QUOTES!

"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD

WHO LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF IT

FOR ANYONE ELSE" !

## Charles Dickens ##

IRAN ISSUES FATWA ON AZERI WRITER !

Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer
By Frances Harrison BBC News in Teheran .

One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.
It was issued by the conservative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani.
The writings of Rafiq Tagi sparked recent demonstrations outside the Azerbaijani embassy in the Iranian capital, Teheran.
The Iranian media is reporting that Grand Ayatollah Lankarani's followers inside the republic of Azerbaijan wrote to him asking for advice about what they called "the apostate writer".
They accuse the Azeri writer of portraying Christianity as superior to Islam and Europe as superior to the Middle East.
They allege that he has ridiculed all the sanctities of Islam and done it knowingly, fully aware of the consequences of his action.
In response, Grand Ayatollah Lankarani is said to have issued a fatwa calling for the death of the writer and also the person responsible for publishing his articles.
Earlier, an Iranian cleric had offered his house as a reward to anyone who killed the Azeri writer.
But this latest fatwa comes from one of the dozen or so Grand Ayatollahs in Iran, who has a large following.
An Azerbaijani court sentenced the writer Rafiq and his publisher to two months in jail for an article which was illustrated by the same cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad originally published in Denmark that caused outcry in the Muslim world.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DRUG DISGRACE FOR NOLLYWOOD STAR !

Drug disgrace for Nollywood star
By Senan Murray BBC News website, Abuja.

The scandal is said to have boosted interest in her films. Fans of popular Nigerian actress Hassanat Taiwo Akinwande are still shocked by her fall from grace.
The star of Nigeria's film industry, known as Nollywood, appeared in court last week charged with trying to smuggle drugs to the UK.
Some of them say they will now boycott films she has starred in "because she has disgraced her fans and country".
Miss Akinwande, who uses the stage name Wunmi, was arrested in September by officials of the Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency while trying to get on board a London-bound Virgin Atlantic flight from Lagos.
After a few days in detention Wunmi, who is famous for her roles in Nigerian movies that preach morality, had excreted 92 wraps of high-quality cocaine weighing in at 1.214 kg, according to the prosecution.
Reaction
"I am really disappointed in her," Jide Osinowo, a taxi driver in Abuja told the BBC.
It's the work of the devil
Fan Kemi Makoju
"I and my family used to watch her films because they taught children lessons about how to grow up and become responsible citizens and now this! I even heard that she was crying in the court and saying she was not guilty. Well, we shall see."
"With this whole cocaine business, I have no reason whatsoever to watch any of her movies," Nollywood film buff Sola told the BBC.
But some of Wunmi's fans are sympathetic.
"It's the work of the devil," Kemi Makoju, a self-confessed Wunmi fan said at a video rental store in Abuja.
"She is not the kind of person to do something like this. I'm not going to stop watching her films just because of this small thing."
Disrepute
Wunmi's colleagues in Africa's fastest-growing film industry were not so sympathetic.

Nollywood films are usually distributed by video and DVD
Following her arrest, the Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners quickly suspended Wunmi from its ranks saying her conduct had brought the industry into disrepute.
Wunmi's fans and fellow actors now appear to be avoiding her.
When she was charged before Lagos high court last week, her fans and colleagues uncharacteristically avoided the court premises.
Abandoned and alone, Wunmi wept freely and told the judge she did not speak any English.
Her confession was greeted with subdued sniggers from the gallery who clearly thought Wunmi had taken her acting to the court room.
"Mi o jebi, sir" - Yoruba for 'I'm not guilty, sir' - she responded when the one-count charge of illegal drug possession was read to her.
Pioneer
Wunmi, a single mother of two was a Nollywood pioneer with a career that dates back to the 1980s when she first appeared in a popular Yoruba language soap opera called Feyi Kogbon, Yoruba for 'Learn from this'.
It's a good advert for us because more people are now asking for her films
Pirated film seller
She's starred in over 50 low-budget Nigerian home videos which are usually shot in six weeks or less.
One of the Yoruba language movies Wunmi starred in is Ajeniyonu, Yoruba for 'making money is a risky venture.'
It is indeed a big risk Wunmi may have taken, for if convicted she faces spending the rest of her acting career in jail.
However, her arrest, ironically, has reportedly led to a renewed interest in movies she starred in.
"It's a good advert for us because more people are now asking for her films," Uchenna Obiefuna who sells pirated CDs and DVDs in Abuja's central Wuse Market told the BBC.
"Yes, I feel sorry for her, but our people also say one man's downfall may be the opportunity another is waiting for to rise."
"No be my fault, na God - it's not my doing, it's God's," he adds in Nigerian Pidgin English, shrugging.
Nigeria is reputed to be the hub of African drugs trafficking.
Although marijuana is the only drug cultivated in the country, Nigerians have been caught in the past smuggling South American cocaine to Europe and other parts of Africa.
A recent United Nations report which studied drug trafficking in West Africa found that Nigerians were responsible for most of the cocaine smuggled into the UK by the so-called "stuffers and swallowers" who swallow drugs wrapped in condoms for later retrieval.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TOLL RISES FROM EAST AFRICA FLOOD !

Somalia is worst affected by the floods. Dozens of people are reportedly killed, as floods across East Africa spread to Rwanda and Malawi.
There are also reports of 24 deaths in Somalia - from acute diarrhoea and crocodile attacks, while 24 people have also died in Rwanda, local radio says.
Five people have died in Malawi and four in Kenya, including one killed by a crocodile.
Aid agencies have launched an appeal for 1.8 million people following the floods, which have also hit Ethiopia.
The aid effort in Somalia is especially difficult because of the lack of infrastructure following 15 years of conflict and the absence of a central government.
'Managing'
Aid agencies report that at least 34 people have died from the flooding in Kenya and have urged the government to declare a national emergency.
But the government says the situation is not that serious.
"It is something we are managing. We are not in the habit of declaring anything a national emergency," said government spokesman Alfred Mutua.
Twenty people have died from diarrhoea in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland province, the AFP news agency reports the UN humanitarian affairs agency, Ocha, as saying.
In central Somalia, AFP quotes aid worker Hussein Nur Adan as saying a rickety wooden boat capsized, exposing three people to crocodiles.
"I saw the remains of three people after they were attacked by two crocodiles," he said.
Some 8,000 people have been left homeless in Malawi after the River Shire burst its banks.
Four women and a child were drowned, the district commissioner said.
Heavy rains also led to 24 deaths in Rwanda's Northern Province, national radio reports.
The floods in the Horn of Africa follow last year's droughts in the region.
That left the earth unable to absorb the heavy rains, leading to flash floods in Ethiopia, as well as Somalia and Kenya.
The UN has said the floods could be the worst in the region for 50 years.
The rains are expected to continue for another month.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUOTES!

"SOMETIMES I WONDER IF MEN AND WOMEN
REALLY SUIT EACH OTHER...
PERHAPS THEY SHOULD LIVE NEXT DOOR AND

JUST VISIT NOW AND THEN" ! ............

~~~ KATHERINE HEPBURN ~~~

IRAQ REPORT 'ADVISES U.S. PULLBACK' !

It is unclear if combat troops will remain in bases inside Iraq. An American cross-party group charged with reviewing policy on Iraq will recommend a US troop pullback and a new diplomatic offensive, reports say.
The report calls for US troops in Iraq to be switched from a combat to a support role, according to sources quoted by the New York Times newspaper.
It also recommends direct talks with Syria and Iran, the paper says.
The Iraq Study Group's chairman said it had reached a consensus and would announce its findings next Wednesday.
Lee Hamilton did not give further details.
Washington is considering radical options to find a way out of the growing crisis in Iraq, the BBC's Jon Leyne reports from Amman.
Details of the ISG report, which was compiled by both President George W Bush's Republicans and members of the Democratic Party, leaked out as the US leader was in the Jordanian capital to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
'Redeployment'
According to the New York Times website, the ISG is calling for the gradual withdrawal of 15 US combat brigades - each numbering between 3,000 and 5,000 troops - currently in Iraq, but stops short of setting a timetable.
Citing unnamed sources, it says the report does not say whether the brigades should be pulled back to bases in Iraq or in neighbouring countries.
Some 70,000 US troops would, the paper adds, stay in Iraq as trainers or in other roles.
"It's basically a redeployment," an unnamed source was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
"There is a kind of indication in the report as to when that ought to be completed... some time within the next year," the source added.
Just this week, Mr Bush promised troops would stay in Iraq until "the mission [was] complete".
The other main proposal of the ISG report is reportedly a proposal for a regional conference on Iraq which could lead to direct US talks with Iran and Syria - previously linked by US officials to violence in Iraq.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ISLAMISTS AMBUSH ETHIOPIA CONVOY!

The Islamists have made rapid advances this year. An Ethiopian military convoy in Somalia has been ambushed by fighters loyal to the powerful Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), witnesses said on Thursday.
It happened on Tuesday 35km south-west of Baidoa, seat of the weak interim government, who deny it took place.
Eyewitness said a truck was blown up and there was an exchange of fire. The UIC claim about 20 Ethiopians died.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has urged its members to comply with an 1992 arms embargo imposed on Somalia.
The council adopted unanimously a resolution condemning what it described as a significant increase in the flow of weapons to and through Somalia.
The decision came as some council members, including the United States, were expected to present a draft resolution calling for a partial lifting of the embargo to allow East African peacekeepers to be deployed in Somalia.
On Thursday, the Ethiopian parliament has passed a resolution authorising the government to take all legal and necessary steps against what it terms as any invasion by the UIC.
Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the Islamists represented a "clear threat" to his country which he said was prepared for conflict following repeated Islamist calls for a holy war.
The UIC, which is backed by Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea, and now controls much of southern Somalia, has denied claims by Ethiopia and the weak Somali transitional government that it has links to al-Qaeda.
Explosion
The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in the capital, Mogadishu says the ambush was 5km from the military training camp at Manaas.

Ethiopia has denied having thousands of troops backing government forces in Somalia, but has admitted to having hundreds of military trainers there. It has not commented on the incident so far.
It happened the day after the Islamists said Ethiopian forces had shelled the northern town of Bandiradley.
"The Ethiopian convoys were targeted with a remote controlled bomb, then one of their vehicles exploded," said Abdullahi Gaafaa who was travelling along the Gedo-Baidoa road at the time.
He said both sides then opened fire on each other before the Islamic fighters disappeared into the surrounding areas.
Senior UIC member Mohamed Ibrahim Bilaal says about 20 Ethiopian died in the explosion.
Somalia's interim government only controls a small patch of territory around the town of Baidoa.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.N. TROUPS FACE CHILD ABUSE CLAIMS !

This Liberian teenager claims she became pregant following abuse. Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found. Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money.
A senior official with the organisation has accepted the claims are credible.
The UN has faced several scandals involving its troops in recent years, including a DR Congo paedophile ring and prostitute trafficking in Kosovo.
The assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations acknowledges that sexual abuse is widespread.
"We've had a problem probably since the inception of peacekeeping - problems of this kind of exploitation of vulnerable populations," Jane Holl Lute told the BBC.
"My operating presumption is that this is either a problem or a potential problem in every single one of our missions."
'Rampant'
The UN is scheduled to hold a special conference in New York on Monday 4 December, to address the issue.
The BBC inquiry was commissioned as part of Generation Next - a week of programmes focusing on people under 18.

The BBC's Mike Williams with a teenager who claims she was raped by a Brazilian serviceman
In Haiti, a street girl as young as 11 reported sexual abuse by peacekeepers outside the gates of the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.
A 14-year-old described her abduction and rape inside a UN naval base in the country two years ago.
Despite detailed medical and circumstantial evidence, the allegation was dismissed by the UN for lack of evidence - and the alleged attacker returned to his home country.
In Liberia, meanwhile, a 15-year-old said she had been attacked by a UN officer on 15 November.
In May this year, another BBC investigation discovered systematic abuse in Liberia, involving food being given out to teenage refugees in return for sex.
The UN responded by heightening policing measures, appointing 500 monitors across the country, and introducing mandatory training of all personnel on appropriate conduct.
A local NGO worker said reports of sexual abuse involving peacekeepers were "still rampant, despite pronouncements that they have been curbed".
'Culture of silence'
UN chief Kofi Annan has pledged a policy of "zero tolerance".
To prey upon the very populations that you are sent to protect is one of the worst forms of violation and betrayal that there is
Sarah Martin Refugees InternationalThe UN's own figures show 316 peacekeeping personnel in all missions have been investigated, resulting in the summary dismissal of 18 civilians, repatriation of 17 members of Formed Police Units and 144 repatriations or rotations home on disciplinary grounds.
However allegations remain that measures to police and curb misconduct are nowhere near as strong as they should be.
Refugees International says there remains a "culture of silence" in some military deployments, and fear of punishment is not enough to ensure compliance with UN rules.
"They may be military men but they are also humanitarian workers," Sarah Martin told the BBC.
"To prey upon the very populations that you are sent to protect is one of the worst forms of violation and betrayal that there is."
Under UN regulations, military personnel cannot be prosecuted in the country where they are serving, and it is up to the courts in their home countries to prosecute crimes committed.
The UN said it had firm knowledge of only two concrete examples of sex offenders being sent to jail, although it believed there could be others it did not know about.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SOPHISTICATION BEHIND SPY'S POISONING

Sophistication behind spy's poisoning
By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News

Mr Litvinenko was a former KGB agentThe poisoning of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko would have required considerable scientific know-how, according to experts.
Mr Litvinenko's death on 23 November was linked to a "major dose" of radioactive polonium-210 found in his body.
Traces of radiation have since been found at five locations around London, including a sushi restaurant and hotel visited by the dead man.
But the radioactive substance implicated is as difficult to obtain as it can be to detect.
Polonium-210 occurs naturally in the environment and in people at low concentrations. But acquiring enough of it to kill would require individuals with expertise and connections.
Professor Nick Priest, one of the few UK physicists to have worked with polonium-210, told BBC News that just one milligram (a thousandth of a gram) of the radioactive substance could have been responsible for Mr Litvinenko's death.
To produce the amounts required you would need to use a nuclear reactor
Professor Nick Priest, University of MiddlesexHigher doses than that would have killed the former KGB officer more quickly.
Polonium-210 emits intense radioactivity in the form of alpha particles. These are unable to travel very far; penetrating about 60 micrometres through biological tissue - equivalent to the thickness of a few cells.
But because alpha particles deposit their energy in a rush, they can cause terrible damage to those cells if they get inside the body through swallowing or inhalation.
Polonium is also particularly harmful because it is taken up by an even spread of the body's tissues, whereas other radioactive elements might bind to certain tissues - such as bone - preferentially.
Lethal dose
"If you had it in a glass or tin vessel, you wouldn't be able to detect it outside. Which makes it rather ideal as a poison," said Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear consultant to the Oxford Research Group.
But once that container is open, polonium-210 particles have a tendency to creep out and contaminate the surrounding environment.
Professor Priest, now at Middlesex University, said the polonium could, in theory, have been dissolved in a liquid: "It could have been any volume from a litre down to a few drops," he said. Equally, it could have been bound to another material such as chalk.
The amount of polonium thought to have been used was hardly enough to see with the naked eye.

Radiation has been found at several sites around LondonThere are at least three ways to make polonium-210. It can either be extracted from rocks containing radioactive uranium, produced in a nuclear research reactor, or separated chemically from the substance radium-226.
The element was discovered in 1897 using the extraction method. Marie Curie isolated polonium from the uranium-rich mineral pitchblende, later naming it after her native country of Poland.
But according to Nick Priest, this method could not have produced enough of the material to kill Alexander Litvinenko.
"To produce the amounts required you would need to use a nuclear reactor," he told BBC News.
Nuclear research reactors are used primarily for the production of so-called radioisotopes (the radioactive forms of elements in the periodic table) and differ from the power reactors used to generate electricity.
Professor Priest has worked for the UK's National Radiological Protection Board - now part of the Health Protection Agency - and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Harwell.
EXPOSURE THREAT
Contact with carrier's sweat or urine could lead to exposure
But polonium-210 must be ingested to cause damage
Radiation has very short range and cannot pass through skin
Washing eliminates traces He says the most likely way of producing the required polonium-210 is to bombard the element bismuth in a reactor with neutron particles in order to change it into a radioactive form called bismuth-210.
This undergoes radioactive decay, yielding polonium-210 and a smaller amount of radioactive thallium-206 as "daughter products".
"Early on, there was a suggestion of radioactive thallium present [in Mr Litvinenko]. That might be consistent with reactor-produced polonium," said Professor Priest.
"Thallium-206 has a very short half-life, so you would have to have some bismuth-210 left in the polonium to produce thallium."
This might occur if the chemical separation of bismuth from polonium - carried out in the final stage of the process - was incomplete.
Production of polonium from radium-226 would need sophisticated lab facilities because the latter substance produces dangerous levels of penetrating radiation.
Research reactors
Experts estimate the number of reactor facilities around the world capable of producing polonium-210 are in the region of 40-50 - and the available evidence points to a source for the poison outside the UK.
RADIATION TYPES

Alpha particles are stopped by a sheet of paper and cannot pass through unbroken skin
Beta particles are stopped by an aluminium sheet
Gamma rays are stopped by thick leadThese include several facilities throughout the former Soviet Union, along with other countries such as Australia and Germany.
"There is only one reactor in the United Kingdom that could produce it, and I'm pretty sure they didn't," said Nick Priest. He explained that it was unlikely that polonium-210 could be produced in a reactor without administrators knowing about it.
Alternatively, the radioactive substance could have been purchased from a commercial supplier. Polonium-210 is used commercially in devices used to control static electricity.
Chris Lloyd, a radiation protection adviser, said the polonium-210 in anti-static devices was not in a form that was easily removed.
Polonium, along with the element beryllium, was once used as a neutron trigger in atomic bombs produced by the US, the UK and Russia. It was also used as a heat source in the Soviet Lunokhod Moon rovers during the 1970s.
Stolen goods?
The Litvinenko affair also placed the black market trade in radioactive materials under renewed scrutiny.
Since 1995, the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has maintained a database on the illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials.
As of last year, the database contained 827 confirmed incidents. Of these, 224 incidents involved nuclear materials and 516 involved radioactive materials.
The IAEA said it had not received confirmation of polonium finding its way into this underground market, but there have been a number of unconfirmed reports.
On Tuesday, Russia's nuclear chief rejected suggestions that the polonium-210 linked to Mr Litvinenko's death could have been stolen from the country.
Sergei Kiriyenko said Russia exports 8g of polonium-210 each month, all of it to the US. Exports to Britain ended about five years ago.
While he stressed the tough export controls on polonium-210, the nuclear chief said the final products in which polonium is used worldwide are outside official controls.
Nuclear forensics
In theory, it might be possible for investigators in the Litvinenko case to trace the origin of the polonium-210. But this would probably depend on finding trace amounts of other substances.
"In general, different types of [radioactive] materials pick up characteristics during their production," said Ian Hutcheon, an expert in nuclear forensics at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
"If you have samples of the material, you can gather information about where they were or were not produced by analysing trace constituents."
He told BBC News: "There aren't many places around the world that make polonium. I was able to find only two or three, so I don't think we are looking at 50 different places."
Klaus Luetzenkirchen, director of nuclear chemistry at the Institute for Transuranium Elements in Karlsruhe, Germany, said: "If there was only polonium-210 and nothing else then I presume it would be extremely difficult - if not impossible - to trace it back.
"All you have is a certain kind of element or isotope, which, in principle, could come from anywhere."
Even if the origin of the polonium could be tracked down, commentators point out that there is no guarantee it would lead to a suspect, especially if the material was stolen.
Professor Alistair Hay, from the University of Leeds, told BBC News 24 that those responsible had carefully chosen polonium-210 for its toxicity and difficulty of detection.
"Where the substance has come from is highly important, of course, and that's now the job of Scotland Yard," he said.
Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HONGKONG STEPMOTHER ORDERED CHOPPING !

The case shocked the Hong Kong community. A Hong Kong woman has been found guilty of ordering the chopping off of her seven-year-old stepson's right hand.
Hung Man-yee, 20, was convicted of wounding after she paid an ex-boyfriend to arrange the attack.
Judge Peter Line said her "deep hatred" of the boy was prompted by jealousy. She wanted the boy's father to give preference to their new-born son.
Sentencing was deferred for psychiatric reports, in a case that has shocked Hong Kong.
Five other people on trial received sentences of between two and 18 years.
The boy, Shum Ho-yin, was attacked by two masked men in August 2005 as he walked home with his grandmother.
While one held the grandmother, the other chopped at the boy's wrist several times in an attempt to sever his hand. He was left with broken bones and severed tendons and nerves.
'Deep hatred'
Judge Peter Line called it "one of the most wicked woundings with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in many years".
He said Hung had been motivated by "deep hatred" of the boy, who she reportedly wanted her husband to give up following the birth of her own son.
Hung's former boyfriend Tsang Ho-wai was found guilty of recruiting three others - two of them 16 - to help in the attack.
The judge condemned Tsang - who he sentenced to 18 years in prison - for showing no remorse.
The boy is reported to have since recovered, though he still has restricted movement in his hand.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CASTRO MISSES BIRTHDAY CEREMONY !

Castro appeared frail in his last TV appearance. Frail Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stayed away from the opening ceremony of his 80th birthday celebrations in Havana on doctors' orders. A message apparently written by Mr Castro was read out saying he was not yet strong enough to attend the event.
President Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery at the end of July and has not been seen in public since.
He then temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul, and was last seen in a video on 28 October.
Since falling ill, he has only been seen in officially-sanctioned photographs and videos.
Reports in the US suggest that officials in Washington now believe Mr Castro is suffering from terminal cancer and may never recover.
Parade hope
The birthday festivities had been originally scheduled for August but were postponed.
I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give you thanks
Note by Fidel CastroThey were rescheduled around 2 December, the 50th anniversary of the day Mr Castro and others landed in Cuba to start a guerrilla movement and eventually seize power in 1959.
There is speculation that he will attend a military parade in the capital on Saturday to mark that anniversary.
Bolivian President Evo Morales and the Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez are among some 1,500 notable guests heading to Cuba for the celebrations.
But if Mr Castro does not appear, many will wonder whether the president will ever return to power, says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs, in Havana.
'Challenging engagement'
Up to 5,000 people were packed into Havana's Karl Marx theatre when the president's note was read out.
In a note read from the stage to widespread applause, Mr Castro said his doctors had advised him not to appear before such a large crowd.

Saturday's parade marks 50 years since Castro landed in Cuba"It was only in the Karl Marx theatre that all guests could be seated but, according to the doctors, I was not yet ready for such a challenging engagement," he said.
The note did not rule out the possibility that he might appear at other events planned for later this week.
But it did veer off onto a range of other subjects, including a brief criticism of US President George W Bush and the voicing of concerns over the state of the global environment.
Those in the hall gave the absent author of the note a rapturous round of applause.
"I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give you thanks and hugs to each and every one of you," the note read.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NICHOLAS BIWOTT: KENYA'S COMEBACK KING !

Nicholas Biwott: Kenya's comeback king.
By Gray Phombeah BBC News, Nairobi .

For many Kenyans, there has always been something of the night about Nicholas Biwott - a long-time politician fond of describing himself as a "total man".

Mr Biwott was Kenya's most powerful politician under Mr Moi.
Taking control of Kenya's oldest party that ruled the country for almost four decades, he has achieved one of the most stunning political comebacks in Kenya's history.
He secured this coup with the backing of President Mwai Kibaki and former President Daniel arap Moi.
After months of bickering over whether the Kanu party, which lost the 2002 general elections, should join a loose coalition of political parties known as the Orange Democratic Movement and compete in presidential elections due next year against President Kibaki's ruling coalition, Mr Biwott finally ousted leader Uhuru Kenyatta, who was installed by Moi himself as his successor to run Kanu.
It also comes at a time when President Mwai Kibaki - who replaced Mr Moi four years ago - has been trying to woo the former power broker into his coalition government.
The president has failed to hold together his fractious coalition - a political crisis that is threatening his survival almost at the end of his current term of office and also his bid for 2007 if he chooses to go for a second presidential term.

The two men fell out before Moi retired in 2002.
Since coming to power in 2002 on a pledge to clean up government, deepening disputes between his allies and dissidents in his own coalition government have pushed his administration to the brink of collapse.
And so, desperate to win new political friends, President Kibaki is knocking at some unlikely doors.
Perhaps unfairly, Mr Biwott's name was linked to most of the major scandals in the country under Mr Moi's 24-year rule, including ethnic clashes in1992 and 1997.
None of the allegations were ever proved and most of his supporters maintain that he had been made the scapegoat just because he had Mr Moi's ear.
But his silence - seen by many as arrogance - over such allegations did not help matters.
Private man
Mr Biwott is an MP of the opposition Kenya African National Union (Kanu), the party that ruled Kenya for almost 40 years since independence in 1963, before losing to the National Rainbow Coalition, a loose alliance of opposition parties, in 2002.
Standing at five-feet tall and grey, he is almost deceptively shy
The most private of men, not much is known about Mr Biwott's early days or personal life.
He is known to have received his university education in Australia, but there is no mention about his early education in Kenya.
A fellow member of Mr Moi's Kalenjin tribe, Mr Biwott entered politics in 1974 - almost 10 years after Kenya became independent from British rule - and later became personal assistant to Mr Moi when he was vice-president.
It was this kind of association that prepared him for bigger things when Mr Moi assumed the presidency in 1978.
Dracula image
Standing at five-feet tall, grey and almost deceptively shy, Mr Biwott's demeanour in public is in sharp contrast to his unpopular image.

Kibaki is grappling with political infighting.
He has been described as a man obsessed with security, frequently switching cars when travelling and never accepting drinks brought to him in restaurants. And he has always refused to tell his age, which is believed to be about 66.
It hasn't, however, always been smooth-sailing for Mr Biwott.
