Pyongyang said it would reactivate disabled nuclear facilities
North Korea has said it will
boycott talks over its nuclear programme in protest at UN criticism of
its recent rocket launch, say state media.
Pyongyang said the talks over ending its weapons programme were "useless".
North Korea also said it would restart nuclear facilities it had begun to dismantle under an international deal.
The
move comes hours after the UN Security Council unanimously condemned
the launch, which critics say may have been a test for a long-range
missile.
North Korea says the rocket was launching a satellite.
The
statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry said it "resolutely
condemns" the UN move, which it said infringed on sovereignty and
"severely debases" North Koreans.
"There is no need for
the six-party talks any more. We will never again take part in such
talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks," it
said.
The cleric mediating the deal had protested at the delay in implementing it
Pakistan's President Asif Ali
Zardari has signed a controversial bill introducing Islamic Sharia law
to the Swat region, say reports.
The move comes after parliament passed a resolution urging Mr Zardari to honour a promise made to the Taleban.
The implementation of Islamic justice was agreed in February in return for an end to the Taleban insurgency.
Mr Zardari had previously resisted signing the deal, which has been criticised by his Western allies.
There are concerns it could lead to human rights abuses and provide help to militants in the region.
But Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said parliament had committed itself to implementing the Sharia system.
Unhappy
The
bill introducing Sharia courts in the troubled Malakand division,
comprising six north-western districts including Swat, was sent to
parliament for consideration on Monday.
Sharia court have already begun operating in the region, after reopening last week.
We can't accept Islamic law at gunpoint
Farooq Sattar, MQM party
Mr Gilani told lawmakers that they had "committed to implement the system and the whole nation should support it".
"We
want consensus of the whole nation. We want to take the house into
confidence. We don't want to bypass the parliament," AFP news agency
quoted him as saying.
The parliament then unanimously passed a resolution urging Mr Zardari to sign the deal.
One
party, the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), abstained from
the vote, with members saying they had "apprehensions" about the
agreement.
At least two people died in the violence on Monday
Security forces in Thailand have
tightened their grip on a hard core of anti-government protesters
surrounding official buildings in Bangkok.
After an uneasy calm settled on the city overnight, soldiers have been warning them to leave, reports say.
At least two people died in a day of clashes on Monday.
Red-shirted
protesters are demanding the resignation of PM Abhisit Vejjajiva - but
he has refused and is urging them to go home.
Monday
saw a dramatic escalation of violence on the streets, after days of
protest by supporters of ousted PM Thakin Shinawatra, who was ousted in
a coup in 2006.
Soldiers were seen firing their guns into
the air and into the crowds, while protesters burnt buses and threw
firebombs in retaliation.
Two people were killed in
clashes which apparently did not involve security forces but the
protesters and rival groups of disgruntled citizens. Dozens have been
injured. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7997461.stm>
Iraq Kurdish force 'beyond law'
Security forces in the Iraq's
northern Kurdish provinces are operating "beyond the rule of law", a
report by Amnesty International has warned.
The rights organisation details alleged abuses in the area, including arbitrary detention and torture.
It singles out the Asayish agency which reports directly to the Kurdish presidency as "a law unto itself".
Attacks on journalists and violence against women also remain problems, Amnesty International said.
The
Kurdish autonomous region "has been spared the bloodletting and
violence that continues to wrack the rest of Iraq" and its regional
government "has made some important human rights advances", said
Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Programme Director
Malcolm Smart.
"Yet real problems - arbitrary detention
and torture, attacks on journalists and freedom of expression, and
violence against women - remain, and urgently need to be addressed by
the government." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7997908.stm>
Thieving dwarves cause supernovae
Light from Type I supernovae is used as a standard for distances
Researchers have come up with a
theory for how stars can end in a spectacular so-called Type Ia
supernova in less than 100 million years.
While such early-stage supernovae are well-known, theory has been unable to explain them.
The
secret, the researchers say, is that white dwarf stars steal mass from
nearby "helium stars" until they have enough mass to initiate a
supernova.
The research appears in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The
new theory concerns white dwarf stars, the dense remains of stars like
the Sun that have fused their hydrogen into helium and then the helium
into carbon and oxygen.
Existing theory held that these carbon/oxygen white dwarves can gather up further mass from nearby companion stars.
When
they reach a critical mass, about 40% more than the Sun, they can
undergo further fusion. In just a few seconds, the white dwarf's carbon
is fused into heavier elements in a runaway process that releases huge
amounts of energy into the cosmos: a supernova. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7996852.stm>
Sri Lanka ceasefire 'a deception'
By Anbarasan Ethirajan
BBC News, Colombo
The Tamil Tigers have been restricted a designated "safe zone"
Tamil Tiger rebels have said that a
two-day ceasefire called by Sri Lanka's government is an attempt to
deceive the international community.
The rebels called for a permanent internationally supervised truce as the ceasefire entered its second day.
The government announced the halt in fighting to allow civilians trapped in the conflict zone to leave.
The rebels' statement said they were ready for open political talks to end the decades of bloodshed.
The protests have left two people dead and more than 120 injured
Nobody won. That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the chaotic events in Thailand over the past few days.
Certainly
not the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship
(UDD), whose attempted uprising degenerated into a series of chaotic
clashes with the army that left a wake of destruction on the streets of
Bangkok.
Not Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva either.
Although he clawed back a lot of his authority through the successful
military operation to disperse the UDD protesters, the promise he made
on taking office four months ago to promote reconciliation in his
country now looks hollow.
Not the army, which carried out
the unpleasant task of clearing the streets with growing confidence,
and surprisingly light casualties.
Its decision to
suppress these protesters, when it did nothing about the equally
damaging actions of the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy
(PAD) last year, makes a mockery of its claim to be a neutral force.
That
and the 2006 coup that deposed Thaksin Shinawatra have irrevocably
tarnished its image with a sizable part of the Thai population.
There appear to be no towering, Obama-like figures in Thailand, who can win the respect of both camps
Not
the police, who are now such a diminished and demoralised force that
almost no-one in Thailand expected them to play any role in the recent
disorder.
When confronted by a few thousand unarmed
protesters at the Asian summit in Pattaya, they offered only token
resistance. In Bangkok they were essentially invisible. Without a
functioning police force, the rule of law that Mr Abhisit has talked of
so often becomes very precarious.
And finally, not
Thaksin Shinawatra, whose melodramatic call for a people's uprising
fell flat, and who is still stuck in exile, without a secure place of
refuge. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7998243.stm>
Sewing machine hoax hits S Arabia
Singer machines were reported to be changing hands for exorbitant prices
Saudi police say they are
investigating a hoax that has seen people rushing to buy old-fashioned
sewing machines for up to $50,000 (£33,500).
The Singer sewing machines are said to contain traces of red mercury, a substance that may not exist.
But it is widely thought that it can be used to find treasure, ward off evil spirits or even make nuclear bombs.
It is believed that tiny amounts can sell for millions of dollars, the Saudi Gazette reported.
The paper said that trade in the sewing machines was brisk across the country.
Rumours about the sewing machines have been spreading for days by word of mouth and over the internet, it said.
These included rumours that foreign experts and companies had been buying up Singers.
In Dhulum, it was reported that people had broken into two tailors' shops to steal the machines.
In
the city of Madina, people were holding mobile phones up to the
machines, due to the belief that they could be used to detect the
presence of red mercury.
An interior ministry spokesman said authorities were trying to discover who had spread the rumours.
"We have to find out who started this hoax," he told Reuters news agency.
Britain's
Foreign Office is warning visitors to Croatia this summer to beware of
a threat from organised crime, following a number of assassinations and
attacks on prominent figures, reports Matt Prodger. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7999847.stm>
Russia 'ends Chechnya operation'
Chechnya's capital, Grozny, was destroyed during the wars
Russia has ended its decade-long
"counter-terrorism operation" against separatist rebels in the southern
republic of Chechnya, officials say.
The move aimed "to create conditions to further normalise the situation", the National Anti-terrorist Committee said.
Russian forces have fought two wars in the mainly Muslim republic since 1994.
Moscow
says Chechnya has stabilised under its pro-Kremlin President, Ramzan
Kadyrov, but human rights groups accuse his militias of widespread
abuses.
"We received the news about
cancelling the counter-terrorism operation with great satisfaction," Mr
Kadyrov told Russia's Interfax news agency on Thursday.
Now
the Chechen Republic... is a peaceful, developing territory, and
cancelling the counter-terrorism operation will only promote economic
growth in the republic
"The
leadership of Russia has officially confirmed the fact that the nest of
terrorism has been crushed, that illegal armed groups have been
neutralised, and militant leaders on whose conscience lay the grief and
suffering of thousands of people have been destroyed, detained and
brought to court."
"Now the Chechen Republic... is a
peaceful, developing territory, and cancelling the counter-terrorism
operation will only promote economic growth in the republic," he added.
Sporadic clashes persist in Chechnya, however, and violence continues in the neighbouring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia.
Correspondents
say Mr Kadyrov rules over Chechnya by fear. Human rights groups have
documented allegations of kidnappings, torture and murder of the
president's opponents.
The UK government's chief scientific adviser, Professor John
Beddington, told BBC News: "There is a really important role in
providing scientific and technological advice on addressing problems
agents in the field will face.
"[The chief science adviser] has a role to frustrate terrorism to
prevent espionage hurting the UK, protect our critical national
infrastructure and to frustrate the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.
The leader of a Thai protest movement which brought down former PM Thaksin Shinawatra has been shot and injured.
Sondhi Limthongkul's yellow-shirted People's Alliance of Democracy (PAD) led the demonstrations in 2006.
Mr Sondhi was ambushed by gunmen who attacked his car in the Thai
capital, Bangkok, spraying it with bullets and hitting Mr Sondhi in the
shoulder.
He has now had an operation and his life is out of danger, a hospital director said.
Red-shirted supporters of Mr Thaksin, who is now in self-imposed exile in Dubai, have held their own protests in recent weeks.
They want the current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down, and fresh elections to be held.
Mr Thaksin has appealed to the widely-revered Thai king, Bhumipol
Adulyadej, to intervene to end the country's political crisis.
Sondhi Limthongkul opposed former PM Thaksin
Thailand annulled Mr Thaksin's passport after his supporters forced
the cancellation of a high-profile Asian summit last weekend, and were
involved in clashes with security forces in Bangkok on Monday.
The attack on Mr Sondhi came at dawn on Friday, as he was travelling to record a programme at his television station.
"At least two attackers followed Sondhi's car, overtook it and
sprayed it with about 100 rounds of gunfire from AK-47 and M-16s.
[Sondhi] was injured in the shoulder but is out of danger now," said
local police commander Colonel King Kwaengwisatchaicharn.
The fear is that this attack could bring the yellow shirts out onto
the streets again and spark factional violence with Mr Thaksin's
red-shirted supporters, says the BBC's Alastair Leithead. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8003531.stm>
Obama to regulate 'pollutant' CO2
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
The EPA's first action could cut emissions from cars
The US government is to regulate
carbon dioxide emissions, having decided that it and five other
greenhouse gases may endanger human health and well-being.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the move following a review of the scientific evidence.
The
news was welcomed by environmental groups that mounted a series of
court cases during George Bush's presidency aimed at forcing the EPA to
act.
Developing countries have asked for the US to show leadership on climate.
Many
developing nations are not prepared to curtail their own emissions
without firm indications that the US is willing to make major cuts.
Legislation
is being proposed in Congress, but the EPA decision - known as an
"endangerment finding" - will allow the agency to mandate some cuts
without waiting for the draft bills to become law.
"This
finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now
and for future generations," said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.
"Fortunately,
it follows President Obama's call for a low-carbon economy and strong
leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation; and...
the solution is one that will create millions of green jobs and end our
country's dependence on foreign oil." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8004975.stm>
Spam 'produces 17m tons of CO2'
Tackling spam 'should be part of campaign to reduce emissions'
A study into spam has blamed it for
the production of more than 33bn kilowatt-hours of energy every year,
enough to power more than 2.4m homes.
The Carbon Footprint of e-mail Spam report estimated that 62 trillion spam emails are sent globally every year.
This
amounted to emissions of more than 17 million tons of CO2, the research
by climate consultants ICF International and anti-virus firm McAfee
found.
