Policing the World (Still):

Within minutes of the result of the referendum becoming known, some of the wonkiest minds in Europe were speculating as to how the European Union could dig itself out of the Ireland-shaped hole that it had fallen into.

Some options are too horrible to contemplate; the idea of reopening the treaty for wholesale renegotiation is one. Seven long years of institutional navel gazing have already been spent creating the incomprehensible mess that is the Lisbon Treaty.

There is no appetite whatsoever among diplomats and officials to start the whole thing again.

For the same reason the option of just scrapping the treaty and carrying on as before is medicine that is probably too ghastly to swallow voluntarily.

Even if several studies have shown that the Union of 27 member states functions pretty well with the institutional structure designed for 15, there are serious players that want the changes laid out in the Treaty and will not give them up without a fight at the say-so of fewer than a million stroppy Irish voters.

That's why, in among the expressions of regret over and respect for the result, Europe's leaders also called for ratification in other EU countries to go ahead. They want to leave open the door that the Irish have tried to slam shut. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7454427.stm>

More confidential government files were found on a commuter train earlier this week, it has been revealed.

The Independent on Sunday says it was handed the documents, which cover fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering.

The files were found on the same day as the BBC was handed top secret papers on al-Qaeda. A Treasury spokesman said the government was "extremely concerned".

The documents, about a meeting of financial crime experts, apparently include briefing notes for a meeting of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to be held in 11 Downing Street next week.

The papers were found on train bound for London Waterloo on 11 June, the same day that another batch of papers relating to intelligence assessments of Iraq and al-Qaeda were handed to the BBC after being left by a senior official on a train.

BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said it was uncertain whether the latest documents were also top secret.

The documents seen by the BBC should not have left Whitehall but it is not yet clear if the new files were permitted to have been taken out, our correspondent added.

"Some of the information is already on the public domain, but another lapse is deeply embarrassing for the government," she said.

A Treasury spokesman said: "We are extremely concerned about what has happened and we will be taking steps to ensure that it doesn't happen in the future."

The confidential files were said to include details of how trade and banking systems could be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7455084.stm>

Traditionalists in the Anglican Church have been angered by reports that two gay clergymen have exchanged vows in a version of a marriage ceremony.

The service, at St Bartholomew the Great Church in the City of London last month, used formal rites and was said to be the first in the Anglican Church.

The Reverend Peter Cowell and the Reverend Dr David Lord were already civil partners.

The couple are said to have exchanged vows and rings in front of hundreds of guests.

Anglicans worldwide are split over homosexuality and conservatives have condemned the service as blasphemous.

Critics of say the wording of a traditional wedding expressly defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

The Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Reverend Henry Orombi, told the Sunday Telegraph: "The leadership tried to deny that this would happen, but now the truth is out.

"Our respect for the Church of England will erode unless we see a return to traditional teaching."

But liberals in the Church say the Bible should be reinterpreted in line with contemporary experience.

Under Church of England guidance, gay priests can enter civil partnerships as long as they remain celibate.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani said Pakistan did not interfere with other countries and would not allow any interference in its affairs.

His warning came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to send troops over the border into Pakistan to confront militants based there.

He said his nation had the right to retaliate in "self-defence" when militants crossed over from Pakistan.

But Mr Gilani responded that the border between their two countries was too long to police.

"Neither do we interfere in anyone else's matters, nor will we allow anyone to interfere in our territorial limits and our affairs," Mr Gillani told the Associated Press news agency.

"We want a stable Afghanistan. It is in our interest. How can we go to destabilise our brotherly country?"

Mr Karzai's remarks came two days after Taleban fighters attacked an Afghan jail, freeing some 900 inmates, including 350 Taleban members.

The Afghan president has long pleaded for Pakistan and international forces to confront militants in Pakistan but has never before threatened to send troops over the border.

He said: "Afghanistan has the right of self-defence. When they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill coalition troops it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7456019.stm>

If you asked most journalists whether a story was worth their life, they would say absolutely not.

I am always struck by what is left of a person's last few hours when I see bodies in mortuaries and back alleys and wrecked buildings and all the other places where people end up who have died violently.

Small, even trivial thoughts can find their way past the overwhelming and hideous fact that their lives are over.

What about their clothes? Did they think they were going to die when they put on their socks? And the knots in their shoelaces, tied by fingers that now are dead. What were they thinking when they were doing them up?

Perhaps the day was already going badly. Was fear already pulling at their minds and their guts? Or did they have no idea what was coming?

If, as a journalist in a dangerous place, you worry that you are getting dressed for the last time every morning before you go to work, then you are probably in the wrong business.

You need to know the risks, and to take precautions, but to be calm about them too, and even to deny them.

That cannot be done without believing that you will make it through the day, and that if you have some close calls you will be able to make jokes about them when you are having dinner.

You need to be able to deal with danger, to have had some training and done some planning if you are going to function in the realm of time and fear that James Fenton describes so brilliantly in the poem that was commissioned to go with the new memorial.

You have to believe that you will stay alive because you are being careful, or because your experience will see you through, and it helps too if you are young and feel indestructible and the sun is shining and you just know it could not possibly happen to you.

On a day of heavy rainstorms and sudden, brilliant sunshine in Kosovo, a new constitution came into force, designed to put content into the framework of the independence declared in February.

In 14 chapters and 162 provisions, Kosovo is defined as a Parliamentary Republic. The official languages are Albanian and Serbian.

But continuing Serb opposition, and a decision by the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to authorise the continuation of the existing UN mission (Unmik) cast a shadow over what the majority Albanian population had hoped would be a day of celebrations.

Instead, there was a low-key gathering in a sports hall in Pristina on Sunday evening, attended by the president, prime minister and other dignitaries. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7456010.stm>

They are not usually used to the limelight. In fact you might imagine them blinking as they emerge into the sunshine.

The political directors of the foreign policy departments of the great powers are the archetypal bureaucrats - more used to influencing policy behind closed doors, than appearing before the glare of television lights.

But in the stylish residence of the German ambassador to Iran, they took their place alongside the EU foreign policy envoy Javier Solana, in what was, not for the first time in Tehran, a rather bizarre news conference.

The aim was to demonstrate the unity of the international community, in the face of Iran's nuclear programme. In the event, it showed rather the opposite.

Mr Solana's mission was to bring a new package of incentives, designed to encourage Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium - the process the West fears could be used to make a nuclear bomb. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7455890.stm>

An international smuggling ring managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, a former UN arms inspector is to say in a new report.

David Albright, who investigated the ring led by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, found the drawings in 2006.

His report, due to be published later this week but seen in advance by the Washington Post, suggests the plans may have been sold to rogue regimes.

Such a device, unlike less advanced ones, could be fitted to the kind of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries.

In 2004, Dr Khan admitted having passed on nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea before his network was dismantled.

However, in a BBC interview last month, Dr Khan said that the allegations were false and claimed he had been pressured into confessing "in the national interest". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7455249.stm>

Israel controls access, and thanks to its long-running confrontation with groups like Hamas, it has made it near impossible for Gazans to come and go from the tiny strip of territory.

The network is dug deep into the soft sand and runs under the border with Egypt.

I have come to know some of the men who dig Gaza's tunnels, and in so doing I have gone underground to explore their dark and dangerous world.

The most disconcerting thing about crawling on hands and knees through these tunnels is the steady drip, drip of soft soil that keeps falling on you.

Usually it does not, in fact, collapse - despite the fact that many of the tunnels do not have anything to support the roof.