When he was named as a prime suspect in the 1990 murder of the Kenyan foreign minister, Robert Ouko, Mr Moi fired him and later ordered his arrest.
But after a short stint in jail and a slightly longer stay in the political doghouse after the charges were dropped, Mr Biwott returned to the good graces of Mr Moi.
But even after a remarkable comeback, he appeared to have entirely failed to shift his popularity off the floor.
By the time Mr Moi bowed out in 2002, the two had already fallen out and he also failed spectacularly to capture the top position Mr Moi occupied in the Kanu party.
True or not, Mr Biwott has continued to be seen by many Kenyans as a symbol of the darkest days of former President Moi's rule - even as he seems to edge closer to the administration of President Kibaki, now with the backing of his former boss.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MADONNA FACES ADOPTION CHALLENGE !

David is currently living with Madonna and her family in London. A judge in Malawi has allowed a coalition of human rights groups to proceed with a legal challenge to pop star Madonna's adoption of a baby boy.
The alliance of 67 Malawian groups lodged a petition before the court last month, saying existing legislation did not allow for intra-country adoptions.
Madonna was granted an 18-month interim custody order which enabled her to take one-year-old David Banda out of Malawi.
The adoption of the boy sparked heated debate around the globe.
Judge Andrew Nyirenda in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, ruled that the groups could be regarded as "friends of the court" and so could pursue their application for a full review of the interim custody order.
"The applications from both applicants are accordingly granted and they are both joined as amicus curiae," said the judgement, according to the AFP news agency.
The 67 groups wanted to be party to the assessment of the singer's fitness as a mother.
They had argued that the government cut legal corners to "fast-track" the adoption, and said regulations must be followed to protect children.
David is currently living with Madonna and her family in London after she was granted the temporary custody order.
Madonna has denied using her wealth to fast-track the process.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

IRAQ 'ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR' !

Mr Annan's verdict came after one of Iraq's bloodiest weeks. Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said publicly.
Mr Annan said concerted action to dampen the vicious sectarian violence gripping Iraq was urgently needed.
The continuing and escalating violence in Iraq has prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity this week.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is due to meet Iran's supreme leader, while US President George W Bush goes to Jordan a day later to meet the Iraqi PM.
'New phase'
Speaking at the UN, Mr Annan said the increasingly brutal attacks by Shias and Sunnis in Iraq were dragging the country towards a dangerous level of violence.

Mr Ahmadinejad (right) said Iran would offer what help it could"I think given the developments on the ground, unless something is done drastically and urgently to arrest the deteriorating situation, we could be there. In fact we almost are there," he told reporters.
But Mr Annan's analysis was not fully backed up by the US.
Speaking en route to the Baltic for the Nato summit, national security adviser Stephen Hadley admitted that the conflict in Iraq was entering "a new phase".
But he added: "The Iraqis don't talk of it as civil war."
"We're clearly in a new phase characterised by this increasing sectarian violence that requires us obviously to adapt to that new phase," he said.
Mr Hadley said he expected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to raise the issue of possible talks with Iran and Syria when he meets Mr Bush in Jordan.
Iranian concern
Given a red-carpet welcome in Iran, Mr Talabani called on Iran to provide "comprehensive help" to improve his country's security situation.
Iranian television quoted the Iraqi president as saying: "We are in dire need of Iran's help in establishing security and stability in Iraq."

Deadly attacks killed more than 200 in Baghdad last Thursday
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told him Iran would do what it could.
The US and UK have repeatedly accused Iran of impeding efforts to stabilise Iraq.
But Mr Ahmadinejad said a secure, progressive and powerful Iraq was in the interests of Iran and the whole region.
He said the situation inflicted on Iraq by its enemies pained all Iranians and Muslims.
Iranian officials said Iran had been trying to organise a summit including Mr Ahmadinejad, Mr Talabani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but that Damascus had not responded to the invitation.
The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says some have suggested Iran wants to keep the US bogged down in Iraq to prevent it attacking Iran in the future over its nuclear programme.
But she says it seems Iran is increasingly concerned about the uncontrollable level of violence in Iraq.
Last week's multiple car bomb attacks in Baghdad's Sadr City - in which more than 200 people were killed - were the deadliest in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Last week, the UN said violent deaths among civilians hit a record high in October, with more than 3,700 people losing their lives - the majority in sectarian attacks.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

NEW BUILDING COLLAPSES IN LAGOS !

A three-storey unfinished building has collapsed in the Nigerian city of Lagos with at least two construction workers trapped inside, helpers believe. Rescue workers are complaining of a lack of equipment to move the rubble.
A doctor at the scene who has been helping survivors told the BBC's Alex Last in Lagos that 12 people have been rescued unhurt from the building.
The cause of the collapse is unknown, but many buildings in Nigeria are constructed with substandard materials.
Building regulations are also weak. In July, at least 20 people died when a Lagos apartment building collapsed.
"We are still waiting for mechanical equipment to help us excavate the people left in there. But we don't know how many there are," said Dr Osa Myintolu.
Dr Sikuade Jagun, director of the Lagos ambulance service, told AP news agency that two of the construction workers are unaccounted for.
Trapped
Attah Benson of the Nigeria Red Cross who has been helping with the rescue efforts at the site said the collapsed building was still being built and those inside would have been construction workers.
"There was no light, so we couldn't do much. We worked with our hands till 0230 am," Mr Benson said, adding that the collapsed building was intended for use as a bank.
Soldiers and rescue workers are struggling to hold back crowds of people that have gathered at the collapsed building site.
Eyewitnesses say the building's floors were compressed on top of each other, surrounded by bamboo scaffolding and cement blocks.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ETHIOPIA 'CLASH' WITH ISLAMISTS !

The rally in the capital back calls for holy war or jihad against Ethiopia. Ethiopian forces have exchanged fire with Islamists in a strategic town north of Somalia's capital, officials of the powerful Islamic movement say. The Union of Islamic Courts chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told a rally in Mogadishu that Ethiopian forces began shelling Bandiradley at 0300 GMT. Earlier this month, Islamists captured the town near semi-autonomous Puntland, which has strong ties to Ethiopia. There is no independent confirmation of the fighting and no Ethiopian reaction.

Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the Islamists represented a "clear threat" to his country which he said was prepared for conflict following repeated Islamist calls for a holy war.
The UIC, which is backed by Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea, and now controls much of southern Somalia, has denied claims by Ethiopia and the weak Somali transitional government that it has links to al-Qaeda. The UIC chairman told the rally that Ethiopian soldiers had massed around Bandiradley and started firing missiles.

"Their tanks are trying to surround the area and now they are about 10km (six miles) away from the town where our fighters are based," he said.
"We will never accept surrender to Meles, we are devoted to our religion and will fight until we die. That is our promise."
The rally was held to condemn United States support for the deployment of a regional peacekeeping force in Somalia.
The US is expected to propose a United Nations Security Council resolution this week calling for African Union peacekeepers to support the interim government, and for the partial lifting of the international arms embargo on Somalia.
Regional concern
A Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group, warned that this move could easily trigger a regional conflict.
It says that the UN Security Council - rather than back one side in Somalia over the other - should apply equal pressure on the transitional government and the UIC to resume political negotiations.
Another Islamic official at the rally told the crowd they would invite foreign fighters into Somalia to fight alongside them if the UN resolution was passed.
Ethiopia denies having thousands of troops backing government forces in Somalia, but has admitted to having hundreds of military trainers there.
Eritrea equally denies claims that it has sent troops and weapons to the UIC.
Somalia's interim government only controls a small patch of territory around the town of Baidoa.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S.A. OPPOSITION LEADER TO STEP DOWN !

Tony Leon has struggled to win over black voters. The leader of the main opposition party in South Africa, Tony Leon, is to step down after 13 years at the helm. The Democratic Alliance leader has said he will not be seeking re-election at his party's congress next May.
It holds 50 out of the 400 parliament seats, but it has never won over a sizeable proportion of black voters.
It is still seen as largely "white", and observers say it desperately needs a larger black membership if it is to be an effective opposition party.
Mr Leon became leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 1994 - the year of South Africa's first non-racial elections.
The DA has gained in strength, but it still only had 12% of the vote at the last general election in 2004.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) which dominates politics has a huge 70% majority in parliament.
Succession
The DA represented the country's liberal opposition during the days of apartheid, but under Mr Leon, the DA - controversially - drew in many members of the now defunct National Party which ran the country for 46 years.
[The DA must] care as deeply about the delivery issues that effect black South Africans as we do about those that effect whites
Ryan CoetzeeDA's chief strategist

Profile: leading contenders

There is no obvious successor to Mr Leon at present, says the BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg but Joe Seremane, the current national chairman, and one of the few senior black figures in the party, has been tipped as a possible leader.
So too has Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, our reporter says.
This year she was involved in a bruising political battle with the ANC for control of the city of Cape Town, which is the only major centre the DA governs.
A report drawn up by the DA's chief strategist Ryan Coetzee and published in The Star newspaper on Monday said the party needed to do two things to become a party that is attractive to South Africans of all races.
"First care as deeply about the delivery issues that effect black South Africans as we do about those that effect whites," said the document.
"Second, find a way to bridge the racial divide on identity issues."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EARTHLY REWARD FOR CHURCH VANDALS !

Three teenagers who burgled and vandalised a church in the US state of Montana will be given "love baskets" of electronic games by the congregation.
The three youths broke into Missoula's South Hills Evangelical Church two weeks ago, stealing money and smashing windows and computers, police said.
Officers caught them still in the church and charged them with burglary.
Church pastor Jason Reimer said the congregation wanted "to reach out and extend love and mercy to them".
"A lot of us, whether we're churchgoers or not, have been in their shoes before and have made some bad choices," Mr Reimer said. "But God forgives us."
Marijuana and pills
The teenagers are accused of breaking into the South Hills Evangelical Church (SHEC) just before midnight on 12 November and causing several thousand dollars' worth of damage.
"They did smash some stuff, like computer monitors, windows, televisions and sprayed a fire extinguisher in the gym," Mr Reimer said.
Cannabis, a pipe and some pills were found on the teenagers, he said.
The following Sunday, the church's main pastor, John Erbele, used the incident in his sermon to preach about the Christian virtues of mercy and forgiveness.
Church members began to collect donations for "love baskets" to present to the youths.
"We've collected several hundred dollars' worth of gift cards, Xboxes and controllers, a DVD, a VCR," said Mr Reimer.
If the teenagers escape a jail sentence, the church hopes the gifts will help keep them off the streets and out of trouble.
If the gadgets are not enough, the SHEC also offers a skateboard park, a centre for teenagers, a weight room and an addiction recovery service.
In addition, the church hosts a band, Goofyfooted, which features rock-and-roll pastor Erbele on guitar.
"We want to help them get their lives straightened out," said Mr Reimer.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TRIO IN CLINIC AFTER SPY'S DEATH !

Mr Litvinenko was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Three people have been sent to a special clinic for radiological tests following the death of the Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
The 43-year-old's death last week has been linked to the discovery of radioactive polonium-210 in his body.
The three had contact with either the London hotel or the sushi bar which he visited on 1 November and have been referred as a precautionary measure.
Home Secretary John Reid is due to make an emergency statement in the Commons.
He told BBC News: "This is a precautionary measure, it's reassurance, and we're trying to do this in as open a fashion but as organised and calm a fashion as possible."
HPA ADVICE
Anyone at Itsu or the Pine Bar on 1 November should call NHS Direct on 0845 4647
They will be asked a series of questions and may then be asked to take a urine test.

Timeline of case in full

Mr Reid earlier chaired Tuesday's meeting of the special emergency "Cobra" committee, which brings together ministers, officials and experts, to assess the risk.
The Health Protection Agency said more than 450 people had called a government hotline, with 18 passed on to them.
Three were referred to a special clinic because they had symptoms which may indicate radiation poisoning.
It is thought they contacted the NHS helpline and answered detailed questions about their condition before referred for the face-to-face consultation and possibly a urine test. Results are expected later in the week.
An inquest into Mr Litvinenko's death will be held on Thursday.
The hearing will be opened then adjourned at St Pancras Coroner's Court, said a Camden Council spokesman.

The restaurant is being decontaminated
Mr Litvinenko, 43, became a British citizen after coming to live in the UK.
Friends have suggested Russian top-level involvement in his death because Mr Litvinenko was a critic of Russia President Vladimir Putin.
And on Sunday Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said "murky murders" cast a shadow over Putin's achievements.
But the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed allegations of involvement in the poisoning as "sheer nonsense".
Asked about Mr Hain's comments, the prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair had made clear his concerns about some aspects of human rights in Russia but this case required caution.
'Premature'
"There is a police investigation ongoing and we have to await the outcome of that investigation," he said.

"Therefore, I think it is premature to be drawing any conclusions at this stage."
Mr Blair had not spoken to Mr Putin about the death but Foreign Office officials had met the Russian ambassador to ask for co-operation with the inquiry.
Mr Litvinenko had been investigating the murder of a prominent Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, before he fell fatally ill.
Radioactive traces were found at the Itsu restaurant in Piccadilly and the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar, both visited by the Russian ex-spy on 1 November. Decontamination work has begun.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SPY CAMERA WARNING FOR IRAN WOMEN !

Women are being warned that they may be being filmed. Iranian women have been warned to be on the look-out for cameras hidden in places where they undress, such as fitting rooms, gyms and swimming pools.
The chief of Iran's police, Esmail Ahmadi Miqadam, said some shop owners were fitting spy cameras themselves.
Iranian authorities want to stop a wave of secretly-filmed pornographic DVDs hitting markets and internet sites.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been championing a drive to banish unwanted Western cultural influences from Iran.
Last year, Western and "indecent" music was banned from state-run TV and radio stations.
Correspondents say the release of pornographic DVDs of privately-filmed events is a growing trend in Iran.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DID BIROS REALLY REVOLUTIONISE WRITING? !

Did Biros really revolutionise writing?
By Megan Lane BBC News Magazine.

Happy birthday, one and allFifty-seven Bic Biros are sold every second (and then "borrowed" by passing colleagues) - not bad for a 60-year-old product. But did the pens really make that much of a difference?
It was a familiar frustration that led to the invention of the modern ball-point pen - leaky ink.
In 1938, Hungarian newspaper journalist Laszlo Biro noticed the ink used on the printing presses dried quickly and so tried using it in a fountain pen to avoid the problem of leaks, blots and smudges.
But the ink was too thick to flow into the nib. So Biro, with the help of his brother, a chemist, devised a pen tipped with a metal ball bearing that used capillary action to draw ink through the rotating ball.
They brought their invention with them when they fled to the West during a crackdown on Jews later that year. A British firm took over the patent to produce pens for the RAF, and the first Biros went on sale in the UK 60 years ago this week.
Barring tweaks and improvements, the pen is still recognisable as the ball-point Biro devised to make writing easier, and it regularly features in top 100 design lists, says Libby Sellers, the curator of the Design Museum.
"It has worked so well for so long that you stop noticing it. It does what it says it should be doing, like the paper clip and the Post-It note."
But was it revolutionary? "That's a big word, but it made writing easier. No longer did you need to worry about ink spills or refills. To be mobile and reliable are two amazing things to be able to accommodate into such a small and humble object.
"What is remarkable is Biro's lateral thinking in bringing existing technologies together to create an everyday object that everyone could write with. Ball bearings already existed. Quick-drying ink already existed. And so did roller-balls, in deodorants."
Pen or pencil?
Among the first Britons to use the pens were the RAF's fighter pilots, for whom the pens proved something of a revelation.
"Fountain pens can explode or at least leak at high altitudes, so to have a reliable pen with you in the cockpit to note down important markers helped win the war," says Miss Sellers.
What about pencils? "You have to sharpen pencils, they're not as user-friendly."
There is an old and oft-repeated rumour that because standard pens don't work in zero-gravity, Nasa spent millions devising a space pen, while the Russians used pencils.
But this has been debunked, not least because - strange to say - pencils pose dangers in space, from broken-off tips floating about and graphite and wood being flammable in a pure oxygen atmosphere. And it was not Nasa which developed the space pen, but inventor Paul Fisher, and it was adopted by both sides in the space race by 1968.
Fit for purpose
While not the first everyday object in which manufacturers made a priority of user convenience, the Bic Biro is a fine example of what happens when an object is designed to make something that is easy to use.
I get asked to do artworks on trainers and T-shirts, so it's great that it doesn't wash off
Artist Jon Burgerman"If a designer thinks about how it works and what are all the qualifications that might entail, they're asking the right questions," says Miss Sellers.
Nor does she see the pens being superseded by technology. Yes, a passing thought can easily be typed into a handheld device or a text message, but a ball-point doesn't need batteries to work. It needs ink, but most have long since been lost, borrowed or stolen before running out.
The one thing that hasn't been cracked is washable ink - as anyone who has inadvertently left a ball-point pen in a pocket will attest. For artist Jon Burgerman, who specialises in Biro works (see Internet links, right), that is part of the pen's charm.
"It's the ingenious rolling of that little ball. If you put one in your bag without a lid, you're asking for it.
"I like that the ink's indelible - I get asked to do artworks on trainers and T-shirts, so it's great that it doesn't wash off. It's easy to customise stuff without bothering with fabric paints. That's invaluable for me, as a poor artist. I like Biros, pens are my friends."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SHOWDOWN TIME IN LEBANON !

Showdown time in Lebanon
By Kim Ghattas BBC News, Beirut.

Factories, banks and many shops in Lebanon have remained closed as a mark of protest at the killing of the industry minister, Pierre Gemayel. The two-day strike has been called by business leaders amid fears that the political crisis in Lebanon could throw the country into turmoil.
The line of people in black is interminable. For hours on end, since Tuesday, they have been filing past the relatives of Pierre Gemayel to pay their condolences at the family home.

Has Lebanon reached a point of no return?Some of them are crying while others approached the family to talk or to offer them poems they had written.
Mr Gemayel was the fourth opponent of the Syrian government to be killed since the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri last year.
The attack on Mr Gemayel's motorcade was a brazen one. It came in broad daylight and the killers got away.
The day after, one of Mr Gemayel's cabinet colleagues came to the BBC television studio and, for the first time, she was surrounded by bodyguards.
Standing next to her was slightly nerve-wracking.
People here are frightened; several cabinet ministers have now moved into the well-fortified prime minister's offices just down the road.
Foreboding atmosphere
Mr Gemayel's killing was not a total surprise though.
For weeks now, politicians have been trading all sorts of accusations and one journalist told the BBC the atmosphere was similar to that which preceded the death of Mr Hariri.

LEBANESE ASSASSINATIONS

Feb 2005: Former PM Rafik Hariri
June 2005: Anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir
June 2005: Ex-Communist leader George Hawi
Dec 2005: Anti-Syria MP Gebran Tueni
Nov 2006: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

Lebanon: Key facts
Politics mired in murder

Mr Gemayel only began his political career six years ago.
The Christian politician was the youngest minister and legislator and not particularly high profile even if his family is a well-known one here: his grandfather founded the Christian right-wing Phalange party, in 1937, modelling it on the Nazi youth movement.
And the group's military wing was one of the most powerful militias during the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.
One person whose family suffered at the hands of the Phalangists told the BBC it was sad to see several hundred thousand people turn up on Thursday to mourn a man whose family is associated with some of the worst violence in Lebanese history.
But many of the country's political leaders have a tainted past. Others are sons, or widows, or sisters of politicians; the same people have held power for decades.
One young Christian girl at the funeral, waving her white, red and green Lebanese flag, told the BBC though that she felt her country was changing: she pointed out that all around her, Christians and Muslims had come together to pay their respects to a Maronite Christian.
Political divide
So the divide now seems not so much sectarian, but a question of politics: supporters of Syria, a country which has long wielded influence in Lebanon, against its opponents, with Christians and Muslims on both sides.
But religious sensitivities are still easy to exploit here and whoever killed Mr Gemayel may have hoped it would provoke the Christian community.
At the site of the assassination on Wednesday evening, there was a group of seething women, wearing large crucifixes.
One of them was screaming: "They're killing us in our neighbourhoods, they have no shame, I will kill them myself if I have to."
In the past, assassinations have often led to bloody reprisals.
After the funeral, Shia Muslims from the pro-Syrian Hezbollah movement briefly took to the streets and blocked roads.
They said they were angry because some mourners had accused Hezbollah of being involved in the killing.
High stakes
I was in Damascus on Tuesday when news of the murder reached me by text message from Beirut.
I was in the middle of an interview with a political analyst who rather presciently had just been sharing his fears about the situation in neighbouring Lebanon.
It feels like showdown time in Lebanon - winner takes all
The next few days would be dangerous, he said.
The Syrians were furious about the international tribunal being set up to try the suspects in the murder of Rafik Hariri, he added.
A UN investigation into that murder has already pointed the finger at Syria.
The country's leadership wanted to stop the tribunal at all costs, the analyst added.
His view was that Damascus was trying to convince the world that it was helping the United States by making overtures towards Iraq.
This, he said, would distract international attention from the fact that Syria was really engaged in bringing down the pro-Western government in Beirut.
And just a couple of hours before that, another figure close to the Syrian leadership, told me that in the last few days, the leaders of the ruling Syrian Baath Party had decided that in return for helping the Americans in the Middle East, Syria would ask for what he described as "the jackpot".
This is not only the return of the Golan Heights, which have been occupied by Israel since 1967, but also a clear timetable for an American withdrawal from Iraq and an end to the work of that UN investigation into the Hariri killing.
So who did it? Was it the Syrians? Or the Americans, the Israelis, al-Qaeda, political rivals, disgruntled businessmen?
Who knows?
But as I drove back into Beirut from Damascus that evening, with tyres burning at street corners and the army deploying troops with armoured personnel carriers, I felt that the killing may have crystallised the divisions between the rival camps to a point of no return.
It feels like showdown time in Lebanon - winner takes all.
And the Lebanese can only hope that the final battle will be a political one.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

OLYMPICS CONFIDENCE 'EBBING AWAY' !

London won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics last year. Confidence in the 2012 London Olympics is "ebbing away" amid rows between ministers and the city's mayor about funding, the Lib Dems have said.
Culture spokesman Don Foster said he wished those involved would "shut up" until the budget was finalised.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has said the cost of the Games will rise by £900m to £3.3bn.
But London mayor Ken Livingstone called it a "mistake" to give a figure before the budget is published next spring.
The government has insisted the Olympics will be a success.
Last week, Ms Jowell told the Commons culture, media and sport committee that the expected cost had risen 40% from £2.4bn since the right to stage the Games was won in July 2005.
'Ludicrous situation'
The extra £900m was likely to be funded by London council tax payers and lottery funds, she suggested.
But Mr Livingstone said any increased costs were to do with infrastructure for new homes and that Ms Jowell had failed to take into account changes which had cut back the overall bill
Mr Foster told GMTV: "There's this ludicrous situation we're got into with all these figures flying around.
"We haven't got a finalised budget, so everybody's speculating.
"Different government departments are arguing with each other and so nobody knows where we stand. And confidence in our ability to deliver the Olympics is sadly ebbing away when it's going to be fantastic.
"We should be celebrating it; I wish people frankly would shut up."
Council tax surcharge
A row over the size of an Olympics contingency fund and an unexpected VAT bill have not yet been resolved.
The Olympic Park is being funded publicly, through a £20-a-year surcharge on each of London's council tax payers for 12 years, and the National Lottery.
Regeneration is being funded through central government, while staging the Games is being privately funded.
The Lib Dems and the Conservatives have said Parliament needs to scrutinise the costs - which they expect to rise further.
A revised financial plan is expected early next year.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FIGHTING FLARES IN EAST DR CONGO !

Dissident soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have attacked army positions in the east of the country, the government says. The attacks, close to the Rwandan border, ended months of relative calm in the region.
The army said troops loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda bombarded the town of Sake for several hours.
United Nations officials said thousands of civilians had fled their homes to escape the violence.
The fighting comes amid heightened tension in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, where the former rebel leader, Joseph Bemba, is challenging his defeat in last month's presidential elections.
Rebels 'repulsed'
At least two soldiers are reported to have been killed by in the attacks, in which the dissident troops used machine-guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
Army commander Col Delphin Kahindi, speaking from Sake, said 15 people, including eight civilians, had been wounded in five hours of clashes in which his troops repulsed Mr Nkunda's fighters.
Sake is a small town about 25km (15 miles) west of the provincial capital of Goma.
Maj Ajay Dalal, a spokesman for the Indian UN peacekeepers in the area, said rebel forces appeared to be pulling back into the bush
"For now, the firing has stopped. We are deployed all around and are supporting the Congolese army but we haven't had to engage yet," he said.
Mr Nkunda left the army and launched his own low-level rebellion after Congo's war ended, saying that the country's transition to democracy was flawed and had excluded the minority Tutsi community.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BOLIVIA GOES BACK TO THE WHIP !

Bolivia goes back to the whip.
By Lucy Ash Crossing Continents, BBC Radio 4

Native American community justice is making a comeback under Bolivia's first indigenous president with the emphasis on the whip. Certain village elders are equipped with whips to punish offendersIn Wilicala, a remote village in the Andean highland, a group of men were on their way to a meeting.
As they walked through the market square I noticed some coloured ropes slung around their chests.
The ropes were chicotes or whips and the men wearing them were mallkus - the word for prince or leader in the Aymara language.
Francisco Espejo, an elderly man whose teeth were stained green from chewing coca leaves, was one of them.
He said he was delighted that whipping is now an officially sanctioned punishment.
It's much better to give someone a few lashes and be done with it
Francisco Espejo, village elder
"When we had attorneys from the Western justice system, they put people behind bars for 20 years," he said.
"Those with money bought good lawyers and didn't go to jail so what kind of justice was that?
"It's much better to give someone a few lashes and be done with it."
One of President Evo Morales's biggest campaign promises was to revolutionise the justice system.