Searching for legitimate e-mails and deleting spam used some 80% of energy.
There has as yet been no suggestion of foul play over the crash
Early reports from an investigation
by Zimbabwe's MDC suggest that a car crash which killed PM Morgan
Tsvangirai's wife may not have been accidental.
Senior
MDC officials told the BBC that investigators are questioning the cause
of the March crash, in which Mr Tsvangirai was injured.
At first, Mr Tsvangirai said he thought the crash had been an accident.
The MDC, formerly in opposition, entered a power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe in February.
But
the evidence which has so far come to light in the MDC investigation
leads senior MDC officials to believe that the whole affair was highly
questionable, says the BBC's John Simpson, who has been in Zimbabwe.
The car carrying Mr Tsvangirai and his wife was hit by a lorry on a main road south of Harare.
The MDC now believes that the man driving the lorry was an ex-soldier who had replaced the usual driver a short time before.
According
to a senior source, when Mr Tsvangirai's convoy reached a long,
straight stretch of road his escort car, supplied by Zimbabwe's Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) suddenly speeded up and drove on out of
sight.
Soon afterwards a lorry appeared, coming fast over the brow of a hill from the opposite direction.
It sideswiped Mr Tsvangirai's car, and knocked it off the road.
Mrs Tsvangirai was killed outright, and her husband was injured.
Yet
a senior MDC source claims that the CIO guards did not get out to help,
and that when a local white farmer arrived and filmed the scene, he was
arrested and his pictures confiscated.
If the MDC can show that it was not an accident, then it stands to gain hugely in political terms, our correspondent says.
But
the movement's leaders point out that least two politicians in Zimbabwe
have died in highly suspicious road accidents in the past, he adds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8004995.stm>
Bolivia gang 'fought in Balkans'
Bolivia's president is following events at home while at an Americas summit
Two members of a mercenary gang
said to have plotted to kill Bolivian President Evo Morales were
veterans of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, reports say.
Three died and two were arrested in the eastern city of Santa Cruz after police fought a gunbattle with the group.
Bolivian
police officials said two of the five fought for Croatian independence.
The three others are said to be Irish, Romanian and Hungarian.
They were said to be planning attacks on government and opposition figures.
Chief
among the suspected targets was Bolivian President Evo Morales, but
Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera and Santa Cruz Governor Ruben
Costas, a bitter opponent of Mr Morales, were also targeted, police
said.
There has been no immediate explanation of why the alleged plotters would target government and opposition targets alike.
Over 206,000 US women have served in the Middle East since March 2003
In her new book, The Lonely Soldier: The
Private War of Women Serving in Iraq, Helen Benedict examines the
experience of female soldiers serving in the US military in Iraq and
elsewhere.
Here, in an article adapted from
her book, she outlines the threat of sexual violence that women face
from their fellow soldiers while on the frontline, and provides
testimony from three of the women she interviewed for her book.
More American women have fought and died in Iraq than in any war since World War II.
Over
206,000 have served in the Middle East since March 2003, most of them
in Iraq. Some 600 have been wounded, and 104 have died.
Yet, even as their numbers increase, women soldiers are painfully alone.
In
Iraq, women still only make up one in 10 troops, and because they are
not evenly distributed, they often serve in a platoon with few other
women or none at all.
This isolation, along with the
military's traditional and deep-seated hostility towards women, can
cause problems that many female soldiers find as hard to cope with as
war itself - degradation and sexual persecution by their comrades, and
loneliness instead of the camaraderie that every soldier depends on for
comfort and survival.
Between 2006 and 2008, some 40
women who served in the Iraq War spoke to me of their experiences at
war. Twenty-eight of them had been sexually harassed, assaulted or
raped while serving.
They were not exceptions. According
to several studies of the US military funded by the Department of
Veteran Affairs, 30% of military women are raped while serving, 71% are
sexually assaulted, and 90% are sexually harassed.
The
Department of Defense acknowledges the problem, estimating in its 2009
annual report on sexual assault (issued last month) that some 90% of
military sexual assaults are never reported.
The
department claims that since 2005, its updated rape reporting options
have created a "climate of confidentiality" that allows women to report
without fear of being disbelieved, blamed, or punished, but the fact
remains that most of the cases I describe in my book happened after the
reforms of 2005. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8005198.stm>
US boycotts UN racism conference
Some demonstrators in Geneva on Saturday condemned Israel
Washington has confirmed it will
boycott a UN forum on racism in Geneva next week because of differences
over Israel and the right to free speech.
The state
department said the proposed text of the conference's guiding document
remained unacceptable despite having been amended significantly.
The US and Israel quit a similar forum in Durban in 2001 when its draft document likened Zionism to racism.
Current language about "incitement to religious hatred" also alarms the US.
The five-day Durban Review Conference is due to open on Monday.
EU
diplomats were still consulting on Saturday on whether to attend the
conference. Canada and Israel said earlier that they would not attend.
Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has stirred outrage by repeatedly
calling the Holocaust of the Jews a "myth", is the only prominent head
of state so far scheduled to attend. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8006548.stm>
CIA torture exemption 'illegal'
Mr Obama has banned the use of controversial interrogation techniques
US President Barack Obama's
decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture tactics is a
violation of international law, a UN expert says.
The
UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound
under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage
in it.
Mr Obama released four "torture memos" outlining harsh interrogation methods sanctioned by the Bush administration.
Mr Nowak has called for an independent review and compensation for victims.
"The
United States, like all other states that are part of the UN convention
against torture, is committed to conducting criminal investigations of
torture and to bringing all persons against whom there is sound
evidence to court," Mr Nowak told the Austrian daily Der Standard.
Mr Chavez says Mr Obama is more intelligent than his predecessor
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he expects to send an ambassador back to Washington soon.
Mr Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas in September in "solidarity" with Bolivia. The US reciprocated.
In response, the US state department says it "will now work" toward returning its ambassador to Venezuela.
The
announcements came at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, where US
President Barack Obama received a warm welcome from Latin American
leaders.
Last September's diplomatic dispute arose over an alleged US plot against Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Mr
Chavez was a fierce critic of the United States under former President
George W Bush, accusing Washington of plotting to assassinate him. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8006135.stm>
Somali piracy: Global overview
World leaders are increasingly concerned by pirates
operating off the coast of Somalia, who have seized several ships
recently, demanding ransom payments to free them.
Warships
from several countries have been sent to patrol the Indian Ocean, as
the pirates are threatening some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Breastfeeding has been linked to many benefits for babies
Women who breastfeed their babies may be lowering their own risk of a heart attack, heart disease or stroke, research suggests.
A US study found women who breastfed for more than a year were
10% less likely to develop the conditions than those who never
breastfed.
Even breastfeeding for at least a month may cut the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The research features in the journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The longer a mother nurses her baby, the better for both of them
Dr Eleanor Bimla Schwarz
University of Pittsburgh
The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting breastfeeding has health benefits for both mother and baby.
Research has found that breastfeeding reduces a woman's risk of ovarian and breast cancer and osteoporosis in later life.
And the list of benefits for the baby is long, with breast milk
credited with protecting against obesity, diabetes, asthma and
infections of the ear, stomach and chest.
The latest US study, by the University of Pittsburgh, focused on nearly 140,000 post-menopausal women.
On average, it had been 35 years since the women had last breastfed - suggesting the beneficial impact lasts for decades.
As well as cutting the risk of heart problems, breastfeeding for
more than a year cut the risk of high blood pressure by 12%, and
diabetes and high cholesterol by around 20%. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8008678.stm>
Interrogation 'morass' for Obama
By James Coomarasamy
BBC News, Washington
US President Barack Obama is wading
through the legal, political and moral morass created by the Bush
administration's approval of interrogation techniques, which he - and
many others - consider to be torture.
President Obama praised CIA staff for their dedication in protecting the US
It has turned out to be a tricky path to navigate.
By
publishing the legal advice that his predecessor used to justify the
techniques, yet making it clear that he does not intend to press
charges against those involved in the decision-making or the
interrogations, he has left himself open to criticism from the right
and the left.
Some of the strongest comments have come
from his own supporters, who believe that the president can not simply
wipe the slate clean; that his call for "reflection, not retribution",
amounts to a whitewash.
There are plenty of voices
calling for a full investigation, with charges being pressed against
anyone found to have committed acts of torture in the name of the
United States.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who heads the
Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to the White House on
Monday, in which she urged the president to defer judgment on potential
prosecutions, until after the Senate has conducted its own
investigation.
One of her colleagues, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, has been calling for a truth and reconciliation commission.
They have had support from the New York Times.
In
an editorial, the newspaper called for the impeachment of Jay Bybee, a
federal judge, who - as assistant attorney general under President
George W Bush - was the author of some of what it described as "these
sickening memos". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8009418.stm>
Gay marriage row at Miss USA show
Ms Prejean says she does not regret her remarks
The runner-up at the Miss USA beauty
pageant says her outspoken opposition to gay marriage cost her first
place in the competition.
During the televised event, Carrie Prejean - Miss California -
said she believed that "a marriage should be between a man and a
woman".
She had been asked for her views on the subject by one of the judges, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.
"It did cost me my crown," said Ms Prejean, after the competition.
By Paul Rincon and Jonathan Amos
Science reporters, BBC News
An artist's impression of Gliese 581 e with its star in the distance
Astronomers have announced the discovery of the lightest planet ever detected outside our Solar System.
Situated in the constellation Libra, it is only about twice as
massive as the Earth, whereas most other exoplanets identified have
been far bigger.
The scientists say the planet's orbit takes it far too close to its star Gliese 581 for life to be possible.
The detection was made by an international team of researchers using a 3.6m telescope at La Silla, Chile.
"This is by far the smallest planet that's ever been
detected," said group member Michael Mayor, from the Geneva
Observatory, Switzerland.
"This is just one more step in the search for the twin of the Earth.
"At the beginning, we discovered Jupiter-like planets several
hundred times the mass of the Earth; and now we have the sensitivity
with new instruments to detect very small planets very close to that of
the Earth," he told BBC News.
The planet joins three others previously detected around its star and takes the designation Gliese 581 e.
THE GLIESE 581 SOLAR SYSTEM
From closest in to furthest out
Planet e is 16 Earth masses
Planet b is 1.9 Earth masses
Planet c is 5 Earth masses
Planet d is 7 Earth masses
The first planet to be found is always given the 'b' designation
As with the previous discoveries, its presence was picked up using
the so-called wobble technique. This is an indirect method of detection
that infers the existence of orbiting planets from the way their
gravity makes a parent star appear to twitch in its motion across the
sky.
Astronomy is working right at the limits of the current technology
capable of detecting exoplanets and most of those found so far are
Jupiter scale and bigger.
The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.
There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.
The
observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new
pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy
Meeting.
The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of
activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that
spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is
followed by a calmer period.
Last year, it was expected
that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it
hit a 50-year year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio
emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.
According
to Prof Louise Hara of University College London, it is unclear why
this is happening or when the Sun is likely to become more active
again.
"There's no sign of us coming out of it yet," she told BBC News.
"At the moment, there are scientific papers coming out suggesting that we'll be going into a normal period of activity soon.
"Others are suggesting we'll be going into another minimum period - this is a big scientific debate at the moment."
Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r)
In the mid-17th Century, a quiet spell - known as the Maunder Minimum - lasted 70 years, and led to a "mini ice-age".
This has resulted in some people suggesting that a similar cooling might offset the impact of climate change.
According to Prof Mike Lockwood of Southampton University, this view is too simplistic.
"I wish the Sun was coming to our aid but, unfortunately, the data shows that is not the case," he said.
Prof
Lockwood was one of the first researchers to show that the Sun's
activity has been gradually decreasing since 1985, yet overall global
temperatures have continued to rise.
"If you look
carefully at the observations, it's pretty clear that the underlying
level of the Sun peaked at about 1985 and what we are seeing is a
continuation of a downward trend (in solar activity) that's been going
on for a couple of decades.
"If the Sun's dimming were to have a cooling effect, we'd have seen it by now."
'Middle ground'
Evidence from tree trunks and ice cores suggest that the Sun is calming down after an unusually high point in its activity.
Professor
Lockwood believes that as well as the Sun's 11-year cycle, there is an
underlying solar oscillation lasting hundreds of years.
