Policing the World-11

In a hall crowded with conservative Sunni Muslim sheikhs and scholars, in a hotel close to Istanbul's Ataturk Airport speaker after speaker called for jihad against Israel in support of Hamas.

The choice of Turkey was significant. Arab hardliners were keen to put aside historic differences with the Turks.

As one organiser put it: "During the past 100 years relations have been strained but Palestine has brought us together."

Many delegates spoke appreciatively of the protest by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stormed out of a Davos debate on Gaza two weeks ago.

The conference, dubbed the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, also gave impetus to Sunni clerics concerned about the growing power of Hezbollah, the Shia movement backed by Iran, which rose to international prominence in its own war with Israel in 2006.

"Gaza is a gift," the Saudi religious scholar Mohsen al-Awajy told me. He and other delegates repeatedly referred to the Gaza war as "a victory".

"Gaza," he continued, "gives us power, it solves our differences. We are all now in a unified front against Zionism."

In closed meetings after sessions delegates focussed on the creation of a "third Jihadist front" - the first two being Afghanistan and Iraq. The intensity of the Israeli attack had "awakened all Muslims," Mr Awajy claimed.

The explosives, including aircraft bombs and white phosphorus shells, were fired by the Israeli military during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.

UN officials said they were urgently trying to establish where the arms had gone and have called for their return.

Richard Miron, the senior UN spokesman in Jerusalem, said: "We are anxious to get the return of this ordnance. It's clearly extremely dangerous and needs to be disposed of in a safe manner.

A UN Mines Action Team has been in Gaza since the end of the war, last month, its job to locate unexploded Israeli ordnance and to organise its safe disposal.

Two weeks ago, on 2 February, the UN team was given access to a storage site in Gaza City where more than 7,000kg of explosives was being housed.

It included three 2,000-pound bombs and eight 500-pound bombs, which had all been dropped from aircraft but failed to explode.

There was also a large number of 155mm shells for delivering the incendiary chemical white phosphorus.

Many of the explosives had been collected by the Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip.

The UN staff had been waiting for the Israeli army to allow them to bring specialist equipment into Gaza so they would be able to destroy the explosives safely.

In particular, the team needed explosives or flares to set off a controlled explosion and they needed tools to allow them to extract fuses from some of the bombs.

The UN staff were also waiting for permission from the Israeli military to use two safe areas to dispose of the munitions.

At a meeting last Thursday with the Israeli army, two areas were identified: one in the north, in a no-go area close to the border with Israel and the other near Khan Younis in the south, in a former Hamas training area.

On Sunday, when UN officials returned to the warehouse, which was under a Hamas police guard, they say they found most of the explosives had gone missing.

The president's order not to withdraw from Afghanistan but to get further into it shows that there are limits to the liberalism he has espoused, even though he foreshadowed this move during his election campaign.

He is not the first US president to come into office promising change and then finding that more of the same is part of the policy mix.

Jimmy Carter proclaimed an "ethical" foreign policy but then ran into the reality of the Soviet move into Afghanistan in 1979.

This led to a freezing of relations with Moscow, including a boycott of the Moscow Olympic games.

It was an event that doomed his presidency, though he would probably have lost to Ronald Reagan anyway, because the US was then, as now, in an economic recession and, at that time, thoroughly demoralised.

Jimmy Carter chose not to go to war with Iran, something that George W Bush might have at least threatened.

A huge decision about war or peace potentially looming over the horizon for President Obama also concerns Iran.

It is curious how the same places crop up again and again in differing circumstances and never with an easy answer.

Defying the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Security Council, which want it to halt the enrichment of uranium, Iran is continuing to enrich, though it says it has no intention of using this expertise to build a nuclear device.

Mr Obama has promised new contacts with Iran and everyone is waiting to see if this will include an offer to agree to some enrichment at least by Iran - or whether this confrontation becomes a crisis and even a war.

Iran might prove to be the crucial test of what kind of President Obama will be internationally.

Mr Obama has not developed the concept of an ethical foreign policy as Jimmy Carter did. He has not made that kind of commitment. But even presidents who want to avoid war sometimes find that war is, in their opinion, thrust upon them.

Bill Clinton managed to find his own solution, by limiting the kinds of wars he fought, turning them into campaigns instead.

He bombed but did not invade Iraq; he bombed and did not invade Serbia, resisting the pressure of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for ground operations as well.

US President Harry Truman did go to war in 1950, when he opposed the invasion of South Korea by the North.

If President Obama can avoid an attack on Iran yet resolve the argument with Iran, his reputation could be made in a different way.

But the danger for a liberal president is that he is seen to be weak if he does not take action.

Another problem down the line will raise acute dilemmas for a liberal-minded lawyer president.

It concerns those prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay who might not face trial but who will not be released.

When the camp closes, which the president has ordered inside a year, there could a small number of these prisoners.

The question then will be whether to hold them in some form of preventive detention on US soil, perhaps after a ruling by a new national security court, which would give a legal veneer to detention without proper trial.

It would not be pretty in the eyes of the powerful element of legal, public and political opinion that has forced the promise of Guantanamo's closure.

And for a president with his legal background, it would not be easy to justify on constitutional grounds.

The Electronic Privacy Information Centre was on the brink of filing a legal complaint when Facebook announced it would revert to its old policy.

"This row underlines the need for comprehensive privacy laws," said Epic's president Marc Rotenberg.

"It is great that Facebook has responded by going back to its old terms of service. That is a step in the right direction, but these issues don't go away.

"It's going to be an ongoing concern for users until we get privacy laws in place," Mr Rotenberg told the BBC.

Epic, along with 12 other consumer and civil liberty groups, were intending to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about the policy changes when it was stopped in its tracks.

"We got a call late last night from Facebook and they said that they were thinking of going back to their original terms of service," said Mr Rotenberg.

"We said that if they would agree to do that, we wouldn't see the need to file the complaint."

In a blog post, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote: "Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago.

"Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues people have raised."

Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook would draw up a new document in conjunction with its users. The company has set up a special group called "Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" to let users have their say.

Tanks rolled through the area during the Israeli offensive. Much of the zoo was badly damaged, most of the animals died.

Cage after cage lies empty. Ostrich feathers are strewn close to a crater in the ground, beside the mangled steel bars of what was the birds' pen.

The burnt carcass of a camel by its former enclosure is one of the few sets of remains that have yet to be taken away.

"Some were killed in air strikes," says the zoo's manager, Emad Qassim, "but some of the animals were shot dead."

"Thank God our two lions survived, but we used to have over 400 animals and birds, now there are just 10 left."

The zookeepers say that for more than two weeks, Zeitoun, the southern suburb of Gaza City where the zoo is located, was simply too dangerous to access because of the presence of troops and tanks.

During the conflict the Israeli army released footage from the zoo in which soldiers pointed to what they said was a fuse running along one line of cages.

The white cable led out of the compound to the school next door, a building the soldiers said had been booby-trapped by militants.

In the 22 days of the offensive, which Israel says was a response to rocket fire from Hamas, Gazan authorities and human-rights groups say 1,300 Palestinians died, hundreds of them children. Thousands were injured.

Many had their homes damaged or destroyed, but other aspects of the territory's infrastructure were affected too.

Dr Aric Sigman says websites such as Facebook set out to enrich social lives, but end up keeping people apart.

Dr Sigman makes his warning in Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology.

A lack of "real" social networking, involving personal interaction, may have biological effects, he suggests.

He also says that evidence suggests that a lack of face-to-face networking could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.

Foreign Minister Fander Falconi said Mark Sullivan, the first secretary at the US embassy in Quito, had 48 hours to leave the country.

Both US officials were accused of meddling with police appointments in a US-funded anti-narcotics programme.

Last week, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa ordered US customs attache Armando Astorga to leave on similar charges.

It accused Mr Astorga of being "insolent and foolish" and said he had treated Ecuador like a colony by trying to dictate the Ecuadoran police's choice of a commander for an anti-smuggling unit in return for $340,000 in US aid.

"Following the Astorga affair, Sullivan also placed conditions on logistics cooperation with the police," Mr Falconi said.

An unnamed US state department official told AFP news agency that the US is required by law to vet candidates for US-funded training programmes.

"We regret this decision by the government of Ecuador. We also reject any suggestion of wrongdoing by embassy staff," said state department spokesman Gordon Duguid.

"Despite the government of Ecuador's unjustified action, we remain committed to working collaboratively with Ecuador to confront narcotics trafficking," he added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7898432.stm>

Le Corbusier will do for me. This vain, mercurial megalith of Modernism wouldn't have given the average architect a glance.

Only a fool would attempt to emulate his work. Thousands have - the public calls it "Modern Architecture", a concrete desert where simple souls bend to an architect's arrogant will.

Le Corbusier's pincer-like powers lock us into the "modular" grids he so successfully imposed on our lives. Frigid, perfect, masterful - his works glimmer with the fatal splendour of a sunlit iceberg.

He died five years before I became a student at the Liverpool School of Architecture. The air was thick with his influence. In 1970 architecture and town planning still enjoyed the flux of post-war socio-economic theory.

Le Corbusier had attained the status of a god - his work was not questioned, as the work of famous architects is not questioned today. I avoided his revolutionary manifesto of 1923, Towards a New Architecture. I skipped The Modular of 1948, and Modular II - all sacred architectural creeds. Now I know about Corbusier but approach with caution. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7899157.stm>

As we move along the road, more gunmen appear, standing guard at junctions, checking cars along the road, keeping watch outside buildings.

We are in the centre of Paktia province, in south-eastern Afghanistan. Winter has encrusted the highlands in snow and ice. It is cold, beautiful and dangerous.

The insurgency has raged and grown in this part of the country. Paktia borders Pakistan and is a route for insurgents coming into the country. The Taleban and al-Qaeda have a growing presence here and clashes between them and government and foreign forces have escalated.

But Ahmadabad district is an exception, thanks to the gunmen of the Arbakai, a tribal militia that has protected this area and its people for centuries, making it something of a safe-haven from the violence all around.

Neither the Taleban nor foreign forces have a presence in this district. There are just 30 police officers for the entire area, so it is left to the Arbakai to defend the local population.

The tribal elder is Haji Gulam Khan. He tells us that the area is stable and that there is a good relationship between the people and the government.

He is in no doubt who to thank: "If it weren't for the Arbakai, this area would've been controlled by the Taleban or mafia groups."

And while he talks to us, development work gets under way. We watch a band of Pakistani engineers in bright-orange jackets work to install pylons which will bring electricity to the district for the very first time. It's the kind of progress that has been elusive elsewhere.

"We've been able to do reconstruction and development, unlike places like Kandahar and Helmand where there's been insecurity and fighting," he says.

Some think the Arbakai provide a role model for stemming the violence elsewhere in the country. A little more than a year ago, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke about "community defence initiatives" as a way of dismantling the insurgency.

It received a cold reception from Washington at the time but since then the US, together with the Afghan government, has been fine-tuning a variation on the theme of putting local people in charge of their own security.

They will be called a "Public Protection Force" (PPF) and come under the control of the ministry of the interior. Some 200 recruits from each district will be given weapons and uniforms.

The booting services are proving popular with players who want a way to get revenge on those who beat them in an Xbox Live game.

The attackers are employing data flooding tools that have been used against websites for many years.

Microsoft is "investigating" the use of the tools and said those caught using them would be banned from Xbox Live.

"There's been a definite increase in the amount of people talking about and distributing these things over the last three to four weeks," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research at Facetime Communications.

"The smart thing about these Xbox tools is that they do not attack the Xbox Live network itself," he said.

He said the tools work by exploiting the way that the Xbox Live network is set up. Game consoles connecting to the Xbox network send data via the net, and for that it needs an IP address.

Even better, said Mr Boyd, games played via Xbox Live are not hosted on private servers.

If hackers can discover the IP address of whoever is hosting a game they can employ many of the attacks that have been used for years against websites, said Mr Boyd.

One of the most popular for the Xbox Live specialists is the Denial of Service attack which floods an IP address with vast amounts of data.

The flood of data is generated by a group of hijacked home computers, a botnet, that have fallen under the control of a malicious hacking group.

