventor, according to historian Nick Pelling, could have been a man called Juan Roget, who died between 1617 and 1624.

The idea subsequently travelled north to the Netherlands, where, in 1608, three separate individuals claimed the invention as their own.

Patently false?

The Dutch spectacle-maker Hans Lipperhey submitted his application for a patent on 2 October 1608.

On 14 October, reports of another man demonstrating a telescope surfaced in the Netherlands.

And on 17 October 1608, another spectacle-maker, Jacob Metius of Alkmaar, put in an independent patent for a telescope.

But Mr Pelling finds the traditional account lacking: "Throughout history, there have been cases of people inventing things all at the same time. But generally, there's a good reason for that. It's because someone had put down a challenge.

He told BBC News: "In 1608, no one had presented a challenge - there's no perception of a challenge. It doesn't make any sense. Three people did not invent the telescope in the space of two weeks."

More recently, other historians have suggested the telescope was first invented in Italy.

Mr Pelling got involved in the area when he came across a reference on the internet to a research paper published in 1959 by a Spanish optometrist and amateur historian by the name of Simon de Guilleuma.

De Guilleuma investigated a reference in a book published in 1609 by the Italian Girolamo Sirtori.

In the book, Sirtori describes a meeting with an aged spectacle maker called Juan Roget in Gerona who he described as the real inventor of the telescope.

Death register

Telescope historians have considered Roget - who hailed from Burgundy in France - too marginal to pursue. But de Guilleuma discovered a reference to the death of his wife in an official register.

He also found official listings for many of Roget's relatives in Barcelona, many of whom were also spectacle-makers. They matched the descriptions detailed by Sirtori, and existed in exactly the places and dates he described.

De Guilleuma did not stop there; he looked for "ulleras" - a Spanish word originally meaning eyeglass, but later used for telescope - in inventories of goods from contemporary deaths in Barcelona.

The earliest was from 10 April 1593 when a Don Pedro de Carolona passed down "a long eyeglass decorated with brass" to his wife.

However, Mr Pelling accepts in his article that this item could have referred to a magnifying lens with a long handle.

But he says a subsequent reference to an "eyeglass/telescope for long sight" from 1608 sounds like a Roget telescope.

Later improvement

According to Mr Pelling, Roget - and his customers - may simply have failed to see the potential for the invention.

"It's a bit like golf courses. The people who make golf courses often go bust. It's the person who buys the course who makes money," said Mr Pelling.

He said in his article in History Today: "Even at the time, I think it was clear that all the Dutch claimants were lying, misleading, misremembering and concealing to various degrees."

Mr Pelling said he had been in contact with de Guilleuma's family and now hoped to be able to view other, unpublished research left by the historian after he died.

The Tuscan astronomer Galileo Galilei would greatly improve on the Dutch designs.

These refracting telescopes used lenses to form an image. In 1616, Galileo's compatriot Nicolo Zucchi developed the first reflecting telescope - which used an arrangement of mirrors to create an image. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7617426.stm>

By Matt Frei BBC News, Washington

This week is overshadowed by the bleak realisation that we are all at the mercy of forces well beyond our control.

In Texas, tens of thousands have been mauled by nature's teeth in the form of Hurricane Ike.

Elsewhere, we are all - to some extent - being mauled in the tussle between greed and fear that motivates Wall Street.

Greed has ruled the roost for the past quarter of a century, with so many of us playing the happy addict as the banks willingly supplied us with easy credit and irresponsible mortgages.

Now fear is having a field day. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/americas/2008/vote_usa_2008/7620124.stm>

By Nick Thorpe BBC News, Hungary

The European Union's freedom of movement laws mean Eastern Europe's large population of Roma (Gypsies) is now spreading west.

The effect of this influx on national economies, as well as the deep poverty of the EU's Roma, are high on the agenda as the first summit on Roma integration within the EU begins in Brussels.

Italy and Spain have received the most Roma, mainly from Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, where they make up more than 10% of the population.

Italy has witnessed the most serious effects - murders blamed on Roma, and revenge attacks by vigilante groups, followed by controversial government attempts to fingerprint Roma immigrants.