He suggests that 1985 marked the "grand maximum" in this long-term cycle and the Maunder Minimum marked its low point.
"We
are re-entering the middle ground after a period which has seen the Sun
in its top 10% of activity," said Professor Lockwood.
"We would expect it to be more than a hundred years before we get down to the levels of the Maunder Minimum."
Young supporters of the ousted president break the curfew in Tegucigalpa
The interim leader of Honduras,
Roberto Micheletti, says he is willing to talk to deposed president
Manuel Zelaya, who is barricaded in the Brazilian embassy.
But Mr Micheletti said Mr Zelaya must first accept that planned presidential elections would be held in November.
Mr Zelaya, who was sent into exile in June, says the offer is "manipulation".
Troops
have surrounded the embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa, where Mr
Zelaya appeared after his surprise return to Honduras on Monday.
Electricity, water and telephone services were cut off for a time on Tuesday before being partially restored.
Brazil
has warned Honduran security forces not to enter the embassy and is
seeking an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address the
crisis.
Few Afghans want to go through the trauma of another election
The head of the commission investigating allegations of fraud in
last month's Afghan presidential election says final results will not
be known for another 10 to 14 days. Western governments want a thorough
investigation to ensure that whoever wins is seen as a credible victor.
But it's not a view shared by most ordinary Afghans - as Allan Little
reports from Kabul.
It's hard to find Afghans with much
enthusiasm for a second round presidential election run-off - or even
for the drawn-out process of investigation into widespread allegations
of electoral fraud.
Everybody should compromise in the interests of the nation
Bus driver Gul Ahmad
Even supporters of the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, seem sceptical at best.
"Many people are poor here," Gul Ahmad, a 53-year-old bus driver, told me.
"A second round would cost a lot of money that should be spent on other things.
"I
voted for Dr Abdullah but we should accept the election result now.
Everybody should compromise in the interests of the nation."
Afghans know that elections here bring violence. They can also divide the country's main ethnic groups against each other.
Taliban
intimidation, together with attacks on polling stations, meant that in
much of Afghanistan it took real courage to vote last month. Few want
to go through it all again.
Human rights activist Ozala Ashraf Nemat said she, too, was against a second round.
"Why would a second round be any different from the first?" she said.
"Why would it be more free or more fair? Who would guarantee it?
Ozala Ashraf Nemat and her father want to get on with life
"People feel they have already voted. If there is a second round there will be a much lower turn-out."
The result of that, she added, could be even less credible than that of the first round.
"People are fed up with the delays," she says.
"They just want to get the election over with, they have families to feed - they want to get on with their lives."
Ozala's father, Khaliq Nemat, is an architect and urban planner. He's more worried still about the risks of a second round.
"It is not political ideas that divide the main candidates," he said.
"It
is a question of their tribes. There will be intimidation. People will
say 'vote for this person or I will burn your house down'.
"I fear that the side that loses could turn to weapons. It could come to civil war."
It is one of the holiest times of the year in the Islamic world. Eid marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting.
At
the Wazir Akhbar Khan mosque in central Kabul, the Imam Mohamed Ayaz
Niazi, appealed to the faithful to show restraint and patience while
the fraud investigation takes place.
He too opposes a second round.
"You cannot expect to have a Western-style election in Afghanistan," he told me.
"The
conditions here are not favourable to that. We should accept the
results of the election even it is only a small achievement."
Western concerns
If there is public demand for a second round it is not coming from the Afghan public.
It
is coming from outside the country. Foreign governments have to keep
persuading their own populations that the effort they are putting into
the war is worth it.
An election that is widely perceived to be
flawed beyond redemption - stolen even - stokes scepticism in Western,
not Afghan, public opinion.
Tyrannosaurus rex may have had much smaller ancestors
Fossils found in China may give clues to the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Uncovered near the city of Jiayuguan, the fossil finds come from a novel tyrannosaur dubbed Xiongguanlong baimoensis.
The fossils date from the middle of the Cretaceous period, and may be a "missing link", tying the familiar big T rex
to its much smaller ancestors.
The fossils show early signs of the features that became pronounced with later tyrannosaurs.
Paleontological knowledge about the family of dinosaurs
known as tyrannosaurs is based around two distinct groups of fossils
from different parts of the Cretaceous period, which ran from
approximately 145 to 65 million years ago.
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website
PCs inside a botnet can be forced to carry out instructions
Almost two million PCs globally,
including machines inside UK and US government departments, have been
taken over by malicious hackers.
Security experts Finjan traced the giant network of
remotely-controlled PCs, called a botnet, back to a gang of cyber
criminals in Ukraine.
Several PCs inside six UK government bodies were compromised by the botnet.
Finjan has contacted the Metropolitan Police with details of the government PCs and it is now investigating.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office, which is charged
with setting standards for the use of information technology across
government, said it would not comment on specific attacks "for security
reasons".
When we look at a similar network last year they were in the hundreds of thousands. Now were looking at mega-size botnets.
Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer for Finjan
"It is Government policy neither to confirm nor deny if an
individual organisation has been the subject of an attack nor to
speculate on the origins or success of such attacks."
He added: "We constantly monitor new and existing risks and work to
minimise their impact by alerting departments and giving them advice
and guidance on dealing with the threat."
It is the second time in a year that PCs inside government departments have been hacked to form part of a botnet.
On this occasion, the machines were infected with software which
allowed them to be taken over and enslaved in the botnet due to
vulnerabilities in web browsers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8010729.stm>
Russians die in Chechnya ambush
Gunmen have killed three Russian
soldiers in Chechnya, less than a week after the Kremlin announced an
end to a decade of military operations there.
The Russian interior ministry said the soldiers were in a car towing a water cistern when they were shot.
It said the gunmen opened fire from a derelict building in the village of Bamut, near the border with Ingushetia.
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last month Chechnya was stable enough to ease security restrictions.
Despite the Kremlin's announcements, several thousand
Russian security force personnel are staying on in Chechnya to combat
the hundreds of Muslim separatist militants thought to remain in the
mountains.
Chechen separatists fought to wrest control from Moscow in the
mid-1990s, but the Kremlin redeployed troops there ten years ago to
regain the upper hand. The campaign consolidated the power of the then
relatively unknown Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Russia is scaling down its troop presence in Chechnya
A former rebel fighter, Ramzan Kadyrov, now runs Chechnya with the
Kremlin's blessing. Human rights activists question his methods.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says the Kremlin's
assertion that the war is over is largely correct, as there have been
no large-scale clashes with militants for years. But he says the spring
thaw allows discontented young Chechens to head to the hills to join
the separatists.
The conflict has spread to neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Russian officials say nearly 50 people died in Ingushetia in fighting
with Islamist rebels between January and March. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8012386.stm>
Nograles presses Cha-cha, files resolution for con-ass
JOHANNA CAMILLE SISANTE, GMANews.TV
04/22/2009 | 12:52 PM
(Updated 2:10 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines
- House Speaker Prospero Nograles on Wednesday finally set into motion
the controversial measure that seeks to convene Congress into a
constituent assembly that would amend the 1987 Constitution.
Nograles filed House Resolution 1109 – "A resolution calling upon
members of Congress to convene for the purpose of considering proposals
to amend or revise the Constitution, upon a vote of three-fourths of
all the members of Congress" – on Wednesday morning amid widespread
opposition to Charter change (Cha-cha).
The resolution, drafted by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, has at
least 174 signatories that include presidential son and Pampanga Rep.
Juan Miguel "Mikey" Macapagal Arroyo.
In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, Villafuerte reiterated
that HR 1109 was meant to create a justiciable controversy that would
compel the Supreme Court to rule once and for all whether Congress
should vote jointly or separately on amendments, and not to introduce
specific changes to the Constitution.
"The most that we can do is get the resolution convening a constituent
assembly approved, trigger a justiciable controversy so the matter can
be brought before the Supreme Court, and await their decision. But we
can never implement that until after 2010," Villafuerte said.
He added that Nograles is the primary author of the resolution, and that he just drafted it.
The resolution pointed out that under the 1987 Constitution, it can be
amended on a vote of three-fourths of all its members, in contrast with
the 1935 Constitution which specifically stated that Congress in a
joint session could propose amendments that must be voted on separately
by both Houses.
Villafuerte said there would not be enough time for the House to act on
specific amendments – even if the Supreme Court were to rule that
members of Congress should vote jointly on amendments before the filing
of candidacy on November – because politicians would be too busy
campaigning for the May 2010 elections.
US serviceman convicted of raping Pinay in Subic acquitted
04/23/2009 | 04:39 PM
MANILA, Philippines
- Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, who was earlier convicted by a lower court
of raping a Filipina in Subic, was acquitted by the Court of Appeals
(CA).
"Wherefore, on reasonable ground, the accused lance corporal daniel
smith is hereby acquitted of the crime of rape as alleged in the
information. he is ordered released immediately unless held for other
lawful case," said the appellate court in its 71-page decision.
The decision, penned by Associate Justice Monina Arevalo-Zenarosa of
the CA’s Special Eleventh Division, reversed and set aside the ruling
of the Makati Regional Trial Court on December 4, 2006.
Concurring with the decision were two other female magistrates, Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal.
The CA likewise ordered Smith's mmediate released from detention unless
there is another case filed against him. Smith is currently being held
at the JUSMAG building inside the US Embassy in Manila.
Improper disclosure
Earlier, the Supreme Court ordered CA presiding justice Conrado Vasquez
Jr. to conduct an investigation on the alleged improper disclosure of a
draft ruling acquitting Smith, and to submit a report and
recommendation within 90 days from receipt of records.
The high court has ordered the lawyers of Smith to explain why they
should not be sanctioned for allegedly executing the affidavit of
Suzette Nicolas a.k.a "Nicole", which in effect weakened her testimony
against the US serviceman.
Last March 12, Nicole changed her statement hinting that Smith did not rape her.
In a five-page affidavit, Nicole admitted that she "possibly lost her
inhibitions" and became "intimate" with Smith, after drinking
"alcoholic mixed drinks" with him when they met at a bar in Subic,
Olongapo City on November 1, 2005.
"Looking back, I would not have agreed to talk with Smith and dance
with him no less than three times if I did enjoy his company or was at
least attracted to him since I met him for the very first time on the
dance floor of the Neptune Club."
It was also on March 12 that Nicole wrote a letter terminating the
services of her lawyer in the celebrated Subic rape case and signed a
document attesting that she received money from Smith.
Court documents released to media showed that Nicole wrote a "Notice of
Termination" to her counsel, Evalyn Ursua last March 12. The papers
also showed that on the same day, she signed a "Receipt and Release"
document stating that she received P100,000 from Smith.
As tensions mount between Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq, the
United Nations has produced an eagerly-awaited special report on the
disputed areas there which it hopes will help head off a confrontation.
Iraqi Kurds mark the anniversary of the uprising against Saddam Hussein
In the latest signs of hostility between Arabs and Kurds, a Kurdish
military commander narrowly escaped death from a roadside bomb
explosion and a suicide bomber attacked a Kurdish-manned checkpoint.
Both incidents happened in Zummar, north-west of Mosul.
Zummar is one of a number of Kurdish-dominated areas in Mosul's
Nineveh province which have rejected the authority of the new
provincial council, and said they want to join the nearby autonomous
region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
They complain that majority Sunni Arabs have monopolised all the
council's top positions after provincial elections at the end of
January.
Tension is also high in and around the other major northern city, Kirkuk.
Kurds, who are ethnically and linguistically different from Iraq's
majority Arab population, see Kirkuk as their historic capital and
would like to attach it to Kurdistan too.
Kirkuk is seen by Kurds as their historic capital
But their claims are opposed by other communities in the city, including Arabs, Turcomans and Christians.
While the Kurds insist on their historic primacy in Kirkuk and its
oil-rich province, Saddam Hussein changed the demographic balance by
displacing many Kurds and Turcomans and settling large numbers of
southern Arabs there.
Under the new Iraqi constitution, the situation in Kirkuk was
supposed to be "normalised", a census taken, and a referendum held, to
establish whether the inhabitants wanted to join Kurdistan or stay with
Baghdad.
Barack Obama dispels the dark clouds of the Bush years (AndyDavey/The Sun)
By Ali McConnell
BBC News
"He's superman at the moment - young, black, good-looking, progressive," says British cartoonist Andy Davey.