Ms Rice was referring to Israeli plans to build 1,300 new homes in Ramat Shlomo, an area of the West Bank that Israel considers part of Jerusalem.

She spoke after meeting Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

The Palestinians have called the settlement plans a systematic policy to destroy the peace process.

An adult male and a minor were arrested in Susia settlement overnight and will appear in court on Tuesday.

B'Tselem human rights group has been giving Palestinians video cameras as part of its Shooting Back scheme.

The footage shot on 8 June shows four masked figures walk up to some shepherds and attack them with clubs.

The wife, Thamam al-Nawaja, said the settlers had given them 10 minutes to leave an area where they were grazing their animals; when they refused to move the settlers came and beat them.

The footage, which the BBC was given exclusive access to, was shot by Mrs Nawaja's daughter-in-law, who dropped the camera after the initial blows.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the BBC News website that the arrests were made as a result of enquiries at Susia settlement, near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, and the investigation would continue.

He said police were examining the footage closely. They were inquiring into the whether there had been any "provocation" for the apparent attack and whether all the Palestinians in the footage where indeed shepherds.

Friction between Israeli settlers and local Palestinians frequently erupts into violence.

Human rights groups say the Israeli police and the judiciary often show leniency towards the settlers, who live on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war with support from the Israeli state. The authorities deny such accusations.

The main threat facing France is that of terrorism and the country's defence system needs to reflect that, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said.

He was presenting a major overhaul of the military which includes cutting more than 50,000 defence jobs and boosting intelligence resources.

Mr Sarkozy confirmed France would soon rejoin the military command of Nato that it left in 1966.

There is no doubt that France's new defence policy bears the stamp of President Nicolas Sarkozy himself, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

He is the most Atlanticist president to occupy the Elysee Palace since the late 1950s, our correspondent adds.

In 1966, Gen Charles de Gaulle pulled French troops out of Nato's integrated command structure as a gesture of independence from Washington.

Mr Sarkozy said that despite France rejoining Nato command, the country's nuclear forces would remain under strict national control and that France would not relinquish command of its own forces.

"We can renew our relations with Nato without fearing for our independence and without the risk of being unwillingly dragged into a war," Mr Sarkozy in an address on his new defence strategy.

French forces already operate and train alongside their Nato colleagues, but are not part of the integrated military command.

Nato spokesman James Appathurai said the organisation's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, welcomed the move. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7458650.stm>

One of Turkey's best known singers, Bulent Ersoy, has gone on trial charged with attempting to turn the public against military service.

The charges were brought after she suggested it was not worth sacrificing soldiers' lives in Turkey's conflict with the Kurdish separatist PKK group.

The army was conducting a major operation against the PKK in northern Iraq at the time.

Ms Ersoy is Turkey's best known diva, adored across the country, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul.

She was already one of the country's most popular male singers, when in 1981 she underwent a sex-change operation.

But questioning the Turkish military can be a risky business, our correspondent says.

Article 318 of the penal code - dissuading people from military service - is frequently used by the military against its critics.

Meanwhile critics say a separate article, making it a crime to insult the Turkish nation and its institutions, is used to stifle free speech.

Pentagon lawyers testified to the Armed Services Committee that methods such as water-boarding were based on training given to soldiers on resisting torture.

Chairman Sen Carl Levin said they had then "twisted the law to create the appearance of legality".

"Abuse of detainees has never been, is not and will never be the policy of this government," spokesman Tony Fratto said.

"The policy of this government has been to take these detainees and to interrogate them, and get the information that we can get to help protect this country," he added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7460444.stm>

Both the Israelis and the Palestinians of the militant group Hamas have agreed to some form of truce or understanding to go into effect on Thursday.

But what is it that has brought the various parties to this decision? And what are the chances of any truce holding?

While the exact terminology to be used to describe the tacit arrangement between Israel and Hamas is unclear, the purpose of the discussions that have been underway with Egypt as intermediary, is self evident.

Israel wants a halt to the rocket and mortar fire across its border from the Gaza Strip.

A major military foray into the territory is not a terribly palatable option. Many in Israel believe that all avenues must be explored before such a fateful step is taken.

The Hamas leadership wants a period of calm to consolidate itself and relieve the economic pressure on the Palestinian population.

There is benefit too for the Egyptians, who have taken such a prominent role in working with the two sides.

The government in Cairo also wants the pressure-cooker atmosphere in the Gaza Strip relaxed.

Hamas wants entry and exit points into the Gaza Strip opened. Israel wants the return of its captured soldier Gilad Shalit. And it also expects the Egyptians to make a real effort to halt the smuggling of weaponry into the Gaza Strip.

Can Hamas prevail on other more radical Palestinian groups to halt their fire into Israel? Can Egypt get a grip on the weapons smuggling?

And if Israel sees Hamas bolstering its fortifications and arsenal will it refrain from taking action?

Some analysts fear that - truce or no truce - Israel and Hamas are on a collision course and that this is simply a necessary lull before an inevitable military confrontation. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7459747.stm>

A Dutch court is considering whether the UN can be sued for failing to prevent the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.

About 6,000 relatives of those killed have brought a case against the UN and the Dutch government over the killings.

Dutch peacekeepers, under a UN flag, failed to intervene as Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in one week in July 1995.

The UN has refused to take part in the case, claiming immunity - a position backed by the Dutch government.

Dutch government lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers said the UN must be allowed to operate without facing the threat of prosecution.

"The Bosnian Serbs are the ones who are to blame, especially General [Ratko] Mladic. He is a war criminal," he said.

Gen Mladic led the Bosnian Serb forces that overwhelmed Srebrenica. He has been indicted but is still at large.

But Axel Hagedorn, lawyer for the victims' relatives, said: "Functional immunity does not mean that international organisations are wholly above the law.

"Boundless immunity of the UN is both unacceptable and undesirable for the proper functioning and credibility of the UN."

A number of cases have been brought by small numbers of Srebrenica survivors or relatives - including one by two families which opened in a Dutch court on Monday - but this collective action is distinguished by its size, representing thousands of relatives, including the Mothers of Srebrenica group.

The Srebrenica massacre has been established as genocide, by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

The Dutch cabinet resigned in 2002 after a report blamed politicians for sending the Dutch UN troops on an impossible mission.

Now Dutch judges, at The Hague District Court, have to decide whether the UN can be held responsible for the tragedy, under Dutch or international law.

Many nations are likely to be watching the court ruling carefully, says the BBC's Nick Miles.

If it opens up the way for the Netherlands to be sued it could make governments more wary of committing troops for peacekeeping operations - making it still harder for the UN to sustain keep them going. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7461310.stm>

A US court has for the first time rejected the classification of a prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay as an "enemy combatant".

Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Muslim, has been held since he was captured in Afghanistan in 2001.

This follows a US Supreme Court ruling this month that gave foreign Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

Mr Parhat is an ethnic Uighur from Xinjiang province in China, where it meets Central Asia.

The US government argued he was a member of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, which it said had links to al-Qaeda.

Uighur activists are seeking autonomy from China, and there are sporadic outbreaks of violence in the province.

The three-judge panel directed the US military to release Mr Parhat, transfer him or promptly set up a new military tribunal to try him.

The court also specified that Mr Parhat could petition a federal judge for his immediate release in light of the Supreme Court's 12 June decision.

Mr Parhat is one of several Uighurs being held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Their case has become a diplomatic and legal headache for the US, which has tried to find a country willing to accept the Uighurs at the same time as defending its decision to hold them as enemy combatants. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7470405.stm>

In Poland Lech Walesa is a national hero. He is the man who, in the 1980s, led the Solidarity movement, whose defiance of the country's then Communist government started a mass movement which eventually led to its overthrow.

