Policing the World-9
Afghan tales: Conflict and chaos
Spies,
soldiers, diplomats and ordinary people who have lived through
Afghanistan's decades of turmoil speak to Alan Johnston, the BBC's
former Kabul correspondent.
........ "The war that America is fighting now has nothing to do with
what any American political leader has been willing to tell the
Americans," he said.
"We're fighting people who believe that our foreign policy is
an assault on their religion and on the people who believe in that
religion. You don't have to agree with that, but you have to be an
adult in the sense of understanding what motivates your enemy if you
hope to defeat him."
Strategy
Among our interviewees there was much criticism of the strategy
that the West has pursued on all fronts in the aftermath of the ousting
of the Taleban.
It was argued that far too little in the way of troops and
resources were thrown into the project, and that the Americans too
quickly moved on to the Iraq war - imagining that their work was
largely done in Afghanistan.
There was criticism too of the West's collaboration with the
former warlords who have done so much damage to Afghanistan in the
past.
But the former British diplomat Rory Stewart, who now lives and works in Kabul, took a slightly different line.
"To govern Afghanistan is a bit like being a Chicago ward politician in the 1920s," he said.
"It involves being very good in understanding power,
understanding who has power in a local area, and an understanding that
if you are going to remove them you have got to think very carefully
about who you are going to replace them with."
Mr Stewart said that the aim in the long run must be to phase
out the warlords. But, he said: "You're not going to get to the long
run unless you make some compromises and are prepared to work with
people who you might not like to have dinner with." <
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7700639.stm>
US strikes fuel Pakistan policy dilemma
By Frank Gardner
BBC Security correspondent
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Damage to civilian life and property is making Pakistan's leaders uneasy
|
General David Petraeus has been doing a lot of listening this week.
The newly appointed commander of Centcom, US Central Command,
has been meeting Pakistan's top military and security chiefs to decide
how best to tackle the Islamist insurgency that flows across the
Afghan-Pakistan border.
One of the issues most vexing to Pakistan is the ongoing
missile strikes by US unmanned Predator drones, or UAVs, into
Pakistan's tribal areas.
Since 1 September, there have been at least 17 of these strikes
and, while US officials say al-Qaeda leaders are being successfully
targeted, local tribesmen say scores of civilians have been killed.
So just how effective are these UAV strikes in degrading al-Qaeda's ability to operate?
I asked Nigel Inkster, a former Whitehall insider, now Director of
Transnational Threats at London's International Institute for Strategic
Studies.
"I think that these attacks are having some effect on al-Qaeda
leadership. We should bear in mind that the number of al-Qaeda in the
tribal areas is not infinite - there are only a few hundred of them.
"And of them, by no means all have the kind of leadership and
organisational qualities that al-Qaeda needs to instigate attacks
against the West. So a decapitation policy does make some sense."
But the strikes make no sense to the Pakistani authorities, at least not publicly.
P2.8M more seized from Dela Paz in Russia, lawyer admits
SOPHIA DEDACE, GMANews.TV
11/06/2008 | 10:07 AM
MANILA, Philippines –
Aside from the 105,000 euros (P6.9 million) that Russian authorities
seized from retired Philippine National Police (PNP) comptroller Eliseo
dela Paz, another 45,000 euros (P2.8 million) were also intercepted
from him, his lawyer confirmed Thursday.
In a radio interview, lawyer Noel Malaya confirmed that Dela Paz
carried another 45,000 euros when he was briefly held at the Moscow
airport last October 11 for holding an undeclared money excessive of
what was allowed.
Malaya said Dela Paz already reported to the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) the separate money on top of the earlier publicly
disclosed 105,000 euros.
"Kasama na ‘yan sa report niya sa DFA na dala-dala niyang 45,000
[euros]. Yung 45,000 na ito ay padala ng kaibigan niya [na] may
pinabibili ng bagay na isang relo (He already reported to the DFA he
carried another 45,000 euros. The money was from his friend who asked
him to buy a watch)," Malaya said.
The separate 45,000 euros seized from Dela Paz brings to P150,000 euros or P9.7 million worth of money found in his possession.
Malaya said the report on the separate amount was coursed through the
DFA to secure the release of Dela Paz and his wife when they were
detained by customs authorities in Moscow.
He added that Dela Paz’s Filipino-Chinese friend named Tyrone Arejola
asked him to buy an expensive Swiss-made Roger Dubuis watch during the
trip. Malaya said Arejola earlier sent the DFA his affidavit to attest
that the money indeed came from him.
The money Arejola gave Dela Paz is equivalent to $58,000. The prices of Dubuis watches range from $32,000 to $134,650.
The lawyer likewise said Dela Paz is willing to let Arejola face the
probe on the 45,000 he handed to Dela Paz "but only at the proper
forum." .<
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/131753/P28M-more-seized-from-Dela-Paz-in-Russia-lawyer-admits>
Ten quick lessons from the US election
For
the US political junkies out there, the BBC's Nick Bryant provides "Ten
quick and easy lessons" from this break-the-rules election.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7717578.stm>
Moscow to host Mid-East meeting
Quartet mediators concede a Middle East peace deal this year is impossible
|
The Quartet of Middle East mediators
say they will hold a conference in Moscow early next year to push
forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The statement follows a meeting of Quartet envoys from the US, the UN, the EU and Russia in Egypt.
They were briefed by Palestinian and Israeli leaders on the progress of their bilateral talks.
Quartet envoy Tony Blair urged US President-elect Barack Obama to make the Middle East an urgent priority.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the
Moscow conference - planned for the spring next year - must be a step
forward in reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Bali bomb burials stoke tensions
There are fears the bombers' executions could spark reprisal attacks
|
Indonesian security forces are on high
alert after the state execution of three Islamic militants for the 2002
Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
There were reports of clashes as hundreds of supporters attended burials in the men's home villages in Java.
Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) were killed by firing squad at 0015 (1715 GMT on Saturday).
They were found guilty of planning twin attacks on nightclubs at the resort of Kuta, popular with Western tourists.
Security forces are on alert across the country amid fears of reprisal attacks.
Web helps Obama with transition
Change was the key theme of Senator Obama's campaign
|
Barack Obama is turning to the web as he prepares to become US president.
Via a website called Change.gov, the Obama campaign plans to provide a guide to the transition process.
The site also solicits suggestions from US citizens about their
vision for America, and lets them apply for a post with the new
administration.
On its transition website, the US governmental watchdog has
listed the 13 most urgent issues that will soon confront
President-elect Obama.
Job ads
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) listed oversight
of US financial institutions and markets, and the ongoing conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan, as the most pressing issues.
The creation of the Change.gov website is seen by many as
making good on Mr Obama's stated aim to make the process of governing
more transparent.
A blog on the site will document the transition process, and
elsewhere it plans to provide biographies and background on the people
Mr Obama is recruiting.
The site will also accept applications for "non-career" posts
in the incoming administration. The site does not give details about
posts for which it is seeking recruits, but it said some of the roles
would require "Senate approval" suggesting they could be positions of
some influence.
Tibetans' risky journey into exile
By Sally Ingleton
Producer, This World
|
In September 2006, two groups of people crossed paths in the
snow-capped Himalayas - one seeking freedom, the other adventure. A
brutal shooting threw them together, changing their lives for ever.
Each year an estimated 2,500 Tibetans make the dangerous and illegal crossing through the Himalayas into India.
Many are young teenagers seeking freedom both in religious
practice and in their education. A big incentive is the prospect of
meeting their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in
India.
|
THIS WORLD
Murder in the Snow
Monday, 10 November, 2008
1900 GMT on BBC Two
|
In 2006 the plight of these refugees came to international attention
when a group of mountain climbers witnessed and recorded Chinese border
police opening fire on one group of pilgrims as they made their way
across the Nangpa pass in the Himalayas, 18,000 feet (5,500m) above sea
level.
<
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/7715401.stm>
Octopuses share 'living ancestor'
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
|
|
Megaleledone setebos, the common ancestor of deep-sea octopuses
|
Many of the world's deep-sea octopuses
evolved from a common ancestor that still exists in the icy waters of
the Southern Ocean, a study has shown.
Researchers suggest that the creatures evolved after being
driven to other ocean basins 30 million years ago by nutrient-rich and
salty currents.
The findings form part of a decade-long global research programme to learn more about life in the world's oceans.
The first Census of Marine Life (CoML) is set to be completed in late 2010.
The project, which began back in 2000, involves more than 2,000 scientists from 82 nations.
The research into the evolution of deep-sea octopuses was part
of a programme called the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML),
explained Don O'Dor, CoML's co-senior scientist.
"Many of these octopuses were collected from the deep sea by a number of the CoML's different projects," he told BBC News.
|
Octopus specimens collected by Census of Marine Life researchers
|
"All of that material was brought together and made available to Dr
Jan Strugnell, a biologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in
Cambridge, and she used this material to carry out DNA studies.