He vowed to promote pre-Columbian community-based courts in which village elders try wrongdoers and determine how they should be punished.
This practice, which predates the Incas, has three main rules which are: Amu Sua - Don't Steal; Amu Llulla - Don't Lie, and Ama Quella - Don't Be Lazy.
Native American law
Most of the mallkus were reluctant to talk to outsiders.

Some people are still afraid to talk about these things
Professor Wascar AriAymara academic
"Community justice was a very secretive practice," explained Wascar Ari, an Aymara Indian and university professor.
"When the Bolivian state was controlled by whites they used Western justice as a way of subordinating the Indians and the memory of that is still strong in some parts.
"That is why some people are still afraid to talk about these things."
But under President Morales the underground is going mainstream.
Granting traditional justice official status alongside national laws is a vital part of what he calls his "decolonisation" strategy.
There is a new department devoted to Native American law inside the justice ministry and the law faculty of San Andres University in La Paz recently started a three-year community justice course for people from indigenous backgrounds.
The recently appointed head of Bolivia's penal system, Ramiros Llanos, says the old methods are the best way to handle small crimes like the theft of some cattle in a village.
Overcrowding in prisons, he adds, has reduced them to "human garbage tips".
Mob fury
A massive backlog of court cases and the snail-like speed of Bolivia's justice system can drive people to desperate acts.

They threw lighted matches at us
William Villcalynching survivor
William Villca, a tailor, was nearly killed last summer when he was mistaken for a thief by an angry crowd in the city of Cochabamba.
"Suddenly we were surrounded by about 40 people all screaming 'we don't want criminals here! We will burn you, hang you, and kill you!' he said.
"They tied us up and poured petrol all over our clothes. Then they threw lighted matches at us and one landed on my arm."
Today Mr Villca wears a bandage which covers his neck and chin; he has lost one of his earlobes and has trouble moving his fingers.
Despite dozens of skin grafts and operations, he can no longer use a sewing machine or hold a pencil.
Cochabamba, the city where Mr Villca was attacked, is notorious for similar incidents, according to human rights lawyer Rose Gloria Acha.
"Lynching is a distortion of community justice - the Indian courts have never sanctioned the death penalty - but, in their minds, people sometimes make a connection," she says.
"Victims of crime in poor neighbourhoods feel abandoned by the state. They say no police officers will help unless you pay bribes."
Police under pressure
Grover Zapata, a police major in Cochabamba, flatly denies his officers are corrupt.

Sometimes we don't have enough money for petrol to get to the scene of a crime
Grover Zapatapolice major
"We have one policeman for 5,000 citizens and we lack resources," he says.
"Sometimes, we ask the public for help with our expenses. It's true sometimes we don't have enough money for petrol to get to the scene of a crime, for example."
The new justice minister, Casimira Rodriguez, says the lynchings were not about community justice but rather a total absence of justice in a country which spends just 1% of its national budget on its judiciary.
A Quechua Indian from the countryside around Cochabamba, the minister spent her teens in virtual slavery as a maid before escaping and founding a domestic workers union.
Her own experience of corrupt judges has made her wary of the Western justice system.
The minister described community justice as free, quick and transparent but she said the punishments must be measured and did not fit all crimes.
Serious offences like rape or murder, she said, should go through the ordinary system because village courts do not have the resources for fingerprints, and other forensic evidence.
"Both types of justice have to complement each other," she said.
Crossing Continents was broadcast on Thursday, 23 November 2006, at 1102 GMT and repeated on Monday, 27 November 2006, at 2030 GMT.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINESE AIDS ACTIVIST 'MISSING' !

Rights groups have accused Beijing of harassing Aids activists. A prominent Chinese Aids campaigner, Wan Yanhai, has gone missing after being questioned by police in the capital, Beijing, his office has said.
Mr Wan has not been heard from since Friday, his advocacy group Aizhi, said in a statement.
Mr Wan is one of China's best-known Aids campaigners and has criticised the government's response to the spread of the disease.
In 2002 he was held for three weeks and accused of disclosing state secrets.
Phone call
Aizhi said police questioned Mr Wan at its offices in Beijing on Friday.
He ordered workers to cancel plans for an Aids symposium scheduled for Sunday, and has not been heard of since a brief telephone call to a colleague on Friday night.
"The colleague asked Wan Yanhai his whereabouts, and Wan Yanhai replied that he was being questioned," the statement said.
"Since then, his colleagues and family have lost contact with Wan Yanhai."
The group said Wan Yanhai had told colleagues on Friday to ensure than any participants who had come to Beijing for the symposium returned home.
Human rights groups have accused the Chinese government of harassing Aids activists working in the country.
In the past couple of years, Beijing has taken a more open approach to the fight against Aids after years of denying there was a problem.
China is thought to have about one million people with HIV.
The United Nations says that without immediate action to educate the public, China could have 10 million people with HIV by the end of the decade.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA'S AMBITIONS IN AFRICA !

China's ambitions in Africa
By Mark Ashurst BBC News, Tanzania

Beijing has signed more than 40 free trade deals in Africa.
China has stepped up its business presence in Africa, but is being criticised for not pushing for improvements in human rights and governance in some countries.
There has never been a better time to buy flip flops in Dar es Salaam.
At the Kariokoo street market they come in all shapes and sizes: wedge heels, sequins, buckles.
Flip flops for work, and for fashion.
But at Tanzania's only flip-flop factory, these are dog days.
A few years ago 3,000 people worked at OK Plast and their wares were exported to 22 countries across the region.
Today the factory employs just 1,000 and Fadl Ghaddar, the Lebanese general manager, told me it was struggling to break even.
All but a few varieties of Africa's flip flops now come from China and local companies cannot compete.
Mr Ghaddar claims end of line stock from Chinese factories is "dumped" here, sold for less than the cost of materials, dodging customs and import duties.
African socialism
Some Tanzanians object that Chinese imports are shipped to the Chinese embassy in diplomatic containers from Beijing - but no-one can prove it.

Former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere visited Beijing 13 times
Outside, Chinese digger trucks are at work in the street - a Chinese company has won a government tender to renovate the sewage system.
And foundations have been laid for the new Julius Nyerere National Stadium, named after Tanzania's founding president.
The raw materials, machines, the pipe work and the scaffolding, come from Beijing.
Julius Nyerere visited Beijing 13 times - a record for an African leader.
What he saw in China inspired "ujamaa", the policy of self-reliance and collective farming announced in the Arusha Declaration - Nyerere's audacious statement of African socialism in February 1967.
Chairman Mao returned the compliment, sending Chinese engineers to build Tazara - the Tanzania Zambia Railway - to carry exports of Zambian Copper.
Many of those Chinese engineers are buried in a neatly tended graveyard, set behind a low white-washed wall on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.
A marble plinth, inscribed with Chinese characters, reads: Cemetery for Memorable Deceased Chinese Experts Assisting Tanzania.
An official who visited recently from Beijing claimed Tazara is still a household name in China and more Chinese experts are on their way.
Donor's favourite
Hu Jintao, China's president, has announced a doubling of state aid to Africa: £2.6bn in trade credit and loans, new schools and hospitals, professional training for 15,000 Africans in Beijing.

Hu Jintao announced a doubling of state aid to Africa
Some Western observers are sceptical.
Already, Africa supplies a third of the oil fuelling China's economic boom.
Paul Wolfowitz, the American neo-conservative who is now president of the World Bank, says Beijing ignores human rights, corruption and environmental standards.
But there is no oil in Tanzania and few of the commodities China craves.
East Africa's poorest country is also the donors' favourite.
In the past six years, Western aid agencies have spent almost £3bn here - more than Hu Jintao promised over three years for the entire African continent.
If that is cheque book diplomacy, China's cheque book does not look big enough.
Chinese exports, on the other hand, seem almost limitless and now that China, like Africa, is capitalist, their relationship is more self-interested than sentimental.
Not far from the spot where Mr Nyerere made his famous declaration of African socialism, I visited a factory making generic anti-retroviral medicines for people with Aids.
Cheap chemicals from a private company in China enable Tanzania Pharmaceutical Industries to manufacture these life-saving drugs at a cost of US$11.5 (£6) per patient per month.
Even a few years ago, that would have been wishful thinking.
Chinese imports
Back in Dar es Salaam, I meet Yang Lei owner of the Dong Fang Development Company Chinese Shop on Samora Avenue, a busy downtown shopping street.
Mr Yang is the 31st member of his family to settle in East Africa.
His uncle opened the first of their seven shops in Nairobi, a decade ago.
But after three years here, Mr Yang - who wears a sweatshirt with a picture of an American footballer and the logo "Top Class" - has learned neither English nor Swahili.
His showroom is draped with silks, curtains and upholstery fabrics and is crammed with furniture such as dining suites, reclining chairs and an emperor-sized bed with adjustable headrest.
Mr Yang, his wife and his teenage son sit at the back of the shop munching snacks - Chinese snacks - from a jumbo-sized packet on his desk.
Yes, Mr Yang admits, through his translator, he has heard about local businesses swamped by Chinese imports.
Then he shrugs and says: "Africans love my shop."

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 25 November, 2006 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CATHY BUCKLE'S LETTTER FROM ZIMBABWE!

Dear Family and Friends,

The prolonged effects of trying to survive the highest inflation in the world are grinding us down. When you ask people how they are, I mean how they really are, they say they are tired, they can't sleep, the worries just go round and round and there is no relief in sight.

Almost every day the propaganda machine here cranks out the usual rant and rave about how private companies and businesses are putting their prices up. Thes tate media say that these people are "sabotaging the economy" and "fuelling inflation" and they keenly name names of who has been arrested or fined that day. No sensible or even rational explanations are given as to how a businessman can stay afloat when he is ordered by the state to sell goods for a lower price than he paid for them. Blind adherence to government stipulated prices is dictated and common sense does not seem to enter into it. The state media says nothing, however, about the price rises and complete lack of ethics and fair trading in government organizations and companies. It seems they are exempt from obeying their own rules.

You don't ever post a letter here now without first checking how much postage rates are. They change - every month! Last month it cost 60 dollars to post a local letter, this month that same stamp costs 100 dollars and no one arrests the Postmaster! (And please remember that you have to add three zeroes onto every price in order to get the real costs - before the convenient removal of digits a couple of months ago ) Postage rates now go up so often that it is very rare to buy a local stamp which actually has a price printed on it. Local stamps these days just bear the words: 'Standard Postage.' It is not clear what standard is at hand, so we just take it to mean 'inflation standard.'

Parents all around are already beginning to panic about how they are going to afford government school fees in January. One friend I spoke to said his daughters fees at a government school were two and half thousand dollars this term and were increasing to 15 thousand for the January term - an increase of six hundred percent.

Then we come to water. In my home town on the same day that the water billswere hand delivered there was a national news report on the colour and qualityof the water in the area. Actually, to say the bill is "hand delivered" is a bit silly because in reality the flimsy bit of paper, not stapled closed or even folded in half, is just thrown through the gate onto muddy ground! The news report said, yes - it was true that raw sewerage was flowing into the dam which supplies the town with water and yes, it was true the pump was also broken. Appropriate film footage of foul brown slush pouring into our only source of drinking water and a man kicking the broken pump, illustrated the report. For this disgusting service there are no apologies or medical assistance, refunds have not been given and the costs for deteriorating service continues to go up and not down.

Then comes the mess that is called electricity. It is now not unusual to see factories working at night. They do so, not because they are working double shifts to keep up with demand, but because at night there is less chance of machines shutting down in the incessant power cuts. This week a notice appeared in the state run Herald newspaper advising people to conserve electricity promising that if they did: "the streets will be safer with better lighting." Oh Right, you say, what street lights! In a four kilometre journey in a built up residential area, passing one church, one hospital, one nursery school, one junior school and scores of private homes, just six street lights are working. It has been like this for over a year. Knowing that less than five percent of our street lights presently work, does not offer much of an incentive to save power. I am sure the fifty or so families near me who had no electricity for three days this weeks, feel likewise!

There is good news from Zimbabwe this week. It is raining, our vegetable gardens are growing and so are the sounds of protest. For the next fifteen days people are being called on to bang pots and make noise for a few minutes at exactly 8 pm every night. This week there were five minute noise protests during the lunch hour in Harare and Bulawayo and prayer protest gatherings too. Stormclouds are gathering. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 25 November 2006.My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are both available at:orders@africabookcentre.comRecent letters can be read at:http:/africantears.netfirms.com

WHAT IS POLONIUM-210?

The death of the Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko has been linked to the presence of a "major dose" of radioactive polonium-210 in his body.
What is polonium-210?
It is a naturally occurring radioactive material that emits highly hazardous alpha (positively charged) particles.
It was first discovered by Marie Curie at the end of the 19th century.
There are very small amounts of polonium-210 in the soil and in the atmosphere, and everyone has a small amount of in their body.
But at high doses, it damages tissues and organs.
However the substance, historically called radium F, is very hard for doctors to identify.
Philip Walker, professor of physics, University of Surrey said: "This seems to have been a substance carefully chosen for its ability to be hard to detect in a person who has ingested it."
What is the risk to other people from the dose Mr Litvinenko received?
It cannot pass through the skin, and must be ingested or inhaled into the body to cause damage.
And because the radiation has a very short range, it only harms nearby tissue, so those who came into contact with him are at very little risk.
William Gelletly, professor of physics at the University of Surrey, said: "Polonium-210 is very unlikely to have contaminated any staff who treated Mr Litvinenko or anyone who came in contact with him since they would have had to ingest or breathe in the contaminated fluids from his body."
Where does polonium-210 usually occur?
It has industrial uses such as static control and as a heat source for satellite power supplies, but is not available in these areas in a form conducive to easy poisoning.
It is also present in tobacco.
Professor Dudley Goodhead, Medical Research Council Radiation and Genome Stability Unit, said: "To poison someone much larger amounts are required and this would have to be man-made, perhaps from particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MOSQUES HIT AMID BAGHDAD CLASHES !

The victims of Thursday's bombings were being buried during the day. Gunmen have attacked a Sunni Arab area of Baghdad, burning mosques and homes, with at least 30 people reported killed, according to police officials.
The attacks were in apparent revenge for Thursday's bombings that killed more than 200 people in the Shia Sadr City district of the Iraqi capital.
Fleets of vans left Baghdad to take the coffins of those victims for burial in the ancient Shia holy city of Najaf.
The latest violence came despite a city-wide curfew and appeals for calm.
To add to the Iraqi government's woes, a key Shia group threatened to quit parliament and the cabinet if Prime Minister Nouri Maliki goes ahead with a planned meeting with President Bush next week.
It is an outrage that these terrorists are targeting innocents in a brazen effort to topple a democratically elected government
White House spokesman
There is a real feeling that the situation is moving to the brink amid the cycle of attacks, says the BBC's David Loyn in Baghdad.
Thursday's bombing and retaliatory attacks were "deplorable", the White House said.
"It is an outrage that these terrorists are targeting innocents in a brazen effort to topple a democratically elected government. These killers will not succeed," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
Mosques torched
A Sunni area in the once-mixed Hurriyah neighbourhood came under attack on Friday when gunmen rampaged through the area, setting four mosques and several houses alight.

In pictures: Iraq funerals
Who are the armed groups?

Iraqi police said some 30 people had been killed, but a defence ministry officials told the French news agency, AFP, that the clashes were so intense that precise information was difficult to obtain.
Clashes also erupted in Sadr City on Friday, where residents said a US helicopter fired on militiamen who were launching rocket attacks.
Violence was also reported in other parts of Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, including in the northern town of Talafar where a suspected double suicide bombing killed at least 22 people.
Baghdad has been under an indefinite curfew since Thursday's bombings and the airport remains closed.
The security situation has forced Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to postpone a visit to Tehran on Saturday for talks with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
During the curfew, the only people and vehicles officially allowed on the streets of Baghdad were the residents of Sadr City who began the journey to bury their dead.
Thousands of mourners came out onto the streets, walking alongside a seemingly endless fleet of mini-buses, each carrying a coffin on its roof.
The bodies were then driven to an ancient cemetery in the holy city of Najaf, the traditional burial place for Shias, 160km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
Political impact
Thursday's multiple car bomb attacks in Sadr City - in which 250 people were also wounded - were the deadliest in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.

Moqtada Sadr's group is calling for US forces to leave
Sadr City is largely controlled by the Mehdi Army, a Shia Iraqi militias accused of carrying out many sectarian attacks on Sunni areas.
Thursday's bombings could have a deep political impact, with the group led by radical cleric Moqtada Sadr calling on Mr Maliki to call off his planned talks with President Bush.
People in Sadr City faced insurgent attacks as well as repeated raids by US forces, the group said in a statement.
Mr Sadr's followers hold six cabinet posts and have 30 members in the 275-seat parliament.
The withdrawal of the group headed by Mr Sadr would be a major blow to an already unstable government, the BBC's Andy Gallacher in Baghdad says.
The meeting with Mr Maliki is due to take place in Jordan, and a White House spokesman said on Friday there had been no changes to Mr Bush's schedule.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LEGACY OF FAMINE DIVIDES UKRAINE !

Legacy of famine divides Ukraine
By Helen Fawkes BBC News, Kiev

A row of emaciated Ukrainian children stare out of a photograph. Their gaunt faces are full of despair and their bodies are little more than skeletons.

Ivan Leschenko says some resorted to cannibalism in the famine.
It is one of many images being shown on Ukrainian television in the run-up to Memorial Day, which is being held this weekend to mark the Soviet-era famine.
It was one of the bleakest moments in Ukraine's history. The famine which happened between 1932 and 1933 killed up to 10 million people.
It is widely believed to have been caused by the actions of the communist regime. The harvest was confiscated and people starved to death.
It was part of a brutal campaign by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to force Ukrainian peasants to join collective farms.
Ukraine is now trying to get this mass starvation recognised by the United Nations as an act of genocide.
But the issue is highly controversial and Russia is strongly against the move.
'Scared'
Now in his eighties, Ivan Leschenko was a child during the famine. He remembers how some people resorted to cannibalism.

A quarter of Ukraine's population was wiped out in just two years
"Such things really did happen. I know that one of my relatives ate human flesh. Just imagine how bad the situation was that people were forced to do that."
On the eve of Memorial Day, Ivan visited the capital's monument to the victims of the man-made famine to pay his respects.
"I remember walking the streets and seeing dead, bloated bodies of children and adults all over the place. I went up to one boy, he was saying something and suddenly he started shaking and then passed away," Ivan says.
"I was so scared; it was the most frightening experience of my life."
'Dancing on graves'
The famine had a devastating impact on villages across Ukraine. It is thought that around a quarter of the population was wiped out.
GREAT FAMINE
Called Holodomor in Ukrainian - meaning murder by hunger
About a quarter of Ukraine's population wiped out
Seven to 10 million people thought to have died
Children disappeared; cannibalism became widespread
At the KGB archive in Kiev, recently released files are piled up on an old-fashioned desk. These are said to demonstrate how the famine was artificially engineered.
One document is an order from Moscow to shoot people who steal food. It is signed by Stalin in red ink.
Now Ukraine's president wants what happened to be recognised as an act of genocide.
Russia admits this was an awful tragedy but is angry at claims that it was an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian nation. It says that other parts of the former USSR were affected.
This issue has also divided Ukraine's parliament. Last week MPs refused to vote on a law proposed by the president.
He wanted parliament to declare that the famine was an act of genocide.

Old KGB files allegedly show the famine was engineered
The ruling coalition which includes the Communist Party is pro-Russian.
It is led by the president's rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych - the man who was defeated by mass protests in the 2004 "Orange Revolution".
"This is like dancing on the graves of the dead. Before it's been proved this was an act of genocide, the Orange authorities are doing their best to persuade everyone that it was," says Sergei Gmyrya, a historian for the Communist party.
"I am furious that this is being used by the politicians in their games," he says.
Fragile relations
For Ukraine's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko this is personal. "In my family we remember my grandfather Ivan, a strong and hard-working man who died. In my local village alone 600 people died," he says.
"It is important to realise that politics were behind the genocide. It's terrifying to know that the only aim of that experiment was to exterminate Ukrainian people."
Last year the president initiated the first ever Memorial Day to honour the victims. This Saturday, Ukraine will once again pause to remember the tragedy.
Kiev is determined to push for a UN resolution on the issue. But this could put the president on a collision course with his pro-Russian opponents.
It also threatens to damage the country's fragile relations with Moscow.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA PUNISHES RIVER'S POLLUTERS

More than 3 million Harbin residents were left without fresh water. China has punished officials responsible for a toxic river spill which threatened the water supplies of millions of people in China and Russia.
An explosion at a PetroChina chemical plant in Jilin province in November 2005 caused about 100 tonnes of benzene to enter the Songhua river.
Administrative punishments were handed down to the province's state environment protection chief as well as senior PetroChina executives.
No criminal charges have been brought.
Water supplies to 3.8 million people in China's north-eastern Harbin city were cut off for five days after the leak.
'Administrative punishment'
Duan Wende, the vice president of the China National Petroleum Corp, which owns PetroChina, received an "administrative demerit" from China's state council, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The director of the Jilin provincial environmental protection department Wang Liying received a major demerit which could result in demotion or removal from office.
Other PetroChina employees, including the general manager of the Jilin branch of the company and the plant manager, also received administrative punishments.
Such punishments in China usually damage officials' chances of promotion and put an end to political careers.
Earlier this week a state council investigation chaired by premier Wen Jiabao promised "severe punishments" for those responsible for the Songhua spill.
In December the head of China's environmental agency Xie Zhenhua resigned over the toxic leak.
Analysts suggest that the punishments are part of the Chinese government's attempts to improve the country's reputation for tackling industrial pollution, and for making officials more accountable.
Polluted water is a growing problem for the rapidly industrialising country.
Correspondents say that 300 million people in China do not have access to safe drinking water.
In July Chinese authorities pledged to spend 1.4 trillion Yuan ($175bn) over the next five years to improve water quality, and cut air and land pollution.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RWANDA CUTS RELATIONS WITH FRANCE !

President Kagame has always accused France over the genocide. Rwanda has broken off diplomatic ties with Paris, in a row over a French inquiry related to the 1994 genocide.
The government has recalled its envoy to Paris and given the French ambassador to Kigali 24 hours to leave.
A French judge issued warrants two days ago for the arrest of nine aides of the Rwandan leader over his predecessor's killing - which sparked the genocide.
Rwanda has accused Paris of trying to destabilise its government. France said it regretted Rwanda's move to cut ties.
Paris has insisted the French judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, acted on his own authority and in total independence.
Issuing the warrants, Judge Bruguiere accused President Paul Kagame - who under French law has immunity as head of state - of ordering the former president's death. Mr Kagame has denied involvement.
More than 800,000 people died in the 100-day massacres of Tutsis and moderate Hutus which followed the killing of the ethnic Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana.
'No pressure'
The French allegations have sparked anger in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where about 25,000 people reportedly took part in a government-organised demonstration against France on Thursday.

ARREST WARRANTS ISSUED
James Kabarebe, military chief-of-staff
Charles Kayonga, army chief-of-staff
Faustin Nyamwasa-Kayumba, ambassador to India
Jackson Nkurunziza, working for presidential guard
Samuel Kanyamera, RPF deputy
Jacob Tumwime, army officer
Franck Nziza, presidential guard officer
Eric Hakizimana, intelligence officer
Rose Kabuye, director general of state protocol

Profile: Paul Kagame
Decades of tension

The Rwandan government has said the French ambassador to Kigali must leave within 24 hours. Other French diplomats have 72 hours to go.
Foreign Minister Charles Murigande earlier told AFP news agency that Kigali had recalled its ambassador to Paris as the ministry did not "see why he should be there at this point".
"France is intent on destroying our government, we do not see any need for keeping any relationship with a hostile country," Mr Murigande said.
BBC world affairs correspondent Mark Doyle says the only surprise about Rwanda's decision to break off diplomatic relations with France is that it has not come earlier.
Mr Kagame's Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) - effectively the government - has had appalling relations with Paris for over two decades, he says, and whatever the quality of the French judge's evidence, the whole affair was always going to be deeply politicised.
The French foreign ministry said in a brief statement that Rwanda's decision to break off diplomatic ties would take effect from Monday.
"We regret this decision. We are making all necessary arrangements," it said.
Speaking earlier on Friday, a spokesman had said Paris had no intention of recalling its own envoy to Kigali and wanted to keep dialogue open.
Missiles
Judge Bruguiere is investigating the case because the crew of the plane were French and their families filed a case in France in 1998.

Thousands turned out to protest against France
Those he wants to arrest include armed forces chief James Kabarebe and army chief-of-staff Charles Kayonga.
Judge Bruguiere has said that only Mr Kagame's Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) forces had missiles capable of downing President Habyarimana's plane.
He said the attack was carefully planned by the RPF.
Mr Kagame has denied this, describing suggestions that he was behind the assassination of the former president as scandalous.
He has always accused France of having links to those who carried out the genocide.
After Habyarimana's plane crashed, Hutu extremists started massacring ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates.
The genocide came to an end when Mr Kagame's then rebel RPF seized power 100 days later.
The RPF has always said the Hutu extremists shot down the presidential plane to provide a pretext to carry out the genocide.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA REJECTS JOURNALISTS APPEAL

Ching Cheong received a five-year sentence. A Chinese court has rejected an appeal by a Hong Kong reporter who was jailed by mainland China on spying charges.
Ching Cheong, chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, was jailed in August after being found guilty of spying for Taiwan.
Beijing High Court rejected his appeal in a 30-minute hearing, his brother Ching Hei said.
The case has sparked criticism in Hong Kong, and many human rights groups have called for Ching's release.
According to Chinese media, Ching was found guilty of buying information and passing it to Taiwan's intelligence services over a period of five years from mid-2000 to March 2005.
State news agency Xinhua said Ching had confessed to the charges, a statement both his family and employers reject.
