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Yuan debate overcomes Boao boredom factor

2010-04-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

China's President Hu Jintao travels to Washington this week to attend the nuclear summit.

On the southern Chinese island of Hainan, where 2,000 business leaders, senior politicians and academics have been meeting, the consensus was that his decision to go showed the relationship between the two nations is on the mend after a difficult few months.

The Boao Forum for Asia, an annual event, can feel a little sterile.

But it attracts big names. Former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson was here. Xi Jingping, the man touted as China's next leader gave the keynote address.

However, there is little of the cut and thrust of debate you might find at similar events in other countries and much of the discussion takes place away from the eyes of the media.

The conference organisers make no apologies for this.

'Bit boring'

Asians are more cautious, more conservative than those in the West they argue, and in China, the company chief executives and senior politicians are only going to speak freely if they know they're not going to be quoted.

At the gala dinner, the tables set out on a golf course as pristine as any, one delegate from overseas admitted that some of it had been "a bit boring".

The real value of Boao though was, he said, the access you got to important Chinese and Asian figures in business and politics as they relax here in the bars, over lunch or on the links.

And certainly outside the halls and meeting rooms where the formal events were taking place the delegates, both Chinese and international, were more forthcoming.

The question of whether Beijing should abandon its currency's de facto dollar peg was getting a lot attention.

"There's no perfect time for this," said Chen Zhiwu, professor of finance at Yale School of Management. "But I predict within one to two weeks something will be announced."

GDP figures

China's economy has recovered faster, and more strongly than almost any other.

First quarter GDP figures due out this week are expected to show growth of more than 11% year on year.

Washington has told Beijing repeatedly that with growth like that the time has come to allow its currency to start appreciating again.

The yuan rose in value by 21% over three years to mid-2008, but the process was halted when the financial crisis hit.

Professor Chen says a debate between different ministries in Beijing, with the commerce ministry pushing for the 'peg' to be kept to help exporters, while the central bank and others argue for a gradual appreciation, has held up the decision.

But that debate within government is now over he believes.

"The Chinese media have been changing their tone, and that implicitly tells us the official policy is going to switch," he said.

He was booked to discuss the issue on the state controlled TV network CCTV he explains, but then a few days ago the subject was changed.

"Usually given how things are done in China that means the propaganda department wanted to put a stop to it. There's less room for discussion because the government has decided, so they don't want different opinions to be aired in the official media."

'Polite'

Chi Schive, the chairman of Taiwan's stock exchange had another explanation for the time it's taken to see a move from China on this issue.

"There is a difference between Eastern and Western culture," he said. "Over there [in the West] if you are not doing the right thing people just tell you you're wrong."

"In Chinese culture, we prefer to try to be polite to everyone. So it took time for the United States to realise how to deal with this, to play it down, to say 'I'm not pushing you, I'm wishing you to change your policy'."

Most here agreed that politicising the issue had been a mistake.

'Improved' relations

The most senior member of the Obama administration to turn up for the Forum was Robert Hormatz, an Under Secretary of State.

He refused to be drawn on the specifics of the currency debate, but did insist that the bilateral relationship had "improved significantly" over the last few weeks.

This was due to the fact that both sides had recognised that "frictions were developing that we couldn't afford to have," he said.

With several meetings scheduled between the two country's presidents over the next few weeks at different global summits "this was a moment to get control of these issues, address them and make sure they don't get out of hand".

'Value chain'

The economic arguments for appreciation appeared to have been accepted by many of the Chinese delegates here.

Zhang Xin, a real estate tycoon said she believed a flexible Chinese currency "was in the interests of the country".

"Putting aside the politics of the US and China, the appreciation of the yuan will ultimately help the Chinese economy grow into a higher 'value added' economy, no longer just competing by cutting prices but moving up the 'value chain'," she said.

But she had a warning for those politicians in the United States and others who have been pressing China on this issue - be careful what you wish for.

"Say their wish is granted. The currency is significantly stronger. Then you will face a much richer Chinese people, a much stronger China. Is that in the interests of the United States?"

Are cracks emerging in Thailand's military?

2010-04-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

When a prime minister needs to hold a special TV broadcast to assure watchers that his government is united and in control, it is often the opposite message that is conveyed.

Far from celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year, Thailand's top generals and politicians are locked in dissension - trying to explain the failure and high cost of Saturday's crackdown on the red-shirted opposition, and trying to work out what should happen next.

The relatively dove-like commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Anupong Paojinda, seemed in no doubt.

"The best solution of this is to dissolve the House. I don't want to intervene in politics but I guess the end will be a House dissolution.

"Political problems must be solved by political means. House dissolution is a solution but that must be done after a clear time-frame is set."

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, by contrast, insisted his government, the army, the police and his coalition partners were united and doing "good co-operative work".

He said his government was investigating the causes of the killings on Saturday night - the latest toll is 21 dead and almost 900 people injured.

He also put forward the idea that among the peaceful demonstrations was a hard core of "terrorists" who had to be distinguished from the "innocents".

'Badly planned'

That idea - of a mysterious "third hand" - usually accuses a wayward major general of provoking violence through unexplained grenade tossings or shootings.

Certainly various military figures - and soldiers interviewed as they recovered in hospital - say they were unprepared for an armed force among the protesters.

The military analyst, Wassana Nanuam, writing in the Bangkok Post, quoted unnamed colonels as saying the crackdown had been badly planned, badly timed and put tired soldiers at the mercy of protesters.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he had issued orders for soldiers to be equipped only with shields, batons and tear gas.

"They were unarmed, so some of them were killed," he said.

This conflicts with reports from a BBC correspondent on the scene who saw soldiers carrying and shooting high velocity guns.

Behind the propaganda war lies the larger issue of the military's distress about where it now finds itself.

"There are some divisions in the armed forces," said Prof Surachart Bumrungsuk, a military and politics expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"Some units don't want to be involved in such a crackdown, others wanted it to be more assertive.

"It is no secret that General Prayuth Chan-ocha would have liked a harder crackdown," he said.

Gen Prayuth is the deputy armed forces commander and supposedly in line to take the top army job after Gen Anupong's retirement in September.

That transition could be derailed if a military-friendly government is no longer in place to oversee it.

"Gen Anupong has kept a relatively low profile since the 2006 coup and steered clear of the crackdown by his subordinates against the pro-reds governments in 2008," notes Prof Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.

"In April 2009 during the reds' uprising, he was nominally in charge but Gen Prayuth appeared effectively in command of dispersing the red protesters.

"Gen Anupong's conciliatory words this time are thus unsurprising. He understandably wants a soft landing after his mandatory retirement on 30 September," he said.

By contrast, Gen Prayuth and the "tiger soldiers", otherwise known as the "eastern tigers" - the 2nd, 12th and the 21st infantry divisions - are seen as more hardline.

"Dissension in the army stems from resentment against these privileged soldiers whose career mobility is more promising. It would be unsurprising if other army units would oppose Gen Prayuth's hard-line approach," believes Prof Thitinan.

There is also a new concern within the military, not of division at the top but of a divorce between the top brass and the ordinary soldiers.

"The fear on Friday was that they might lose control of the rank and file. That was new, and very, very frightening [and contributed to] the stupid, chaotic blood-letting on Saturday," says political analyst Chris Baker.

Limited options

Where this leaves Mr Abhisit remains the question as Thailand heads into Songkran, normally a week of water-throwing street parties.

Many analysts believe he is running out of options.

"If he persists in his smug defiance, more violence and mayhem can be expected," said Prof Thitinan.

"His best bet is to set up an expeditious election timetable and bow out, perhaps followed by a sojourn abroad for rehabilitation."

Certainly the deep divisions in Thai society - the military included - are not going away.

"Saturday night made it clear that there are elements within the military providing the opposition with tactical information and that on the other side of the divide there are elements with good military training and equipment," says Anthony Davis, an analyst with Janes Defence Weekly.

'World needs a barometer of life'

2010-04-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

The world needs a "barometer of life" to prevent ecosystems and species being lost forever, scientists have warned.

Existing schemes, they said, did not include enough species from groups such as fungi and invertebrates to provide a detailed picture of what is at risk.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said the barometer would increase the number of species being assessed from almost 48,000 to 160,000.

The data would help identify areas in need of urgent action, they added.

The article was penned by four leading figures in conservation, including Harvard University's Edward O Wilson and Simon Stuart, chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC).

"Knowledge about species and extinction rates remains very poor, and species disappear before we know they existed," they wrote.

To date, about 1.9m species have been described and given scientific names, but the actual number may exceed 10m.

"As scientists are better able to assess the conservation status of the species that compose an ecosystem, the more they will understand the health of that ecosystem," they continued.

"It is time to accelerate taxanomy and scientific natural history, two of the most vital but neglected disciplines of biology."

Broader coverage

Currently, the most authoritative data on the status of at-risk species is the IUCN Red List, which has been assessing the conservation status of species around the globe for more than 40 years.

Dr Stuart, who oversees the compilation of the Red List, said it provided a good insight to the health of certain ecosystems, such as forests.

"But it is very weak in its coverage of freshwater, marine and arid land species," he told BBC News.

"There are a lot of additional species that we have to bring into the Red List."

At the moment, it evaluates almost 48,000 species, but it is acknowledged that there is a bias towards higher vertebrates, which include mammals, birds and reptiles.

"The barometer would broaden the reach of the Red List to make it representative of all life, that's what it's all about," Dr Stuart explained.

The authors hope that broadening the taxanomic base of the Red List and increasing the database to 160,000 species would deliver practical benefits.

"A representative barometer would provide a solid basis for informing decisions globally," the authors suggested.

"For example, on conservation planning, resource allocation, environmental impact assessments, monitoring biodiversity trends... and enabling countries to develop national-level biodiversity indicators."

'Not acceptable'

The authors, all of whom are leading figures in their field, decided to join forces in order to voice their concerns that the rate of progress was too slow.

"The amount that we are investing at the moment in the Red List to broaden its coverage means that it would take about 20 years to get there," Dr Stuart observed.

"At a time when everything on the planet is deteriorating, having to wait 20 years before we can measure everything properly is not acceptable."

However, the scientists acknowledge that a three-fold increase in the number of species regularly monitored by a global network of biologists would come at a price - an estimated US $60m (£39m).

But they argued: "The barometer would, from an economic perspective, be one of the best investments for the good of humanity."

Rio Tinto joins BHP and Vale to end annual ore pricing

2010-04-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

Rio Tinto has followed rival mining firms and says it is negotiating new iron ore supply contracts priced for three months rather than a year.

The move ends years of tradition and is seen as a demonstration of the power the miners have over their customers.

Demand is at record levels, especially from China, whose appetite for ore and other commodities continues to grow.

Last month, BHP Billiton and Vale agreed quarterly contracts with some Asian steel mills.

Japan and South Korea seem to have accepted the change, but China's position is less certain.

China has been strongly opposed to a move to shorter-term pricing, which exposes it to price rises over the year.

However, Brian Redican, chief economist at Macquarie bank in Australia, said: "The shortage of iron ore means if the Chinese won't sign up to fixed prices at the quarterly rate they will be forced to buy it on the open market where prices are about 15%-20% higher.

"It would be cutting off its nose to spite its face."

The old yearly pricing system caused huge friction. When the spot - open market - price fell significantly below the annual price, customers complained, and when it rose above the set price, it was the miners that were unhappy.

The most recently struck contracts are, on average, priced 100% higher than last year's prices.

Last month, four Rio Tinto executives were jailed after being found guilty of bribery and stealing secrets by a Chinese court.

One of the four - Australian national Stern Hu - had been Rio Tinto's lead negotiator in talks with Chinese steel mills to try to settle a price for China to buy iron ore from Australian mining companies.

Pret a Manger plans more shop openings as sales rise

2010-04-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

Sandwich and salads chain Pret a Manger has reported rising sales and said it plans to open a record number of new outlets this year.

Its comments came as it reported a 12% rise in overall sales for 2009. When sales from new stores were excluded, like-for-like sales increased 2.6%.

Pret opened 16 new shops last year, including its first in Washington DC.

It said it would take advantage of "favourable property markets" to open a record number of new stores this year.

Its international trade is growing in importance, with 23 outlets currently in New York.

In total, Pret a Manger has 232 shops, the majority in the south of England.

It describes its heartland as London, where it did particularly well towards the end of last year.

Pret markets itself as an healthier, more ethically-sourced alternative to other fast-food outlets.

Its best-selling sandwich is the super Club, with two million of these sold in 2009.

The company said it has had an encouraging start to the year, but said it would keep a cautious view of the global economic environment.

Its owner, Bridgepoint, has a wide range of businesses. including clothing retailer Fat Face and Leeds Bradford International Airport.

Dorset's fierce political battleground

2010-04-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

The land of Thomas Hardy is blessed with a wonderful climate and beautiful countryside.

Two good reasons so many people like to move there to retire.

But Dorset is about a lot more than pensioners and agriculture - it is a land of fierce battles and surprises.

Dorset South - home to the Bovington Tank Museum - has been the scene of some ferocious contests.

The seat is currently held by the Labour MP, and cabinet minister, Jim Knight.

Through the Thatcher years it was a Tory stronghold but the election of 1997 put the constituency on a knife-edge. Labour finally tipped it over with a majority of just 153 in 2001.

Doctored literature

At the next election, Conservative hopes of winning it back drained away when their candidate was pilloried for doctored election literature.

But this time they are back with a vengeance with candidate Richard Drax and Labour will have to fight hard to hang on.

Of the eight MPs elected in the county six are Conservatives.

North Dorset is a rural constituency, centred on the county town, Shaftesbury.

There's a tradition of Liberal Democrat challenge, this time from Emily Gasson, but Robert Walter has held back the tide with a majority of about 3,000 for the last three elections.

In West Dorset, leading Conservative Oliver Letwin has also had to campaign hard to beat the Lib Dems and his majority of 2,461 means he is still a target and Lib Dem candidate Susan Farrant could come through.

The Lib Dems did manage to break through in Mid Dorset and North Poole in 2001.

MP Annette Brooke increased her majority from 681 to 5,482 votes at the last election - against the general trend - but with a new Conservative contender, Nick King, this will be another to watch.

The Dorset motto is "Who's a'feard?". With these small majorities, you would think all of the local politicians are.

Control of local authorities has swung backwards and forwards but they have been united in crying foul over their grant settlement from local government.

Employment has remained above average and land values in places like Sandbanks are equivalent to Mayfair in London.

But the consequence of this is that public services find they receive relatively less support from central government.

As the lowest funded authority in the country per head of population, how to get more from social services, education and roads are all live issues in Dorset.

Bournemouth and Poole is one of the largest urban areas in the South West.

Control of the two unitary authorities has swung from Lib Dem to Conservative in recent years, but of the three Conservative-held parliamentary seats Bournemouth West, where MP John Butterfill is stepping down, sees the greatest Labour vote.

Finally, Christchurch. Apart from the distinction of having the greatest number of voting pensioners in the country, the volatility of the region is shown by the astonishing by-election swing of 35% achieved by Lib Dem Diana Maddock in 1993.

However, it did not last and Conservative Christopher Chope now sits on a majority of 15,500.

More evidence of the changeable nature of Dorset politics.

The candidates standing for election so far in Bournemouth East are: Tobias Ellwood (Con), David Stokes (Lab), Lisa Northover (Lib Dem) David Hughes (UKIP), David Shaw (Independent).

The candidates standing for election so far in Bournemouth West are: Conor Burns (Con), Sharon Carr-Brown (Lab), Alasdair Murray (Lib Dem), Phillip Glover (UKIP), Harvey Taylor (Independent).

The candidates standing for election so far in Christchurch are: Christopher Chope (Con), Robert Deeks (Labour), Martyn Hurll (Lib Dem).

The candidates standing for election so far in Mid Dorset and North Poole are: Annette Brooke (Lib Dem), Nick King (Con), Darren Brown (Labour), Dave Evans (UKIP).

The candidates standing for election so far in North Dorset are: Robert Walter (Con), Mike Bunney (Labour), Emily Gasson (Lib Dem), Anna Hayball (Green), Jeremy Nieboer (UKIP).

The candidates standing for election so far in Poole are: Robert Syms (Con), Philip Eades (Lib Dem), Jason Sanderson (Lab), David Williams (UKIP).

The candidates standing for election so far in South Dorset are: Jim Knight (Lab), Richard Drax (Con), Rosamond Kayes (Lib Dem), Brian Heatley (Green).

The candidates standing for election so far in West Dorset are: Oliver Letwin (Con), Susan Farrant (Lib Dem), Steve Bick (Lab), J. Susan Greene (Green).

Conservatives outline £12bn public sector savings plan

2010-04-09T05:37:00.000-07:00

The Tories have outlined for the first time how public spending could be cut by £12bn - to help fund their pledge to curb the rise in National Insurance.

Tory adviser Sir Peter Gershon said spending on IT projects, office costs, contracts and recruitment could be cut.

Conservative leader David Cameron said it showed the savings, which Labour say are a "fantasy", were "deliverable".

Asked if it could mean 40,000 public jobs lost, he said hiring freezes, not job cuts, would be used to save money.

In Friday's other election developments:

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says his party would stop excessive bank charges for people who go overdrawn
Labour's Lord Adonis makes a bid for Lib Dem voters' support
Facebook and the Electoral Commission team up to register voters
A Labour candidate is sacked for "offensive" comments about Nick Clegg and David Cameron on his Twitter page
Gordon Brown campaigns alongside the mother of a murder victim whose killer was caught thanks to the DNA database

'Back of envelope'

Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and Lord Mandelson launched a fierce attack on Conservative claims they could save £12bn through "efficiency savings" within a year of the election - suggesting they were based on "back-of-envelope" calculations.

Sir Peter, a former government adviser now leading the Tories' efficiency review, told the Financial Times that £9.5bn could be saved from cutting IT costs, renegotiating contracts as well as curbing consultants and "perhaps £1bn to £2bn" could be saved by curbing recruitment.

Conservative leader Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is do-able, it is deliverable, I don't think it's particularly challenging to ask government to save £1 out of every £100 it spends.

Mr Cameron was asked about suggestions the plans could mean job losses of up to 40,000.

He said: "It's not talking about people losing their jobs, it's talking about not filling vacancies as they arise."

He said Sir Peter had outlined areas that could be cut - but a Tory government would make changes "along the lines of" what he had suggested, in consultation with the Treasury.

'Back office'

"The exact balance between things like procurement, recruitment and IT should be decided calmly and reasonably with the Treasury if we are elected on 6 May."

He said about 400,000 jobs became available in the public sector each year as people leave: "The point is, if you don't fill all jobs as they become available, that's one way of saving money relatively rapidly."

He said not replacing "back office" and management jobs meant more money could be saved for the front line and denied it was a "plan to fire people".

Gordon Brown has dismissed the Conservatives' plans to save £12bn as built on a "myth" and Chancellor Alistair Darling said some of the savings had already been made by the government.

Mr Darling added: "It is now clear from [David Cameron's] interview on Today - and he was unable to deny this - that additional heavy cuts will have to be made in public sector spending and jobs from this year onwards and that tens of thousands of jobs will be lost, not just in the public sector but in the private sector as well, where they depend on government contracts."

He told the BBC: "They may have got the political tactics right for the first day or so but their overall judgement is just plain wrong."

'Salami slicing'

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said it appeared Sir Peter Gershon was "looking to immediately slash employment throughout the public sector".

He said: "The Tories are guilty of the worst type of salami slicing - cutting with no regard for what is useful or wasteful spending."

On Friday the Tories are outlining plans to curb excessive public sector pay and to strip some payments from those repeatedly caught committing benefit fraud.

The Lib Dems have pledged to stop banks charging customers unfairly for going over their limit or bouncing a cheque and capping interest rates charged by credit cards and store cards.

And Labour are highlighting the role of the DNA database - the Tories oppose keeping the DNA of people arrested for minor offences but not charged.