"She was looking at the relationship between these different deep-sea octopuses and how they originated.
"She has been able to trace the timeline for their distribution back 30 million years to a common ancestor."
The species could all be traced back to a shallow-water octopus called Megaleledone setebos, which is only found in the Southern Ocean.
Dr O'Dor added that the BAS researcher's work also enabled her
to identify how changes in the region's ocean played a pivotal role in
the development of the new species, especially the emergence of a
"thermohaline expressway".
"When you get an increase in sea ice, fresh water forms ice
crystals and leaves behind high-salinity, high-oxygen water, which is
denser than the surrounding sea water, so it sinks," he explained.
|
We can use the first census as a benchmark to see what happens in the oceans over the next decade or more
Dr Don O'Dor, CoML's co-senior scientist
|
"It gets mixed by sea currents and flows into all of the deepest parts of the ocean.
"At the time this process started, there was no oxygen at the
bottom of the ocean, so it brought oxygen into these areas, and we can
now see that the octopuses moved out from the Antarctic into deeper
water."
Dr Stagnell's work also showed how the creatures adapted to the new deep-sea environment.
One example was the loss of their ink sacs, because there was no need for the defence mechanism in the pitch black waters.
As well as being one of the CoML's highlights, the research is also being published in the journal Cladistics on Tuesday. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7715741.stm>
Transition timetable for Obama
Senior Rwandan official arrested
Ms Kabuye has heroic status in Rwanda as an MP and former guerrilla
|
German police have arrested a senior Rwandan official in connection
with the killing of a previous president whose death triggered the 1994
genocide.
Rose Kabuye - the chief of protocol for current Rwandan President Paul
Kagame - was detained on arrival at Frankfurt on a warrant issued by a
French judge.
She is one of nine senior Rwandan officials wanted over the shooting down of Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
All are members of the party which ousted the genocidal regime.
Correspondents say Ms Kabuye, a former guerrilla fighter with
the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), now Rwanda's ruling party, has
heroic status in Rwanda.
Fears of disease in Congo camps
Aid agencies expect the number of cholera cases to rise
|
A cholera outbreak is threatening tens
of thousands of people who have fled fighting in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, aid agencies have warned.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says it has seen more than 45 cases around the city of Goma and the number could rise.
Meanwhile, the UN says fresh fighting has erupted between rebels in an area to the east of the country.
It is the first new fighting since African leaders called for a ceasefire during a summit in Nairobi on Friday.
MSF doctor Megan Hunter said people in the Kibati camp, close to Goma were living in "very bad sanitary conditions".
She said that in the Kibati camp alone, MSF had seen 45 people with suspected cholera since Friday.
"All the risk factors are there for an explosion of a major epidemic," said Ms Hunter.
There are also fears that the disease could be spread further if
increased fighting causes infected people to run away from camps.
An estimated 250,000 people have now fled the fighting between rebel forces of Gen Laurent Nkunda and pro-government militias.
Coronation in the Dragon Kingdom
A
process of modernisation and democratisation is under way in the
Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and a new, young king has just ascended the
throne in a ceremony steeped in Buddhist ritual. Charles Haviland was
in the capital, Thimphu, to watch the celebrations.
As I write this, in a simple wooden house on top of a hill, the suburb around me is quiet.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel is the world's youngest reigning monarch
|
But the city down below is immersed in coronation fever, above all in the stadium specially built for the royal celebrations.
At this moment, if the minute-by-minute timetable is correct,
the king is being presented with one horse with a golden saddle, one
horse with a silver saddle, one mule with a leather saddle and other
treasures.
The ground is packed with 20,000 people, one-fifth of Thimphu's population.
Over these days of festivities, strings of glistening lights will continue to bedeck the city, even its petrol stations.
Ceremony
The coronation itself, a day earlier, was the height of pageantry.
In a massive, whitewashed fort-cum-monastery, King Jigme Khesar
Namgyel had the crown, mounted with a raven and adorned with skulls,
placed on his head by his retiring father.
The coronation was a riot of colour, dance and tradition
|
That day a troupe of monks in scarlet head-dresses had greeted the
wintry dawn from the rooftop, with clanging cymbals and long, droning
horns.
Folk dancers from all over the country whirled, young lads
dressed as warriors performed, and VIPs both local and foreign paid
homage.
Underneath all this technicolour is a country taking deliberate but slow steps towards democracy.
While crowds and then voters in Nepal - a short step away along
the Himalayas - were sacking their king, Bhutanese people in their
thinly populated forest kingdom were voicing the fear that democracy
would bring chaos.
|
What role the new king, with his swept-back hair and gentle smile, might have in political evolution is unclear
|
But the previous King, Jigme Singye, mindful of the need for reform,
insisted they needed some democratic medicine. So there were elections
in March, which just two parties were allowed to contest.
For good measure, the king also stepped down in favour of his
well-liked son. So this is a democracy led by the royals - introduced
at His Majesty's pleasure.
Bhutan is a nation of subjects and, as the banners say: it loves its kings.
And many would say it is doing very nicely as it is.
Modernisation
Thimphu does not feel like a city of the Indian subcontinent. It
is a neat little place with white railings, roundabouts and white lines
in the middle of the road.
Thimphu is the only world capital without traffic lights
|
Its beautiful houses, with ornate friezes and carvings, have the
Tibetan feel that so many foreigners are drawn to. Men and women are
dressed neatly in the bright national costumes that are compulsory for
government and public work.
In more material terms, the country has made strides that its populous neighbours might envy.
It has free education, free healthcare and universal child
immunisation, and laws that protect a good portion of its pristine
forest land.
It is not paradise, though. Bhutan's drive to modernise while
keeping its traditions has gone alongside a vigorous assertion of
national identity which has tended to alienate some of its many ethnic
minorities, especially, but not only, the large Nepali-speaking
community. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7715600.stm>
PM to urge global finance reform
Mr Brown wants Britain, the US and Europe to take the lead
|
Gordon Brown will use a keynote
foreign policy speech later to argue the global financial crisis has
given world leaders a major opportunity for change.
The PM, in his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in
London, is expected to call for the rebuilding of the international
financial system.
He will urge countries to forge a new way of working together that is "hard headed and progressive".
His speech will also be watched for any suggestions of possible UK tax cuts.
'Seize the moment'
Mr Brown's comments in recent days about the need for a fiscal
stimulus to boost the domestic economy have given rise to mounting
speculation about possible moves in that direction.
Ahead of a meeting of leaders of the world's 20 major economies
in the US at the weekend, Mr Brown is expected to say that recent
co-ordinated global action during the credit crisis showed the
potential of a stronger multilateralism.
|
If
we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of
action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to
create a truly global society
|
He will argue that 2008 should not be remembered just for the
failure represented by the financial problems, but for the way
countries reacted and "discovered and refashioned the global power of
nations working together".
"While I see a world that is facing financial crisis and still
diminished by conflict and injustice, I also see the chance to forge a
new multilateralism that is both hard headed and progressive.
"And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of
purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of
change in our world to create a truly global society," Mr Brown will
say, according to pre-released extracts of his speech.
Indonesia's risk of making martyrs
By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Cilacap
|
Supporters of the executed men chant in front of Imam Samudra's home
|
For men who turned the eyes of the world to Indonesia, it was a small and muted death.
Just a handful of witnesses and a firing squad, hidden away on Indonesia's prison island.
There, in the darkness around midnight, three men convicted of carrying
out Indonesia's worst ever bomb attack, were shot though the heart.
It was the end of a six-year story that changed Indonesia, and its place in the world.
That story began in the darkness of another night - 12 October
2002 - on the nearby island of Bali, when bomb attacks ripped through
two of the island's busiest nightspots.
More than 200 people died: tourists, taxi drivers, night-club staff.
Among the dead were 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons.
'Too long'
Or perhaps the story really began earlier, in Java's small
villages. With three boys radicalised by a new generation of Islamic
warriors - in Afghanistan and elsewhere - who fell in with South-east
Asia's network of radical Islamists, al-Jemaah Islamiya.
|
I saw on the television what they did in Bali - they're international-level terrorists
|
Wherever you begin the story, those attacks, carried out in the name
of Islam, remade Indonesia's sense of itself - and its relations with
others.
And by the time they died tonight, those three men - Amrozi Nurhasyim,
his brother Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) and their colleague, Imam Samudra -
had become some of its most famous faces.
It has been a long, unsettled wait for their executions. Most
Indonesians - 85% of them Muslim - are firmly behind the death
sentences handed down in 2003. Many even complained the government was
taking too long.
Just days before the executions were carried out, locals here
in the town of Cilacap - the main crossing point to the prison island -
were dismissive.
"It's taken too long already," said Agus as he sold soup to
crowds gathering outside the crossing point. "They should have been
shot a long time ago."
Australian tourists hug at the site of the 2002 bomb blast
|
"The sooner they're executed the better," said Sadiman, another
local resident who had come to see the arrival of so many heavily armed
police in his tiny town.