So perhaps it's not surprising you have to look hard to find an unflattering cartoon of the new US president.
With the end of his first 100 days in sight, the Political Cartoon
Gallery in London is putting on an exhibition of original cartoons of
Barack Obama. It charts his rise as an outside candidate for the
Democratic Party nomination to his first few months in the White House.
Political cartooning is usually a negative art-form but with Obama there's a sense of hope.
Dr Tim Benson
The founder of the gallery, Dr Tim Benson, says he's assembled more
than 60 cartoons from British publications and they're almost all
positive. "It's as if Bush was the Antichrist and the world's in such a
mess that Obama is seen as an angel," he says. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8004024.stm>
Pakistan disorder
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the Taleban are "within hours of Islamabad"
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
has accused Pakistan of abdicating to the Taleban by allowing them to
control parts of the country.
Mrs Clinton told a congressional panel the situation in Pakistan posed a "mortal threat" to world security.
She said extremists were being allowed to control territory such as the Swat Valley, in north-western Pakistan.
She also called Pakistan's judicial system corrupt, adding that it has only limited power in the countryside.
Earlier this month, Pakistani President Asif Ali
Zardari signed a law implementing Islamic law - or Sharia - in the Swat
Valley region as part of a deal to end a two-year Taleban insurgency
there.
Once one of Pakistan's most popular holiday destinations, the Swat Valley is now mostly under Taleban control.
Thousands of people have fled and hundreds of schools have been destroyed as a result of a Taleban-led insurgency.
The Swat Valley is only about 100km (62 miles) from Islamabad, and
reports suggest the Taleban are trying to expand the area under their
control. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8013677.stm>
Blair backs intervention doctrine
Tony Blair denied colonialism was to blame for radical Islam
Tony Blair has stood by a 10-year-old
speech in Chicago in which he spoke of a "doctrine of international
community" to intervene against oppression.
In the same city, the former UK prime minister said intervention remained the best way to fight radical Islamism.
Mr Blair insisted that despite the experiences of Afghanistan and
Iraq, his belief in military action to prevent tyranny or genocide was
intact.
As they prepared to descend on the capital Bangkok for recent
protests, supporters of ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
raised money and morale in the red-shirts' heartland in the north-east
of Thailand.
Dancers at the show for supporters of ex-PM Thaksin in Udon Thani
The field outside the radio station is the size of two football pitches and it is crammed with tables.
Red tables, of course, with red table cloths.
People keep arriving with sacks of rice and big baskets of mangoes
and chillies. Outside the studio, an army of women chop and slice
vegetables.
They laugh and sing as they work. Everyone seems in high spirits.
As the sun goes down, the place fills up. Nearly everyone is wearing
red T-shirts. It is a hot, sticky evening but on stage the lycra-clad
dancing girls perform a frenetic number in knee-high boots.
Rural 'empowerment'
Behind them there are massive posters of two men: on one side
Thailand's former PM, Thaksin Shinawatra and on the other, the host of
tonight's party, Kwanchai Paipanna, the head of the Udon Lovers
community radio station.
Kwanchai, a large man with a matching voice, is the local Mr Big -
one of the most influential men in the town of Udon Thani. He was once
a successful DJ and record producer promoting 'Luk Tung', Thai country
music.
"I am a child of the field," he says. "I never used to take any interest in politics."
Supporters of the Red Shirts at the Udon Lovers fund-raising party
He tells me that he only set up this radio station three years ago,
to counteract what he regarded as propaganda from the yellow-shirt
movement, as it pushed to get rid first of Mr Thaksin himself and then
the subsequent pro-Thaksin governments.
"After Thaksin came to power, everything changed. We found we could
work together to affect change in our local areas in ways we had never
done before," he says.
"But after Thaksin was deposed, things began sliding backwards," he adds.
"Our hands were freed and then it felt as if they'd been tied up
again. But now the whole country is hooked up to the internet and
villagers have learned how to communicate with each other. Thanks to
Thaksin people here understand they have a part to play in the
political system," Mr Kwanchai. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8012145.stm>
Who wants to talk to Hamas?
Hamas's political leader in Damascus hosts European parliamentarians
After Hamas's leader Khaled Meshaal addressed UK MPs by videolink
from Damascus on Wednesday, the BBC's Heather Sharp in Jerusalem looks
at the signs that the international community is reconsidering its
boycott of the Islamist group.
Hamas has had more international visitors since US President Barack
Obama came to power, and they seem to be getting bolder, says Ahmad
Youssef, an advisor close to the Islamist movement's political leaders
in Gaza.
Groups of lawmakers from the UK and EU, travelling independently,
have made widely publicised visits to Hamas's exiled leader in Damascus
in recent months.
And Mr Youssef says official representatives of European governments
have also come calling - and not just the Norwegians who have long had
contact with Hamas.
Mr Youssef says it seems such delegations are now "getting the green light from the Americans".
Mr Zuma is hugely popular with the ANC party faithful
By Farouk Chothia
BBC News
South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson
Mandela, promoted a "Rainbow Nation"; his successor Thabo Mbeki an
"African Renaissance"; so what will be the overarching vision of a
Jacob Zuma presidency?
He has not yet outlined one, but he is likely to do so in his first
state-of-the-nation address when the new parliament convenes.
The initial signs are that Mr Zuma will promote a new conservatism
in South Africa, digging deep into the nation's cultural and religious
roots and threatening Western-styled liberal values enshrined in the
constitution.
Mr Zuma's supporters showed these traits throughout his
eight-year-long presidential campaign, offering prayers to ancestors,
denouncing same-sex marriage as a "disgrace to God", promising a
referendum on the death penalty, condemning political rivals as
"witches" and "snakes", and defending polygamy as "African".
Of all the white groups in South Africa, it is only the Afrikaners that are truly South African
Jacob Zuma
For Mr Zuma's critics, he has mixed a deadly cocktail of religion, politics and ethnicity to quench his thirst for power.
"The genie is out. He won't be able to put it back," one critic said.
"Mbeki declared this to be the African century, but we now risk going backwards."
Without singling out anyone for criticism, a stalwart of the
governing African National Congress (ANC), Zola Skweyiya, expressed a
similar concern in the run-up to the party's conference in 2007.
"The demon of tribalism is rising from every corner and we ignore it
at our peril," Mr Skweyiya wrote in Johannesburg's Mail & Guardian
newspaper.
"We thought we would not go through what the rest of Africa has gone
through, but we are just another African country. There is nothing
special about thus." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8012903.stm>
Bolivia leader backs plot probe
Morales said he would be happy for a "transparent" investigation to occur
Bolivian President Evo Morales has
told the BBC he would be happy for there to be an international
investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate him.
Three alleged mercenaries were killed in a police operation last week in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.
They included an Irish citizen, Michael Dwyer, and a man with joint Bolivian, Hungarian and Croatian nationality.
Hungarian and Irish diplomats are in Bolivia trying to get more information about the deaths of their nationals.
MANILA, Philippines -
Less than 24 hours after his acquittal by women justices of the
Philippine Court of Appeals (CA) was made public, Lance Corporal Daniel
Smith left the Philippines.
Smith could face court-martial after release
He may already be a free man, but Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith may still
have to face court-martial proceedings, according to Interior and Local
Government undersecretary Marius Corpus.
Corpus said Smith, like his three companions, Lance Cpls. Keith
Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier,
might face a military court at the US bases in Japan. The four belong
to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Force stationed in Okinawa.
Silkwood, Duplantis, and Carpentier were the companions of Smith when
the later supposedly raped Suzette Nicolas a.k.a. Nicole inside a
moving Starex van at the Alava Pier in Subic, Zambales.
Though the three were acquitted of the supposed crime, Carpentier, the
platoon leader, was dishonorably discharged from his post, while
Silkwood and Duplantis were less than honorably discharged, according
to Corpus,
“Smith may soon be a free man, but his legal ordeal may not be over yet
since he may still have to deal with the court martial," Corpus,
chairman of the inspection team formed by Interior Secretary Ronaldo
Puno to oversee Smith's custody, said in a statement released to media
on Friday.
A court-martial refers to a military or naval court of officers that could try persons for offenses under military law.
Corpus said that in his last visit to Smith in March, he noticed that
the US Marine officer was gaining weight. On Thursday, April 23, the
Philippine Court of Appeals acquitted Smith of raping Nicolas.
The CA reversed and set aside the December 4, 2006 decision of the
Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 139 convicting Smith of rape and
sentencing him to 40 years in prison. - GMANews.TV
US Embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said the US government was
hoping that all the parties involved would move forward, following the
decision of the CA to acquit the US serviceman earlier convicted by a
lower court of raping a Filipina in Subic, Zambales.
“Following the decision of the Philippine Court of Appeals, Daniel
Smith departed the Philippines under the authority of United States
military officials," Thompson said in a statement e-mailed to media on
Friday.
She described the case as a "difficult and emotional" one for all
involved, especially the families and loved ones of the parties to the
case.
"We hope that the parties can move on with their lives," said the spokeswoman.
According to Thompson, the US Embassy observed the terms of the
Visiting Forces Agreement while the case of Smith was being tried until
he was acquitted by the CA on Thursday, April 23.
“Throughout this long and difficult case, Daniel Smith remained in
custody at the US Embassy in the Philippines in compliance with the
terms of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which provides the
framework for US-Philippine cooperation in legal cases involving
visiting U.S. military personnel," she said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was informed of Smith's return
to the US after the Court of Appeals ruled his “immediate release," an
official said Friday.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ed Malaya told GMANews.TV on Friday that
the DFA was told about Smith’s release and subsequent return to the US.
He, however, refused to specify when was the agency told about the US
serviceman's departure.
“The DFA was duly informed. The Court of Appeals decision stated that
Lance Cpl.l Daniel Smith be released immediately. There is no more
basis by which he can be held further in custody," Malaya said.
No control over Smith
Evalyn Ursua said she was not surprised with the development. Ursua is
the former lawyer of Suzette Nicolas a.k.a "Nicole" who accused Smith
of raping her in November 2005,
Ursua said the Philippine government never had control of Smith because
it allowed the US marine to be moved from the Makati City Jail to the
US Embassy in December 2006.
Troops have driven the rebels into a tiny coastal area
The Sri Lankan army has said there
will be no more breaks in fighting against the Tamil Tigers in the
north of the country, as it closes in on the rebels.
Spokesman Brig Shavendra Silva said the only way civilians could
leave the area was if the army rescued them, as the rebels would not
let any more out.
Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was still in the conflict zone, he added.
The UN has been calling on both sides to pause hostilities so aid can be sent in and people evacuated.
It is sending an aid team to the area, where it says 50,000 are trapped.
The BBC's Charles Haviland, who travelled through areas close to the
frontline and saw refugees who had recently fled from the fighting,
says many looked seriously ill and most very weak.
Both presidents want to reduce their countries' nuclear arsenal
US and Russian negotiators are meeting in Rome to begin work on a new treaty to curb nuclear weapons.
The talks are the first step towards replacing the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-1), signed in 1991, which runs out at the
end of the year.
Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed to the talks at their first meeting earlier this month.
But there are areas of disagreement and meeting the December deadline will be difficult, correspondents say.
In particular, Moscow has expressed concern at US plans to build an anti-missile system in central Europe.
US-RUSSIA ARMS ACCORDS
1972:
Salt I treaty agrees to freeze levels of strategic nuclear missile
launchers and submarines; Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty bans
missile-defence systems
1979:
Salt II Treaty imposes for first time ceiling on strategic nuclear weapons
1987:
INF treaty eliminates short and medium-range missiles
1991:
Start I slashes nuclear arsenals by one-third
1993:
Start II treaty reduces number of nuclear warheads and bans use of MIRV warheads
1999:
US Senate blocks nuclear test ban treaty
2000:
Russian parliament ratifies Start II treaty
2002:
US withdraws from ABM Treaty; Russia withdraws from Start II the following day
2002:
Sort treaty commits both sides to cut arsenals by two-thirds
"One should bear in mind that the lower we go in terms of the
numbers of warheads, the more serious issues linked to missile defence
and the strategic potential of other nuclear powers appear," Deputy
Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Russian news agency Interfax.