Joined by the mother of murdered model Sally Ann Bowman, whose killer was caught after his DNA was taken during a pub brawl, Gordon Brown said: "The use of DNA helps the police put the most dangerous criminals behind bars but can also exonerate the innocent."

Al-Qaeda in Iraq group claims embassy bombings

2010-04-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

A militant group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq has said it was behind Sunday's triple bombings in Baghdad which killed 40 people near foreign embassies.

Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement posted on the internet that it had attacked the Iranian, German, and Egyptian missions.

It said embassies and organisations working with Iraq's government would top its target list.

But it denied involvement in six blasts killing 35 in Shia areas on Tuesday.

The statement regarding Tuesday's attacks, which hit residential buildings, was posted on the internet separately, the monitoring group SITE said.

At least 200 people died in Sunday's attacks, which shattered a period of relative calm after last month's parliamentary elections.

'Themed' bombings

The first two bombs went off within about a minute of one another, in Mansour - a fairly smart suburb on the western side of the city, housing many embassies.

The Egyptian, German, Iranian and Syrian missions were all affected by the blasts.

Another minute or so later, a third suicide bomber blew his car up near the Iranian embassy, closer to the city centre.

With security tight around the embassies, many of the dead and injured were people in the nearby streets and buildings.

A number of Iraqi guards working for foreign missions were among those killed. Egypt said several of its staff were wounded by shrapnel.

Spain said its embassy and the adjacent German mission were also damaged.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says a series of "themed" multiple bombings have hit Baghdad over the past year, clearly with the aim of conveying the message not only that the insurgents can strike several targets simultaneously, but that they can focus on a particular type of target each time.

In August, October and December last year, they carried out co-ordinated attacks on government ministries, which together killed hundreds of people.

In January, big hotels in central Baghdad were targeted.

The attacks came at a sensitive moment, with politicians embroiled in trying to form a government which all agree should reach out to regional countries, especially Arab states which have been slow to restore full diplomatic ties with Baghdad.

South Africa police deploy for Terreblanche funeral

2010-04-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

A major security operation has been mounted for the funeral of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, who was killed on his farm on Sunday.

Several police and army units have been deployed to prevent possible clashes between supporters of Terreblanche and the local black population.

Around 3,000 people are commemorating his controversial life in the north-western rural town of Ventersdorp.

Terreblanche led the Afrikaner Resistance movement, the AWB.

Thousands of AWB supporters have gathered in the town, with the mourners including both armed men in camouflage and young children, says the BBC's Karen Allen in Ventersdorp.

South Africa's trade union federation Cosatu is holding a mass meeting on the other side of the town.

Our correspondent says the effect of this meeting - called to discuss recent farm violence - is not clear.

On the one hand, it is a way of occupying some black farm workers who otherwise might turn up at the funeral, she says.

But on the other hand, it could be seen as a somewhat provocative gesture given the timing, she adds.

The Afrikaner Protestant Church where the service is being held, is normally attended mostly by white South Africans.

As a gesture of reconciliation, dignitaries from the local black community have been invited to attend the service, our correspondent says.

But just a handful of them are likely to take up that offer, she adds.

Two of Terreblanche's workers have been charged with his murder.

Although the authorities stress that the killing had more to do with money than politics, it has led to a period of heightened racial tension.

White groups and opposition parties blamed an ANC official, Julius Malema, for singing an apartheid-era song at rallies, that includes the lyrics "shoot the Boer [farmer]".

The ANC has rejected that link, but accepts that the song and the debate around it was polarising society.

It has now instructed its members to stop using it.

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood to open Cannes

2010-03-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

British director Ridley Scott's new film Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe, has been selected to open the annual Cannes Film Festival in May.

The film, about the birth of the Robin Hood legend, also stars Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, and William Hurt.

It will be screened out of competition on the opening night of the 12-day festival on 12 May.

Nationwide release in France will begin on the same day, with screenings across the world from 14 May.

In 2008 it was reported that production of the movie had been delayed, with studio Universal Pictures citing script concerns and location issues.

The film, which was originally touted to feature Sienna Miller as Maid Marian, has undergone several rewrites, with Crowe at one point mooted to play both Robin and his nemesis the Sheriff of Nottingham.

British actor Matthew Macfadyen - best known as Mr Darcy to Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice - will now play the Sheriff.

Previous actors to tackle the Robin Hood role include Sean Connery, Errol Flynn and Kevin Costner.

Early award

The movie reunites Crowe, 45, and Scott, 72, who first worked together on the hit 2000 movie Gladiator.

However subsequent collaborations, including 2008's Body of Lies and wine comedy A Good Year (2006), have proved less successful.

It is only Scott's third appearance at the French festival. His early work, The Duellists, appeared in competition in 1977, winning the Best First Work award. Thelma and Louise screened out of competition in 1991.

Robin Hood - originally entitled Nottingham - was adapted for the big screen by Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar in 1997 for LA Confidential.

Director Tim Burton will head the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Last year's opening film was the hit animated film Up, which won two Oscars earlier this month.

Russian appeal of 'weather control'

2010-03-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

Standing by an open hatch on a Russian military plane high up in the sky is tricky.

All the more so when your job is to "seed" clouds, shovelling chemicals outside to cause rain.

These seeded clouds never make it to Moscow, where millions are enjoying a nice sunny holiday. Or where guests might be dancing at a wedding under the clear blue sky.

Some might think that controlling the weather sounds a bit like science fiction.

But military pilot Alexander Akimenkov doesn't think so.

He has seeded clouds over Moscow on important state holidays for many years. He says the Russians use two different methods to try to drive the rain away.

"Either there's a special machine that spits out silver iodide, dry ice or cement into the clouds, or a hatch opens and a guy with a shovel seeds the clouds manually," he explains.

"As soon as the chemicals touch the cloud, a hole appears. It becomes bigger and bigger, and it either rains right there and then or, if the clouds aren't very dense, they disperse without any precipitation."

The Russian government has used rain prevention methods since Soviet times, seeding clouds for major celebrations three times a year - Victory Day, City Day and, more recently, Russia Day.

There are also private companies that for some $6,000 per hour say they can guarantee sunshine on your wedding day - or for any other private party.

Many ecologists agree that these techniques, also used in many other countries for irrigation purposes, do not pose much of a threat to the environment or people's health, as the period of active influence on the clouds is very short.

But when Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov suggested the technique could shift the winter snow outside the capital - and therefore save more than $10m in snow-clearing costs - many felt the city authorities were going a bit too far.

Even if the idea might appeal to Moscow drivers, tired of constant traffic jams - especially bad in snowy conditions - it has stirred concerns among local ecologists.

"Millions of tonnes of snow diverted from Moscow will create chaos in the areas where it is forced to fall and might even lead to the collapse of bridges and roofs," said Alexei Yablokov, one of Russia's leading environmentalists, who was ecological adviser to former President Boris Yeltsin.

Besides, a lack of snow in Moscow would cause many problems in the capital itself, he said.

"Why do we need snow in Moscow? Snow on the ground helps the roots of trees to survive during severe frosts. If there's no snow, lots of vegetation - trees, bushes - will die.

"Snow also cleans the atmosphere very effectively. If there's nothing to clean the Moscow atmosphere, many people will die - there will be tens or even hundreds of additional deaths," explains Mr Yablokov.

'Groundless' concerns

But Valery Stasenko from Roshydromet - the Federal Service of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring - calls these concerns groundless.

"It is stupid to say that there won't be any snow in Moscow. If there is some five centimetres of it, it's absolutely fine, but there is a limit when all the transport just stops," he said, adding that the aim of winter cloud-seeding would not be to get rid of snow, but to control its level, not letting it go over this maximum limit.

The planes will be out only occasionally, said Mr Stasenko, to prevent major snowfall that happens on average three or four times a month. Thus it will cost a lot less than using snowploughs that are out most days of the winter.

Besides, the idea didn't come to the Moscow mayor from nowhere, it is based on facts. In the early 1980s, back in the Soviet period, there was a special service to limit snowfall over Moscow. It stopped working during perestroika [Gorbachev's reforms], when money became scarce," Mr Stasenko said.

"Some eight to 10 planes had to find clouds with the most precipitation and spray them with crystallising chemicals.

"Not all water vapour in the atmosphere turns to precipitation, and for the snow to fall, water vapour should concentrate on ice crystals first. So we were making snow fall before it reached Moscow and this work reduced the amount of snow in the capital by 20, 30 and sometimes 40%."

Ecology threat

And even though this winter is over and the snow in Moscow will soon disappear naturally, scientists at the Central Aerological Observatory of Roshydromet have been working for months trying to come up with new, improved techniques of winter cloud-seeding.

They refused to explain the essence of their work. And this secrecy raises important environmental concerns, says a climate specialist from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Department of Earth Sciences, Nina Zaitseva. She believes that even with raincloud seeding, much depends on luck and coincidence.

She is sceptical about the current research and the state's past or present ability to effectively seed winter clouds.

"I don't think there will be good results - dry substances are not able to have any noticeable reaction with ice particles. But if they decide to seed winter clouds with a liquid, they should first and foremost think about the ecological consequences," said Dr Zaitseva.

Regardless of the Moscow authorities' final decision on snow cloud seeding, Russia remains one of the few nations where weather control is more than using anti-hail cannons and battling droughts.

So if you want to visit Moscow and don't fancy rain, go there on one of the three precipitation-free holidays.

And if you want to ensure your wedding day is dry - it might just be possible to make it happen.

Google's rift with China is a calculated business risk

2010-03-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

Google's move into China four years ago was billed by some people as a battle between the irresistible force and the immovable object.

The inexorable expansion of the internet - epitomised by Google - would never exist happily in a command economy like China, said critics.

By taking its search engine onto Chinese soil - and thus agreeing to Beijing's censorship rules - Google was accused of trading reputation for profit.

On Monday, however, Google pulled its search facility out of mainland China, redirecting users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong.

What now for both profits and reputation? Has it shut the door on the world's biggest internet market?

The Great Firewall

China has hit back at Google, limiting its citizens' use of the search facility through web filters that are collectively known as the Great Firewall.

And some of Google's business partners are already starting to distance themselves from the company.

On Wednesday China's second-largest mobile operator, Unicom, announced that it would drop Google's search function from two new handsets that are being developed.

Official Chinese figures put the number of internet users at 384 million. But the number of mobile subscribers - people who do or will eventually - use the internet on their handsets is 745 million.

At Sina Corp, which owns a portal featuring a Google search bar on its main page, executives are considering the future of link with the US giant.

And there are several other news reports from China about how Google's partners and advertisers are reviewing their relationships with the internet giant.

These moves underline the potential impact on Google's business.

On the face of it, picking a fight with the rulers of what is soon to be the world's biggest economy looks like commercial stupidity.

Today's business mantra says that any company which wants to be global has to do business with China.

And yet, there is a growing consensus among analysts that Google's move will have only limited impact on its business.

Google's share price had fallen about 6% since the company announced on 12 January that it was considering a withdrawal from China.

But since Monday, when the final decision was made, the shares have been rising.

Don't Be Evil

Google, whose motto Don't Be Evil was tarnished by the move to China, has won plaudits in the blogosphere and among the commentariat for its decision to withdraw.

The company has stood up for free speech and unfettered enterprise, they say.

These are fine words, says technology analyst Graham Titterington, but in reality they are just "fluff".

"Google has taken a hard-headed business decision," he said.

Mr Titterington, principal analyst at Ovum, said: "Google has looked at the benefits and damage to its business, and made a decision on whether the move will do more harm than good."

In the immediate term, Mr Titterington does not expect much damage because China remains a small part of the company's operations. "Indeed, outside China there will be some kudos and benefits to company and its brand image," he said.

China's total internet advertising market was worth about $1bn last year, with Google's revenues from the country amounting to about $250m-$300m.

This revenue figure represents about 1% to 2% of Google's total, estimates Youssef Squali, analyst at Jefferies & Co.

Before Google moved to the mainland, it had perhaps 13% of the China search market. Going "onshore" took market share to about 20%. Even if Google's share returns to 13% or less, it is by no means critical for the company.

"Exiting China would not be too damaging for Google since the company is the market share leader in most non-domestic markets, where search usage and monetisation opportunities still abound," Mr Squali said.

Besides, Google was already struggling to consolidate and grow in China. For many analysts Beijing clearly backed Baidu as the home-grown internet market leader.

Censorship

Google also faced subtle - and not so subtle - attempts to restrict growth, and was already the subject of attacks from officials over alleged failure to comply with censorship rules.

It is likely that Google saw the writing on the wall a long time ago.

But, surely, losing a position in the world's single biggest constituency of web users must be a retrograde step? After all, by 2014 the Chinese market for internet advertising could grow to as much as $20bn, according to estimates.

Mr Titterington agrees: "In the longer term, Google needs China more than China needs Google."

But he does not believe Google will remain outside China forever. In fact, he believes the company could be operating within the country again within three years.

"China is opening, and in time they [the leaders] will change and react," he said.

Google may have anticipated China would relax its rigid control on society sooner than it has done. But eventually it will happen.

"Politicians have to live with short memories. At some stage they [Google and Beijing] will start co-operating again," Mr Titterington said.

The big question, though, will be how much momentum Google will have lost in the meantime." Will the growth of indigenous operators like Baidu effectively marginalise Google, making a return to China irrelevant?

Not everyone is so optimistic that Google will make a quick return. David Wolf, president of technology marketing consultancy Wolf Group, says it will take years for Google to rebuild partnerships in China.

"Trust me, [Google] aren't walking away from this unhurt," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Nor does the rhetoric coming from Beijing bode well for an early rehabilitation.

The Beijing government called Google's withdrawal "totally wrong", while the People's Daily newspaper was even more strident.

The paper said Google was part of an internet war being orchestrated by the US intelligence services.

Herein lies a danger. What is currently a dispute over business, risks becoming a dispute over politics - which would make it far more difficult for relations to heal.

Multiple Choice Question

2010-03-25T07:06:00.000-07:00

Celebrities like to out-do each other in the strange-name stakes. Actor Nicholas Cage has a child named Kal-El, after the birth name of which comic book character

Your pictures of the week: Lazy

2010-03-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Here's our weekly look at your pictures and this time we asked you for photographs on the theme of being lazy.

We received more than 250 entries this week, so once again I offer my thanks to all of you who submitted work.

You can see the ones I have selected here.

hope you enjoy looking at the pictures and if you have any comments to make, you can do so below.

If your picture didn't make this week's selection, why not send us something for next week?

The new theme is "clouds" - a theme suggested by reader Barbara Gordon.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or upload them directly from your computer.

Please include the word "clouds" in the subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight GMT Tuesday 30 March 2010, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

You can now see a list of the next four themes on this page which will be updated each week.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1,000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the BBC for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

US schools grapple with gay rights at the school prom

2010-03-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

When officials at a small high school in rural Mississippi cancelled the annual prom, little did they know they would trigger a passionate national debate.

For many American teenagers, the high-school prom is a rite of passage on the path to adulthood. But for 18-year-old Constance McMillen, a milestone was reached sooner than she had anticipated when she emerged as a cause celebre among gay rights advocates around the nation.

Ms McMillen - who came out as a lesbian in her early teens - challenged her school's ban on same-sex prom dates.

Earlier this month, Itawamba Agricultural High School scrapped the event rather than reverse a decision banning Ms McMillen escorting her same-sex date, and from wearing a tuxedo - male evening dress - instead of a prom gown.

School officials defended the decision, saying that the whole issue had become a "distraction to the learning process".

Ms McMillen's case has been taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has taken the school to court in an attempt to reinstate the prom. It is also asking the judge to rule on whether Ms McMillen's right to freedom of expression has been violated.

On Tuesday, a federal judge said he wouldn't force the school to hold the dance, but said he would hold a trial at a later date to determine if Ms McMillen's rights had been violated

Ms McMillen had earlier told the court that she "had the right to go to the prom just like someone straight".

Unwelcome spotlight

In the past fortnight, she has been plucked out of her hometown of Fulton to appear on news programmes, and the Ellen DeGeneres show, where she was presented with a $30,000 (£20,000) cheque from a digital media company to help fund her college education.
A Facebook group set up by the ACLU entitled Let Constance Take her Girlfriend to the Prom has attracted almost 400,000 fans.

But, back in rural Fulton, the town of 4,000 residents is reeling from the publicity the case has attracted.

Asked to comment for this article, pastor Bobby Crenshaw of the local Southside Baptist Church acknowledged that the case had brought an unwelcome spotlight to the town but did not want to say more. The Southern Baptist Convention said no-one was available.

Fulton Mayor Paul Walker told the BBC News website by telephone that the "community had had its nose rubbed in it a bit".

"We're deep in the Bible Belt," said Mayor Walker. "It's a traditional Southern town, but contrary to what people think, we don't all stand around in blue overalls chewing tobacco."

He described the community as "conservative" and said it "was a great place to raise a family".

We didn't want this to happen, but it has. But the wounds will heal and we will get back together and move forward," he said.

In court on Monday, the school's principal said he had received thousands of e-mails, mostly supporting Ms McMillen.

"I've been called every name known to man," the Clarion Ledger reported Trae Wiygul as saying. "I've been called a bigot, a homophobe and a few cuss words. It's been pretty rough."

Ms McMillen, too, has said there has been some hostility toward her on the school campus. She reported that one person had said: "Thanks for ruining my senior year."

Prom rights

Chris Hampton of the ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Project, says she has never seen a case like the one in Mississippi.

"We deal with quite a lot of cases where students are told they are not allowed to bring a same-sex partner to a prom but the schools often back down," she says.

We even have a letter on our website that students can download and present to school administrators setting out that LGBT students have rights and that these rights exist in the context of the school prom."

Many schools, of course, allow same-sex dates with no questions asked. On Monday, Macon.com reported that a high school in a small town in the state of Georgia had given the OK for an 18-year-old to take his same-sex date to next month's prom.

Ms Hampton said she had never known a school to cancel a prom as a result of a dispute over gay students.

Daryl Presgraves of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) agreed that while discrimination in terms of prom policy was not uncommon, this was the most extreme case he had encountered.

He said it was unusual that the school was sticking to its guns "in the face of all the media attention".

Part of the problem was that for most schools, issues to do with sexual orientation and gender expression were relatively new, he said.

"Ten or 15 years ago, most schools would say they didn't have any LGBT students, now most schools have an out LGBT student," he said.

He said many schools were grappling with the issues, particular those schools in what he described as more conservative areas.

"They don't do due diligence to find out what the laws say and what the rights of the students are. We see this particularly in the setting up of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) within schools," he added.

Pervasive bullying

GSAs are student clubs that "work to improve school climate for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression".

There are more than 4,000 GSAs registered with GLSEN - but only six of those, according to Mr Presgraves, are in Mississippi.

While federal civil rights laws expressly address discrimination on the basis of race, colour, gender, disability or national origin, they do not explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity.

Ms McMillen's case has helped draw attention to a new bill - The Student Anti-Discrimination Act - introduced by Congressman Jared Polis in January, which would extend civil rights protections to such students.

Mr Presgraves said much still needed to be done to protect LGBT students from discrimination, given that bullying was still a "pervasive problem" in schools.

"Schools have made a big effort to address general bullying but their programmes don't address bias-based bullying," he said.

In 2005, GLSEN carried out a national survey of all students - not just LGBT - to gauge what the general population was experiencing in terms of bullying.

"Categories of student bullying based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression are two of the top three reasons students cited for bullying," said Mr Presgraves.

He said the fact that so many Gay-Straight Alliances had been registered indicated that schools would not be able to avoid the issue for much longer.

Some schools perceived there to be a "culture war" going on around them, he said.

"There is a debate going on and they are saying they don't want anything to do with it. They are, therefore wrongly discriminating to avoid what they perceive to be the great debate going on in society."