"I saw on the television what they did in Bali - they're international-level terrorists."
Some of those years of waiting are the result of legal appeals.
Repeated attempts by the men's lawyers to argue that their conviction
was unsound; that they had not been given a proper hearing.
A major sticking point has been the fact that the three men
were tried and convicted under controversial anti-terrorism legislation
passed immediately after the Bali attacks.
Their lawyers argued it could not be used retroactively.
Indonesia's Constitutional Court agreed. But its ruling was ignored by
higher panels, and earlier this year the country's chief prosecutor
said the three men had finally exhausted all legal avenues of appeal.
Well, not quite all. Amrozi and his colleagues never expressed
remorse for the attacks - never regretted killing people they describe
as "infidels". That meant they could never appeal to the highest
authority in the land - and never asked for a presidential pardon. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7718209.stm>
Inside the Oxford animal lab
By Fergus Walsh
BBC News medical correspondent
|
Exclusive look inside the animal research lab at Oxford with BBC Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh.
Oxford University says the first animals have been moved into a new biomedical sciences centre in the city.
The building will bring together animal research currently conducted at around half a dozen facilities in the city.
Construction began five years ago but building work halted for
more than a year when the contractors pulled out, citing intimidation
from animal rights groups.
The four storey Oxford animal lab is still surrounded by anonymous wooden hoardings topped with barbed wire.
It is ringed with cameras and is a highly secure building.
Inside, biosecurity is a key feature.
Before getting to see the first animals I had to put on protective overalls, plastic shoe covers and a hairnet.
Ferrets at the lab will be kept in cages like these
|
This is mostly to protect the animals from any germs I might bring in.
The first animals moved in were mice, which is perhaps appropriate given that rodents will make up 98% of the inhabitants.
Eventually there will also be zebrafish, tadpoles, frogs and small numbers of guinea pigs, gerbils and hamsters.
There will be no cats or dogs and no farm animals.
Macaque monkeys
But most controversial of all, there will be macaque monkeys.
Like man, macaques are primates and have a highly developed brain.
Scientists at Oxford say this makes them crucial for research
into neuro-degenerative disorders like Parkinsons's and Alzheimer's.
An entire floor of the new building is given over to macaque research.
Animal rights protestors oppose the lab
|
Around 100 monkeys will be housed there.
There are several monkey holding rooms, each with a large
u-shaped cage which is subdivided into five play and five living areas.
The University says the macaques will spend very little time in individual cages.
There are ladders and shelves to climb on and rubber tyres.
The macaques have not been moved to the new building yet, but I did see the current monkey facility.
The University points out that it meets all the requirements
laid down by the Home Office for animal research, but it has less
individual space than the new lab and there is no access to natural
daylight. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7721919.stm>
Was Armistice flawed?
The
armistice deal signed on 11 November 1918 brought yearned-for relief to
Western Europe. But the same pact has been blamed for the return to
conflict in Europe only 20 years later. Does the deal deserve the
criticism, asks Professor Gerard De Groot of the University of St
Andrews.
The Armistice ended four years of fierce fighting
|
On 27 September 1918, the British Army, reinforced by French, Belgian
and Canadian units, attacked the German line in Flanders, Belgium.
Progress was not immediately impressive, but that operation did
achieve the symbolically important result of piercing the Hindenburg
Line, which was supposed to be impregnable.
For Erich Ludendorff, the German commander, the jig was up. On
1 October, he told his general staff that "final defeat was probably
inescapably at hand". The task now was to avoid ignominious defeat.
The Germans therefore notified US President Woodrow Wilson on 6 October that they were willing to discuss an armistice.
They approached Mr Wilson because they hoped to get a good deal from a leader who seemed humane.
That immediately aroused the suspicions of British Prime
Minister David Lloyd George and French President Georges Clemenceau,
both of whom were determined to make Germany pay for the suffering the
war had caused.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7720410.stm>
Ex-Khmer Rouge admirer says sorry
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh
"Thoughts from 1978" (photo: Documentation Centre of Cambodia)
Almost two million people died under Pol Pot's regime
Gunnar Bergstrom has the slightly bemused air of a man who has just realised the joke is on him.
Finding himself back in a much changed Phnom Penh after a 30 year absence probably has a lot to do with it.
But repeatedly explaining how his younger self was conned must surely have had an impact as well.
This former Khmer Rouge supporter is here on a mission of redemption and reconciliation.
In just two days he has already visited genocide memorials and former
torture centres, faced a grilling on Cambodian television, and a
seminar audience full of survivors of the Pol Pot era.
Over the next two weeks, he will take a similar message of contrition to the provinces. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7735881.stm>
Prophet cartoon row in Indonesia
By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Jakarta
|
Cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper sparked global protests
|
The Indonesian government says it has called on a blogging website
to take down two cartoons which depict Muslim Prophet Muhammad in
sexual situations.
The communications minister said the drawings were "very
inappropriate", and said if necessary he would ask internet service
providers to block the site.
The cartoons, which appeared on the website last month, have provoked fierce debate among viewers.
Many Muslims believe it is forbidden to depict Muhammad in any form.
The two cartoons, which are several pages long, each tell a
sexually explicit story involving the Prophet, interspersed with verses
apparently lifted from the Koran.
Indonesia's communications minister described the cartoons as "very unethical and very inappropriate".
He said the ministry was asking the website to remove them. And if
necessary, he said, it would ask internet service providers to block
access to the website itself.
A ministry spokesman said the cartoons were offensive, not just to Muslims, but to all religions.
There were protests in Indonesia two years ago when cartoons depicting Muhammad appeared in a Danish newspaper. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7737223.stm>
UK teachers taught Latin lessons
By Will Grant
BBC News, Caracas
|
The barrios of Caracas have some of Latin America's worst murder rates
|
First, London buses were run on cheap Venezuelan fuel. Then, former
mayor of London Ken Livingstone began advising authorities in Caracas
on traffic problems. Now, the latest link between the two areas appears
to be in education.
The notorious Caracas neighbourhood of 23 de Enero is one of the
most deprived parts of the Venezuelan capital and seems a world apart
from leafy Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire.
But for the past week, a group of head teachers from 10 British
schools have been working in some of the poorest areas in the city on
an educational exchange programme known as Connecting Classrooms.
The scheme, in which their Venezuelan counterparts will visit
schools in London and Hertfordshire next year, is designed to improve
both the Venezuelan and the British approaches to teaching in difficult
social environments.
"We've been working in schools in particularly challenging
circumstances," said Steven Connors, the head teacher of Manor Fields
Primary School in Hertfordshire.
"And although they're in tough parts of town, what we found was
that the schools were serving their communities in the most amazing
way. They were oases of calm and order where children are able to get
that one life opportunity to get an education."
The teachers now hope the Connecting Classrooms project, which
is overseen by the British Council, will be extended to state-run
"Bolivarian" schools across Venezuela following a meeting with the
country's education ministry on Tuesday. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7737000.stm>
Analysis: US Global Trends report
By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent BBC News website
|
The latest offering from the US intelligence community paints a picture of a fragmented world over the next 20 years.
The predictions are contained in a report called Global Trends
2025 from the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which brings
together all the US intelligence agencies. The Global Trends reports
are issued every five years and this is the fourth of its kind.
Among its predictions: the US will remain the most powerful
country but will be less dominant; power will shift from West to East;
the appeal of al-Qaeda will lessen; a multipolar world will emerge with
China, India and others playing greater roles; an "arc of instability"
will stretch round the world among countries with young populations.
First, a note of scepticism about these reports.
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was campaigning against President
Jimmy Carter for the US presidency, he did so on the basis that the
United States was about to be overwhelmed by the Soviet Union and
Japan. At that time, Japan filled the role that China does now - it was
going to take over the world with its economic muscle.
United States
In fact it was the US that reasserted itself. Part of it was the
Bill Gates effect. A whole new industry was invented to help cushion
the impact of the death of the old. Microsoft ruled the world. It was
Japan that entered a long period of relative stagnation and indeed is
hardly ever talked of these days as a world influence. As for the
Soviet Union, we know what happened.
That collapse in itself should give us pause when looking at
this kind of long-range report. Almost nobody predicted it. Those that
did were crying in the wilderness. The same people who failed in their
predictions were then wheeled out to explain why the collapse they had
not foreseen had taken place.
The same thing is going on right now over the financial crisis. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7741237.stm>
Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt
Gauloise. Check. Expansive hand gestures. Check. Get that philosopher look
It's World Philosophy Day - an opportunity to contemplate one's very
existence and whether computer monitors really exist, says David Bain.
People expect different things of philosophers. Some expect us
to be sages. When these people meet me, my heart sinks, since I know
theirs is about to. Others expect us to have a steady supply of
aphorisms up our sleeves, such as that love is never having to say
you're sorry (something no partner of mine has ever been persuaded of).