Russia has also said it would like to see a cut in delivery systems,
such as rockets and submarines, not just warheads - an area not covered
by existing agreements.
But both sides want to reduce their nuclear arsenals, the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome says.
The US in particular believes it will give them greater moral and
political force against countries with nuclear ambitions such as Iran
and North Korea, he adds.
Both presidents want the new deal to improve on an agreement by
their predecessors in 2002 to cut deployed warheads to between 1,700
and 2,200 on each side by 2012.
Campaigners have reacted with anger to new rules on the eligibility of Gurkha veterans to live in the UK.
The Home Office said that new rules would allow about 4,300 more
to settle, but the Gurkha Justice Campaign said it would be just 100.
Actress Joanna Lumley, a campaigner for the Gurkhas, said the announcement made her "ashamed of our administration".
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas denied he had betrayed the Gurkhas, adding: "This improves the situation."
He said: "It has never been the case that all Gurkhas
pre-1997 were to be allowed to stay in the country. With their
dependents you could be looking at 100,000 people.
It's eerily quiet here in the capital. Lots of people with masks
Dr Duncan Wood, Mexico City
Mexico's Health Secretary, Jose Cordova, said a total of 1,324
people had been admitted to hospital with suspected symptoms since 13
April and were being tested for the virus.
"In that same period, 81 deaths were recorded probably linked to the
virus but only in 20 cases we have the laboratory tests to confirm it,"
he said.
Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has announced emergency powers to deal with the situation.
He said he had published a decree through which the government
"assumes the faculties and the attributions given by the constitution
to the president in case of emergency, like the one we are seeing now".
The measures give the authorities the powers to isolate individuals suspected of having the virus and inspect their homes.
The protest organisers relied heavily on the internet
The Moldovan capital, Chisinau, was rocked by protests earlier
this month amid claims that an election which returned the Communist
Party to power was rigged.
The BBC's Oana Lungescu spoke to Natalia Morar, the journalist
accused of masterminding Moldova's "Twitter revolution" - so dubbed
because many demonstrators were alerted to the protests by text and
social networking tools.
Natalia Morar, 25, smiled broadly when I met her on Friday night in a park in central Chisinau.
"I never felt that just a walk in the park could be such a big happiness," she told me. "It feels great!"
Just hours before, she had been under house arrest. For the previous
10 days she had had no access to internet and was not allowed to talk
on the phone.
"It was really terrible because I was absolutely cut off from all
sources to find out what happened to my friends, who were with me in
the street."
Officially charged with helping organise mass disturbances, she
faces 15 years in prison, but strongly denies any involvement in the
violence. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8018017.stm>
Anticipating an end to Sri Lanka's war
By Charles Haviland
Colombo
With the civil war in Sri Lanka apparently in its final days, the
government is accusing Tamil Tiger rebels of causing a humanitarian
disaster with tens of thousands of civilians thought to be trapped in
the tiny remaining stretch of rebel territory.
The national army now has the Tigers on the run
Earlier this week, at dead of night, a massive electric storm hit
Sri Lanka's western coast. Lightning flashed through the skies,
illuminating Colombo's gracious colonial bungalows and proud commercial
skyscrapers, its temples, churches and mosques.
The national army now has the Tigers on the run.
The ocean, always rough and strewn with breakers in this city, roared as it hurled itself at the coastline.
And the thunder, again and again, seemed to rip from the skies down to the ground.
Armenia estimates that 1.5 million people were killed
Barack Obama's words on the day
marking the killing of Armenians by Turks in World War I were
"unacceptable", Turkey's foreign ministry has said.
Though Mr Obama did not use "genocide", as he did during his
election campaign, Ankara said he failed to honour those Turks killed
by Armenians at the time.
"Everyone's pain must be shared," President Abdullah Gul of Turkey said.
President Obama described the deaths of the Armenians as "one of the great atrocities of the 20th Century".
He appealed for Turks and Armenians to "address the facts of the past as a part of their efforts to move forward".
The two countries agreed this week on a roadmap for normalising relations.
International recognition... is a matter of restoring historic justice
While admitting many Armenians were killed, Turkey, a Nato member
and key American ally in the Muslim world, denies committing genocide,
saying the deaths resulted from wartime fighting.
Armenia has long campaigned for the loss of its people to be
recognised as a crime of genocide and it commemorated the event with
ceremonies on Friday. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8018327.stm>
Afghan poets tackle scars of war
By Dawood Azami
BBC Pashto service
Female poet Zarlasht Hafeez speaks of the "grief-stricken Pashtuns"
The violence in Afghanistan and the Pashtun-inhabited parts of
Pakistan is making itself felt on the cultural and social life of the
Pashtuns.
New themes and terms, such as suicide attack, missile and helicopter
have entered Pashto literature, especially poetry, reflecting the
destructive nature of the insurgency and counter-insurgency operations.
Pashtuns (also known as Pathans, Pakhtuns or Afghans) are
increasingly writing poems about the "ill fate" of their nation and the
new dynamics of violence in their homeland.
Young poets in Kabul, such as Muhammad Numan Dost, tell of mourning
children lying on the graves of their dead parents after a suicide
bomber "in exchange for heaven, cut to pieces a few lives now lying on
the street".
It is powerful language, and reflects a strong poetic tradition in a culture that is evolving with the times.
"Poets are inspired by what is happening in the outside world. Their
imagination absorbs it," says veteran Pashto poet in Peshawar, Rahmat
Shah Sael.
"That is why Pashto poets are writing about violence in one way or another."
Poetry has always been a powerful vehicle for expressing and preserving the national identity and cultural values of Pashtuns.
The Pashtun warrior poet, Khushhal Khan Khattak (1613 - 1689) and
mystic Rahman Baba (1653-1711) are the two giants of Pashto poetry and
literature and are still popular and a great source of inspiration.
Bedoiun children from the village of Hura are trained in batting and bowling
By Tim Franks
BBC News, the Negev, Israel
"Run! Run!" shouts Danny at the dust-strewn, sun-baked children.
Moments before, the small group of boys and girls had been milling
around a patch of hardened sand, on their unauthorised encampment in
the southern Israeli desert, the Negev.
Now, courtesy of five Englishmen, who have just spilled out of a
van, carrying plastic wickets, plastic bats and tennis balls covered in
electrical tape, they have been corralled into playing an impromptu
game of cricket.
Somehow, it works. The children may not realise it, but almost
immediately they are experiencing the pleasure of thumping an on-drive
through deep mid-wicket.
Here
we have a chance with the young kids: they've not yet been brainwashed
into separation, and there's no need for it. That might sound naive.
But there isn't any need
Tom Rodwell
Cricket For Change
Cricket For Change was set up almost 30 years ago, in the wake of the inner-city riots in London.
The charity worked with the poor, with gangs, and with the disabled.
In recent years, it has taken its "street cricket" to countries around
the world.
This week marked its first attempt to bring together Arabs and Jews.
For two days, schoolchildren from the Bedouin village of Hura have been coached in bowling, batting and fielding.
Tom Rodwell, the chief executive of Cricket For Change is
supervising. He says cricket lends itself to cohesion: "It's
non-contact, not like football or basketball. And everyone has their
moment, everyone has their turn."
This may all be happening within Israel - well way from the occupied Palestinian territories - but there is tension here also.
The deaths sparked angry protests in Kut and calls for an investigation
A US raid in the south of Iraq, in
which two people died, was a crime and those responsible should be
tried, says Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
He said the raid in the town of Kut was a breach of the security pact governing US military actions in the country.
The US has said the raid was carried out in full agreement with the Iraqis.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says it is the most serious dispute
between the US and Iraq since the agreement came into force at the
start of the year.
One senior local official said the actions had rendered the pact "meaningless".
US forces stormed buildings in Wasit province early on Sunday morning.
A policeman and a woman were shot dead and six people detained.
The US military said the raid, against a weapons smuggler and
"network financier", had been "fully coordinated and approved by the
Iraqi government".
They said soldiers had shot and killed "an individual with a weapon"
outside the house and that the woman who died had "moved into the line
of fire".
Two senior Iraqi army officers were arrested for permitting an
American operation to go ahead without the knowledge of the Iraqi
authorities.
Pact 'meaningless'
In a statement read on state TV, Mr Maliki said he condemned the killings as a "breach of the security pact".
He called on the US to "release the detainees and hand over those responsible for this crime to the courts".
The incident caused uproar in Wasit, where provincial governor Latif Hamad al-Turfah echoed Mr Maliki's condemnation.
He said local government and officials had been "surprised that
these forces carried out the raid in breach of the agreement signed
between the Iraqi and US governments".
The chairman of the provincial council, Mahmud Abd al-Rida, said the raid had embodied the "meaning of the occupation".
"Their claim of friendship and early withdrawal from our dear land,
according to the security agreement signed by the two Iraqi and US
parties, is meaningless," he said.
The complicated Status of Forces Agreement was signed in November last year and came into force in early 2009.
It requires all military operations in Iraq to have the government's
approval and allows for US soldiers to face trial if they commit crimes
off base.
A twist has emerged in the story of
Israeli citrus fruit reportedly sold in Iran in defiance of a ban on
commercial dealings between the two enemy states.
It has now been revealed the fruit, a type of orange-grapefruit
hybrid marketed as Jaffa Sweetie, were not Israeli in the first place.
The Sweeties were brought to Iran from China, where faking the origin of goods is a common practice.
The discovery of apparent Israeli origin caused a stir in Iran.
Outrage followed, distribution centres stocking the fruit were sealed and accusations were traded.
Such is the infamy of dealing with Israel that an Iranian official went so far as to accuse the opposition of a "citrus plot".
However, Tal Amit, the general manager of Israel's Citrus Marketing
Board, told the BBC the fruit had not originated in his country.
Prestigious fruit
"First of all, it's a bit annoying that somebody is using our brand
name and registered trademark without our permission," he said.
The fruit was packed in boxes marked "Origin China"
"Apart from this, I would like very much the Iranian people to eat Israeli fruit straight from the origin and not via China.
"But the politics is not allowing us to do any commercial relations
with Tehran at the moment while back 30 to 40 years ago, Tehran was a
superb market for our fruit."
The genuine Israeli Sweetie is primarily exported to the Far East's richest markets, Japan and South Korea.
That could explain the prestige of the fruit in the eyes of Chinese exporters and the temptation to counterfeit it.
It is not the first time, however, that citrus fruit have found themselves at the heart of an international political row.
The EU has called an emergency meeting of health ministers to
discuss the situation and European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso said he was monitoring the situation closely.
EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said people should avoid
travelling to virus-hit parts of Mexico and the US unless it was "very
urgent".
On Sunday, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said suspected swine flu cases in his country had risen to 1,614.
Of the 103 deaths in Mexico, only 20 are so far confirmed to have been caused by the new virus.
There are 20 confirmed cases in the US, six in Canada and one in
Spain, the first case in Europe. In most cases outside Mexico, people
have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.
In other developments:
• Tests are also being carried out on individuals or groups in New
Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Britain and Israel who fell ill following
travel to Mexico
• A top US health official has warned that there could be "more severe cases" to come
The army says at least 25 militants died in the Lower Dir operation
The Taleban's talks with the
government in north-west Pakistan have been suspended amid army
operations against militants, a Taleban negotiator says.
Pakistani troops and Taleban militants have clashed in Lower Dir
in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), forcing hundreds of civilians
to flee.
NWFP officials had agreed a deal that would introduce Sharia law in return for an end to the Taleban insurgency.
Critics argued the deal was a capitulation to the militants.
Ameer Izzat Khan, a spokesman for Sufi Muhammad, the
cleric who negotiated the deal between the government and the Taleban,
said: "Our council of leaders met on Sunday night and decided to
suspend peace negotiations with the government in North West Frontier
Province."
However, he said the Taleban still wanted to adhere to the peace deal, agreed in February.
Mr Khan said Sufi Muhammad was cut off in his village in Lower Dir
and no talks could take place until communication was restored.
"We are demanding a suspension of the operation so that Sufi Muhammad is able to get out of his village."
He added: "The operation is contrary to the peace agreement, and we
believe there is no point talking peace when there is violence in the
area. But a decision on that will be taken by our [council]."