In Hungary, there is tension between Roma and non-Roma, after a teacher was beaten to death by a Roma mob in one village, and attacks on a lorry driver and his family in another - both after road traffic accidents involving Roma children.

The creation of a "Hungarian Guard", by far-right groups who arrive in villages after such incidents, is fuelling fears of an explosion.

Integration key

"I don't really know how the EU could help," said Andras Ujlaky, head of the Chance for Children Foundation in Hungary.

"But perhaps they could start by pressurising national governments to implement their own declared policies in housing, employment and education."

There weren't many opportunities... This was the chance for me! Jozsef Nagy Trainee customs officer

In Hungary, an earlier policy to give money to schools for the mentally disabled, to which a disproportionate number of Roma were sent, was abandoned when it was realised that it encouraged segregation.

Now funds are focused on mainstream schools which accept more Roma - though they impose limits of 25% Roma in a class.

There has been a wave of school closures in recent years in Hungary, as population figures fall.

That cuts both ways for the Roma. When Roma ghetto schools close, and the children are redistributed among schools with an ethnic Hungarian majority, it helps integration efforts.

The town of Hodmezovasarhely in south-eastern Hungary has been a pioneer, with five out of 11 primary schools closed last year alone.

But in far-flung villages with a majority Roma population, Roma and non-Roma parents alike are upset when local schools close and children are bussed off each day to towns.

The links between the parents and the schools are broken.

An alternative policy, supported by opposition parties, would be to improve the facilities and standard of teaching in existing schools.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7618399.stm>

Intel warns of falling revenues

In the latest sign of lower consumer spending worldwide, Intel said its revenues for October to December would probably be 14% down on predictions.

It now projects fourth-quarter revenue of $9bn (£6bn), down from its previous forecast of $10.5bn.

Analysts said the new figure was much worse than expected. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7725991.stm>

Catching up with the 'internet pimps'

By Chris Summers, BBC News

They are thought to have made millions of pounds from women trafficked from Asia to the UK for use in the sex trade.

Scotland Yard launched Operation Gib in December last year after receiving intelligence that women had been trafficked into the UK and housed in 20 brothels in London.

Every night thousands of men trawl websites in the UK advertising women offering sex for sale.

Many of them are run by prostitutes, or escorts as they often like to describe themselves, who are essentially self-employed entrepreneurs using the internet to cut out the pimps.

But some are advertising women who have been trafficked into the country and are being exploited for profit.

Oriental Gems was one such "online brothel", which as its name suggested, specialised in girls from the South East Asia.

A gallery on the site showed photographs of more than 60 naked and semi-naked women. Many of them were effectively commodities who had been traded and invested in by "bondholders".
   
It can't be right in this day and age that young women coming to this country should be sold off effectively as slaves to work for free until their debts are expunged

One of the women - advertised on the website as "Helen" - had been "bought" from her traffickers by a syndicate of two women and a man for £11,000 and then told she would have to pay her "bondholders" £30,000 to win her own freedom.

Brian O'Neill, prosecuting, said she effectively had to sleep with 300 men, at £100 a time, to buy herself out of a modern-day form of slavery. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7720605.stm>

India battles diabetes 'epidemic'

By Steve Schifferes Economics reporter, BBC News

The location of the meeting - in the plush Mount Washington Hotel in rural Bretton Woods, New Hampshire - was designed to ensure that the delegates would have no distractions, and no pressure from lobbyists or Congressmen, as they worked on their plans for post-war reconstruction.

The meeting was born out of the determination by US President Franklin D Roosevelt and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill to ensure post-war prosperity through economic co-operation, avoiding the economic conflicts between countries in the 1930s that they believed contributed to the drift to war.

We have had to perform at one and the same time the tasks appropriate to the economist, to the financier, to the politician, to the journalist, to the propagandist, to the lawyer, to the statesman-even, I think, to the prophet and to the soothsayer John Maynard Keynes

The principal negotiators at the meeting were the US, represented by the US Treasury's Harry Dexter White, and the UK's John Maynard Keynes, who was serving as UK Treasury adviser despite declining health.