When turned against a website this flood of traffic can overwhelm it or make it unresponsive to legitimate visitors.

When turned against an Xbox owner, it can mean they cannot connect to the Live network and effectively throws them out of the game.

"They get your IP address, put it in the booter tool and they attempt to flood the port that uses Xbox traffic," said Mr Boyd. "Flooding that port prevents any traffic getting out." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7888369.stm>

Earlier this month Facebook became the most recent site to sign up to OpenID, joining the board of the scheme that provides users with a single digital identity which can then be used across many websites.

Microsoft and Google were early adopters of the single sign-on scheme, and have since been joined by the likes of AOL, Yahoo, IBM and PayPal.

"The idea is that just as you can use e-mail anywhere on the web to sign up for a new service, you should be able to do the same thing with an Open ID - but without having to create a new password," Chris Messina, an Open ID board member told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.

Mr Messina, who describes himself as a "social web advocate," said that Open ID would be much more convenient than the current system of individuals having to create separate accounts for each website they visit.

"Wouldn't it be nice if you could just use these accounts over and over again without having to divulge a password?" he said.

"Longer term though, it is also important that people are able to establish themselves on the web in a way that is reusable and durable - so they can create connections from one place to another, and those connections go with them."

He admitted that the risk of what would happen if Open ID got hacked was "a very good question" - but added that the risks in the current system are even greater.

"A lot of people on a lot of websites today require you to sign up and provide an e-mail address in the case of forgetting your password and things of that nature, so they can send you a link with a new password to access your account," he said.

"The problem though is that, since you're using only one or two e-mail addresses, if your e-mail gets hacked then not only can you be locked out of your e-mail account but nefarious parties could then use your e-mail to reset all of your different passwords.

"The difference here is that with Open ID, you're able to choose the level of security that you might use. This allows you to avoid being stuck in the situation where you're giving passwords away to a number of different websites." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7894730.stm>

As the Kyrgyz parliament decides to close the only US military base in the country, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes considers the strategic and political impact of the announcement.

Mongolia may have Gengis Khan to put it on the map. Uzbekistan has the great Silk Road cities of Bokhara and Samarkand. Kyrgyzstan has Manas.

Manas, it turns out, is the hero of the greatest epic poem of Kyrgyz history. He is a sort of King Arthur of the central Asian steppe, and a national hero in Kyrgyzstan.

The justice department ruled that some 600 so-called enemy combatants at Bagram have no constitutional rights.

Most have been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of waging a terrorist war against the US.

The move has disappointed human rights lawyers who had hoped the Obama administration would take a different line to that of George W Bush.

Prof Barbara Olshansky, the lead counsel in a legal challenge on behalf of four Bagram detainees, told the BBC the justice department's decision not to reform the rules was both surprising and "enormously disappointing".

The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Washington says the move has angered human rights lawyers, with one saying the new White House was endorsing the view of the old one, that prisons could be created and run outside the law.

It is certainly evidence that having set the tone for his administration by announcing plans to close Guantanamo Bay, Mr Obama intends to adopt a much more cautious approach to the problem of detainees held elsewhere by the US military, our correspondent says. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7903005.stm>

The site has been extensively renovated, with upgraded facilities and amenities, including a hospital, rest rooms and visiting rooms.

Work is continuing on the prison, which will eventually be the city's main jail, holding about 12,000 inmates.

But three months ago, this is where 10 armed men came ashore to attack this city, killing more than 170 people.

On the coast in front of me is the old arch of the Gateway of India, and behind it, still boarded and shuttered, is the Taj Palace hotel, which was under siege for three days.

This is the place that crystallised images of terror striking India, and in particular of the threat from abroad.

India's response to the attacks has been to pile international pressure on Pakistan, and review its own security arrangements.

"India has always faced very severe threats, in fact the terrorist threats to India predate 9/11 in the US," says Minister of Home Affairs P Chidambaram.

"Until the Mumbai attacks, perhaps there was not sufficient realisation of the gravity of the threat India faced."

"But there are some people within the country who are fundamentally misled by those who fund them, train them, help them and motivate them from without."

The year 2008 was a bloody one, with a series of multiple bomb blasts in Indian cities claiming more lives than the days of terror in Mumbai.

Well before the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was accused of attacking Mumbai, it was a focus of attention, as was its mysterious local offshoot, the Indian Mujahideen.

And home-grown militancy is the subject of increasing concern among the security elite.

"Mumbai has secured a very exaggerated significance, partly because of the nature of the attack, and of course the nature of the targets," says Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management.

"But this country has been facing a continuous movement of Islamist terror for over a decade and a half now. An intelligence or enforcement agency somewhere in this country identifies and neutralises an Islamist terrorist cell backed by Pakistan on average every fortnight." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7902036.stm>

Analysis of brain tissue from adults who had committed suicide found key genetic changes in those who had suffered abuse as a child.

It affects the production of a receptor known to be involved in stress responses, the researchers said.

The Nature Neuroscience study underpins the impact of stress on early brain development, experts said.

Previous research has shown that abuse in childhood is associated with an increased reaction to stressful circumstances.

But exactly how environmental factors interact with genes and contribute to depression or other mental disorders in adulthood is not well understood.

A research team led by McGill University, in Montreal, examined the gene for the glucocorticoid receptor - which helps control the response to stress - in a specific brain region of 12 suicide victims with a history of child abuse and 12 suicide victims who did not suffer abuse when younger.

They found chemical changes which reduced the activity of the gene in those who suffered child abuse.

Those affected would have had an abnormally heightened response to stress, the researchers said.

It suggests that experience in childhood when the brain is developing, can have a long-term impact on how someone responds to stressful situations.

But study leader Professor Michael Meaney said they believe these biochemical effects could also occur later in life.

"If you're a public health individual or a child psychologist you could say this shows you nothing you didn't already know.

"But until you show the biological process, many people in government and policy-makers are reluctant to believe it's real.

"Beyond that, you could ask whether a drug could reverse these effects and that's a possibility."

Dr Jonathan Mill, from the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London said the research added to growing evidence that environmental factors can alter the expression of genes - a process known as epigenetics.

"Whilst these results obviously need to be replicated, they provide a mechanism by which experiences early in life can have an effect on behaviour later in adulthood.

"The exciting thing about epigenetic alterations is that they are potentially reversible, and thus perhaps a future target for therapeutic intervention." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7901337.stm>

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is not one of the world's best-known peacekeeping forces.

But the story of how peace has been built here, in this former British protectorate, is largely a story of success.

Fifteen Pacific countries responded to a neighbour in need, and an intervention force of only about 500 foreigners has led to major changes in this nation of 500,000 people.

In the late 1990s, rival militias tried to take advantage of ethnic tensions in order to secure greater political power.

Scores of people were killed. The violence was fuelled in part by the problems created by the resettlement of ethnic Malaitans on the main island of Guadalcanal.

In July 2003, the Solomons government got the intervention force it had asked for.

Villagers on the outer island of Malaita remember how things used to be, and how they've changed.

"People were afraid of the gun," one boy says. "Some of the people that came into our islands, they held guns and they shot around, and people were afraid."

In the same hut, another boy tells me that villagers no longer had to put up with this after the arrival of the peacekeepers.

Weapons held by ethnic militias - and rogue police officers - were taken by RAMSI.

Firearms were sawn up and buried in concrete near the police headquarters in the capital, Honiara.

Bringing law and order to the Solomon Islands was hard enough for the local police force. So how did the Australian officers cope?

Australian policeman Grant Beatty works as an advisor on the island of Malaita. When he first arrived, he was taking advice himself.

It was important to see how the local force was working before he could start making changes.

The foreign advisers have a well-provisioned house on the fringe of Malaita's main town, Auki.

But the Royal Solomon Islands Police live in poor sanitary conditions at the station, with quarters for married officers next to a rubbish tip.

In spite of notices on the walls, townspeople wander through the station, taking drinking water as they please. The toilets serve as a public convenience.

An Australian officer says that during the ethnic unrest, militants would regularly drive past Auki station and spray bullets into the facade.

It still looks pretty dilapidated. When I visited, only one patrol truck was working.

A drive round the island to arrest a suspect, or take them to court, might take a whole day. The roads are especially bad during the rains.

In Honiara, watch-house facilities at the central station leave much to be desired. When I was shown police cells there, suspects were sleeping on the floor near unclean toilets.

Prime Minister Derek Sikua says his government simply needs more money to upgrade police facilities.

"The whole issue here," he says, "is to bring back the morale of the Royal Solomon Islands Police force.

"One of the things that affects morale is housing. That is where government is focusing its resources, along with other donor partners like New Zealand and Australia."

Dr Sikua mentions upgrades for police vehicles and uniforms, as well as accommodation outside the main centres. It's not clear whether donors will supply the extra cash. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7899665.stm>

The human rights group said it had evidence both Israel and Hamas had used weapons sourced from overseas to carry out attacks on civilians.

Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the conclusions of the report, in which Amnesty accuses each of war crimes.

In the report, Israel is accused of illegal use of white phosphorus and other armaments supplied by the US in Gaza, while Hamas is condemned for launching unguided rockets into Israel.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC: "The IDF, the Israeli Defence Forces, only use weapons that are in accordance with international law.

"We did not use any such munition as an anti-personnel weapon; we are investigating ourselves."

White phosphorus, which is used to lay smokescreens, is legal for use on open ground but its use in built-up areas where civilians are found is banned under international conventions.

Donatella Rovera, the head of an Amnesty fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, said: "Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes.

"At the same time, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets that had been smuggled in or made of components from abroad at civilian areas in Israel.

"Though far less lethal than the weaponry used by Israel, such rocket firing also constitutes a war crime and caused several civilian deaths."

The charity's report said it had found fragments and components of artillery, tank shells, fins from mortar rounds and aircraft-launched missiles and bombs in school playgrounds, hospitals and homes in Gaza.

In southern Israel, meanwhile, the remains of rockets fired indiscriminately at civilian areas by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups were also recovered, the report said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7904929.stm>

In the fourth instalment of his diary from the ship's deck, our correspondent sees how the pirates are able to seize ships only a few miles away from naval vessels.

The day jolted into life with the news that the MV Saldanha had been taken by pirates.

The first realisation that the Saldanha, a Greek-owned container ship was in trouble came on the radar. Instead of following the established shipping corridor through the Gulf of Aden it was heading directly towards Somalia.

The helicopter was sent up to take a closer look while the HMS Northumberland moved towards the Saldanha at top speed. Two miles away radio contact was established.

The frightened voice of the Saldanha's captain came over the airwaves. A "hostage situation" had now developed, he said, with the pirates issuing the demand that the warship stay away.

There was little that Martin Simpson, captain of the Northumberland, could do. He was forced to watch as the Saldanha with its crew of 22 below deck drifted past the bridge windows and on towards the Horn of Africa.

The Greek owner will now be expecting the phone call that begins ransom negotiations.

The mandate of the European Union taskforce - of which the Northumberland is part - is to act as a deterrent and try and stop acts of piracy in process or about to take place. It does not have the mandate or capability to retake captured ships like the Saldanha. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7904874.stm>

Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 30, says he was tortured while being held in custody on suspicion of terrorism.

Charges against him were dropped last year, but a Pentagon spokesman said US authorities would not discuss detainee releases until they were complete.

The BBC understands that his flight is due to land in the UK around lunchtime on Monday.

On Friday, the Foreign Office said he would be returned to Britain "as soon as the practical arrangements can be made".

It is not clear if he will be allowed to stay in the UK, but Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terror laws, said he thought Mr Mohamed would be "given every opportunity, subject to the law, to integrate himself back" into society.

The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said previous Guantanamo Bay detainees had been questioned by police upon their return to the UK.

Mr Mohamed is said to be unwell after spending a month on hunger strike earlier this year, so he may also require medical attention once back in Britain, our correspondent added.

The US had accused Mr Mohamed of involvement in a plot to detonate a "dirty bomb" in America, but the charges were dropped in October.

Mr Mohamed says he was tortured into falsely confessing to terrorism and accuses British MI5 officers of complicity in his abuse.

He alleges he was secretly flown from Pakistan to Morocco and tortured before being moved to Afghanistan and on to Guantanamo Bay.