'Pirate' death puts spotlight on 'guns for hire'

2010-03-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

The death of a suspected pirate off the coast of Somalia has drawn attention to the use of armed private security contractors on board merchant vessels.

The incident, which involved guards aboard the Panamanian-flagged MV Almezaan, is believed to be the first of its kind.

But several organisations, including the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), have previously expressed concerns over the use of armed security contractors.

"While we understand that owners want to protect their ships, we don't agree in principle with putting armed security on ships," IMB director Capt Pottengal Mukundan told the BBC News website.

"Ships are not an ideal place for a gun battle."

One argument is that the use of armed operatives could encourage pirates to use more violence when taking a ship.

But Mr Mukundan said he had seen no evidence that there had been much of an increase in the use of armed guards by merchant ship owners.

Dozens of warships patrol the waters off the Somali coast, but this has not deterred the pirates. The amount of ocean to patrol is extremely vast and pirates have responded to the increased naval presence by moving attacks farther out to sea.

"The naval forces are displacing the threat - they can't be everywhere at once," says Nick Davis, chief executive of Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre, a not-for-profit organisation.

"Almost the whole of the Indian Ocean region - some 5 million square nautical miles - is a security risk."

Prevention

But the shipping industry has, so far, largely resisted arming their boats - not least because this would deny them port in some nations. Furthermore, arming the ships can raise liability issues and increase insurance costs.

Christopher Ledger, director of security firm Idarat Maritime, says the use of private operatives is not necessary and that ship owners can find other ways to protect themselves, such as boosting training, carrying out more drills and purchasing equipment that could prevent pirates boarding a vessel.

"Private security guards are not necessary, they simply muddy the water," he said. "They are often foreign to the crew themselves and they don't know the ship well.
Many are former soldiers that have been in Iraq or Afghanistan and they think they can shake the dust off their shoes and make it as a private security guard. Their day rate is pretty high and the crew have to find ways to get them on and off the vessels."

Their presence, he said, would only lead to "more spilt blood".

This month, international law firm Ince and Co released a report highlighting the issues arising from the use of armed guards. It pointed out that a fundamental question arose as to who would authorise the use of force.

Stephen Askins, a lawyer with Ince, told the BBC News website that the debate on the use of armed guards was one that polarised the industry.

"Most industry bodies and ship-owners are against them," he said. "But no ship with an armed guard has been hijacked, so there are those - particularly those who have had hijacked ships - who think they are necessary."

He said private security companies had come into their own in places like Iraq and had seen seen the maritime sector as potentially lucrative.

"Many have moved across but there is no system of accreditation, so there is no way of knowing the good from the bad," he said.

Legal status

Most security operatives are former British servicemen, but there are also operatives from the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Mr Askins said some firms provided armed escort vessels, but that these did not have any status in international law.

"The various conventions dealing with piracy relate to states and their navies," he said. "The rights that they are given, like the right of innocent passage relate to military ships. There are also issues over the use of armed force. The relevant law is the law of the flag state, but a merchant ship could, for example, be Panamanian and the escort ship could be, say, UK flagged."

But he also pointed out that there were some very good companies that had "robust rules of engagement".

"Lethal force for them would come after a series of steps including warning shots. The good companies would follow that procedure. Normally that would be enough to deter an attack."

In May 2009, the US Coast Guard drafted a maritime security directive that would require US-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards, and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval.

At the time, the Coast Guard's director of prevention policy, Rear Admiral James Watson, said that they expected to see "additional security" that could "involve the use of firearms".

He added that they were "looking for things that work but that don't make the situation worse".

The directive has not yet passed into law.

For now, the handling of Tuesday's shooting by a private security operative will be watched closely by legal experts.

An independent inquiry is planned, but first investigators will need to establish who had jurisdiction - the flag the vessel was flying, its owners or the nationality of the contractors - and who was responsible for the security contractors.

The hospital of the future

2010-03-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Norman Foster, the man whose practice brought us the Gherkin, Beijing Airport, and the Great Court at the British Museum has until now had nothing to do with healthcare.

That has all changed, however, as his first hospital opens amid bold claims that it has reinvented what a hospital can look like.

Situated on the outskirts of Bath, the glass and metal box sits on the edge of a business park and suggests that it might be a trendy headquarters for a computer firm or even perhaps an art gallery.

Inside, it certainly feels more like a posh hotel lobby than a typical NHS waiting room and reception.

Instead of disinfectant it is the smell of coffee and leather seating that greets you. The view through the plate glass windows is of the green fields outside Bath.

The forest of signs that normally greets you at the entrance to a hospital is replaced with people to guide you to the right place. Equipment is hidden away. Everything is designed to calm you.

Upstairs, each patient who stays in overnight has their own room with a view. The floor is made of oak. The windowsill has a herbarium. Downstairs even the operating theatre has a view of the countryside.

Painful costs

Of course, Circle Bath is a private hospital but one that will offer operations to NHS patients at the fixed NHS rate. It is claimed that it was built for roughly the same as any comparable modern hospital.

The ideas though are not new. Increasingly, research is beginning to show that we get better quicker if we recuperate in calm environments with natural light.

The surgeons here say that the calmer the patient the less anaesthetic they have to use, the faster people are back on their feet. It raises productivity.

It is an agenda that has been championed by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, CABE.

Some such as the new childrens' wing at Moorfields, Newton Abbot's Community Hospital and the Norfolk and Norwich have all won praise for introducing light and cheer.

But other products of the £12bn hospital programme have not been praised so highly.

The minister responsible for architecture, Margaret Hodge, spoke last year about the dark rooms and miles of corridors of the new Queens building in Romford.

CABE says there is a long way to go to truly make most of our hospitals welcoming and attractive places to be.

The problem is that healthcare is far more complex than an art gallery or other prestige architectural projects.

Each building has hundreds of activities that change rapidly over time. Familiar solutions are repeated rather than risk tens of millions on new ideas.

Clinical demands are the priority over beauty or natural light and it is rare for an architect new to the field to be given a remit to experiment.

Circle Bath, though, is a new venture and a co-operative of local clinicians. Clinical demands for a clinical atmosphere have to be married with the need to attract patients.

As a consequence the scheme has borrowed heavily from modern hotel design to try to create an atmosphere we want to be in, more health spa than health factory.

The economics is driven by the fact that they can choose which services to provide - this is a place for knees and cataracts, high volume, straight forward day care.

But by making it a beautiful building they hope it will bring in the customers and will speed their passage through the system. Good design, they hope, pays for itself.

Late blooming daffodils spark web appeal in Cumbria

2010-03-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

Tourism chiefs in Cumbria are encouraging people to "tweet" online should they spot a blooming daffodil in the Lake District.

The daffodils, made famous by William Wordsworth, are more than a month late this year following the cold winter.

One of the most famous places to see daffodils in Cumbria is Dora's Field in Rydal near Ambleside.

The "Daffs Watch" appeal asks people to use the social networking site Twitter to point to where they are blooming.

Eric Robson, Chairman of Cumbria Tourism, said: "It's virtually unheard of not to have seen a single daffodil in the Lake District by the middle of March.

"It's an industry of its own with visitors coming here just to see them by the lakesides.

"The upside is that because they are late, it means they should be out and looking their best for the Easter holidays."

Peter Elkington lives at Rydal Mount and Gardens, which is Wordsworth's former home and a visitor attraction open to the public.

Mr Elkington, the curator, said there were plenty of daffodils in Dora's Field but no signs yet of any blooming.

Dora's Field was named after Wordsworth's daughter Dora, who died in 1847.

William Wordsworth lived at Rydal Mount for 37 years until his death in April 1850.

US plans to give high-speed broadband to every American

2010-03-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

US regulators have unveiled the nation's first plan to give every American super-fast broadband by 2020.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will now submit the plan to Congress, said broadband was the "greatest infrastructure challenge".

It estimates that one-third of Americans, about 100 million people, are without broadband at home.

The FCC's goal is to provide speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to an average 4Mbps now.

"Broadband for every American is not too ambitious a plan and it is absolutely necessary," former FCC chairman Reed Hundt told BBC News.

"The consequences of not succeeding are heartbreaking. Every nation needs a common medium to gather around and to have the internet as a common medium where a third are left out is unacceptable."

'Silver bullet'

In an executive summary released ahead of the presentation to Congress on 16 March, the FCC said: "Broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life.

It is changing how we educate children, deliver healthcare, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government, and access, organise and disseminate knowledge".

For industry analyst Erik Sherman of business and news site BNet.com, all the talk "sounds like an overstatement".

"The plan cannot be a silver bullet for all these issues and problems which exist for a number of different reasons and not just because of a lack of broadband.

"The plan is very big in scope and if you look at the rationale, the FCC is basically saying we need more money for more internet. I am not saying we don't need a broadband plan but we have to be realistic about what it can and cannot do," Mr Sherman told BBC News.

'Fairy wings and wishes'

Months of hype and speculation has preceded the presentation of the country's first comprehensive broadband roadmap. The FCC has also held a series of briefings previewing its goals.

"It's an action plan, and action is necessary to meet the challenges of global competitiveness, and harness the power of broadband to help address so many vital national issues," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

The executive summary revealed that access to high-speed internet services had grown dramatically from eight million Americans 20 years ago to nearly 200 million today.

Estimates to implement the plan have been put at $350bn (£233bn). How that bill will be split between private investment and tax dollars is not known.

"Who pays and how much is the big fight ahead," said technology industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

"The devil is in the detail and right now it's all fairy wings and wishes. The Republicans are going to fight anything that is excessively expensive while the Democrats have to be wary of looking like they are cutting cheques at a time when the government is for the most part broke."

The FCC will auction off some 500 megahertz of spectrum to pay for some of the expense. More than $7bn will come from President Obama's 2009 stimulus package, which targeted broadband-related initiatives.

'Digital exclusion'

For years the technology industry has pushed for the US government to create a national broadband plan

Ahead of today's meeting with Congress, a number of hi-tech companies wrote to Mr Genachowski to praise the plan.

"Broadband is critical to America's long-term economic and social well-being. As society increasingly moves online, the costs of digital exclusion grow as well," said the signatories of the letter, which included Cisco, Sony, Salesforce, Microsoft, Facebook and Intel.

One possible battleground is expected to be over the sale of spectrum that is mostly in the hands of television broadcasters.

Mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon have said they will need more spectrum in future to provide superfast reliable internet connections to every customer.

"The problem is most of the spectrum is occupied by somebody else. They are going to want a lot of money for this," said Adam Thierer, president of the free-market leaning Progress & Freedom Foundation.

Japan aims its home fuel cells at Europe

2010-03-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Following the success of a half-price subsidy for CO2-busting fuel-cell heat and energy generators for homes, Japan is now poised to ship its attention to supplying the UK and Germany with this hi-tech next-generation energy source.

With over 5,000 fuel cells providing heat and energy for conventional homes up and down Japan, the BBC has learnt that companies such as electronics giant Panasonic are in talks with EU governments about the possibility of bringing these proven energy and carbon-saving devices to market in Europe and elsewhere.

Panasonic has described the interest in its commercial fuel-cell project from the German, Korean and UK governments as "intense", and is confident that Japan, as the first to start commercial sales for homes last year, will be the forerunner in bringing the technology into common use.

Fuel cells - a technology that has been around for more than 100 years - convert fuels such as hydrogen and natural gas into electricity through an electrochemical reaction. The resultant heat generated also warms buildings in gas-boiler-sized boxes known as cogeneration fuel cells.

The idea is to generate all of the heating and hot water and the majority of the electricity needed by a typical UK home, without the need to be connected to the energy wasteful national grid.

Such efficient use of gas supplies can save the consumer around 25% of total energy costs, and reduce each home's CO2 emissions by up to 2.5 tonnes per annum, according to their makers.

They also claim customers can earn back the system's relatively high cost, running at present into thousands of pounds, within a few years through utility bill savings.

Cost issue

Panasonic and Toshiba, another manufacturer of home-use fuel cells in Japan, sell their cogeneration fuel cells through energy companies such as Tokyo Gas for around 3.1 to 2.2 million yen. Panasonic claims around 3,000 customers so far, including the Japanese PM's office.

Half that price is met by the government on each purchase, while other incentives bring the real price down for consumers to about 1 million yen (£7,300).

If the price falls again still, its popularity will gain momentum," general manager of Panasonic's fuel cell project, Mr Yasumasa Kurosaki, told the BBC. He added that the company aimed at fixing the per-unit price at around 500,000 yen, and get it even lower in the near future.

With economies of scale, Panasonic says, such devices could be competitively priced at around a couple of thousand of pounds by 2013.

"With over 40,000 hours running time already logged, we have proven the safety, reliability and CO2 savings of our devices in the real world while sales are improving gradually. We expect next year's sales to be up 20-30% on the last fiscal year," he said.

The UK government has estimated that microgeneration products, such as fuel-cell combined-heat-and-power (CHP) units, have the potential to supply over one-third of the country's total electricity needs and help meet its environmental obligations.

However, high capital costs are still a major barrier to widespread adoption of fuel-cell technology.

Fuel-cell makers have yet to turn a profit despite the massive investments in Japan and elsewhere around the world.

But some are optimistic the gas-burning-without-combustion systems could be the answer to soaring fuel costs and lowering carbon emissions.

Pay-back time

"Once fuel cells hit the US$5,000 (£3,300) mark, which we imagine will happen in the next 2 years, these units will become as compelling to home owners as energy-saving water-heaters and double-glazing," Tokyo- based entrepreneur and business analyst Terrie Lloyd told the BBC.

"It will be hard to ignore a product that might save US$2,500 or more a year on energy bills."

The UK government meanwhile recently announced further support for the adoption of the technology with a money-back feed-in-tariff (FIT) for all fuel-cell owners that starts this April.

Under the FIT, any household installing a fuel cell will receive a generation payment of 10p/kWh for all electricity generated over a 10-year period, plus an additional export payment of 3p/kWh for any electricity that is not consumed in the home and is fed back into the grid.

Importantly, households will still retain the efficiency savings on their energy bills, providing an incentive to consume any electricity generated on-site, in preference to exporting to the grid.

"On average, a home fuel user can expect about £360-a-year cash-back in addition to the energy bill savings from consuming the electricity generated on-site," according to the UK's leading fuel-cell maker, Ceres Power.

The company plans to go into mass production after completing field studies this year. Initial prices for its generators are not yet available but they are unlikely to match Japanese competiveness, says Mr Lloyd, as Japan has achieved a big start with widespread commercialization last year.

Export possibilities

Despite high prices, some think the market is ready to explode. Tokyo-based research firm Fuji-Keizai Group has estimated Japan's market for fuel cells will expand nearly 100-fold from fiscal 2009 to 1.61 trillion yen in fiscal 2025 owing to uptake of the technology for housing and vehicles.

Fuel-cell systems for housing, says its report, will serve as a driving force for the market until 2018 when fuel-celled cars are expected to take over demand.

Panasonic is bullish about possible exports of Japanese know-how to the UK and Germany where gas is generally cheaper than electricity per kW and solar cells offer a poor return on investment.

Mr Kurosaki said he was confident Panasonic could reduce costs, increase efficiency and extend the life of its units which now have a lifespan of 10 years to make an attractive package to overseas buyers and governments looking to cut CO2 emissions quickly.

With gas fuel for Japan's fuel cells more costly per kW than electricity in Japan, some analysts see Japan's nascent fuel-cell industry reaping benefits abroad.

And with such high prices for gas in energy-poor Japan, take up of the new technology may well fizzle out along with the government subsidies that support the current market. Cutting capital costs and boosting sales to compete abroad seems the only likelihood of success for the Japanese makers if they are to scale up and be competitive without subsidies.

Hollywood plans turkey tale movie

2010-03-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

The story of a woman who was stranded by snow for a month after she popped out to buy a Christmas turkey could be made into a Hollywood film.

A company has bought the rights to the story of Kay Ure, who lives with husband John in Cape Wrath, in the extreme north west of Scotland.

Mrs Ure set out on 19 December to go to Inverness to buy festive food, but was unable to return home for 30 days.

Movie company Furst Films offered the couple £40,000 for their story.

Mrs Ure was driven by her husband 11 miles from their home in the Cape Wrath lighthouse keeper's cottage to a jetty where their boat was moored and from there they crossed the Kyle of Durness sea loch.

She then embarked on 100-mile bus journey to Inverness, where she managed to reach the shops and buy a turkey before attempting to return home - only to discover that the final 11-mile leg of the journey was blocked by snow.

She had to spend Christmas in a friend's caravan, while her husband had the company of their six dogs, and two walkers who had been passing-by.

Furst Films - whose movies include The Matador, The Cooler and The Girl In The Park - are to pay the couple for the rights to a screenplay and consultation.

Mr Ure told BBC Scotland the offer from Furst had come as a complete surprise.

He said: "We thought it was a joke until we Googled them and found out they'd won a few Golden Globes."

Mr Ure said he would like "someone with a bit of character" to play him, with his choice being Scottish actor Robert Carlyle.

But he stressed the film would be as much about the couple's lifestyle - they have no mains electricity and are forced to rely on a generator - as it was about poultry.

"It's not just about the turkey, it's about our life story and how we came to be here," he explained.

"People find it intriguing that we're living this kind of lifestyle up here but we're used to it and it's a pleasant way to live."

He said he hoped the film would help bring some business to their small cafe, which is one of Britain's most remote eateries.

"We've only had one customer since Christmas and they only wanted coffee and snacks, but we expect business to pick up in May," he told BBC Scotland.

The couple are already planning for this year's festive period, with Mr Ure joking: "This Christmas I'm going to be better prepared, and keep the wife on a shorter lead.

Divide Nigeria in two, says Muammar Gaddafi

2010-03-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Nigeria should be divided into two nations to avoid further bloodshed between Muslims and Christians, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said.

In a speech to students, he praised the example of India and Pakistan, where he said partition saved many lives.

Splitting Nigeria "would stop the bloodshed and burning of places of worship," state news agency Jana quoted him as saying.

A senior Nigerian diplomat said he did not take the suggestion seriously.

Hundreds of people have died in communal violence in villages around the central Nigerian city of Jos this year.

'Historic, radical solution'

Although the violence generally takes place between Muslim and Christian communities, the underlying causes are a complex mix of political, social and economic grievances.

Nigeria is roughly split between its largely Muslim north, and a Christian-dominated south.

Mr Gaddafi, until recently head of the African Union, characterised the Jos violence as a "deep conflict of religious nature" caused by the federal state, "which was made and imposed by the British in spite of the people's resistance to it".

He described the partition of India as a "historic, radical solution" which saved the lives of "millions of Hindus and Muslims".

Splitting India in 1947 caused a breakdown of law and order in which at least 200,000 people died. Some estimates say one million people were killed.

About 12 million people were left homeless and thousands were raped.

An attempt by the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria to secede in 1967 sparked a war which left more than one million people dead.

US sends FBI agents to investigate Mexico killings

2010-03-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

American FBI agents have been sent to the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez to investigate the deaths of three US citizens.

Three people connected to the consulate were killed in drive-by shootings on Saturday in two separate incidents.

The US state department said the killings underscored the "severe and significant danger" Mexico represents to the United States.

Mexico has blamed the killings on a gang linked to a drugs cartel.

But investigators have said it is too early to tell if those killed were deliberately targeted.

"It could be a mistaken identity, it could be that they were targeted; we don't know at this point," special agent Andrea Simmons, a spokesman for the FBI's El Paso, Texas, office told Agence France-Presse.

Some eight FBI agents will be working alongside Mexican authorities in the investigation, she added.

Flashpoint city

On Saturday, Lesley Enrique - a US citizen working at the Juarez consulate - her American husband, Arthur Redelf, and Jorge Alberto Sarcido - the Mexican husband of another consular employee - were shot dead in two separate incidents.

Both couples had just left a social event in the city when they were killed.

Enriquez, 35, and her 34-year-old husband were killed in a hail of bullets as they drove their car towards the US side of the border. Their one-year-old baby was found unharmed in the back seat.