They too are disappointed when they meet me, especially when I
say that the glass so beloved by optimists and pessimists is both half
full and half empty.
Others expect of us not sagacity, but madness, or at least
outlandish beliefs. And here, it must be said, some philosophers really
have delivered. Thales believed that everything is made of water, for
example, while Pythagoras avoided eating beans because he believed they
have souls.
Eccentric hair: The mark of a modern-day French philosopher
|
As Princeton philosopher David Lewis once said: "When philosophers
follow where argument leads, too often they are led to doctrines
indistinguishable from sheer lunacy."
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7739493.stm>
'Grape' is key to fossil puzzle
The protist is similar to a grape in size and shape
|
A single celled ball about the size of a grape may provide an explanation for one of the mysteries of fossil history.
Writing in Current Biology, researchers say the creature leaves
tracks on the seabed which mirror fossilised tracks left up to 1.8
billion years ago.
Many palaeontologists believe only multi-celled organisms could have made these tracks.
This has been difficult to confirm as no multi-cellular fossils of such an age have ever been found. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7739703.stm>
Breaking Camorra's 'silence code'
More
and more Italians now seem to be willing to brave death threats and
testify against the powerful Neapolitan-based mafia, the Camorra, the
BBC's Pascale Harter says.
Silvana Fuscito says she has helped break the silence over the Camorra
|
Fifty-eight-year-old Silvana Fucito was terrified the first time a
member of the Camorra came into her shop, put a gun on the counter and
said "either you pay up or we'll kill you".
Yet this tiny woman, with her manicured nails and diamante hair
clips, told her husband to step aside. She would deal with the Camorra.
She hoped they would show respect to a woman. Instead they threw a petrol bomb into her paint shop.
Her neighbours, who narrowly escaped with their lives, did not blame
the Camorra - a criminal organisation with a multi-billion dollar
turnover, considered more powerful today than the Sicilian Mafia.
Instead they blamed Silvana, for breaking the rules of what they call "the system".
Nonetheless, Silvana reported the crime, sending 15 senior Camorristi (Camorra members) to prison. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7739993.stm>
Ignoring India's 'republic of hunger'
The
BBC's Soutik Biswas travels to the central Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, one of six states holding key elections, and asks why
malnutrition has not been a major issue with politicians.
Villager Tulsa says she cannot breast feed 18-month-old Sanju much "because I have very little milk". Photos: Soutik Biswas
When did baby Richa finally fall silent?
Social workers direct the question about the three-year-old girl to an
extended family living in a mud-and-thatch hut in the bleak landscape
of Jamoda in Madhya Pradesh. It is the country's second biggest state
in size and also one of its poorest.
The workers belong to a group that is raising the issue of chronic hunger and malnutrition.
"She died recently. She had measles. The quack gave her an
injection, but she did not survive," says Kolai Bai, grandmother of the
dead girl, matter-of-factly. She is now left with six grandchildren.
|
MADHYA PRADESH
Date of election: 27 November
Counting of votes: 8 December
Total constituencies: 230
Total voters: 36054717
|
In these parts, more and more children like Richa are "falling
silent" because of diseases associated with malnutrition and hunger.
But their deaths remain cold statistics; they largely escape the
attention of political parties battling to win the upcoming state
elections.
Groups like the Right to Food Campaign insist that malnutrition is chronic in vast swathes of Madhya Pradesh.
Some 325 children, they say, have died of diarrhoea, measles and
acute respiratory distress - diseases typically associated with severe
malnutrition - in just four districts between May and October this
year.
More worryingly, they say, the government is in complete denial.
Authorities blame illegal doctors for making matters worse and say the children are dying of diseases common elsewhere in India.
Children in the tribal countryside suffer from malnutrition most
However, the first India State Hunger Index (Ishi) this year found
that Madhya Pradesh had the most severe level of hunger in India,
comparable to Chad and Ethiopia.
Even federal health surveys show that 60% of children under the
age of six in the state are malnourished - more than 12% of these
severely so.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the state, does not mention the issue in its manifesto.
The opposition Congress party takes note of it and promises to
make Madhya Pradesh a "malnourishment-free" state if voted into power. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7747313.stm>
New realism in Afghanistan rhetoric
By George Alagiah
BBC News, Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan
|
When the commander of British forces in Afghanistan tells you
that "good enough" is the best that can be achieved here, you have to
sit up and listen.
Brigadier Gordon Messenger is every inch a military man, which
makes it all the more surprising to hear him settle for something that
sounds suspiciously close to second best.
He would deny that characterisation of his words, but accepts there are limits to the Afghanistan project.
The Afghanistan British troops leave behind - and no-one is
willing to commit to any timeline other than to repeat the mantra that
it will take "many years" - is going to be an imperfect state.
Parts of it may well remain beyond the reach of central
government in Kabul, and some of those responsible for the mayhem of
the last 30 years could well retain much of their power and influence,
perhaps even their militia.
New realism
It is a far cry from the beacon of democracy some had hoped for.
"I don't think it will be recognisable in Western Europe, but
Afghanistan will be something which will provide good enough security
for the people. I think good enough should be what we look for," the
brigadier said.
"It's not second best, it's realistic."
Security remains an urgent concern for Afghans
|
There is a new realism in the air. In fact, all that has happened is
that the rhetoric is finally catching up with what is actually
happening on the ground.
My guess is that ordinary Afghans have known for some time that the liberation of 2001 offered more promise than delivery. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7747145.stm>
Taxi revolution on Tehran streets
By Jim Muir
BBC News, Tehran
|
The bright green women's taxis are an increasingly familiar sight in Tehran
When Roqaya Khalili wants to visit friends or relatives, or do
the weekly shopping at the supermarket, she picks up the phone and
dials a four-digit number.
A few minutes later, a bright green taxi draws up outside Roqaya's home in a suburb of west Tehran.
At the wheel is Sahar Foghani, one of around 700 women cab
drivers in Tehran who are making a living, or supplementing the family
income, working for a taxi agency run by women, for women.
It's a scenario that would be unthinkable in nearby Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving.
Women's rights in Iran may have some way to go.
But they are free to go out on their own, to drive their own vehicles, or to take taxis driven by men if they like.
'Better drivers'
The service handles 2,500 customers a day and is growing quickly
|
But Roqaya Khalili is one of around 40,000 registered customers who
prefer to move around in cabs with women in the driving seat.
"I feel safer in a woman's taxi, from all points of view," she says.
"A lot of the men drivers are young and impatient, and they're not disciplined. Women are simply better drivers."
That's a view with which Sahar Foghani, battling daily with Tehran's traffic jams and antisocial driving habits, clearly agrees.
"I've been driving for nearly two years now, and have never had a bump, or a violation ticket," she says.
Sahar has two teenage children, and says she took to the roads to help her husband make ends meet in harsh economic times.
"It's tough on the kids, as they're often stuck at home on their own, but they've been really helpful," she says.
Like 70% of the drivers working for Women's Taxis, Sahar owns her own car, buying it off the company in instalments.
"I can pay off the car over 60 months, so this is an investment as well as providing some extra income," Sahar says.
Women learn basic maintenance such as how to change a tire
|
"Tehran traffic is really heavy, so you have to love driving to do this job," she adds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7747677.stm>
Bad bosses may damage your heart
Feeling undervalued can cause stress
|
Inconsiderate bosses not only make
work stressful, they may also increase the risk of heart disease for
their employees, experts believe.
A Swedish team found a strong link between poor leadership and
the risk of serious heart disease and heart attacks among more than
3,000 employed men.
And the effect may be cumulative - the risk went up the longer an employee worked for the same company.
The study is published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Stressful environment
Experts said that feeling undervalued and unsupported at work
can cause stress, which often fosters unhealthy behaviours, such as
smoking, that can lead to heart disease.
Previous work has shown that unfair bosses can drive up their
employees' blood pressure, and persistent high blood pressure can
increase heart disease risk.
For the latest study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute
and Stockholm University tracked the heart health of the male
employees, aged between 19 and 70 and working in the Stockholm area,
over a period of nearly a decade.
During this time 74 cases of fatal and non-fatal heart attack or acute angina, or death from ischaemic heart disease, occurred.
All the participants were asked to rate the leadership style of
their senior managers on competencies such as how clearly they set out
goals for their staff and how good they were at communicating and
giving feedback.
|
Feeling
undervalued and unsupported can cause stress, which often leads to
unhealthy behaviours...adding to your risk of developing heart problems
Cathy Ross of the British Heart Foundation
|
The staff who deemed their senior managers to be the least competent had a 25% higher risk of a serious heart problem.
And those working for what was classed as a long time - four years or more - had a 64% higher risk.
The findings held true, regardless of educational attainment,
social class, income, workload, lifestyle factors, such as smoking and
exercise, and other risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood
pressure and diabetes. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7745324.stm>
Shifting strategies on Afghan border
By Barbara Plett
BBC News, Islamabad
|
The US army is playing up co-operation with Pakistani counterparts
|
The apparent contradiction in Pakistani and American military
strategies along the Afghan border is becoming difficult to ignore.