The UK attorney general is consulting the director of public prosecutions over whether to order a criminal investigation into the torture claims.

On Sunday, a Pentagon spokesman, US Navy Cmdr Jeffrey Gordon, said: "As a matter of long-standing policy, we do not discuss detainee transfers and releases until they are completed."

Mr Mohamed's lawyers say he poses no risk to the UK, and do not expect him to be arrested or detained by British authorities.

He had lived in the UK from the age of 15, before being arrested in Pakistan in 2002.

During his hunger strike, he was described by his legal team as "close to starvation," but last weekend he was declared well enough to travel back to the UK by a team of British officials who had visited him. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7905070.stm>

But the immediate question is not so much can he form a coalition government, but rather what sort of government will it be?

And, to paraphrase Churchill, this is not the end of the coalition-building process in Israel but rather only the end of the beginning.

Ranged to the right of his own Likud formation he has a variety of parties including the Russian immigrant-backed Yisrael Beiteinu; orthodox Jewish religious parties like Shas; and the ultra-nationalist splinter formations from the break-up of the National Religious Party.

These together could give him a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.

He would first, of course, have to reconcile Shas with the stridently secular Yisrael Beiteinu.

Yisrael Beiteinu calls for the introduction of civil marriage in Israel and for the end to what it sees as the religious parties' blackmail of the Israeli political system.

It clearly would not be there to make concessions to the Palestinians. There would be strong pressures from within such a coalition to go full steam ahead on settlement-building on the West Bank.

Such a government could easily find itself on a collision course with the Obama administration in Washington.

Most Israeli commentators believe that Mr Netanyahu's goal is still to build as broadly-based a coalition as possible.

This is clearly what the Israeli President Shimon Peres would prefer. And it is what Mr Netanyahu himself has said he wants to do.

He has called upon both the Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and the Labour Party head, Ehud Barak, to join him in a broad, national unity coalition.

Analysts discount claims from Kadima or Labour leaders that they are heading into opposition as so much rhetoric.

Senior members of Hamas and Fatah, the main rival Palestinian factions, have agreed to release each other's members from detention.

Hamas has lifted house arrest on some Fatah members in the Gaza Strip while Fatah has released about 80 - out of a total 380 held - Hamas members.

The agreement came ahead of unity talks, due to start in Cairo, which could lead to more aid for Gaza.

"A certain number of detainees will be freed right at the beginning of the dialogue," said a statement from Azzam al-Ahmed, leader of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian parliament, and Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, referring to the talks about to start in Egypt.

"Other detainees will be freed successively so that this issue will be totally closed before the end of the national Palestinian dialogue," the statement said.

But he said it was not possible with the extreme members, who had links to international terrorism.

Governor Mangal told the BBC the keys to defeating the Afghan insurgency were reconciliation and better governance.

Also, he said, the elimination of the Taleban's sanctuaries that straddle the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The energetic and reform-minded Governor Mangal is much favoured by Britain, which has over 8,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan.

On a day when news broke of three more British deaths in Helmand province, bringing the total killed since 2001 to 148, he said that coalition soldiers fighting the Taleban were doing it "for the sake of the world's humanity".

In a reference to al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, he said if Helmand province was not secure, then London would not be either.

He denied recent reports that the Taleban were in control of more than half of his province and insisted that Nato and Afghan security forces were jointly inflicting heavy losses on the Taleban and interrupting the narcotics trade, in which he said they were heavily involved.

"We have taken serious steps towards the narcotics problem," he told a news conference earlier.

"Dozens of smugglers have been captured, many heroin facilities have been destroyed and 41 tonnes of drugs have been confiscated.

"The Taleban and drug dealers are working closely together and we have proof that the Taleban are forcing farmers to plant opium poppies and punishing them if they refuse," he said.

"The Taleban are even escorting drugs convoys around the country and out of it for export. But this year [because of our efforts] you will see a decrease in poppy production." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7911498.stm>

The spread of the mutiny is being reported even as troops in Dhaka began laying down their arms and releasing hostages, reports say.

Nearly 50 people are feared dead in Bangladesh after border guards staged an armed mutiny on Wednesday.

The mutiny was said to be over pay conditions. The government has offered the troops a general amnesty.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka says that reports are coming in that the mutiny, which erupted without warning on Wednesday morning at the headquarters of Bangladesh border force in Dhaka, has spread to other towns in the country.

The Bangladesh Rifles or BDR has 45,000 men stationed at 64 camps across the country.

Our correspondent says that there are unconfirmed reports of gunfire in the main port city of Chittagong, at Feni, on the eastern border with India, in Rajshahi in the north west, and Sylhet in the north.

A man claiming to be a BDR soldier in Chittagong said they had opened fire to prevent regular army units from entering their camp, unconfirmed reports say.

In Khulna in the south, border guards have reportedly blocked a road, but no shooting has taken place.

A government spokesman, speaking from inside the compound in the capital, Dhaka, where the troops had been holding out, said the crisis was over.

The statement came after tanks surrounded the guards' barracks and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina threatened tough action unless they surrendered.

"All the rebel troops have surrendered with their arms and the process has been completed," Sheikh Hasina's spokesman Abul Kalam Azad said of the Dhaka mutineers.

The bodies of nine army officers have been recovered, apparently killed by the mutineers - military officials say many more officers are unaccounted for.

Nearly 50 people are thought to have died on Wednesday in clashes involving the regular army at the border guards' Dhaka headquarters.

Defence secretary John Hutton said two men detained in 2004 were transferred to US custody and were then transported to Afghanistan, where they remain.

He said he was reassured they had been treated humanely but apologised for past incorrect answers given to MPs.

The Lib Dems said Mr Hutton's comments raised "as many questions as answers" and called for all relevant documents in the case to be published.

Mr Hutton said that contrary to previous statements he now knew UK officials were aware that the two men, understood to be Pakistani nationals, had been transferred to US custody in 2004 but that no action had been taken on the issue. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7912656.stm>

Five former top Serbian officials were found guilty on some or all the charges relating to the 1990s conflict. Their sentences range from 15 to 22 years.

It was the court's first ruling on alleged crimes by Serbian forces in the Kosovo conflict.

The court found that the 66-year-old, who led Serbia from December 1997 to December 2002, had no direct control over the Yugoslav army.

Mr Milutinovic and his fellow defendants - all of whom had been close allies of Slobodan Milosevic, the then-president of Yugoslavia - had denied all the charges against them.

His five co-accused were convicted for what the judges described as a "broad campaign of violence directed against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population".

Ex-Yugoslav deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic, ex-Yugoslav army generals Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic, and former Serbian police public security service chief Sreten Lukic were found guilty on all counts and were each sentenced to 22 years in jail.

The charges were deportation, forcible transfer of civilians, murder and persecution.

Former Yugoslav army chief of staff and defence minister Dragoljub Ojdanic and ex-Yugoslav army general Vladimir Lazarevic were found guilty of deportation and forcible transfer and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

All five will be given credit for time already served in the tribunal's custody.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had accused them of participating "in an alleged campaign of terror and violence directed against Kosovo Albanians and other non-Serbs in Kosovo during 1999".

"The crimes... include the deportation and forcible transfer of several hundred thousand people, as well as the murder and persecution of thousands of Kosovo Albanians," the court said in a statement. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7911761.stm>

Today thousands of digital frames languish on computers never to be seen but in the days of film, a contact sheet showing all the frames on a roll of film was the first stage from camera to publication.

These sheets can destroy the mystery and allure of the frozen moment, which is why many photographers keep theirs hidden. Who wants to open themselves up in that way, to show the discarded frames?

It has taken 50 years, but photographic students now have the chance to examine in detail every nuance of a book that holds an almost mythical place in the heart of many photographers.

The Americans by Robert Frank chronicles his 10,000-mile journey across America at the height of the Cold War, and today, many of the 83 frames contained inside the covers are burned into the collective memory.

The Americans was first published in France and then in the US. It was widely condemned by the critics, as it depicted a country sharply at odds with the America portrayed by Hollywood and the ad men.

Earl A Powell III, the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, says the book shows "a people plagued by racism, often ill-served by their politicians, intoxicated with the media and celebrities, and infatuated with speed, movement, and even the road itself". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7907632.stm>

Beijing released its own report on the US, saying crime is a threat to many Americans and racial discrimination prevails in social life across the US.

When US officials first published their report on China, Beijing told them to mind their own business.

The BBC's James Reynolds, in Beijing, says the reports are a standard yearly exchange with little practical impact.

The 9,000-word Chinese report depicts a bleak picture of the US, saying violent crime is a widespread threat to people's lives, property and personal security.

The American people's economic, social and cultural rights are not properly protected, say the Chinese, and many young Americans "have personality disorders".

"The US practice of throwing stones at others while living in a glass house is testimony to the double standards and hypocrisy of the United States in dealing with human rights issues," says the report.

Beijing's report came after the US state department concluded in its annual report on rights around the world that China's human-rights record worsened in some areas in 2008.

The US report accused China of harassing dissidents and increasing its repression of ethnic minorities.

Last weekend, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks in Beijing with China's leaders and, in public, the issue of human rights was barely mentioned. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7914357.stm>

Amid reports of mass graves bring found, troops are also searching sewers around the HQ of the border guard force where the two-day rebellion broke out.

The authorities have arrested at least 200 suspected mutineers who reportedly rebelled over poor pay and conditions.

They were detained while trying to escape dressed in civilian clothes from the barracks of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), officials say.

The government has offered the border guards a general amnesty although this is unlikely to extend to the ringleaders of the mutiny or those responsible for killing officers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7914541.stm>

Court strikes out Joker Arroyo's statement on activist's case

DOJ, DFA to discuss extradition of Garcia sons from US

An unnamed state department official said the draft document for April's forum in Geneva was "unsalvageable".

In 2001, US and Israeli delegates walked out of a similar conference in Durban, South Africa, when a draft document likened Zionism to racism.

The 2001 draft expressed "deep concern" at the "increase of racist practices of Zionism and anti-Semitism".

It talked of the emergence of "movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas, in particular the Zionist movement, which is based on racial superiority". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7916191.stm>

Two fighter jets met the long-range Bear bomber over the Arctic last week, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said.

The Russian plane turned around after being signalled by the Canadian pilots, he said.

There has been an increasing number of similar Russian flights in the Arctic in recent years, Mr MacKay said.

The Canadian jets "met a Russian aircraft that was approaching Canadian airspace. They sent very clear signals that the Russian aircraft was to turn around - turn tail - to its own airspace, which it did," Mr MacKay told reporters after meeting North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) officers in Ottawa.

He said he did not know if the flight was deliberately timed for when Canadian security efforts were focused on Mr Obama's upcoming visit to Ottawa.

"I'm not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit, but it was a strong coincidence," he said of the 18 February flight.

An official at the Russian embassy in Ottawa said he did not think the flight had anything to do with Mr Obama's visit.

"Americans have routine flights. Russians do, different Europeans do," he was quoted as saying by Associated Press news agency.

In a speech at a Marine Corps base, he said the US "combat mission" in Iraq would officially end by that time.

But up to 50,000 of 142,000 troops now there will stay into 2011 to advise Iraqi forces and protect US interests, leaving by the end of 2011, he said.

Mr Obama praised the progress made but warned: "Iraq is not yet secure, and there will be difficult days ahead."

Some Democrats are concerned that the timetable falls short of his election pledges on troop withdrawal.

Mr Obama had said previously that he would completely pull out troops within 16 months of taking the top job.

Earlier this month, he ordered the deployment of up to 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan, saying they had been due to go to Iraq but were being redirected to "meet urgent security needs". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7914061.stm>

America's combat mission in Iraq, which cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, which broke homes and hearts, which angered enemies and alienated allies, will end by August 2010.

That means that tens of thousands of soldiers serving in what the US military calls "combat brigades" will be home 19 months from now.

America and Iraq have a bilateral agreement which envisages the withdrawal of all US forces by the end of 2011.

But as befits a conflict whose origins remain a matter of dispute and whose goals have changed dramatically since it was first embarked upon, there is a degree of uncertainty in all this.

