Wildfires in Texas destroy hundreds of homes

6 September 2011 Last updated at 00:58 GMT Help

Firefighters in the US state of Texas are struggling to contain a huge wildfire that has already destroyed nearly 500 homes.

Forestry officials say the fire is moving so quickly that it can't be tackled from the ground and aircraft are being scrambled to drop water onto it.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has urged people to heed evacuation orders and not to stay in their homes if they had lost power.

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Haiti anger over alleged Uruguay UN rape

Haitian President Michel Martelly has condemned the alleged abuse of an 18-year-old man by Uruguayan peacekeepers, and demanded a full investigation.

Mr Martelly said the Haitian man had been subjected to a "collective rape".

Five Uruguayan marines were detained after a video clip of the alleged abuse appeared on the internet, and their commanding officer was sacked.

The Uruguayan government has said it will open a criminal case against the marines in a Uruguayan court.

The UN mission in Haiti (Minustah) and the Haitian authorities are also investigating.
Revulsion

The case has provoked widespread public anger in Haiti, and there have been protests outside the UN base.

"The presidency vigorously condemns this act, which revolts the conscience of the nation, and awaits a detailed report establishing the facts," Mr Martelly's office said in a statement.

The alleged victim and his mother have told Haitian radio stations that he was raped by the Uruguayan marines in the UN base at Port Salut.

They have also given evidence to Haitian police and a local judge.

The UN mission in Haiti said it was taking the allegations "very seriously".

"For now, we cannot say whether it was a case of rape or not," Minustah spokesperson Eliane Nabaa told Reuters news agency.

"Only the investigation will determine that and the investigation is still underway," she said.

In Uruguay, presidential spokesman Alberto Breccia said a criminal case would be brought by a Uruguayan court.

"All cases of apparent crime by Uruguayan troops must be judged by national courts," he said.

Uruguayan Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro was due to brief parliament on the case on Tuesday.

The video clip of the alleged incident, shot on a mobile phone, has been widely shown on Uruguayan television.
Controversy

Uruguay is one of the main contributors to the 12,000-strong UN force, which first arrived in Haiti in 2004.

The peacekeepers were brought in to restore order following the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and its mandate was extended after the devastating earthquake in January 2010.

But Minustah has also drawn controversy, including allegations of excessive use of force.

Last year there were widespread protests after Nepalese peacekeepers were accused of being the source of a cholera epidemic which has killed more than 6,000 Haitians.

President Martelly has acknowledged that Haiti still needs the peacekeepers, but wants their security role reduced and eventually replaced by a Haitian force.

He is still struggling to form a government, five months after winning power in a UN-backed election.

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Al-Qaeda chief Younis al-Mauritani held, says Pakistan

Pakistan's army says it has arrested a man it describes as a senior al-Qaeda leader and two of his accomplices.

Younis al-Mauritani planned and executed international operations for the global terror network, the military said in a statement.

The White House praised the capture - reportedly the result of co-operation between US and Pakistani intelligence.

The army said the men were seized in the suburbs of the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.

It did not say when the arrests were made.

"Mauritani was tasked personally by Osama Bin Laden to focus on hitting targets of economical importance in United States of America, Europe and Australia," said the Pakistani statement.

The two other men arrested were named as Abdul Ghaffar al-Shami and Messara al-Shami.

"This operation was planned and conducted with technical assistance of United State Intelligence agencies with whom Inter-Services Intelligence has a strong, historic intelligence relationship," said the statement.

Mr Mauritani does not feature on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. But an unnamed Western intelligence official told the AFP news agency: "If it's confirmed, it's a good catch."

Nevertheless, analysts say there may be some issues around verifying his identity and his position within al-Qaeda and some say that he is not well-known within Pakistan as a militant figure.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest later told journalists in Washington: "We applaud the actions of Pakistan's intelligence and security services that led to the capture of a senior al-Qaeda operative who was involved in planning attacks against the interests of the United States and many other countries."

The report comes one week after US officials claimed to have killed senior al-Qaeda operative Atiyah Abd al-Rahman in a drone strike near the Afghan border in Pakistan. But Pakistani officials have said there is no confirmation of his death.

Relations between Pakistan and the US have been on a downward spiral ever since the killing of Osama Bin Laden by US special forces in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in early May.

The increasing US drone attacks on militants inside Pakistan along the Afghan border is also a continuing source of antagonism.

In early July the US announced plans to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military aid to Pakistan.

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Texas fires: Bastrop blaze prompts Rick Perry warning

Dozens of other wildfires are burning in Texas, which has had its worst drought in half a century
Firefighters in drought-stricken Texas are struggling to contain a 16-mile-wide (26-km) wildfire that has destroyed almost 500 homes.

Officials said the fire had "grown considerably" on Monday and was now burning on 25,000 acres (10,000 ha).

Texas Governor Rick Perry cut short presidential campaigning, and said the next 48 to 72 hours would be "crucial".

Scores of fires are burning across Texas, which has been hit by high winds generated by Tropical Storm Lee.Recent fires across Texas have burned 3.5 million acres, Mr Perry said, adding: "That's roughly the size of Connecticut."

He urged people to heed evacuation orders and not to stay in their homes if they had lost power.

"I understand that losing your home or lifetime possessions is incredibly difficult, but do not put your life in jeopardy," Mr Perry said.

A blaze in east Texas killed a 20-year-old woman and her baby daughter on Sunday before it was extinguished.
Storm-fanned flames

An estimated 5,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because of the Bastrop fire, which is about 30 miles (50km) south-east of Austin and moving away from the state capital.

Earlier, Jan Amen of the Texas Forest Service described the central Texas blaze as "a monster" that had been "zero percent contained".

The fire is the largest of dozens of wildfires burning throughout the state, including more than 60 that started on Sunday.

Powerful winds from Tropical Storm Lee, hundreds of miles to the east, have fanned the flames.

"We have about 16 miles long at this time and about six miles wide," Bastrop County Fire Chief Ronnie McDonald said, referring to the size of the biggest blaze.

It has devoured almost half of the Bastrop State Park.

Gov Perry said in a statement: "I urge Texans to take extreme caution as we continue to see the devastating effects of sweeping wildfires impacting both rural and urban areas of the state."

He has cancelled an appearance at the presidential forum in South Carolina and a trip to California.

Texas has been suffering its worst drought since the 1950s.

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Up Snowdon in 4x4 'on 50 things to do list' - driver

A man who drove his 4x4 up Snowdon said he did it because it was top of his "50 things to do before he dies" list.

Craig Williams, 39, from Gloucestershire, said it was not a publicity stunt and something he did on the spur of the moment.

He added he understood criticism that his actions had been irresponsible.

Mr Williams has been charged with driving on common land and will appear in court on 16 September.

"There's no plan of action as we speak, there wasn't to begin with," he told the BBC.

"Out of a list of 50 things to do before you die, this was one of them.

"If you think that was on top of the list, the other 49 are now not going to be done," he added.
'Drive down'

He said he appreciated that people were saying he had been irresponsible.Now he said he hopes he would be allowed to drive his car down from the mountain where it was left 400 yards (365m) from the top on Saturday morning.

The incident on the highest mountain in England and Wales - 1,085m (3,560 ft) - happened on Saturday.

The Vauxhall Frontera is currently still on the mountain, close to the Snowdon Mountain Railway line.Walkers have been photographing it on their way up to the summit.
Continue reading the main story
CARS ON SNOWDON THROUGH HISTORY

27 January 1904 first attempt by motor car failed
14 May 1904 - another different attempt succeeds
1917 or 1918 - Another unidentified attempt, captured by British Pathe

Source: snowdonsplendour.co.uk

The vehicle is believed to have been driven up the railway track.