There was no consideration for our argument. Therefore, we feel very disappointed but we firmly believe that he is innocent
Ching Hei, brother of journalist
His wife Mary Lau said he was in Guangzhou collecting secret papers linked to the former Chinese leader, Zhao Ziyang, who was ousted for opposing the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
She has reportedly suggested her husband was set up by an unnamed intermediary.
New appeal considered
Speaking outside the courthouse after the appeal was rejected, Ching Hei said that his family found the decision "hard to accept".
"The appeal court has only supported the initial court's evidence and verdict. There was no consideration for our argument. Therefore, we feel very disappointed but we firmly believe that he is innocent," Ching Hei added.
Xinhua said Beijing's Higher People's Court had ruled that the initial verdict was "a correct application of the law and provided appropriate punishment".
The journalist's family have said they will attempt to lodge another appeal.
The case has sparked criticism in Hong Kong, with a number of newspapers questioning the legitimacy of the legal proceedings.
Ching was tried in an unacceptable way on baseless charges
Reporters Without Borders

Dangers of dissent

The Straits Times has appealed to China for leniency for Ching, asking for a sentence reduction.
"We urge that you take into consideration his professional record as a journalist for the Straits Times, and the fact that he is in poor health," Reuters news agency quoted a letter from editor Han Fook Kwang as saying.
Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, called the sentence "appalling".
"Ching was tried in an unacceptable way on baseless charges," the organisation said in a statement.
More than 80 journalists and "cyber-dissidents" are currently imprisoned in China, the organisation said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

'IMMINENT COUP' WARNING FOR FIJI !

Cmdr Bainimarama has been at odds with the government for months. There are new fears of unrest in Fiji as Australia warned of "clear evidence" that a coup on the island was imminent.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was concerned the military planned to move against the government in the next couple of weeks.
Armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama has given the government a two-week deadline to comply with a list of "non-negotiable" demands.
He has also warned other countries not to interfere over the crisis.
"It is our business. We don't expect anyone from other Pacific island countries to come in and meddle in our affairs," he told New Zealand television.
Meanwhile, reports say the Fijian military is planning unscheduled exercises outside the capital Suva over the weekend.
Amnesty row
"There is clear evidence [Cmdr Bainimarama] is planning a coup in the next couple of weeks," Mr Downer said, without giving any details.
"He made a public statement along those lines and we are particularly concerned about that," he added.

PM Qarase has dropped a controversial amnesty law
Australia has put three naval ships on standby and warned its citizens to reconsider travelling to Fiji.
Cmdr Bainimarama earlier this week called on the government to meet a series of demands, which include the removal of Police Chief Andrew Hughes.
Mr Hughes, an Australian, is believed to be close to laying sedition charges against Cmdr Bainimarama for his repeated threats to forcibly remove the government.
The rift between the military and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's government has been growing for months.
At the heart of the feud were plans by the government to offer amnesties to those involved in a racially-motivated coup six years ago.
The proposal was bitterly opposed by Cmdr Bainimarama, who was the main target of the mutiny, and was forced to flee for his life.
He also played a key role in putting down the uprising, and made clear that he does not feel the government has done enough to bring its perpetrators to justice.
Prime Minister Qarase moved to meet one of Cmdr Bainimarama's demands earlier this month by agreeing to drop the amnesty plans.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BOLIVIA ASSEMBLIES OPPOSE REFORMS !

President Morales has ruled out any compromise. Two regions of Bolivia have formally stated their opposition to the president's plans to redistribute land and rewrite the constitution.
President Evo Morales wants to redistribute up to 20m hectares of land to indigenous and peasant communities.
The local assembly in Santa Cruz has threatened to call a referendum on the new constitution, and is appealing to residents to stage hunger strikes.
In Beni, the assembly urged Mr Morales to respect the current constitution.
The controversial agrarian reform bill has been approved by the lower house of congress, but opposition parties that control the Senate say they will block it.
Mr Morales established a constituent assembly in August, but lacks the support of two-thirds of delegates he needs to push through changes to the constitution.
He wants each article to be passed by a simple majority, with two-thirds support needed only to ratify the final document. The opposition accuses the government of changing the rules illegally.
President Morales has ruled out any compromise with the opposition or big landowners.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

GIANT MEXICAN TELESCOPE LAUNCHED !

The telescope has been built on the summit of an extinct volcano. Mexican President Vicente Fox has inaugurated a giant telescope that could help scientists uncover clues about the origins of the Universe.
The telescope, which resembles a gigantic satellite dish, sits high in the mountains of central Puebla state.
It will pick up radio waves that have been travelling through space for some 13 billion years.
The telescope's antenna has a diameter of 50m (164ft) and is the largest of its kind in the world.
"This telescope will allow us to make fundamental discoveries about the formation and evolution of galaxies, about the formation and evolution of stars, and about the origin of the Universe itself," National Astrophysics Institute Director Jose Guichard said during the inauguration.
Scientists say it is the most important scientific and technological project in the country's history.
The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), which cost $120m, was partly funded by the US. As its name suggests, it will be sensitive to electromagnetic radiation at millimetric wavelengths - about 0.85mm to 4mm.
This will give it the ability to see through the dust in the interstellar medium that obscures the view of many other astronomical facilities.
President Fox said it would "put Mexico in the scientific and investigative vanguard in this field".
The telescope is built on the 4,580m (15,026ft) summit of an extinct volcano called Sierra Negra - the fifth highest peak in Mexico.
The air on the peak is so thin that scientists working at the site have to have bottled oxygen to hand in case they faint.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RADIATION FOUND AFTER SPY'S DEATH !

Radiation briefing

Police probing the death of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko have found above-normal levels of radiation at three locations in London.
Mr Litvinenko's death has been linked to the presence of a "major dose" of radioactive polonium-210 in his body.
Scotland Yard confirmed traces were also found at his home, a sushi bar and a hotel, but the risk to others was said by health experts to be very low.
The Kremlin has denied UK citizen Mr Litvinenko's claims it was involved.
The traces were found at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly, the Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square, and at Mr Litvinenko's home in Muswell Hill, north London, Scotland Yard said.
Information
Moscow has been asked to help British police in their investigations, the Foreign Office has said.

Officials discussed the issue with the Russian Ambassador, Yuri Fedotov, at a meeting this afternoon, said a spokeswoman.
Officers are looking at CCTV footage and interviewing witnesses, trying to find out who he met around the time he fell ill on 1 November, said Peter Clarke, head of the Counter Terrorism Command which is leading the investigation.
Tests are also being carried out at the two London hospitals where Mr Litvinenko had been treated, University College and the Barnet General, the Health Protection Agency said.
Professor Pat Troop from the HPA told a news conference that the tens of hospital staff who had come into contact with him would be monitored.
RADIATION TYPES

Alpha particles are stopped by a sheet of paper and cannot pass through unbroken skin
Beta particles are stopped by an aluminium sheet
Gamma rays are stopped by thick lead
She said Mr Litvinenko would have had to either eaten, inhaled or been given the dose of polonium-210 through a wound.
She said the nature of death as an "unprecedented event in the UK".
Roger Cox from the HPA said a large quantity of alpha radiation emitted from polonium-210 had been detected in Mr Litvinenko's urine.
The radiation cannot pass through the skin, and must be ingested or inhaled into the body to cause damage.
He said people who came into contact with Mr Litvinenko's excreta - including sweat - could in theory be affected, but described the risk as "insignificant".
POLONIUM-210
a highly radioactive and toxic element
present in foods and tobacco in low doses
small amounts occurs naturally in the body
can be manufactured using the bombardment of neutrons
has industrial uses such as in anti-static devices
very dangerous if significant dose ingested
external exposure not a risk
'No radiation risk' to public
What is polonium-210?
As the conference drew to a close, a heckler interrupted saying he was from Ukraine and had also been the victim of poisoning.
A post-mortem examination on Mr Litvinenko has not been held yet.
The delay is believed to be over concerns about the health implications for those present at the examination.
The Home Office said anybody concerned should contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647, who have been briefed about the issues.
Meanwhile, the government's civil contingencies committee Cobra has met to discuss the case.
'Sheer nonsense'
Friends have said Mr Litvinenko was poisoned because of his criticism of Russia.
In a statement dictated before he died at University College Hospital on Thursday, the 43-year-old accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of involvement in his death.
Mr Litvinenko had recently been investigating the murder of his friend, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another critic of the Putin government.
LITVINENKO TIMELINE
1 Nov - Alexander Litvinenko meets two Russian men at a London hotel and then meets Italian academic Mario Scaramella at a sushi bar in Piccadilly. Hours later he falls ill and is admitted to Barnet General Hospital
17 Nov - Mr Litvinenko is transferred to UCH
19 Nov - Reports say Mr Litvinenko is poisoned with thallium
21 Nov - A toxicologist says he may have been poisoned with "radioactive thallium"
22 Nov - Mr Litvinenko's condition deteriorates overnight. Thallium and radiation ruled out
23 Nov - The ex-spy dies in intensive care
Litvinenko statement in full
Reaction: Russian's death
Timeline of case in full
Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated the Kremlin's earlier dismissal of allegations of involvement in the poisoning as "sheer nonsense".
Mr Putin himself has said Mr Litvinenko's death was a tragedy, but he saw no "definitive proof" it was a "violent death".
Police have been examining two meetings Mr Litvinenko had on 1 November - one at a London hotel with a former KGB agent and another man, and a rendezvous with Italian security consultant Mario Scaramella, at the sushi restaurant in the West End.
Mr Litvinenko, who was granted asylum in the UK in 2000 after complaining of persecution in Russia, fell ill later that day.
In an interview with Friday's Telegraph newspaper, former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi said he had met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel but vigorously denied any involvement in the poisoning.
Mr Scaramella, who is involved in an Italian parliamentary inquiry into Russian secret service activity, said they met because he wanted to discuss an e-mail he had received.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HELP !

I CHANGED TO THE NEW BLOGGER BETA , BUT FROM LAST SAURDAY I HAVE BEEN
UNABLE TO LOG ON TO MY BLOG UNTIL NOW. I HAVE TRIED EVERY DAY TO GET THIS PROBLEM SOLVED WITH ALL THE HELP ADVICE, BUT WITH NO RESULTS.

AT THE VERY TOP OF MY BLOG ,THE TOP SECTION WHERE I AM ASKED TO SIGN IN -DOES NOT APPEAR IN ITS ENTIRETY, SO I AM UNABLE TO LOG ON. THIS PROBLEM DOES NOT APPEAR IN ALL THE 'HELP' SECTIONS, SO I TRIED TO EMAIL TO ASK FOR SOME ASSISTANCE. I HAVE NOT HAD THE COURTESY OF A REPLY.

THIS EVENING I WAS AS USUAL STILL TRYING TO LOG ON AT THE LOP OF MY BLOG AND I NOTICED THAT IF I MOVED MY CUSOR ON THE VERY SMALL AREA AVAILABLE I COULD JUST SEE THE USERNAME POSITION (NOTHING ELSE) I INSERTED MINE AND THEN I GENTLY TRIED TO GET THE CURSER TO MOVE THE SMALL OPENING DOWN A LITTLE FURTHER AND HEY I GOT THE PASSWORD INSERTION SECTION AND FINALLY MANAGED TO PRESS THE SIGN IN SECTION. THIS HAS TAKEN ME QUITE SOME TIME JUST TO GET LOGGED ON.

I NORMALLY NEVER LOG OFF MY BLOG, AND AM FINDING THIS COMPULSORY SIGNING OFF, ANNOYING ESPECIALLY AS I HAVE BEEN FINDING WELL NIGH IMPOSSIBLE TO LOG ON AGAIN.

HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THIS PROBLEM?

IF SO AND THEY HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION, PLEASE CAN YOU LET ME KNOW at

fiona@duthiemara.plus.com

I HAVE TO ADMIT I AM ON THE POINT OF DELETING THIS BLOG. HAVE BEEN DOING IT FOR SOME TIME NOW, AND DONT REALLY WANT TO STOP, BUT ..............

ZIMBABWE OFFERS FARM COMPENSATION !

Thousands of white farmers had their properties seized More than 1,000 white farmers have been told to collect compensation for property seized during Zimbabwe's controversial land-reform programme. The country's land ministry said dispossessed white farmers should contact the government urgently. The invitation for compensation was carried in a four-page notice in the government-run Herald newspaper. Zimbabwe's land reforms saw thousands of white-owned farms seized and redistributed to landless blacks. Soaring inflation Secretary of lands Ngoni Masoka urged former farm owners or representatives to "contact the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement as a matter of urgency in connection with their compensation". President Robert Mugabe launched Zimbabwe's controversial land-reform programme seven years ago, with the aim of readdressing economic imbalances left over from the country's years of British colonial rule. But critics say the often violent campaign has devastated Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy, leading to massive food shortages. Zimbabwe's inflation topped 1,200% recently, compounding the hardship many Zimbabweans experience. Although it is estimated that 500 white farmers still remain in Zimbabwe, many have fled to neighbouring countries including Zambia and Mozambique. BBC NEWS REPORT.

CATHY BUCKLE'S WEEKLY LETTER FROM ZIMBABWE !

Dear Family and Friends,

Visiting an elderly couple this week the talk tuned to their recent sixty
second wedding anniversary and the knowledge that sticks in my mind is that they
have been married longer than I have been alive. I asked the couple about their
children and grandchildren and they told me of developments in their lives - one
family in South Africa and another in England. How very sad it is to take in the
fact that there is nothing to keep Zimbabwean children in Zimbabwe any more.
Even worse is the fact that Zimbabwean parents now actively encourage their
children to leave the country - to go to places where there is training,
opportunity, stability and - the prize of all prizes: jobs.

This week an opposition MP has been exposing the horrific facts about life
expectancy in Zimbabwe. Men are expected to stay alive for 37 years and women
for just 34 years. Today you can expect to live longer than this even in Sudan
or Iraq. When you know those figures you know why parents encourage their
children to leave Zimbabwe. If you think about the fact that a woman is only
expected to live for thirty four years, you must also think of the children she
bears when she is twenty five - they will be orphaned before they even get to
senior school. What then are the chances for those orphaned children - will they
live as long as their mother did, will they even be able to finish school and
learn a trade in order to support themselves and their children - it is very
unlikely and paints a very bleak picture for the future of Zimbabwe.

Talking about all this with another elderly man, recently widowed and in his
seventies, he wiped a tear away. He said I'd make him think of his three sons,
all in their thirties. One son he had buried last year, he was just thirty
three. Another was now in Malawi, trying to make a living as a stranger in a
strange land and the third was desperately trying to find a place where he could
settle and survive - he had tried and failed in four countries in the last five
years. Nowhere felt as good as "home" - if only there was a way for him to
survive and make a decent living he would come home to Zimbabwe in an instant.
In true Zimbabwean style we cracked jokes as I left - it is not the done thing
to leave people on depressing notes in these dreadful times and so we laughed
about his new underpants. He had finally managed to save enough money to buy
three pairs of new underpants - each costing the same as half of his entire
monthly pension.

In a couple of weeks time the ruling Zanu PF party will be holding their annual
congress. They have been in power for 26 years, just eight years less than most
women are expected to live. At the time of the Zanu PF Congress in 2004
inflation was 132%, by December 2005 it was 585% and now it is 1070%. What
disgrace for a party who have 26 years experience at running a country. Maybe
this year the delegates will find the courage and moral responsibility to stop
patting themselves on the back and start thinking about the ordinary people:
about the children who can't wait to get out of the country; about the parents
who can't wait to send them away. About the elderly who are destitute and alone
and about the orphans - over a million of them. If the delegates to that
conference want to grow old in Zimbabwe and have their grandchildren playing
barefoot in the sun nearby, then those delegates know what must be done and that
it must be done now.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy

Copyright cathy buckle, 18 November 2006
My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are both available at:
orders@africabookcentre.com
Recent letters can be read at:
http:/africantears.netfirms.com

TALKING TOUGH FROM A WEAK POSITION !

Talking tough from a weak position
By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

Blair set down tough conditions in his speech.The so-called opening to Iran and Syria is going to be a difficult enterprise. A close reading of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech on Monday evening shows that the conditions for engagement would amount to a wholesale change of direction by Iran and its President Ahmadinejad in particular. And at about the same time at the White House, following a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Bush himself indicated that Syria and Iran would have to change first. In particular, he set the condition that Iran would have to suspend its enrichment of uranium.

Mr Blair's speech (a re-run basically of one he made in Los Angeles on 1 August) described the strategy in this way: "Offer Iran a clear strategic choice: they help the MEPP [Middle East Peace Process] not hinder it; they stop supporting terrorism in Lebanon or Iraq; and they abide by, not flout, their international obligations. In that case, a new partnership is possible. Or alternatively they face the consequences of not doing so: isolation." In Los Angeles, he had said: "We need to make clear to Syria and Iran that there is a choice: come in to the international community and play by the same rules as the rest of us; or be confronted."

As for President Bush, he was even more forthright.
On Syria: "We expect the Syrians to be, one, out of Lebanon so that the Lebanese democracy can exist; two, not harbouring extremists that create - that empower these radicals to stop the advance of democracies; three, to help this young democracy in Iraq succeed. And the Syrian president knows my position."
On Iran: "If the Iranians want to have a dialogue with us, we have shown them a way forward, and that is for them to verify - verifiably suspend their enrichment activities."
There doesn't appear to be much diplomatic room there for engagement over Iraq or anything else. The message is: you have to change, not us. It is an offer Iran and Syria might refuse.
Iraq Study Group
So why is the prospect of bringing Iran and Syria into discussion about Iraq and the Middle East even being raised?
For two reasons. The first is that Iraq has gone badly and President Bush lost the mid-term elections. He is having to search around for any new idea. The concept of bringing in the neighbours for a friendly talk about Iraq appeals to many. He is facing the collapse of his grand project for democracy in the "Greater Middle East".
The second is that the Iraq Study Group, the high-level panel led by James Baker, the former secretary of state for President Bush senior, and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman, is to report soon. Word from that group is that it might recommend that Iran and Syria be indeed consulted, perhaps as part of a regional conference on Iraq.
Therefore, both the US and UK have to take positions on the possibility of engagement with Iran and Syria.
Mr Bush saw the group on Monday. Mr Blair speaks to them by video link on Tuesday.
Stringent conditions
The comments by both Mr Bush and Mr Blair could be seen as an attempt to head off that engagement, unless it is on totally different terms. The conditions set are so high.
And Mr Blair, in his concentration during his final months on what he calls a "whole" Middle East approach, is way out ahead of his White House ally, who does not think that the time is right for any push on the Israel/Palestine front.
In fact, the main concern in Washington is not to "start with Israel/Palestine", as Mr Blair put it. Nor does the administration think that Iran and Syria would be of much use at present.
The main Bush concern is over a demand by senior Democrats that the US commit itself to a phased withdrawal of US troops starting in four to six months. This is also something the Iraq Study Group might address.
And Mr Bush is still hinting that his room for manoeuvre is small. "I believe it is very important, though, for people making suggestions to recognise that the best military options depend upon the conditions on the ground," he said.
There is also deep scepticism in the Bush administration that either Iran or Syria would do much to ease the plight of US and UK troops in Iraq.
Middle East watchers are also doubtful that this will lead very far. Rosemary Hollis of Chatham House in London said: "It is totally logical to think that you cannot solve Iraq without involving its neighbours. But my fear is that this will fall down in the execution. The US and UK have no idea that the shoe is on the other foot. It is they who are weak. Yet they still expect Iran to make all the concessions."
The Iraq Study Group is expected to report in December.

Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SEARCHING FOR 'OUR ALIEN ORIGINS' !

Searching for 'our alien origins'
By Andrew Thompson BBC Horizon.

Dr Wickramasinghe thinks life could have originated in space. In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India. Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia.

But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on. Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms. "This staggering claim is that this is possibly extraterrestrial. That is a big claim I know, but all the experiments are supporting this claim," said Dr Louis.

His remarkable work has set in motion a chain of events with scientists around the world debating the origin of these mysterious cells. The main reason why Dr Louis's ideas have not been immediately laughed out of court is because they tie in with a theory promoted by two UK scientists ever since the 1960s.

The late Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe have been the champions of "Panspermia", the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet. They speculate that life was first brought here on the back of a comet. Over the last decade, Panspermia is being taken ever more seriously. The US space agency (Nasa) is now increasingly interested in searching for extra-terrestrial life.

Bacteria seem to me to be born space travellers - Prof Chandra Wickramasing.

A new robotic submarine is being developed to explore the oceans of one of Jupiter's moons. This submarine is on test at the moment in a lake in Texas. Finding life elsewhere in the Solar System would be a vital bolster to the Panspermia theory. Another section of Nasa is devoted to the study of bacteria found on Earth that can survive extreme conditions. Finding these types of bacteria makes it more likely that micro-organism could survive the hardships of travelling through space on the back of a meteoroid.

Professor Wickramasinghe explained: "Bacteria have got to endure the extreme cold of space, the vacuum of space, ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, X-rays. "That sounds like a tall order but bacteria do that. From what we know survival out in space is more or less ensured. Bacteria seem to me to be born space travellers."

Last summer, Horizon had exclusive access to a trip taken by Professor Wickramasinghe to India to investigate at first hand the red rain phenomenon. He met Dr Louis and together they visited the people who had witnessed the red rain. He was able to see the recent work of Dr Louis which shows that the red rain can replicate at 300C, an essential attribute of a space micro-organism that might have to endure extreme temperatures.

Bacteria might survive the journey through spaceAll this has convinced Professor Wickramasinghe that the red rain is a form of alien life. "Before I came I had grave doubts as to whether the red rain was really an indication of life coming from space; new life coming from space," he said. "But on reflection and after talking to Godfrey, I think I would now fairly firmly believe that it did represent an invasion of microbes from space."

Many scientists remain highly sceptical, however, but if Wickramasinghe and Louis are correct it will be the strongest evidence so far that the theory of Panspermia might be true. It also raises the intriguing possibility that if life first originated on another planet then it must mean all Earth organisms, including humans, evolved from alien life.

Horizon - We Are The Aliens is broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday 14 November at 2100 GMT

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S.A. APPROVES SAME-SEX UNIONS

Gay rights activists complained about the existing law. South Africa's parliament has voted to legalise same-sex weddings - the first African country to approve such unions. The controversial Civil Union bill was passed by 230 votes to 41. The legislation was introduced after the Constitutional Court ruled last year that the existing laws discriminated against homosexuals.
The ruling African National Congress ordered all MPs to turn up and vote for the bill, despite the opposition of church and traditional leaders.
The bill provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnised and registered by either a marriage or civil union".
The existing Marriage Act defines a marriage as a "union between a man and a woman".

During the debate before the vote, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told MPs: "In breaking with our past... we need to fight and resist all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia."
The priest and imam both know us and so were OK to give us a blessing but they said clearly that our union was not a marriage -Midi AchmatSouth African lesbian.

To wed or not?
Gay marriage around the globe

But, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, president of the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference, said the bill would be a blow against democracy. "The impression we got is that there is overwhelming opposition to this bill from people throughout South Africa," he told South Africa's Daily News before the vote.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe told MPs that those who voted for same-sex marriages would face divine wrath.
However, some gay rights activists have also criticised the bill, because it gives officials the right not to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies if this would conflict with their "conscience, religion and belief".
In the face of such strong feelings, the ANC had issued a three-line whip, instructing all MPs to vote in favour of the bill.
The ANC has a huge majority in parliament.
Last year, the Constitutional Court gave the government until 1 December 2006 to legalise same-sex weddings, after gay rights activists took the issue to court.
The ruling was based on the constitution, which was the first in the world specifically to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.
This is unusal in Africa where homosexuality is largely taboo - notably in its neighbour Zimbabwe.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DARFUR MILITIAS IN DEADLY ATTACKS !

More than two million people have been displaced during the conflict. About 30 people have been killed in Sudan's Darfur region, when pro-government militias raided a village, peacekeepers say. Armed men on horses and camels rode into the village of Sirba, near the Chad border, killing those they found, say UN and African Union officials.

Meanwhile, the UN has offered at least $77m to help AU peacekeepers in Darfur. Sudan has resisted plans for the UN to take over peacekeeping and this appears to be part of a compromise deal. Neighbouring Chad has declared a state of emergency after the violence in Darfur spilled over the border. "The attackers were on camels and horses. Reports indicate up to 30 villagers killed and 40 injured and half of the village was razed," an AU official told the Reuters news agency. A rebel official said the Sudanese army had taken part in the attack, 45km (30 miles) north of West Darfur capital, El-Geneina.

Q&A: Darfur peacekeeping

The government has repeatedly denied charges that its army has worked with the Janjaweed militias to drive black Africans out of Darfur. The 7,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur have failed to end the violence and some aid workers have left the region, saying it is too dangerous. The UN Security Council has passed a resolution for 20,000 troops to be sent to Darfur but Sudan has refused to let the UN take control, saying that would infringe its sovereignty.

Diplomats are now suggesting a compromise deal, with the UN helping to boost the AU force.
UN assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Hedi Annabi said the $22m would be for extra equipment for the AU force. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy travelled to Darfur on Monday and told local officials the international community had no "hidden agenda" for Darfur. "There is only the will to no longer see thousands of people in war," he said.

Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur and two million made homeless, with pro-government militias accused of genocide against black Africans. Sudan's government says the scale of the problems in Darfur are being exaggerated for political reasons.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

DRUG USE 'BEHIND CRUMBLING EROS' !

Banknotes crumble shortly after withdrawal from cash machines. Users of the drug crystal methamphetamine may be causing euro banknotes to disintegrate, German police have told Der Spiegel magazine. Sulphates used in the production of the drug could form sulphuric acid when mixed with human sweat, they say, causing banknotes to corrode. Drug users sniff powdered crystals through rolled up banknotes.