In the second attack, gunmen opened fire on the car belonging to Jorge Alberto Sarcido, killing him and wounding his two children.

The state department said the killings were a "tragedy".

"We all share the determination that, ultimately, through a variety of means, we will take back these streets one community at a time," state spokesman PJ Crowley told a news briefing.

His comments come a day ahead of a visit to the city by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who will make his third tour this year of the country's most violent city to discuss the government's efforts to tackle organised crime.

Mexico is battling a drug war that has killed some 18,000 people since 2006.

Ciudad Juarez is a major flashpoint in the battle between Mexican drug gangs over trafficking routes to the US. More than 2,600 people were murdered there in drug-related violence last year alone.

Weymouth ridgeway skeletons 'Scandinavian Vikings'

2010-03-12T07:47:00.000-08:00

Fifty-one decapitated skeletons found in a burial pit in Dorset were those of Scandinavian Vikings, scientists say.

Mystery has surrounded the identity of the group since they were discovered at Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth, in June.

Analysis of teeth from 10 of the men revealed they had grown up in countries with a colder climate than Britain's.

Archaeologists from Oxford believe the men were probably executed by local Anglo Saxons in front of an audience sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030.

The Anglo Saxons were increasingly falling victim to Viking raids and eventually the country was ruled by a Danish king.

The mass grave is one of the largest examples of executed foreigners buried in one spot.

It was discovered during investigative excavation work before construction started on a controversial £87m relief road through the ridgeway.

Samples of 10 remains were identified as Scandinavian by Dr Jane Evans and Carolyn Chenery, of NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, part of the British Geological Survey, based in Nottingham.

Their work has revealed that the men had scattered Scandinavian origins, with one even thought to be from north of the Arctic Circle.

Isotopes in the men's teeth also show they had eaten a high protein diet, comparable with known sites in Sweden.

Initially, it was thought the burial site dated from the Iron Age (from 800 BC) to early Roman times (from AD 43) after examining pottery in the pit, later identified as a Roman quarry.

Radiocarbon dating later revealed they were from the Saxon period.

Oxford Archaeology removed the 51 skulls from the ground and are continuing to examine the remains to try to link the find to historical events.

Project manager David Score said: "To find out that the young men executed were Vikings is a thrilling development.

"Any mass grave is a relatively rare find, but to find one on this scale, from this period of history, is extremely unusual."

He added that without analysing all the bodies it was impossible to know for certain that all the skeletons were those of Vikings, but it was possible to make a "strong inference".

The archaeologists believe the men were stripped naked either before being killed, or before being buried, because there was no evidence of clothing, such as pins or toggles.

Most of them were in their late teens to early 20s, with a handful in their 30s.

Brazil entrepreneurs thrive on the web

2010-03-11T06:52:00.000-08:00

The internet is transforming people's lives in many different ways around the world - but is it making us individually richer and, if so, how?

Brazil is a country with a foot in two camps - part rich, mainly poor, so it's a good place to take the financial pulse of a global phenomenon like the internet.

Brazilians love the web. Not everyone has access, but those who do spend an average of 70 hours a month online, which is more than anywhere else in the world.

Less than a third of Brazilians have a connected computer at home, so most people go online at internet cafes, known locally as Lan Houses.

There are more than 100,000 Lan Houses dotted around the country.

Winning combination

The country's online revolution has created opportunities to establish small businesses that simply didn't exist before.

Fabio Seixas is a 35-year-old "serial entrepreneur" whose three previous businesses went bust.

But he appears to have struck gold with an innovative way of selling designer T-shirts online, by getting his customers to do much of the work.

His website runs online competitions asking people to submit designs for T-shirts, which are then displayed on the site and people vote for the ones they like best.

He then manufactures the winning entries.

It means he only produces goods he is sure customers will like, and in internet-crazy Brazil his online design competitions have become very popular.

"With a local shop, you don't have access to many people, but with the internet I can have customers all over this big country," he says.

He created his company with $7,000 five years ago, and now his turnover is $1m a year.

He says that it is hard for entrepreneurs to raise money in Brazil.

"We don't have access to venture capital and the banks are not lending money, but the internet allows us to start a business with low costs," he says.

"You have to be innovative to attract attention. We're doing well because people are talking about us."

Massive growth

Fabio's business is by no means an isolated case.

The growth of commerce in Brazil is not coming from the top 50 retailers, it comes from the other 10,000 retailers," says Romero Rodrigues, founder of BuscaPe, Brazil's first price comparison website.

He maintains that there is an ever-growing number of internet retailers, whose sales increase every year.

"Many of these companies began working from home, sometimes mom and pop businesses, and now they have 40 or 50 people working for them," he says.

He dropped out of college to found BuscaPe 12 years ago at the age of just 21.

His site helps people find cheap deals on goods ranging from Television sets to perfume.

He started in Brazil, but now BuscaPe has expanded across Latin America and Mr Rodrigues recently sold a 90% stake in the company to a South African electronic media company for more than $300m.

But he denies that the deal made him a multi-millionaire, as the proceeds were shared with other investors who had put money into BuscaPe to finance its rapid expansion.

Social advantages

The internet is also helping people who don't aspire to be entrepreneurs, in ways that open up income generating opportunities.

Paulo Ivan is unemployed and lives in a shelter in the country's commercial capital Sao Paulo.

He uses the internet to find work by emailing his CV in response to online job advertisements.

He logs on at a city council-run internet cafe known as a Telecentro, where internet access is available free of charge.

"This is a huge city so it is easier to look on the web than go walking from one employment agency to another," he explains.

"It saves a lot of time and I don't always have enough money for the bus or the subway, sometimes not even enough to eat," he adds.

The internet has given him hope and opened up new opportunities, even though it has not secured him a job recently.

"Unemployment is a serious problem here, people spend more time out of jobs than in them," he explains.

Changing habits

The growth of the web has also transformed the way services are delivered in Brazil.

Millions of Brazilians do their banking online, buy tickets for the theatre and, most importantly perhaps, interact with government via the web.

Administrative tasks that used to take hours of queuing and hassle at government offices can now be done in minutes online.

The internet helps people get personally richer in myriad small ways that add up to something big, according to economist Diane Coyle, author of a book The Weightless Economy.

"The internet gives people access to much more information, which they can use to find a job or get better qualified," she says.

"It also opens up new market opportunities" by making it easier, cheaper and quicker to buy and sell things.

The internet reduces what economists call "the transaction costs" of doing business.

It is in small ways like this, multiplied many times over, that the internet helps some people become a bit richer - and a few of them very wealthy indeed.

Sebastian Pinera sees Chile plans jolted by earthquake

2010-03-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

Sebastian Pinera will face one of the most daunting challenges ever confronted by a Chilean president when he takes office on Thursday, less than two weeks after the country was hit by a massive earthquake.

He has already acknowledged that his pre-election plans have largely gone up in smoke, and he will have to reassess everything in the light of the catastrophe.

It's still too early to know how much the reconstruction effort will cost, but estimates vary between $12bn (£8bn) and $30bn.

For a relatively small country like Chile, that represents up to 20% of gross domestic product, and Mr Pinera will have to divert funds from other areas to finance the rebuilding.

Even before he has taken his seat in the presidential palace, it seems that the die of his government has been cast.

"Ours will be a government of reconstruction," he said in a sombre news conference last week.

Mr Pinera made some bold promises during the election campaign: 6% annual growth over the next four years and the creation of a million new jobs.

Many analysts questioned those pledges at the time. Now they are even more sceptical.

So far, the new president has said little about how his plans will change, and those fine details are likely to emerge only in the next week or so, once he is in power.

But his interior minister and campaign manager, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, suggested there would have to be a major reassessment.

"It's as if you've been studying for an exam and then just when you're about to take it they change the subject," Mr Hinzpeter told Chilean newspaper El Mercurio at the weekend.

A responsible government has to refocus, re-evaluate and redesign its programme. But we won't use the earthquake as an excuse to abandon the key promises of our campaign."

Despite the enormity of the challenge, the earthquake and its aftermath could well play into Mr Pinera's hands.

Firstly, he is assuming office amid a tremendous outpouring of solidarity and patriotism.

Chileans have donated millions of dollars to help survivors of the 27 February quake, and everywhere you look in Santiago there are red, white and blue national flags draped across buildings.

If Mr Pinera can harness that feeling of goodwill and national defiance in the face of adversity, it could propel his government forward.

Secondly, the new president is likely to benefit from a bounce in the economy in the second half of this year, as the reconstruction effort kicks in. Analysts say the building boom will generate employment and offset much of the negative economic impact of the earthquake.

Thirdly, the mood in the country chimes with Mr Pinera's own centre-right agenda. During the election, for example, he campaigned on a tough law-and-order ticket, promising to crack down on crime.

After seeing survivors of the quake looting supermarkets - and in some cases making off with television sets and washing machines - Chileans might feel that Mr Pinera is on the right track.

'Off the hook'

When the army was deployed to stop the looting, many Chileans applauded. The public appears to have adopted a tougher, no-nonsense attitude towards crime and, so long as that persists, Mr Pinera might well prosper.

"It feels like there's been a shift to the political right," said Raul Sohr, a Chilean political analyst. "Suddenly people want someone in charge with a firm hand and that's what Pinera is offering."

Mr Sohr also said that to some extent, the quake "lets Pinera off the hook".

"If he meets his targets he can take the credit for it and if he doesn't he can always blame it on the impact of the earthquake

Mr Pinera has already taken some specific steps to confront the catastrophe.

Last week, he appointed new heads of regional government for the worst hit areas. They included two senior directors of major Chilean construction firms.

For now, Mr Pinera appears to have the public on his side.

A poll in El Mercurio at the weekend found that 56% of Chileans regarded his government as well-prepared for the task ahead.

On Thursday, he will take over from outgoing President Michelle Bachelet in a deliberately austere handover ceremony.

The sumptuous dinners have been cancelled and, instead, Ms Bachelet will simply hand him the red, white and blue presidential sash and wish him well.

From then on, this quake-shattered country is in his hands.

Lessons from Iraq's first-time voters

2010-03-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

In 2006 and 2007, Osama Salim didn't miss a single day's school at Baghdad College for boys.

That was quite an achievement.

Baghdad College is in Adhamiya, a largely Sunni Muslim district of Baghdad which for months was occupied and menaced by al Qaeda in Iraq.

They've gone now but the memory of those days is still vivid.

Of the 1,800 students at the college at the time, only about 300 made it regularly every morning.

I met Osama with four of his friends, all 18 years old - Atar Keyhan, Becker Shakir, Mustafa Ibrahim Younis and Mustafa Abdel Karim.

Last Sunday they all went out to vote for first time.

Osama didn't make it to the polling station - soldiers wouldn't let him pass. The others succeeded.

"It was great voting for the first time," they said, "It was great to choose our leaders. It was a great feeling."

They all agreed when one of them said: "Voting is an obligation."

I asked them if they had access to the internet at home. Three said "Yes."

I asked them if they used Facebook. "Sometimes." They find it a useful way of making contact with other students in Iraq and overseas.

But they don't think Facebook and the internet are very important parts of their lives.

They are more concerned about incessant power cuts in Baghdad and water that isn't fit to drink.

And there was a clear message to students in Britain. They should count themselves lucky and have a serious attitude to studying and work hard - and not spend valuable time on frivolous things like Facebook.

Occupation

I asked if because of all the challenges in Iraq, did they automatically work hard?

"Yes, yes," they chorused, "There is no free time. We work all the time we have."

As the British elections are looming, I wondered if these Baghdad students were aware of the main party leaders in the UK. Gordon Brown? Yes. David Cameron? Silence. Nick Clegg? Blank faces.

One of the students was disappointed that Gordon Brown had defended the invasion of Iraq when he gave evidence at the current Chilcott Enquiry into the Iraq War.

"It was an occupation. The occupation of Iraq was a great error," he said.

All these students are football-crazy. All Iraq is football-crazy. I asked Osama, Atar, Becker and the two Mustafas which national and club teams they supported.

Brazil and Liverpool. Argentina and Barcelona. England and Real Madrid. Egypt and Liverpool. France and Barcelona.

Five young Baghdad students, all speaking to me in fluent English at a college that was founded by American Jesuits in 1932.

When it became clear that these Christian priests had no predatory intentions to convert students to Christianity, they were accepted - partly because of an ethic the Jesuits shared with their Iraqi students: hard work.

Mystery of 75 starlings falling from the sky

2010-03-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

The deaths of 75 starlings which appeared to fall from the sky and crash land on to a driveway in Somerset has mystified the RSPCA animal charity.

The birds were spotted falling onto the entrance of a house in Coxley in Somerset on Sunday 7 March.

Animal welfare officer Alison Sparkes, who was called by police, said: "It was a remarkable sight, I've never seen anything like it."

There is no evidence the birds were ill or poisoned before they hit the ground.

Predator theory

Ms Sparkes said: "Onlookers said they heard a whooshing sound and then the birds just hit the ground.

"They had fallen on to the ground in quite a small area, about 12ft (3.6m) in diameter.

"They appeared to be in good condition other than injuries that they appear to have suffered when they hit they ground.

"Our best guess is that this happened because the starlings were trying to escape a predator such as a sparrow hawk and ended up crash landing."

She said that the birds had suffered broken beaks, broken legs and wings and abdominal injuries.

Five of the birds survived the fall but had to be put down because of their severe injuries.

Afghanistan does not want 'proxy wars', says Karzai

2010-03-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

Afghanistan does not want other countries' "proxy wars" fought on its soil, President Hamid Karzai has said.

He was speaking following talks with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad, and a day after Iran and the US traded blows over their activities in Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai said he did not want India and Pakistan, or anyone else, to fight their wars on his country's territory.

Parties to the Afghan conflict are rethinking policy ahead of 2011 when the US says it will begin to withdraw.

Pakistan role

Mr Karzai is making his first visit to Pakistan since his controversial re-election last year.

The trip comes amid an expected surge of Western troops in Afghanistan this summer. It also follows the recent arrests of Taliban leaders in Pakistan which indicate the military there may be willing to reign in the militants.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says Mr Karzai is visiting Pakistan amid a thaw in relations between the two countries on the one hand, and some fundamental shifts in the regional situation on the other.

The Afghan leader held detailed meetings with both President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He has also met Pakistan's army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani. Before heading to Islamabad, he had a meeting with the visiting US defence secretary Robert Gates.

"Without Pakistan and without its co-operation with Afghanistan, Afghanistan cannot be stable or peaceful," Mr Karzai told a news conference in Islamabad.

"It is also, I believe, recognised in Pakistan that without a stable and peaceful Afghanistan there cannot be stability or peace in Pakistan.

"Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan. It does not want a proxy war between Iran and the United States in Afghanistan," he said.

Mr Karzai also called on Islamabad to hand over the alleged Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrested last month. Mr Gilani said his government was still considering the request.

Our correspondent says the purpose of Mr Karzai's visit appears to be to take Pakistani leaders into his confidence on the impending Western troop surge, and to find out to what extent Pakistani political and military leaders would be willing to withdraw support from the Taliban.

For their part, the Pakistanis need guarantees against Indian influence in Afghanistan, our correspondent says.

They are also keen to have a role in training the Afghan forces, a proposal which Mr Karzai has reportedly cold-shouldered for the moment.

On Wednesday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad paid a short visit to Kabul. He accused the US of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan after the US used the same term to condemn Iran's role.

Sweden to extradite Auschwitz sign theft suspect

2010-03-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

A court in Stockholm has ruled that a Swedish man can be extradited to Poland to face trial over the theft of a sign from the Auschwitz death camp.

Investigators accuse Anders Hogstrom, 34, of instigating the theft of the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei sign from the camp gates last December.

The sign was recovered shortly afterwards, cut into three pieces.

Mr Hogstrom, 34, a former neo-Nazi leader, is likely to appeal against his extradition, his lawyer said.

Five Polish men have already been arrested over the theft.

The sign, which weighs 40kg (90lb), was half-unscrewed, half-torn from above the death camp's gate.

The 5m (16ft) wrought iron sign - the words on which translate as "Work sets you free" - symbolises for many the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

The theft caused outrage in Israel, Poland and around the world. More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in occupied Poland during World War II.

Bank of America sued for seizing parrot

2010-03-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

Bank of America has apologised to a woman in Pennsylvania after one of its contractors entered her house, damaged furniture and confiscated her parrot.

Angela Iannelli has filed a lawsuit alleging that the incident in October caused her so much "emotional distress" that she needed medication for anxiety.

It took her more than a week to secure the release of Luke, a blue macaw.

A BoA spokesman said it had erroneously believed Ms Iannelli was defaulting on her mortgage and the house was vacant.

'Zero tolerance'

An employee had sent the contractor to the property with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise "secure" it, he said.

He added that the bank had "zero tolerance for this kind of error", and would quickly review the lawsuit and "consider any hardship that resulted".

In her civil suit seeking $50,000 in damages, Ms Iannelli said the BoA contractor had invaded her home north of Pittsburgh while she was away, stopped utility services, cut water pipes and electrical wiring, damaged flooring and finishings, poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets and stolen her parrot, according to the Wall Street Journal.

She said that when she rang BoA to protest, its representatives first denied knowing where the parrot was, and later told her she could go to the offices of the contractor, about 80 miles away, to retrieve the bird herself.

Bank officials also allegedly told her they were "tired" of hearing from her, hung up, and advised her to seek help from the police.

Ms Iannelli told the Wall Street Journal that although Luke had initially seemed nervous, he was "doing very well now".

Camberley mosque plan rejected by council

2010-03-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Plans to build a mosque in Camberley have been thrown out by councillors.

The local Bengali Association's bid to build a mosque on the site of a listed former school building was rejected by Surrey Heath Borough Council.

Local historians and residents had opposed the plans, saying the town's heritage needed to be protected.

Nigel Farage, the UK Independence Party MEP for the South East, described the full council's decision as "the right result for the people of Camberley".

'Fair and just'

He said: "The initial planning application should have been thrown out as the building in question is listed and is sited in a conservation area.

"This was never about religion, but about the fair and just process that applies to everyone no matter what faith or belief."

The plan involved knocking down the listed Victorian school building in London Road, which is about half a mile away from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

It was originally home to Yorktown Infants and Primary schools, before later becoming St Gregory's Roman Catholic school.

When the school closed, the building was sold to the Berkshire, Hampshire & Surrey Bengali Welfare Association which has been using it as an Islamic Centre since 1996.

The association argued that the building no longer met the needs of the growing local Muslim community, and people wanted to worship in a mosque and not in a school.

The plans had been approved by Surrey Heath Borough Council's planning committee earlier this year, but overturned on a technicality.

Drone raid 'kills 12' in north-west Pakistan

2010-03-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Two missile strikes by US drone aircraft have killed at least 12 suspected militants in north-west Pakistan, security officials say.

The attacks took place in the tribal area of North Waziristan.

The identities of those killed in the attack, the latest of more than a dozen this year, are not yet known.

North and South Waziristan are known to provide sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, who are often targeted by drones.

Locals say the attacks have destroyed many training camps and compounds. They have also killed dozens of local and foreign militants, officials say.

Wednesday's first strike took place at Mizar Madakhel village, some 50km (30 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. This was followed by a second attack in the same area.

The first attack targeted a vehicle and a compound which were being used by suspected militants, killing eight of them, reports say.

The second strike targeted two vehicles, which killed another four.

Correspondents say the United States has stepped up drone attacks in the region since seven CIA officers died in a suicide bomb attack at a US base across the border in Afghanistan last December.

More than 700 people have died in nearly 80 drone strikes since August 2008.

Pakistan has publicly criticised drone attacks, saying they fuel support for militants, but observers say the authorities privately condone the strikes.

The American military does not routinely confirm drone operations, but analysts say the US is the only force capable of deploying such aircraft in the region.