America will retain a substantial residual force in Iraq for many months after the August 2010 deadline, and the scope of its mission is far from clear.

The original goal, of course, was to find the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) which George W Bush and Tony Blair insisted were somewhere in Iraq under the control of Saddam Hussein.

When the WMD proved to be a figment of someone's imagination, both the US and UK tended to point to the removal of the Iraqi leader as a sort of retrospective justification in itself, even though they could not have used regime change as a justification before the conflict began.

Briefly, the US dreamed of constructing a new Iraq which would serve as a kind of beacon of democracy in the Middle East - a different kind of nation in the region which would act as an inspiration for wider change.

Now it is clear that Washington (and its allies) would be more than happy to settle for the goal of leaving behind a relatively stable place which does not threaten either its neighbours, or US interests.

It is a modest goal when you think of all that money and all those lives - but at least it is probably attainable.

In US domestic terms, Barack Obama has delivered on a campaign promise to "end the war" in Iraq - but he is probably ending it in a way that very few of his supporters who heard and cheered that pledge would have anticipated.

At the moment, for example, the US has 142,000 soldiers in Iraq - Mr Obama spoke during the campaign of removing them within 16 months of taking office.

Once elected, he asked his military advisers to prepare various different scenarios for "drawing down" the force and they offered a choice of timetables - 16 months, 19 months or 23 months.

Mr Obama, who is moving much more cautiously on diplomatic issues than he is moving on the economy, chose the middle option.

The residual force that remains after that first deadline next year will have what is called a "training and support" role - a vague catch-all term that can cover any military activity from teaching people to drive trucks all the way through to flying close air support for combat operations.

The phraseology suggests a force made up almost entirely of cooks, clerks and instructors, but a military establishment of up to 50,000 in a still uncertain security environment is certain to be left packing quite a bit of firepower. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7915486.stm>

The jail where his life is supposed to end is wrapped in miles of barbed wire, surrounded by checkpoints and perched on top of the mountain that overlooks the Mediterranean.

Roumieh Prison is Lebanon' s biggest high-security jail, notorious for bloody riots and terrible conditions, and home to some of the country's most dangerous criminals.

But Magdi, a thin, greying man, says he never committed the murder he was charged with, and that the trial that put him on death row was rushed and unfair.

Over the years, he says, he has written countless letters to the authorities begging them to review his case, but he never received a reply.

Then one February afternoon in 2009, he suddenly had a chance to tell his story face to face, to some of the country's most senior officials.

"I was so nervous," Magdi recalls. "Just imagine - the prosecutor general, the minister of the interior, high ranking generals - they were all right here."

Magdi, along with his fellow inmates, was on the stage while the officials were the guests of honour at the opening of the Twelve Angry Lebanese, a theatre play of a kind the Arab world has never seen before.

For two hours, seated just inches away from the improvised stage, the representatives of Lebanon's government listened as inmates questioned the country's judicial system, talked about prison conditions and told personal tales through their adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, a play by Reginald Rose in which a jury of 12 men meets to decide the fate of a boy who is accused of murder.

But it will only do so if they identify themselves as Bengalis, as it refuses to recognise the Rohingyas as one of its official minorities.

Tens of thousands of Rohingyas have left Burma in recent years and washed up in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

In December, the Thai military began dragging boats of Rohingya asylum seekers to sea and setting them adrift.

However, leaders from the affected countries attending the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Thailand have been unable to agree on a solution to the displaced Rohingyas.

Confronted by evidence that his military had been casting hundreds of Rohingya boat people adrift at sea, the Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has responded that this is a regional problem which can only be solved in consultation with the various affected countries.

This week's Asean summit would seem to be the ideal opportunity - it is one of the few international venues attended by senior Burmese leaders.

The Burmese foreign minister told his Thai counterpart that his country might be willing to take back Rohingyas - but only if they were categorised as Bengalis who reside in Burma, not Burmese citizens.

This is in keeping with a bizarre official policy which denies Rohingyas official status, the right to move around, even to marry without permission, despite the fact that they have lived in western Burma for more than a thousand years.

A memo faxed to journalists by the Burmese consul in Hong Kong last week insisted Rohingyas could not be real Burmese, as they were dark-skinned and "as ugly as ogres".

In any case, sending them back to a country where they face even worse treatment than the average Burmese citizen does not appear to be a practical solution.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the only option his country had was to turn them back - but that just raises the prospect of hundreds more being left to drift and die on the high seas. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7916254.stm>

Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross, said it was "disgraceful" that some veterans struggled to get treatment.

He told the BBC the Army provided "first-class" treatment but ex-soldiers were forced to wait on the NHS.

L/Cpl Beharry, who was given the VC for twice leading comrades to safety during attacks in Iraq, called on the government to give more help to his comrades suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, depression and mental breakdowns. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7916221.stm>

The latest indignity heaped on Filipino veterans

Three years after: No end in sight for jailed Marines, Scout Rangers

The perpetrators have come from the Nepal Army, the Maoist former rebels who now lead the government and, recently, from ethnic-based militant factions.

Yet the United Nations missions in the country say no-one has been properly brought to justice for such crimes.

The dust flew as our four-wheel drive climbed a long, rough track, far above the valley.

On a slab of stone beneath a spreading tree I talked with Parshuram Koirala about the trauma which began for him and his family five years ago. His four children watched, one daughter with a loaded basket on her head.

"My wife, Goma Koirala, was abducted by Maoists who accused her of passing on information to the Nepal Army," said the farmer.

"I lay in front of the door and said, 'If you want to kill her, then kill her here. She is innocent'.

Mr Koirala passed out for three hours when she was taken. He says Maoists kept visiting the village, later telling him they had killed his wife. But they have not guided him to her remains, which increases the family's pain.

A short, lurching drive along the hill, past banana trees and bougainvillea, took us to a family who have suffered at the hands of the other side.

Bhakta Bahadur Sapkota's face is care-worn. His brother was taken away by the army in 2003 on suspicion of Maoist involvement. Eight months later soldiers came to his father's house. Not finding Bhakta himself, they took Bhakta's 15-year-old daughter, Sarala, from her bed.

"They beat her and used force against her," said the widower, who has two other children.

It took 18 months to find her remains. Assisted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, they established that Sarala was killed hours after being abducted.

While the main reason for her trip is to attend an aid conference for the reconstruction of Gaza in Sharm el- Sheikh, she will also meet Arab leaders on the sidelines of that meeting.

Mrs Clinton will then travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories to meet leaders from both sides and also students, during an event similar to the kind she held throughout her maiden trip to Asia.

America's top diplomat is no stranger to the region and she will find some of the same actors on stage.

As first lady during Bill Clinton's presidency, she came out early in support of a Palestinian state and, in some way, she will be picking up where her husband left off in 2000 when he failed to nail down a peace deal.

In 1999 an ill-timed embrace with Soha, wife of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, backfired at home as she campaigned to become a New York senator.

Once elected as a representative of a state with a large Jewish vote she took a more hawkish position, and often drew praise from the pro-Israeli lobby group AIPAC for her stands on Israel and the conflict. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7918089.stm>

It also punishes what it calls "preparatory acts" of these crimes, and the theft of state secrets.

Democrat legislators have said the law in Macau is intended by China to set an example for less pliant Hong Kong.

The Chinese government says the law is to fulfil Article 23 of the Basic Law governing the return of the former Portuguese colony of Macau and former British colony of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.

Its passage in Macau met with broad public acceptance in the territory, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China.

In neighbouring Hong Kong, earlier Chinese government efforts to pass the law prompted huge protests in 2003.

The British writer flew in to research a new book as the country was plunged into a drama that could have leapt from the pages of one of his thrillers.

The Day of the Jackal author told of the "bizarre" events as renegade troops "rather slowly" killed the president.

The writer was at pains to point out: "I can assure you I had nothing to do with the coup d'etat."

Forsyth has previously admitted helping to finance a 1973 coup attempt in another West African state, Equatorial Guinea.

Those events were the inspiration for his 1974 book The Dogs of War, which chronicles a failed plan by a group of European mercenaries to topple the government of a fictional African country.

Forsyth added that this week's turmoil in Guinea-Bissau was more a battle between two bitter political enemies than a coup.

The best-selling author arrived in Guinea-Bissau from the Portuguese capital Lisbon just after the army chief-of-staff, General Tagme Na Waie, was assassinated on Sunday.

He was trying to sleep in his hotel room in the early hours of Monday morning when he heard an explosion.

"They went to his villa, threw a bomb through the window which hurt him, but didn't kill him," Forsyth told the BBC's World Today programme.

"The roof came down, that hurt him but didn't kill him either. He struggled out of the rubble and was promptly shot. This, however, still didn't kill him.

"They then took him to his mother-in-law's house and chopped him to bits with machetes."

Mr Forsyth, who had dinner with the forensic pathologist investigating the assassination on Monday evening, has a theory why this happened.

"The president was a very violent man and the chief-of-staff was a pretty violent man too. We are not talking about two Mother Theresas here".

His pointed out the army chief-of-staff was a member of the old military junta which governed the country before President Vieira was returned to power in 2005.

"There was no love lost between them because the old general didn't like the newly arrived populist president," said Forsyth.

The writer said he was "rather upset" because the double assassination had disrupted his travel plans.

"I can't get out now," he said. "I was due to fly out tomorrow afternoon, and I rather think that they're going to keep the airport closed, which is very inconvenient."

But all is not lost. Mr Forsyth said he will probably use some of the real-life drama for his new novel.

"What I was researching had nothing to do with bumping off generals or bumping off presidents," he said.

"But it's a little extra garnish on the cake, so I'll probably use it eventually in the book."

The former BBC foreign correspondent recalled that while flying into the region decades ago to cover the Biafra War, a bullet passed between his legs as he sat in the back of an ammunition plane.

Mr Zardari said that the "clerics" with whom his government had engaged in Swat valley were not the Taleban.

Authorities and a key radical cleric recently agreed a deal that would bring Sharia law to the region in return for an end to Taleban militancy.

The Taleban have also destroyed nearly 200 schools, most of them for girls, during a sustained campaign against secular education in Swat.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Mr Zardari said: "The clerics with whom we have engaged [in Swat] are not Taleban. Indeed, in our dialogue we'd made it clear that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralise Taleban and other insurgents."

"If they do so and lay down their arms, this initiative will have succeeded for the people of Swat Valley. If not, our security forces will act accordingly."

Mr Zardari said that "this process of weaning reconcilable elements of an insurgency away from the irreconcilables has been mischaracterised in the West".

Mr Zardari said that Pakistan "will not condone" the closing of girls' schools in Swat.

"Indeed, the government insists that the education of young women is mandatory. This is not an example of the government condoning or capitulating to extremism - quite the opposite."

Taleban insurgents in the troubled Swat valley of Pakistan announced an indefinite ceasefire following the deal with the authorities.

The situation in Swat remains tense and the militants are yet to disarm or end their hold over areas they control.

Swat has been the scene of bloody clashes between militants and government forces since November 2007.

Mrs Clinton is on her first visit to the region as the top diplomat of Barack Obama's US administration.

Right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes some key US policies, has been asked to form Israel's next government.

Mrs Clinton also announced two senior US officials would head for Syria, Israel's long-time foe, for talks.

"We are going to be sending two officials to Syria. There are a number of issues that we have between Syria and the US, as well as the larger regional concerns that Syria obviously poses," Mrs Clinton said.

Syria had engaged in indirect negotiations with the outgoing Israeli government on the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The US has kept Damascus at arms length for several years, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups and destabilising its Arab neighbours.

Up to 150,000 people may be trapped in the area by fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The ICRC has reiterated calls for a mass evacuation of civilians and for far more aid to be allowed in.

The added money is to go to higher pay and improved counter-terrorism and disaster relief programmes, a spokesman for China's parliament said.

China's military is for self-protection and does not pose a threat to any country, said spokesman Li Zhaoxing.

Analysts say defence spending is higher than the official figure, but Beijing says there are no hidden outlays.

The figure was released ahead of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, which begins on Thursday.

"The increased part of the budget is mainly used to raise salaries for soldiers as well as spending on military 'informatisation', counter-terrorism and internal security," Mr Li told a news conference in Beijing.