Alan Kendall, the general manager of the Snowdon Mountain Railway said there were four options to get it back down.

"It could be winched off by helicopter, broken up and brought down in pieces, ramped onto a flat bed truck and brought down on the railway or driven down," he said.

"As it is on park land the park is ultimately responsible for this, but we will do all we can to help, although we haven't yet had a conference with the park to see what we can do," he added.

In a statement the Snowdonia National park said it supports the views expressed by the Llanberis mountain rescue team.

"This sort of incident is unacceptable and shows a lack of responsibility on behalf of the individual/individuals involved.

Old footage shows an unidentified attempt to travel up Snowdon in a car in about 1917 or 1918

"Along with the obvious dangers posed by this type of incident, it could cause damage to the footpath and landscape, which means added work for the Snowdon footpath teams."

It added that "in respect of the severity of the incident", the Snowdonia National Park "encourage the police to take firm action against the owner of the vehicle".

There is a history of taking various things up the mountain, although taking motorised vehicles up the slopes has been banned since the creation of the national park in 1951.

Sam Roberts was warden on the mountain for nearly 40 years. He says there are very few things which have not travelled to the peak.

"It's difficult to think of anything which hasn't been up there," he said.

"There have been pianos, beds, stilts, a unicycle, people have gone on their hands and knees, backwards.... although of course they were all there legally, because no motorised vehicles are allowed."

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Ruins of Roman gladiator school found in Austria

Archaeologists in Austria say they have discovered a large, well-preserved school for Roman gladiators.

The remains of the school, at a site east of the modern capital, Vienna, were found using radar imagery.

The school was part of a Roman city which was an important military and trade outpost 17 centuries ago.

Though excavations have yet to begin, the radar images show thick walls surrounding the compound which contained 40 small cells for fighters.

There is also a training area and a large bathing area in the Carnuntum ruins.

Outside the walls, radar scans show what archaeologists believe was a cemetery for those killed during training.

'Barracks and prison'

"[This is] a world sensation, in the true meaning of the word," said Lower Austrian provincial governor Erwin Proell.

The school is part of a city thought to have been home to some 50,000 people that flourished 1,700 years ago.

The city was a major military and trade outpost linking the far-flung Roman empire's Asian boundaries to its central and northern European lands.

Officials have said that in structure the discovery rivals the famous Ludus Magnus, the largest of the gladiatorial training schools in Rome.

One of the distinctive parts of the ruins is a thick wooden post in the middle of the training area which was used by gladiators as a practice enemy.

The Roemisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum said the three-dimensional images of the school reveal it to have been a mixture of a barracks and a prison.

The gladiators, the museum says, were often convicted criminals or prisoners-of-war, and almost always slaves.

Experts have not yet set a date for beginning excavations of the gladiator school, saying they need time to settle on a plan that conserves as much as possible.

The school sits on a site so large that less than one percent of it has been excavated, though digging began originally around 1870.

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'Pavarotti's heir' Licitra dies after crash, aged 43

Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra has died from head and chest injuries suffered in a road accident. He was 43.

Licitra - who was seen as the heir to Luciano Pavarotti in Italy - crashed his scooter into a wall in southern Sicily last month.

He was not wearing a helmet when he crashed in the town of Modica.

The singer made his international breakthrough in 2002, when he stepped in for Pavarotti in Puccini's Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Licitra died on Monday morning in the hospital in Catania, where he had been flown after the accident on 27 August, a statement on the the Swiss-born singer's website said.

He had been in a coma since the crash and never regained consciousness.

Doctors at the hospital said Licitra's family had agreed to make his organs available for transplant.

They said that a news conference would be held later on Tuesday.

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Labor Day: Barack Obama rallies Detroit crowds on jobs

US President Barack Obama has used a Labor Day address to a lively, sympathetic crowd to call on his rivals to back his plans for job creation.

"We just need to get Congress on board," he told supporters in Detroit, Michigan, saying labour and business were already behind his plans.

On Thursday, Mr Obama will use an address to a joint session of Congress to set out job-growth strategy.

The US economy has stalled recently, with no new jobs created in August.

The news was a gloomy prelude to the annual Labor Day holiday, which celebrates the role of the worker in American life.
'Tune in'

Speaking in Detroit, the president said his forthcoming plan would enable construction workers "to get dirty" building roads and bridges, and called for the "straight shooters in Congress" to support his plans.He also ratcheted up political pressure on Congressional Republicans, saying: "Prove you'll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle-class families as you do for oil companies."

The White House has clashed repeatedly with Republicans in Congress since Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 2010 mid-term elections.

A bitter fight over raising the US debt ceiling ended in a last-minute compromise in July, with more partisan disagreement expected in the coming months over the key issue of jobs.

In Detroit, Mr Obama alluded to his Thursday speech, in which he is expected to unveil a new strategy to create jobs and stimulate economic growth, telling supporters to "tune in on Thursday".

However, the president did hint that the plans would include a scheme to upgrade infrastructure and extend payroll tax cuts for working families.

"We've got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. We've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building.

"We've got more than one million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it," he said.
Starting gun

The president spoke shortly after Sarah Palin and presidential hopeful Mitt Romney attended the Tea Party Express rally in New Hampshire.

Mr Romney, once considered the Republican front-runner but now under pressure in the polls from Texas Governor Rick Perry, is expected to announce his own 59-point jobs plan on Tuesday.

He is expected to focus on repealing Mr Obama's healthcare legislation, limiting federal regulations and changing the US tax code.

Mr Romney then joined other leading Republican candidates at a presidential forum in South Carolina.

On the day traditionally seen as the starting point of any presidential primary race, only Mr Perry of the leading contenders was absent. He had returned to Texas to deal with a growing wildfire.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, another candidate seeking to maintain a strong position in the Republican field, repeated her frequent criticism of Mr Obama's healthcare plan - describing the legislation as a "dictator" over American lives and a "foundation for socialised medicine".

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Edinburgh University students could pay £36,000

Edinburgh University could become the most expensive place to study in the UK for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish university said it would charge £9,000 a year in tuition fees.

The National Union of Students Scotland said £36,000 for a standard four-year degree at Edinburgh was "both staggering and ridiculous".

Edinburgh is the third Scots university to set its fees for rest of UK (RUK) residents at the maximum level.

However, Aberdeen and Heriot-Watt universities said they intended to cap their fees at a maximum of £27,000 for the course, even if it was four years, the standard length of Scottish courses.

The University of Edinburgh said it would not do this but it would offer "the most generous bursary package within the UK for those on the lowest household incomes".

The Scottish government said a consultation on its proposals for tuition fees for students who come to Scotland to study from other parts of the UK had closed last week.

It said fee levels were being set by Scottish universities on an "indicative basis", pending the outcome of the consultation and the subsequent legislative process.

However, the universities intend to bring in the fees next summer if they get the go-ahead.

Students who are resident in Scotland do not pay tuition fees at Scottish universities.

The SNP made a pledge before it was elected in May that it would not introduce fees or graduate contributions from students who live in Scotland.

In June, Education Secretary Mike Russell outlined proposals to allow Scottish universities to set their own fees for UK residents from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The move was prompted by the UK government's decision to raise the cap on fees in the rest of the UK to £9,000.

Mr Russell said Scottish universities would be free to set fees of between the current £1,800 and £9,000 but said he expected levels to be lower than those south of the border.

Responding to the Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt announcements, a Scottish Government spokesman said: "It is up to individual universities to manage and set their fee levels for students from the rest of the UK, bearing in mind the need to be competitive and attractive to a broad range of students.