About 1,500 banknotes have crumbled after being withdrawn from cash machines, German banking officials say. Much of Germany's supply of crystal methamphetamine is believed to come from eastern Europe, and has a high concentration of sulphates. Its corrosive effects are also spread between contaminated notes and clean notes in wallets and purses.

The Bundesbank announced in early November that reports of bank notes worth between five euros and 100 euros disintegrating began to be received in the summer. A 2003 report by the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg found that 90% of German euros were contaminated with cocaine.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

TEST TO EXPOSE SPORTS DRUG CHEATS !

Doping technology is moving rapidly. Scientists have found a way to detect use of a banned performance-enhancing drug by athletes for the first time. Sports cheats use the protein synacthen to stimulate the body to increase production of corticosteroid hormones, which help them to train harder.

Unlike direct injections of the hormones, this has proved impossible to detect until now.
The breakthrough, by the German Sport University Cologne, appears in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. Hopefully once athletes know about it they will see sense and steer well clear of using synacthen in the future - Dr John Brewer.The use of corticosteroids is banned as, apart from giving users an unfair advantage, they are associated with a raised risk of a wide range of health problems, including cancer, heart attacks, impotence and mood swings. The new test enables the detection of synacthen even though it is found in the blood only at very low concentrations - around 10 million times less than other proteins in blood plasma.

Called immunological purification, it works by specifically searching for minute traces of the protein. To confirm that the immunological purification has pulled out synacthen, the protein is then subjected to a further two-stage test. This combination of chromatography separation and mass spectrometric analysis allows scientists to produce a chemical fingerprint of the molecule - a fingerprint that uniquely identifies it.

Lead researcher Dr Mario Thevis said: "If the drug-testing authorities adopt this new test, it will close a gap in the current drug-testing system, and mean that athletes will no longer be able to get away with this form of cheating." Dr John Brewer, director of the Lucozade Sports Science Academy, said: "If this is a viable and accurate test then hopefully once athletes know about it they will see sense and steer well clear of using synacthen in the future. "Everybody involved in trying to eradicate illegal drugs from sport will welcome this advance. We very much want the drug testers to stay one step ahead of the drug users."

However, Dr Brewer said the pace of technology was so fast that the authorities faced a constant battle to outwit their opponents. Andy Parkinson, head of drug-free sport operations at UK Sport, said any step forward in the detection of previously undetectable substances was welcome. "The World Anti-Doping Agency is continually looking at ways in which to have more effective analysis and this technique could be a useful addition to our anti-doping armoury."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RAIN CAPTURE ANSWER TO WATER WOE !

Rain capture answer to water woe.
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Nairobi.

In some regions, women spend a third of their calories collecting water. Rainwater harvesting could prove a cheap, easy solution to Africa's water woes, according to a UN report.
Scientists found enough rain falls in some countries to supply six or seven times the current need, and provide security against future droughts.
A pilot project in a Kenyan Maasai community has improved supplies and done away with the daily trek to collect river water.
Currently, 14 out of 53 nations are classified as "water stressed".
This number is forecast to double by 2025.
The UN Environment Programme (Unep) says that a cultural change is needed across the continent.
"The biggest problem is awareness," said Elizabeth Khaka of Unep.
"Many people think of rainwater harvesting as a 'poor person's technology'," she told the BBC News website, "and we have to change that."
Last week, the Kenyan government announced plans to make all new buildings include capacity for rainwater collection and storage.
Tell-tale plots
Using geographical information systems (GIS) technology, scientists from Unep and the World Agroforestry Centre mapped rainfall patterns across nine countries in southern and eastern Africa.
They compared these maps with plots of population density and land use.

Map of global water stress

"We were very surprised by what we found," said Ms Khaka. "We went over the figures again and again to check them."
Kenya, with a population of about 40 million people, could collect enough rain to supply six or seven times that figure, Unep calculates; Ethiopia, often regarded as a dry country, could collect enough for half a billion people.
"In the popular mind, Africa is seen as a dry continent," said Dennis Garrity, director general of the World Agroforestry Centre. "But overall, it actually has more water resources per capita than Europe.
"However, much of Africa's rain comes in bursts, and is rapidly swept away or is never collected. The time has come to realise the great potential for greatly enhancing drinking water supplies and smallholder agricultural production by harvesting more of the rain when and where it falls."
Some forecasts of future climate predict that extreme droughts will become more common across the continent, so rainwater harvesting could be a cheap and effective way to "climate-proof" some communities, Unep believes.
Pilot proof
The technique has been tried in a pilot project in Kisamese, about 30 minutes' drive from Nairobi.
Here, collection and storage facilities including containers and mini-reservoirs, or "earth pans", have been installed. Trenches help water soak into the soil in small kitchen gardens.
"Before this, we had to walk 10km to the river each day to get water," said Agnes Liorket, a leader of the Kisamese community.
"Now we don't have to do that, and the water is better quality, a lot cleaner," she told the BBC News website.
In some regions of Africa, women spend a third of their calories collecting water.
Not all rain can be collected. Unep estimates at least a third needs to go into lakes, streams and rivers, for use by people downstream and by nature's consumers.
And rainfall patterns vary across the continent. Parts of the West African coast will have six months of daily rain followed by six months with none; other regions are more mixed.
"Even where you have extreme patterns, rainwater harvesting can be very useful," said Elizabeth Khaka.
"You have rain for six months; even if you only collect enough for the next three, that's still better than none."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

S. AFRICA HAS 'FASTEST ARV GROWTH !

S Africa has 'fastest' ARV growth.
By Peter Biles BBC News, Johannesburg.

South Africa's health minister is controversial in the Aids fight. The South African government says nearly a quarter of a million HIV positive people are now receiving anti-retroviral drugs. The number rose by 57,000 between June and September and health officials say the country now has the fastest growing treatment programme in the world. In the past, the government has been accused of not doing enough to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic.

More than 5m people in South Africa are infected with the virus. This is part of a striking turnaround in the South African government's approach to the HIV/Aids crisis. In the past, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had stressed the importance of good nutrition, including beetroot and garlic, rather than anti-retroviral drugs.

But more than 235,000 people are now benefiting from anti-retroviral programmes, and there's also been an increase in the number of health facilities where treatment is administered. The Department of Health says it is in the process of finalising a five-year strategic HIV/Aids plan which will be unveiled on World Aids Day on 1 December.

Lobbyists from the Treatment Action Campaign and other civil society groups have been working more closely with the government since the health minister was - in effect - sidelined.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka is now leading the National Aids Council and playing a far more prominent role. But there are still huge challenges to address. An estimated 800 people die every day as a result of HIV/Aids. There are approximately 1,400 daily new infections, and a critical shortage of health workers.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

KENYANS DROWN AFTER FLASH FLOODS !

Bridges, roads and buildings have been destroyed by the floods. At least 21 people have been killed and 60,000 have been made homeless in eastern Kenya after severe flooding, according to the Kenyan Red Cross.

Reports suggest the main roads linking the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi, and to Tanzania have been cut as bridges were washed away. The flash floods follow unusually heavy rains which are expected to continue. The country's health ministry warned of possible outbreaks of water-borne disease, notably cholera.

At least six people died at the weekend as they were swept away by flood waters around the port of Mombasa and the north-eastern town of Garissa, officials said. "We have 60,000 people stranded on higher ground and (major) roads are still inaccessible," Coast Provincial Commissioner, Ernest Munyi, told Reuters news agency. "We are appealing for help in terms of food, medical attention and transportation. The government continues to mobilise available resources to get help to the affected," he said.

Flood waters washed away bridges and roads and destroyed numerous buildings, hampering aid efforts. "All these people are directly affected or completely cut off and we cannot access them," Abdi Ahmed, the acting disaster response chief at the Kenya Red Cross told AFP news agency. "We have floods across the country and, since it is still raining, we fear the situation will deteriorate," he said.

In the capital, Nairobi, officials said that overflowing water had blocked the city's drainage system, causing residential areas to flood.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ISRAEL WARNED OFF NUCLEAR 'FOLLY'

Israel warned off nuclear 'folly'
By Frances Harrison BBC News, Teheran

Iran wants to have 3,000 centrifuge machines operational by March. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman has warned Tehran will not hesitate to retaliate with a crushing blow if Israel attacks its nuclear sites.
This follows comments by Israel's deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh.
He had suggested Israel could launch military strikes against Iranian nuclear installations as a last resort.
Mohammed Ali Hosseini said if Israel indulged in such stupidity, then the response of Iranian fighters would be emphatic, crushing and immediate.
Mr Hosseini said it would not take one second.
Earlier, Mr Sneh had said he was not advocating a military attack, but considered it a last resort and he added sometimes the last resort was the only resort.
Also on the nuclear issue, Iran's Foreign Ministry reiterated the country's policy of trying to have 3,000 centrifuge machines operational by March next year in order to enrich uranium.
However so far, all the indications are that Iran only has a couple of hundred centrifuges working.
'Conciliatory' on US talks.
But on the issue of direct talks with the United States over Iraq, Iran's foreign ministry has struck a more conciliatory note.
Mr Hosseini repeated that if there was a written official request from the US for talks on regional issues, then Tehran would consider it.
Mr Hosseini also mentioned the task force headed by former US secretary of state James Baker, which is currently examining the option of talks with Iran and Syria to try and improve the security situation inside Iraq.

BBC NEWS REORT.

GLOBAL CLIMATE EFFORTS 'WOEFUL' !

UN: End 'water apartheid'

Efforts to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change have been called "woefully inadequate" by a UN-commissioned report. Rich countries have focused on ways to reduce carbon emissions but have largely ignored helping poor nations cope with the consequences, it says. The findings appear in the UNDP's Human Development Report 2006. The authors say farmers whose crops are reliant on rainfall are already having to cope with unpredictable weather.

The report, called Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis, says climate change "now poses what may be an unparalleled threat to human development". Lead author Kevin Watkins said people living in vulnerable conditions were already having to adapt. "There is a lot of evidence that the droughts in the Horn of Africa this year are connected to climate change," he told reporters. "This is not an issue for 50 years down the road, it is an issue for today." Mr Watkins added that the worst affected areas were regions with very limited water infrastructures, such as Sub-Saharan Africa.

See map of projected impact on African cereal productivity

"It is not a region that has the irrigation capacity or the water harvesting capacity to store water in ways that can smooth out irregularities in supply," he observed. "More than 90% of people living in rural Sub-Saharan Africa are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, so what happens to rain and moisture content in the soil has very profound and immediate implications for poverty." He warned that crops yields could fall by a third or more in some regions. While the outcomes may vary from country-to-country, the report said some "broad consequences" could be predicted:

agriculture and rural development will bear the brunt of climate risk
extreme poverty and malnutrition will increase as water insecurity increases
more extreme weather patterns will increase the risk of floods and droughts
shrinking glaciers and rising sea levels will reduce access to fresh water

Because industrialised nations have focused their climate change initiatives on reducing the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere, support for adaptation in developing countries has been "piecemeal and fragmented", the report says.

Global water stress map

It calls the international response "woefully inadequate", because of the lack of serious investment by nations in adaptation projects. "The adaptation agenda is somewhere between embryonic and heavily under-developed," Mr Watkins said. "Funding... under the Kyoto Protocol currently amounts to $20m annually; so this is something that, as part of the multilateral negotiations, has not had any weight attached to it." He also said that adaptation funding through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) would be about $50m over the next three years. "What we are facing is one of the potentially biggest set-backs to human development in Africa in the past 100 years or more, and the response from the international community to date has been $70m," Mr Watkins said.
The latest round of international negotiations on tackling climate change is currently underway in Nairobi, and the issue of adaptation is expected to be high on the agenda.
SEE THE FULL REPORT
Human Development Report 2006: Beyond scarcity [7.8MB]
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At the start of the global gathering in the Kenyan capital, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) published a report that described global warming as a serious threat to Africa. It listed a series of reasons why measures to help African countries "climate-proof" their societies, economies and infrastructure was widely seen as vital.
Next week sees the start of the high-level segment of the conference, where any new agreement on adaptation would be reached. Kevin Watkins hoped the talks would deliver the funding and strategies needed for people living in vulnerable rural areas: "Their future critically depends upon the international community getting serious about adaptation."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BREAKAWAY REGIONS AIM FOR RECOGNITION!

Breakway regions aim for recognition.
By Thomas de Waal Writer on the Caucasus.

A referendum on independence in South Ossetia on Sunday is taking place in a tiny territory, with a population of less than 100,000 people. Its result will not be recognised by the international community but it could have wide international significance.
The unresolved conflicts between Georgia and its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and the Black Sea region of Abkhazia lie at the heart of the current high-temperature dispute between Tbilisi and Moscow. Both territories have lived outside Georgian jurisdiction for more than a decade, since fighting in 1990-2 and 1992-3 respectively. Although their bids to be independent are still unheeded in the wider world, the fortunes of both places have improved in the last few years - much to the anger of Georgia.
Georgian hopes
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has begun actively helping both regions, allowing their residents to hold Russian passports and receive Russian pensions. Mr Saakashvili has moved Georgia's Abkhaz "government-in-exile" to the Kodori gorge.

Regions and territories: Abkhazia

Tens of thousands of Russian tourists now visit the coastal resorts of Abkhazia every summer and South Ossetia is tightly linked to its ethnic neighbour on the Russian side of the Caucasus mountains, North Ossetia.
At the same time, Georgia's 38-year-old President Mikheil Saakashvili is trying, unsuccessfully, to alter the terms of the ceasefire agreements that ended the two conflicts and replace the Russian peacekeepers on the ground with a more international force.
Mr Saakashvili has promised to "restore Georgia's territorial integrity" and reintegrate the two territories by the time his presidential term finishes at the end of 2008.
Many of the quarter of a million or so Georgians who fled Abkhazia in 1992-3 are hoping that he will keep his promise.
So far, the Georgian president's attempts to win back the two territories have only pushed them further away. After Kosovo's independence there will be a chain reaction Russian parliamentarian Sergei BaburinA brief upsurge of fighting in 2004 after Tbilisi launched an "anti-smuggling operation" in South Ossetia set back that peace process, and the two sides have not had substantive talks since then.

This summer, Mr Saakashvili moved his Abkhazian "government-in-exile" into a mountainous valley in Abkhazia and renamed it "Upper Abkhazia". This angered the Abkhaz and drew accusations that Georgia had broken the terms of the 1994 ceasefire agreement. To add spice to this already swirling cauldron, everyone in the Caucasus is closely watching to see the outcome of the United Nations-sponsored talks on the future of Kosovo. It now seems likely that the UN will recommend in the next few months that Kosovo be granted independence against the will of Belgrade, thus unilaterally breaking up Serbia's territorial integrity.

Abkhaz, Ossetians and Russians say if this happens that it will set an important precedent. Georgia and its Western allies are arguing, with diminishing success, that Kosovo is a unique case. This is the background to South Ossetia's referendum, being held in parallel with a presidential poll. No-one doubts what will be the result of the two votes: South Ossetia's current leader Eduard Kokoity will easily win re-election and the South Ossetians will vote for independence.

SOUTH OSSETIA

Population: About 70,000
Capital: Tskhinvali
Major languages: Ossetian, Georgian, Russian
Major religion: Orthodox Christianity
Currency: Russian rouble, Georgian lari

Regions and territories: South Ossetia

What is Mr Kokoity's strategy? He has faced criticism at home, on the grounds that South Ossetia already held an independence referendum in January 1992 and that a new vote will devalue the old one. He apparently believes that a positive vote could trigger what he most desires - recognition by the Russian Federation, possibly after the Kosovo decision is announced.
Abkhazia is following the same track: it voted on 18 October to ask the Russian parliament "to legitimise the de facto independence of Abkhazia." (Abkhazia voted for independence in an internationally unrecognised referendum in 1999). And while the Russian foreign ministry is so far diplomatically silent on the issue, some Russian parliamentarians are already beating the drum.

Following the appeal by the Abkhaz parliament, Sergei Baburin, the deputy speaker of Russia's State Duma, said: "After Kosovo's independence there will be a chain reaction, but there is no need to wait for Kosovo independence and we should immediately establish diplomatic relations with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnestria [the breakaway region of Moldova]." A move like this would shake up the Caucasus in ways that no-one can fully predict.

Thomas de Waal is Caucasus Editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BEIJING DOG POLICY SPARKS PROTEST !

Protesters say police detained 18 people. At least 200 people have protested in the Chinese capital, Beijing, against restrictions on pet dog ownership. Demonstrators holding stuffed toy animals said new rules limiting families in the capital to owning one small dog each were inhumane.
They said a ban on larger breeds would lead to dogs being confiscated and culled. In August, a mass cull of dogs caused uproar in south-west China. The 'one dog' policy was announced as part of a campaign to combat rabies. The protest was watched by many police, who demonstrators say detained 18 people.
One protester said the rule that pet dogs could be no taller than 35 cm was nonsense.
"We hope the world will support us in stopping the meaningless hurting and killing of dogs," she said, adding, "the height of a dog doesn't make them guilty or fierce!"
Rising wages have led to a boom in dog ownership, but high fees have meant most dogs are unregistered and unvaccinated.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

INTERNATIONAL COURT IN FIRST CASE !

Lubanga denies three war crimes charges. The only permanent international war crimes court has opened its first hearing, in the case of a Democratic Republic of Congo militia leader. Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are to decide whether Thomas Lubanga should stand trial for allegedly recruiting child soldiers.

The five-year DR Congo conflict led to an estimated four million deaths. The US strongly opposed the creation of the ICC, fearing the political prosecution of its soldiers.

This is very important both for international justice and justice for the Congolese people

Anneke Van Woudenberg
Human Rights Watch

The ICC was designed to end the need for the various ad hoc war crimes courts which have recently been established, including the chambers created to deal with war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda.

Mr Lubanga, 45, led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in DR Congo's north-eastern Ituri district, where fighting continued long after the official end of the five-year war in 2003. "Lubanga made children train to kill, Lubanga made them kill and Lubanga let the children die... in hostilities," prosecution lawyer Ekkehard Withopf told the court. The prosecution says he visited a training camp for his mostly ethnic Hema forces, which included children as young as 10, preparing to battle their Lendu rivals.

"Whilst encouraging them, they [Mr Lubanga and his deputy] also threatened that they would be killed if they attempted to flee the camp," the prosecution statement says, reports the AFP news agency. The child soldiers were later instructed "to kill all Lendu including men, women and children", the statement says, based on testimony from six children.

He denies three charges of war crimes. His lawyers say he was trying to end the conflict and is being punished by the international community for refusing to give mining concessions in areas he controlled to foreign firms. Referring to his enemies, he once told UN peacekeepers: "Those who have committed genocide or massacres have to be punished."

The BBC's Mark Doyle says the conflict in Ituri manifests itself as an ethnic war, but its root cause is the criminal mining of the region's gold and other minerals. Mr Lubanga's pre-trial is set to last three weeks. The judges will then decide whether to take the case to trial.

The pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the first hearings of the ICC, but it says the case against Mr Lubanga is far too narrow in its scope. "This is very important both for international justice and justice for the Congolese people," HRW researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

HRW says some 60,000 civilians have been slaughtered in Ituri province by various rebel groups, and that they should all be investigated, as should government officials from DR Congo and others who may be implicated from neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda. Despite US opposition to the ICC, it did not object when the United Nations Security Council referred atrocities committed in Sudan's Darfur there.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUOTES!

"TOMORROW IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE.

COMES INTO US AT MIDNIGHT VERY CLEAN.

IT'S PERFECT WHEN IT ARIVES AND PUTS ITSELF IN OUR HANDS.

IT HOPES WE'VE LEARNED SOMETHING FROM YESTERDAY" !

## JOHN WAYNE ##

U.N. OFFICIAL SEES BURMA'S SUU KYI !

A leading UN official, Ibrahim Gambari, has met opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he continues his mission to press for democratic reform in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for more than 10 of the past 17 years, told him she was in good health but needed more regular medical visits.
Mr Gambari began the day with talks with Burma's military leaders.
His visit comes as the US says it plans to introduce a UN resolution on human rights abuses in Burma.
The international community is increasing pressure on Burma to make serious changes to its harsh regime.
So far there has been little indication that the ruling generals are willing to co-operate.
Mr Gambari's talks will therefore be watched closely for signs of a possible breakthrough.
He began the day in Burma's new capital, Nay Pyi Taw, where he met military ruler Than Shwe and other senior officials.
Back in Rangoon, he held talks with members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy.
Losing patience
Mr Gambari last visited Burma in May, when he was given the rare opportunity of meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, widely seen as a symbol of resistance to Burma's ruling military junta.
It was the first time in more than two years that a foreigner had been allowed to meet her, and the visit fuelled hopes that she would soon be released, and that the military might finally make some concessions to international demands.
But almost as soon as Mr Gambari left the country, such hopes were dashed.
The international community is gradually losing patience with Burma's lack of progress towards democracy, as well as the many allegations of human rights abuse.
The United Nations Security Council tabled discussions on Burma in September, and the US wants the council to draft a resolution on the issue as soon as possible.
By allowing Mr Gambari to visit Aung San Suu Kyi for a second time, the generals may be preparing to offer some sort of olive branch, says the BBC's Kate McGeown in Bangkok.
But it is clear that nothing less than a solid commitment on reform will be enough to satisfy the international community.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.N. EVVOY AIDS UGANDA PEACE EFFORT !

Sudanese officials are hosting the talks. Top UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland is in south Sudan for peace talks aimed at ending two decades of war in Uganda. He will meet representatives of the Ugandan government and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) over three days in Juba.
A possible meeting with the highly secretive LRA leader Joseph Kony has yet to be confirmed.
Mr Egeland earlier said he would only meet Mr Kony if he agreed to free children and women abducted by the LRA.
LRA officials said Mr Kony wanted to meet Mr Egeland.
Stalled progress
The rebel leader refuses to attend the peace talks which have been taking place in Juba in case he is arrested.
The Ugandan government says it will not consider an amnesty for the rebels until a peace deal is reached.
However, the last few months have seen progress stall, with arguments over ceasefire violations and whether LRA fighters are really gathering at two designated assembly points.
On Sunday, Mr Egeland will travel to one of those sites near the Congolese border.
Tens of thousands of people have died and more than one-and-a-half million displaced as the LRA attacked civilians and abducted children in northern Uganda and southern Sudan.
Mr Egeland will also travel to Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur in his last tour of Africa before he is due to stand down next month.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SOMALIA PEACE DEAL 'IRRELEVANT' !

Mr Adan appears at odds with the government on several issues. Somalia's transitional government has dismissed as irrelevant an agreement struck between a group of Somali MPs and the Union of Islamic Courts.
Spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the MPs - led by parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan - did not have a mandate to negotiate.
The MPs went to Mogadishu a week ago after Arab League mediation efforts in the Sudanese capital Khartoum failed.
The seven-point agreement called on both sides to agree to return to talks.
It also pledged to maintain an arms embargo and prevent any foreign interference in Somalia.
However, the transitional government - which has little influence outside the town of Baidoa where it is based - has called for the arms embargo to be lifted and for a foreign peacekeeping force to protect it.
The Islamists have taken control of most of southern Somalia since seizing the capital, Mogadishu, in June.
'Unacceptable'
The deal was struck late on Friday in Mogadishu. The government responded after a cabinet meeting the next day.

"The government does not accept this initiative," Mr Dinari told the Associated Press news agency. "It is totally unacceptable."
"Reconciliation is the task of the government," he added.
The deal is an attempt to prevent war between militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts and the fragile government.
Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the Islamic Courts spokesman for foreign affairs, said: "This is a first step, and we are headed for peace."
The two parties called on the transitional government to back the deal.
Somalia has been in the grip of warlords and militias for years and has not had a functioning national government since 1991.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CATHY BUCKLE'S LETTTER FROM ZIMBABWE!

VERY VERY !

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been an exercise in such absurdity that you wonder how anything at all has functioned - and how we have survived it. Monday began with an electricity cut at 7.30 am which lasted for 7 hours. The power came back on but not for long and we ended the day after 11 hours of no power. I met a man on Monday with agonising toothache. He went to have it extracted but the dentist couldn't help - his surgery had neither electricity nor water.

Tuesday we again spent most of the business day in silence, going another 10 hours without electricity, and the water pressure dwindled to a fast drip. There were no street collections of garbage due to no fuel and a friend phoned and said butchers were complaining their meat was smelling and going off in the heat. The story resurfaced about the wrong fertilizer that had been imported bythe government from South Africa. 70 000 tonnes had come in but was found to be too high in some elements and was unsuitable for use on most soils. Apparently high sulphur levels could reduce yields or even destroy crops if used on the wrong soil types. The real bone shaker was yet to come though as the press reported that, oops, the fertilizer had already been delivered to the GMB for giving out to farmers. Double oops, as the GMB said they'd already started distributing it across the country.

Wednesday, could things get worse? Yes. There was no water at all, not even aslow drip but there was electricity so hey, we shouldn't be too capitalistic and ask for both services - even though we pay for them! Thursday the water came back on but now it smells of sewage, is the colour ofurine, has a thick yellow sediment and oily bubbles on top. Headline news was of a lavish ceremony with Mr Mugabe giving out 99 year farm leases to 120 new farmers. Some of the beneficiaries include a high court judge and a chief correspondent on ZBC TV. The caption below the picture on ZBC TV was: "99 year farm leases very constitutional." Then followed an interview with some expert or other who said the 99 year leases were "very very legal." It is not clear if the120 leases were for farms where compensation has been paid to farmers for infrastructure and stolen crops, or to farm workers for loss of livelihood, orto any of the men, women and children who were subjected to all manner of human rights abuses ranging from theft to arson, rape, looting, torture and even murder. It's not funny, very funny or even very very funny, but somehow wec arry on and so we limped into Friday.