Last week in Islamabad the prime minister told parliament that
unilateral US air strikes on militant targets inside Pakistan had
become intolerable and the army chief of staff, on a visit to Brussels,
urged Nato to stop them.
At the same time a series of US military officers claimed that
co-operation between the two armies was improving and, in fact, had
been taken to the "next level" of co-ordination and intelligence
sharing.
So which statement is right? Probably both. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7747932.stm>
Barack Obama's plans for the web
Barackobama.com motivated supporters to contribute, campaign, and vote
By Rajini Vaidyanathan
BBC News, Washington
|
On election night, as it became clear that Barack Obama had won the
election to become the 44th president of the United States, his
supporters received an e-mail in their inboxes.
It started like this:
"I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history.
"And I don't want you to forget how we did it….."
With a personal sign off at the end saying "Thank you, Barack",
it felt intimate, yet this was a mass e-mail, sent to the millions who
had subscribed to Barack Obama's campaign alerts.
|
One
of the things that I'm excited about is to transfer what we've learned
from this campaign in using technology, into government
|
It's just one example of how the president-elect has used the internet
to communicate and create a dialogue with supporters. The Obama
campaign's effective use of new media played a big part in his success.
His presence on sites such as such as Facebook and Myspace created
online communities which organised supporters to register, campaign,
and ultimately go out and vote. He also sent out news via text message,
using the medium to inform people of his vice-presidential choice.
In an interview before the election, he spoke of how he wanted to continue that conversation into the White House:
"One of the things that I'm excited about is to transfer what
we've learned from this campaign in using technology, into government.
I mean, there are huge areas where we can open things up, make things
more transparent," he said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7754485.stm>
Inside US hub for Afghan air strikes
Thousands of military personnel work at the main US air force targeting base
US military officials have defended the use of air strikes in
Afghanistan, amid increasing criticism about the numbers of civilians
killed as a result of aerial bombing.
BBC Afghanistan correspondent Ian Pannell, granted rare
access to the main US Air Force targeting base at an undisclosed
location in the Middle East, spent a day looking at how decisions are
made about where to attack and when.
It is the centre of gravity for all air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is home to some 8,000 military personnel.
We are told that we are the first foreign journalists to be
allowed inside the top secret operations room, but we are not allowed
to say where we are or take any recording equipment inside.
"It is frustrating because we take a large effort to avoid
civilian casualties," says Col Gary Brown, the judge advocate for the
US Air Force Combined Air and Space Operations Centre.
There are hundreds of people working around-the-clock to draw up the "air-tasking order".
This is the master-list for the day's operations. Some 300
missions are controlled from here every day, including air strikes
against the Taliban.
Insurgent clashes
Unfortunately, sometimes the target is missed. Thousands of
innocent people have died in Afghanistan since the US-led war in 2001.
The US wants to show how much effort it makes to avoid civilian casualties
|
The vast majority have been at the hands of the Taleban.
But Human Rights Watch has reported that in the past three years,
civilian deaths from US and Nato air-strikes have tripled.
Most of these deaths arise not from pre-planned operations but from
rapid responses to incidents on the ground, usually clashes with the
insurgents.
We were given a guided tour of the top secret "combat
operations room". We watched clear images from drones flying hundreds
of miles away over remote parts of Afghanistan.
Giant screens track the movement of planes supporting US troops in action.
We were allowed in because America wants to defend its record, to show how much effort goes into minimising casualties.
Col Brown says air power is one of America's great asymmetric
advantages but bemoans the Taleban's use of the media, what he calls
"their asymmetric advantage".
Every civilian casualty at the hands of the US or Nato
generates headlines and angry statements in Afghanistan. Every incident
makes the task of the government and the coalition harder.
Now American military officials are accusing the Taleban of deliberately increasing the risk of civilian casualties.
Col Eric Holdaway, director of intelligence, says there is
clearly documented evidence that "some of our enemies have clearly
located themselves amongst civilian populations or [have] moved into
buildings occupied by civilians and increased the risk to those
civilians".<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7755969.stm>
Marches urge Farc hostage release
The demonstrations were much smaller than ones earlier this year
|
Thousands of people have marched in
Colombia and other countries to call for the release of hostages held
by Colombia's Farc rebel group.
Farc is holding hundreds of hostages in jungle camps, either for ransom or to exchange for government-held rebels.
In Madrid, Ingrid Betancourt - held for six years by Farc - appealed for the rebel group to release its captives.
The protests were smaller than ones held earlier this year, when millions marched in support of the hostages.
"We are thinking during these moments of those who
are chained to a tree, who live in humiliation, we carry this cross
with them and we want to relieve them of these chains," Ms Betancourt
said.
"We invite Farc to lay down their arms," she added.
She was rescued along with three American military contractors
and 11 Colombian military personnel in a daring rescue operation in
July. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7755995.stm>
'Mummy, can I phone the pirates?'
One
of the biggest frustrations facing journalists is being unable to get
through to people on the phone. But as Mary Harper discovered,
contacting the Somali pirates on the Sirius Star turned out to be
child's play.
The pirates on the Sirius Star put the phone down on the BBC
|
It was a cold, dark, wet and miserable Sunday afternoon. I was in my
car, driving my 12-year-old daughter and her friend back from a
birthday party. I was tired and fed up from being in the car.
"Mummy, mummy," trilled a voice from the back. "I want to phone the pirates."
My daughter had heard me repeatedly trying to get through to the Somali pirates on board the Sirius Star.
They usually picked up the phone but put it down again when I
said I was from the BBC. My obsession with getting through to them had
reached the point that I had even saved their number on my mobile
phone.
"Mummy, mummy, please can I phone the pirates for you?"
"No."
"Pleeeeez."
By this time, with rain battering my windscreen and cars jamming the road, I was at the end of my tether.
"OK", I said, tossing the phone into the back of the car.
"They are under P for pirates."
Giggling with pirates
"Hello. Please can I talk to the pirates," said my daughter in her obviously childish voice.
I could hear someone replying and a bizarre conversation ensued which eventually ended when my daughter collapsed in giggles.
|
Our last resource is the sea, and foreign trawlers are plundering our fish
|
This was a breakthrough. Dialogue had been established.
The next day, I went to the crowded office in Bush House in London where the BBC Somali Service is based. I told them the story.
"Let's try now," said producer Said Musa, who, dare I say it,
looks a bit like a pirate himself. He has a wild look about him with
flashing eyes and a swashbuckling saunter.
He dialled the number. A pirate answered. "I'm sorry," he
barked in Somali, "the boss pirate is sleeping. He was very busy last
night keeping watch for possible attackers, night time, you know, is
the busiest time for us. Call back in two hours." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7754622.stm>
Guantanamo 'a stain on US military
Darrel Vandeveld tells the BBC why he quit as a Guantanamo Bay prosecutor
By Gordon Corera
Security correspondent, BBC News
|
The tribunals used for putting suspects on trial at Guantanamo
Bay are a "stain on America's military", a former military prosecutor
has told the BBC in his first interview since resigning.
For Lt Col Darrel Vandeveld, a devout Catholic, the twin
responsibilities of religious faith and military duty led to a profound
moral crisis.
His resignation has led to charges against six inmates being
dropped, at least for now, and called into question the possibility of
a fair legal process at Guantanamo.
"I know so many fighting men and women who are stained by the
taint of Guantanamo, so I'm here to tell the truth about Guantanamo and
how a few people have sullied the American military and the
constitution," he told me during an interview in his home town of Erie,
Pennsylvania.
|
It took me too long to recognise that we had abandoned our American values and defiled our constitution
|
A reservist, Darrel Vandeveld was called up as a military lawyer after 9/11 and served in Iraq, Bosnia and Africa.
In 2007, he became a prosecutor for the military commissions
which tried terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, a role he took
enthusiastically.
"I went down there on a mission and my mission was to convict
as many of these detainees as possible and put them in prison for as
long as I possibly could," he told the BBC.
"I had zero doubts. I was a true believer."
But his zeal did not last long.
When he arrived, he says he found the prosecutor's office in
chaos, with boxes scattered around the floor, files disorganised,
evidence scattered in different places and no clear chain of command.
And more seriously, he soon discovered that defence lawyers
were not receiving information which could help clear their clients,
including evidence that suspects had been "mistreated" in order to
secure confessions. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7761315.stm>
US political vacancies need filling
By Max Deveson
BBC News, Washington
|
Bill Clinton has ruled out taking on his wife's senate seat
|
There are plenty of jobs going in American politics at the moment.
Barack Obama's victory in the presidential election means that his Illinois senate seat now lies vacant.
His running mate Joe Biden's Delaware senate seat is also up for grabs.
And the announcement of his proposed cabinet choices leave a number of other senate and gubernatorial vacancies.
How these positions get filled differs from job to job and state to state.