"It is in their interests, as well as Scotland's, that we maintain the cosmopolitan character of our student population at the same time as making sure that opportunities for students who live in Scotland are protected."

Heriot-Watt said it wanted to cap fees for English, Welsh and Northern Ireland students at £27,000, even if they study for more than three years.

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9/11: How New York's twin towers were built

The 110-storey landmarks that dominated the Manhattan skyline for nearly 30 years were reduced to rubble in the 9/11 suicide attacks of 2001. Thousands of people in the World Trade Center, and on the planes that crashed into them, lost their lives.

Designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki the giant towers were conceived as part of an urban renewal project for Lower Manhattan - and when completed in the early 1970s, for a short time at least, were the world's tallest buildings.

Now - a decade since they were lost, and with new construction on the site well-advanced - take a look back at the life of the Twin Towers.
Continue reading the main story

Please allow several seconds for the slideshow to load.

Leslie E Roberston was structural engineer on the original World Trade Center project.

Carol Willis is founder and director of New York's Skyscraper Museum.

With thanks to John Bartlestone, Foster and Partners, The Skyscraper Museum New York, Leslie E Robertson and Associates (LERA).

All images subject to copyright. 2001 news audio courtesy ABC News. Music courtesy KPM Music.

Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Publication date 6 September 2011.

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Man 'seizes child hostage' outside Sydney court

A man with a suspicious backpack - possibly a bomb - is holding a child outside a court a suburb of Sydney in Australia, local media say.

Police have sealed off the area in Parramatta, with one official saying that there is "a hostage situation".

Some reports say the man is holding his 11-year-old daugther. Details of the incident remain sketchy.

This comes a month after a fake bomb was strapped to a teenager at her home in Sydney.

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Obama touts new stimulus

As the world's economy looks ever more precarious, all eyes will be on Obama this week. He's making his big pitch to Congress on Thursday. He'll be setting out how to get America back to work. My guess is that there'll be a lot more politics than economics. He may well believe the measures he'll suggest are the right ones. But it's a dime to a dollar the Republican House will reject most of them.

Why ? The president made it pretty clear in a Labor Day speech in Detroit that he's looking for some sort of new stimulus package. He said:

"We've got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. We've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. We've got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. There is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. Labour is on board. Business is on board. We just need Congress to get on board. Let's put America back to work."

Obama is bound to come up with some measures that can be portrayed as appealing to Republicans. Doubtless last week's scrapping of proposed anti-pollution measures will be portrayed as one of those.

But there's little doubt he's preparing to "run against Congress", expecting them to vote down most of his ideas. He's prepared to portray them as the wreckers, the people blocking recovery. He lavished praise on the unions in his speech and then told the audience in Detroit:

"We're going to see if we've got some straight shooters in Congress. We're going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party. We'll give them a plan, and then we'll say, 'Do you want to create jobs? Then put our construction workers back to work rebuilding America.'" In one way, it is a canny, indeed obvious strategy. Nobody is more unpopular in America that politicians in Congress. It is not hard to portray their shenanigans as childish and uncaring. It is also true that if you like what Obama has done, then it is the Republicans in the House who are stopping him doing more of it.

But Obama's spending to crank up the economy was not popular. You could argue that as the money ran out things have got worse. It is at least an irony that last week's dreadful figures, net zero jobs growth in August, were so bad because the gains in jobs in the private sector were wiped out by cutbacks in the public sector. All the same, the American public does not seem to be clamouring for more Government spending.

The president said that on the flight to Detroit a senator had shown him a Labor Day speech made by Harry Truman in 1948. It too praised the unions as vital for a decent prosperous America and warned about Republicans. It is the speech where he warned of the Republican reactionary in Congress "with a calculating machine where his heart ought to be" .Truman was well behind in the polls but came from behind to win an election victory later that year. For him, running against Congress worked rather well.

But Truman could point to FDR's achievement: "You all remember how a Democratic administration turned the greatest depression in history into the most prosperous era the country has ever seen."

The problem is Obama can scarcely say the same of his own administration.

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Electric motor made from a single molecule

Researchers have created the smallest electric motor ever devised.

The motor, made from a single molecule just a billionth of a metre across, is reported in Nature Nanotechnology.

The minuscule motor could have applications in both nanotechnology and in medicine, where tiny amounts of work can be put to efficient use.

Tiny rotors based on single molecules have been shown before, but this is the first that can be individually driven by an electric current.

"People have found before that they can make motors driven by light or by chemical reactions, but the issue there is that you're driving billions of them at a time - every single motor in your beaker," said Charles Sykes, a chemist at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

"The exciting thing about the electrical one is that we can excite and watch the motion of just one, and we can see how that thing's behaving in real time," he told BBC News.
Miniature uses

The butyl methyl sulphide molecule was placed on a clean copper surface, where its single sulphur atom acted as a pivot.

The tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope - a tiny pyramid with a point just an atom or two across - was used to funnel electrical charge into the motor, as well as to take images of the molecule as it spun.

It spins in both directions, at a rate as high as 120 revolutions per second.

But averaged over time, there is a net rotation in one direction.

By modifying the molecule slightly, it could be used to generate microwave radiation or to couple into what are known as nano-electromechanical systems, Dr Sykes said.

"The next thing to do is to get the thing to do work that we can measure - to couple it to other molecules, lining them up next to one another so they're like miniature cog-wheels, and then watch the rotation propagation down the chain," he said.

As well as forming a part of the tiniest machines the world has ever seen, such minute mechanics could be useful in medicine - for example, in the controlled delivery of drugs to targeted locations.

But for the moment, Dr Sykes and his team are in contact with the Guinness Book of World Records to have their motor certified as the smallest ever

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US Open 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Alexandr Dolgopolov

US Open

Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York
Dates: 29 August - 11 September
Session start times: 1600 & 0000 BST
Tournament coverage: Scores and reports on BBC website plus live text commentaries including all Andy Murray matches; updates and commentaries on BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra; TV coverage on Sky Sports & Eurosport

Novak Djokovic Djokovic recovered from 4-0 down in the opening tie-break

Novak Djokovic came through a stunning first set tie-break to beat Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov and secure a place in the US Open quarter-finals.

Djokovic saved four set points in the tie-break and needed six of his own on his way to a 7-6 (16-14) 6-4 6-2 win.

The Serbian world number one will next face comaptriot Janko Tipsarevic, who beat Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 6-5 6-2.

Third seed Roger Federer plays Juan Monaco in Monday's night session.

The winner of that match will face 11th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals after the Frenchman defeated American eighth seed Mardy Fish 6-4 6-7 3-6 6-4 6-2 in a tense encounter on Arthur Ashe Stadium.Djokovic earlier racked up his 61st win in 63 matches this year but it was not without alarms for the top seed, as Dolgopolov's unorthodox game caused him plenty of problems.

On a windy afternoon on Louis Armstrong Stadium, the 22nd seed kept Djokovic pinned back with his sliced backhand and, after the pair swapped breaks of serve, the first set went to a tie-break.

Dolgopolov was in total control at 4-0 up but then got unlucky with a net cord, and Djokovic came racing back.

Each man would have their opportunities as the crowd reached fever pitch, with Dolgopolov playing one incredible point to see off a set point by picking up a drop shot that seemed impossible, but in the end Djokovic converted his sixth break point and never looked back.

He broke at the start of the second and third sets to see out a straight-sets win that had been anything but straightforward for the first 75 minutes."Winning it was very important," Djokovic said of the tie-break. "That was probably the turning point. After that it was a good performance.

"He played a lot of low balls, slices - I was confused on the court. But it was really exciting."

Djokovic will now meet close friend and Davis Cup team-mate Tipsarevic for a place in the last four.