Pakistan cricket crackdown 'five years too late'

2010-03-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

Pakistani cricket is at a crossroads once again.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), headed by former Test cricketer Ijaz Butt, finally woke up from a deep slumber on Wednesday to dish out unprecedented penalties to a number of leading cricketers.

In what is seen as a landmark disciplinary action following last December's disastrous tour of Australia, ex-skippers Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf were barred from the national team indefinitely, while one-year bans were given to senior all-rounders Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan for poor conduct.

Heavy fines were imposed on Shahid Afridi for ball tampering and Kamran Akmal and brother Umar for flouting rules and obstinate behaviour during the tour.

All the players have the right to appeal against their punishment.

Player power

The Australian tour debacle was, indeed, the last straw for Pakistani cricket, which has been grappling with a range of problems of late.

These include cancelled home series due to security fears, the 2009 terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, the IPL snub, the growing menace of player power and the thorny issue of the captaincy.

Against this backdrop, Wednesday's decisions have been widely hailed by fans and former cricketers alike - with only a few complaining of a "harsh" verdict. There is much applause, too, for the PCB officials for a rare show of spine while calls for wholesale changes are deafening.

But while the motives behind the decisions are laudable, the haphazard manner in which they are likely to be carried out could see Pakistani cricket sink deeper into the quagmire.

Many experts of the game believe that the verdict has come five years too late. A similar crackdown in 2005-06, they feel, could have yielded far-reaching results.

Then, Inzamam-ul-Haq and his followers were making the PCB dance to their beat, selecting their "favoured lot" match-after-match, at the expense of the hapless selectors, and equally undermining the authority of a high-profile foreign coach, the late Bob Woolmer.

Those were the initial indicators of a re-emergence of player power and needed to be nipped in the bud.

'Tough cops'

The PCB, however, never known for its prompt actions, continued to tolerate it and that finally culminated in the country's shameful campaign at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, tragically marred by Woolmer's death.

Yousuf, Younis, Malik, Afridi and Akmal were all an integral part of the squad then and witnessed their predecessors getting away with a lot worse than that which they are accused of today.

Since then, while their talents have been obvious for all to see, people have often questioned their value to Pakistani cricket.

The rampant controversies, their ugly tussle over the captaincy, and the no-holds barred arguments with the team management have not only hurt Pakistani cricket, they have also in some way influenced younger players, leading to the flop Down Under.

There's no doubt that bad governance from politically motivated, less-than-competent cricket board officials has also contributed hugely to the current cricket scenario.

More often than not, it has been the PCB heads themselves - including Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, Shaharyar Khan, Dr Nasim Ashraf and now Ijaz Butt - who have made monsters out of level-headed, talented players like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Afridi and many others.

And although Ijaz Butt and Co have suddenly decided to play tough cops, the indiscipline culture is so well entrenched in the team that any half-hearted move could jeopardise the country's future in the game.

The first big international assignment ahead is the World Twenty20 in the West Indies, scheduled for late April and May. The much-hyped campaign for the defending champions is bound to be affected by today's decisions, unless the PCB is prepared to conduct a complete overhaul.

With the emergence of a number of talented under-19 players - Hammad Azam, Mohammad Waqas and Raza Hassan - coupled with young talents like Mohammad Aamir, Umar Akmal and others, Pakistan could still do well, provided those who have been penalised are not allowed to take control once again.

Boris Berezovsky wins Litvinenko poison spy libel case

2010-03-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

Businessman Boris Berezovsky has won a libel case over allegations he was behind the murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.

He was awarded £150,000 ($224,000) at the High Court over a claim made by Russian TV channel RTR Planeta.

Mr Berezovsky, 63, said he had been a friend and supporter of Mr Litvinenko and the comments were "outrageous".

Mr Litvinenko, a fierce critic of ex-Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with polonium in 2006.

'No evidence'

Mr Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch who lives in Surrey, said outside the court he had tried to protect his reputation and was satisfied with the judgement.

He later said he had "no doubt" RTR and the Russian authorities tried to undermine his asylum status in the UK and put the murder investigation of Mr Litvinenko on the "wrong track.

I am pleased that the court, through its judgement, has unequivocally demolished RTR's claims," he said.

"I trust the conclusions of the British investigators that the trail leads to Russia and I hope that one day justice will prevail."

The state-owned channel RTR had boycotted the hearing claiming the court had robbed it of the opportunity to defend itself.

The allegations were made on its programme Vesti Nedeli, the equivalent of BBC Two's Newsnight, which is available by satellite in the UK.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Eady told the court in London: "I can say unequivocally that there is no evidence before me that Mr Berezovsky had any part in the murder of Mr Litvinenko.

Nor, for that matter, do I see any basis for reasonable grounds to suspect him of it."

The Russian, who was granted political asylum in the UK in September 2003, was suing over the broadcast in April 2007.

It suggested the motive was that Mr Litvinenko had witnessed an attempt by Mr Berezovsky to avoid extradition and obtain political asylum by obtaining false evidence.

He was alleged to have procured the false account - that there was a security service plot to kill him - from a Vladimir Terluk.

Mr Terluk denied in court he was the person called Pyotr featured in silhouette in the programme, but the judge said he had "no doubt".

The broadcast suggested Mr Berezovsky was party to threats to Mr Terluk's life, but Mr Berezovsky insisted it was propaganda designed to threaten his asylum status and security.

'Criminal on run'

Both RTR and Mr Terluk are liable for the damages, but the judge said Mr Terluk was not personally responsible for the claim Mr Berezovsky was implicated in Mr Litvinenko's murder.

Mr Berezovsky had earlier told the court he first met Mr Litvinenko, whom he knew as Sasha, in 1994 when Mr Litvinenko was working for the Federal Counter-intelligence Service.

He said his friend had twice saved his life - in an explosion in Moscow which killed his driver and in a stand-off during a police raid.

Mr Berezovsky said: "We shared a dramatic and dangerous history - he had helped me and I him, and, fundamentally, we shared the same enemy."

He said he visited Mr Litvinenko several times when he fell ill and was shocked when he was told his friend had ingested polonium.

Mr Litvinenko had met two Russian men, one a former KGB security officer, at a hotel in London before he fell ill.

In November 2007, Mr Berezovsky was sentenced to six years in jail in his absence for stealing millions of pounds from the Russian airline carrier Aeroflot in the 1990s. He described the verdict by a Moscow court as "a farce".

Then, in June last year he was sentenced to 13 years in his absence for stealing thousands of cars from Avtovaz, also in the 1990s.

Mr Justice Eady said: "In the eyes of many people, including Russian speakers living in this country, Mr Berezovsky has acquired the reputation of a criminal on the run from Russian justice.

"On the other hand, he is seen by others as a political dissident who is working for justice and democratisation. Many see the criminal proceedings against him as politically motivated."

China to build new international airport in Sri Lanka

2010-03-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

China is to lend Sri Lanka about $200m (£133m) to build a second international airport in the south of the island.

Another $100m from Beijing will help boost the island's railway network, Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said.

The new airport will be near a vast sea port which is being largely funded with Chinese money.

China is financing a growing number of such projects in Sri Lanka, which some see as an attempt to undermine Indian influence in the region.

The two countries are vying for contracts in Sri Lanka following the end of more than 20 years of civil war.

'Best terms'

Last week, the Sri Lankan government said China was supplying more than half of all the construction and development loans it was receiving.

Work has already started on the airport.

It is close to the massive sea port under construction at Hambantota, which is largely being funded by the Chinese government's lending arm, the Export-Import Bank.

Both projects have the same Chinese state-owned company as contractor, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo.

The projects Beijing is financing include a host of road improvements in the formerly war-torn north, a huge theatre in the capital and coal power plants, our correspondent says.

They are built by Chinese contractors and use large numbers of Chinese workers.

Analysts in Sri Lanka say there is some unhappiness among Sri Lankan companies and workers who feel they are missing out.

They say Chinese interest rates are higher than those levied by Japan or the Asian Development Bank - but that Chinese projects happen more quickly and with fewer advance studies.

The government, however, says China is simply offering the best terms.

Some officials in India, Sri Lanka's neighbour and China's rival, have said they fear Beijing is trying to undermine Delhi's influence in the region through its economic assistance.

India, for its part, has just announced a credit of $70m to help upgrade Sri Lanka's southern railway line.

Barack Obama says situation in quake-hit Haiti 'dire'

2010-03-10T21:05:00.000-08:00

US President Barack Obama has warned of a second disaster in Haiti, saying people should be under no illusion that the crisis there is over.

Mr Obama said the situation in Haiti remained "dire" almost two months after the earthquake struck.

He was speaking after talks with Haitian President Rene Preval in Washington.

Mr Obama told Mr Preval that the US would continue to help Haiti in its recovery and reconstruction efforts.

He praised Mr Preval for being a "profile in courage" in the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude quake.

Mr Obama said there remained a desperate need for humanitarian help, especially as seasonal rains could threaten the more than a million Haitians left homeless by the quake on 12 January.

Rapid reaction force

"The challenge now is to prevent a second disaster, and that is why at this very moment, thousands of Americans, both civilian and military, remain on the scene at the invitation of the Haitian government," Mr Obama said.

The US president also pledged to continue to help Haiti in the long term.

"Even as the US military responsibly hands off relief functions to our Haitian and international partners, America's commitment to Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must endure and will endure," he said.

Mr Preval thanked the US for the material and moral support it had provided.

More than 20,000 US civilian and military personnel have taken part in the relief efforts, according to figures released by the White House.

Mr Preval said that while the response to the disaster had been massive and generous, it could have been more effective.

He also called for the creation of a United Nations rapid response team to provide humanitarian help when natural disasters struck.

"I support the idea of the creation of so-called 'red helmets' within the United Nations and these would be an observatory, a warning provisional system for natural disasters and a humanitarian force which will be the equivalent of the 'blue helmets'," Mr Preval said.

Ex-rebels accused of extortion in DR Congo mines

2010-03-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

Former rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who now serve in the army are running mafia-style extortion rackets in the mines, campaigners say.

The country has some of the world's richest mines, which provide minerals to the global electronics industry.

Ex-rebels of the CNDP group are said to have gained far greater control of the mines than they did as insurgents.

Campaign group Global Witness says the government and international community have failed to demilitarise the mines.

The ongoing conflict in Eastern Congo, which has claimed some six million lives in a little more than a decade, has long revolved over access to its mineral wealth, not just by DR Congo but also its neighbour Rwanda through its proxy forces.

After last year's high profile government offensive against one rebel group which controlled many of the mines in Eastern Congo, the military has moved in and transferred power to a competing armed group.

A move to integrate rebels from the CNDP - whose leader Laurent Nkunda has been under house arrest in Rwanda since last year - into Congo's national army has seen them enjoying more control of the country's mineral wealth than ever before, according to Global Witness investigators.

In one mine in South Kivu, civilian miners claimed they were being forced to pay $10 each to the military for permission to spend a night working in the mines.

Researchers say that instead of protecting civilians, the military is taxing them illegally, and subjecting them to abuse.

They also claim that high profile international companies are still knowingly sourcing minerals from these militarised mines - a contravention of UN sanctions, which campaigners say are not being enforced.

Are Indonesian terror networks regrouping?

2010-03-10T06:07:00.000-08:00

The Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has confirmed that the man killed in a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta on Tuesday was the widely sought terror suspect Dulmatin.

He was allegedly one of the key members of the group which helped to plan and carry out the attacks in Bali in 2002, killing 202 people, mainly foreigners.

Nicknamed the "Genius of Jemaah Islamiah (JI)", he has been on Indonesia's most wanted list for years, and is thought to be one of the few members of the militant group able to assemble and explode sophisticated bombs.

The raid, which killed three militants including Dulmatin, is believed to have links to the group of alleged militants they captured last month in Aceh.

He was the supplier of weapons and funding. He may have had even bigger roles in the group but for now that's what we have evidence for," Edward Aritonang, a spokesman for the Indonesian police told journalists.

"We have evidence of the weapons and ammunitions, and the flow of funding."

But security analysts say that while the recent killing and capturing of alleged militants across Indonesia is a sign that police are doing their job, it also shows a possible rejuvenation of terror networks in the country.

Splinter groups?

"The key question is how the people who participated in the training camp got to Aceh," says Sidney Jones, an Indonesian anti-terror expert with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG). It looks like this group is a composite of people from a number of different militant groups like Jemaah Islamiah, Kompak and Darul Islam, who are frustrated with what they see as a lack of action within these groups. They're more radical, and apparently see themselves as Indonesia's al-Qaeda."

Noor Huda, an independent security analyst agrees. He thinks that the raid on the alleged militant training camp in Aceh shows that there are elements within Indonesia who are still actively pursuing terrorist activities.

"How do you build a training camp in this remote part of Aceh without the support of others in the country, without weapons, without funding?" Mr Huda told the BBC.

"This shows that there are people who provided the money, people who housed the alleged militants, local networks that ideologically support the aims of this group.

"It is not clear what their goal is, but it's clear they exist and are operating here."

This news is potentially troubling for authorities who had hoped that their efforts to stamp out terrorism in the archipelago over the last few years had been successful.

'Radical ideologies'

Indonesia's anti-terror unit has been under pressure to show results in its efforts to clamp down on militancy ever since the July bombings in 2009.

Twin bombs were exploded in two luxury hotels in the heart of Jakarta, killing nine people, including two suicide bombers, and injuring dozens more.

The deadly blasts, coming after four years of relative peace and quiet, shattered the image of Indonesia as a safe nation and rocked the confidence of the international community in the country's ability to tackle terror.

Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia's anti-terror chief, says there is no easy solution to eliminating terror cells in the country but the Aceh group does not necessarily point to a rise in militancy in Indonesia.

"I'm not sure if this means there's a rejuvenation of terrorist networks in the country, but it is evidence that terrorism is latent," he told the BBC.

"As long as radical ideology exists, terrorists will always exist. The fact remains that there are still one or more figures in local mosques that are teaching radical ideologies and support terrorist activities.

"But we have to be careful not to brand these places as institutions that support terrorism, it's just a few individuals within those institutions."

Security will be one of the key issues discussed during a planned visit by US President Barack Obama to Indonesia later in March.

America has been positioning Indonesia as a modern Muslim nation, a country that has successfully managed to tackle terror threats in the past.

Boeing wins as EADS gives up mid-air refuelling battle

2010-03-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

Efforts to unseat Boeing from its top spot in US aerospace have come to nought.

US defence behemoth Northrop Grumman and Boeing's European arch rival EADS have failed in efforts to wrestle from Boeing a particularly mundane, albeit hugely lucrative, role as the lead provider of aircraft refuelling for military aircraft.

For a while it looked as if they had succeeded.

In February 2008, the EADS/Northrop Grumman joint bid was awarded a long-running contract for aerial refuelling tankers, which fill up military aircraft with fuel mid-flight.

At some $35bn to $40bn (£23bn to £27bn), the order for KC-30 Advanced Multi-role Tanker Transport planes was set to become the second-biggest US defence contract yet.

Indeed, at the time it was thought it could have risen in value to more than $100bn over the next 30 years, which would have made it the biggest by far.

But Boeing, which has been supplying the United States Air Force with KC-135 flying refuelling tankers for decades, fought back.

For starters, the US giant engaged in passionate patriot games, with full-page newspaper adverts playing the "American jobs" card.

The company also formally raised more than 100 protest points. In the end, US government auditors upheld eight of them and the Pentagon changed its mind and pulled the plug on the deal, inviting the rivals back for a new beauty contest.

Cross-subsidies?

Two years later, EADS and Northrop Grumman has now withdrawn from the competition, with EADS chief executive Louis Gallois declaring: "We deeply regret that the United States Air Force will not get the best available airplane.

So in the end, it seems Boeing has won the day with its KC-7A7 project - featuring a vision rather than anything firm, as the company has yet to build its new tanker.

So far, all it has is a plan to modify one of Boeing's existing civilian freighter planes, such as the 767F or the 777F.

Such a plan to modify a civilian aircraft to deliver a military capability help provide ammunition for critics - including EADS and its subsidiary Airbus - which say Boeing's civilian and defence divisions cross-subsidise each other and thus enable them to undercut rivals.

Poisoned relationships

Losing the potentially lucrative tanker contract leaves EADS with a number of troubled projects that may well drain its resources rather than fill its coffers in the years ahead.

They include the A400M transport plane project, which was saved from closure last week by an additional 3.5bn euros ($4.8bn; £3.2bn) from seven European governments, as well as the slow-selling A380 giant passenger plane and the costly-to-develop, smaller A350XWB.

But the company also has 9bn euros in cash reserves and it expects revenues this year to come in close to last year's 42.8bn euros.

So rather than focusing on EADS's ability to cope without the tanker contract, it may be more relevant to consider how the affair will have affected relations between it and Boeing, as well as between Europe and the US.

Suggestions that the Pentagon actively tailored its tanker criteria to fit the Boeing pitch have been refuted, though EADS and Northrop Grumman nevertheless insist their bid was never given a fair hearing.

The row leaves a bitter taste that may well poison cross-Atlantic relations for years to come.

Spanish hostage in Africa freed

2010-03-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

A Spanish woman kidnapped in West Africa last year has been freed, the Spanish government says.

There are unconfirmed reports that an Italian woman held by the same group has also been released.

Spaniard Alicia Gamez, and Italian Philomene Kaboure, both 39, were seized last year and held by a militant group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

They were seized separately in Mauritania, and then held in neighbouring Mali.

Two other male Spaniards and another Italian - Ms Kaboure's husband - are still being held.

The two hostages were released in Burkina Faso, according to diplomatic sources cited by Spanish, French and Italian media.

The Spanish government later confirmed Ms Gamez' release, but there has been no confirmation about Ms Kaboure.

Ransom demands

The three Spanish aid workers were snatched from a convoy by armed men on a road between the Mauritanian cities of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou on 29 November.

Ms Kaboure and her husband, Sergio Cicala, 65, were seized the following month.

They were all taken to northern Mali.

A Frenchman seized in Mali in November and held by the same group was released last month after its demand that Mali release four prisoners was met.

The Mauritanian government reacted with outrage, saying giving in to the demands would encourage further kidnapping.

Spanish media reported recently that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had demanded a ransom to release the hostages, and El Mundo newspaper alleged that the Spanish government was in the process of paying.

Vatican forced to defend itself over abuse cases

2010-03-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

As accusations of historic sexual abuse by Roman Catholics emerge in another European country, the Vatican has insisted it has dealt with "the very serious issue" promptly and decisively.

After recent revelations of widespread abuse in Ireland, and claims of similar mistreatment of children by priests in Austria and Germany, Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have now set up an independent inquiry to look into allegations there.

More than 200 reports of abuse have been made to a victims' support organisation in the last few days.

Dutch bishops have offered their apologies to those who were abused.

The Church in Ireland is already struggling to repair relations with a disillusioned public after three official reports in the past five years detailed abuse stretching over several decades and condemned the Church for keeping it secret.

Pope Benedict is expected to issue a letter to be read out in Catholic churches in Ireland later this month, in which he will respond publicly to the scandal.

'Wall of silence'

The allegations from Germany are particularly sensitive, because the Pope was born in the country, and because they include a choir led by his brother Georg.

Reports surfaced last month that Catholic priests had sexually abused more than 170 children at Jesuit schools in Germany.

Those have been followed by fresh allegations of abuse at three Catholic schools in Bavaria, and within a boys' choir that was directed for 30 years by Monsignor Georg Ratzinger.

Monsignor Ratzinger said he was aware that children had been beaten at schools attended by the choristers.

However, he said he knew nothing of the kind of sex abuse now being reported.

In Austria the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg has resigned after admitting to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy more than four decades ago.

Criticism of the Church has intensified in Germany, with an accusation by the justice minister that bishops behaved secretively in dealing with even severe cases of abuse.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said: "In many schools there was a wall of silence allowing for abuse and violence."

Church officials called the minister's remarks "absurd", and the Vatican insisted that Roman Catholic leaders had "shown a desire for transparency".