So it is not surprising that a new book published on Monday, accusing the former Nobel peace prize winner of being a communist secret agent in the 1970s, has caused huge controversy here.

The book, Lech Walesa and the Secret Services, was written by two historians from the Institute of National Memory, a state institution created to investigate Nazi and communist-era crimes.

Slawomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk gathered material from the institute's archive, which contains some 86km (54 miles) of communist secret service files.

"In the first half of the 1970s Lech Walesa was treated by the communist secret services as an agent with the codename Bolek," Mr Cenckiewicz told me.

"The documents say he wrote reports and informed on more than 20 people and some of them were persecuted by the communist police. He identified people and eavesdropped on his colleagues at work while they were listening to Radio Free Europe for example."

Similar accusations first surfaced 16 years ago, but this is the first time a state institution has published a comprehensive investigation of Lech Walesa's contacts with the communist secret services.

The authors allege that, as president in the 1990s, Lech Walesa, tried to cover up his past by removing incriminating pages from his secret police file. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7469763.stm>

The zebiba used to be the mark of an elderly Muslim man, the fruit of a lifetime's devotion, but it is increasingly seen on the faces of young Egyptians.

Literally meaning "a raisin", the zebiba is a patch of hardened skin where the forehead touches the ground during Muslim prayers.

Some welcome the trend as a sign of devotion, others say it is ostentatious piety.

Worse still there are fears public displays of faith like the zebiba and the hijab, or headscarf, are spilling over into vigilantism.

Communist rebels mobilize forces for relief work

She kept the apartment in Hong Kong, where her mother lived in another apartment upstairs; her son was setting up house in Shanghai.

It was a typical Hong Kong conversation and, for its middle classes at least, an unsurprising combination of locales and loyalties, with this ethnically Chinese family boasting at least three different kinds of travel documents.

But nowadays in Hong Kong, political manoeuvring has raised the status of passports to indicators of patriotism - a loaded term generally taken here to mean support not just for China as a nation but for the current communist government in Beijing.

How could this come about? Why has Hong Kong's genuinely global society started to look askance at how many passports people have?

So far, local commentators say, the spotlight has been confined to political leaders - whose passports are taken to reflect their political loyalties - rather than ordinary people.

But in a month-long row, fears have grown that the cosmopolitanism at the heart of Hong Kong's autonomy from mainland China could be under threat.

The row blew up after eight deputy ministers and nine political assistants were appointed by Chief Executive Donald Tsang in May.

The idea behind the newly created posts was that political appointees would provide more accountable government than bevies of civil servants.

The obvious problem with the theory, pointed out by Hong Kong's feisty democratic camp, is that without proper elections, there is no mechanism for getting rid of ministers and none has yet taken responsibility for anything.

Instead, say the critics, the appointees are government loyalists who get in the way of professional managers at the expense of taxpayers.

Forced onto the defensive, the government found itself batting off demands for disclosure not just of the high wages paid for ill-defined duties, but of the appointees' nationalities.

The pan-democratic opposition mounted a concerted campaign, questioning the opaque nature of the appointment process, the US$17,000 (£8,600) to US$28,600 monthly salaries being paid to allies of the chief executive, and the new staffers' claimed loyalty to Hong Kong.

The most prominent new appointee, Greg So, is deputy chairman of the pro-Beijing political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB).

Alongside his Hong Kong identity and Chinese nationality, he also holds a Canadian passport.

The question was raised: How patriotic can Mr So be if he has kept his foreign nationality? It then came to light that most of the new appointees held dual nationality.

The government mishandled the affair from the start - refusing to reveal the salaries on offer only to be forced into a humiliating apology and full disclosure.

On the nationality issue, it first stated that the Basic Law, Hong Kong's constitution, did not require deputy ministers to relinquish second passports. Then it refused to reveal who did or did not have extra passports.

The US will not recognise the outcome of Friday's presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe, a senior state department official has said.

Jendayi Frazer told the BBC that Robert Mugabe could not claim a legitimate victory amid the current campaign of violence against the opposition.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of the poll, citing attacks by ruling party militias.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says some 86 of its supporters have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by militias loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party. The government blames the MDC for the violence.

Mr Tsvangirai has been taking refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare since late Sunday, saying he fears for his life. He has called for UN peacekeepers to enter Zimbabwe and protect MDC supporters until a new election can be held.

Ms Frazer, Assistant US Secretary of State for African Affairs, said Washington would not recognise the result of any vote held on Friday because the MDC had been violently forced out of the running.

Her comments came amid growing international condemnation of the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

"People were being beaten and losing their lives just to exercise their right to vote for their leadership so we cannot, under these conditions, recognise the outcome if, in fact, this run-off goes forward," she said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7472565.stm>

Israel said the attack was a "grave violation" of a truce in Gaza between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

Israel had been allowing more imports into Gaza since the truce was agreed, but officials said the crossings would now remain closed until further notice.

Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya said the group remained committed to the six-day-old ceasefire with Israel and it had called on all Palestinian groups to respect it.

However, he said that Hamas would not act as Israel's "police force" in confronting militants who breached the truce

The rocket attack on Sderot on Tuesday was carried out by Islamic Jihad, which said it was to avenge an Israeli raid in the West Bank, in which two died.

No injuries were reported in the attack, the first on Israel since the truce agreement came into force.

The Israeli government had previously warned it would respond with considerable force if any of the Palestinian groups resumed violence.

Speaking at a donors' conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said it was "essential for the ceasefire to be sustained".

"Whatever damage has been done to the process, that damage should be undone as quickly as possible," he said.

The Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza started on 19 June and is supposed to last six months.

It is designed to halt Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip, and to stop missiles being fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

But the grouping has its origins in dealing with intransigent regimes, as it was set up during the struggle to end white rule across southern Africa.

In 1969 the states of southern and central Africa came together in Zambia and signed the Lusaka Manifesto.

This began with a ringing declaration, which became known as the Lusaka manifesto.

"By this manifesto we wish to make clear, beyond all shadow of doubt, our acceptance of the belief that all men are equal, and have equal rights to human dignity and respect, regardless of colour, race, religion or sex," it said.

"The truth is, however, that in Mozambique, Angola, Rhodesia, South-West Africa, and the Union of South Africa, there is an open and continued denial of the principles of human equality and national self-determination."

But although it declared it would work for the extension of these principles across Africa, it did not back the African National Congress's (ANC) call for an armed struggle in to end apartheid in South Africa.

Swapo was fighting in Namibia (then South-West Africa), Frelimo in Mozambique, the MPLA in Angola and Zanu and Zapu in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

The "Frontline States" bordering on white-ruled regimes came under increasing attacks from the Rhodesia and South Africa.

In July 1979 nine countries - from Tanzania to Lesotho - came together to found the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (Sadcc), in the Tanzanian city of Arusha.

The report by Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights says many of these people were tortured in custody.

Even when action is taken against officials who are accused of wrongdoing, the report argues, the system tries to cover up any crimes.

The rights group has collated official figures and found that 7,468 people - that is four people every day - have died in prison or police custody since 2002. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7474656.stm>

Two teams of foreign aid workers dedicated to delivering emergency telecoms in disaster areas have been forced to leave cyclone-hit Burma.

The members of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) left the country after attempts to reach affected areas were blocked.

The charity, which described the situation as "unprecedented", said it had no other choice but to leave.

TSF finally reached Burma on 1 June after waiting nearly a month to be granted visas to enter the country.