And chairing the proceedings was Henry Morgenthau, the US Treasury Secretary, from the only country that was likely to emerge from the war with a strengthened economy.

President Roosevelt told the conference: "The economic health of every country is a proper matter of concern to all its neighbours, near and distant."

Fixed exchange rates

The meeting was part of the process led by the US to create a new international world order based on the rule of law, which also led to the creation of the United Nations and the strengthening of other international organisations.

The delegates focused on two key issues: how to establish a stable system of exchange rates, and how to pay for rebuilding the war-damaged economies of Europe.

And they established two international organisations to deal with these problems.

The International Monetary Fund was set up to enforce a set of fixed exchange rates that were linked to the dollar.

Countries in balance of payments difficulties could receive short-term help from the IMF to avoid devaluation, and it could sanction changes in exchange rates when necessary.

The World Bank (officially the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) was set up to make long-term loans "facilitating the investment of capital for productive purposes, including the restoration of economies destroyed or disrupted by war [and] the reconversion of productive facilities to peacetime needs".<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7725157.stm>

Prostitute users face clampdown

How dangerous are networking sites?

Colombia scam: 'I lost my money'

Jamaican music lifts lid on abuse

Nabokov's final literary striptease

Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers have set out a series of steps to be taken before policing and justice can be devolved.

The executive will meet on Thursday, 20 November, and on a weekly basis until business is up-to-date, they said.

There is no timetable, but both parties are committed to completing the process

Under a special clause, temporary arrangements for electing a justice minister will be replaced by permanent rules by May 2012.

Speaking at a news conference at Stormont, First Minister Peter Robinson said there had been "a satisfactory resolution of the most difficult issues".

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said "significant progress" had been made.

Both ministers said they wanted devolution to happen "without undue delay".

"We are both agreed that policing and justice functions should be devolved, every leading politician in this community is committed to this outcome," Mr McGuinness said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7735489.stm>

Justice officials say Baltasar Garzon complied with demands that inquiries should be handled by courts in the regions where crimes were committed.

Judge Garzon announced last month that the opening of mass graves from Spain's 1936-39 civil war could start.

But Spain's top criminal court later suspended the exhumations.

It imposed the halt to allow it to rule on whether Judge Garzon had the competence to launch the inquiry.

Judge Garzon's supporters condemned the ruling as "brutally inhumane".

But others said the judge's intervention violated the 1977 Amnesty Law, that pardoned politically-motivated crimes by General Franco's friends and foes alike.

'Delicate transition'

In October, Judge Garzon named Gen Francisco Franco and more than 30 members of his regime as instigators of alleged crimes against humanity.

In a 68-page edict, the judge referred to 114,000 alleged victims who "disappeared" over a 15-year period, following Gen Franco's military uprising against the elected Second Republic government in July 1936.

Judge Garzon also said that mass exhumations could start - including, controversially, at the grave where poet Federico Garcia Lorca is thought to be buried.

But earlier this month, Spain's top criminal court, the National Audience, ruled that "the activities related to the exhumation of bodies must be suspended while this court resolves questions raised by the public prosecutor regarding the competence of the judge to make this move".

Its ruling followed an appeal from the public prosecutor, who had said Franco-era crimes could not be examined because of the Amnesty Law.

By guaranteeing that the past would not be raked over, the law underpinned Spain's delicate transition from dictatorship to democracy, the BBC's Steve Kingston in Madrid says.