Authority at risk

Its spokesman, Frederico Lombardi said the Church had accelerated the process of unearthing abuse by encouraging victims to speak out about old cases.

Fr Lombardi acknowledged "the gravity of the anguish the Church is going through", adding that it was striving for better protection for children as well as its own "purification".

However, he insisted that the problem of sex abuse - although especially reprehensible when it happened inside the Church - was a problem belonging to the whole of society.

The Church is already fighting a battle against secularisation in Western Europe, and the steady erosion of its influence.

There are demands for modernisation, especially the ending of celibacy for priests, fiercely resisted by Pope Benedict.

The experience of the Catholic Church in the United States shows how damaging a long drawn out scandal of sex abuse could be to the Church's authority and prestige in Europe too.

China's exports see sharp increase

2010-03-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

China's exports jumped by 46% in February compared with a year ago, raising hopes of a strong recovery in global trade.

The increase was higher than analysts' expectations of a rise of between 35% and 40%.

It is likely to increase pressure on the Chinese government to raise the value of the yuan, which the US in particular complains is undervalued.

China's imports also rose strongly, increasing by 44.7% last month.

The big growth in imports was helped by the government's economic stimulus spending.

The rise in imports reduced China's trade surplus to a one-year low of $7.6bn (£5bn) for February.

Yuan to rise?

Beijing had kept the yuan at the same level against the US dollar for 18 months, to help its exporters.

This has angered the US, which says the Chinese government keeps the yuan unfairly undervalued, and Washington continues to call on Beijing to allow the currency to float freely to reflect its true market value.

"The recovery seems to have gained legs and this will give China's government more confidence to start revaluing the yuan," said Ren Xianfang, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Beijing.

However, China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said at the weekend that the government was "very cautious" about easing exchange rate controls because the global economic outlook was still uncertain.

'Pretty impressive'

Analysts said that while the 46% growth in exports in February was obviously very strong, it was inflated by the comparison with February 2009, when shipments fell by 25.7%.

However, last month's big rise in exports came despite factories across the country being closed for up to five days over the Chinese New Year.

Last year the New Year festival fell in January.

"There were five fewer [business] days in February this year than last year, which makes [the export] number pretty impressive," said Royal Bank of Canada senior strategist Brian Jackson.

Probe call over 'triple suicide' at Glasgow tower block

2010-03-09T04:24:00.000-08:00

Calls have been made for a public inquiry after a family of Russian asylum seekers in Glasgow apparently committed suicide.

The father, mother and son are believed to have jumped from the 15th floor of a tower block at the Red Road flats in the city's Springburn area on Sunday.

Positive Action in Housing said it was organising a demonstration outside the UK Border Agency in Glasgow on Tuesday.

It called for an inquiry and an end to "barbaric" asylum system practices.

The BBC understands the Russian couple and their son had previously been granted asylum in Canada but left after a dispute with the authorities there.

They first arrived in the UK in 2007 and had been living at the tower block at 63 Petershill Drive, which is currently let to the YMCA.

Their application to remain in the UK had recently been refused but they had not been issued with a removal order.

According to a source familiar with the case, the family had been told that they had to leave their flat in Springburn after their application was refused.

No removal order had been issued, however, and they were advised to seek help from the Scottish Refugee Council to find alternative accommodation.

The family are believed to have jumped to their deaths shortly before 0845 GMT on Sunday.

The bodies were discovered by the concierge at the tower block after they had fallen from the 15th floor.

Police said there did not appear to be any suspicious circumstances.

In a statement, Positive Action in Housing said: "We believe there should be a public inquiry into these deaths, and the impact of the UK Border Agency and its terror campaign - disguised as asylum policy - on the lives of asylum seekers who have lived here for years but live in permanent fear of destitution, detention and removal.

"Many asylum seekers flee persecution or death, only to be terrorised by the prospect of removal back to an unsafe country, and in the process face destitution or long term detention.

"The current asylum system is based on the false premise that all asylum seekers are bogus. We need a complete rethink."

'Could be better'

John Wilkes, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, told BBC Radio Scotland that while he would not comment on this specific case, the asylum system could be improved.

"One of the things that we continue to call for is much better clarity for people who are going through the system about what's happening, what the next steps might be and what the options might be.

"That's certainly something that has improved but its could be better.

"People also see other people in the system, maybe who've been refused, getting a claim on appeal, so we need to improve the quality of decision making at the first stage, so that there are fewer appeals in the system."

Prime minister shot down Ireland overflying request

2010-03-09T04:19:00.001-08:00

Graffiti in Belfast in the 80s used to comment on the blue skies of Ulster and the "grey skies" of the Irish Republic, but the prospect of Irish planes over NI skies had been causing raised eyebrows in Stormont three decades earlier.

In 1952, the Air Ministry in London was proposing to open two navigational schools, one in Bishop's Court, County Fermanagh and the other at Langford Lodge, County Antrim, for RAF pilots.

The aim was for the airmen to become proficient in land and sea navigation and, as part of this, M H O'Grady from the ministry approached the Stormont administration on reciprocal overflying with the Irish Republic.

A file of confidential memos, released by the NI Public Records Office under the Freedom of Information Act, details how the Air Ministry plan was shot down by the NI administration.

Mr O'Grady said that it would be valuable for pilots based in Northern Ireland to occasionally "overfly Eire airspace" on training exercises, but that the Irish would want the same courtesy for the skies over Northern Ireland.

He wanted the Stormont government to liaise with the Dublin administration to see if an accommodation could be reached, but signalled he was aware of possible sensitivities.

Coat trailing

"Such right might, if exercised, cause no small uproar in the North, particularly if organised so as to overfly Londonderry on 12 July which I am credibly informed is the anniversary of a memorable fracas on the Boyne," he wrote to the Northern Ireland Liaison officer in Whitehall, A J Kelly.

Mr Kelly replied that he did not think the Irish would "deliberately trail their coats" but would want to make use of the facilities themselves and forwarded the request to the NI Cabinet Secretariat.

Agreeing to raise the matter with his political masters, A Robinson at Stormont said that the matter was a political one rather than a security issue and thought it unlikely that "an Eire plane would smoke-write in the skies on 12 July such heretical sentiments as 'Up James!'."

However, he noted that there was the potential for "nasty talk" should an Irish plane sporting a tricolour overfly a field being used for an Orange Order Twelfth demonstration, but added that this was also "unlikely".

The request however, was vetoed by the unionist Prime Minister Sir Basil Brooke.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Gransden informed the Air Ministry that the prime minister refused the request because "there are serious objections to granting such a request in view of the attitude of the authorities in the Republic to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland".

At the time, the Irish constitution claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland.

After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, this was amended to outlining the will of the Irish people for a united Ireland but one to be achieved peacefully and with the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.

NI house prices 'still falling'

2010-03-09T04:11:00.000-08:00

House prices in Northern Ireland are still falling, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Its latest survey which is paid for by the Ulster Bank - showed house sales are increasing but remain a long way from "normal levels".

Since the peak of the property boom in the summer of 2007, its estimated that house prices in Northern Ireland have fallen by around 40%.

A spokesman said the local economy was facing a slow, uneven recovery.

There is no hope for a 'fast fix' in the housing market.

RICS Northern Ireland housing spokesman Tom McClelland said the number of houses being bought and sold was up - but marginally - and levels were far from normal.

"The housing market, like the economy, is in recovery mode. However, like the economy, recovery in the housing market is going to be slow," Mr McClelland said.

"Housing transaction levels, which are the most important factor in the housing market recovery, are rising, but at a marginal rate, and are still a long way off what you could call normal levels.

'Sluggish'

"In terms of prices, there continues to be some movement, but we anticipate that average house prices will be broadly flat over the course of the next couple of years. However, there will be variations and there are risks."

Mr McClelland said the slow rate of change would probably continue, given that economic growth was sluggish and significant challenges such as public sector spending cuts lie on the horizon.

Derek Wilson, head of lending products at Ulster Bank which sponsors the survey, said anyone hoping for strong price growth in the near future would probably be disappointed.

"It will be encouraging for those seeking to purchase a home that the market is moving increasingly away from what were abnormal market conditions and into a period of greater stability," he said.

A net balance of 30% of Northern Ireland chartered surveyors reported rising transaction levels in the February survey.

A net balance of 70% said they expected transaction levels to rise further over the next three months.

In terms of prices, 60% reported that they have remained the same over the past three months, with 5% saying they had risen and 36% reporting a downturn.

Tigers still learning to roar

2010-03-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Nobody could have predicted back in 2000 that a format of the game designed to capitalise on long English summer evenings could have mushroomed into the same format that has Bollywood superstars falling over themselves to get involved with.

But if the Noughties will be regarded as the decade in which cricket discovered Twenty20, it's also coming up to the 10th anniversary of Bangladesh's bow as a Test-playing nation. Their record reads like this: played 64, won three, drawn six, lost 55.

It's not exactly the most compelling run of results. And if we really wanted to twist the knife we could attach some mighty great asterisks to those three victories.

The first was against a hopelessly green Zimbabwe side who had eight players aged 21 or younger. And their two wins in the Caribbean last year were achieved when 13 top West Indians went on strike.

But whereas the inexorable rise of Twenty20 has come out of the blue, Bangladesh's struggles to gain a foothold on the Test ladder in their first decade of five-day cricket have been more predictable.

New Zealand spent 26 years lurching from one defeat to another before registering their first Test victory, while India took 20.

Test cricket is an attritional game. It is no good dominating for a couple of sessions or even a couple of days. You can work desperately hard to forge a match-winning position and then fritter it away with a couple of silly shots or a shoddy hour of bowling.

Frustratingly for the romantics who yearn for giant-killings it just hasn't quite happened for Bangladesh. They so nearly humbled Pakistan in 2003 only for Inzamam-ul-Haq to tear up the fairytale script in his hometown, Multan.

And Australia were hurtling towards a dramatic defeat in Fatullah in 2006, whereupon Ricky Ponting hit a spoiling century as Bangladesh's long-suffering spinner Mohammad Rafique appeared to be circling for the kill.

I asked Dav Whatmore, about to embark on his first season at the helm of IPL glamour team Kolkata Knight Riders, to reflect on Bangladesh's decade, and found him frustratingly guarded. Whatmore was Bangladesh coach from 2003 to 2007 when they are generally acknowledged to have made significant progress, particularly in one-day internationals.

They famously triumphed over Australia in Cardiff during that period, before dumping India out of the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007 and beating pre-tournament favourites South Africa in the Super Eight stage.

Whatmore left after what appeared a breakthrough tournament for Bangladesh, but the team have not really picked up and reached the next level since then.

However he is reluctant to make general observations about the team, sensitive as he is to the negative criticism which he believes does them no favours at all.

If there is one mantra that he clings to it is this: "I would really, really hope that the Bangladesh Cricket Board will ensure their domestic competitions are as strong as they can possibly be.

"I'm a big, big believer that the national team is a product of what you do domestically. Bangladesh needs a good, vibrant one-day competition, a strong four-day competition, and the Twenty20 game should also be looked after."

My e-mail to the BCB requesting an interview with current coach Jamie Siddons went unanswered, so I contacted the popular, long-standing fans forum banglacricket.com to get a view about the current state of the game.

Editor Razab Quasem Chowdhury gave me an excellent assessment. "I think Bangladesh has the wherewithal to be a mid-range power with the occasional season on top," he says.

"We will never have the money, talent-pool or first-class infrastructure of an India, Australia or England but given the enthusiasm for the sport I can see us easily being consistently a number four or number five in world cricket."

Four players to keep an eye on, he says, are Tamim Iqbal, the 20-year-old left-hander who hit 125 in the first one-day international against England, skipper Shakib Al Hasan, ranked the third best bowler in ODIs, wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and fast bowler Rubel Hossain.

"They will carry the flame for us," says Chowdhury. "The main reason is their mental maturity. They are the first generation of cricketers who were 'born' into Test-hood in that Bangladesh was already a Test-playing country in their formative years. "As such they are more able to handle the mental demands placed on an international player."

Even if its slow, low pitches are not conducive to getting the most out of young fast-bowling prodigies, Bangladesh should have enough going for it to make a serious fist of being a top player in world cricket.

Though football is making a comeback, cricket remains the number one sport for this densely-populated nation bordered on three sides by India, the uber-power in cricket. And the talent pool that comes with having 160 million inhabitants, around 40 times more than New Zealand, should also be a positive factor.

The game also has a rich pageantry in the country, the capital, Dhaka, having staged seven Tests hosted by Pakistan between 1955 and 1969 before Bangladesh's independence was established in 1972.

Japan confirms secret pact on US nuclear transit

2010-03-09T03:54:00.000-08:00

Japan has confirmed the existence of a secret Cold War deal allowing the transit of nuclear-armed US vessels through its ports.

The move by a government-appointed panel ends decades of official denial - although the existence of the pact was an open secret.

The government said that the move was aimed at increasing transparency.

But it comes at an unsettled time for the US-Japan relationship, amid a row over US military bases in Okinawa.

The secret pact is controversial because after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan adopted the three "non-nuclear principles" - not making or possessing nuclear weapons, nor allowing them on to its soil.

The secret deal was sealed in the 1960s between US and Japanese diplomats, who agreed that the transit of nuclear arms through ports did not constitute the introduction of weapons into Japan, and so did not require prior consultation on the US side.

By leaving the issue ambiguous, (US) ships carrying nuclear weapons could stop at Japanese ports without prior consultation, while Japan, as its official stance, could deny such a development. But neither side would make a protest,'' Kyodo news agency quoted the panel's report as saying.

Declassified US documents had already confirmed the deal.

A cable from US ambassador Edwin Reischauer detailing a breakfast meeting in April 1963 with Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira explained how the two discussed the pact and achieved "full mutual understanding" on the transit issue.

But the deal has been denied by successive Japanese governments, because of fears of public anger.

'Extremely regrettable'

The probe into the deal was ordered by the new Democratic Party government, which ousted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party last year after more than five decades in power.

The panel also confirmed the existence of deals relating to the use of US military bases in Okinawa in the case of an emergency on the Korean peninsula and the cost of the 1972 reversion of Okinawa from US to Japanese control.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told a press conference it was "extremely regrettable that this problem for such a long time remained under cover, to the Japanese, even to parliamentary sessions, even after the end of the Cold War".

Japan and the US have maintained a security alliance since the end of World War II, and the US has almost 50,000 troops stationed at bases across Japan.

But Japan's new government has indicated it wants what it calls a more equal relationship with the US and has said it wants to reduce the US military presence on the island of Okinawa.

A row over plans to relocate the Futenma airbase in Okinawa has chilled ties between the two long-time allies.

Three Indonesia militants 'die in raids near Jakarta'

2010-03-09T03:48:00.000-08:00

Indonesian security forces say they have killed three suspected militants in two raids near the capital Jakarta.

The raids were said to be linked to an ongoing operation against militants in Aceh province that has brought a number of arrests.

Police said they could neither confirm nor deny the man killed in the first raid was Dulmatin, a top member of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group.

He is wanted over the Bali bomb attacks in 2002 that killed 202 people.

'Big name'

The first raid took place at an internet cafe in Pamulang city, west of the capital, local media reported.

The cafe owner told Associated Press that the suspected militant had been logged on to the internet for about five minutes when officers stormed in. Police said the suspect fired one shot from a revolver before he was killed.

Two other people were arrested.

In the second operation, police said they had shot dead two suspected members of the same group and arrested two more, Reuters news agency reports.

Anti-terror police chief Tito Karnavian told media the dead man from the first raid was a "big name".

A police spokesman, Edward Aritonang, later told the BBC it was not clear if the man was Dulmatin and that further tests were taking place.

He said: "We believe that the man... supplied weapons and funding to the Aceh militant group."

DNA tests

Dulmatin has been one of the most-wanted Indonesian militant figures. The US has offered a $10m reward for information leading to his death or arrest.

He is believed to have set off one of the two bombs in Bali on 12 October 2002. A total of 202 people died in the attacks, many of them foreign tourists.

Dulmatin had been thought to be hiding in the Philippines.

Security ministry anti-terrorism chief Ansyaad Mbai told Agence France-Presse: "If it's true that it's him, we will be very grateful that the most-wanted terrorist has been killed. It will be a big relief to us."

DNA tests might be needed to confirm whether Dulmatin was the man killed.

Such tests were needed to prove beyond doubt that Noordin Mohamed Top, at the time Indonesia's most-wanted Islamist militant, had been killed in September 2009.

Police thought they had killed him in a previous raid only for forensic tests to prove them wrong.

The latest raids come less than two weeks before the visit to Indonesia of US President Barack Obama.

Dulmatin had been thought to be hiding in the Philippines.

DNA tests might be needed to confirm whether Dulmatin was the man killed.

Such tests were needed to prove beyond doubt that Noordin Mohamed Top, at the time Indonesia's most-wanted Islamist militant, had been killed in September 2009.

Police thought they had killed him in a previous raid only for forensic tests to prove them wrong.

The latest raids come less than two weeks before the visit to Indonesia of US President Barack Obama.

Indonesia has made significant inroads in recent years into dismantling the leadership of Jemaah Islamiah.

The police have also been recently engaged in an operation targeting Aceh militants.

A total of 14 people have been charged with plotting to launch terrorist attacks.

Those charged are believed by officials to be members of a previously unknown terror group.

But seizures in raids included DVDs on the Bali bombings.

Police have been investigating possible links between the militants and Jemaah Islamiyah, which was blamed by the authorities for the Bali attacks.

Brazil slaps trade sanctions on US over cotton dispute

2010-03-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

The Brazilian government has announced trade sanctions against a variety of American goods in retaliation for illegal US subsidies to cotton farmers.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the sanctions in a rare move.

Brazil published a list of 100 US goods that would be subject to import tariffs in 30 days, unless the two governments reached a last-minute accord.

It said it regretted the sanctions, but that eight years of litigation had failed to produce a result.

It said it would raise tariffs on $591m (£393m) worth of US products - from cars, where the tariff will increase from 35% to 50%, to milk powder, which would see a 20% increase in the levy.

Cotton and cotton products would be charged 100% import tariff, the highest on the list.

The Office of the US Trade Representative said it was "disappointed" by Brazil's decision and called for a negotiated settlement.

Critics say the US has given its cotton growers an unfair advantage by paying them billions of dollars each year.

In 2008, the WTO ruled that subsidies to US cotton producers were discriminatory.

Tall order

Carlos Marcio Cozendey, head of economic affairs at Brazil's foreign ministry, told a news conference: "The idea was to distribute the retaliation broadly in order to maximise pressure.

"US farm subsidies are condemned worldwide. This archaic practice must stop."

However some analysts say major changes to these subsidies would involve modifying agricultural legislation - a tall order for the US Congress against a difficult economic and political backdrop, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.

Our correspondent says the dispute, which began in 2002, is one of the few in which the WTO has allowed cross-retaliation, meaning the wronged party can retaliate against a sector not involved in the case.

He adds that it appears the Brazilian government has deliberately chosen a wide range of products in order to have maximum impact.

Safety net

Cotton producers in the US argue that the system of subsidies has changed since the WTO made its original ruling in 2005.

"The US has made changes in the cotton programme as well as the export guarantee programme," Gary Adams, chief economist at the National Cotton Council told the BBC, adding that US cotton production was now 40% to 45% lower.

Mr Adams said he believed that subsidies were still justified.

"We feel this is a very important financial safety net for producers," he said.

Steven Bipes of the Brazil-US Business Council urged the US to take steps to avoid what he called "damaging" retaliation by Brazil.

"The business community finds it extraordinarily important that countries, including the US, comply with its WTO obligations and otherwise negotiate to find common ground when there are disputes," he told the BBC.

Oscar win for film of dolphin hunt in Japan's Taiji

2010-03-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

A film which follows the annual dolphin hunt in the Japanese town of Taiji has won the Oscar for best documentary.