China wanted to protect the "sovereignty and integrity of Chinese territory and would not threaten any country".

The military's share of the total budget was down from last year, at 6.3%, he said.

It marks the 19th double-digit boost in defence spending in the last 20 years, said Associated Press news agency.

Previous increases in defence spending have been greeted by alarm from China's neighbours and the US, who have voiced concerns over Beijing's modernisation of its military.

By comparison, the US military budget for 2009 has been pegged at $515bn, a 7.5% increase over 2008, Reuters news agency said.

Mr Chavez said the mill, owned by a subsidiary of US food giant Cargill, was not distributing rice at government-set prices.

He also threatened to nationalise the country's largest food processor and private company, Polar.

Under the measure, 80% of all rice produced must be basic white rice. The measure also includes 95% of all cooking oil, coffee and sugar.

It is midday, but the infant has not been allowed out of this special room, separate from the rest of the house, since being brought home after birth.

She goes out a little but cannot touch anybody else because until the 11th day after the birth, society considers her to be unclean.

"I just eat dry bread, green vegetables and rice - no lentils or meat. I can't touch any pots or pans or go into the main house. I just go out to wash myself and my clothes, that's all."

This practice of confinement, known as chhaupadi, extends also to women during their monthly period.

Some sort of confinement during menstruation is common in this and other societies. But here in western Nepal it takes extreme forms, with a woman sometimes restricted to a dirty cow-shed or other special huts.

Last year the 35-year-old was the first ever migrant worker to become a member of the country's national parliament.

Her appointment was an attempt by China's top leaders to show its citizens that ordinary people have a part to play in national politics.

But Ms Hu's first year has not gone well. Fellow workers complain she is of little use, and she herself admits that she has no power.

The migrant worker is among nearly 3,000 delegates in Beijing for this year's annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Delegates from across the country will hear about developments over the past year and future policies at the nine-day session, which begins on Thursday.

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showed that 425 servicemen and women made applications for CO (conscientious objector) status between 2002 and 2006.

Of these, 224 were approved but Bill Galvin of Washington's Center on Conscience and War says the real number of applications is far higher because many are not recorded.

"Nobody knows exactly how many applications there have been because people apply at the local level and statistics are only kept on the cases that actually make it to the national level. The real number is a lot higher.

"We also know that many people are conscientious objectors and find some other way to get out. They never apply for CO status because it's not the easiest way.

"Some of them go AWOL, some can prove medical reasons or some may challenge their enlistment agreements. So when people come to us we help them explore all their options." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7900059.stm>

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton does not get the delays at checkpoints that most people face.

But if she looked out of the window of her armour-plated SUV she would have seen some of the ways this place is changing, and why that undercuts the policy that she is here to promote.

Throughout her visit, speaking to Israelis and Palestinians, Mrs Clinton has been saying that she wants to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel - the so-called two-state solution to the conflict.

She says that making a Palestinian state possible is a commitment she carries in her heart, not just in her portfolio as secretary of state.

But when others who also believed for years in two states look out of their car windows at what is happening in the West Bank and Jerusalem, they cannot help thinking that their dream has gone.

Big chunks of the land that Palestinians want to use for their state has been taken for Jewish settlements, for the network of security roads and military bases that protect them and connect them to Israel, and for the complex of walls and hi-tech fences that make up the separation barrier.

Palestinians find it easy now to ignore politicians when they talk about peace, because they have heard it so many times before.

The years of violence have also worn down Israelis. Many who used to think a Palestinian state would make their lives safer and more secure now think it would turn into Greater Hamastan - a bigger version of Gaza and an easier place to use as a base for launching rockets into the heart of Israel. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7924609.stm>

She renewed her commitment to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, saying it was a "commitment I carry in my heart, not just my portfolio".

She was speaking after meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Mrs Clinton expressed "unshakeable" support for Israel, but restated the Obama administration's commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

She will not meet leaders of the rival Palestinian group Hamas, which has dismissed her visit.

Observers say they are watching for signs that Washington is determined to make advances on the - until now intractable - problem of securing a peace settlement in the Middle East. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7922750.stm>

"I feel like a stranger in my own land. I can't go for a long walk. I have to sneak around. Otherwise I'm stopped by Israeli soldiers or threatened by Israeli settlers."

He took me to a stunning viewpoint over the rough, rolling hills outside the Palestinian town of Ramallah. A nature-lover, Mr Shehadeh pointed out the beautiful spring flowers all around us, as well as the Jewish settlements.

"Every Palestinian town here is surrounded by these settlements," he tells me. "The hills here have been chopped and flattened by them. They are an assault on one's sense of beauty and of belonging in the land."

More and more Israelis have moved to the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 when Israel captured and occupied the territory. This is illegal under international law. Palestinians say it makes peace here impossible.

"The only consistent policy Israeli governments have had over the last 40 years is not seeking peace and building settlements in the Palestinian territories," says Mr Shehadeh.

"This is no longer occupation, this is colonisation. Israel has no right to this land. God is not in the business of real estate. If Israel wants peace, it cannot be on this land."<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7919832.stm>

While such "binary systems" have been postulated before, none has ever been conclusively spotted.

The new black hole pair is dancing significantly closer than the prior best binary system candidate.

The work, published in the journal Nature, is in line with the theory of growth of galaxies, each with a black hole at its centre.

The theory has it that as galaxies near each other, their central black holes should orbit each other until merging together.

As matter falls into black holes, it emits light of a characteristic colour that in turn gives information about the direction in which the black hole is moving.

Because they are orbiting each other, astronomers have suggested that binary black hole systems would emit two beams, each a slightly different colour.

Todd Boroson and Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory analysed some 17,500 spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and found such a pair coming from a distant quasar.

The researchers estimate that the two light sources come from black holes between 20 million and one billion times heavier than the sun.

The black holes are separated by an estimated distance of less than a third of a light-year - cheek-to-cheek by black hole standards and significantly more than the postulated binary system spotted by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2003.

Because they are moving with respect to the Earth as well as to each other, observations of their movement over the next few years could prove that they are in fact the first partnered pair of black holes.

"Previous work has identified potential examples of black holes on their way to merging, but the case presented by Boroson and Lauer is special because the pairing is tighter and the evidence much stronger," said Jon Miller, an astronomer at the University of Michigan. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7924414.stm>

What is the chance that alien life exists? Nasa's latest mission - the Kepler Space Telescope due to launch on Friday night to survey the heavens for Earth-like planets - could soon give us an answer. Kathryn Westcott asks four experts whether mankind prefers the idea of being alone and unique or whether we long for cosmic cousins. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7918497.stm>

For five years increasing numbers of unexplained bee deaths have been reported worldwide, with US commercial beekeepers suffering the most.

But many experts now say that the term is misleading and there is no single, new ailment killing the bees.

In part of California the honeybee is of crucial importance to the local economy as 80% of the world's almonds come from there - America's most valuable horticultural export.

In a few frenzied weeks in February and March, billions of honey bees are transported to the state from as far away as Florida to flit innocently among the snowy almond blossoms, and ensure the success of this lucrative crop.

However, since 2004 their numbers have been mysteriously declining, and it was only at the end of 2006 that the severity of the losses began to be fully realised.

"I started opening a few hives, and they were completely empty boxes, no bees. I got real frantic and I started looking at lots of beehives, I noticed that there were no dead bees on the ground, there weren't any bodies there."

Even stranger than the absence of the insects was the fact that other bees would not go near these deserted colonies.

Since then around 2m colonies of bees have disappeared across the US. And the losses have continued this year, albeit at a lower rate.

The unexplained nature of the affliction, with empty hives and no clearly defined infection, has stumped scientists.

It follows confirmation by the Central intelligence Agency that it destroyed 92 tapes of interviews with suspects.

The footage is believed to have documented the interrogation and mistreatment of two leading al-Qaeda suspects at a Thai military base.

Allegations that Thailand was used to detain and torture al-Qaeda suspects have been around for years and they have always been emphatically denied, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

But the campaign by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the CIA to expose the treatment of those suspects has put Thailand back in the spotlight. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7925731.stm>

Police say Raphael Haim Golb, 49, set up an e-mail account in the name of Lawrence Schiffman, an academic at New York University.

Posing as Mr Schiffman, Mr Golb then allegedly sent messages around the university admitting to plagiarism.

PAO tells CHR: Step back from QC shootout probe

MANILA, Philippines - The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) on Friday requested the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to inhibit from the controversial Quezon City shootout and to suspend its investigation on the incident.

In a radio report, PAO lawyers said they had already sent a letter to CHR chairperson Leila de Lima, requesting the agency to step back from the investigation, allegedly plagued with “bias, impartiality, and pre-judgment."

The PAO, headed by its chief Persida Rueda-Acosta, stepped into the case after the Justice department directed the agency to extend counseling services to all policemen with ranks of police officer 3 or higher embroiled in legal battles.

In a press conference, Dr. Paul Ed Ortiz, a medico-legal from the Philippine National Police (PNP), contested the findings of CHR-commissioned forensic expert Raquel Fortun that claimed the three suspects died from multiple gunshot wounds in unusual spots in the body.

Fortun said she doubted if suspects Rolando Batapa, Romeo de Guzman and Alfredo Pimentel really died while shooting it out with policemen because the victims sustained gunshot wounds mostly at the back parts of their bodies.

The three were killed on February 17 after reportedly engaging members of the Quezon City Police District Anti-Carnapping Unit and the Highway Patrol Group in a firefight on EDSA corner NIA Road in Quezon City.

Fortun’s report indicated that suspect De Guzman died after being shot at the back of his head and body. Meanwhile, Batapa’s jaw was crushed after being hit by a bullet. He died from excessive blood loss.

Ortiz contested Fortun’s findings that two of the three suspects sustained gunshot wounds in their heads, adding that police investigation showed that only one did.

In a report by GMA reporter Claire Delfin, Acosta insisted – as the QCPD did – that the shootout happened in a legitimate police operation. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/151662/PAO-tells-CHR-Step-back-from-QC-shootout-probe>

Firm 'sold workers' secret data

Some workers who raised safety issues were allegedly blacklisted

A company that allegedly sold workers' personal details, including union activities, to building firms is to be prosecuted by the information watchdog.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the Consulting Association, in Droitwich, had committed a "serious breach" of the Data Protection Act.

The ICO said a secret system had been run for over 15 years to enable firms to unlawfully vet job applicants.

Unions have called on the government to outlaw "blacklisting" practices.

A spokesman for the Department for Business said it did have the power to make blacklists illegal and would "review whether to use this power if there was compelling evidence that blacklists were being used".

'Bad egg'

Around 40 construction companies who subscribed to the scheme would send lists of prospective employees to The Consulting Association, who would then warn them about potential troublemakers.

Some of the notes uncovered by an ICO raid on the association's offices included descriptions such as "ex-shop steward, definite problems", "Irish ex-Army, bad egg".

Other notes related to workers who had raised concerns over health and safety issues on sites, such as asbestos removal.

The owner of the Consulting Association Ian Kerr - which is now believed to have ceased trading - faces prosecution and a £5,000 fine if found guilty of breaching the Data Protection Act.

The act outlaws the collection and distribution of secret information on individuals without their knowledge.

Deputy information commissioner David Smith on the data protection breach

Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith said the company should have registered itself with the ICO and therefore qualified for a "clear prosecution" under the act.

He said he was also deeply disappointed that firms he described as "household names" had been involved in an allegedly illegal system for many years.

He said they would be issued with a legal order not to repeat the offence, and if they breached it they too would face prosecution.

"You would have thought they would have got the data protection message by now," he said.

The firms include well-known construction companies such as Taylor Woodrow, Laing O'Rourke and Balfour Beatty.

Balfour Beatty said it would co-operate with the ICO investigation, and that it did not condone the use of blacklists "in any circumstances".

Other companies either said they would conduct their own investigation, or had "inherited" their links with the Consulting Association from previous firms they had taken over.

The Consulting Association was unavailable for comment. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7927487.stm>

Craigslist sued over erotic ads

Mr Dart said the site was the largest source of prostitution in the nation

A sheriff in Illinois is suing the online ad site Craigslist, accusing its owners of knowingly promoting prostitution in the US.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said the site was failing to block offers to trade sex for money.