"It means there's going to be at least one Serbian in the semi-finals, which is great for our country," said Djokovic.

"I think this is the first time I play Janko in a Grand Slam. We are great friends. It's not going to be easy to play him, but look, it's the quarter-finals and we both want to win."

In the men's doubles, Britain's Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray could not join compatriots Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the quarter-finals as they went down 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 to Polish sixth seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

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Torture claims raise questions over Libya-Britain ties

For years, Libyan and British intelligence were enemies. The legacy of Lockerbie and the supply of Semtex and weapons to the IRA ensured that. But 9/11 - as it did in so many areas - changed the calculus.

At issue was the role of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) - an Islamist body which opposed Gaddafi and had support networks and members in the UK.

In the 1990s, a blind eye - at the very least - was turned to the LIFG, perhaps on the "my enemy's enemy is my friend" principle.

But after 9/11 the relationship of the LIFG to al-Qaeda meant that it began to be seen as a potential threat.

At the same time, the Gaddafi regime - which had been seeking a way of removing sanctions and improving relations - realised that it had valuable intelligence that the West might want.

That was the makings of, if not a formal deal, then some kind of arrangement. Libyan intelligence officers began to come over to the UK to talk about information sharing soon after 9/11.
WMD talks

On a parallel track, Libya in March 2003 approached MI6 to talk about its weapons of mass destruction - one of MI6's tasks, as well as intelligence collection and liaison, is to conduct clandestine diplomacy and talks on behalf of the government.

Here the motive for Gaddafi was survival.

He was watching the US and UK going to war that very month with Iraq over WMD and feared meeting the same fate. His son, Saif, met with MI6 officers in an upmarket hotel in Mayfair. Days later, MI6 officer Mark Allen and a colleague travelled to Libya to meet Gaddafi.

He told them their interlocutor would be Moussa Koussa, the head of external intelligence.

Libya thought its nuclear weapons programme was secret. But it had been supplied by the Pakistani AQ Khan, whose supply network had been penetrated by MI6 and the CIA.

As a result, they knew the Libyans were not being frank during the negotiations about what they had.

Eventually, after much difficulty and two trips to Libya by MI6/CIA teams, the Libyans owned up and a deal was done in December 2003.

Mark Allen was among those to conclude the terms at the Travellers Club in Pall Mall and his relationship with Moussa Koussa was solidified - along with that of Steve Kappes, the CIA officer assigned for the negotiations.
'Murky regimes'

With relations improved, the counter-terrorist co-operation which had predated the 2003 WMD deal picked up further pace.

Extensive information sharing is clear from the documents retrieved from Moussa Koussa's office, based on a shared view of the LIFG as a danger.

But just how close did the Libyans and British get?

British intelligence does have to deal with murky regimes, but the question of in what way and with what limits is crucial.

Was there the suspicion that Libya might be torturing people to provide the information that Britain was expecting? If there wasn't, should there have been? Did Britain, as some of the memos suggest, play a role in LIFG individuals being sent to Libya where they might be mistreated? This would be complicity in rendition - something always strenuously denied.

And were ministers aware of this and did they sign off on these aspects of the relationship?

These are questions which have swirled around British intelligence's relationship with a number of countries - notably Pakistan - for some time.

But in the Libyan case, we can now see original documents and communications which raise serious questions. And some of the very LIFG fighters Britain was worried about are now the ones who have removed Gaddafi's regime from power.

"Clearly in order to protect British citizens we have to work with governments around the world," a spokesperson for the prime minister said on Monday.

"Some of those governments do not share our standards but we need to do what we do to protect us against terrorism."

The issue of what we need to do and how far intelligence agencies need to go has been the source of deep controversy over the last decade. The Libya story may provide one of the most powerful case studies yet to fuel that debate.

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Wikileaks: Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe 'has cancer'

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer which has spread to other organs, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The cable, published by whistle-blower site Wikileaks, cites central bank governor Gideon Gono as saying Mr Mugabe's doctors had urged him to quit.

The cable, written in 2008 by the US embassy in Harare, also says 87-year-old Mr Mugabe could die by 2013.

Mr Gono, a staunch ally of Mr Mugabe, dismissed the cable as "fiction".

The cable cites Mr Gono as saying the cancer had "metastasized and, according to doctors, will cause his death in three to five years."

In an interview with Reuters news agency last September, Mr Mugabe - who has been in power since 1980 - dismissed rumours that he was dying of cancer and had suffered a stroke.
'Mugabe will quit'

The cable, written in June 2008 by the former US ambassador to Harare, James McGee, quotes Mr Gono as saying that doctors had advised Mr Mugabe to reduce his activities.

The cable says that a year earlier, Mr Gono had said that Mr Mugabe's doctors had told him to step down immediately.

"Mugabe had told his doctor, according to Gono, that he would leave office after the [2008] election," says the cable.

In his response, Mr Gono dismissed the cable as "fiction" and said he did not have the "power to shorten or elongate people's lives", Zimbabwe's privately owned Daily News newspaper reported.

Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party have not yet agreed on an election date, but Mr Mugabe said at the weekend that it could take place next year.

Mr Mugabe formed a power-sharing government with Mr Tsvangirai following elections marred by violence in 2008.

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International Red Cross visits Syrian prison

The International Red Cross (ICRC) has been allowed to visit a Syrian prison for the first time since concerns emerged over the treatment of inmates.

The ICRC said it had visited Damascus central prison in Adra suburb on Sunday.

ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said he also held talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Monday.

Amnesty International said last week it believed at least 88 Syrian detainees had died in the past five months.

"The Syrian authorities have granted the ICRC access to a place of detention for the first time," said Mr Kellenberger at the end of a two-day visit to Damascus.

"Initially, we will have access to persons detained by the ministry of the interior and we are hopeful that we will soon be able to visit all detainees."

During his talks with President Assad, Mr Kellenberger said he had discussed "the rules governing the use of force by security forces in the current situation and the obligation to respect the physical and psychological well-being and human dignity of detainees".
Access request

The ICRC has been asking for access to detainees for several months, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva where the ICRC issued its statement.

In June Mr Kellenberger visited Syria, but only now after a second visit has access been granted and so far only to one prison, our correspondent says.

Nevertheless, the ICRC says this is a step forward. Red Cross delegates will be able to assess the condition of detainees, to request improvements from the Syrian authorities and to give the families of detainees news of them.

The ICRC says it generally never makes publicly available details of what it finds in the prisons it inspects as it believes that to do so would limit future access.

It works instead directly with detaining authorities, governments and officials to try to improve the treatment of detainees and the conditions of prisoners, it told the BBC.
Detention deaths

In its report last week, Amnesty said that those who died in detention - including 10 children - had been subjected to beatings, burns, electric shocks and other abuse.

All of those who died were thought to have been arrested after taking part in anti-government protests, said the group.

Thousands have been detained since the anti-government protests started in March this year.

Access to Syria has been severely restricted for international journalists and it is rarely possible to verify accounts by witnesses and activists.

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News International to sell Wapping site, publisher says

News International is to sell its Wapping site in east London, the newspaper publisher has said.

Its stable of titles - which includes the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times - will be entirely relocated to its nearby Thomas More Square base.

The Wapping site was also where the News of the World was based until its closure amid the phone-hacking scandal.

The company said "current market conditions" led to a decision "not to proceed with remodelling" Wapping.

It said: "The decision to sell the 15-acre site follows a review of News International's London property portfolio.

"The majority of News International's Wapping-based editorial and commercial staff have now relocated into Thomas More Square, with the remainder to be relocated by the end of 2011.
'Symbol'

"Thomas More Square provides the company with excellent facilities and flexibility. As a result, and in light of current market conditions, News International has decided not to proceed with re-modelling the Wapping site."