Friday word hit my home town that 20 000 new mobile telephone lines were available for sale. No one knew if it was the government owned phone company or the private one doing the selling so there was pandemonium. At the post office there were riot police trying to get people to calm down and get in a queue -and all this for the chance to legally buy a telephone line. How crazy can things get!

It's been a very difficult week for ordinary people in Zimbabwe and it gets harder and harder to hold things together and keep pretending to be normal. I end on a note of hope which I saw at Speech Day at my son's school. Even in such appallingly hard times our schools take such care and pride to turn out fine, well mannered, caring and clever young men and women. All credit to these schools and their dedicated staff who could have fled to easier and greener pastures but haven't because they have hope and vision. Zimbabwe owes them and other professionals a great debt.

Until next time, love cathy.

Copyright cathybuckle 11 November 2006.http:/africantears.netfirms.comMy books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:orders@africabookcentre.com

TURKISH BID EXPOSES EU RIFTS.!

Turkish bid exposes EU rifts
By Oana Lungescu BBC News, BrusselsL

The destination of Turkey's European journey is not yet clear. Few issues divide the Europeans as much as Turkey.
Divisions are becoming ever more apparent as the European Union nears the moment of truth in relations with its biggest and poorest applicant country, which also happens to be Muslim.
For EU leaders meeting in Brussels on December 14-15, the question will be how to punish Turkey if it fails to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus. Turkey's promise to do so allowed it to open EU membership talks a year ago.
This week, several European commissioners pushed for the consequences to be spelled out in the Commission's progress report on Turkey.
According to officials, they were Markos Kyprianou of Cyprus, Stavros Dimas of Greece and Jacques Barrot of France.
Others - like Viviane Reding of Luxembourg, Louis Michel of Belgium and Jan Figel of Slovakia - raised serious concerns about the cost of integrating Turkey and the human rights situation.
Turkey's strongest advocates were Peter Mandelson of the UK and Charlie McCreevy of Ireland.
Germany's Guenter Verheugen even argued that Turkey should be treated as a special case.
That is hardly the official German line, but as a former enlargement commissioner, Mr Verheugen was bitterly disappointed when the Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan that would have led to the reunification of the island in 2004, just days before Cyprus was welcomed into the EU.
Tough talking
In the end, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, decided to give diplomacy one more chance, delaying a formal recommendation by five weeks.

Commissioner Rehn faces widespread scepticism in the EUWhy should we act suddenly, like an elephant in a china shop, asked Olli Rehn, the current enlargement commissioner. Instead, Mr Rehn, who is from Finland, asked everyone to back Finnish diplomatic efforts to achieve a breakthrough.
Finland holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, but Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja also has a personal stake in the long-running Cyprus dispute. His father Sakari was the UN envoy to the island when fighting between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities broke out in 1963.
More than 40 years later, Mr Tuomioja junior puts the chances of a deal at 50/50.
But, with key elections next year, the Turkish government has given no indication it will budge on the sensitive issue of Cyprus.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged there could be a "period of stagnation" in ties with the EU, but ruled out the possibility of accession talks collapsing.
"It's five minutes to midnight and Turkey is pursuing a risky strategy," says Camiel Eurlings, a Dutch conservative member of the European Parliament who monitors Turkey's progress.
Cyprus holds key
If Ankara does not make a gesture over Cyprus, even Turkey's friends agree there must be consequences.

The Turkey issue will be difficult for Mrs Merkel next year"Turkey must implement its obligation to all EU member states. If it fails to do so, the EU must act," said Britain's Minister for Europe, Geoff Hoon.
To preserve the EU's credibility, Britain would probably back a limited freeze on only three or four policy areas in the membership talks - known as chapters - directly linked to transport and trade.
Other countries, like Sweden and Italy, argue EU rules must be respected, but would rather focus the debate away from Cyprus and more on the need for Turkey to speed up political reforms.
At the other end of the spectrum, Cyprus is calling for a freeze of all membership talks. It is a view supported by politicians in France, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, the countries where most people want to keep Turkey out of the EU.
In one of the toughest statements so far, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the EU should rethink its timetable for Turkey's entry bid if it refuses to comply by December.
Germans divided
In Germany, which will take over the EU presidency in less than two months, the splits go right through the ruling coalition.
The Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber, leader of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), called for a total suspension of talks with Turkey, which he said was not a European country anyway.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who heads the main Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conservative party, dismissed Mr Stoiber's comments, but insisted there could not be "business as usual" if Turkey failed to keep its promise to lift restrictions on Cyprus.
In opposition, Ms Merkel advocated a "privileged partnership" for Turkey, like Mr Stoiber. In power, she remains more critical of Turkey than her foreign minister, the Social Democrat Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"Some in Europe want to bring about a failure of Turkish negotiations through their rhetoric," Mr Steinmeier said, "this only strengthens the view in Turkey that they are not welcome in the EU - we need to fight against this impression."
Dream turning sour
EU leaders will have to reach a unanimous decision on Turkey, like on any other important matter.
One compromise solution could involve freezing talks on up to ten chapters.
But common ground is hard to find.
"My biggest fear," says MEP Camiel Eurlings, "is that there won't be unanimity. The difference between the positions of Cyprus and the UK is so huge that quite a big minority of countries could use the split to effectively cripple negotiations or bring them to a halt."
At first, that may not make much difference. Using its rights as an EU member, Cyprus has already been blocking technical talks for weeks.
"What we have is already a suspension," says a diplomat close to the negotiations. "We already have a crisis. The atmosphere has never been so bad in any membership talks."
For months, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has been warning Turkey of a "train crash".
But the membership train may already be on a dangerous course. If it goes off the tracks in December, MEP Camiel Eurlings fears relations between Turkey and Europe could suffer unpredictable damage.
"Does anybody think how difficult it would be to get the train back on track," Mr Eurlings asks, "with a Europe increasingly worried about enlargement and a Turkey which is becoming increasingly nationalistic?"

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RUSSIA TO FILLL CHINESE FUEL TANKS !

China's booming economy is expected to boost demand for cars. Russia's state-run oil giant Rosneft is to build hundreds of petrol stations in China as part of a plan to double its business in Asia. The scheme is part of a joint venture between Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Rosneft plans to build a joint refinery in China with CNPC.
Also as part of the deal, CNPC will extract crude oil from Russia's Eastern oil fields, and Rosneft will increase its crude exports to China.
Looking East
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the Rosneft Asia Pacific office in Beijing, chief executive Sergei Bogdanchikov said his company would increase the amount of oil it sells to China by around 7 million tonnes to 20 million in 2007.
Russia is seeking to diversify its energy exports away from Europe and is already building two gas pipelines to China.
Mr Bogdanchikov said he estimated Rosneft's trade with China and other Asian states at over $10bn (£5.2bn).
Rosneft shares were floated earlier this year in Russia's biggest public offering.
The sale was highly controversial, coming in the wake of the Russian government's seizure of the oil assets of Rosneft rival Yukos. The oil production division of Yukos was then sold to Rosneft.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.N. URGES END TO 'WATER APARTHEID' !

UN urges end to 'water apartheid'
By David Loyn BBC Developing World correspondent

Water-borne diseases kill five times as many children as HIV/Aids,
A new report from the United Nations Development Programme has demanded a big increase in spending to provide clean water.
The UNDP wants another $4bn (£2bn) a year spent, and says that water has not received the attention it deserves.
Water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea kill far more people than HIV/Aids and malaria combined, it said.
We sometimes lose sight of the sheer depth of inequality
Kevin Watkins, lead author, Human Development Report
And the difference is particularly stark for children: water-borne diseases kill five times as many children as HIV/Aids.
The report says that water is a key part of human development - and warns that, in particular, sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in the provision of basic services.
Rich unaffected
The report says that 2.4 billion people in the world do not have access to safe sanitation.
Some steps are simple and can have dramatic results - just putting in a safe standpipe can reduce mortality by 20%.
But Kevin Watkins, the report's author, says that the world needs to think on a much bigger scale than this.
He says a similar initiative is needed as that carried out 100 years ago in major European cities, including London, to provide water and sewage treatment.
SEE THE FULL REPORT
Human Development Report 2006: Beyond scarcity [7.8MB]
Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader
Download the reader here
Global climate efforts 'woeful'
Back then, diseases such as cholera, carried in dirty water, were affecting the rich as well as the poor.
In the modern world of what Mr Watkins calls "water apartheid", the rich do not suffer in the same way, and the incentives for government to act are less.
"You can't help wondering - if the children of the wealthy were suffering the same fate as the children of the poor regarding water and sanitation, if high income women were also walking four hours a day to collect water - whether something would have been done about it."
"I think something would have happened a long time ago."
Huge costs
The report finds that the big arguments about privatisation in recent years miss the point.
There have been some high-profile failures where western companies have not been able to deliver their promises in developing countries.

Some of the world's poorest are paying the most for their water
But slum dwellers in places including Nairobi in Kenya already pay for private water supplies, delivered by truck.
The amounts they pay are huge and this water is more expensive per litre than in London or New York.
The poorest people in Latin America can pay up to 10% of their household income for water.
Climate change
As well as the loss of life and the cost of disease, the time spent collecting water has other economic effects.
The report calculates that the cost to Africa is equivalent to about 5% of the continent's economic growth, about the same amount of growth as is generated by money received in aid.
Mr Watkins says: "This is one of the biggest potential setbacks to human development in Africa for a century."
But he says that water has been left out of recent announcements on development by the richest countries in the world.
The report does not believe that water represents a major security threat, and the prospect of 'water wars' is not as serious as others have predicted.
But it does warn of severe consequences if there is not a major strategic plan for water use across country borders, especially as climate change reduces the capacity of the poorest countries to grow food for themselves.
Growing inequality
The report highlights the growing gap between rich and poor, not only in income, but also in the provision of basic services.
And it shows the glaring gaps not just between rich and poor countries, but between the rich and poor within developing countries.
Children in Indonesia, for example, are four times as likely to die before their fifth birthday if they are born into the poorest 20% of the population instead of the richest 20%.
And the combined income of the richest 500 people in the world exceeds that of the poorest 416 million.
The report says that one of the central challenges of human development is to "diminish tolerance for the extreme inequalities that have characterised globalisation since the 1990s."
"Globalisation has given rise to a protracted debate over trends in global income distribution, but we sometimes lose sight of the sheer depth of inequality, and how greater equity could dramatically accelerate poverty reduction," Mr Watkins said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

RWANDA NUN JAILED OVER GENOCIDE !

Some 800,000 people were killed during 100 days of killing. A Roman Catholic nun has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Theophister Mukakibibi was jailed by a traditional Rwandan court for helping ethnic Hutu militiamen kill Tutsis hiding in a hospital where she worked. Mukakibibi is the first nun sentenced by a Rwandan court for crimes committed during the genocide. Two other Catholic nuns were found guilty by a Belgian court in 2001, and male priests have also faced trial. Theophister Mukakibibi worked at the National University Hospital in the town of Butare during the genocide.

According to Jean Baptiste Ndahumba, president of the local gacaca court in Butare, the nun selected Tutsis sheltering in the hospital and threw them out for the militias to kill. He said she did not spare pregnant women, and was also accused of dumping a baby in a latrine, the Reuters news agency reports. "She used to hold meetings with militiamen and had an army officer as her escort during the killings," Mr Ndahumba said. Gacaca courts have been used in Rwanda to speed up the process of bringing those responsible for the genocide to justice.

Last year a Belgian male priest became the first foreigner to go before a gacaca court accused of genocide crimes. Some members of the Catholic hierarchy in Rwanda had close ties to extremist politicians and aided Hutu militias in the run-up to the killings. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the 1994 genocide and thousands of people were killed after seeking sanctuary in churches.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EFFORT TO HALT KENYAN SLUM BATTLE !

Hundreds of residents have fled the slum. Hundreds of Kenyan riot police are patrolling one of Nairobi's larger slums to keep the peace after five days of bitter clashes between rival gangs. At least eight people have been killed but residents say the death toll is higher. Thousands of people have fled their homes in Mathare slum. Many of the flimsy houses in a valley in the north-east of the capital have been burnt to the ground. Half of Nairobi's 3.5m inhabitants live in slums where policing is low key. A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on the area.

"My house was burnt. I had to flee for safety. I do not know where two of my children are," exhausted Mathare resident Fatima told Reuters news agency. Skirmishes between the outlawed Mungiki and Taliban gangs started on Sunday. "We have deployed enough officers in the area to maintain the peace," Nairobi police commander Kingori Mwangi told AFP news agency.

Police spokesman Gideon Kubunja warned politicians not to inflame the situation, after some members of parliament accused the Kenyan government of encouraging the gangs. A government spoksman said it would deal with the gangs"without mercy within the context of law and order". On Wednesday, police were reported to have shot two people as they attempted to contain the battles that erupted over protection money the gangs levied on brewers of an illegal drink. Many Mathare residents have camped outside Nairobi's military air base and people continue to leave the area.

Kenyan television showed gangs of youth torching vehicles and shouting, "Kill, Kill." The BBC's Gray Phombeah in Nairobi says the banned Mungiki sect is inspired by the bloody Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s against the British colonial rule. Thousands of young and poor Kenyans - mostly drawn from Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu - have flocked to the sect whose doctrines are based on traditional practices.

According to Reuters news agency, police arrested their leader over killings and running extortion rackets among transport operators. The Taliban were formed in Kenya's western city of Kisumu in the 1990s and are reputed to organise political violence but have no religious affiliation, unlike the Afghan Islamic fundamentalist group from which they took their name, AFP news agency reports.

The clashes come at an embarrassing time for Nairobi, as a total of about 6,000 delegates are attending the United Nations' two-week conference on climate change.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PALESTINE WOMEN 'NOT PROTECTED' !

Violence against Palestinian women often goes unreported, HRW says. Discriminatory laws and a lack of policies to assist victims of abuse mean violence often goes unreported or unpunished, the group said.
The security threats that women face at home have been ignored in the face of the conflict with Israel, HRW reported.
HRW based its report on interviews conducted in late 2005 and early 2006.
The group found that the legal and justice systems in the West Bank and Gaza result in light sentences for men who, claiming an affront to family honour, kill female relatives suspected of adultery.
'Lack of skills'
In addition, rapists who agree to marry their victims are exempted from criminal prosecution.
When confronted with cases of violence against women and girls, the Palestinian criminal justice system is more interested in avoiding public scandal than in seeing justice done
Lucy MairHuman Rights Watch
Several factors were found to compound the problem.
Palestinian police lack the skills to effectively address violence against women, HRW said.
As a result, informal measures are adopted such as seeking the mediation of influential clan leaders to encourage marriage between a rapist and his victim, the reports said.
The justice system too, lets women down HRW said.
"When confronted with cases of violence against women and girls, the Palestinian criminal justice system is more interested in avoiding public scandal than in seeing justice done," said Lucy Mair, one of the researchers and authors of the report.
And although the number of shelters for Palestinian women is growing, Israeli restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Gaza make them difficult or impossible to reach.

The conflict with Israel has cut off access to many women's shelters
HRW sees some hope in recent legal reforms carried out by the Palestinian Authority.
But the rights group wants to see more done.
"The PA urgently needs to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of violence against women and girls," said Farida Deif, the report's other researcher and co-author.
Police and medical staff should be trained to international standards to respond to domestic violence and discriminatory laws should be repealed, the report said.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PRESIDENT'S SON BUYS $35m U.S. HOME !

President Obiang has ruled his country since 1979. An anti-graft pressure group has called for a probe into the alleged purchase of a luxury US beach house by the son of Equatorial Guinea's president.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang bought a $35m house in California's exclusive Malibu area in February, Global Witness says.
His pay as a minister is $60,000 a year. The country was named recently as one of the world's most corrupt.
Africa's third-biggest oil producer earns $3bn a year but most people live on just $1 a day.
Global Witness said it obtained the information on the purchase of the 16-acre property from public records available in Los Angeles.
'Test case'
The president's son bought the mansion in the name of Sweetwater Malibu, LLC, a company he wholly owns and manages, Global Witness said.
The lobby group which campaigns against the use of resources like oil being used to fund abuses, conflict and corruption has called on the United States government to investigate the source of the wealth.
"This could be a test case for this initiative," campaigner Sarah Wykes told Reuters news agency.
"Where is this money coming from?" she asked.
An adviser to Equatorial Guinea's government, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Mr Obiang was a businessman with independent sources of income before he became a cabinet minister, AP news agency reports.
Mr Obiang has not responded himself.
Last year, a South African court seized two luxury homes registered in his name in Cape Town.
In 2004, a US Senate investigation discovered that Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and members of his family were the signatories to accounts at Riggs Bank in the US which had received millions of dollars in revenues from the central African country's oil wells.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

'ROAD RAGE' DEATH SHOCKS TANZANIA !

President Jakaya Kikwete accepted the resignation One of the Tanzanian president's key political allies has resigned after being charged with murder.
Senior ruling party official Ukiwaona Ditopile Mzuzuri is accused of shooting a bus driver dead in a row after refusing to get off the bus.
The regional commissioner - equivalent to a state governor - is now in prison awaiting trial at the high court.
President Jakaya Kikwete described the resignation as an honourable thing to do in a law-abiding nation.
The case is being referred to in the country as an extreme example of road rage.
In a letter, Mr Ditopile said that he would like to step down and let the law take its course.
He added that continuing to hold to his post while the case is in court would affect people's confidence in the government.
Tanzanians are watching the case closely to see if Mr Ditoplie receives any preferential treatment, says the BBC's Vicky Ntetema in Dar es Salaam.
The case is also prompting calls for a review of the law on possessing firearms.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUOTES

"THE ONE IMPORTANT THING I'VE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS

IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TAKING ONE'S WORK SERIOUSLY
AND ONE'S SELF SERIOUSLY.

THE FIRST IS IMPERATIVE: THE SECOND IS DISASTROUS"!


## DAME MARGOT FONTEIN ##

PROSECUTION CASE AGAINST AL-QAEDA BRITON !

Documents and computer files linked Barot to the bomb plotDhiren Barot is to be sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder people through a series of bombings on British and US targets. Here is a summary of the prosecution case outlined at Woolwich Crown Court.
Background
Dhiren Barot, 34, a Muslim convert, was a "member or close associate" of the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.
The UK citizen had been under MI5 surveillance and was arrested in London in August 2004 after police decided he was "simply too dangerous to leave" on the streets.
Barot received extensive terrorism training in the use of weapons and explosives for the first time in Pakistan in 1995.
Material recovered and used to form the prosecution case included documents, e-mails, DVDs and computer hard drives.
The most developed plot was the "gas limos project", a plan to blow up three limousines "packed" with gas cylinders and explosives next to or under target buildings in the UK.
Arson through hijacked petrol tankers and the use of an aircraft were among other possible methods of attack considered.
There were plans to detonate so-called dirty bombs - explosives devices containing radioactive material.
Barot carried out "substantial research" into the dirty bomb project, placing the details in computer files called "Brad Pitt" and "radioactive children".
He stated he wanted to "emulate" the Madrid train bombings, which killed almost 200 people in March 2004 with co-ordinated back-to-back attacks.
The US plans were drafted earlier and used to help to conceive the UK plot, headed by the gas limos project.
The plans were taken to Pakistan to be presented to senior al-Qaeda figures for approval and funding.
But the prosecution did not dispute a defence assertion that no funding had been received for the projects, nor any vehicles or bomb-making materials acquired.
UK plot
The plans for attacking the UK were contained in the presentation for the gas limos project discovered after a raid by the Pakistani authorities in Gujarat in July 2004.
Targets included the rail and underground network in London, with the Heathrow Express, or an explosion on a Tube train in a tunnel under the River Thames cited as possible incidents.
Other sites identified were London hotels, including The Ritz and The Savoy, and stations such as Waterloo, Paddington and King's Cross.
Barot assumed a number of identities in a bid to "cover his tracks" and had at least one false passport.
He once travelled from London to Swansea just to use an internet cafe.
He assumed a false identity to gain access to the library at Brunel University in north-west London for research and appeared to have accessed other specialist libraries.
US plot
Plans to carry out bombings on the US were initiated before the September 11 2001 attacks, then shelved, but still worked on as late as February 2004.
Specific targets in the US plot included the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in New York, and the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey.
The US plans were prepared after reconnaissance was carried out by Barot during visits in 2000 and 2001.
A video of the Bruce Willis film Die Hard With A Vengeance seized from a London garage was found to have footage shot in New York in April 2001 at the end of it.
The filmed showed various locations in New York - focusing on entrances, security cameras, barriers and side streets as well as Jewish buildings, including synagogues.
Film footage of the World Trade Center featured a voice making the sound of an explosion.
Prosecutors said the Crown was not suggesting Barot had "knowledge" of the 9/11 terror attacks, but it "does demonstrate a more than unhealthy and violent interest in attacks on iconic buildings".
Preparation
Material recovered in Barot's computer files used seemingly innocuous words to represent different topics such as "monty", "children" and "uncle" to cover research into explosives, gases and chemicals.
Deleted material uncovered on a hard drive revealed files containing research into topics such radioactive materials, homemade bombs, arson attacks and fire protection systems.
A handbook listing hazardous chemicals was found, as were notebooks containing references to books on subjects including explosives, chemical and biological warfare, and building structures.
"Shopping lists" of electrical items that could be used to construct an "improvised explosive device" were also seized, as was the text of a statement by Osama bin Laden "glorifying the September 11 attacks".
Barot set up temporary e-mail accounts to send coded messages and adopted anti-surveillance techniques.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

ANALYSIS : IRAQ'S DIVISIONS REINFORCED !

Analysis: Iraq's divisions reinforced.
By Jeremy Bowen Middle East editor, BBC News.

The divisions in Iraq appear to have been reinforced by the verdict on Saddam Hussein and the legacy that matters comes not from the events of his life and death, but the decision by the United States to remove him from power by military invasion.

Saddam Hussein hears the death sentence passed against him The American journalist Bob Woodward, in his third book about the Bush administration at war, State of Denial, relates a story told by Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, who was the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.

Prince Bandar recalls a conversation that Saddam Hussein had with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia after a group of extremists took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. The rebels had been caught and thrown into jail, and this was the Iraqi leader's advice: "In my mind, there is no question that you are going to kill all 500, that's a given. "Listen to me carefully, Fahd. Every man who in this group who has a brother or father - kill them. If they have a cousin who you think is man enough to go for revenge, kill them.

"Those 500 people are a given. But you must spread the fear of God in everything that belongs to them, and that's the only way you can sleep at night." That seems to have been the tactic that Saddam Hussein used at Dujail in 1982, when - after an attempt to assassinate him - 148 people were killed. It is the crime for which he has been sentenced to hang. Perhaps Saddam Hussein will accept his fate on the gallows as an occupational hazard of being a despot. Or maybe he never intended his own rules to apply to himself. A few hours after Saddam Hussein was captured at the end of 2003, Paul Bremer, who was at the time Washington's viceroy in Iraq, was triumphant. "We got him," he announced, to whoops and cheers.

Many Iraqis celebrated the death sentence. His words were even put up in lights on the control tower at Basra airport. At the time, hopes were expressed that Saddam Hussein's arrest would deal a blow to the insurgency. It didn't. Almost exactly three years on, the question is not whether his conviction and probable execution will result in less killing in Iraq. It is whether it will make it worse. The complex, fragmented war that is being fought in Iraq has grown deep roots.

The trial - and the verdict - has reinforced the divisions in the country. Shias and others who thought he was a monster have had their beliefs confirmed. For Sunnis who did well under the old regime, Saddam Hussein's fate is more than ever a symbol of their humiliation. US President George W Bush, who is confronted every day with the consequences of his disastrous decision to invade Iraq, presented the trial as an achievement for Iraqi democracy and constitutional government. After the Americans' chastening experiences of the last three years, the verdict on Saddam Hussein does not do much to lighten the outlook.

Outside the Oval Office, a consensus is growing in Washington that the Americans have no good options in Iraq. Perhaps the nagging feeling that it has come down to choosing between degrees of discomfort and disaster has even found its way to the president's desk. When - more likely than if - the death sentence is carried out, the era of Saddam Hussein, as his rule was pompously described on foundation stones on buildings in Baghdad, will finally close.

In the Middle East - and in the wider world - the real legacy that matters comes not from the events of Saddam Hussein's life and death, but the decision to remove him from power. The 2003 invasion injected a huge dose of instability into the region. Its consequences will be played out over the next generation.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

LIVING WITH AUSTRALIA'S DROUGHT !

Living with Australia's drought.
By Nick Bryant BBC News, Goulburn.

Residents in Goulburn are living with strict water rations. Goulburn in New South Wales is Australia's oldest inland city. But when it comes to dealing with chronic water shortages it offers an alarming glimpse of the future. A town of some 22,000 people, situated about two-and-half hours south of Sydney, it has been coping with severe water restrictions for the past five years. With the town in the grip of Australia's worst drought in a century - there has been no significant rainfall in Goulburn since January and not a single drop in October - residents are confronted with all manner of water-related prohibitions. All use of town water outside is banned, which includes hosing the garden, washing the car, and filling or topping up swimming pools or spas.

Households are only allowed to consume 150 litres per person per day. If they exceed that target, they are faced with hefty fines. Bills are already soaring. Wardens patrol the streets on the look-out for "water louts" (residents who illegally use their hoses). The town's streets, avenues and cul-de-sacs have become a sun-dried suburbia, a scorched landscape of parched lawns and dying plants and flowers.