NWFP's information minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, denied there was
a military operation in Dir but "an action undertaken in response to an
attack on security forces, and it will continue until militants are
flushed out of the area". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8019966.stm>
Sri Lanka army 'to stop shelling'
The army earlier denied using heavy weapons in the no-fire zone
Sri Lankan troops will no longer use
heavy weapons or air strikes in fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels in
the north-east, the government says.
The statement said the army would focus on trying to rescue civilians. Concern has been rising over civilian deaths.
The rebels are boxed in to a shrinking patch of land which they share with thousands of civilians.
On Sunday the government dismissed a Tamil Tiger ceasefire offer as a "joke" and said the rebels were near defeat.
Pre-dawn attack
The statement from the office of the president said combat
operations in the civil war between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels
had "reached their conclusion".
"Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy
calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause
civilian casualties," the statement said.
"Our security forces will confine their attempts to rescuing
civilians who are held hostage and give foremost priority to saving
civilians."
However, the pro-rebel TamilNet web site reports that air strikes have continued since the announcement.
It quoted the head of the Tigers Peace Secretariat, Seevaratnam
Puleethevan, as saying that bombers had targeted civilians in
Mullivaaykkaal.
Los Angeles police officers take part in a simulation of a dirty bomb explosion
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is once again at
the top of security agenda - and not only from hostile states such as
Iran and North Korea.
President Barack Obama has turned his focus to stockpiles of
dangerous chemical and radiological materials that remain at risk from
being stolen by terror groups planning to make what is known as a dirty
bomb.
Much of it is in the former Soviet Union, but it's also being kept
in other parts of the world by countries that have nuclear power plants
or had plans to build a nuclear bomb, but abandoned them.
American intelligence agencies believe a dirty bomb strike is almost
inevitable in a major city within the next five years, and last month
the British government conceded that such an attack was highly likely
and could happen without warning at any time.
In the event that you used this one correctly you could kill all the people in an 80,000 seat stadium
Senator Richard Lugar
In his Nato speech in Prague, Mr Obama set a deadline and pledged to clear up all unsecured nuclear material within four years.
"We must ensure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon. This
is the most immediate and extreme threat to global security. One
terrorist with one nuclear weapon could unleash massive destruction,"
he said.
"We know that there is unsecured nuclear material across the globe.
To protect our people, we must act with a sense of purpose without
delay."
By Dominic Casciani
BBC News home affairs reporter
Social networks: Data recorded - but not content
Communications firms are being asked
to record all internet contacts between people as part of a
modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics.
The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services.
The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites.
Ministers say police need new tools to fight crime but opposition MPs and campaigners have raised privacy fears.
Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for
communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said
there would be no single government-run database.
Communications
data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track
murderers and paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime
Jacqui Smith
Home Secretary
But she also said that "doing nothing" in the face of a communications revolution was not an option.
The Home Office will instead ask communications companies - from
internet service providers to mobile phone networks - to extend the
range of information they currently hold on their subscribers and
organise it so that it can be better used by the police, MI5 and other
public bodies investigating crime and terrorism.
Ministers say they estimate the project will cost £2bn to set up,
which includes some compensation to the communications industry for the
work it may be asked to do.
"Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement
agencies to track murderers, paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime,"
Ms Smith said.
"Advances in communications mean that there are ever more
sophisticated ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up
with the technology being used by those who seek to do us harm.
"It is essential that the police and other crime fighting agencies
have the tools they need to do their job, However to be clear, there
are absolutely no plans for a single central store." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8020039.stm>
Gadget jargon still confuses many
Can a memory stick also be a dongle?
WAP, dongle, and cookie are some of the least understood words by the British public, according to a survey.
The Gadget Helpline surveyed more than 5,000 users and came up
with a Top 10 list of technology-related words people find most
confusing.
The firm says companies should use language people understand, rather than resorting to jargon.
The move is backed by the Plain English Campaign, saying it would help bring down the "walls of techno-babble".
Peter Griffiths, campaign secretary for the Plain
English Campaign, told the BBC that there were ways to make things easy
for users to understand.
"We need to pull our head out of the digital clouds and use plain English," he said.
"If changing the name isn't an option then a glossary of terms would
work. Not only does it explain the language, but it's a nice way of
learning for people who don't have such a good grasp of the language."
Many of the words, such as Digital TV, have entered the English language but not everyone knows what they mean.
On top of that, many firms have different names for identical products, which complicates things further.
Market forces
Alex Watson, editor of Custom PC magazine, told the BBC that
companies were under pressure to come up with new names and some of
those would eventually wind up in our lexicon.
"Some names are just made up for marketing purposes, while others are chosen so users can relate to the term.
"One way of linking peripherals to a Mac was via an interface called
FireWire. On a Sony it is called i.LINK and it's also called Lynx by
Texas Instruments, even though all three are exactly the same thing.
That hardly makes things easy for the consumer. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8017178.stm>
Faith defeats fear as Lozada goes with arresting officers
04/29/2009 | 07:09 PM
MANILA, Philippines
- He said his fear had already been defeated by faith. Thus Rodolfo
Noel “Jun" Lozada Jr. no longer dreaded arrest, 14 months after he
exposed a supposed multi-million-dollar corruption that was linked to
the Arroyo administration.
On Wednesday afternoon, April 29, the Manila police arrested Lozada,
former president of the Philippine Forest Corporation, and star witness
in the February 2008 Senate inquiry into the allegedly anomalous
$329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s Zhong
Xing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) Corp.
The arrest was in connection with the July 4, 2008 perjury charges
slapped on Lozada by former presidential chief of staff Michael
Defensor.
Last April 28, Judge Jorge Emmanuel Lorredo of Manila Metropolitan
Trial Court (MMTC) – Branch 26 signed Lozada’s arrest warrant.
Lorredo’s ruling set aside and reversed the Nov. 14, 2008 decision of
Judge Cicero D. Jurado Jr, which favored Lozada.
In the case, Lozada was accused of making false statements when he
testified under oath that Defensor paid him P50,000 to change his
statement that he was kidnapped by airport and police officers on Feb.
5, 2008 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after he arrived from
Hong Kong.
Lozada went to Hong Kong on Jan. 30, 2008, after the Senate ordered his
arrest for his failure to testify in the NBN-ZTE inquiry. Lozada said
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Environment Secretary Jose “Lito"
Atienza, and Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, who gave him
P500,000, knew about his trip. <http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6406&edition=2&ttl=20090429154159>
Solomons launches truth inquiry
The launch was attended by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Thousands of Solomon Islanders have
attended the launch of a national truth and reconciliation commission
in the capital, Honiara.
The panel will investigate the conflict between rival ethnic
militias in which more than 100 people died and 20,000 were displaced
between 1997 and 2003.
The unrest was centred on the main island of Guadalcanal.
The launch was attended by the South African Nobel laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The archbishop told a large crowd that if peace could come to South Africa, then the same could happen in the Solomon Islands.
Tribal grievances
Years of ethnic conflict took the South Pacific archipelago to the
brink of total collapse, which forced the intervention of international
peacekeepers led by Australia in 2003.
Although order has been restored, tribal tensions and other
grievances still fester and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission has
been established to foster long-term harmony.
The country was almost torn apart by the fighting between the
Isatabu Freedom Movement - which comprised indigenous residents of
Guadalcanal, and the Malaita Eagle Force, a well-armed militia from a
neighbouring province.
The rival groups fought over jobs, land rights and political power.
Tribal grievances still simmer and while many serious cases arising
from the conflict, including murder and extortion, have been handled by
the courts, other matters involving theft and sexual assault have not
been resolved.
These are the cases the new commission will hear.
The independent body is made up of three commissioners from the Solomon Islands and two from overseas.
The inquiry hopes that traditional methods of reconciliation, such
as compensation and apology, will be enough to guide the country away
from the bitterness and resentment of the past. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8024369.stm>
CAR soldiers blamed for killings
Women from Sokumba say their husbands were killed by soldiers
Troops in the Central African Republic
killed up to 30 civilians in February to deter rebels, a BBC
investigation on both sides of the border has found.
Witnesses say government soldiers killed 21 people in the
village of Sokumba, in the Ndele area, about 70km (44 miles) from the
border with Chad.
Some 18,000 refugees have crossed the border into Chad to escape the conflict, says the UN refugee agency.
The Central African Republic (CAR) army declined to respond to the allegations.
Other human rights abuses committed by both the national military and rebels have been reported in the area.
The Netanyahu government has yet to make clear how it will negotiate
Israel has told the European Union to
stop criticising Benjamin Netanyahu's government or risk being excluded
from future Middle East peace negotiations.
A foreign ministry official called EU envoys in Israel after a
commissioner in Brussels suggested freezing a move to upgrade
EU-Israeli relations.
The commissioner said Netanyahu should commit to talks with the Palestinians.
The warning comes ahead of the first European trip by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's new foreign minister.
Israeli media say the warnings have been issued by the
deputy director for European affairs at the Israeli foreign ministry,
Rafi Barak. His main target the EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner.
If these declarations continue, Europe will not be able to be part of the diplomatic process
The UK embassy in Tel Aviv has confirmed it was contacted by Mr Barak but refused to disclose details of the conversation.
"We want the European Union to be a partner but it is important to
hold a mature and discreet dialogue and not to resort to public
declarations," Rafi Barak reportedly told diplomats, according to a
report in Haaretz.
He concluded by "warning" that Europe's influence in the area would be undermined.
"Israel is asking Europe to lower the tone and conduct a discreet
dialogue," Rafi Barak is quoted saying. "However, if these declarations
continue, Europe will not be able to be part of the diplomatic process,
and both sides will lose."
Correspondents say it is far from clear whether Ms Ferrero-Waldner was expressing an official view of the
European Union
towards
Israel
.
Israeli officials have told the BBC that they requested a month-long
postponement of a ministerial-level meeting in May which discusses the
EU-Israeli Association agreement regulating bilateral ties.
The wives of the Kenyan president and PM have been asked to join in
Women's activist groups in Kenya have
slapped their partners with a week-long sex ban in protest over the
infighting plaguing the national unity government.
The Women's Development Organisation coalition said they would also pay prostitutes to join their strike.
The campaigners are asking the wives of the Kenyan president and the prime minister to join in the embargo.
They say they want to avoid a repeat of the violence which convulsed the country after the late-2007 elections.
Relations between Kenya's coalition partners, led by
President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, have become
increasingly acrimonious.
Photographer Cynthia Boll: 'There were people lying everywhere'
The driver of a car that killed six
people after crashing into crowds watching a Dutch royal parade on
Thursday has died from his injuries.
Karst Tates, a 38-year-old Dutch national, was critically
injured after his attempted attack on the Dutch royal family, and died
in hospital overnight.
His car crashed into a monument after ploughing through bystanders who were marking Queen's Day in Apeldoorn.
The car narrowly missed a bus which was carrying Queen Beatrix and her family.
In a televised address on Thursday evening, the Queen
said she had been shaken by the experience and sent her condolences to
the victims.
"What started as a nice day ended in tragedy. We are all deeply
shocked. We are speechless that such a terrible thing could have
happened," she said.
Ten people, including three children, remain injured in hospital.
'Quiet, solitary man'
On Friday morning, prosecutors announced that Mr Tates had died at
0258 (0058 GMT) from the serious injuries he sustained after crashing a
car into crowds watching the parade in Apeldoorn, some 90km (56 miles)
east of Amsterdam.
A search of the home of the suspect yielded no weapons, explosives or indications of a broader conspiracy
He was already "clinically dead" by Thursday evening, having suffered significant brain damage, Dutch media reported.
Police officers who questioned Mr Tates before he became unconscious said he had told them he had targeted the royal family.
His neighbours in the eastern town of Huissen told Radio Netherlands
that he had worked as a security guard until a few months ago, when he
was made redundant. They described him as a quiet, solitary man.
"Recently, he informed me that he had been dismissed and could no
longer pay the rent," his landlord, Sem Bosman, told De Telegraaf. "He
was due to have come today to transfer the keys to a new tenant."
Mr Tates had no criminal record or known mental health problems.
"A search of the home of the suspect yielded no weapons, explosives or indications of a broader conspiracy," prosecutors said.
Craters in the government-designated safe zone. The army completely denies shelling the area
UN satellite pictures obtained by the
BBC appear to show shelling damage in a government-designated safe zone
for civilians in north-eastern Sri Lanka.