Wapping has been the headquarters of News International's UK operations for 25 years.

News Corporation, the parent company of News International, announced it was refurbishing the site in September 2008.

It planned to create a "new campus" for its UK businesses, including News International, HarperCollins, MySpace, Dow Jones and Fox, and it was envisaged the project would be completed in 2012.

At the time, James Murdoch, the boss of News Corporation's UK arm, said: "Wapping is not only important as a physical site, but also it is a symbol of how bold individuals, working together, can advance the world of media and thereby contribute to life in Britain."

The BBC's Nick Higham said Wapping became synonymous with Rupert Murdoch's taking on the print unions in the 1980s.

"In moving out of there, they are turning their backs on a very, very significant piece of industrial relations and media history."

Our correspondent said print unions had "an absolute stranglehold" on newspapers right up until 1980s but Rupert Murdoch had the "guts, the wits, the chutzpah" to "call their bluff".

"He built a completely new print works, he sacked all 5,000 of the existing print workers, employed 400 new ones, brought in new technology - and after well over a year of pitched battles with police and pickets outside Fortress Wapping, trying to stop his lorries taking his newspapers out, he finally won and the print unions were forced to withdraw.

"And as a result of that, every other newspaper followed suit, they all moved out of Fleet street, they all bought new print works," he said.

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6,000 Sertai Marathon Malam Putrajaya 2011

KUALA LUMPUR – Seramai 6,000 peserta termasuk dari negara luar telah membuat pendaftaran menyertai Marathon Malam Putrajaya (PNM) 2011 yang akan berlangsung di Putrajaya pada 15 Oktober ini.

Pengarah Perlumbaan PNM 2011, V.Nithiaseelan berkata, meskipun pelancaran PNM 2011 baru saja diadakan pada 28 Julai lalu tetapi sambutan yang diterima daripada orang ramai setakat ini cukup menggalakkan.

“Kita telah menerima penyertaan seramai 6,000 pelari marathon termasuk dari Australia, Kenya dan Singapura dan kita hanya membuka pendaftaran untuk 10,000 peserta.

“Oleh itu kami mengesa orang ramai supaya membuat pendaftaran dengan segera sebelum kuota ini dipenuhi,” katanya melalui satu kenyataan media hari ini.

Nithiaseelan berkata, PNM 2011 ditaja oleh Bank Simpanan Nasional manakala NTV7 dan The Malays Mail merupakan rakan media.

Menurutnya, yuran pendaftaran PNM 2011 untuk acara `full marathon’ sebanyak RM75 manakala bagi `half marathon’ sebanyak RM62.

Tambahnya, yuran bagi larian sejauh 10 Kilometer pula RM55 dan RM35 bagi `Fun Run’ manakala yuran minimum Cabaran Korporat sebanyak RM2,000 bagi setiap pasukan yang terdiri daripada 10 pelari.

Jelas beliau, PNM 2011 menyediakan hadiah wang tunai terkumpul sebanyak RM85,000 untuk diberi kepada 20 pemenang teratas bagi semua acara dan tarikh tutup pendaftaran adalah pada 15 September ini.

Orang ramai yang mahu mendapatkan maklumat lanjut mengenai PNM 2011 boleh melayari laman web

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Jacques Chirac trial due to open in Paris

Former French President Jacques Chirac is due to go on trial charged with illegal party funding during his time as mayor of Paris.



However, there are doubts whether the trial can go ahead as planned after a medical report found that Mr Chirac, 78, is suffering memory lapses.



Mr Chirac, who denies the charges, has asked the Paris court for his lawyers to be allowed to represent him.



He is the first French former leader to stand trial since World War II.



The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says that if the trial goes ahead it will almost certainly be in Mr Chirac's absence.



Mr Chirac, who was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, is accused on two counts of paying members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party for municipal jobs that did not exist.



If found guilty he faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of 150,000 euros (£131,000).



The first count accuses Mr Chirac of embezzlement and breach of trust relating to 21 so-called "ghost jobs".



The second resulted from a separate investigation in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and involves an illegal conflict of interest relating to seven ghost jobs.



Despite persistent rumours of wrongdoing, Mr Chirac was immune from prosecution while he was president from 1995 to 2007.



After years of legal wrangling, he and nine other defendants finally went on trail in March.



But on the second day of the trial a lawyer representing Mr Chirac's former chief of staff at city hall, Remy Chardon, challenged the two cases being brought together.

Memory lapses



He argued that the statute of limitations had expired in the first case.



The Court of Cassation - France's highest appeals court - later ruled that the constitutional challenge was not valid.



Friends of the former president say that in recent months he has been subject to embarrassing lapses of memory.



His mind wanders although he doesn't realise it, they say.



A medical report sent to the judge - drawn up at the request of Mr Chirac's family - spelled out his condition and recommended that he be excused from attending the trial because he is not able reliably to answer questions about the past.



On Monday, Judge Dominique Pauthe is expected to respond to the medical report in his opening remarks. His options include dropping the case, postponing it or seeking further medical opinion.



Our correspondent says there are a few sceptics who say the medical arguments are being exaggerated by a Chirac family furious about the humiliation of a trial.



Mr Chirac is the first French former head of state to face criminal charges since Marshal Philippe Petain - leader of the collaborationist wartime regime - was convicted of treason after World War II.

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Hurricane Irene: Obama pledges help to storm-hit states

US President Barack Obama has promised federal aid to east coast areas struck by Hurricane Irene, during a tour of the badly-hit state of New Jersey.



Mr Obama said the government would "meet our federal obligations" by doing everything necessary to help communities rebuild.



Hurricane Irene caused an estimated $10bn (£6bn) worth of damage.



Meanwhile, there are warnings that another tropical storm may cause flooding as it moves slowly inland.



The National Hurricane Centre said Storm Lee, which made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, was expected to move over southern parts of the state during the evening.

Road-side debris



Speaking in Paterson, New Jersey's third-biggest city, Mr Obama said the "whole country was behind" communities affected by Irene.



"We are going to make sure that we provide all the resources that are necessary in order to help these communities rebuild.



"I know that there's been some talk in whether there's going to be a slowdown in getting funding out here, emergency relief? As president of the United States I want to make it very clear that we are going to meet our federal obligations," he said.



Earlier, Mr Obama met with residents who had been affected by the hurricane in the nearby town of Wayne.



Joined by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the president walked past flooded homes in an area where debris from the storm littered the curb.



"I know it's a hard time right now," Mr Obama told one group of people. "You guys hang in there. We'll do everything we can to help you," he added, according to Reuters news agency.



Mr Obama is expected to ask Congress for extra funds to help recover from Irene but is likely to face opposition from some Republicans, who want a reduction in government spending.



Last week, Eric Cantor, a Republican in the House of Representatives, said that any new disaster funds must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere to avoid adding to the budget deficit.



Hurricane Irene killed more than 40 people from North Carolina to Maine and deprived millions of people of electricity.



There are still 43,000 customers without power, a week after Irene raged up the east coast, including 17,000 in Connecticut, 12,000 in Virginia and another 12,000 in New York, mostly on Long Island.

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Germany's Merkel suffers loss in home state election

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party has suffered a loss in elections in her home state, provisional results show.



The Christian Democrats (CDU) won 23.1% of the vote in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, down from 28.8% in 2006.



The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) came ahead with 35.7% support.



Correspondents say the eurozone crisis, and Germany's role propping up indebted countries like Greece, figured largely in the election campaign.



Mrs Merkel faces national elections in 2013.