Obviously with the showering, we have to time the shower. Joanne Godbar stands with a stopwatch. Dusty cars sit unwashed on the driveways. Rugby teams have to cut back on their training because the ground is so hard. There are even fears that the cricket season will have to be cancelled by the New Year unless there is a break in the drought. So no wonder Joanne Godbar is standing in her bathroom posed with a stopwatch, looking like the starter in an Olympics 100 metres final rather than a mother-of-two. Her daughter is just about to take a shower, and Joanne is making sure that she does not spend more than five minutes under the water. "Obviously with the showering, we have to time the shower," says Joanne. "You have to be really careful with the washing machine. Clothes that aren't too dirty just go back in the drawer. And then there's a garden. Well, we haven't got a garden any more. We've just accepted the fact that we will never again have a nice green lush lawn."

The scale of the problem facing Goulburn is clear at Pejar Dam, one of the town's main reservoirs. It is an empty bowl, with just 2% of its capacity. Even the small amount of water that is resting on the bottom is impractical to use. You would lose too much through evaporation by transporting it into town. A sign by the side of the reservoir says that boating is banned - a glaring statement of the obvious. "We'd be a good 10 metres under water where we standing now," explained Greg Finlayson, Manager of Water Services at the local council. "For the past two years we've been under the most severe water restrictions in Australia, and possibly the western world."

"During the winter, the water consumption has been cut in half. During the summer, the residents and business are using just a quarter of what they used to consume." Travel further down the road, and you come to Gundowringa farm. The Prell family has been farming this land for four generations, but fears it might have to leave if the rain does not come soon. At this time of the year, the farm should be a dreamy picture of lush rolling hills. But it has been starved of water, and the bleached landscape is dying.

The family has kept an accurate measure of monthly rainfall since 1895. In October, for the first time ever, there was not a single drop of rain. Charlie Prell took me for a tour of the farm, driving through dried-out river beds and showing me his bedraggled sheep and cattle. The farm's income stream has dropped by 50%, and the family has had to sell-off a third of its land to make ends meet.

Last year, sheep commanded a price of A$40-50 a head. Now it has plummeted to A$10-15 a head. The price has fallen because of a glut in the market. Farmers are selling off their sheep at bargain basement prices because they cannot afford to feed them through the summer. "Every four days a farmer in Australia is committing suicide," he says. "I haven't contemplated that myself, but it destroys my soul."

Many businesses have been forced to totally reinvent the way they operate to deal with the water shortage. Dad's Car Wash is a case in point. With cars lined up bumper to bumper, it is doing a roaring trade - which comes as no surprise, since it is the only place in Goulburn right now where you can get your car washed.

Had it not invested A$100,000 in a recycling plant which allows it to re-use grey water, the business would have faced ruin. "The place would probably have lasted six months," according to owner Jeff Hayward. "So it really was a case of do or die. A$100,000 is a lot of money, but we employ 10 people so it was not just me that was going to be affected but the staff as well. So we really thought we must do it."

Painful though the process has been, Goulburn is learning to cope with its severe water restrictions, and people seem to deal with them with a combination of resilience and resignation.
The local council claims the town may be in better shape than other Australian cities, for the simple reason that over the course of five rain-starved years it has become adept at tackling the problem. Still, if the drought continues, the water crunch will only get worse.

A contingency plan is already in place to transport water into the town by the truckload - a task that would require 40 trucks a day, at a cost of A$1m a week. The worrying question for Goulburn - and indeed, communities all over the world: Is this the new normal?

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FAST CONDOMS ON SALE IN S. AFRICA

Pronto condoms are not yet on sale outside South Africa. Condoms, which promoters say can be put on in just one second, are going on sale in South Africa this week.
"Using an ordinary condom is a real pain," says Pronto condom designer Willem van Rensburg.
"By the time the condom is on, the mood is halfway out the window." Pronto condoms do not need to be unwrapped.
Mr van Rensburg told the BBC he hopes it will encourage people to use condoms in a country where 5.5m people have HIV - one of the world's highest figures.
"If you're slow, it'll take you three seconds. You can really do it in one," Mr van Rensburg's former business partner Roelf Mulder told the AFP news agency.
'Passion-killer'
The firm's adverts, which can be seen on its website, feature jokes at the expense of two senior South African politicians - former Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Mr Zuma said in a court case that he had showered after having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive in order not to contract the virus.
Dr Tshabalala-Msimang is known as "Dr Beetroot" for her advice to those with HIV to eat nutritious food such as garlic and beetroot.
Mr van Rensburg said he looked at the research into South Africa's Aids problem and found that low condom use was a real factor and this was largely because people found them difficult to use. "People find it's a passion-killer and they're willing to take their chances."
He said it had taken him five years' hard work to get the product to market.
Pronto condoms are not yet on sale outside South Africa.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MOROCCAN AIRLINE BANS PRAYER TIME !

Moroccan airline bans prayer time.
By Richard Hamilton BBC News, Rabat

The airline is a source of prestige for Morocco. Morocco's state airline Royal Air Maroc has banned its staff praying at their offices and headquarters. The company says that in the past its workers have abused the privilege of praying, by taking too much time away from their desks and their customers. But the airline's workers as well as Islamist politicians say it is part of a crackdown on their religious freedom. Praying is one of the five pillars of Islam and regarded as a crucial part of a Muslim's way of life. The state airline, partly owned by the Moroccan royal family, is a great source of pride and prestige in the country.

But this latest move threatens to exacerbate divisions in Morocco. Workers say that they have been banned from praying at work and that a number of prayer rooms have been closed and that they are forbidden from going to the mosque during work hours. The company would not give an interview but issued a statement saying that while there is no official ban on praying, they had to do something to stop people taking lengthy breaks away from work. But critics say the issue of praying, like the veil, is part of a more sinister move to rob the country of its Islamic roots.

"I feel very angry about this decision," says Moustapha Aramid from the Islamic Party for Justice and Development. "Moroccans have had their liberty and their religious freedom taken away from them. It is very damaging. Royal Air Morocco obviously has absolutely no respect for Islam." Analysts say the ban on prayers is really a political move aimed at stamping out radical Islamism.

When an alleged terrorist cell - Ansar el-Mehdi - was broken up earlier this year - two of the suspects charged were the wives of two Royal Air Morocco pilots. There is a feeling that the company had to do something to respond. Other complaints from airline staff are that pilots and stewards were not allowed to fast during the month of Ramadan and that female staff are not allowed to wear the veil - although that has been an unwritten rule at many companies for several years.

These issues are becoming a focal point for some very hard questions being asked of this moderate Arabic country - something that is causing serious friction between liberals and traditionalists.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

AFRICA FOCUS FOR CLIMATE SUMMIT !

Africa focus for climate summit.
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website.

Reaching agreement on reducing emissions may be impossible Delegates are gathering in Nairobi for the latest round of UN climate talks, which will focus on helping poorer countries adapt to a changing climate.
A UN report released on the eve of the talks forecast dire climate impacts on parts of Africa.
Yields of crops will fall, it said, while rising seas could engulf cities.
This is the 12th set of UN climate talks since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, but data released last week shows greenhouse gas levels are still rising.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said carbon dioxide concentrations rose by half a percent during 2005, and will not start falling unless a stronger agreement than the Kyoto Protocol materialises.
Crops and floods
The new report from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) paints a stark picture of why measures to help African countries "climate-proof" their societies, economies and infrastructure are now widely seen as vital.

Greenhouse gases hit record

Yields of major crops such as maize, millet and sorghum will fall, it concludes, while large portions of cities including Lagos, Dar-es-Salaam and Cape Town could disappear under rising seas.
"There are also major impacts in highly elevated areas like Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro whose glaciers, ice caps and run-off are important for water supplies," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the WMO which contributed data to the report.
Last week a review issued by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern also warned of a disproportionate impact of climate change on the poorest countries, while a number of development agencies have made the same argument.
Potentially, "climate-proofing" poorer nations could include such measures as:
sea and river defences
boosting water supply infrastructure for drought-prone regions
planting of natural defences such as trees and mangroves
development of new crop strains resistant to higher temperatures or drought
public education on issues such as saving water

World seeks climate compact

In a piece for the BBC's Green Room series, the new secretary-general of the UNFCCC Yvo de Boer argues that money for adaptation can be raised through some of the convention's internal processes, such as the Clean Development Mechanism.
Britain's climate minister Ian Pearson told a parliamentary committee last month that he was hopeful of reaching a deal on adaptation at the Nairobi meeting, including financing.
Agenda restrictions
In comments made during a news conference two weeks ago, the European Union's environment commissioner Stavros Dimas agreed.
But he hinted at another reason why adaptation is top of the Nairobi agenda: it is politically possible, certainly more feasible than aiming for a new deal on restricting greenhouse gas emissions when the current targets for richer countries under the Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.

Water threat to millions

"Discussions on the vital issue of post-2012 global action to combat climate change will continue in Nairobi," he said.
"This process started in May and we expect to make further progress at this meeting, but it is too early to expect any breakthroughs."
Officially European Union countries and Japan are aiming for stringent long-term targets; and Britain has just proposed that the EU adopts a medium-term goal of 30% reductions by 2020.
But the US and Australia, among the developed countries, remain resolutely opposed to any talk of targets; and there is no prospect of a deal including developing nations while those two countries, among the highest per-capita polluters in the world, maintain their opposition.

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

BBC NEWS REPORT.

QUOTES

"IN EVERY MOMENT,

THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE.

IN EACH,

YOU ARE EITHER FULLY ALIVE OR RELATIVELY DEAD" !

## DAN MILLMAN ##

MEETING THE HARD MAN OF LIBERIA !

Meeting the hard man of Liberia.
By Bill Law BBC News, Liberia

We had just parked up outside the Capitol Building in downtown Monrovia. It was another sweltering afternoon and it felt like hard rain was just a moment away.

Prince Johnson told Bill Law he has no fear and seeks God's guidance.
"I'd like to see this man," said our driver James. "Do you mind if I come with you?"
We didn't mind at all. James had been guiding us heroically through the decaying and potholed streets of this war-battered capital city for a couple of days now.
Usually he would wait patiently in his ageing Nissan while we went about our business. But I could understand his interest in the senior senator from Nimba County.
Prince Y Johnson is better known as the man who presided over the torture and assassination of the then Liberian President, Samuel Doe, in September of 1990.
Even by the standards of the time it was a particularly brutal slaying. Before he was killed, Doe was mutilated, his ears sliced off.
Prince Johnson supervised the proceedings sitting in a chair while one of his soldiers fanned him.
The whole affair was video-taped. And bootleg copies, I was told, are still doing the rounds in the markets of Monrovia.
My litter moment
The lights were out in the Capitol Building so we had to feel our way down darkened corridors to Prince Johnson's office.

Samuel Doe was killed in 1990, a decade after the coup he led
An aide, built like a tank and just about as menacing, gestured me to a chair to wait for his boss.
James hunched up in a corner. I picked idly at bits of weed that had caught on the cuff of my trousers, dropping them on the floor.
Suddenly the tank barked: "What are you doing? You are littering. Stop now!"
I weighed up a cheeky response - something about the teeming mess and chaos that is Monrovia and thought better of it.
Then the senator from Nimba County swept in. A big man wearing a traditional African robe, a man used to giving orders and being obeyed.
It was his forces coming from the north, from Nimba, that had routed Doe's soldiers back in 1990, driving them out of a region where they had committed numerous atrocities.
'Old news now'
These days Prince Johnson says he has found God: "I am a pastor, a Christian. God is in control. I have no fear."
I was in perfect control. The commanding officer takes responsibility for what his unit does. Anything happened to Doe, I was responsible.
Prince Johnson
He doesn't want to talk about the killing of Samuel Doe.
"Old news, dead news," he says, one big hand slicing down emphatically to make the point.
"The people are tired of fighting. Change must be done through the ballot box. No more bullets."
But he does want to talk about the army. It was disbanded as part of the peace accord that three years ago finally brought an end to a brutal 14 years of civil war.
Under the deal, ex-soldiers were to be honourably discharged and paid off. They have been demobbed but many of them have not got the money and they are not happy.
In his role as chair of the senate committee on national security Prince Johnson has positioned himself as their champion.
"It's a very dangerous situation," he says, "that's why I have told the senate to address the issue."
'She ignores me'
According to him, these ex-soldiers have easy access to arms. As in the past, they are prepared to fight for whoever will pay their wages.
So is he telling the president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of his concerns?
He sighs: "She needs help, she is getting bad advice. My advice is being ignored."
Prince Johnson fell out with Johnson-Sirleaf's party prior to last year's election. So he ran as an independent in Nimba County.
He did not get around to campaigning until 10 days before the vote. When he did, his message was eloquent, if not Christ-like in its simplicity:
"I said, people of Nimba don't forget yesterday. God used me as an instrument to save you. So choose between those who ran away and I, Prince Johnson, who give my life for you."
They got the message and he romped home with a huge majority.
And since he had raised that prickly question again, I asked him if he was responsible for Doe's murder or was it the case that he had lost control of his soldiers?
At that he bristled: "I was in perfect control. The commanding officer takes responsibility for what his unit does. Anything happened to Doe, I was responsible."
Inspiring fear
It was then the large aide abruptly fired another broadside. The interview was over, the senator had another pressing engagement.
I had one more question though. Did he have presidential ambitions? Prince Johnson paused.
"I cannot rule it out," he said. "But let me tell you I always ask God to help me live one day at a time."
Then the senior senator from Nimba County ushered me out.
In the forecourt James coaxed the Nissan into life. As we slid out of the parking lot blinking in the harsh afternoon light he scrunched down in his seat.
"That man," he said, "is a hard man. What he says, he means. I was shaking the whole time you were talking to him."

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 4 November, 2006 at 11.30 GMT on BBC Radio 4.
Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

SADDAM HUSSEIN SENTENCED TO DEATH !

Saddam Hussein in court as the verdict was being read.
Saddam's reaction

Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. The former Iraqi leader was convicted over the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on him in 1982. His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also sentenced to death. Former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan got life in jail and three others received 15-year prison terms.

Another co-defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted. Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants will be given the right to appeal, but that is expected to take only a few weeks and to end in failure for the defendants. Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors! Saddam Hussein, reacting to verdict.

Excerpts: Courtroom clashes
Saddam dominates drama
In pictures: Iraq's reaction

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki hailed the conviction in a televised address, saying that the sentence was "not a sentence on one man, but a sentence against all the dark period of his rule".
"Maybe this will help alleviate the pain of the widows and the orphans, and those who have been ordered to bury their loved ones in secrecy, and those who have been forced to suppress their feelings and suffering, and those who have paid at the hands of torturers," Mr Maliki said.

The White House also welcomed the verdict. "It's a good day for the Iraqi people," spokesman Tony Snow said.

When called to court, Saddam Hussein, dressed in his usual dark suit and white shirt and carrying a Koran, walked to his seat and sat down. Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered him to stand while he read out the verdict, but the former president refused to do so and had to be moved from his seat by court attendants. As the judge began reading the death sentence Saddam Hussein shouted out "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Great) and "Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors!"

The verdict sparked celebration in Baghdad but protests in Tikrit.The former leader looked shocked and furious as the sentence was passed, and continued to shout, denouncing the court, the judge and the US-led occupation force in Iraq. But the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson said that after his tirade, which was clearly deliberate, Saddam Hussein seemed to have a small smile of triumph on his face as he was led away from the courtroom. "It was as if he was thinking 'I've come here and done what I intended to do,'" our correspondent said.

Shortly after the verdict there were jubilant scenes in the Shia district of Sadr City, and in the holy city of Najaf. The Baghdad celebrations came in defiance of a 12-hour curfew on the city, amid fears of violence from Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab supporters.

THE VERDICTS
Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi president: found guilty and sentenced to death
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half-brother: found guilty and sentenced to death
Awad Hamed al-Bandar, Chief Judge of Revolutionary Court: found guilty and sentenced to death
Taha Yasin Ramadan, former Iraqi vice-president: found guilty and sentenced to life in jail
Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid Senior Baath official: found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in jail
Abdullah Rawed Mizher, Senior Baath official: found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in jail
Ali Daeem Ali, Senior Baath official: found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in jail
Mohammed Azawi Ali, Baath official: acquitted

Three nearby provinces are also under curfew, including Salahuddin, which contains Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Thousands also defied the measure in Tikrit - to voice support for Saddam Hussein. Almost three years since his capture, soaring sectarian violence has brought Iraq to the brink of civil war. Few Iraqis think the trial verdict will ease conflict, the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says. Even those who want to see their former leader dead do not believe his execution will make things better, our correspondent says.

Many critics have dismissed the trial as a form of victors' justice, given the close attention the US has paid to it. Before the sentencing session began, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a note in which he called the trial a "travesty". Saddam Hussein's defence team have also accused the government of interfering in the proceedings - a complaint backed by US group Human Rights Watch.

Voices from Iraq: reaction
Celebrations and protests

The process was marked by frequent interruptions by defendants and their lawyers and problems with security. The first judge assigned to preside over the case, Rizgar Amin, resigned after complaining of government interference and three defence lawyers were assassinated. And the former leader's lawyers have attacked the timing of the planned verdict, which comes days before the US votes in mid-term elections. US President George W Bush's Republican Party is at risk of losing control of Congress, in part because of voter dissatisfaction over its handling of the Iraq conflict.

BBVC BEWS REPORT.

CATHY BUCKLE'S LETTTER FROM ZIMBABWE!

Dear Family and Friends,

The first week of November 2006 has been the hottest that many people can remember. As I make notes for this letter it is 35 degrees Celsius atmidday in Marondera - normally a cooler part of the country. The forecastis for temperatures to top 38*C in Kwekwe today and 43*C in Kariba. When it is hot like this it is hard to pay attention to anything but some things domanage to cause a slight stir of interest. Headline business news in the South African media one day this week was: "Zimbabwe is holding back the whole continent and is an island of decline." A sentence like that is cause for great embarrassment to us but it also brings slight relief. It means that our fanatically diplomatic neighbours are finally starting to be publicly outspoken about us - it really is about time.

Also causing a stir of air in the scorching heat this week has been the launch of a vision document by a group of Church leaders. Called "The Zimbabwe We Want", the Church leaders say that the nation is "sliding intoa sense of national despair and loss of hope." They say that principles ofpeace, justice, forgiveness and honesty have degenerated and that even some Church leaders have "become accomplices in some of the evils that have brought our nation to this." The document apparently calls for a new constitution, for the repeal of repressive media and security laws (POSAand AIPPA) and for an independent land commission to bring sense and productivity back to agriculture in Zimbabwe.

The voices of local church leaders, along with the voices of our neighbours, raised the temperature a little more although I don't think either said anything about last weekend's rural council elections. At the beginning of the week I met a man with a bright purple stain on his little finger. "I've been to vote" he said, his voice filled with pride but his face creased with despair. I asked him how it had been out there at the rural polling stations in the dusty villages. The man shook his headslowly, exhaled loudly. "At least now we will get the seed," he said. He told me that two weeks before the elections donors had come with seed maize to the village. The seed had not been given out though, the village headswere waiting till 'after the elections.' Similar findings were made by theZESN, an electoral monitoring body, who said : "residents were told that if the election outcome was not favourable to ZANU-PF the price [of thestate-subsidised maize] would be increased." Official figures of voter turnout had not been released by the end of the week but in the Kadoma mayoral elections, held concurrently with rural district elections, the voter turnout was diabolical - just 9% (NINE PERCENT!) of registered voters had bothered.

Also, completely un-noticed by the state media in the sweltering heat this week was a protest held by members of the National Constitutional Assembly in Harare. 250 people were rounded up and arrested by baton wieldingpolice. There were many reports of people being beaten up. Chairman Lovemore Madhuku and two others were still being held days later.

It is hard to see light in such dark news from Zimbabwe but small things give relief - the voices of a million crickets that fill the night air; the calling of the cicadas clinging to Msasa trees during the hot days and the glimpses of a gorgeous plum coloured starling in the new canopies shading our gardens. Such beauty in such harshness. Because of this, and for this,we still have hope. Until next week, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle4th November 2006. http:/africantears.netfirms.comMy books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:orders@africabookcentre.com

DARFUR MILITIAS 'KILL CHILDREN' !

The Janjaweed are accused of ethnic cleansing. Militias backing Sudan's government have killed at least 63 people in attacks in Darfur in the past week, African peacekeepers say. At least 27 of the victims are thought to be children under the age of 12. The attacks were carried on camps for the displaced in the rebel stronghold of Jebel Moon, in West Darfur. The government says it is disarming the Janjaweed militia but a BBC correspondent in Sudan says all the evidence points to the exact opposite. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Sudanese government to restrain the militias following the attacks.

Militia wearing government uniforms, on camels and horseback, swept into eight villages and camps in Jebel Moon on 29 October. The African Union (AU) investigation team has just returned from the area to make its report. The area is a stronghold of the National Redemption Front (NRF) alliance, one of the Darfur rebel group which refused to sign up to a peace deal in May. "The government have begun mobilising the Janjaweed widely, especially in West Darfur, because they want to clear the area and move north along the border and defeat us," said the NRF's Bahr Idriss Abu Garda.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Darfur says that all along the long border with Chad, villagers are fleeing terrified as the Janjaweed aggressively take up positions in key towns. Three years ago, at the start of the Darfur crisis, the Janjaweed cleared hundreds of villages, displacing more than two million people. With morale in the Sudanese army reported to be low, Khartoum seems to have turned once again to their most brutal of allies, our correspondent says. Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with the Arab Janjaweed accused of ethnic cleansing against black Africans.

Sudan's government says the scale of the problems has been exaggerated and resists plans for the United Nations to take over the peacekeeping force from the AU.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA TO DOUBLE ITS AID TO AFRICA !

The African leaders are being given a warm welcome. China has pledged to double its aid to Africa and provide $5bn in loans and credits over the next three years. Chinese President Hu Jintao made the announcement as he opened a summit in Beijing attended by nearly 50 African heads of state and ministers. The summit is focusing on business with more than 2,000 deals under discussion.

African leaders welcome their booming trade links with China, but critics accuse Beijing of dealing with repressive regimes. Beijing says it is just doing business and has no political agenda."Our meeting today will go down in history," Mr Hu told the China-Africa summit. "China will forever be a good friend, good partner, good brother of Africa," he said.

Beijing means business

Mr Hu said that China would double its aid to Africa from its 2006 level by 2009, although he gave no figures. Beijing will offer US$3bn in preferential loans and US$2bn in export credits over the next three years, President Hu said. China will train 15,000 African professionals and set up a development fund to help build schools and hospitals. China's drive to buy African oil and other commodities has led to a big increase in two-way trade, worth $42bn (£22bn) in 2005.

Africa is also a growing market for Chinese goods, but critics say Beijing is stifling African manufacturing. Some analysts have said Africa is the only place left to go, as most of the world's other big oil reserves are already being developed by major Western energy companies. The three-day summit is concentrating on the rapidly expanding economic ties between the two sides, and many new business deals are likely to be announced over the weekend. Many of them are expected to revolve around China's hunger for African mineral resources, particularly oil.

Some critics have voiced concerns over how Chinese-owned firms treat African workers. Protests broke out in Zambia in July about the alleged ill-treatment of workers at a Chinese-owned mine, and there have been reports of pay disputes in Namibia.

China's supporters point to the fact that it has invested billions of dollars in aid, cheap loans and helping to upgrade roads, ports, railways, telephone lines, power stations and other key infrastructure across Africa. Often, Chinese money is funding projects that Western investors had deemed too risky. Many economists argue that overall, China's growing economic ties to Africa are benefiting the region.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BETHLEHEM CHRISTIANS FLEE TENSIONS !

Bethlehem Christians flee tensions
By Matthew Price BBC News, Bethlehem.

Bethlehem's Christian population is dwindling. The little town of Bethlehem is perhaps more associated with Christianity than any other place in the world. But now there are fears that soon it could be home to hardly any Christians at all.
To get into Bethlehem from Jerusalem you have to go through a checkpoint. Actually nowadays it looks more like a border crossing.
Israeli security personnel sitting behind blast-proof-glass ask for your passport. Soldiers stand, rifles cradled in their arms.
The barrier goes up, and you drive in through a gap in the 30-foot high concrete wall that Israel says it has built to keep out suicide bombers.
The wall now separates Bethlehem and Jerusalem - two towns that have been linked for centuries.
Resigned
A short drive down the road, in her living room, Reem Odeh brings out the drinks. Tiny cups, black Arabic-style coffee frothing at the brim.

The checkpoint to access Jerusalem is more like a border crossing. She sits down on the plush purple settee. Then she and her husband explain why they are about to become the latest Christians to leave Bethlehem.
"Everything here is difficult," says Fouad Odeh. "Like work - I stay every day two hours at the checkpoint before I get into Jerusalem. Every day two hours."
Reem Odeh looks resigned. "There's no work, the children have no place to play. We don't want to leave here and go to America, but you know..."
They are not the only ones going.
The latest figures published in early November 2006, show that Christians now account for just 15% of the population of Bethlehem.

Holy Land Christians' decline

Guide: Mid-East Christians

Not so long ago they were 80% of the town's population.
Life is difficult for everyone in Bethlehem, but it is more often the Christians who have the means and the contacts abroad to be able to leave.
George Ghattas works for the Latin Patriarchate here, trying to encourage Christians to stay.
"From a statistical perspective and the way things are progressing politically and socially there is a problem," he says.
"The changes are very drastic and very dramatic in a very short space of time."
Few tourists
In a small Christian workshop on one of Bethlehem's narrow lanes, a man is carving an olive wood souvenir.
But there is no one to sell it to.

Few tourists visit the reputed birthplace of Christ. Walk down the lane, and shop after shop is closed, locked behind light green metal shutters.
Tourism may have returned to Israel, but few travellers attempt the journey through the Bethlehem wall.
At the end of the lane is Manger Square. If you arrive at the right time you will hear what a mixed town this is.
The muezzin's call blares out from a mosque on one side of the plaza.
And then, very faintly, you might be able to make out the sound of the bells of the Church of the Nativity - where Christians believe Christ was born.