He wants a federal judge to shut down the site's erotic services section.

In a statement, Craigslist said it had not seen the lawsuit but that it co-operated with police daily to prevent misuse of the site.

"Craigslist is an extremely unwise choice for those intent on committing crimes, since criminals inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law enforcement officers will follow," a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

"Misuse of the site is exceptionally rare compared to how much the site is used for legal purposes. Regardless, any misuse of the site is not tolerated on Craigslist," she said.

Trafficking link

Speaking at a news conference, Mr Dart called the site "the single largest source of prostitution in the nation".

He said Craigslist's owners "catered their site so it facilitates [prostitution], where you can actually and more specifically and quickly get to what you want".

"Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they're being pimped on Craigslist," he said.

"How is that different than somebody who's aggressively and actively working with a pimp to try to get the word out about the women working for him?" he added.

Last year, the San Francisco-based website settled a nationwide lawsuit by promising to enact new rules to crack down on prostitution.

Mr Dart said his officers had seen no change in the number or type of postings in the erotic services section since then.

However, the site's spokeswoman said it was actively working to stop people from circumventing its defences against illegal activity <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7928148.stm>

Gaza homes destruction 'wanton'

Amnesty said the way houses had fallen suggested they had been blown up from under walls and pillars

Human rights investigators say Israeli forces engaged in "wanton destruction" of Palestinian homes during the recent conflict in Gaza.

Amnesty International has told the BBC News website the methods used raised concerns about war crimes.

Israel's military said buildings were destroyed because of military "operational needs".

The Israeli Defense Forces said they operated in accordance with international law during the conflict.

However, the use of mines to destroy homes contradicted this claim, the head of the Amnesty International fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, Donatella Rovera, has argued.

The IDF emphasises that the terrorist organisation, Hamas, and its infrastructure were the target of Operation Cast Lead, and not the civilian population in Gaza

Israeli military statement

Israeli troops had to leave their vehicles to plant the mines, indicating that they faced no danger and that there was no military or operational justification, she said.

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli group that gathers and circulates the testimonies of Israeli soldiers, has also told the BBC News website that its findings from the Gaza war suggested many demolitions had been carried out when there was no immediate threat.

"From the testimonies that we've gathered, lots of demolitions - buildings demolished either by bulldozers or explosives - were done after the area was under Israeli control," said Yehuda Shaul, one of the group's members.

Destruction of civilian property is not illegal in itself under international law, but it must be justifiable on military grounds - for example if the building was booby trapped or being used as cover for enemy fighters.

Thousands of buildings were destroyed in the 22-day Israeli operation.

Some of them were police stations, mosques and government premises attacked in targeted airstrikes, in many cases with surrounding buildings left in tact.

Reduced to rubble

There were also whole neighbourhoods reduced to rubble in areas where the Israeli ground forces were present.

Audio slideshow: Gaza homeless

Ms Rovera said Amnesty International was concerned about "large scale destruction of homes and other civilian properties" during the conflict.

"The destruction was, in our view, and according to our findings, wanton destruction - it could not be justified on military grounds," she said.

Ms Rovera said her team found fragments of anti-tank mines in and around destroyed properties.

Their use was also consistent with remains of houses, collapsed in on themselves as if blown up from below, rather than destroyed from above as in an airstrike, she said.

Troops would have had to leave their armoured vehicles to plant them and rig up the detonators, she said.

"Unless those operating on the ground felt not just 100% but 200% secure - that the places were not booby trapped, that they wouldn't come under fire - they could not have got out of the vehicles," she said. "They would not have used that method."

"The use of the method tells us even more that there wasn't the kind of danger that might have made it lawful to destroy some of those properties," Ms Rovera said.

GAZA DESTRUCTION

14,000 homes

219 factories

240 schools

UNDP estimates

In pictures: Samouni Street

Who will rebuild Gaza?

"Wanton destruction on a large scale would qualify as a war crime," she said, adding that the practice was among several used in the conflict by both sides that Amnesty is concerned may constitute war crimes.

In one case visited by the BBC, six homes belonging to the extended family of Raed al-Atamna in the Izbit Abed Rabbo area, near the border with Israel, were destroyed.

Mr Atamna said a UN ordnance clearance team had found several mines in and around the remains of one of the homes.

He said he and his family had fled the area during the Israeli military operation, and returned to find their homes demolished. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7926413.stm>

Tamil family proud of son's 'sacrifice'

By Julian Joyce and Dan Bell
BBC News

Mr Varnakulasingham wanted to draw attention to Sri Lanka's civil war

The UK-based family of a young Tamil man who set himself on fire in protest at the treatment of his countrymen in Sri Lanka have said they are proud of his actions.

Thousands of Tamils living in the UK and beyond are expected to attend the funeral on Saturday in Northolt, west London, of Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, 26, who travelled to Switzerland last month to kill himself in front of the United Nations building in Geneva.

Mr Varnakulasingham, a computing graduate who worked part-time in a supermarket, had attended demonstrations to protest against the Sri Lankan military's war against the Tamils, an ethnic minority who are fighting for their independence.

Thousands of people are have been killed, and thousands more displaced on the island since fighting escalated after 2005.

I decided to sacrifice my life ... The flames over my body will be a torch to guide you through the liberation path

Murugathasan Varnakulasingham's suicide letter

Mr Varnakulasingham's brother-in-law Thavaroopan Sinnathamby, 33, said: "He was a very lovely guy and we miss him a lot, but he did this for the country.

"He was a sensitive guy. He was a refugee in his own country before he came here, so he knew the pain of what the people were going through.

"He'd go to the demonstrations and no-one was bothering and he wanted to make an impact. I think he wanted to give his life, we feel proud for that."

Before he doused himself in petrol and set himself alight in the the Place des Nations in Geneva., Mr Varnakulasingham wrote a five-page letter.

It read: "We Tamils, displaced and all over the world, loudly raised our problems and asked for help before [the] international community in your own language for three decades.

"But nothing happened... So I decided to sacrifice my life... The flames over my body will be a torch to guide you through the liberation path." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7929236.stm>

Old sensitivities resurface in Sudan

In Sudan this week, as the International Criminal Court issued a warrant from the arrest of President Bashir, the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones found echoes of a 100-year-old conflict.

The sect's leader or sheikh, a frail, blind man was sitting on his bed with his thin legs crossed.

The Mahdi who led a 19th century rebellion is still revered in Sudan

He asked me why I had come. Well, I had heard that his followers met two evenings a week to sing, dance and pray, I said. I was wondering if I could attend a ceremony.

As he contemplated whether or not I could be a problem, he put me straight on one point. "It's not dancing," he said. "That would be against Sharia - it's a moving of the limbs." Then, "Come back at nine."

Religious fervour

The men met in a poor suburb of Khartoum in a roughly built brick courtyard with no roof.

Standing in a circle they started to sing the names of Allah. The half moon shone down, offering a gloomy light.

The houses in the area, with doors and windows open to relieve the heat, were packed tightly together.

As I looked into the men's faces I thought this here, right now in the late evening, in a small courtyard on the outskirts of Khartoum is why being a foreign correspondent is such a privilege

As the devotional chants floated through the homes, the prayer leader, resplendent in a gold-edged black robe and with a high white turban, made small hand movements to four drummers instructing them to quicken and slow the pace.

For an hour, the surging rhythms allowed pauses for breath and contemplation, but over time became faster and faster as the men, with some young boys squeezed in between, began to roll their heads from side to side.

And with ever more violent jerks - all the while chanting - they worked themselves into a state of near ecstasy.

Their faces filled with the joyous smiles of religious fervour and then some started dancing - or perhaps I should say moving their limbs - in the middle of the circle.

One tall man with a long white tunic and greying hair, his whole body shaking, moved around the circle of worshippers touching each one, while besides him a five-year-old boy mimicked his every move.

It was about as different to a Church of England service as you could ever imagine.

And as I looked into the men's faces I thought this here, right now in the late evening, in a small courtyard on the outskirts of Khartoum, is why being a foreign correspondent is such a privilege.

'Martyred Christian'

I had gone to Sudan to make a history programme. I wanted to learn more about the man who fought the British in the 1880s - a boat builder's son who declared that having received instructions from the Prophet Mohammed he was the Mahdi, or guided one.

He rapidly became the undisputed leader of, depending how you look at it, a religious revival intended to purify Islam or an anti-colonial struggle to expel foreign rulers.

Famously, it all culminated when thousands of the Mahdi's followers - the Mahdi army, to coin an Iraqi phrase - surged up to the governor's palace in central Khartoum and beheaded the senior British officer there, General Gordon.

Winston Churchill was critical of the effects Islam had on its believers

It was a humiliating British defeat and the London press was quick to depict Gordon as a Christian knight martyred by Muslim savages.

Gordon's death was eventually avenged when General Kitchener arrived in Khartoum with some gunboats and an overwhelming force and crushed the Mahdi's followers.

There is a vivid account of that campaign because a young man who was there wrote a book about it all, it is called The River War and the author was Winston Churchill.

Churchill had some fairly strong views on Islam.

"No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. And were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall."

That was Churchill. This is George Bush: "There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives. And they want us to leave. And they want to topple government. They want to extend an ideological caliphate that has no concept of liberty inherent in their beliefs." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7928203.stm>

The shame of Iraq's pariah widows

By Mike Sergeant
BBC News, Baghdad

Her husband and three brothers were killed. Her parents were already dead. Her house was burnt down. She was pregnant at the time and lost the baby.

But, in the months that followed, Nadia Hussein had to endure much more.

Now she lives at a refuge for women in the centre of Baghdad.

She spends her days cooking and feeding the pigeons. It's a place for her to escape the many dangers widows face in Iraq.

'Nephew beat me'

"After my husband died, I found work as a house keeper," she told me.

"A man and his brother tried to make advances on me. They tried to sexually assault me. I refused.

Nadia's Hussein's ordeal is an all too familiar story for Iraqi widows

"My nephew, who is an alcoholic, also used to beat me and accuse me of bad things."

Nadia said the people at the refuge are now her only family. But she still asks for their approval before doing anything or going anywhere.

Her story is not particularly unusual. Accurate figures are hard to obtain, but even before the invasion in 2003, there were hundreds of thousands of widows in Iraq.

Many lost husbands in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. At the height of the violence of recent years, up to 100 women a day were becoming widows.

Almost everywhere you go in Baghdad, you can see them begging at traffic lights and outside mosques - dressed from head to toe in black.

The women are supposed to be given just over $1 (£0.70) a day from the government.

But a survey by the charity Oxfam has discovered that less than a quarter actually get the money.

'Will of God'

Many face physical and sexual abuse. Some are told to marry men who already have wives.

My husband always wanted me to be a suicide bomber

Umm Harith

Shia tradition also permits "temporary marriages" - which only last for a matter of days or weeks.

A few widows have themselves wanted to die violently - there have been many attacks by female suicide bombers.

Umm Harith was trained to carry one out but she backed away from going through with it.

"When my husband died I felt very isolated," she said. "He always wanted me to be a suicide bomber.

"When he was killed, I wanted to blow myself up. I wanted to kill the people who took away the person who was most precious to me."

Most of the widows we spoke to in Baghdad, though, do not seem to be interested in revenge.

They accept what has happened to them as the "will of God".

Indeed those who campaign on their behalf say one of the hardest things is getting the widows to think that they deserve better lives.

"It's not just about legislation," said Hana Adwar, a campaigner for women's rights.

"The problem is the way people behave inside the family. The question is how to change attitudes and behaviour towards them." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7930357.stm>

Iraqi women 'lack basic services'

The survey was released for International Women's Day

Women in Iraq still lack security and basic services, despite an overall drop in violence six years after the US-led invasion, aid agency Oxfam says.

Reporting on a survey of about 1,700 women in five provinces taken last year, Oxfam described their plight as a "silent emergency".

It suggested more than half the women had suffered from violence.

A quarter did not have daily access to water supplies, and more than three-quarters were not getting pensions.

Last month, Iraq's minister for women resigned, saying the government was not taking the plight of women seriously.