'Bitter taste'



State elections this year are seen as a key test of support for the governing coalition between the CDU and the liberal Free Democrat Party (FDP). The SPD is Germany's largest opposition party.



"The CDU is, of course, disappointed by this election result," senior party MP Peter Altmaier told ARD television.



He said it pointed to the need "to stand together. This is the precondition for people to have confidence in our policies."



The FDP have crashed out of the state legislature altogether, securing only 2.7% of the vote, down from 9.6% in 2006.



Parties must reach 5% to enter the state's parliament.The far-left Linke party was in third place with 18.4% and the Greens were at 8.4%, having previously failed to enter parliament. The Greens have been riding high in national polls.



The far-right NPD appeared to have scraped back into parliament with 6%, down from 7.3% in 2006.



Analysts expect the "grand coalition" of the CDU and SPD that has governed the state since 2006 to continue.



However, it is also possible that the SPD and Linke could join together or even make a three-way coalition with the Greens.



The SPD has not made clear which party it would rather form a coalition with.



Erwin Sellering of the SPD, who is Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's current leader, would only say: "We will decide what is best for the region."



In Berlin, FDP General secretary Christian Lindner said it was "a defeat that tastes bitter".



Turnout appeared to be significantly down on the 2006 election, at 53.5% of eligible voters.

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Libya media: Gaddafi mouthpieces fall silent

For Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the loss of Tripoli also meant that he lost his media outlets - a main driver of his personality cult and his authoritarian rule up until a week ago.



An extensive media group of dozens of domestic and satellite radio and TV channels, newspapers and magazines vanished, leaving Col Gaddafi with severely limited choices.



After National Transitional Council (NTC) forces went into Tripoli on 21 August, dozens of Col Gaddafi's TV and radio stations swiftly went off the air and the publication of state press ceased.



Some media workers were arrested and paraded on YouTube videos.

Flying new flag



Since the fall of Tripoli, Col Gaddafi has not appeared on television in person. Instead, his audio statements have been broadcast by two TV channels, one of which is believed to be based in Syria. In other developments:



Al-Jamahiriyah TV, a domestic and satellite station that aired his speeches live, now shows the NTC's tri-colour flag over the sound of Radio Tripoli, a new rebel-affiliated station.

Former youth station Al-Shababiyah FM has been re-launched under a new name: Al-Shababiyah 17 February FM.

Plans are also afoot to re-launch Al-Shababiyah TV - another part of the Libyan state broadcasting corporation.

One of the remaining state newspapers, Al-Shams, has ceased publication as is evident from its website, which now shows only a blank page.



Foreign links



Faced with limited options, Col Gaddafi turned abroad for media airtime, using two new pro-Gaddafi stations.



Al-Ra'y TV is owned by Iraqi businessman Mishan al-Juburi and based in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Mr Juburi is known for broadcasting television footage of attacks against coalition troops in Iraq.



His station has adopted a staunch pro-Gaddafi tone since 22 August and has broadcast statements by him and his son, Saif al-Islam. Its programmes also include daily pro-Gaddafi news bulletins and commentary, with phone-in programmes attracting callers from the Arab world.



The second television channel is named Al-Muqawamah TV - Arabic for "resistance" - and launched on 1 September with a broadcast of a Gaddafi speech defying the world. According to Mr Juburi, Al-Muqawamah TV is using an outside broadcasting van in Libya to air pro-Gaddafi content.



Al-Muqawamah TV is currently showing a loop of archive footage of IED (improvised explosive device) and sniper attacks against coalition troops in Iraq.

Rallying provincial supporters



The existence of provincial radio stations in parts of Libya that are not under the NTC's control may still enable Col Gaddafi to communicate with his followers.



Libyan reports mentioned his use of local radio stations in Sirte and Bani Walid several days ago to rally supporters.



However, in his 1 September address, Col Gaddafi referred to the loss of communications, possibly pointing to his own restricted access to the media or communication channels.



BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

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Passengers safe in Ottawa airport mishap

No injuries as plane goes off runway, Ottawa Fire Services official says



All 44 passengers are safe after an American passenger plane went off the runway at Ottawa International Airport, officials say.



Marc Messier, an official with Ottawa Fire Services, tweeted late Sunday afternoon that the passengers on United Airlines flight 3363 were safe and on a city bus."No injuries, everybody is absolutely fine," said Krista Kealey, director of communications for the airport.



The plane, which had arrived from Chicago, appeared to have suffered damage to a wing, the CBC's Alistair Steele reported.



A passenger tweeted that people screamed as the plane skidded and a wing went into the dirt.



Fire crews were controlling a fuel leak, and hazardous material crews were dispatched, Messier said.



The crew reported damage to the undercarriage, he said.



It's not the first time a United plane has skidded off the runway in Ottawa.



In June 2010, a United Express Brazilian-built Embraer 145 with 36 people aboard went off the runway. Three people were taken to hospital.

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Former Iceland PM Geir Haarde due in court

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde is due in a special court on charges of "failures of ministerial responsibility" in his handling of the 2008 financial crisis.



The country's three main banks collapsed amid economic turmoil.



The failure of Icebank, which hit thousands of savers in the UK and Netherlands, led to a dispute over compensation, which remains unresolved.



Mr Haarde has called the case a "farce" and wants the court to throw it out.



The Landsdomur court, a special body to try cabinet ministers, has never before heard a case.



Public opinion is divided, with some people seeing the trial of Mr Haarde as scapegoating, and others arguing that public accountability is essential following the country's financial collapse.

'Right thing to do'



Iceland was plunged into a deep recession following the collapse of its three leading banks, including Icesave's parent company Landsbanki, in autumn 2008.



Mr Haarde, 60, led the Independence Party government at the time.



He says that the case against him is a political vendetta by the current coalition.



Mr Haarde wants the Landsdomur court should throw out the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison.



His lawyers will argue the charges are too vague to meet legal standards and have not been properly investigated.



"When it became clear we were heading towards catastrophe... the record shows very little was done to avoid it," current Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told the AFP news agency.



But Mr Haarde argues that his government avoided the mistakes made by Greece and Ireland, when he allowed failing banks to go under.



"We had to let them go. They went bankrupt. And it turns out now that this was the right thing to do," said Mr Haarde.

'Worst option'



Icelandic voters have twice rejected deals to repay the estimated 4bn euros (£3.6bn; $5.6bn) the UK and Dutch governments spent reimbursing citizens who lost money in the collapse of Icesave.



Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said that "the worst option had been chosen" after voters said no in a second referendum in April this year. The issue remains unresolved.



When Icesave collapsed, the then UK Prime Minster Gordon Brown accused his Icelandic counterpart of "unacceptable" and "illegal" behaviour after Iceland said it could not give a guarantee to reimburse UK customers of the online bank.



In response, Mr Haarde accused the UK government of "bullying" and bringing down one of its other banks after the Treasury froze the assets of Icelandic institutions in the UK.

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Noramfaizul Terselamat Dari Nahas Helikopter

KUALA LUMPUR – Jurukamera BernamaTV Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, 39, yang maut akibat terkena tembakan peluru sesat semasa membuat liputan misi kemanusiaan di Mogadishu, Somalia, semalam, pernah terselamat dari nahas helikopter 13 tahun lepas apabila tempatnya digantikan dua jurukamera lain.

Dalam kejadian pada 2 Mac 1997 itu dua jurukamera Filem Negara dan seorang juruterbang terbunuh apabila pesawat ringan Cessna 172 milik Mofaz Air yang ditugaskan membuat tinjauan udara untuk kejohanan lumba basikal Le tour De Langkawi 1997 terhempas di kawasan belukar berpaya di Kampung Bakau, Kelibang, Langkawi.