"The frustration is that we were allowed into the country but not allowed to deploy," TSF spokesman Oisin Walton told BBC News.

Many international charities were allowed into Burma following a visit to the area by UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon.

But repeated attempts to get the necessary authorisation to visit affected areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta, were met with a wall of silence.

Torture: A pervasive reality in the country

A fragile eight-day-old truce between Israel and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip appears to have been violated repeatedly by both sides.

A UN source says Israeli troops have opened fire on Palestinian farmers several times, causing injuries. Israel says its forces fired warning shots.

Palestinian militants have also broken the ceasefire, firing rockets and mortars into Israeli territory.

The problem of keeping track of thousands of near-identical African penguins may have been solved.

Researchers have developed surveillance technology that can identify individual birds and then monitor them over long periods of time.

The team says the system will boost our understanding of the animals; it could even help ecologists solve the mystery of how long penguins live.

Peter Barham, professor of physics at Bristol University, who developed the Penguin Recognition System, said: "Until now, if you wanted to follow penguins you would use metal flipper bands, which have an ID code."

Especially when dealing with large numbers of birds such as the 20,000-strong population of African penguins that live on Robben Island, South Africa, that have been the focus of this study.

"These bands have also been suggested to be damaging to some species and there is clear evidence that they are, possibly due to the wear of the feathers that they cause," he added.

US handgun ban challenge spreads

A powerful gun lobby group in the United States has filed legal challenges to handgun bans in San Francisco and Chicago.

The lawsuits come a day after the US Supreme Court ruled that a ban on the private possession of handguns in Washington DC was unconstitutional.

A National Rifle Association lawyer said the cases were necessary to expand the ruling to other states and cities.

San Francisco's mayor says he plans to fight the NRA challenge.

The San Francisco lawsuit challenges the city's handgun ban in public housing, while in Chicago it challenges a ruling that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the city.

Self-defence

The NRA is joined in the San Francisco suit by a gay man living in a government-owned housing development who says he needs a gun to protect himself from potential hate crimes.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city will "vigorously fight the NRA" and said the ban was good for public safety.

"Is there anyone out there who really believes that we need more guns in public housing? I can't for the life of me sit back and roll over on this. We will absolutely defend the rights of the housing authority," Mr Newsom said.

The Supreme Court's ruling says that the constitution "protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defence within the home".

The ruling enshrines for the first time the individual right to own guns and limits efforts to reduce their role in American life.

"The Supreme Court's decision was very encouraging, but it is just a start," NRA lawyer C D Michel said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7478832.stm>

Militants twit Obama for friendly statement on Arroyo

Suspected Sayyaf member nabbed in Basilan

Civilians flee homes as clashes erupt in Cotabato

The pressure group says France uses a catch-all offence to charge suspects even when they have only a vague link to an alleged terrorist organisation.

The report also says suspects can face long periods of detention before trial, and some have suffered physical violence during interrogation.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, says France prides itself on having perhaps the most effective anti-terrorist system in Europe.

The country has a team of specialist magistrates operating in close contact with the intelligence services, and an armoury of finely-honed laws to tackle the threat of terrorism, our correspondent says.

But according to HRW, that level of security comes at the cost of some important breaches of natural justice.

The prime focus of the group's displeasure is the catch-all criminal charge under which the vast majority of terrorist suspects are held and tried.

The offence of "criminal association in relation to a terrorist undertaking" is excessively vague, HRW says.

It means that people face prosecution because of the flimsiest of links to an alleged terrorist operation.

After being presented before a judge, they can be locked away in pre-trial detention for months or even years as the case against them is compiled.

HRW also says it has evidence of mistreatment of prisoners, including sleep deprivation, psychological pressure and physical abuse.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the Mercosur meeting in Argentina that Europe had "legalised barbarism".

The EU laws, due to come into force in 2010, could see illegal immigrants held for up to 18 months and face a five-year ban on re-entry if expelled.

But it was the EU rules passed last month that truly united the South American leaders in anger at the gathering in the northern city of Tucuman, says the BBC's Daniel Schweimler in Argentina. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7482767.stm>

In a country that has been under military rule since 1962 and controls almost all aspects of the media, it was a huge challenge to report on the aftermath of this disaster.

BBC journalists who managed to get into Burma either had to enter secretly, or pretend to be tourists and report undercover.

America's top military officer has said opening up a third front in the Middle East through a strike on Iran would be "extremely stressful" for US forces.

Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was commenting on the likelihood of US or Israeli military action over Iran's nuclear programme.

Tensions have risen amid reports Israel could be planning a possible strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says it has been clear for some time that Adm Mullen does not want to attack Iran.

But his latest remarks suggest he is fighting hard behind the scenes for both the US and Israel to think carefully about the consequences of an attack before considering mounting it, he says.

At a US defence department news conference, Adm Mullen refused to say what Israeli leaders told him during meetings last week about any plan to strike Iran.

But he warned that opening up a third front, after Iraq and Afghanistan, would be "extremely stressful, very challenging, with consequences that would be difficult to predict".

Asked if he was concerned Israel would strike before the end of the year, he said: "This is a very unstable part of the world and I don't need it to be more unstable."

The admiral said that if a conflict began, he believed Iran would have the capability to disrupt ship traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a waterway near the Persian Gulf, but he would not say if the US Navy was stepping up its patrols in the region.

He said: "I believe [Iran is] still on a path to get nuclear weapons and I think that's something that needs to be deterred."

He added: "My position with regard to the Iranian regime hasn't changed. They remain a destabilising factor in the region.

"But I'm convinced that the solution still lies in using other elements of national power to change Iranian behaviour, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure."

Climate concerns halt coal plant

Coal produces about 30% of US greenhouse gas emissions

The US state of Georgia has blocked construction of a new coal-fired power station because of concerns over its carbon dioxide emissions.

Environmentalists welcomed the news, and predict the decision will lead to reconsideration of many coal power plants under development in the US.

The judge cited a decision by the Supreme Court last year which issued a ruling recognising CO2 as a pollutant.

This is the first court judgement on an industrial plant based on that ruling.

Earlier this year, Georgia's Department of Natural Resources issued a permit allowing the Dynegy company to begin construction of its Longleaf coal plant.

But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore has now halted construction of the 1,200 megawatt facility, ruling that the permit should have set limits on carbon emissions.

Coal plants across the country will be forced to live up to their clean coal rhetoric
Bruce Nilles, Sierra Club

She based her decision on the 2007 federal Supreme Court judgement that ended several years of legal disgreements by ruling that carbon dioxide, the most important gas in the human-induced greenhouse effect, should be regarded as a pollutant under the US Clean Air Act.

Dynegy is the largest coal plant developer in the US, with more proposed new coal plants than any other company. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7485936.stm>

Government launches data mash-up

It is hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of criminal justice, health and education.

The Power of Information Taskforce - headed by cabinet office minister Tom Watson - is offering a £20,000 prize fund for the best ideas.

To help with the task, the government is opening up gigabytes of information from a variety of sources. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7484131.stm>

Court of Appeals issues freeze order vs Bolante accounts

MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Appeals on Thursday ordered the freezing of some 70 bank accounts listed under the name of for agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante and some other individuals and entities allegedly linked to the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

In a 20-page decision penned by Associate Justice Pampio Abarintos, the CA's First Division granted the petition filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council after finding probable cause that these accounts could possibly be where the P728-million fertilizer fund have been transferred.

“The Court finds that petitioner AMLC was able to establish probable cause that an unlawful activity had been committed by the aforementioned individuals and entities and that the subject accounts are related to such an unlawful activity,” the CA ruled.
The freeze order, which has a 20-day effectivity, starts upon receipt of the resolution by parties concerned.