White Horse Village part four - the betrayal

By Carrie Gracie BBC Newsnight Remoteness and poverty sheltered White Horse Village from much of the turmoil of 20th century China The Chinese leadership unveiled a rural revolution in Beijing last month, declaring it difficult but necessary to bring fast growth to the countryside. A thousand miles away, standing in White Horse Village 'difficult but necessary' feels like an understatement. Rows of leaking breeze block cells now house the farmers who've seen their fields seized and their homes demolished to make way for a new city. The past is gone, and the future is taking shape more slowly and painfully than originally promised. We've been coming to White Horse Village for two and a half years now. Portrait 'in miniature' Hemmed in behind daunting mountains to the north of the Yangtze, its remoteness and poverty sheltered it from much of the turmoil of 20th century China and its inhabitants went on farming the way their forbears had for thousands of years. But White Horse Village is now being recruited to play its part in the 21st century. People in China's cities are now more than three times as rich as their country cousins and 150 million farmers, including almost all the young and able of White Horse Village, have flooded to the cities. Farmers were told to move out of their homes or face eviction Now Beijing has decreed that it's time to build the cities back home and transform these migrants from people who just make the goods to the people who consume them. White Horse Village is a portrait in miniature of one of the most important stories in China: whether Beijing can take tens of thousands of villages like this and drag them into the narrative of a rising 21st century superpower. On our first visit in 2006, the planners told us that within three years, a hill and a village would be flattened to make way for a city of half a million people and that a motorway through the mountains would deliver the world right to that city's doorstep. The villagers were promised a fine new high school complete with laboratories, libraries and swimming pool. Their land was already gone and they would have to move out of their farmhouses, but in exchange they'd each have an apartment and a shop front, and their children would get an education to equal the best in China. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7727839.stm>

By Dan Collyns BBC News, Lima

The wealthy periods came from guano - sea bird droppings used for fertiliser - in the mid-19th Century, rubber came shortly afterwards, then a later boom in silver and gold.

Many Peruvians remember recent busts, like the hyperinflation which marked the end of current President Alan Garcia's first term in office in the late 1980s.

But Mr Garcia, who swore not to repeat his mistakes when he took office in 2006, is now presiding over a very different economy which he says is well-placed to withstand the international financial crisis.

As Peru hosts 21 heads of state for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, many of them - particularly China - appear to agree, and Peru has been signing a number of free trade pacts. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7737165.stm>

The Harardhere-born military man advises the town's elders on security matters and is in his fifties.

Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991 - when its last national government was forced from power.

The super-tanker is close to our coast. It is a very, very long ship. Some time ago we had our own problems of piracy in our town but that has not happened lately.

The people who have been hijacking these ships in our seas are not from our region. We do not know any of the guys on the super-tanker and they haven't made any contact with us.

You know, our problem is not piracy. It is illegal dumping.

These problems have been going for sometime and the world knows about it. The Americans have been here in the region for a long time now - they know about the pollution.

Instead, no, the world is only talking about the pirates and the money involved. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7740417.stm>

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

The report counters the stereotypical view held by many parents and teachers that such activity is a waste of time.

More than 800 teenagers and parents took part in the three-year US project.

"They are learning the technological skills and literacy needed for the contemporary world," said the report's author, Dr Mimi Ito.

"They are learning how to communicate online, craft a public identity, create a home page, post links. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7740895.stm>

By Richard Bilton BBC News

He is a sugarcane cutter and it is harvest time. He leaves home as dawn breaks. Climbing on board a bus packed with other cutters, he heads out into a landscape covered in ripe sugarcane.

Across Brazil at this time of year hundreds of thousands of cutters are making the same journey, sharing the long, hard days of the harvest.

"I'm used to it now," he says, "but it's exhausting. I wish I could do something else but this is what I have to do to eat."

The work of the harvest has not changed much since the Portuguese introduced sugarcane to Brazil 500 years ago - it involves machetes and hard labour.

The difference is that the cane hacked from these fields is part of an energy revolution. Brazil believes sugarcane can provide an alternative to petrol.

The sugarcane cut in these fields will be distilled into ethanol and then used to power cars and lorries across Brazil, or be shipped around the world.

With an industry that began in the 1970s, biofuel has made Brazil an agricultural superpower. The country was hit hard by the oil crisis and the then military government launched a subsidised drive to embrace the alternative energy source.

A man gets fed up with this day after day. But we need to be strong. We need to pay the bills. Cicero Montiro de Silva Quick guide: Biofuels

Now, Brazil is the world's second biggest producer and is also considered the most efficient. Biofuel - if based on sugarcane as opposed to corn - produces carbon dioxide emissions about 90% lower than petrol.

So it is hardly surprising that, for a while at least, biofuel looked like the energy of the future.

But Brazil has watched as, around the world, the biofuel dream began to get complicated.