Rakan baik Allahyarham, Mazalan Rafji berkata peristiwa itu adalah antara pengalaman yang tidak dapat dilupakannya bersama arwah yang ketika itu sama-sama bertugas sebagai jurukamera Filem Negara.

Mengimbau kembali peristiwa itu, Mazalan berkata, mereka bernasib baik kerana pada mulanya telah ditugaskan membuat tinjauan udara untuk kejohanan lumba basikal Le tour De Langkawi 1997, namun pada saat akhir, dua jurukamera lain menawarkan diri menggantikannya secara sukarela.

“Kami sama-sama bertugas luar dan ketika itu kami ditugaskan membuat liputan untuk Le Tour De Langkawi. Waktu itu saya ingat arwah pun turut terlibat sama dan dijangka menaiki pesawat untuk buat ‘aerial shot’ dalam masa yang sama ada juga ada jurukamera lain yang sukarela untuk naik. Jadi, arwah terlepas bersama saya,” katanya kepada Bernama di sini, Sabtu.

Pesawat itu disewa khas oleh Filem Negara untuk membawa kedua-dua jurukamera membuat rakaman perlumbaan basikal peringkat akhir Le Tour de Langkawi 1997.

Mazalan yang kini bertugas sebagai jurukamera di RTM Ipoh berkata, beliau bersama-sama Allahyarham kemudiannya bertukar kerja ke syarikat produksi MetroVision.

“Tidak lama selepas syarikat itu ditutup, kami berdua menyertai BernamaTV dan saya kemudiannya bertukar ke RTM sejak 11 tahun lalu,” katanya.

Sepanjang perkenalan, Mazalan menyifatkan Allahyarham sebagai individu yang sangat menghormati senior dan komited terhadap kerjayanya. – BERNAMA

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Meet Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy in Austria on 11 September 2011

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Posted by magakhmer,khmer news

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Youth Messengers​-Register to vote for a bright future

Sunday, September 04, 2011

By Mu Sochua

Printed on their shirts: "Youth-Register to vote for a bright future"

The Sam Rainsy Party Youth Movement is taking the party message to youth voters by walking door-to-door.

Target of the "Go get the votes campaign" : marginalyzed youth.

We went to market places, restaurants, construction sites where youth work with just less than US$1 a day.

Youth talk to youth. Power to the youth!

Mu Sochua, MP

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Libya conflict: Fear for civilians in Bani Walid siege

Libyan interim government forces who have surrounded the Gaddafi-held desert town of Bani Walid say they hope it can be captured peacefully.



One key anti-Gaddafi negotiator told the BBC civilians in the town could not move and he feared they may be shot in revenge or used as human shields.



He said he hoped the standoff could be resolved by Monday morning.



The interim government says it is now sure Col Gaddafi's son, Khamis, has been killed.



The National Transitional Council (NTC) said he had died in fighting close to Tripoli and was buried near Bani Walid. Muhammad, the son of former spy chief Abdullah Senussi, was also killed, it said.



No further details of the deaths were provided and Khamis's death has been reported on at least two other occasions during the uprising.



Bani Walid, 150km (95 miles) south-east of Tripoli, is one of four towns and cities - the others are Jufra, Sabha and Col Gaddafi's birthplace in Sirte - that are still controlled by Gaddafi forces.



NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the pro-Gaddafi bastions were being given humanitarian aid and time to surrender "to avoid further bloodshed".

Family members



Anti-Gaddafi fighters have moved on Bani Walid from three sides.



The negotiator, Abdullah Kenchil, told the BBC's Ian Pannell there were two colonels and other forces in Bani Walid that remained a threat.He said negotiators were trying to persuade them to lay down their arms, not because of their military strength but because of the danger to civilians.



Mr Kenchil said: "We don't want anything to happen to anyone in Bani Walid. We want to go in peacefully and people will be safe, because otherwise they could be taken as human shields or face revenge if they don't support [the pro-Gaddafi forces]."



He added: "People cannot even move to the market. We are advising people not to enter or leave the town."



Mr Kenchil said pro-Gaddafi military officers were seeking assurances - and had been given them - that they would receive fair treatment and trial for alleged abuses during the uprising if they laid down their weapons.



Another anti-Gaddafi commander, Abu-Sayf Ghaniyah, told al-Jazeera a deal had now been done with elders.



"Rebels are on the outskirts of the town; they will go into it very soon in a peaceful way," he said.



However, the NTC in Benghazi said no negotiations were now ongoing as there was no good faith from the Gaddafi side.



There had been rumours that two Gaddafi sons had travelled through the town and that some family members may still be there.



Mr Kenchil said intelligence sources had told him Saif al-Islam had left Bani Walid only on Saturday, heading to an unknown destination further south, but there was no information of another son, Mutassim.

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Endangered species set for stem cell rescue

In a novel marriage of conservation and modern biology, scientists have created stem cells from two endangered species, which could help ensure their survival.



The northern white rhino is one of the most endangered animals on Earth, while the drill - a west African monkey - is threatened by habitat loss and hunting.



The scientists report in Nature Methods that their stem cells could be made to turn into different types of body cell.



If they could turn into eggs and sperm, "test-tube babies" could be created.



Such applications are a long way off, but research team chief Jeanne Loring said she had been encouraged by the results on the rhino cells, which they had not really expected to be successful.



The stem cells were made from skin by a process of "re-programming", where retroviruses and other tools of modern cell biology are used to bring the cells back to an earlier stage of their development.



At this stage they are said to be "pluripotent", meaning they can be induced to form different kinds of specialised cell such as neurons and cartilage.



This kind of science entails a fair amount of trial and error, and the researchers expected it would work with the drill because there is lots of experience with primates - but the rhino was a different matter.



"It wasn't easy - we had to do a lot of fiddling to make it work, but it did work," Dr Loring told BBC News.

Along the test-tube

The initial application for this kind of technology might be medicinal.



If animals are suffering from degenerative diseases such as diabetes, stem cells could in principle be turned into replacements for cells that are ceasing to function.



Studies using this approach are underway in humans for health issues as different as heart failure, blindness, stroke and spinal injuries, though routine use is another matter.



But a more exciting idea is to create embryos by inducing the stem cells to make gametes - eggs and sperm.



"Making gametes from stem cells is not routine yet, but there are some reports of it being done with laboratory animals," said Dr Loring.Last month, a Japanese team reported turning mouse stem cells into sperm, which were then used to father mouse embryos.



Other research teams are looking to cloning to rescue seriously endangered species. But this team believes the creation of new embryos would be a better bet.



"Cloning has not worked well for endangered species - the frequency of success is very low," said Dr Loring.



"And here, you have the possibility to make new genetic combinations rather than cloning which simply reproduces existing animals."



Embryos created this way could potentially be raised in surrogate mothers from closely related species.

'Last-ditch effort'



Robert Lacy, a conservation scientist at the Chicago Zoological Society and chairman of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group attached to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said the technique might one day help to bring endangered species back from the brink, although lots more work remained to be done.



"The prospects for using these techniques for continuing the genetic lineages of the last few individuals of a species will be a last-ditch effort, after we have failed to protect the species in earlier, simpler, cheaper, and more effective ways," he said.

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Mountain mystery over vehicle near Snowdon summit

Walkers were surprised to see the vehicle on their way up the mountain on Sunday



Police are investigating how a vehicle ended up on a footpath close to the summit of Snowdon.



It is believed the 4x4 was driven up on Saturday morning but may have become stuck on the descent about 400 yards (365m) from the top.



North Wales Police confirmed they were called to the incident but currently have no more details.



Snowdon is Wales's highest mountain at 1,085m (3,560 ft).