Bolante was accused of channeling the agriculture department's fertilizer funds to finance the campaign kitty of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the 2004 presidential polls. He left the country at the height of the Senate’s investigation into the fertilizer scam but was arrested and detained in Los Angeles on July 7, 2006 after US airport authorities found him in possession of a revoked US visa.

The former agriculture official, who was believed to be a close associate of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, later applied for political asylum but was denied.

Aside from Bolante, the AMLC identified the other holders of these various accounts as Molugan Foundation, the Assembly of Gracious Samaritans Foundation, Inc., One Accord Christian Community Endeavor for Salavation & Success through Poverty Alleviation, Inc., Society’s Multi-Purpose Foundation, Inc., Alliance for the Conservation of the Environment of Pangasinan, Inc., Sta. Lucia Education Association of Bulacan, Inc. and Livelihood Corporation.

Individual accounts that were also ordered freezed were Ariel C. Panganiban, Donnie Ray G. Panganiban, Jaypee G. Panganiban, spouses Samuel and Katherine Samuel Bombeo and Eduardo F. Suerez.

The freeze order covers accounts in various banks and institutions such as in AIG Philam Savings Bank, Inc., Banco de Oro Universal Bank, Citibank, N.A., East-West Bank, Equitable PCI Bank, Maybank Phils. Inc., Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., Philippine National Bank, Philippine Savings Bank, Planters Development Bank, Philippine Business Bank, Union Bank, Insular Life Assce. Company, Pru-Life Insurance Corp. of UK, Manufacturers Life Ins. Co., Standard Insurance Co., BPI/MS Insurance Corp., Performance Foreign Exchange Corp., Bank of the Philippine Islands, Union Bank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, and Standard Chartered Bank.

The appellate court directed the said banks and institutions “to desist from and not allow any transaction, withdrawal, deposit, transfer, removal, conversion, other movement or concealment” of the accounts.”

The CA likewise ordered the AMLC to submit within 24 hours from receipt of the resolution the amount of the monetary instrument, property or related web accounts as of the time they were frozen. - with reports from Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/104902/Court-of-Appeals-issues-freeze-order-vs-Bolante-accounts>

Sri Lanka journalists demand protection

The BBC's Roland Buerk in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, looks at why journalists and human rights activists there are so angry.

Sri Lanka is one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters

The police dragged barricades across the road, blocking the route to President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office.

Wearing black armbands, journalists and human rights activists said the freedom of the press had been undermined as the war continues between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).

"Media workers are continually being harassed, they are being tortured, they are being hammered," said one man who was holding a placard. "So we have been complaining to the authorities but nothing is happening."

"Perhaps, there are individuals within the heart of the government who feel that any kind of dissent is to be taken personally and squashed, because the end justifies the means," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, from the think-tank the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who had joined the protestors.

"And the end for them may well be their notion of defeating terrorism, but they are destroying everything this country stands for if it is to be a functioning democracy," Mr Saravanamuttu said.

The World Association of Newspapers ranked Sri Lanka the third most dangerous country in the world for media workers in 2007 based on the number who were killed. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7487911.stm>

Call to sever Jerusalem Arab area

Israeli security forces have taken up positions around the driver's home

Israel's vice premier has said the home district of the Palestinian who carried out Wednesday's bulldozer attack should be cut off from the rest of Jerusalem.

Haim Ramon said residents of Sur Bahir in east Jerusalem should also be stripped of their Israeli ID cards.

Mr Ramon proposed changing the route of the barrier which separates Jerusalem from the West Bank.

About a third of Jerusalem's population is Palestinian, living in an area occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.

Mr Ramon said he disagreed with those who argued that demolishing the home of the bulldozer attacker would help prevent future attacks, but he said the house should be demolished regardless, if it was legally possible.

The barrier has already cut off several neighbourhoods housing tens of thousands of Palestinian holders of Israeli Jerusalem IDs.

He said the Jabal al-Mukabir area, home of a Palestinian who killed eight Jewish students in March, should be given the same treatment. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7488067.stm>

Film of Zimbabwe 'vote-rigging'

By Alix Kroeger
BBC News

The film alleges there was no secrecy in votes for Robert Mugabe

New evidence of vote-rigging in last month's presidential election in Zimbabwe has emerged in the form of a secret film made by a prison guard.

The guard, Shepherd Yuda, filmed the vote-rigging at his jail in a production for Guardian Films.

Prison officers, including Mr Yuda, who has now fled Zimbabwe, were forced to vote for President Robert Mugabe by superior officers.

The officers organised a postal ballot and stood over them as they cast votes. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7491077.stm>

9/11 third tower mystery 'solved'

By Mike Rudin
BBC, Conspiracy Files

One of the twin towers collapses

The final mystery of 9/11 will soon be solved, according to US experts investigating the collapse of the third tower at the World Trade Center.

The 47-storey third tower, known as Tower Seven, collapsed seven hours after the twin towers.

Investigators are expected to say ordinary fires on several different floors caused the collapse.

Conspiracy theorists have argued that the third tower was brought down in a controlled demolition.

Unlike the twin towers, Tower Seven was not hit by a plane.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, based near Washington DC, is expected to conclude in its long-awaited report this month that ordinary fires caused the building to collapse.

That would make it the first and only steel skyscraper in the world to collapse because of fire.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's lead investigator, Dr Shyam Sunder, spoke to BBC Two's "The Conspiracy Files":

"Our working hypothesis now actually suggests that it was normal building fires that were growing and spreading throughout the multiple floors that may have caused the ultimate collapse of the buildings."

'Smoking gun'

However, a group of architects, engineers and scientists say the official explanation that fires caused the collapse is impossible. Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth argue there must have been a controlled demolition.

FIND OUT MORE...

The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 - The Third Tower is on BBC Two on Sunday 6 July at 2100 BST

Visit The Conspiracy Files website or catch up using the iPlayer

Q&A: The collapse of Tower 7

Timeline: WTC 7

The BBC and the 'missing' tape

The founder of the group, Richard Gage, says the collapse of the third tower is an obvious example of a controlled demolition using explosives.

"Building Seven is the smoking gun of 9/11… A sixth grader can look at this building falling at virtually freefall speed, symmetrically and smoothly, and see that it is not a natural process.

"Buildings that fall in natural processes fall to the path of least resistance", says Gage, "they don't go straight down through themselves." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7485331.stm>

Obituary: Jesse Helms

During his long career in US politics, Jesse Helms was dubbed "Senator No" by his critics for his staunch and forthright opposition to any number of initiatives and treaties.

Jesse Helms divided opinion at home and abroad

A hard-right conservative, he was a polarising figure, battling liberals, communists and pretty much anyone who disagreed with him.

He was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001, a role that set him on a frequent collision course with the Clinton administration.

Its multilateral approach to foreign relations did not fit in with his view of how America should operate.

He was behind the US stopping payment to the United Nations, a body he believed had over-reached itself.

He also blocked ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty in 1999 and opposed the use of US troops in Bosnia.

"I will not support sending American soldiers to fight and to die for the sake of an agreement not yet reached which may offer no more than the promise of a brief pause while all sides prepare for the next round of Balkan wars," he said.

He also spoke out against Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba, sponsoring the Helms-Burton bill that attempted to levy sanctions on non-US companies doing business with the island. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7490458.stm>

Pakistan 'knew of nuclear flight'

It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment

AQ Khan

AQ Khan rehabilitated?