Oxfam said: "Iraqi women are suffering a silent emergency', trapped in a downward spiral of poverty, desperation and personal insecurity despite an overall decrease in violence in the country."

The survey, released to mark International Women's Day, suggested that more than 20% of widows had been victims of domestic violence.

The majority feel that this is the will of God, they have to obey the right of their families

Hana Adwar
Human rights campaigner

The shame of Iraq's pariah widows

A third of all women surveyed said members of their families had died violently.

Across the country, security improved in 2008, but most women still said that personal safety was their biggest concern.

Almost half said health care provision was worse in 2008 than the two previous years, and almost half of respondents said they were getting poorer.

One widow, Nadia Hussein, told the BBC she found work as a housekeeper after her husband was killed, but the men tried to have sex with her.

Her nephew also beat her regularly.

Women's rights campaigner Hana Adwar said the hardest thing was getting the widows to think that they deserve better.

"The majority feel that this is the will of God, they have to obey the right of their families." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7930890.stm>

MI5 telegrams 'fed interrogation'

Mr Mohamed has said he was tortured while he was held in US custody

A UK resident detained at Guantanamo Bay has released alleged MI5 memos which he claims show government collusion in his interrogation.

Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 30, told the Mail on Sunday they were sent to the CIA in November 2002, at a time he said he was being tortured in Morocco.

His claims of British collusion are being investigated by the government.

He also told the paper he was held in continual darkness for weeks on end in a prison in Kabul, Afghanistan.

'Dark prison'

Mr Mohamed claims MI5 agents fed his US captors specific questions which led to him falsely confessing to terrorist activities.

In the first memo, the writer asked for a name to be put to him and then for him to be questioned further about that person.

The longest was when they chained me for eight days on end, in a position that meant I couldn't stand straight nor sit

Binyam Mohamed

The second telegram asked about a timescale for further interrogation.

Mr Mohamed claims he acquired the telegrams through the US legal process when he was fighting to be freed from Guantanamo Bay.

Daniel Sandford, BBC Home Affairs correspondent, said Mr Mohamed's claims would be relatively simple to substantiate.

"As time progresses it will probably become quite apparent whether indeed these are true telegrams and I think it's unlikely they'd be put into the public domain if they couldn't eventually be checked back."

The Conservatives have called for a police inquiry into his allegations of British collusion.

Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said there should be a judicial inquiry into the allegations and the matter referred to the police.

Mr Mohamed told the paper the worst part of this captivity was in Kabul's "dark prison".

"The toilet in the cell was a bucket," he told the paper.

"There were loudspeakers in the cell, pumping out what felt like about 160 watts, a deafening volume, non-stop, 24 hours a day.

We abhor torture and never order it or condone it

Foreign Office spokesman

He added: "They chained me for eight days on end, in a position that meant I couldn't stand straight nor sit.

"I couldn't sleep. I had no idea whether it was day or night."

Shami Chakrabati, director of campaign group Liberty said: "These are more than allegations - these are pieces of a puzzle that are being put together.

"It makes an immediate criminal investigation absolutely inescapable." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7930708.stm>

US 'not winning in Afghanistan'

President Obama is reviewing US strategy on Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama has said the US is not winning in Afghanistan, saying it is more complex than Iraq.

In an interview with the New York Times, he said reaching out to the Taleban could be an option, in the same way outreach had worked in Iraq.

However, the "fierce independence among tribes" in Afghanistan presented different challenges, he said.

A month into his presidency, Mr Obama authorised the deployment of up to 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan.

Asked if the US was winning in Afghanistan, Mr Obama replied: "No."

Mr Obama and his advisors are reviewing the US strategy on Afghanistan, and have looked at what has worked in Iraq.

Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge

President Obama

"There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region," he said on board Air Force One.

Mr Obama, referring to the US policy in Iraq, said: "If you talk to General [David] Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al-Qaeda in Iraq."

However, Afghanistan could be a different situation.

"The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex," he told the newspaper.

"You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes.

"Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge."

Terror suspects

He also discussed what the US would do if a terror suspect appeared in a country without an extradition arrangement with the US.

"There could be situations - and I emphasise 'could be' because we haven't made a determination yet - where, let's say that we have a well-known al-Qaeda operative that doesn't surface very often, appears in a third country with whom we don't have an extradition relationship or would not be willing to prosecute, but we think is a very dangerous person," he said.

"I think we still have to think about how do we deal with that kind of scenario," he added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7930865.stm>

Chinese ships 'harass' US vessel

The US says the Impeccable was conducting routine manoeuvres

Five Chinese ships have manoeuvred dangerously close to a US navy vessel in the South China Sea, the US government has said.

US officials said the incident came after days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships.

These violated international law on respecting other users of the seas, a Pentagon spokesman said.

A protest was expected to be delivered to the Chinese military attache at the Pentagon on Monday.

The incident happened on Sunday as the USNS Impeccable was on routine operations in international waters 75 miles (120km) south of Hainan island, a US statement said.

The ships had "aggressively manoeuvred" around the Impeccable "in an apparent co-ordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters", according to the Pentagon. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7933171.stm>

UN criticises UK 'rendition role'

Mr Mohamed has said he was tortured while he was held in US custody

Britain has been accused of taking part in US "renditions" of terror suspects in a United Nations report.

UN Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin said he was "deeply troubled" at the US system of rendition, secret detention and practices violating torture bans.

But he said it was only possible with the collaboration of allies including the UK, Pakistan, Indonesia and Kenya.

The Lib Dems said it was a "dark day" for the reputation of the British secret services.

In the report, Mr Scheinin says the US system of rendition - in which suspects were seized, then transferred to covert CIA detention centres known as "black sites" in countries like Afghanistan and Morocco - required "an international web of exchange of information".

'Worried'

He said it had "created a corrupted body of information which was shared systematically with partners in the war on terror through intelligence cooperation, thereby corrupting the institutional culture of the legal and institutional systems of recipient states."

Among those named as having helped the rendition process - either through providing intelligence or seizing suspects - were the UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia and Pakistan.

The report goes on to say that countries are "responsible" if they knowingly help other states carry out human rights violations and should limit cooperation with such countries.

It is shameful that we now seem to be reliant on outside organisations to uphold the rule of law in our own country

Edward Davey
Lib Dems

And it says he is "worried" about the UK's use of "state secrecy provisions" to hide "illegal acts from oversight bodies or judicial authorities, or to protect itself from criticism, embarrassment and, most importantly, liability".

MPs have demanded a judicial inquiry into claims that MI5 was complicit in the torture of a British resident in Morocco.

Binyam Mohamed, who returned to Britain after four years in Guantanamo Bay last month, claims MI5 fed his captors questions, at a time he said he was being tortured in Morocco. The government says it never condones torture and says Mr Mohamed's case has been referred to the attorney general. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7933929.stm>

'Dozens dead' in Baghdad bombing

While the targets were senior officials, the young were also caught in the blast

At least 33 people, including a local army chief, have died and 46 have been injured in a suicide attack on the western edge of Baghdad, officials say.

The attack took place in the Abu Ghraib municipality, and appeared to target a group of dignitaries as they left a national reconciliation conference.

Violence levels have declined in Iraq recently, but this is the third major attack in the last few days.

More than 30 died in an attack on a police recruitment centre on Sunday.

On Thursday, a car bomb exploded at a cattle market in Babel province killing 10.

The BBC's Mike Sergeant in Baghdad says it is too soon to say whether the attacks constitute a pattern but they show that life in Iraq is still dangerous.

But he says that if the violence of recent days continues, a timetable announced by US President Barack Obama to withdraw most combat troops by mid-2010 could be increasingly hard to maintain. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7934615.stm>

EU 'terror' racquets court ruling

Dominic Hughes
BBC News, Strasbourg

Items like liquids and sharp objects are unaffected by the ruling

A secret EU list of items banned from being carried on to aircraft has been declared illegal by the European Court of Justice.

The case was brought by an Austrian amateur tennis player who was thrown off a flight in Vienna in 2005.

Gottfried Heinrich refused to surrender his tennis racquets from his hand luggage after being told they were a possible terrorist weapon.

Staff felt the tennis racquets fell into the category of prohibited items.

But European judges have now ruled the unpublished list can not be enforced because passengers are unable to find out what is on it.

Security fears

The curious case of the threatening tennis racquets came to light when Heinrich was on his way to a tennis tournament.

He had cleared Vienna airport's normal security checks when staff declared his tennis racquets, carried as hand luggage, posed a potential terrorist threat.

He refused to give them up, so was thrown off the flight.

Outraged, he brought a compensation case, which exposed the existence of a secret European Commission list of items that are banned from hand luggage.

But that list is not made public because of security fears.

Now, the court has had its say.

The well publicised prohibition on items like liquids and sharp objects, however, is unaffected. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7936358.stm>

Figures expose police convictions

Forces should get tough on "bad apples", say the Lib Dems.

More than 1,000 serving police officers in Britain have criminal convictions, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

More than half of the 1,063 convictions relate to speeding or other motoring offences; 77 officers have convictions for violence and 96 for dishonesty.

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained information from 41 forces, called the figures "staggering".

Police chiefs said each case was assessed on its merits.

The figures cover only those forces in England, Scotland and Wales which responded. The Police Service of Northern Ireland refused to answer the Lib Dems' request for information.

Most recent figures put the number of serving officers in the 51 territorial forces in England, Scotland and Wales at 159,359. This figure does not include the British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police and Civil Nuclear Constabulary - which were not covered by the Lib Dems' survey.

More details of survey

Serving officers who are convicted do not face automatic dismissal, but the Association of Chief Police Officers said it was "very rare" for people with convictions to be recruited by the police.

The number of serving officers with convictions includes five who were sacked but then reinstated by the Home Office.

Among others to escape losing their job was a West Midlands Police officer who was convicted of kerb crawling. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7936041.stm>

Bombers challenge Iraqi progress

A recent spate of violence has raised questions about Iraq's long-term future

By Mike Sergeant
BBC News, Baghdad

In recent months, Iraqi politicians and US military commanders had become increasingly confident that this country was finally on the right track.

At the weekend Maj Gen David Perkins, the coalition spokesman, said that Iraq had moved "from a very unstable to a stable position".

Three major bombings in less than a week will be causing some anxiety among political leaders in Baghdad and Washington.

Last Thursday 10 people were killed by a car bomb at a crowded cattle market in Babel province, south of Baghdad.

Coalition commanders say these militants are well and truly 'on the run' and increasingly marginalised from Iraqi politics and society

On Sunday more than 30 died when a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up at a police academy in the capital.

Tuesday's bombing in Abu Ghraib also killed and wounded a large number of people - including journalists and local officials.

So is it a trend? Is the violence in Iraq - that had been falling for many months - starting to shoot up again?

Continuing dangers

It is not possible to get a definitive answer by looking only at the events of the past few days.

In both January and February of this year, the number of people who died violently across Iraq was between 200 and 300.

Certainly, March has started very badly. But the total number of killings might not look exceptional by the end of the month.

RECENT IRAQ ATTACKS

8 Mar Bomb at police academy kills 28 in Baghdad

13 Feb Attack on Shia pilgrims kills 32 south of Baghdad

12 Feb Bomb attacks in Mosul and Karbala

11 Feb Baghdad market bombs kill 16

4 Feb Female suicide bomber kills 35 in Baghdad

Law and order Iraqi style

Iraq: Key facts and figures

Iraqis in Baghdad do not give the impression in their conversations that they believe their country is at risk of sliding back to the chaos of two years ago.

But the bombings certainly underline the many dangers Iraqi civilians, soldiers, policemen and politicians face every day.

Those policy makers who think that the Iraq "problem" has somehow been "solved" might be starting to worry that they had, once again, been over-optimistic and guilty of simplifying a very complicated place. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7935802.stm>

Monkey mums bow to pester power

By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

Baby monkey throws a tantrum

Scientists have discovered what drives some monkey mothers to give in to their babies' tantrums.

A study of rhesus macaques revealed that females were more likely to feed their bawling babies if irritated bystanders lurked nearby.

The UK/Puerto Rico team noted how the threat of violence from angry onlookers seemed to prompt the mothers to act.

