Al-Qaeda in Iraq group claims embassy bombings

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.

read more...

South Africa police deploy for Terreblanche funeral

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.

read more...

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood to open Cannes

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.

read more...

Russian appeal of 'weather control'

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.

read more...

Google's rift with China is a calculated business risk

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.

read more...

Multiple Choice Question

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

read more...

Your pictures of the week: Lazy

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.

read more...