Disgraced scientist AQ Khan has said that Pakistan transported nuclear material to North Korea with the full knowledge of the country's army.

In media interviews, he said that the army supervised a flight of centrifuges to Pyongyang in 2000.

At the time, the current President Pervez Musharraf was head of the army.

He has repeatedly stated that no-one apart from Dr Khan had any knowledge of the nuclear transportations which caused international concern.

Dr Khan said that uranium enrichment equipment was sent in a North Korean plane loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7490423.stm>

Solon wants electoral offenses classified as ‘heinous crimes’

07/07/2008 | 12 NN

MANILA, Philippines - An opposition lawmaker on Monday said several election offenses should be classified as heinous crimes to deter violators from committing acts that undermine the people's right to suffrage.

In a statement on the House of Representatives website, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez cited House Bill 2769 which seeks to declare as heinous crimes election offenses such as:

• Conspiracy to bribe voters;
• Threats, intimidation, terrorism, use of fraudulent devices or other forms of coercion before, during and after the election period;
• Coercion of election officials and employees;
• Appointment or use of special policemen, special agents or the like during the election period;
• Illegal release of prisoners before and after the election;
• Use of public funds, money deposited in trust, equipment, facilities owned or controlled by the government for an election campaign;
• Use of armored land, water or aircraft during the election period; and
• Organization or maintenance of reaction forces, strike forces, or other similar forces during the election period.

"It is necessary that certain election offenses be classified as heinous crimes while other offenses be given the appropriate penalty that will ensure the sanctity of one's sovereign will in the selection of our nation's public servants," Rodriguez said, noting that heinous crimes are punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment.

Rodriguez said the current penalties provided for by the election laws are inadequate to deter violators from committing acts.

In the statement, Rodriguez also said that the bill increases the penalty of a guilty political party through a fine of P500,000 - a far cry from the existing penalty of P10,000 for electoral offenses. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105440/Solon-wants-electoral-offenses-classified-as-heinous-crimes>

Australia PM in new nude art row

Mr Rudd said he could not stand the picture of the naked girl

A photograph of a nude six-year-old girl on the front cover of an Australian art magazine has re-ignited a row over the depiction of children.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said children could not choose for themselves if they wanted to be portrayed naked, adding: "I can't stand this stuff."

The photo is on the cover of the July issue of Art Monthly Australia.

Its editor said the cover was to protest against the closing of a recent photo exhibition of naked children.

Mr Rudd said: "A little child cannot answer for themselves about whether they wish to be depicted in this way."

Government officials have said they will review the magazine's public funding. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7492579.stm>

Synod set for women bishops vote

Dr Rowan Williams has appealed to both sides of the debate

The Church of England's ruling body, the General Synod, will vote later on the conditions under which women could be consecrated as bishops.

The York meeting will decide how far to accommodate opponents to women bishops - such as whether they could receive oversight from a male bishop.

But women in the Church have said such a move would be discriminatory.

Some 1,300 clergy are threatening to leave the Church if safeguards are not agreed to reassure traditionalists.

However, the General Synod has been urged by the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, not to "simply to kick the whole thing into touch" amid fears about division.

The bishop, who headed a report into the possible options open to the Church over the consecration of women bishops, said there were dangers in further delay.

The first women were ordained as priests in the Church of England in 1994.

'Super bishop'

The Synod will be asked to back a motion calling for a national code of practice to accommodate parishes which cannot accept women bishops.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, will attempt to amend this motion by putting forward proposals for work on two possible ways forward.

One of these options would be for a national code - but the other would be to explore the creation of a new class of "super bishop" called a "complementary bishop" to cater for objectors.

Under the proposals put by the Rt Rev Packer, there would be three "super bishops" - one for the York province and two for Canterbury.

In total, 1,300 members of the clergy have written to the archbishops of Canterbury and York, saying they would consider leaving the Church if they had to serve under women bishops.

One signatory, Father Robert Fayers, told the BBC that while men and women were equal in the eyes of God, he would have some "hard decisions to make" if the Church voted to allow women bishops. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7492584.stm>

Stark choice in Iran policy battles

By Jon Leyne
BBC News, Tehran

Iran is considering its response to an EU package of incentives

Two parallel, and extraordinarily open, battles over policy are being fought out within the administrations in Washington and Tehran. The subject is relations between the United States and Iran.

The choice, at its most stark, is between war and peace. The debate, once again, is over Iran's nuclear programme.

What seems to have provoked the latest heart-searching is a recent Israeli military exercise, clearly intended as a rehearsal for an attack on Iran, therefore also a threat.

At the same time, the details of Iran's response to a package of "incentives" brought to Tehran last month by the European Union envoy Javier Solana are still unknown. The incentives are designed to reopen negotiations over the nuclear issue.

The proverbial "carrot and stick" have never been more openly brandished - though Western diplomats here believe that even to use that crude phrase in private is to insult the intelligence of this proud nation. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7489430.stm>

Turkish women attack clothing law

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

These women said no-one had the right to tell them how to dress

About 70 Turkish women have protested in Istanbul after a court found a woman guilty of exhibitionism for fishing in what was termed "improper clothing".

The protesters marched across the iconic Galata Bridge chanting slogans.

"It's not exhibitionism, it's male abuse!" and "State, take your hands off my body!" they cried.

Rows of bemused fishermen watched as they passed - many were wearing strappy tops, flimsy sun-dresses with plunging necklines, or shorts.

The incident they were protesting about occurred last summer, on the same bridge, when men complained that the woman's clothing was "improper."

Turkish newspapers quote court documents as saying she was wearing a lightweight outfit like a nightdress, which blew up in the wind.

Last week a judge upheld the men's complaints.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7491484.stm>

End Farc 'hate', Betancourt urges

Ms Betancourt urged an end to hurtful vocabulary towards the rebels

The recently freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has urged an end to the Colombian government's "vocabulary of hate" against her former captors.

Ms Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, was held hostage for six years by Marxist Farc rebels.

But, while praising President Alvaro Uribe's work towards her release, she said it was time to end "extremist" language towards the Farc.

She told the BBC that she did not rule out running for president again.

"That could be a really nice dream, but I don't think it's the top of the dream," she said.

She was speaking in Paris, where she flew after her release last Wednesday.

In a separate interview for French radio, she said: "I think we have reached a point where we must change this radical, extremist vocabulary of hate of very strong words that intimately wound the human being."

Ms Betancourt is urging the government to take a more conciliatory tone towards the Farc to achieve further hostage releases, says BBC Americas analyst Warren Bull.

But she has no illusions about what she considers to be the group's real nature, he adds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7494196.stm>

Russians reflect on Afghan conflict

By James Rodgers
BBC News, Moscow

Between 1979 and 1989 thousands of Soviet soldiers died in Afghanistan fighting the US-backed mujahideen. But 110 British soldiers have been killed in the country since 2001 as fighting rages with the Taleban. So what do Russian veterans think of Afghanistan and the current Nato campaign?

The USSR withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after more than a decade

"It's not the truth," said a voice over my shoulder. I turned round. A man had seen me taking notes as I looked at an exhibition of a pristine Soviet field hospital.

It was 1991. In its last days, the USSR was trying to come to terms with its military campaign in Afghanistan.

The Manezh exhibition hall, almost in the shadow of the Kremlin, was open for anyone who wanted to have a look.

The man explained that he had fought in Afghanistan, and the reality had been very different to the display.

Today, Russian veterans of the Afghan war still have little good to say of their experience.

They look at the presence of British and other Nato troops there with an air of grim recognition.