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The study was carried out in Cayo Santiago, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Throwing a tantrum

Just like human babies, rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) have a piercing cry that is useful for grabbing their mother's attention - particularly if they are hungry.

The baby monkeys' cries are high pitched, grating and nasty to listen to

Dr Stuart Semple, Roehampton University

And - as many human mums will attest - if the infant is ignored, a tantrum can result that can sometimes grate on bystanders.

Stuart Semple, a primatologist from Roehampton University in London who carried out the research, said: "The baby monkeys' cries are high-pitched, grating and nasty to listen to - not just to their mother but to animals nearby.

"And we found that the way mothers respond to their crying infants is affected by who is around them at the time."

Aggression was less likely if the baby was not crying

The researchers discovered that females were twice as likely to respond to their infants by feeding them in the presence of aggressive males or more dominant females than when in the company of less dominant or closely related monkeys.

Further study of the population revealed that although attacks were rare, mothers and infants were more than 30 times more likely to face aggressive behaviour from angry onlookers when a baby was crying than if the baby was content.

Dr Semple explained: "The mothers seem quite reluctant to give in to their infants, but when there are big dominant animals around that pose a threat to either them or their infants, their hand is then forced - they have to give in to their infants' cries."

The researchers added that while there had been no directly comparable studies carried out on humans, some anecdotal reports suggested that human mothers were more likely to acquiesce to a screaming child if faced with irritated onlookers.

Dr Semple told the BBC: "When I tell any parents of young children about this research, they get it immediately - they've felt this kind of bystander effect when their own offspring is having a public tantrum." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7934852.stm>

How to understand risk in 13 clicks

GO FIGURE
Different ways of seeing stats

What are we to make of all those stories that warn of lifestyle dangers and slap a giant "%" sign in the headline? Michael Blastland introduces the Risk-o-meter to his regular column.

In response to your e-mails after the last column, and the everyday fog of statistics about risks, I've produced what I hope is a better way to see the numbers.

From bacon to booze, risks often make headlines: "CANCER UP X PERCENT IF YOU DO Y" - you know what I'm talking about. So I've devised a simple but different way of seeing stories, with a click-by-click Risk-o-meter. Click through the examples below to see why those percentages easily mislead - and why it pays to ditch percentages and talk instead about the numbers of real people. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7937382.stm>

Eleven die in Alabama shootings

Locals from the community have been talking about the incident

Police are investigating why a gunman killed 10 people in a series of shootings in the southern US state of Alabama before killing himself.

The gunman burned down his own house, before firing on homes, shops and vehicles in the towns of Samson and Geneva near the Florida border.

Several of the victims are believed to have been members of the gunman's extended family.

The wife and daughter of a local police officer were also killed.

The gunman was named by local officials as Michael McLendon, 28, who had recently left his job at a local sausage factory.

The bloodshed began when McLendon shot his mother in the house where the two of them lived in Kinston, near Samson.

He then placed his mother on a couch and set the house on fire

McLendon also shot four dogs at the house, officials said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7936382.stm>

German school gunman 'kills 15'

Scene of the shooting spree in Germany

Fifteen people have been killed by a teenage gunman who went on a rampage in south-west Germany, officials say.

Among the dead were nine pupils, eight of them girls, and three teachers at the Albertville secondary school in the town of Winnenden, north of Stuttgart.

The gunman, a 17-year-old former pupil, entered the school at about 0930 (0830 GMT) dressed in black combat gear and began shooting - aiming head-high.

He fled in a stolen car, but killed himself after being cornered by police. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7936817.stm>

Deja-vu in Pakistan crackdown

Police arrest opposition supporters in Multan

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad

The latest wave of arrests in Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, has brought an unwelcome feeling that this has all been seen before.

Governments in the past have done this and more to prevent opposition groups from destabilising the system, often with unsavoury results.

But unlike in the past, when the army had carte blanche to step in, either as the arbiter of political power or as a direct aspirant, the situation this time is far murkier and more dangerous.

The army has lost much of its credibility as an efficient fighting force or as an able administrator.

In the past eight years it has been widely seen as having failed to curb the militant menace in spite of having been adequately paid to do so by the international community.

Nawaz Sharif trained his guns on the president, saying that Gen Musharraf's spirit had 'infused into Zardari'

Q&A: Pakistan political instability

When the military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, finally quit, he left the country politically fragmented, economically destitute and exposed to the militant threat.

That is why his political allies were soundly beaten in the 2008 elections.

They delivered a split mandate in favour of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), two bitter rivals from the 1990s who showed signs they had grown wiser.

That may not be the case any more.

Mandate

After a perfect start a year ago, the PPP's Asif Ali Zardari and the PML-N's Nawaz Sharif have drifted apart on the issue of the restoration of judges who were sacked by then President Musharraf in November 2007.

Nawaz Sharif is locked in a feud with President Zardari

Their differences became more stark last month when a court declared that Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz were ineligible to hold elected office.

The differences over the restoration of judges are political in nature.

Without saying it in so many words, the PPP made it known to the PML-N and others concerned that the transfer of power back to civilian rule in March 2008 required an agreement that Mr Musharraf would not face further action against him.

Restoring the judges would challenge that.

But Nawaz Sharif considered this contrary to his election mandate.

Many in Pakistan believe that Mr Sharif considers the restoration of the judges the first step towards laying a legal trap for Mr Musharraf, who had toppled Mr Sharif's government in a military coup in 1999.

Mr Sharif continued to press for the judges' restoration and quit the federal government in May 2008, accusing Mr Zardari - who had then been elected president - of being "insincere".

The government did try to wean the Sharifs from protesting lawyers with political offers, but with little success.

Then came the court verdict on the Sharifs. Shahbaz Sharif was deposed as chief minister of the PML-N stronghold in Punjab province.

The Sharifs strengthened their ties further with the protesting lawyers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7937899.stm>

France ends four-decade Nato rift

Mr Sarkozy said the move ensured France's independence

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced his country is to return to Nato's military command, reversing four decades of self-imposed exile.

Mr Sarkozy confirmed the decision in a speech to defence experts at the Ecole Militaire staff college in Paris.

President Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of Nato's integrated military command in 1966, saying it undermined France's sovereignty.

Critics say France will now be no more than "a clone of Great Britain".

But Mr Sarkozy said there was no sense in France - a founder member of Nato - having no say in the organisation's decisions on military strategy.

"This rapprochement with Nato ensures our national independence," said Mr Sarkozy. "To distance ourselves would limit our independence and our room for manoeuvre.

France has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan

He went on: "We have to be progressive. A solitary nation is a nation that has no influence whatsoever.

"We need strong diplomacy, a strong defence and a strong Europe."

He said Nato remained a central element of France's security and defence policies, but stressed that he would not give up the country's independent nuclear deterrent.

Mr Sarkozy is expected to formalise the move with a letter to Nato before the alliance celebrates its 60th anniversary next month with a summit in the French city of Strasbourg.

Military action

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warmly welcomed Mr Sarkozy's announcement.

"[France's] full participation in all the civil and military decision-making and planning processes cannot but strengthen the alliance further," he said.

Correspondents say France's "independence" from Nato is dearly treasured by many French, and Mr Sarkozy's move has provoked a furore among those who worry it will now have to bow to US dominance.

If tomorrow, we integrated into Nato, would we, could we, maintain the position that we have done on Iraq?

Dominique de Villepin
Former French foreign minister

Q&A: France and Nato

French split over rejoining Nato

2007: France edges closer to Nato

The great fear, says the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris, is that France will now be at the beck and call of the US, and may well be dragged into conflicts in which it did not want to be involved.

"Nothing today justifies returning to Nato military command," said the leader of the opposition Socialists, Martine Aubry.

"There's no hurry, no fundamental need, except for this Atlanticism that's becoming an ideology."

But Defence Minister Herve Morin rejected claims France would now be forced to go along with the US on issues like the war with Iraq, which it vehemently opposed.

Germany, he noted, has remained fully integrated in Nato yet opposed the war.

Renewing France's relations with Nato "will benefit the alliance, benefit Europe and benefit France", Mr Morin said. "It will be done without calling into question the independence of France."

Indeed, it would allow France to take a greater role in shaping military strategy, he argued. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7937666.stm>

Seven held over Amsterdam threat

Dutch police said the warning of a threat should be taken seriously

Seven people have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of planning to blow up shops in Amsterdam.

Police said they had acted on a tip a day earlier from an anonymous caller in Belgium who had warned of attacks intended to cause many casualties.

The suspects, six men and a woman, have joint Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.

Earlier on Thursday, the authorities closed a major shopping street in Amsterdam. A concert by the American band The Killers was also cancelled.

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen said the anonymous call to police on Wednesday night had warned of "an action with the aim of claiming casualties in busy places".

The authorities "couldn't take any risks", he said, and so had ordered the closure of dozens of shops, including an outlet of Ikea.

A police statement earlier in the day had said the threat "should be taken seriously".

The seven people arrested have not yet been named.

District Attorney Herman Bolhaar told a news conference "As far as we can tell, none involved has a history of terrorist involvement."

One of those arrested was related to a suspect in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, he added.

A number of properties were raided by police in Amsterdam and Belgium.

Police said most of those stores closed on Thursday were likely to remain shut on Friday.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7941080.stm>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Policing the World-12
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-11

Clerics urge new jihad over Gaza

Explosives haul missing in Gaza

Obama and the limits of liberalism

Privacy law call in Facebook row

Bleak outlook for bombed Gaza Zoo

Online networking 'harms health'

Ecuador expels second US diplomat

Who's responsible for all the concrete carbuncles?

Can militias contain the Taleban?

Hackers target Xbox Live players

Easy login plans gather pace

Kyrgyzstan leaves US out in the cold

'No US rights' for Bagram inmates

New jail opens at Abu Ghraib site

India's home-grown terror dilemma

Child abuse 'alters stress gene'

Solomons force fit to keep the peace?

Israel-Hamas arms embargo urged

Somali pirate patrol: Day four

Guantanamo man flying back to UK

Tough dealing ahead for Netanyahu

Gaza case studies: Weapons use

Palestinian groups agree releases

Taleban reconciliation 'possible'

Bangladesh guard mutiny 'spreads'

Bangladesh guard mutiny 'is over'

Minister admits terror transfer

Kosovo trial clears Serbia leader

The Americans in the frame

China denounces US 'rights abuse'

Troops search Dhaka mutiny scene

Court strikes out Joker Arroyo's statement on activist's case

DOJ, DFA to discuss extradition of Garcia sons from US

US may boycott racism conference

Canada 'turns back Russia bomber'

Obama outlines Iraq pullout plan

Obama's Iraq plan leaves questions

Lebanese prisoners stage drama

Burma offers Rohingya return deal

Veteran mental care 'a disgrace'

The latest indignity heaped on Filipino veterans

Three years after: No end in sight for jailed Marines, Scout Rangers

Nepal's post-war culture of impunity

Clinton's delicate Mid-east tour

Macau law a 'bad example' for HK

Author stumbles on G-Bissau drama

Zardari rules out Taleban truce

US Israel support 'unshakeable'

ICRC warns of S Lanka 'disaster'

China to boost military spending

Venezuela seizes US rice producer

Nepal's 'confined women' want change

Chinese delegate has 'no power'

The soldiers who can no longer fight

Chasing dreams of future peace

Clinton concern over demolitions

Challenge of Israeli settlements

Dancing black hole twins spotted

Is there anybody out there?

'No proof' of bee killer theory

Thai military deny secret US jail

NY arrest in Dead Sea Scrolls row

PAO tells CHR: Step back from QC shootout probe

Firm 'sold workers' secret data

Craigslist sued over erotic ads

Gaza homes destruction 'wanton'

Tamil family proud of son's 'sacrifice'

Old sensitivities resurface in Sudan

The shame of Iraq's pariah widows

Iraqi women 'lack basic services'

MI5 telegrams 'fed interrogation'

US 'not winning in Afghanistan'

Chinese ships 'harass' US vessel

UN criticises UK 'rendition role'

'Dozens dead' in Baghdad bombing

EU 'terror' racquets court ruling

Figures expose police convictions

Bombers challenge Iraqi progress

Monkey mums bow to pester power