In some cases, Democrats will even be automatically replaced with Republicans.
In others, the replacement will be appointed by just one powerful individual. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7761401.stm>
'Rot' at heart of Indian intelligence
By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Mumbai
|
India's commando forces took hours to reach the battle in Mumbai
The blame game over who was responsible for bloody terror attacks
in the western Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) has a sense of déjà vu
about it.
Security experts have criticised the response to the attacks,
which left nearly 200 people dead, as "amateurish, sluggish and
feeble".
Indian intelligence agencies are leaking information that they
gave about half a dozen warnings to the government in Maharashtra state
- of which Mumbai is the capital.
The reports say Maharashtra was warned that strikes were being
planned on city landmarks, including, possibly, the Taj Mahal hotel at
the historic Gateway of India.
Authorities in Mumbai flatly deny that they received any
tip-offs. "It is unimaginable that we would have got this sensitive
information and not react," says state Interior Secretary Chitkala
Zutshi. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7760460.stm>
Dangerous coding errors revealed
Experts say many of these errors are not well known
|
The US National Security Agency has helped put together a list of the world's most dangerous coding mistakes.
The 25 entry list contains errors that can lead to security holes or vulnerable areas that can be targeted by cyber criminals.
Experts say many of these errors are not well understood by programmers.
According to the SANS Institute in Maryland, just two of the
errors led to more than 1.5m web site security breaches during 2008.
It is thought that this is the first time the
industry has reached agreement on the worst things that can creep into
software as it is being written.
More than 30 organisations, including the US National Security
Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, and Symantec
published the document.
|
THE TOP 25 MOST DANGEROUS PROGRAMMING ERRORS
CWE-20:Improper Input Validation
CWE-116:Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
CWE-89:Failure to Preserve SQL Query Structure
CWE-79:Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure
CWE-78:Failure to Preserve OS Command Structure
CWE-319:Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
CWE-352:Cross-Site Request Forgery
CWE-362:Race Condition
CWE-209:Error Message Information Leak
CWE-119:Failure to Constrain Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
CWE-642:External Control of Critical State Data
CWE-73:External Control of File Name or Path
CWE-426:Untrusted Search Path
CWE-94:Failure to Control Generation of Code
CWE-494:Download of Code Without Integrity Check
CWE-404:Improper Resource Shutdown or Release
CWE-665:Improper Initialization
CWE-682:Incorrect Calculation
CWE-285:Improper Access Control
CWE-327:Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
CWE-259:Hard-Coded Password
CWE-732:Insecure Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
CWE-330:Use of Insufficiently Random Values
CWE-250:Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
CWE-602:Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security
Source: SANS Institute
|
"The top 25 list gives developers a minimum set of coding errors
that must be eradicated before software is used by customers," said
Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with Veracode.
"There appears to be broad agreement on the programming errors," says SANS director, Mason Brown, "Now it is time to fix them."
"We need to make sure every programmer knows how to write code that is free of the top 25 errors."
"Then we need to make sure every programming team has processes
in place to find and fix these problems [in existing code] and has the
tools needed to verify their code is as free of these errors," he said.
Patrick Lincoln, director of the Computer Science Laboratory at
SRI International, told the BBC that if programmers prevented these
errors appearing in their code, it would deter the majority of hackers.
"This list is primarily for people who have first
responsibility for designing a system. Veteran programmers have
probably learnt the hard way whereas a brand new programmer will be
making more basic errors."
"The real dedicated serial attacker will probably find a way in
even if all these errors were removed. But a high school hacker with
malicious intent - ankle-biters if you will - would be deterred from
breaking in."
Previously, most advice has focused on vulnerabilities that can
result from programming errors. The top 25 list examines the actual
programming errors themselves. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7824939.stm>
Ancient Persians 'gassed Romans'
Remains in the city wall suggest toxic gases were used in a siege on the city
|
Ancient Persians were the first to use chemical warfare against their enemies, a study has suggested.
A UK researcher said he found evidence that the Persian Empire
used poisonous gases on the Roman city of Dura, Eastern Syria, in the
3rd Century AD.
The theory is based on the discovery of remains of about 20 Roman soldiers found at the base of the city wall.
The findings were presented the Archaeological Institute of America's annual meeting.
The study shows that the Persians dug a mine underneath the wall in order to enter the city.
They also ignited bitumen and sulphur crystals to produce dense
poisonous gases, suggested Simon James, an archaeologist at the
University of Leicester.
He added that underground bellows or chimneys probably helped generate and distribute the deadly fumes.
The Romans apparently responded with counter-mines in an effort to thwart the siege.
"For the Persians to kill 20 men in a space less than 2m high or
wide, and about 11m long, required superhuman combat powers - or
something more insidious," said Dr James.
"The Roman assault party was unconscious in seconds, dead in minutes."
Excavations showed that the soldiers' bodies were stacked near
the counter-mine entrance by the attackers to create a protective
barricade before setting the tunnel on fire.
"It is clear from the archaeological evidence at Dura that the
Sasanian Persians were as knowledgeable in siege warfare as the
Romans," said Dr James.
Gaza doctor's loss grips Israelis
Dr Izeldeen Abuelaish shared his grief at losing his daughters
By Lucy Ash
BBC World Service
|
I first met Dr Izeldeen Abuelaish eight years ago when I made a radio documentary about his extraordinary life and work.
A Palestinian obstetrician who specialises in treating
infertility, he lives in the Jabaliya camp in the Gaza Strip, but used
to work part-time in Israel helping Jewish women to have babies.
He also had a clinic in Gaza, taught medical school students
there and arranged for seriously ill Palestinian patients to be treated
in Israel.
He put up with the tedious and sometimes humiliating border checks with dignity and patience.
He stayed calm when one of his own Palestinian medical students
told him she was "very, very angry" that he was helping Israelis to
have children.
"What if these babies grow up to become soldiers who kill our people?" asked the young woman.
|
My daughters and I were armed with nothing but love and hope
|
Despite all the suspicion, the hatred and the barriers Dr Abuelaish continued his work.
In 2001, Dr Gad Potashnik was in charge of the IVF clinic at the Soroka University Hospital in Beersheba.
He described Dr Abuelaish as a "magical, secret bridge between Israelis and Palestinians".
But that "magical, secret bridge" is now close to breaking point.
I have stayed in touch with Dr Abuelaish over the years.
Since we met he has had a number of jobs and research posts abroad.
In September 2008 he was about to start working for the European
Union in Africa but had to return home after he wife, Nadia, fell ill
with leukaemia.
Israeli patients
She died soon after his return, leaving him a widower with eight children aged three to 20.
In the middle of the recent conflict, I interviewed Dr Abuelaish for the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.
He told me all the glass had been blown out of the windows of
his house, he could hear firing and explosions all around and he was
desperately worried for the safety of his children.
Then on Friday afternoon, just a day before the ceasefire was announced, his worst nightmare came true.
"My daughters were just sitting quietly talking in their bedroom
at home," Dr Izeldeen Abuelaish told me on the phone between sobs.
"I had just left the room, carrying my youngest son on my shoulders. Then a shell came through the wall.
Jabaliya Camp was hit repeatedly by Israeli strikes
|
"I rushed back to find their dead bodies - or rather
parts of their bodies - strewn all over the room. One was still sitting
in a chair but she had no legs.
"Tell me why did they have to die? Who gave the order to fire on my house?"
In a voice cracked with emotion, he added: "You know me, Lucy.
You have been to my house, my hospital; you have seen my Israeli
patients.
"I have tried so hard to bring people on both sides together and just look what I get in return."
The victims were Bisan, aged 20, Mayar, 15, Aya aged 13 and the physician's 17-year-old niece Nur Abuelaish.
"My eldest daughter was five months away from finishing her
degree in business and financial management. She was looking forward to
the future and I was so proud of her."
I remember talking to Dr Abuelaish in his house as his children scurried around him asking questions and singing songs.
Bisan was a cheeky, bright-eyed girl, keen to show off her English and read aloud from her school text book. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7838465.stm>
Blogger brought down by dire forecasts
By John Sudworth
BBC World Service, Seoul
|
The South Koreans have been accused of shooting the messenger
|
South Korea, it is often said, is the most connected country in the world.
A new-model democracy where 90% of households are hooked up to a fast-flowing torrent of news, views, opinion and online debate.
And with it, it is argued, has come a new breed of opinion former.
To guide and sway public opinion, no longer is it necessary to be a fat cat media mogul.
A broadband connection is all you need.
Oracle
But as well as a computer keyboard, a voice loud enough, or
interesting enough, to be heard above the electronic din is what really
counts.
Minerva was that kind of voice.
Taking the Greek goddess of wisdom's name as his nom-de-plume, Minerva became a one-man oracle for these troubled economic times.
Or bloggacle perhaps.
In hundreds of internet postings over the past year the blogger
has spent his days pounding the keys, pouring forth his opinions on
where he felt the South Korean economy was heading.