"When the troops went into Afghanistan, a lot of our veterans said: 'It's a shame they've gone in. People are going to get killed. People understand they haven't just gone for a stroll,'" says Franz Klintsevich, who heads the Russian Union of Afghan Veterans.

He was 28 when he went to fight in Afghanistan - still "a little boy", as he describes it now.

It'll finish exactly the same way it did with us

Franz Klintsevich

He sees the current conflict as one of young men pitted against veterans whose skills were forged fighting the Soviets.

"Today the British troops, these young lads, are fighting 40-year-old blokes who were 14 or 17 in our time," he says.

"Experienced, knowing, fighters."

Alexander Golts, a military analyst with the ej.ru website, covered the conflict as a war correspondent.

He saw a Soviet generation who were deeply affected - and left with a bleak view of the situation they see in Afghanistan now.

"You should understand it's approximately one million people who went through Afghanistan during the years of occupation. And everybody among them understood that it was a deadlock."

There's no sense things are different now.

"It'll finish exactly the same way it did with us," Franz Klintsevich says. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7494357.stm>

Robots scale new heights

Robot that climbs up walls and crawls across windows

Robots that can climb walls have been developed by scientists in the United States.

The robots can scale surfaces using the same principles behind electrostatic charges, which make balloons stick to ceilings after being rubbed.

Developed by a team in SRI's Mobile Robotics and Transducers Programme, the machines are about the size of a remote-controlled car and have caterpillar tracks similar to those on toy tanks.

Inside these tracks are materials with electro-adhesive properties, which mean that when a current is applied, the tracks are attracted to the wall, preventing the robots from falling off.

"What we've invented is a way to induce charges on the wall using a power supply located on the robot," research engineer Harsha Prahlad told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.

"The robot carries with it positive and negative charges, and when the walls sees these charges it automatically generates the opposite charge. The robot can then clamp onto those charges.

"In some ways it is similar to rubbing a balloon and sticking it on the wall, except we carry our own power supply and are able to control the adhesion."

Insect robots

Robots
The robots can climb up and down a range of surfaces
The technology, called compliant electroadhesion, uses a very small amount of power and the robots can crawl at a speed of about one body length per second.

The robots are being touted for use by the military, for reconnissance, for service applications and as toys.

"It is very similar to how a toy tank works, with the two treads," Mr Prahlad explained.

"There are positive and negative traces attached to the treads.

"We simply drive it, moving it like a conveyer belt."

The team is now working on a way to apply their technology to more insect-like robots, to mirror the way that creatures such as flies are able to walk upside-down.

This will be done by putting electro-adhesive pads on the robot feet.

"We often think of electrostatic forces as very weak - but if you get very close, you can get very strong forces from this," Mr Prahlad added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7493460.stm>

Perks of penance for Saudi jihadis

By Shiraz Maher, BBC Newsnight, Riyadh

Care centre inmate Muhammad Abdul Rahman
A care centre inmate enjoys one of the benefits of rehabilitation

In a small compound on the outskirts of Riyadh, the Saudi government is exploring new ways to combat extremism.

This is still a prison, run by the Ministry of Interior and housed inside secure premises with high perimeter walls and barbed wire, but the Saudi authorities prefer to call it a "care centre" and refer to prisoners as "beneficiaries".

This is not what you would imagine when you think of a typical Saudi jail.

You cannot defeat an ideology by force. You have to fight ideas with ideas
Abdul-Rahman Hadlaq
Director, Ideological Security Unit

Inside, prisoners enjoy access to wide-ranging recreational facilities including their own swimming pools, video games and table tennis.

In return for the more relaxed environment, prisoners have to attend religious education classes where Islamic scholars challenge their views.

The thinking behind the new initiative is to fight al-Qaeda's ideology by convincing militant Islamists they have a distorted view of Islam.

The Ministry of Interior oversees the new scheme and has created the Ideological Security Unit (ISU) dedicated to co-ordinating their efforts.

"You cannot defeat an ideology by force. You have to fight ideas with ideas," says Abdul-Rahman Hadlaq, ISU director.

But the centre goes beyond just debating ideas. It also encourages prisoners to express their "softer side" by running art therapy classes where inmates find alternative ways to express themselves. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7496375.stm>

Israel raids Nablus shopping mall

Notices were posted warning shop owners they had six weeks to close

Israeli troops have raided a popular shopping centre in Nablus and ordered it closed for two years, accusing the owners of links with Hamas militants.

The owners deny the claim and Nablus's governor was quoted as saying the orders would not be obeyed.

On Monday, Israeli troops forcibly shut down the offices of a Palestinian charity in the northern West Bank town.

Hamas dominates Gaza but is suppressed in the West Bank. Israel and its allies view it as a terrorist organisation.

There have been frequent raids on allegedly Hamas-funded organisations in the Hebron, Qalqilya and Ramallah areas of the West Bank and the Israeli army recently said it would crack down on Nablus. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7496053.stm>

Iran sends missile test warning

Footage of Iran missile test

Iran has test-fired what it called a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which is capable of reaching its main regional enemy Israel, state media say.

The missile, said to have a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles), was one of nine launched from a remote desert site.

Iran has tested the Shahab-3 before, but the latest launch comes amid rising tensions with the US and Israel over the country's nuclear programme.

The US denounced the test and called on Iran to abandon its missile programme.

Iran should "refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7496765.stm>

Half of UK forces 'ready to quit'

By Caroline Wyatt
Defence correspondent, BBC News

The government insisted it was doing more to help personnel

Almost half of UK military personnel are ready to leave the forces, a Ministry of Defence survey suggests.

Some 47% of Army and Royal Navy respondents and 44% of those in the RAF said they regularly felt like quitting.

Among the concerns raised by the 9,000 servicemen and women surveyed were the frequency of tours, levels of pay and the quality of equipment and housing.

The Ministry of Defence said the survey revealed "areas of concern" but that conditions were being improved. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7498904.stm>

'New CJD type' discovered in US

The patients' brains had the familiar spongy tissue make-up

A new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) may have been uncovered in a handful of patients in the US.

Ten people have so far died from a fast-advancing form of fatal dementia called PSPr, New Scientist reports.

Patients develop the trademark brain damage associated with CJD - the type not linked to BSE - but scientists believe there may be a genetic cause.

Experts in the UK are now checking records to see if any cases have happened across the Atlantic.

There are between 50 and 100 new cases of so-called sporadic CJD diagnosed in the UK every year.

Unlike "variant CJD", the human form of BSE in cows contracted by eating contaminated brain tissue in the 1980s and 1990s, the cause of most cases of sporadic CJD is unknown.

The new cases were referred to CJD surveillance units in the US because they were a suspiciously fast-advancing form of dementia with additional symptoms such as the loss of the ability to speak and move, even though traditional tests that normally help diagnose CJD proved negative.

Post-mortems on those who died revealed the familiar "spongy" brain tissue, covered with tiny holes.

These are thought to be caused by the accumulation of "prions", a misshapen version of a normal brain protein. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7497867.stm>

Threats over Nigeria amputation

Saratu's family say she can no longer go to school or help them on their farm

A Nigerian doctor has told the BBC he is in hiding after receiving death threats for amputating a girl's arms.

Dr Dandyson Allison says he saved 13-year-old Saratu Yusuf's life after she was run over by a truck in April.

But he was subsequently arrested and spent a week in jail after Miss Yusuf's family accused him of removing her arms without her family's consent.

Other neighbours have accused him of being a "ritualist" who needed body parts for black magic, which he denies.