Environmentalists - once ardent supporters of generating energy from plants - now describe with horror the consequences of increased production of biofuel crops.

They talk of forests and villages cleared so biofuel crops can grow, of food prices forced up when land is diverted to growing crops for biofuels, and of human rights abuses. Countries, like the UK, that have embraced biofuels and demand a small percentage in every litre of petrol sold, have started to think twice.

But the Brazilian authorities argue that sugarcane covers only 5% of Brazil's arable land. Food prices, they insist, are not affected and the rainforests will be left alone. Slavery and child labour have been a problem but strong laws and big fines are stamping it out. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7740397.stm>

By Lucy Williamson BBC News, Jakarta

A dozen or so of Indonesia's best known faces - actors, comics, musicians - all crammed into the tiny back office of a Jakarta PR company, killing time with gossip before their class begins.

These are the new secret weapons of Indonesian politics.

Would-be politicians who are swapping celebrity for public service and running for parliament next year, under the banner of the National Mandate Party, or Pan.

"A mutual love affair," Pan calls it. And if that is the case, then these classes are the pre-marital counselling.

The party's new celebrity candidates may be lovable, but - as democracies the world over have discovered - putting people with no experience on the campaign trail comes with its own risks. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7739820.stm>

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Part of a field called "cognitive computing", the research will bring together neurobiologists, computer and materials scientists and psychologists.

As a first step in its research the project has been granted $4.9m (£3.27m) from US defence agency Darpa. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7740484.stm>

A spokesman for the al-Shabab group, Abdelghafar Musa, said hijacking a Muslim-owned ship was a major crime and they would pursue those responsible.

The pirates are thought to be trying to obtain a multi-million dollar ransom.

The ship, the Sirius Star, is believed to be be anchored off the Somali port of Haradheere.

It has an international crew of 25 people and is carrying $100m (£67m) worth of crude oil. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7743204.stm>

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 494 points or 6.5% to end at 8,046.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 climbed 6.3%.

The NBC television network reported the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner, would be nominated as treasury secretary.

Mr Obama is expected to announce his economic team on Monday.

The NBC report was welcomed by investors in what has been yet another volatile week of trading amid ongoing fears over the scale of the economic contraction.

"It is a bit of good news in that it takes the uncertainty out," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading.

Mr Geithner has worked closely with outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in addressing the credit crisis and finding ways to boost the economy.

The 47-year-old played a crucial role in talks with Lehman Brothers before the investment bank went bankrupt.

He was also instrumental in the deals involving insurer AIG and JP Morgan, another bank. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7743226.stm>

Sorious Samura catches shop-keepers selling aid By Sorious Samura BBC Panorama reporter Where I come from in West Africa, we have a saying: "A fool at 40 is a fool forever", and most African countries have now been independent for over 40 years. Most are blessed with all the elements to help compete on a global stage - abundant natural resources, a young population and the climate and conditions to be a major agricultural force. And yet today, my continent, which is home to 10% of the world's population, represents just 1% of global trade. I have no doubt we have to take responsibility for our failures. We can't afford to keep playing the blame game. But when 50 years of foreign aid has failed to lift Africa out of poverty, could corruption be the reason? Could that really be all there is to it?

Some 7.3m people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008.

This is an increase of 25% compared to a growth of just 3% for the PC-based net audience - now more than 35m.

It also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7748372.stm>

By Ben Shore BBC Europe Business Reporter, Brussels

It is a rather odd situation for the Commission which, as the civil service of the European Union is more often heard handing out sober advice on keeping budgets in check.

But we are living through strange times and the so called "European Recovery Action Plan" is testament to just how strange they are.

The recovery plan is intended to be a coordinated stimulus package, meaning that all the 27 member states of the EU will act at the same time to invest and spend more or - as in the case of the UK - put more money into the hands of citizens through tax cuts.

But the details remain unclear. We are still not exactly sure how much money will be at stake.

Officials believe that by acting as one block, within a small window of time, the combined budgetary expansion of the EU will have more impact than if countries acted in a piecemeal fashion

A figure of 1% of the total economy of the EU has been mooted, which amounts to around 130bn euros (£110bn). <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7749275.stm>

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Johannesburg

Buses arrive every day dropping migrant workers in the city, but not many have time to go back home because they are so busy working.