"Downwards" and "fast" would probably be two of the best words to sum up his view.
But what appears to have really catapulted him to fame were a number of specific predictions.
A week before the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, there was the uncanny prophet, predicting exactly that.
And as the government fought to shore up the value of the Korean
currency, there was Minerva accurately predicting its subsequent,
dramatic slide.
Public interest
At the height of his blogging bonanza, Minerva was pulling in more than 100,000 online viewers for each of his postings.
Minerva could face a five-year jail sentence
|
But the government had him in their sights.
It argued that much of what he wrote was misleading or wrong.
The final straw came with his report that the authorities had
ordered big business to stop buying dollars, an allegation the
government denies.
But such was Minerva's following that his statements were themselves affecting the money markets.
He was traced and arrested under a rarely used law; the offence
of spreading false information with the intent of harming the public
interest.
Self taught
Before his arrest, Minerva's popularity had led to intense public debate about his background.
A retired economics professor with time on his hands, perhaps?
A still employed market trader with intimate experience of Wall
Street and a number of other financial exchanges around the globe, went
another theory.
His public unveiling, before his first court appearance, turned out to be somewhat of a surprise.
The ranks of waiting reporters and newspaper snappers found
themselves face to face with a 31-year-old unemployed man called Park
Dae-sung, who never went to university and who garnered his financial
know-how by surfing the web and reading mail order economics text
books. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7839375.stm>
Karzai blames allies for problems
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has
called on his international allies to change the way the "war on
terror" is being fought in his country.
Addressing parliament, Mr Karzai once again urged US-led and Nato troops to do more to reduce civilian casualties.
He also called for a rethink in the way billions of dollars in
aid are spent and accused his allies of not doing enough to curb the
illegal drugs trade.
On Sunday Nato's head complained of corrupt government in Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai, who is due to face a presidential
election this year, told the opening session of parliament that the
fight against militants could not be won without popular support from
Afghans.
The president has often complained to Western powers over civilian casualties in recent years.
"We don't accept civilian casualties in our land in the war on
terrorism," President Karzai told about 300 parliamentarians and
guests, including UN representatives, foreign embassy officials and
foreign military forces.
The issue of civilian deaths has led to protests
|
"We have never complained about our police being martyred -
thousands of our police have been martyred. We have never complained
about the deaths of our soldiers - hundreds have died," he said.
"If thousands are killed in the war on terrorism... we will
accept that. But we don't and will never accept civilian casualties in
our land," he said, to chants of "Allah Akbar" (God is great) from MPs
expressing approval.
"We want change in military operations, we want effectiveness in the 'war on terror'." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7839953.stm>
Cold War in paradise
By Marie Jackson
BBC News
|
Some 50 years ago thousands of excitable young servicemen landed on
the white sands of a Pacific paradise to oversee Britain's testing of
early nuclear bombs. But what happened next damaged them mentally and
physically for life, some claim, and now they want to be compensated.
Dressed in overalls, white protective gloves and a balaclava,
21-year-old naval cook Dougie Hern was ordered to sit on the beach,
back to the bomb, his knees pulled up, eyes closed and hands over his
face. A countdown began...three, two, one.
"We saw a bright, brilliant light," he recalls. "It was as if
someone had switched a firebar on in your head. It grew brighter and
you could see the bones in your hands, like pink X-rays, in front of
your closed eyes."
Seconds later, they were ordered to stand and turn towards the blast.
People were knocked off their feet, palm trees shook, birds were
blinded and glass shattered as a mushroom cloud rose from the horizon,
parting the clouds.
Moments later, the servicemen were told to stand down and resume their duties.
|
We knew what had happened in Japan - I thought it could not happen here, they would not do it to us
Douglas Hern, former navy cook drafted to Christmas Island
|
It was all over in about 14 seconds, but Mr Hern, now 72, believes
radiation exposure on that day and four others is behind his diabetes,
the spurs growing on his sternum, and much worse, the death of his
13-year-old daughter from cancer.
For decades, British ex-servicemen who were stationed on
Christmas Island in the South Pacific in the 1950s have been embroiled
in legal battles, trying to win recognition for their work and
compensation for poor health they say is the result of the nuclear
tests. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7840594.stm>
Israeli warning on Gaza tunnels
Palestinians move supplies through tunnels at Rafah
Israel has warned of renewed military
strikes on Gaza if tunnels used for smuggling in goods from Egypt are
reopened by Palestinians.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the situation could not return
to how it was before Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza, which ended
last Sunday.
But media reports say that some of the tunnels are already back in operation, with fuel being smuggled in.
Diplomats are continuing talks in Egypt aimed at finding a lasting truce.
Destroying the network of tunnels between the Gaza
Strip and Egypt was one of Israel's main aims when its offensive began
in late December. The Israeli military claims to have destroyed 150
tunnels during its Gaza assault.
The Israelis say the tunnels are used to smuggle weapons in to
militants from Hamas, but the Palestinians argue that Israel's tight
control of their borders means the tunnels are the only way they can
get enough fuel and basic goods to survive. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7844497.stm>
Fast bucks: how Porsche made billions
By Emily Hughes
BBC Money Programme
|
Making and selling cars is just one part of Porsche's business
|
Porsche is world famous for its iconic sports cars.
But car manufacturing isn't the only thing the company is good at.
Last year it made six times as much on the stock market as it did making cars.
Industry insiders are only half joking when they call it a hedge fund with a carmaker attached.
Porsche says its stock market trades are only for one reason: to
take it towards its long term goal, the takeover of car making giant,
Volkswagen.
In October 2008, Porsche's takeover moves triggered an
unprecedented stock market squeeze when it suddenly revealed it owned
or had positions on more than 74% of Volkswagen shares.
The value of Volkswagen stock rocketed to more than 1,000 euros, briefly making it the most valuable company in the world.
Hedge funds, who had gambled that the value of Volkswagen shares would fall are said to have lost between 10bn and 40bn euros.
Porsche denies any wrongdoing and says that it made no profit from the squeeze, but some hedge funds are crying foul.
Now the German financial regulator, BaFin, is conducting an investigation into what it calls "suspected market abuse." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7843262.stm>
Turkish PM storms off in Gaza row
Turkey's prime minister has stormed
off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a heated
debate on Gaza with Israel's president.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with Shimon Peres, whose voice had
risen as he made an impassioned defence of Israel's actions, jabbing
his finger.
Mr Erdogan said Mr Peres had spoken so loudly to conceal his "guilt".
He accused the moderator of not allowing him to speak and said he did not think he would return to Davos.
The Turkish PM stressed later that he had left the
debate not because of his disagreements with Mr Peres but because he
had been given much less time to speak than the Israeli leader.
Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries to have dealings with
Israel, but relations have been under strain since the Islamist-rooted
AK Party was elected to power in 2002.
Late on Thursday, a WEF official said that Mr Peres and Mr
Erdogan had spoken by mobile telephone, and both men now considered the
matter closed. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7859417.stm>
Bush shoe sculpture 'taken down'
|
The unveiling of the sculpture took place on Thursday
|
A sculpture of a shoe erected in Iraq
to honour a journalist who threw his footwear at George W Bush has been
dismantled, reports say.
Foreign media say the bronze-coloured fibre-glass shoe was
removed from its site in the city of Tikrit on the orders of the local
authorities.
It had been erected in the grounds of an orphanage.
The monument was reportedly taken down just a day after being unveiled in the late Saddam Hussein's home town.
The head of the Childhood organisation, which owns
the orphanage, said she had been told to remove the monument
immediately by the Salaheddin Provincial Joint Coordination Centre.
"I did take the shoe down immediately and destroyed it, and I did not ask why," Shahah Daham told the German news agency DPA.
Salaheddin's deputy governor, Abdullah Jabara, told DPA:
"Children should be put away from any political-related issues. Since
this is an orphanage, this monument can instil in children's heart
things for which the time is not now."
Mr Jabara was also quoted by CNN as saying: "We will not allow
anyone to use the government facilities and buildings for political
motives." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7862180.stm>
Nato wary of Russian treaty plan
Russia is pushing for a new "treaty on European security" to govern East-West relations, arguing that Nato is a Cold War relic.
Nato officials say such a treaty would weaken the alliance
and reward Russian "aggression". William Horsley, a writer on European
affairs, examines what is at stake.
Russia has tightened its grip on South Ossetia since the August war
|
Top Nato officials and diplomats met this month at the Wilton Park
conference centre near England's south coast to discuss how to resolve
doubts and divisions about the alliance's future before its 60th
anniversary summit in April.
Nato's problems in Afghanistan topped the formal agenda. But
the loudest alarm was sounded about the danger of a long-term
confrontation with Russia.
Some journalists were invited in on condition that speakers
would not be named without their consent. The depth of their concern is
clear from statements like these:
"Russia's action in Georgia was no aberration. It may have become the norm."
"Russia must not have a veto on which countries can join Nato. If we concede that we're finished."