The images show many crater marks in an area where tens of
thousands of civilians have been trapped owing to fighting between the
army and rebels.
The rebels have long accused the army of shelling the zone.
The government said there was no indication of army responsibility or when the shells had fallen.
There has been no comment so far from the rebels.
The army says it on the verge of completely defeating the Tamil
Tiger rebels, who are now cornered in the small stretch of land.
'Suicide attacks'
The BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan says that it is not clear whether
these craters are the result of recent fighting or of earlier
confrontations between the two sides. Independent journalists are not
allowed to enter the war zone.
Our correspondent says that the images will bring more international
pressure on the Sri Lankan government to address the plight of the
civilians trapped in the safe zone. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8028863.stm>
Lithium in water 'curbs suicide'
The protective effect could be the result of years of drinking this water
Drinking water which contains the element lithium may reduce the risk of suicide, a Japanese study suggests.
Researchers examined levels of lithium in drinking water and
suicide rates in the prefecture of Oita, which has a population of more
than one million.
The suicide rate was significantly lower in those areas with the
highest levels of the element, they wrote in the British Journal of
Psychiatry.
High doses of lithium are already used to treat serious mood disorders.
But the team from the universities of Oita and
Hiroshima found that even relatively low levels appeared to have a
positive impact of suicide rates.
Levels ranged from 0.7 to 59 micrograms per litre. The researchers
speculated that while these levels were low, there may be a cumulative
protective effect on the brain from years of drinking this tap water. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8025454.stm>
Fiji suspended from Pacific forum
Cmdr Frank Bainimarama has ruled out polls before 2014
South Pacific nations have suspended military-ruled Fiji from a regional bloc for its failure to hold elections.
The 16-member Pacific Islands Forum had given Fijian PM Frank Bainimarama until 1 May to set a poll date this year.
But Commodore Bainimarama - who seized power in a 2006 coup - said that elections were impossible before 2014.
Forum chair Toke Talagi said there was no place for "a regime which
displays such a total disregard for basic human rights, democracy and
freedom".
The suspension means Fiji cannot take part in bloc
events or receive development funding from the forum, said Mr Talagi,
who is also the premier of Niue.
Cmdr Bainimarama ousted elected leader Laisenia Qarase in December
2006, accusing him of corruption and discrimination against
Indo-Fijians.
He says a new constitution is needed before polls can be held and, on Friday, said that he would not be rushed into elections.
In early April a Fijian court ruled that Cmdr Bainimarama's coup was
illegal - but President Ratu Josefa Iloilo ignored the ruling and
dismissed the judges.
Media restrictions were also tightened and a number of foreign journalists expelled.
Hip hop and pop songs, magic shows, online games, opportunities
to form your own cabinet, political cartoons, e-books, candidates'
blogs, surveys and opinion polls.
A plethora of websites has sprung up to grab the attention of potential voters in India.
The Indian election has seen hugely increased online activity, not
just from the contesting political parties, but also from voters and
corporate groups.
The trigger for many was the Mumbai attacks of last November, which had a massive impact on urban India.
On the one hand, it drove citizens like former banker Meera Sanyal
to contest elections; on the other it sparked many citizens into
starting online forums to urge people to vote.
Corporate groups put out "edutainment" websites - to educate and entertain - mostly targeting the youth vote.
Soon after the attacks, online groups like the Black Badge movement
were started to protest against the failure of intelligence and
security services.
"We started as a reaction to the terror attack on Mumbai. It was more like a protest," says founder Somshekhar Sundaresan.
"We demanded concrete steps to prevent any such attacks and
protested against the completely unprepared systems. We wanted to get a
fair deal for the city." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8020522.stm>
Did the cyclone change Burma's junta?
More than 2.4m people in the Irrawaddy Delta were affected by the cyclone
By Kate McGeown
BBC News
When Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma's delta region this time
last year, it left 140,000 people dead and two million others without
food, shelter or a way to earn a living.
But perhaps the most shocking aspect of the disaster was the
military government's indifference to the suffering of its own people.
The ruling generals said Burma did not need "chocolate bars donated
by foreign countries", and refused to allow aid into the region for
nearly three weeks.
The international community was appalled, and eventually - after
intense diplomatic lobbying - Burmese leaders were persuaded to accept
foreign assistance.
A full-scale aid operation got under way, and the world heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Burma's military generals are wary of any outside influence
A year later this aid operation is still in full swing, and while
lots of people remain dependant on outside help, most have now been
given some form of assistance.
The government has not spent much of its own money on the relief
effort, but at least it has mainly left the aid agencies to their own
devices, enabling them to distribute supplies throughout the region.
"We've not faced any significant restrictions in the delta for the
past 11 months," says Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's director in
Burma.
"Our main obstacles haven't come from the government, they've been
about logistics rather than politics; the only way we can reach people
is by boat." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8029611.stm>
Swat residents 'flee their homes'
Reports from Mingora say hundreds of people are fleeing the fighting
Residents of Pakistan's Swat Valley
are reported to be fleeing their homes despite authorities rescinding
an earlier order for them to leave.
A peace deal between the government and Taleban militants in the
region appears close to collapse after the army said militants attacked
police checkpoints.
There has also been heavy fighting to the west and east of Swat.
A major army operation against the Taleban appears likely within a few days, says the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan.
Our Islamabad correspondent says the army seems in an
uncompromising mood, with the renewed violence apparently the death
knell for the peace deal, which has held since February.
In other violence, a suicide bomber killed four security personnel near Peshawar, North West Frontier Province.
Police said the attacker rammed an explosive-laden car into a military vehicle.
It is not yet known who is behind the attack, but Taleban militants are known to be active in the province.
Patrols
Pakistani Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the
government was preparing six camps to cater for up to 500,000 people
fleeing fighting in the region, AP news agency reported.
The town of Dargai, near the Swat border, is reported to be where at least one camp is being built.
Armed Taleban fighters have been openly patrolling, the army says
A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, told the BBC
the Taleban had violated all the norms of the peace deal in Swat
Valley.
He said the Taleban had sent out armed patrols and had gone into the neighbouring Dir and Buner districts.
The army says militants attacked checkpoints and bases in four
different locations in Swat, and that armed militants are openly
patrolling the streets of the district's main city Mingora.
A witness in Mingora told AP that black-turbaned militants were
deployed on most streets and on high buildings, and that security
forces were barricaded in their bases.
Khushal Khan, district co-ordination officer in Swat, told the BBC
that residents of areas around Mingora had been told to evacuate
because there was a fear that the Taleban could use heavy weapons to
attack security forces.
Georgian government: 'There is a strong link to the Russian Special Services'
A mutiny at a military base near Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is over, the Georgian interior minister says.
Vano Merabishvili said the commander of the Mukhrovani base
where a tank battalion mutinied had been arrested and others were being
questioned.
Tbilisi said earlier it was part of a Russia-linked coup attempt to kill President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Russia's envoy to Nato described the charges as "mad". The trouble comes a day before Nato exercises in Georgia.
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has condemned Nato
for planning military exercises in a country "where there was just a
war".
Georgia and Russia have poisonous relations, and fought a war over Georgia's breakaway territory of South Ossetia last August.
In a separate development, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said he would not attend a planned meeting of the Nato-Russia Council
later this month following the alliance's expulsion of two Russian
diplomats last week.
They were expelled reportedly in retaliation for a spy scandal involving an Estonian official.
Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed regret at Mr Lavrov's decision.
Saakashvili's address
In a statement, the Georgian interior ministry said that the
attempted mutiny at the Mukhrovani base, some 30km (20 miles) from
Tbilisi, had failed and the situation had been brought under control.
The statement came after negotiations between government officials and troops at the base.
It's over - most of the people have surrendered... There was no violence
Shota Utiashvili
Interior Ministry spokesman
"It's over. Most of the people have surrendered, including the
commander of the battalion. A few people have escaped," spokesman Shota
Utiashvili told the AFP news agency.
"There was no violence," he said.
At the entrance to Mukhrovani, bus loads of soldiers and other
official military vehicles were seen leaving, the BBC's Tom Esslemont
reports from just outside the base.
Our correspondent says that Mr Saakashvili also left the base
shortly after the alleged mutiny ended, though an interior ministry
spokesman denied that the president had taken part in the negotiations
to end the mutiny.
In a televised address later on Tuesday, Mr Saakashvili described
the mutiny as a "serious threat", but added that it was an isolated
incident.
"The plan was to stage a large-scale mutiny in Tbilisi and to take
steps against the sovereignty of Georgia and the Georgian government's
European and Euro-Atlantic integration."
Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website
The
best hope for an improvement in Nato-Russia ties lies in talks between
Washington and Moscow about nuclear weapons. The two sides have set
themselves a deadline of December to reach an agreement.
If they do agree that will be an up. But equally there will be downs in future as well.
The
basic relationship has not been worked out. There is suspicion among
Nato members about the authoritarian nature of the Russian government
and its determination to exercise influence over its near neighbours.
And
there is suspicion in Moscow that Nato would like Russia to return to
the chaotic days of the 1990s, when Russia was passive and compliant.
Mr Saakashvili also demanded that Russia "refrain from provocations".
It is still not clear how many officers may have been involved in the events at Mukhrovani.
The mutiny erupted on Tuesday morning, when soldiers began disobeying orders, Georgian officials said.
The soldiers were aiming at "disrupting Nato exercises and
overturning the authorities militarily", Georgian Defence Minister
David Sikharulidze told Georgian television.
The rebellion began as the government announced it had disrupted a coup plot.
The interior ministry told the BBC that the plotters wanted to destabilise Georgia and assassinate President Saakashvili.
Mr Utiashvili said one of the suspected coup leaders - former
special forces commander Georgy Gvaladze - was arrested. But the
alleged co-plotter - former chief of special forces Koba Otanadze - was
still at large.
The spokesman said the government had been aware of the plot for two months.
The rebellion appeared to be "co-ordinated with Russia", the interior ministry said.
'Distracting attention'
But Dmitry Rogozin, Moscow's ambassador at military alliance, said
the mutiny in Georgia was the result of "crazy politics of President
Saakashvili".
In a separate development, opposition protests are continuing in Tbilisi.
The demonstrators say they plan to block three main roads into the capital later on Tuesday.
Opposition parties say the alleged mutiny was a deliberate attempt
by the government to distract attention from a new phase of
anti-government protests. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8033366.stm>
US presses Israel over two states
Mr Biden also said Palestinian militants must end violent attacks against Israel
US Vice-President Joe Biden has said Israel must back a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.
Mr Biden also called for an end to Jewish settlement-building - one of the Palestinians' key demands.
Israel's recently-elected right-wing government has so far resisted calls to publicly support Palestinian statehood.
Mr Biden's remarks came hours before Israeli President Shimon Peres
and US President Barack Obama were due to hold talks in the US capital.
Van Gogh famously painted a self-portrait with his ear bandaged
Vincent van Gogh did not cut off his
own ear but lost it in a fight with fellow artist Paul Gauguin in a row
outside a brothel, it has been claimed.
It has long been accepted that the mentally ill Dutch painter
cut off his own ear with a razor after the row in Arles, southern
France, in 1888.
But a new book, based on the original police investigation, claims Gauguin swiped Van Gogh's ear with a sword.
The authors argue the official version of events contains inconsistencies.
Witness statements
The book, titled In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of
Silence, is the product of 10 years of research by German academics
Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans.
They looked at witness accounts and letters sent by the two artists,
concluding that the row ended with Gauguin - a keen fencer - cutting
his friend's ear off.
Van Gogh then apparently wrapped it in cloth and handed it to a prostitute, called Rachel.
Mr Kaufmann said it was not clear whether it was an accident or a
deliberate attempt to injure Van Gogh, but afterwards both men agreed
to tell the police the self-harm story to protect Gauguin.
He said the traditional version of events is based on contradictory
and improbable evidence, and no independent witness statement exists.
"Gauguin was not present at the supposed self-mutilation," he told Le Figaro newspaper in France.
"As for Van Gogh, he didn't confirm anything. Their behaviour
afterwards and various suggestions by the protagonists indicate they
were hiding the truth."
Richard Holbrooke: US and Pakistan "have the same common enemy"
Washington's special representative
for Pakistan and Afghanistan has said the US must put more pressure on
Islamabad to counter the Taleban.