At midday there is a small candle-lit procession inside.
Monks in brown robes walk slowly down into the grotto, chanting in rich honeyed Latin tones.
The smell of incense wafts around the tight dingy space.
'Polarising'
Publicly Christians here insist there is no friction with the Muslim majority.
Earlier this year though the Islamist Hamas movement came to power.
And in private some say they now dress more conservatively. There have also been fights between Christian and Muslim families.

The Church of the Nativity is opposite a mosque. Father Majdi Syriani says the problem is not local, but global.
"The whole world is polarising around western Christianity and Islam," he says. "This is a true threat, not for me but the whole world."
"Bethlehem is the focal point. It's not because my Muslim people are threatening me. It's because the whole world is polarising. And it scares me."
Bethlehem's Christians are not just scared. They feel weak and squeezed.
And many are deciding that the best way to protect themselves is to leave.
"Christianity started here and should continue to remain here," says George Ghattas, at the Latin Patriarchate.
"You would worry if the origin of that religion is basically monuments and shrines and stones, but you don't have faith believers."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MADONNA MAY ADOPT MORE CHILDREN !

The Newsnight interview was screened on Wednesday night.

Madonna on adoption

Madonna has said she may adopt another child from abroad following her proposed adoption of a one-year-old baby boy, David Banda, from Malawi.
"I wouldn't rule it out... but I would like to experience David for a while and see how it works out," she told the BBC's Newsnight programme.
In a separate interview on NBC's Today show in the US, Madonna accused critics of the adoption of being "racist".
"I think it's still considered taboo," said the 48-year-old singer.
"A lot of people have a problem with the fact that I've adopted an African child, a child who has a different colour skin than I do," she added.
David is currently living with Madonna and her family in London after the US star was granted a temporary custody order.

Madonna also has two older children, Lourdes and Rocco
The singer confirmed the child was wearing a red string bracelet, worn by devotees of Kabbalah, a branch of ancient Jewish mysticism which Madonna follows.
"If David decides he wants to be a Christian, then so be it," she told the Today show.
"I believe in Jesus and I study Kabbalah, so I don't see why he can't too."
She said David was "hysterically funny" but also had a "terrible temper".
Madonna told Newsnight that she had offered to support the baby and leave him in Malawi, but his father declined.
She "became interested in him" after being told he had been "left in the orphanage", she told the BBC.
Legal challenge
The singer denied newspaper reports that David had regular visits at the orphanage from his father and his grandmother.
"If someone had said to me, 'His dad comes every week or his granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after,' I would not even have given it another thought."
A case brought by Malawi rights groups challenging the adoption earlier this month has been adjourned until 13 November.
The child's father, Yohane Banda, has protested against moves to halt the adoption.
Madonna funds six orphanages through her Raising Malawi charity and is setting up an orphanage for 4,000 children in a village outside the capital, Lilongwe.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

EGYPT AND RUSSIA STRENGTHEN TIES !

Putin and Mubarak have developed a warm relationship. The presidents of Russia and Egypt say their relations are blossoming, and expressed hopes for improved trade ties after a meeting in Moscow.
Hosni Mubarak said he felt "a strong connection" with Vladimir Putin.
In one of the main developments at the meeting, officials said Russia would tender for contracts to build nuclear power plants in Egypt.
Mr Putin also suggested Egypt should join the "Quartet" trying to negotiate peace in the Middle East.
This presidential visit comes almost a year after Vladimir Putin became the first Russian head of state to set foot in Egypt for 40 years.
It is clear that the two leaders enjoy a friendly relationship, says the BBC's Emma Simpson in Moscow.
Mr Mubarak recently urged Mr Putin to seek a third term in office, despite the constitutional limit of only two, saying his counterpart was a "very good, very clever leader; Russia needs him".
Mr Mubarak himself has served back-to-back terms since 1981.
The Egyptian president is the first leader of a major country to call for Mr Putin to remain in power.
Nuclear revival
After the talks, Boris Alyoshin, the head of the Russian Federal State Agency for Industries, said: "Egypt has made a decision to transfer to nuclear energy and build four stations.
"It is beyond doubt that we will take part in the tender and I think we have good chances of winning."
Mr Mubarak has recently proposed reviving Egypt's nuclear energy programme, which was abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster 20 years ago.
Mr Alyoshin also said Egypt had promised tax incentives for Russian companies to invest in the country.
Mr Putin praised Egypt's role as a key regional power and said it could be a very useful member of the Quartet, which currently includes the EU, UN, Russia and the US.
He said Cairo could play "a vital role in establishing contacts between Palestine and Israel and in bringing much-needed accord to Palestinian ranks."
The two countries enjoyed close ties until the 1970s, when Egypt turned to America as its strategic foreign partner.
But Egypt has begun to look back to Russia for new weapons - something that will not impress its traditional supplier, the United States, our correspondent says.
Mr Mubarak will go on to visit Kazakhstan and China, to try to boost Egypt's relations there too.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

PARIS AIRPORT BARS MUSLIM STAFF !

Paris airport bars Muslim staff
By Clive Myrie BBC News, Paris.

Lawyers have submitted a criminal complaint for discrimination. More than 70 Muslim workers at France's main airport have been stripped of their security clearance for allegedly posing a risk to passengers.
The staff at Charles de Gaulle airport, including baggage handlers, are said to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
One man is thought to have been a friend of Richard Reid, the so-called British shoe bomber.
Richard Reid tried to blow up a flight from Paris to the US in 2001.
Discrimination lawsuits
Earlier this year officials at Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, conducted a security review of staff and questioned dozens of Muslim workers.
More than 100 baggage handlers and aircraft cleaners had been under surveillance for months.
In all, 72 people were later told their passes allowing access to secure areas were being withdrawn.
Airport officials say some of the workers had frequently visited Pakistan and Afghanistan the previous year.
It is also believed another worker had been close to a senior figure in an Algerian terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda.
But some of the men who have lost their security clearance are suing airport authorities.
They claim they are being discriminated against because of their religion.
However, about a dozen other workers who have been identified as security risks still have access to sensitive areas of the airport because under French law they must be allowed an opportunity to respond to the charges before they are suspended.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

BEIJING FACELIFT FOR AFRICA SUMMIT !

Beijing facelift for Africa summit.
By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC News, Beijing.

The Chinese capital has undergone a really extraordinary transformation this week as Beijing welcomes 48 heads of African governments.

Posters of Africa's unique wildlife decorate Beijing's streetsOut in the street now there is a hoarding that must be about 30ft (9m) high and 50ft (15m).
On it are 10ft-high zebras and giraffes and an enormous African elephant - and these hoardings are all over the city.
Beijing is festooned with pictures of Africa, with new flower beds that have been rolled out overnight, even with Christmas decorations.
The Chinese are really rolling out the red carpet for this China-Africa jamboree.
To give another example: the street behind me at this time of day is usually completely clogged with traffic.
China now imports more oil from Angola than it does from Saudi Arabia

Is China colonising Africa?

But today there are virtually no cars on the streets, because half a million vehicles have been ordered out of Beijing for this week in order to keep everything flowing nice and smoothly.
Above me the sky is blue, another rather unusual event in the Chinese capital. Many factories have also been closed down.
Special relationship
This is in many ways a dress rehearsal for the 2008 Olympics.

China is placing increasing value on its relationship with AfricaIt also shows just how important the Chinese now consider their relationship with the African continent.
But what is that relationship really about?
Well, the slogan on the wall behind me here says "Friendship, peace, co-operation and development".
It is very clear what the Chinese are getting out of this relationship. China now imports more oil, for example, from Angola than it does from Saudi Arabia.
The Chinese economy has a voracious appetite for all sorts of resources from Africa, from timber to iron ore to diamonds.
What I think is far less clear is what this new relationship is bringing in terms of benefits to the economies and, more importantly, to the people of Africa.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FRANCE TO DECLASSIFY RWANDA FILES !

Some 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. France says it will release classified documents on the Rwandan genocide, after claims that French troops were complicit in the 1994 massacre.
Some 105 documents will be made public and given to a magistrate investigating the claims by four genocide survivors.
Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie took the decision on the recommendation of France's defence secrets commission.
The plaintiffs accuse soldiers of rape, murder and complicity "in genocide and/or crimes against humanity".
The Rwandan Tutsis, aged between 25 and 39, have brought their case against the French military in the French courts.
During the genocide some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.
French troops were sent to Rwanda as part of a United Nations force.
Rwanda has repeatedly accused Paris of complicity in the genocide. France has denied any role.
The four survivors say French troops committed crimes themselves, and also let Hutu killers enter refugee camps under their protection.
Meanwhile, an inquiry has begun in Rwanda into alleged French complicity in training and arming the Hutu extremists.
After hearing testimony from witnesses, the Rwandan panel will rule on whether to file a suit at the International Court of Justice.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

HOW TO MAKE THE WEB GO WORLDWIDE !

How to make the web go worldwide
By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website, Athens.

Statistics show that Africa lags behind in net use. Only one billion people out of the six billion-strong world population have internet access. So what is being done to connect up all the world's citizens?
In South Korea more than 70% of homes have a high-speed broadband connection. It is probably one of the most connected areas on earth, with the possible exception of California and other localised parts of the US.
Contrast that with Africa where out of a population of close to a billion people about 3.6% have net access and only 0.1% have broadband speeds.
Often people say Africa needs food and water more than it needs broadband access and that may be true, in part, but the global economy is becoming reliant on the net and without access how can countries ever hope to be able to clothe, house and feed their citizens?
It has taken a few decades for the net to reach a billion people, but how long will it take to reach two billion and where will those new net users be found?
Jim Dempsey, of the US Center For Democracy and Technology, said: "The next 500 million will be easy because it will all come from China."
Speaking at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens, he said: "The other 500 million will be spread around the world. I worry particularly about Africa being left behind here.
"The hard problem, in my view, is Africa."
Line noise
Africa is not alone in struggling to keep pace with the online world - there are similar problems in parts of Asia, South America and the Middle East.
And often the problems are common: lack of technical infrastructure, telecoms monopolies who do not have the financial means or motive to invest in technology, lack of competition, inequality of access compared with the Western world and a lack of local compelling online services.
Craig Silliman, of network provider Verizon, said: "The number one factor in improving quality and price of access to networks is competition.
"Why is there not more competition in many countries? What are the barriers?"
Some at the conference felt access was needed to local loops - the local exchanges which effectively connect areas to the global net.

Interest in the net is growing fastest in AfricaVincent Waiswa Bagiire, director of CIPESA, an initiative to educate Africans about telecoms policy, said: "How can we get independent regulation to unbundle monopolies to increase competition?"
Professor Milton Mueller, of the Internet Governance Project, said the key to closing the infrastructure gap was the mobilisation of "local capital" so entrepreneurs on the ground could be helped to fund the much-need technology if big business was turning away.
Sam Paltridge of the OECD agreed: "Get a commercial core network built-out with competitive principles and then the government can, in an economical way, provide connectivity to schools and health centres."
But should net access be left to private enterprise at all? Should national governments or international bodies like the United Nations step in?
Kishik Park, president of the IPv6 forum in South Korea, said: "The net should be treated as food or housing. Because the net today is not just a means to communicate ideas. It is a kind of daily infrastructure for every citizen."
He argued that competition alone is not the answer.
"We must think about collaboration before competition."
Wireless ways
But what happens in areas where there are no local loops or no infrastructure at all for net access?
Much of Africa is rural and the roll out of broadband or net access faces the "last mile problem" - connecting those people to the last point of infrastructure when they are beyond the reach of telephone wires.
Some feel the solution in Africa is mobile networks.
Jonne Soininen, a systems engineering manager at Nokia Networks, said: "There are now about 2.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide and soon it will be three billion.
"This means that half of people have access to phones. This can be used as basis for providing internet access.
"This is not at broadband speed. But its better to get access at narrow band if broadband is not available - just to get access."

Many say some parts of Africa need water not net accessProfessor Mueller said adoption of wireless mobile networks could be a solution for Africa and other areas and lead to fast adoption of the net.
"We could see dramatic progress because wi-fi allows much smaller investments to be made," he argued.
"Unlicensed spectrum allows people to enter the market without having to get licenses and create local connectivity," he added.
But there is anger among some that Africa is being treated unfairly.
"In Africa everyone is seen as clients while in other countries there is a peering approach," said Mouhamet Diop, of the Internet Society in Senegal.
He feels that the providers of the main network access to the net - the fat pipe - are dealing with Europe as a continent but Africa as a collection of countries or individuals.
"We should be seen as a continent not millions of different users," he said, arguing that Africa is paying more for less when it comes to net access.
In Senegal 500,000 people have net access, around 5% of the total population, and only 30,000 people have a broadband connection.
The bandwidth and speeds that most net users have in Africa is a fraction of the speeds in western countries.
In some cases, a whole country has less bandwidth than a single user in a country such as the US or South Korea.
Mr Park felt the answer lay in harmonising and standardising "the various ways of using, providing and charging for internet usage to make the net globally available".
How to achieve that was left unanswered? And until there is an answer, the African continent and parts of Asia, South America and the Middle East will remain outside the global net.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

FROM NIGERIAN SOLDIER TO SULTAN OF SOKOTO !

He has an intimate knowledge of some of the world's crisis spots.
Editor of Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper, Mahmud Jega profiles the new Sultan of Sokoto for the BBC News website.

At first glance, Mohamed Sa'ad Abubakar's curriculum vitae may not be many people's idea of what it takes to become the Sultan of Sokoto, spiritual leader of Nigeria's large Muslim community and heir to the 200-year-old throne founded by his great grandfather, the 19th century Islamic reformer Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio.
For the new sultan has been a professional soldier all his adult life.
A second glance though, suggests this is not so strange for Dan Fodio launched a jihad, or holy war, against the Hausa rulers of what is now northern Nigeria and Niger, creating an empire which stretched from modern-day Burkina Faso to Cameroon, becoming one of Africa's largest pre-colonial states.
At its height, it took four months to travel from east to west and two months north to south.
Dan Fodio's son, Muhammed Bello, established the empire's capital in Sokoto and it has remained the centre of Nigerian Islam ever since, with its huge mosque opposite the sultan's palace.
Up until last February, the new sultan was Nigeria's defence attache to Pakistan, with concurrent accreditation to Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
This suggests intimate knowledge of some of the world's most intricate crisis points.
Brigadier General Sa'ad Abubakar, or "Sada", as he is called in Sokoto, is however not a man of crisis.
There is much talk in Sokoto of a "Babangida connection"
As a matter of fact, he spent many of his 31 years in the military as a peacekeeper.
He commanded a battalion of African peacekeepers in Chad during the early 1980s as part of the Organisation of African Unity's force and was military liaison officer for the West African regional body Ecowas in the mid 1990s.
Later he served in Ecowas' peacekeeping force when it intervened in Sierra Leone's bloody civil war, leading a tank battalion.
Mentor
The new sultan began his military career in 1975 and was commissioned a second lieutenant two years later. Since then he has served in the elite Armoured Corps.

[The] Abubakar family is highly popular with the ordinary people in Sokoto.
He has done extensive military training overseas including in India, Canada and headed a presidential security unit of the Armoured Corps that guarded then military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida in late 1980s.
This suggests a real closeness to the highly security-conscious Gen Babangida, who is again eyeing the presidency and is seen as the new sultan's mentor.
Incidentally, Gen Babangida is also the political mentor of Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, who appointed the new sultan to the throne.
There is therefore much talk in Sokoto of a "Babangida connection".
It is a potent theory, for the new sultan otherwise stood little chance of beating other high-profile contenders for the throne, including a former federal minister, a former ambassador, a federal permanent secretary and a deputy inspector general of police.
Own man
Still, his appointment was warmly received in Sokoto because he is the son of the late Sultan Abubakar Sadiq III, who reigned from 1938 to 1988 and acquired near-mythical stature in Sokoto and was knighted by the English monarch Elizabeth II.

The late sultan was also widely revered for his peace efforts.
Sir Abubakar's family is highly popular with the ordinary people in Sokoto, who will accept almost anyone from that family, but may not readily accept a new man from some of the rival ruling houses.
Governor Bafarawa himself, whose relationship with the late Sultan Muhammadu Maccido had soured in recent years, has nimbly avoided political trouble by appointing the late Sultan's brother, even though the family itself would have preferred Maccido's son.
The new sultan, however, promises to be his own man, the politics of his appointment notwithstanding.
Right now he has just two weeks left to complete a course at the prestigious Nigeria Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies near Jos, considered the country's foremost think-tank for policymakers.
And a close military associate of his has described him as "strong willed, blunt, a very good soldier, a strict disciplinarian, and a man who holds strong opinions on all issues".
Whether those qualities that stood him very well in the military will serve him equally well in his new calling, remains to be seen.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

CHINA GIVES NOD TO HONGKONG CHECKPOINT !

China gives nod to HongKong checkpoint.
By Vaudine England BBC News, Hong Kong.

China has granted formal permission for Hong Kong to run a customs and immigration checkpoint on Chinese soil. The news has been welcomed by Hong Kong's trade and transport circles, and is a sign of growing links between the territory and southern China. The agreement was formalised by a bill that passed through China's parliament. It allows two different legal jurisdictions, China and Hong Kong, to operate border checks on goods and persons in the same place, Shenzhen.

Shenzhen is a southern Chinese trading hub where a new transport link known as the western corridor is being built. The corridor will soon link south China's manufacturing centres more directly into Hong Kong's ports and service industries with a new highway and bridge. Sonny Ho of the Hong Kong Shippers' Council says the corridor will double its existing capacity for cargo transport between Hong Kong and south China. He says the bridge, which forms part of the new western corridor, is capable of carrying 30,000 vehicles a day.

Trade experts agree the ability to process both cargo and passengers efficiently in one location at the Chinese end of the new transport link is a significant boost to the area. There have been some concerns expressed about the implications of different legal systems operating in the same place. But experts say the agreement is an important step in growing cooperation between the special administrative region of Hong Kong and China.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

U.S. TOUR FOR ALL STAR REFUGEES !

US tour for All Star Refugees
By Leslie Goffe BBC News, New York

The group met in a refugee camp during Sierra Leone's civil war. Reuben Koroma used to live as a refugee, but now he and the other members of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars band are celebrated wherever they go, especially in the United States.
The musicians met and began a band in refugee camps in Guinea after fleeing the civil war in Sierra Leone.
"It is like a dream, and I like it," says the band's lead singer Koroma, of the thousands of Americans who turned out to see his band when it toured the US in the summer.
They played before 75,000 people at a music festival in the American South and received a standing ovation at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
The All Stars were received so positively, they returned to the US in October to begin a month long, 19-city tour that will keep them in the US until the end of November.
War
"Americans say they never knew these kinds of things were happening," says Koroma, whose father was shot down in front of him and whose mother died trying to escape the civil war.
I believe my music can bring positive changes.
Reuben KoromaThe band's percussionist saw his parents, his wife, and his child murdered, and had his hand cut off.
He plays percussion with his one remaining hand. Still, band members say they are not bitter.
"Even the one who did that to me," insists band member Arahim, "if I met him, I'll greet him".
Koroma agrees. He says even though many of those who killed innocent civilians can be found driving taxis in Sierra Leone today, he would rather use his life to make things better in the future.
"I believe my music can bring positive changes and make people, Americans and others who like my music, stop the suffering in whatever little way they can."
Action
And it is Americans that Koroma really wants to reach with his music.
He believes US politicians could bring a halt to atrocities and much of the world's suffering if they wanted to.

Although Sierra Leone's war is over, life remains hard for most"I would tell them that it is time Africa got attention," says the All Stars leader, who happens to be touring the US during its important mid-term elections, a time when hundreds of seats in the US Congress are up for grabs.
"I would tell them this Darfur issue really needs an immediate attention," says Koroma, showing that although he is no longer a refugee, he is still concerned about others in that plight.
"It is really, really time they paid attention to Darfur."
Visas
Koroma is careful with his criticism, though.
After all, it was not easy for his band to secure visas to tour the United States.
No-one in the band had a bank account or even a taxpayer's identification because Sierra Leone is still trying to rebuild and the US authorities were reluctant to grant the band visas.
It took the intervention of Nancy Pelosi, a leading Democratic politician, for the All Stars to gain entry to the US.
Besides, Koroma knows that had it not been for the two US filmmakers who discovered his band in a refugee camp in 2002, the world might have never heard of the All Stars.
When Sierra Leone's civil war ended in 2002, Koroma returned home, forgetting about the film made about his band until 2005 when it won several important awards.
The film, and the All Stars debut album, Living Like A Refugee, has won the band fans around the world.
It also won them important friends, as well, like ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and rapper Ice Cube.
The All Stars say they are happy at home in Sierra Leone now. They want to build a recording studio and they want to record more albums about the struggles of refugees.
"We are trying to build the new Sierra Leone," explains Koroma shortly before going on-stage in New York.
"We are not refugees, anymore."

BBC NEWS REPORT.

MADONNA'S MALAWI 'SUPPORT OFFER' !

Madonna on adoption

Madonna offered to support the African baby she hopes to adopt and leave him in Malawi but his father declined, the pop star has told the BBC.
In a Newsnight interview, to be shown on Wednesday night, she denied reports that David Banda had regular visits from his family at his orphanage. She "became interested in him" after being told he had been "left in the orphanage", she said. He is now at her London home after she was granted a temporary custody order.
'Offer declined'
Madonna denied newspaper reports that David had regular visits at the orphanage from his father and his grandmother. If someone had said to me, oh his dad comes every week or his granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after, I would not even have given it another thought - Madonna

'Life-changing' adoption
"I disagree," she said.
Asked if it would have been an option to support him and leave him in Malawi, she replied: "Yes, I offered that option to the father and he declined.
"And I never met a granny and I was told... that from the day that he was left in the orphanage he was not visited by any extended family members and that's really why I became interested in him.
"If someone had said to me, 'His dad comes every week or his granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after,' I would not even have given it another thought."

THE EDITORS' BLOG
Oprah Winfrey and now Newsnight... But are we right to do the interview?
Peter Barron,Editor of Newsnight
Peter's thoughts in full

There were "many conditions" that made her "worry for his life", Madonna added.
"One was the fact that, according to the reverend who ran the orphanage that David came from, his father never visited him. "His father lived 50 or 60km away, had no car, had no money and, as far as I was told, had remarried and moved on with his life."
Father's protest On Friday, the hearing of a case brought by Malawi rights groups challenging the adoption was adjourned until 13 November.

David Banda is staying at Madonna's London home. An alliance of 67 groups is pushing for the right to challenge the interim adoption order which let Madonna take one-year-old David out of the country. His father was at the court, protesting against moves to halt the adoption. Mr Banda told the BBC he feared the controversy stirred by the groups could prompt Madonna to return his son.
He urged the human rights groups challenging the adoption to leave the child alone and added that he was unable to look after David himself.
Madonna funds six orphanages through her Raising Malawi charity and is setting up an orphanage for 4,000 children in a village outside the capital, Lilongwe.

BBC NEWS REPORT.

Madonna will appear on Newsnight on BBC Two at 2230 GMT on Wednesday.

OBITUARY : P.W. BOTHA OF SOUTH AFRICA !

PW Botha: Cautious conservative.

As prime minister and president of South Africa, PW Botha had a mild reformist streak, but made it clear that he was not prepared to hand over the country to the black majority. The changes he made were designed to help ensure the continuation of white control in the face of mounting domestic and international pressures. An Afrikaner, Pieter Willem Botha was born into a deeply religious and highly political family of Orange Free State farmers. As a National Party MP for the Cape constituency of George from 1948, he helped implement the government's apartheid policies.

PW BOTHA
1916: Born 12 January
1948: Elected MP
1966: Defence minister
1978: PM of South Africa
1984: Executive president
1989: Resigns the presidency
2006: Dies, aged 90

Reaction in quotes

Botha was defence minister from 1966 to 1979, and it was during these years that he gained his reputation as a hawk. He deployed forces to destabilise the country's Marxist neighbours, and worked to increase the military budget by 20 times, thereby undermining the international arms embargo against South Africa. As prime minister and later the country's first executive president, Mr Botha told his people: "We must adapt or die."

State of emergency
Some apartheid laws were relaxed, but this reformist instinct was generally attributed to a desire to preserve the pre-eminence of whites by giving limited concessions to other races. He later proposed that parliaments be set up for the coloured (mixed race) and Indian populations, though not for the blacks.

Botha refused to release Nelson MandelaIt caused a split in the National Party and provoked an increasingly aggressive response from the black population. As a result, thousands of people were held without trial during states of emergency imposed by Botha at various times between 1986 and 1989. Botha announced in February 1986 that the concept of apartheid was outdated, and promised more sharing of political power. But then, in May, he sanctioned raids on alleged African National Congress bases in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana - a move widely seen as a slap in the face for the West.
Suspended sentence
Mr Mandela was taken out of jail for a meeting with Botha. But the president rejected worldwide appeals for him to be released, because he would not renounce violence. Perhaps concerned by the growth in support among the white electorate for extreme right-wing parties, Botha also imposed a ban on celebrations to mark Mr Mandela's 70th birthday.

FW de Klerk transformed South AfricaIn 1989, after a bitter power struggle, Botha resigned the presidency and, in a final act of spite, refused to appoint his successor, FW De Klerk - the white leader who did see out apartheid, as acting president. In 1998 he was fined and given a suspended five-year jail term for ignoring a summons to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It had wanted to question him about his role as head of the State Security Council, which was found to have sanctioned the killing of anti-apartheid activists.
Botha was in office during the period when the policy of separating whites and blacks by government decree became increasingly unsustainable.

He was a cautious conservative by nature. At the end of his tenure he was following policies that had estranged many whites and yet not brought the reforms desired by many blacks.

BBC NEWS REPORT.