Miss Yusuf was riding on the back of a motorbike when she was knocked down by a truck, witnesses to the accident told the BBC. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7498367.stm>

Hamas arrests Gaza rocket squad

Relatives mourn a Palestinian killed by the Israeli army as he infiltrated Israel

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Palestinian militant group, says three of its members have been detained by the larger rival group Hamas.

The move comes after al-Aqsa militants fired two rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

The detentions are the first since Hamas, which controls Gaza, agreed a ceasefire with Israel last month aimed at easing an Israeli blockade.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has called for the release of its members.

Israeli police said the rockets fired on Wednesday landed in an open area and no-one was hurt.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said it launched the rockets in retaliation for the Israeli army's killing of an unarmed member of the group as he tried to cross the Gaza-Israel border. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7501025.stm>

Tests show US shield 'not needed'

Iran launched a series of missile tests in the desert this week

The results of recent Iranian missile tests prove that US plans for a defence shield in Europe are unnecessary, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

He said the tests confirmed Tehran had missiles with a limited range of up to 2,000km (1,240 miles).

The US says it wants shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic to defend US troops and allies from rogue states.

Following widespread condemnation over the tests, Iran says it is open to talks about its nuclear programme.

The state news agency said the chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, would meet the European Union envoy Javier Solana on 19 July in Geneva - although this has not yet been confirmed by Mr Solana's office. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7501498.stm>

Iran 'faked missile test image'

Iran has been accused of doctoring an image from its missile tests

Enlarge Image

Iran has been accused of altering an image of a missile test, possibly to exaggerate its military capabilities.

Iran announced on Wednesday it had test-fired nine missiles, including one it said was capable of reaching Israel.

Four missiles appear to take off from a desert launch pad in one image of the test published on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards website.

But a similar image has emerged that shows one missile still in its launcher after apparently failing to fire.

Analysts said that in the image apparently showing four missiles taking off, one of the projectiles was added using elements from the smoke trail and dust clouds from two of the other successfully launched missiles. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7500917.stm>

US 'killed 47 Afghan civilians'

A US air strike in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday killed 47 civilians, 39 of them women and children, an Afghan government investigating team says.

Reports at the time said that 20 people were killed in the airstrike in Nangarhar province. The US military said they were militants.

But local people said the dead were wedding party guests.

Correspondents say the issue of civilian casualties is hugely sensitive in Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai has said that no civilian casualty is acceptable. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7501538.stm>

US Senate approves Petraeus role

General Petraeus is seen as a rising star in the US

The US Senate has approved the appointment of General David Petraeus as head of US Central Command.

When he takes up the post in September he will have responsibility for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as dealing with Iran and Pakistan.

As the US general currently in charge of Iraq, he has been credited with helping restore security to some parts of the country.

He takes over from Adm William Fallon, who stood down in March.

The resignation followed reports that Adm Fallon opposed the White House policy towards Iran.

In April the administration recommended that he should be succeeded by Gen Petraeus. The nomination needed approval by the Senate. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7501035.stm>

Palace eyes two-pronged tack on ‘federalism’ Cha-cha

08/12/2008 | 08:58 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is eyeing a two-pronged approach to amending the 1987 Constitution for federalism: one for a peace deal with secessionists, and another for a shift of form of government.

Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Jesus Dureza said Tuesday that the first can be done before 2010 and through a Constituent Assembly while the second may go beyond 2010.

"During her term what is possible is (the) Constituent Assembly of Congress at dalawa yan, Senado at House, magde-determine anong provision ng Constitution ang ma-amend natin to bring about the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Yung federalism for the whole country will take
place (in a) Constitutional Convention. Yan mahabang proseso yan, maisabatas ng Kongreso to call for (a) Constitutional Convention," Dureza said in a radio interview on dzXL radio.

(During President Arroyo's term, what is possible is a Constituent Assembly of both houses of Congress to bring about the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. But federalism for the whole country will need a constitutional convention, and that may go beyond her term in 2010.)"

But he admitted the Palace wants to start the ball rolling for both types of federalism during President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term.

President Arroyo is to step down in June 2010.

Dureza also admitted that the Palace is aware of criticisms from various sectors that Charter change is being pushed to extend President Arroyo's term beyond 2010.

"These are reform agendas we would like to see start. They can conclude even beyond the term of the president," he said.

Supreme Court TRO

Dureza said the BJE's federalism will depend on the pace of negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but at present the talks are stalled.

The talks stalled last week after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the signing of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD).

Dureza said such a move for federalism for the BJE can be done through a constituent assembly, which he said "can be done by Congress only and expeditiously."

But as for a nationwide shift to federalism, he said it will not be as "surgical" as federalism for BJE.

"In the bigger picture, federalism for the whole country, it may require a Constitutional Convention," he said.

Dureza said that while some may also agree a constituent assembly can do the trick for the nationwide shift to federalism, his "personal take" is that it may require a constitutional convention.

"It can happen after the term of the president or before the term expire, personal assessment ko (my personal assessment is that) we can start electing constitutional convention delegates sabay sa (at the same time as) 2010," he said.

"All this will take place after the term of the president expired," he added. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/113059/Palace-eyes-two-pronged-tack-on-federalism-Cha-cha>

New Georgia clashes mar UN moves

Abkhaz separatist fighters could be seen in Sukhumi on Monday

Russian-backed rebels in Abkhazia say they have begun an operation against Georgian forces, as UN moves to achieve a ceasefire failed to make progress.

The rebels say they are trying to push Georgian forces from a strategic gorge in the west of the breakaway province.

France's president is visiting Russia and Georgia on Tuesday but a new French draft resolution at the UN has already drawn strong Russian criticism.

The US president has meanwhile strongly attacked the Russian "invasion".

George W Bush said the Russian actions in Abkhazia and the other breakaway province of South Ossetia were "unacceptable in the 21st Century" and that Moscow was guilty of a "dramatic and brutal escalation".

Bloody fighting

The Russian-backed separatists' government in Abkhazia said its forces aimed to "squeeze" Georgian troops out of the upper part of the Kodori Gorge. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7555359.stm>

Extinction 'by man not climate'

Prehistoric animals like the marsupial lion died out after humans arrived

The extinction of many ancient species may be due to humans rather than climate change, experts say.

Large prehistoric animals in Tasmania may have been wiped out by human hunting and not temperature changes, a team of international scientists argue.

This pattern may have been repeated around the globe on islands such as Great Britain, the scientists say.

The findings were published in the American scientific journal - Proceedings of the National Academy. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7555206.stm>

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Policing the World-07
Globalisation Index
News Index
Index Nation States
Index Cultural Systems
Some personal Reflections on the News
Theory Forming and Articulation
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Policing the World -6 (Still):

EU at crossroads after Irish vote

More secret files found on train

Anger at Anglican gay 'wedding'

Pakistan rebuffs Karzai warning

Dealing with dangers of war reporting

Clouds remain over Kosovo's future

West keen to keep Iran channel open

Fears over nuclear weapon plans

A trip down Gaza's deadly tunnels

Rice warns on Israel settlements

West Bank 'attackers' arrested

French defence to counter terror

Turkish singer tried over dissent

US interrogation policy condemned

Can there be lasting peace in Gaza?

UN Srebrenica immunity questioned

US court backs Guantanamo inmate

Walesa scorns collaboration claim

Signs of division on Egypt's brow

Communist rebels mobilize forces for relief work

HK row sparks patriotism debate

US to ignore Zimbabwe poll result

Israel closes Gaza after rockets

Mandela condemns Mugabe 'failure'

Africa's new 'Frontline States'

'Thousands die' in India custody

Burma blocks emergency telecoms