But Warren doesn't take people, he takes cargo and money to migrant workers' families.

They trust him to take sacks of maize meal, rice, oil and hard currency back home where people desperately need them.

Warren is one of around 20 bus drivers, standing around chatting and chomping on watermelon, waiting to fill their buses.

"We take things for about 20 or 30 people at a time, depending on what they want to send," he says.

Expensive

A small box can cost 200 rand ($20, £13) to send to Harare, bigger sacks cost much more.

It wasn't easy to trust them the first time David, Migrant worker in Johannesburg

They charge a 20% commission on 1,000 rand.

But Zimbabweans don't have much choice as electronic money transfers don't reach rural areas.

And their own currency is now totally worthless, teachers can't even buy a loaf of bread with their monthly pay.

A ragged cardboard sign shows his destinations, but he'll take a delivery right to the customer's door and then phone them when he's back to say "job done". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7752492.stm>

Their actions cost EU healthcare providers 3bn euros ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) in savings between 2000 and 2007, it said.

It added that drug firms used legal action and multiple patents to stop rivals getting to market.

Drug firms said the "perfectly lawful" measures were justified to protect investment in research and development.

Market access

Generic drug companies - which sell cheaper versions of drugs once the patent has expired - have long complained that it is difficult to get their drugs to market in Europe.

The Commission said that innovators filed multiple applications to stop generic drugs getting to market - in one case, there were 1,300 patents for a single drug.

The report found that owners of original drugs often intervened in national approval procedures for generic medicines.

There were nearly 700 cases of reported patent litigation and more than 200 settlements between brand name drug companies and generic companies.

More than 10% of these settlements limited the entry of the generic drug to the market. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7754048.stm>

Home work being closely watched

By Ian Hardy Reporter, BBC Click Debby Baksh likes to have her hard work monitored With the global economy slowing down and office space being sold off, workers are facing more pressure to hold on to their jobs. The latest tracking technology means that even those working from home are equally under the spotlight as their activities are monitored remotely. Debby Baksh is one of thousands of customer sales agents hired and trained online by US firm Arise to answer calls at home. In her Brooklyn living room, she supplies phone services to some of the biggest companies in America and around the world. Close look She is allowed to answer six calls an hour and must try to make these last six minutes or more. "So they want to make sure you're doing your job and selling a lot," said Ms Baksh. "Once your calls are over six minutes they know that you're being very productive, that you're selling the items for them." Her conversations with customers are recorded and analysed by her bosses, and her performance is monitored constantly by software on her computer. If she steps away for any reason without logging off, the machine will know about it - but Ms Baksh likes it because it shows she is hard at work. Her 100% track record ensure she has first choice of working hours, while also receiving a steady stream of high-quality customers likely to buy. Arise spokesman John Riordan said calls were routed to staff based on their skills and earlier performance. "We also have the ability to match customer demographics with agent demographics, because after all, we all like to buy products and be serviced by people like ourselves," he said. But telephone tracking technology has its critics. They point out that remote workers should be aware that getting sacked is only one click away, as most systems are set up to ensure they never have legal status as an employee. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7755043.stm>

Seeking a passport to a new life

By Jennifer Pak
BBC News, Beijing

Some say Gong Li, star of the film Memoirs of a Geisha, has turned her back on her Chinese fans.

But the actress is not the only Chinese citizen to seek another country's passport.

They do it for convenience, to improve job prospects and as a safety net.

Despite China's increasing economic and political power, a Chinese passport is still seen as restrictive by many of its citizens.

Gong Li, whose husband is from Singapore, is just one of many film stars who have given up their Chinese passport.

According to news reports, Hong Kong film star Jet Li holds US citizenship.

And Zhang Ziyi, the star of kung fu movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, holds a Hong Kong residency card.

Gong Li's passport switch led to a commentary in the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper.

"We should think about why our laws, our system and cultural society have churned out so many of these so-called 'super citizens', people who live in China but their hearts are set on being a citizen in another country," it said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7754179.stm>