Richard Holbrooke said the US could not succeed in the Afghan conflict against the Taleban without Pakistan's support.
He was speaking on the eve of a meeting between US President Barack Obama and the leaders of the two countries.
The meeting comes as a peace deal with the Pakistani Taleban appears close to collapse and amid new Afghan violence.
"We need to put the most heavy possible pressure on our
friends in Pakistan to join us in the fight against the Taleban and its
allies," Mr Holbrooke told a congressional hearing in Washington.
Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al-Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders
He said America's most vital national security interests were at
stake in the region and that the US "cannot succeed in Afghanistan
without Pakistan's support and involvement".
Mr Holbrooke cautioned against describing Pakistan as a failed state
and reconfirmed US support for President Asif Ali Zardari, saying
Washington's goal "must be unambiguously to support and help stabilise
a democratic Pakistan headed by its elected president".
But he said Pakistan had to "demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al-Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders".
The US believes that Taleban fighters are able to seek sanctuary in
Pakistan's border regions in order to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
Mr Zardari insisted the Taleban would not cause his government to collapse.
"They're not threats to my government. They are threats to my security," Mr Zardari told CNN.
"My government is not going to fall when one mountain is taken by one group or the other."
Speaking at the Brookings Institute think tank in Washington DC, Mr
Karzai said his country could never be stable or peaceful unless
alleged Taleban sanctuaries and training grounds in Pakistan were
removed.
He said Afghanistan would use the talks to do "all that it can in
immense friendship and brotherhood with Pakistan and alliance and
friendship with America" to address the issue. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8035020.stm>
US 'hate list' DJ to sue Britain
Mr Weiner's views have caused great offence in the US
A US radio talk show host says he will
sue the British government for defamation after being placed on a list
of people banned from entering the UK.
Conservative political commentator Michael Savage, real name
Michael Alan Weiner, is one of 22 people barred for fostering extremism
or hate.
He has described the Islamic holy book the Koran as "a book of hate" and questioned cases of autism.
Mr Weiner said he opposed violence and objected to being linked to murderers.
He told his radio audience that he was intending to sue
British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who he described as the "lunatic
... Home Secretary of England".
"To link me up with skin heads who are killing people in Russia, to
put me in league with Hamas murderers who kill people on buses is
defamation," he said.
In an article posted on his website, he said he did not advocate violence but "traditional values".
He wrote: "What does that say about the government of England? It says more about them than it says about me."
Public list
Mr Weiner has offended many in the US with his views on immigration, Islam and rape.
He also angered the parents of children with autism by saying most
cases were "a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out", the
Associated Press reported.
The UK has been able to ban people who promote hatred, terrorist
violence or serious criminal activity since 2005, but the list was only
made public for the first time this week.
Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal and Jewish extremist Mike Guzovsky are among the 16 named people by the Home Office as being excluded.
Also excluded are two leaders of a violent Russian skinhead gang,
the ex-Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Stephen 'Don' Black and neo-Nazi Erich
Gliebe.
Scientists have identified a genetic
mechanism which appears to determine which fatty deposits in the
arteries have the potential to kill us.
Most of these plaques pose no risk to health, but a minority
burst, forming blood clots, which can cause heart attacks or strokes.
A Columbia University team pinpointed a gene which seems to make plaques more vulnerable to rupture.
The American study appears in the journal Cell Metabolism.
This
is a very interesting biological study to identify why some plaques
that cause coronary artery disease may lead to a heart attack and
others do not
Alasdair Little
British Heart Foundation
Fatty deposits begin to form in the arteries of most people in their teens, but the vast majority are harmless.
However, it is thought that around 2% of plaques have the potential to burst.
This can lead to the development of a clot, which can restrict blood
supply to the heart or brain, with potentially grave consequences.
The inquiry says Israel's use of white phosphorous was reckless in Gaza
A United Nations inquiry into attacks
by Israeli forces on UN property during the Gaza conflict four months
ago has heavily criticised Israel's army.
It found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death
or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN
buildings were damaged.
In one case, Palestinian militants were found to have fired at a UN warehouse.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, rejected the report, saying it was biased.
"We have the most moral army in the world," he said.
"IDF [Israeli Defense Force] commanders and soldiers made every effort to avoid hurting uninvolved civilians."
Ban Ki-moon calls for progress in peace negotiations
He accused Hamas of hiding its fighters among civilians and in the vicinity of UN installations.
The UN report says the Israeli military took "inadequate"
precautions to protect UN premises and civilians inside and recommends
further investigation into possible war crimes.
One of the incidents highlighted in the document is the firing of
artillery shells near a UN-run school in Jabalia where Palestinians
were sheltering on 6 January.
The panel says more than 40 people died outside the school - Israel
says only 12 were killed, and seven of them were "terror operatives".
The board of inquiry also criticises Israel's use of white
phosphorus shells which the UN says caused the incineration of the UN's
main food warehouse in Gaza. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8034565.stm>
US needs 'digital warfare force'
The US has set up specialised detachments dealing with IT problems
The head of America's National
Security Agency says that America needs to build a digital warfare
force for the future, according to reports.
Lt Gen Keith Alexander, who also heads the Pentagon's new Cyber
Command, outlined his views in a report for the House Armed Services
subcommittee.
In it, he stated that the US needed to reorganise its offensive and defensive cyber operations.
The general also said more resources and training were needed.
The report, part of which was outlined in an Associated
Press news agency story, is due to be presented to the subcommittee on
Tuesday.
During the past six months, the Pentagon spent more than £67m
($100m) responding to and repairing damage from cyber attacks and other
network problems.
Gen Keith Alexander's new department, to be based in Fort Meade in
Maryland, will be part of the US Strategic Command - currently
responsible for securing the US military's networks - and will work
alongside the US Department of Homeland Security.
It is thought the new department would open in October and be at full strength in 2010.
Self defence
A separate document, from the US Air Force's chief information
officer Lt Gen William Shelton, said the US relies heavily on industry
efforts to respond to cyber threats which, he says, "does not keep pace
with the threat".
The proposed digital warfare force would be based in Maryland
Peter Wood, operations chief with First Base Technologies and an
expert in cyber-warfare, said that the US were entirely within their
rights to protect themselves.
"My own view is that the only way to counteract both criminal and
espionage activity online is to be proactive. If the US is taking a
formal approach to this, then that has to be a good thing.
"The Chinese are viewed as the source of a great many attacks on
western infrastructure and, just recently, the US national grid. If
that is determined to be an organised attack, I would want to go and
take down the source of those attacks," he said.
"The only problem is that the internet - by its very nature - has no
borders and if the US takes on the mantle of the world's police; that
might not go down so well."
The submissions to the House Armed Services subcommittee comes a few
days after the National Research Council - part of the United States
National Academy of Sciences - said that current US policies on cyber
warfare are "ill-formed, lack adequate oversight and require a broad
public debate".
The report went on to say that the "undeveloped and uncertain
nature" of the US governments cyber warfare policies could lead to them
being misused in a possible crisis.
Manchester will be the first city where people can voluntarily sign up for an ID card, ministers are set to confirm.
Anyone over 16 in the city who holds a UK passport will be able to apply for a card from the autumn at a cost of £60.
People will be able to enrol in post offices and pharmacies, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is expected to say.
Opposition parties have called for the £5bn scheme to be scrapped
while some Labour MPs have expressed their doubts about its cost in the
current climate.
With the government facing a major squeeze on public
spending in the next few years, some believe the scheme should be
ditched to save money.
Earlier this month, former home secretary David Blunkett said ID cards should be abandoned in favour of biometric passports.
Giving fingerprints
The Home Office has brushed aside these calls, arguing that ID cards
will reduce fraud - thus saving money - and are vital to combating
terrorism and organised crime.
The Manchester launch will mark the beginning of the main phase of
the ID scheme which ministers say will culminate in cards being
available nationwide by 2012.
ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
At a series of meetings on Wednesday, Ms Smith will say post offices
and pharmacies can play an important role in the success of the ID
scheme, allowing people to give their fingerprints and a face scan
while "out doing the shopping".
Each card will cost £30 with a further £30 charge for collecting the data.
"ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including
increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and
terrorists," the home secretary will say.
Government officials will seek to allay people's concerns about the
amount of personal data to be collected and retained for the new cards,
saying it will be no greater than for passports.
"I think it is important to recognise that we're not collecting some
massive accumulation of information about citizens," said James Hall,
chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service.
They should abandon this farce and scrap the whole scheme
Chris Grayling, shadow home secretary
Critics of ID cards argue they are costly and unnecessary and say
the bleak state of the public finances make it even more imperative the
scheme is scaled back.
The Conservatives said the idea of trialling the scheme in one city was "nonsensical".
"The government is split down the middle on ID cards but it looks as
if Jacqui Smith is carrying on regardless," said the shadow home
secretary Chris Grayling.
A group of lenders unhappy with the
reconstruction of Chrysler - in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - has
asked a New York court to halt the process.
The US government is backing a plan to sell most Chrysler assets to a new entity led by Italian carmaker Fiat.
But a group of 20 lenders, including hedge funds, want the deal blocked.
Lawyers representing the group, who have also asked for their
identities to be kept secret, said the plan would go against normal
bankruptcy principles.
Chrysler has asked for permission for a quick sale of
most of its assets to a new company held by Italy's Fiat , a United
Auto Workers union healthcare trust and the US and Canadian
governments. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8034395.stm>
How spicy foods can kill cancers
Capsaicin in some peppers, attacks cancer cells' mitochondria
Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.
They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers,
triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria - the cells'
energy-generating boiler rooms.
The research raises the possibility that other cancer drugs could be developed to target mitochondria.
The Nottingham University study features in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
The study showed that the family of molecules to which
capsaicin belongs, the vanilloids, bind to proteins in the cancer cell
mitochondria to trigger apoptosis, or cell death, without harming
surrounding healthy cells.
We believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all cancers
Dr Timothy Bates
Capsaicin was tested on cultures of human lung cancer cells and on pancreatic cancers.
Lead researcher Dr Timothy Bates said: "As these
compounds attack the very heart of the tumour cells, we believe that we
have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all
cancers.
"The biochemistry of the mitochondria in cancer cells is very different from that in normal cells.
"This is an innate selective vulnerability of cancer cells."
Mr Karzai is in the US for talks with President Barack Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
Civilian deaths will be high on the agenda at the White House for Mr
Karzai, who has repeatedly urged Western forces in Afghanistan to
reduce the number of civilian casualties.
The BBC's Martin Patience, in Kabul, says the Washington talks could
be overshadowed if the Red Cross report of dozens of civilian deaths is
confirmed.
Separately, US defence secretary Robert Gates arrived in Kabul on an
unannounced visit. An AFP news agency correspondent travelling with him
says he will focus on preparations for the scheduled influx of tens of
thousands more US troops. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8035204.stm>
Swat exodus as ceasefire crumbles
Civilians are desperate to escape the fighting in Swat
Thousands of civilians are reported to
be fleeing their homes in Pakistan's Swat valley where a peace deal
with the Taleban looks increasingly fragile.
Officials say that more than 40,000 people have so far fled from clashes between the army and militants in Swat.
Fighting broke out on Tuesday night in Mingora, the main town in
Swat, where the Taleban occupied key buildings and defied a curfew,
officials say.
At least nine people have been killed in the latest Swat fighting, they say.
Bedraggled men, women in burkas and children are all
now fleeing the area to sat in camps set up by the government with UN
help.
The army says that at least two soldiers died in fighting on Wednesday and accused militants of robbing three banks in Mingora.
It says that the Taleban have also planted roadside bombs in various
areas of Swat to inflict maximum damage on the security forces.
A curfew remains in place in Mingora
Army helicopter gunships have pounded emerald mines in the Shahdara
area, near Mingora, which are being operated by the militants.
The army claims to have killed several militants in this attack, but there is no independent confirmation of their claims.
Local people and journalists say five civilians who lived in a
settlement near the mine also died in the attack, while many others
were injured in a separate air strike.
While civilians strive to flee Mingora and its adjoining areas, some are reported to be trapped by the fighting and the curfew.
Three members of a single family were killed when a mortar fell on
their home in Mingora's Bacha Saib locality during one of these
battles, officials say.
We can't accept Islamic law at gunpoint