The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, follows activists as they try to gain access to a bay where dolphins are corralled and killed.

The film has not been seen in Japan other than at the Tokyo Film Festival, but distributors say a modified version will open in some cities this year.

The mayor of Taiji, Kazutaka Sangen, protested at the film's Oscar win.

"I think it is regrettable that the film presents as fact material that is not backed up by scientific proof," he said in a statement reported by Reuters news agency.

He said that the hunt was legal in Japan and called for respect for the traditions of different cultures.

Taiji residents say that they have performed the hunt for decades. Hundreds of dolphins and pilot whales are herded into a small bay and either killed for meat or sold to aquariums.

Mr Psihoyos said he hoped that when the film was released in Japan people would "decide themselves whether animals should be used for meat and for entertainment".

In the Japanese version the faces of the fishermen will be blurred and a note added acknowledging disagreement over the film's claim of high levels of mercury in dolphin meat.

Sparklehorse singer Mark Linkous 'takes his own life'

2010-03-08T06:58:00.000-08:00

Rock singer Mark Linkous, frontman with US band Sparklehorse, has killed himself, according to a statement from his family to Rolling Stone magazine.

"It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member Mark Linkous took his own life today," the family said.

His four acclaimed Sparklehorse albums led him to be regarded by many as a hero of the US alternative rock scene.

His work included collaborations with Tom Waits, PJ Harvey and Danger Mouse.

His family said in the statement: "We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there's a star for you."

Virginia-born singer-songwriter Linkous - thought to be in his 40s - released the first Sparklehorse album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot in 1995.

The following year, he "died" for two minutes after ingesting a dangerous mix of Valium and antidepressants while supporting Radiohead on tour in the UK.

He recovered, but the incident almost left him paralysed - after lying unconscious for 14 hours, with circulation to his legs cut off.

He suffered a heart attack when doctors tried to straighten the limbs, and he had surgery seven times to save his legs.

But despite that ordeal, he went on to record 1999's Good Morning Spider, 2001's It's A Wonderful Life and 2006's Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.

Linkous was working on a new Sparklehorse album, which was due to be released by the Anti- record label.

In 2009, Linkous's multimedia collaboration album with producer Danger Mouse - real name Brian Burton - and the director David Lynch, entitled Dark Night Of The Soul, was made available online ahead of its official release this summer.

Surprise foreign language Oscar win for Argentina

2010-03-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

Argentine drama The Secret in Their Eyes has taken the Academy Award for best foreign language film, giving Argentina its first Oscar since 1985.

It beat favourites The White Ribbon from Germany and France's A Prophet.

"I want to thank the academy for not considering Na'avi a foreign language," joked director Juan Jose Campanella in reference to Avatar's alien language.

The Secret in Their Eyes, set in 1999, tells the story of a man who sets out to solve a murder committed in 1974.

The film, starring Ricardo Darin, Soledad Villamil and Javier Gordino, was Argentina's highest-grossing film in 2009.

The Oscar victory is the first for Argentina since 1985, when The Official Story was voted best foreign language film.

As well as A Prophet and The White Ribbon, other films nominated in the foreign language category this year were Ajami from Israel and Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow.

The Secret in Their Eyes derives its title from the intentions reflected in the characters' eyes.

Man admits murder of teenage girl he met on Facebook

2010-03-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

A convicted sex offender has admitted the kidnap, rape and murder of a County Durham teenager who he met on a social networking site.

Peter Chapman, who has a history of violent sex assaults, befriended 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by posing as a teenage boy on Facebook.

In October, after agreeing to meet him, Ashleigh was strangled and dumped in a farmer's field near Sedgefield.

Chapman, 33, pleaded guilty to the charges at Teesside Crown Court.

He also admitted failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register.

Chapman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Stockton, has a history of sexual offending, it has since emerged.

Since the age of 15, he has been the subject of several sexual assault investigations, and in 1996 was jailed for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint.

The 19-year-old Chapman was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, and released in 2001.

In October last year, Ashleigh was attracted by a picture of a young, bare-chested man that Chapman - calling himself Peter Cartwright - had posted on the website.

Later that month, she told her mother she was going to stay with a friend. Text messages showed she thought she was being picked up by "Peter Cartwright's" father.

Chapman was arrested after a nationwide alert went out to trace the car he was using.

The registration number had been put into the Automatic Number Plate Recognition System because the convicted sex offender was not complying with his registration requirements.

During initial interviews, he told officers they could "crush his car" and made no mention of Ashleigh, but later he lost his nerve and told stunned detectives about the dead teenager.

He led them to the spot near a lovers' lane where her body was found, almost 24 hours after she left the family home.

Durham Police admit that had he remained silent the car would likely have been crushed and valuable evidence lost.

Det Insp Mick Callan, head of the force's major crime team, said: "The truth is he is a predatory sex offender who, through the tentacles of the internet, could reach out to the young and the vulnerable.

"He knows full well that using his real name and picture would not grab the attention of any young woman for a moment.

"But by using the picture of a good-looking young man as a cover he has woven a web of attraction and deceit that has sadly had a murderous ending."

Finishing school for Indian IT graduates

2010-03-08T05:43:00.000-08:00

In a classroom in the southern Indian city of Mysore, several dozen young men and women listen rapt to their lecturer, Chhaya Srivatsa.

"If someone is crying, don't keep pestering them to know the reason," she says.

"If someone has got grey hair or wrinkles, don't go asking them about it. It's not the done thing," she adds.

"IST (Indian Standard Time) is not Indian Stretchable Time. If you have no respect for your own time, at least have respect for other people's time," she counsels.

Next, she tells them how to dress on the job, how to speak to the boss and how to avoid slang when writing business e-mails.

The students here are all engineering graduates and their school, set up two years ago, Raman International Institute of Information Technology (RiiiT), is a finishing school for information technology (IT) professionals - some of whom are considered to lack the social skills which could help them get a job.

Ms Srivatsa is teaching them workplace etiquette.

Communication skills

"They spend all their time on the computer, their communication is via technical networking, not people networking.

"Once they join an office, they don't know how to interact with their colleagues, how to speak to each other, their body language and voice intonation is not right, and nobody teaches them these things.

Furthermore, as boundaries blur in business and Indian companies hire for postings anywhere in the world, they want employees who are aware and more tolerant of other cultures.

According to a study done by Nasscom (India's national association of the IT service industry), Indian universities produce 3 million graduates, including half-a-million engineers, every year.

But recruiters say many of them are "not employable".

Those graduating from prestigious IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) and other well known institutes in major cities have good communication skills, they can hold their own confidently in any part of the world, says Mr Kiran Karnik, former president of Nasscom.

"But, a bulk of the recruitment takes place from second-tier universities - institutes in smaller towns and cities. These students know their engineering well, their fundamentals are strong, but their communication skills are very poor," he says.

The problem does not simply arise from spending too much time at the computer but that some students come from less privileged and urbane backgrounds.

'Not suitable'

The IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry employs more than 2 million people, and tens of thousands of new recruits are added every year. But those who hire talk of a talent crunch.

Mr Karnik blames the Indian education system.

"These students have been through an education system which emphasises rote learning, they are not taught to think and speak, so the system churns out enough numbers, but not enough suitable candidates."

He says he cannot emphasise enough how important the "soft skills" are.

"If you are working in the back office of a computer firm, you may need to speak to your customer in the US who is 10,000 miles away. You need to discuss a project or a report with him and you have to know how to do it," he says.

The students at RiiiT are from smaller cities and towns in Karnataka and many of them have been through the disappointment of rejection.

"I attended many job interviews in Bangalore. After the first and second rounds, I was told, 'we'll get in touch with you', but then I did not hear anything," says Ravitej who is from Bellary town.

Nayana from Bijapur says attending the finishing school has helped her become more confident: "I'm a shy kind of a girl. I never used to get up and ask a question, but today I learned that it's important for me to speak my mind."

Saba Syed, also from Bijapur, says: "As a child I learnt how to eat a chocolate, here I've learned how and where to throw the wrapper."

'Industry ready'

Maya Patil from Bidar hopes that attending the finishing school will improve her chances of finding a job.

"I've learned how to behave, how to interact and communicate with people. Communication skills are most important, and they will help me get a job."

Founder and CEO of RiiiT SV Venkatesh says his students are good and his institute is trying to make them "industry ready".

"Their aspirations are very high, but they are unable to gel with the culture of Bangalore's posh MG Road. They are not good at selling themselves. I tell them, if you want to become a software programmer, first you must become a salesman."

Mr Venkatesh says companies do train people they hire, but "we try to sharpen their social, communication and analytical skills, we teach them life skills here".

Mr Karnik says finishing schools are a good idea as they can impart a reasonable amount of "soft skills" in three to six months.

"It is not going to replace years of school and college education, but it's a quick way of correcting what's missing, like giving finishing touches to what's already there, but not quite," he says.

Bombers fail to derail Iraq's election success

2010-03-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

These elections will certainly be seen as a big success - despite the depressing level of violence, which demonstrates that it is still altogether untrue to suggest that Iraq is now a country at peace.

But it is reasonable now to include Iraq in the world's list of democracies.

This is the second parliamentary election in seven years which has been properly conducted.

The threat to the polls here does not come from government interference with the voting system or the count.

It comes from small groups of extremists - mostly supporters of al-Qaeda, or of the former dictator, Saddam Hussein - who simply cannot accept the democratic process here.

Political weakness

Nevertheless, the system of democracy with which Iraq has been lumbered scarcely helps this process.

A single glance at the ballot paper shows how unwieldy and awkward it is: there are more than 6,000 candidates, from more than 80 parties, chasing a mere 325 parliamentary seats.

This fragmentation ensures that, whatever the results on election day, there will be weeks, perhaps months, of negotiation before a new coalition government can be formed. And that means more political weakness, and a further drop in the respect in which politicians here are held.

Whether the moderate Islamist Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stays in power, or the more secular Iyad Allawi comes back in, we will not know for some time.

Either way, Shia Muslims will continue to rule this country, and it is not clear how many politicians from the embittered Sunni minority can be induced to join the new government.

The extremists will not end their campaign just because Sunni politicians decide to join the government. But there will be even less support for them among the Sunni population if the new government is genuinely open and inclusive.

Mindless nihilism

The attacks we saw on election day ensure that Iraq is still one of the world's two or three most violent countries. The intensive campaign of sectarian killing is as strong as ever.

In Shaab, a Shia area of Baghdad, two bombs went off in blocks of flats just as the polls were opening. I watched as dozens of firemen and civil defence workers pulled at the wreckage of a building to rescue people whom we could hear calling out from under the slabs of concrete.

They spotted someone as a lump of masonry fell away, but the foot and hand we could see in the rubble were motionless. The man was dead.

Meanwhile the voice of the woman who had been calling out was getting fainter. She was trapped somewhere on the first floor of the building, and it was difficult and dangerous for the rescuers to reach her.

The first time we realised that they were getting close was when they passed a bottle of water through to her. Half an hour later a shout went up from the crowd of people watching: "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great!")

They brought her out gently, lowered her to the ground, and put her on a stretcher. Her eyes were open; she seemed to be fully aware of what was going on.

It was a small victory over the ferocity of an attack on entirely innocent people. Yet altogether in Baghdad on election day, at least 35 people have been killed, and 89 injured.

The campaign of sectarian killing is beginning to seem like mindless nihilism, rather some sort of clear-cut political strategy.

Having completely failed to derail the democratic process here, it is hard to see what the extremists can do now. Other than raise the level of violence even more, of course.

Iraqi Baathist resentment simmers in Syria

2010-03-07T05:55:00.000-08:00

Saddam Hussein's Baath party is banned in Iraq, but the doors of its office in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, are wide open.

"That's our hero," says Khudeir Rashidi, the party spokesman, pointing at Saddam Hussein who looks down from portraits on the walls.

Iraq's dictator may be dead, but his supporters in Damascus insist that his party lives on.

"We have millions of members in Iraq who are working for the cause," Mr Rashidi says.

The cause, he says, is the liberation of Iraq from the American occupiers through military resistance.

"We have many weapons, we manufacture bombs, we are working very effectively underground," he says.

Baath 'threat'

The true extent of the involvement of the Baath party in the armed insurgency back in Iraq is very difficult to measure.

There is little doubt that the party has a wide and powerful network of former members, if only because virtually everyone had to join its ranks under Saddam Hussein.

Sceptics argue that despite its outreach, the Baath party is politically decapitated, morally bankrupt and ideologically irrelevant - in other words very much a thing of the past.

But the Iraqi government says Baathists pose a real threat.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki accuses them of working closely with al-Qaeda, and says that the Baath leadership in Damascus is behind a series of recent major bombings on government buildings in Baghdad that killed hundreds of civilians.

"It's a lie," says Mr Rashidi. "We don't work with al-Qaeda and we never target civilians. Our armed struggle is only against the occupation forces in Iraq," he says.

Iraqi 'resistance'

On the other side of the Syrian capital, in the slick TV studios of Al Rai satellite station, the staff are working hard to spread a similar message.

If I saw you in an American army uniform I would kill you," roars the owner Mishaan al-Jabouri.

The TV screen behind him proves that he is not joking.

"I go on TV and tell my people: 'Anyone who wants money or weapons to fight the Americans, call me'," he says.

Mr Jabouri's biography is as colourful as his loud persona. Once a close ally of Saddam Hussein, he fell out with the late dictator, worked with the Americans and became an MP after the US-led invasion.

Today he is fully dedicated to fighting the US troops.

Mr Jabouri says he will finance and arm anyone involved in the insurgency, including the Baathists, although he believes the group is only a small part of what he calls the "resistance".

'Policy of exclusion'

Washington and Baghdad are furious that the Syrian government is allowing people like Khudeir Rashidi or Mishaan al-Jabouri to operate out of Damascus.

For its part, Syria likes to remind the US and the Iraqi governments that it bears the huge burden of continuing to provide a home to more than a million Iraqi refugees.

"There are hundreds of thousands of supporters of the former regime among these refugees. What should we do... jail them all?" asks Samir al-Taqi, an analyst with a pro-government Syrian think tank.

Mr Taqi argues that what is radicalising many Baathists further is the failure of the Iraqi government to involve them in the political process.

One of the most controversial issues on the eve of Iraq's Sunday parliamentary election has been the exclusion of the candidates believed to be affiliated with Saddam Hussein.

Most of them were Sunnis and opposed Mr Maliki, a Shia.

Peter Harling, of the International Crisis Group, says not only the Iraqi government but also the United States have done very little to promote the much needed reconciliation.

"I think there has been a temptation among the US officials and officials in Iraq to export responsibility for all their own failures on others, to claim that violence is externally driven. But I think indeed the lack of any progress in terms of reconciliations has been one of the key factors behind the violence," Mr Harling says.

Brutal attack

"The Iraqi government needs to solve their own problem with their people, their policy is alienating a whole sect of the society," says Samir Taqi.

Discontent bred by what many in Damascus call Mr Maliki's policy of exclusion is everywhere in Syria, including Umm Amir's tiny cramped flat on the outskirts of Damascus.

As an accountant at a railway station in Baghdad, Umm Amir had to be a Baath party member. But because of it she lost her job after Saddam was gone.

Then, on 25 January 2007, Shia militiamen knocked on her door. They made her and her daughters watch as they first killed her 18-year-old first born, Mohammad, and chopped his body into pieces.

"For three days we were locked up in the house, too afraid to go out to bury him, to bury his pieces," she sobs.

Mohammad's picture sits on top of the TV - the only thing of value in their flat.

As a refugee, Umm Amir says her 10-year-old daughter Zeinab has no future in Syria, but she can't take her back to Iraq because she is a Sunni and a former member of the Baath party.

Thousands of Iraqis in Syria feel the same.

Only a few of them may be actively involved in the insurgency, but some believe their number will grow unless politicians in Baghdad make a greater effort to move beyond the sectarian and political divisions of the past.

Irish police 'battle' violence threat from dissidents

2010-03-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

The violent threat posed by dissident republicans is a "constant battle" for police both sides of the Irish border, a minister in the Irish Republic says.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern also said the determination of dissident groups to mount attacks was "getting stronger and stronger".

His comments come as a service will be held to mark the first anniversary of the deaths of two soldiers in Antrim.

The Real IRA shot Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene army base.

The memorial ceremony is to take place inside the Massereene barracks later, led by members of the 38th Engineers Regiment.

'Co-operation'

In the aftermath of the double killing, a police officer, Stephen Carroll, was shot dead by the Continuity IRA.

In a statement at the time, the Continuity IRA said: "As long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue."

There were fears that Northern Ireland could slide back towards full-scale violence.

But that did not happen and the peace process remains strong, in spite of the continued efforts to destroy it.

Mr Ahern said the police in Northern Ireland and the Republic were co-operating closely to try to stop the dissidents.

In a BBC interview, he said: "It's a constant battle. As soon as you put some into prison, others pop up, and obviously after people serve their prison sentences sometimes they go back to their nefarious activities.

"There's been a succession of incidents, really from last September onwards. Thirteen major incidents. They've been escalating in their seriousness. The resolve of these people seems to be getting stronger and stronger."

He also said the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA had begun working together on some attacks.

"This is significant in that, perhaps, some of the capabilities that one would have, might feed into the other, and vice versa. And this is something that is worrying the security services."

The threat level is reflected in the range and geographical spread of attacks so far this year - a booby-trap bomb in Co Antrim, gun attacks in Co Armagh, a car-bomb in Co Down and a fatal shooting in Co Londonderry.

Power sharing

Although the police have been the main targets of the dissidents, no officer has been killed since Constable Carroll.

The overall level of violence is well below what it used to be in Northern Ireland.

While the Real IRA and Continuity IRA may have recruited some new members in the past year, there is no evidence of a major influx.

Their political allies continue to attract only minimal support and there is no sign of them putting themselves forward in the forthcoming Westminster election.

It seems they realise they would be electorally humiliated.

The Hillsborough Castle agreement in February was a sign that the power-sharing Stormont Assembly may be settling down after months of uncertainty.

The recent increase in violence is seen as an attempt to try to destabilise the situation again.

The dissidents want to wreck the Assembly. The political parties at Stormont are determined not to let them win.

The peace process has been tested in the past year, and it has proved to be much more resilient than some had feared.

However, these remain challenging times in Northern Ireland, for the police and politicians alike.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon visits quake-hit Chile city

2010-03-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has visited a Chilean city badly damaged by last week's earthquake and promised aid to help the country recover.

Mr Ban flew into Concepcion aboard a Chilean Air Force plane and was shown a 15-storey building that had collapsed, killing at least nine people.

As the clear-up continues, doctors have warned that debris piled up in towns and cities poses a health hazard.

The official death toll stands at 452 but hundreds are still missing.

"Remember that we are with you... our hearts are with you," Mr Ban said in a brief statement in Concepcion.

"Your people helped Haiti when it was in need - now is the moment when the international community must help Chile," he said.

Unclean water

After returning to the capital Santiago, Mr Ban said Chile would receive field hospitals, temporary bridges and other international aid that the government needs.

Meanwhile, doctors say cases of diarrhoea are increasing among people drinking unclean water, and they are treating injuries caused by people trying to get through the debris.

"We are going to keep needing water, electric systems, a functioning sewage system," said Gaston Saavedra, mayor of the port city of Talcahuano which was badly damaged by the quake and tsunami. We need to clean up rotting fish in the streets. We need chemical toilets, and when it starts raining, people living in tents are going to get wet and sick. All this is going to cause infections," he added.

The Chilean health ministry said that so far there had been no outbreaks of dysentery or other communicable diseases and it has enough tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations for the areas worst affected.

Chile has been hit by regular aftershocks since the 8.8-magnitude quake last week, including at least six on Saturday morning, the largest of which measured 5.1.

Government officials have also struggled to determine the death toll, announcing that they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead.

On Friday the figure was revised down from about 800 to 452.