"Russia is aggressively trying to establish its sphere of
influence and to rewrite the rules based on Russian national interest,
not on international rules." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7861248.stm>
Counting casualties of Gaza's war
By Bethany Bell
BBC News, Jerusalem
|
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 1,314 Gazans were killed
|
In any conflict the number of deaths - of combatants and civilians - is a highly sensitive topic.
Numbers can be used for propaganda purposes by all sides and
they can play a role in determining perceptions of whether the sides
have kept within international law's rules of keeping civilian
casualties to a minimum.
In the Israeli offensive on Gaza, far more Palestinians,
including women and children, were killed than Israelis. But the exact
figures have been disputed.
During the fighting, the main source for the number of Palestinian casualties came from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
It said 1,314 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, 412 of them children.
These numbers are being used by international organisations,
like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
However, with very few international workers and journalists
allowed in Gaza during much of the conflict, it has been difficult to
verify the figures independently. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7855070.stm>
Egypt 'to monitor Gaza tunnels'
Some tunnels are operating again despite the bombardment
|
Egypt says it has begun to install
cameras and motion sensors along the border with Gaza to try to stop
weapons smuggling by Palestinian militants.
Tighter surveillance of the tunnels is one of Israel's key
conditions for maintaining the ceasefire that ended its three-week
offensive against Hamas.
The tunnels were used to smuggle food and medicine, as well as arms.
Israel bombed them, but when the fighting stopped some were still usable and others have been repaired.
Egyptian security sources said the authorities had
begun installing the equipment in the last few days along the 14km
(8-mile) border with the help of American, French and German expertise.
Reuters news agency quoted the sources as saying they hoped the
equipment would detect any new tunnel-building activity in the area.
The United States has pledged $32m in detention equipment and
army engineers are providing technical assistance on the ground, AFP
news agency said.
The tunnels were one of Israel's main targets during its offensive.
Hamas and many Palestinians say the tunnels are a vital source
of basic necessities so long as Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt
remain blocked. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7862919.stm>
French government fears rise of left
By Paul Henley
BBC News, Toulouse
|
French protests have been peaceful, but anger is growing
"Sarkozy is right to be afraid of us," says Marine, a 22-year-old
student and member of the League of Communist Revolutionaries in
Toulouse.
"We are the ones who are going to break the rules and the control of the old system. We are the new alternative".
Across Europe, victims of the economic slump who are losing
their jobs in their tens of thousands are furious that public money is
being doled out to the banks.
In some countries, they are more willing to vent their anger.
As huge crowds took to the streets across France this week, in a
national day of protests and strikes, the far left points to a boost in
the number of its supporters in times of financial gloom.
The French communist movement has remained a significant
political force even in the decades when their cause was less than
fashionable abroad.
Now, France's communists believe they are staring at the proof that
capitalism has failed, once and for all. And they see an opportunity.
Marine and her fellow party-member, Hugo, who is 18, do not envisage a violent revolution.
"There is no need for guns or bullets," says Hugo, "just a
realisation that the situation is not fair, that all the state's money
is being spent on the people who need it the least."
Stephane Borras, who is one of the group's organisers and a
candidate to lead a new party that is being formed under the banner of
anti-capitalism, says attitudes are changing.
"We are seeing a radicalisation, perhaps the beginning of a
very big movement. I am not a clairvoyant, but I live in France, I have
a lot of contacts with a wide range of people and it's not just
leftists, not just militants who cannot accept the injustice.
Inequality is growing in Europe and inequality is always the cause of
revolt". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7861774.stm>
Fines fraud hits Italian drivers
By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Rome
|
Drivers who made mistakes were caught on camera and fined
|
Thousands of drivers in Italy are
expected to seek compensation after it was revealed that a system to
catch them jumping red lights was rigged.
More than 100 people, including police officers, are being investigated as part of the fraud.
The T-Redspeed system - a revolutionary camera technology - has been in use for two years in 300 areas across Italy.
Cameras linked to traffic lights capture 3-d images of vehicles if they jump the lights or are speeding.
It can also detect offences like illegal u-turns.
Fraudulent fines
It is believed more than a million drivers have been trapped by the system.
But it is now claimed the lights were rigged to change from
yellow to red in three seconds instead of the regulation five or six
seconds.
The fraud was uncovered by a senior police officer who noticed an unusually high number of fines being issued.
Instead of an average 15 fines a day in some places, the figure jumped to more than 1,000.
The fraud may have netted as much as $170m (£116.4m) for those involved.
The scheme's inventor is now under house arrest, though his lawyers say he is innocent.
More than 100 other people including 63 police commanders are also being investigated as part of the scam. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7862893.stm>
Who will rebuild Gaza?
By Heather Sharp
BBC News, Jerusalem
|
Even as aid agencies struggle to meet the immediate needs of
those left injured, homeless and traumatised by the Israeli operation
in Gaza, concerns are growing that reconstruction efforts could become
bogged down in a complex political tangle.
Initial Palestinian estimates said rebuilding would cost $2bn
(£1.4bn) and take three to five years, even without the host of
obstacles Gaza faces.
International agencies are still assessing the scale of the destruction in preparation for a drive for reconstruction pledges.
But with the international community refusing to deal directly
with Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, it remains unclear
how the money could be spent.
Israel is determined that Hamas should in no way benefit from
international aid funds. It also controls everything entering the Gaza
Strip.
It is demanding strict controls on building materials -
urgently needed before the fighting and now required in vast quantities
- which it says could be used to build rockets and launching sites.
Waiting to see
Then there is the long-standing feud between Hamas and the West
Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) - both battling for popularity
among Palestinians and vying for international recognition.
Hamas spokesmen say they are the legitimate authority in Gaza
and the PA is corrupt and cannot be trusted with reconstruction money.
US President Barack Obama and the European Union favour channelling aid
through the PA - although the European Commission Representative in
Jerusalem, Christian Berger, said the EU was waiting to see the outcome
of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks between the Palestinian
factions.
But as Hamas has purged PA figures from many of Gaza's institutions, it remains unclear what the PA could achieve on the ground.
Along with Israel, the US and EU regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
The Middle East Quartet, which brings the US and EU together
with the UN and Russia, refuses to talk to Hamas unless it renounces
violence and recognises Israel's right to exist.
But UN agencies do co-ordinate with Hamas, which won elections
in 2006 and consolidated its control in Gaza by force a year later. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7856011.stm>
Iran launches homegrown satellite
Iran says it has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the launch had been
successful and that with it Iran had "officially achieved a presence in
space".
The satellite, carried on a Safir-2 rocket, was meant for telecommunication and research purposes, state TV said.
France has expressed concern, saying the technology used was
"very similar" to that used in ballistic missiles. Iran insists its
intent is peaceful.
Iran is subject to UN sanctions as some Western powers think it is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Tehran denies that claim and says its nuclear ambitions are limited to the production of energy.
Officials from six world powers - the US, Russia, China, UK,
France and Germany - are due to meet in Germany on Wednesday to discuss
the nuclear stand-off. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7866357.stm>
Where are Thai protesters now?
Few PAD members seem clear about what exactly the movement stands for
For most of last year, news from Thailand was dominated by the
yellow-shirted protest movement calling itself the People's Alliance
for Democracy (PAD). It helped drive two prime ministers from office.
But since December, the PAD has disappeared from the scene. The BBC's
Jonathan Head in Bangkok has been finding out what happened to it.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7865911.stm>
Gaza hospital bears heavy strain
By Aleem Maqbool
BBC News, Gaza City
|
Yahya lost his right leg in an Israeli airstrike near his home
|
Twenty-year-old Yahya Abu Saif lies in his hospital bed looking wide-eyed, gaunt and scared.
He was lucky to survive an Israeli air strike. But, like so many others in Gaza, his life was transformed in an instant.
He lost his right leg in the explosion. The left side of his body is paralysed.
"I had just left the mosque near my home and was going home after prayers," he says, with a little difficulty.
"They dropped a bomb on the mosque and I was thrown in the air, but I don't remember what happened after that.
"My family told me 15 people were killed and 20 people injured, including me."
Yahya says he used to go to university and wanted to be a teacher one day.
"Now I will have a life of hospitals. I know I will just need medical care forever."
As we left the room, we found Yahya's elder brother outside, wiping away tears. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7866159.stm>
S Lanka hospital 'attacked again'
About 50,000 troops are involved in the operation in the north-east
|
The Red Cross in Sri Lanka says three
more civilians have been killed in artillery attacks on a hospital in
Tamil Tiger-held territory.
It said another 10 people were injured when shells hit a ward on
Monday in the hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu town in Mullaitivu
district.
Aid workers say nine died in three strikes on the hospital at the weekend.
The government says it is not responsible for the attacks and has told civilians to leave the war zone.
'Decisive stage'
Puthukkudiyiruppu is situated in an enclave held by the rebels and is home to tens of thousands of civilians. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7866342.stm>