Walkers passing the Vauxhall Frontera have taken photographs of the vehicle on the Llanberis side of the summit, close to the train track.



It is unclear exactly when it was driven up there. Jonathan Tyler, who has worked for the Snowdon Railway for the last seven years, said it was just below the summit.



He said he had never seen a vehicle there before.



"It's such a dangerous thing to do you would never see a 4x4 that far up," he explained.



Ian Henderson of Llanberis Mountain Rescue said the emergency services or national park officers would never attempt to drive up Snowdon.

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Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant connected to national grid

Iran's first nuclear power station has been connected to the country's electricity grid, state news reports.



Bushehr was supplying 60 megawatts of its 1,000 megawatt capacity to the national grid, officials said.



The reactor's generating unit began operating at a low level in May, prompting Israel and other nations to express fears the reactor could help Iran develop nuclear weapons.



Tehran says its intentions are purely peaceful.



But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it is "increasingly concerned" that Iran is also secretly working on components for a nuclear weapons programme.

Dogged by delays



Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said the plant in the country's south was connected to the national grid at 23:30 (19:00 GMT) on Saturday.



The connection had initially been scheduled for late last year but, as with developments at Bushehr since the project began in the 1970s, it was dogged by delays.



Construction on the plant was abandoned after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution until the mid-1990s, when Moscow reached a billion-dollar deal with Tehran to complete it.



In February, Iran had to remove fuel from the reactor "for technical reasons", amid speculation that the Stuxnet computer virus may have been responsible.



The United States and other Western nations for years urged Russia to abandon the project, warning it could help Iran build atomic weapons.



But an agreement obliging Tehran to repatriate spent nuclear fuel to Russia eased those concerns.



In February, an IAEA report obtained by the BBC and made available online by the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis) - said Iran was "not implementing a number of its obligations."



These included "clarification of the remaining outstanding issues which give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme".



Six world powers are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme, and the country is subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.



Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs

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Syrian soldiers 'killed in ambush' near Hama

Six Syrian soldiers and three civilians have been killed in an ambush by an armed group in central Syria, state media says.



A further 17 people were wounded as gunmen ambushed the bus near Hama, Sana reported, adding that three gunmen were killed in an ensuing gunfight.



Syria blames foreign-backed armed groups for the ongoing protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.



Meanwhile, activists said Syrian forces killed 12 in raids on restive areas.



The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which coordinates anti-regime protests, reported 12 deaths in the north-western province of Idlib and the city of Hama.



The area has seen more arrests and bloodshed since Hama governorate Attorney-General Adnan Bakkour resigned last week in protest at "crimes against humanity" committed by security forces.



Activists say nearly 30 people have died across Syria since Friday, which saw the now-familiar weekly pattern of prayers, followed by protests, followed by shootings.



Access to Syria has been severely restricted for international journalists and it is rarely possible to verify accounts by witnesses and activists.



But the United Nations says more than 2,200 people have been killed in government crackdowns since pro-democracy demonstrations began in mid-March.

International pressure



The latest bloodshed came as the Arab League stepped up the pressure on Damascus, with a visit from Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi scheduled next week.



"I will express Arab concerns and I will listen," said Mr Arabi in a news conference at the organisation's Cairo headquarters.

Map



An earlier meeting of the 22-member league's foreign ministers called for political and social reforms as well as an "end to the spilling of blood and (for Syria) to follow the way of reason before it is too late".



But it is unclear as to how Syria will respond to Mr Arabi's visit, says the BBC's Bethany Bell in Cairo, or how much pressure the Arab League is willing to apply: The league says stability in Syria is key to the whole region, and it has not taken steps to suspend the country from the pan-Arab body, as it did with Libya earlier this year.



On Friday the EU banned oil imports from Syria in a move aimed at increasing pressure on Damascus over its violent crackdown.



The US had already banned the import of Syrian oil and called on Mr Assad to step down.



Russia, which has a veto on the Security Council, opposed the moves and has refused to back a resolution imposing an arms embargo or asset freeze.



French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said his country would increase contact with Syrian opposition figures.



In August, dissidents set up a "Transitional National Council" to co-ordinate the campaign against President Assad, following the example of the rebels in Libya. Burhan Ghalioun, a professor of political sociology at the University of Paris III, was appointed chairman.

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Noramfaizul Dilindungi Insurans

KUALA LUMPUR – Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, jurukamera BernamaTV yang terkorban di Somalia pada Jumaat lepas, dilindungi dua polisi insurans yang diambil oleh Bernama, kata pengerusi Bernama Datuk Abdul Rahman Sulaiman, Ahad.

“Semua petugas Bernama dilindungi dua polisi insurans — insurans hayat dan dan insurans kemalangan diri yang terpakai di seluruh dunia,” kata beliau sebagai respons kepada spekulasi yang tersebar dalam internet bahawa Allahyarham Noramfaizul tidak dilindungi insurans semasa menjalankan tugasan terakhirnya itu.

Selain itu, Kelab Putra 1Malaysia turut mengambil polisi insurans kelompok kepada kesemua 55 anggota misi bantuan kemanusiaan ke Somalia.

Abdul Rahman berkata Bernama akan turut menghulurkan segala sokongan dan bantuan yang diperlukan oleh keluarga Allahyarham. – BERNAMA

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NPC Sampai Ucapan Takziah Kepada Keluarga

KUALA LUMPUR – Kelab Akhbar Kebangsaan (NPC) hari ini menyampaikan ucapan takziah kepada keluarga jurukamera BernamaTV Noramfaizul Mohd Nor yang terkorban akibat terkena tembakan curi semasa membuat liputan misi kemanusiaan di Mogadishu, Somalia, Jumaat lepas, dan menggesa supaya satu prosedur operasi standard ditampilkan untuk diguna pakai oleh anggota media yang ditugaskan membuat liputan di zon perang.

Presidennya Mokhtar Hussain dalam satu kenyataan berkata satu prosedur operasi standard perlu ditampilkan segera bagi memelihara keselamatan para wartawan yang membuat liputan di zon perang atau di kawasan-kawasan tidak selamat.

Beliau berkata contohnya mereka perlu dibekalkan dengan pelbagai alat perlindungan dan diberi taklimat mengenai apa yang perlu dilakukan dalam keadaan kecemasan.

Mokhtar yang pernah menerajui operasi editorial di BernamaTV berkata beliau mengenali Noramfaizul secara peribadi dan allahyarham merupakan seorang yang amat bersemangat tinggi dan komited dalam melaksanakan setiap tugasan.

“Allahyarham merupakan seorang yang periang yang mudah didekati, seorang pekerja yang rajin dan tidak pernah cuba mengelak daripada melaksanakan apa jua tugas-tugas dan tanggungjawab yang diserahkan kepadanya,” katanya.

Noramfaizul, 39, terkorban akibat terkena tembakan curi semasa kenderaan pacuan empat roda yang dinaikinya bersama petugas media Malaysia yang diiringi tentera kerajaan Somalia ditembak semasa dalam perjalanan pulang ke tempat penginapan di Mogadishu selepas membuat liputan misi bantuan kemanusiaan oleh Kelab Putera 1Malaysia itu.

Mokhtar berkata kematian Noramfaizul merupakan satu kehilangan besar kepada BernamaTV secara khususnya, dan kepada Pertubuhan Berita Nasional Malaysia (Bernama) secara amnya.

Katanya diharapkan keluarga Allahyarham akan dapat menghadapi kehilangan itu dengan penuh tabah.

Noramfaizul meninggalkan seorang isteri, Norazrina Jaafar, 37, dan dua anak lelaki, Mohd Irfan, yang berumur lapan tahun dan Mohd Naufal, tiga tahun. – BERNAMA

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