Europe's PIGS countries: Send us your experiences

2010-03-06T19:20:00.000-08:00

Are you in one of Europe's so-called PIGS countries? If so, we would like to hear from you.

The unflattering acronym is used to refer to the eurozone's most financially troubled and debt-laden countries - Portugal, the Irish Republic, Greece and Spain.

This week, Greece announced an austerity package worth 4.8bn euros ($6.5bn; £4.4bn) in an effort to cut its huge debts.

There is talk of a possible EU rescue deal for Greece, as the eurozone tries to bolster confidence in the single currency.

Both the Irish Republic and Spain have been hit hard by the collapse of their property bubbles and soaring unemployment.

Portugal has also been battered by the financial crisis.

Australia to review tsunami warnings

2010-03-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

Tsunami warnings in Australia are to be reviewed after thousands of beachgoers shrugged off alerts following Chile's huge earthquake.

Lifeguards struggled to clear beaches in Queensland and New South Wales as people either returned to the water or came down to watch the tsunami arrive.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said police and emergency services may be used in future.

Pacific states went on alert after the quake but most areas were unaffected.

The waves that hit Australia's east coast were hardly noticeable.

Mr McClelland described the response to the tsunami warning as "disappointing but understandable".

"People saw the earthquake, of course, literally thousands of kilometres away and didn't appreciate the dangers," he said.

Amateur video shows tsunami sweeping through Chilean town of Penco

"Emergency responders provide public warnings. They [people] should abide by them because they are not lightly given, they are not given at a drop of a hat."

He said he had asked state emergency ministers and surf life-saving organisations in New South Wales and Queensland to review the reaction and look at ways of educating the public about tsunamis.

In Chile, the official death toll from the 8.8 magnitude quake has been reduced to 452 from 800, but hundreds of people are still missing.

Adjusting to Swedish life after the Andijan massacre

2010-03-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

Five years ago, soldiers opened fire on demonstrators in the city of Andijan, Uzbekistan, killing hundreds. Terrorists, said the government. Peaceful protesters, said human rights groups. The BBC's Monica Whitlock was expelled - but she met up again recently with one group of survivors, this time in Sweden.
This place," says Bahram, shouting somewhat, "is amazing! You can't imagine! The schools, the hospitals! The way they live! And nothing's done by hand! Even the baking! Even cleaning the street! They have these little carts... you just press a button. The police! They smile at you and say 'Hey!'"

It was good to see him again. We last met in Andijan on a hot afternoon in May, 2005, as the demonstration reached its height.

Bahram had been desperately worried that things were about to implode.

The next day, the troops moved in. His son was shot dead.

Bahram disappeared - a cake-shop owner, a grandfather, hiding and moving from house to house, country to country - until the United Nations found him.

And now here we were on the Baltic coast. Frozen ships in a bay of ice. Quiet streets. Glittering shops. Prints of warm boots in the snow.

It is another world - a looking glass through which the Uzbeks see themselves and their country.

So even as Sweden amazes and delights Bahram, it breaks his heart. "If we had just a fragment of this development in Uzbekistan," he says. "If I could take just a tiny part of this when I go home..."

Tapped phones

Bahram, and all the Andijanis, are sure they will go home - one day. Until then, they try to stay in touch as best they can.

They gaze into computer screens to catch a glimpse through Skype of families they've left behind.

Back home, relatives upload shaky photos of weddings and children they've never seen.

Piercing sunshine, blue skies, yellow dust - it's home but behind glass. A reflection.

They can't chat on the phone, only "Hello and how are you?". Uzbek phones are, of course, tapped.

Somehow this slight, virtual contact only underlines how very far away the Andijanis are.

Bahram parcels out his days in tiny, manageable steps that keep him from tipping into despair. Breakfast. Prayers. Language lessons through the internet. Watering the plants on every window sill. Lunch - cooked by Andijani women and brought over hot. Prayers. Television time - and another day is done, another notch on the long measure of days that have already become years.

He has not acquired nor desired any possessions in this rich land. No distractions. He spends this measured time, instead, thinking, peering deeply into the looking glass.

"Here in Sweden there are laws," he says. "And even the government obeys them! There was a minister who did not pay his TV licence - and he lost his job. Can you imagine? And the way they treat people! We saw a prison and do you know, in the canteen, the prisoners take a tray and chose the food they want. Different salads, meats, yogurt… everything. Fresh! In prison! Oh my lord above!"

Lucky escape

Back home, Bahram spent six years accused, like thousands of people in Uzbekistan, of conspiring against the state.

He was beaten daily and his legs frozen with ice water. The Swedish doctors have now fixed his legs.

The younger Andijanis, too, reflect deeply on the extraordinary shift in their lives: "We have learnt so much by being here," says Shamshuddin.

Five years ago, aged 29, he lay among the dead and dying in the square at Andijan. By luck alone, he escaped.

He walked through the night out of Uzbekistan and into Kyrgyzstan. And there was the outside world: the foreign press, cameras, the United Nations.

He went to a Red Cross camp and became a news item - an image, a refugee.

"Only a day," he says. "On 13 May I had hopes, a family, my wife, three children, a house, a car, a business. By 14 May? Nothing. Not even a passport. I even wore another man's clothes, in another man's country. Just a day, and I was… somebody else."

Poised to leave

Shamshuddin has kept his mind together with the most extraordinary resolve during his five lonely years in Sweden.

He's learnt Swedish, worked hard, bought a car, set up a business and plans to open a cafe in Stockholm. And just before we arrived - the greatest news. His wife and family arrived in Sweden to join him, including the son he'd only seen as a new baby, now six years old.

They're already dressed in the bright, cosy clothes of Swedish children, swinging back-packs on their way to school.

For some survivors, the clock stopped on that day in May. Only the pain of separation is real. Others, like Bahram and Shamshuddin, have managed to find some meaning in their transformation.

Yet all the Uzbeks we met living along the frozen Baltic coast all have the air of people poised to leave again.

Arriving with nothing, they could sweep their lives into suitcases in half an hour, happily leaving behind this fancy new country - if it was safe to go home.

Lost Jewish tribe 'found in Zimbabwe'

2010-03-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

In many ways, the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa are just like their neighbours.

But in other ways their customs are remarkably similar to Jewish ones.

They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps and they put the Star of David on their gravestones.

Their oral traditions claim that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago.

It may sound like another myth of a lost tribe of Israel, but British scientists have carried out DNA tests which confirm their Semitic origin.

These tests back up the group's belief that a group of perhaps seven men married African women and settled on the continent. The Lemba, who number perhaps 80,000, live in central Zimbabwe and the north of South Africa.

And they also have a prized religious artefact that they say connects them to their Jewish ancestry - a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning "the drum that thunders".

The object went on display recently at a Harare museum to much fanfare, and instilled pride in many of the Lemba.

"For me it's the starting point," says religious singer Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave.

"Very few people knew about us and this is the time to come out. I'm very proud to realise that we have a rich culture and I'm proud to be a Lemba.

"We have been a very secretive people, because we believe we are a special people."

Religion vs culture

The Lemba have many customs and regulations that tally with Jewish tradition.

They wear skull caps, practise circumcision, which is not a tradition for most Zimbabweans, avoid eating pork and food with animal blood, and have 12 tribes.

They slaughter animals in the same way as Jewish people, and they put the Jewish Star of David on their tombstones.

Members of the priestly clan of the Lemba, known as the Buba, were even discovered to have a genetic element also found among the Jewish priestly line.

"This was amazing," said Prof Tudor Parfitt, from the University of London.

"It looks as if the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba.

"They have a common ancestor who geneticists say lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron when the Jewish priesthood started."

Prof Parfitt is a world-renowned expert, having spent 20 years researching the Lemba, and living with them for six months.

The Lemba have a sacred prayer language which is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, pointing to their roots in Israel and Yemen.

Despite their ties to Judaism, many of the Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims.

"Christianity is my religion, and Judaism is my culture," explains Perez Hamandishe, a pastor and member of parliament from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Despite their centuries-old traditions, some younger Lemba are taking a more liberal view.

"In the old days you didn't marry a non-Lemba, but these days we interact with others," says Alex Makotore, son of the late Chief Mposi from the Lemba "headquarters" in Mberengwa.

"I feel special in my heart but not in front of others such that I'm separated from them. Culture is dynamic."

Crowds

The oral traditions of the Lemba say that the ngoma lungundu is the Biblical wooden Ark made by Moses, and that centuries ago a small group of men began a long journey carrying it from Yemen to southern Africa.

The object went missing during the 1970s and was eventually rediscovered in Harare in 2007 by Prof Parfitt.

"Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science," he says.

Carbon dating shows the ngoma to be nearly 700 years old - pretty ancient, if not as old as Bible stories would suggest.

But Prof Parfitt says this is because the ngoma was used in battles, and would explode and be rebuilt.

The ngoma now on display was a replica, he says, possibly built from the remains of the original.

"So it's the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of," Prof Parfitt says.

Large crowds came to see the unveiling of the ngoma and to attend lectures on the identity of the Lemba.

For David Maramwidze, an elder in his village, the discovery of the ngoma has been a defining moment.

"Hearing from those professors in Harare and seeing the ngoma makes it clear that we are a great people and I'm very proud," he says.

"I heard about it all my life and it was hard for me to believe, because I had no idea of what it really is.

"I'm still seeing the picture of the ngoma in my mind and it will never come out from my brain. Now we want it to be given back to the Lemba people."

To hear more about the Lemba people, listen to the BBC World Service African Perspective programme on Saturday 6 March at 0830 GMT.

Togo president 'wins re-election'

2010-03-06T18:52:00.000-08:00

The current president of Togo has won re-election in a disputed vote, electoral authorities say.

The election commission said Faure Gnassingbe, son of a late dictator, had beaten opposition challenger Jean-Pierre Fabre.

He won 1.2 million votes of two million cast, officials said, considerably more than his rival's tally of 692,584.

Mr Fabre had also claimed victory in the election, alleging irregularities in the vote-counting system.

He said that a lack of adequate vote validation meant the count was now "illegal" and that "everything the electoral commission is doing is false".

Street uncertain

Earlier, Jean-Claude Codjo, an opposition member of Togo's electoral agency, walked out of a meeting in protest at what he called a "lack of transparency".

However, the provisional results as declared by the electoral commission showed the incumbent had won a comprehensive victory, widening the gap as fuller results were declared.

The BBC's Caspar Leighton, in Lome, Togo's capital, says that Mr Gnassingbe's win must still be approved by Togo's constitutional court.

The opposition Union Forces for Change (UFC) is sure to challenge them, in court and on the street, our correspondent says, but it is unclear how organised or determined any street protests might be.

The AFP news agency reported that riot police were deployed on the streets of Lome, as the result was announced.

Earlier, police used tear gas to disperse some 200 opposition supporters.

"We do not know what is going to happen. We are all afraid. We do not know how we will wake up tomorrow," one man, named as Jean-Luc, told the agency.

Canada drops national anthem change plan

2010-03-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Canada has dropped a proposal to change the country's national anthem by making it more gender-inclusive.

The government had said it was open to changing a lyric in O Canada - "in all thy sons command" - to the original version, "in thou dost us command".

Opposition Liberals said the proposed change was merely a gimmick that proved the ruling Conservatives were not serious about women's rights.

Public outcry was so strong PM Stephen Harper dropped the idea after two days.

"We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear," said Mr Harper's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas.

They overwhelmingly do not want to open the issue. The government will not proceed any further to change our national anthem."

The issue was raised after the anthem was played a record 14 times at gold medal ceremonies during the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

O Canada replaced God Save the Queen as Canada's national anthem in 1980.

It was composed by Calixa Lavallée in 1880 and while the lyrics have changed over the years, their current version is based on a 1908 poem written by Stanley Weir.

Why should savers use a savings bond

2010-03-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

With the Bank of England's base rate so low at 0.5% most savings accounts with banks and building societies offer derisory rates of interest.

At the end of last year the average branch based instant access account, with a bank or building society, paid just 0.17%.

And a notice account paid barely more at just 0.33%.

However, if you look at the best-buy tables in newspapers or on comparison websites. you will notice that some of the best rates are with fixed-rate bonds.

If you are happy to tuck your money away for five years you can get more than 5% interest.

How do they work?

The growth of the investment is limited to the interest paid on the account.

Savings bonds differ from normal deposit accounts in that they have a fixed set period, usually one, two, three or five years, and the rate of interest is set at the start of the term.

The interest earned each year is rolled up into the account instead of being paid out.

Once the money has been placed on deposit savers are usually restricted on the number of times they can withdraw the money during the lifetime of the bond.

Additionally, any early encashment is often charged with a loss of interest.

Banks and building societies offer these investments with more attractive rates of interest because they want access to secure long term deposits.

So the longer the timescale the better the rate being offered.

Currently, the best five year savings bond will offer 5.1% (AA or Saga) per annum compared to the best instant access accounts offering 2.80% (Halifax).

Should you consider them?

Investors need to consider several things when deciding whether they should buy a bond and how long it should

When will you need the money?

Do not just go for the better rate but ask yourself when you might need the money.

The cost of borrowing extra cash will be greater than the return you are getting on the money in your bond, even with a good rate.

What are your expectations for interest rates? This is more difficult to call.

No one knows where interest rates will be in five years time.

But considering how low the Bank of England rate is now, savers can be more comfortable with getting good rates for just one or two years, and this gives the flexibility to reinvest again in a few years time.

What benefits do you give up for the better interest rate?

For the better return, savers do give something up - the access to their savings for a set period and access now to the interest earned.

So for savers who need an income now these products may not be suitable.

There is also the possibility of losing the chance to use the money more profitably, perhaps by investing in other assets such as equities, or paying off a mortgage.

Investment bonds

Investment bonds are fundamentally different and involve investment not saving.

The policies are typically sold by life assurance companies which allow you to invest in a variety of funds (either investment trusts or unit trusts) managed by professional investment managers.

They are usually designed for long term capital growth but can also be used to generate income.

Investment bonds can invest in a wider range of assets than savings bonds, such as UK and overseas equities, commercial property and fixed interest securities, as well as cash- like investments.

Investors are able to decide how much of their money goes into which funds and are able to change the mixture of their investments several times a year.

With-profits

In the 1990s a particular type of investment bond became more popular; with-profits bonds (WPBs).

The aim of these was to smooth out the gains and losses of the investment over the life time of the bond.

The life insurance companies had control of the investment decisions and determined what the bonuses were.

The "tech bubble" collapse in 2000 saw a lot of investors in these products lose money.

Any early encashment was met with tough exit penalties called market value adjusters (MVAs).

These were introduced to protect investors who remained in the bond from being adversely affected.

The losses made, and the introduction of MVAs, have resulted in WPBs becoming less popular.

Taxation

For tax purposes, investment bonds are treated as life assurance policies and therefore are subject to tax on the income and gain.

However, it is the life company that pays the tax at their rate of tax, which may be lower than basic rate income tax an individual would be liable to pay.

Investors are not subject to capital gains tax, or basic rate tax on gains or income.

Higher rate tax payers may be liable for any additional income tax above the basic rate (currently 20%) but only when they cash in the investment, or make partial withdrawals of over 5%.

There are special rules on insurance bonds where investors can take, or top slice, 5% of the value of the fund from the capital and take it without paying tax.

This top slicing is a deferral of income tax and the investor will be liable for tax on the whole when the investment is cashed in, but only at the time of encashment.

Points to ponder

Investment bonds may be recommended in a number of situations.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer looking for extra income, an investment bond may be suitable because the 5% annual withdrawal facility would mean there is no immediate tax liability.

The 5% withdrawal facility would be useful if you are retired and want a supplementary income.

But you would be in danger of falling into the age allowance "trap".

This is where the higher personal tax allowance you receive when you are 65-74 (£9,490 for 2009-10) is reduced if your annual income exceeds a certain level (£22,900 for 2009-10).

If you are an active investor with a large investment portfolio and you have already mopped up your annual capital gains tax allowance (£10,100 in 2009-10), you can use an investment bond to manage your investments, and you will not be liable for capital gains tax when you make switches between investments.

However, in general, investors should use their personal ISA allowance (£7,200 for those under 50 and £10,200 for those who are 50 or older by 5 April 2010) first before considering investment bonds.

The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own particular situation.

be invested for.

A savings bond is a bank account where your money is held on deposit and on which you earn interest.

Does filling the empty nest make financial sense?

2010-03-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Her house in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, which she shares with her husband and two cats, has views over the Chilterns and a couple of spare rooms. It has been home for 16 years.

"I work from home, so it is nice to have someone along in the evening," she says.

She advertises a double room with a television and internet access on a website that matches visitors to spare rooms. She charges £20 a night for the room - plus £5 for an evening meal.

"It is pleasant to have somebody there, and a few extra pounds always helps - but money is not the primary motivation," she says.

A sociable visitor with a story or two to tell and who leaves the room neat and tidy is the perfect fit, she says.

While good company - rather than cash - is the stimulus for Mrs Spencer, other homeowners have found that the financial crisis means they are looking for ways close to home to make money.

Some - especially younger homeowners - who bought when it was easy to borrow 100% mortgages and jobs were safer, are now aware that renting out a room can help pay the bills.

According to Mrs Spencer, the internet has proved to be a vital tool in bringing landlord and tenant together - even for just a few nights.

'Low-cost'

Stephen Rapop

Inspired by his experience in Sydney, when he could not find a hotel room during the Olympics and ended up paying to sleep in a friend's spare room, he set up Crashpadder.com.

The website matches guests to rooms offered by "hospitable locals". It now advertises rooms in 48 countries, including £15-a-night accommodation in London.

Guests search the site for suitable accommodation, the host checks the guest's profile on the website and decides whether to accept the booking - and the Crashpadder team take 10% of the fee for matching them up.

The business - run by a team of three all aged in their 20s - is yet to make a profit, but has won some venture capital backing and, according to Mr Rapoport, is growing by 100% a month.

Far from attracting backpackers and students looking for a cheap place to stay, he says that the average guest is aged 38 and 50% of them are travelling for business.

Most, he says, want to escape "sterile, overpriced and environmentally unsound" hotel rooms, and Mr Rapoport hopes the internet generation will come to the website which is similar in design to a social networking site.

"We have plans for forums and travel guides written by our members," he explains.

Miles Quest, spokesman for the British Hospitality Association, says homestay websites are still so niche that they do not offer a great threat to hotels or guesthouses.

He says the licensed hospitality industry offers more service and more extensive facilities, which make rooms more expensive.

Re-think

How many people really want strangers helping themselves from the fridge and blocking the bathroom in their own home?

Matt Hutchinson, of flatshare website spareroom.co.uk, said that the start of any year was a time when many people considered their domestic arrangements.

"Many will be thinking about getting a lodger or lodging, especially young professionals who find they have a job in one area and a property elsewhere," he says.

"Empty nesters tend to have bigger properties. Rather than downsize they want to use the space and tend to take on younger lodgers.

"They attract people who want to live a family-orientated life."

Handily for these hosts, the UK's tax rules can work in their favour.

People planning to rent out a furnished room in their main residence may be able to claim "rent-a-room" relief.

This means that no tax is payable if the gross rents for the tax year - before deducting expenses - do not exceed £4,250.

But the relief is not automatic and a declaration is still needed on a self-assessment tax return. More details are available in this guide .

There are issues to think about from the guest's point of view, in addition to the obvious consideration of personal safety.

Citizens Advice recently warned people to take greater care when searching for rooms or property online.

Some rogue landlords are requesting that tenants prove they have sufficient money for the rent or a deposit by sending a receipt from a money transfer transaction.

But this receipt would carry sufficient detail for the rogue landlord to withdraw these funds, before the prospective tenant realises that the room or property does not exist.

Finding that the bank account - as well as the nest - is empty could be a financial nightmare.

ort lost his City consultancy job, with a six-figure salary, during the recession and decided to turn his "bedroom hobby" into a business venture.